Bede, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke

things which Christ wrought in the flesh, and with the precepts He delivered to those who bear the flesh for the conduct of mortal life. But John flies like an eagle above the clouds of human infirmity, and gazes on the light of unchangeable truth with the sharpest and firmest eyes of the heart." These few testimonies of the blessed Augustine, excerpted from many, I have inserted into the letter of preface to repel the cavilling of the querulous,

BOOK I.

The blessed evangelist Luke, being about to make a discourse of all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day on which He was taken up, took care first to refute the audacity of those who had written falsehoods about Him; tacitly warning the reader, that is, that he should know that not only are the things he himself preaches to be followed, but those which have sounded otherwise are to be utterly detested; and, lest an occasion of errors should perhaps arise for the weak, that the reading of those who write superfluous things here and there is to be shunned altogether. For it could not be said of all in general, but only of certain persons endowed with a special power of faith or knowledge: If they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them (Mark 16:18). Thus then Luke begins.

PROLOGUE.

Since indeed many have tried to set in order a narrative of the things that have been fulfilled among us, as they handed them down to us who from the beginning themselves saw and were ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things from the beginning, to write to you diligently in order, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the truth of those words in which you have been instructed. By this prologue he signifies most plainly that this was above all his reason for writing the Gospel: that the pseudo-evangelists should not have the opportunity of preaching falsehood, who, as their records still testify today, tried under the name of the apostles to bring in sects of unbelief. Indeed some are found to have falsely prefixed to their writings the title of Thomas, others of Bartholomew, some of Matthias, some even of the twelve apostles. Moreover Basilides and Apelles, of whom the one taught as dogma three hundred and sixty-five heavens, the other two gods contrary to each other, among other abominations, left Gospels of their own name foul with error. Among these it is to be noted that what is called the Gospel according to the Hebrews is to be counted not among the apocryphal but among the ecclesiastical histories. For Jerome himself, the interpreter of sacred Scripture, saw fit to borrow many testimonies from it, and to translate it into the Latin and Greek tongue. But Luke refutes the false Gospels at once in his first preface: Since indeed many, he says, have tried to set in order a narrative; numbering them as many not so much for their multitude as for the diversity of their manifold heresy, who, not endowed with the gift of the Holy Spirit, but trying with empty labour, set a narrative in order rather than wove the truth of history, and therefore left to others to complete the work on which they had sweated in vain: to those, namely, who, though they are four, set forth not so much

so that they may both afford the protection of a defence to our earlier work (as has been said) and set a not ignoble seal at the head of the present one. May [God] deign, by the grace of the heavenly Helper, to preserve your holy paternity praying for us, and ever to strengthen it for the defence of His holy Church.

four Gospels as one Gospel, harmonious in a most beautiful fourfold variety. For they set it forth as those handed it down to them who from the beginning themselves saw and were ministers of the word. By this statement not only Luke and Mark are meant, who had not seen the Lord present in the flesh and therefore had to learn by hearing what they were to write, but also the apostles Matthew and John. For they too, in many things they were to write, had need to hear them from those who had been able to know His infancy, boyhood and genealogy, and to be present at His deeds. And when he says that it seemed good to him also to write, he signifies not that it seemed good to him of himself, but that at the prompting of the Holy Spirit it seemed good to him also; as the apostles say in their letter: For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us (Acts 15:28). By His grace, surely, it is brought about that what is good seems good to us also. And he says that he has followed not a few things but all. Yet, having followed all, it seemed good to him to write not all things, but concerning all, such as he believed suitable for confirming the faith of the readers, since not even the world itself would contain all, if they were written (John 21:25). Hence also he deliberately passed over some things that were said by others, so that manifold grace might shine out in the Gospel, and the several books might stand out by certain miracles of mysteries and deeds proper to each. Theophilus is interpreted "loving God" or "loved by God". Whoever, then, loves God, or desires to be loved by God, let him think the Gospel written to himself, and keep it as a gift given to him and a pledge entrusted to him; lest, that is, either the moth of heretical rending or the rust of sordid covetousness lay waste the money of the word he has received. And it is not an account of any new and as it were unknown things that is to be laid open to this same Theophilus, but the truth of the words in which he has been instructed that is promised to be set out; namely, so that he may know in what order each thing was done or said concerning the Lord or by the Lord. For he who desires to be perfect ought not merely to believe in Christ, but also to know both the faith of His eternal Godhead and the order of His temporal dispensation.

CHAPTER I.

There was in the days of Herod, king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zachary, of the course of Abia, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. The most holy nobility of the Lord's forerunner descended gloriously not only from his parents but also from his forebears, so that he might proclaim the faith of His coming the more freely, as [a faith] not by sudden inspiration

conceived, but rather received by ancestral descent. And since the dignity of Aaron, the first high priest under the law, is known to all, a few words must be said about Abia. When David, king and prophet, asked with great devotion that he might find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob, but the Lord decreed rather that this be done by Solomon, and David therefore prepared for the same Solomon all that pertained to the expenses of the house, and gave also the measurements and plan of the house itself in each detail, so that, as the state of worship grew outwardly, the height of devotion might also increase inwardly, he likewise distributed the division of the priestly and Levitical ranks over all the works of the house of the Lord. For there were princes of the sanctuary and princes of God, that is, high priests, both of the sons of Eleazar and of the sons of Ithamar. Their courses, according to their ministries, for entering the house of God, he divided by twenty-four lots, among which the eighth lot fell to the family of Abia, from which Zachary sprang. For he divided the two families between them by lots: the one house, of Eleazar, which was over the rest, and the other house, of Ithamar, which had the rest under it. Read the Chronicles, and also the seventh book of Josephus's Antiquities, where he reports it was ordained that each line should minister to God, according to the order of the allotment, for eight days, from Sabbath to Sabbath; where he also states that twenty-four parts were made of the tribe of the Levites, so that they too, allotted in the same way, should minister for eight days each after the custom of the priests. Not in vain is the first herald of the New Testament born in the course of the eighth lot; for as the Old Testament is often expressed by the number seven on account of the Sabbath, so the New is at times expressed by the number eight on account of the mystery of either the Lord's resurrection or our own. Hence, since the hall of the heavenly kingdom is entered no otherwise than through the observance of both Testaments, rightly is a mystical ascent of fifteen steps related to have been in the temple of Solomon too. And he who, crying to the Lord in tribulation, is heard, is led to the heights by psalms of as many steps, so that, set at last in the courts of the house of God, he may hear: May the Lord bless you from Sion (Ps. 133:3). The time also of Herod, a foreigner, that is, of a foreign king, itself bears witness to the Lord's coming. For it had been foretold that a prince shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he comes who is to be sent (Gen. 49:10). For from the time the fathers went out of Egypt, they were ruled by judges of their own nation up to the prophet Samuel, and then by kings up to the Babylonian exile. After the return from Babylon, however, the supreme power was held by the high priests, up to Hyrcanus, king and high priest at once; and when he had been harassed by many calamities through his brother's envy, and finally slain by force and fraud by Herod (whose father he himself had raised from an obscure foreigner, that is, of Idumaean stock, to high rank and citizenship), the kingdom of Judaea was handed over to this Herod to govern by order of Caesar Augustus. In his thirty-first year, according to the prophecy above, He Who was to be sent came.

And they were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame. Rightly "just before God": for not everyone who is just before man is just before God. Men see in one way, God sees in another: men in the face, God in the heart. And so it can happen that someone, by an affected goodness that courts the people, may seem just to me, and yet not be just before God, if his justice is not formed from simplicity of mind but feigned by flattery. But blessed is he who is just in the sight of God. Blessed is he of whom the Lord deigns to say: Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile (John 1:47). For he is a true Israelite who sees God, and knows that he is seen by the Lord, and lays open to Him the hidden things of the heart.

Walking, he says, in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord. First comes the commandment, second the justification. For when we obey the heavenly commandments, we walk in the commandments of the Lord; when we judge, and judge fittingly, we are seen to keep the justifications of the Lord. It is therefore a full praise, which comprehends lineage, character, office, deed and judgement: lineage in the forebears, character in equity, office in the priesthood, deed in the commandment, judgement in the justification. And what he added, Without blame, is what the Apostle says: Providing good things not only before God but also before men (Rom. 12:17). And Ecclesiastes: Be not, he says, overmuch just (Eccl. 7:17). For justice that is too harsh often provokes men's complaint; but that which is tempered avoids, by the grace of its very sweetness, even the complaint of envy.

And they had no son, because Elizabeth was barren, and both had advanced in their days. It was divinely arranged that John should be born of parents of advanced age and long deprived of the fruit of marriage, so that by the unlooked-for birth of offspring the gift might both affect the parents themselves the more gratefully, and the amazement at the miracle might prepare the rest to hear the future prophet. Indeed all who had heard laid it up in their heart, saying: What, think you, will this child be? (Luke 1:66)

Now it came to pass, when he was performing the priestly office in the order of his course before God, according to the custom of the priesthood. Through Moses, indeed, the Lord appointed one high priest, and commanded that, when he died, one should succeed in order; and this was kept up to the times of David, by whom (as we said) it was decreed, the Lord none the less bringing it about, that there should be several, who, ministering in turn, should each apply themselves to chastity in the time of their course and should not touch their house at all. Hence Zachary is now declared to have performed the priestly office in the order of his course.

His lot came forth to offer incense, going into the temple of the Lord; and all the multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. He was not chosen now by a new lot when the incense was to be burned, but chosen beforehand then by the ancient lot, when first, in the order of his pontificate, he succeeded to the course of Abia. Now it was commanded that incense be carried into the holy of holies by the high priest on the tenth day of the seventh month, while all the people waited outside the temple; and that this day be called [the day] of expiation, or of propitiation, which with us, because of the varying course of the moon, from

by which the Hebrews reckon their months, falls now in the month of September, now in October; because, namely, the month in which the Pasch is kept holds the beginning of the year both by the order of creation and by the edict of the Law, the Lord saying to Moses: This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it shall be the first in the months of the year. On the tenth day of this month let every man take a lamb, etc. (Exod. 12:2–3). Of this day, moreover, the Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, makes mention thus: Into the first tabernacle indeed the priests always entered, accomplishing the offices of the sacrifices; but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers, etc. (Heb. 9:6–7). By these words, laying open the mystery of this day, he shows that Jesus is the true High Priest, Who, the days of His office being accomplished, that is, the dispensation of the flesh being fulfilled in His own blood, entered the secret places of heaven, to make the Father propitious to us and to intercede for the sins of those who still wait praying before the doors and love His coming. Fittingly, therefore, His descent is announced by an angel on that day on which His ascent was figured through the Law. For He Who descended is the same also Who ascended (Eph. 4:10); and, as the Psalm says, His going forth is from the highest heaven, and His meeting even to its highest (Ps. 18:7).

And there appeared to him an angel standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Well does the angel appear both in the temple, and beside the altar, and on the right, since, namely, he proclaims the coming of the true Priest, and the mystery of the universal sacrifice, and the joy of the heavenly gift. For as present goods are often foretold by the left hand, so eternal goods by the right. According to what is sung in praise of wisdom: Length of days is in her right hand; in her left, riches and glory (Prov. 3:16).

And Zachary was troubled, seeing it, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, etc. The angel strengthens the trembling Zachary, because, just as it belongs to human frailty to be troubled at the sight of a spiritual creature, so too it belongs to angelic kindness straightway to comfort with gentle words mortals who are afraid at its appearance. But on the contrary it belongs to demonic ferocity always to shake with greater horror those whom it perceives terrified by its presence; and this is overcome by no means better than by fearless faith.

And your wife Elizabeth shall bear you a son; and you shall call his name John. Saying that his prayer has been heard, he forthwith promises the child-bearing of his wife. Not that he, who had gone in to offer for the people, could have set aside the public prayers to pray for the receiving of sons, especially since no one prays for what he despairs of receiving. Indeed, mindful by now of his own age and of his barren wife, he so despaired that sons would be born to him that he did not believe even the angel promising this; but what he says, your prayer is heard, signifies [the prayer] for the redemption of the people: And your wife shall bear you a son unfolds the order of that same redemption, namely that the son born to Zachary would, by his heralding, prepare the way for the Redeemer of that people. Moreover, a sign of singular merit is given whenever a name is either imposed on men by God or changed. Thus Abram, because he was to be the father of many nations, was called Abraham. Thus Jacob, because

he saw God, deserved to be called Israel. Thus King Josiah, for the summit of his surpassing virtue, was named by God long before he was born. John, then, is interpreted: in whom is grace, or the grace of the Lord. By this name it is declared, first, that grace was given to his parents, to whom in their decrepit age a son was born; next, to John himself, who was to be great before the Lord and was to be enriched with the gift of the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb; lastly, also to the sons of Israel, whom he was to turn to the Lord their God.

And you shall have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. Rightly does the father rejoice that he has received a son, whether as born in his old age or as one of such grace. Others also rejoice, to whom he announced the good news of an entry into the heavenly kingdom unheard of until then. And it is to be noted that at the birth of the forerunner many rejoice, but at the birth of the Lord the angel announces great joy which shall be to all the people. For, namely, the one came to preach salvation to many, the Other to give it to all who are willing.

For he shall be great before the Lord, and shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. It is of great virtue before the Lord, while preaching heavenly joys in the desert, to have spurned earthly delights entirely. But this too stands out as great before the Lord, although to men it may seem contemptible, that he than whom there is none greater among those born of women was beheaded on account of the play of a wanton girl. The angel who put it forward, setting out next the order of this greatness, says: And he shall drink no wine nor strong drink. Sicera is interpreted drunkenness, and by this word the Hebrews signify every drink that can intoxicate, whether made from fruits, or from grain, or from any other material. And it was proper, in the law of the Nazarites, to abstain from wine and strong drink in the time of consecration. Hence John, Samson and Jeremiah, and others such, so that they might remain always Nazarites, that is, holy, take care always to abstain from these. For it befits a vessel given over to heavenly grace to be chastened from the allurements of the world, and that he who desires to be filled with the new wine of the Holy Spirit should not be made drunk with wine, wherein is luxury. Hence rightly, from whom the drunkenness of wine is taken away, on him the grace of the Spirit is heaped. With this he showed himself filled, as had been foretold, when, at the entrance of blessed Mary, he leapt in his mother's womb and, recognizing the office of his forerunning, announced the coming of the Lord as far as he yet could.

And he shall turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah. Since John, who bearing witness to Christ baptized the peoples in His faith, is said to have turned the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, it is plainly evident that Christ is the Lord God of Israel. But if Christ is, nay rather because Christ is the Lord God of Israel, let the Arians cease to deny that Christ is the Lord God. Let the Photinians blush to give Christ a beginning from the Virgin. Let the Manichaeans cease to believe that the God of the people of Israel is one and the God of Christians another. And since John is said to go before Him

let them see that God, eternal before the ages, was born as man in the ages after, and that therefore He was named by His forerunner now a man who would come after him, now the Son of God. And he is well said to go before in the spirit and power of Elijah, because, as the one is to come as herald of the Judge, so this one was made herald of the Redeemer. Hence also, in a manner of life altogether most alike, both followed the deserts, were frugal in food, rough in clothing, despised in girdle. Both endure the madness of a king and a queen. The one, about to go to heaven, divided the Jordan; the other turned men to the saving washing by which heaven is sought. This one consorts with the Lord on earth; that one is shown with Him in glory.

And that he may turn the hearts of the fathers to the sons, and the unbelieving, etc. To turn the hearts of the fathers to the sons is to pour into the peoples, by preaching, the spiritual knowledge of the holy men of old. And the prudence of the just is not to presume on righteousness from the works of the Law, but to seek salvation from faith; so that, although set under the Law they fulfil the commands of the Law, they nevertheless understand that they are to be saved by the grace of God through Christ. For the just man lives by faith (Rom. 1:17). And Peter says of the yoke of the Law: Which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear; but through the grace of the Lord Jesus we believe that we are saved, even as they (Acts 15:10–11). Because the unbelievers, for a long while, were both imbued with this prudence through John and are to be imbued with it through Elijah, rightly this sentence, which was spoken of John through the angel, was foretold of Elijah through Malachi in almost the same syllables. Prepare (he says) for the Lord a perfect people. For since he had said that Zachary, praying for the people, had been heard, he teaches in what order that same people must be saved and made perfect, namely by repenting and believing in Christ at the preaching of John.

And Zachary said to the angel: Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in her days. Hesitating at the loftiness of the promises, he asks for a sign by which he may be able to believe, when the mere sight or address of the angel ought to have sufficed him for a sign. Hence by being silent he paid the deserved penalty of distrust, for whom that same silence was both the sign of faith which he sought and the penalty of unbelief which he deserved.

And the angel answering said to him: I am Gabriel, who stand before God, and I am sent to speak to you and to bring you these good tidings. And behold, you shall be silent and shall not be able to speak until the day wherein these things come to pass, because, etc. He wishes it to be understood that if a man promised such things, one might without blame demand a sign; but when an angel promises, it is not fitting now to doubt. And he gives the sign that is asked, so that he who spoke in disbelieving may now learn to believe by being silent. Here it is to be noted that the angel testifies both that he stands before God and that he was sent to bring the good tidings to Zachary. For even when angels come to us, they so fulfil their ministry outwardly that they nevertheless never cease inwardly through contemplation. And so they are both sent and stand by, because, even if the angelic spirit is circumscribed, yet the supreme Spirit, Who is God, is not circumscribed. The angels, therefore, even when sent, are before Him, because wherever they come when sent, they run within Him.

And the people were waiting for Zachary, and they wondered that he tarried in the temple. And when he came out he could not speak to them. And they understood that he had seen a vision in the temple; and he kept making signs to them, and remained dumb. And it came to pass that when the days of his office were fulfilled, he departed to his own house. This is what I said: that the high priests, in the time of their course, given over to the offices of the temple alone, abstained not only from the embraces of their wives but even from entering their own houses. Here an example of perpetually preserved chastity is given to the priests of our time, who are commanded to serve the altar always. For since then the priestly succession from the stock of Aaron was sought, of necessity a time was provided for raising up offspring. But since now not a fleshly succession but spiritual perfection is sought, it follows that priests, so that they may always be able to attend the altar, are commanded always to abstain from wives, always to observe chastity.

And after those days Elizabeth his wife conceived. After, namely, the days of Zachary's office were completed. John, bishop of the city of Constantinople, making mention of this most sacred conception, says: These things were done in the month of September, on the eighth day before the Kalends of October, at the beginning of the eleventh moon, when the Jews had to celebrate the fast of the Feast of Tabernacles. And it has been found that on that very eighth day before the Kalends of October is the equinox, on which the beginning of the night is greater than that of the light. For He must increase, he says, but I must decrease (John 3:30). For the light had been diminished by the darkness when the Jews offered sacrifices to God according to the Law and prophecy; and in it John too was conceived. For these are the things that were formerly offered for the sins of the people, which had now to cease when John, that is, the Baptist, was conceived. And therefore Zachary his father, priest of the Jews, became dumb, because their sacrifices, which were offered for the sins of the people, had now to cease and fall dumb. For the only Priest was coming, Who, from His own Lamb immolated, would offer to God a sacrifice for the sins of all. By these words of blessed John we are taught that on the very first day after the day of expiation the change of the priestly course was then celebrated, and that therefore the conception of the Lord's forerunner took place on it. And not in vain is this a day of fasts and affliction foretold by the angel, because through him the affliction of penance was to be preached to men.

And she hid herself five months, saying: Thus has the Lord done to me in the days wherein He has had regard to take away my reproach among men. How great a care the saints have not to admit anything shameful of which they ought to blush, Elizabeth shows, who blushes even at the very gifts she longed to receive, and although she rejoices at the reproach of barrenness taken away, she is yet abashed at a childbirth in her aged years. But the burden of the mother is a shame as long as the honour of the offspring lies hidden. For she who hid herself because she had conceived a son, when the blessed Mother of God entered, cried out and exulted, because she was to bring forth a prophet. Allegorically, moreover, by Zachary the priesthood of the Jews, by Elizabeth the Law itself can be designated, which, exercised by the teachings of the priests, as though supported by a husband's aid,

ought to bring forth spiritual sons to God, but, as it were because of the injury of barrenness, was by no means able to. Not that there were not many, both before the Law and under the Law, of most perfect life, but because the Law brought no one to perfection, since it could not unlock the kingdom of heaven unless Christ went before. And it is well said that they were both just before God, because, just as the Law is good, and the commandment holy and just and good, so too the priesthood of the Law, for the dispensation of that time, is holy, good and just. And what follows, that both had advanced in their days, can be explained thus: that the legal devotion flourished, as it were, in its youth or young manhood in the times of Moses himself and thereafter, but, as the Saviour's coming drew near, a dire old age bent it down, when both the order of the priesthood was confounded through the ambitions and contentions of the high priests, and the Law itself, torn apart through the traditions of the Pharisees, was made less able to bring forth sons to God. Zachary therefore enters the temple, because it belongs to priests to enter into the sanctuary of God and to understand in the last things of the heavenly mysteries. The multitude prays outside, because those who cannot penetrate loftily into all secret and mystical things must humbly attend to the admonitions of the more learned. And while Zachary places the incense on the altar, he learns that John is to be born: because while the teachers burn with a fuller flame of divine reading, they discover that the grace of God is to come through Jesus Christ, and is to come forth from the inner marrow of the letter, as from the womb of Elizabeth. And this well through an angel, because the Law too was ordained by angels in the hand of a Mediator. But he who feigns not to believe what he has heard is punished with the penalty of silence, because he is dumb who does not understand that a spiritual sense is present in the letter. Nor does such a one know any longer how to give words to the people as a teacher, but, as if devoid of word and reason, he makes signs by silent nods, so to speak. Such then was the priesthood of the Jews, when it cared to know neither the reason of the sacrifices nor the sayings of the prophets. While Zachary therefore remains dumb, Elizabeth conceives John, because, although the high priests do not understand, and the Pharisees and Scribes lose, the distinctness of faith, so that they neither enter themselves nor allow their hearers to enter, yet the inner parts of the Law abound with the sacraments of Christ. And well does Elizabeth hide her conception for five months, whether because Moses the lawgiver himself designates the mysteries of Christ in parables in five books, or because the whole series of the Old Instrument prefigures that same dispensation of Christ in five ages of the world through the deeds or sayings of the saints. And therefore, since the incarnation of Christ was either to come in the sixth age of the world or was to profit for the fulfilment of the Law, rightly in the sixth month after John's conception the angel, sent to Mary, announces the Saviour who is to be born, as the reading that follows in order shows.

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee called Nazareth. Angels are reckoned by proper names for this reason, that it may be signified by their names also what power they have in their working. For neither in that holy city which, from the vision of almighty

God perfected in full knowledge, do they obtain proper names for this reason, nor could their persons not be known without names; but when they come to us to minister something, among us they also draw names from their ministries. To the virgin Mary, therefore, Gabriel is sent, who is named the Strength of God. For he was coming to announce Him Who deigned to appear lowly in order to vanquish the powers of the air. Of Him it is said through the Psalmist: The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle (Ps. 23:8). And again: The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory (ibid. 10). He, therefore, was to be announced through the Strength of God, Who, the Lord of hosts and mighty in battle, was coming to war against the powers of the air. And by the sixth month understand March, on the twenty-fifth day of which our Lord is handed down both to have been conceived and to have suffered, just as He was born on the twenty-fifth day of the month of December. Whether we believe that on this day, as some think, the vernal equinox takes place, or on that one the winter solstice, it is in any case fitting that He Who enlightens every man coming into the world should be conceived or born with the increase of light. But if anyone should prove that before the time of the Lord's birth and conception the light either grows or overcomes the darkness, we too say that both John then preached the kingdom of heaven before the face of His coming, and now also the preachers are commanded: Make a way for Him Who ascends upon the west (Ps. 67:5). And why John was conceived about the autumnal equinox and born about the summer solstice, he himself teaches, who speaks either in his own person or (as many suppose) in that of the Old Testament: He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30).

To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. For many reasons the Saviour willed to be born not of a simple virgin but of one betrothed. First, namely, that through the genealogy of Joseph, of whom Mary was a kinswoman, Mary's origin too might be known. For it is not the custom of Scripture to weave the genealogy of women. For what is said, of the house of David, can be understood of both. Next, lest she be stoned by the Jews as an adulteress, He preferring that some should doubt about His origin rather than about the chastity of His mother. At the same time also taking away an occasion from unchaste virgins, lest they say that even the mother of the Saviour had been defamed by false suspicions. Thirdly, that fleeing into Egypt and returning thence she might have the comfort of a husband, who would be at once the guardian and the witness of her most perfect virginity. Fourthly, that His birth might not be open to the devil; who, if he knew Him to be born of a virgin, would perhaps fear to deliver Him to death, as more eminent than other men. Now Mary is called in Hebrew star of the sea, but in Syriac lady; and rightly, because she was found worthy to bring forth both the Lord of the whole world and the light everlasting for the ages.

And the angel, coming in to her, said: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women. Well is she called full of grace, who indeed attains a grace which no other had merited, namely, to conceive and bring forth the very Author of grace.

And when she had heard, she was troubled at his saying, and she thought what manner of salutation this was. Learn the virgin by her conduct, learn the virgin by her modesty, learn the virgin by the oracle, learn her by the mystery. It is the part of virgins to tremble, and to be afraid at every entrance of a man, to dread every address of a man. Let women learn to imitate this resolve of modesty. Alone in the inner rooms, she whom no man would see, an angel alone finds; alone without companion, alone without witness, lest she be corrupted by any base affection, she is greeted by an angel. Learn, virgin, to shun wantonness of words. Mary feared even the salutation of an angel. Yet she was thinking, he says, what manner of salutation this was. And so with modesty, because she was afraid; with prudence, because she wondered at the new form of blessing, which had nowhere been read, nowhere before been found.

And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for you have found grace with God. She whom he had seen troubled at the unwonted salutation, inasmuch as it was reserved for her alone, he bids not to fear, calling her by name as one known more familiarly. And since he had called her full of grace, he both affirms that same grace more fully and unfolds it more richly, saying:

Behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus. Jesus is interpreted saviour, or saving. The mystery of this name the angel, addressing Joseph, set forth, saying: For He shall save His people from their sin (Matt. 1:21). He does not say the people of Israel, but His people, that is, the people called into the unity of the faith from the uncircumcision and the circumcision, so that, these being gathered from different sides, there might be one shepherd and one fold.

He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God shall give Him the throne of David His father. It was said of John too that he would be great, but he as a great man, This One as great God. For that one was great before the Lord; but This One, he says, shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High. The same, therefore, is Son of the Most High Who was conceived and born in the virginal womb. The same is man in time, created of a mother, Who is God born of the Father before time. But if the same is man Who is God, let Nestorius give up saying that a man only was born of the Virgin, and that this one was received by the Word of God not into unity of person but into an inseparable fellowship. Otherwise he is convicted of asserting not one Christ, true God and man, but two (which it is impious to say), and by this of preaching not a Trinity but a quaternity. But the Catholic faith, just as it confesses any one man to be flesh and soul, so most rightly confesses the man and the Word to be one Christ, in accordance with what the angel's words too signify, which had declared that the throne of David His father would be given Him. For he who announces that the same One Whom he declares shall be called the Son of the Most High would have David for His father, surely shows the one Person of Christ in two natures. And He received the throne of David in order, namely, that He Himself might call to the everlasting kingdom, which has been prepared for them from the beginning of the world, the nation to which David once and his sons furnished the helm of a temporal kingdom.

And He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end. And Isaiah says: His empire shall be multiplied, and of peace there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to establish it and strengthen it in judgement and justice (Isa. 9:7). He did not say, in the acquiring of glory and earthly treasures, not in victory over very many nations and the subduing of proud cities, but in judgement and justice. For by these the kingdom of Christ is at once multiplied and established, both in each and every one of the faithful and in the Church universal throughout the world. For he calls the whole Church the house of Jacob, which, whether born of the good root, or, when it was a wild olive, yet by the merit of faith grafted into the good olive. Addressing her after the triumph of His passion, the Saviour says: You who fear the Lord, praise Him; all you seed of Jacob, glorify Him (Ps. 21:24). And Jesus is not declared in words of future time to be one who will be great, will be called [Son] of the Most High, will receive the sceptre of David and will reign in the house of Jacob, for this reason, that, as the heretics think and so lose their wits from the truth, Christ did not exist before Mary; but because the man taken up into God was glorified with that glory which the Word of God had with the Father before the world was; that is, so that the man, together with God, full of grace and truth, might obtain the same name of Son, the same Person of Christ.

And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be, since I know not man? She reverently set forth the resolve of her mind, namely that she had determined to lead a virginal life. And because she, first of women, took care to give herself over to so great a virtue, she rightly merited to excel other women by a singular blessedness. How, she says, shall this be? She does not say, Whereby shall I know this? but: How shall it be, she says, since I know not man? Inquiring, namely, into the order of the obedience to which she is to submit, not demanding a sign by which she may believe. For it was not fitting that the virgin chosen to bear God should be doubtful from distrust, but rather wary from prudence, since a human being could not easily know the mystery which remained hidden in God from the ages. Since, then, she had read, Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, but had not read how this could come to pass, rightly, believing what she had read, she asks of the angel what she did not find in the prophet (Isa. 7:14).

And the angel answering said to her: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you. Not by the seed of a man, he says, which you know not, but by the working of the Holy Spirit, with Whom you are filled, you shall conceive. There will be conception in you; there will not be lust. There will be no heat of concupiscence where the Holy Spirit makes a shade. But in his saying, And the power of the Most High shall overshadow you, both natures of the incarnate Saviour can also be designated. For a shadow is wont to be formed by light and a body. And one who is overshadowed is refreshed by the light or warmth of the sun as much as suffices, but the very heat of the sun, lest it be unbearable, is tempered by the interposing of a light cloud or of some other body. To the blessed Virgin, therefore, because as a mere human being she could not contain bodily all the fullness of the Godhead,

the power of the Most High overshadowed her; that is, the incorporeal light of the Godhead took up in her the body of humanity. Of which the prophet says beautifully: Behold, the Lord, he says, will ascend upon a light cloud and will enter into Egypt (Isa. 19:1); which is to say: Behold, the Word of God, coeternal with the Father, and Light from Light born before the ages, will take up at the end of the ages flesh, and a soul weighed down by no burden of sin, and from the virginal womb, as a bridegroom from his chamber (Ps. 18:6), will come forth into the world.

And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God. To distinguish it from our holiness, Jesus is declared to be born singularly holy. For we, even if we are made holy, are yet not born so, because we are bound by the very condition of a corruptible nature; so that each of us may rightly say, groaning with the Prophet: For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother bear me (Ps. 50:7). But He alone is truly holy Who, in order to overcome that very condition of corruptible nature, was not conceived from the mingling of carnal union. The Holy (he says) shall be called the Son of God. What do you say here, Nestorian, who, denying that blessed Mary is the Mother of God, strive to assail the open truth? Behold, he said that God would come upon her, that the Son of God would be born. How then either is the Son of God not God, or how can she who brought forth God not be Theotokos, that is, Mother of God?

And behold, Elizabeth your kinswoman, she too has conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who is called barren; for no word shall be impossible with God. Lest the virgin distrust that she can bear a child, she receives the example of a barren old woman about to give birth, that she may learn that all things are possible to God, even those which seem contrary to the order of nature. But if it troubles anyone how he can call Elizabeth the kinswoman of blessed Mary, when the latter drew her origin from the house of David, the former from the daughters of Aaron, let him observe that their forefathers, by giving their children in marriage to one another, could have joined both tribes. And if perhaps this explanation should not suffice him, insisting more contentiously, as though this could not have been done against the prohibition of the Law, let him read Exodus, where it is written: And Aaron took to wife Elizabeth, daughter of Aminadab, sister of Naason, who bore him Nadab and Abihu and Eleazar and Ithamar (Exod. 6:23). And let him see that before the edict of the Law, by heavenly providence, the priestly line had already been joined to the royal; so that, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to the flesh was to be the true King and Priest, might take that very flesh from both stocks, that is, of David and of Aaron. Hence also in both these tribes a mystical anointing was performed through the Law, foretelling, to be sure, both the name and the generation of Christ. And David himself, entering the house of God, received the holy bread and the sword as king and priest, prefiguring, namely, Him Who was to come from his seed, Who would both fight for our liberty by the right of a king and offer the bread of His flesh for our absolution.

And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done

to me according to your word. With how great devotion is the humility that both desires the angel's promise to be fulfilled and calls herself, who is chosen to be mother, a handmaid? most plainly intimating that she claims no merit for herself, in that she complies with the Lord's commands. Be it done (she says): let there be conception in a virgin without the seed of man; let the Holy be born of the Holy Spirit, the flesh intact; let that which shall be born of a woman as mother without a man as father be called the Son of God.

And the angel departed from her. And Mary rising up in those days, went into the hill country with haste, into the city of Judah. The virgin's consent received, the angel at once returns to heavenly things, and she seeks the hill country. She hastens to visit Elizabeth, not as one unbelieving of the oracle, or doubtful of the example, but as one glad for the promise, dutiful in observance. Granting at the same time a figure of example, that every soul which has conceived the word of God in the mind should at once climb with the step of love to the lofty heights of the virtues, so that it may be able to penetrate the citadel of the city of Judah — that is, of confession and praise — and to abide there, as it were for three months, even to the perfection of faith, hope and charity.

And she entered into the house of Zechariah, and saluted Elizabeth. Learn, O virgin, the humility of Mary, that you may be both chaste in body and devout in heart. The younger visits the elder, the virgin greets the wife. For it is fitting that the more chaste the virgin, the more humble she should be, and, deferring to her elders, should commend the state of chastity by the praise of humility. Otherwise [put]: Mary [comes] to Elizabeth, [and] the Lord comes to John — the one that she may be filled with the Holy Spirit, the other that his baptism may be consecrated. And the humbling of the greater is assuredly the exaltation of the lesser. There follows accordingly:

And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. See the distinction, and the propriety of each single word. Elizabeth heard the voice first, but John first perceived the grace. She heard by the order of nature, he leaped by reason of the mystery. She perceived the coming of Mary, he of the Lord. The one pair speak grace, the other work it within, and by their mothers' advancement they take up the mystery of devotion, and by a twofold miracle the mothers prophesy through the spirit of their little ones. The infant leaped, and the mother was filled. The mother was not filled before the son, but when the son had been filled with the Holy Spirit, he filled the mother too.

And she cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. It is to be noted that the prophecy given beforehand concerning Christ is fulfilled not only in the miracles of things, but also in the propriety of the words. For this is that fruit which was promised under oath to the patriarch David: Of the fruit of your womb I will set [one] upon my throne (Ps. 131:11). And it is to be observed at the same time that Mary is blessed by Elizabeth with the same word as by Gabriel, so that she may be shown to be venerable both to angels and to men, and deservedly to be preferred before all women.

And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? She asks not as one ignorant of what she assuredly knows to be of the Holy Spirit — that is, that she herself is greeted by the mother

of the Lord for the advancement of her own charge — but, struck by the newness of the miracle, she confesses that this is not of her own merit, but of a gift that is divine.

For behold, as the voice of your salutation came into my ears, the infant leaped in joy in my womb. Elizabeth used to blush at the burden of childbearing, so long as she did not know the mystery of its holiness. But she who had been hiding herself because she had conceived a son began to exult because she was bearing a prophet. And she who before blushed now blesses, and she who before doubted is now confirmed. For behold (she says), as the voice of your salutation came into my ears, the infant leaped with joy in my womb. And so she cried out with a loud voice, when she perceived the coming of the Lord, because she believed the birth to be a holy one. For there was no cause for shame where the birth of a prophet won credit for a begetting that was granted, not contrived.

And blessed is she that believed, that those things shall be accomplished which were spoken to her by the Lord. You see that Mary did not doubt but believed, and therefore obtained the fruit of faith. Blessed (she says) is she that believed. And truly blessed, she who surpassed the priest. When the priest had denied it, the virgin corrected the error. Nor is it a wonder if the Lord, about to redeem the world, began His working from a mother, so that she through whom salvation was being prepared for all should herself be the first to draw the fruit of salvation from the pledge. And it is to be noted likewise with how great a grace He enriched the mind of Elizabeth at Mary's entering, a mind He illumined at once concerning the past, the present, and the future, through the spirit of prophecy. For in saying, Blessed are you that have believed, she plainly indicates that she recognized through the Spirit the words of the angel that had been spoken to Mary. And in adding: Those things shall be accomplished which were spoken to you by the Lord, she foresaw also the things that would follow for her in the future. And in naming her the mother of her Lord, it is because she understood that she bore in her womb the Redeemer of the human race.

And Mary said: My soul magnifies the Lord. And my spirit has exulted in God my Saviour. With so great and so unheard-of a gift (she says) has the Lord raised me up, that it can be unfolded by no service of the tongue, but can scarcely be comprehended by the very affection of the inmost breast; and therefore I offer all the powers of my soul in the rendering of praises of thanksgiving, and whatever I live, feel, discern, the whole of it I spend thankfully upon the contemplation of the greatness of Him of Whom there is no end — because my spirit too rejoices in the eternal divinity of that same Jesus, that is, of the Saviour, by Whose conception in time my flesh is made fruitful. Like to this is that [saying] of the Psalmist: But my soul shall exult in the Lord, and shall delight over His salvation (Ps. 34:9). For he too venerated the Father and the Son with an equal love.

Because He has looked upon the lowliness of His handmaid. For behold, from this [hour] all generations shall call me blessed. She whose lowliness is looked upon rightly rejoices that she is to be named blessed by all; just as, on the contrary, she whose pride is condemned by His disregard wastes away, punished with the name of Eve, that is, of woe, or of calamity. For it was fitting that, as through the pride of our first parent death entered into the world, so anew through the humility of Mary the entrance of life should be laid open.

Because He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. She looks back to the beginning of the song, where it was said: My soul magnifies the Lord. For that soul for which the Lord deigns to do great things is accustomed to magnify Him with worthy proclamations, and can say by way of exhortation to the sharers of the same vow and purpose: Magnify the Lord with me, and let us extol His name together (Ps. 33:4). For whoever has scorned to magnify, so far as in him lies, the Lord Whom he has come to know, and to hallow His name, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. And His name is called holy because, singular [as it is], by a mighty height it transcends every creature, and is set far apart from all the things which He made. Which is better understood by the Greek expression, in which the very word that is spoken, ἅγιον, signifies as it were to be outside the earth. In imitation of which we too are commanded, according to our own small measure, to be set apart from all who are not holy nor dedicated to God. The Lord saying: Be holy, because I also am holy (Lev. 11:44). For whoever shall have consecrated himself will deservedly be seen to be outside the earth and outside the world. For he too can say: walking upon the earth, we have our manner of life in the heavens.

And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him. Turning herself from the gifts that are particular to the general judgements of God, she describes the condition of the whole human race, and in alternating verses sets out what the proud and what the lowly deserve, what the sons of Adam are by free choice and what the sons of God are by grace. Therefore, she says, He who is mighty has not done great things for me alone, but also in every nation and generation he who fears Him and works justice is acceptable to Him.

He has wrought might in His arm, He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. By in His arm she signifies: in the very Son of God. Not that God the Father is bounded by the shape of human flesh, and that the Son clings to Him as a limb of a body; but because all things were made through Him, therefore He is called the arm of the Lord. For as there is your arm, through which you work, so the Word of God is called His arm, because through the Word He wrought the world. For why does a man stretch out his arm in order to work something, unless because what he has said comes to be at once? But if a man prevailed with such power that what he said came to be without any motion of his body, his arm would be his word. When therefore we have heard that the arm of God the Father is God the Son, let not carnal habit clamour against us, but let us think, so far as by His gift we can, of the power of God and the wisdom of God, through which all things were made.

He has put down the mighty from their seat, and has exalted the lowly. The hungry He has filled with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. What she said, in His arm, and what she promised, from generation unto generations, is to be attached to these little verses also, clause by clause, ἀπὸ κοινοῦ [in common]; because plainly, through all the generations of the age, the proud do not cease to perish and the lowly to be exalted, by the devout and just dispensation of the divine power.

He has taken up Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy. Beautifully does she call Israel the servant of the Lord, [Israel] who by Him

has been taken up to be saved — obedient, that is, and lowly, according to what Hosea says: Because Israel was a child, and I loved him (Hos. 11:1). For he who scorns to be humbled cannot in any case be saved, nor say with the Prophet: For behold, God helps me, and the Lord is the upholder of my soul (Ps. 53:6). But whoever shall have humbled himself as a little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:4).

As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever. By the seed of Abraham she signifies not the carnal but the spiritual [seed] — that is, not only those begotten of his flesh, but those who, whether in circumcision or in uncircumcision, have followed the traces of his faith. For while set in uncircumcision he himself believed, and it was reckoned to him unto justice. And he received circumcision as the seal of that same faith, that he might thus become by faith the father of both peoples, according to what the Apostle discussed most fully [in the letter] to the Romans. The coming, therefore, of the Saviour was promised to Abraham and to his seed for ever, that is, to the sons of the promise, to whom it is said: But if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:29). And it is well that the mothers, by prophesying, go before the birth both of the Lord and of John: so that, as sin began from women, so good things also should begin from women, and the life that perished through the deceiving of one woman should be restored to the world by two, vying with one another in proclaiming it.

And Mary stayed with her about three months, and returned to her own house. Mary stayed so long, until Elizabeth, the time of her delivery being completed, might see the birth of the forerunner of her Lord, the birth for whose sake chiefly she had come. Now it was said above, that every chaste soul which has conceived a spiritual desire of the Word must at once, of necessity, climb the lofty ridges of heavenly exercise, and, tarrying there as it were for the space of three months, not cease to persevere until it is radiant with the perfect light of the principal virtues. Which months, indeed, of most perfect brightness the Apostle describes when he says: But now faith, hope, charity abide, these three; and greater than these is charity (1 Cor. 13:13).

Now Elizabeth's time to be delivered was fulfilled, and she brought forth a son. Holy Scripture is accustomed to use the word of fulfilment only of the birth, or the state, or the deeds of the good, whose life it signifies to have the fullness of perfection. Thus: Elizabeth's time to be delivered was fulfilled. Mary's days were fulfilled, that she should be delivered (Luke 2:6). Solomon fulfilled the building of the house of the Lord (2 Chr. 3). Abraham died, or some other one of the fathers, old and full of days. And when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son (Gal. 4:4). But on the contrary the days of the wicked are empty and void. For men of blood and deceit shall not live out half their days (Ps. 54:24).

And her neighbours and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had magnified His mercy with her, and they rejoiced with her. The bringing forth of saints holds the joy of many, because it is a common good. For justice is a common virtue. And therefore at the birth of a just man a token of the life to come is sent ahead, and the grace of the virtue that is to follow

is signified, the rejoicing of the neighbours prefiguring [it].

And it came to pass on the eighth day [that] they came to circumcise the child, and they called him by the name of his father, Zachary. And his mother answering said: Not so, but he shall be called John. Wonderfully did the holy evangelist think it should be set down first that very many thought the infant should be called by his father's name, Zachary, so that you may notice that it was not that the name of some degenerate kinsman displeased the mother, but that the name had been poured into her by the Holy Spirit which had been foretold beforehand by the angel to Zachary. And indeed he, being mute, could not make known to his wife the name of their son, but Elizabeth learned by prophecy what she had not learned from her husband.

And they said to her: There is none among your kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, etc. John (he says) is his name, that is: we do not impose a name on him who has already received a name from God. He has his own name, which we have recognized, not which we have chosen. Nor should you wonder that the woman declared a name which she had not heard, since the Holy Spirit, Who had given the charge to the angel, revealed it to her; nor could she who had prophesied Christ be ignorant of the Lord's forerunner. And it is well added that no one in his kindred is called by this name, so that you may understand that the name is not of the family, but of the prophet.

And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came upon all their neighbours. Because the voice of one crying in the wilderness was born, rightly was the tongue of the parent loosed. For it was not fitting that the father, who rejoiced in a herald of the Word born to him, should be silent from praises. For indeed faith has now loosed the lips which unbelief had bound. But if anyone should wish to search these things out allegorically too: the nativity of John celebrated is the sublimity of the grace of the New Testament begun. On him the neighbours and kinsfolk preferred to impose the father's name rather than John's, because the Jews, who were joined to him by the observance of the law as though by kinship, desired rather to follow the righteousness which is of the law than to receive the grace of faith. But the name of John, that is, of the grace of God, the mother takes pains to make known by words, the father by letters, because both the law itself and the psalms and the prophets proclaim the grace of Christ with the open voices of their sayings, and that old priesthood bears witness to the same by the figurative shadows of ceremonies and sacrifices. And beautifully does Zachary speak on the eighth day after the offspring was brought forth, because through the Lord's resurrection, which took place on the eighth day, that is, after the seventh of the Sabbath, the hidden secrets of the legal priesthood were laid open, and the tongue of the high priests of the Jews, which the chains of distrust had bound fast, was loosed by the voice of rational understanding.

And all these words were noised abroad over all the hill country of Judaea. And all who had heard laid them up in their heart, saying: What do you think this child will be? For indeed the hand of the Lord was with him. Great are the works of the Lord, sought out according to all His wills (Ps. 110:2). For behold, the one silence of Zachary profits not only himself, when it is given for the punishment of unbelief and as a sign for believing, but also, when it is taken away, it astounds all his neighbours

with miracle and fear. It floods all the hill country round about with the fame of the prophet who has been born; it stirs all who were able to hear to inquire more diligently into the manner and state of the boy who was born, so that, namely, the future prophet of Christ might be commended by these and such like auspices, and that the signs of the one running before might furnish a road (so to speak) for the forerunner of the truth. And Zachary his father was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because He has visited and wrought the redemption of His people (Luke 1:67–68). How great is the bounty of the heavenly gift, if the devotion of our faith be ready to receive it! Behold, the speech that was taken away from him alone when he distrusted, is restored to him when he believes, together with the spirit of prophecy. Now the Lord visited His people, wasting away as it were with a long infirmity, and redeemed it, sold as it were under sin, with the blood of His only Son. And because blessed Zachary knew that this was very soon to be done, he narrates it in prophetic fashion as if already done. And it is to be noted that He is said to have visited and redeemed His people, not because, coming, He found it His own, but because by visiting He made it His own. Like to this is what is sung at the end of Proverbs about the same people: Who shall find a valiant woman? (Prov. 31:10). For He did not find the same woman, namely the Church, valiant, that is, devoted in faith, but by espousing her to Himself He rendered her valiant, because He perfected her by the sublimity of His faith.

And He has raised up a horn of salvation for us, in the house of David His servant (Luke 1:69). By the horn of salvation he means the firm loftiness of salvation. For all the bones are wrapped in flesh; the horn goes beyond the flesh, and therefore the kingdom of Christ the Saviour is called the horn of salvation, by which a spiritual height is announced to the world, and one that surpasses the joys of the flesh. In figure of which David and Solomon were consecrated with the horn of oil to the glory of the kingdom.

As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, who are from of old (Luke 1:70). From of old, he says, because the whole Scripture of the Old Testament went forth as prophecy concerning Christ. And not only Jeremiah, Daniel and Isaiah, and the others like them, who were both specially called prophets and spoke openly of His coming, but father Adam himself, Abel and Enoch, and the rest of the Fathers, each by his deeds, bear witness to His dispensation. Hence the Lord Himself, reproving the hardness of the Jews, says: If you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe Me also. For he wrote of Me (John 5:46).

Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us (Luke 1:71). There is to be joined from the verse above "He has raised up for us", that is, He has raised up for us salvation from our enemies. For when he had first briefly set down: And He has raised up a horn of salvation for us, straightway, as it were explaining more openly what he had said: Salvation (he says) from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us. And by all who hate us he signifies either perverse men or unclean spirits. From whose hand we have both been saved meanwhile in hope, and in the future are to be saved in very fact.

To show mercy to our fathers, and to remember His covenant. The oath which He swore (Luke 1:72–73),

to Abraham our father, etc. (Luke 1:73). He had said that the Lord, according to the utterances of the prophets, was to be born in the house of David; he says that the same, to fulfil the covenant which He made with Abraham, will set us free. Because, namely, to these patriarchs especially was promised from their seed either the gathering of the nations or the incarnation of Christ. Which Matthew too wished to intimate briefly, who began the opening of his Gospel in this manner: The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matt. 1:1). Where it is to be noted that with both evangelists David is put before Abraham. Because, even if later in the order of time, he is nevertheless greater in the gift of the promise. For to Abraham, who while still in uncircumcision left his own possessions, knew God, and merited the testimony of faith, only the faith of the nations and the most holy assembly of the Church was promised, the Lord saying to him: And in you shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed (Gen. 28:14). But David heard by a more sublime oracle that Christ according to the flesh would be born of him: And when you shall have fulfilled (He says) your days, that you go to your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which shall be of your sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build Me a house, and I will make firm his throne for ever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to Me a son (1 Chr. 17:11–13).

In holiness and justice before Him, all our days (Luke 1:75). Openly and briefly he marks out how the Lord is to be served, namely both in holiness and justice, and before Him, and all our days. For whoever either departs from His service before death, or stains the sincerity of his faith with any uncleanness or injustice, or strives to continue holy only before men and not also before the Lord—even a just man—does not yet serve the Lord perfectly delivered from the hand of spiritual enemies, but, after the example of the Samaritans of old, tries to serve the gods of the nations and the Lord alike.

And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High. For you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways (Luke 1:76). Beautifully, when he was speaking of the Lord, he suddenly turns his words to the prophet, so as to mark that this too is a benefit of the Lord. But it is asked how he addresses an infant of eight days. Yet for what reason should the newborn not have heard his father's voice, who, still shut in the womb, heard the greeting of Mary? Unless perhaps Zachary is to be thought to have wished, as soon as he could speak, to proclaim the future gifts of his son, which he had long before learned through the angel, rather for the instruction of those who were present. Let the Arians indeed hear and blush; let the meek hear and be glad, that he calls Christ the Lord, before Whom John went prophesying, the Most High. In accordance with which the Psalmist too, praising God and perfect man in one person, says: Mother Sion, a man shall say, and a man was made in her, and the Most High Himself has founded her (Ps. 86:5). He declares Him Who founded [her] to have been made, and calls the same man the Most High.

To give knowledge of salvation to His people unto the remission of their sins (Luke 1:77). As if desiring to set forth and more diligently commend the name of Jesus, that is, of the Saviour,

he makes repeated mention of salvation, when he recalls that a horn of salvation is to be raised up, that salvation from enemies is to come, that knowledge of salvation is to be given to the people. But lest you should think a temporal and carnal salvation was promised, unto the remission (he says) of their sins. But the Jews prefer, not to receive Christ Jesus, but to await Antichrist, for this reason: because they desire to be saved not inwardly but outwardly, to be freed not from the dominion of sin but from the yoke of human servitude.

Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high has visited us (Luke 1:78). And the prophet, speaking of the Lord, says: Behold a man, the Orient is His name (Zech. 6:12). He is therefore rightly called the Orient, Who, opening to us the rising of the true light, has made the sons of night and of darkness sons of light, according to what blessed Zachary next sets forth, saying:

To enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to direct our feet into the way of peace (Luke 1:79). For the Lord to enlighten those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death is to pour the rays of the knowledge and love of Himself into those who have lived in sins and in the blindness of ignorance. To such the Apostle says: You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord (Eph. 5:8). And our feet are directed into the way of peace when the course of our actions agrees in all things with the grace of our Redeemer and Enlightener. In fitting order indeed he testifies that hearts are first to be enlightened, and afterwards works directed, because no one is able to work a peace which he has not first learned. Hence rightly the Psalmist: Seek (he says) peace, and pursue it (Ps. 33:15). Which is to say: Be enlightened, you who sat in darkness, and enter upon the way of peace from which you were long in exile.

And the child grew and was strengthened in spirit, and was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation to Israel (Luke 1:80). Being the future preacher of penance, it is fitting and just that he should pursue the hardships of solitude; and, so that as a young man he might the more freely raise his hearers by teaching from the allurements of the world, he himself also passes his early life unkempt in the deserts.

CHAPTER II.

And it came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled (Luke 2:1). The Son of God, being about to be born in the flesh, just as He chose the parents He willed and the place of birth He willed, and brought them to that very place before He was born in the way He willed, so also He entered the world to save it at the time He willed, nay, which He Himself together with the Father and the Holy Spirit had disposed from the ages and had foretold through the mouths of the prophets. For as, born of a virgin mother, He showed that the glory of virginity and the angelic beauty of chastity are most pleasing to Him, so too, begotten in the most peaceful time of the world, He taught that He greatly sought and loved peace, and indicated that He would always deign to visit the followers of peace and charity. In accordance with which He Himself, making a promise to the faithful, says: For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them (Matt. 18:20). For what greater sign of a most tranquil reign, and of a peace most beautiful as far as men are concerned, could there be,

than that the whole world should be enclosed in one enrolment, and all the ends of the world far and wide be comprised in the same coin of the census? Of which [census] Augustus, its author and director, according to the faith of the histories, reigned for twelve years about the time of the Lord's nativity in such peace that, wars both foreign and civil having been laid to rest throughout the whole world, he seems to have fulfilled even to the letter the spiritual presage of the prophet. For that prophet, when with mystical voice he foretold in song the dispensation of Christ, saying: And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it (Mic. 4:1), a little after took care to describe also the state of that most sacred time: And they shall beat (he says) their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they be exercised any more for war. O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord (ibid.). Now this new enrolment of the world not only bore witness to the coming of that supreme King, Who was to enrol His elect, gathered from all the regions of the world, in the register of eternal beatitude, but also helped the leaders of that same kingdom by the quiet peace of its rule; for indeed, all nations having been restrained from the whirlwind of battles, the shadow of the Roman name, dreadful at that time (so to speak), protected the disciples of Christ who were to preach to the world, wherever they wished to go for the sake of the word, from the heat of rising seditions. There went out therefore a decree from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should profess the census, because there was imminent the decree of Christ the King, by which the whole world should obtain salvation. He, most perfectly fulfilling the name of Augustus, as one both desiring that His own should increase and Himself able to increase them, commands the censors of His going forth to mark His subjects, not by the taking away of money, but by the offering of faith. Going, He says, into the whole world, preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved (Mark 16:15–16).

This first enrolment was made by Cyrinus, governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each into his own city (Luke 2:2–3). This census, held in the times of Cyrinus, Josephus too, the illustrious historian of the Hebrews, records in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities in this manner: Now Cyrinus, a man who by the consent of the Roman senate rose through the several magistracies up to the rank of the consulship, and was in other respects too honourable, came with a few into Syria, sent by Caesar to give laws to the nations, and to be at the same time the assessor of estates. Thus what he says: This first enrolment was made by Cyrinus, governor of Syria, signifies either that this enrolment was the first of those which took in the whole world, since most parts of the earth are often read to have been enrolled already, or certainly that it first began then, when Cyrinus was sent into Syria. And as then, at the command of Augustus and under the governorship of Cyrinus, all went to profess the census, each into his own city, so now too, at the command [given] through the governors of the Church, that is, the teachers, nay rather, with Christ persuading and promising rewards, let us all go, let none be excepted

from the census of justice. Let us come to Him, we who labour and are burdened, and He will refresh us. Let us take His yoke upon us, and learn of Him, for He is meek and humble of heart, and we shall find rest for our souls (Matt. 11:28–29). For this is our city and fatherland, namely the blessed and heavenly rest of souls, for which we were created by Christ as God at the beginning of the world's birth, for which we have been re-created by Christ as man at the end of the ages. To go to this city of peace and quiet, and to bring devoted treasures to our King, is indeed, with daily growing advances in virtue and faith, to contemplate what the eternal joys of the light above may be, and for the gaining of them to despise alike the prosperity and the adversity of the world, and, having gained them, cleansed from all defilement of flesh and spirit (2 Cor. 7:1), to offer to God a gift more precious than gold. And if we also examine more diligently the kind of coin that was paid to Caesar, we shall find that it too enjoins on us no small devotion; which we can seek and find nowhere better than in the Gospel itself, where, to those tempting Him about paying tribute to Caesar, the Lord says: Show Me the coin of the census. And they, it says, offered Him a denarius. And Jesus said to them: Whose is this image and inscription? They say to Him: Caesar's. Then He said to them: Render therefore the things that are Caesar's to Caesar, and the things that are God's to God (Luke 20:24–25). Where it is first to be noted that the denarius, which contained ten coins, as its very name shows, marked with his image and inscription, was paid to Caesar. Then it is to be inferred that, since the Lord commands that the things that are Caesar's be rendered to Caesar and the things that are God's to God, we too are skilfully given to understand that, in the likeness of the royal denarius, the decalogue of the law is to be offered to God our King, that is, the love of God and of neighbour—of which the one, of three precepts, embraces the other seven—to be kept with a whole heart. In which denarius, namely, of sacred Scripture, stamped with ten heavenly commandments as with so many golden coins, whoever knows how to look will find the countenance and name of the eternal King, that is, the knowledge of the divine will. This each one engraves on the tablets of his heart with the stylus of diligent discipline when he perfectly believes, hopes and loves. And we carry this denarius with us on the way, shut up as it were in a purse, when, knowing how to say with the Psalmist: The light of Thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us; Thou hast given gladness in my heart (Ps. 4:7), we yet keep this very seal of faith and joy of hope and charity laid up hitherto in the hidden meditation of our conscience, with God as witness. But when we arrive in the fatherland, to our King, Whose vision we thirst for, to behold Whom in His beauty we hasten with every effort of virtue and with the whole intent of the mind, we shall bring forth the gifts of our good conversation, which had lain hidden on earth, to be crowned in heaven, when what we have said in darkness shall be spoken in the light, and what we have spoken in the ear in chambers shall be preached on the housetops (Matt. 10:27).

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, to the city of David, etc. (Luke 2:4). By heavenly dispensation the profession of the census was so ordered that in

each one should be ordered to go to his own native place. Not only on account of the mystery we have spoken of, but also so that the Lord, conceived in one place and born in another, might more easily escape the fury of Herod lying in wait for Him. For had He been born of parents of Bethlehem, the crafty searcher could have held their sudden flight suspect, especially since all knew that they drew their lineage from the stock of David, from which Christ was to come. To Whom David himself bears witness by his name, his native place and his office. For David is interpreted strong of hand, or desirable. He took the name indeed from this, that he both struck down the giant bravely and was handsome to look upon and of comely face; but by a loftier mystery he prefigured Him Who was to be born of his house and family, Who should singly vanquish the prince of the world, beautiful in form above the sons of men (Ps. 44:3), and Himself born in Bethlehem and the shepherd of intellectual sheep, that is, the ruler of simple souls. Whose humility, so great and so kind, is not to be looked at in passing: He deigned not only to become incarnate for us, but to become incarnate at that time when He would at once be enrolled in Caesar's census, and for our liberation would Himself be made subject to servitude. This path of His humility Peter also commends to us (for He did not come to change conditions, but minds), saying: Be subject to every human creature for God's sake, whether to the king as excelling, or to governors as sent by him (1 Pet. 2:13–14). And his fellow apostle Paul too: Render, he says, to all their dues. Tribute to whom tribute, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour. Owe no one anything, except to love one another (Rom. 13:7–8).

And it came to pass, when they were there, her days were accomplished that she should bring forth, etc. (Luke 2:6). Fittingly, not only as a sign of the royal lineage but also on account of the mystery of the name, the Lord is born in Bethlehem. For Bethlehem is interpreted house of bread. For it is He Himself Who says: I am the living bread, Who came down from heaven (John 6:51). The place, therefore, in which the Lord was to be born was called the house of bread beforehand, because it was indeed to come to pass that He should appear there through the matter of flesh Who would refresh the minds of the elect with inward fullness. But even to this day, and until the consummation of the world, the Lord does not cease to be conceived in Nazareth and born in Bethlehem, whenever any one of the hearers, having received the flower of the word, makes himself a house of the eternal bread. Daily He is conceived in the virginal womb, that is, in the mind of believers, through faith, and begotten through baptism. Daily the Church, Mother of God, accompanying her Teacher, going up from the wheel of worldly conduct, which is what Galilee means, into the city of Judah, that is, of confession and praise, pays the census of her devotion to the eternal King. She, after the example of blessed Mary ever virgin, at once wedded and immaculate, conceives us a virgin by the Spirit, bears us a virgin without groaning, and as if betrothed to one but made fruitful by another, through her several parts which make up the one catholic [Church], is visibly joined to the Pontiff set over her, but is enriched by the invisible power of the Holy Spirit. Whence also well

Joseph is interpreted "increased". By this name, to be sure, he indicates that the earnestness of a teacher who speaks avails nothing unless it has received the increase of help from above, so that it may be heard. But that Mary is described as having brought forth her firstborn son is not to be taken, after the manner of the Helvidians, to mean that she also begot other sons, as though no one could be called firstborn except one who has brothers, just as one is not usually called only-begotten except one who lacks brothers. For both the testimony of the law and plain reason declare that all only-begotten can also be called firstborn, but not all firstborn can also be called only-begotten. That is, he is firstborn not only after whom others [come], but everyone before whom none has come forth from the womb. In short, because every male that opens the womb is commanded to be called holy to the Lord (below, in this [chapter]; Luke 2:23), whether brothers follow or do not follow, what is first born from the womb is by right to be consecrated as the firstborn. But by a higher reason the Son of God, appearing in the flesh, is both, according to the excellence of the divinity, only-begotten of the Father, and, according to the fellowship of brothers, the Firstborn of every creature. Of the latter it is said: For those whom He foreknew and predestined to be made conformable to the image of His Son, that He Himself might be the Firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8:29). Of the former, however: And we saw His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father (John 1:14). He is therefore Only-begotten in the substance of the Godhead, Firstborn in the taking up of humanity; Firstborn in grace, Only-begotten in nature. Hence it is that He is called brother, and Lord: brother, because Firstborn; Lord, because Only-begotten.

And she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for Him in the inn. — What shall I render to the Lord for all the things that He has rendered to me (Isa. 9 [as printed; the verse is Ps. 115:12])? For what is greater than all praise: A little one is born to us, so that we might be able to be perfect men? He who clothes the whole world with varied adornment is wrapped in cheap cloths, so that we may be able to receive the first robe. He through whom all things were made is bound hand and foot in a cradle, so that our hands may be stretched out to good work, and our feet be directed into the way of peace. He whose seat is heaven is held in the narrowness of a hard manger, so that He may enlarge us through the joys of the heavenly kingdom. He who is the bread of angels is laid in a manger, so that He may refresh us, as holy animals, with the grain of His flesh. He who sits at the right hand of the Father lacks a place in the inn, so that He might prepare for us many mansions in the house of His Father. Yet the fact that He is born not in His parents' house but in an inn and on the way can be understood more deeply by way of signification. For He Himself says: I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He, then, who through the essence of the divinity abides as truth and life, through the mystery of the Incarnation was made the way, by which He might lead us to the homeland where we should enjoy truth and life.

And there were shepherds in the same region, keeping watch and keeping the watches of the night over their flock. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood beside them, and the brightness of God shone round about them. With most beautiful reason, when the Lord is born, shepherds keep watch, and defend their flock by guarding it from the snares of the night. So that, namely, by this also

it might be shown that the time was at hand which the true and only good Shepherd had once promised, saying: Behold, I Myself will seek My sheep, and will visit them, as a shepherd visits his flock, and I will deliver them from all the places where they had been scattered in the day of cloud and darkness. And a little after: And I will raise up over them one shepherd, who shall feed them, My servant David, and I will make the most evil beasts cease from the land (Ezek. 34:11–12, 23, 25), etc. What was wonderfully foretold by the prophet we see still more wonderfully fulfilled by the Lord. The prophet Micah too remembers this place and time, saying: And you, misty tower of the Flock, the daughters of Sion shall come even to you, and the first power shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Sion (Mic. 4:8). For the tower of the Flock, which in Hebrew is called the tower of Eder, stands about a thousand paces to the east of the city of Bethlehem, foreshowing these shepherds long before by the prophecy of its name; and even to it the daughters of Sion, that is, the angelic powers, came by appearing to the shepherds. Let the shepherds, then, keep watch over the flock of their sheep when the Lord is born; let them signify that, once His dispensation was made manifest, there would be shepherds of chaste souls keeping watch in the Church. To whom let it be said: Feed the flock of God which is among you (1 Pet. 5:2). And fittingly the angel appears to the shepherds as they keep watch, and the brightness of God shines round about them, because those above others deserve to see sublime things who know how to preside carefully over faithful flocks; and while they piously keep watch over the flock, the divine grace flashes more abundantly upon them. Moreover, an angel instructs Mary, an angel Joseph, an angel the shepherds. The citizens of heaven bear witness to the Lord to be conceived, and conceived, and born, so that they may both sufficiently instruct mortals and ceaselessly render their service to their Author. For in what follows too they are said to be always present to Him when tempted, about to suffer, rising again and ascending to the heavens.

And they feared with a great fear. And the angel said to them: Fear not. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people. Not to all the people of the Jews, of whom very many proved rebellious, but to all the people of the faithful, gathered from all tribes, nations and tongues into the one Church of Christ, is an eternal and great joy announced.

For this day is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. This is the first power, this the kingdom of the daughter of Sion, which by the aforesaid testimony of the prophet was promised to come at the tower of the flock. Here it is to be noted that the angel, who addresses the shepherds certainly in the watches of the night, does not say: This night, but This day is born to you a Saviour. For no other cause, that is, than because he came to announce great joy. For where any sad things done or to be done in the night-time are signified, there the night is often either added or even named alone. As is that saying: All of you shall be scandalized in Me this night (Matt. 26:31). And elsewhere: Amen I say to you, that you today, in this night, before the cock crows twice, shall deny Me thrice (Mark 14:30). For not in vain did the angel appear girt with so great a light, so that the brightness of God [is said] to have shone round about the shepherds, that is, on every side

to have sprinkled the rays of its light upon them — a thing that in the whole course of the Old Testament is never added, though angels appear so many times. But mystically he forewarned what the Apostle afterwards openly warned, saying: The night is past, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us walk honestly, as in the day (Rom. 13:12–13).

And this shall be a sign to you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger. The infancy of the Saviour is impressed upon us by the frequent proclamations of the angels and the testimonies of the evangelists, so that what He was made for us may be fixed more deeply in our hearts. Namely, that He was wounded for our iniquities, and was weakened for our sins (Isa. 53:5). And it should be noted more carefully that the sign given of the Saviour's birth is an infant to be found not received in Tyrian purple, but wrapped in squalid cloths, not on coverlets adorned with gold, but in a manger. That is, that He took upon Himself for us the condition not only of humility and mortality, but also of poverty. Because, though He was rich, He became poor for us, that we might be enriched by His poverty (2 Cor. 8:9). Though He was Lord of the heavens, He became poor on earth, to teach the earthborn that by poverty of spirit they can acquire the kingdom of the heavens.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will. When one messenger announces God born in the flesh, at once a multitude of the heavenly army, flying to him, bursts out with harmonious voice in praise of the Creator, so that it may render to Christ, as always, the devotion of its service, and may likewise teach us by its example that, as often as either one of the brethren has sounded forth in words of sacred learning, or we ourselves have recalled to mind things of piety that we have read or heard, praises are at once to be rendered to God with mouth, heart and deed. And fittingly the choir of angels that comes receives the name of the heavenly army, since it both humbly obeys that Leader mighty in battle who appeared to overthrow the powers of the air, and itself drives back strongly with heavenly arms those same hostile powers, so that they may not be able to tempt mortals as much as they wish. For just as by the foresight of an excellent emperor all places are fortified with military force against the coming of the enemy, so also God, since the unclean spirits range everywhere to overthrow peace, has appointed armies of angels for our protection, so that by their presence both the boldness of demons may be broken and the grace of peace ministered to us. And because God and man is born, rightly is peace sung to men and glory to God. The angels glorify God incarnate for our redemption, because while they see us being received they rejoice that their number is being filled up. They wish peace to men, because those whom formerly they had despised as weak and abject, they now honour as companions, now that the Lord is born in the flesh; and when they ask peace for men they explain also for which men, namely those of good will, that is, those who receive the newborn Christ, but not Herod, the chief priests and the Pharisees, and the rest

antichrists, who were troubled when they heard of His birth, and pursued Him with swords as far as they could. For there is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord. But much peace have they that love Thy name, O Lord, and to them there is no stumbling-block (Isa. 48:22; Ps. 118:165). To these also what follows is most fittingly suited: I looked for Thy salvation, O Lord (Ps. 118:166), that is, I sighed for the coming advent of Christ with a long waiting of desires.

And it came to pass, when the angels departed from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another: Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this word that has come to pass, which the Lord has made and has shown to us. Consider carefully how reasonable the shepherds' words are, and how worthy of the shepherds of the Church. For truly, like men keeping watch, they did not say: Let us see the boy, let us see what is said; but: Let us see the Word that has been made: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was made flesh (John 1:1, 14). The Word which always was, let us see how it was made for us, which the Lord has made and has shown to us. This Word made Itself, since this very Word is the Lord. Let us see therefore how this very Word, that is, the Lord Himself, made Himself and showed us His flesh. For what we could not see while it was the Word, let us see made, because it is flesh. Like this is what John says: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life; and the life was made manifest, and we have seen, and we bear witness, and we declare to you the eternal life which was with the Father and has appeared to us (1 John 1:1–2).

And they came in haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the infant laid in a manger. And seeing, they understood concerning the Word that had been spoken to them about this boy. The shepherds hasten; with the whole intent of their mind they long to see the coming of Christ, whom they have come to know. For the presence of Christ is not to be sought with sloth. And perhaps some who seek do not deserve to find for this reason, that they look for Christ slothfully. These shepherds found Him without delay, because they ran to Him with unfeigned faith, to go to whom in haste is not to quicken the steps of the feet, but always to advance in faith and virtue. They found, he says, Mary and Joseph, and the infant laid in a manger. And the shepherds of the Lord's flock too, the more often and the more sweetly they are lifted up by the heavenly oracle amid the darkness of this life, the more fervently do they enter by contemplation, as through the gates of Bethlehem, into the sublime life of the fathers who went before, in which the bread of life is ever both kept and refreshes; and in it they find at first sight nothing other than the virginal beauty of the Catholic Church, as Mary; the manly company of spiritual teachers, as Joseph; and the humble coming of the Mediator of God and men, the man Jesus Christ, set in the pages of sacred Scripture, as the infant laid in the manger, Christ. From this manger of the holy Scriptures, namely, was fed that excellent animal, most fit for the most holy sacrifices, which proclaimed with exultation: The Lord

feeds me, and I shall lack nothing; He has set me there in a place of pasture (Ps. 22:1–2). And a little after: Thou hast prepared a table before me against those who afflict me (ibid., 22:5). And seeing, he says, they understood concerning the word that had been spoken to them about this boy; because, of course, it is the just order that, once the incarnation of the Word has been known, loved and celebrated with fitting honour, one should at some time attain, by the keenness of a mind made more capacious by long exercise, to the contemplation of the very glory of the Word.

And all who heard wondered, and at those things that had been told them by the shepherds. By shepherds the people is moved to reverence for God. Let this seem to you no mean example of faith, nor the persons of the shepherds lowly. Surely, the lowlier in respect of worldly wisdom, the more precious in respect of faith. The Lord chose as His heralds not the wise but the simple, who would not know how to colour what they had heard; He appointed not orators but fishermen to preach the Gospel. In short, in the Old Testament too He appointed shepherds as all the foremost messengers of His dispensation. The protomartyr Abel, who consecrated with his own blood the innocent way of life of the shepherd's office, and whose blood, in figure of the Lord's passion, cries out from the earth, devoutly offered to the Lord, as the most learned and first of herdsmen, the firstlings of his flocks. Abraham, the father of faith, who rejoiced to see the day of Christ, and saw it, and was glad, is described as having sought, by digging in the veins of the earth, not metals of gold with which to procure ornaments for his adornment, but springs of water with which to water his flocks. Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes, was burned by heat and frost for twice ten years in feeding flocks, which, in figure of the true Shepherd, he endowed with a coat of higher estate by showing among the waters of saving doctrine the variety of his virtues. The lawgiver Moses, who first defended the seven sisters feeding their flocks — a type of the sevenfold Church — from the wickedness of the shepherds who rushed upon them, until they had watered their sheep, afterwards merited to see and speak with the Lord among the pastures of the desert, and to work signs with the shepherd's rod and to set free the people of God. David himself, whose son our Lord deigned to be called and to be, snatching his father's ram from the hand of the bear or the lion, showed that He would be born of his stock and city, to whom there is none like, delivering the needy from the hand of those stronger than he, the poor and the destitute from those that rob him. And therefore the witness of the shepherds is not to be held of small account, who then merited to keep watch and to hear the hymn of angelic exultation, when the good Shepherd appeared, leaving the ninety-nine sheep in the desert, to seek the hundredth sheep. Whose coming the whole flock of the faithful, ever desiring it, implores: I have gone astray like a sheep that was lost; seek Thy servant, O Lord (Ps. 118:176).

But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart. What does he mean by saying "pondering" [literally, "bringing together"]? He might have said: she considered them in her heart, and kept them in her heart; but because she had read the holy Scriptures and knew the prophets, she compared the things that had been done with her concerning the Lord with those which she knew had been written by the prophets concerning the Lord, and, having compared them with one another,

she knew them to be in harmony, like the heavenly cherubim, by the shared light of their faces. For Gabriel had said: Behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and shall bring forth a son (Luke 1:31). Isaiah had foretold: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son (Isa. 7:14). Micah had foretold that the daughters of Sion would come to the tower of the flock, and that the first power would then come. The shepherds were saying that the cohorts of the city on high had appeared to them at the tower of the flock, singing of the birth of Christ. Mary had read: The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's manger (Isa. 1:3). She saw in the manger, crying, the Son of God who saves men and beasts; and in these single things and the like she brought together what she had read, and compared it with what she heard and saw.

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, as it had been told to them. The shepherds glorify and praise God for all that they had heard from the angels and seen in Bethlehem, as it had been told to them; that is, they glorify Him for this too, that on coming they had found nothing other than what had been told them; or else, as it had been told them, they render glory and praises to God. For this too was told them to do by the angels — not indeed by their commanding it in words, but by their offering the pattern of their own devotion, when they made glory to God in the highest resound with unanimous exultation. For he too who says: I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people (above, in this [chapter]; Luke 2:10), certainly calls them forth to glorify and praise God. And the teachers of the spiritual flocks too, now, while the rest sleep, enter into heavenly things by contemplation; now go round the camps of the faithful, surveying them and seeking examples of uprightness; now return by teaching to the public duty of the pastoral office, so that by preaching to their neighbours they may pour forth the memory of the abundance of God's sweetness, which they had tasted in beholding, though only fleetingly (Ps. 144:7).

And after eight days were fulfilled for the boy to be circumcised, His name was called Jesus, which was called by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. The rite and observance of circumcision took its beginning from the blessed patriarch Abraham. When he, still placed in uncircumcision, had believed God perfectly, and it had been reputed to him unto justice, he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the justice of the faith which is in uncircumcision. From him also arose [the custom] that a name should be fitted to little ones on the day of circumcision. For he too, when he received from God the covenant of circumcision, on that same day earlier merited, together with his wife, an increase of name, so that he who till then was called Abram, that is, exalted father, should thereafter, for the merit of his faith, be named Abraham, that is, father of many nations; and Sarai too should be called Sara. Now the type and figure of circumcision was manifold. For it was both a seal (as has been said) of the justice of the faith of Abraham and his seed, and a sign that those who should belong to this seed and this faith were to be chastened from all defilement of flesh and spirit, and a prophecy of the Saviour to be born of this seed, who would both in the present cleanse us through baptism from all pollution of deadly action,

and in the future, through the resurrection, would free us for ever from all the corruption of death itself; and it pleased the same Giver of grace and of the law that the gift of remission in particular, which should loose from the sin of Adam's transgression, should be ministered through it at that time. For He who now says: Unless one be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5), Himself said then: The male whose foreskin has not been circumcised, that soul shall perish from his people, because he has made My covenant void (Gen. 17:14). Not the covenant of circumcision, certainly, which not the infant, who was not yet able to discern, made void, but the elders, who knew how to keep it, could and ought to have; but the covenant which God made with the first man, by which everyone who has lived the life of even a single day on earth is convicted of having transgressed, and therefore is known to need some remedy of salvation. For those who, either before the times of circumcision or even after circumcision was given, proved faithful from among the foreign nations — like Job, the pattern of patience, and his friends and children — saved themselves and their own from original sin either by victims of sacrifices or certainly by faith alone, because the just man lives by faith (Rom. 1:17), and without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). But it is those who, propagated from the stock of sin, were conceived in iniquities and born in delights, who need these and suchlike remedies. But our Redeemer, who came into the world without sin to take away the sins of the world, just as by His baptism He procured remedies for us — that is, He consecrated the waters of the font which He entered for the washing away of our crimes — so also by the circumcision which He received He cleansed no transgressions of His own, for there were none, but taught that the oldness of our nature in Him was to be renewed: that it is now, namely, to be cleansed by Him from the stain of vices, and signifying that on the last day it is to be wholly restored from the very plague of manifold mortality and of death. Hence Jesus is fittingly said to have been circumcised on the eighth day — a thing which we do not readily read in the Old Testament as done in anyone's case, although it was very often commanded concerning all, save only Isaac, who, as the son of the promise, is said to have been the first to receive circumcision on the eighth day. Fittingly, I say, Jesus is circumcised on the eighth day. Because, namely, both these renewals of ours which we spoke of above, that is, both the present and the future, the renewal both of the Spirit and of the flesh, were prefigured in His resurrection and are to be perfected at some time in ours. Indeed, of our first resurrection, which meanwhile is celebrated by the amendment of life and faith, the Apostle says: For all of us who have been baptized in Christ Jesus have been baptized in His death, that as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:3–4). And of the second, which is hoped for at the end, he says thus: For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also God will bring with Him those who have slept through Jesus (1 Thess. 4:14). That the number eight befits the glory of the resurrection is clear to almost everyone. For the Lord too rose on the eighth day, that is, after the seventh of the Sabbath, and we ourselves after six

ages of this world and the seventh, the Sabbath of souls, which is meanwhile spent now in another life, shall rise as in an eighth time, then most truly circumcised, that is, stripped of all the vices and corruptions of carnal concupiscence, in which lust reigns most of all, most truly cut in the foreskin. Because, as the Lord says: The children of this world marry and are given in marriage. But those who shall be counted worthy of that world, and of the resurrection from the dead, shall neither marry nor take wives; for neither can they die any more, for they are equal to the angels, and are children of God, since they are children of the resurrection (Luke 20:34–36).

His name was called, he says, Jesus, which was called by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. Jesus is interpreted Saviour; and all the faithful and elect too rejoice to be sharers in this name in each of their circumcisions, of which enough has been said, so that, just as from Christ they are called Christians, so also from the Saviour they are called saved: now indeed made safe in hope through faith, but then in very deed through the vision of the glory that is in Christ Jesus our Lord — a name which was called upon them by God not only before they were conceived through faith in the womb of the Church, but even before the times of the world. Of this most holy name not only the etymology but also the very number which it comprises in its letters breathes the mysteries of our everlasting salvation. For among the Greeks Ἰησοῦς is written with six letters, namely ι, and η, and σ, and ο, and υ, ς, whose numbers are X, and VIII, and CC, and LXX, and CCCC, and CC, which together make DCCCLXXXVIII. That this number rejoices in figures of the resurrection has certainly been sufficiently treated above. For what eight signifies when set down simply, this it signifies also when multiplied by ten or by a hundred. Or certainly the accumulation of perfect numbers is to be believed to be a sign of stability. We can also say thus: that the name of the Saviour contains eight by itself, because by rising on the eighth day He gave mortals in Himself an example of resurrection. Let it contain it also multiplied by ten, because He both taught and helped us how the decalogue of the law ought to be fulfilled by the figures of His resurrection. So that, as He Himself, rising from the dead, now dies no more, death shall no more have dominion over Him, so we too may reckon ourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:9, 11). Let it contain it also multiplied a hundredfold, because the glory of His resurrection, once shown, foretold the reward which should follow us in the future. For the number one hundred, which, after so long a course of numbers on the left hand, is the first to pass to the right, is most fittingly suited to figuring the joys of that world, when the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26), when we who live, who are left, shall be caught up together with those who shall have risen, in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall be always with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:16–17). Hence beautifully, as a type of all the elect, the first son of the promise, both born of a father a hundred years old and circumcised, was also, according to the Lord's foretelling, called Isaac, which means laughter or joy, prefiguring in all things the right-hand happiness of that time,

[...]s, because, while it recalls its evils, it greatly fears to suffer eternal punishments for them. But when fear has been consumed by a long anxiety of grief, a certain security is now born from the presumption of pardon, and the mind is inflamed with love of the heavenly joys. For the mind contemplates what those choirs of angels are, what the very fellowship of the blessed spirits is, what the majesty of the eternal vision of God, and it laments more because it is absent from the everlasting goods than it wept before when it feared the eternal evils. He, then, who earlier, weeping lest he be led to punishment, offered a turtle-dove for sin, makes a holocaust of the other when afterwards he begins to weep most bitterly because he is kept back from the kingdom. He offers a dove for sin who toils in his groaning, who washes his bed every night, that is, through every darkness of assailing guilt does not cease to wash with tears his good works, in which he ought to rest. They bring young pigeons as a holocaust who, bewailing their absence from the heavenly homeland, say: Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered you, Sion (Ps. 136:1). For just as doves love to sit above flowing waters, so that by the passing of its shadow over the waters they may both foresee and escape the coming of the hawk: so certainly, so the souls of the poor in spirit, rising in mind above the waves of the world, the more examples of the malignant enemy they see in this Babylon, where they are fed by their groanings, the more frequently do they lift the wings of their desire towards eternal things. This indeed is the difference between the signification of the turtle-dove and the dove: that the dove, which is accustomed to live, fly and moan in flocks, shows the busy company of the active life; of which it is said: And the multitude of believers had one heart and one soul, nor did any of them say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but all things were common to them (Acts 4:32). But the turtle-dove, which delights in solitude, so much that if by chance it has lost its mate it remains alone thereafter, betokens the heights of the contemplative life, because this virtue too belongs to few and is assigned to them one by one. Isaiah alone sees the Lord of hosts, contemplates the praises of the Seraphim, and because he had wrongly kept silent, groans like a solitary turtle-dove. Moses alone, while the people trembled far off, goes up to the Lord, and by tearful prayers obtains that the same people be not struck. Daniel alone, when his companions fled, remains among the angels. Ezekiel alone marvels at the four-horse chariots of the Cherubim and the lofty buildings of the city on high. Paul alone is caught up to the delights of paradise and to the secrets of the third heaven, there to behold them. So also, when entering my chamber and shutting the door I pray to the Father in secret, I offer a turtle-dove. But when I seek companions in the same work, singing with the Prophet: Come, let us adore and fall down before God, let us weep before the Lord who made us (Ps. 94:6), I bring doves to the altar. And because each victim is equally acceptable to the Creator, Luke deliberately did not say whether turtle-doves or young pigeons were offered for the Lord, so as not to prefer one order of living to the other, but to teach that both are to be followed, both to be offered in divine worship. Therefore, because the discourse on the purification has stretched itself out at greater length,

what mystery the very number of the days of purification contains, and why the same was ordered to be doubled in the purification of a woman who has borne [a daughter], will be explained more fittingly in Leviticus.

And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and God-fearing, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was in him. When the Lord was born in the flesh, not only the angels from the heavens, but every age of mortals and both sexes bear witness. For it was fitting that the Saviour of all, just as, when He was to come in the flesh, He was foretold by deed or word of all the faithful through the whole time of the world, so also, when He came, should be proclaimed by the common praise of all, fulfilling the prophecy which says: Praise the Lord from the heavens (Ps. 148:1), etc., until it says: Young men and maidens, the old with the younger, let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted. His praise is above heaven and earth (ibid., 148:12–14). Just, he says, and God-fearing, because justice is hard to guard without fear. I do not mean that fear which, under a penal law, dreads to have temporal goods taken from it, which perfect love is wont to cast out, but the holy fear of the Lord which endures for ever and ever, by which the just man, the more ardently he loves his God, the more carefully he takes care not to offend Him.

And he had received an answer from the Holy Spirit that he would not see death unless he first saw the Christ of the Lord; and he came in the Holy Spirit into the temple. See the idioms of the Scriptures: it said that death is seen. How is it seen, or with what eyes, when by coming it closes the very eyes, so that they may see nothing? But for death to be seen signifies to experience it. And very happy will he see the death of the flesh, whoever has striven first to see the Christ of the Lord with the eyes of the heart, by having his way of life in the heavenly Jerusalem, by frequenting the threshold of the temple of God, that is, by following the holy examples of the saints in whom the Lord dwells, sighing with the Psalmist: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may see the will of the Lord (Ps. 26:4). For thus he too will merit to receive the Word of God in his hands and to embrace Him in the arms of his faith and charity. And when he says: And he came in the Spirit into the temple, he signifies that by the same grace of the Spirit by which he had long foreknown the Saviour as one to come, he knew Him also now as coming and as about to be seen by him at any moment.

And when His parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, he also took Him into his arms. Great indeed is the power of the Lord, but no less shines His humility, that He whom heaven and earth do not contain is carried whole in the arms of an aged man. But Simeon also figuratively receives Christ, the veteran the infant, to teach us to put off the old man, which is corrupted, with his deeds, and, renewed in the spirit of our mind, to put on him who according to God is created in justice and holiness and truth (Eph. 4:22–24), that is, putting away lying, to speak the truth, and to accomplish with mouth, heart and deed the other things that belong to the state of the new man. The old man, just according to the Law and God-fearing, takes

the boy Jesus into his arms, to signify that the justice of works which was from the Law (for who does not know that works are usually figured by the hands and arms?) was to be changed by the grace of the Gospel faith, lowly indeed, but saving. The old man receives the infant Christ, to suggest that this world, wearied as it were by old age already and by long-lived years, would return to the innocence and (if I may so say) the infancy of the Christian way of life, and that its youth was to be renewed like the eagle's.

And he blessed God, and said: Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word in peace. You see that not only the just of the New, but also of the Old Testament had, in the hope of the life to come, the desire to be dissolved from the body; nay, that they reckoned the laying down of the earthly burden the way of peace, as men who did not doubt that they would have everlasting rest in the bosom of Abraham. So too Idithun, that is, the one who leaps over worldly desires, after he had long silently contemplated the many evils of the world and had grown warm within himself in the inward meditation of the heart, at length spoke with his tongue and, bringing forth what he had been doing within, said: Make known to me, O Lord, my end, and what is the number of my days, that I may know what is wanting to me. Behold, Thou hast made my days old (Ps. 38:5–6). By these words he shows beyond doubt how very great a comfort for his present calamities he hopes to obtain at the end, which he longs meanwhile to come.

Because my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples. Blessed are the eyes that see what Simeon saw: blessed are they who have not seen, and have believed (John 20:29). That very thing, he says, which Thou hast prepared to be beheld afterwards by all nations, peoples and tongues with mind and faith, and hast foreseen to be sought with hope and love, I myself, long having desired it, now behold, Thy salvation, with the eyes both of the flesh and of the heart.

A light for the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel. A light indeed for both peoples is the salvation of God, that is, Christ, prepared by God the Father. He is said to be rather the glory of Israel alone, by whom He was long hoped for and from whom, foretold, He came; but the revelation of the Gentiles, the eyes of whose mind, sunk now in deep blindness and not raised by any hope of the Lord's coming, He Himself deigned to visit, and likewise to unveil and to enlighten. And rightly is the revelation of the Gentiles put before the glory of Israel, because when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel will be saved. So also the Psalmist, when he had said: The Lord has made known His salvation, before the sight of the Gentiles He has revealed His justice (Ps. 97:2), added and said: He has remembered His mercy to Jacob, and His truth to the house of Israel (Ps. 97:3).

And His father and mother were marvelling at the things which were said about Him, and Simeon blessed them. He calls Joseph the Saviour's father, not because he was truly His father, as the Photinians hold, but because, for preserving Mary's good name, he was reckoned His father by all. For the Evangelist had not forgotten that he had related that she conceived of the Holy Spirit and gave birth as a virgin; but, expressing the opinion of the people, which is the true law of history, he names Joseph the father of Christ. Although

he may be called His father in the same way as he is rightly understood to be the husband of Mary, without mingling of flesh, by the very bond of wedlock, that is, much more closely joined than if he had been adopted from elsewhere. For Joseph was not on that account not to be called the father of Christ, because no one had begotten Him by lying with her, since he would rightly be father even of one whom he had adopted from somewhere, not procreated of his own wife.

And he said to Mary His mother: Behold, this one is set for the fall and for the rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted. Rightly for the rising again, because He is the light, because He is the glory of the people Israel, because He says: I am the resurrection and the life: he who believes in Me, even if he has died, shall live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall not die for ever (John 11:25–26). But how for the fall, unless because He is both a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence? That is, a fall for those who stumble at the word and do not believe. Of whom He Himself says: If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin (John 15:22). He is set for the fall, and for the rising again of many, not in Himself only but also in those who preach Him, as the Apostle bears witness, who says: We are the good odour of Christ to God in those who are saved and in those who perish (2 Cor. 2:15). For he who, when the Apostle preaches, follows with love the word he hears, rises again by the good odour and is saved. He who pursues it with hatred falls and dies by that same odour. And take the sign which shall be contradicted to be faith in the Lord's cross. Of which the Jews say to the apostle Paul: For concerning this sect it is known to us that everywhere it is contradicted (Acts 28:22). And the Apostle himself: For we, he says, preach Jesus Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, but to the Gentiles foolishness (1 Cor. 1:23).

And a sword shall pierce through your own soul. No history teaches that blessed Mary departed from this life by being slain with the sword, especially since it is not the soul but the body that is usually killed by iron. Whence it remains to understand that that sword of which it is said: And a sword is in their lips (Ps. 58:8), that is, the grief of the Lord's passion, pierced through her soul. For although she did not doubt that Christ, as being the Son of God, died of His own will and would overcome death itself, yet she could not see Him, procreated from her own flesh, crucified without the feeling of grief. For the iron too which is sung to have pierced through the soul of Joseph is understood as nothing better than hard tribulation of mind.

That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. It was once uncertain which of the Jews would prefer to receive the grace of Christ, which they surely knew was to come, and which to reject it. But when His birth was heard of, the thoughts of hearts were soon revealed: Herod the king was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. The shepherds with fear and joy sound forth praise to God, and spread to men the news of peace. When His teaching and power were noised abroad, some flock to Him as to the master of truth, others flee from Him as from a deceiver. When the sign of His cross was raised, these blaspheme and mock Him as one justly given up to death, those bitterly

grieve that the author of life should die. But even to this day, and up to the consummation of the present age, the sword of the hardest tribulation does not cease to pierce through the soul of the Church, when with groaning she considers that the sign of faith is contradicted by the wicked, that when the word of God is heard many rise again with Christ, but more fall away from belief. When the thoughts of many hearts are revealed, where she has sown the best seed of the Gospel, she sees there the cockle of vices either prevail more than is right, or even, what is grievous to say, alone spring up and reign.

And there was Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser; she was far advanced in days, etc. According to the history, Anna is shown to have been of devout life and likewise of venerable age, and worthy in every way to bear witness to the incarnate Lord. But according to the mystical sense, because she signifies the Church, which at present is as it were widowed by the death of her Spouse and Lord, the number of the years of her widowhood also designates the time of the Church, during which, placed in the body, she is a pilgrim away from the Lord, and keeping the thresholds of the heavenly temple with the affection of great devotion, she awaits that daily coming of the Lord, of which He says: We will come and make Our abode with him (John 14:23). For seven times twelve make eighty-four. And the seven pertain to the course of this world, which revolves in seven days; but the twelve to the perfection of the apostolic teaching. And so whether the universal Church or any faithful soul that takes care to devote the whole time of its life to the apostolic institutions is praised as multiplying, as it were, seven by twelve, and serving the Lord for a typical eighty-four years. Just as the time of seven years too, during which she had lived with her husband, agrees most fittingly with the time of the Lord's incarnation. For by the number seven (as I have said) the perfection of time is wont to be indicated. But there, because of the privilege of the Lord's majesty in which, living in the flesh, He taught, the simple number of seven years is expressed; here, on account of the summit of the apostolic dignity, the seven years are multiplied by twelve. It also suits the mysteries of the Church that Anna is interpreted "his grace", and she is the daughter of Phanuel, which is called "face of God", singing with the Psalmist: The light of Thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us (Ps. 4:7). And she is descended from the tribe of Aser, that is, "blessed", who among the twelve patriarchs is eighth in order of birth. Of which number it has been impressed more often that it is sacred to the New Testament.

And she, coming in at that very hour, gave praise to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all who were waiting for the redeemer of Jerusalem. Simeon had prophesied; a woman joined in wedlock had prophesied; a virgin had prophesied; a widow ought also, lest any state of life or sex be lacking. And therefore Anna is brought in as such, both by the service of her widowhood and by her character, that she may be believed to have been plainly worthy to announce that the Redeemer of all had come.

And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their city Nazareth. Luke passed over in this place what he knew had been sufficiently set forth by Matthew, namely that after these things the Lord, lest

he should be found by Herod to be killed, was carried by His parents into Egypt, and when Herod was dead, having so at last returned into Galilee, began to dwell in Nazareth, His city. For the evangelists are each accustomed to omit certain things in this way, which they have seen recorded by others, or have foreseen in the spirit were to be recorded by others, so that, the series of their narrative being continuous, they seem to have passed over nothing. Yet, when the writing of another evangelist has been considered, the diligent reader may find in what place they were passed over.

And the child grew and was strengthened, full of wisdom, and the grace of God was in Him. The distinction of the words is to be noted: that the Lord Jesus Christ, in that He was a child, that is, had put on the condition of human frailty, had to grow and be strengthened; but in that He was also the Word of God and the eternal God, He neither needed to be strengthened nor had to be increased. Whence most rightly He is declared full of wisdom and grace. Of wisdom, because in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Of grace, because to the same mediator of God and men, the man Jesus Christ, it was given by great grace that from the moment He began to be man He should also be perfect God. Like this is what John writes, that He was full of grace and truth, he himself commending under the name of truth the same excellence of the Godhead which Luke commends under the name of wisdom.

And His parents went every year to Jerusalem, on the solemn day of the Pasch. You see that this evangelist among the four living creatures is not compared to the calf in vain, for, like the animal appointed for sacrifices, he lingers in the course of his narrative chiefly about the temple and Jerusalem. For in the beginning he places the priest praying at the altar, he sets the multitude of the people in the courts of the temple, he sends Mary to Jerusalem as soon as the Lord was conceived, he brings her into the house of the high priest. There too he relates that the Baptist was born, and he carries the Lord there with an offering immediately after His birth. He leads the same thither every year with His parents, and at twelve years places Him among the companies of the teachers in the temple, where among other things to be marvelled at by the wise He says: That I must be about the things that are My Father's (Luke 2:49). And after other such things, at the end of his Gospel he closes with the disciples praising God in the temple.

And when He was twelve years old, as they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast day, and when the days were completed and they were returning, the boy Jesus remained in Jerusalem. He who from His birth, nay from His human conception, was proved by manifest signs of miracles to be God, Himself also, as soon as the time of His age was fitting, began reverently to disclose and lay open both His substances: namely, what He owed to the Father according to the truth of the divine majesty, and what to His mother according to the frailty of the humanity He had assumed. Nor was it without providence that at twelve years He revealed the first rudiments of His faith, which was to be revealed and made clear throughout the whole world by the ministry of the twelve apostles. We may say this also, that as by the number seven, so also by the number twelve, which consists of the parts of seven multiplied by one another, the totality and perfection either of things or of times is designated.

And so, that it may befit Him to occupy all places and times, His radiance rightly takes its beginning from the number twelve. Not idly, then, is He said to have been unmindful of His parents, but to instruct us that, because He is not only before His parents themselves, but even before Abraham was made, He delights rather to reside, as by a father's right, in the city and temple of God.

And His parents did not know it. But thinking that He was in the company, they came a day's journey, and sought Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances, and not finding Him, they went back to Jerusalem seeking Him. Someone will ask how the Son of God, brought up with such care by His parents, could be left behind through forgetfulness when they went away. To whom it must be answered that it was the custom of the children of Israel that at the festal seasons, whether flocking to Jerusalem or returning to their homes, the men went separately and the women separately, forming companies, and the infants or boys could go indifferently with either parent. And so blessed Mary and Joseph each in turn thought that the boy Jesus, whom they did not see accompanying them, had returned with the other parent.

And it came to pass that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, hearing them and asking them questions. As the fount of wisdom He sits in the midst of the teachers, but as the pattern of humility He seeks first to hear and question the teachers rather than to instruct the unlearned. For lest little ones should be ashamed to learn from their elders, God Himself too, in keeping with His human age, is not ashamed to listen to men. Lest anyone should dare to teach while weak, that boy too willed to be taught by asking questions, who through the power of the Godhead supplied the word of knowledge to His very teachers.

And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and His answers, and seeing Him they wondered. Note the distinction of the words, and look carefully at the mysteries of your salvation and faith. Those who heard Him were astonished, and seeing Him they wondered. And they were astonished at the understanding of His answers all the more because, seeing the fewness of His years, they despised them. His tongue put forth divine wisdom, but His age displayed human weakness. But let the teachers of the Jews be astonished at these things as new, and be troubled with wavering wonder between the lofty things they hear and the weak things they see: we, however, knowing that this is He of whom the Prophet once exulted with rejoicing: A little child is born to us, a son is given to us, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty (Isa. 9:6), let us by no means wonder that He who was so made a little child, a man, yet remaining always what He was, God and mighty, gave signs now of His Godhead, now of His humanity, to those whom He desired to instruct; but let us give Him worthy thanks with faith, hope and charity, because He who was great and exceedingly to be praised, though we did not know Him, a little child was born to us, so that by growing and advancing among little ones He might bring them on little by little to grasp the secrets of His power and greatness.

And His mother said to Him: Son, why have You done so to us? Behold, Your father and I have been seeking You in sorrow. And He said to them: How is it that you sought Me? Did you not know

that I must be about the things that are My Father's? Christ Himself does not deny that Joseph is His parent, Joseph who in His begetting supplied nothing but service and affection, whence also for his faithful service he is called father both by the evangelist and by Mary herself; but simply and openly He makes known to us, and equally to them, who His true Father is. He does not blame them for seeking Him as a son, but compels them to raise the eyes of the mind to what He owes rather to Him whose eternal Son He is. For because He is God and man, He displays now the lofty things of the Godhead, now the lowly things of human frailty. As man He questions the elders; as God He answers what the elders and the learned wonder at. As Son of God He stays in the temple of God, and as son of man He returns with His parents whither they bid.

And they did not understand the word that He spoke to them. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. How great an example in the Lord at once of dutiful love and of humility! His parents do not understand the word which He speaks to them about His Godhead, and yet He, not ungrateful for their human diligence towards Him, goes down whither they bid, and is subject to them. For what should the master of virtue do but fulfil the duty of dutiful love? What else should He do among us but what He wished to be done by us? He deferred to a man, He deferred to a handmaid; for she herself says: Behold the handmaid of the Lord (Luke 1:38). He deferred to a putative father, He deferred to God the true Father. And indeed by His birth He had kept His mother a virgin and chaste; indeed He was not distant from the Father in will, in work, or in time. So that, admonished by His examples, we may recognize what we owe to our parents, who suffer so much for us. Now the Arians are wont to say that the Son is imperfect, because He said: The Father is greater than I (John 14:28). But what wonder if from the human nature He assumed He declares Himself less than the Father in heaven, from which He was subject even to His parents on earth?

And His mother kept all these words in her heart. Whether the words of the Gospel which she understood, or those which she could not yet understand, she stored them all alike in her heart, as things to be pondered and more diligently searched out. Let us learn, then, the chastity of the holy Virgin in all things, who, no less modest in speech than in body, kept the proofs of the faith in her heart. And if she is silent before the apostolic precepts, why do you, after the apostolic precepts, desire rather to teach than to learn?

And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men. This passage overthrows the Manichaeans and the Apollinarists alike, showing that the Lord had true flesh and a true soul too. For as it belongs to the flesh to advance in age, so it belongs to the soul to advance in wisdom and grace. Yet it would in no way advance in wisdom if it did not have the natural understanding which has been granted to men for the sake of reason. Not that God, who assumed it, needed this, especially since above the child is described as full of wisdom; but because He chose this effect of His loving assumption as a remedy for our salvation, so that while flesh and rational soul are taken up by God, both alike might be saved.

CHAPTER III.

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being procurator of Judaea, and Herod tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene. Herod, Philip and Lysanias, who ruled Judaea with Pilate the Roman governor, are sons of that Herod under whom the Lord was born; between whom and that Herod himself Archelaus their brother reigned ten years. He, accused before Augustus by the Jews for the intolerable ferocity of his temper, perished in perpetual exile at Vienne. And that the kingdom of Judaea might be less strong, the same Augustus took care to split it into tetrarchies. Further, Pilate, sent into Judaea in the twelfth year of Tiberius Caesar, took up the procuratorship of the nation, and continued there for ten successive years, almost to the very end of Tiberius.

Under the high priests Annas and Caiphas, the word of the Lord came upon John the son of Zachary in the desert. Both, that is Annas and Caiphas, were indeed high priests when John began his preaching; but Annas administered that year, while Caiphas administered the year in which the Lord went up on the cross, three others indeed having served in the pontificate in between; but those were chiefly recorded by the evangelist who had to do with the Lord's passion. For at that time, as the precepts of the Law were failing through violence and ambition, the honour of the pontificate was rendered to no one for the merit of life or birth, but by the Roman power the high priesthood was conferred now on some, and again on others. Indeed Josephus relates it in this manner, saying: Valerius Gratus, having thrust Annas out of the priesthood, appointed Ismael, the son of Bassus, high priest. But casting him out too not long afterwards, he put Eleazar, the son of the high priest Ananias, into the pontificate in his place. After a year he removes him also from office, and delivered the ministry of the pontificate to a certain Simon, son of Canys. When he too had served no longer than the space of one year, he received as successor Joseph, whose name was also Caiphas. And by this the whole time during which our Lord is described as having taught on earth is compressed within the space of four years. In it are described these four successions of high priests which Josephus records, each exercised for scarcely a year. Because, then, John came to preach Him who was to redeem both some from Judaea and many from the Gentiles, the times of his preaching are marked by the king of the Gentiles and the rulers of the Jews. And because the Gentile world was to be gathered and Judaea to be scattered for the guilt of unbelief, the very description of the earthly government also shows it: in the Roman commonwealth one man is described as ruling, while in the kingdom of Judaea many ruled, each over a fourth part. For it is said by the voice of our Redeemer: Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate (Matt. 12:25). It is plain, therefore, that Judaea, which lay subject divided among so many kings, had come to the end of its kingdom. It is fittingly shown, too, not only under which kings but also under which priests this was done, so that because John the Baptist

preached Him who was at once King and Priest, Luke the evangelist marked the times of his preaching by the kingship and the priesthood.

And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins. It is plain to all readers that John not only preached the baptism of penance, but also gave it to some; yet he could not give his own baptism for the remission of sins. For the remission of sins is granted us in the baptism of Christ alone. It is to be noted, then, that it is said: preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins, since he preached the baptism that would loose sins, because he could not give it; so that, as he ran before the incarnate Word of the Father by the word of preaching, so he might run before the baptism of penance by which sins are loosed with his own baptism, by which sins cannot be loosed.

As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: A voice, etc. And this same John the Baptist, when asked who he was, answered: I am the voice of one crying in the desert. He was called a voice by the prophet because he went before the Word; he also cries in the desert because he announces the comfort of redemption to forsaken and destitute Judaea. And what he cried is disclosed when it is added: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths. Everyone who preaches right faith and good works, what else does he do but prepare a way for the Lord coming to the hearts of the hearers? So that the power of grace may penetrate, and the light of truth illumine; so that he may make straight paths for God, while he forms pure thoughts in the mind through the speech of good preaching.

Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low. What is designated in this place by the name of valleys but the humble; what by that of mountains and hills but proud men? At the coming of the Redeemer, then, the valleys were filled, but the mountains and hills were brought low. For according to His word: Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself shall be exalted (Luke 14:11). For the valley when filled grows, but the mountain and hill when brought low diminish. Because, surely, in the faith of the mediator of God and men, the man Jesus Christ, both the Gentile world received the fullness of grace, and Judaea through the error of unbelief lost that whereof it was puffed up.

The crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain. The crooked become straight when the hearts of the wicked, twisted by injustice, are directed to the rule of justice. And the rough are changed into plain ways when ungentle and wrathful minds return, through the infusion of heavenly grace, to the softness of meekness. For when the word of truth is not received by a wrathful mind, it is as if the roughness of the road repels the step of the traveller. But when the wrathful mind, through the grace of meekness received, takes in the word of correction or of exhortation, there the preacher finds a plain way, where before, because of the roughness of the road, he could not go forward, that is, set the step of preaching.

And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Because by all flesh every man is understood, [yet] not every man could see the salvation of God, that is, Christ, in this life.

Where, then, in this sentence does the prophet direct the eye of prophecy, if not to the day of the last judgement? When, the heavens being opened, the angels ministering, the Apostles sitting with Him, Christ shall have appeared on the seat of His majesty, all, the reprobate equally, will see Him, so that the just may rejoice without end in the gift of reward, and the unjust may groan for ever in the vengeance of punishment. For because this sentence means that He will be seen by all flesh at the last examination, it is rightly added:

He said therefore to the crowds that went out to be baptized by him: Brood of vipers, etc. For the wrath to come is the punishment of the final vengeance, which the sinner cannot then flee who does not now have recourse to the laments of penance. And it is to be noted that evil offspring, imitating the deeds of evil parents, are called a brood of vipers. For in that they envy the good and persecute them, in that they repay some with evil, in that they seek out injuries to their neighbours, since in all these things they follow the ways of their carnal forebears, they are as it were poisonous sons born of poisonous parents. But since we have already sinned, since we are entangled in the practice of evil habit, let him say what we must do so as to be able to flee from the wrath to come.

Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of penance. In which words it is to be noted that he admonishes that not only fruits of penance but fruits worthy of penance are to be brought forth. For it is one thing to bring forth fruit of penance, another to bring forth fruit worthy of penance. For the fruit of good work ought not to be equal for him who has sinned less and him who has sinned more, or for him who has fallen into no crimes and him who has fallen into some. By this, then, which is said: Bring forth fruits worthy of penance, each one is summoned by his conscience to seek through penance gains of good works the greater, the graver the losses he has brought upon himself through fault. But the Jews, glorying in the nobility of their race, would not acknowledge themselves sinners for this reason, that they had descended from the stock of Abraham. To whom it is rightly said:

And do not begin to say: We have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. For what were the stones but the hearts of the Gentiles, insensible to the understanding of almighty God? For as it is said to some of the Jews: I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh (Ezek. 36:26), so not undeservedly were the Gentiles, who worshipped stones, signified by the name of stones. Whence it is written: Let them that make them become like unto them, and all that trust in them (Ps. 113:16). From which stones, assuredly, children of Abraham were raised up. For when the hard hearts of the Gentiles believed in the seed of Abraham, that is, in Christ, they were made the children of him to whose seed they were united. Whence it is said to these same Gentiles by the excellent preacher: And if you are Christ's, then you are the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:29). If therefore we, through faith in Christ, are now the seed of Abraham, the Jews through unbelief have ceased to be children of Abraham.

For now the axe is laid to the root of the tree. The tree of this world is the whole human race.

And the axe is our Redeemer, who, as it were by handle and iron, is held by His humanity, but cuts by His divinity. This axe is now laid to the root of the tree because, although it waits through patience, yet what it will do is seen.

Every tree, therefore, that does not bring forth fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire. Because every perverse man who here disdains to bring forth the fruit of good work finds the burning of Gehenna the sooner prepared. And it is to be noted that he says the axe is laid not by the branches but at the root. For when the children of the wicked are taken away, what else is it but that the branches of an unfruitful tree are cut off? But when the whole progeny together with the parent is taken away, the unfruitful tree is cut off from the root, so that nothing now remains from which a wicked offspring may grow up again. By these words of John the Baptist it is clear that the hearts of the hearers were troubled, since it is added at once:

And the crowds asked him, saying: What then shall we do? For they who sought counsel had been struck with terror.

And he answered and said to them: He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none, and he who has food, let him do likewise. Because the tunic is more necessary to our use than the cloak, this pertains to fruit worthy of penance: that we ought to share with our neighbours not only all outward and less necessary things, but those very things that are most necessary to us, namely either the food by which we live in the flesh or the tunic with which we are clothed. For since it is written in the Law: You shall love your neighbour as yourself (Mark 12:31), he is convicted of loving his neighbour less who does not, in his neighbour's need, share with him even those things which are necessary to himself. Therefore the precept is given about dividing two tunics with one's neighbour, because this could not be said of one, since if one is divided, nobody is clothed: for with half a tunic both he who receives remains naked and he who gave. Amid these things, moreover, we must know how much the works of mercy avail, since they are enjoined above all others for fruits worthy of penance. Hence too the Truth says in His own person: Give alms, and behold, all things are clean to you (Luke 11:41).

And the publicans also came to be baptized, and said to him: Master, what shall we do? But he said to them: Do nothing more than what is appointed you. How much power the blessed Baptist's speech had, and how greatly it shook the minds of his hearers, is proved by this, that he compelled even publicans and soldiers to ask counsel for their salvation. To them, no otherwise than to the crowds, he urges the doing of mercy according to the manner fitting for each. He commands the publicans, then, not to exact beyond what is prescribed. For publicans, as even their name shows, are those who exact the public taxes, or who are contractors for the taxes of the treasury or of public property. And those too who pursue the gains of this world through trade are reckoned under the same term. All of these alike, each in his own rank, he restrains from committing fraud, so that, while they first restrain themselves from the craving for what belongs to others,

they might at length come to sharing their own goods with their neighbours.

And soldiers also asked him, saying: What shall we also do? And he said to them: Do violence to no one, etc. The excellent teacher warns them beforehand, with a most just restraint, not to seek plunder by false accusation from those whom they ought to have profited by their soldiering. He teaches, therefore, that the wages of soldiering were established so that, while provision is sought, the plunderer may not run riot. No office, then, no class is exempted from the practice of mercy, which is the fullness of the virtues, and alone frees from death and confers eternal life. As the Judge Himself attests, who promised that He would say: Come, blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom. For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat, etc. (Matt. 25:34–35).

And as the people were supposing, and all were thinking in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he might be the Christ, John answered, saying to all. How did he answer those who were supposing about him, and thinking secretly in their heart that he was the Christ? Only because they were not only thinking it, but also, as another Evangelist declares, having sent priests and Levites to him, were asking whether he was the Christ (John 1:19). Hence it is plain that it was then very well known to the Jews, according to the Scriptures, that the time of the Lord's incarnation was at hand. But what wondrous blindness, that what they believed of their own accord in John, they did not believe in the Saviour, approved by so many signs and mighty works, and with John himself also bearing witness.

I indeed baptize you with water. But one mightier than I will come, the strap of whose shoes I am not worthy to loose. John baptizes not with the Spirit but with water, because, not being able to loose sins, he washes the bodies of the baptized with water, but does not wash the mind with pardon. Why then does he baptize who does not remit sins through baptism? Only so that, keeping the order of his forerunning, he who by being born had gone before the One who was to be born might also by baptizing go before the Lord who was to baptize, and he who by preaching was made the forerunner of Christ might by baptizing also become His forerunner, through imitation of the sacrament. Now it was a custom among the ancients that if anyone was unwilling to take as wife the woman who fell to him, the man who came to her as bridegroom by right of kinship would loose his shoe. What, then, did Christ appear among men, if not as the Bridegroom of holy Church? Of Him the same John also says: He who has the bride is the bridegroom (John 3:29). But because men thought that John was the Christ, which the same John denies, he rightly declares himself unworthy to loose the strap of His shoe. As if he were saying openly: I am not able to lay bare the Redeemer's footsteps, because I do not unworthily usurp for myself the name of bridegroom. Yet this can also be understood otherwise: for who does not know that shoes are made from dead animals? The Lord, coming incarnate, appeared as if shod, since in His divinity He took on the dead skins of our corruption. But the human eye does not suffice to penetrate the mystery of this incarnation. For it can in no way be searched out how the Word is embodied, how the supreme and life-giving Spirit is given life within the mother's womb, how He

who has no beginning both comes into being and is conceived. The strap of the shoe, then, is the binding of the mystery. John therefore is not able to loose the strap of His shoe, because even he, who recognized this [incarnation] through the spirit of prophecy, does not suffice to search out the mystery of the incarnation.

He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire. That is, both with the cleansing of sanctification and with the testing of tribulation. But the same Holy Spirit can also be understood as signified by the name of fire, because He both kindles through love and enlightens through wisdom the hearts which He fills. Hence those also to whom it was said, John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:16), received that same baptism of the Spirit in the vision of fire. There are some who expound it thus: that in the present we are baptized in the Spirit, and in the future in fire. So that, namely, just as now we are reborn of water and the Spirit for the remission of all sins, so then too we may be thoroughly cleansed, by the baptism of purgatorial fire before the last judgement, of certain light sins which may have clung to us as we go hence. As the Apostle says: If anyone builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, the fire will test what sort each one's work is. If anyone's work which he has built upon it remains, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work burns, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire (1 Cor. 3:12–15). Although this can be understood also of the fire of tribulation applied to us in this life, yet if anyone takes it of the fire of the future cleansing, it must be carefully weighed that he said that man can be saved through fire, not who builds upon the foundation of Christ iron, bronze or lead, that is, greater and harder sins, and sins then already beyond loosing, but wood, hay, stubble, that is, the least and lightest sins, which fire easily consumes. Yet this must be known: that there no one will obtain any cleansing even of the least sins, unless, while still set in this life, he merits by good deeds that he may obtain it there.

Whose winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will cleanse His threshing floor. By the winnowing fan, that is, the shovel, the discernment of just examination is figured; but by the threshing floor, the present Church. In which, beyond doubt, and this is grievous enough, many are called, but few chosen (Matt. 20:16). Few are the grains to be received into the heavenly mansions, in comparison with the tares, which are to be consigned to everlasting flames. The cleansing of this floor is carried out even now man by man, when each perverse person is either cast out of the Church by priestly correction for manifest sins, or for hidden ones is condemned after death by divine severity; and it will be accomplished universally at the end, when the Son of Man shall send His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all scandals (Matt. 13:41). The Lord therefore has the winnowing fan in His hand, that is, He has the decision of judgement in His power, because the Father judges no one, but has given all judgement to the Son (John 5:22).

And He will gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire. And the Lord Himself

the parable of the good seed, over which the enemy sowed tares, He ended thus, saying: And in the time of harvest I will say to my reapers: Gather first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn; but gather the wheat into my barn (Matt. 13:30). Teaching, assuredly, that the impious and sinners are to be handed over to the fire of Gehenna, but the saints to be crowned with heavenly glory. Yet there is this difference between chaff and tares: chaff springs from no other seed than the wheat, although it degenerates from the nobility of the good root; but tares not only differ in the worth of their fruit, but are produced from an altogether different origin. So the chaff are those who are imbued with the mysteries of the same faith as the elect, but depart from their solid perfection either by the levity of their works or by the emptiness of their faithlessness. The tares, on the other hand, are those who do not deign even to hear the words of faith, and are therefore separated from the lot of the good both in deed and in profession. And thus in the field of this world there is one fruit of the elect and two of the reprobate, because all things which the enemy sows are liable to the flames, and, what is graver, very many of those which the good sower casts perish, either snatched away by birds, or dried up by the sun, or choked by thorns, or at least turned into chaff. Only the wheat of the elect, grown from good ground and proved worthy by patience, will be stored in the barn of heavenly life. Just as, according to another parable, not only do the fish that avoid the nets of the apostolic faith remain hidden in the lowest waves of sins, but many, drawn to the shore among the good right up to the final separation, then for the guilt of their wickedness deserve to be cast into the outer darkness. Now He calls the fire of Gehenna unquenchable for a twofold reason: that is, because neither can it ever be quenched, nor will it ever extinguish those whom it torments, but will strike them with an immortal death, so to speak. That is, in distinction from that most holy fire with which He had said before that the elect of Christ were to be baptized. Of which the Psalmist also says: Thou hast tried us by fire, as silver is tried by fire (Ps. 65:10). And a little after: We did not stick fast for ever, but we passed, he says, through fire and water, and Thou hast brought us into refreshment. I will go into Thy house with burnt offerings (Ps. 65:12–13), that is, having overcome the anguish of afflictions, I will enter with thanksgiving the courts of Thy heavenly kingdom.

But Herod the tetrarch, when he was rebuked by him concerning Herodias his brother's wife, and concerning all the evils that Herod had done, added this also above all, and shut up John in prison. These things are related more fully by Matthew and Mark: namely, that John through the plots of Herodias was not only put in chains but also beheaded. It must be understood that this was done not in these days but, according to the Gospel of John, after some signs had been wrought by the Lord and His baptism had already been spread abroad; but it is related by this Evangelist by anticipation, in order to heighten Herod's malice. For when the unlearned crowd flocked to John's preaching, soldiers believed, publicans repented, the whole people in common received baptism, he on the contrary not only despised him,

but did not hesitate to kill him. But by the reckoning of a higher mystery: because John the Evangelist undertook the ministry of writing about the divinity of Christ, and the three others about His humanity, while John the Baptist bears the type of the old law (which is the forerunner of grace), it is fittingly that John the Evangelist testifies that, while the Lord's forerunner was still preaching and baptizing, the Lord Himself was making and baptizing more disciples (John 4:1). He teaches mystically that before He was born in the flesh He was God eternal through the ages, and the teacher of the faithful peoples through the law. And fittingly the other evangelists take the beginning of the Lord's preaching after John was handed over to prison, since it was their office, after the law had been corrupted by the Jews and, as it were, defiled by the darkness of the prison, by blind ignorance and by cruel tradition, to set forth the heavenly teaching of the Lord appearing in the flesh and working through the flesh, as though coming into Galilee.

Now it came to pass, when all the people were being baptized, that Jesus also being baptized and praying, heaven was opened. The Lord was baptized, not wishing Himself to be cleansed by the waters, but to cleanse the waters themselves, so that, washed through His flesh, which surely knew no sin, they might put on the right of baptism, and might conceive the power of regenerating sanctification against the evil of transgression, which so many innumerable baptisms under the law could not do. Hence, well, when he had said that all the people were baptized, he added nothing great; but, he says, Jesus being baptized and praying, heaven was opened. For while the Lord in the lowliness of His body went down into the waves of Jordan, by the power of His divinity He opens to us the gates of heaven. And while the innocent flesh is dipped in the cold waters, the fiery sword once set against the guilty is quenched. For what? Was heaven opened to Him then, whose eyes beheld the inner things of the heavens? But there is shown the power of baptism, from which, when anyone comes forth, the gate of the heavenly kingdom is declared [open] to him. Just as that also, that Jesus, whose are all things that are the Father's, is recorded to have prayed when baptized, is not doubted to have been done to instruct us, who after the washing of baptism, in order that the court of heaven may be opened, must not live idly, but must persevere in fasts, prayers and almsgiving. For although all sins are loosed in baptism, the frailty of the flesh is not yet made firm. For as if having crossed the Red Sea, we rejoice indeed that the Egyptians are drowned, but in the desert of worldly life other enemies meet us, to be overcome by our sweat, with the grace of Christ as our guide and fellow worker, until we come to the promised homeland of eternal life.

And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove upon Him. Well, in bodily form, because in the nature of His divinity He could not be seen by mortals. Well, as a dove, because the spirit of discipline will flee the deceitful, and will not dwell in a body subject to sins (Wis. 1:5, 1:4). And because [such men], after the example of Simon, persist in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity, they can by no means have lot and part in it (Acts 8:21, 8:23). Hence, when the crimes of the world were once purged by the flood in figure of baptism, not in the mouth of a raven but of a dove was brought [the branch] of the olive

branch announced peace restored to the world. Teaching mystically that the anointing of the Holy Spirit will be present only to those who have been baptized in simplicity of heart. For let no one think that the Lord was first anointed with the grace of the Holy Spirit after baptism, or that He made any progress of the divine nature through the course of time; but let him rather know that from the first moment of His human conception He who was true man was likewise true God. But by the coming of the dove it was shown that in His body, that is, the Church, the baptized above all receive the Holy Spirit.

And a voice came from heaven: Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased. Rightly is John second to none among those born of women (Matt. 11:11), to whom Christ presents Himself to be baptized, the invisible Spirit presents Himself to be seen, the Father commends His own Son from heaven. For it was not shown to the Son Himself, who knew it perfectly, but to John or to the others who were present, that they might know it. Hence it is to be noted that the same John, who until then had proclaimed that a man stronger than himself, and the Christ, was coming, from then on, forewarned either by the descent of the Spirit or by the Father's testimony, openly preached the Son of God: This is He, he says, of whom I said: After me comes a man who was made before me, because He was before me; and I did not know Him (John 1:30–31). And likewise concerning the dove: And I saw, and I bore witness that this is the Son of God (John 1:34). Thus the mystery of the Trinity is shown in the Saviour's baptism, so that we too may be taught that we are to be baptized in His name. And when he says: In Thee I am well pleased, it is as if he were saying: In Thee I have set My good pleasure, that is, to accomplish through Thee what pleases Me. But what is said according to Matthew: In whom I am well pleased (Matt. 3:17), is expounded thus: that everyone who by repenting corrects some things he has done, by the very fact that he repents shows that he has displeased himself, he who amends what he has done. And because the almighty Father, so far as He could be understood by men, spoke in human fashion of sinners, saying: It repents Me that I have made man upon the earth (Gen. 6:7), as if He were displeased with Himself in the sinners whom He had created; but in His only-begotten alone, our Lord Jesus Christ, He was well pleased. Because He did not repent of having created Him a man among men, in whom He found no sin at all, thus it is said of Him through the Psalmist: The Lord has sworn, and He will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever (Ps. 109:4).

And Jesus Himself was beginning [to be] about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph. Jesus is baptized at thirty years, and only then begins to work signs and to teach, showing namely the lawful and mature time of life to those who think every age suitable either for the priest or for teaching. He who also, as was read above, at the twelfth year of His age chose to be found sitting in the temple in the midst of the teachers, not teaching but asking questions. For so that men might not dare to preach at a weak age, He at twelve years questions men on earth, who by His divinity always teaches the angels in heaven. Nor should it trouble anyone against this that Jeremiah and Daniel received the spirit of prophecy as boys, because

miracles are not to be drawn into an example for practice. For almighty God both makes the tongues of infants eloquent (Wis. 10:21), and out of the mouth of infants and sucklings has perfected praise (Ps. 8:3). But what we say from the practice of teaching is one thing, what we know of a miracle is another. Now the thirty years of age of the baptized Saviour can also intimate the mystery of our baptism, namely on account of faith in the Holy Trinity and the working of the Decalogue of the law. This Decalogue, surely, once the grace of faith has been revealed, is fulfilled the more devoutly the more sublimely it is understood. For He taught, as it were, that those to be baptized have a certain sacrosanct period of three, who said: Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). He commanded, as it were, that this same three be multiplied by ten, when He added: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you (Matt. 28:20). In figure of this, too, the bronze sea, in which the priests washed when about to enter the temple, is related to have been encompassed on the outside by a line of thirty cubits, and to have been able to hold three thousand measures within (1 Kgs. 7:23–26). Because with the heart one believes unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom. 10:10). This sense is supported by the fact that the apostles, having received the grace of the Holy Spirit, first baptize three thousand souls (Acts 2:41). And since mention of the bronze sea has come up, it is pleasing to inquire also how it agrees in its other features with the rule of baptism. From brim, it says, to brim ten cubits (1 Kgs. 7:23), because we ought not to be cramped by earthly anxiety, but enlarged by the expectation of the heavenly denarius. Its brim was like the brim of a cup or the leaf of an opened lily: by the one of which the cup of the Lord's passion is expressed, by the other the revealed brightness of His resurrection. For what the Apostle says: All we who have been baptized in Christ Jesus have been baptized in His death (Rom. 6:3), pertains to the brim of the cup. But what he adds: That as Christ is risen from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4), looks to the flower of the opened lily. Its thickness was three inches, so that all the strength of the baptized may be made firm in the perfection of faith, hope and charity. It had five cubits of height, because whatever sin is committed by sight, hearing, taste, smell or touch is all washed away by the wave of regeneration. The oxen which bear it look towards each region of the sky three by three, so that the whole world may be baptized in the faith of the Holy Trinity. And it stood on the right side of the court of the priests, facing east towards the south, because, with the grace of the New Testament established, it was given through Him who has visited us, the dayspring from on high (Luke 1:78). And in countless places of holy Scripture the number thirty is found fitted to the sacraments of Christ and the Church. For Joseph too, who in figure of the resurrection and of the New Testament defended the Egyptians from famine for eighty years, at thirty, the filth of the prison washed away, took up the helm of the kingdom; and David at the same age began the reign which at seventy, that is, worthy of perpetual rest, he would complete; and Ezekiel at thirty years, the heavens being opened to him, merited the gifts of prophecy. And because through faith adversities ought to be borne with long-suffering, and rewards hoped for on high,

both the height of the ark or of the temple and the length of the tabernacle are measured at thirty cubits.

As was supposed, he says, the son of Joseph. He put this word on account of those who thought that He had been begotten of Joseph as other men are begotten. Hence, if it troubles anyone why, since Mary bore Christ of the Holy Spirit and Joseph is called His father not truly but by supposition, the generation is traced not rather through Mary than through Joseph, who seemed to have nothing to do with Him, let him know first that it is not the custom of the Scriptures for the line of women to be woven into the generations. Next, that Joseph and Mary were of one tribe, whence he was also bound by the law to take her, as a kinswoman. And that they are enrolled together in Bethlehem, as being, namely, born of one stock; and therefore through the generation of Joseph the origin of Mary is also shown. Most beautifully indeed did Luke, when about to tell the genealogy of Christ, set first the Father Himself speaking: Thou art My beloved Son (Mark 1:11), so that He might prove by divine attestation the same to be true Son of God whom by the order of human succession he proved true son of man.

Who was [the son] of Heli, who was of Mathat, who was of Levi, who was of Melchi, etc. It rightly troubles one how Joseph could have two fathers coming from different stocks of forebears, one whom Luke and the other whom Matthew records. For Matthew says: And Mathan begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary (Matt. 1:15–16). But Africanus, writing on the harmony of the Gospels, has untied the knot of this question most plainly. Mathan, he says, and Mathat at different times begot each a son of one and the same wife, Estha by name. For Mathan, who descends through Solomon, had first taken her as wife, and died leaving one son, Jacob by name. After his death, since the law does not forbid a widow to marry another man, Mathat, who traces his descent through Nathan, being of the same tribe but not of the same family, took the widow of Mathan as wife, and of her he too received a son named Heli; by which Jacob and Heli, from different lines of fathers, become meanwhile brothers. Of whom the one, that is Jacob, taking by the command of the law the wife of his brother Heli, who had died without children, begot Joseph, by nature of the seed his own son, on account of which it is also written: And Jacob begot Joseph. But according to the precept of the law he becomes the son of Heli, whose wife Jacob, because he was his brother, had taken to raise up seed for his brother. And through this the generation is found valid and entire, both that which Matthew enumerates, saying: And Jacob begot Joseph; and that which Luke marks out with fitting care, saying: Who was supposed to be the son of Joseph, who was of Heli. Who himself also, following the same distinction, was supposed to be the son of Heli, who had been of Matthat; because the Evangelist by this signified with a sufficiently fitting indication this legal succession, which consists as it were in a kind of adoption in respect of the dead, rather than the truth of the seed, taking care not to name anyone at all as having begotten in successions of this kind; by which, with a worthy distinction, not descending but ascending, he reached as far as Adam and to God Himself.

These things, moreover, were not found out by us on the spur of the moment, nor devised without any authorities; but the very kinsmen of our Saviour according to the flesh handed them down, whether from zeal to show forth so great a lineage, or to teach the things that were done according to truth. Africanus sets these things forth in these very syllables, except that in place of Matthat he put Melchi, because perhaps either his manuscript had it so, or in the history from which he had learned these things he found that the same Matthat bore two names. Since, then, Matthew undertook to portray the kingly person of the Lord and Luke the priestly, whence also in the cherubim's four-horsed chariot the lion, strongest of beasts, designates the one, and the calf, that is, the victim of the priests, the other, each kept the same purpose of his work in weaving the genealogy of the Saviour also. For it has been acutely observed that Matthew, who had set out to make known the kingly person in Christ, named forty men in the series of generations, Christ Himself excepted. This number signifies that time in which, in this world and on this earth, we must be ruled by Christ according to laborious discipline, by which God scourges (as it is written) every son whom He receives (Heb. 12:6). For the generations are not forty-two, which three fourteens make, but, because the one Jechoniah is counted twice, they come to forty-one, if we count in Christ Himself also, who presides over the ruling of this our temporal and earthly life as by the rule of the number forty. For because the number is the sacrament of this laborious time, in which we fight against the devil under the discipline of Christ the King, it also explains why He consecrated the fast of forty days, that is, the humbling of the soul. Both the law and the prophets through Moses and Elijah, who fasted for forty days each, and the Gospel through the fast of the Lord Himself, who for forty days was also tempted by the devil, what else do they prefigure than our temptation through the whole time of this world, in His flesh, which He deigned to take from our mortality? And this number signifies this temporal and earthly life for this reason, that the seasons of the years run in fourfold turns, and the world itself is bounded by four parts. And forty contains ten four times. Further, ten itself is completed by the number advancing from one to four. Since, therefore, Matthew wished to signify Christ descending to share this mortality with us, he therefore recorded the generations themselves from Abraham as far as Joseph, and as far as the nativity of Christ Himself, by descending, from the beginning of his Gospel. But Luke recounts the generations not from the beginning of his Gospel but from the baptism of Christ, and not by descending but by ascending, as marking Him out rather as priest in expiating sins, where the voice from heaven declared Him, where John himself bore witness, saying: Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). And ascending he passes to Abraham, and comes to God, to whom, cleansed and expiated, we are reconciled. Rightly, too, did he take up the origin by adoption, because through adoption we are made

sons of God by believing in the Son of God. But through carnal generation the Son of God was rather made son of man. And he showed sufficiently that he did not call Joseph [the son] of Heli because he was begotten of him, but because he had been adopted by him, since he called Adam himself son of God, though he was made by God, but was set in paradise as a son through the grace which he afterwards lost by sinning. Wherefore in the generations of Matthew is signified the taking up of our sins by the Lord Christ; but in the generations of Luke is signified the abolition of our sins by the Lord Christ. Therefore the one recounts them descending, the other ascending. For what the Apostle says: He sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3), this is the taking up of sins. But what he adds: That of sin He might condemn sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:3), this is the expiation of sins. Accordingly Matthew descends from David himself through Solomon, with whose mother he sinned. But Luke ascends to David himself through Nathan, through the prophet of which name God expiated his sin.

Who was, he says, [the son] of Mathan, who was of David, who was of Jesse. This number too which Luke follows out most certainly indicates the abolition of sins, of which you will see in its place. Nor should you wonder if from David to Christ Luke set down more successions and Matthew fewer, that is, the one forty-three, the other twenty-eight, since you acknowledge that the generation ran its course through different persons. For it can happen that some passed a long life, while the men of another line died at an untimely age; since we see many old men living with their grandsons, and other men dying as soon as sons have been born to them.

Who was [the son] of Sala, who was of Cainan, who was of Arphaxad. The name and generation of Cainan is found, according to the Hebrew truth, neither in Genesis nor in the Words of the Days; but Arphaxad is said to have begotten Sala, or Sale, as his son, with no one between; for thus you have it: And Arphaxad lived thirty years, and begot Sale (Gen. 11:12). And likewise Paralipomenon: And Arphaxad begot Sala, who himself also begot Heber (1 Chr. 1:18). Know, then, that blessed Luke took this generation from the edition of the Seventy translators, where it is written that Arphaxad at a hundred and thirty-five years begot Cainan, and that Cainan himself, when he was a hundred and thirty years old, begot Sala. But which of these is truer, or whether both can be true, God knows. We simply advise the reader that there is so great a discrepancy between the two sets of manuscripts in the series of times that from the flood to the birth of Abraham two hundred and ninety-two years are found to be comprised in the Hebrew truth, [and] a thousand and seventy-seven in the translation of the Seventy. And that certain chronographers, walking a middle way between them, removing only the generation of Cainan and not correcting the other years to the Hebrew exemplar, record nine hundred and forty-two years for the same age.

Who was [the son] of Methuselah, who was of Enoch. Fittingly the order of the generations, from the baptized Son of God as far as

ascending to God the Father, has Enoch in the seventieth degree, who, his death deferred, was translated to paradise; so as to signify that those who are regenerated of water and the Holy Spirit into the grace of the adoption of sons are meanwhile, after their release from the body, to be received into eternal rest (for the number seventy, on account of the seventh [day], the Sabbath, fits most aptly to signify the rest of those who, with the help of Christ's grace, have fulfilled the Decalogue of the law), and to show that in the time of the resurrection they are to be joined to the unchangeable wisdom of God, to be contemplated through the ages.

Who was [the son] of Seth, who was of Adam, who was of God. Because Christ, who had no iniquity, has surely no iniquity of His own joined to the iniquities of men which He took up in His flesh, therefore the number in Matthew, Christ excepted, is forty. But because He joins us, expiated and cleansed from every sin, to His own and His Father's justice, so that what the Apostle says may come to pass: But he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), therefore in the number given in Luke both Christ Himself, from whom the enumeration begins, and God, to whom it comes, are counted in, and the number becomes seventy-seven, by which is signified the remission and abolition of absolutely all sins. For the Lord too made mention of this number, when Peter had asked Him about forgiving a brother's sins. For He says that one must forgive not only seven times, but seventy times seven times (Matt. 18:22). Hence it is rightly believed that by mentioning this number He commanded that all sins be forgiven. Nor was it at random and to no purpose that the Lord came in the seventy-seventh generation to abolish all sins, but because in that number something lies hidden which pertains to the signification of all sins. This is to be considered in the numbers eleven and seven, which, multiplied by each other, come to that amount. For eleven times seven, or seven times eleven, make seventy-seven. Now eleven signifies the transgression of ten. And if in ten the perfection of blessedness is signified, whence comes also this, that all who were hired for the vineyard are rewarded with a denarius (Matt. 20:9–10), which comes about when the sevenfold creature is joined to the Trinity of the Creator, it is plain that the transgression of ten signifies sin, [the sin] of one who through pride desires to have something more, and loses wholeness and perfection. And this is multiplied by seven for this reason: that that transgression may be signified as done by the movement of man. For by the number three the incorporeal part of man is signified; hence it is that we are commanded to love God with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with the whole mind (Mark 12:30). By four, the body; for in many ways the nature of the body is found to be fourfold. Man, then, consisting of these joined together, is not absurdly signified by the number seven. Now movement is not expressed in numbers when we say one, two, three, four, etc., but when we say once, twice, thrice, four times. Wherefore (as I said) it is not seven and eleven, but seven times eleven, that signifies the transgression, which was made by the movement of man sinning, that is, of one transgressing the stability of his own perfection through desire [to have] something more

of having. Fittingly, therefore, by eleven multiplied seven times all sins arrive at the number seventy-seven. In this number also the full remission of sins comes about, as the flesh of our priest expiates us, from whom this number now begins, and reconciles us to God, at whom this number now arrives, through the Holy Spirit, who appeared in the form of a dove at this baptism, where this number is recorded. But if anyone should wish to object to the exposition set out above, saying that Matthew set down not forty-one but forty-two generations, because, on the authority of Paralipomenon, Jechonias ought to be counted as two persons, namely father and son, let him understand that this same number nonetheless signifies the present time of the Church, in which, with the Lord working with her, she labours in hope of the Sabbath to come. For six times seven make forty-two. And that six pertains to signifying works, and seven to signifying rest, there are few who doubt. Hence the people saved out of the land of Egypt rightly tarries forty years in the desert, but, because it is diligently exercised in the hope of entering into rest, it pitches camp six times seven times, that is, forty-two times, on a most narrow way. At the last of these, as soon as it receives Jesus [Joshua] as leader, the Jordan is opened and, the enemies conquered, it enters the dwellings promised of old. So too the Lord Jesus, in the forty-second generation from the time when the world, through Abraham's believing, scattered the darkness of its ancient blindness, coming in the flesh, opens to us the doors of heaven by the washing of baptism. And we too, when the course of virtues is completed, in which, hoping for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom. 8:25), under the sacrament of the same number (as has been said), having crossed the river with Christ as leader, shall joyfully come to the promised kingdom of the heavenly fatherland. And that He who began baptism at thirty is to expiate the defilements of the whole Church, the mystical kinship of these same numbers also declares. For thirty, reckoned by its equal parts, yields twelve more, which is the number of the patriarchs and of the apostles, and they make forty-two. For it has as parts: the thirtieth, one; the fifteenth, two; the tenth, three; the sixth, five; the fifth, six; the third, ten; the half, fifteen. These, joined together, make up forty-two. Here it is mystically indicated (as we have said) that the whole perfection of the Church consists in the faith and grace of Christ, which, first recognized by the patriarchs, was more widely spread abroad by the voice of the apostles; and that there is no other name under heaven in which we must be saved (Acts 4:12), just as in forty-two there is no fraction that is not contained in the equal parts of the number thirty. The number thirty, therefore, by its parts completes the forty-second, because the Lord by the sacraments of His baptism both fortifies the Church now as she labours in time, and, when her labours are finished, leads her to rest in eternity.

CHAPTER IV.

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the desert for

forty [days]. That these things were done straightway after the Lord was baptized, Matthew and Mark indicate. One of them, having described His baptism, at once added thus: Then Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil (Matt. 4:1). The other thus: And immediately the Spirit drove Him out into the desert, and He was there forty days and forty nights, and was tempted by Satan (Mark 1:12–13). But lest anyone should come to doubt by what spirit they said He was led or driven into the desert, Luke advisedly set down first that Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and then added, and was led by the Spirit into the desert, so that the unclean spirit should not be thought to have had any power against Him who, full of the Holy Spirit, went wherever He willed and did whatever He willed. For below too, where He is plainly said to have been taken up or set [somewhere] by the devil, it is not His weakness that is shown but the pride of the enemy, who thinks the Saviour's will a compulsion. Jesus, then, is not driven into the desert by the power of the evil spirit, but by the will of His own good Spirit He enters, sure of victory, the place of combat where He is to lay low the adversary. Here He likewise shows us beforehand the order of right living: that, after receiving in baptism the remission of sins and the grace of the Holy Spirit, we should learn to gird ourselves more tightly against the new snares of the ancient enemy, to forsake the world in mind, and, as if [hungering for] the manna of the desert, to hunger for the joys of eternal life alone.

And He ate nothing in those days, and when they were ended, He was hungry. The Lent of fasts has its authority both in the old books, from the fast of Moses and of Elijah, and from the Gospel, because the Lord fasted for the same number of days, showing that the Gospel does not disagree with the law and the prophets. For in the person of Moses the law, and in the person of Elijah the prophets, are understood. Between these He appeared glorious on the mountain, so that what the Apostle says of Him might stand out more clearly: Having testimony from the law and the prophets (Rom. 3:21). And in what part of the year could the observance of Lent more fittingly be set than in that bordering on and adjoining the Lord's passion? For in it is signified this laborious life, which has need of continence, so that one fasts from the friendship of the world itself. Otherwise: the Lord fasted when He was tempted before His death, still needing food. But He ate and drank when He was glorified after the resurrection, no longer needing food. For in the one He was showing our labour in Himself, in the other His consolation in us, marking out each with forty days. By this number the course of this world seems to be signified as a Lent, in those who are called through grace to Him who came not to abolish the law but to fulfil it (Matt. 5:17). For the commandments of the law are ten, the grace of Christ is now spread through the world, and the world is fourfold, and ten multiplied by four make forty. For those who were redeemed by the Lord, He gathered them from the regions: from the East, and the West, and the North, and the sea [Ps. 106:2–3]. Fasting, therefore, for forty days before the death of the flesh, He was as it were crying out: Abstain from the desires of this world (1 Pet. 2:11). But eating and drinking for forty days

after the resurrection of the flesh, He was as it were crying out: Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the world (Matt. 28:20). For fasting belongs to the tribulation of the struggle, since he who is in the contest abstains from all things; but food belongs to the hope of peace, which will not be perfect until our body, whose redemption we await, has put on immortality, in which we do not yet glory by attaining it, but by hoping are already fed. The Apostle shows that we do both at once, saying: Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation (Rom. 12:12), as though the former were in food, the latter in fasting. For at the same time as we take the way of the Lord, we both fast from the vanity of the present world and are refreshed by the promise of the world to come, here not setting our heart, there feeding our heart on high. And that the Lord, when the days of fasting were ended, was hungry, whereas nothing of the kind is written of Moses or Elijah when they fasted, was done for this reason: lest [the devil], in fear, should flee in dismay from tempting Him whom he saw both heralded by so many heavenly signs and also equalled in abstinence to the most excellent men. For the humble God-man was hungry, lest the sublime Man-God should become known to the enemy.

And the devil said to Him: If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. The ancient enemy knew that the Redeemer of the human race, his own conqueror, had come into the world; hence through a possessed man he also said: What have we to do with You, Son of God? Have You come here before the time to torment us? (Matt. 8:29). Yet when he afterwards saw Him capable of suffering, when he saw that He could endure the mortal things of humanity, all that he had suspected of His divinity came into doubt for him in the haughtiness of his pride. For, savouring nothing but what is proud, when he beholds Him to be humble, he doubted that He was God. Hence he turned to the devices of temptations. But the soul of our Redeemer was not troubled by the necessity of temptation in the way that we, who are mere men, are often shaken when temptation rushes upon us. For our enemy, even if, being permitted, he took Him up onto a very high mountain, if he declared that he would give Him the kingdoms of the world, if he pointed out stones as if to be turned into bread, nevertheless could not shake by temptation the mind of the Mediator of God and men. For He so deigned to undergo all these things outwardly that His mind, inwardly cleaving to His divinity, remained unshaken. And if at any time He is said to have groaned, troubled in spirit, He Himself divinely disposed how far He would be troubled humanly.

And Jesus answered him: It is written that man lives not by bread alone, but by every word of God. The Lord answered thus because it was His purpose to conquer the devil by humility, not by power. And at the same time it must be noticed that, had the Lord not begun to fast, there would have been no occasion of tempting for the devil, according to that [saying]: Son, when you come to the service of God, prepare your soul for temptation (Sir. 2:1). But the Saviour's very answer also shows that it was a man who was tempted: Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word of God. If anyone, then, is not fed by the word of God, he does not live. Otherwise: our enemy, while still in this life

placed, the more he sees us rebel against him, the more strenuously he strives to overcome us. For he neglects to assail those whom he feels he possesses by undisturbed right; but against us he is roused the more vehemently, the more he is driven out of our heart as if out of his rightful dwelling. This the Lord figured in Himself by a certain dispensation, in that He allowed the devil to tempt Him only after baptism, so as to give us a kind of sign of the life to come: that His members, once they advanced towards God, would then endure sharper snares of temptations.

And the devil led Him, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. When the God-man is related to have been led by the devil, the mind recoils, human ears tremble to hear it. Yet we recognize that these things are not incredible of Him if we weigh the other things done in Him too. Certainly the devil is the head of all the wicked, and all the wicked are the members of this head. What wonder, then, if He allowed Himself to be led onto a mountain by him, who bore even to be crucified by his members? It is not, then, unworthy of our Redeemer that He willed to be tempted, who had come to be slain. For it was just that He should thus conquer our temptations by His temptations, as He had come to overcome our death by His death. And fittingly are the things of the world and of time shown in a moment of time. For it is not so much the swiftness of the sight that is indicated as the frailty of a perishable power that is expressed. For all those things pass away in a moment, and often the honour of the world has gone before it has come. For what of the world can be lasting, when the ages themselves are not lasting?

And he said: To You I will give all this power, and the glory of them, for they have been delivered to me, and to whom I will, I give them. If You, then, falling down, will worship before me, all shall be Yours. Arrogant and proud, he says this too out of boasting, not that the devil has power in the whole world so as to be able to give all kingdoms, since we know that many holy men have been made kings by God. If, he says, falling down You will worship before me. Therefore he who is going to worship the devil has first fallen.

And Jesus answering said to him: It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. The devil, saying to the Saviour, If, falling down, You will worship me, hears on the contrary that he himself ought rather to worship Him, his Lord and God. Someone perhaps asks how what is commanded here, that the Lord alone is to be served, agrees with the word of the Apostle who says: But by charity serve one another (Gal. 5:13). But to this the original of the Greek language, from which the Scripture was translated, easily gives satisfaction, for in it service is customarily named in two ways and with a different signification. For it is called λατρεία, and it is also called δουλεία. Dulia is understood as common service, that is, rendered either to God or to anyone at all in the nature of things; from which also the servant, that is, δοῦλος, takes his name in Greek. But latria is the name for that service which is owed to the worship of the Divinity alone, and is to be shared with no creature. Hence also those are called idolaters who spend upon idols the vows, prayers and sacrifices which they owed to the one God. We are commanded, therefore, through

to serve one another through charity, which in Greek is δουλεύειν. We are commanded to serve the one God, which in Greek is λατρεύειν. Hence it is said: And Him only shall you serve, which in Greek is λατρεύσεις. And again: For we are the circumcision, serving the Spirit of God (Phil. 3:3), which in the Greek is λατρεύοντες.

And he led Him to Jerusalem, and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, so that Him whom gluttony or avarice could not overcome, vainglory too might tempt, [to see] if perhaps he could cast Him down even by boasting of His own victory.

And he said to Him: If You are the Son of God, cast Yourself down from here. In all the temptations the devil aims at this, to find out whether He is the Son of God; but the Lord so tempers His answer as to leave him in doubt. Cast Yourself down: the voice of the devil, by which he always desires all to fall down. Cast Yourself, he says: he can persuade, he cannot throw down.

For it is written that He has given His angels charge concerning You, to keep You, and that in their hands they will bear You up, lest perhaps You dash Your foot against a stone. This we read in the ninetieth psalm. But there the prophecy is not of Christ but of a holy man. The devil, then, interprets the Scriptures badly. Certainly, if he truly knew it to be written of the Saviour, he ought also to have said what follows in the same psalm against himself: You shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample the lion and the dragon (Ps. 90:13). Of the help of the angels he speaks as if to a weak man; of his own trampling, like an evader, he is silent.

And Jesus answering said to him: It is said: You shall not tempt the Lord your God. The devil's false arrows from the Scriptures He breaks with the true shields of the Scriptures. And it is to be noted that He brought forward the necessary testimonies from Deuteronomy only, to show the sacraments of the second law. You shall not tempt, He says, the Lord your God. For it was being suggested to Him as to a man that He should find out by some sign how great He was, that is, how much He could do with God. This, when it is done, is done viciously. For it belongs to sound doctrine that, when a man has something he can do, he should not tempt the Lord his God. Nor indeed was the Saviour Himself unable to protect His disciples, to whom nevertheless He said: If they persecute you in one city, flee into another (Matt. 10:23). Of this He Himself first gave the example. For though He had power to lay down His life, and did not lay it down except when He willed, yet as an infant He fled into Egypt, His parents carrying Him. And He went up to the feast day not openly but in secret, whereas at other times He spoke openly to the Jews, who were angry and listened with a most hostile mind, yet were not able to lay hands on Him, because His hour had not yet come. He, then, who by teaching and reproving openly, and yet not allowing the rage of His enemies to have any power against Him, showed the power of God, the same by fleeing and hiding instructed the weakness of man, that he should not dare to tempt God when he has something he can do to escape what he ought to beware of.

And when every temptation was ended, the devil departed from Him until a time. You see that the devil himself is not obstinate in his pursuit, but is wont to yield to virtue.

And though he does not cease to envy, he is nevertheless afraid to press on, because he shrinks from being triumphed over too often. So, having heard the name of God, he departed (it says) until a time. For afterwards he came not to tempt but to fight openly. Yet often the ancient enemy, after he has inflicted the struggle of temptations on our mind, withdraws from that struggle of his for a time, not to put an end to the malice he has brought, but so that, returning suddenly, he may more easily break in unexpected upon hearts that he has rendered secure through quiet. It is to be noted, however, that when only three frauds of the tempter have been set out, it says that every temptation was ended; because, that is, these embrace the origins and sources of all vices, as John testifies, who says: For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). And in the gospel parable the reprobate are excluded from the banquet of eternal life by three businesses only. The first (it says) said: I have bought a farm, and I must go out and see it. And another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to try them. And another said: I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. For the appetite for a wife, like gluttony, belongs to the concupiscence of the flesh. The buying of a farm, which is not without avarice, looks to the pride of life. The trying of the five yokes, that is, curiosity about bodily things, which is vainglory, is referred to the concupiscence of the eyes. For curiosity prevails above all through the eyes; and by these the Lord, as the stronger, is tempted face to face. But we, when we ourselves, having received baptism, by the grace of the Spirit go into the desert of the virtues, when we take up the Lenten fast, that is, resolve to abstain from the allurements of the world for the whole time of our life, are either assailed by hidden snares or sometimes even beaten upon by a nearer [attack]. When he says flatteringly, You are a strong man, eat and drink, and remain the same, we must see to it that the ancient serpent does not give us poison to drink unawares. And we must say: Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word of God. But many, when the concupiscence of the flesh is overcome, are soon beaten upon by avarice, and sometimes are even overcome, so far that they do not fear to worship the devil in return for gifts offered. When very many praise their continence, when persons of higher rank honour them and bestow gifts, it comes about that the conquerors of pleasures are conquered by love of money, and, as the madness grows with time, any rich men whom they know through open crimes to be full of the demon they not only curse and reprove, but also adore and receive with bended neck. Hence the Apostle says that avarice is the service of idols. And if they triumph over this too by the Saviour's example, namely by adoring the Lord their God and serving Him alone for the sake of eternal joys, the third plague, of vainglory, will also be at hand, to lift up the conquerors of the preceding vices on account of their own strength, so that, as if set on the summit of the virtues, they presume that they can no longer fall. And this plainly is to tempt God with curious eyes: for anyone to glory in his own merits. Against this, He Himself, increasing the faith of the disciples, says: When you have done all the things that are commanded you, say: [We are unprofitable] servants

unprofitable; we have done what we ought to have done (Luke 17:10). And when elsewhere He commanded that we should not do our justice before men, in defining it He added only fasting, almsgiving and prayer, setting, that is, against the threefold weapon of the enemy as many arms of defence, so that by fasting the concupiscence of the flesh may be driven out, by alms avarice, by prayers boasting

BOOK II.

The Ecclesiastical History relates that the most blessed apostle John preached the Gospel almost to the last period of his life without any written records. But when, it says, knowledge of the three Gospels had reached him too, he is said to have approved the faith and truth of what was said, yet he saw that some things were lacking, and especially those which the Lord had done in the first period of His preaching. For it is certain that in the three earlier Evangelists only those things seem to be contained which were done in the year in which John the Baptist was either shut up in prison or put to death. Indeed, if you observe, right at the beginning of their narratives, after Matthew relates the forty days' fast and His temptation, he immediately adds, saying: Now hearing that John the Baptist had been delivered up, He withdrew from Judaea and came into Galilee (Matt. 4:12). And Mark likewise: After John was delivered up (he says), Jesus came into Galilee (Mark 1:14). And Luke, even before he begins to relate anything of the acts of Jesus, says that Herod added this above all the evils he had done, that he shut John up in prison (Luke 3:19–20). Because, I say, these things seemed to have been omitted by them, John the apostle is said to have been asked to describe those deeds of the Saviour before the delivering up of John which the earlier [Evangelists] had passed over. And therefore he says in the Gospel: This beginning of signs Jesus did (John 2:11). And again in another place he indicates it, saying: For John had not yet been cast into prison (John 3:24). From which it is clear that he describes the things that had been done by Jesus before John was delivered up. With the words of this history recalled, we have taken care to fortify the beginning of this, that is, of our second little book on Luke, lest any reader should think that the things which are to be expounded in order were done immediately after the fast of forty days, and so that he might rather take note that they followed after some miracles performed by the Lord either in Judaea or in Galilee.

And Jesus went in the power of the spirit into Galilee, and a report went out concerning Him through the whole region; and He taught in their synagogues, and was magnified by all. By the power of the spirit he means the signs of miracles, as the Jews also say elsewhere in wonder: Whence (they say) has this man this wisdom and power? (Matt. 13:54), referring wisdom, that is, to teaching, and power to works. Both of these are likewise joined in this place too, when Jesus is said both to have gone in the power of the spirit and to have taught in their synagogues. Hence it is rightly affirmed that He was both magnified by those present and made known by report among all who were absent. Which indeed could not

of merits. Let it suffice to have said this much in one little book about the beginnings of the gospel dispensation; but the deeds or sayings of the Saviour that follow let us rather consider from another beginning, taking thought not only for our own rest but also for the convenience of readers. For, I know not how, as Augustine says, the attention of the reader is refreshed by the end of a book, as the toil of the traveller is by an inn.

come about except through present evidences of deeds or words. But whoever seeks will find the time and order of these in the Gospel of John (as has been said). Of which, passing over the rest, I shall set down only one testimony: When He had come, it says, into Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He had done at Jerusalem on the feast day (John 4:45). It is to be noted indeed that he records that Jesus first showed the power of the spirit and afterwards ministered the grace of teaching; that first the report went out concerning the mighty works, and so the teaching was magnified; following, that is, the order which he also took care to commend briefly in the Acts of the Apostles: The things that Jesus began to do and to teach (Acts 1:1). For he set doing first and teaching afterwards, lest any teacher should presume to command his hearers what he himself has not yet accomplished in deeds.

And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and He went in, according to His custom, on the sabbath day into the synagogue. Synagogue is Greek; in Latin it is called congregatio, by which name they were accustomed to call not only the gathering of the crowds flocking together, but also the house where the Jews came together to hear or to speak the word of God. Hence the Lord to Annas the high priest: I have always taught, He says, in the synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews come together [John 18:20]; just as we too call by the name of churches both the [assemblies of the] faithful and the places and choirs. But between the Synagogue, which is interpreted congregation, and the Church, which is interpreted convocation, there is this difference: the people of the Old Testament is named by both words, but that of the New only Church. Because, that is, both cattle and any inanimate things can be gathered together into one, but only things that use reason can be called together. And therefore it seemed good to the apostolic writers and teachers to speak of the people of the new grace, as endowed with a greater dignity, more rightly as convoked into the unity of faith than as congregated, that is, to name it Church rather than Synagogue. Now they flocked together on the Sabbath day into the synagogues so that, according to what the Lord commanded, Be still and see that I am God (Ps. 45:11), with the business of the world laid aside, they might sit down with a quiet heart to meditate on the admonitions of the law. A sign of the devotion to be practised on that day still lasts in the Church, which in some places is accustomed to say on the Sabbath, in memory of the ancient religion, the canticle of Deuteronomy, in which is contained the whole state of the old people, namely what it deserved when God was offended and what when He was propitious. Otherwise it would be preposterous if, after the songs of the prophets

had been said on the earlier days of the week, that of Moses were said last. Jesus therefore went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, to fulfil the rite of the Mosaic law with the full measure of heavenly grace.

And He stood up to read, and the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. It is indeed a sign of the most humble dispensation, by which God had come to minister among men, not to be ministered to, that He does not disdain to take up even the office of reader. But it was with a deeper foresight that Luke, about to write the deeds of the Lord, began from the reading and explanation of the prophet: because, namely, the whole Scripture of prophecy, reaching even to Him, was to be opened to us through Him and was established to be fulfilled in Him. Hence he sets out both of these more plainly at the end of his Gospel, when, having first set down the saying of the Saviour, For all things must be fulfilled that are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning Me (Luke 24:44), he himself immediately added: Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures (ibid. 24:45). Jesus therefore stood up to read, so that those whom He had not converted by the new working of signs He might at least correct by the testimony of the prophetic reading.

And when He had unrolled the book, He found the place where it was written. Beautifully He receives the book of the prophet closed but reads it unrolled, because the mystery of His Incarnation, written beforehand by the voice of the prophets, He both first took upon Himself to show forth, and afterwards opened to mortals to be understood.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor, etc. The Saviour, speaking above through the prophet of the calling of the gentiles and the strengthening of the Church, when among other things He said, I the Lord will suddenly do this in its time (Isa. 60:22), immediately added this which is read here: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. Not that the Lord God has a Lord God, but that according to the dispensation of the flesh He assumed He says the things that are lowly. To whom the Psalmist had already said: You have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows (Ps. 44:8). For when fellows are named, understand the nature of the flesh, by which God has us as sharers of His substance. And because the anointing was spiritual, and not at all of the human body as it was in the priests of the Jews, therefore He is recorded to have been anointed above His fellows, that is, the other saints. His anointing was fulfilled at that time when He was baptized in the Jordan, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove and remained on Him. He was anointed, therefore, with spiritual oil and heavenly power, so that He might water the poverty of the human condition with the eternal treasure of the resurrection, take away the captivity of the mind, and enlighten the blindness of souls, saying: Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God (Luke 6:20). And again: If the Son sets you free, you will be truly free (John 8:36). And again: He who follows Me does not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (ibid. 8:12).

To set at liberty the broken in remission; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of recompense. Sacrifice,

it says, to God is an afflicted spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise (Ps. 50:19). And therefore He says He was sent, or anointed, to heal the broken, that is, the contrite of heart; according to what the Psalmist also says of Him: Who heals, he says, the contrite of heart, and binds up their bruises (Ps. 146:3). Or certainly, to set at liberty the broken in remission [means]: He came to relieve those who had been weighed down by the heavy and unbearable burden of the law, and to admit them into the remission of spiritual grace. And this very thing is to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. For then the true year of Jubilee, that is, of liberty, was at hand: the time, namely, of the Church, in which, dwelling in the body, she is a pilgrim from the Lord. Of which the Psalmist sings: Thou shalt bless the crown of the year of Thy goodness (Ps. 64:12). For not only that [year] in which the Lord preached was acceptable, but also this one in which the Apostle preaches, saying: Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2). After the acceptable year of the Lord, indeed, he also preaches the day of final recompense, saying: For the Son of man is to come in His glory with His angels, and then He will render to each according to his work (Matt. 16:27). It is to bring the good news of all these things, then, that He says He was sent, because the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him.

And when He had folded the book, He gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The Lord read the book in the hearing of all who were present, but when it was read He gave it back to the attendant. Because, as He Himself testifies elsewhere, while He was in the world He spoke openly to the world, always teaching in the synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews were accustomed to come together. But, being about to return to heavenly things, He handed on the office of preaching the gospel to those who from the beginning themselves saw and were ministers of the word. And fittingly He read standing, but when the book was given back He sat down again. For to stand belongs to one who works; to sit, to one who rests or judges. For the Lord Jesus Christ, to lay open to us the way of the knowledge that had been written about Him, deigned for a time to work in the flesh. But when the office of His loving dispensation was accomplished, He chose disciples as followers of His teaching, and restored Himself to the throne of heavenly rest, from which He both now disposes all things by hidden judgement, and at the end of the whole world will appear as manifest judge. At the same time He set forth an example mystically, that every preacher of the word should also be a doer of it: let him rise, read, and sit down again; that is, let him work, preach, and so await the rewards of rest. And it is to be noted that He Himself read the book unrolled, but gave it back folded to the attendant. Because He both taught His Church all truth by the Spirit of truth sent from the Father, and yet forewarned by His own example that not all things are to be said to all, but that the word is to be dispensed by the teacher according to the capacity of the hearers, when He says: I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them: Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears. Fulfilled indeed in this, that, as it had foretold, both did the Lord do great things, and He preached greater. What greater testimony, then, do we seek than that He signified with His own voice that it was He who had spoken in the prophets?

setting aside the sacrileges of the faithless, who say that the God of the Old Testament is one and the God of the New another, or who say that Christ's beginning is from the Virgin. For how did He begin from the Virgin, who was speaking before the Virgin?

And all bore Him witness, and marvelled at the words of grace which proceeded from His mouth. They bore Him witness by attesting that He was truly, as He had said, the one of whom the prophets sang; truly anointed with the grace of the Holy Spirit; and that they themselves, truly poor, blind, captive and broken, stood in need of His gifts in all things.

And they said: Is not this the son of Joseph? How great the blindness of the Nazarenes, who despise Him whom by His words and deeds they recognize to be the Christ, only because they know His family! Yet their error is our salvation and the condemnation of heretics. For so fully did they see Jesus Christ as a man that they cried out that He was the son of Joseph, and, according to the other evangelists, a carpenter or a carpenter's son. Here we must consider why Christ, appearing in the flesh, willed to be called the son of a carpenter, nay a carpenter. And it is to be understood in a sound sense that by this too He taught that He is, before the ages, the Son of Him who, the maker of all things, in the beginning, God, created heaven and earth. For even if human things are not to be compared with divine, the figure is nevertheless sound, since the Father of Christ works with fire and spirit. Hence His forerunner too speaks of Him as of a craftsman's son: He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16). He it is who in the great house of this world fashions vessels of different kinds; nay, by softening the vessels of wrath with the fire of the Spirit, He changes them into vessels of mercy. Hence Malachi well, when he said in the person of the Father: Behold, I will send My angel, and he shall prepare the way before My face, and straightway the ruler whom you seek shall come to His temple, added after a little and said: And He shall sit refining and cleansing silver, and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and shall refine them as gold and as silver. But the Jews, ignorant of this mystery, despise the works of divine power by looking at His fleshly lineage, as appears not only from their own preceding words but also from the Lord's words that follow, when it is added:

And He said to them: Surely you will say to Me this proverb: Physician, heal thyself: whatever things, etc. Their insane faithlessness, though unknowingly, confesses the sound faith, for it names the Lord Christ carpenter and physician. For He is the true craftsman, since all things were made through Him. He is the physician, since all things in heaven and on earth are restored through Him. And as He Himself testifies of Himself: They that are well have no need of a physician, but they that are sick (Mark 2:17). And since we have said with what instrument He fashions, let us also say what kind of healing He uses. Passing by, He saw a man blind from birth; He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and spread it upon his eyes, and said to him: Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which is interpreted Sent. He went therefore and washed, and came seeing (John 9:1, 6–7). Recognize, then, the manner of the great medicine, and rejoice that through it you have been found worthy to be enlightened. The clay from the earth is the flesh of Christ. The spittle from the mouth is His divinity

is, since the head of Christ is God. The spittle mixed with the clay enlightens us, baptized in the pool of Siloam, because the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory (John 1:14), which before, with the darkness keeping us off, we could not grasp. Through Christ the craftsman, then, you were created, so that you might be. Through Christ the physician you were re-created, so that after your wounds you might be whole. He is indeed urged by His mocking fellow citizens to heal Himself, that is, to work mighty deeds in His own country; but not idly is He excused by another evangelist: that He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick folk and healed them. And He marvelled because of their unbelief. This, lest anyone perhaps should think that love of one's country ought to become of less account to us. He loved His fellow citizens, then; but they, by their spite, deprived themselves of the love of their countryman.

And He said: Amen I say to you, that no prophet is accepted in his own country. That the Lord Christ is called a prophet in the Scriptures, Moses too is witness, who says: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brethren, like me (Deut. 18:15). And not only He who is the head and Lord of the prophets, but Elijah also, Jeremiah and the other prophets were held of less account in their own country than in distant cities. For it is almost natural that citizens always envy their fellow citizens. For they do not consider the man's present works, but remember his frail infancy, as if they themselves had not come to mature age through the same stages of life.

In truth I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elijah in Israel, when the heaven was shut up three years, etc. "That I withdraw," He says, "the divine benefits from fastidious fellow citizens is not contrary to the deeds of the prophets. For just as, when famine once pressed upon the whole earth, no one was found in Judaea worthy to give Elijah hospitality, but a widow of a foreign nation was sought out, who for the grace of her faith deserved to be visited by so great a prophet; and just as, among the many lepers there, only Naaman the Syrian, because he had sought devoutly, merited to be healed by the prophet Elisha: so here too [this] will deprive you of the heavenly gift for no other cause than your envy and faithlessness." If you examine the deeds of these prophets allegorically as well, you will surely find that the Lord, in the faithlessness of His own country, by which He was not received, censured the pride of the Jews; and by the name of Capernaum, which is interpreted field of consolation, foretold the salvation of the Gentiles, where greater signs are daily wrought through the apostles and the apostles' successors, not so much in the healing of bodies as of souls. Therefore the widow to whom Elijah was sent signifies the Church of the Gentiles, which, long deserted by her founder, was feeding with needy alms a people ignorant of the right faith, as a poor son, that is, was teaching them with a word devoid of fruit, until the prophetic word came, which, the fleece of Israel being dried up, the gate of heaven, as it were, shut, was in peril of famine in Judaea, so that there it might at once be fed and feed, received, that is, by believers, and itself refreshing believers. Hence this same widow is well said to have dwelt in Sarepta of Sidon. Sidon

is indeed interpreted useless hunting; and Sarepta, burning, or scarcity of bread. Because where sin abounded, grace did more abound (Rom. 5:20). Where care was spent on acquiring superfluous things, as on fowling, where before there was the burning of dire thirst and a scarcity of spiritual bread, there meal and oil are blessed by the prophet's mouth; that is, the fruit and gladness of charity, or the grace of the Lord's body and the anointing of chrism, was made fruitful by the unfailing gift of the heavenly word. Her oil of spiritual joy in the vessels and her meal of blessing do not fail to this day, while the other nations, which do not believe, are wretched with want of the divine bread and given over to useless hunting. For she too, most beautifully, when about to make herself a mystic bread before she should die, declares that she wishes to gather two sticks, expressing the sign of the cross not only by the name of wood but also by the number of the sticks, the cross by which the bread of eternal life has been prepared for us.

And there were many lepers in Israel under Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian. Since the story is well known, we must touch briefly on the mystery. This Naaman the Syrian, then, whose name is interpreted comeliness, shows forth the people of the nations, once spotted with the leprosy of faithlessness and crimes, but cleansed through the sacrament of baptism from all foulness of mind and body. Admonished to hope for health by the counsel of a captive girl, that is, by the grace of heavenly inspiration, which the Gentiles seized when the Jews were unable to keep it, he is bidden to wash seven times. For indeed only the kind of baptism that regenerates from the Holy Spirit saves. Hence rightly his flesh after the washing is recorded to have appeared like the flesh of a little child: either because grace as a mother brings forth all those baptized in Christ into one infancy, or rather that Child is to be understood of whom it was said: A little one is born to us, a son is given to us (Isa. 9:6), to whose body the whole offspring of believers is united through baptism. And that you might know that all the sacraments of baptism were foreshown here, in which we are bidden to renounce Satan and to confess the faith, Naaman declares that he will no more sacrifice to strange gods, but will serve the Lord alone in all things. He is glad also to carry with him a portion of the holy land, because the baptized must be confirmed also by partaking of the Lord's body. Rightly therefore Naaman, whose breast is washed by faith while his body is washed by water, that is, the people of the Gentiles, is preferred to the Jews, foul with the leprosy of stubbornness. Rightly the widow of Sarepta, that is, the Church, longing to be refreshed by the wood of the cross, is restored with the bread of the most holy body and the anointing of the life-giving Spirit, while the Jews perish with hunger for the word. And it is proved that the Lord denied the gifts of mighty works to His fellow citizens not on account of His own want of power but on account of their envy; and by this example, that the whole nation at last was forsaken by Him, not because it was not loved, but because it did not love being loved, the teachers, that is, being dispersed from there through the whole world for the salvation of the Gentiles. But what the Lord testifies by word of the Jews, the Jews themselves testify by deed of themselves. For there follows:

And all in the synagogue, hearing these things, were filled with anger,

and they rose up, and cast Him out of the city. For the sacrileges of the Jews, which the Lord had foretold long before through the prophet, saying: They repaid me evil for good (Ps. 34:12), He teaches in the Gospel to have been fulfilled. For while He was pouring out benefits among the peoples, they were heaping injuries upon Him. Nor is it any wonder if they lost salvation who cast the Saviour out of their borders. For the Lord teaches by conduct, and He who taught His apostles by His own example to become all things to all men neither rejects the willing, nor binds the unwilling, nor struggles against those who cast Him out, nor fails those who ask. So elsewhere, when the Gerasenes could not bear His mighty works, He left them as weak and ungrateful. Understand at the same time that the passion of His body was not of necessity but voluntary; that He was not taken by the Jews but offered by Himself. For when He wills He is taken, when He wills He slips away, when He wills He is hanged, when He wills He is not held.

And they led Him, it says, to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong. But He, passing through the midst of them, went His way. O inheritance of the disciples worse than their master! The devil tempts the Lord by word, the Jews by deed. He says: Cast Thyself down; these set upon Him to cast Him down. And indeed the Lord had gone up the brow of the hill to be cast down; but through the midst of them, the mind of the raging men being suddenly changed or stupefied, He came down, for He still preferred to heal them rather than destroy them, so that, seeing the undertakings of their wickedness brought to nothing, they might thereafter cease from demanding His death. For the hour of the passion had not yet come, which was to take place not on any Sabbath whatever but on the Preparation of the Pasch. Not yet had He come to the place of the passion, which was prefigured not in Nazareth but in Jerusalem by the blood of victims. Nor had He chosen the manner of death, He who from the beginning of the world was proclaimed as one to be crucified. He willed, then, not to be cast down by the Nazarenes, not to be stoned by the men of Jerusalem, not to be slain by Herod among the children of Bethlehem, not to be brought to His end by this death or that. For what sign of royal power, by which the brow of the faithful might be armed, would stand out in such a death? But only the standard of the cross was awaited, whose figure could be traced even by a very swift movement of the right hand against the assaults of the evil enemy, and which figure could nonetheless be held as a type of a single monarchy. As when the Apostle, setting forth the triumph of the cross, says: In the name of Jesus let every knee bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth (Phil. 2:10). For this is why the tops of that same cross reach to the heavens, its foot seeks the lower regions, and its arms cover the earth.

And He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and there He taught them on the Sabbath. See the clemency of the Lord the Saviour: neither moved by indignation, nor offended by the crime, nor violated by the injury, does He forsake Judaea; nay rather, forgetful of the injury but mindful of clemency, now by teaching, now by setting free, now by healing, He soothes the hearts of the people into faith. And that He bestows the gifts of His healing and teaching most of all on the Sabbaths shows that He is not under the Law but above the Law, He who came to fulfil that same Law, not to destroy it, nor

to choose the Jewish Sabbath, on which it is not lawful either to kindle a fire or to move hand or foot, but that the true Sabbath and the rest beloved of the Lord is when, intent on the salvation of souls, we abstain from servile work, that is, from all unlawful things.

And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority. The teacher's word comes to be with authority when he does the things he teaches. For he who himself destroys his sayings by his deeds is despised. Against which the Apostle, instructing a teacher, says: Let no one despise your youth (1 Tim. 4:12). But the Lord singularly and pre-eminently, alone, spoke good things with authority, because out of weakness He committed no evil. For from the might of His divinity He had that which He ministered to us through the innocence of His humanity. In another sense His word was with authority, or, as another evangelist says, He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. For the scribes gave the peoples the precepts that they had learnt through the Law; but He, as the author and fulfiller of the Law, by changing or by enlarging what seemed lacking, substituted [them] by acting freely.

And in the synagogue there was a man having an unclean devil. Fittingly was the man who had an unclean spirit in the synagogue, because it had lost the Holy Spirit. For the devil had entered in whence Christ had gone out. As even now certain men say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

And he cried out with a loud voice, saying: Let us alone, what have we to do with Thee, Jesus of Nazareth? "Cease a little," he says, "from tormenting me, You who have no fellowship with our deceit." And truly: For what participation has light with darkness? what fellowship has Christ with Belial? (2 Cor. 6:14–15.)

Art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee, that Thou art the Holy One of God. This confession is not of the will, which the reward of confessing follows, but an extortion of necessity which compels the unwilling. And just as runaway slaves, if after a long time they see their master, beg for nothing else but to be spared the lash, so the demons too, seeing the Lord suddenly moving about on earth, believed He had come to judge them. The presence of the Saviour is the torment of demons.

And Jesus rebuked him, saying: Be silent, and go out of him. Since by the envy of the devil death entered into the world (Wis. 2:24), therefore the medicine of salvation had first to work against the very author of death: first the serpent's tongue had to be shut, lest it spread its poison any further; then the woman, who was first seduced, had to be cured of the fever of carnal concupiscence; thirdly the man, who listened to the words of his wife giving evil counsel, had to be chastened of the leprosy of his error. So that in this evangelist the order of the restoration should be the same as that of the fall.

And when the devil had thrown him into the midst, he went out of him, and hurt him not at all. By divine permission the man who is to be freed from the demon is thrown into the midst, so that the power of the Saviour, made manifest, may invite many to faith and to the way of salvation. But as for what is said, And hurt

him not at all, it seems to conflict with Mark, who says: And the unclean spirit, tearing him and crying out with a loud voice, went out of him (Mark 1:26). Unless we understand that Mark said, Tearing him, for what Luke said: And when he had thrown him into the midst; so that what he says next: And hurt him not at all, may be understood to mean that that tossing and tormenting of the limbs did not weaken him, as demons are wont to go out even with some limbs cut off or torn away. Hence rightly, at so complete a restoration of health, those who were present, afraid though not yet believing, said to one another:

For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they go out. For holy men too can cast out demons, but in the word of God; whereas the very Word of God works mighty deeds by His own power.

And rising from the synagogue, He entered into Simon's house. And Simon's mother-in-law was held with great fevers. If we have said that the man freed from the demon signifies, in the moral sense, the mind cleansed from unclean thought, it follows that the woman held by fevers but cured at the Lord's command shows the flesh reined in from the heat of its concupiscence by the precepts of continence. For all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamour, and blasphemy is the raging of the unclean spirit. But fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is the service of idols (Eph. 4:31), understand as the fever of the alluring flesh.

And they besought Him for her. And standing over her, He commanded the fever, and it left her. Now when asked, now of His own accord, the Saviour cures the sick, showing that against the passions of sins too He always assents to the prayers of the faithful, and either gives them to understand the things which they themselves do not at all understand in themselves, or else forgives them even un-understood. According to which the Psalmist asks: Who understands his sins? From my hidden ones cleanse me, O Lord (Ps. 18:13).

And rising immediately, she ministered to them. It is natural for those in a fever, as health begins to return, to grow weary and to feel the discomfort of the illness; but the health that is conferred by the Lord's command returns all at once. And not only does it return, but with such strength accompanying it that she is able at once to minister to those who had helped her; and, according to the laws of tropology, the members which had served uncleanness unto iniquity so as to bear fruit unto death, serve justice unto life eternal (Rom. 6:19–22).

And when the sun had set, all who had any sick with various diseases brought them to Him. And He, laying His hands on each of them, healed them. The setting of the sun signifies the passion and death of Him who said: As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And at the setting of the sun more demoniacs than before, more sick are healed. For He who, living in time in the flesh, taught a few of the Jews, having trampled down the kingdom of death, sent across the gifts of faith and salvation to all the nations throughout the world. To His ministers, as heralds of life and light, the Psalmist sings: Make a way for Him who ascends above the setting (Ps. 67:5). For above the setting the Lord

ascended, because from the very place where He sank down in the passion, He showed forth His greater glory by rising again.

And devils also went out from many, crying out and saying: Thou art the Son of God. And rebuking them He did not suffer them to speak, because they knew that He was the Christ. The demons confessed the Son of God, and, as the evangelist attests, they knew that He was the Christ. For the devil, who had known Him to be a man when He was wearied by the fast of forty days, and could not by tempting find out whether He was also the Son of God, now, through the power of the signs, either understood or rather suspected that He was the Son of God. He did not, therefore, persuade the Jews to crucify Him because he thought Him not to be the Christ or the Son of God, but because he did not foresee that by His death he himself would be condemned. For truly the Apostle says of this mystery hidden from the ages: Which none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8). And why the Lord forbids the demons to speak of Him the Psalmist makes plain, who says: But to the sinner God said: Why do you declare My justices (Ps. 49:16)? and the rest: lest anyone, while he hears him preaching, should follow him in his error. For the devil is a wicked teacher, who often mixes falsehoods with truths, so as to cover the witness of fraud with the appearance of truth. Elsewhere, however, not only the demons who confessed unwillingly are bidden to be silent about Christ, but also those healed by Him who wished of their own accord to confess Him. Nay, the apostles themselves, who after the resurrection were to preach Him to the whole world, are commanded before His passion to keep entirely silent about Him, lest, the divine majesty being proclaimed, the dispensation of the passion should be put off, and, the passion being deferred, the salvation of the world which was to come through it should be denied.

And when it was day, going out He went into a desert place, and the multitudes sought Him, and came to Him. If the Lord's death is expressed by the setting of the sun, why should not His resurrection be indicated by the return of day? When its light has been made manifest He is sought by the multitudes of believers, and, found in the desert of the Gentiles, He is held back lest He depart. Above all since this going out, seeking and finding took place on the first day of the week, on which the resurrection was accomplished.

CHAPTER V.

And it came to pass, when the multitudes pressed upon Him to hear the word of God, that He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. The lake of Gennesaret they say is the same as the sea of Galilee, or the sea of Tiberias. But it is called the sea of Galilee from the adjacent province, the sea of Tiberias from the nearest city, which was once called Chinnereth but, rebuilt by Herod the tetrarch, was named Tiberias in honour of Tiberius Caesar. Further, Genesar is so called by a Greek word, as it were "generating a breeze for itself", from the nature of the lake itself, by which, its waters rippling, it is said to raise a breeze for itself from itself. For its water does not lie flat after the manner of a pool, but is stirred by frequent breathing breezes; it is sweet to drink and fit for drinking. But by the usage of the Hebrew tongue every gathering of waters, whether sweet or salt, is called a sea. This lake, with the Jordan flowing through it,

extends a hundred and forty stadia in length and forty in breadth. Since, then, the lake or sea signifies the present world, the Lord stands by the sea after, overcoming the mortality of this gliding life, He has entered, in the flesh in which He suffered, into the stability of everlasting rest. The gathering of the multitudes to Him is a type of the Gentiles running together in faith. Of whom Isaiah says: And all nations shall flow unto Him, and many peoples shall go, and shall say: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord (Isa. 2:2–3).

And He saw two ships standing by the lake. The two ships placed by the lake figure the circumcision and the uncircumcision. Jesus is well said to have seen them, because in both peoples the Lord knows who are His. And He carries their heart forward from the waves of this world to the tranquillity of the life to come, as to the firmness of the shore, by "living", that is, by mercifully avoiding.

And the fishermen had gone down, and were washing their nets. The fishermen are the teachers of the Church, who, having caught us in the net of faith and drawn us up from the deep to the light, carry us to the land of the living as fish to the shore. For the interwoven discourses of preachers are as it were the nets of fishermen, which do not let go those whom they have taken in faith. Hence too nets (retia) are so called as it were from holding back (retinentia). But these nets are now let down for a catch, now washed and folded, because not every time is fit for teaching, but now the teacher must exercise his tongue, now take care of himself.

And going up into one ship, which was Simon's, He asked him to draw back a little from the land. And sitting, He taught the multitudes from the boat. Simon's ship is the primitive Church, of which Paul says: For He who worked in Peter for the apostleship of the circumcision worked in me also among the Gentiles (Gal. 2:8). It is well called one, because the multitude of believers had one heart and one soul (Acts 4:32). From it He taught the multitudes, because from the authority of the Church He teaches the nations to this day.

And when He had ceased to speak, He said to Simon: Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch. That He first asked Simon to draw the ship back a little from the land signifies either that the word must be used with measure towards the multitudes, so that neither are earthly things enjoined on them nor is there such a withdrawal from earthly things into the depths of the mysteries that they cannot understand them at all; or that it was to be preached first to the nations in the nearest regions, so that what He says next to Peter: Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch, may refer to the more remote nations to whom it was preached afterwards.

And Simon answering said to Him: Master, labouring all night, we have taken nothing. But at Thy word I will let down the net. — Unless the Lord build the house, they have laboured in vain who build it (Ps. 126:1). Unless the Lord enlightens the heart of the hearers, the teacher labours in the night. Unless the instruments of disputation are let down at the word of heavenly grace, in vain does the preacher cast the dart of his voice. For the faith of peoples comes not from the wisdom of composed speech but from the gift of the divine calling.

And when they had done this, they enclosed a very great multitude of fishes. And their net was breaking. The net was breaking for the multitude of fishes, because now, together with the elect, so many reprobate also enter into the confession of the faith, who rend even the Church herself with heresies. The net is broken, yet the fish does not slip away, because the Lord keeps His own even amid the stumbling-blocks of persecutors.

And they beckoned to their partners who were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. The other ship (as we said before) is the Church of the Gentiles, which also, since one boat is not enough, is filled with elect fishes, because the Lord knows who are His, and with Him the number of His elect is fixed. And since He did not find as many in Judaea who would believe as He knew to be predestined to faith and to eternal life, seeking as it were the holds of another ship for His fishes, He fills the hearts of the Gentiles too with the grace of faith. And well is the partner ship called when the net is broken, since first Judas the traitor and Simon Magus, most worthless fishes, were caught; first Ananias and Sapphira craftily tried to enter the net of faith; first, as John testifies, many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him (John 6:67); and then Barnabas and Paul were set apart for the apostleship of the Gentiles (Acts 13:2).

And they came and filled both the boats, so that they were sinking. The filling of these ships grows until the end of the world. But that, being filled, they sink, that is, are pressed towards going under (for they were not sunk, but they were in peril), the Apostle explains, saying: In the last days perilous times will come, and men will be lovers of themselves, etc. (2 Tim. 3:1–2). For the sinking of the ships is men's sliding back, through the depravity of their ways, into the world out of which they had been raised by faith. Such men Peter himself, still set in weakness, shows forth in this place. Hence there follows:

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at the knees of Jesus, saying: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For all the carnal in the Church in some fashion drive away from themselves the governance of the spiritual, in whom the person of Christ stands out most of all. For they do not say this to the good ministers of God by the voice of the tongue, so as to drive them away; but by the voice of their manners and actions they urge them to withdraw, lest they be ruled by the good; and the more vehemently they pay them honour, all the same by their deeds they admonish them to withdraw from them; so that Peter signified their honouring by falling at the Lord's feet, but their manners in that he says: Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. Yet because the Lord did not do this, for He did not withdraw from them but, the ships being drawn up, brought them to the shore, it signifies that good and spiritual men ought not to have this will, that, troubled by the sins of the multitudes, they should forsake the ecclesiastical office in order to live, as it were, more securely and more quietly.

And Jesus said to Simon: Fear not. The Lord strengthens the fear of the carnal and the spirits of the frail. By consoling He raises them up, lest anyone, either trembling from the consciousness of his own fault or amazed at the innocence of others,

should fear to set out on the way of holiness. But as for what follows,

From henceforth you shall be catching men, it belongs specially to Peter himself. For the Lord explains to him what this catch of fishes signifies: namely, that as he now catches fishes with nets, so one day he will catch men with words. And the whole order of this event shows what is done daily in the Church, whose type he bears. But what is added:

And having brought their ships to land, leaving all things, they followed Him, can signify the end of time, when those who have cleaved to Christ will withdraw wholly from this kind of sea. But it should be known that this is not the same account as that in which Matthew and Mark relate that fishermen were called by the Lord from their boats two by two, first Peter and Andrew, then the sons of Zebedee. For Luke does not imply that they were now called by the Lord, but only that it was foretold to Peter that he would catch men. Which was not said as though he would never catch fish again; for we read that even after the Lord's resurrection they went fishing. Hence we are given to understand that they returned as usual to catching fish, so that afterwards there took place what Matthew and Mark relate, when He called them two by two. For then they followed Him, not after drawing their ships to land as with a care to return, but as One who called and bade them follow.

And it came to pass, when He was in one of the cities, behold, a man full of leprosy. And seeing Jesus, and falling on his face, he besought Him, saying: Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. Fittingly, where the leper is cleansed, no definite place is expressed, to show that not one people of some particular city but the peoples of all were healed. And because the Lord says: I came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it (Matt. 5:17), he who was shut out by the Law, presuming that he would be cleansed by the Lord's power, judged that grace, which could wash away the leper's stain, was not from the Law but above the Law. And as in the Lord the authority of power, so in him the constancy of faith is declared. He fell on his face, which belongs to humility and shame, so that each one may blush for the stains of his own life. But shame did not hold back confession: he showed the wound, he asked for the remedy. And the confession itself is full of religion and faith. If Thou wilt, he says, Thou canst make me clean. He attributed power to the Lord's will. And he did not doubt of the Lord's will as one disbelieving His goodness, but, as one conscious of his own filth, he did not presume.

And stretching out His hand, He touched him, saying: I will; be made clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. There is nothing between the work of God and His command, because the work is in the command. In short, He spoke, and they were made. You see, therefore, that it cannot be doubted that the will of God is power. If, then, His will is power, those who affirm one will surely affirm one power. And so, as having the power of healing and the authority of commanding, He does not shrink from the witness of working. For He says I will, because of Photinus; He commands, because of Arius; He touches, because of the Manichee. And

the law indeed forbids lepers to be touched, but He who is Lord of the law does not obey the law, but makes the law. So He did not touch him because He could not cleanse without touch, but to prove that He was not subject to the law, nor feared contagion as men do, but that, since He who set others free could not be defiled, the leprosy, which used to defile whoever touched it, might be put to flight by the Lord's touch. And at the same time this is wonderful, that He healed in the very manner in which He had been entreated: If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. I will, He says, be made clean. You have the will; you have also the effect of His mercy.

And He charged him to tell no one. Why is he charged to tell no one, unless to teach that our kindnesses are not to be published but kept hidden, so that we may abstain not only from the reward of money but also from that of favour?

But go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a testimony to them, etc. He is ordered to show himself to the priest, so that the priest might understand that he had been cured not by the order of the law but by the grace of God above the law; and to offer sacrifice, so that the Lord might show that He was not destroying the law but fulfilling it: He who, walking according to the law, healed above the law those whom the remedies of the law had not healed. And He rightly added For a testimony to them, that is, if they believe God, if the leprosy of impiety departs. But if it troubles anyone how the Lord seems to approve the Mosaic sacrifice, when the Church has not received it, let him remember that the holy of holies sacrifice, which is His body, had not yet begun. For He had not yet offered His holocaust in the Passion. And the signifying sacrifices ought not to be taken away before that which was signified had been confirmed by the testimony of the preaching apostles and the faith of the believing peoples. But since in a type this man signifies the human race, sick with sins, he is rightly described not only as a leper but as full of leprosy. For all have sinned, and lack the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). That glory, namely, that by the outstretched hand of the Saviour, that is, by the incarnate Word of God touching human nature, they may be cleansed from the varied mottling of their ancient error, and may be able to hear with the apostles: Now you are clean, because of the word which I have spoken to you (John 15:3); and that those who for a long time, as abominable, were set apart from the camp of the people of God, may at last be restored to the temple and offered to the priest, to Him indeed to whom it is said: Thou art a priest for ever (Ps. 109:4), hearing from the Apostle: For the temple of God is holy, which you are (1 Cor. 3:17); and may offer for their cleansing as Moses commanded, that is, present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God (Rom. 12:1).

But the report about Him went abroad the more, and great crowds gathered to hear Him and to be cured of their infirmities. The complete salvation of one man draws many crowds to the Lord. For that he might show himself healed outwardly and inwardly, he by no means keeps silent about the benefit received, even when ordered to by Him from whom he had received it. Rather, as Mark relates, performing the office of an evangelist, as soon as he went out he began to preach and to spread abroad

the word, so that He could no longer openly enter a city, but was outside in desert places, and they came to Him from every side (Mark 1:45). Hence it is rightly asked what it means that the Lord ordered certain things He did to be hidden, and they could not be hidden even for an hour. For did the only-begotten Son, coeternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, have in this matter a will which He could not fulfil? But it must be noted that whatever our Redeemer did through His mortal body, He offered to us as an example of action. For in working a miracle He both ordered it to be kept silent and yet it could not be kept silent. So that, namely, His elect, following the examples of His teaching, may indeed wish that the great things they do should stay hidden, but, that they may profit others, may be made known against their will: so that it may be a mark of great humility that they desire their works to be kept silent, and of great sublimity that their works cannot be kept silent. So the Lord did not will something to be done and was unable to do it; rather, by the teaching of His instruction He gave an example of what His members ought to will, and of what is done concerning them even against their will.

But He withdrew into the desert, and prayed. That He withdraws to pray, you are not to ascribe to that nature which says, I will, be made clean, and was curing them of their infirmities, but to that which, stretching out its hand, touched the leper: not that, as Nestorius would have it, the person of the Son is twofold, but that, as the one same person has two natures, so also it has two operations. Otherwise: that He works miracles in the city, but spends the night praying in the desert or on the mountain (as is read below), shows us beforehand the patterns of both lives, namely the active and the contemplative, so that no one through zeal for contemplation should neglect the care of his neighbours, nor, bound too immoderately by care for his neighbours, abandon the pursuits of contemplation: so that neither love of neighbour hinders the love of God, nor love of God, because it surpasses it, casts off the love of neighbour. For to pray on the mountain is for anyone, leaving behind the cares of weak thoughts, to hasten with his whole mind to the eternal joys of heavenly contemplation. To withdraw into the desert and pray is to press down the din of earthly desires rising up within, and to seek within oneself a certain secret place with the Lord, where, the outward tumult ceasing, one may speak with Him silently through inward desires.

And it came to pass on one of the days, that He sat teaching, and there were Pharisees sitting by, etc. Where the Lord sat teaching when, with the scribes and Pharisees sitting by, He cured the paralytic, Luke passes over for brevity's sake; but Matthew and Mark, who relate it, seem to raise a question, since Matthew testifies that He did this in His own city, Mark in Capharnaum. This would be harder to resolve if Matthew had actually named Nazareth. But as it is, either Galilee itself, in which Nazareth lay, is to be understood as called the city of Christ, namely to distinguish it from the region of the Gerasenes across the sea, from which, crossing over, as Matthew writes, He had come into Galilee; or else Capharnaum itself is called the city of Christ, which He had made His own not by being born there but by making it illustrious with His mighty works.

And behold, men carrying on a bed a man who was paralysed, and they sought to bring him in and lay him before Him. The cure of this paralytic signifies the salvation of a soul that, after long sloth in carnal allurement, sighs for Christ. Such a soul first of all needs ministers to lift it up and bring it to Christ, that is, good teachers who may suggest the hope of healing and the help of intercession. These, as Mark relates, are rightly found to have been four, either because by the four books of the Gospel all the strength of preachers, all their speech, is made firm, or because there are four virtues by which the mind's confidence is raised up to merit health. Of these it is said in praise of eternal wisdom: For she teaches sobriety and wisdom, and justice and virtue, than which nothing is more profitable for men in life (Wis. 8:7). These some, with the names changed, call prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice.

And finding no way by which they might bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof through the tiles. They long to bring the paralytic to Christ, but are shut out on every side by the crowd in the way. For often the soul, coming back to its senses and turning to God after the sloth of the lowly body, and desiring to be renewed by the remedy of heavenly grace, is held back by the obstacle of its old habit. Often amid the very sweetness of secret prayer, and what is as it were a pleasant converse with the Lord, a crowd of thoughts comes between and shuts off the eye of the mind, so that Christ is not seen. And what is to be done amid this? Certainly one must not remain below, outside, where the crowds are in tumult, but must climb to the roof of the house in which Christ is teaching; that is, one must seek the height of sacred Scripture, and with the Psalmist meditate on the law of the Lord day and night. For wherewith does a young man correct his way? By keeping, he says, Thy words (Ps. 118:9).

And they let him down with the bed into the midst before Jesus. When the roof is opened the sick man is let down before Jesus, because when the mysteries of the Scriptures are unlocked one arrives at the knowledge of Christ, that is, one descends by the devotion of faith to His humility. And the house of Jesus is rightly described as roofed with tiles, because beneath the contemptible veil of the letter, if a teacher is at hand to unlock it, the divine power of spiritual grace will be found. And that he is let down with his bed signifies that Christ ought to be known by man while still placed in this flesh.

And when He saw their faith, He said: Man, your sins are forgiven you. The Lord, about to cure the man of paralysis, first loosens the bonds of his sins, to show that he was condemned to the loosening of his limbs because of the knots of his faults, and could not be healed by the recovery of his members unless these were first loosed. So too to that paralytic who long waited in vain for the moving of the water beside the sheep pool, when he had been healed by the Lord it is said: Behold, you are made whole; sin no more, lest something worse befall you (John 5:14). And he whose sins were being forgiven is rightly called man, since by the very fact that he was a man he could not say, I have not sinned; and at the same time so that He who was forgiving a man might be understood to be God. One must surely consider how much each person's own faith avails before God, when another's availed so much that the whole man suddenly,

that is, rose up now saved outwardly and inwardly, and through the merit of some, the errors of others were remitted.

And the scribes and Pharisees began to think, saying: Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? The scribes speak the truth, that no one can forgive sins but God, who forgives also through those to whom He has given the power of forgiving. And therefore Christ is proved to be truly God, because He is able to forgive sins as God. They bear true testimony to God, but are deceived in denying the person of Christ. So the Jews err, who, though they believe that the Christ is both God and able to forgive sins, yet do not believe that Jesus is the Christ. But far more madly do the Arians err, who, though, overcome by the words of the Gospel, they do not dare to deny that Jesus is both the Christ and able to forgive sins, nevertheless are not afraid to deny that He is God. But He, desiring to save the faithless, shows Himself to be God both by His knowledge of hidden things and by the power of His works.

For answering He said to them: What are you thinking in your hearts? For to the same God who says: I am, I am He who blots out your iniquities (Isa. 43:25), the wisest of petitioners says: For Thou alone knowest the hearts of all the children of men (1 Kgs. 8:39). By the same majesty and power, then, He says, by which I behold your thoughts, I am able also to forgive men their offences. Understand from yourselves what the paralytic obtains.

Which is easier, to say, Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Rise and walk? Whether the paralytic's sins were forgiven, only He who forgave knew. But Rise and walk, both he who rose and those who saw him rising could verify. So a bodily sign is given, that the spiritual one may be proved.

But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. If He is both God, according to the testimony of Isaiah mentioned above, who blots out our iniquities (Isa. 43:25), and the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins (Matt. 9:6), then He Himself is both God and Son of Man, so that the man Christ can forgive sins through the power of His divinity, and the same God Christ can die for sinners through the frailty of His humanity.

He said to the paralytic: I say to you, rise; take up your bed, and go into your house. To rise from the bed spiritually is for the soul to draw itself away from the carnal desires in which it lay sick. To take up the bed is to curb the flesh itself also with the reins of continence and, in hope of heavenly rewards, deprive it of earthly delights. For this is the very bed which is washed by David every night, that is, chastised for the stains of each offence by a worthy flood of penitence. To go home with the bed taken up is to return to paradise. For that is the true home, which first received man, lost not by right but by fraud, and at last restored by Him who owed nothing to the fraudulent enemy. Otherwise: the man who was sick, now healthy, carries his bed back home when the soul, having received the remission of sins, brings itself back, together with the body itself, into inner watchfulness over itself, lest after

pardon it commit something for which it would justly be struck again.

And at once rising before them, he took up the bed on which he lay, and went away to his house glorifying God, etc. Wonderful is the power of the divine might, where, with no delay of time intervening, swift health accompanies the Saviour's commands. Rightly do those who were present, having condemned the darts of blasphemy, turn their astonished hearts to the praise of so great a majesty.

And after these things He went out, and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the tax office, and said to him: Follow Me. This Levi is the same as Matthew, but Luke and Mark, out of modesty and respect for the evangelist, were unwilling to set down the name commonly known. But Matthew himself, according to what is written, The just man is the accuser of himself (Prov. 18:17), at the beginning of his account calls himself both Matthew and a publican, to show his readers that no one who has turned should despair of salvation, since he himself was suddenly changed from a publican into an apostle, from a tax-collector into an evangelist. And leaving all things, he rose and followed Him. Matthew, understanding what it is truly to follow the Lord, leaves all things and follows. For to follow is to imitate. And so, that he might pursue the poor Christ not so much with his steps as with his affection, he who used to seize what belonged to others left what was his own; and, giving us a perfect pattern of renouncing the world, he not only left the profits of the taxes but also despised the danger that could come upon him from the rulers of the world, because he left the tax accounts unfinished and unsettled. For he was led by so great a desire of following the Lord that he kept for himself no regard or thought whatever for anything of this life. For this reason, by a just reward, while he diligently forsook human business, he deserved to be the faithful steward of the Lord's talents.

And Levi made Him a great feast in his house. He who receives Christ into his inner dwelling is fed with the greatest delights of surpassing pleasures. So the Lord gladly enters and reclines in the affection of him who has believed; and this is the spiritual feast of good works, which the rich people lack and the poor feast upon.

And there was a great crowd of publicans and of others who were reclining with them. They had seen that a publican, turned from sins to better things, had found a place of penitence, and on that account they too do not despair of salvation.

And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured, saying to His disciples: Why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? While the publicans feast with the Lord, the Pharisees, murmuring, boast of their fasting. Here, first, it is declared how great is the distance between the law and grace: that those who follow the law suffer the eternal hunger of a starving mind, whereas those who have received the Word into the inner parts of the soul, refreshed by heavenly nourishment and by the abundance of the fountain, cannot hunger and thirst. Then a figure of the future recompense is foreshown, when, while the elect feast with Christ, the faithlessness of the proud will be tormented with hunger. To them it is said, Harlots and publicans shall go before you into the kingdom of God (Matt. 21:31). But if through the choosing of Matthew the faith of the Gentiles

which formerly gaped after the gains of the world, but now refresh the body of Christ with diligent devotion, is expressed, then surely the haughtiness of the Pharisees signifies the envy of the Jews, by which they are tormented over the salvation of the Gentiles.

And Jesus answering said to them: They that are well need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the just, but sinners to repentance. He rebukes the scribes and Pharisees, who, thinking themselves just, avoided the company of sinners. For He calls Himself the physician, who by a wonderful manner of healing was wounded for our iniquities, and by His bruise we are healed (Isa. 53:5). But He calls well and just those who, not knowing the justice of God and wishing to establish their own, have not submitted to the justice of God; who, presuming on the law, do not seek the grace of the Gospel. And He calls sick and sinners those who, overcome by the awareness of their own frailty and seeing that they cannot be justified through the law, submit themselves by repentance to the grace of Christ. Here it is shown at the same time that the publicans came to Jesus not remaining in their former vices, as the Pharisees and scribes murmured, but doing penance; and that Jesus Himself also deigned to go to the feasts of sinners so that He might have occasion to teach and might provide spiritual food for those who invited Him. In short, whenever He is described as going to a feast, nothing else is related but what He did there and what He taught, so that both the humility of the Lord in going to sinners and the power of His teaching in the conversion of penitents may be shown.

But they said to Him: Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Thine eat and drink? Matthew reports that John's disciples themselves said this to the Saviour; from which it is clear that both together pressed Him with this question. Here John's disciples are especially to be blamed, not only for boasting of their fasting, but because they slandered Him whom they knew to have been proclaimed by their master, and joined themselves to the Pharisees, whom they knew to have been condemned by him. Spiritually, however, the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but those of Christ eat and drink, because whoever follows the works of the law or the traditions of men, or even receives the very proclamation of Christ only with the ear of the body, abstaining from spiritual goods, wastes away with a fasting heart. But he who is incorporated into the members of Christ by faithful love cannot fast, because he feasts on His flesh and blood. Otherwise: John drinks neither wine nor strong drink, the Lord eats and drinks with publicans and sinners, because the one increases merit by abstinence, having no power by nature; but the Lord, to whom it belonged by nature to forgive offences, why should He avoid those whom He could make purer than those who abstain? But Christ also fasted, that you might not shun the precept. He ate with sinners, that you might see His grace and acknowledge His power.

To them He said: Can you make the children of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, then they will fast in those days. The bridegroom is Christ, the bride

the Church. From this holy and spiritual marriage the apostles were begotten. Hence Mark the evangelist rightly calls them sons of the wedding, not of the bridegroom only but also of the bride, wishing it to be understood that through the washing of regeneration they were taken up into the rights of divine sonship. They cannot fast and mourn as long as they see the bridegroom in the bridal chamber and know that He is with the bride. But when the wedding has passed, and the time of the Passion and Resurrection has come, then the sons of the bridegroom will fast. And that Luke does not say, as the others do, Can the sons of the bridegroom, or of the wedding, fast or mourn, but Can you make the sons of the bridegroom fast (Luke 5:34)? he elegantly intimated that the very men who were speaking would bring it about that the sons of the bridegroom would fast in mourning, since they themselves were going to kill the bridegroom. But it should be noted that this mourning for the bridegroom's absence has been kept not only now, that is, after the death and Resurrection of the same bridegroom, but also before His Incarnation, through the whole time of this world. For the first times of the Church before the Virgin's childbearing had saints who longed for the coming of Christ's Incarnation. And these times, since He ascended into heaven, have saints who long for His manifestation to judge the living and the dead. Nor has this longing mourning of the Church rested at all, except as long as He lived here in the flesh with His disciples. According to the laws of tropology, however, it must be known that as long as the bridegroom is with us and we are in gladness, we can neither fast nor mourn. But when He has withdrawn from us because of sins and flown away, then fasting is to be proclaimed, then mourning is to be taken up.

And He spoke also a parable to them: No one puts a patch from a new garment upon an old garment. Otherwise he both tears the new, and the patch from the new does not agree with the old. When the Lord had been asked why His disciples did not fast, He answered that those who were still carnal, and not yet made firm in faith in His Passion and Resurrection, could not bear the more severe fasts and precepts of continence, lest through excessive austerity they should lose even the belief which they seemed to have. So He calls these disciples, as they still were, old garments, onto which a new cloth is unfittingly sewn, that is, some small part of the teaching that pertains to the temperance of the new life. For if this is done, the teaching itself is in a way torn, since that part of it which concerns fasting from foods is handed on out of season. For that teaching teaches a general fast, not from the desire of foods only but from all gladness in temporal delights; and He says that a patch of it, as it were, that is, some part pertaining to foods, ought not to be given to men still given over to the old habit. For on that side, too, a tearing seems to take place, and it does not suit the old state itself.

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the new wine bursts the skins, and it is itself poured out, and the skins will perish. But new wine must be put into new skins, and both are preserved. These same men also

He compares to old wineskins, which He says would more easily be burst by new wine, that is, by spiritual precepts, than be able to hold it. But they will now be new wineskins when, after the Lord's ascension, they are renewed by praying and hoping in longing for His consolation. For then they received the Holy Spirit, and when, filled with Him, they spoke in all tongues, it was said by the Jews, who did not understand yet bore true witness, that these men are full of new wine. For the new wine had now [filled] new skins, that is, the fervour of the Holy Spirit had filled the hearts of the spiritual. Otherwise: the teacher must beware lest he entrust the secrets of the new mysteries to a soul not yet renewed but persisting in the oldness of malice.

And no one drinking the old at once wants the new, for he says, The old is better. He signifies the Jews, to whom, steeped in the taste of the old life, the precepts of the new grace had become worthless. For, stained as they were by the traditions of their elders, they were by no means able to perceive the sweetness of spiritual words.

CHAPTER VI.

And it came to pass on the second-first Sabbath, as He was passing through the cornfields, His disciples were plucking ears and eating them, rubbing them in their hands. This is what Mark says, that because of the excessive importunity of those who came to be cured, the disciples had no time even to eat, and so, being men, they were hungry. And that they rub ears of the crops in their hands and so relieve their hunger is a sign of a stricter life, of people seeking not prepared banquets but simple food. And note that the first apostles of the Saviour destroy the letter of the Sabbath, against the Ebionites, who, though they receive the other apostles, reject Paul as a transgressor of the law. Hence Luke rightly calls the day on which the letter of the Sabbath had begun to be loosed δευτερόπρωτον, that is, the second-first Sabbath, wishing to intimate that the observance of the legal Sabbath ought to cease thenceforth, and that the freedom of the natural Sabbath, which up to the times of Moses was like that of the other days, ought to be restored. So that, just as it is not circumcision or the ceremonies of the law that save the Church, but the faith of Abraham, by which he was justified in uncircumcision, working through love, so also nothing other than the spiritual Sabbath, in which Abraham himself was always free from servile, that is, harmful, action, commends her to God through the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit. The Sabbath of this time, then, in which, as on the other days, it is lawful to do every useful thing, He calls second-first to distinguish it from the Jewish Sabbath, on which it was not lawful to make a journey, nor to gather wood, nor to do any other necessary thing. That is, this first is set above the second either in order of time, because through countless ages before the law it was kept by the fathers as it is kept now, or at any rate, signifying by the gift of grace that you should understand second-first to be nothing other than a Sabbath higher than the lower. For the first man was of the earth, earthly; the second man from heaven, heavenly. Yet he does not err who would call the Lord Jesus Christ the second-first Adam, who, namely by merit and grace, not by the order of human birth, first

passed Adam, according to what His forerunner says of Him: He who comes after me was made before me, for He was before me (John 1:15). It can also be understood as said in the sense of the second-first Sabbath that the one and same Sabbath of the New Testament is both second and first. Second, because it is kept by us after the legal Sabbath; first, because it was also kept by the just of old before the decrees of the law. Mystically, however, the disciples pass through the cornfields, namely those of which the Lord says, Lift up your eyes, and see the countries, for they are white already for the harvest, and he who reaps receives wages (John 4:35–36). And so they are understood to hunger for nothing better than the salvation of men; which the first of the reapers himself, once hungering amid his prayers, presently, when the meats he longed for had been shown him, hears: Arise, Peter, kill and eat (Acts 10:13). And wonderful is the agreement of the mystery, that there animals are ordered to be killed and eaten, and here ears are reported to be rubbed and nonetheless eaten. For this is: Mortify your members which are upon the earth, and strip off the old man with his deeds (Col. 3:5, 9). For in no other way does anyone pass into the body of Christ, in no other way does he feed the teacher with the fruits of his progress. To pluck ears, then, is to root men out from the earthly intention in which they had fixed, as it were, the root of their mind. To rub with the hands is, by examples of virtues, to strip the purity of the mind of the very concupiscence of the flesh, as of the husks and coverings of the beards of the grain. And to eat the grains is for each one, cleansed from all defilement of flesh and spirit, to be incorporated through the mouths of the preachers into the members of the Church. And rightly, in Mark, the disciples are reported to have done this going ahead of the Lord, because the teacher's word must go before, and so the grace of heavenly visitation enlightens the hearer's heart.

But some of the Pharisees said to them: Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbaths? The other evangelists relate that this was rather put to the Lord Himself. But whether these things were said to Him, or to His disciples, or by several accusers here and there to both (for no evangelist could write what is false), yet because whatever is done by the disciples has regard to Him whose teaching they follow in acting, at once, according to what Isaiah says: And He shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth (Isa. 11:4), He overcomes the false defenders of the law with the true examples of the saints. For He says:

Have you not read this, what David did when he was hungry, himself and those who were with him, how he went into the house of God and took the loaves of proposition and ate, and gave to those who were with him, which it is not lawful to eat except for the priests alone? The history of the Kings relates that blessed David, avoiding the snares of Saul, came to Abimelech the priest at Nob and asked food for himself and his men. And that the priest, having no common bread, when first he had only learned that the young men had been clean from women since yesterday and the day before, did not hesitate to give him the consecrated loaves, judging it better, as the prophet says: I will have mercy and not sacrifice (Matt. 9:13), to free men from the danger of famine than to offer sacrifice to God. For a victim pleasing to God is men's

salvation. So the Lord sets this against the slandering Pharisees and says: If David too is holy, and Abimelech the high priest is not blamed by you, but both transgressed the commandment of the law with an acceptable excuse, and hunger is the cause, why do you not approve in the apostles the same hunger that you approve in the others? Although even in this there is a great difference: these rub ears in the hand on the Sabbath, those ate the Levitical loaves, and that at the solemnity of the Sabbath. For the loaves of proposition were baked before the Sabbath, and on the Sabbath morning were offered and placed upon the sacred table, twice six, turned towards one another, with two golden dishes full of frankincense set on them. These remained until the next Sabbath, and then others were brought in their place, while those were given to the priests. And when the frankincense had been burned in the sacred fire in which all the holocausts used to be made, other frankincense was put upon the other twelve loaves. Arriving at that hour, David, receiving the consecrated loaves, showed in a figure that the priestly food would pass over to the use of the peoples: either because we all ought to imitate the priestly life, or because all the children of the Church are priests. For we are anointed into a holy priesthood, offering ourselves to God as spiritual victims.

And He said to them, that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. If, He says, David the king is excusable for having fed on the priestly food, and, on the testimony of another Gospel, the priests who violate the Sabbath through the service of the temple are free of guilt, how much more is the Son of Man, who is true king and true priest and therefore Lord of the Sabbath, not held guilty for the ears plucked on the Sabbath.

And it came to pass also on another Sabbath that He entered into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. On the Sabbaths especially the Lord teaches in the synagogue and works mighty deeds, not only to intimate the spiritual Sabbath but also because of the more crowded gathering of the people on that day. For it was then the custom of that people, by an ancient institution of the Fathers, since it was ordered by the law to rest from labour, to give its attention to reading and hearing the Scriptures. As James says in the Acts of the Apostles: For Moses of old time has in the synagogues those who preach him, where he is read every Sabbath (Acts 15:21). For just as those whose art is hunting spread their nets chiefly where they have learned that wild beasts, fish and birds abound, so too the Lord always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews came together, willing that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. The man who had the withered hand signifies the human race, dried up by barrenness in good works, but cured by the Lord's mercy. Its right hand, which had withered in our first parent when he plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree, was restored to health with the sap of good works through the grace of the Redeemer, when He stretched out His innocent hands on the tree of the cross. And rightly the withered hand was in the synagogue, because where the gift of knowledge is greater, there the danger of inexcusable guilt is graver.

But the scribes and Pharisees watched whether He would heal on the Sabbath,

that they might find [how] to accuse Him. Because the master had excused by a commendable example the breaking of the Sabbath which they were charging against the disciples, now, by watching the master Himself, they want to slander Him, so that if He heals on the Sabbath they may charge Him with transgression, and if He does not heal, with cruelty or weakness.

But He knew their thoughts, etc. This is what we read: The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain (Ps. 93:11). And what follows: Blessed is the man whom Thou shalt instruct, O Lord, and shalt teach out of Thy law (Ps. 93:12). This is said of those who have learned that the law has been fulfilled through Christ, and that through it not a carnal but a spiritual Sabbath has been commanded to us.

And Jesus said to them: I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or evil? Forestalling the slander of the Jews which they had prepared against Him with a faithless mind, the Lord convicts them of having violated the precepts of the law by a perverse interpretation, in thinking that on the Sabbath one must rest even from good works, whereas the law commands abstaining from evil ones, saying: You shall do no servile work on it (Lev. 23), that is, sin: for everyone who commits sin is the servant of sin (John 8:34). By the same precept [the law] at the same time foreshadows in things present the form of the world to come, where those who have done good through the six ages of this world will, in the seventh rest, keep holiday only from evil things, not from good ones as well. For although worldly works cease, yet to rest in the praise of God is not an idle act of good work.

To save a life, or to destroy it? That is, to heal a man, or not. It is the same as what He had said before: To do good, or evil. Not that God, who is supremely good, could be to us the author of evil or of destruction, but that, by the usage of Scripture, His not saving is called destroying. Just as He is said to have hardened Pharaoh's heart, not because He hardened a soft one, but because He would not in mercy soften one hardened by its preceding deserts. And when we ask, lead us not into temptation (Matt. 6:13), and at once add: But deliver us from evil (ibid.), we are plainly taught that His not leading into temptation is nothing other than delivering from evil; and that His destroying a soul is not saving it from destruction. If anyone is troubled why the Lord, when He was about to heal a body, asked about the saving of a soul, let him understand either that "soul" is put for the man in the manner of the Scriptures, as it is said: These are the souls that came out of the thigh of Jacob (Exod. 1:5); or that He did those miracles for the salvation of the soul; or that the healing of the hand itself signified the salvation of the soul, which, ceasing (as I said before) from good works, seemed in a certain way to have a withered right hand.

And looking round on them all, He said to the man: Stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The withered hand that is to be healed is ordered to be stretched out, because the weakness of an unfruitful soul is cured by no better way than by the bounty of almsgiving. Hence John the Baptist, when the crowds asked what they should do so as not to be cast into the fire like dry trees, commanded this alone: He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none, and he who has food, let him do likewise (Luke 3:11). And in Ecclesiasticus

it is said: Son, let not your hand be stretched out to receive, and closed in giving (Sir. 4:31). For in vain does he spread out his hands to God to make petition for his sins, who has not stretched them out to a widow who asks, to bring her a kindness.

But they were filled with folly, and talked with one another what they might do to Jesus. Great folly indeed, that those who stood most in need of salvation should take counsel about the death of the Saviour. How much they are bent on wickedness is shown when they count even this as a crime, that at His word the man who was ailing stretched out his right hand made whole. As if each of them did not do greater things on the Sabbath, carrying food, holding out a cup, and carrying out the other things that are necessary for living. For He who spoke and they were made could not be convicted of having laboured on the Sabbath.

And it came to pass in those days, He went out into a mountain to pray. Not everyone who prays goes up into a mountain. For there is a prayer that makes sin. But he who prays well, who seeks God by praying, he, advancing from earthly things to higher ones, climbs the summit of a loftier care. But he who makes entreaty anxious about riches, or the honour of the world, or indeed the death of an enemy, lying himself in the lowest places, sends up worthless prayers to God. Now the Lord prays, not to make entreaty for Himself, but to obtain [grace] for me. For even though the Father has put all things in the power of the Son, yet the Son, in order to fulfil the form of man, judges that the Father is to be entreated for us, because He is our advocate: For we have, he says, an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ (1 John 2:1). If He is an advocate, He must intercede for my sins. He entreats, then, not as one weak, but as one dutiful. Do you wish to know how He can do all that He wills? He is both advocate and judge. In the one is the office of dutiful love; in the other, the badge of power.

And He was passing the night in the prayer of God. A pattern is set before you which you ought to imitate. For what must you do for your own salvation, when Christ passes the night in prayer for you? What is it fitting for you to do, when you wish to undertake some office of dutiful love, when Christ, about to send out the apostles, took care to pray first? Do you wish to know how much He prayed for me, not for Himself?

And when it was day, he says, He called His disciples, and chose twelve of them. Here it is to be noted that the Scripture of the Gospels and of the apostles calls disciples of Christ not only those twelve, but also all who, believing in Him, were being instructed by His teaching for the kingdom of heaven. For disciples are so called from learning, and from their multitude He chose those whom He willed.

Whom He also named apostles. "Apostles" in Greek are called "sent" in Latin. Explaining the mystery of this name, the evangelist Mark says: And He made it so that twelve should be with Him, and that He might send them to preach the Gospel (Mark 3:14). And the Lord Himself says: As the Father has sent Me, I also send you (John 20:21). They were fittingly chosen as twelve, so that the salvation of the world which they were to preach by word they might also commend mystically by their number. For three times four, decus dipondium (sic). For this is why also above

I said that when Solomon, in a type of the Church, built a temple to the Lord, he also made a bronze sea, in which the priests were to wash, and set it upon the haunches of twelve oxen, of which three looked to the north, three to the west, three to the south, and three to the east, signifying figuratively that the apostles and the successors of the apostles would cleanse all the regions of the four-square world from the stain of sins by faith in and confession of the Holy Trinity.

Simon, whom He surnamed Peter, and Andrew his brother. It was not now for the first time that He gave Simon the surname of Peter, but long before, when, looking on him as he was brought to Him by his brother Andrew, He said: You are Simon the son of Joanna; you shall be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter (John 1:42). But since Luke, wishing to enumerate the names of the twelve apostles, had to say "Peter", he wished to indicate briefly that he was not called this before, but that the Lord so surnamed him, though not then, but when John set down the Lord's very words, thus making his hearers attentive. For if he had been called this before, you would not so see the mystery of the rock, thinking he was so called by chance, not by the providence of God. Therefore He willed that he should first be called something else, so that by the very change of name the liveliness of the mystery might be commended. Peter in Latin, then, is the same as Cephas in Syriac, and in both languages the name is derived from "rock", without doubt the one of which Paul says: And the rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4). For just as Christ, the true light, granted to the apostles that they should be called the light of the world, so too on Simon, who believed in Christ the rock, He bestowed the name of Peter. Alluding to its etymology elsewhere He said: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church (Matt. 16:18). Forcibly, therefore, do certain people, seeking a Hebrew etymology for a Latin or Greek name, say that Peter is interpreted "loosing", or "unshoeing", or "acknowledging": whereas both the explanation of John the Evangelist, which I have mentioned, and the Hebrew language itself, which does not sound the letter P at all, testify that this name is not Hebrew. For, wrongly writing Fetrus for Petrus, as also Faulus for Paulus and Filatus for Pilatus, they forcibly attach a false interpretation to a made-up name. Simon, however, is interpreted "obedient". Andrew, moreover, is a Greek name, called "manly" from ἀνήρ, that is, from "man". With these names the first of the apostles are fittingly adorned, who, as soon as they came to know the Lamb of God through John, took care to see and hear Him. That Simon is also interpreted "laying aside grief" or "hearing sadness" fits that time when, after the resurrection, having seen the Lord, he laid aside the grief either of His death or of his own denial, but at once heard the sadness of his own death, as the Lord said: But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and lead you where you do not wish (John 21:18).

James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas. Beautifully and reverently Luke, in the catalogue of the apostles, chose to call him Matthew by his usual name, but at his first call from the tax office, as I pointed out above, Levi. He himself truly

Matthew, according to what is written: Declare your iniquities, that you may be justified (Isa. 43:26); and he plainly names Matthew as called from the tax office, and in the list of the apostles surnames himself the publican, and moreover, though he is placed before his companion Thomas by the other evangelists, he puts himself after him in the order. James indeed and John, on account of the surpassing height of their virtue and spirit, were surnamed by the Lord sons of thunder, that is, βοανεργεῖς, or, as it is more correctly written, banereem. And not without reason. One of them, thundering from heaven, uttered that theological word which no one before had known how to bring forth: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, etc. (John 1:1). And he left these things pregnant with such strength that, had he wished to thunder somewhat more, not even the world itself could have contained it. Moreover, both of them were often privileged to be led apart, and up a mountain, by the Lord, and once to hear the terrifying sound from the cloud: This is My beloved Son. They also bore ancient names most fitting to their merits. For James is called "supplanter", John "in whom is grace", or "grace of the Lord". For the one, at the Lord's call, rejoiced to supplant the care of the flesh, and, when Herod slew him, to despise the flesh itself. The other, because of the grace of a special love which he had merited by the glory of virginity, reclined at supper upon the breast of his Redeemer. Philip is interpreted "mouth of the lamp". And rightly, because, as soon as he was called by the Lord, on finding Nathanael he proclaimed the light which he had recognized, saying: We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote, Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth (John 1:45). And afterwards, because he felt that he knew too little of the light, he humbly asked: Lord, he said, show us the Father, and it is enough for us (John 14:8). Bartholomew is Syriac, not Hebrew, and is interpreted "son of him who suspends the waters", that is, the Son of God, who lifts up the minds of His preachers to contemplate heavenly things, so that the more freely they fly through the heights, the more fruitfully they may drench the hearts of earthly men with the drops of their words. Hence Moses, speaking mystically of the Church, well says: For the land which you are going in to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you came out, where, when the seed is sown, waters are led in for watering after the manner of gardens; but it waits for rain from heaven, a land which its God visits at all times (Deut. 11:10–12). For worldly wisdom creeps along the ground like a serpent, but divine wisdom thunders from heaven. Matthew is called "given", namely because by a great gift of the Lord he was appointed from a tax-gathering publican to the office of apostle and evangelist. Thomas, "abyss" or "twin". Hence he is also called in Greek Didymus, because the longer he doubted than the others, the more deeply he learned the truth of the Lord's resurrection. Of him Paulinus, bishop of Nola, beautifully sang:

Here lies Thomas, the doubter, Didymus by his twin surname; Christ allowed him, through the hesitation of a fearful mind, to doubt for the sake of our faith, so that we too, made firm by this guide, trembling before our Lord and God, might confess that Jesus lives after death in a true body, showing the living wounds of His flesh.

James of Alphaeus, and Simon who is called the Zealot. These he set down with an addition, to distinguish [them from] James

of Zebedee and of Simon Peter, or also of Judas the traitor. For that he too was called Simon, John shows, who says: And when He had dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas [son] of Simon Iscariot (John 13:26). And James of Alphaeus is the one who in the Gospel is called the brother of the Lord, because Mary the wife of Alphaeus was the sister of Mary the mother of the Lord, the Mary whom John the evangelist calls [Mary] of Cleophas. Perhaps because the same Alphaeus was also called Cleophas, or because Mary herself, when Alphaeus died after James was born, married Cleophas. Ecclesiastical history relates that she bore him a son, Simeon, and that he, being a cousin of the Lord, since Cleophas was the brother of Joseph, ruled the Church at Jerusalem after James; whether this was the apostle Simon or some other Simeon. That James was deservedly surnamed son of Alphaeus, that is, "of the learned", the apostles themselves testify, who immediately after the Lord's passion ordained him bishop of Jerusalem. That even before the shedding of his blood he too was a true supplanter of fleshly desire, Hegesippus testifies, a historian close to the times of the apostles. After the apostles, he says, the brother of the Lord, James surnamed the Just, took charge of the Church of Jerusalem. Many indeed are called James; this one was called holy from his mother's womb, drank no wine or strong drink, ate no meat, was never shorn, was not anointed with ointment, and did not use the bath. To him it was customary to enter the holy of holies. For he did not use woollen garments but linen ones, and he alone used to enter the temple, and on bended knees prayed for the people. So much so that his knees were believed to have taken on the hardness of camels'. Simon the Zealot, moreover, is the same as Simon the Cananaean, from the village of Cana in Galilee, where the Lord turned water into wine. For Cana is interpreted "zeal", Cananaean "Zealot".

Judas of James, and Judas Iscariot, who was the traitor. For the sake of distinguishing these too he doubled the names. One of them, as he himself writes in his catholic Epistle, is the brother of James, and he was also called Thaddaeus. The other took a name presaging his condemnation, either from the village in which he was born or from the tribe of Issachar. For Issachar, which means "reward", hints at the price of the betrayal. And Iscariot, which is interpreted "memory of death", shows that he was not persuaded on a sudden, but undertook the crime of betraying the Lord after long premeditation. He is chosen among the apostles not through imprudence but through providence. For how great is the truth, which not even a hostile servant weakens? How great the moral wisdom of the Lord, who chose rather that His judgement than His affection should be put at risk in our eyes? For He had taken on the frailty of man, and therefore did not refuse even these parts of human weakness. He willed to be deserted, He willed to be betrayed, He willed to be handed over by His own apostle, so that you, deserted by a companion, betrayed by a companion, may bear with moderation that your judgement erred and your kindness was lost.

And coming down with them He stood in a level place, and the crowd of His disciples, and a great multitude of the people.

When He was about to choose the apostles, the Lord went up into the mountains, but when about to teach the crowds He returns to the plains, because the crowds are able to see Christ only in a lowly place. For this is the rule following which the Apostle says: I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to carnal. As to little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not solid food. For you were not yet able, and not even now are you able (1 Cor. 3:1–2). The apostles themselves, however, according to Matthew, are related to have been taught, as being more perfect, both on the mountain and by the Saviour's open mouth. Here, if anyone wishes to examine both evangelists more carefully, it can be understood that when on the mountain He chose twelve disciples out of many, whom He also named apostles, which Matthew passed over, He then gave that sermon which Matthew inserted and Luke left unsaid, that is, on the mountain; and then, when He had come down, He gave another like it in the level place, about which Matthew is silent and Luke is not silent; and that both sermons were concluded in the same way.

From all Judaea and Jerusalem and the sea coast, and of Tyre and Sidon, etc. I think the multitude of the sea coast is so named not from the nearby sea of Galilee (for he would not set this down as a marvel), but from the great sea, in which [coast] Tyre and Sidon too could be included. But because these are cities of the gentiles, allotted indeed to the Jews but not possessed by them, since they could not drive out the enemy, they are deliberately set down by name, so that it may be made known how great was the fame and power of the Saviour, which summoned even foreign cities to seek healing and teaching. Here it is to be noted that although the Lord had pity on gentiles who came to Him, whence He healed both the centurion's servant and the Canaanite woman's daughter, having approved the faith of those who asked, yet He is not found to have entered their cities, lest, that is, He should give the slandering Jews occasion for complaint; but He reserved rather the perfect salvation of the gentiles for the time of His passion and resurrection. When that time was at hand, He said to the gentiles who sought to see Him: Unless a grain of wheat falling into the ground dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24–25).

And the whole crowd sought to touch Him, because power went out from Him, and healed all. Above, too, the leper is cleansed at the Lord's touch, and here the whole crowd which was able to touch Him is healed by the power of His spirit. The Saviour's touch, then, is the work of salvation. To touch Him is to believe in Him faithfully. To be touched by Him is to be strengthened by His gift. But each one abounds in his own sense. The crowds which flock from afar to hear are healed by the touch of the Lord as He comes down into the plain. The disciples, who have already been trained in lesser things, are carried forward to greater ones on the summit of the mountain. From them, too, are chosen those who are to behold Him transfigured in secret on the mountain. One, before all, as one to be made drunk at the fount of loftier wisdom, reclines on the master's breast. And rarely anywhere will you find either the crowds following the Lord to higher places or any infirm person being healed on a mountain; but, the fever quenched,

of the lusts, and the light of knowledge kindled, each one climbs step by step to the summit of the virtues. For in the Old Testament too Moses, going up the mountain of God alone with Joshua, appointed Aaron and Hur to govern the people in the plain until they returned. For Aaron, who is interpreted "mountain of strength", [signifies] the singular excellence of the Lord's Incarnation; and Hur, who is called "fire", hints at the gift of the Holy Spirit. Because many little ones in the Church, even if they cannot accompany the masters in penetrating the secrets of the supreme Godhead, can nevertheless be redeemed by the sacraments of the Lord's Incarnation and sealed by the ardour of the Holy Spirit.

And He, lifting up His eyes on His disciples, said: Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Although He speaks to all in general, yet the Saviour lifts His eyes more particularly on the disciples, so that to those who receive the word with the attentive ear of the heart He may open more widely the light of its inner savour. Like this is what Matthew says: And when He had sat down, His disciples came to Him, and opening His mouth He taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit (Matt. 5:1–3). For those for whom, sitting on the mountain, He opens His mouth, so that they may hear great things in a lofty way, are those on whom, standing in the plain, He directs His eyes, so that they may plainly understand what they have heard. Blessed, then, are the poor. Not all, certainly, but only those who count as nothing every height of the present world, however lofty it may seem. They are rightly declared worthy of the gift of the heavenly kingdom, because they are proved to be stripped of the desire of human delight. Declaring that he had borne such poverty, King David says: But I am needy and poor. And elsewhere, holding cheap not only earthly things but even the things above the heavens in comparison with the Lord, and saying: For what remains for me in heaven, and what did I desire upon earth besides Thee (Ps. 72:25)? as soon as he had fixed the anchor of his hope, he makes it plain by adding: But it is good for me to cleave to God, to put my hope in the Lord God (Ps. 72:28). Otherwise, some, by a most wretched condition of poverty, lack both the joys of the world here for want of means, and the kingdom of God there for the wickedness of their deserts.

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. What the blessed ought to hunger and thirst for, Matthew explains, namely justice, teaching us most plainly that we ought never to reckon ourselves just enough, but always to love, nay, to burn for, daily progress in justice. That its perfect fullness can come not in this world but in the world to come, the Psalmist shows, burning with desire for the things above, when he says: But I shall appear in Thy sight with justice; I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall be made manifest (Ps. 16:15). It can also be taken simply: Blessed are you who hunger now, you who chastise your body and bring it into subjection (1 Cor. 9:27), who in hunger and thirst give your labour to the word (2 Cor. 11:27), for you shall then enjoy the abundance of heavenly joys.

Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Those who weep not for the losses of temporal advantages but for the damage to spiritual virtues will be consoled with eternal blessedness. Here we are commanded to bewail not only our own misdeeds but also our neighbour's. If we love him as ourselves,

it follows that we must both rejoice at his progress and be troubled at his failing; and not only be troubled, but be kindled even to tears. For so Samuel and David mourn the sin and the death of Saul. So the Lord Himself wept over the sinful city, and, sharing the grief of the sorrowing sisters, first bewailed with human compassion Lazarus, whom He was about to raise by His divine majesty, signifying mystically that those who are lulled asleep in the death of sin are to be lamented by their neighbours, so that [each] may come back to life. That He promises that those who weep now will laugh is not to be taken childishly; but in the manner of Scripture, by the name of laughter is to be understood the exultation of the mind and a certain gladder affection. As Sarah [says]: God has made laughter for me (Gen. 21:6). And in Job it is said: But the mouth of the truthful will be filled with laughter (Job 8:21). By which names (as I said) the joy of the soul within is figured.

Blessed shall you be when men hate you, and when they separate you, and reproach you. He who, for the sake of the riches of Christ's inheritance in the saints, for the sake of the bread of eternal life, and for the hope of heavenly joys, desires to suffer weeping, hunger and poverty, is blessed. But far more blessed is he who does not fear to keep these virtues amid adversities. For though men hate with wicked heart, they cannot hurt a heart beloved by Christ. Let them separate and drive out of the synagogue: Christ finds and strengthens. Let them reproach the name of the Crucified: He raises up together with Himself those who have died with Him, and makes them sit together in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6).

And cast out your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of man. The "your name" that He speaks of signifies the name of Christians, which by gentiles and Jews has very often been erased, so far as lay in them, from memory, and cast out by men, there being now no cause of hatred except for the sake of the Son of man, namely because believers chose to make the name of Christ their own surname; and therefore the persecutors of the highest name are not undeservedly marked with the name of men. Blessed (He says) shall you be, when men hate you, teaching that they would be hunted by men, but blessed beyond men.

Rejoice in that day, and exult. For behold, your reward is great in heaven. This precept cannot be fulfilled by just anyone who suffers, but by him who suffers with an eye only to the reward above, so that amid the hatreds of hearts, amid the reproaches of tongues, amid the very hands of persecutors, he may go about with an even, nay, a still gladder heart; such as people like us cannot attain to, but those who went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were counted worthy to suffer insult for the name of Jesus (Acts 5:41). He, then, who endures many adversities on earth for Christ will receive many gifts in heaven from Christ. But how many darts of words the false prophets endured from Elijah, mocking them as he said: Cry with a louder voice: for Baal is a god, and perhaps he is talking, or he is at an inn, or on a journey, or surely he is asleep, that he may be awakened (1 Kgs. 18:27). What a slaughter they made, who, eight hundred and fifty together, were put to death! But because Baal and not

Christ was at issue, they neither rejoiced when mocked, nor when slain did they earn the palm, but everlasting punishment.

For in this way their fathers did to the prophets. Well has He exhorted by example, because those who speak the truth are wont to suffer persecution. Yet not for that reason did the prophets of old fall away from preaching the truth for fear of persecution. It is to be noted indeed that, just as Matthew, through the eight beatitudes which he set down, hints at the eighth, the perfection of our hope, which is consecrated by the glory of the resurrection, so Luke through four [beatitudes] embraces the cardinal virtues. For blessed are the poor, who through temperance are restrained from the enticements of the world. Blessed are the hungry, who, reminded by their own hunger that one must have pity on the hungry, themselves through justice show pity as they are able. For that almsgiving, by which we give to Christ not what is ours but render what is His, is rightly called justice, the Psalmist testifies, who says: He has scattered to the poor; his justice remains for ever and ever (Ps. 111:9). For it is justice by which we give to each his own, owing no one anything except to love one another. Blessed are they who through prudence, discerning between good and evil, know how to weep for passing things and to yearn for eternal ones. Blessed are they who through the fortitude of faith are able to bear all troubles. Therefore those who are not yet able to climb the citadel of consummate virtue are meanwhile to be cherished by the blessedness of a general perfection; so that, advancing little by little from good things to better, while they gladly listen to the Lord standing on the plain, they may one day ascend on high to Him sitting on the mountain. For those whose hearts He is still at work to tame and instruct, He addresses as though standing, which is the posture of one who labours. But those whom, by long exercise of spiritual study, He finds already ready and teachable, to them the Saviour, sitting as though at rest with the freedom and dignity of a master, imparts all the mysteries of the things above. This difference of spiritual progress is expressed in most beautiful figures in the dress of the Israelite people. There the whole common people, wearing whatever garments, was commanded to make for itself fringes of violet at the four corners of their mantles. The priests [were commanded] to have four garments, distinguished with as many mystical colours in wonderful variety. The high priests [were commanded] to wear both what the priests wore and four other kinds of garment, of the same colours indeed, but, for the sake of a higher dignity, shining with gold gleaming through, and wreathed with the names of the patriarchs and of the Lord Himself. To expound these one by one, or even only to set them out, belongs to the industry of a work of its own.

But woe to you who are rich, who have your consolation. That woe will come upon the rich is better understood from its contrary, where the kingdom of God is said to belong to the poor. From that kingdom those who seek to be consoled here estrange themselves in every way, and will hear from the just judge: Sons, remember that you received good things in your life (Luke 16:25). Here it is to be noted that it is not so much riches as the love of riches that is at fault. For not everyone who has riches, but, as Ecclesiastes says: Those who love riches will not take fruit from them (Eccl. 5:9), because he who [knows how] either to despise in spirit the temporal things he has, or to the poor

does not know how to give [them] away, takes delight indeed in their use for the present, but will lack hereafter the fruit which he could have acquired by giving. And elsewhere we read: Blessed is the rich man who has been found without blemish, who has not gone after gold, nor hoped in money and treasures (Sir. 31:8).

Woe to you who are filled, for you shall hunger (Luke 16). That rich man clothed in purple was filled when he feasted sumptuously every day, but he bore a dire woe in his hunger when he begged a drop of water from the finger of Lazarus, whom he had despised. Otherwise. If those are blessed who always hunger for the works of justice, then on the contrary those are to be reckoned unhappy who, pleasing themselves in their desires, suffer no hunger for the true and unshaken good, thinking themselves blessed enough if for a time they are not deprived of their pleasure.

Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. And Solomon says: Laughter shall be mingled with sorrow, and mourning takes hold of the end of joy (Prov. 14:13). And again: The heart of the wise is where there is sadness, and the heart of fools where there is mirth (Eccl. 7:5). Plainly teaching that folly is always to be ascribed to those who laugh, and prudence, as we taught above, to those who weep.

Woe when all men speak well of you. This is what the Psalmist laments, that the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who does unjust things is blessed (Ps. 10:3, Hebrew numbering). No small part of his punishment is that his crimes are not only not reproved, but are even praised as if well done. Hence the Lord providently does not say: Woe, because men speak well of you, as though, with some time intervening, punishment should follow the fault more slowly; but woe (He says) when all men speak well of you. Because flattery itself, the nurse of sin, which, like oil to flames, is wont to supply fuel to those burning in fault, is certainly the greatest punishment of sinners. For just as it befits the poor, the hungry and the weeping to be tried by the wickedness of evil men, so those who give themselves to riches, feasts and laughter are, through the wrath of the strict judge, cherished for a greater punishment by the patronage of those who serve them ill.

For in this way their fathers did to the prophets. He means the false prophets, who themselves too are often called prophets in sacred Scripture, because, to catch the favour of the crowd, they try to foretell, that is, to speak beforehand, things to come. Hence Ezekiel says: Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and see nothing. Like foxes in the desert were your prophets, O Israel (Ezek. 13:3–4). And so the Lord on the mountain describes only the beatitudes of the upright, but in the plain also the woe of the reprobate. Because hearers still untaught must be driven to good things by threats and terrors, whereas for the perfect it is enough to be invited by rewards.

But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Because He had said above what they might suffer from their enemies, He now shows how they themselves ought to deal with those same enemies. Many, however, think it enough for virtue not to hate one's enemies, but that to love them is commanded beyond what human nature can bear, not seeing that both Moses, Samuel and

Stephen were praying for their enemies, and David lamented his enemies when they were dead. For the Lord would not command impossible things, but perfect things. Therefore, not growing weary, while there is time let us do good to all, but especially to those of the household of faith.

Bless those who speak evil of you, pray for those who slander you. And that he and those like him did this, the Apostle testifies, who says: We are reviled, and we bless; we are blasphemed, and we entreat (1 Cor. 4:12–13). But here it rightly troubles one how it is not contrary to this command of the Lord that in the prophets too there are found many imprecations against enemies, which are taken for curses, such as that saying: Let their table become a snare before them, and the rest that is said there (Ps. 68:23). The apostle John says: He who knows his brother to be sinning a sin not unto death, let him ask, and life shall be given to him who sins not unto death. There is a sin unto death; I do not say that anyone should ask for that (1 John 5:16). Here first it is to be seen that the prophets sang by way of imprecation what was going to be, not with the wish of one who desires it, but in the spirit of one who foresees it; for they are especially accustomed to foretell future things in the figure of one who imprecates, just as they often sang in the figure of past time the things that were to come. Next, in the Apostle's words it must be understood that there are certain brothers for whom we are not commanded to pray, although the Lord bids us pray even for our persecutors. This question cannot be resolved unless we admit that there are some sins in brothers graver than the persecution of enemies. That Christians are signified by "brothers" can be proved by many testimonies of the divine Scriptures. I think, then, that a brother's sin unto death is when anyone, after the knowledge of God through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, assails the brotherhood and is driven by the firebrands of envy against that very grace by which he was reconciled to God. But the sin is not unto death if someone has not estranged his love from a brother, but through some weakness of mind has not shown him the duties owed to brotherhood. Wherefore the Lord too says on the cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). For not yet made partakers of the grace of the Holy Spirit, they had not entered into the fellowship of the holy brotherhood. And blessed Stephen prays for those by whom he is stoned, because they had not yet believed in Christ and were not fighting against that common grace. And the apostle Paul, I believe, does not pray for Alexander for this reason, that he was already a brother and had sinned unto death, that is, through envy, by assailing the brotherhood. But for those who had not broken off their love, but had given way through fear, he prays that they may be forgiven. For thus he says: Alexander the coppersmith showed me many evils; the Lord will repay him according to his works. Avoid him too, for he strongly resisted our words (2 Tim. 4:14–15). Then he adds those for whom he prays, saying thus: At my first defence no one stood by me, but all forsook me; may it not be laid to their charge (ibid. 4:16). This difference of sins distinguishes Judas who betrayed from Peter who denied.

If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. He does not say, "Do not you strike the one who strikes you", although

this too is a great precept, but He says: Make yourself ready to be struck again. That this belongs to mercy is felt most by those who serve those whom they greatly love, such as their children, or any of their dearest ones when they are sick, or little children, or the frenzied, from whom they often suffer many things. And if their health requires it, they even offer themselves to suffer more, until the weakness either of age or of illness passes. Those, then, whom the Lord, the physician of souls, was instructing for the curing of their neighbours, what else could He teach them, except that they should bear with an even mind the weaknesses of those whose salvation they wished to secure? For all wickedness comes from weakness of mind, since nothing is more innocent than one who is perfect in virtue. But many know how to offer the other cheek, yet do not know how to love the one by whom they are struck. But the Lord Himself, who certainly first fulfilled the precepts He taught, did not offer the other cheek to the priest's servant who struck Him on the cheek, but besides said: If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike Me? (John 18:23). Yet He was not for that reason unready in heart, not only to be struck on the other cheek for the salvation of all, but even to be crucified in His whole body.

And from him who takes away your garment, do not withhold your tunic also. What was said of the garment and the tunic is to be done not in these alone, but in all things which by some right we call ours in time. For if this is commanded about necessary things, how much more is it fitting to despise superfluous ones.

But give to everyone who asks of you. "To everyone who asks," He says, not "everything to the one who asks," so that you give what you can give honourably and justly. For what if he asks for money with which to try to oppress an innocent man? What, finally, if he asks for something unchaste? But not to pursue many cases, which are countless, that indeed is to be given which harms neither you nor another, so far as can be known or believed by a man. And to the one whom you justly refuse what he asks, justice itself is to be pointed out, so that you do not send him away empty. Thus you will give to everyone who asks of you, although you will not always give what he asks. And sometimes you will give something better, when you have corrected one who asks for unjust things.

And from him who takes away what is yours, do not ask it back. He speaks of clothing, house, land, beast of burden, and generally of all property. But whether it is to be taken of slaves too is a great question. For a Christian ought not to possess a slave in the way he possesses a horse or silver. Although it can happen that a horse is worth a greater price than a slave, and much more something of gold or silver. But if that slave is brought up or governed by you, his master, more rightly and honourably, and more suitably for the worship of God, than he can be by the one who desires to take him away, I do not know whether anyone would dare to say that he ought to be disregarded like a garment. For a man ought to love a man as himself, he who is commanded by the Lord of all to love even his enemies.

And as you wish that men should do to you, do you also to them likewise. Because charity is patient, is kind,

not only bears the injuries of an enemy most bravely, but also most kindly anticipates the goodwill of a friend. For nature has taught all to love in return one who loves them. But to compel one who does not love to love by benefits, the teaching of Christ alone has trained the perfect to do. He, having bidden us to be the first to do to others as we would wish to be done to us, soon confirmed the same sense by setting it out more broadly, saying:

And if you love those who love you, what thanks is there for you? For sinners too love those who love them, etc. If even sinners, publicans and heathens, know how to be beneficent towards those who love them, with nature as their guide, how much more (He says) ought you, in whom, as the rank of your profession is more eminent, so the care for virtue must needs be richer, to embrace with a wider bosom of love even those who do not love you? Hence it seems worth asking how it is that, while the Lord testifies that those who love only those who love them, do good to those who do good to them, and lend to friends, not only do not have perfect charity but are put on a level with sinners, he who reclined on the Lord's breast, in completing his Epistle on the love of God and of neighbour, nowhere admonished that enemies are to be loved, but said absolutely: For if we love one another, God abides in us, and the charity of God is perfected in us (1 John 4:12). If this troubles anyone, let him know that he did not keep silence about the love of enemies, but included them too under the name of brothers, and commanded that they be loved with the regard of brotherly love and that prayer be made for them; namely, so that they may not always remain enemies, but may come to their senses out of the snares of the devil and be joined to us in a brotherly bond. Nor should it seem harsh that we say those who do not yet believe can nevertheless be called brothers because of the hope of their believing. For the same John is read to call them even sons of God. For Jesus (he says) was to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but that He might gather into one the sons of God who were scattered (John 11:51–52). For as long as they are scattered, they are not yet sons of God, but by coming together into one they are already made sons.

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing from it. Because He has reproved as fruitless the love and mutual kindness of sinners, He now shows how these things ought to be done fruitfully by the faithful. Now everyone who receives is lent to, even if he himself is not going to repay. For since God restores more to the merciful, everyone who renders a kindness is lending at interest. Or if one does not like to take "one who borrows" except of him who receives intending to repay, it must be understood that the Lord has embraced these two kinds of giving: for either we make a gift of what we give out of goodwill, or we lend to one who will repay. For since many (as it is written) have reckoned lending a windfall, and have caused trouble to those who helped them, many have not lent, not by reason of wickedness, but because they feared to be defrauded for nothing. This weakness too the divine authority heals, saying: And lend, hoping for nothing from it (Luke 6:35); that is, not fixing the hope of reward on man. If he repays what you lent, God too will repay what you did at His command; if he does not repay, your inheritance for ever

will be. For the sinner borrows and does not repay, but the just man has mercy and lends (Ps. 36:21). For those who bless Him shall possess the land (Ps. 36:22). And elsewhere, when he had said: Pleasant is the man who has mercy and lends (Ps. 111:5), he at once added: The just man shall be in everlasting remembrance (Ps. 111:7).

And your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. No reward can be greater than that the earth-born sons of men should be made sons of the Most High, who is in heaven. So what He says, And you will be sons of the Most High, is to be understood by that rule by which John too says: He gave them power to become sons of God (John 1:12). For there is one Son by nature, who knows nothing at all of sin. But we, having received power, are made sons in so far as we fulfil the things commanded by Him. Hence the apostolic teaching calls it adoption, by which we are called to the eternal inheritance, that we may be co-heirs. Therefore He does not say, "Do these things, because you are sons," but, Do these things, and you will be sons. And when He calls us to this through the Only-begotten Himself, He calls us to His own likeness.

For He Himself (saying) is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked, etc. God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked, either, that is, by His manifold mercy, by which He saves even beasts of burden, in bestowing temporal goods, or by inspiring them towards heavenly gifts with the singular grace by which He glorifies the elect alone. But whether you understand this, or that, or both, it comes about by the great goodness of God, which we are commanded to imitate if we wish to be sons of God.

Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned. In this place I think nothing else is commanded us than that we interpret in the better sense those deeds of which it is doubtful with what intention they are done. For what is written, By their fruits you shall know them (Matt. 7:16), is said of manifest things which cannot be done with a good intention, such as acts of lust, or blasphemies, or thefts, or drunkenness, and anything else of that kind, about which we are permitted to judge. But concerning kinds of food, since any human foods whatever can be taken indifferently with a good intention and a simple heart, without the vice of concupiscence, the Apostle forbids that those who ate meat and drank wine be judged by those who abstained from such nourishment. Let him who eats (he says) not despise him who does not eat; and let him who does not eat not judge him who eats (Rom. 14:3). To this belongs also what he says in another place: Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the thoughts of the heart (1 Cor. 4:5). There are therefore certain intermediate deeds, of which we do not know with what intention they are done, which can be done with a good and with a bad one, about which it is rash to judge, above all so as to condemn. But the time will come for these to be judged, when the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the thoughts of the heart (ibid.). And there are two cases in which we ought to beware of rash judgement: when it is uncertain with what intention anything was done, or when it is uncertain what sort of man someone will become who now appears either bad or good.

Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. He bids us forgive injuries and give benefits, so that our sins too may be forgiven us and eternal life be given us. By this brief but excellent sentence He sums up, by comprehending it, all that He had enjoined at greatest length about dealing with enemies.

Good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over, will they give into your bosom. Like this is what He says elsewhere: That they too may receive you into the eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9). For it is not the poor themselves, but Christ who will pay the reward to those who have given alms. Yet they are said to give it into the bosom, because they gave occasion for earning it, when, either wretchedly in want or wickedly raging, they were both borne with by the patience of the stronger and sustained by their beneficence, and sometimes drawn even to the faith itself by sweet kindness.

For with the same measure with which you have measured, it will be measured back to you. And the Apostle, urging the Corinthians to almsgiving, says among other things: But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and he who sows in blessings will also reap of blessings (2 Cor. 9:6). But it can also be taken of all that we do with mind, hand and tongue. For Thou wilt render to each, it says, according to their works.

And He also told them a parable: Can the blind lead the blind? Will not both fall into the pit? The sense of this sentence depends on what precedes, where there is the command about giving alms and forgiving injury. If (He says) anger against the violent man, and love of money against the one who asks, has blinded you, will you be able, with your own mind vitiated, to cure his vice? Or will he alone who did the injury be reckoned guilty, and not you also, who did not know how to bear it? But if his wickedness finds you mild and of a tranquil breast, he will be moved to repentance, and you will be rewarded with the prize of patience, because with a seeing eye, that is, with a serene heart, you took care to lead the blind man to the light.

The disciple is not above the master; but everyone will be perfect if he is as his master. If the Master, who certainly could as God, chose not to go about avenging His own injuries, but by suffering to make His very persecutors milder, it is necessary that the disciples, who are mere men, follow the same rule of perfection.

But why do you see the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye? This too looks back to what precedes, where He warned beforehand that the blind cannot be led by the blind, that is, the sinner cannot be chastised by a sinner. For many, overtaken by pride, or hatred, love of money, or avarice, or any other crime, judging these things light or nothing, most sharply rebuke those whom they have seen disturbed by sudden anger, as having had the eye of the mind moved from its usual state of purity, as by a speck falling into it; and unmindful of the Lord's precept, in which He says: Condemn not, and you will not be condemned (Luke 6:37), they love rather to censure and condemn than to amend and correct.

And how can you say to your brother, Brother, let me cast out the speck from your eye, while you yourself do not see the beam in your own eye? You do these things with your brother if (for example)

what he sinned through anger you reprove through hatred. And as much as there is between a speck and a beam, so much, as it were, does anger differ from hatred. For hatred is inveterate anger, which by its very age has gained so much that it is rightly called a beam. It can happen that if you are angry with a man, you wish him to be corrected. But if you hate a man, you cannot wish to correct him. And therefore it is said to be impossible for one who carries a beam in his own eye to take the speck out of his brother's eye.

Hypocrite, cast out first the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to draw out the speck from your brother's eye. That is, first drive hatred out of yourself, and then at length you will be able to amend the one whom you love. And truly much to be guarded against and troublesome is the kind of hypocrites, that is, of pretenders, who, while they take up accusations of all vices out of hatred and envy, wish also to be seen as counsellors. And therefore we must watch piously and cautiously, so that when necessity has begun to require us to reprove or rebuke someone, we first consider whether the vice is such as we have never had, or one we are now free of. And if we have never had it, let us consider that we too are men and could have had it. But if we have had it and do not have it, let our common weakness touch our memory, so that not hatred but mercy may go before that reproof or rebuke. So that whether it avails for his correction, for the sake of which we do it, or for his perversion (for the outcome is uncertain), we may nonetheless be secure about the singleness of our own eye. But if on reflection we find ourselves to be in the same vice in which he is whom we were preparing to reprove, let us not reprove nor rebuke, but rather groan together, and invite him not to obey us, but to strive alongside us. Rebukes therefore are to be used rarely, and out of great necessity; yet in such a way that even in these very things we press on to serve not ourselves but God; for He is the end, so that we do nothing with a double heart, removing from our own eye the beam of envy, or malice, or pretence, so that we may see to cast the speck out of a brother's eye.

For there is no good tree that bears bad fruit, nor a bad tree bearing good fruit. He follows up what He had begun against the hypocrite. If (He says) you wish to have a true and not a feigned righteousness, take care to make good by deeds also what you display in words, so that, being a good tree, you may be adorned with good fruits too. For even if the hypocrite pretends otherwise, he who does evil works is not good. And if he reproves the innocent, he who does good works is not therefore bad.

For every tree is known by its own fruit. What the fruit is by which the tree ought to be discerned as bad or good, the Apostle shows, saying: Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, wantonness, the service of idols, sorceries, enmities, contentions, rivalries, angers, quarrels, dissensions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revellings, and things like these, of which I tell you beforehand, as I have told you before, that those who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience,

goodness, kindness, faith, modesty, continence (Gal. 5:22–23). But alms, or prayer, or fasting is indeed properly the fruit of the good, but is sometimes also taken up by the wicked in pretence. Of whom the Lord says: For they have received their reward (Matt. 6:2). And elsewhere: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves (Matt. 7:15). But the sheep ought not on that account to hate their own clothing, because wolves often hide themselves in it, while they display one thing to deceive and put forth another to plunder or kill those who cannot see the wolves under that sheep's clothing. This, then, is not the fruit by which He warns that the tree is known, but that which was shown above.

For they do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather the grape from a bramble. Thorns and bramble I take to be the cares of the world and the prickings of the vices, of which it was said to sinful man: Your land shall bring forth thorns and thistles for you (Gen. 3:18). But figs and the grape, the sweetness of the new way of life, for which the Lord hungered in us, and the fervour of love, which gladdens the heart of man. Of which, as the Gospel shines forth, the voice of the turtle-dove resounds far and wide in the land, the fig tree has put forth its green figs, the vines in flower have given their fragrance (Song 2:12–13). But the fig is not gathered from thorns, nor the grape from a bramble; for a mind still weighed down by the habit of the old man can pretend, but cannot bear the fruit of the new man. But if anyone wishes to object and say that Moses too gathered the grape from a bramble when he accepted useful counsel from a Gentile kinsman, and that they gathered figs from thorns to whom it was said of the Pharisees: What they say, do; but what they do, do not do (Matt. 23:3), let him know that, just as a fruitful vine-branch sometimes lies entangled in a hedge, and the thorn, bearing it, keeps its fruit not for its own but for human uses, so the words or deeds of the wicked, whenever they profit the good, it is not the wicked themselves who do this, but it is brought about from them by the providence of counsel from above.

The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and the evil man out of the evil brings forth evil. The treasure of the heart is the same as the root of the tree; and what is brought forth from the heart is the same as the fruit of the tree. He, then, who has in his heart the treasure of patience and of perfect love, pouring out, to be sure, the best fruits, loves his enemy, does good to the one who hates him, blesses the one who curses him, prays for the slanderer, does not resist the one who strikes or despoils him, gives to everyone who asks, does not ask back what is taken from him, desires not to judge, not to condemn, corrects the erring patiently and lovingly, and the rest that the Saviour taught above. But he who keeps a wicked treasure in his heart hates his friend, curses the one who loves him, curses the one who blesses him, and does the rest that the Lord's word reproved, things contrary to the good treasure. And lest he should flatter himself in vain, from what follows:

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. As if not the fruit of the tree but the leaves, that is, words only and not rather works, of either the true Christian or the hypocrite

were to be sought, the Lord accordingly adds:

And why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? As if He were to say in other words: Why do you boast that you put forth the leaves of right confession, you who show no fruits of good work? Hence the Apostle, being about to separate the precious from the vile, that is, the good treasure from the bad, the good tree from the bad, the perfect disciple of the good Master from the hypocrite, the seeing guide from the blind, says: But I will come to you, if the Lord wills, and I will know not the speech of those who are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power (1 Cor. 4:19–20). By the speaking of the mouth, therefore, the Lord indicates all that we bring forth from the heart, whether by act, or by speech, or by thought, all of which, more than words spoken to men, are naked and open to His eyes. For it is the custom of the Scriptures to put words for things. Hence the Psalmist: Say (he says) to my soul: I am your salvation (Ps. 34:3). And Hezekiah: There was not a word that I did not show them (Isa. 39:4); who certainly had revealed to the Chaldaeans the secrets of things and not of words. And likewise the Apostle: And no one says "Lord Jesus" except in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3); instead of saying, no one discerns the Lord Jesus with the understanding, no one embraces Him with the will, except through the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man building a house. The Lord, having discoursed much above about the openly good or bad, and much about the truly and the feignedly good, in which three kinds of persons, I think, the whole race of men is comprehended, concludes His whole discourse with a parable at once terrible and lovely, by which He likens some hearers of the word to the devil and others to Christ, each of whom never ceases throughout the whole time of this age to build his own house out of the subjection of men. So he who hears the words of Christ and does them will be compared to Christ. For as Christ builds for Himself out of various persons of men one Catholic Church, instructs and governs it, intending one day to dedicate it into eternal life, so too the profitable hearer, advancing towards the things above according to his own measure by various pursuits of the virtues, builds for himself a dwelling of perpetual abode, so that in the present he may press on with squaring, polishing and joining its stones with the glue of charity, but in the future may rejoice in its dedication with Christ.

Who dug deep and laid the foundations upon the rock. When foundations are spoken of in the plural in the mystery of the Church, they signify the teachers, of whom it is said: Its foundations are on the holy mountains (Ps. 86:1). But when "foundation" is used in the singular, Christ Himself is meant, the teacher of teachers and the foundation of foundations. Of whom it is said: For no one can lay another foundation than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:11). These foundations, then, the wise architect placed not upon the earth but upon the rock, because Christ established the minds of lofty men not in earthly desires but in His own invincible faith, hope and charity. And the rock (he says) was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4).

He who dug deep, because by the precepts of humility He uproots all earthly things from the hearts of the faithful, so that they may not serve God for the sake of anything base or for temporal advantage. Morally, however, the foundations of the house are the very intentions of a good way of life, which the perfect hearer of the word, having cleared away by Christian humility the rubble of vain and fragile thoughts, sets firmly in the fulfilling of Christ's commandments; doing, that is, in himself in particular with Christ's co-operation what Christ does in general in the universal Church; and rejoicing with the Psalmist: For He brought me up out of the pit of misery and out of the mire of dregs, and set my feet upon a rock, etc. (Ps. 39:3).

But when a flood arose, the river dashed against that house, and could not move it; for it was founded upon the rock. The flooding of the river, which elsewhere He calls the gates of hell, saying: For you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18), is the same of which He made mention above, saying: Blessed shall you be when men hate you, and when they separate you, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil (Luke 6:22). This could dash against the firm corners of the Church, yet could not tear them down. For they rejoiced in that day and leapt for joy, thus exhorting one another against the rage of the waves: Behold, we call them blessed who have endured. You have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord (Jas. 5:11). And again: The rush of the river gladdens the city of God; the Most High has sanctified His tabernacle. God is in the midst of it; it shall not be moved (Ps. 45:5–6). But also according to the laws of tropology, each of our own houses is daily battered, whether by unclean spirits, or by wicked men, or by the very restlessness of its own mind or flesh, and in so far as they trust in their own strength they are bent over; but in so far as they cleave to that most invincible rock, they cannot be shaken.

But he who heard and did not do is like a man building his house upon the earth without a foundation. The devil's house is the world, which is set in wickedness; it is so called not from the dignity of the Creator but from the greatness of the offender. He builds it upon the earth, because he drags those who obey him down from heaven to earthly things. He builds without a foundation, because no sin has a foundation, as being that which does not subsist from a nature of its own. For evil is without substance; yet, such as it is, it grows together in the nature of the good. But since "foundation" (fundamentum) is named from "bottom" (fundus), we may also, not unfittingly, take "foundation" as put for "bottom"; just as hearing is named from the ear, and yet often the ear itself is designated by the name of hearing. As, then, one who sinks in a well is held by the bottom of the well, so the soul in falling would stand, as it were, in some place of a bottom, if, once fallen, it held itself within some measure of sin. But since it cannot be content with the sin into which it slips, while daily it is cast down to worse things, it finds no bottom, as it were, in the well into which it has fallen, by which it is figured. Hence it is well said elsewhere: The sinner, when he has come into the depth of evils, despises (Prov. 18:3). For he declines to return,

because he despairs that mercy can be had for him. But when by despairing he sins the more, he as it were takes the bottom out from under his own well, so that he finds nowhere he can be held. Therefore he who hears the words of Christ and does not do them, whether initiated into the mysteries of Christ or wholly a stranger to Christ, because he builds himself badly, is like the foolish man of whom it is said: An enemy has done this (Matt. 13:28).

Against which the river dashed, and at once it fell; and the ruin of that house was great. It is plain that, when any temptation whatever assails them, both the truly bad and the feignedly good soon become worse, until at the last they slip into everlasting punishment. Further, it must be said morally that each one is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and enticed. Then concupiscence, when it has conceived, brings forth sin; and sin, when it is completed, begets death (Jas. 1:14–15). By the rush of the river can also be understood the crisis of the last judgement, when, both houses being completed, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14:11); and the wicked, not only men but also the angels who belonged to the devil's house, will go into eternal punishment, but the just into eternal life (Matt. 25:46).

CHAPTER VII.

And when He had finished all His words in the hearing of the people, He entered into Capharnaum. Here it is to be understood that Christ entered Capharnaum when He had indeed finished all His words in the hearing of the people, that is, that He did not enter before He had ended these words; but it is not stated after how long an interval of time, when He had ended these discourses, He entered Capharnaum. For in that very interval the leper was cleansed whom Matthew inserts in its place, but this evangelist anticipates earlier.

And the servant of a certain centurion, who was dear to him, being sick, was about to die. Someone perhaps asks, either piously so as to find out, or impiously so as to find fault, on what account the evangelist said that the servant, who is afterwards said to have been not dead but healed, was about to die. To him it must briefly be answered that he truly was about to die, had he not been restored to life by the faith of his master who besought and the loving-kindness of Christ who had mercy. So King Hezekiah too, according to a certain measure of human nature, was about to die, when he heard by the words of a truthful prophet: Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live (2 Kgs. 20:1); but by the hidden judgement of divine providence, which has disposed all things in measure and number and weight (Wis. 11:21), he was yet to obtain fifteen more years of life by tears and prayers.

And when he had heard of Jesus, he sent to Him elders of the Jews, asking Him to come and save his servant. It came about by heavenly dispensation that elders of the Jews were sent to the Lord, and that in their presence he who had been sick was healed, so that they would be without excuse if, when a Gentile man believed, they did not believe. But it is asked how it agrees that Luke relates that the centurion sent messengers, whereas Matthew relates that he himself came to the Lord. But to those who inquire piously it is readily plain that Matthew, for brevity's sake, said that he himself

to have come, whose desire and will was truly brought to the Lord, though others carried it, mystically commending to us also what is written: Come to Him, and be enlightened (Ps. 33:6). For since He Himself so praised the faith of the centurion, by which one truly comes to Jesus, as to say: I have not found such great faith in Israel (Matt. 8:10), the prudent evangelist chose to say that he himself had come to Christ, rather than those through whom he had sent his words. Luke, moreover, disclosed the whole of how it was done for this reason, that from it we should be compelled to understand in what way the other, who could not lie, said that he came. For just as that woman who suffered from a flow of blood, although she held the fringe of His garment, yet touched the Lord more because she believed than did those crowds by whom He was pressed, so too the centurion, the more he believed, the more he came to the Lord.

For he loves our nation, and he himself built us a synagogue. Those who relate that a synagogue was built for them by the centurion show plainly that, just as we [call] the Church, so they too were accustomed to call the synagogue not only the assembly of the faithful but also the place in which they assembled, as we also taught above.

And Jesus went with them. Great is the loftiness of the Lord, Who was able to heal by a word alone, but no less His humility, Who deigned to visit a sick servant. For as one mighty and kind, and being asked, He set out to save, and in the middle of the journey, being asked, He saved by a word, lest, that is, He should be thought to go bodily for want of strength and not as an example of humility. Elsewhere He would not go to heal the official's son, lest He should seem to have honoured riches. Here, lest [He should seem] to have spurned the servile condition, He at once consented to go to the centurion's servant.

And when He was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying: Lord, do not trouble yourself. For I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. Because of his consciousness of a gentile life, he thought himself burdened rather than helped by the Lord's condescension, and that he could not have as guest Christ, with whose faith, though he was endowed, he was not yet imbued with the sacraments. But since divine grace knows how to give what our weakness does not presume; both the other centurion, who, like this one, prefigures the people believing from the gentiles, by the merit of great faith and righteousness received the gift of the Holy Spirit before he was baptized, and this one, not yet catechized, merited both that his faith be praised by the Lord and that his servant be saved. Of him it is beautifully said by allegory that Jesus was not far from the house, although he did not dare to invite Him under his roof, because His salvation is near to those who fear Him. And he who rightly uses the natural law, by which he does the good things he knows, draws near to Him Who is truly good. But to those who have joined crimes as well to the error of gentilism may be applied what the Lord says elsewhere to the crowds flocking to Him: For some of these have come from afar.

Therefore neither did I think myself worthy to come to you. We too, who believe from among the gentiles, cannot ourselves come to the Lord, Whom now

we are by no means able to see in the flesh; but whoever of us have recognized the sufferings of our servitude ought now to come by faith to Him Who sits at the right hand of the Father, now to send the elders of the Jews, that is, by humble entreaty to gain as patrons the foremost men of the Church, who went before us to the Lord, so that they, bearing witness for us that we love the Church and, as far as in us lies, take care to build it, may intercede with the Lord for our sins and those of our own.

But say the word, and my servant will be healed. Great is the faith of the centurion, by which he confesses the work of the word in Christ, and [a faith] fitted to the mysteries of our healing, who, even if we had known Christ according to the flesh, yet now know Him so no longer (2 Cor. 5:16).

For I too am a man set under authority, having soldiers under me. He says that he is a man and subject to authority, whether of a tribune or of a governor, yet able to command those beneath him, so that it is to be understood that He, Who is God and mighty over all things, much more has a countless soldiery of angelic power to obey His commands.

And I say to this one: Go, and he goes, and to another: Come, and he comes, to my servant: Do this, and he does it. He wishes to show that the Lord too could accomplish what He willed not only by the coming of His body but through the ministries of angels. For there were to be driven back, both by the word of the Lord and by the ministries of angels, either the infirmities of bodies or the hostile powers to which man is often given over for his weakening. Otherwise. The soldiers and servants who obey the centurion are the natural virtues. Of these many who come to the Lord bring with them no small store. Of these it is said in praise of the centurion Cornelius: For he was a just man, and fearing God with all his house, giving many alms to the people, and praying to God always (Acts 10:2).

When Jesus heard this, He marvelled. He marvelled that He saw the centurion understanding His majesty. But who had made that very faith or understanding in him, if not He Himself Who marvelled at it? And even if another had made it, why should He marvel, Who knew it beforehand? It is to be noted, then, that what the Lord marvels at signifies that we must marvel at it, who still need to be admonished in this way. For all such emotions, when they are spoken of God, are not signs of a disturbed mind but of a master teaching.

And turning to the crowds following Him He said: Amen I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith. He speaks not of all the patriarchs and prophets of times past but of the men of the present age. The centurion's faith is set above theirs because they were instructed by the admonitions of the law and the prophets, but he believed of his own accord, with no one teaching him.

And those who had been sent, returning to the house, found the servant who had been sick in health. The faith of the master is proved, and the health of the servant is confirmed. The merit of the master, then, can avail even for servants, not only by the merit of faith but also by zeal for discipline. Matthew indeed sets this out more fully, that when the Lord said to the centurion:

Go, and as you have believed, be it done for you (Matt. 8:13), the servant was healed from that hour. But it is the way of blessed Luke to abridge what he has seen set out in full by the other evangelists, or even to pass it over on purpose; but what he knew to have been omitted by them, or touched on briefly, to clarify more carefully. Mystically, as I said, the centurion, whose faith is preferred to Israel, signifies the elect from among the gentiles, who, as if surrounded by a hundredfold soldiery, are lofty in the perfection of the spiritual virtues, and seek from the lord nothing earthly for themselves and their own, but only the joys of eternal salvation. For the number one hundred, which is carried over from the left hand to the right, is customarily used to signify the heavenly life. Hence it is that the ark of Noah is built in a hundred years, Abraham at a hundred years old received the son of the promise; Isaac sowed, and found in the same year a hundredfold; the court of the tabernacle is a hundred cubits long; in the hundredth psalm mercy and judgement are sung to the Lord, and other things of this kind. Men of such merit, therefore, must needs make supplication to the Lord for those who are still weighed down in fear by the spirit of servitude, so that, as they are advanced little by little to higher things, perfect love may cast out fear (1 John 4:18).

And it came to pass afterwards, He went into a city which is called Nain. Nain is a city of Galilee at the second milestone from Mount Tabor towards the south, near Endor, which is a large village at the fourth milestone from the same mountain to the south.

And His disciples went with Him, and a great crowd. Now when He drew near to the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother. This dead man, who was carried out beyond the gate of the city with many looking on, signifies a man lulled to sleep in the deadly funeral of crimes, who moreover no longer hides that same death of the soul in the chamber of the heart, but publishes it to the knowledge of many through the evidence of speech or deed, as if through the gates of his city. And they rightly say that he was the only son of his mother, because, although she is gathered from many persons, Mother Church is one, a perfect and immaculate virgin, yet each and every one of the faithful most rightly confess themselves sons of the universal Church. For any elect person, when he is instructed in the faith, is a son; when he instructs others, a mother. Did he not act with a mother's affection towards little ones who says: My little children, of whom I am in labour again until Christ be formed in you (Gal. 4:19)? The gate of the city by which the dead man was carried out I take to be one of the bodily senses. For he who sows discords among brethren, who speaks iniquity on high, is carried out dead through the gate of the mouth. He who looks on a woman to lust after her (Matt. 5:28) brings out the evidence of his death through the gate of the eyes. He who willingly opens his ear to idle tales or obscene songs or detractions makes this a gate of death for his soul, and the other senses which he does not guard he himself makes approaches of death for himself. I beseech Thee, Lord Jesus, make all the gates of my city gates of righteousness, that, entering through them, I may confess to Thy name (Ps. 117:19), and that to Thy majesty, visiting it often with the heavenly ministers, there may come not the stench of a corpse carried out, but

salvation may occupy its walls, and praise its gates.

And she was a widow, and a great crowd of the city was with her. Every soul that remembers it was redeemed by the death of its Bridegroom and Lord recognizes that the Church is a widow. By divine will, moreover, a great crowd accompanied the Lord and a great one the widow, so that, when so great a miracle had been seen, many might become witnesses, many praisers of God.

And when the Lord had seen her, moved with compassion over her, He said to her: Do not weep. Cease, He says, to weep as for a dead man him whom you will soon see rise up alive. Here, mystically, the doctrine of Novatus is confounded, who, boasting proudly of his own purity, tries to make void the humble cleansing of penitents, and denies that the true mother, the Church, weeping over the spiritual extinction of her reborn children, ought to be consoled by the hope of life to be restored. And beautifully the evangelist testifies that the Lord was first moved with compassion over the mother, and so raised the son, that in the one He might show us an example of mercy to be imitated, in the other establish faith in a power to be marvelled at.

And He came near and touched the bier. And those who were carrying it stood still. The bier on which the dead man is carried out is the wrongly secure conscience of the despairing sinner. Those who carry him to be buried are either the unclean desires which hurry a man to destruction, or the poisoned allurements of flattering companions, which, while they lift sins up with their favours, in truth heap them higher, and overwhelm the sinners with contempt as with a mound of earth. Of these it is said elsewhere: Leave the dead to bury their dead (Matt. 8:22). For the dead bury the dead when sinners soothe others like themselves with harmful favour, and crush them under the heaped-up mass of the worst flattery, lest they ever gain any hope of rising again. So when the Lord touched the bier the bearers of the funeral stood still, because conscience, touched by dread of the judgement on high and restraining both the often abundant flow of carnal pleasures and the crowd of those who praise unjustly, returns to itself and answers in haste the Saviour Who calls it to life. Hence it rightly follows:

And He said: Young man, I say to you, arise. And he who had been dead sat up, and began to speak, and He gave him to his mother. For he who had been dead sits up when the sinner revives through inward compunction. He begins to speak when he shows the signs of returning life to all who had mourned his sin. He is restored to his mother when by the decrees of priestly judgement he is joined to the communion of the Church.

And fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying: A great prophet has risen among us. The more desperate the death of the soul that is called back to life, the more are corrected by the same example. See David the prophet, see Peter the apostle. The higher their rank, the heavier their fall. And the heavier the fall, the more welcome the mercy of Him Who raises up. And the more welcome the Lord's mercy appeared in them, the surer the hope of salvation appeared to all penitents, so that all who hear rightly say:

For God has visited His people. Not only by once making His Word incarnate, but also our

by ever sending this into our hearts, that we ought to be raised up.

And his disciples told John of all these things. Not with a simple heart, I think, but one goaded by envy, John's disciples relate to him the mighty works and miracles of Christ. For elsewhere too they are shown to have complained to him thus: Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, behold, he is baptizing, and all are coming to him (John 3:26). To whom John then answered: A man cannot receive anything unless it has been given him from heaven, etc. (John 3:27). By which he plainly declares both that he himself is a mere man and that Christ is the Son of God. But since the envy remained, and the jealousy could not be driven out, observe what the best of masters did further to correct them.

And John called two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord, saying: Are You He Who is to come, or do we look for another? That is, so that at least on this occasion, by seeing the signs He was doing, they might believe in Him, and, with their master asking, might learn for themselves. So he does not say: Are You He Who has come, but: Are You He Who is to come? And the sense is: Send me word, since I am to be killed by Herod and am to go down to the lower world, whether I ought to announce You in the underworld too, I who have announced You to those above, or whether it is not fitting for the Son of God to taste death, and You are going to send another for these sacraments.

And in that same hour He cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and to many who were blind He gave sight. John had asked through his disciples: Are You He Who is to come, or do we look for another? Christ shows signs, answering not what He had been asked but the stumbling of the messengers.

Go (He says) and report to John what you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, and, what is no less than these, the poor have the gospel preached to them. Either the poor in spirit, or certainly the poor in wealth, so that there should be no difference in the preaching between noble and lowly, between rich and needy. These things prove the strictness of the master, these the truthfulness of the teacher, since with Him everyone who can be saved is equal. And as to His saying:

And blessed is whoever shall not have been scandalized in Me. He both chastens John's messengers, who had not believed that He was the Christ, for the scandal of their unbelief, and expounds to John himself what he was asking: that ours is the God of saving, and the issues of death are the Lord's (Ps. 67:21). For when so many signs and such great mighty works had been seen, no one could be scandalized, but only marvel. But the mind of the unbelievers suffered grave scandal in Him when it saw Him dying even after so many miracles. What, then, is it to say: Blessed is he who shall not have been scandalized in Me, but to signify in open words the abjection and humility of His death? As if He said plainly: I do indeed do marvellous things, but I do not disdain to suffer abject things. Since, therefore, I follow you in dying, men must take great care lest they despise death in Me who revere the signs.

And when John's messengers had departed, He began to speak to the crowds about John. Because the crowd standing round did not know the mystery of the question, and thought John was in doubt about Christ, Whom he himself had pointed out, He heaps fitting praises on him, so that they might understand that John had asked not for himself but for his disciples.

What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed moved by the wind? This He put not by affirming but by denying. For a breeze, as soon as it touches a reed, bends it to one side. And what is signified by the reed but the carnal mind, which, as soon as it is touched by favour or detraction, is bent to any side? For if a breeze of favour blows from a human mouth, it grows cheerful, is lifted up, and bends itself wholly, as it were, towards the favour. But if a wind of detraction bursts out from where the breeze of praise used to come, it at once bends him, as to the other side, to the force of rage. But John was not a reed shaken by the wind, for neither did favour make him flattering, nor anyone's anger make him harsh; neither could prosperity lift him up nor adversity bend him.

But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold, those who are in costly clothing and luxury are in the houses of kings. For that John is described as having been clothed in camels' hair. Not for the heavenly kingdom, then, He says, but for an earthly one do those serve who flee from suffering harsh things for God, but, given over to outward things alone, seek the softness and delight of the present life. Let no one, therefore, think that there is no sin in luxury and in fondness for clothes, because if this were not a fault, the Lord would by no means have praised John for the roughness of his garment. Yet this saying, that John was not clothed in soft things, can also be understood otherwise by way of signification. For he was not clothed in soft things, because he did not cherish the life of sinners with flatteries, but rebuked it with the vigour of harsh invective, saying: Brood of vipers, who showed you to flee from the wrath to come (Luke 3:7)?

But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. For the ministry of a prophet is to foretell things to come, not also to point them out. John, then, is more than a prophet, because Him Whom he had prophesied by going before he also announced by pointing Him out.

This is he of whom it is written: Behold, I send My angel before your face, who will prepare your way before you. What in Greek is angelus is in Latin called nuntius, messenger. Rightly, then, he who is sent to announce the Judge on high is called an angel, so that he may keep in his name the dignity which he fulfils in his work. The name indeed is lofty, but the life is not inferior to the name. But all who are reckoned under the name of the priesthood are also called angels, as the prophet attests, who says: The lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth, for he is the angel of the Lord of hosts (Mal. 2:7). And also each one of the faithful, so far as he is able, so far as he receives the grace of the inspiration from on high, if he calls his neighbour back from depravity, if he takes care to exhort him to do good, if [he preaches] the eternal kingdom or

announces punishment to one who strays, when he bestows the words of the holy announcement, assuredly becomes an angel.

For I tell you: Among those born of women there is no greater prophet than John the Baptist. Among those born of women, He says. He is preferred, then, to those men who were born of women and of the union of a man, and not to Him Who was born of the Virgin and the Holy Spirit. And yet in this saying He did not set John above the other prophets and patriarchs and all men, but made the others equal to John. For it does not straightway follow that, if others are not greater than he, he is greater than the others, but that he has equality with the other saints:

But he who is lesser in the kingdom of God is greater than he. This saying can be understood in two ways. Either He called the kingdom of God that which we have not yet received and in which we are not yet, whence at the end He will say: Come, blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom (Matt. 25:34); and, of the holy angels who are there, whoever among them is lesser is surely greater than any holy and righteous man who bears a body which is corrupted and weighs down the soul (Wis. 9:15). Or, if He wished the kingdom of God to be understood as the Church of this time, whose sons are all, from the founding of the human race onwards, as many as have been able to be righteous and holy, the Lord surely signified Himself, because in the time of His birth He was lesser than John, but greater in the eternity of the Godhead and in lordly power. Accordingly, on the former exposition it is punctuated thus: But he who is lesser in the kingdom of God; and then is added: is greater than he. On the latter, thus: But He Who is lesser; and then is added: in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

And all the people hearing, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. God Himself is justified through baptism when men justify themselves by confessing their own sins, as it is written: Tell your iniquities, that you may be justified (Isa. 43:26). And He is justified in this, that He is not rejected through contumacy, but His gift is acknowledged through righteousness. For the Lord is just, and has loved justice (Ps. 10:8). The justification of God lies in this, then, if He is seen to have bestowed His gifts not on the unworthy and guilty, but on those made innocent and righteous through washing. David too says: Against Thee only have I sinned, and done evil before Thee, that Thou mayest be justified in Thy words and prevail when Thou art judged (Ps. 50:6). Therefore he who sins and confesses his sin to God justifies God, yielding to Him as victor and hoping for grace from Him. In baptism, then, God is justified, for in it is both the confession and the pardon of sins.

But the Pharisees and the lawyers despised the counsel of God against themselves, not being baptized by him. His saying against themselves, or contrary to themselves, signifies that he who rejects the grace of God acts against himself; or else, as foolish and ungrateful men, they are reproached for having refused to receive the counsel of God sent to themselves. The counsel of God, then, is that by which He decreed to save the world through the passion and death of the Lord Jesus. But the Pharisees and lawyers despised this, rejecting the secret and saving mystery whose first signs went before in the preaching and baptism of John, but nevertheless serving that same counsel unknowingly

and unwillingly, according to what the apostle Peter says to them, speaking of the Lord: This man, delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have slain, fastening Him [to the cross] by the hands of the wicked (Acts 2:23).

To what, then, shall I say the men of this generation are like, and to what are they like? They are like children sitting in the market-place and speaking to one another and saying: We have sung to you with pipes, and you have not danced; we have lamented, and you have not wept. The generation of the Jews is compared to children sitting in the market-place, because of old it had the prophets as teachers. Of whom it is said: Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise (Ps. 8:3). And elsewhere: The declaration of Thy words gives me light, and gives understanding to little ones (Ps. 118:130), that is, to the humble in spirit. The Lord's market-place, moreover, is either the synagogue or Jerusalem itself, in which the ordinances of the heavenly precepts were established. There these children spoke to one another, or, according to Matthew, to their fellows, because with their fathers' voice they were wont daily to reproach the peoples of their own race and nation that, rebuked first by the Psalms of David and afterwards by the lamentations of the prophets, they would not assent. Whenever a victory over the enemy was either foretold as to come or recalled as accomplished, they would not consent to rise up to works of virtue. For by the word dancing is signified not the whirling of a body twisted in actors' movements, but the devotion of an eager heart and a religious agility of the limbs. Whenever the destructions wrought, or to be wrought, by the enemy, or the lamentations of the prophets that called for weeping, resounded, even so the hearers did not take care to flee to the remedies of penance. The Psalmist sings: Rejoice in God our helper, shout for joy to the God of Jacob, take up a psalm, and bring the timbrel (Ps. 80:2–3), and the rest. But what follows? And My people did not hear My voice, and Israel did not attend to Me (Ps. 80:12). The prophet cries out: Thus says the Lord: Turn to Me with your whole heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments (Joel 2:12–13). And again: My bowels, my bowels, I am in pain; the senses of my heart are troubled within me. I will not be silent, for my soul has heard the sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle (Jer. 4:19). And a little after: For My foolish people have not known Me; they are senseless children, and witless (Jer. 4:22).

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say: He has a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say: Behold a man who is a glutton and a drinker of wine, a friend of publicans and sinners. As then (He says), so now too you will receive neither way of salvation. For His saying: We have lamented, and you have not wept, refers to John, whose abstinence from food and drink signified the mourning of penance. But His saying: We have sung with pipes, and you have not danced, [refers] to the Lord Himself, Who, by taking food and drink with the rest, figured the joy of the kingdom. But they would neither be humbled with John nor rejoice with Christ, saying that the one had a demon, the other was a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of publicans and sinners. And as to what He adds:

And wisdom is justified by all her children,

He shows that the children of wisdom understand that righteousness lies neither in abstaining nor in eating, but in the equanimity of bearing want, and in the temperance of not being corrupted by abundance, and of taking or not taking, as is opportune, those things of which not the use but the craving is to be blamed. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy (Rom. 14:17). And since men are wont greatly to rejoice

BOOK III

The most holy story of Mary the penitent, which is the head of the third book of our [commentary] on Luke, although it begins with a new opening to lessen the labour of readers, yet by the connection of the matter looks back to the end of the second book. For above it had been said, whether in the person of the evangelist or of the Lord the Saviour (as some have held): And all the people hearing, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. If you interpret this as said by the Lord, the people hearing John is understood to be meant. If as inserted by the evangelist, it remains to be understood [as the people] hearing the Lord Himself discoursing on the greatness of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers despised the counsel of God against themselves, not being baptized by him. The same Evangelist goes on to establish by deeds also what he had set forth in words, proving by a most fitting example that wisdom is justified by all her children, that is, both by the righteous and by those who repent after unrighteousness.

CHAPTER XXVIII

But one of the Pharisees, he says, asked Him to eat with him. And going into the Pharisee's house, He reclined at table. And behold, a woman who was in the city, a sinner, when she knew that He was reclining in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment. Alabaster is a kind of white marble, flecked with various colours, which they are accustomed to hollow out for ointment-vessels, because it is said to keep things uncorrupted best. It is found around Egyptian Thebes and Damascus in Syria, whiter than the rest, but the most esteemed in India. Some say that this is not the same woman who, when the Lord's passion was at hand, poured ointment over His head and feet, because this one washed [His feet] with tears and wiped them with her hair, and is plainly called a sinner, whereas nothing of the kind is written of the other, nor could a harlot have straightway become worthy of the Lord's head. But those who investigate more carefully find that the same woman, namely Mary Magdalene, the sister of Lazarus, as John relates, performed the same service twice. Once in this place, when, approaching for the first time with humility and tears, she merited the remission of her sins. For John too, although he did not relate how it was done as Luke did, nevertheless mentioned it in commending Mary herself, where he began to speak of her brother who was raised. Now there was, he says, a certain man sick, Lazarus of Bethany, of the village of Mary and of Martha her sister. (And Mary was she who anointed the Lord

over fleshly feasts, he added: In the Holy Spirit. Otherwise. Wisdom is justified by all her children, that is, the dispensation and teaching of God, which resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (Jas. 4:6), has been proved by its faithful to have acted justly. Of whose number are also those of whom it is said above: And all the people hearing, and the publicans, justified God. Amen.

with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair (John 11:2).) The second time, in Bethany (for the former was done in Galilee), she is found, no longer a sinner but a chaste, holy woman devoted to Christ, to have anointed not only His feet but His head as well. And this accords with the rules of a most beautiful allegory. For every faithful soul too is first bowed down at the Lord's feet, humbled and to be absolved of its sins; then, as its merits grow with time, it pours over the Lord's head, as it were, the fragrance of joyful faith with the scent of spices. And the universal Church of Christ herself, in the present indeed, by celebrating the mysteries of His incarnation, which is signified by the name of the feet, renders devout service to her Redeemer. But in the future, beholding together both the glory of His humanity and the eternity of His divinity, since the head of Christ is God (1 Cor. 11:3), she glorifies Him with the perpetual praises of confession, as with pure nard. She brought, then, he says, an alabaster box of ointment.

And standing behind beside His feet, she began to wash His feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. And she kissed His feet and anointed them with ointment. It is clear to all that the woman, formerly intent on unlawful acts, had used ointment on herself for the fragrance of her flesh. What, then, she had shamefully displayed for herself, this she now offered laudably to God. With her eyes she had coveted earthly things, but now, wearing them out by penance, she wept. She had displayed her hair to set off her face, but now she wiped away tears with her hair. With her mouth she had spoken proud things, but, kissing the Lord's feet, she pressed it upon her Redeemer's footprints. As many delights, then, as she had had in herself, so many burnt offerings she found from herself. She turned the number of her crimes into the number of her virtues, so that all of her that had despised God in sin might serve God in penance.

But the Pharisee who had invited Him, seeing it, spoke within himself, saying: This man, if he were a prophet, would surely know who and what manner of woman this is who touches Him, for she is a sinner. See the Pharisee, truly proud in himself, falsely righteous, blaming the sick woman for her sickness and the physician for His help, who was himself also sick with the wound of pride, and did not know it. Hence it is always necessary that, whenever we see sinners, we first bewail ourselves in their calamity. For perhaps we have either fallen into like things, or may fall, if we have not fallen. And though the censure of the teaching office must always pursue vices by the strength of discipline,

we must nevertheless carefully discern that we owe strictness to vices, compassion to nature. But now let us hear by what judgement this proud and arrogant man is convicted.

“Two debtors,” He says, “were owed to a certain moneylender. One owed five hundred denarii, the other fifty. When they had nothing with which to repay, he forgave them both. Which of them, then, loves him more? Simon answered and said: I suppose that it is he to whom he forgave more” (Luke 7:41–43). In this it is to be noted that, while the Pharisee is convicted by his own judgement, he carries, like a madman, the rope with which he is to be bound. The good deeds of the sinful woman are listed, the evil deeds of the false just man are listed, when it is said:

“I entered your house, you gave no water for My feet. But she has watered My feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair. You gave Me no kiss. But she, since she came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. You did not anoint My head with oil, but she has anointed My feet with ointment” (Luke 7:44–46). After the listing, the judgement is added:

“Wherefore I say to you, her many sins will be forgiven her, because she has loved much” (Luke 7:47). What do we believe love to be, if not fire? and what are faults, if not rust? Hence it is said: “Her many sins will be forgiven her, because she has loved much.” As if it were said openly: she burns away the rust of sin fully, because she burns strongly with the fire of love. For the rust of sin is consumed the more fully, the more the sinner’s heart is burned up by the great fire of charity. See, she who had come to the physician sick has been healed, but others are still sick over her health; for there follows:

“And those who were reclining at table with Him began to say within themselves: Who is this who even forgives sins?” (Luke 7:49). But the heavenly Physician does not look to the sick, whom He sees becoming worse even from the medicine. Her whom He had healed He confirms by the sentence of His mercy, saying:

“Your faith has made you whole; go in peace” (Luke 7:50). For faith made her whole, because she did not doubt that she could receive what she asked; indeed she had already received from Him the very certainty of hope, from Whom through hope she was also seeking salvation. And she is commanded to go in peace, so that she may not be turned aside any further from the road of truth into the way of offence. Let this be said by way of historical exposition; now let us see the secrets of the mystical sense. For whom does the Pharisee, presuming on a false righteousness, signify, if not the Jewish people? whom the sinful woman, but coming to the Lord’s footsteps and weeping, if not the converted Gentiles? Now the Pharisee asked the Lord to eat with him, because that same people, which would not believe in Him when He came, has not ceased to hope for Him as one to come; indeed it longs with prayerful vows that He may come, saying: “Stir up Thy might, and come, to save us” (Ps. 79:3). For the Lord to eat with the Pharisee is to receive joys of mind from the devotion of a believing people. Hence He Himself, elsewhere, when Samaria was about to believe, says to the disciples: “I have food to eat which you do not know” (John 4:32). And when they were at a loss as to what He meant, He explains, saying: “My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me, that I may accomplish the work

of Him” (John 4:34). “And having entered,” it says, “the house of the Pharisee, He reclined at table” (Luke 7:36). The house of the Pharisee is the very keeping of the law and the prophets, in which the people of the Jews boasted that it had the dwelling of an unbroken way of life. The Lord entered it because, appearing in time in the flesh, He came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfil them. And He reclined, because He Who could not be understood in the loftiness of His majesty took on the lowliness of a servant’s form, in which He could be seen. “So the woman who was in the city, a sinner, learned that He was at table in the house of the Pharisee” (Luke 7:37), because the Gentiles, formerly bound by unclean deeds in the life of the world, learned by the report of the apostolic preaching that “God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4–5). And in the house of the Pharisee it is not the Pharisee but she who is justified, since the people of the Jews follow only the letter of the law, but we follow also the grace of the Spirit in the law. He supposes that Jesus is not a prophet, because He receives sinners; but we acknowledge Him to be even true God, Who is able to justify sinners. “And the woman brought an alabaster box of ointment” (Luke 7:37). What is expressed in the ointment, if not the fragrance of good repute? Hence Paul too says: “We are the good fragrance of Christ to God in every place” (2 Cor. 2:15). If, then, we do right works, with which we may sprinkle the Church with the fragrance of good repute, what do we pour on the Lord’s body if not ointment? But the woman stood behind, at His feet. For we stood against the Lord’s feet when, set in our sins, we were held back from His ways. But if after our sins we turn to true penance, we now stand behind at His feet, because we follow the footsteps which we used to fight against. The woman waters His feet with tears; and this we too truly do if we bend down through the feeling of compassion to any of the least members of the Lord, if we suffer with His saints in tribulation, if we count their sorrow our own. The woman wiped with her hair the feet which she had watered. For hair is superfluous to the body. And what does an abundance of earthly substance resemble, if not hair? Since it is superfluous to the needs of life, it feels nothing even when cut off. We wipe the Lord’s feet with our hair, then, when we have mercy on His saints, with whom we suffer out of charity, even from the things that are superfluous to us, so that the mind so grieves through compassion that the generous hand also shows the effect of the grief. The woman kisses the feet which she wipes. And this we too do fully if we earnestly love those whom we support out of our bounty, so that our neighbour’s need is not a burden to us, nor his very want, which is being relieved, become wearisome, and while the hand gives what is needed the heart grow numb to love. By the feet may also be understood the very mystery of His incarnation, by which the Godhead touched the earth, because it took flesh. “For the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). We kiss the Redeemer’s feet, then, when we love the mystery of His incarnation with our whole heart. We anoint His feet with ointment when we proclaim the power of His very humanity with the good repute of sacred speech. But this the Pharisee

sees, and envies. For when the Jewish people sees the Gentiles proclaiming God, it pines away within itself in its own malice. But our Redeemer lists to him the deeds of the woman, as it were the good deeds of the Gentiles, so that he may recognize in what evil he lies. “I entered your house, you gave no water for My feet. But she has watered My feet with tears” (Luke 7:44). Water, indeed, is outside us; the moisture of tears is within us. That is to say, that unbelieving people never gave for the Lord even the things that were outside itself; but the converted Gentiles shed for Him not only the substance of their goods but even their blood. “You gave Me no kiss. But she, since she came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet” (Luke 7:45). For a kiss is the sign of love. And that unbelieving people gave God no kiss, because it would not love out of charity the God whom it served out of fear. But the Gentiles, once called, do not cease to kiss the footsteps of their Redeemer, because they sigh continually in love of Him. “You did not anoint My head with oil” (Luke 7:46). If we take the Lord’s feet as the mystery of the incarnation, fittingly is the Godhead itself signified by His head. Hence it is also said by the Apostle: “The head of Christ is God” (1 Cor. 11:3). For the Jewish people professed to believe in God, and not in Him as it were in a man. But it is said to the Pharisee, “You did not anoint My head with oil,” because it neglected to proclaim with fitting praise even the very power of the Godhead, in which the Jewish people undertook to believe. “But she has anointed My feet with ointment” (Luke 7:46). For when the Gentiles believed the mystery of His incarnation, they proclaimed with the highest praise even His lowliest things. The two debtors too, of whom the illustration is set before Simon, signify both peoples, that is, of the Jews and of the Gentiles, who owed to one moneylender, that is, to their Creator, not material money but the coin of their own salvation. For our Maker raised up those whom He created after His image and likeness as with a denarius lent them for safekeeping. For a denarius is usually stamped with the king’s image and name. “But to everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required of him. And to whom they have entrusted much, of him they will ask more” (Luke 12:48). And indeed the debt of each people is multiplied by the number five. That is to say, there are five senses, using which in this life we ought to cultivate the image of our Maker which we have received: but the people to whom the decalogue of the law was given through a servant owes less. More, however, the people to whom the grace of eternal life was committed through the Son. And therefore the interest of the one is heaped up by the number ten, of the other by the number a hundred, which no one would doubt pertains to the signifying of the heavenly kingdom, which will be given to those on the right. For not without reason is it figured on the right hand by the same bending of the fingers by which ten is figured on the left. Unless because even now faith accomplishes the works of the Decalogue, which the letter could not, and in the future He will render to each according to his works: to those, namely, who by patience in good work seek glory and honour and incorruption, eternal life (Rom. 2:6–7). But because neither of us has been saved by our own strength, but “by His grace we have been saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8), it is rightly said: “When they had nothing

with which to repay, he forgave them both” (Luke 7:42). And certainly he loves more to whom more is given. “But he to whom less is forgiven, loves less” (Luke 7:47). For whether you choose to understand the good of the knowledge we have received, which is to be perfected, or the folly we have fallen into, which is to be shunned, far more is certainly given to the Church than to the Synagogue; for the Church was once corrupted by the fouler filth of idolatry, inasmuch as no teacher forbade it, but “where sin abounded, grace has abounded more” (Rom. 5:20), and it is now raised up by the greater proclamation of evangelical perfection. To it is said: “For many prophets and just men desired to see the things that you see, and did not see them; and to hear the things that you hear, and did not hear them” (Matt. 13:17). Fitting indeed for this place is what the history of Numbers relates, that when the spoils of the slain Midianites had been divided equally, those who came from the battle gave to the Lord one head in five hundred from their portion, but the rest one in fifty (Num. 31:27–30). For he too offers much who, by exercising virtue in the camp, keeps himself safe from the enemy’s assault; but he certainly offers greater things who, by brandishing the sword of the word, lays low the countless forces of the adversary’s army.

CHAPTER VIII.

“And it came to pass afterwards that He was journeying through city and village, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God, and the twelve with Him” (Luke 8:1). We see fulfilled in Christ’s disciples what we read was said of that ancient people of the Hebrews. Nor is it surprising, since the one God of both Testaments, Who gave the law through a servant, will Himself give the blessing through the Son. “As an eagle,” it says, “calling forth its young to fly, and hovering over them, spread out its wings, and took him up, and carried him on its shoulders” (Deut. 32:11). For just as newly hatched chicks, until they are fledged, cannot master the air in flight, so all the faithful, in order to be able to fly through to heavenly things, must first clothe themselves in the nest of faith with the feathers of the virtues. So the apostles themselves, teachers of the faithful, ascend step by step to the heights, so that they may be set over the instruction of others as well. For first the Lord teaches in the synagogues, works miracles, spreads His fame everywhere, receives the crowds that gather to Him, heals, instructs. Then He makes disciples, refreshes them at the Bridegroom’s wedding, leads them through the cornfields, and defends them from the slanderous Pharisees as an eagle defends its tender young from the bites of serpents by bringing the eagle-stone. From these He chooses twelve, whom He names apostles; but these too He first teaches with the crowd present, and, with the crowd threatening together with them, He renders His accustomed benefits to the wretched. But afterwards, as is read in the present passage, preaching through cities and villages, He keeps with Him only those who may hear Him more intimately, and to them alone He explains the mysteries of the kingdom of God which He had spoken to the others in parables. And when at length they have been strengthened by the display of His powers, as by the protection of wings, He gives them too the power of healing, and sends them to preach the kingdom of God.

“And certain women, who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary who is called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out” (Luke 8:2). Mary Magdalene is she whose penitence the preceding reading relates without naming her. For beautifully and reverently

does the evangelist, where he records that she journeyed with the Lord and ministered to Him from her means, make her known by her familiar name. But where he describes her as a sinner, though a penitent one, he says “a woman” in general terms; lest, that is, he should darken with the mark of her former error the name of so great a renown, by which she is today venerated throughout all the churches. Seven demons are said to have gone out of her, so that she may be shown to have been full of countless, indeed of all, vices. For since the ages run their course in periods of seven days, totality is often signified in the Scriptures by the number seven. Hence the prophet too embraces the grace of the Holy Spirit in a division into seven virtues.

“And Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward” (Luke 8:3). If Mary signifies the Church from the Gentiles cleansed of the filth of vices, why should Joanna not designate the same Church, once indeed subject to the worship of idols, but now redeemed by the mercy of Christ? For any evil spirit, ready for the deception of the human race, while it works for the devil’s kingdom, is as it were the steward of the most impious Herod.

“And Susanna, and many others, who ministered to Him from their means” (Luke 8:3). It was a Jewish custom, and was not counted a fault, by the ancient usage of the nation, that women should provide food and clothing for their teachers from their own substance. Because this could cause scandal among the nations, Paul records that he cast it aside: “Have we not the power to take about with us women as sisters, as the other apostles also do?” (1 Cor. 9:5). — And they ministered to the Lord from their substance, so that He might reap their carnal things, Whose spiritual things they were reaping. Not that the Lord of creatures needed food, but that He might show a pattern for teachers, that they ought to be content with food and clothing from their disciples. Now Susanna is interpreted “lily”, or “his grace”. But it is better if the feminine name is figured from the lily, I believe because of the fragrant whiteness of the heavenly faith and the golden glow of inward love. Joanna, “the Lord his grace”, or “the Lord merciful”; that is, because all by which we live is His. Maria, “bitter sea”, surely because of the roar of penitence implanted in us, with which either Mary herself or each of us bewails our former vices, that we may deserve to attain to eternal grace and splendour. Magdalene, “tower”; but better, just as “mountaineer” is named from mountain, so let “towerling” be named from tower. She is, namely, the one to whom the Psalmist sings: “Thou hast led me, for Thou hast become my hope, a tower of strength in the face of the enemy” (Ps. 60:3–4).

“And when a very great crowd was gathering, and people were hastening to Him from the cities, He spoke by a likeness: The sower went out to sow his seed” (Luke 8:4–5). The Lord deigned to explain this parable Himself for this reason: that He might make known that He was speaking figuratively, and teach that the meanings of things are to be sought even in those which He did not choose to explain Himself. But since the Lord Himself disclosed that the seed is the word of God and that the varied ground signifies the differing heart of the hearers, the sower, whom He left for us to seek out, we can understand as none better than the Son of God, Who “went out to sow His seed”, because from the bosom of the Father, to which the creature

had no access, going forth, He came into the world for this, that He might bear witness to the truth. Hence, according to the other evangelists, when about to speak this parable He is fittingly said to have gone out of the house, gone to the sea, and gone up into a boat, signifying, that is, by the placing of His body the very thing He signified by the course of His discourse.

“And as he sows, some fell beside the way, and it was trodden down, and the birds of the air ate it up” (Luke 8:5). What the Lord explained is to be received with devout faith. But what He left unspoken to our understanding is to be touched on briefly. The seed that fell beside the way perished by a twofold injury, being both trodden down by those going along the way and snatched away by the birds. The way, then, is the heart worn down and dried up by the constant passage of evil thoughts, so that it is not able to receive the seed of the word and make it sprout. And therefore whatever of the good seed reaches the neighbourhood of such a way, trodden down by the traffic of the worst thoughts, is snatched away by the demons. These are called birds of the air, either because they are of a heavenly and spiritual nature, or because they fly through the air.

“And some fell upon rock, and when it had sprung up it withered, because it had no moisture” (Luke 8:6). By rock he here rightly means the hard and untamed heart, pierced by no ploughshare of true faith. And the moisture at the root of the seed is what, according to another parable, the oil for feeding the virgins’ lamps is, that is, love and perseverance in virtue.

“And some fell into good ground. And having sprung up it yielded fruit a hundredfold” (Luke 8:8). By a hundredfold fruit he means perfect fruit. For the number ten is always taken for perfection, because the keeping of the law is contained in ten commandments. For the active and the contemplative life are joined together in the commandments of the decalogue, because in it both the love of God and the love of neighbour are commanded to be kept. For the love of God pertains to the contemplative life, the love of neighbour to the active. And the number ten multiplied by itself rises to a hundred. Hence a great perfection is rightly signified by a hundred, as is said of him who leaves his earthly goods for the Lord: “He will receive a hundredfold, and will possess eternal life” (Matt. 19:29). For whoever despises temporal and earthly things for the name of God both receives here perfection of mind, so that he no longer desires what he despises, and in the age to come attains to the eternal glory of life. The good ground, then, is made fruitful with a hundredfold yield when a teachable heart is endowed with the perfection of the spiritual virtues.

“Saying these things, He cried out: He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Luke 8:8). Whenever this little admonition is inserted, whether in the Gospel or in the Apocalypse of John, it is shown that what is said is mystical, and is to be sought out by us more attentively.

“And His disciples asked Him what this parable might be” (Luke 8:9). Let no one think that the disciples asked the Saviour these things immediately after the parable was finished; but, as Mark says, “when He was alone, those who were with Him, the twelve, asked Him about the parables. And He said to them: To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God” (Mark 4:10–11).

“But to the rest in parables, that seeing they may not see,”

“and hearing they may not understand” (Luke 8:10). Mark says thus: “But to those who are outside, all things are done in parables” (Mark 4:11). And therefore let us too enter with Christ’s disciples into the sanctuary of God, that we may understand the last things of the mysteries of the kingdom of God. For those who draw near to His feet will receive of His teaching, saying with the Psalmist: “Unveil our eyes, and we shall consider the wonderful things of Thy law” (Ps. 118:18). Rightly, then, do they hear in parables and in a riddle who, with the senses of the heart closed, care neither to enter nor to know the truth, forgetful of the Lord’s precept: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 11:15).

“But those beside the way are they who hear. Then the devil comes, and takes away the word from their heart, lest believing they be saved” (Luke 8:12). Of this seed Mark writes thus: “But these are they beside the way, where the word is sown. And when they have heard, immediately Satan comes, and takes it away” (Mark 4:15). Matthew thus: “Everyone who hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches it away” (Matt. 13:19). From this we are plainly taught that those are sown beside the way who deign to take in the word they hear with no faith, no understanding, not even with any opportunity of profit tempting them. Further, those are sown on stony ground and among thorns (as the Lord explains) who do approve the profit of the word they have heard, and taste the desire of it; but, that they may not attain to what they approve, the adversities of this life hold them back by terrifying them, or its prosperities by flattering them. Against both these harms he took care to guard the seed he had received who said: “By the weapons of righteousness on the right hand and on the left; through glory and dishonour, through ill repute and good repute, as deceivers, and yet truthful” (2 Cor. 6:7–8). Know, then, that by these three kinds of ground are signified all who do not do the word they have heard. From all of these, he who keeps the seed he has received is the good ground. Excepted, of course, are the Jews and the Gentiles, who do not even deserve to hear.

“But that which fell among thorns, these are they who have heard, and going on are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and bring forth no fruit” (Luke 8:14). It is a wonder how the Lord interpreted riches as thorns, since the former prick and the latter delight. And yet they are thorns, because they tear the mind with the prickings of their thoughts, and when they drag it on as far as sin, they bloody it as though with a wound inflicted. These the Lord, as another evangelist witnesses, fittingly calls in this place not riches but deceitful riches. For they are deceitful, since they cannot remain with us long. They are deceitful, since they do not drive out the poverty of our mind. But those riches alone are true which make us rich in virtues. And it is to be noted that the Lord, explaining, says that cares and pleasures and riches choke. For they choke, because with their importunate thoughts they strangle the throat of the mind; and while they do not allow good desire to enter the heart, they as it were kill the entry of the breath of life. It is to be noted also that there are two things which He joins to riches, namely cares and pleasures, because indeed they both oppress the mind through anxiety and, through abundance,

loosen it: for, by a contrary effect, they make their possessors both afflicted and slippery. But since pleasure cannot agree with affliction, at one time they afflict them through anxiety over keeping them, and at another soften them through abundance towards pleasures.

“But that in the good ground, these are they who, hearing the word with a good and very good heart, hold it fast, and bring forth fruit in patience” (Luke 8:15). The good ground (as we said before) acts contrary to all three worthless varieties of ground, both by receiving the seed of the word willingly, that is, and by keeping patiently what it receives, amid adversity and prosperity, right up to the time of fruit. Otherwise. The good ground yields fruit through patience, because, namely, the good things we do are nothing if we do not also bear with equanimity the evils of our neighbours. For the higher anyone has advanced, the more he finds in this world that is hard to bear. Because, while our mind’s love falls away from the present age, the adversity of that same age grows. Hence it is that we see many both doing good and yet toiling under a heavy burden of tribulations. But, according to the Lord’s word, they yield fruit through patience. For when they humbly accept the scourges, after the scourges they are sublimely received into rest. But as to what is said according to Matthew: “And it bears fruit, and yields some a hundred, and some sixty, and some thirty” (Matt. 13:23), the thirty are referred to marriage. For the very joining of the fingers, as though embracing and binding one another with a gentle kiss, depicts husband and wife. The sixty to widows, because they are set in distress and tribulation. Hence they are also pressed down on the upper finger. And the greater the difficulty of abstaining from the allurements of a pleasure once experienced, the greater also the reward. Further, the number a hundred (pay careful attention, I beg you, reader) is transferred from the left hand to the right, and, with the same fingers indeed, but not the same hand, with which married women and widows are signified on the left hand, it makes a circle and expresses the crown of virginity. Otherwise. The word bears thirtyfold fruit when it builds up faith in the Holy Trinity; sixtyfold when it teaches the perfection of work, for there are six days on which one ought to work; a hundredfold when it proclaims eternal life at the right hand of the kingdom.

“But no one, lighting a lamp, covers it with a vessel, or puts it under a bed, but he puts it on a lampstand, that those who come in may see the light” (Luke 8:16). Because He had said above to the apostles: “To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables” (Luke 8:10), He now shows that through them the same mystery is at some time to be revealed to the rest too, and that the hearts of all who were to enter the house of God are to be lit up with the flames of faith. With these words He also teaches, figuratively, boldness in preaching, so that no one, for fear of carnal hardships, should hide the light of the knowledge he possesses. For by the name of vessel and bed He signifies the flesh; by the word lamp, the word. And whoever, out of fear (as I have said) of carnal hardships, conceals it, certainly puts the flesh itself before the manifesting of the truth, and with it as it were covers the word that he is afraid to preach. But he puts it on a lampstand

the lamp who subjects his body to the ministry of God, so that the preaching of truth may be higher and the service of the body lower, and yet through that very service of the body the teaching may shine the more loftily, which is conveyed to learners in good works through bodily offices, that is, through voice and tongue and the other movements of the body. The Apostle, then, puts the lamp on the lampstand when he says: “I do not so fight, as one beating the air, but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself should be found reprobate” (1 Cor. 9:26–27).

“For there is nothing hidden that will not be made manifest, nor secret that will not be known and come into the open” (Luke 8:17). Do not be ashamed, He says, of the Gospel of God, but amid the darkness of the persecutors lift up the light of the word upon the lampstand of your body, keeping with a steadfast mind that day of final recompense on which “God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the thoughts of hearts” (1 Cor. 4:5). For then praise from God awaits you, and eternal punishment the adversary of the truth.

“Take heed, therefore, how you hear” (Luke 8:18). He urgently teaches us to listen to the word, so that we may be able both to ruminate on it continually in our own heart and to bring it up for the hearing of others.

“For whoever has, to him shall be given. And whoever has not, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him” (Luke 8:18). Give your attention, He says, with your whole intention to the word that you hear. For whoever has love of the word, to him shall be given also the sense to understand what he loves. But whoever has no love of hearing the word, even if he thinks himself skilled either by natural talent or by literary training, will rejoice in no sweetness of true wisdom. And though this may seem to have been said specially of the apostles, to whom, as possessors of charity and faith, “it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God”, and of the faithless Jews, who in the parables seeing did not see and hearing did not understand, namely that they would lose the letter of the law in which they gloried, it can nevertheless also be taken generally: because, surely, a clever reader often deprives himself through negligence of the wisdom which a simple but studious one tastes by labouring. And for this reason the slothful too often receives talent, that he may be the more justly punished for negligence, because he scorns to know what he could have attained without labour. And for this reason the studious man is sometimes weighed down by slowness of understanding, that he may find the greater rewards of recompense the more he labours in the effort of finding.

“And His mother and His brothers came to Him, and they could not come at Him for the crowd” (Luke 8:19). The brothers of the Lord are not to be thought sons of the blessed ever-virgin Mary, as Helvidius holds, nor sons of Joseph by another wife, as some hold, but are rather to be understood as their kinsmen, as we have also discussed above. Indeed, that the Lord, when asked to come to His mother and brothers, declines to leave the office of the word, is not a rejection of the duties of filial devotion, whose precept is, “Honour your father and mother” (Exod. 20:12); but He shows that He owes more to His Father’s mysteries than to His mother’s affections, commending the same to us by example as by word: “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:37). He does not slight His brothers insultingly, but

by preferring spiritual work to kinship of the flesh He teaches that the bond of hearts is holier than that of bodies. Mystically, moreover, this reading accords with the one above, where it is said of the Jews, who look only at the letter of the law: “And whoever has not, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him” (Luke 8:18). For the mother and brothers of Jesus are the synagogue, from whose flesh He was born, and the people of the Jews: who, while the Saviour teaches within, come but cannot enter, since they neglect to understand His words spiritually. For the crowd, getting there first, enters His house, because, while Judaea held back, the Gentiles flocked to Christ, and drank in the inner mysteries of life with a mind the more capacious the nearer they were in faith. As the psalm says: “Come to Him, and be enlightened” (Ps. 33:6).

“And it was told Him: Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wishing to see You” (Luke 8:20). Within is the word, within is the light; hence above: “That those who come in,” He says, “may see the light” (Luke 8:16). If, then, standing outside, not even His parents are acknowledged, and perhaps are not acknowledged for the sake of an example to us, how shall we be acknowledged, if we stand outside? For they stand outside wishing to see the Lord who, not seeking the spiritual sense in the law, have fixed themselves outside in keeping the letter, and as it were compel Christ to come out to teach carnal things rather than consent to go in themselves to learn spiritual things.

“And He answered and said to them: My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God, and do it” (Luke 8:21). The whole perfection of the heavenly life is comprised in these two things, namely to hear the word of God and to do it. Hence above the Lord, explaining the parable of the seed, says that those who have received the word by hearing only are reprobate ground; but that those are good who hold fast the word they hear in a good and very good heart, and bring forth fruit in patience. These are called the Lord’s mother because daily, by their example or their word, they as it were give birth to Him in the minds of their neighbours. They are also His brothers when they too do the will of His Father Who is in heaven.

“Now it came to pass on one of the days that He went up into a boat, and His disciples, and He said to them: Let us cross over the lake. And they went up” (Luke 8:22). In this voyage the Lord deigns to show both natures of His one and the same Person, since He Who as man sleeps in the boat, as God restrains the fury of the sea by a word. Further, according to the allegory, the sea or lake which He desires to cross with His own is taken as the dark and bitter surge of the present age. And the boat which they go up into is understood as nothing better than the tree of the Lord’s passion. Helped by its benefit, all the faithful, having crossed the waves of the world, obtain the dwelling of the heavenly homeland as it were the stability of a safe shore. And what it signifies that the Saviour Himself went up into one boat with the disciples He discloses elsewhere when, having foretold the mystery of His passion and resurrection, He at once said to all: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).

“And as they sailed, He fell asleep” (Luke 8:23). To the disciples

Christ fell asleep while they were sailing, because, while the faithful were trampling on the world and meditating in mind on the rest of the kingdom to come, and, whether by the favouring breath of the Holy Spirit or by the oar of their own effort, were vying to cast behind their backs the faithless pride of the world, the time of the Lord's passion suddenly arrived. Hence Mark rightly reports that this was done as the time of night was coming on, so that not only the Lord's sleeping but also the very hour of the departing light might signify the setting of the true sun.

And a storm of wind came down upon the lake, and they were being filled, and were in danger. When the Lord had mounted the stern of the cross, on which He was to take the sleep of death, the waves of blaspheming persecutors, stirred up by demonic storms, rise up. Yet by them it is not His patience that is troubled; rather the weakness of the disciples is shaken, trembles, is in danger.

And coming to Him they woke Him, saying: Master, we are perishing. The disciples wake the Lord, lest while He sleeps they perish by the savagery of the waves, because with the greatest longing they sought the resurrection of Him whose death they had seen, lest, if He were lulled any longer in the death of the flesh, their mind should perish for ever by a spiritual death. Hence it rightly follows:

But He, rising, rebuked the wind and the tempest of the water, and it ceased, and there was a calm. For rising He rebuked the wind, because, once the resurrection was accomplished, He laid low the pride of the devil, when through death He destroyed him who had the dominion of death. Rising, He also made the tempest of the water cease, because by rising from the tomb He brought down the frenzied rage of the Jews, which, wagging its head, had cried: If He is the Son of God, let Him come down now from the cross, and we believe Him. Here, according to the letter, it is to be noted that all creatures perceive their Creator. For the things that are rebuked and commanded perceive the One who commands, not by the error of the heretics, who think all things are living, but by the majesty of the Maker: things that with us are insensible are sensible to Him.

And He said to them: Where is your faith? Rightly are they reproved who were afraid while Christ was present, since surely one who clings to Him cannot perish. Like this is the fact that, appearing to the disciples after the sleep of death, He reproached their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen that He had risen. And likewise He said to them: O foolish and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things, and so enter into His glory? (Luke 24:25–26). As if, by the metaphor of the boat, He were saying: Was it not necessary that the Christ should fall asleep, while the waves swept from this side and that the boat in which He was resting, and so, the swollen heaps of the deep being at once calmed, make known to all the power of His divinity?

And they, being afraid, marvelled, saying to one another: Who, do you think, is this, that He commands both the winds and the sea, and they obey Him? Matthew writes thus: But the men marvelled, saying, What sort of man is this? etc. So it was not the disciples, but the sailors and the others who were in the boat who marvelled. But if anyone should contentiously insist that those who marvelled were the disciples, we shall rightly answer

are called men, as those who did not yet know the power of the Saviour. And we too, each of us, when, imbued with the sign of the Lord's cross, we resolve to leave the world, surely board the boat with Jesus and attempt to cross the lake. But He who keeping Israel for ever has not slumbered nor will sleep (Ps. 120:4) nevertheless often, while we are sailing, sleeps as it were amid the roaring of the sea, when, amid the very efforts of the virtues, by the mounting assault whether of unclean spirits, or of wicked men, or of our own thoughts, the splendour of faith is darkened, the height of hope wastes away, the flame of love grows cold. But amid storms of this kind we must run to that Helmsman, we must earnestly wake Him who does not serve the winds but commands them. At once He will quell the tempests, pour back calm, and grant the harbour of salvation. Amid these things it is pleasing, having briefly examined the variety of the apostolic voyaging, to consider how their own seclusion helps the good, or the admixture of the wicked troubles them. For see, to begin with the more perfect: after the solemnity of the Lord's resurrection had been celebrated, seven chosen disciples board a boat to fish, and because they were not far from the land of everlasting rest, but about two hundred cubits off, that is, they had applied their mind to the world only so far as the twofold love required, since Peter had stripped himself of worldly business, they are found worthy now to see the Lord standing on the shore of mortality, now to feast with Him, now, as the morning of the light above breathed on them, to receive their nets filled with the mystical number of great fishes and yet not broken, and to draw them from the lowest waves of the world. Elsewhere Peter, as is read above, at the Lord's command lets down the nets for a catch, and takes a great multitude of fishes. But because he himself was still of frail mind, so that trembling he said to Christ: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord (Luke 5:8), then the nets were also broken, and had his companions not helped, the boats too would have been swamped and sunk. Again, in this place the disciples board the boat with the Lord and go out on the sea, but because Judas too was among them, the Lord is said to have slept in the stern, which was the helmsman's seat, and the wind and sea to have raged outside. For even if many merits of the disciples were sailing there, the faithlessness of the traitor was still tossing the boat at that time; and those who were firm in their own merits were troubled by another's. Again Paul, sailing with the brethren to Jerusalem, and hastening to celebrate there the day of Pentecost and the joys of the Holy Spirit, passes over all the way with a straight course. But when sent off from Jerusalem to Rome, because he makes the journey with unbelievers, the sea rages, the winds oppose, rain threatens, cold wearies them, the stars are clouded over, land is denied them, the wheat is thrown into the sea, the ship's tackle is taken away, and at last the ship itself, dashed on the sands, breaks apart; the land, which they do not recognize, they make for by swimming. And those who, loaded with desires, had entered the waves of the world escape barely, naked, from that same world turned against them. According to what the same apostle says: He himself will be saved, yet so as through fire (1 Cor. 3:15).

And they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. Gerasa is a notable city of Arabia

beyond the Jordan, adjoining Mount Gilead, which the tribe of Manasseh held, not far from the lake of Tiberias, into which the swine were hurled headlong. And it signifies the nation of the Gentiles, which, after the sleep of His passion and the glory of His resurrection, the Saviour deigned to visit by sending preachers. Hence Gerasa, or Gergesi (as some read), is rightly interpreted "casting out the inhabitant" or "a stranger drawing near". It intimates, that is, that the people of the Gentiles both cast out of their hearts the enemy by whom they were wickedly inhabited, and, being far off, were made near in the blood of Christ.

And when He had gone out onto the land, there met Him a certain man who had had a demon now for a long time. This man takes the figure of the Gentile people, who for a long time, that is, almost from the very beginning of the world's birth, was harried by a mad frenzy.

And he wore no clothing. Because he had lost the covering of his nature and of virtue. For our first parents, after they sinned, are read to have been stripped of this garment of faith and charity. With this first robe the prodigal son is clothed after he returned penitent to his father.

Nor did he stay in a house, but in the tombs. Because he did not rest in his own conscience, but took delight in dead works, that is, in sins. For what are the bodies of the faithless but certain tombs of the dead, in which the word of God does not dwell, but a soul dead in sins is shut up?

When he saw Jesus, he fell down before Him. And crying out with a loud voice he said: What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of God most high? How great the madness of Arius, to believe Jesus a creature and not God, whom the demons believe to be the Son of God most high, and tremble! What impiety of the Jews, to say that He cast out demons by the prince of demons, when the demons themselves confess that He has nothing in common with them! Indeed, this very thing that they then cried out through the frenzy of the possessed man, they afterwards did not cease to say and confess in the shrines of idols: namely, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God most high, and that they have nothing of peace or fellowship with Him.

I beseech You, do not torment me. For He was commanding the unclean spirit to go out of the man. For for a long time it had seized him. The enemy of human salvation reckons it no small torment to himself to cease from injuring a man; and the longer he was wont to possess him, the harder he consents to let him go. Hence we must strive with the utmost care that, if ever, being men, we are overcome by the devil, we at once busy ourselves to escape his snares, lest, if his claim is resisted too late, he be driven out at some time only with greater labour.

And he was bound with chains and kept in fetters. By the chains and fetters are signified the heavy and hard laws of the Gentiles, by which sins are restrained even in their commonwealth.

And, breaking the bonds, he was driven by the demon into the desert. Because, even with the laws themselves transgressed, he was led by desire to those crimes which went beyond even common custom.

And Jesus asked him, saying: What is your

name? And he said: Legion, because many demons had entered into him. He does not ask the name as though unaware, but so that, once the plague which the madman was enduring [was labouring under] had been confessed before a witness, the power of the One who healed might shine out the more welcome. But the priests of our own time too, who know how to cast out demons through the grace of exorcism, are accustomed to say that sufferers cannot be cured otherwise than by openly setting out in confession, so far as they are able to know it, everything they have undergone from unclean spirits, waking or sleeping, by sight, hearing, taste, touch, and any other sense of body or mind. And above all when, appearing either to men in a woman's form or to women in a man's guise (demons whom the Gauls call Dusii), spirits without body, by an unspeakable wonder, pretend that they seek and accomplish intercourse with a human body. And they direct that the name of the demon by which it said it was called, and the forms of oath by which they pledged to one another the bond of their love, must be disclosed. This is a thing most like a lie, yet so true, and so well known by the testimony of very many, that a certain priest, a neighbour of mine, related that he had begun to cure a certain consecrated woman of a demon, but as long as the matter was hidden he could make no progress with her. But once she had confessed the phantom by which she was being troubled, he soon put it to flight by prayers and the other kinds of purification that were fitting, and cured the same woman's body of the sores she had contracted from the demon's touch, by medical care with the addition of blessed salt. But when he could in no way close one of the sores, which he had found fixed rather deep in her side, without its at once opening again, he received from that very woman whom he wished to heal the counsel by which she might be healed. If (she said) you sprinkle oil consecrated for the sick on that same remedy, and so anoint me, I shall at once be restored to health. For I once saw in the spirit, in a certain city situated far off, which I have never seen with bodily eyes, a certain girl suffering from a like affliction, cured by a priest in this manner. He did as she had suggested, and at once the sore consented to take the remedy it had before rejected. I have taken care to set these things out briefly against the frauds of demons, so that you may understand how not in vain the Lord asked the name of the spirit He was about to expel. But that many demons are recorded to have entered the man signifies that the people of the Gentiles was enslaved not to any single cult of idolatry, but to innumerable and diverse ones. Over against this it is written that the multitude of believers had one heart and one soul (Acts 4:32). Hence rightly in Babylon the unity of tongues was split, in Jerusalem the variety of tongues was united; and the one is interpreted "confusion", the other "vision of peace": because, that is, one faith and piety, by making peace, strengthens the elect in very many tongues and nations, while sects, more numerous than tongues, by dividing, confound the reprobate.

And they begged Him not to command them to go into the abyss. The demons knew that at some time it would come about that through the Lord's coming they would be sent into the abyss, not themselves divining the future, but recalling the sayings of the prophets about themselves, and therefore the glory of the Lord's coming, at which they marvelled,

they thought to tend to their destruction.

Now there was there a herd of many swine feeding on the mountain; and they begged Him to allow them to enter into them; and He allowed them. He granted the demons what they asked for this reason, that through the killing of the swine an occasion of salvation might be offered to men. For the herdsmen, seeing these things, at once report them to the city. Let the Manichaean blush. If the souls of men and of beasts are of the same substance and from the same author, how are two thousand swine drowned for the salvation of one man? Yet in their destruction are figuratively indicated unclean men, devoid of speech and reason, who, feeding on the mountain of pride, take delight in muddy deeds. For over such the demons can rule through the worship of idols. For unless someone has lived in the manner of a pig, the devil will never receive power over him, or, if he receives it, it will be only for testing, and not also for destroying.

So the demons went out from the man and entered into the swine, and the herd rushed headlong down the steep into the lake, and was drowned. It signifies that, the Church now being glorified and the people of the Gentiles set free from the dominion of the demons, those who refused to believe in Christ perform their sacrilegious rites in hidden places, sunk in a blind and deep curiosity. And it is to be noted that the unclean spirits would not even have gone into the swine unless the kindly Saviour Himself had granted it to them at their request, though He could certainly have banished them into the abyss: wishing to teach us a necessary thing, namely that we should know that they can much less harm men by their own power, since they could not harm even cattle of any kind. And this power the good God can give over us by a hidden justice; an unjust one He cannot.

When those who were feeding them saw what had been done, they fled and reported it in the city and in the villages. That the herdsmen of the swine fled and reported these things signifies that certain even of the leaders of the ungodly, although they flee the Christian law, nevertheless proclaim its power among the nations with astonishment and wonder.

And they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting, clothed and in his right mind, at His feet, and they were afraid, etc. It signifies that the multitude, delighted by its old pleasure, does indeed honour the Christian law but will not bear it, saying that they cannot fulfil it, while yet they marvel at the faithful people healed from their former ruined way of life. For to sit at the feet of the Lord is for someone, supported by the rational scrutiny of the mind, to look upon the footsteps of the Saviour, so as to follow them. To take up clothing again is to be adorned with the pursuits of the virtues which, when deceived, he had lost.

And the whole multitude of the region of the Gerasenes asked Him to depart from them, because they were seized with great fear. Conscious of their own frailty, the Gerasenes judged themselves unworthy of the Lord's presence, not grasping the word of God, nor able, with a mind still weak, to bear the weight of wisdom. This is read to have happened also to Peter himself when he had seen the miracle of the fishes, and the widow of Zarephath

of blessed Elijah, by whose lodging with her she felt herself blessed, nonetheless thought herself burdened by his presence. What have I to do with you, she said, man of God? Have you come in to me to bring my iniquities to remembrance and to kill my son? (1 Kgs. 17:18).

But He, going up into the boat, returned. He had said above that the Lord, leaving His kinsfolk, went up into the boat, and that, when the waves had been calmed together with the wind, He went ashore and soon healed the demoniac who ran to meet Him. By this, we have shown, it is signified that He, leaving the peoples of Judaea, from which He drew the origin of His flesh, once the tempest of His passion was past, cared for the salvation of the Gentiles. These things done, He returns to His homeland, because blindness in part has befallen Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in, and so all Israel should be saved (Rom. 11:25–26). He goes up into the boat, but neither is He Himself weighed down by sleep nor is the boat buffeted by a storm, because Christ, rising from the dead, dies now no more; death will no longer have dominion over Him (Rom. 6:9). Yet the trophy of His passion and the glory of His resurrection will be made known to the tribes of Judaea that are to believe, and when the preacher of His death, the banner by which He conquered death, begins to be believed by the Hebrews, it will be as though, the boat in which He had slept being boarded again, He returns to His homeland.

And the man from whom the demons had gone out begged Him that he might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying: Return to your house, and tell how much God has done for you. These things can rightly be understood from that saying of the Apostle, when he says: To be dissolved and to be with Christ is far better; to remain in the flesh is necessary for your sake (Phil. 1:23–24). So that each may understand that after the remission of sins he must return into a good conscience and serve the Gospel for the salvation of others too, so that afterwards he may rest with Christ; lest, while he wishes over-hastily to be with Christ already, he neglect the ministry of preaching suited to the redemption of his brethren. But as to Matthew's saying that two were cured of the legion of demons, while Mark and Luke record one, you are to understand that one of them was a person of some note and fame, for whom that region grieved most and for whose recovery it was most concerned. Wishing to signify this, the two evangelists judged that he alone should be recorded, about whom the report of this deed had blazed more widely and more brightly. But the sum of the allegory also agrees, because just as one man possessed by a demon expresses the type of the people of the Jews, so two not unfittingly express that of the Gentile people. For when Noah had begotten three sons, the family of one alone was taken into God's possession; from the two others were begotten the peoples of the diverse nations, which were to be enslaved to idols.

And it came to pass, when Jesus had returned, the crowd welcomed Him. For they were all waiting for Him. I said above too that at the end of the world the Lord will mercifully return to the Jews, and will be gladly welcomed by them through the confession of faith. For that they were all waiting for Him is without doubt what He says to that same synagogue through the prophet: Many days you will wait for me, and you will not play the harlot, and you will not be subject to a man

(Hos. 3:3). For now, neither subject to Christ as husband nor fornicating with idols, she awaits, in a very long expectation, the embrace of her former bridegroom, that is, of the Lord Christ, who is to come at some time through grace.

And behold, there came a man whose name was Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. To the preceding reading, which we interpreted of the casting off of the Synagogue and the faith of the Church, and again of the restoration of the Synagogue, there is fittingly joined the dying daughter of the ruler of the synagogue; and while the Lord hastens to raise her, that woman with the issue of blood forestalls Him, snatches health first, and so it comes about that, getting in before, she obtains salvation first. For Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands first to God (Ps. 67:32). And when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel will be saved. Now by the ruler of the synagogue no one is better understood than Moses himself. Hence he is rightly called Jairus, that is, "enlightening" or "enlightened", because he who received the words of life to give to us both enlightens others by them and is himself enlightened by the Holy Spirit, so that he can write or teach life-giving counsels.

And he fell at the feet of Jesus, begging Him to come into his house. If the head of Christ is God, the feet must accordingly be taken as the incarnation, by which He touched the earth of our mortality. So the ruler of the synagogue fell at the feet of Jesus, because the lawgiver, with the whole progeny of the fathers, recognized that Christ appearing in the flesh was to be preferred far above himself in the glory of dignity, declaring with earnest devotion that saying of the Apostle: For the weakness of God is stronger than men (1 Cor. 1:25). He asked Him to come into his house, because with constant longings of joy he desired to see His coming. But my soul (says the Prophet) shall exult in the Lord, and shall delight in His Jesus. All my bones shall say: Lord, who is like You? (Ps. 34:9–10). And this is to fall at the feet of Jesus: to confess with devout faith that He is uniquely great above all.

For he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying. The Synagogue itself, which, being alone ordered by the institution of the Law, had been born as it were the only daughter of Moses, was dying as it were in the twelfth year of her age, that is, as the time of puberty approached; because, nobly brought up by the prophets, after she had come to the years of understanding, after she ought to have borne spiritual fruits to God, suddenly struck down by the sickness of errors, she desperately gave up entering the ways of the spiritual life. And had Christ not come to her aid, she would have fallen into a death horrible in every way.

And it happened that, as He went, He was pressed by the crowd. The Lord, going to heal the girl, is pressed by the crowd, because, while offering the Jewish nation saving counsels by which to raise up its conscience, sick with vices, He was burdened by the harmful custom of carnal peoples.

And there was a certain woman with a flow of blood for twelve years. The woman flowing with blood is the Church gathered from the Gentiles, which, polluted by the inborn flow of carnal pleasures, had also been separated from the assembly of the faithful. But while the Word of God was resolving to save Judaea, she snatched first the salvation already prepared and promised to others

with sure hope. And it is to be noted that the ruler of the synagogue's daughter is twelve years old, and that this woman had had a flow of blood for twelve years, that is, that the one had begun to be sick at the same time as the other was born. For in one and almost the same age of this world both the Synagogue began to be born in the patriarchs and the nation of the Gentiles began throughout the world to be defiled by the corruption of idolatry. For the flow of blood can also be understood in a twofold way, that is, both of the prostitution of idolatry and of the things that are done for the delight of flesh and blood. Hence the sacred history beautifully relates that at the time when David, still a boy, laid low the giant Goliath, the Philistines had encamped in the borders of Dommim, that is, "of bloods". Because, that is, the Lord, appearing humble to war down the prince of the world, found the peoples of the Gentiles given over not only to unfruitful works but also to a most foul religion. So as long as the Synagogue flourished, the Church laboured. The failing of the one is the strength of the other, because by their offence salvation came to the Gentiles.

Who had spent all her substance on physicians, and could not be cured by any. By physicians it signifies either false theologians, or philosophers and teachers of worldly laws, who, discoursing most subtly on many things about virtues and vices, promised to give mortals useful rules for living and believing; or else the unclean spirits themselves, who, as if counselling men, were already thrusting themselves forward to be worshipped as God. By listening to them in turn, the more the Gentile world had spent the powers of its natural diligence, the less could it be cured of the filth of its iniquity. Hence Mark, writing of this woman, rightly says: And she had suffered much from many physicians, and had spent all she had, and had been no better, but rather grew worse (Mark 5:26). But when she learned that the people of the Jews was sick, and that the true physician from heaven was at hand, she too began both to hope for and to seek a remedy for her own sickness.

She came up behind, and touched the fringe of His garment, and at once the flow of her blood stopped. The Church comes up and touches the Lord, as she draws near to Him through the truth of faith. And she comes up behind, either according to what He Himself says: If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me (John 12:26); and elsewhere it is commanded: You shall walk after the Lord your God; or because, not seeing the Lord present in the flesh, once the mysteries of the temporal dispensation were accomplished, she began now to follow His footsteps through faith. And she touches the fringe of the garment and checks the stream of blood, because blessed and truly to be cleansed is he who with the hand of faith touches even the outermost part of the Word. For very rare is he who is found worthy either to recline on His breast or to anoint His head with pure nard, since he too was great who reckoned himself unworthy to carry His sandals; great too was she who was found worthy to anoint His feet and wipe them with her hair.

And Jesus said: Who is it that touched Me? He asks, not so that He Himself may be taught what He does not know, but so that the power of faith, which He knew, indeed which He Himself had given, might be made manifest in the woman.

And when all denied it, Peter and those who were with him said: Master, the crowds press upon You and throng You, and You say, Who touched Me? Him whom the crowds, accompanying Him on every side, press upon, one believing woman touches. Because He who is afflicted by the diverse heresies of those who throng together in disorder is faithfully sought by the heart of the Catholic Church alone. For just as some, seeing, do not see, and hearing, do not hear, so too those who touch Christ without faith touch and do not touch. Hence to a certain woman who loved indeed, but did not yet fully believe, He says: Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father (John 20:17); openly teaching what it is to touch Him truly, namely to believe Him equal to the Father.

And Jesus said: Someone touched Me. For I know that power has gone out from Me, etc. Let Pelagius say, if he likes, that he is saved by his own effort. But let us say: since vain is the salvation of man, in God we shall do valiantly. For He knows that the power which is to be merciful to all our iniquities and to heal all our sicknesses goes out not from ourselves but from Him. So he who has touched the fringe, that is, has believed with perfect love the mysteries of the incarnation until he comes to grasp greater things, does not escape His notice.

And He said to her: Daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace. Daughter, then, because your faith has saved you. Nor did He say, your faith will save you, but has saved you. For in that you have believed, you have already been saved.

While He was still speaking, someone came to the ruler of the synagogue, saying to him: Your daughter is dead; do not trouble Him. When the woman had been saved from the issue of blood, at once the ruler's daughter is reported dead, because, as soon as the Church was cleansed from the stain of vices and, for the merit of her faith, was given the name of daughter, the synagogue was immediately undone by the law of faithlessness and of envy together. Of faithlessness, because it would not believe in Christ; of envy, because it grieved that the Church had believed. For it is written in the Acts of the Apostles: But on the following Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of the Lord. But the Jews, seeing the crowds, were filled with jealousy, and contradicted the things that were said by Paul, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude (Acts 13:44–45; 19:9).

Do not trouble Him is said even today by those who see the state of the synagogue so forsaken that they do not believe it can be restored, and therefore do not think that one should pray for its raising up. But the things that are impossible with men are possible with God (Luke 18:27). Hence it follows:

But Jesus, hearing this word, answered the girl's father: Do not fear. Only believe, and she will be saved. The girl's father is taken to be the assembly of the teachers of the Law, of which the Lord says: The scribes and Pharisees have sat on the chair of Moses (Matt. 23:2). If it itself is willing to believe, the synagogue subject to it will also be saved.

And when He had come to the house, He allowed no one to go in with Him except Peter, James and John, and the father and mother of the girl. Above, the widow's son is raised publicly; here the many witnesses are removed. I think, therefore,

that in this too the Lord's compassion is shown there, because the widowed mother of an only son could not bear delay, and so, lest she be further afflicted, speed is added. There is also a pattern of wisdom: in the widow's son, that the Church would quickly believe; in the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, that the Jews would indeed believe, but of many, fewer.

And all were weeping and mourning for her. Can the sons of the bridegroom mourn (He says) as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast (Matt. 9:15). So the synagogue, because it lost the joy of the bridegroom by which it might live, lying as it were dead among the mourners, does not understand even this very thing, why it is mourned.

But He said: Do not weep. She is not dead, but sleeps. Dead to men, who had been unable to raise her, she was sleeping to God, in whose power both her soul, received, was living, and her flesh, which was to be raised, was resting. Hence the Christian custom has prevailed that the dead, who are not doubted to be going to rise again, are called sleepers, as the Apostle says: We do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who sleep, so that you may not grieve as the others do who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13). But also in respect of the allegory, although the soul that has sinned shall itself die, yet the one that is found worthy to be raised by Christ can be said to have been dead indeed to us, but to have fallen asleep to Him.

And they laughed at Him, knowing that she was dead. Because they preferred to deride rather than believe the word of the One who was raising her, they are rightly shut out of doors, unworthy to see the miracle of her rising.

But He, taking her hand, called out, saying: Girl, arise. In Mark it is written: He said to her: Tabitha cumi, which is interpreted, Girl, I say to you, arise; and at once she arose (Mark 5:41–42). Here the careful reader may ask why the truthful Evangelist, in explaining the Saviour's saying, inserted of his own "I say to you", when in the Syriac speech which he set down nothing more is said than Girl, arise. So Jesus, holding the girl's hand, healed her, because unless the hands of the Jews, which are full of blood, are first cleansed, their dead synagogue does not rise.

And her spirit returned, and she arose at once. Mark says thus: And at once the girl arose and walked. And this spiritually intimates that whoever comes to himself from the death of the soul, Christ strengthening his hand, ought not only to rise up from the filth of vices, but at once to advance in good works.

And He ordered that she be given something to eat. As a testimony to life He commanded the girl who had been raised to eat, so that she might be believed not a phantom but a reality. But if anyone too has risen from spiritual death, he must at once be filled with the heavenly bread, being made a partaker, that is, both of the divine word and of the most holy altar. For according to the moral sense, those three dead whom the Saviour raised in their bodies signify three kinds of resurrection of souls. For some, by giving consent to an evil delight, bring death on themselves by the hidden thought of sin alone. But, signifying that He gives life to such,

the Saviour raised the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, not yet carried out of doors but dead in the house, as one who hides a vice secretly in the heart. Others, not only by consenting to a harmful delight but also by doing the very evil in which they delight, carry their dead out as it were beyond the gates. And showing that He raises these too if they repent, He raised the young man, the widow's son, who had been carried out beyond the gates, and gave him back to his mother: because He restores to the unity of the Church the soul that comes to its senses out of the darkness of sin, as we have also taught above. But some corrupt themselves not only by thinking or doing unlawful things, but by the very habit of sinning, as though burying themselves. Yet for raising these up too the power and grace of the Saviour is no less, provided that anxious thoughts are present which, like sisters devoted to Christ, keep watch over their salvation. For to intimate this He raised Lazarus, who had already been four days in the tomb, and who, as his sister testified, was already stinking: because the worst repute is wont to accompany harmful deeds. It is to be noted, moreover, that the heavier the death that has fallen upon the soul, the more ardently the fervour of the penitent must press on, if it is to deserve to rise again. Wishing to show this in a hidden way, the Lord raises the girl lying dead in the inner room with a quiet and gentle voice, saying: Girl, arise. And because of the ease of raising her, He had denied that she was dead. But the young man carried out of doors He strengthens with more words, that he may come to life, when He says: Young man, I say to you, arise. And for the man four days dead to be able to put off the long bars of the sepulchre pressing upon him, Jesus groaned in spirit, troubled Himself, shed tears, groaned again, and cried with a loud voice: Lazarus, come forth (John 11). And so at last he who was despaired of, the weight of darkness being shaken off, is restored to life and light. And this too is to be noted, that because a public offence needs a public remedy, while light sins can be wiped out by a lighter and secret penance, the girl lying in the house rises with few witnesses, and these same are charged not to make the miracle known.

And her parents, he says, were astonished, and He charged them to tell no one what had been done. The young man outside the gate is raised with a great crowd accompanying and looking on. Lazarus, called from the tomb, became so known to the people that, because of the testimony of those who had seen it, very many crowds ran to meet the Lord with palms, and many of the Jews went away on his account and believed in Jesus. But the fourth dead man the Lord recognizes when a disciple reports him; but because living men who might pray to the Lord for his rescue were lacking, He says: Let the dead bury their dead (Matt. 8); that is, let the wicked weigh down the wicked with harmful praises, and, because there is no just man present to rebuke them in mercy, let the oil of the sinner fatten their head.

CHAPTER IX.

And Jesus, having called together the twelve apostles, gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. And He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Having first granted the power of signs, He sent them to preach the kingdom of God, so that to the greatness of the things promised

the greatness of the deeds might also bear witness, and the power displayed might give credence to the words, and those who preached new things might do new things. Hence now too, when the number of the faithful has grown, there are many within holy Church who hold to the life of the virtues and do not have the signs of the virtues. For in vain is a miracle shown outwardly if that is lacking which should work inwardly. For, according to the voice of the teacher of the Gentiles, tongues are for a sign not to the faithful but to the unfaithful.

And He said to them: Take nothing on the way, neither staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, neither have two tunics. It is commonly asked how Matthew and Luke recorded that the Lord told the disciples not even to carry a staff, when Mark says: and He commanded them to take nothing on the way except a staff only. This is resolved thus, that we understand the staff which according to Mark is to be carried to be spoken of in one sense, and that which according to Matthew and Luke is not to be carried in another. Just as temptation is understood in one sense where it is said: God tempts no one, and in another where it is said: The Lord your God tempts you, to know whether you love Him. The former is of seduction, the latter of testing. Both, then, are to be taken as said by the Lord to the apostles: both that they should not carry even a staff, and that they should carry nothing but a staff. For when, according to Matthew, He said to them: Do not possess gold or silver (Matt. 10), and the rest, He at once added: For the labourer is worthy of his food (ibid.). By this He shows clearly enough why He did not want them to possess and carry these things: not because they are not necessary for the sustenance of this life, but because He was sending them in such a way as to show that these things were owed them by those to whom they announced the Gospel when they believed. It is clear, however, that the Lord did not so command as if evangelists ought not to live by any other means than by those providing for them to whom they announce the Gospel. Otherwise the Apostle acted against this command, who got his living from the labours of his own hands so as not to be burdensome to anyone; rather, [it is clear that] He gave them a power, in which they might know that these things were owed to them. Now when something is commanded by the Lord, unless it is done, there is the fault of disobedience. But when a power is given, anyone may refrain from using it and, as it were, yield of his own right. So the Lord, ordaining what the Apostle says He ordained, that those who announce the Gospel should live by the Gospel, was saying those things to the apostles so that they might, free from care, neither possess nor carry the things necessary for this life, neither great nor least. Therefore He set down: Not even a staff, showing that all things are owed by His faithful to His ministers, who seek nothing superfluous. And by adding this: For the labourer is worthy of his food (Matt. 10), He opened up entirely and made plain from what ground He was saying all these things. This power, then, He signified by the name of a staff when He says that they should take nothing on the way except a staff only: so that it may be understood that through the power received from the Lord, which is signified by the name of a staff, even the things that are not carried will not be lacking. This too is to be understood of the two tunics: that none of them should think that, besides the one he had put on, another was to be carried,

anxious lest there should be need, since by that power he could receive [it]. But where according to Mark He forbids, not that two tunics be carried or had, but more expressly that they be worn, saying: And that they should not be clothed in two tunics (Mark 6), what does He warn them of, but to walk not doubly but simply? Otherwise: in the two tunics they seem to me to show a double garment. Not that in the regions of Scythia, stiff with icy snow, anyone ought to be content with one tunic, but that by tunic we should understand clothing, so that, being clothed with one, we should not keep another for ourselves out of fear of what is to come.

And into whatever house you enter, stay there, and do not go out from there. He gives a general command of constancy, that they should keep the rights of the bond of hospitality, affirming that it is foreign to a preacher of the heavenly kingdom to run about from house to house and to change the rights of hospitality that ought to be inviolable. Nor is it to no purpose that, according to Matthew, the house which the apostles are to enter is ordered to be chosen, so that no reason may arise for changing lodging and violating the bond.

And whoever do not receive you, going out from that city, shake off even the dust of your feet as a testimony against them. The dust is shaken off the feet as a testimony of their labour, that they entered the city and the apostolic preaching reached even to them. Or the dust is shaken off so that they may accept nothing from those who have spurned the Gospel, not even what is necessary for food. Allegorically, however, those who attend humbly to the word, if as men they are darkened by any blemishes of earthly levity, are soon cleansed through the footsteps of Gospel preaching which they receive. But as for those who despise [it] through faithlessness or negligence or even of set purpose, their fellowship is judged to be avoided, their synagogue to be fled, the dust of the feet to be shaken off, lest the footstep of a chaste mind be defiled by deeds and hands comparable to dust.

And going out they went round through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. What the Apostles preached, or how they healed, Mark sets out more fully. They preached, he says, that men should repent, and they anointed many sick with oil and healed them. James also says: Is any among you sick, let him bring in the presbyters of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and if he be in sins, they will be forgiven him (Mark 6). Hence it is plain that this custom of holy Church was handed down by the apostles themselves, that the sick should be anointed with oil consecrated by the bishop's blessing. Now they preached that men should repent; and above he says: He sent them to preach the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 1). For they preached both, after the example of John the Baptist or of the Saviour Himself: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near (Matt. 3). For to draw near to the gates of the kingdom of heaven is to repent of these five, by which one had departed from it.

Now Herod the tetrarch heard all that was being done by Him, and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead. How great was the envy of the Jews, what a fury of malice there was against the Lord,

we are taught from almost every passage of the Gospel. See: John, of whom it was said that he did no sign, they believed could have risen from the dead, with no one attesting it; but Jesus, a man approved by God with mighty works and signs, at whose death the elements trembled, and whose resurrection and ascension angels, apostles, men and women proclaimed with one another, they preferred to believe had not risen but had been stolen away. Nor is it to be thought contradictory that Luke reports Herod to have been perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, whereas Matthew and Mark relate that Herod himself, having heard the fame of Jesus, said to his servants: This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works are at work in him (Matt. 14); but it is to be understood that after this perplexity he settled in his own mind what was being said by others

And Herod said: John I beheaded; but who is this of whom I hear such things? And he sought to see Him. These are the words of the perplexed Herod, of whom mention was made above. For he desires also to see Him whom he has learned by report to be great, so that he may perhaps be able to recognize whether He is John himself. Since the other Evangelists describe the order and cause of his beheading most fully, Luke, after his custom, took care rather to mention, for the sake of indicating the point of time, what he saw had been abundantly told, than to repeat it. But since mention is made of the beheading of John, it is to be noted that John and the Lord each declare his own state both by the time of his birth and by the manner of his passion. For John was diminished by the head; the Lord was lifted up on the cross. John was born when the days begin to diminish, the Lord when they begin to grow. So that by these things too it might appear what is meant by: He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3), that is: He who was thought a prophet must be acknowledged as the Christ, and I, who was reckoned the Christ, must be understood to be His forerunner.

And the apostles returned and told Him whatever they had done. Not only do the apostles tell the Lord what they themselves had done and taught, but also what John suffered while they were occupied in teaching; either [they report it to] Christ, or the disciples of the same John report it to Him, as Matthew intimates. Hence what follows:

And taking them He withdrew apart into a desert place, which is Bethsaida. He did not do this from fear of death, as some suppose, but sparing His enemies, lest they add murder to murder, and at the same time awaiting the fitting time of His passion; for whoever reads the Gospels carefully will find that the passions of John and of the Lord are more than a year's space apart. For the Lord performed the miracle of the loaves, as three evangelists agree, after the beheading of John. John, about to describe this miracle, stated first that the Pasch, the feast day of the Jews, was near; and after this he says that Jesus went up to their feast day of Tabernacles, where, while He was teaching in the temple, they sought, he says, to seize Him; and no one laid hands on Him, because His hour had not yet come (John 7); and then

at the time of the next Pasch He accomplished the trophy of the cross. That, when John had been killed, awaiting His time, He withdrew apart into a desert place, which is Bethsaida, teaches mystically that, having forsaken Judaea, which by not believing the prophecy had taken away its own head, He was to bestow the food of the word in the desert of the Church, which had no husband. Hence Bethsaida is beautifully interpreted "house of fruits". For it is she of whom Isaiah says: The desert and the pathless land shall be glad, and the wilderness shall exult and flower like the lily (Isa. 35); and a little after: They shall see the glory of the Lord and the beauty of our God (ibid.). Now Bethsaida is a city in Galilee, of the apostles Andrew and Peter and Philip, near the lake of Gennesaret, as we find in the books on places.

And when the crowds knew it, they followed Him. And He received them, and spoke to them of the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of cure. The Lord tests the faith of the crowds, and rewards it, once proved, with a worthy prize. For by seeking solitude He tries whether they will take care to follow. They, by following, and by taking the road of the desert not on beasts or various carriages but, as the other Evangelists relate, by the labour of their own feet, show how great a care they have for their salvation. He in turn, as a mighty and loving saviour and physician, by receiving the weary, teaching the ignorant, healing the sick and refreshing the fasting, intimates how much He is delighted by the devotion of believers. But according to the laws of allegory, many bands of the faithful follow Christ as He seeks the deserts of the Gentiles, having left the walls of their former way of life and disregarded the defence of various doctrines. And God, who was formerly known in Judaea, after the teeth of the Jews became weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword against Him: Be Thou exalted, he says, above the heavens, O God, and Thy glory over all the earth (Ps. 56).

But the day had begun to decline, and the twelve came and said to Him: Send the crowds away, that going into the villages and farms round about they may lodge and find food. When the day has declined the Saviour refreshes the crowds, because either as the end of the ages draws near, or when the Sun of justice set for us, we were saved from the long wasting of spiritual hunger.

And He said to them: You give them to eat. He challenges the apostles to the breaking of bread, so that, when they testify that they have none, the greatness of the sign may become better known; at the same time intimating that through them our fasting hearts are to be fed daily. For what does Peter do when he speaks through his Epistles, but that our hearts, wretchedly fasting, may be filled with the food of the word? What do Paul and John work, speaking through their Epistles, but that our minds may receive heavenly nourishment and overcome the loathing of their hunger by which they were dying?

But they said: We have no more than five loaves and two fishes. The apostles did not yet have more than the five loaves of the Mosaic law and the two fishes of the two Testaments, which for a long while, in the hiddenness of latent mysteries, were covered as by the waves of the deep and nourished in secret. And well, according to the Gospel of John, the loaves, which signify the law, [are said to be] of barley,

are reported to have been, which is the food chiefly of beasts and of rustic slaves: because to hearers who are beginners and not yet perfect, harsher and, as it were, coarser precepts are to be entrusted. For the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2). And therefore the Lord, granting gifts to each according to his strength and always calling on to more perfect things, first refreshes five thousand with five loaves, secondly four thousand men with seven loaves. Thirdly, He entrusts to the disciples the mystery of His flesh and blood. Lastly, He gives the elect as a great gift that they may eat and drink at His table in the kingdom.

Now there were about five thousand men. Because there are five senses of the outer man, the five thousand men who followed the Lord signify those who, still placed in the secular state, know how to use well the outward things they possess. These are rightly fed with five loaves, because such must still be instructed by the precepts of the law. For those who renounce the world entirely are both four thousand and refreshed with seven loaves, that is, they are both raised up by the Gospel refreshment and taught by spiritual grace. To signify this difference, I think, five gilded pillars were mystically ordered to be made at the entrance of the tabernacle, but four before the oracle, that is, the Holy of holies: because beginners are chastened by the law so that they may not sin, while the perfect are admonished by grace to live more devoutly to God.

And He said to His disciples: Make them recline in companies of fifty; and so they did. The different companies of those reclining at the meal signify the different assemblies of the Churches throughout the world, which make up the one Catholic [Church]. And well did they recline not only in fifties but, as Mark attests, also in hundreds. For because the fiftieth psalm is that of penitence, while the number one hundred passes from the left hand to the right, those recline at the Lord's banquet in fifties who, still placed in penance for what they have committed, receive the hearing of the word; but in hundreds those who, already confident in the hope of pardon, sigh only with the desire of eternal life.

And taking the five loaves and the two fishes, He looked up to heaven, and blessed them, and broke, and distributed to His disciples to set before the crowds. For the hungry crowds the Saviour does not create new food, but, taking what the disciples had, He blesses it; because coming in the flesh He preaches nothing other than what had been foretold, but shows the sayings of prophecy to be pregnant with the mysteries of grace. He looks up to heaven, to teach that the eye of the mind is to be directed there, and there the light of knowledge is to be sought. He breaks and distributes to the disciples to be set before the crowds, because He opens the closed sacraments of the law and of prophecy to those who are to preach throughout the world.

And there was taken up what remained over to them of fragments, twelve baskets. What is left over by the crowds is gathered up by the disciples, because the more sacred mysteries, which cannot be grasped by the unlearned, are not to be carelessly passed over but are to be searched out by the perfect. For by the twelve baskets the apostles, and through the apostles all the choirs of the teachers who follow,

are figured: outwardly despised by men, but inwardly heaped with the remnants of saving food for nourishing the hearts of the humble. For it is agreed that servile tasks are customarily done with baskets; but He filled baskets with fragments of loaves who chose the weak things of this world to confound the strong.

And it came to pass, when He was praying alone, the disciples also were with Him. The disciples were present with the Lord and followed Him on the way, as Mark indicates, but He alone prayed to the Father; because the saints can be joined to the Lord in the fellowship of faith and love, can behold Him set apart from the rest of mortals by the glory of divine majesty, can follow with the steps of humility the way which He taught while dwelling in the flesh; but the incomprehensible secrets of the Father's disposition the Son alone knows how to penetrate. For nowhere (unless I am mistaken) is He found to have prayed with the disciples; everywhere He beseeches alone, because human desires do not grasp the counsel of God, nor can anyone be a sharer in the inner things with Christ.

And He asked them, saying: Whom do the crowds say that I am? And they answered and said: John the Baptist; but others Elijah, others that one of the former prophets has risen. Beautifully the Lord, about to try the faith of the disciples, first asks the opinion of the crowds too, lest their confession should seem not proved by the recognition of truth but established by the opinion of the common people, and lest they be thought not to believe what they had ascertained but, like Herod, to be perplexed about what they had heard. Hence also to Peter, confessing Him to be the Christ, He says, according to Matthew: For flesh and blood has not revealed it to you (Matt. 16), that is, human teaching has not taught you the truth of faith. Beautifully too those who hold differing opinions of the Lord are marked by the name of crowds, whose thought and speech are always doubtful, unstable and wandering. To distinguish them from these, He at once adds:

But you, whom do you say that I am? For the disciples of Christ are not of the crowd; they are not of the crowd who walk alone with the Lord, who deserve to see Him praying in secret; and indeed if anyone of the crowd believes in Christ, he will at once cease to be of the crowd.

Simon Peter answered and said: The Christ of God. Although the other apostles know, Peter nevertheless answered before the others. He therefore embraced everything who expressed both the nature and the name, in which is the sum of the virtues. Do we too raise questions about the generation of God? When Paul judged that he knew nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2), [and] Peter thought that nothing more than the Son of God was to be confessed, do we search out, with the gaze of human weakness, both when and how He was born, and how great He is? The end of my faith, then, is Christ; the end of my faith is the Son of God. It is not permitted me to know the sequence of the generation; yet it is not permitted me to be ignorant of faith in the generation.

But He, rebuking them, commanded them to tell this to no one, saying: For the Son of man must suffer many things, and the rest. He did not wish to be preached before the passion and resurrection for this reason, that, the sacrament of the blood being afterwards fulfilled,

he might more fittingly say to the apostles: Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28). For it would not profit that He should be publicly preached and His majesty spread abroad among the peoples, whom a little later they would see scourged and crucified, suffering many things from the elders and scribes and chief priests. And it is to be noted that He calls Him who must suffer many things and be killed and rise again the Son of man: because when Christ suffered in the flesh, the Godhead remained impassible. It is to be noted also that He Himself confesses Himself the son of man, but Peter [confesses Him] the Christ, the Son of God, so that by both together He may be proved true God and man.

And He said to all: If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself. Beautifully he put "to all", because the foregoing things, which pertain to faith in the Lord's nativity or passion, He treated with the disciples alone, apart. Now we deny ourselves when we shun what we were through oldness and strive towards that to which we are called through newness. Let the Truth say, then, let Him say: If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself. For unless one departs from himself, he does not draw near to Him who is above him; nor can he lay hold of what is beyond himself if he does not know how to slay what he is. But now he who denies himself in respect of vices must seek out virtues in which to grow. For it is at once added:

And let him take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For the cross is taken up in two ways: when either the body is afflicted through abstinence, or the mind is distressed through compassion for one's neighbour. Let us weigh how Paul bore his cross in both ways, who said: I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself should become reprobate (1 Cor. 9). See, in the affliction of the body we have heard of the cross of the flesh; now let us hear, in compassion for the neighbour, of the cross of the mind. He says: Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I do not burn (2 Cor. 11)? But in both ways of carrying the cross it is to be noted that we are commanded both to take it up daily and, having taken it, to follow the Lord.

For whoever will save his life shall lose it. For whoever loses his life for My sake shall save it. Thus it is said to the faithful man: Whoever will save his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake shall save it; as if it were said to a farmer: If you keep the grain you lose it; if you sow it you renew it. For who does not know that grain, when it is put into the seed-bed, perishes from sight and fails in the earth? But from the very thing by which it rots in the dust, from that it grows green in renewal. Now because holy Church has one time of persecution and another of peace, our Redeemer marked out those very times of hers in His precepts. For in the time of persecution the life is to be laid down; but in the time of peace the earthly desires, which can dominate the more, are to be broken. Hence it is now said:

For what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but lose himself and suffer the loss of himself

When persecution from adversaries is lacking, the heart must be guarded much more watchfully. For in time of peace, because one may live, one may also seek ambitiously. Often, moreover, we despise all that we possess, yet we are still hindered by the habit of human shame, so that we are not yet able to express in speech the uprightness which we keep in the mind. But for this wound too a fitting remedy is added, when the Lord says:

For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words, of him the Son of man will be ashamed when He comes in His majesty and that of the Father and of the holy angels. But see, men now say to themselves: We are no longer ashamed of the Lord and His words, for we confess Him with open voice. To these I answer that among this Christian people there are some who confess Christ for this reason, that they see that all are Christians. The voice of profession, therefore, which the profession of the generality shields from shame, is not sufficient for the proof of faith. Yet there is a place where each may question himself, so as to prove himself truly in the confession of Christ. For certainly in the time of persecution the faithful could be ashamed to be stripped of their goods, cast down from their dignities, afflicted with stripes; but in the time of peace, because persecutions are lacking from us, there is another place where we may be shown to ourselves. We often fear to be despised by our neighbours; we disdain to endure injuries of word; if perhaps a quarrel arises with a neighbour, we are ashamed to make amends first. For the carnal heart, while it seeks the glory of this life, spurns humility.

But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is in this place the name for the present Church; and because some of the disciples were to live in the body long enough to behold the Church of God built and raised up against the glory of this world, it is now said with a consoling promise: There are some of those standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. But when the Lord was giving such great precepts about undergoing death, what need was there for Him to come suddenly to this promise? Only that something had to be promised to the untrained disciples concerning the present life too, so that they might be more firmly established for the future; to whom He promises the sight of the kingdom of God on earth, so that it might be more faithfully looked for by them in heaven. But if in this saying we wish to take the kingdom of God as the future blessedness in heaven, this too some of those standing by saw not many days after on the mountain, namely so that, by the contemplation of abiding joy, though tasted only fleetingly, they might more patiently bear the pressing adversities of the passing world. With a most fitting word indeed He testifies that the saints taste death, by whom, assuredly, the death of the body is tasted in passing, while the life of the soul is held in possession.

And it came to pass about eight days after these words that He took Peter and James and John. On the eighth day the Lord shows the disciples the glory of future blessedness that He was to promise, so that, the sweetness of the heavenly life being shown, He might cherish the hearts of all who could hear these things, and by the number of eight days might teach that true joy is to come at the time

of the resurrection. For He too rose from the dead on the eighth day, that is, after the sixth day of the week, on which He ascended the cross, and the seventh, on which He rested in the tomb. And we, after the six ages of this world, in which we rejoice to suffer and labour for the Lord, and the seventh, of the rest of souls, which meanwhile is passed in another life, shall rise again as in an eighth age. For that Matthew and Mark say the Lord was transfigured after six days is not at variance either with the order of time or with the meaning of the mystery. For they set down only the days in between, and hence say absolutely that it happened after six days; this one adds the first and the last as well, and therefore more moderately records about eight days. And the former signifies that after the six ages of the world the saints are to rest from labour; this one, that in the eighth time they are to rise again. Hence too the sixth psalm is beautifully entitled For the octave, whose beginning is: O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy anger. For surely, after the six ages in which it is permitted to work, we must press on with prayers lest in the eighth time, that of retribution, we be rebuked by an angry judge. This the Lord Himself also wished to teach us in this place by showing the example of His own prayer, of which it is added:

And He went up into the mountain to pray. For He went up into the mountain to pray and thus to be transfigured, to show that those who await the fruit of the resurrection, who desire to see the king in his beauty, ought to dwell in mind on high and to devote themselves to continual prayer. He takes only three disciples with Him, because many are called, but few chosen (Matt. 20). And those who here keep with an uncorrupted mind the faith of the holy Trinity in which they have been instructed deserve there to rejoice in its eternal vision.

And it came to pass, while He prayed, the appearance of His countenance was altered, and His raiment became white and shining. The transfigured Saviour did not lose the substance of true flesh, but showed the glory of the resurrection to come, whether His or ours. As He then appeared to the apostles, so will He appear after the judgement to all the elect. For in the very time of judging He will be seen by good and bad alike in the form of a servant, so that the ungodly may recognize as judge Him whom they spurned, the Jews Him whom they denied, the soldiers Him whom they crucified, Pilate and Herod Him whom they judged. The raiment of the Lord, moreover, is understood as the choir of His saints, which the Apostle glorifies when he says: As many of you, then, as were baptized in Christ have put on Christ (Gal. 3). This clothing, while the Lord dwelt on earth, was despised and seemed like that of others; but as He makes for the mountain it shines with a new whiteness, because now we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3). Hence Mark, describing these garments, well says: such as no fuller on earth can make white (Mark 3). For since by the fuller in this place is to be understood Him whom the penitent Psalmist entreats: Wash me yet more from my injustice, and cleanse me from my sin (Ps. 50), He cannot give on earth to His faithful the brightness which remains reserved for them in heaven.

And behold, two men were talking with Him. Now they were

Moses and Elijah — of whom we read that the one died and the other was caught up into heaven — what do they signify, appearing in majesty with the Lord, but the future glory of all the saints, who, namely, at the time of judgement, whether to be found still living in the flesh or to be raised again from a death tasted long before, are alike to reign with Him? For on the Apostle's witness, The dead who are in Christ shall rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:16–17). Otherwise. Moses and Elijah, that is, the lawgiver and the greatest of the prophets, appear and speak with the Lord, to show that He is the one whom all the writings of the law and of prophecy promised. And they appear not in the low places but on the mountain with Him, because only those who have sought with a mind set on things above will perceive the majesty of holy Scripture, which is fulfilled in the Lord. So too the Jews saw Moses, but were not worthy to follow him as he went up into the mountain to God. And when he returned to them they saw him only behind a veil. They knew Elijah, but Elisha alone, among the sons of the prophets, beheld the triumph of his ascension, because many of us read the words of Scripture here and there, but very few of us understand how loftily it shines in the mysteries of Christ.

And they spoke of His departure, which He was to accomplish in Jerusalem. And to this day the law and the prophets, whomever they find on the summit of the true faith, teach them with voices answering one another the mystery of the Lord's dispensation.

But Peter, and those who were with him, were heavy with sleep; and waking, they saw His majesty and the two men who stood with Him. Not by chance, but by reason of a mystery, the disciples were heavy with sleep: namely, that they might see the likeness of the resurrection after the rest of the body. Roused to the glory of that resurrection, the saints will see the majesty of the Lord the more truly in that they will also rejoice in the immortality of their own flesh, in which they had overcome death. Then they will behold Moses and Elijah in glory, because they will better understand how not one iota or one stroke has passed from the law, and how the Lord came not to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfil them (Matt. 5:17–18).

And it came to pass, as they were departing from Him, Peter said to Jesus: Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah — not knowing what he said. O how great a happiness it is to be present for ever, among the choirs of angels, at the vision of the Godhead, if the transfigured humanity of Christ alone, and the company of two saints, seen for a moment, so delights that Peter would even by his service hold them back from departing! And although, by reason of the human condition, he does not know what he says, he yet gives a sign of the ardour implanted in him. For he did not know what he said, who forgot that the kingdom was promised to the saints by the Lord not in some place on earth but in heaven; that he and his fellow apostles, still weighed down by mortal flesh, could not enter upon the state of immortal life; and that in that world a house made with hands is not needed. But even now whoever wishes to make three tabernacles for the law, the prophets and the Gospel is marked out for his want of understanding, since these can in no way be separated from one another, having one tabernacle, that is, the Church of God.

But as he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them. He who sought a material tabernacle receives the shade of a cloud, that he may learn that in the resurrection the saints are to be sheltered not by the covering of houses but by the glory of the Holy Spirit. Of which the Psalmist says: But the sons of men shall hope under the protection of Thy wings (Ps. 56:2). And John in his Apocalypse: And I saw no temple in it, he says, for the Lord God almighty is its temple, and the Lamb (Rev. 21:22).

And they were afraid as they entered into the cloud; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying: This is My beloved Son; hear Him. Human frailty cannot bear the sight of a greater glory, and, trembling in its whole mind and body, falls to the ground. The greater the things anyone has sought, the further he slips down to lower things, if he has not known his own measure. The voice of the Father speaking from heaven is indeed heard, to bear witness to the Son, and, the error removed, to teach Peter the truth — nay, in Peter the other apostles. This, He says, is My beloved Son: for Him a tabernacle is to be made, Him you must obey. This is the Son; those two, Moses and Elijah, are servants; they too, along with you, ought to prepare a tabernacle for the Lord in the inner chambers of their heart. And note that, as when the Lord was baptized in the Jordan, so also when He was glorified on the mountain, the mystery of the whole Trinity is declared, because we shall see in the resurrection His glory which we confess in baptism. Nor is it for nothing that the Holy Spirit appears here in a bright cloud, there in a dove: for he who now keeps with a simple heart the faith he receives will then contemplate in the light of open vision what he had believed, and will be sheltered for ever by the very grace by which he will be illumined.

And when the voice came, Jesus was found alone. As soon as the Son began to be pointed out, the servants departed, lest the Father's voice be thought to have been uttered concerning them. Otherwise: when the voice came over the Son, He was found alone, because when He has manifested Himself to the elect, God will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28) — nay, He Himself with His own, one Christ through all, that is, the head with the body, will shine. Because of this unity He said elsewhere: And no one has ascended into heaven except He who came down from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven (John 3:13).

And they kept silence, and told no one in those days anything of the things they had seen. A foreshadowing of the kingdom to come, and the glory of One triumphant, had been shown on the mountain. So the disciples keep silence and, at the Lord's command, tell no one of the vision until the Son of Man should rise from the dead, lest it be both incredible because of the greatness of the thing, and lest, after such glory, the cross that followed should cause scandal among untaught minds.

And it came to pass on the following day, when they came down from the mountain, a great crowd met Him; and behold, a man from the crowd cried out, saying: Master, I beseech you, look upon my son, for he is my only one. The places suit the deeds: on the mountain the Lord prays, is transfigured, opens to the disciples the secrets of His majesty; coming down to lower ground He is met by the onrush of the crowd and beset by the weeping of the wretched. Above, He unlocks to the disciples the mysteries of the kingdom; below, He reproaches the crowds for the sins of unbelief. Above

He discloses the Father's voice to those who were able to follow Him; below, He drives out evil spirits from those who were tormented. And even now, according to the quality of their merits, He does not cease to ascend for some and to descend for others. For those who are still earthly and beginners He strengthens, teaches and chastens, as one seeking the depths; but the perfect, whose way of life is in heaven, He glorifies by raising them higher, instructs more freely about eternal things, and often teaches them what could not even be heard by the crowds.

And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out, and it dashes him down and convulses him with foam, and scarcely departs from him, mangling him. This demoniac, whom the Lord healed as He came down from the mountain, Matthew describes as a lunatic, Mark as deaf and dumb. He signifies those of whom it is written: The fool changes like the moon (Sir. 27:12); who, never remaining in the same state, changed now to these vices, now to those, wax and wane — dumb in not confessing the faith, deaf in not hearing in any degree even the word of faith.

And I begged your disciples to cast it out, and they could not. By this saying he covertly accuses the apostles, whereas the impossibility of healing is sometimes to be traced not to the weakness of those who heal but to the faith of those who are to be healed, as the Lord says: Be it done to you according to your faith.

And Jesus answering said: O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? Not that He, the meek and gentle, was overcome by weariness — He who, like a lamb before the shearer, did not open His mouth (Isa. 53:7), nor broke out into words of rage — but because, like a physician who, if he sees a sick man conducting himself against his orders, would say: How long shall I come to your house? how long shall I waste the skill of my art, when I order one thing and you do another? And so far was He from being angry with the man rather than with the vice — and through one man He reproves the Jews for unbelief — that He at once added:

Bring your son here. And as he was coming, the demon dashed him down and convulsed him. For as Jesus draws near, the demon dashes down and convulses the boy, because often, when we have turned to God after our sins, we are assailed by greater and new snares of the ancient enemy, who acts, that is, either to strike in a hatred of virtue or to avenge the injury of his expulsion. Hence it is (to pass from the particular to the general) that he brought so many most grievous conflicts upon the first beginnings of the Church, because he grieved at the losses suddenly inflicted on his kingdom.

And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. He rebukes not the boy, who was suffering violence, but the demon, which was inflicting it; because he who desires to correct a sinner ought indeed to drive out the vice by reproving and hating it, but to cherish the man by loving him, until he can give him back, healed, to the spiritual fathers of the Church.

And while all were marvelling at all the things He did, He said to His disciples: Lay these words in your hearts; for the Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men. Among the mighty works of divine

power He more frequently impresses and repeats the lowly things of His human passion, so that, coming suddenly, it may not terrify, but be borne with a mind prepared beforehand. Indeed, where He says, Lay you, the "you" is to be read more expressly and with more intent force: you who cling more closely to my discipleship, to whom I have more plainly opened the uncertain and hidden things of my wisdom (Ps. 50:8) — while the rest only marvel at the divine deeds — store up in your mind the outcome of the precious blood also, by which the world is to be redeemed.

But they did not understand this word. This ignorance of the disciples springs not so much from slowness as from love: still carnal, and ignorant of the mystery of the cross, they could not believe that He whom they had known to be true God was going to die. And because they were accustomed to hear Him often speaking in figures, they thought that even what He said of His own betrayal signified something else figuratively.

And a thought entered into them, which of them was the greater. Because they had seen Peter, James and John led apart onto the mountain, and some secret entrusted to them there, and also that the keys of the kingdom of heaven had earlier been promised to Peter and the Church was to be built upon him, they supposed either that these three were set over the rest, or that Peter was set over all the apostles. There are some who think this thought was stirred in the disciples by the fact that the Lord, according to Matthew, gave the stater taken from the fish's mouth to those who were exacting the tribute, for Himself and for Peter, as though Peter were more eminent than the rest, inasmuch as he was put on a level with the Lord Himself in the paying of the tribute. But the careful reader will find that this question was being turned over among them even before the didrachma was paid. Indeed Matthew records that this was done in Capernaum. And Mark says: And they came to Capernaum; and when they were in the house, He asked them: What were you discussing on the way? But they were silent; for on the way they had disputed among themselves which of them was the greater (Mark 9:33–34). But whether they were prompted on this occasion or on that, or on both, Jesus, seeing their thoughts and understanding the causes of their errors, wishes to heal the desire for glory by a contest of humility.

Taking a child, it says, He set him beside Him and said to them: Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me. Either He simply teaches that Christ's poor are to be received, for His honour, by those who would be greater; or else He urges that they themselves be little children in malice, so that, after the likeness of innocence, they may keep, like children, simplicity without arrogance, charity without envy, devotion without anger. Hence, when He said, Whoever receives this child, He fittingly added, In My name: so that, namely, the pattern of virtue which a child keeps under nature's guidance they themselves may follow for the name of Christ, with the help of reason's diligence. But because He was teaching that He Himself is received in the child — namely, because He too was born a child for us — lest it be thought that He was only what was seen, He added and said:

And whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me. Wishing, that is, to be believed to be of such a kind and such greatness as the Father is. For so far, He says, is there no difference

between Him and Me, that whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me.

And John answered and said: Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he does not follow with us. John, loving the Lord with singular devotion and therefore worthy to be loved in return, thought that one who did not render Him service should be shut out from the benefit. But he is taught that no one is to be kept back from the good which he has in part, but rather to be urged on to that which he does not yet have.

And Jesus said to him: Do not forbid him; for he who is not against you is for you. Taught by this saying the Apostle says: But whether by occasion or in truth Christ is proclaimed, in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice (Phil. 1:18). But although he rejoices even over those who proclaim Christ not sincerely, and such men, sometimes working signs in the name of Christ, are judged not to be forbidden for the sake of others' salvation, yet their conscience is not made secure for them by such signs. Rather, on that day, when they say: Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name? they will receive the answer: I never knew you; depart from Me, you who work iniquity (Matt. 7:22–23). So in heretics and bad Catholics it is not the sacraments held in common, which are with us and are not against us, but the division contrary to peace and truth, by which they are against us and do not follow the Lord with us, that we ought to abhor and forbid.

And it came to pass, when the days of His taking up were being fulfilled, that He set His face firmly to go to Jerusalem. By the day of His taking up he means the time of His passion, as it drew near, during which He is brought step by step towards Jerusalem. Let the pagans cease, then, to deride Him as a man crucified: it is plain that He foresaw the time of His crucifixion as God, and that, as one to be crucified of His own will, He made for the place where He was to be crucified with face set firm, that is, with a resolute and unterrified mind.

And they did not receive Him, because His face was as of one going to Jerusalem. Because the Samaritans see that He is going to Jerusalem, they do not receive the Lord. For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans, as the Evangelist John shows.

And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said: Lord, do you wish us to bid fire come down from heaven and consume them? And turning, He rebuked them and said: You do not know of what spirit you are? Great and holy men, who already knew full well that this death which loosens the soul from the body is not to be feared, nevertheless, out of regard for the mind of those who did fear it, punished certain sins with death, so that a useful fear might be struck into the living, and that what harmed those who were punished with death was not death itself but sin — sin which, as they not rashly judged, to whom God had granted such judgement, could have increased had they lived. Hence it is that Elijah inflicted death on many, both by his own hand and by fire obtained from God. When, after his example, the apostles wished to ask for fire from heaven to consume those who would not give them lodging, the Lord rebuked

in them not the example of the holy prophet, but the ignorance of avenging that was still in them as beginners, perceiving that they desired vengeance not out of love of correction but out of hatred. And so, after He had taught them what it was to love one's neighbour as oneself, and the Holy Spirit too had been poured in, such punishments were not lacking, though far more rarely than in the Old Testament. For there, being for the most part slaves, they were held down by fear; here, being free, they were nourished above all by love. For at the words of the apostle Peter, Ananias and his wife fell down lifeless, and they were not raised again but buried; and Paul says of a certain sinner: Whom I have delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the soul may be saved (1 Cor. 5:5).

The Son of Man did not come to destroy souls but to save them. You too, therefore, He says, follow the acts of Him by whose Spirit you have been sealed, now taking counsel with mercy, but judging justly in wrath.

And it came to pass, as they were walking on the way, someone said to Him: I will follow Thee wherever Thou goest, and so on. Wonderful and at the same time fearful is the hidden ordering of a just judgement. The Samaritans are asked to receive the Lord, and when they are unwilling it is forbidden that they be struck. This man promises to follow Him and is put away; another wishes first to bury his father and is constrained to preach the Gospel. Another, about to follow the Lord, wishes to announce this very thing at home, and is not permitted. A certain man, not following Christ, works mighty deeds in Christ's name, and orders are given that he not be forbidden. But in each of these we must say that saying of the Apostle: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgements, and how unsearchable His ways (Rom. 11:33)! And with Samuel: Man sees the things that are open, but the Lord looks upon the heart (1 Sam. 16:7).

And Jesus said to them: Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. From the Lord's words it is shown that this man who promises his service was rejected because, seeing the greatness of the signs, he wished to follow the Saviour in order to seek gain from the miracles of His works, desiring the same thing that Simon Magus too had wished to buy from Peter. Such faith, then, is justly condemned by the Lord's sentence, and it is said to him: Why do you desire to follow Me for riches and the gains of the world, when I am of such poverty that I have not even a little lodging, and do not use a roof of My own? Otherwise: he is understood, moved by the Lord's miracles, to have wished to follow Him out of empty boasting, which the birds signify; and to have feigned a disciple's service, which feigning is signified by the name of foxes. But by the laying of the head He signified His own humility, which had no place in that dissembler and proud man.

And He said to another: Follow Me. But he said: Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father. He does not refuse discipleship, but desires, having first fulfilled the duty of his father's funeral, to attain it more freely — worthy in every way to be one in whom the Son of Man might lay His head, that is, in whose lowly

breast the Godhead may rest as in a kind of familiar dwelling.

And Jesus said to him: Let the dead bury their own dead; but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. It is to be noted in this saying that sometimes in our actions lesser goods are to be passed over for the sake of greater. For who does not know that it is the merit of a good work to bury the dead? And yet to him who had asked to be let go to bury his father it was said: Let the dead bury their own dead; but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. For the service of this ministry had to be put after the office of preaching: because by the one he would lay in the earth those dead in the flesh, but by the other he would raise to life those dead in soul. But how can the dead bury the dead, unless you understand a twofold death? One of nature, the other of guilt; one by which the soul is separated from the flesh, the other by which God is separated from the soul. Or else by the dead He means unbelievers; and by their own dead, those who likewise would depart from the body without faith.

And another said: I will follow you, Lord, but first permit me to bid farewell to those who are at home. If a disciple about to follow the Lord is reproved because he wishes even to bid this farewell at home, what will become of those who, for the sake of no profit and of no building up of faith, do not fear to revisit again and again the houses of their kin whom they have left in the world?

And Jesus said to him: No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. For anyone to put his hand to the plough is, as with an instrument of compunction, to wear down the hardness of his heart with the wood and iron of the Lord's passion, and to open it up to bring forth the fruits of good works. And if anyone, having begun to cultivate it, takes pleasure with Lot's wife in looking back to the vices he had left, he is deprived of the gift of the kingdom to come.

CHAPTER X.

After these things the Lord appointed seventy-two others also. Just as there is no one who doubts that the twelve apostles at once display and foreshow the pattern of bishops, so too it must be known that these seventy-two bore the figure of presbyters, that is, of priests of the second order. Even though in the first times of the Church, as apostolic Scripture bears witness, both were called presbyters and both were called bishops: of which names the one signifies ripeness of wisdom, the other the diligence of pastoral care. And it is fitting that seventy-two are sent: either because the Gospel was to be preached to as many nations of the world, so that, as the twelve were for the tribes of Israel, so these too were appointed to instruct the foreign nations; or because by the very number of the preachers it was intimated that the whole world was to be enlightened through the Gospel of the supreme and undivided Trinity — just as it is well known that this sun is wont to breathe the three days' circuit of its light upon the world through seventy-two hours. For the Lord Himself calls Himself the day and His apostles the hours, saying: Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble (John 11:9). And in the Psalms it is well commanded: Announce from day to day His salvation (Ps. 95:2), that is, light from

light, true God from true God (John 1). And in many places of holy Scripture too the mystery of the Trinity is shown through three days, chiefly because the Lord rose from the dead on the third day. And in the Old Testament also the people, coming to Mount Sinai, received the law on the third day. The same people crossed the river Jordan, by which the grace of baptism was commended, on the third day after they had reached it.

And He sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was to come. Because there are two precepts of charity, namely the love of God and of neighbour, and charity cannot be had between fewer than two (for no one is properly said to have charity towards himself; rather, love reaches out to another so that there can be charity), the Lord sends the disciples two by two to preach, so that He may silently intimate this to us: that he who has no charity towards another ought by no means to take up the office of preaching. And it is well said that He sent them before His face into every city and place where He Himself was to come. For the Lord follows His preachers, because preaching goes before, and then the Lord comes to the dwelling of our mind. The words of exhortation run ahead, and through them the truth is received into the mind.

And He said to them: The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. Ask therefore the lord of the harvest to send labourers into his harvest. The great harvest signifies the multitude of the peoples; the few labourers, the scarcity of teachers. These are the labourers of whom the Psalmist speaks: Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. Going, they went and wept, carrying their seeds; but coming, they shall come with exultation, carrying their sheaves (Ps. 125:5–6). And to speak more plainly, the great harvest is the whole throng of believers; the few labourers are the apostles and their imitators, who are sent to the harvest.

Go; behold, I send you as lambs among wolves. He calls the scribes and Pharisees wolves, who are the clergy of the Jews.

Do not carry a purse, nor a bag, nor shoes, and greet no one on the way. So great ought the preacher's trust in God to be that, though he does not provide beforehand the expenses of the present life, he yet knows most surely that they will not be lacking to him; lest, while his mind is taken up with temporal things, he provide less of eternal things for others. To him it is also not granted to greet anyone on the way, so that it may be shown with how great haste he ought to pursue the journey of preaching. And if anyone wishes these words to be understood also by way of allegory: in a purse money is shut up; and money shut up is hidden wisdom. He therefore who has the word of wisdom, but neglects to pay it out to his neighbour, holds as it were money tied up in a purse. And it is written: Hidden wisdom and hidden treasure, what profit is there in either? And what is meant by the bag but the works of the world? And what in this place by shoes, but the examples of dead works? He therefore who takes up the office of preaching — it is not fitting that he

should carry the burden of worldly business, lest, while this bows down his neck, he fail to rise up to preach heavenly things. Nor ought he to look upon the examples of foolish works, lest he think to protect his own works as with dead skins. And everyone who greets on the way greets by occasion of the journey, not out of eagerness to obtain that same well-being. He therefore who preaches salvation to his hearers not out of love for the eternal homeland but out of ambition for rewards, greets as it were on the journey, because he wishes salvation to his hearers by occasion and not by intention.

Into whatever house you enter, first say: Peace to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. The peace which is offered from the mouth of the preacher either rests in the house, if there is a son of peace in it, or returns to the preacher himself: because either someone will be predestined to life and follows the heavenly word which he hears; or, if no one will hear, the preacher himself will not be without fruit, because the peace returns to him, since he is recompensed by the Lord for the labour of his work. But see: He who forbade a bag and purse to be carried grants expenses and food from that same preaching. For there follows:

And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they have. If our peace is received, it is fitting that we remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they have, so that we may receive earthly wages from those to whom we offer the rewards of the heavenly homeland. Hence Paul too, accepting these very things as the least of matters, says: If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things (1 Cor. 9:11)? And note what is added:

For the labourer is worthy of his wage. For the very food that sustains us is already part of the wage of the work, so that here the wage for the labour of preaching is begun which there is perfected in the vision of the truth. In which matter it is to be considered that two wages are owed for our one work, one on the way, the other in the homeland: one which sustains us in labour, the other which rewards us in the resurrection.

And into whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you, and so on. Having described the hospitality of different houses, He teaches what they ought to do in cities also: namely, to share in all things with the godly, but to be separated in all things from the company of the ungodly.

Into whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say: Even the dust of your city that clings to us we wipe off against you. Either as a witness to the earthly labour which they had undertaken for them in vain, or to show that they sought nothing earthly from them, so much so that they would not allow even the dust of their land to cling to them. Otherwise: the feet of the disciples signify the very work and progress of preaching. But the dust with which they are sprinkled is the lightness of earthly thought, from which even the greatest teachers cannot be free, when for their hearers they apply themselves unceasingly with anxious, wholesome cares, and as it were along

the roads of the world they gather up the dust of the earth with scarcely a heel. Those therefore who receive the word turn the afflictions and cares of the teachers, which they bore for them, into a proof of humility for themselves. But those who spurn the teaching bend the labours and dangers of those who teach them, and the weariness of their anxieties, into a testimony of their own damnation. And this is the dust which is commanded to be wiped off against the despisers of the Gospel, and from which the feet of the evangelists are commanded to be washed by good hearers — nay, are told to have been washed by the Saviour Himself.

But I say to you that it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that city. The Sodomites indeed, among so many crimes of flesh and soul with which they burned insatiably, were also inhospitable, as Ezekiel bears witness; but no such guests were found among them as the prophets among the Jews, as the apostles. And Lot was indeed just in seeing and hearing, yet he is not reported to have taught anything or to have worked any signs there. And therefore, from him to whom much has been given much will be required (Luke 12:48), and the mighty shall suffer torments mightily (Wis. 6:7).

Woe to you, Chorazin; woe to you, Bethsaida. Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, and Tiberias too, which John names, are cities of Galilee, situated on the shore of the lake of Gennesaret, which is formed by the flowing Jordan and is called by the evangelists also the sea of Galilee or the sea of Tiberias. The Lord therefore laments the cities which did not repent after such great miracles and mighty works. Worse than the gentiles, who only scattered the natural law, after contempt for the written law they did not fear to trample on the Son of God too and, ungrateful, to spurn grace.

For if the mighty works that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. We see the Saviour's saying fulfilled today, in that Chorazin and Bethsaida would not believe when the Lord was present; but Tyre and Sidon were both once friends to David and Solomon, and afterwards believed the disciples of Christ when they preached the Gospel. And they received the faith with such devotion that, when the apostle Paul was leaving Tyre, all the citizens with their wives and children escorted him out beyond the city, and in a most beautiful spectacle so great a multitude of people led a very few guests — but most illustrious for the faith of Christ — all the way to the ships, to bid them farewell. But why the Gospel was not preached long ago to those who could have believed, but to the Jews, who would not believe, is for Him to know all of whose ways are mercy and truth (Ps. 24:10). Indeed, where the Lord says: They would have repented sitting in sackcloth and ashes — by sackcloth, which is woven from goats' hair, He signifies the harsh memory of stinging sin, with which on the day of judgement the left-hand side is to be clothed; and by ashes He shows the consideration of death, through which the whole mass of the human race is to be reduced to dust. Further, by the sitting He designates the humbling of one's own conscience. Of which the Psalmist says: Rise up after you have sat down (Ps. 126:2), which is to say:

Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in the time of visitation (1 Pet. 5:6).

And you, Capernaum, exalted even to heaven, shall be plunged down even to hell. There is a twofold sense in this saying. Either you shall be plunged down to hell for this reason, that you resisted my preaching most proudly; or for this reason, that, having been exalted even to heaven by my lodging there, and holding so great a privilege from my signs and mighty works, you are punished with greater torments, because you refused to believe even these. And lest anyone should think that this rebuke befitted only those cities or persons who saw the Lord in the flesh and spurned Him, and not all who even today despise the words of the Gospel, He went on to add, saying:

He who hears you hears me, and he who spurns you spurns me. So that each one, in hearing or spurning a preacher of the Gospel, might learn that it is not some common persons but the Lord the Saviour, nay the Father Himself, whom he spurns or hears. For there follows:

But he who spurns me spurns Him who sent me. For beyond doubt the master is heard in the disciple, and the father is honoured in the son. It can also be understood thus: He who spurns you spurns me. He who does not show mercy to one of the least of my brethren does not show it to me either, since for their sake I myself took on the form of a servant and the garb of a poor man. But he who spurns me, unwilling to believe me God, and trampling on the Son of God, spurns Him who sent me, because I and the Father are one.

And the seventy-two returned with joy, saying: Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Thy name. They confessed well indeed, giving honour to the name of Christ; but because, with faith still weak, they rejoiced in mighty works, see what they hear.

And He said to them: I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven. Not "I see" now, but "I saw" before, when he fell. And His saying "like lightning" signifies either that he slipped headlong from the heights to the depths, or that, though cast down, he still transforms himself into an angel of light. Since, then, He saw the disciples elated over the working of signs, He frightens them with the example of him who first fell through pride, and calls them back to humility, so that those who remembered that this one was cast out of heaven for pride might recognize that they, born of the earth, would much more be brought low if they grew proud.

Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the might of the enemy, and nothing shall harm you; that is, [power] of casting every kind of unclean spirit out of possessed bodies, though it can also quite rightly be taken according to the letter; since Paul too, attacked by a viper, suffers no harm. And John, as the story relates, having drunk poison, is not hurt. Between serpents, which harm with the tooth, and scorpions, which harm with the tail, I judge this to be the difference: that serpents signify those, whether men or demons, who rage openly, and scorpions those who lie in wait secretly. Serpents, those who cast the venom of wicked persuasion in the way of virtues about to be begun; scorpions, those who strive to corrupt virtues brought to completion at their end.

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you. They are forbidden to rejoice over the subjection of spirits, since they are flesh, because casting out spirits, like performing other mighty works, is sometimes not of the merit of the one who works it; rather the invocation of the name of Christ does this, to the condemnation of those who invoke it, or it is granted for the benefit of those who see and hear, so that, though men despise those who do the signs, they may yet honour God, at whose invocation such great miracles take place. For in the Acts of the Apostles too the sons of Sceva were seen to cast out demons, and Judas the apostle, with the mind of a traitor, is related to have done many signs among the other apostles.

But rejoice that your names are written in heaven. If Satan (He says) through pride lost the seat of heaven together with his companions, you ought not to rejoice over their humiliation but over your own exaltation, so that whence they, lifted up, fell, you, humble, may ascend. Yet it is not to be understood childishly, as though God, as a remedy against forgetfulness, writes the good in heaven and the wicked on earth, as Jeremiah says: All who forsake Thee shall be confounded; those who depart shall be written in the earth (Jer. 17:13). Rather it is to be understood profitably: that whether one has done heavenly works or earthly, he is, as though noted down in letters by them, fixed eternally in the memory of God.

In that same hour He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said: I confess to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Confession signifies not always penitence but also thanksgiving, as we read very often in the Psalms. Let those who slander the Saviour as not begotten but created hear that He calls His Father Lord of heaven and earth. For if He too is a creature, and a creature can call its maker father, it was foolish not to call Him likewise both His own and heaven's and earth's Lord or Father.

That Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. He gives thanks, He rejoices in the Father, that He has opened to the apostles the mysteries of His coming, of which the scribes and Pharisees were ignorant, who seem wise to themselves and prudent in their own sight, wisdom being justified by her children (Luke 7:35). Here He fittingly set against the wise and prudent not the foolish and dull but little ones, that is, the humble, to show that He condemned swelling, not sharpness. For this is the key of which He says elsewhere: You have taken away the key of knowledge; that is, the humility of the faith of Christ, by which you could have come to the knowledge of His divinity, you have, in your scorn, preferred to cast away.

Yes, Father, for so it was pleasing before Thee. In these words of the Lord we receive examples of humility, that we may not rashly presume to examine the counsels on high concerning the calling of some and the rejection of others. For when He had set down both, He did not at once give the reason, but said that so it had pleased God; showing, namely, that what has pleased the Just One cannot be unjust. Hence also, paying wages to those labouring in the vineyard, when He made some workers unequal in labour equal in reward, and he who [had given] more to labour sought more in wages,

had sweated more over the labour, He says: Did you not agree with me for a denarius? But I will to give to this last one also, even as to you. Or is it not lawful for me to do what I will (Matt. 20:13–15)? In all things, then, that are ordered outwardly, the open cause of the reason is the justice of a hidden will.

All things have been delivered to me by my Father. When you read "all things", you recognize Him as almighty, not faded from, not degenerate from the Father. When you read "delivered", you confess the Son, to whom all things are His own by nature, by right of one substance, not bestowed as a gift by grace. But the "all things" which He says were delivered to Him are to be understood not as the elements of the world, which He Himself created, but as those little ones in spirit to whom the Father revealed the mysteries of the Son, and over whose salvation the same Son, when He was saying these things, rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. Of all of whom He says elsewhere: All that the Father gives me shall come to me (John 6:37).

And no one knows who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal [Him]. It is not to be understood as though the Son could be known by no one except the Father alone, while the Father [is known] not only by the Son but also by those to whom the Son has revealed [Him]; rather, what He says, "and he to whom the Son wills to reveal", is to be referred to both, so that we may understand that both the Father and the Son Himself are revealed through the Son.

And turning to His disciples He said: Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, etc. Not the eyes of the scribes and Pharisees, who saw only the body of the Lord, but those eyes are blessed which can know His mysteries, of which it is said: And Thou hast revealed them to little ones. Blessed are the eyes of the little ones, to whom the Son deigns to reveal both Himself and the Father.

For I tell you that many prophets and kings wished to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ, and he saw it and was glad. Isaiah too, and Micah, [and] many other prophets saw the glory of the Lord, and for that reason were also called Seers. But all these, beholding and greeting from afar, saw through a glass and in an enigma (1 Cor. 13:12); whereas the apostles, having the Lord present with them, eating with Him, and learning by asking whatever they wished, had no need at all to be taught through angels or the various forms of visions. Those whom Luke calls many prophets and kings, Matthew more plainly calls prophets and just men. For they are great kings, because they knew how not to succumb to the motions of their temptations by consenting, but to rule over them by governing them.

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up, testing Him, and saying: Master, by doing what shall I possess eternal life? The lawyer, who questions the Lord about eternal life in order to test Him, took the occasion for testing, I think, from the Lord's own words, where He says: But rejoice that your names are written in heaven. But by his very testing he shows how true is that confession of the Lord in which He speaks to the Father: That Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones.

But He said to him: What is written in the law? How do you read? He answered and said: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with all your strength, and with your whole mind, and your neighbour as yourself. In answering the lawyer the Saviour shows us the perfect way of the heavenly life. To him, when he first sets forth the writings of the law concerning the love of God and of neighbour, He says:

You have answered rightly: Do this, and you shall live. Then, after the parable had been brought in, to him who answered that the one who showed mercy to the wounded man had been his neighbour, He adds: Go, and do likewise; that is, remember to love and sustain your neighbour in need with such zeal of mercy. He declares most plainly that it is love alone, and that not displayed in word only but proved by the carrying out of the work, which leads to everlasting life.

But he, wishing to justify himself, said to Jesus: And who is my neighbour? What madness of vainglory! The lawyer, to catch the favour of the crowd, so that he might be boasted of as having answered wisely, first confesses that he does not know the commandment of the law: truly, according to the Saviour's saying, wise and prudent in the law, but, since he desires not to be humbled with the little ones of Christ but to justify himself, refusing to receive the blessed eyes of doves washed in the milk of innocence, by which he might see the secrets of Christ. To him the Lord indeed so tempered His answer as to teach that everyone who showed mercy to anyone at all was a neighbour, and yet that this same parable should designate in particular the Son of God Himself, who deigned to become our neighbour through His humanity. For we ought not so to interpret the neighbour, whom we are commanded to love as ourselves, of Christ as to try to weaken and take away, under the rules of allegory, the moral precepts of mutual brotherhood.

And Jesus, looking up, said: A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. This man is understood as Adam in the human race. Jerusalem is that heavenly city of peace, from whose blessedness, having fallen, he came down into this mortal and wretched life. Which Jericho, which is interpreted "moon", signifies very well, [a life] ever uncertain, that is, through the various toils of its failings and through its errors.

And he fell among robbers. Understand the robbers as the devil and his angels, among whom he fell because he was going down. For had he not first swelled up within, he would not, when tempted from without, have fallen so easily. For quite true is the saying which says: For before a fall the heart is exalted (Prov. 16:18).

Who also stripped him. That is, they deprived him of the glory of immortality and the garment of innocence. For this is the first robe with which, according to another parable, the prodigal son, returning through penitence, is adorned; and which having been lost, the first-formed knew that they were naked, and were clothed in the garments of skin of mortal nature.

And having laid wounds on him, they went away, leaving him half dead. The wounds are the sins by which, violating the integrity of human nature,

they put into his weary vitals a kind of seed-bed (so to speak) of increasing death. And they went away, not by ceasing at all from their snares, but by hiding the deceits of those same snares. They left him half dead, because they were able to strip him of the blessedness of immortal life, but not to abolish the sense of reason. For in the part by which he can be wise and know God, man is alive; but in the part by which he wastes away with sins and fails through misery, the same man is dead, and is disfigured with a death-bearing wound.

And it happened that a certain priest was going down the same way, and, having seen him, he passed by. Likewise a Levite also, when he was near the place and saw him, passed on. The priest and the Levite, who, having seen the wounded man, passed on, are the priesthood and ministry of the Old Testament, where through the decrees of the law the wounds of the languishing world could only be shown, not healed, because it was impossible (as the Apostle says) for sins to be taken away by the blood of calves and lambs and goats (Heb. 9; cf. 10:4).

But a certain Samaritan, making a journey, came near him, and seeing him was moved with mercy. The Samaritan, which is interpreted "guardian", signifies the Lord, to whom the prophet most rightly makes supplication, lest he fall among these robbers, saying: Guard me from the snare which they have set for me, and from the stumbling-blocks of those who work iniquity (Ps. 140:9). He, coming down from heaven for us men and for our salvation, took up the journey of the present life, and came near him who was wasting away from the wounds inflicted, that is, made in the likeness of men and found in habit as a man (Phil. 2:7), He became a neighbour by taking on compassion for us, and near at hand by the consolation of mercy.

And drawing near, he bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. The sins which He found in men He restrained by rebuking, striking hope of pardon into the penitent and terror of punishment into sinners. For He binds the wounds when He commands: Do penance; He pours in oil when He adds: For the kingdom of heaven will draw near (Matt. 3:2). And He pours in wine when He says: Every tree that does not bear good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire (ibid. 3:10).

And setting him on his own beast, he brought him to an inn and took care of him. His beast is the flesh in which He deigned to come to us. On this He set the wounded man, because He Himself bore our sins in His body upon the tree (1 Pet. 2:24); and, according to another parable, the sheep which had strayed, when found, He set on His shoulders and carried back to the flock (Luke 15:5). And so to be set on the beast is to believe in the very Incarnation of Christ, to be initiated into His mysteries, and at the same time to be protected from the onslaught of the enemy. The inn is the present Church, where travellers are refreshed as they return from this pilgrimage to the eternal fatherland. And He fittingly brought him, set on the beast, to the inn, because no one will enter the Church unless baptized, unless united to the body of Christ.

And on the next day he brought out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper,

and said: Take care of him. The next day is after the Lord's resurrection. For even before, indeed, He had given light through the grace of His Gospel to those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death (Luke 1:79); but when the resurrection had been accomplished, a more powerful splendour of everlasting light shone forth. The two denarii are the two Testaments, in which the name and image of the eternal King are contained. For Christ is the end of the law (Rom. 10:4). These, brought out on the next day, are given to the innkeeper, because then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). On the next day the innkeeper received the denarii, at the price of which he was to take care of the wounded man, because the Holy Spirit, coming, taught the apostles all truth (John 16:13), so that they might be equal to pressing on with the instruction of the nations and to preaching the Gospel.

And whatever you spend over and above, I, when I return, will repay you. The innkeeper spends over and above what he did not receive in the two denarii when the Apostle says: Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give counsel (1 Cor. 7:25). And again: And the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Gospel should live by the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:14); but we have not used this power, lest we should burden any of you (cf. 1 Thess. 2:9; 1 Cor. 9:12). To him, returning, the debtor will repay what He had promised, because the Lord, coming in the judgement, says: Because you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many. Enter into the joy of your lord (Matt. 25:21).

Which of these three seems to you to have been neighbour to him who fell among robbers? And he said: He who showed mercy to him. According to the letter, the Lord's meaning is plain: that no one is more our neighbour than he who shows mercy, if to a citizen of Jerusalem not the priest, not the Levite of the same nation, nay born and brought up in the same city, but a sojourner of a foreign nation became neighbour, because he showed more mercy. But in a holier understanding, since no one is more a neighbour than He who healed our wounds, let us love Him as the Lord our God, let us love Him as a neighbour. For nothing is so near as the head to the members. Let us love also him who is an imitator of Christ. For this is what follows:

And Jesus said to him: Go, and do likewise. That is, so that you may show that you truly love your neighbour as yourself, devotedly do whatever you can in relieving his need, even his spiritual need.

And it came to pass, as they went, that He entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister named Mary. This reading is joined to the preceding one by a most beautiful reasoning. For that one designates the love of God and of neighbour in words and parables, but this one in the very things and in truth. For these two sisters, beloved of the Lord, show the two spiritual lives in which the holy Church is exercised in the present. Martha the active, by which we are joined to our neighbour in charity; Mary the contemplative, by which we sigh in the love of God. For the active life is to give bread to the hungry, to teach the ignorant with the word of wisdom, to correct the one who errs, to [call] back the proud to the way of humility,

call back [the proud] to the way of humility, to take care of the sick, to dispense what is expedient for each one, and to provide for those committed to us how they may be able to subsist. But the contemplative life is to keep indeed the love of God and of neighbour with the whole mind, but to rest from outward action, to cleave to the desire of the Creator alone, so that one has no wish any longer to do anything, but, all cares trodden underfoot, the soul burns to see the face of its Creator; so that it now knows how to bear with grief the burden of the corruptible flesh, and with all its desires longs to be present among those hymn-singing choirs of angels, to be mingled with the citizens of heaven, to rejoice in eternal incorruption in the sight of God.

Who also, sitting at the Lord's feet, was hearing His word; but Martha was busy about much serving. There is no one who doubts that these things suit each life. And the perfection of the contemplative is of one form: to have the mind stripped of all earthly things and, as far as human weakness allows, to unite it with Christ; but of the active, how frequent the serving is, the Teacher of the nations shows fully, who in the very frequent sayings of his Epistles recalls his labours for Christ by land and sea, and his perils. In which also, setting forth the visions and revelations of the Lord, he signifies that he was no less perfected in the speculative virtue, which very few can imitate. Hence he says: For whether we are out of our mind, it is for God; or whether we are sober, it is for you (2 Cor. 5:13).

And she stood and said: Lord, is it no concern to Thee that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. She speaks in the person of those who, still ignorant of divine contemplation, hold that only the work of brotherly love which they have learned is pleasing to God, and therefore suppose that all who wish to be devoted to Christ are bound over to it. And Martha is fittingly described as having stood, Mary as having sat at the Lord's feet, because the active life toils in a laborious contest, but the contemplative, the tumults of the vices being quieted, now enjoys in Christ the longed-for quiet of the mind.

And the Lord answered and said to her: Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about very many things; but one thing is necessary. And blessed David too, defining this alone as necessary for man, desires to cleave continually to God, saying: But for me it is good to cleave to God, to put my hope in the Lord God (Ps. 72:28). And elsewhere: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may see the will of the Lord and visit His holy temple (Ps. 26:4). One and only, then, is theology, that is, the contemplation of God, to which all the merits of justifications and all the pursuits of the virtues are rightly placed second.

Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken from her. Behold, Martha's part is not blamed, but Mary's is praised. For He does not say that Mary has chosen a good part but the best, so that Martha's part too might be shown to be good. And why Mary's part is the best is added when it is said: Which shall not be taken from her. For the active life fails with the body. For who in the eternal

fatherland would hold out bread to the hungry, where no one hungers? Who would give drink to the thirsty, where no one thirsts? Who would bury the dead, where no one dies? With the present age, then, the active life is taken away. But the contemplative is begun here, so as to be perfected in the heavenly fatherland. For the fire of love, which begins to burn here, when it sees Him whom it loves, kindles more fully in love. The contemplative life, then, is by no means taken away, because when the light of the present age is withdrawn it is perfected.

CHAPTER XI.

And it came to pass, when He was praying in a certain place, that when He ceased, one of His disciples said to Him: Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. After the story of the sisters, who signified the two lives of the Church, the Lord is not without reason described as having Himself prayed and having taught the disciples to pray. For the prayer which He taught contains in itself the mystery of both lives, and the perfection of those lives is to be obtained not by our strength but by prayers. And since Luke had often described the Saviour praying, he makes known what He did in praying, who certainly made supplication not for Himself but for us, when he relates that, the prayer finished, the disciples asked how they ought to pray.

And He said to them: When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins, since we ourselves also forgive everyone who owes us. And lead us not into temptation. According to the evangelist Matthew, the Lord's Prayer appears to contain seven petitions. In three of them eternal things are asked for, in the remaining four temporal things, which are nevertheless necessary to be obtained for the sake of the eternal. For what we say, Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth (which some have not absurdly understood as in spirit and body), these are to be kept wholly without end; they are begun here, and as we advance they are increased in us; but perfected (which is to be hoped for in the other life) they will be possessed for ever. But what we say, Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, who does not see that it belongs to the need of the present life? In that eternal life, therefore, where we hope to be for ever, both [what is asked] in the hallowing of God's name and His kingdom will remain perfectly and immortally in our spirit and body. But the bread is called daily because here it is necessary, as much as is to be given to soul and flesh, whether it be understood spiritually or bodily or in both ways. Here too is the remission we ask for, where all the committing of sins is. Here are the temptations which either entice or drive us to sin. Here, finally, is the evil from which we desire to be delivered. But there none of these things is. The evangelist Luke, however, has included in the Lord's Prayer not seven petitions but five. Nor did he in any way differ from that one [Matthew], but by his very brevity he reminded us how those seven are to be understood. For the name of God is hallowed in the spirit; the

but the kingdom of God is to come in the resurrection of the flesh. Luke, then, showing that the third petition is in a manner a repetition of the two above, made this understood rather by passing it over. Then he adds those three: concerning daily bread, concerning the remission of sins, concerning the avoiding of temptation. But what that one [Matthew] placed last, But deliver us from evil, this one did not set down, so that we might understand that it belongs to what was said above about temptation. For that is why he says "but deliver", not "and deliver", showing as it were that it is one petition, "not this, but this", so that each one may know that he is delivered from evil in this, that he is not led into temptation.

And He said to them: Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and shall say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him. Asked by the disciples, the Saviour hands on not only the form of prayer but also urgency and frequency in praying. The friend, then, to whom one comes at midnight is understood to be God Himself, to whom we ought to make supplication in the midst of tribulation and to beg earnestly for three loaves, that is, the understanding of the Trinity, by which the labours of the present life may be consoled. The friend who comes from a journey is our own mind, which goes away from us as often as it wanders outside to seek earthly and temporal things. But it returns and desires to be refreshed with heavenly food when, turned back into itself, it has begun to meditate on things above and spiritual. Of which he who had asked fittingly adds that he has nothing to set before him. Because the soul that sighs for God after the darkness of the world is pleased to think of nothing besides Him, to speak of nothing, to look on nothing; it strives only to contemplate the joy of the highest Trinity which it has recognized, and to come to behold it more fully.

And he from within should say: Do not trouble me; the door is already shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you. The door of the divine friend is the understanding of the word, which the Apostle prays may be opened to him for speaking the mystery of Christ. And it is shut in the time of the famine of the word, when understanding is not given. And those who, dispensing the wisdom of the Gospel like bread, preached it throughout the world, the children of the householder, are now in secret rest with the Lord. And yet by praying it comes about that he who desires receives understanding from God Himself, even if there is no man through whom wisdom may be preached.

And if he perseveres in knocking, I say to you, even if he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needs. And I say to you: Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you. The comparison is from the lesser. For if a human friend gets up from bed and gives, compelled not by friendship but by weariness, how much more does God give, who without weariness bestows most generously what is asked? But He wills to be asked for this purpose, that those who ask may become capable of His gifts. Lest, then, the friend coming from a journey perish of hunger, that is, lest the mind, newly coming to its senses from the vanity of its error, waste away any longer through want of spiritual desire, let us ask

the feast of the word by which it may be fed; let us seek the friend who may give it; let us knock at the door by which it is kept hidden. For great is the hope He has given, and He gives it, who does not deceive in promising.

For everyone (He says) who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened. Therefore, according to the foregoing parable of the friend who asks, there is need of perseverance, that we may receive what we ask, and find what we seek, and that what we knock at may be opened. For if it is given to him who asks, and he who seeks finds, and it is opened to him who knocks, then it is plain that he to whom it is not given, and he who does not find, and he to whom it is not opened, has not asked, sought, knocked well.

And which of you asks his father for bread, will he give him a stone? By bread charity is understood, because of the greater desire for it, and [because it is] so necessary that without it all else is nothing, as a table without bread is poor. Contrary to it is hardness of heart, which He compared to a stone.

Or if [he asks] a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? The fish is faith in things invisible, either because of the water of baptism, or because it is caught from invisible places. And because faith too, barked at all round by the waves of this world, is not broken, it is rightly compared to a fish. Contrary to it He set the serpent, because of the venom of deceit, which it sowed beforehand in the first man also by evil persuasion.

Or if he asks for an egg, will he hold out a scorpion to him? In the egg hope is indicated. For an egg is not yet a complete offspring, but it is hoped for by brooding. Contrary to it He set the scorpion, whose poisoned sting is to be feared behind, just as looking back is contrary to hope, since the hope of things to come stretches forward to the things that are before.

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good spirit to those who ask Him? How do the evil give good things? But He called evil those who are still lovers of this world, and sinners. And the good things which they give are to be called good according to their way of thinking, because they hold them as good for us; although in the nature of things too these are goods, but temporal ones, and belonging to this weak life; and whoever, being evil, gives them, does not give of his own. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them (Ps. 23:1; 145:6). How much, then, must we hope that God will give good things to us who ask, and that we cannot be deceived into receiving one thing for another when we ask of Him, when we too, though we are evil, know how to give what we are asked for! For we do not deceive our children, and whatever good things we give, we give not of our own but of His. Otherwise: the apostles, who by the merit of their election had surpassed in many ways the goodness of the human race, are said to be evil in view of the goodness on high, because nothing is stable of itself, nothing unchangeable, nothing good, except the Godhead alone. But all creatures, that they may obtain the blessedness of eternity or of unchangeableness, attain this not by their own nature but by participation in their Creator and by His grace. But as for what is said, How much more will your Father from heaven give the good spirit to those who ask Him? for which Matthew put:

He will give good things to those who ask Him (Matt. 7:11), he shows that the Holy Spirit is the fullness of the good things of God, and that the things which are divinely administered do not otherwise, without

BOOK IV.

PREFACE.

The Lord, exulting in the Holy Spirit (as was read above), [said]: I confess to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones (Luke 10:21). This sentence, privy to a secret judgement, never ceases to repeat the effect of its power. For both generally, in the casting down of the Jews and the election of the Gentiles, and specially in each and every person according to the alternating quality of minds, it does not cease to be displayed. To touch for a moment, then, on what is nearest at hand: the lawyer, wishing to justify himself, came to the Lord to tempt Him, but went away confounded; whereas Mary, bowed humbly at His feet, chose the best part of heavenly philosophy. Again, the little ones of Christ, who had learned to presume not on their own righteousness but on the grace of their Redeemer, ask by what manners of prayer they ought to call down that same grace, and they hear at once both with what words they ought to pray, and with what insistence to persevere, and for what things above all to make supplication, namely faith, hope and charity, and that by asking perfectly they receive from the Father the good Spirit, the bestower of these same things. The wise and prudent, on the other hand, because they busy themselves not only with not asking, seeking and knocking for the Spirit of grace, but even with blaspheming Him, pay without remission, both here and in the future, the penalties of their obstinacy. And whoever reads to the end of the Gospel, nay whoever looks prudently to the end of the age, will understand that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5).

INVOCATION.

Wherefore I myself, beginning the fourth book of the exposition of the Gospel with the reading in which the spirit of pride is cast out by the finger of God, humbly implore Thy clemency, O Christ, that Thy good Spirit may lead me into the right way, and may put far from me him who is from the North, so that, the evil ones being cast out from me, I may search out the commandments of my God, and, the eyes of my mind being opened, may enter as a devout reader upon the contemplation of the wonders of Thy most holy law.

And Jesus was casting out a demon, and it was dumb. And when He had cast out the demon, the dumb man spoke, and the crowds marvelled (Luke 11:14). This demoniac is related in Matthew to have been not only dumb but also blind, and he is said to have been cured by the Lord so that he both spoke and saw. Three signs, then, were wrought at once in one man: the blind man sees, the dumb man speaks, the possessed man is freed from the demon. And this was then indeed done in the flesh, but it is also fulfilled daily in the conversion of believers, so that, the demon first being expelled, they behold the light of faith

Him subsist. For all the benefits which are received from the grace of God's gifts flow from this fount.

[of faith] they may behold the light, and then mouths previously silent may be loosed to the praises of God.

But some of them said: He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons (Luke 11:15). It was not some of the crowd who made this slander, but the Pharisees and scribes, as the other evangelists testify. For while the crowds, who seemed less learned, always marvelled at the Lord's deeds, those men on the contrary laboured either to deny them, or, what they could not deny, to pervert by a sinister interpretation, as though these had been the works not of the Godhead but of an unclean spirit, that is, of Beelzebub, who was the god of Accaron. For Beel is the same as Baal, and zebub means fly. Nor, as in certain faulty copies, is the letter l or d to be read at the end of the name, but b. Beelzebub, then, is interpreted Baal of flies, that is, man of flies, or one having flies, on account, that is, of the filth of the sacrificed blood, from whose most foul rite or name they surnamed him the prince of demons.

And others, tempting Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven (Luke 11:16). They desired either that fire should come from on high after the manner of Elijah, or, in the likeness of Samuel, that in summertime thunder should roar, lightning flash, and rain pour down; as though they could not slander these things too, and say that they had happened from hidden and various disturbances of the air. But you who slander what you see with your eyes, hold in your hand, and feel in its benefit, what would you do with things that came from heaven? You will surely answer that the magicians in Egypt too performed many signs from heaven.

But He, when He saw their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and house will fall upon house (Luke 11:17). He answered not their words but their thoughts, so that even thus they might be compelled to believe the power of Him who saw the hidden things of the heart. But if every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, then the kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is not divided, for without any contradiction it is not to be laid waste by any assault, but is to abide in eternal stability. And if the kingdom of the holy and undivided Trinity remains undivided, nay, because it remains undivided, let the Arians cease to call the Son less than the Father and the Holy Spirit less than the Son. For those whose kingdom is one have also one majesty.

And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub (Luke 11:18). In saying this, He wished it to be understood from their own confession that by not believing in Him they had chosen to be in the kingdom of the devil, which, being divided against itself, certainly could not stand. Let the Pharisees therefore choose what they will. If Satan cannot cast out Satan, they could find nothing to say against the Lord.

But if he can, all the more let them look to themselves and withdraw from his kingdom, which, divided against itself, cannot stand. And by what the Lord Christ casts out demons, lest they suppose it is the prince of demons, let them attend to what follows.

But if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges (Luke 11:19). He said this, surely, of His disciples, sons of that people, who, as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, were certainly well aware that they had learned no evil arts from their good Master, so as to cast out demons by the prince of demons. Therefore, He says, they shall be your judges; they, He says, they, the base and despised things of this world, in whom appears not crafty malice but the holy simplicity of My power, they, My witnesses, shall be your judges. Otherwise: by the sons of the Jews He means the exorcists of that nation, who, according to custom, cast out demons by invocation. And He constrains them with a prudent question, so that they may confess it to be the work of the Holy Spirit. If, He says, the expulsion of demons by your sons is ascribed to God and not to demons, why should the same work in Me not have the same cause? Therefore they shall be your judges, not by authority but by comparison, since they assign the expulsion of demons to God, and you to Beelzebub, the prince of demons.

But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then surely the kingdom of God has come upon you (Luke 11:20). This is the finger which even the magicians confessed, who worked signs against Moses and Aaron, saying: This is the finger of God (Exod. 8:19); by which also the tables of stone were written on Mount Sinai. The Son, then, is the hand and arm of God, and His finger is the Holy Spirit. Of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit the substance is one. Let not the inequality of the members scandalize you, since the unity of the body builds up. Otherwise: the Holy Spirit is called the finger of God because of the distribution of gifts which are given in Him, to each his own, whether to men or to angels. For in none of our members does division appear more than in the fingers. And when He said, The kingdom of God has come upon you, He now calls the kingdom of God that by which the impious are condemned and are separated from the faithful who now do penance for their sins.

When a strong man, armed, guards his court, the things he possesses are in peace (Luke 11:21). By the strong man He means the devil; by his court, the world which is set in wickedness, over which, until the Saviour's coming, he held an evilly peaceful dominion, because he rested without any opposition in the hearts of unbelievers. Hence elsewhere too he is called the prince of the world, as the Lord says: For the prince of the world comes, and in Me he will find nothing (John 14:30). And again: Now the prince of the world will be cast out (John 12:31); and of this casting out it is added here too:

But if one stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he will take away all his arms in which he trusted, and will distribute his spoils (Luke 11:22). He speaks, indeed, of Himself: that not deceitfully, by a concerted working, as they slandered, but as victor by a stronger power, He would free men from the demon. The arms in which that evilly strong one trusted are the cunning and deceits of spiritual wickedness. His spoils

are the very men deceived by him. These Christ the victor distributes, which is the mark of one triumphing, because, leading captivity captive, He gave gifts to men, appointing some apostles, others evangelists, these prophets, those pastors and teachers (Eph. 4:8, 11).

He who is not with Me is against Me. And he who does not gather with Me scatters (Luke 11:23). Let no one think this said of heretics and schismatics, although it can also be so understood by way of surplus; but from what follows, and from the context of the discourse, it is referred to the devil, and to the fact that the works of the Saviour cannot be compared with the works of Beelzebub. The one desires to hold the souls of men captive, the Lord to set them free; the one preaches idols, the other the knowledge of the one God; the one draws to vices, the other calls back to virtue: how then can they have concord with one another, whose works are divided?

When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he walks through waterless places (Luke 11:24). Although it may be understood simply that the Lord added these words to distinguish His own works from Satan's, namely that He always cleanses what is polluted, while Satan hastens to defile what has been cleansed with heavier filth, yet it can not unfittingly be taken also of any heretic, or schismatic, or even a bad catholic. From whom, at the time of baptism, the unclean spirit who had previously dwelt in him is cast out at the confession of the catholic faith and the renunciation of worldly conduct, and roams through waterless places, that is, the crafty lier-in-wait searches the hearts of the faithful which have been purged of the softness of loose thinking, to see whether he can perhaps fix any steps of his wickedness there. But it is well said:

Seeking rest and not finding it (Luke 11:24), because the devil, fleeing chaste minds, can find a rest pleasing to him only in the heart of the wicked. Hence the Lord says of him: He sleeps under the shade, in the covert of the reed, and in moist places (Job 40:21). Under the shade, that is, signifying darkened consciences; in the reed, which is bright outside and empty within, dissembling ones; in moist places, wanton and soft minds.

He says: I will return to my house from which I came out (Luke 11:24). This little verse is to be feared rather than expounded, lest the fault which we believed extinguished in us should, through carelessness, overwhelm us while we are idle.

And when he comes, he finds it swept with brooms (Luke 11:25), that is, cleansed of the stain of sins by the grace of baptism, but heaped with no diligence in good works. Hence Matthew well says that this house was found empty, swept with brooms, and adorned: swept, namely, of former vices through baptism, empty of good deeds through negligence, adorned with feigned virtues through hypocrisy.

And then he goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there (Luke 11:26). By the seven evil spirits He signifies all vices. For whomever, after baptism, either heretical depravity or worldly desire has seized, it will soon cast down into the depths of all vices. Hence the spirits that then entered him are rightly said to be more wicked. For he will not only have those seven

vices, which are contrary to the seven spiritual virtues, but also, through hypocrisy, he will pretend to have the virtues themselves.

And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first (Luke 11:26). For it was better for him not to know the way of truth than, after knowing it, to turn back. This we read fulfilled in particular in Judas the traitor, or Simon the magician, and others of that kind. But where this parable tends in general the Saviour Himself explained according to Matthew, where, having finished it, He at once added, saying: So shall it be also with this most wicked generation (Matt. 12:45). That is: what I have related as wont to happen in particular to any one person, this does not cease to happen in general in the whole nation of this people. For the unclean spirit went out from the Jews when they received the law. And he walked through dry places, seeking rest for himself: driven out, that is, from the Jews, he walked through the wildernesses of the Gentiles. When these afterwards believed in the Lord, he, finding no place among the nations, said: I will return to my former house, from which I came out. I shall have the Jews, whom I had let go before. And coming, he found it empty, swept with brooms. For the temple of the Jews was empty, and had not Christ for its guest, who said: Your house will be left to you desolate (Matt. 23:38). Because, therefore, they had not the protection of God and of the angels, and were adorned with the superfluous observances of the Pharisees, the devil returns to them, and, having added to himself a sevenfold number of demons, inhabits his former house, and the last state of that people becomes worse than the first. For those who blaspheme Christ Jesus in their synagogues are now possessed by a much greater number of demons than they had been possessed by in Egypt before the knowledge of the law. For it is one thing not to believe that He will come, another not to have received Him when He has come. The sevenfold number added to the devil, understand either on account of the sabbath, or on account of the number of the Holy Spirit; so that, as in Isaiah seven spirits of virtues are related to have descended upon the rod from the root of Jesse and the flower that rose up from the root, so, on the contrary, the number of vices is consecrated in the devil.

And it came to pass, as He said these things, that a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to Him: Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the breasts that Thou didst suck (Luke 11:27). This woman is shown to be of great devotion and faith, who, while the scribes and Pharisees were at once tempting and blaspheming the Lord, recognizes His incarnation with such sincerity above all others, and confesses it with such confidence, that she confounds both the slander of the leaders then present and the perfidy of heretics to come. For as the Jews then, by blaspheming the works of the Holy Spirit, denied the Son of God, true and consubstantial with the Father, so heretics afterwards, by denying that Mary ever virgin, by the working power of the Holy Spirit, supplied from human members the matter of His flesh to the only-begotten God who was to be born, said that the Son of Man ought not to be confessed true and consubstantial with His mother. But if the flesh of the Word of God, born according to the flesh, is declared foreign to the flesh of the virgin mother, without cause are the womb that bore it and the breasts that suckled it called blessed. For by what consequence may He be believed nourished by her milk, from whose seed He is denied

to have been conceived? since, according to the natural philosophers, both fluids are shown to flow from the origin of one and the same source. Unless perhaps it is to be thought that the virgin could supply the seminal matter of her flesh to the Son of God when nourishing Him in the flesh, but could not at all do so when He was becoming incarnate, as being a greater and unaccustomed miracle. But the Apostle stands against this opinion, saying: For God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law (Gal. 4:4). Nor are they to be heeded who think one should read born of a woman, made under the law, rather than made of a woman. For, conceived in the virginal womb, He drew His flesh not from nothing, not from elsewhere, but from His mother's flesh. Otherwise He would not truly be called the Son of Man, who had not His origin from man. Let us too, then, these things having been said against Eutyches, lift up our voice with the catholic Church, of which this woman bore the type; let us lift up our mind also from the midst of the crowds, and say to the Saviour: Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the breasts that Thou didst suck (Luke 11:27). For truly blessed is the parent who (as someone says) in childbirth brought forth the King,

who holds heaven and earth through the ages, whose / divine power and empire, embracing all things in an eternal circle, / abides without end; she who, with blessed womb, / having the joys of a mother with the honour of virginity, / has been seen to have neither any like her before, nor any to follow.

But He said: Yea rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it (Luke 11:28). Beautifully does the Saviour assent to the woman's testimony, declaring blessed not only her who had been found worthy to bring forth the Word of God bodily, but also all who strive to conceive the same Word spiritually by the hearing of faith, and, by the keeping of good works, to bring it forth and as it were to nourish it, whether in their own heart or in the hearts of their neighbours. For the same Mother of God is indeed blessed in this, that she was made the temporal minister of the Word to be incarnate, but far more blessed in this, that she remained the eternal keeper of Him who is ever to be loved. By this sentence He secretly strikes the wise men of the Jews, who sought not to hear and keep the Word of God, but to deny and blaspheme it.

And as the crowds were gathering, He began to say: This generation is a wicked generation: it seeks a sign, and no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah (Luke 11:29). He had been assailed with a twofold question. For some slandered Him as having cast out demons by Beelzebub, and to them He has answered thus far. And others, tempting Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven; to these He now begins to answer, granting them not a sign from heaven, which they were unworthy to see, but one from the depth of the underworld, such as Jonah the prophet, shipwrecked and swallowed by the gulping whale, yet set free from the abyss and from the jaws of death, both received and gave: the sign, namely, of the incarnation, not of the Godhead; of the passion, not of the glorification. To His disciples, however, He gave a sign from heaven, showing them the glory of eternal blessedness, first figuratively when transfigured on the mountain, and afterwards truly when raised up into heaven.

For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation (Luke 11:30). He shows that the Jews, after the manner of the Ninevites, are entangled in grave sins, and close to overthrow if they do not repent. But as to the Ninevites both punishment is announced and a remedy

is shown, so the Jews too ought not to despair of pardon if they are willing to do penance. But see what follows:

The queen of the South will rise in the judgement with the men of this generation, and will condemn them (Luke 11:31). She will condemn them, that is, not by the authority of judgement, but by the comparison of a better deed. And if the queen of the South, who is not doubted to be elect, will rise in the judgement with the reprobate, it is shown that there is one resurrection of all mortals, namely of the good and the wicked, and that this is to take place not, according to the fables of the Jews, a thousand years before the judgement, but in the judgement itself.

For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here (Luke 11:31). — Hic in this place signifies not the pronoun but the adverb of place; that is, there now dwells among you One who is incomparably more excellent than Solomon. For Scripture relates how the queen of Sheba, through such great difficulties, leaving her people and her dominion, came into Judaea to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and, bringing him many gifts, received more from him. She will therefore condemn the Jews in the judgement, because she sought from the uttermost ends of the earth him whom she had learned to be famous for the gift of wisdom he had received; whereas they, having with them Him who is wise not from elsewhere but is Himself the wisdom and power of God, preferred not only not to hear Him but to blaspheme Him and harass Him with snares.

The men of Nineveh will rise in the judgement with this generation and will condemn it, because they did penance at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here (Luke 11:32). Jonah preached for a few days, I for so long a time. He to the Assyrians, an unbelieving nation, I to the Jews, the people of God. He to foreigners, I to fellow citizens. He, speaking with a simple voice and working no signs, was received; I, working such great signs, endure the slander of Beelzebub. Something greater than Jonah, then, is here, that is, preaching in your midst. And therefore, in the same way as the queen of the South, the men of Nineveh also will condemn the generation of the Jews, that is, will convict them of unbelief. Otherwise: in the Ninevites and the queen of the South the faith of the Church is preferred to Israel, the Church which is reconciled to the Lord no less through penance for folly committed than through diligence in learning wisdom. For the unity of the Church is gathered from two parts, namely of those who know not how to sin and of those who cease to sin. For penance abolishes sin, wisdom guards against it.

No one lights a lamp and puts it in a hidden place, or under a bushel (Luke 11:33). The Lord says these things of Himself, showing that, although He had said above that no sign but the sign of Jonah was to be given to the wicked generation, yet the brightness of His light was by no means to be hidden from the faithful. For He Himself lit the lamp, who filled the earthen vessel of human nature with the flame of His divinity. And this lamp He willed neither to hide from believers, nor to put under a bushel, that is, to shut up under the measure of the law, or to confine within the bounds of the one nation of Judaea.

But on a lampstand, He says, that those who come in may see the light (Luke 11:33). By the lampstand He means the Church, upon which He set the lamp, because He fixed the faith of His incarnation on our foreheads, so that those who faithfully [come into] the Church

are willing to enter may be able to behold the light of truth openly. By this sentence He condemns also the leaders of the Jews, who, seeking signs outwardly, would not enter by believing through the open door of light. Then He enjoins them to remember to cleanse and correct not their works only, but also their thoughts and even the very intentions of the heart; for there follows:

The lamp of your body is your eye (Luke 11:34). By the body He means the works which appear openly to all; the eye [is] the very intention of the mind [with which one] works, and by whose merit those same works are discerned, whether they are works of light or of darkness, as He Himself goes on to explain, saying:

If your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light. But if it is evil, your body also will be full of darkness (Luke 11:34). If, He says, you are zealous to do with a pure and right intention what good things you can, the works you do are surely works of light, even if before men they seem to have something of imperfection. For to those who love God all things work together for good, to those who according to His purpose are called saints (Rom. 8:28). But if the intention that goes before is perverse, every work that follows is petty, however right it may seem.

Take heed, then, lest the light that is in you be darkness (Luke 11:35). That is: weigh with careful discernment lest the very intention of the heart, which is the light of the soul, be darkened by the gloom of vices. According to what is enjoined elsewhere: Keep your heart with all watchfulness, for from it life proceeds (Prov. 4:23).

If then your whole body is full of light, having no part of darkness, it will be wholly full of light, and as a lamp of brightness it will illumine you (Luke 11:36). By our whole body He means all our works; for the Apostle too calls certain works, which he condemns, our members, and commands that they be put to death, saying: Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lust (Col. 3:5), and the like. If, then, you yourself accomplish good with a good intention, having in your conscience no part of dark thought, then even if it should happen that one of your neighbours is harmed by your good action — for example, that with the money which he, being needy and asking, had received from you he does or suffers some evil, or that through the word of exhortation by which you wished to correct him in his error he perhaps errs more perniciously — you nevertheless, for your single and shining heart, will be granted the grace of light both here and in the future. These things, said in particular against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who craftily sought signs, should instruct us in general according to the moral sense

And as He was speaking, a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him, and He went in and reclined at table (Luke 11:37). Deliberately Luke does not say, And as He was saying these things, but, As He was speaking, to show that He was asked to dine at the Pharisee's not immediately after the words He had set out were finished, but after some others had come between. What these were Matthew explains, who, when this discourse of the Lord was ended — which he records partly more briefly than Luke, partly more at length — at once added: While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him (Matt. 12:46). While He was still speaking, he says, that you might understand,

[that He was] saying those things which he indicated above. And Mark too, after he had related what the Lord said about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, says: And His mother and brothers come (Mark 3:31). Luke, however, did not keep the order of this event, but anticipated it, and narrated it earlier as it came to mind. In fact he inserted it in such a way that it appears loosed from connection with what precedes and what follows. Thus, since after His mother and brothers had been announced to Him as outside He said: For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and My sister and My mother (Mark 3:35), it is given to be understood that, when asked, He entered the Pharisee's banquet.

But the Pharisee began, reckoning within himself, to say why He had not been washed before dinner (Luke 11:38). The cause of the Pharisee's thought the evangelist Mark disclosed, saying: For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they often wash their hands, holding the tradition of the elders; and when they come from the market they do not eat unless they are washed (Mark 7:3–4).

And the Lord said to him: Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish; but what is within you is full of plunder and iniquity (Luke 11:39). Mark indeed relates that they were accustomed to observe the washings of cups and pitchers and beds and bronze vessels; but rather, under the name of vessels, they themselves are convicted of lying pretence, because they display one thing to men outside and do another at home, having the form of piety outwardly, but within misshapen with the filth of vices. For the Lord wishes to explain more fully what He had set forth briefly above about cleansing the eye of the heart.

Fools, did not He who made what is outside make also what is inside? (Luke 11:40). He who made, He says, both natures of man desires both to be cleansed. This is against the Manichaeans, who think the soul alone created by God, but the flesh by the devil. This is against those who detest bodily sins, namely fornication, uncleanness, lust, theft, robbery and the like, as most grievous, but despise as light the spiritual ones, which the Apostle condemns no less, that is, bitterness, anger, indignation, clamour, blasphemy, pride, and avarice, which is the service of idols (Col. 3:5).

Nevertheless, what remains, give as alms, and behold, all things are clean to you (Luke 11:41). What remains over from necessary food and clothing, give to the poor; according to what John also commands: He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none (Luke 3:11). For alms are not commanded to be given in such a way that you consume yourself with want, but that, the care of your own body being met, you may support the needy as far as you are able. Or it is to be understood thus: what remains, that is, the only remedy left to those taken up with so much wickedness: give alms. And this saying holds for all things that are done with useful compassion. For not only he who gives food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, hospitality to the stranger, and other things of this kind, but also he who gives pardon to the sinner, gives alms. And he who corrects with the rod one over whom power is given him, or restrains him with some discipline, and yet forgives from the heart the sin by which he was hurt or offended by him,

or prays that it be forgiven him, gives alms not only in that he forgives and prays, but also in that he rebukes and punishes with some corrective penalty, because he shows mercy. There are thus many kinds of alms, by which, when we do them, we are helped to have our sins forgiven us; but none is greater than that by which we forgive from the heart what anyone has sinned against us. But are we to understand what He says, Give alms, and behold, all things are clean to you, in this way: that to the Pharisees, who have not the faith of Christ, even if they have not believed in Him nor been reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, all things are clean, provided only that they give alms, as some think alms are to be given; when all are unclean whom the faith of Christ does not cleanse, of which it is written: Cleansing their heart by faith (Acts 15:9)? And yet what they had heard is true: Give alms, and behold, all things are clean to you. For he who wishes to give alms in due order ought to begin with himself, and give them first to himself. For almsgiving is a work of mercy, and most truly has it been said: Have mercy on your own soul, pleasing God (Sir. 30:24). For this we are reborn, that we may please God, whom what we contracted by being born rightly displeases. This is the first alms that we have given ourselves, since we, wretched, have sought ourselves again through the mercy of the merciful God. Because of this order of love it was said: You shall love your neighbour as yourself (Mark 12:31). When, therefore, He had rebuked them because they washed themselves outwardly but within were full of plunder and iniquity, admonishing them of a certain alms which a man ought first to give himself, and that the inner things be cleansed, He says: Nevertheless, what remains, give as alms, and behold, all things are clean. Then, to show what He had admonished, and what they themselves did not care to do, lest they should think that He did not know of their alms,

But woe to you, He says, Pharisees (Luke 11:42). As if He said: I indeed have admonished you that alms are to be given, through which all things may be clean to you; but woe to you,

Because you tithe mint and rue and every herb (Luke 11:42); for these alms of yours I know, lest you should think that I have now admonished you about them.

And you pass over judgement and the love of God (Luke 11:42): by which alms you could be cleansed from all inward defilement, so that the bodies too which you wash would be clean to you; for this is all things, namely both the inward and the outward, as is read elsewhere: Cleanse what is within, and what is outside will be clean (Matt. 23:26). But lest He should seem to have rejected those alms which are made from the fruits of the earth, He says:

But these things, He says, you ought to have done (Luke 11:42). That is, judgement and the love of God: that we too, judging truly of our own misery, and loving the love of God which He Himself has given, may live piously and rightly, confessing His just judgement, of which the Apostle says, The judgement indeed was from one unto condemnation (Rom. 5:16), and giving thanks to His great love, of which the same preacher of grace says: But God commends His love towards us, because while we were still

we were sinners, Christ died for us (ibid.).

These things you ought to have done, and not to leave those undone, that is, the alms of earthly fruits. Let them therefore not deceive themselves who think that by any alms, however lavish, of their fruits or of any money, they buy themselves impunity, while persisting in the enormity of crimes and the wickedness of shameful deeds.

Woe to you Pharisees, who love the first seats in the synagogues and greetings in the market-place. Woe to us wretches, to whom the vices of the Pharisees have passed, who do not fear to load yet more with sins the short and uncertain course of our life, in which we ought to have humbly bewailed our sins, by proudly contending with one another for precedence.

Woe to you, who are like tombs that do not appear, and men walking over them do not know it. This saying too refutes the superstition of the Pharisees, who outwardly put forward the appearance of right doctrine but hide what foulness they bear within, like tombs which, while they show the surface of common earth, are within full of the stench of corpses breeding worms. When the Psalmist said of them, Their throat is an open sepulchre (Ps. 5:11), he at once disclosed what he had said by adding: With their tongues they dealt deceitfully.

And one of the lawyers answering said to Him: Master, in saying these things You insult us also. How wretched the conscience which, on hearing the word of God, thinks itself insulted, and when the punishment of the faithless is mentioned, understands that it is always to be condemned! Hence for me and those like me one refuge alone remains: to entreat the Lord with the prophet: O that my ways may be directed to keep Thy justifications! Then I shall not be confounded, when I look into all Thy commandments (Ps. 118:5–6).

But He said: Woe to you lawyers also, because you load men with burdens that cannot be borne, and you yourselves do not touch the packs with one of your fingers. The burdens of the law cannot be borne in the way in which these lawyers laid them on men. Hence they rightly hear that they did not touch its packs with one finger, that is, did not fulfil even in the least points that law which, against the custom of the fathers, they presumed both to keep and to hand on to be kept without the faith and grace of Jesus Christ; and therefore they tried to cast far away and banish the sweet yoke of Christ and His light burden, wherein is the rest of souls, although it is written: But the just man lives by faith (Rom. 1:17). And the apostle Peter protests and says to those who were teaching that believers from the Gentiles should be circumcised: And now why do you tempt God, to put upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But through the grace of our Lord Jesus we believe that we are saved, in like manner as they also (Acts 15:10–11).

Woe to you who build the tombs of the prophets, but your fathers killed them. It is not adorning the tombs of the prophets but imitating the slayers of the prophets that is criminal. The Jews, therefore, by building the tombs of the prophets, [were reproving] the deeds of their fathers who [killed] these

killed them were reproving; but by emulating their fathers' crimes, while they persecute Christ and His apostles, they turned the sentence back upon themselves, doing, namely, the very things which they condemned in their parents.

Truly you bear witness that you consent to the works of your fathers. For they indeed killed them, and you build their sepulchres. They pretended, to win the favour of the crowd, to abhor the faithlessness of their fathers, by magnificently adorning the memorials of the prophets who had been killed by them; but by the very deed they bear witness how far they consent to their fathers' wickedness, by assailing with injuries the Lord who was foretold by those same prophets. Thereby they declare themselves at once to be sons of murderers and to sin knowingly, to the increase of their own condemnation. Hence it is rightly added:

Therefore also the wisdom of God said: I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute. He calls Himself the Wisdom of God, for He is the power of God and the wisdom of God, as the Apostle teaches (1 Cor. 1:24). Indeed in Matthew you have it thus: Therefore behold, I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes. But if the same Wisdom of God that sent the apostles sent the prophets, let the heretics cease to give Christ His beginning from the Virgin, let them leave off preaching one God of the law and the prophets and another of the New Testament; although the apostolic Scripture often calls prophets not only those who foretell the coming incarnation of Christ, but also those who foretell the joys of the heavenly kingdom to come. Let two or three prophets speak (it says), and let the others judge. But I should by no means believe that these are to be placed before the apostles in the order of the list.

That the blood of all the prophets which has been shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation. It is asked how the blood of all the prophets and the just is required of the one generation of the Jews, since many of the saints, whether before the incarnation or after the death and resurrection of the Saviour, were slain by other nations, and the Lord Himself, though the Jews clamoured for it, was nevertheless crucified by a Roman governor and by Roman soldiers. But it is the custom of the Scriptures often to reckon two generations of men, namely of the good and of the wicked: that is, of those who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:13); and of those to whom it is said: You are of your father the devil (John 8:44). And elsewhere: Serpents, generation of vipers (Matt. 23:33).

From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias, who perished between the altar and the temple. Why from the blood of Abel, who first suffered martyrdom, is no wonder; but why as far as the blood of Zacharias is to be asked, since many after him up to the nativity of Christ, and, as soon as He was born, the innocent children in Bethlehem, were slain by this generation; unless perhaps because Abel was a shepherd of sheep and Zacharias a priest, and the one was killed in the field, the other in the court of the temple, He wished to signify under their names the martyrs of each rank, that is, both lay people and those bound to the service of the altar.

Woe to you lawyers, because you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves have not entered in, and those who were entering you have hindered. The key of knowledge is the humility of Christ, which the lawyers would neither understand themselves in the law and the prophets nor have understood by others. For to enter is not to be content with the surface of the letter, but to penetrate to the secrets of a more sacred understanding. Otherwise: every teacher who scandalizes by his example the hearers whom he edifies by his word neither enters the kingdom of God himself nor lets those enter who could have entered.

As He was saying these things to them, the Pharisees and the lawyers began to press Him hard and to stop His mouth, lying in wait for Him about many things, and seeking to catch something from His mouth, that they might accuse Him. How true were the charges of faithlessness, pretence and impiety which they heard, they themselves bear witness: for while so great a storm thunders, they do not themselves come to their senses, but strive to assail the Teacher of truth with snares.

CHAPTER XII.

And when great crowds had gathered, so that they trod one upon another, He began to say to His disciples: Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. To this leaven belong all the things He had discussed above while reclining at table at the Pharisee's house. Of it the Apostle also commands: Therefore let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5:8). For just as a little leaven which is thrown in corrupts the whole mass of flour, and soon taints the entire dough with its savour, so assuredly pretence, once it has steeped anyone's mind, will defraud him of the whole sincerity and truth of the virtues.

But there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor hidden that shall not be known. And how is it that in the present age the hypocrisy of many lies hidden for a long time? It is therefore to be understood of the time to come, when God will judge the hidden things of men. For as one of the friends of blessed Job most truly said: The praise of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment. If his pride mount up even to heaven, and his head touch the clouds, he shall be destroyed at the end like a dunghill (Job 20:5–7). At the end, he says, he shall be destroyed, who at the beginning seemed to flourish. The sense, then, is: take care not to emulate the pretenders, for a time will surely come in which both your virtue and their hypocrisy will be revealed to all. But what follows:

For what you have said in darkness shall be spoken in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in the inner rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops — this can be fittingly taken not only of the future, when all the hidden things of hearts will be brought out to the light, but also of the present time. For the things which the apostles once either spoke or suffered amid the darkness of afflictions and the shadows of prisons are now, the Church having been made glorious throughout the world, proclaimed publicly when their Acts are read. Indeed, when He says, It shall be proclaimed on the housetops, He speaks according to the custom of the province of Palestine, where they are accustomed to sit on the roofs. For they do not make their roofs raised to a ridge after our fashion, but level, on a flat plan. Hence the law commanded that whoever built a new house should set a wall around the roof

round about, lest innocent blood be shed there if someone slipped and fell headlong. And in the building of the temple we read: He covered the house also with ceilings of cedar, and he built a floor over all the house, five cubits in height. Therefore it shall be proclaimed on the housetops: it shall be spoken openly in the hearing of all.

And I say to you, My friends: do not be terrified by those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. If the persecutors of the saints, once the bodies are slain, have nothing more that they can do against them, then those rage with a superfluous madness who cast the dead limbs of the martyrs to beasts and birds to be torn apart, or cause them to be wasted away into the air, or dissolved in the waves, or reduced to ash by flames, since they can in no way withstand the omnipotence of God from raising them up and giving them life.

Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell. Since there are two kinds of persecutors, the one raging openly, the other flattering feignedly and deceitfully, the Saviour, wishing to arm and instruct us against both, commands above that we beware of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and here that we not fear the slaughter of executioners, because after death neither the cruelty of these nor the pretence of those can endure. Rather, we must please the Lord who always sees, and fear the Lord who is always able to punish or to set free.

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? If, He says, God cannot forget the tiniest creatures, and the winged things that are borne anywhere through the air, you who were made to the image of the Creator ought not to be terrified by those who kill the body, because He who governs irrational things does not cease to care for rational ones. The dipondius for which five sparrows "veneunt", that is, are sold, is a kind of very light weight, made up of two asses. Someone perhaps asks how the Apostle says: Does God take care for oxen? (1 Cor. 9:9), since an ox is surely more precious than a sparrow. But care is one thing, knowledge another. Finally, the number of the hairs, of which He says next:

But even the hairs of your head are all numbered — this is taken not of an act of counting but of the power of knowing. For God does not keep the anxious watch of one who counts with care; rather, to Him to whom all things are known, all things are as it were numbered. Yet they are well said to be numbered, because what we wish to keep we number. Here He shows God's immense providence towards men and signifies His ineffable love, in that nothing of ours is hidden from God, and even our small and idle words do not escape His knowledge. Those who deny the resurrection of the flesh deride the Church's understanding of this place, as though we said that the very earthly matter which becomes a corpse when the soul departs is to be so restored in the resurrection that the things which fall apart and are turned into one after another species and form of other things, although they return to the body from which they fell away, must also return to the same parts of the body where they were. Otherwise, if to the hairs of the head there returns

what such frequent shearing has taken away, if to the nails what paring has so often removed, then to those who think of it an immoderate and unseemly deformity presents itself, and therefore they do not believe in the resurrection of the flesh. But just as, if a statue of some fusible metal were either melted by fire, or ground to dust, or fused into a lump, and the craftsman wished to restore it again from the quantity of that material, it would make no difference to its integrity which particle of the material were given back to which member of the statue, so long as it took up again the whole of which it had been made: so God, a wonderful and ineffable Craftsman, will restore our flesh with wonderful and ineffable speed from the whole of which it had consisted; nor will it matter to its reintegration whether hairs return to hairs and nails to nails, or whether whatever of them had perished is changed into flesh and recalled into other parts of the body, the Craftsman's providence taking care that nothing unseemly be done.

Therefore do not fear: you are of more value than many sparrows. It is not to be read "you are more", which belongs to a comparison of number, but "you are of more value", that is, you are reckoned of greater merit, dignity and esteem before God than the countless bodies or kinds of sparrows.

And I say to you: whoever shall confess Me before men, the Son of Man will also confess him before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. He looks back to what was said above, where it was said that all things covered and hidden are to be revealed, concluding that this revelation is to take place not in some mean assembly but in the sight of the city above and of the eternal King and Judge. And lest, from His saying that those who deny Him are to be denied, the condition of all should be thought one — that is, of those who deny by deliberate intent and of those who deny through weakness or ignorance — He at once added:

And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven. Whoever is scandalized at My flesh, thinking Me only a man because [I am a carpenter's] son and have brothers James and Joseph and Jude, and am a glutton and a wine-drinker — such an opinion and blasphemy, although it is not free from the fault of error, yet has pardon on account of the [lowliness] of the body. But he who, clearly understanding the works of God, since he cannot deny them as to their power, slanders them, goaded by the same envy, and says that Christ, the Word of God, and the works of the Holy Spirit are Beelzebub, to him it shall not be forgiven, neither in the present age nor in the age to come. Not that we deny that he too, if he could repent, could be forgiven by Him who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth; but, believing the Judge and Giver of pardon Himself, who says both that He will always accept repentance and that this blasphemy is never to be forgiven, we believe that this blasphemer, as his deserts require, will never come to forgiveness, just as he will not come even to the very fruits of worthy repentance. According to what John the evangelist most truly wrote of certain people

who were blinded as the desert of their blasphemy: Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them (John 12:39–40). Some indeed hold that he speaks a word, or blasphemes, against the Holy Spirit who with an impenitent heart resists the unity of the Church, where the remission of sins takes place in the Holy Spirit; and they say that the one refuge, lest the blasphemy be unforgivable, is to beware of an impenitent heart. Many think their opinion by no means firm, because whoever resists the unity of the Church with an impenitent heart, whether he be a Jew or a Gentile or even a heretic, can surely have remission of sins in the Holy Spirit if he takes refuge in the unity of the Church with a penitent heart. But they say that as long as anyone resists the Spirit of grace with an impenitent heart, so long he has no remission. The others object that this condition holds for all crimes. For just as, so long as anyone has committed fornication, idolatry, adultery, lying with males, theft and other shameful deeds, he has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God, but when these crimes are renounced he can be washed, sanctified, justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God; so too, they say, the impenitent man, as long as he has an impenitent heart, cannot have pardon, but as soon as he has repented he will obtain pardon too. And by no distinction is impenitence found to be more binding or more unforgivable than other sins: like the other crimes, it remains until repentance, and as soon as repentance is done it will be blotted out. But only the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, by which anyone, in the likeness of the devil and his angels, does not fear to assail the majesty of the Godhead against his own conscience, has no remission for ever, but he will be guilty of an eternal sin. So the evangelist Mark plainly explains, who, having set down this testimony of the Lord, added and said: Because they said, He has an unclean spirit (Mark 3:30). For neither those who believe and confess that the Holy Spirit does not exist, nor those who believe that He exists but is not God, nor those who believe that He is indeed God but less than the Father and the Son, are held by this crime of unforgivable blasphemy, because they do so led not by diabolical envy but by human ignorance. Wherefore the chiefs of the Jews, and all who, corrupted by the plague of a like envy, blaspheme the Majesty, will perish without end. Read blessed Augustine's first book On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount.

And when they bring you into the synagogues, and before magistrates and authorities. For He had said above: I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute (Luke 11:49).

do not be anxious how or what you are to answer, or what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. When therefore we are led before judges for Christ's sake, we should offer only our will for Christ; but for the rest

Christ Himself, who dwells in us, speaks for Himself, and the grace of the Holy Spirit will be supplied in answering.

And one of the crowd said to Him: Master, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But He said to him: Man, who appointed Me judge or divider over you? Rightly is this brother rebuffed, who would thrust the trouble of an earthly division upon the Master who was commending the joys of heavenly peace and unity. Rightly is he marked by the name "man". For since there is among you, it says, envy and strife, are you not carnal, are you not men, and do you not walk according to man? (1 Cor. 3:3). And the Lord denies that He is a divider of men, whom He had come to bring to peace both with Himself and with the angels. For God is not [a God] of dissension but of peace (1 Cor. 14:33). And the multitude of believers had one heart and one soul, and no one said that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common (Acts 4:32). The only divider of brotherhood and author of dissension is he of whom it is said above: And he who does not gather with Me scatters. And of his members: Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and house falls upon house (Matt. 12:30, 25).

And He said to them: Take heed and beware of all covetousness, for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. As above the Lord had said much against blasphemers and hypocrites, so here too, taking occasion from this foolish petitioner, He takes pains to arm both the crowds and the disciples, by precepts and examples alike, against the plague of avarice, from which most mortals suffer more than enough. And it is to be noted that He does not say, Beware of avarice, but added, of all, because some things seem to men to be done in simplicity, but the inward Arbiter, because He discerns with what intention they are done, judges them. For who would count it a crime that an inheritance be divided with a brother, or that the crops grown on one's own field be stored in barns? But He is witness and judge, as it is written (Jer. 29:23).

And He spoke a parable to them, saying: The land of a certain rich man brought forth plentiful fruits, and he thought within himself, saying: What shall I do, for I have nowhere to gather my fruits? And he said: This I will do: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will gather all things that have grown for me, and my goods. This rich man is not blamed for having tilled the earth, or for having gathered into barns the crops that grew from it, but because he placed all the confidence of his life in the very abundance of things, and, counting as his own fruits and his own goods the crops which the earth had brought forth more plentifully than usual, he was not eager to give them out to the poor, according to the command of the Lord who says: What remains, give as alms (Luke 11:41), but, having made larger storehouses, to keep them for his own luxury in the future.

Soul, he says, you have many goods laid up for very many years; take your rest, eat, drink, make merry. Something like this is read in Ecclesiasticus: There is one who is enriched by living sparingly, and this is the portion of his reward, in that he says: I have found rest for myself, and now I will eat of my goods

alone, and he does not know that the time passes and that he leaves all things to others (Sir. 11:18–19).

But God said to him: Fool, this night they require your soul of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? You who in your folly promised yourself many seasons of delights in life, snatched away by death this very night, will leave what you have gathered to others. For God to say this to a man is to check his wicked schemes by sudden punishment. Otherwise: in the night the soul is taken away which is in the darkness of the heart, and wretched. In the night it is taken away which would not have the light of consideration, so as to foresee what it might suffer. Hence the apostle Paul rightly says to disciples who think on things to come: But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. For you are all children of light and children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness (1 Thess. 5:4–5). For the day of departure overtakes like a thief in the night, when it casts out the souls of fools who do not ponder beforehand the things to come.

So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. If he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God is a fool and to be snatched away in the night, then let him who wishes to be rich towards God not lay up treasure for himself, but distribute his possessions to the poor. For so he will deserve to be wise and a son of light. Hence the Psalmist, when he had first said of some avaricious rich man: But he is also troubled in vain; he lays up treasure and does not know for whom he will gather it (Ps. 38:7), at once disclosed where he had placed the treasure of his own heart, saying: And now what is my expectation? Is it not the Lord? And my substance is with Thee (ibid. 38:8).

And He said to His disciples: Therefore I say to you, do not be anxious for your soul, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. When He says, Therefore I say, He looks back to what went before, that is: therefore I forbid anxiety for temporal things, lest you be convicted of laying up treasure for yourselves with the rich of the world. So [it is not that] we are wholly freed from care for that which nature has given to all, and which is common to beasts of burden and wild animals and to men as well; but we are commanded not to be anxious about what we shall eat. And because in the sweat of our brow we prepare bread for ourselves, labour is to be exercised, anxiety removed.

The soul is more than food, and the body more than clothing. He admonishes us to remember that God has given us much more, in making and composing us of soul and body, than food and covering are, so that you may understand that He who gave the soul will much more easily give food; likewise, that He who gave the body will much more easily give clothing. At this place it is commonly asked whether this food reaches the soul, since the soul is incorporeal, while this food is bodily. But let us recognize that the soul is put in this place for this life, whose stay is this bodily nourishment. According to this meaning that saying too was spoken: He who loves his soul shall lose it (Matt. 10:39). Unless we take this of this life, which one ought to lose for the kingdom of God — as the martyrs plainly showed they could — this precept will be contrary to that sentence in which it is said: What does it profit a man

if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his own soul? (Matt. 16:26).

Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have neither storehouse nor barn, and God feeds them. If the birds, which are today and tomorrow will not be, whose soul is mortal, and which, once they have ceased to be, will never be again, are fed without care and toil by the providence of God, how much more are men, to whom eternity is promised, governed by God's command!

How much more are you worth than they! That is, you are of dearer value. Because surely a rational animal, such as man is, is ranked higher in the nature of things than irrational ones, such as birds are.

And which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature? If then you cannot do even what is least, why are you anxious about the rest? That is: by whose power and dominion it came about that your body was brought to this stature, by His providence it can also be clothed. And that it was not by your care that your body came to this stature can be understood from this: that if you cared and wished to add one cubit to this stature, you could not. Leave therefore to Him the care of covering the body too, by whose care you see it came about that you have a body of such stature. If then (He says) you cannot do even what is least — for this is least, but [least] to God, to work bodies (sic). And an instruction had also to be given concerning clothing, as it was given concerning food. So He goes on and says:

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither labour nor spin. But these instructions are not to be examined as allegories, so that we should ask what the ravens or the lilies signify; for they were set down so that greater things might be urged from lesser.

But I say to you, not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these. And indeed, what silk, what purple of kings, what embroidery of weavers can be compared with flowers? What is as red as the rose? What is as white as the lily? That the purple of the violet is surpassed by no murex is a judgement for the eyes rather than for words.

But if God so clothes the grass which is in the field today and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more you, O you of little faith? In the Scriptures "tomorrow" is understood of future time, as Jacob says: And my justice shall answer for me tomorrow (Gen. 30:33). And in the phantom of Samuel, the Pythoness speaks to Saul: Tomorrow you shall be with me (1 Sam. 28:19).

And you, do not seek what you shall eat or what you shall drink. It is to be noted that He does not say, Do not seek or be anxious about food or drink or clothing, but more expressly, What, He says, you shall eat or what you shall drink. And above, Nor for the body, what you shall put on. Here those seem to me to be reproved who, scorning the common food or clothing, seek for themselves food or clothing more sumptuous, or more austere, than those with whom they spend their life.

And do not be lifted up on high. Having forbidden anxiety about food, He next warned them not to be exalted.

For at first a man seeks these things to supply his need. But when they abound, he begins also to be proud of such things. This is as if a wounded man were to boast that he has many plasters in his house, when it would be good for him to have no wounds and to need not even one plaster.

For all these things the nations of the world seek. But your Father knows that you need them. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Here He shows most plainly that these things are not to be sought as though they were our goods, so that for their sake we ought to do good, if we do any; yet that they are necessary. What difference there is between the good which is to be sought and the necessary thing which is to be taken, He declared by this saying, when He says: But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. The kingdom of God, therefore, is our good, and this is to be sought, and there the end is to be fixed, for the sake of which we do all that we do. But because in this life we serve as soldiers so that we may be able to reach that kingdom, and this life cannot be lived without these necessities, These things shall be added to you, He says, but do you seek the kingdom of God. For in that He does not say, They shall be given, but they shall be added, He surely indicates that one thing is what is given principally, another what is added over. Because eternity ought to be ours in intention, and temporal things in use, the one is given, and the other is assuredly added over out of abundance.

Do not fear, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom. He calls the elect a little flock either by comparison with the greater number of the reprobate, or rather because of their devoted humility. For He wills His Church, however greatly already spread in number, nevertheless to grow until the end of the world, and to reach the promised kingdom by humility. And therefore, gently consoling her labours, He promises to that Church which He commands to seek only the kingdom of God that the kingdom is to be given her by the Father in His gracious good pleasure.

Sell what you possess and give alms. Do not fear, He says, that those who serve as soldiers for the kingdom of God will lack the necessities of this life; nay rather, sell your possessions for the sake of almsgiving. This is worthily done when one who has once spurned all his goods for the Lord nonetheless afterwards works with the labour of his hands, so that he may both get his living and be able to give alms. Hence the Apostle glories, saying: I have coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel; you yourselves know that for the things I needed, and for those who are with me, these hands have ministered. I have shown you all things, that by so labouring you ought to support the weak (Acts 20:33–35).

Make for yourselves purses that do not grow old: namely, by doing almsdeeds whose reward may abide for ever. Here it is not to be thought that this is commanded, that no money at all be kept by the saints, to be supplied either for their own uses or for those of the poor; since the Lord Himself, to whom the angels ministered, is nevertheless read to have had a purse for the instruction of His Church, both keeping what was offered by the faithful and bestowing it on the necessities of His own

and on other needy people: but so that God may not be served for the sake of these things, and justice be abandoned for fear of want.

A treasure that does not fail in the heavens, where no thief approaches, nor moth corrupts. Either it is to be taken simply, that money kept fails, being either snatched from the treasuries by a thief or spoiled in the treasuries by its own frailty, whereas given for Christ it yields the everlasting fruit of mercy in the heavens; or certainly it is to be understood thus, that the treasure of a good work, if it is stored up for the sake of earthly advantage, is easily corrupted and perishes, but if it is gathered with a heavenly intention alone, it can be [miraculi; perhaps read "stained"] neither outwardly by the favour of men nor inwardly by the blemish of empty glory. For the thief seizes from outside, the moth tears within. The thief took away the riches of those of whom the Lord says, They have received their reward (Matt. 6:2). The moth corrupts the garments of those whom the Psalmist rebukes, saying: For God scatters the bones of men who please themselves (Ps. 52:6). For by bones he means the strength of the virtues.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. This is to be understood not only of money but of all the passions. The glutton's god is his belly. He has his heart, then, where he also has his treasure. The treasures of the self-indulgent man are feasts, of the wanton man amusements, of the lover lust; hence each man serves that by which he is overcome.

Let your loins be girded, and burning lamps in your hands: and be you like men waiting for their lord. Because He had shown that many are either wholly subject to the world or serve the Lord with a view to worldly advantage, He beautifully and briefly teaches His own both to gird their loins, for continence from the love of worldly things, and to have burning lamps, so that they may do this very thing with a true end and a right intention. Otherwise: we gird our loins when we restrain the self-indulgence of the flesh through continence. And we hold burning lamps in our hands when through good works we show examples of light to our neighbours. For to our Redeemer the one without the other can in no way be pleasing, if either he who does good things does not yet abandon the defilements of self-indulgence, or he who excels in chastity does not yet exercise himself in good works. But even if both are done, it remains that whoever he is should strive in hope towards the heavenly homeland, should by no means keep himself from vices for the sake of this world's good repute, but should place all his hope in the coming of his Redeemer. Hence He also adds at once:

And you like men waiting for their lord, when he returns from the wedding. For the Lord went away to the wedding because, rising from the dead and ascending into heaven, He, the new man, joined to Himself the heavenly multitude of the angels. He returns when He is now made manifest to us through the judgement. And it is well added concerning the waiting servants:

That when he comes and knocks, they may open to him at once. For He comes when He hastens to judgement, and He knocks when through the troubles of sickness He signals that death is now near. We open to Him at once if we receive Him with love. For to open to the judge who knocks

is not willing who trembles to go out of the body, and dreads to see as judge Him whom he remembers he has despised. But he who is secure about his hope and his working opens at once to Him who knocks, because he gladly awaits the judge; when he recognizes that the time of approaching death has come, he grows cheerful over the glory of the reward. Hence it is also added at once:

Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He comes, shall find watching. He watches who keeps the eyes of his mind open to the sight of the true light. He watches who keeps by working what he has believed. He watches who drives away from himself the darkness of sloth and negligence. For hence Paul says: Awake, you just, and do not sin (1 Cor. 15:34). Hence again he says: It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep (Rom. 13:11). But let us hear what the Lord, when He comes, bestows on the watchful servants.

Amen I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down, and passing will minister to them. He girds Himself, that is, He prepares the reward; He makes them sit down, that is, be refreshed in eternal rest. For our sitting down is to rest in the kingdom. Hence again the Lord says: They shall come and sit down with Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob (Matt. 8:11). And the Lord, passing, ministers, because He fills us with the illumination of His light. "He passes", it is said: He returns from the judgement to the kingdom. Or certainly the Lord passes for us after the judgement because He raises us from the form of His humanity into the contemplation of His divinity. And His passing is to lead us into the beholding of His brightness, when Him whom we see in humanity at the judgement we see also in divinity after the judgement.

And if he comes in the second watch, and if he comes in the third watch, and finds them so, blessed are those servants. The first watch is the earliest time, that is, childhood. The second, adolescence or youth, which by the authority of the sacred word are one, as it says: Rejoice, young man, in your adolescence (Eccl. 11:9). The third is taken to be old age. So he who would not watch in the first watch, let him keep at least the second, so that he who neglected to be converted from his wickednesses in childhood may at least in the time of youth awake to the ways of life. And he who would not watch in the second watch, let him not lose the remedies of the third watch, so that he who does not awake to the ways of life even in youth may at least come to his senses in old age. And to shake off the sloth of our mind, outward losses too are brought in by way of a likeness, so that by these the soul may be roused to guard itself; for it is said:

But know this, that if the householder knew at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, he would not allow his house to be broken into. From this likeness set first an exhortation is also added beneath, when it is said:

And you also be ready, for at the hour you do not think, the Son of man comes. For while the householder does not know, the thief breaks into the house: because while the spirit sleeps from guarding itself, death, coming unforeseen, bursts into the dwelling of our flesh, and kills him whom it finds asleep as lord of the house; because when the spirit does not at all foresee the losses to come, death snatches him away unknowing to punishment. But he would resist the thief if he were watching.

because, guarding against the coming of the judge who secretly snatches the soul, he would go to meet Him by repenting, so as not to perish unrepentant. Our Lord willed the last hour to be unknown to us for this reason, that it may always be suspected, so that while we cannot foresee it we may be prepared for it without ceasing.

And Peter said to him: Lord, do you speak this parable to us, or also to all? The Lord in the parable set before had given two warnings: namely, both that He would come suddenly, and that they ought to await Him prepared; but about which of these, or about both, Peter asked, and whom he compared with himself and his companions when he says, Do you speak to us, or also to all? is not easily clear. And indeed by saying "us" and "all" he must be thought to mean none other than either the apostles and those like the apostles, and the rest of the faithful; or those who, dying one by one, daily receive, willing or unwilling, the coming of their judge, and those who at the coming of the universal judgement are to be found alive in the flesh. But it would be a wonder if blessed Peter doubted either that all who wish must live soberly, and justly, and piously, looking for the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God, who wills all men to be saved; or that the judgement would be unexpected, both of each and of all, of great and small, of faithful and unfaithful. Hence it remains to be understood that, these things being already well known, he thought those things rather worth asking which he could perhaps not know: namely, whether those lofty precepts of the heavenly life, by which He had commanded them to sell their possessions, to make purses that would not grow old, to lay up treasure in heaven, to watch with loins girded and lamps burning, and to await the Lord, belonged to the apostles alone and those like them, or also to all who are to be saved. That this was the sense of the questioner is made plain (unless I am mistaken) by the Lord's very answer.

And the Lord said: Who, do you think, is the faithful and prudent steward, whom the Lord has set over His household? The Saviour, answering what was asked, first teaches that the judgement will come upon all, and that each will obtain rewards or torments according to the merit of his work and the capacity of his understanding. Then, which was what had chiefly been asked, He shows that the grace of the virtues which He brought to the world is to be pursued by each as far as he can. I came (He says) to cast fire on the earth, and what do I will but that it be kindled? Truly, in saying "who, do you think, is", He suggests the difficulty, not the impossibility, of perfecting virtue, as the Psalmist does: Who is wise, and will keep these things (Ps. 106:43)? He means not no one, but a rare man. For elsewhere he has used the same word not for what is difficult but for what is impossible: O God, who shall be like Thee (Ps. 82:2)? that is, no one. For Thou alone art the Most High over all the earth (Ps. 82:19).

To give them their measure of wheat in due season. By the measure of wheat is expressed the due measure of the word. For all lofty things ought to be covered from many hearers and scarcely opened to a few, lest, when something it cannot hold is given to a narrow heart, it be poured outside. Hence Moses, coming out from the secret place of God, veils his shining face before the people, because, of course, he does not disclose the secrets of the inmost brightness to the crowds.

According to the quality of the hearers, therefore, the speech of teachers ought to be shaped, so that it both suits each in what is his own, and yet never departs from the art of common edification.

Blessed is that servant whom the Lord, when He comes, shall find so doing. Truly I say to you that He will set him over all that He possesses. As great as the difference of merits is between good hearers and good teachers, so great is that of rewards. For the former, when at His coming He finds them watching, He will make sit down, and passing will minister to them. But the latter, when He finds them faithfully and prudently dispensing the ration of the word to the household entrusted to them, He will set over all that He possesses, that is, over all the joys of the heavenly kingdom: not, surely, so that they alone may hold the lordship of these, but so that they may enjoy them in eternal possession more abundantly than the other saints. For those who have been learned shall shine like the splendour of the firmament, and those who instruct many to justice like the stars for all eternities (Dan. 12:3). And the Apostle says: Let the presbyters who rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in the word and in teaching (1 Tim. 5:17).

But if that servant says in his heart, My lord delays to come, and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and be drunk. As in the one faithful steward the whole order of good rulers, how they should both live and be rewarded, is taught, so also in this most wicked servant the work of all bad prelates who are to be damned, and likewise their eternal damnation, is related: they who, having cast off the fear of the Lord, not only give themselves to self-indulgence but also goad those under them with injuries. Although to beat the menservants and maidservants can also be understood figuratively as to corrupt, by showing an example of wicked action or speech, the hearts of the weak who are not yet made firm in faith, hope and charity. And to eat, drink and be drunk, as to be taken up with all crimes and with the allurements of the world, which drive the mind out of its senses and make it go astray. Note indeed that among the vices of the bad servant it is set down that he thought his lord's return slow, but it is not counted among the virtues of the good one that he hoped for it soon, but only that at the command of his lord, who was to come at whatever time, he gave his fellow servants their measure of wheat in season: that is, showed them the rule either of the Lord's word or of his own example. Indeed, we read that certain good servants were rebuked by the Apostle because, trembling and anxious, they believed the day of the Lord to be at hand, which He Himself had promised would come unexpectedly. Hence it is shown to be best that, although we greatly long, if it were permitted, to know when the Desired of all nations comes, yet we should calmly know what we are not permitted to know, and only, after the example of the good servant, whether it be near or far, await His coming prepared, and love it.

The lord of that servant will come on a day when he does not hope, and at an hour he does not know, and will divide him, and set his portion with the unfaithful. He will divide him not by cutting him through with a sword, but by separating him from the fellowship of the faithful and joining him to those who never belonged even to the faith: because he who has no care for his own, and especially for those of his household,

has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever, as the Apostle says.

But that servant who knew the will of his lord, and did not prepare, and did not do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. Many, understanding this saying badly, do not want to know what they should do, and think they will be beaten less if they do not know what they ought to have done. But it is one thing not to have known, another to have refused to know. For he does not know who wishes to grasp and cannot; but he who turns his ear from the voice of truth so as not to know is condemned not as one who does not know, but as a despiser.

But he who did not know, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few. And of everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required of him: and to whom they have entrusted much, of him they will ask more. Why, after He said, To whom much has been given, did He add, And to whom they have entrusted much? Understand: the divine judgements. Unless perhaps by this He wished to indicate both orders of the faithful, namely of rulers and of subjects, because much is often given even to private persons, to whom both knowledge of the Lord's will and the power of carrying out what they know is granted. But much is entrusted to him to whom, together with his own salvation, the care of feeding the Lord's flock is also committed. Thus the mighty suffer torments mightily, and a stronger torture presses upon the stronger; that is, a greater punishment will follow those endowed with greater grace, if they have transgressed. But the mildest punishment of all will be that of those who, besides the sin which they contracted as original, have added none beyond it; and among the rest, who have added, each will have there a damnation the more bearable the less iniquity he has had here.

I came to cast fire on the earth, and what do I will but that it be kindled? This saying answers specifically the question of blessed Peter, who asked whether the state of the stricter life is to be sought by all. For by fire He means the fervour of the Holy Spirit, which, illuminating the secret places of the heart, calls it with continual movements to the things above; burns up the vices of carnal concupiscence like thorns and thistles; improves by testing the golden vessels of the Lord's house; and consumes wood, hay and stubble; and which, soon sent upon the earth, made fruitful with the inward sprinkling of its light those hundred and twenty lamps which it found in the citadel of Zion. Of these, when He said above: Let your loins be girded (Luke 12:35), He added: And burning lamps. You ask, then (He says), whether I warn all to await the Lord's coming with loins girded and lamps burning: but I, who for this alone came forth from the bosom of the Father and came into the world, to kindle men from earthly cupidities to heavenly desires, what do you think I will, other than that the radiance of this fire should light up all the regions of the world, that the flame of this devotion should ever increase in the heart of the faithful to the end of the age, and not be quenched by any onset of unbelievers, whether of floods or of winds?

But I have a baptism to be baptized with. I must first (He says) be drenched with the dyeing of My own blood, and so inflame the hearts of believers with the fire of the Spirit, by which they may be able to despise, nay to hate, all earthly things and at the same time

their own soul. For the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:39), that is, by the victory of the passion. Of which He says elsewhere: Can you drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized (Mark 10:38)?

And how am I straitened until it be accomplished? Some manuscripts have, And how am I distressed. So great, then, is the Lord's condescension that He testifies that there is in Him an eagerness to pour devotion into us, to complete perfection in us, and to hasten the passion for us; He who, though He had nothing in Himself to grieve over, was yet distressed or straitened by our troubles, and at the time of the passion showed a sorrow which He had taken on not from fear of His own death but from the delay of our redemption. According to which He says: And how am I distressed until it be accomplished? Surely He who is distressed until the accomplishment is secure about the accomplishment.

Do you think that I came to give peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but separation. He declares how, after the baptism of His passion, after the coming of the spiritual fire, the earth is to burn. For indeed at the faith of Christ the whole world was divided against itself; every house had both unbelievers and believers; and therefore a good war was sent, that an evil peace might be broken. Which Isaiah too foretold prophetically under the figure of Egypt, saying: Behold, the Lord will ascend upon a light cloud, and will enter Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it, and I will make Egyptians run together against Egyptians (Isa. 19:1–2): these, namely, fighting against the faith, those for the faith.

For from this time there shall be five in one house divided: three shall be divided against two, and two against three. "In two" and "in three" means against two and against three. And it should be noted how He says five are divided, when He seems to have set down the names of six persons, namely father and son, mother and daughter, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. And it is to be understood that the mother-in-law is the same as the one designated by the name of mother, because she who is the mother of the son is also the mother-in-law of his wife, and therefore that same woman is said to be divided both against her daughter and against her daughter-in-law. If anyone should seek to interpret these divisions allegorically too, three are divided against two and two against three because the good feel and act contrary to the bad, and the bad to the good. For there is no one who doubts that three belongs to those who keep the faith of the supreme Trinity. And that two fits those who dissent from the unity of the faith is proved in many places of the Scriptures, and most of all in this: that the unclean animals were kept in the ark under this number, and that of the second day's works alone in Genesis it is not said that they were seen by God to be good.

Father against son, and son against his father. The father here is the devil, whose sons we once were, not by his creating but by our imitating, as the Lord says: You are of your father the devil (John 8:44). But after we heard the voice of one admonishing, Forget your people, and the lord [perhaps read: the house] of your father (Ps. 44:11), that fire came, that is, spiritual grace separated us from

one another, and showed another father, to whom we should say, Our Father who art in heaven (Matt. 6:9).

Mother against daughter, and daughter against mother. The mother is the synagogue; the daughter is the primitive Church, which both suffered from the synagogue, from which it drew its descent, persecution for the faith, and itself contradicted that same synagogue with the truth of the faith.

Mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. The mother-in-law is the synagogue; the daughter-in-law is the Church from the Gentiles, because Christ, the bridegroom of the Church, is the son of the synagogue, as the Apostle says: Whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ according to the flesh (Rom. 9:5). The mother-in-law, then, that is, the mother of the bridegroom, is divided, as we said before, both against her daughter-in-law and against her daughter, because the carnal synagogue does not cease to persecute believers whether from the circumcision or from the uncircumcision. But they too are divided against mother-in-law and mother, being unwilling to receive carnal circumcision, as the Acts of the Apostles teach.

And He said also to the crowds: When you see a cloud rising from the west, at once you say, A cloud is coming, and so it happens. And when [you see] the south wind blowing, you say that there will be heat, and it happens. By the cloud rising from the west He signifies His flesh rising from death. For from it the rain of the Gospel preaching was poured over all lands. By the south wind blowing before the heat, [He signifies] lighter tribulations before the judgement.

Hypocrites, you know how to test the face of the earth and of the sky. But how is it that you do not test this time? What is mystically designated by the cloud and the south wind we have touched on by anticipation. But according to the letter too the sense is plain: those who, because they wished to, were able very easily to foreknow the state of the weather from the change of the elements, could also, if they wished, understand this time, that is, of the Lord's first or second coming (for He had said some things beforehand about both), from the sayings of the prophets, who foretold both of these by the plainest signs, whether of events or of the courses of years. And lest any of the crowd should perhaps flatter themselves on their lack of learning, and plead that, as unlettered men ignorant of the reading of the prophets, they could not test the course of the times, He watchfully adds:

And why do you not judge even of yourselves what is just? He shows that they, as a rational creature, even if they do not know letters, can yet by natural understanding discern either that He who had done among them works which no one else [had done] is to be understood as above man, and therefore to be believed to be God, or that after so many injustices of this world a just judgement of the Creator is to come. Let no one, then, from what was said above, that the servant who did not know the Lord's will is beaten with few stripes, presume while sinning on the remedy of not knowing. For he, to say nothing else, by the very fact that he is a man, can be ignorant neither of the evils he should beware of nor of the goods he should seek.

But when you are going with your adversary to the ruler, on the way take pains to be freed from him, lest perhaps he deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer cast you into prison. And these words, like those above, [show that] the allurements of the world are to be trampled on, and the coming of the dread

judge is to be awaited with continual expectation, as they teach. For our adversary on the way is the word of God, contrary to our carnal desires in the present life. He is freed from it who humbly submits to its precepts. Otherwise the adversary [delivers him] to the judge, and the judge will deliver him to the officer, because, the Lord's word having been despised, the sinner will be held guilty at the judge's examination. Whom the judge will deliver to the officer, because he will allow the evil spirit to drag him off to vengeance, so that the spirit himself may force out of the body for punishment the soul which of its own accord consented to him for sin. The officer will cast [him] into prison, because through the evil spirit he is thrust down into hell until the day of judgement comes, from which time he himself too will be tormented together [with him] in the fires of hell.

I tell you, you shall not go out from there until you pay even the last mite. That is, until you pay off even the smallest sins. And because you will be able always to pay for these by suffering punishment, but never to pay them off by obtaining pardon (for there will be no place for pardon there), you will never go out from there, where you will pay the everlasting penalties of your works.

CHAPTER XIII.

And there were present at that very time some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices. These Galileans, who were slain by the impious governor amid their sacrifices, pay indeed the penalty of their crimes by an impious and wicked death. Yet it was not the death itself that harmed them (for the glory of the blessed martyrs declares that good men too could die so), but the wicked life for which they would be sent into the second death: but they were punished with such a death for the correction of the living, so that when the pestilent man is scourged the fool may become wiser; or certainly as an example of those who refuse to be corrected and will therefore perish most wretchedly. Then follows:

And answering He said to them: Do you think that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? No, I tell you, but unless you do penance, you will all likewise perish. And indeed those who did not do penance perished likewise, because in the fortieth year of the Lord's passion the Romans came, whom Pilate stood for, as one belonging to their nation and kingdom, and beginning from Galilee, where the Lord's preaching too had begun, they so utterly destroyed the impious nation that they defiled with human blood not only the courts of the temple, where sacrifices used to be brought, but also the inner parts of the house, where the Galileans had no access. But since, figuratively, Pilate, who is interpreted "mouth of the hammerer", signifies the devil, always ready to strike, blood signifies sin, and sacrifices express good actions, Pilate mingles the blood of the Galileans with their sacrifices when the devil stains the almsgiving, prayers, fasting and other good deeds of the faithful, whether with the deadly delight of flesh and blood, or with the brooding of hatred, or with the fury of envy, or with the ambition for human praise, or with any other wicked plague, so that, although they seem to be offered to the Lord, the cunning plotter nevertheless brings it about that they profit those who offer them nothing; which would that we did not know is done with us daily.

Just as also those eighteen upon whom the tower fell

in Siloam, and killed them. Do you think that they too were debtors above all the men dwelling in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but if you do not do penance, you will all likewise perish. And these men of Jerusalem, like those Galileans, were not the only sinners, but were punished to strike terror into the rest. Crushed by the fall of the tower, they foretell that all the Jews who would not repent were to perish together with their very walls. Not without reason eighteen, a number which among the Greeks is written with ι and η, that is, with the same letters with which the name of Jesus begins. For they show that they deserved to be damned chiefly for this, that, having heard the Saviour's name, they preferred to spurn it rather than receive it. Mystically, the tower of Siloam is that one to which the Psalmist sings: Thou hast led me, because Thou art become my hope, a tower of strength against the face of the enemy (Ps. 60:4). For the very name Siloam, which is interpreted "sent", and where the man blind from birth received light, signifies of course Him who says: I came as light into the world (John 12:46). And again: And He who sent Me is with Me (John 8:29). Of whose falling it is said elsewhere under the metaphor of a stone: Everyone who falls upon that stone shall be shattered. But on whomever it falls, it will crush him (Luke 20:18). Otherwise: each of us ought to build a tower of virtues, having first counted the cost, lest, when he could not finish it, he be laughed at by those passing by. This tower, well built, stands fast. But if, raised up in pride, it has not had firm foundations, it will fall upon him by whom it was built.

And He spoke this likeness. A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. This fig tree can indeed designate the nature of the human race. Which was well planted, that is, created to the likeness of its author. But when God sought fruit for three years, it refused to give it, because before the law, under the law, under grace, it scorned to obey. But if you look back at what went before, you will notice that it bears the figure, though generally of all, yet specially of the synagogue. For when, after that terrible and dreadful sentence was set before them: If you do not do penance, you will all likewise perish, He at once adds the parable of the barren tree that was to be uprooted, He teaches most plainly that those to whom He was speaking were, like the fruitless fig, to be cut down if they did not repent. The vineyard of the Lord of hosts, then, is the house of Israel, as we are taught by Isaiah's song. And the synagogue, founded in that same house, is the fig tree in the vineyard. But He who allowed His vineyard to be plundered by passers-by also ordered the fig to be cut down.

And he came seeking fruit on it, and did not find it. He who established the synagogue through Moses, the Lord, appeared born in the flesh, and, teaching often in the synagogue, sought the fruit of faith, but did not find it in the mind of the Pharisees.

And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: Behold, it is three years since I have been coming seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I do not find it. By the dresser of the vineyard is expressed the order of apostles and teachers, by whose prayers and admonitions constant care is provided for the people of God. For to these the Lord

very often complained about the unfruitful nation of the Jews, that through the three years of His visitation, that is, in the edicts of the law, in the testimonies of the prophets, and in the very grace of the shining Gospel, it had shown itself negligent.

Cut it down, then; why does it even take up the ground? The Jewish nation was cut down not by the apostles but by the Romans, and cast out of the land of promise. But "cut it down" (he says): set before it the ruin of the cutting down that is to come upon it, by urging penance. That nation by a just judgement lost the land together with the kingdom, for love of which it did not fear to persecute the citizens of heaven, and to kill the very King of heaven and earth, saying through its high priests and Pharisees: If we let Him go on thus, all will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation (John 11:48). By the ground taken up by the barren fig can also be figured the crowd of the Jewish people, which, pressed down by the harmful shadow of its rulers so that it could not receive the light of truth, and so that it should not be warmed by the sun of heavenly love, was hindered by the example of their wickedness. According to which the Saviour says to the same men elsewhere: Woe (He says) to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who shut the kingdom of heaven before men. For you do not enter, nor do you allow those entering to enter (Matt. 23:13).

But he, answering, said to him: Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it. This is the voice of the apostles, who after the Lord's passion prayed earnestly for the Jews, that vengeance for the Lord's cross should not be exacted from the impenitent. Until I dig (he says) about it, that is, [making] lowly the root of the unfruitful mind with the mattock of a twice-sharpened rebuke, striking into it the dread both of present afflictions and of perpetual damnation. For every trench is low down. And surely rebuke, while it shows the mind to itself, humbles it.

And I will put dung. That is, I will bring back to its mind the abomination of the evils it has done, and raise up the grace of compunction as from the rottenness of dung.

And if indeed it bears fruit. But if not, hereafter you shall cut it down. When he said, And if indeed it bears fruit, he added nothing, but left the sentence hanging. But when he added, But if not, he at once joined to it the judgement of the damnation to come, saying: Hereafter you shall cut it down; because, namely, he saw that the synagogue was much more inclined to deny God than to confess Him. Hence also elsewhere, enacting in deeds the same figure as here in words, He condemned the barren fig tree with the curse of eternal sterility, showing, namely, that even if the apostles dig by rebuking, and even if they bring dung by reproaching sins, it would yet be laden with no fruit of penance, but must be taken away by the severity of the strict axe.

And He was teaching in their synagogue on the sabbaths, and behold, a woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years. After the parable of the fig was spoken, the Lord is related to have taught in the synagogue, so that it may be made known that the parable tends to nothing else, but that this is to seek fruit on the fig tree and not to find it: to entrust the word to the synagogue, and not to have it received. Yet so that you should not think it was wholly

and utterly to be expunged for the fault of barrenness, but should know that a remnant was to be saved through the election of grace, there follows immediately in the same place the healing of the primitive Church under the figure of the bent woman. She is fittingly said to have been bent for eighteen years, a number which is made by multiplying three by six, because it shows her who, in the testimony of the law, in the foretelling of prophecy and in the revelation of grace, languished through feeble works. For the number six, in which the creation of the world was completed, signifies the perfection of works. And there are (as I have said) three times of the Lord's visitation, in which Judaea, because it knew how to work at earthly rather than heavenly things, was bent away from the uprightness of its mind as if for eighteen years.

And she was bent over and could not look upwards at all. Because, savouring earthly things and seeking feeble ones, she did not yet think on heavenly things, hearing through the prophet: If you are willing and hear Me, you shall eat the good things of the land (Isa. 1:19). Against which the Apostle says to the members of the Church: Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth (Col. 3:2).

When Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her: Woman, you are released from your infirmity. And He laid His hands on her, and at once she was made straight, and she glorified God. He saw her by predestining through grace; He called her by enlightening through teaching; He laid His hands on her by helping with spiritual gifts; He raised her up to glorify God by advancing her, firm in good works, to the end. Those whom He predestined (says the Apostle), He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified (Rom. 8:30).

But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, answered and said to the crowd: There are six days on which one ought to work; come on those days, therefore, and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, showing that it was now the time when, according to the prophecy of the Song of Songs, the day should breathe and the shadows be removed (cf. Song 2:17). But the ruler of the synagogue did not know either this or that far more excellent mystery which the Lord was intimating by healing on the Sabbath: namely, that after the six ages of this world He was to give the perpetual joys of immortal life. In figure of this Moses commanded that on the Sabbath one should rest not from good work but from servile, that is, harmful work, foreshadowing that time in which our worldly works, but not our religious ones, that is, the acts of praising God, would cease. The ruler of the synagogue therefore is deceived and deceives, for the law forbade on the Sabbath not the healing of a man, but the bearing of burdens, that is, being weighed down with sins.

But the Lord answered him and said: Hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it to water? He rebukes the rulers of the synagogue for unbelief, and rightly brands them with the name of hypocrites, that is, pretenders, since, while they sought to be seen as teachers of the people, they were not ashamed to put the healing of a man after the care of a beast. But in a higher sense by the word ox and ass He signifies the Jew and the Greek. Of whose calling it is written: The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's manger (Isa. 1:3). Both of whom, by the bonds of sin

loosed, has put off the thirst and heat of this world by a draught from the Lord's fountain.

And this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years, ought she not to be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? The daughter of Abraham is every faithful soul; the daughter of Abraham is the Church gathered from both peoples into the unity of the faith, which, when the time of the law and of the Lord's resurrection was fulfilled, burst the bonds of long captivity through the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit. For in this way too, perhaps, the mystery of the Sabbath and of the eighteen years can be understood not unfittingly. Mystically, then, for the ox or the ass to be loosed from the manger and led to drink is the same as for the daughter of Abraham to be raised from the bond of harmful bending: that is, for the Church gathered from Jews and Gentiles to be released from the snares of sins through the water of baptism, and to be lifted up to hope for heavenly things. It must indeed be noted that a most unspeakable heresy, from the Lord's saying, A woman bound by Satan, tries to maintain that the defects of human bodies belong not to God as their author but rather to the devil; as though the devil, though he always has the desire to harm, could harm anyone unless he had received power from the Almighty. For what else is declared, not only in the book of blessed Job, which the said heresy, in its madness, spits upon together with the other books of the Old Testament and with God Himself who gave it, as though He were a malign prince of the world, but also in the Gospel, where the demons would not even go into the swine unless He Himself granted them this, as we have also shown above?

And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by Him. Those who are put to shame by the Saviour's words show that they are rightly to be compared to the barren fig tree. Those who rejoice at His miracles declare that they belong by the devotion of faith to the daughter of Abraham who glorifies God for her raising up, that is, to the Church.

He said therefore: What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I judge it to be like? It is like a grain of mustard seed. The kingdom of God is the preaching of the Gospel, and the knowledge of the Scriptures which leads to life; and of it it is said to the Jews: The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits (Matt. 21:43). Such a kingdom, then, is like a grain of mustard seed, surely because of the fervour of faith, or because it is said to drive out poisons. Hence elsewhere too we read perfect faith compared to a grain of mustard seed, because by its simplicity and humility it overcomes all the doctrines of depravity.

Which a man took and put into his garden. The man is Christ; the garden is the Church, ever to be cultivated by His teachings and endowed with His gifts. He is fittingly said to have received the very grain which He sowed, because the gifts which, with the Father, He bestows on us from His divinity, He received with us from His humanity; hence it is said: He received gifts among men (Ps. 67:19). And elsewhere Peter says: And having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this which you see and hear (Acts 2:33).

And it grew and became a tree. The preaching of the Gospel grew, sown throughout the whole world; it grows also in the mind of each believer, because no one suddenly

becomes perfect; but he has set ascents in his heart, it says, in the valley of tears (Ps. 83:6–7); and below: They shall go from strength to strength; the God of gods shall be seen in Sion (ibid. 8). For one ascends by degrees from the valley of tears, so that on the mountain of heavenly joys the God of gods may be seen. And the mustard grain, as it grows, rises up not like herbs, which quickly wither, but like a tree, which rejoices in long years and rich fruitfulness. And note that while in the old vineyard the unfruitful fig tree is rebuked, at once in the garden of the Gospel a new tree of mustard is brought forth.

And the birds of the air rested in its branches. The branches of this tree are the varieties of doctrines, in which chaste souls, which know how to strive towards things above on the wings of the virtues, rejoice to nest and to rest. Who will give me, it says, wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest (Ps. 54:7)? In the grain of mustard can be understood the very lowliness of the Lord's incarnation, which a man took and put into his garden, since Joseph, receiving the body of the crucified Saviour, buried it in a garden. And it grew and became a tree, because He rose again and ascended into heaven. It spread out branches in which the birds of the air might rest, because He scattered preachers into the world, in whose words and consolations all the faithful might find relief from the weariness of this life.

And again He said: To what shall I judge the kingdom of God to be like, and what is it like? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened. A satum is a kind of measure, according to the custom of the province of Palestine, holding one and a half modii. By the leaven, then, He means love, which warms and rouses the mind. And by that woman, the daughter of Abraham on whom He laid His hands above, and who, made straight at once, glorified God, He signifies the Church, whose meal we are, as many of us as are ground by the exercise of fear and hope as by an upper and a lower millstone, so that, according to the Apostle, we, though many, may be one bread, one body in Christ. The woman, then, hides the leaven of love in three measures of meal, because the Church commands that we love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength. To her it is said, under the figure of Sarah, through Abraham: Make haste, three measures of fine flour, mix it, and make cakes baked in the ashes (Gen. 18:6). In the three measures of meal can also be understood the three fruits of the Lord's seed, namely the thirtyfold, the sixtyfold and the hundredfold, that is, of the married, of the continent, of virgins. And He well says that the leaven was hidden in the meal until the whole was leavened, because charity hidden in our mind ought to grow until it changes the whole mind into its own perfection, so that the soul can love, do, and call to mind nothing but the very love of its Maker. This has its beginning here, but its perfection there, where, since God is all in all, He has warmed all with one and the same fire of His love.

And someone said to Him: Lord, are they few who are saved? But He said to them: Strive to enter

by the narrow gate. The hall of salvation is entered by the narrow gate, because it is necessary that the allurement of the deceiving world be overcome by labours and fasts. And He rightly said: Strive to enter; because unless the striving of the mind is fervent, the wave of the world, by which the soul is always drawn back to the depths, is not overcome.

For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. They seek to enter, drawn on by love of salvation, and they will not be able, deterred by the roughness of the way. They seek this out of desire for the rewards, and presently flee from it out of fear of the labours. Not because the Lord's yoke is rough or His burden heavy, but because they will not learn from Him that He is meek and humble of heart, that they may find rest for their souls: and that is why the gate by which one enters into life is made narrow.

But when the master of the house has gone in and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying: Lord, open to us. The master of the house is, namely, Christ, who by His divinity is everywhere whole. He is within for those whom, present, He gladdens with the sight of Himself in the heavenly homeland; but He is as it were still outside for those whom, as they strive in this pilgrimage, He helps as a hidden comforter, according to what He Himself promised: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world (Matt. 28:20). And He will go in and shut the door when, leading His whole body, which is the Church, glorified by the glory of the resurrection, into the joy of contemplating Him, He will take away from the reprobate the place of repentance which He now opens to all who knock devoutly. For to stand outside and knock at the door is, being cut off from the lot of the blessed, to beg in vain from God the mercy which they had neglected.

And He will answer and say to you: I do not know where you are from. How does He not know where they are from, when the Psalm says: The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain (Ps. 93:11), and it is written elsewhere: He knows the deceiver and him who is deceived (Job 12:16)? Unless it is that God's knowing is said sometimes to mean recognizing, sometimes approving: For the Lord knows the way of the just (Ps. 1:6); but he who does not know shall not be known (1 Cor. 14:38). He therefore both knows the reprobate, whom He judges by knowing them, for He would not have judged those whom He did not know at all; and yet in a certain way He does not know where they are from, since in them He does not approve the mark of faith and of His love.

Then you will begin to say: We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets. Either it is to be understood simply, that the Jews, spurning the mysteries of faith, think themselves known to the Lord for this: if only they bring victims to the temple, feast in the Lord's presence, and listen to the reading of the prophets, not knowing that saying of the Apostle: The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but justice and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17); and elsewhere: Whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame (Phil. 3:19), that is, in carnal circumcision. Or it is to be taken mystically, that those eat and drink in the Lord's presence who receive the food of the word with fitting eagerness. Hence those who say this add, as if by way of explanation: And You taught in our streets. For sacred Scripture is sometimes food for us

sometimes drink. In the more obscure places it is food, because it is broken up, as it were, by expounding and swallowed by chewing. In the plainer places it is drink, because it is drunk just as it is found. So those who complain to the Judge who rejects them that they have eaten and drunk in His presence testify that they have understood both the hidden and the open commands of the sacred word. But what is added is greatly to be feared.

And He will say to you: I do not know where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity. The feasting of the festivals of the law, He says, does not help one whom the devotion of faith does not commend; knowledge of the Scriptures does not make known to God one whom the iniquity of his works shows to be unworthy of His sight.

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Weeping is usually brought on by burning heat, gnashing of teeth by cold. Here a twofold Gehenna is shown, that is, one of excessive cold and one of unbearable heat. With this agrees the saying of blessed Job: They shall pass from the snow waters to excessive heat (Job 24:19). Or certainly the gnashing of teeth betrays the feeling of one who is indignant, in that each one who has sinned with such obstinate wickedness repents too late, groans too late, is angry with himself too late.

And behold, there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last. The principal sense of this saying is clear from what precedes: that the peoples of the Gentiles, long living without faith, were to be called to the faith, and the Jews, who for so many ages held the head of faith and justice, were to become the tail. But it can also be understood thus: that some who are despised by the world will have great glory in the age to come, and others who are glorious among men will be condemned by the strict Judge. It can also be taken thus: that many who come late to the service of God excel in great merits of life, while others, fervent with spiritual zeal from their earliest years, grow weary at the last in sluggish idleness.

On that very day some of the Pharisees came, saying to Him: Go out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You. And He said to them: Go and tell that fox. He calls Herod a fox because of his guile and plots, for it is an animal full of deceit, always wanting to lurk in a hole, stinking moreover with a foul smell, and never running by straight paths but by twisting windings. All these things fit the heretics, whose type Herod bears, who strive to kill Christ, that is, to snatch from believers the humility of the Christian faith.

Behold, I cast out demons and accomplish cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I am perfected. These words of the Lord are understood as spoken mystically and figuratively, for He did not suffer on the day which is the third from this day, since He says straight afterwards:

Nevertheless I must walk today and tomorrow and the following day, for it cannot be that a prophet perish outside Jerusalem. Therefore what He says, I cast out demons and accomplish cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I am perfected (Luke 13:32), is to be referred to His body, which is the Church. For demons are expelled when the Gentiles abandon the superstitions of their fathers and believe in Him; and cures are accomplished when life is lived according to His commandments,

after the devil and this world have been renounced, right up to the end, which is the resurrection. By it, as on the third day, the Church will be perfected, that is, brought to the fullness of the angels through the immortality of the body as well.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often I would have gathered your children as a bird gathers her nest under her wings, and you would not! By Jerusalem He means not the stones and buildings of the city but its inhabitants, whom He mourns with a father's love, as we also read in another place that, seeing it, He wept. And in saying, How often I would have gathered your children, He testifies that all the prophets of the past were sent by Him. The likeness of a bird gathering her nest under her wings we read also in the canticle of Deuteronomy: As an eagle, to protect her nest, will hover over her young, she spread her wings, took them up, and carried them on her wings (Deut. 32:11). And He who had called Herod, plotting His death, a fox, fittingly compares Himself to a bird. For the deceitful fox never ceases to lay snares for birds.

Behold, your house will be left to you desolate. The very city which He had called His nest He now calls the house of the Jews. Not undeservedly, stripped of the Lord's help, it is left to its own control, because it not only scorned to be protected by the wings of that almighty bird whom Matthew calls a hen, but also handed over that same bird, who wished to protect it, to be devoured by foxes, that is, it handed Christ over to Herod and Pilate to be crucified. Without delay it is itself given up as plunder to those same foxes, that is, to the kingdom of the earth. For when the Lord had been killed the Romans came and, plundering it like an empty nest, took away their place and nation and kingdom.

And I tell you, you will not see Me until it comes when you will say: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. The crowds did indeed say this when the Lord came to Jerusalem; but since Luke does not say where the Lord went away from here, so as not to come except at the time when that would be said (for He continues on His journey until He comes to Jerusalem), this certainly compels it to be understood mystically, that is, of that coming of His in which He is to come in glory, especially since Matthew testifies that the Lord said these things after the praises had been sung to Him by the crowd. Otherwise, what He says is this: Unless you do penance and confess that I am He of whom the prophets sang, the Son of the almighty Father, you will not see My face. The Jews have a time of repentance given them; let them confess Him blessed who comes in the name of the Lord, and they will behold the face of Christ.

CHAPTER XIV.

And it came to pass, when He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching Him; and behold, there was a certain man before Him who had the dropsy. The disease of dropsy takes its name from watery humour; for in Greek water is called ὕδωρ. It is a humour beneath the skin arising from a defect of the bladder, with a swelling distension and fetid breath.

And it is proper to one with dropsy that the more he abounds in disordered humour, the more he thirsts. And therefore he is rightly compared to one who is weighed down by an overflowing flood of carnal pleasures. He is compared to the avaricious rich man, who, the more abundant he is in riches which he does not use well, the more ardently he covets such things.

And Jesus answered and said to the lawyers and Pharisees: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? But they were silent. That Jesus is said to have answered looks back to what was said before: And they were watching Him. For the Lord knows the thoughts of men. But they are rightly silent when questioned, for they see that whatever they say is said against themselves. For if it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath, why do they watch whether the Saviour heals? If it is not lawful, why do they themselves tend their cattle on the Sabbath?

But He took hold of him, healed him and let him go. By a provident dispensation the Lord heals the man with dropsy before the lawyers and Pharisees, and presently argues against avarice, so that through this man's sickness of body the sickness of heart in them might be expressed. Accordingly, after many exhortations in His discourse, it is added: Now the Pharisees, who were avaricious, heard all these things, and they derided Him. For the man with dropsy thirsts the more, the more he drinks. And every avaricious man multiplies his thirst: when he has obtained what he desires, he pants the more to desire other things.

And He answered them and said: Which of you, if his ass or ox falls into a pit, will not at once pull it out on the Sabbath day? So He confutes the Pharisees who were watching Him as to condemn them also for avarice. If you, He says, hasten on the Sabbath to rescue an ass or an ox or any animal at all that falls into a pit, looking not to the animal but to your own avarice, how much more ought I to set free a man, who is far better than a beast? And fittingly He compared the man with dropsy to an animal that has fallen into a pit, for he was suffering from humour; just as He compared that woman, whom He had said was bound for eighteen years and whom He was loosing from that binding, to a beast of burden that is loosed to be led to water. And well did He set the ox and the ass in both places, whether we take them to signify the wise and the dull, or, as was said above, both peoples: namely, the one whose neck the yoke of the law had worn, and the one whom any seducer found and, holding it like a brute animal with no reason, drew away into whatever error he wished. The Saviour at His coming found them all bound by the chains of Satan, all sunk in the deep pit of concupiscence. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and lack the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:22–24).

And He also told a parable to those who were invited, noticing how they chose the first places at table, saying to them: When you are invited to a wedding, do not recline in the first place. This admonition of the Saviour is plain according to the letter, teaching that humility is praiseworthy not only before God but also before men; but since the evangelist not without reason calls it a parable, we must briefly consider what it also signifies mystically.

That the union of Christ and the Church is called a wedding is evident in many places. One of these is: Can the sons of the wedding fast while the bridegroom is with them (Mark 2:19)? Another: The kingdom of heaven has become like a king who made a wedding for his son, and sent his servants to call those invited to the wedding (Matt. 22:2–3). Whoever, then, being invited, comes to this wedding, that is, joins himself by the grace of faith to the members of the Church, let him not recline in the first place, that is, let him not, glorying in his merits, exalt himself as though higher than the rest. And let him indeed strive, according to the parable in another place, to appear clothed in the wedding garment, that is, shining with the brightness of the virtues; but let him adorn the very habit of the virtues with the place of devout humility.

Lest perhaps one more honourable than you has been invited by him, and he who invited both you and him come and say to you: Give place to this man; and then you begin with shame to take the last place. He gives place to a more honourable guest invited after him who, made overconfident by trust in his long manner of life, is outrun by the swift nimbleness of those who have followed him in Christ. And he takes the last place with shame when, recognizing better things in others, he humbles whatever lofty opinion he had of his own work, saying with the Prophet: I am poor, and in labours from my youth; and being exalted I have been humbled and confounded (Ps. 87:16).

But when you are invited, go, recline in the last place. The greater you are, it says, humble yourself in all things (Sir. 3:20). And the Psalmist glories: I have been humbled exceedingly, Lord; quicken me according to Thy word (Ps. 118:107), plainly signifying that he could be given life by the Lord in this way, if he thought humbly of his own virtues.

So that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you: Friend, go up higher. The Lord at His coming, blessing with the name of friend whomever He finds humble, will bid him go up higher. For whoever humbles himself like a little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven.

Then you will have glory in the presence of those who recline at table with you. It is well said, Then you will have glory, lest you begin now to seek what is kept for you at the end; for, as Solomon says, an inheritance hastened after at the beginning will in the end lack blessing (Prov. 20:21). But it can also be understood in this life: the one found reclining in the last place is raised up when the Lord comes, because daily the Lord enters His wedding feast, daily He examines the manners, seats and dress of those who feast together, and, despising the proud, He often grants to the humble such gifts of His Spirit that the company of those reclining together, that is, of those resting in the faith, rightly glorifies them with one-minded admiration and, astonished, breaks out into the praise of its Author, saying: But to me Thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable; their principality is exceedingly strengthened (Ps. 138:17).

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And from this conclusion it is plainly clear that the Lord's preceding discourse is to be understood figuratively. For not everyone who exalts himself before men is straightway humbled, nor is he who in the sight

of men humbles himself exalted by them; on the contrary, sometimes one who raises himself up, whether at the summit of dignity or in gaining any other glory, does not cease to be exalted to the end. Likewise any humble and modest man remains to the end of his life in the lowly station with which he is content. And therefore, since, according to the judgement of the Truth, everyone who heedlessly lifts himself up on account of his merits will be humbled by the Lord, and he who prudently humbles himself in his good deeds will be exalted by Him, the Redeemer's foregoing discourse, in which He forbids seeking the first places at a wedding, without doubt agrees with this same sense.

And He said also to him who had invited Him: When you give a dinner or a supper, do not call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbours. He does not forbid brothers, friends and the rich to hold feasts for one another as though it were a crime; but He shows that, like the other dealings of human need, in which sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much again, it avails nothing for meriting the rewards of heavenly life. Accordingly He adds:

Lest perhaps they also invite you in return, and a recompense be made to you. He does not say, And it become a sin for you, but, And a recompense, He says, be made to you. Like this is what He says elsewhere: And if you do good to those who do good to you, what thanks is due to you (Luke 6:33)? Nor does He say here, It is a sin for you, but, What thanks is due to you? For sinners also do this. And yet there are certain mutual feasts of brothers, friends, kinsmen and rich neighbours which receive not only a recompense in the present but also damnation in the future. Accordingly they are counted by the Apostle among the works of darkness: Let us walk honestly, he says, as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness (Rom. 13:13). For revels are luxurious feasts, which are either held by everyone's contribution or are customarily given in turn by companions, so that no one is ashamed to say or do anything shameful, because they meet for this, that foul things may be done there with plenty of wine, and the varied pleasure of lust be stirred up.

But when you give a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they have nothing with which to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. He speaks of the resurrection of the just, for although all rise again, it is not undeservedly named as if it belonged to those who do not doubt that they will come into it blessed. So he who calls the poor to a feast will receive a reward in the future. He who calls friends, brothers and the rich receives his reward. But if he does this for God's sake, after the example of the sons of blessed Job, then, like the other duties of brotherly love, He who commanded it rewards it. He who invites gluttons and the dissolute for the sake of wantonness will be punished in the future with eternal punishment.

When one of those who reclined at table with Him heard this, he said to Him: Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. The bread which is eaten in the kingdom of God is not to be understood, as Cerinthus held, as food for the body, but as Him who says: I am the living bread which came down from heaven (John 6:51).

If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live for ever (John 6:52). That is, if anyone, perfectly incorporated by the sacrament of My Incarnation, is found worthy to enjoy the vision of My divine majesty, he will rejoice in the everlasting blessedness of immortal life. But since some receive this bread only as far as faith, as if by adoring it, but disdain to reach its sweetness by truly tasting it, the Lord, in the parable that follows, rebukes the torpor of such people as unworthy of the heavenly banquet. For it continues:

But He said to him: A certain man made a great supper and invited many. Who is this man, if not He of whom it is said through the prophet: And He is a man, and who knows Him (Jer. 17:9)? He made a great supper, because He has prepared for us the fullness of inward sweetness. Because He calls many, but few come, since sometimes those very ones who are subject to Him through faith gainsay His eternal banquet by living badly.

And he sent his servant at the hour of the supper to tell those invited to come, for all things are now ready. What is the hour of the supper but the end of the world? In it we certainly are, as Paul long ago testifies, saying: We are those upon whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Cor. 10:11). If, then, it is already the hour of the supper when we are called, the less ought we to excuse ourselves from God's banquet, the more we see that the end of the world has now drawn near. And this banquet of God is called not a dinner but a supper for this reason, that after dinner a supper remains, but after supper no banquet remains. And since God's eternal banquet will be prepared for us at the last, it was right that it should be called not a dinner but a supper. But who is signified by this servant who is sent by the master of the house to invite, if not the order of preachers? And to drive away our distaste, all things are now ready, because, to wipe away the lukewarmness of our mind, at God's supper that singular Lamb has been slain for us who took away the sins of the world.

And they all began at once to make excuses. God offers what He ought to have been asked for; unasked, He wishes to give what could scarcely have been hoped for. Because He would deign to bestow it when entreated, yet is despised when He has made it ready, He announces the delights of the eternal refreshment, and yet all at once make excuses. But some say: We do not wish to make excuses; for we rejoice both to be called and to come to that banquet of heavenly refreshment. And they certainly speak the truth if they do not love earthly things more than heavenly, if they are not more occupied with bodily things than with spiritual. Hence here too the very cause of those who make excuses is added, when it immediately follows:

The first said to him: I have bought a farm, and I must go out and see it. I pray you, hold me excused. What is designated by the farm but earthly substance? He therefore goes out to see the farm who thinks only of outward things for the sake of his substance.

And another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them. I pray you, hold me excused. What do we understand by the five yoke of oxen but the five senses of the body? They are also rightly called yokes, because they are doubled in each sex. These, that is, bodily

senses, because they do not know how to grasp inward things but recognize only outward ones, and, forsaking what is innermost, touch the things that are outside, curiosity is rightly signified by them. For curiosity is a grave vice: while it draws anyone's mind outward to investigate the life of his neighbour, it always hides from him his own inward things. For this reason too it is said of those same five yoke of oxen: I go to prove them, because, namely, proving is sometimes wont to pertain to curiosity. But it is to be noted that both he who excuses himself from the supper of his inviter on account of the farm, and he who does so on account of proving the yokes of oxen, mingle in words of humility, saying:

I pray you, have me excused. For while he says I pray, and yet scorns to come, humility sounds in the voice, pride in the action. And behold, every wicked man condemns this when he hears it, and yet does not cease from doing the things he condemns. For when we say to anyone who acts perversely: Be converted, follow God, leave the world, to what do we call him but to the Lord's supper? But when he answers: Pray for me, because I am a sinner; I cannot do this, what else does he do but beg and excuse himself? For in saying, I am a sinner, he suggests humility; but in adding, I cannot be converted, he shows pride.

And another said: I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. What is understood by the wife but the pleasure of the flesh? For although marriage is good, and was established by divine Providence for the propagating of offspring, yet some seek through it not the fruitfulness of offspring but the desires of pleasure. And therefore an unjust thing can not unfittingly be signified by a just thing. So the supreme Father of the household invites us to the supper of the eternal banquet; but while earthly care occupies this one, keen thought about another's doings lays waste that one, and carnal pleasure defiles the mind of yet another, each one, disdainful, fails to hasten to the feast of eternal life.

And the servant returned and reported these things to his lord. Then the father of the household, being angry, said to his servant: Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor, and the feeble, and the blind, and the lame. Behold, he who bends over earthly substance more than is right refuses to come to the Lord's supper; he who toils at the labour of curiosity disdains the food of life made ready; he who clings to carnal desires spurns the spiritual feast of the banquet. Since therefore the proud refuse to come, the poor are chosen. Why this? Because, according to the word of Paul, God chooses the weak things of the world to confound the strong (1 Cor. 1:27). Now those are called poor and feeble who in their own judgement are weak in their own sight. For there are poor who are as it were strong, who even when placed in poverty are proud. The blind are those who have no light of understanding. The lame, too, those who do not have straight steps in their working. But while the vices of conduct are signified by the infirmity of the limbs, it is plainly clear that, just as those were sinners who, when called, would not come, so these too are sinners who are invited and come; but proud sinners are spurned, and humble sinners are chosen. He therefore chooses those whom the world despises, because very often

the very contempt recalls a man to himself. The poor and feeble, the blind and lame are called, which is why they come, because all who are weak and despised in this world very often hear the voice of God the more quickly, the less they have in this world in which to take delight. But, the poor having been brought to the supper, let us hear what the servant adds:

Lord, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room. Many such were gathered from Judaea to the Lord's supper, but the multitude that believed from the Israelite people did not fill the place of the heavenly banquet. The throng of the Jews has already entered, but there is still room empty in the kingdom, where the multitude of the Gentiles is to be received. Hence it is said to the same servant:

Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. When the Lord invites to the supper from the lanes and streets, He signifies, namely, that people which knew how to keep the law under the life of the city. But when He commands His guests to be gathered from the highways and hedges, He seeks, surely, to gather a rustic people, that is, the Gentile. But it is to be noted that in this third invitation it is not said, Invite, but, Compel to come in. For there are some who understand the good things that ought to be done, but cease from doing them. To these, as we said above, it often happens that the adversity of this world strikes them in their carnal desires. For often they either waste away with long sickness, or collapse, afflicted with injuries, or are distressed, struck by heavier losses, and, reproaching themselves in their desires, turn their hearts to the Lord. Those therefore who, broken by the adversities of this world, return to the love of God and are corrected from the desires of the present life, what are they but compelled to come in? But very terrible is the sentence that is added straightway. For He says:

But I say to you that none of those men who were called shall taste my supper. Behold, He calls through Himself, He calls through angels, He calls through the Fathers, He calls through pastors; often He calls through miracles, often He calls through scourges; sometimes He calls through the prosperity of this world, sometimes through adversity. Let no one scorn, lest, while he excuses himself when called, he be unable to enter when he wishes.

And great crowds went with Him, and turning He said to them: If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and sons, and brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own soul as well, he cannot be My disciple; and he who does not carry his cross, and does not come after Me, cannot be My disciple either. One would like to ask how we are commanded to hate our parents and those near to us in the flesh, we who are bidden to love even our enemies. And certainly the Truth says of a wife: What God has joined, let man not separate (Mark 10:9). And Paul says: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church (Eph. 5:25). Behold, the disciple commands that a wife be loved, while the Master says: He who does not hate his wife cannot be My disciple. Does the judge announce one thing and the herald proclaim another? Or can we both hate and love at the same time? But if we weigh the force of the precept, we are able to do both through discernment,

so that those who are joined to us by kinship of the flesh we both love in so far as we know them as neighbours, and, in so far as we suffer them as adversaries on the way of God, disown by hating and fleeing them. But that the Lord might show that this hatred towards neighbours proceeds not from want of affection but from charity, He added straightway, saying: yes, and his own soul as well. For we hate our soul well when we do not give in to its carnal desires, when we break its appetite, when we struggle against its pleasures. That, then, which being despised is led on to better, is as it were loved through hatred. Thus, surely, we ought to show towards our neighbours a discerning hatred, so that in them we both love what they are and hold in hatred that in which they stand in our way on the road of God. And how this very hatred of the soul ought to be shown, the Truth makes plain by adding, saying:

And he who does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For the cross is so called from torment. And we carry the Lord's cross in two ways: when we either afflict the flesh through abstinence, or through compassion for our neighbour count his need our own. For he who shows sorrow at another's need carries a cross in his mind. But it should be known that there are some who display abstinence of the flesh not for God but for empty glory; and there are many who bestow compassion on their neighbour not spiritually but carnally, so that, as if out of pity, they favour him not towards virtue but towards his faults. These, then, seem indeed to bear a cross, but do not follow the Lord. Hence this same Truth rightly says: He who does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For to carry the cross and to go after the Lord is to show either abstinence of the flesh or compassion to one's neighbour out of zeal for an eternal aim. For whoever shows these things with a temporal aim carries the cross indeed, but refuses to go after the Lord. And because sublime precepts have been given, a comparison of building something lofty is at once added, when it is said:

For which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and reckon the costs that are needful, whether he has enough to finish it? For in all things the end is to be looked to. Everything we do we ought to forestall by the care of consideration. For behold, according to the voice of the Truth, he who builds a tower provides the costs of the building. If therefore we desire to raise the tower of humility, we ought first to prepare ourselves for the adversities of this world. For this is the difference between an earthly and a heavenly building: the earthly building is raised by gathering expenses, but the heavenly building by scattering them. For the former we meet the costs if we gather what we do not have; for the latter we meet the costs if we leave even what we have. But what is said must be considered:

Lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying: This man began to build and was not able to finish. For, according to the word of Paul, we have been made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. And in everything we do, to consider the hidden adversaries

of ours is our duty, who are always intent on our works and always rejoice at our failing. Looking upon these the Prophet says: My God, in Thee I trust, let me not be put to shame, nor let my enemies mock me (Ps. 24:2). For when we are intent on good works, unless we keep careful watch against the malign spirits, we suffer as mockers the very ones we have as persuaders to evil. But since a comparison has been given about raising a building, now a likeness from the lesser to the greater is added, that greater things may be weighed from the least. For there follows:

Or what king, going to wage war against another king, does not first sit down and consider whether he can with ten thousand meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Otherwise, while the other is still far off, he sends an embassy and asks for the terms of peace. King against king comes to battle on equal terms, and yet, if he judges that he cannot hold out, he sends an embassy and asks for the terms of peace. With what tears, then, ought we to hope for pardon, we who in that dreadful examination do not come to judgement on equal terms with our King, we whom condition, weakness and case all show to be inferior? But perhaps we have already cut away the faults of evil work, already turned aside outwardly from everything depraved; are we then sufficient to render account of our thought? So the army comes with double strength against single, he who examines us, scarcely prepared in deed alone, on deed and thought together. And therefore, while he is still far off, let us send an embassy, let us ask for the terms of peace. For he is said to be far off because he is not yet seen present in judgement. Let us send our tears as our embassy, let us send works of mercy, let us slay on His altar victims of propitiation. This is our embassy, which appeases the coming King.

So then every one of you who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be My disciple. Most plainly the Lord teaches by this conclusion what it is to build a tower, or to make peace with a stronger king: namely, to be His disciple; and that to provide the costs for finishing the tower, and to send an embassy to obtain peace, is nothing other than to renounce all that we possess. Among all these must be understood both the love of neighbours, of which mention was made before, and our very soul, which some think is said of this temporal life; this we ought so to possess for a time that it does not hold us back from the eternal, should anyone threaten to take it away. There is indeed a difference between renouncing all things and leaving all things; for it belongs to the few and the perfect to leave all things, to set aside the cares of the world, to long for eternal desires alone. But it belongs to all the faithful to renounce all that they possess, that is, so to hold the things of the world that they are not held fast in the world by them; to have temporal goods for use, the eternal in desire; so to manage earthly things that with their whole mind they yet tend towards the heavenly.

Salt is good: but if the salt too has lost its savour, with what shall it be seasoned? He looks back to what went before, where the tower

of the virtues He had commanded to be not only begun but also completed. For it is good to hear the word of God, to season the secrets of the heart often with the salt of spiritual wisdom, nay, to become oneself the salt of the earth with the apostles, that is, to be equal to imbuing the minds of those also who still savour earthly things. But if anyone, once enlightened by the seasoning of truth, has gone back to apostasy, by what other teacher is he corrected, he who, either terrified by the adversities of the world or enticed by its allurements, has cast away the very sweetness of wisdom which he tasted? According to what a certain wise man says: Who will heal the charmer struck by a serpent? (Sir. 12:13). By this sentence it may not undeservedly be believed that the fellows of Judas Iscariot, and he himself, are signified, who, overcome by love of money, did not hesitate both to betray the rank of the apostolate and to hand over the Lord.

It is useful neither for the land nor for the dunghill, but it shall be cast out. Just as salt that has lost its savour, once it has ceased to avail for seasoning food and drying meat, will be fit for no use any more (for it is neither useful for the land, which is kept from sprouting when it is thrown upon it, nor will it profit husbandry on the dunghill, because even when mixed into living clods it is wont not to make the seeds of the crops fruitful but to extinguish them), so everyone who goes back after the knowledge of the truth is able neither to bear the fruit of good work himself nor to cultivate others, but is to be cast out, that is, is to be separated from the unity of the Church, so that, according to the parable set out before, his enemies may mock him and say that this man began to build and was not able to finish. And therefore a very useful exhortation is added, when it is said:

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. That is, he who has ears of understanding, by which he can take in the word of God, let him not scorn it but hear it, namely by obeying and doing what he has learned. For not the forgetful hearer but the doer of the work, he shall be blessed in his deed. Amen.

CHAPTER XV.

Now the publicans and sinners were drawing near to Him to hear Him, and the Pharisees and scribes were murmuring, saying that this man receives sinners and eats with them. Since not only can the just man sin through sloth, but the sinner too can come back to his senses through diligence, after it has been told that salt that has lost its savour must be cast out, there is next described the band of penitents admitted within, who, drawing near to hear the word of God, were received not only to converse but also to eat together. Seeing this, the Pharisees were indignant; for true justice has compassion, and false justice disdain, although the just too are wont rightly to be indignant with sinners. But it is one thing that is done in the swelling of pride, another that is done in zeal for discipline. But since they were sick in such a way that they did not know they were sick, the heavenly Physician, so that they might recognize what they were, treats them with gentle fomentations, sets a kindly example before them, and presses down the swelling of the wound in their heart; for He says:

What man of you who has a hundred sheep, and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after the one that was lost, until

find it? Behold, by a wonderful dispensation of mercy the Truth gave a likeness which man might recognize in himself, and which yet pertained in a special way to the very Author of men. For since the number one hundred is perfect, He Himself had a hundred sheep when He created the substance of angels and of men. But one sheep perished then, when man by sinning forsook the pastures of life. And He left the ninety-nine sheep in the desert, because He left those highest choirs of angels in heaven. But why is heaven called a desert, except that desert means forsaken? And man forsook heaven when he sinned. The ninety-nine sheep had remained in the desert while the Lord was seeking one on earth, because the number of the rational creation, namely of angels and of men, which had been founded to see God, was diminished when man perished; and, that the perfect sum of the sheep might be made whole in heaven, lost man was sought on earth.

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. He laid the sheep on His shoulders, because, taking up human nature, He Himself bore our sins.

And coming home he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them: Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost. The sheep found, He returned home, because our Shepherd, man being restored, returned to the heavenly kingdom. There He found friends and neighbours, namely those choirs of angels. They are His friends, because they keep His will continually in their steadfastness. They are His neighbours too, because by their constant presence they enjoy the brightness of the vision of Him. And it is to be noted that He does not say, Rejoice with the sheep that is found, but, with Me, because, namely, our life is His joy, and when we are brought back to heaven we fulfil the festival of His gladness.

I say to you that there will be such joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance, more than over ninety-nine just who need no penance. There will be more joy in heaven over converted sinners than over the just who stand, because very often those who know themselves to be weighed down by no burdens of sins stand indeed in the way of justice and commit nothing unlawful, but yet do not pant anxiously for the heavenly fatherland, and allow themselves the use of lawful things all the more freely as they remember having committed nothing unlawful; and often they remain sluggish in practising the chief goods, because they are quite secure in having committed no graver evils. But, on the contrary, those who remember having done something unlawful are sometimes pricked by their very grief, kindled to the love of God, and exercise themselves in great virtues. Greater joy therefore arises in heaven over a converted sinner than over a just man who stands, because a general in battle, too, loves that soldier more who has come back after flight and presses the enemy bravely than him who never turned his back and never did anything brave. But amid these things it must be known that there are many just in whose life there is such joy that no penance of sinners whatever can in any way be set above them. For many both of no evils in themselves are

aware, and yet they exert themselves in the affliction of such great ardour as if they were hemmed in by every sin; they spurn even all lawful things, they gird themselves loftily for contempt of the world, they rejoice in lamentations, they humble themselves in all things; and as some deplore the sins of their deeds, so they deplore the sins of their thoughts. Hence, then, it is to be gathered how great a joy the just man gives to God when he laments humbly, if the unjust man makes joy in heaven when through penance he condemns the evil he has done.

Or what woman having ten drachmas, if she has lost one drachma, does not light a lamp, and turn the house upside down, and seek diligently until she finds it? He who is signified by the shepherd is signified also by the woman. For He is God, and He is also the Wisdom of God. And because an image is stamped on a drachma, the woman lost the drachma when man, who had been made to the image of God, by sinning departed from the likeness of his Maker. But the woman lights a lamp, because the Wisdom of God appeared in humanity. For a lamp is light in an earthen vessel; and light in an earthen vessel is divinity in flesh. And when the lamp is lit she turns the house upside down, because as soon as His divinity shone forth through the flesh, our whole conscience was shaken. For the house is turned upside down when the human conscience is disturbed by the consideration of its guilt; and when the house is turned upside down the drachma is found, because while the conscience of man is disturbed, the likeness of the Maker is restored in man.

And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying: Rejoice with me, because I have found the drachma which I had lost. Who are the friends or neighbours but those heavenly powers already spoken of above? They are as near to the supernal Wisdom as they approach it through the grace of continual vision. But it is to be considered why this woman is said to have had ten drachmas. The Lord created the nature of angels and of men to know Him; and since He willed it to endure for eternity, He without doubt created it to His likeness. And the woman had ten drachmas, because there are nine orders of angels, but, that the number of the elect might be completed, man was created the tenth, and even after his fault he did not perish from his Maker, because the eternal Wisdom, shining with miracles through the flesh, restored him by the light of the earthen vessel.

So, I say to you, there will be joy before the angels of God over one sinner doing penance. To do penance is both to lament the evils committed and not to commit what must be lamented. For he who deplores some things in such a way that he still commits others either does not yet know how to do penance or is feigning it. For what does it profit if someone weeps over the sins of lust and yet still pants with the heats of avarice? Or what does it profit if he already mourns the faults of anger and yet still wastes away in the fires of envy? But what we say is far too little, that he who deplores sins should by no means commit what must be deplored. For it must above all be considered that he who remembers having committed unlawful things should strive to abstain even from some lawful ones, so that by this he may make satisfaction to his Maker, that he who

committed forbidden things should cut off from himself even what has been committed.

And He said: A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father: Give me the portion of the substance that falls to me. And he divided the substance between them. As the scribes and Pharisees murmured about the receiving of sinners, the Saviour set out three parables in order: in the first two, which have been discussed, He intimates how greatly He Himself with the angels rejoices over the salvation of penitents. But the third, which follows, not only shows His own joy and that of His own, but also rebukes the murmur of the envious. The man, then, who is said to have had two sons is understood as God the Father, namely the begetter of two peoples, and as it were the author and creator of the two stocks of the human race. For the elder son signifies those who remained in the worship of the one God; the younger, those who forsook God even to the point of worshipping idols. The portion of the substance that falls to the younger son is the rational sense itself in man. For to live, to understand, to remember, to excel in quick wit, is the substance of a divine gift. This the younger son seeks from his father when man, delighting in his own power, sought to rule himself by free choice and to throw off the dominion of his Maker. And he divided the substance between them, namely by imparting to the faithful the protection of His grace, which they desired, but granting to the unbelievers only the benefit of natural wit, with which they were content.

And not many days after, having gathered all together, the younger son set out abroad into a far country, and there wasted his substance by living luxuriously. He set out far, not by changing place but by changing mind. For the more anyone offends in depraved work, the farther he withdraws from the grace of God. That He said it came about not many days after that, having gathered all together, he set out abroad into a far country, is because not long after the founding of the human race it pleased the soul, through free choice, to carry off with it a kind of power, as it were, of its own nature, and to forsake Him by whom it was made, trusting in its own strength. And it consumes that strength the faster, the more it forsakes Him by whom it was given. Therefore He calls this a prodigal life, loving to pour itself out and to parade in outward pomps, growing empty within, when each one follows the things that proceed from it and leaves Him who is more inward to him than himself.

And after he had wasted all, there came a mighty famine in that country. All that he wasted signifies the adornments of nature which he consumed. The famine in the far country is want of the word of truth, in forgetfulness of the Creator. Of it is said in the prophets: For the Lord will send a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of God (Amos 8:11).

And he himself began to be in want, and he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country. Rightly did he begin to be in want who forsook the treasures of the wisdom of God and the depth of the heavenly riches. Now one of the citizens of that country, to whom

he joined himself in his need is surely the one who, set over earthly lusts as the desert of his perversity, is called by the Lord the prince of this world. Of him too the Apostle says: The god of this world, he says, has blinded the minds of unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:4).

And he sent him into his farm to feed swine. To be sent into the farm is to be brought under the yoke by desire for worldly substance. Of this, in another parable, a certain man who disdained the spiritual feast to which he was invited said: I have bought a farm, and I must go out and see it (Luke 14:18). And to feed swine is to do the things in which the unclean spirits rejoice.

And he longed to fill his belly with the husks which the swine were eating. The husks with which he fed the swine are the worldly doctrines, resounding with a barren sweetness, out of which they loudly proclaim, in varied speech and in songs, the praises of idols and of the fables about the gods of the Gentiles, in which the demons delight. Hence when this man longed to be filled, he wished to find in such things something solid and right that would pertain to the blessed life, and he could not. For this is what He says:

And no one gave to him. But coming back to himself. Now, that is, bringing his attention back from the things that vainly entice and lead astray from without into the inner places of his conscience.

He said: How many hired servants of my father have bread in abundance, but I perish here with hunger. Whence could he know this, he in whom there was so great a forgetfulness of God, as there was in all idolaters, unless because this reflection is already that of one coming to his senses, when the Gospel was being preached? The hired servants of the Father, then, have bread in abundance, because those who, with an eye to the future reward, take pains to do worthy things are refreshed with the daily nourishment of heavenly grace. But those perish with hunger who, placed outside the Father's house, long to fill their belly with husks: that is, those who, living without the true end, seek the blessed life in the pursuits of empty philosophy. For just as bread, which strengthens the heart of man, is likened to the word of God, by which He refreshes the mind, so the husk, which is itself empty within and soft without, and does not refresh the body but fills it, so as to be more a burden than a use, is not undeservedly compared to worldly wisdom, whose speech rings with the applause of eloquence but is empty of the power to profit.

I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. How merciful and kind he knew his father to be, who even when offended does not disdain to hear the name of father from his son! I will arise, then, he says, because I have come to know that I am lying down. And I will go, because I have gone far away. To my father, because under the prince of the swine I waste away in wretched want. And, I have sinned against heaven, signifies: before the angelic spirits and the holy souls, in whom is the seat of God. But, before you, means in the very chamber of the inner conscience, into which the eyes of God alone were able to penetrate.

And now I am not worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants. To the affection of a son, who does not doubt that all that is his father's is his own, he by no means presumes to aspire, but he desires the state of a hired servant, ready now to serve for wages.

But he testifies that he can merit not even this except by the father's condescension. Where, then, are the Pelagianists, since they trust that they can be saved by their own virtue, against the most open sentence of the Truth, which says: Without Me you can do nothing?

And arising he came to his father. To come to the father is to be established in the Church through faith, where there can now be a lawful and fruitful confession of sins.

But when he was yet far off. That is, before he understood God, but yet when he was already seeking Him dutifully.

His father saw him. For He is fittingly said not to see the impious and proud, as though He did not have them before His eyes. For only those who are loved are wont to be said to be held before the eyes.

And he was moved with compassion, and running to him he fell upon his neck. For the Father did not forsake the only-begotten Son, in whom He ran, and came down, even as far as our distant exile. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor. 5:19). And the Lord Himself says: The Father, abiding in Me, Himself does His works (John 14:10). And what is it to fall upon his neck but to bend down and lower His arm into his embrace? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed (John 12:38)? which is surely our Lord Jesus Christ.

And he kissed him. To be consoled by the word of the grace of God unto the hope of the pardon of sins: that is, for one remaining after long journeys, to merit from the father the kiss of charity.

And the son said to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. Now I am not worthy to be called your son. Established in the Church, he now begins to confess his sins; nor does he say all that he had promised he would say, but only as far as: I am not worthy to be called your son. For he wishes to become by grace what he confesses he is unworthy of by his merits. He did not add what he had said in that meditation: Make me as one of your hired servants. For when he had no bread, he longed to be at least a hired servant; but after his father's kiss he now most nobly disdains it. For he understands that between a son, a hired servant and a slave there is no small distance. The slave, that is, is he who still holds back from vices for fear of Gehenna, or of the laws' presence; the hired servant, he who does so in hope and desire of the kingdom of heaven; the son, he who does so from affection for the good itself and love of the virtues. In the consummation of these three virtues the blessed Apostle sums up the whole of salvation, saying: Now there abide faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greater of these is charity (1 Cor. 13:13). For faith is that which, by fear of the coming judgement and its punishments, makes one shun the contagion of vices. Hope is that which, calling our mind away from present things, despises all the pleasures of the body in expectation of the heavenly rewards. Charity is that which, kindling us with ardour of mind towards the death of Christ and the fruit of the spiritual virtues, makes us detest with entire hatred whatever is contrary to them. Hence this prodigal, after he had come back to himself and dreaded the torments of dire famine, having become as it were a slave already, desires also the state of a hired servant, thinking now of wages. But

the father, running to meet him, not content to grant the lesser things, passed over both steps without delay and restored him to the former dignity of sons, and made him think no longer of a hireling's wage but of a parent's inheritance.

But the father said to his servants: Quickly bring out the first robe, and put it on him. The first robe is the garment of innocence, which man received when he was well made, but lost when he was ill persuaded, when after the fault of transgression he knew that he was naked and, the glory of immortality being lost, took a garment of skin, that is, a mortal one. The servants who bring it out are the preachers of reconciliation. For they bring out the first robe when they declare that mortal and earthly men are to be raised on high, so that they shall be not only fellow-citizens of the angels, but also heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ.

And put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. The ring is either the seal of sincere faith, by which all the promises are sealed with a sure impress in the hearts of believers, or the pledge of those nuptials by which the Church is betrothed. And rightly is the ring given on the hand, that faith may shine out through works, and works be made firm through faith. The shoes on the feet betoken the office of preaching the Gospel, so that the mind's course, tending to heavenly things, may be kept inviolate and clean from contact with earthly things, and, fortified by the examples of those before, may walk securely over serpents and scorpions. Hands therefore and feet, that is, work and course, are adorned: work, that we may live rightly; course, that we may hasten to eternal joys. For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek one to come (Heb. 13:14).

And bring the fatted calf and kill it. The fatted calf is likewise the Lord Himself, but according to the flesh. And rightly fatted, because His flesh is so rich in spiritual power that for the salvation of the whole world it suffices to send up to God an odour of sweetness, namely the savour of sacrifice, and to make entreaty for all. To bring the calf and kill it is to preach Christ and to make His death known. For He is slain for each of us as if newly when each believes Him slain. His flesh is eaten when the sacrament of His passion is both received with the mouth for cleansing and pondered in the heart for imitation. And let us eat and feast, because this my son was dead and has come to life again, was lost and is found. Not only the son who came to life again and was found, but the father and his servants feast, refreshed with the flesh of the most holy calf that had been killed for the son's sake, because the father's food is our salvation, and the father's joy is the remission of our sins. Nor [is it the joy] of the Father only, but of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. For as there is one will and operation in the Godhead, so too there is one delight of the holy and undivided Trinity. Hence blessed Abraham, receiving three angels as guests, is read to have killed a calf most tender and very good and to have offered it to them to feast on with milk, bread and butter. For whoever desires to refresh the blessed Trinity with the offices of right devotion, that is, to be gladdened, must also celebrate with the sincerity of a devout confession the death in the flesh of the only-begotten Son of God, Who is one Person in that same Trinity. And it is to be noted that before

the first robe is supplied, before [it] the ring, before [it] the shoes, and only then is the calf sacrificed; for unless each one has put on the hope of the first immortality, unless he has fortified his works with the ring of faith, unless he has proclaimed that faith by devoutly confessing it, he cannot take part in the heavenly Sacraments.

And they began to feast. This feast and festivity is now celebrated, the Church being spread and diffused throughout the world. For that calf, in the Lord's body and blood, is both offered to the Father and feeds the whole house.

Now his elder son was in the field. The elder son is the people of Israel, who, though he did not go away into a far country, is yet said to have stayed not at home but in the field, because that same people neither deserted the Creator so far as to worship idols, nor penetrated to the inward things of the law it had received, but, content with keeping the letter alone, was wont rather both to work for and to hope for outward and earthly things, hearing through the prophet: If you are willing and hear Me, you shall eat the good things of the land (Isa. 1:19).

And when he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. The son draws near to the house when that people, in the reflections of some Israelites or other (for many such have been found among them, and are often found), rejecting the toil of servile work, considers from those same Scriptures the liberty of the Church. He hears music and dancing, that is, men full of the Spirit preaching the Gospel with harmonious voices, to whom it was said: I beseech you, brethren, that you all speak the same thing (1 Cor. 1:10), and that of those who live together in concord there be one soul and one heart in the praises of God.

And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things were. And he said to him. He calls one of the servants when he takes up one of the prophets to read, and, searching in him, asks in a manner why these things are celebrated in the Church, in which he does not see himself to be. Let the father's servant, the prophet, answer him:

Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe. For your brother was in the ends of the earth, but thence comes the greater exultation of those who sing to the Lord a new song, because His praise is from the ends of the earth (Ps. 47). And for the sake of him who was absent, He was slain to Whom it was said: And may your burnt offering be made fat (Ps. 19:4).

But he was angry, and would not go in. His father therefore came out and began to entreat him. He is angry even now, and still will not go in. When therefore the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, his father will come out at the fitting time, that all Israel too may be saved, in part of which blindness has come about, as it were an absence in the field, until the fullness of the younger son, set far off in the idolatry of the Gentiles, should return and go in to eat the calf. For there will be at some time an open calling of the Jews into the salvation of the Gospel. This manifestation of the calling he calls the father's going out to entreat the elder son.

But he answered and said to his father: Behold, so many years I serve you, and I have never transgressed your command. It is asked

how that people can be said never to have transgressed God's command. But this readily suggests itself: that it was said not of every command, but of the one most necessary, by which it was commanded to worship no other god. Nor is this son to be understood as bearing the person of all Israelites, but of those who never turned from the one God to images. For although this son, set as it were in the field, desired earthly things, yet he desired these goods from the one God. This is confirmed by the father's own testimony, when he says: You are always with me. For he does not rebuke him as a liar, but, approving his perseverance with him, invites him to the full enjoyment of a better and more delightful exultation.

And you never gave me a kid, that I might feast with my friends. A sinner is indeed commonly signified by the name of a kid, but far be it from me to understand the Antichrist. For it is quite absurd that he to whom it is said, You are always with me, should have desired this from his father, that he might believe in the Antichrist. Nor is it at all right to understand this son among those of the Jews who are going to believe in the Antichrist. And how would he feast on that kid, if it is the Antichrist, he who would not believe in him? Or if to feast on the kid's slaying is to rejoice at the Antichrist's destruction, how does the son, whom the father receives, say that this was not granted to him, when all the sons of God will rejoice at the condemnation of that adversary? Doubtless, then, he complains that the Lord Himself was denied him for feasting, since he thinks Him a sinner. For when He is a kid to him [in his judgement], that is, when he reckons Him a violator of the Sabbath and a profaner of the law, he did not deserve to be gladdened by His banquet. So that what he says, You never gave me a kid, that I might feast with my friends, is as if he said: Him Who seemed to me a kid you never gave me to feast on, by that very thing not granting Him to me, that He seemed to me a kid. And what he says, With my friends, is understood either in the person of the chief men, with the common people, or in the person of the people of Jerusalem, with the other peoples of Judah.

But after this son of yours, who devoured his substance

BOOK V.

READ AND PROSPER.

PREFACE.

After the Saviour had rebuked, by three successive parables, which have been discussed above, those who murmured at the receiving of sinners, or rather of penitents, and who seemed to themselves just, teaching that the salvation of those who repent is most pleasing to God and the angels, but most grievous to envious men, He soon adds a fourth and a fifth on giving alms and following thrift, and with a devout and just discernment makes plain that those who have scattered and given earthly goods

with harlots, has come, you have killed for him the fatted calf. The harlots are the superstitions of the Gentiles; to squander one's substance with them is to forsake the one marriage with the Word of God and to commit fornication with a crowd of demons in most shameful lust.

But he said to him: Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours; but it was right to feast and rejoice, because this your brother was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and is found. When he says, And all that is mine is yours, it must not be thought said as though they were not also the brother's, so that, as in an earthly inheritance, you suffer straitness. How can all things be the elder's, if the younger too has his share there? For all things are so possessed by the perfect, the wholly purified and now immortal sons, that each thing is everyone's and all things are each one's. For as greed holds nothing without straitness, so charity holds nothing with straitness. When therefore we have attained that blessedness, the things above will be ours for living by, the things equal ours for living with, the things below ours for ruling. But if anyone is troubled how the Truth, praying to the Father, says: And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, to which what is said to this son seems to sound very like: And all that is mine is yours, let him know that all things that are the Father's belong to the only-begotten Son, in that He too is God, and, born of the Father, is equal to the Father. For that too which He says speaking of the Holy Spirit: All things whatsoever the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He shall receive of Mine and shall declare it to you, He said of those things which belong to the very Godhead of the Father, in which He is equal to Him by having all things that the Father has. For the Holy Spirit was not going to receive what He speaks of, He shall receive of Mine, from the creature which is subject to the Father and the Son, but surely from the Father, from Whom the Spirit proceeds, from Whom the Son is born. Whether therefore you wish to refer these two sons to the two peoples, or, as some think, to any two men, namely the penitent and the just, or one who seems to himself just, let the elder brother rejoice with him, because the younger brother was dead and has come to life again, was lost and is found.

to the poor are to be received by them into the eternal dwellings; but that those who desire only to live in luxury among these goods are to be buried in hell, and will not obtain even a very small drop of water that might cool the everlasting fires of the torments even for a moment. For this is indeed the most fitting order of preaching, that after penance almsgiving, that is, the work of mercy, be urged. For that penitent justly obtains from God that He have mercy on him who himself does not delay to have mercy, as far as he can, on his needy neighbour.

But he who turns away his ear so as not to hear the poor man, his prayer shall be accursed. Hence John the Baptist too, when he urged the crowds that, lest they be cast into the fire for the desert of their barrenness, they must bring forth fruits worthy of penance, presently added for those who sought counsel for their salvation, and said: He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none, and he who has food, let him do likewise (Luke 3:11). And these same Pharisees and scribes, sick with the plague no less of avarice than of pride, refused to give money to the needy as they refused pardon to penitents. But He Who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4), speaking now to them, now, in their hearing, to His disciples, does not cease kindly to bestow the gifts of His wonted goodness. But let us come to the text.

CHAPTER XVI.

And He said also to His disciples: There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and he was accused to him of having wasted his goods. And he called him and said to him: What is this I hear of you? Render an account of your stewardship, for now you can be steward no longer. And the steward said within himself: What shall I do, since my lord is taking the stewardship from me? To dig I am not able; to beg I am ashamed. I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the stewardship they may receive me into their houses. In this steward, whom the Lord was casting out of his stewardship and yet praised because he had provided for himself for the future, we must not take everything for imitation. For neither must fraud be done to our Lord in anything, so that we give alms out of the fraud itself, nor is it right to understand those by whom we wish to be received into the eternal dwellings as debtors of God and our Lord, since in this place the just and holy are signified, who are to bring into the eternal dwellings those who have shared earthly goods with their needs. Of whom He also says that if anyone gives to one of them a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, he shall not lose his reward (Matt. 10:42). But these similitudes are also spoken by contrast, that we may understand that if he could be praised by the lord whom he was defrauding, how much more do they please the Lord God who do those works according to His precept. So too of the unjust judge, who was importuned by the widow, He drew a comparison to God the judge, with Whom the unjust judge is in no respect to be compared. By the word steward we mean that those who have money are to be thought no longer masters of their own goods, but rather dispensers of another's. If, after this servant's example, they carefully foresee the time when their stewardship is to end and their account to be rendered, then, readily stripped of both delight in and love of all earthly things, they will take care to provide for themselves rather by acquiring friends for the future than by gathering riches in the present. And turning many things over anxiously within himself, What shall I do? he says: To dig I am not able; to beg I am ashamed. For once the stewardship is taken away we are not able to dig, because, when this life is ended, in which alone it is permitted to work, by no means [can we] any longer, with the mattock of devout compunction,

is it permitted to seek the fruit of a good way of life. To beg is a matter of shame: that is, with that worst kind of begging with which those foolish virgins are related to have begged, who, when the time of the wedding came upon them and the oil of virtues was failing, said to the wise: Give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out (Matt. 25:8). And of which Solomon says: Because of the cold the sluggard would not plough; he shall beg therefore in summer, and it shall not be given him (Prov. 20:4).

So, calling together each of his lord's debtors, he said to the first: How much do you owe my lord? And he said: A hundred casks of oil. And he said to him: Take your bond, and sit down quickly and write fifty. Then he said to another: And how much do you owe? He said: A hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him: Take your writing, and write eighty. A cadus is a Greek amphora containing three urns. A corus holds thirty modii. That he had the debtor write fifty for a hundred casks of oil, and eighty for a hundred measures of wheat, I judge means nothing else than this: that in those things which every Jew likewise does for the priests and Levites, in Christ's Church his justice should abound beyond that of the scribes and Pharisees, so that where they gave tenths, these should give halves, as Zacchaeus did, not from his fruits but from his very goods. Or at least let him double the tenths, so that by giving two tenths he may surpass the outlays of the Jews. Unless perhaps someone thinks it should be taken simply: that everyone who relieves the need of any poor man among the saints, either by a half or at least by a fifth part (as much as twenty or fifty are to a hundred), is to be granted the sure reward of his mercy.

And the lord praised the steward of iniquity, because he had acted prudently. For the children of this world are more prudent than the children of light in their generation. Let the wise of this world hear, so that they may be able to forsake foolish wisdom and learn the wise foolishness of God, at how much the divine equity has valued their wisdom, whom it records as prudent not truly but in their own generation. According to what is said elsewhere: Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight (Isa. 5:21). And likewise, by calling the lovers of eternal life children of light, He convicts those who are wise to do evil but have not known how to do good of being nothing other than children of darkness. They are called children of light and children of this world, as [men are called] children of the kingdom and children of perdition. For whose works each one does, his son he is also named.

And I say to you: Make for yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you fail they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. He calls this money which we possess for a time the mammon of iniquity for this reason, that mammon is interpreted as riches. And these are riches only to the unjust, who place in them the hope and abundance of their happiness. But when these things are possessed by the just, this money is indeed something, but to them there are no riches save heavenly and spiritual ones. Supplying their need with these spiritually, with want shut out from them in their misery, they will be enriched with the abundance of blessedness. If

then those who give alms from the unjust mammon make themselves friends by whom they may be received into the eternal dwellings, how much more ought those who bestow spiritual feasts, who give their fellow servants their food in due season, to be lifted up by a most certain hope of the highest reward?

He who is faithful in the least is faithful also in the greater; and he who is unjust in a little is unjust also in the greater. There are those who, ignorant of the bowels of compassion and the works of mercy that are owed to neighbours, yet think themselves truly faithful by the merit of chastity, vigils, long prayer, full faith, fasts and the other virtues which the love of God is wont to beget; but, as the Judge Himself attests, he who is faithful in the least, that is, in sharing money with the poor man, is faithful also in the greater, namely in that act by which he desires in a special way to cleave to the Creator and to be made one spirit with Him. But he who neglects to dispense rightly the temporal things he possesses empties for himself the glory of eternal things in which he swells. For he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God Whom he does not see (1 John 4:20)? And as the same says: He who has the substance of the world and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his bowels from him, how does the charity of God abide in him (1 John 3:17)?

If then you have not been faithful in the unjust mammon, who will entrust to you what is yours? Of the unjust mammon, that it signifies the riches of the wicked, it has been explained above. Making mention of these, the Saviour says elsewhere that the deceitfulness of riches chokes the word (Matt. 13:22). But by true riches He signifies either the very joys of eternal life, of which it is written: What are the riches of His inheritance in the saints (Eph. 1:18), or the abundance of spiritual virtues by which one comes to life. Of which Isaiah says: The riches of salvation are wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is his treasure (Isa. 33:6).

And if you have not been faithful in what is another's, who will give you what is yours? The resources of this world are another's to us, that is, set outside our nature. For we brought nothing into this world, and there is no doubt that we can carry nothing out. But our possession is the kingdom of heaven; our life is Christ; our wealth is the fruit of spiritual works. Of which Solomon says: The ransom of a man's soul is his own riches (Prov. 13:8). He therefore convicts the Pharisees of fraud and avarice, who, since they were not faithful in their resources, preferring to hold privately the goods the Creator made common, did not deserve to receive Christ either, Whom that publican Zacchaeus, of whom I made mention a little before, offered half of his goods in order to be able to gain.

No servant can serve two masters. Because he cannot love at once things transitory and things eternal. For if we love eternity, we possess all temporal things for use, not for affection.

For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other. These words are to be carefully considered. For who the two masters are He goes on to set out, saying:

You cannot serve God and mammon. Let the avaricious man hear this, let him hear who is reckoned by the name of Christian, that mammon, that is riches, and Christ cannot be served at once. And yet He did not say: He who has riches, but he who serves riches. For he who is the slave of riches guards riches as a slave; but he who has shaken off the yoke of slavery distributes them as a master. But he who serves mammon serves him who, set over these earthly things by the desert of his perversity, is called by the Lord the prince of this world. Therefore either he will hate the one and love the other, as ought to be done: he will hate, that is, the devil, and love God. Or he will hold to the one and despise the other: he will hold, that is, to the devil, when he pursues his temporal rewards, as it were; and he will despise God. He did not say Will hate, but [despise], as those are wont to set His threats behind their desires who flatter themselves into impunity on account of His goodness. To whom it is said through Solomon: Son, do not add sin upon sin, and say, The mercy of God is great (Sir. 5:5).

Now the Pharisees, who were avaricious, heard all these things, and they derided Him. The Lord was indeed admonishing the scribes and Pharisees [to learn] not to be proudly wise, not to presume on their own justice, but also to receive sinners and publicans when they repented, and to redeem with alms such sins of their own as might befall; but they derided the teacher of mercy, humility and thrift for two reasons especially: because, as they thought, He was either harmfully commanding things of little use and never to be done, or at any rate superfluously pressing things useful indeed but already done by them.

And He said to them: You are those who justify yourselves before men; but God [knows] your hearts, for what is lofty to men is an abomination before God. They justify themselves before men who despise sinners as weak and past hope, but believe that they themselves, as perfect in all things and free of all frailty, have no need of the remedy of alms. But how justly this height of harmful swelling is to be condemned He sees Who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of hearts.

The law and the prophets were until John; from that time the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone uses force towards it. The Pharisees derided the Saviour as He argued against love of money, as though He were commanding things contrary to the law and the prophets, where many are read to have been very rich and yet to have pleased God; and Moses himself, too, foretold that the people he ruled would abound in all the goods the earth brings forth if it followed the law, but if it neglected it, would be struck with pestilence, famine, want and every ill. Meeting them, He shows that between the law and the Gospel there must be no small distance in precepts, as in promises, and that greater things are commanded for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, lesser for the sake of the kingdom of the earth, by the same one God Who made heaven and earth. For there it was said: If you are willing and hear Me, you shall eat the good things of the land (Isa. 1:19). But here: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

(Matt. 5:3). And therefore, when He said that the kingdom of God is preached, He rightly added: And everyone uses force towards it. For it is a great force and a mighty violence that we, born of earth, should seek the seat of heaven, should wish to possess by virtue what we could not hold by nature, and should despise not only earthly things but also the tongues of those who deride us for despising such things. For He added this when, having spoken of despising riches, He had been derided by the Pharisees.

But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fall. Lest they should think that by His saying, The law and the prophets were until John, the destruction of the law or the prophets was being proclaimed by Him, He openly declares that the greatest elements of the world pass away more easily than the least sayings of the law. And truly: for the fashion of this world passes away (1 Cor. 7:31). And elsewhere: But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to His promises, in which justice dwells (2 Pet. 3:13). But far from it that even the tip of a single letter, that is, even the least things and those that seem light or superstitious, should be empty of spiritual sacraments; rather, all things are summed up in the Gospel. And yet the law and the prophets were until John, because what was plainly shown by John's proclamation to have already come could no longer be prophesied as to come.

Everyone who puts away his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries her who is put away from her husband commits adultery. What He had foretold of the law, that it was never to be violated, He confirms by one testimony taken from it by way of example, so that from this one they might learn that in the rest too He had come not to undo but to fulfil the decrees of the law. If anyone desires to see the exposition of this testimony more fully, let him search not our writings but the monuments of our elders. For the most blessed fathers, Augustine in the first book on the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, Jerome and Ambrose in their commentaries on the evangelists Matthew and Luke, and very many others too, each in his own works, have said enough and more than enough about it.

There was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day. That purple is the colour of royal dress, dyed from sea shellfish, there is hardly anyone who doubts. For shellfish, cut round with iron, give out tears of purple colour, with which wool is dyed. Byssus is a kind of flax, exceedingly white and very soft, which the Greeks call papatin. The Lord had urged above that we make friends of the mammon of iniquity, who, when we fail from this life, may receive us into the eternal dwellings; and the Pharisees, hearing this, derided Him. But He, establishing by examples what He had set forth, shows that the rich man clad in purple was tormented beyond remedy in hell for this reason, that he had neglected to make a friend of the poor man Lazarus, by whom he could have been received into the dwellings of life. Some think the precepts of the Old Testament stricter than those of the New, but these are doubtless deceived by an improvident consideration. For in that [Testament] it is not tenacity but robbery that is punished; there a thing unjustly taken is punished by fourfold restitution; but here the rich man

is blamed not for having taken away what was another's, but for not having given what was his own; nor is it said that he oppressed anyone, but that he exalted himself in the things he had received. Hence, then, hence above all it is to be gathered with what punishment he is to be chastised who plunders what is another's, if he who does not bestow what is his own is struck with the damnation of hell. And there are some who do not think the wearing of fine and costly garments a sin; but if it were no fault, the word of God would by no means express so watchfully that the rich man who is tormented in hell had been clothed in fine linen and purple. For no one seeks outstanding garments except for vainglory, namely that he may seem more honourable than others. This fault we can gather even better from the contrary, since if the casting off of fine clothing for mean were not a virtue, the evangelist would not have said so watchfully of John: He was clothed in camels' hair (Matt. 3:4). But we must greatly note, in the mouth of the Truth, how great is the order of the narrative concerning the proud rich man and the humble poor man. For see, it is said: There was a certain rich man. And at once it is added:

And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus. Surely among the people the names of the rich are usually better known than those of the poor. Why is it, then, that the Lord, speaking of a poor man and a rich man, tells the poor man's name and does not tell the rich man's, except that God knows and approves the humble and does not know the proud? Hence also to some who pride themselves on the power of miracles He will say at the end: I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity (Luke 13:27). But on the other hand it is said to Moses: I know you by your name (Exod. 33:12). So of the rich man He says: A certain man. Of the poor man He says: A needy man named Lazarus. As if He said openly: The humble poor man I know; the proud rich man I do not know. The one I hold as known by approval; the other I do not know, by the judgement of reprobation.

Who lay at his gate full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table; and the dogs too came and licked his sores. Lazarus the beggar, full of sores, lies before the rich man's gates. By this one thing the Lord accomplished two judgements. For the rich man would perhaps have had some excuse if Lazarus, poor and full of sores, had not lain before his gate, if he had been far off, if his want had not pressed upon his eyes. Again, if the rich man had been far from the eyes of the poor man full of sores, the poor man would have endured a lesser temptation in his mind. But by placing the needy and ulcerous man before the gate of the rich man abounding in delights, in one and the same thing He both brought a heap of damnation on the rich man, who did not pity what he saw of the poor man, and again, through what he saw of the rich man, proved the poor man, tempted daily. For him poverty could surely have sufficed for punishment, even had he been healthy. Again, sickness would have sufficed, even had help been at hand. But that the poor man might be proved the more, both poverty and sickness wasted him together, and moreover he saw the rich man go forth, propped up by attending throngs, while he himself in sickness and want was visited by no one. For that no one was there to visit him the dogs bear witness,

who freely licked his sores. From one and the same thing, then, almighty God displayed two judgements, when He allowed the poor man Lazarus to lie before the rich man's gate, so that the impious rich man might increase for himself the vengeance of his damnation, and the poor man, being tried, might grow towards his reward.

And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died, and was buried in hell (Luke 16:22). Abraham's bosom is the rest of the blessed poor, whose is the kingdom of heaven, into which they are received after this life. The burial of hell is the depth of punishments, which swallows up the proud and the unmerciful after this life.

And lifting up his eyes when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom, and he cried out and said: Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame (Luke 16:23–24). O how great is the exactness of God's judgements, O how strictly is the recompense of good and evil deeds carried out! It was indeed said above that in this life Lazarus sought the crumbs falling from the rich man's table, and no one gave to him (Luke 16:21); now it is said of the rich man's punishment that he longs for water to be dripped into his mouth from the tip of Lazarus's finger. He, then, who would not give even the least things of his table, once placed in hell, comes even to seeking the least things. But it must be carefully noted what it means that the rich man, placed in the fire, asks for his tongue to be cooled. For it is the custom of sacred speech sometimes to say one thing, yet by that same saying to hint at another. Now above, the Lord had said that this proud rich man was not given to talkativeness, but feasted to excess. Nor did He tell that he sinned by talkativeness, but by gluttony, with pride and with avarice. But because talkativeness is wont to abound at feasts, he who is said to have feasted wickedly here is declared to burn more grievously in the tongue among those below. But what follows must be weighed with very grave dread.

And Abraham said to him: Son, remember that you received good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise evil things. But now he is comforted here, and you are tormented (Luke 16:25). For see, when it is said: You received good things in your life, it is shown that this rich man too had something good, for which he received good things in this life. And again, when it is said of Lazarus that he received evil things, it is surely shown that Lazarus too had some evil that was to be purged. But the fire of want purged the evils of Lazarus, and the happiness of a passing life rewarded the good things of the rich man.

And besides all this, between you and us a great gulf is fixed, so that those who wish to pass from here to you cannot, nor cross over from there to here (Luke 16:26). In this matter it must be carefully asked how it is said: Those who wish to pass over to you cannot. For that those who are in hell desire to pass over to the lot of the blessed is not in doubt. But those who have already been received into the lot of blessedness, in what way is it said that they wish to pass over to those who are tormented in hell? But just as the reprobate desire to pass over to the elect, that is, to depart from the affliction of their punishments, so it belongs to the just to pass over to the afflicted and to those placed in torments, to go to them in mind through mercy,

and to wish to free them. But those who wish to pass over from the seat of the blessed to the afflicted and to those placed in torments cannot, because the souls of the just, although in the goodness of their nature they have mercy, being then already joined to the justice of their Maker, are held fast by such uprightness that they are moved by no compassion towards the reprobate. But after hope for himself is taken from the burning rich man, his mind runs back to the kinsmen he had left, because their punishment sometimes, uselessly, teaches the minds of the reprobate to charity, so that then they even love their own spiritually, who here, while they loved their sins, did not love even themselves. Hence it now follows:

And he said: I beg you therefore, father, to send him to my father's house; for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torments (Luke 16:27–28). In this matter it must be noted how many things are heaped up for the punishment of the burning rich man. For to his punishment both knowledge and memory are kept for him. For he recognizes Lazarus, whom he despised, and he also remembers his brothers, whom he left. For his vengeance concerning the poor man would not be complete if he did not recognize him in the recompense. And his punishment in the fire would not be complete if he did not fear for his own also what he himself suffers. So, that sinners may be punished the more in their torment, they both see the glory of those whom they despised and are tortured also by the punishment of those whom they loved uselessly. It must be believed, moreover, that before the recompense of the last judgement the unjust behold certain of the just at rest, so that, seeing them in joy, they may be tormented not only by their own punishment but also by those others' good. But the just always look upon the unjust in torments, so that from this their joy may grow, because they behold the evil which they have mercifully escaped, and they may give thanks to their Deliverer the greater, the more clearly they see in others what they themselves could have suffered had they been left uncared for. For those who see the brightness of their Creator, nothing is done in creation that they cannot see.

And Abraham said to him: They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them (Luke 16:29). But he who had despised the words of God supposed that his followers could not hear them. Hence the rich man also answered:

No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will do penance (Luke 16:30). To which at once it is said with a true judgement:

If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if someone rises from the dead (Luke 16:31). For indeed those who despise the words of the law will fulfil the commands of the Redeemer, who rose from the dead, with the more difficulty the subtler these are. And indeed it is evident that they refuse beyond doubt to believe him whose words they decline to fulfil. But according to allegory, whom does this rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted splendidly every day (Luke 16:19), signify, if not the Jewish people, which had the outward cultivation of life, which used the delights of the law it had received for show, not for profit? And whom does Lazarus, full of sores, figuratively express, if not the Gentile people? which, while, turned to God, it did not blush to confess its sins, to it the wound in the skin

became. For in a wound of the skin the poison is drawn from the inner parts and breaks out. What, then, is the confession of sins but a kind of bursting of wounds? For in confession the poison of sin, which lay hidden in the mind to its ruin, is laid open to its healing. But the wounded Lazarus longed to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and no one gave to him (Luke 16:21), because that proud people disdained to admit any Gentile to the knowledge of the law; which, since it held the teaching of the law not for charity but for pride, swelled up as though over riches received; and because words flowed down from it out of its knowledge, it was as though crumbs fell from the table. But on the other hand the dogs licked the sores of the poor man as he lay. Sometimes in sacred speech preachers are wont to be understood by dogs. For the tongue of dogs heals a wound while it licks it, because holy teachers too, when they instruct us in the confession of our sin, touch as it were the wound of the mind with the tongue. And because by speaking they snatch us from sins, as it were by touching our wounds they bring us back to health. Hence Lazarus is also well interpreted "helped", because those help him towards rescue who heal his wounds by the correction of the tongue. And it came to pass that both died: the rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, was buried in hell, but Lazarus was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. What does Abraham's bosom signify but the hidden rest of the Father? Of which the Truth said: Many (He says) will come from the East and the West, and will recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of this kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness (Matt. 8:11–12). For he who is said to be clothed in purple is rightly called a son of the kingdom. He lifts his eyes from afar to see Lazarus, because while the unbelievers are in the depths through the punishments of their damnation, they behold above them at rest, before the day of the last judgement, all the faithful, whose joys they can by no means contemplate afterwards. And what they behold is far off, because they do not reach there by merit. And he is shown to burn more in the tongue when he says: Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame (Luke 16:24). The unbelieving people held in its mouth the words of the law, which it scorned to keep in deed. There, then, it will burn the more where it shows it knew what it would not do. He desires to be touched by the tip of the finger, because, given over to eternal punishments, he wishes to share even in the least of the works of the just. To him it is answered that he received good things in this life, because he reckoned transitory happiness all his joy. For the just too can have good things here, and yet not receive them as their recompense, because while they long for better things, that is, eternal ones, in their judgement, whatever good things are present, since they burn with holy desires, they hardly seem good things at all. Among these things, moreover, it must be noted that it is said to him: Remember, son. For see, Abraham calls him son, whom yet he does not free from torment, because the faithful fathers who went before this unbelieving people, since they consider that many have strayed from their faith, rescue them from torments by no compassion, though they recognize them as sons according to the flesh. And the rich man, placed in torments, is said to have five brothers

because that same proud Jewish people, which in great part is already damned, knows its followers, whom it left upon the earth, to be given over to the five senses of the body. By the number five, then, he expresses the brothers he had left, because, placed in hell, he groans that they do not rise to spiritual understanding. He asks that Lazarus be sent to them, and it is said to him that they have Moses and the prophets. But he says that they do not believe unless someone rises from the dead. To which at once it is answered: If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe him if someone rises from the dead. Indeed the Truth says of Moses: If you believed Moses, you would surely believe Me also. For he wrote of Me (John 5:46). What is said through Abraham's answer is therefore fulfilled. For the Lord rose from the dead, but the Jewish people, because it would not believe Moses, scorned to believe even Him who rose from the dead; and since it refused to understand the words of Moses spiritually, it did not come to Him of whom Moses had spoken.

CHAPTER XVII.

And He said to His disciples: It is impossible that scandals should not come. But woe to him through whom they come (Luke 17:1). The Apostle too says: But there must also be heresies, so that those who are approved may be made manifest among you (1 Cor. 11:19). It is impossible, then, in this world, so very full of errors and miseries, that scandals should not very often come; but woe to him who by his own fault causes that which cannot fail to come to come through him. Here, although by a general judgement either some false brother or Judas himself, who was readying his mind for the betrayal, can be understood, yet according to the sequence of the discourse this place looks back to what went before, where the Lord, having spoken of giving alms, is derided by the Pharisees. For he who finds fault with one who speaks rightly surely offers a scandal, that is, a stumbling-block and a downfall, to weak hearers, above all if he also seems, like the Pharisees, to have knowledge of the law. Rebuking him, the Apostle says: And through your knowledge the weak brother will perish, for whom Christ died (1 Cor. 8:11).

It is better for him if a millstone is put about his neck and he is cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones (Luke 17:2). He speaks according to the custom of the province, by which among the Jews of old this was the punishment of the greater crimes, that they were sunk into the deep with a stone tied to them. And truly it is better for an innocent man to end his bodily life, which is temporary, by a punishment however most cruel, than for one who harms his brother to earn the everlasting death of the soul. And rightly he who can be scandalized is called little. For he who is great, whatever he may see, whatever he may suffer, does not turn aside from the faith. But he who is little and small in spirit looks for occasions to be scandalized. For this reason, then, we must above all take thought for those who are little ones in the faith, lest on our account they take offence, and withdraw from the faith, and fall away from salvation. It must indeed be noted that in our good work the scandal of our neighbour is sometimes to be guarded against, but sometimes to be scorned as nothing. For as far as we can without sin, we ought to avoid the scandal of our neighbours.

But if scandal is taken from the truth, it is better that scandal be allowed to arise than that the truth be abandoned.

Take heed to yourselves: if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he does penance, forgive him (Luke 17:3). We read something of the kind in Leviticus too: You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but reprove him openly, lest you have sin because of him (Lev. 19:17). He shows, then, by what order we may turn aside from scandals and avoid the everlasting woe: namely, if we take heed to ourselves, lest we hurt anyone; if we correct the sinner with the zeal of justice; if we open the bowels of mercy and kindness to one who repents from the heart. Here it must be carefully observed that we are commanded not to forgive the sinner indiscriminately, but to forgive the one who does penance; and first, indeed, to rebuke the sinner mercifully, so that there may afterwards be one whom we may justly forgive. He, then, who sees his brother sin and keeps silent is no less a transgressor of the Lord's command than he who refuses to give pardon to the same man when he repents. For He who said: if he repents, forgive, said first: if he sins, rebuke. Pardon, therefore, is to be granted to a brother after rebuke, but surely to him who by repenting turns from his error, so that pardon may not be hard, nor indulgence lax.

And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turns back to you, saying: I repent, forgive him (Luke 17:4). By the number seven no limit is set to the giving of pardon, but it is commanded either that all sins are to be forgiven or that the penitent is always to be forgiven. For the whole of any thing or time is often wont to be indicated by seven. Hence what is sung in the psalm: Seven times a day I have spoken praise to Thee (Ps. 118:164), is nothing other than: His praise always in my mouth (Ps. 33:2). For elsewhere too, when Peter asked how often he should forgive a brother who sins against him, whether up to seven times, the Lord answered: I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven (Matt. 18:22), that is, four hundred and ninety times; so that he should forgive a brother who sins against him as often in a day as that brother could not sin. To a brother who sins against you, then, if he does penance, you have the power, nay the necessity, of forgiving, so that the Father who is in heaven may pardon you too when you repent and beg pardon. But if, when rebuked, he neglects to turn back and do penance, see what the judgement of the Truth decrees on this: If your brother sins against you, go and correct him, and so on, up to where He says: But if he will not hear the Church either, let him be to you as the heathen and the publican (Matt. 18:15–17). And rightly, because under the name of a believer he did the works of unbelievers. Indeed we are commanded to give pardon in one way to a brother who asks it, in another to an enemy who persecutes us: to the former, namely, that, having received remission of the sin by which he harmed us when we were innocent, he may share with us in fellowship of charity; but to the latter, that while he wills evil to us and, if he can, does it, we may always will good and do what we can. For David could not grant to his persecutors, deprived of the remedy of penance, the same measure of pardon, although he mercifully mourned them, which Joseph, in making himself known, kindly showed to his brothers once they had been chastened by a wholesome compunction.

And the apostles said to the Lord: Increase our faith (Luke 17:5). The Lord had said above: He who is faithful in the least is faithful also in the greater. If you have not been faithful in what is another's, who will give you what is your own? (Luke 16:10, 12). And so the apostles, who had already been faithful in what is another's and least, that is, in contempt of earthly things, ask that their faith be increased in what is their own and greater. For no one becomes highest all at once, but in a good way of life each begins from the least things, so as to come to great ones. For the beginnings of virtue are one thing, its progress another, its perfection another. Seeking this earnestly, they say to the Lord: Increase our faith.

And the Lord said: If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree: Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you (Luke 17:6). He compares perfect faith to a grain of mustard seed: faith, that is, which is both lowly in appearance and fervent in the breast, worthless indeed to those who look on it here and there, and seeming to have no strength, but which, when crushed by pressures, shows what perfection it bears within. But this too must be noted, that the grain of mustard seed is most wholesomely useful for purging the head. For if you mix it, very well ground and sifted, with warm rich mead, and gargle this fasting facing the hot sun, or in the bath, it purges every harmful humour from the head, even if it is rather thick, and also makes it possible to avoid the dangers of impending infirmities. So surely faith, proved by the pestle of temptations, cleansed by the sieve of discernment of all the surface of light thoughts, and sweetened with the honey of perfect love, not only drains for the present all the bilge-waters of vices from the heart, which is the head of our inner man, but also takes care beforehand that they cannot collect in future. The mulberry tree, moreover, to be rooted up and planted in the sea, can be understood as also set down simply, namely because it is a sign of consummate faith to command the elements by a word, so that what was said specially of one thing may be believed to be meant generally of all. Indeed elsewhere, when the fig tree had been withered by His word, the Lord said to the wondering disciples: If you have faith and do not hesitate, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain: Take thyself up and cast thyself into the sea, it will be done (Matt. 21:21). Or certainly by the mulberry, whose fruit and shoots are red with a blood-coloured hue, whence it is also called rubus by the Latins, the Gospel of the cross is expressed, which through the faith of the apostles was rooted up by the words of preaching from the nation of the Jews, in which it was held as in the stock of its race, and was transferred and planted in the sea of the Gentiles. With this interpretation the sense of the parable joined to it, which treats of the ministers of the word, also agrees. That too is to the point, that mulberry leaves thrown upon a serpent bring it death, because the word of the cross, as it confers all things wholesome, takes away all things harmful.

But which of you, having a servant ploughing or feeding cattle (Luke 17:7). This parable teaches that faith, the more excellent it is outwardly in virtues, should become the more humble inwardly in the conscience itself. For the servant ploughing or feeding is understood as any teacher of the Church. Of whom the Lord says: No one putting his hand to the plough and looking

back is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). And to another, who testified a third time that he loved Him, He answered: Feed My sheep (John 21:17).

who will say to him at once, when he has come back from the field: Pass on, recline; and will he not say to him: Prepare what I may sup on? (Luke 17:7–8). The servant comes back from the field when the teacher, having broken off the work of preaching for a time, runs back to his conscience, and, returning from the public place of speaking to the court of the heart, goes over by himself in secret what he has done or said. To him the Lord does not at once say: Pass on, recline, that is, pass from this mortal life and be refreshed in the blessed seat of eternal life. For He will say this afterwards; meanwhile, after the feeding and the tilling, He bids him prepare at home what He may sup on, that is, to show forth the labour of open speech and also the humility of considering himself. For the Lord deigns to enter the temple of such a conscience; with such a supper He most gladly desires to be fed. For behold, He says, I am at the door and knock; if anyone rises and opens to Me, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with Me (Rev. 3:20).

And gird yourself and serve me while I eat and drink (Luke 17:8). To be girded is to draw in the humbled mind from all the loose ends of drifting thoughts, by which the steps of works are wont to be hindered. For he who girds up his garments surely does so lest, as he walks, he be entangled and fall. But to serve God is to profess oneself least in all things and to have no strength without the help of His grace. For minister took its name from the lesser state, that is, from subjection, as magister did from the greater. He therefore serves the Creator who, considering His nature and fearing His judgements, humbles himself concerning his own virtues.

And after this you shall eat and drink (Luke 17:8). After I, He says, have been delighted by the work of your preaching and refreshed by the feasts of your compunction, then at last you shall pass on and recline, and shall be refreshed for ever with the eternal banquets of My wisdom.

Does he thank that servant because he did what he had commanded him? I think not. So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants (Luke 17:9–10). If a man, He says, requires of a man, his servant, not a single but a manifold service, and yet does not thank him, how much more you, who without Me can do nothing (John 15:5)? You ought not to weigh the merits of your labours by length of time, but to increase what went before by love and willing service with ever new endeavours. Therefore say: We are unprofitable servants. Servants indeed, because you were bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:20); but unprofitable, because the Lord has no need of your good things. But if he who has done all things is unprofitable, what must be said of him who either through weakness could not fulfil what was commanded, or, what is worse, through pride despised it? Otherwise: We are unprofitable servants, because the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, which will be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). And elsewhere: Who crowns me in compassion and mercy (Ps. 102:4). He does not say: in your merits and works, because we, who are forestalled by His mercy so that we may humbly serve God, are crowned by His gift so that we may reign on high with Him.

We have done what we ought to have done (Luke 17:10). Truly we ought to have,

because He who came not to be served but to serve (Matt. 20:28) has made us His debtors, so that, namely, not trusting in our own works but ever fearful of His scrutiny, we may say with the prophet: What shall we render to the Lord for all that He has rendered to us? (Ps. 115:12). And to show that he had had a faith to be likened to a grain of mustard seed, lowly, that is, and fervent, he said beforehand: I believed, therefore I spoke; but I was humbled exceedingly (Ps. 115:10). To show how little he had trusted in his own strength, he added, speaking in ecstasy: Every man is a liar (Ps. 115:11); and to signify that he was an unprofitable servant even when he had received the cup of a precious death, he cried out: O Lord, I am Thy servant, I am Thy servant, and the son of Thy handmaid; Thou hast broken my bonds (Ps. 115:16). He does not say: I myself broke them, I myself suffice to save myself; but: Thou hast broken my bonds; to Thee I will sacrifice the sacrifice of praise (Ps. 115:16–17). This, then, is the only perfection of faith in men: if, having fulfilled all that is commanded, they know themselves to be imperfect, and remember that, as long as they are pilgrims away from the Lord, there are always evils in them to bewail, and always good things lacking, towards which, with the help of His grace, they may advance.

And it came to pass, and so on, there met Him ten men who were lepers (Luke 17:11–12). Not absurdly can those be understood as lepers who, not having the knowledge of the true faith, profess various doctrines of error. For they do not even hide their ignorance, but bring it out into the light as the highest skill, and make a show of boastful speech. Moreover, there is no false doctrine that does not mix in some true things. True things, then, mixed in disorder with false in one man's argument or account, appearing as it were in the colour of one body, signify the leprosy that mottles and stains human bodies with patches of true and false colours. And these must be so shunned by the Church that, removed as far off as may be, they call upon Christ with a great cry. Hence it is also fittingly added:

Who stood afar off and lifted up their voice, saying: Jesus, Master, have mercy on us (Luke 17:12–13). And well do they name Jesus Master, that they may be saved. For since they signify that they have erred concerning His words, being about to be saved they humbly call Him Master; and when they return to the knowledge of the Master, they soon run back to the form of health. For there follows:

When He saw them, He said: Go, show yourselves to the priests. And it came to pass that as they went they were cleansed (Luke 17:14). Of those on whom the Lord bestowed these bodily benefits, He is found to have sent none to the priests except the lepers, because, namely, the priesthood of the Jews was a figure of the royal priesthood to come, which is in the Church, by which all are consecrated who belong to the body of Christ, the highest and true Prince of priests. And whoever, by the Lord's grace, has become free of heretical depravity, or Gentile superstition, or Jewish faithlessness, or even fraternal schism, as of a mottled colour, must come to the Church and show the true colour of faith which he has received. But the other vices, as of the health and as it were of the limbs and senses of the soul,

the Lord heals and corrects by Himself, inwardly, in the conscience and the understanding. So too Paul, having heard the Lord's voice: Why do you persecute Me? and: I am Jesus whom you persecute (Acts 9:4–5), was nevertheless sent to Ananias, so that by that priesthood which is established in the Church he might receive the sacrament of the doctrine of the faith, and his true colour might be approved. Not that the Lord cannot do all things by Himself (for who else does these things even in the Church?), but so that the very fellowship of the gathered faithful, by approving one another and sharing the doctrine of the true faith, in all that is said in words or signified in sacraments, may as it were spread over itself one appearance of true colour. Cornelius too, though it is announced to him by an angel that both his alms are accepted and his prayers heard, is nevertheless bidden, for the sake of the unity of doctrine and sacraments, to send to Peter (Acts 10:4–5), as if it were said to him and his: Go, show yourselves to the priests; for as they went they too were cleansed. For Peter had already come to them, but they themselves, not yet having received the sacrament of baptism, had not yet come spiritually to the priests; and yet their cleansing was declared by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the wonder of tongues.

But one of them, and so on (Luke 17:15). This one, who went back magnifying God, signifies the humility of the one Church, devoted to Christ. Well does he give thanks falling before the feet of the Lord. For he truly gives thanks to God who, having repressed the thoughts of his own presumption, humbly sees how weak he is in himself, who attributes no virtue to himself, who acknowledges that the good things he does are from the mercy of his Creator. Hence it is also rightly added:

And this man was a Samaritan (Luke 17:16). For Samaritan is interpreted "guardian". By this name that people is most fittingly signified which, by giving thanks to Him from whom it received, ascribes to Him all that it received, singing in a manner that verse of the psalm: I will keep my strength for Thee, for Thou, God, art my protector; my God, His mercy will go before me (Ps. 58:10–11). And he falls on his face, because he blushes for the evils he remembers he has committed. For a man falls where he is put to shame. Hence Paul too said, as to some lying on their faces: What fruit, then, did you have at that time in those things of which you are now ashamed? (Rom. 6:21). But on the other hand it is said of the rider of the horse, that is, of him who is lifted up in the glory of this world: So that his rider will fall backwards (Gen. 49:17). And again it is written of the persecutors of the Lord: They went backwards and fell to the ground (John 18:6). What does this mean, that the elect fall on their faces and the reprobate backwards, but that everyone who falls behind himself falls, beyond doubt, where he does not see, while he who has fallen before himself has fallen where he sees? The wicked, then, because they fall in things invisible, are said to fall behind them, because they collapse where they cannot now see what will then follow them. But the just, because they willingly cast themselves down in these visible things so as to be raised up in the invisible, fall as it were on their faces, because, pierced with fear, they are humbled with their eyes open.

And Jesus answered and said: Were not ten cleansed

and where are the nine? (Luke 17:17). If one is added to nine, a kind of image of unity is completed. By this such a completeness comes about that number goes no further unless it returns again to one, so that this rule is kept through the infinity of number. The nine, therefore, need the one, that they may be bound together in a certain form of unity and become ten. But the one does not need them in order to keep unity. Wherefore, as that one who gave thanks was approved and praised as signifying the one Church, so those nine who did not give thanks, having become reprobate, were shut out from the fellowship of unity. And therefore such men will remain in the number nine as imperfect. And rightly the Saviour asks where they are, as if they were unknown. For for God to know is to choose; not to know is to reject.

There was none found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner (Luke 17:18). As regards the body, indeed, it is easy to see that a man can be free of leprosy and yet not be of a good mind; but as regards the meaning of this miracle, it troubles one who considers it how one who is clean can be called ungrateful. But now it is easy to see this too, that it can happen that someone in the fellowship of the Church attains doctrine whole and true, and discourses on all things according to the rule of the Catholic [faith], distinguishes the creature from the Creator, and is thereby shown to have been free of the variety of lies as of leprosy, and yet is ungrateful to God and the Lord who cleansed him, because, lifted up by pride, he is not laid low by the devout humility of giving thanks, and becomes like those of whom the Apostle says: Who, when they had known God, did not glorify Him as God or give thanks (Rom. 1:21). For in saying that they had known God, he shows indeed that they had been cleansed of leprosy, but at once he accuses them as ungrateful.

And He said to him: Arise, go, for your faith has made you whole (Luke 17:19). He who fell devoutly before the Lord is commanded to rise and go, because he who, knowing his weakness keenly, lies humbly, is bidden through the consolation of the divine word to rise to strong works and, as his merits grow daily, to advance step by step to more perfect things. But if faith saved him whom it bowed down to give thanks to his Saviour and cleanser, then faithlessness destroyed those who neglected to give glory to God for the benefits they had received. Wherefore this reading too is joined to the one before on this account: that there it is decreed, by the giving of a parable, that faith ought to be increased through humility, while here it is shown more plainly by the facts themselves that it is not the acknowledged reckoning of faith only, but the working of faith carried out, that saves the believer and gives glory to the Father who is in heaven.

And being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God comes, He answered them and said: The kingdom of God does not come with observation (Luke 17:20). They ask about the time of the kingdom of God because, as Luke makes plain below, they supposed that when the Lord came to Jerusalem the kingdom of God would at once be made manifest (Luke 19:11), so that even the apostles themselves, led by this opinion, asked Him after His resurrection, saying: Lord, if at this time

will you restore the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6) And elsewhere Cleopas: But we were hoping that He was the one who would redeem Israel (Luke 24:21). But the kingdom of God does not come with observation.

Nor will they say, Behold, here. Because when it is to come cannot be observed either by angels or by men, as the time of the Lord's Incarnation was both fixed beforehand by the most certain prophecies of the prophets and made manifest by the proclamations of angels, so that conceived, born, and baptized, preaching, and then dying and rising again, and returning to the heavens, He was declared by the tokens, accompanying Him unceasingly, either of angels or of men, or certainly of miracles.

For behold, the kingdom of God is within you. He calls Himself the kingdom of God, placed within them, that is, in their hearts, where they believed Him to reign. Whence it is written: The word is near, in your mouth and in your heart; this, moreover, is the word of faith which we preach (Rom. 10:8).

And He said to the disciples: The days will come when you will desire to see one day of the Son of man, and you will not see it. This is the kingdom of God which we hope is to come, namely to see the day of Christ; and well does He say one day, because in that glory of blessedness, for which the prophet sighing said: For what is better, one day in Thy courts above thousands (Ps. 83:11), there is no interruption by darkness; not even the memory of misery or sorrow, the former things which have passed away, clouds the light of everlasting peace. It is good, therefore, to desire the presence of this day, and yet not to imagine all things for ourselves out of the greatness of our desire, as though the day of the Lord were at hand. Whence also the Lord, foretelling what was to come, fittingly added:

And they will say to you: Behold, there. Do not go, nor hurry. Although this saying can be understood not only of the time but also of the person. Of the time indeed, because there have arisen some who, reckoning the courses of the ages, said they had found the certain year, day and hour of the consummation of the world, against the authority of the Lord, Who says: It is not for you to know the times or moments (Acts 1:7). Of the person, however, because many heretics have come against the Church, and many are yet to come, who assert that they are christs, of whom the first was Simon Magus, and the last, greater than the rest, is Antichrist. If any, therefore, should say, Behold, here, behold, there, that is, that the kingdom of God comes or is to come in this or that person, or at this or that hour, they are not to be followed, who are not afraid to seek things higher than themselves and to say unspeakable things.

For as the lightning flashing from under heaven shines upon the things that are under heaven, so will the Son of man be in His day. This is what the psalm says: God will come manifestly, our God, and will not keep silence (Ps. 49:3), because, that is, the second coming of the Saviour will be not in humility as before, but in glory and majesty. And He says beautifully: Flashing from under heaven, because the judgement will be carried out under heaven, that is, in the midst of the air, as the Apostle witnesses, who says: We shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:17). But if the Lord will appear at the judgement like lightning, no one then in his own

mind is allowed to lie hidden, because he is pierced through by the very lightning of the Judge. Neither the time nor the place of His coming, then, can be observed by mortals, since He will come like lightning, that is, flashing and sudden upon all. But this answer of the Lord can also, not unfittingly, be taken of that coming of His by which He comes daily in the Church. For the kingdom of God is within us, because He who will one day come as Judge of all now also reigns present in the heart of the faithful. But so often have heretics troubled the Church, each saying that the faith of Christ abides in his own doctrine, that all the faithful of those times would desire that the Lord should return to earth, even for one day, if it could be, and make known by Himself how the truth of the faith stands. And you will not see it, He says, because there is no need for the Lord to render again by bodily sight what He once displayed spiritually by the lightning of His Gospel spread throughout the whole world, and made firm by the indivisible light of His charity against all the indulgences of the apocryphal writers.

But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. The Lord, speaking much of the glory of His coming, took care also to insert in a few words the terror of the Passion, so that when they saw Him dying whom they had heard was to be glorified, they might soften the grief of the Passion by the hope of the promised glorification, and at the same time might prepare themselves, if they loved the glory of the kingdom, not to shrink from the peril of death. And He calls a generation not only that of the Jews, but that of all the reprobate, at whose hands even now the Son of man suffers many things in His body, that is, in the Church, and is rejected. For although the Head of this body, which body we are, already raises Himself free above all things, He still feels the wounds of the reprobate through His body, which He keeps below.

And as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be also in the day of the Son of man. He affirms by many examples that the day of His coming will be sudden. For the day which He had compared to lightning swiftly flying across all things, He likens to the days of Noah or of Lot, when sudden destruction came upon mortals.

They were eating and drinking, they were marrying wives, and were being given in marriage. Here marriage or food are not condemned, as in the insane doctrine of Marcion and Mani and Tatian, the chief of the Encratites, since in the latter lie the supports of nature and in the former those of succession; but, according to what the Apostle says: All things are lawful to me, but not all things are expedient (1 Cor. 6:12), it is rather the immoderate use of lawful things that is reproved. For [it was] not because [of these things that they perished, but] because, giving themselves wholly to these things, they despised the judgements of God, [that] they perished by water or by fire.

Until the day on which Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Noah builds the ark when the Lord constructs the Church by gathering it together from faithful men, as from smoothed timbers. He enters it, perfectly completed, when on the day of judgement He, its eternal Indweller, illumines it with the presence of His vision. But while the ark is being built, the wicked live in luxury; but when it is entered, they perish, because those who, while the saints here are striving,

insult them, will be punished with eternal damnation while they are crowned there.

Likewise, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. The Lord, passing over that greatest and unspeakable crime of the Sodomites, mentions only those faults which could be thought light or none at all, so that you may understand with what punishment unlawful things are struck, if lawful things, and those without which this life is not carried on, are punished with fire and brimstone when done too immoderately. Rightly therefore the blessed Augustine, seeing the allurements of harmful custom, and moved with just grief, cries out: "Woe to the sins of men, at which we shudder only when they are unaccustomed; but the accustomed ones, for whose washing away the blood of the Son of God was shed, although they are so great as to make the kingdom of God altogether shut against them, by often seeing we are compelled to tolerate them all, and by often tolerating, to do some of them as well. And would, O Lord, that we may not do all that we have not been able to prevent."

But on the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Until then Lot, that is, the people of the elect among the reprobate, dwells in Sodom as a stranger, himself righteous in seeing and hearing, and, according to the interpretation of the name Lot, turning aside from their outrages as far as he can. But when Lot goes out, Sodom will perish. For at the consummation of the world the angels will go out and separate the wicked from the midst of the just, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. Here it should be noted that the fire and brimstone which He records as having rained from heaven signify not the very flame of everlasting punishment, but the sudden coming of that day. For that everlasting fire will not come upon the wicked and punish them; rather they themselves, cast out from the sight of the Judge, will be sent into the eternal fire, although we do not doubt that brimstone is also in that same fire, as John witnesses, who, describing both fires, that is, of the sudden seizure and of the everlasting burning, says: And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them, and the devil who was seducing them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet will be tormented day and night for ever and ever (Rev. 20:9–10).

So will it be on the day when the Son of man is revealed. Beautifully [does He say] will be revealed, because He who meanwhile, not appearing, sees all things, will then, appearing, judge all things. And He will appear to judge most of all at the time when He sees that all, forgetful of His judgements, are enslaved to this world. For although the end of the world will come at a time long since fixed beforehand, yet, as the charity of many grows cold towards the end, the iniquity of the human race will grow so frequent that it deserves to be destroyed together with the very world which it inhabits. For even now indeed we see countless people so given over to feasting and drunkenness, to buying and selling, and to the other affairs of the world, that it is plainly evident that they provoke the wrath of the strict Judge; and yet we dread that worse things will come upon us at any moment, which no wise man can even think of without heavy sorrow. For what was once said of a single sinful nation that was to be destroyed: The sins of the Amorites are not yet complete

(Gen. 15:16), must without doubt be understood of the whole mass of the wicked that is to be damned.

In that hour, whoever is on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away. Thus far concerning the fact that the kingdom of God, that is, Christ, comes not with observation but unlooked for; now it is shown by what sort of people that same coming ought to be awaited. He, then, is on the housetop who, rising above carnal things, lives spiritually as if in the free air. His goods in the house are the carnal desires which he had loved too much, but, seeking the things above, had left behind in this world; these, with the judgement at hand, he must by no means seek again. For He means that hour, not the one in which the Judge comes, but the one in which He is about to come; not the one in which the fire came down on Sodom, but the one in which Lot is compelled to go out, or rather, himself delaying, is seized by the angels and drawn out. For when the Judge is already coming and appearing, no one will be able to wish to go down into this world in order to snatch anything from it. But this hour is being passed even today, when we await the Judge who is to come with anxious watchfulness, uncertain when He may come. Of which John says: Little children, it is the last hour (1 John 2:18).

And he who is in the field, likewise let him not turn back. He who works in the Church, and like Paul and Apollos plants and waters, let him not look back to the worldly hope which he has renounced.

Remember Lot's wife. Lot's wife signifies those who in tribulation look back and turn themselves away from the hope of the divine promise. And therefore she was made a pillar of salt, so that by warning men not to do this she might, as it were, season their heart, that they be not insipid.

Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it. This saying can rightly be understood in two ways, but both understandings are referred to wholly one end, namely, that we should not fear to suffer adversities for Christ, nay, to meet death itself. For he who, when the persecutor threatens death if he does not deny Christ, chooses rather to save his life for a time by denying, without doubt prepares it for eternal perdition. Again, he who seeks the eternal salvation of his soul does not hesitate to lose it in time among the hands of persecutors, that is, to give it over to death. And what follows fits both senses aptly:

And whoever loses it will bring it to life. That is, he who loses it here will bring it to life there; he who has given it over to death for Christ's sake, accounting it all the day long as a sheep for the slaughter (Rom. 8:36), will then, when Christ rises up and helps him, find it free for the sake of the name of Christ.

I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed. The Lord had said above that he who is in the field must not turn back; and lest you should think this was said only of those who are going to return openly from the field, that is, to deny the Lord publicly, He goes on to show that there are some who, though they seem to keep their face towards what lies ahead, yet in heart and mind look back. On that night, therefore, He said, in that tribulation so dark that, if it were possible, even the elect would be led into error (Matt. 24:24), two will be in a bed, namely those who choose leisure and quiet,

occupied neither with worldly business nor with ecclesiastical business; this rest of theirs is signified by the name of a bed.

One will be taken, and the other left. This is not said as of two men, but of two kinds of disposition. For he who for God's sake has devoted himself to continence, so that, living without anxiety, he may think on the things that are God's (1 Cor. 7:32), will be taken by God; but as for him who, either through love of human praise or through any other corruption of vices, has damaged the state of the monastic life in which he was formed, where he is to be left the Lamentations of Jeremiah suggest, who, describing under the figure of Judaea the fall of any idle and sinful soul, says: The enemies saw her, and mocked her Sabbaths (Lam. 1:7).

Two women will be grinding together. He calls grinders those who, placed among the common people, are ruled by teachers, doing the things that belong to this world; these He also signified by the name of women, because, as I have said, it is expedient for them to be ruled by the counsels of the experienced. And He said grinding because of the round and circuit of temporal business. Yet He said they were grinding together, inasmuch as they supply from their own goods and business for the uses of the Church. For every activity of this world is a mill, which, while it heaps up many cares, turns human minds round as if in a circle, and casts out of itself, as it were, meal, because it ever begets the most minute thoughts in the restless heart.

One will be taken, and the other left. That part will be taken which has practised marriage only out of love of offspring, and has dispensed earthly substance for the gaining of heavenly things; but that will be left which has served marriage for the allurements of the flesh, and, if it has offered any earthly goods to the Church or to the poor, has done so in order that, as though the Lord had been bought, it might abound the more in them.

Two in the field: one will be taken, and the other left. As above He put in one bed and grinding together, so here too I think it is to be understood as in one field. And it signifies those who work in the ministry of the Church, as in the field of God, to whom its husbandman said: You are God's husbandry (1 Cor. 3:9). He will be taken who has spoken not adulterating the word of God (2 Cor. 2:17), but as from God, before God, in Christ. But he who has proclaimed Christ not purely but by way of pretext will be left by Him. Nor do I think there are other kinds of men of which the Church consists than these three, each having two differences on account of being taken and being left, although in each of them many diversities of pursuits and wills, which yet run together into concord and unity, can be found. Whence also the prophet Ezekiel saw three delivered, Noah, Daniel and Job, in which three, that is, preachers, the continent and the married are signified. For Noah steered the ark on the waves, and therefore bore the figure of rulers. Daniel, even in the royal court, was given to abstinence, and for that reason signified the life of the continent. But Job, set in marriage, and [bearing] the care of his own house

carrying on, was pleasing [to God]; by him the order of good married people is fittingly figured.

Answering, they say to Him: Where, Lord? And He said to them: Wherever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together. The Saviour, asked two things, namely where the good are to be taken and where the wicked are to be left, stated one and left the other to be understood. For in asserting that the saints will be with Him, He implies that the reprobate are of course to be separated from His sight, and therefore to be damned nowhere else than with the devil. Wherever, then, the Lord is in the body, there the elect will be gathered, who by imitating His Passion and humility are, as it were, filled with His flesh, and whose youth will be renewed through the resurrection like the eagle's (Ps. 102:5). It also accords with the pursuits of those who thirst to contemplate with all their mind the glory of the majesty on high, that the eagle, surpassing the other birds in flight, delights to fix its eyes on the very ray of the sun. This too fits, that it is wont to bring to its nest, when it comes, the aetites stone, which resists [serpents], lest perhaps a serpent should presume to approach or to touch its young or its eggs. Because, that is, every wise man, so that he may be able to defend his deeds and thoughts from the inroad of the ancient serpent, must ever keep in his breast that stone which, cut out of the mountain without hands, laid low the kingdom of the devil (Dan. 2:34), that is, the faith and love of Christ.

CHAPTER XVIII.

And He told them a parable also, that they ought always to pray and not to faint. The Apostle too says: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:16–17). But who can so pray always, and persist in prayers without failing or ceasing, that he has no time for taking food or for sleeping? Either, then, it must be said that he prays always and does not faint who daily at the canonical hours, according to the rite of the Church's tradition, does not cease to praise and entreat the Lord with the accustomed psalmody and prayers, and that this is what the Psalmist said: I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise is ever in my mouth (Ps. 33:2). Or else all things that the just man does and says according to God are to be reckoned as prayer. For because the just man does without ceasing the things that are just, by this the just man will pray without ceasing, and will never cease from prayer unless he ceases to be just.

There was a certain judge in a certain city who did not fear God and did not regard man. And there was a certain widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying: Avenge me of my adversary; and for a long time he would not. But afterwards he said within himself: Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow is troublesome to me, I will avenge her, lest coming at the last she should strike me. The Lord sets forth parables either according to some likeness, as of the man who had two sons, the elder drawing near to him in the field, but the younger living riotously far off; or He proves something from unlikeness itself, as is that saying: But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is today and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more you, O you of little faith (Matt. 6:30). And so the former

kind can be joined [to the parable] with these words: As this, so also that. But the latter with these words: If this, how much more that? Or, if this, how much less that? But these are set forth sometimes obscurely, sometimes openly. Here, then, the unjust judge has been brought in not from likeness but from unlikeness. For that unjust judge in no way represents the person of God allegorically; but the Lord wished it to be inferred from this how much God, who is good and just, cares for those who entreat Him, since not even an unjust man can disregard those who beat upon him with constant prayers, if only to avoid weariness. For this is what he says: Lest coming she should strike me. The widow herself, however, may bear the likeness of the Church, because she appears desolate until the Lord comes, who yet even now in secret has care of her.

And the Lord said: Hear what the unjust judge says. And will not God avenge His elect who cry to Him day and night? And will He be patient with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily? If it troubles anyone why the elect of God pray to be avenged, as is said also of the martyrs in the Apocalypse of John, when we are most plainly admonished to pray for our enemies and persecutors, it must be understood that the vengeance of the just is this, that all the wicked should perish. And they perish in two ways: either by turning to righteousness, or by losing through punishment the power by which they now prevail somewhat against the good, even if only for a time, as long as this very thing is expedient for the good. When the just desire this end to come, although they pray for their enemies, yet they are not absurdly said to desire vengeance.

Yet when the Son of man comes, do you think He will find faith on the earth? Although the almighty Creator is always ready to avenge His elect who cry to Him, yet on the day of judgement, a thing to be kept with a trembling heart, when the same Creator appears in the form of the Son of man, so great will be the scarcity of the elect that the ruin of the whole world will have to be hastened, not so much on account of the cry of the faithful unjustly condemned, as on account of the torpor of those justly condemned. But when the Lord says, as if doubting: Do you think He will find faith? He does not doubt, but reproves. For by a word of doubt unbelief is rebuked; the Godhead does not merely suppose. For we too sometimes use a word of doubt by way of rebuke about things we hold certain, though we do not doubt in our heart. As if you were indignant with your servant and said: You despise me; consider, perhaps I am your master. And the Apostle, to certain who despised him: And I think (he says) that I too have the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 7:40). He who says I think seems to doubt. But he was rebuking, not doubting. So, then, the Lord too, through whom all things were made, knows all things indeed, and yet by doubting He rebukes the hearts of the unbelieving.

And He spoke this parable also to some who trusted in themselves as being just, and despised the others. Since the Lord concluded the parable, by which He was teaching that they should always pray and not faint, in such a way as to say that when the Judge comes faith will hardly be found on earth,

lest anyone perhaps flatter himself on an idle faith, knowledge or even confession, He at once, with another parable joined to it, shows more carefully that it is not the words of faith but its works that are to be examined by God. And among these works, surely, humility reigns most of all. Whence also above, when He compared faith to a grain of mustard seed, small indeed, but pungent when crushed, He added, as if by way of explanation: When you have done all the things that are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants (Luke 17:10). Against which the proud, though they do by no means all but some small part of what is commanded, not only presume at once on their own righteousness but also despise all the weak; and therefore, as if empty of faith, when they pray they are not heard.

Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The publican, praying humbly, belongs to those members of the aforesaid widow, that is, of the Church, of whom it is said above: And will not God avenge His elect who cry to Him? But the Pharisee, boasting of his merits, [belongs] to those of whom the terrible sentence is added in the conclusion: Yet when the Son of man comes, do you think He will find faith on the earth?

The Pharisee, standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give Thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican. There are four kinds in which all the swelling of the arrogant is displayed: when they think that they have their good from themselves; or, if they believe it was given them from above, they think they have received it for their own merits; or certainly when they boast that they have what they have not; or, despising the rest, they desire to appear to have singularly what they have. With this plague of boasting the Pharisee is found to have been afflicted, who for that reason went down from the temple without justification, because, attributing to himself the merits of good works as if singularly, he set himself above the praying publican.

I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I possess. The prophet Ezekiel writes of the living creatures of heaven shown to him: And the whole body full of eyes round about the four of them (Ezek. 10:12). For the bodies of the living creatures are described as full of eyes for this reason, that the action of the saints is circumspect on every side, providing good things with longing, guarding skilfully against evil things. But with us it often happens that while we attend to some things we neglect others. And where we neglect, there without doubt we have no eye. For behold, the Pharisee had an eye for displaying abstinence, for bestowing mercy, for rendering thanks to God, but for the guarding of humility he had none. And what does it profit that almost the whole city is carefully guarded against the ambushes of the enemy, if one hole is left open by which the enemy may enter?

And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but struck his breast, saying: O God, be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. What great confidence of pardon it gives to those who repent worthily, that the publican, who perfectly acknowledged,

wept over and confessed the guilt of his wickedness, although he came to the temple unjust, returned from the temple justified. Typologically, however, the Pharisee is the people of the Jews, who extols its merits on the ground of the justifications of the law. But the publican is the Gentile, who, placed far from God, confesses his sins. Of these, the one by being proud went away humbled; the other by lamenting was found worthy to draw near, exalted.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. This can rightly be understood both of the two peoples aforesaid and of every proud or humble man, as also that which we read elsewhere: Before ruin the heart is exalted, and before glory it is humbled (Prov. 16). Wherefore from the words of the haughty Pharisee, by which he deserved to be humbled, we can take by contrast a pattern of humility by which we may be raised up; so that, as he, considering both the vices of those worse than himself and his own virtues, was lifted up to ruin, so we, looking not only at our own sloth but also at the virtues of better men, may be humbled unto glory, so that each of us, suppliant and lowly, may pray thus within himself: Almighty God, have mercy on Thy suppliant, for I am not as Thy countless servants, lofty in contempt of the world, glorious in the merit of righteousness, angelic in the praise of chastity, nor even as many of those who after public sins by doing penance have deserved to be devoted to Thee. And even if I should do anything good, by the bestowal of Thy grace, I do not know with what end I do it, or with what strictness it may be weighed by Thee.

And they were bringing to Him infants also, that He might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. This reading too shines, full of the teaching of humility, since it shows that the innocent and simple can attain to the grace of the Lord. The disciples rebuked those who brought them, not because they were unwilling that the infants should be blessed by the Saviour's hand and voice, but because, not yet having the fullest faith, they thought that He, after the manner of men, was wearied by the importunity of those who brought them.

But Jesus, calling them, said: Let the children come to me, and do not forbid them. For of such is the kingdom of God. Significantly He said of such, not of these, to show that it is not age that reigns but character, and that the reward is promised to those who have a like innocence and simplicity. The Apostle too agrees with the same thought: Brethren, do not become children in understanding, but in malice be little ones; but in understanding, that you may be perfect (1 Cor. 14:20).

Amen I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a child will not enter into it. As a child does not persist in anger, does not remember when hurt, takes no delight in seeing a beautiful woman, does not think one thing and say another, so you too, unless you have such innocence and purity of mind, will not be able to enter the kingdom of heaven. Otherwise: we are commanded to receive the kingdom of God, that is, the teaching of the Gospel, as a child, because a child in learning neither contradicts his teachers nor puts together reasons and words in resistance to them, but faithfully receives what he is taught, and obeys with fear and is quiet.

And a certain ruler asked Him, saying: Good Master,

what shall I do to possess eternal life? This ruler, I believe, had heard from the Lord that only those who are willing to be like a child will enter the kingdom of God, and therefore, anxious for a more certain treatment, he asks that it be set out to him, not in parables but openly, by what merits of works he may attain eternal life.

And Jesus said to him: Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. Because he had called Him a good master, and had not confessed Him as God or the Son of God, he learns that any holy man whatever is not good in comparison with God, of whom it is said: Give praise to the Lord, for He is good (Ps. 106:1). But by God alone being good is to be understood not the Father alone, but also the Son, who says: I am the good Shepherd (John 10:11); and also the Holy Spirit, because the Father from heaven will give the good Spirit to those who ask Him (Luke 11:13). That is, the one and undivided Trinity itself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is alone and the one God who is good. The Lord, therefore, does not deny that He is good, but signifies that He is God. He testifies, not that He is not a good master, but that there is no good master apart from God.

You know the commandments: You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness. Honour your father and mother. This is the chastity of childlike innocence which is set before us to imitate, if we wish to enter the kingdom of God. It is to be noted indeed that the righteousness of the law, kept in its own time, confers not only the good things of the earth but also eternal life.

And he said: All these I have kept from my youth. When He heard this, Jesus said to him: One thing is still lacking to you. This ruler, when he said that he had kept the commandments of the law, is not to be thought to have lied, but to have confessed simply how he had lived. For if he were held guilty of the offence of lying, Mark the evangelist, writing of him, would by no means have added: And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him, and said to him: One thing is lacking to you: Go, and whatever you have, sell (Mark 10:21), and so on. For the Lord loves those who keep the commandments of the law, though they be the lesser ones; but none the less He shows to those who desire to be perfect what had been lacking in the law.

All that you have, sell, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. Whoever wishes to be perfect must sell, as Ananias and Sapphira did, but sell the whole; and when he has sold it, give all to the poor, and so prepare for himself treasure in the kingdom of heaven. Nor does this suffice for perfection unless, after despising riches, he follows the Saviour, that is, forsaking evil things, does good. For the purse is more easily despised than the will. Many who leave their riches do not follow the Lord. But he follows the Lord who is His imitator and walks in His footsteps. For he who says that he believes in Christ ought himself also to walk as He walked (1 John 2:6).

When he heard these things he became sorrowful, for he was very rich. This is the sorrow of the world, which works death (2 Cor. 7:10). These are the deceitful riches which, like thorns, choked the Lord's seed.

And Jesus, seeing him made sorrowful, said:

How hard it is for those who have money to enter into the kingdom of God! It is plain indeed that those who here apply themselves to multiplying riches disdain to seek the joys of the other life; but between having money and loving money there is no small difference. For many who have do not love; many who have not do love. Again, some both have and love, while others rejoice neither to have nor to love the riches of the world, and their state is the safer, saying with the Apostle: The world is crucified to us, and we to the world (Gal. 6:14). Hence Solomon also does not say, He who has, but he who loves riches shall reap no fruit from them (Eccl. 5:9). And the Lord Himself, according to Mark, when the disciples were astounded at the words of this saying, added by way of explanation: Little children, how hard it is for those who trust in money to enter the kingdom of God (Mark 10:24)! And it should be noted that He does not say Impossible, but Hard; that is, it is a matter of the greatest labour for those who have money, or who trust in money, to throw off the fetters of the love of money and enter the hall of the heavenly kingdom.

For it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. If it is easier for a camel, enormous with its huge limbs, to pass through the narrow eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God, then no rich man will enter into the kingdom of God. And how, then, did Matthew, Zacchaeus and Joseph in the Gospel, or very many rich men in the Old Testament, enter into the kingdom of God? Unless perhaps because, by the Lord's inspiration, they learned either to hold riches as nothing or to leave them altogether? For did David trust in the riches of his kingdom, he who sings of himself too: For I am alone and poor (Ps. 24:16)? And he exhorts others: If riches abound, set not your heart upon them (Ps. 61:11). I believe he did not dare to say, Do not accept them. Is it credible that Abraham preferred his substance to the Lord, he for whose sake he did not hesitate to strike his only heir? In a higher sense, however, it is easier for Christ to suffer for the lovers of the world than for the lovers of the world to be able to be converted to Christ. For He willed Himself to be understood by the name of the camel, because, humbled of His own will, He bore the burdens of our infirmity. For in whom is it more manifestly understood than in Him what is written: The greater you are, humble yourself in all things (Sir. 3:20)? By the needle, moreover, He signifies piercings, and by the piercings the pains undergone in the passion. The eye of the needle, then, means the straits, the sufferings. By these, as with a needle, He deigned in a manner to mend the torn garments, as it were, of our nature, that is, to recover them, so that, refashioned better after the fall, we may rejoice at the testimony of the Apostle, who says: For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27).

And those who heard said: And who can be saved? To what does this reply refer, since the crowd of the poor is incomparably greater, which could be saved though the rich were lost, unless that they understood that all who love riches, even if they cannot obtain them, are reckoned in the number of the rich?

He said to them: The things that are impossible with men are possible with God. It is not to be taken thus, that the covetous and proud, who under the name of that rich man

are signified, will enter into the kingdom of heaven with their covetous desires and pride; but it is possible for God that through the word (as we see has indeed been done and is done daily) they should be converted from the desire of temporal things to the love of eternal things, and from pernicious pride to most wholesome humility.

But Peter said: Behold, we have left all things and have followed You. Great confidence! Peter was a fisherman; he had not been rich; he sought his food by hand and craft; and yet he speaks confidently: We have left all things. And because merely to leave is not enough, he joins what is perfect: And we have followed You. We have done what You commanded; what reward, then, will You give us?

And He said to them: Amen I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or parents, or brothers, or wife, or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive much more in this time, and in the world to come life everlasting. Some, taking occasion from this saying, build up the Jewish fable of a thousand years after the resurrection of the just, when all that we have left for God's sake is to be repaid to us with manifold interest, and eternal life besides to be bestowed. Nor do the foolish see that, even if the promise be fitting in the other things, in the matter of wives, at least, the hundredfold according to the other evangelists shows its foulness; especially since the Lord testifies that in the resurrection there is no marrying, and, according to the evangelist Mark, confirms that the things left are to be received in this time with persecutions: persecutions which those chiliasts, like everything else adverse, lay down as dogma will be absent from their thousand years, to their own disadvantage. This, then, is the sense. Whoever, to gain the kingdom of God, has despised all affections and trampled underfoot all the delights and luxuries of the world, will receive much more in the present, because from the brothers and companions of his way of life, who are bound to him by a spiritual glue, he will receive even in this life a far more pleasing love. For the love which the fellowship of marriage, or the bond of blood, unites between parents and children, and brothers and sisters, spouses or kinsfolk, is well known to be quite brief and fragile. In the end it is sometimes torn apart even when an honourable cause intervenes. They alone keep the unity of a perpetual union, and possess all things without distinction, who believe that all that is theirs is their brothers', and all that is their brothers' is theirs. Read the Acts of the Apostles: that the multitude of believers had one heart and one soul, and all things were common to them, and there was no one in need among those who had left their own for the Lord. Of them Paul also says: As having nothing, and possessing all things (2 Cor. 6:10). Indeed from conjugal continence too a far greater sweetness will be received than that which was afforded them by the mingling of the sexes with one another. Before, I possessed my wife in the wanton passion of desire; this same wife I now possess in the honour of sanctification and in the true love of Christ. There is one woman, but the merit of chastity has grown a hundredfold. For what is said according to Mark: He shall receive a hundred times as much now in this time, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands with persecutions

(Mark 10:30), can be taken in a higher sense. For the number one hundred, moved from the left hand to the right, although in the bending of the fingers it seems to keep the same figure, yet grows exceedingly in greatness of quantity; because, namely, all who for the kingdom of God spurn temporal things taste with sure faith, even in this life so full of persecutions, the joys of that same kingdom, and in expectation of the heavenly fatherland enjoy the most sincere love of all the elect alike.

Then Jesus took the Twelve and said to them: Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that have been written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked, and scourged, and spat upon. And after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise again. The Saviour, foreseeing that the minds of the disciples would be thrown into confusion by His passion, foretells to them long beforehand both the penalty of that passion and the glory of His resurrection, so that, when they saw Him dying as had been foretold, they should not doubt that He would also rise again. Foreseeing also that certain heretics would arise in the Church who would say that Christ had taught things contrary to the law and the prophets, and that one God of the Old Testament and another of the New is to be believed in, He shows that the presages of the prophets were directed to nothing more than to the mystery of His dispensation, which He took up for us in time, so much so that the consummation of prophecy is the accomplished fulfilment of His passion and of the glory that followed. And He also most plainly refutes the madness of the pagans, with which they deride His cross, when, as one who foreknows things to come, He shows the time of His approaching passion, and, as one unafraid, goes to the place of His death.

And they understood none of these things. And this word was hidden from them, and they did not understand the things that were said. We read in the Gospel according to John that when the Lord said: If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to Myself, the crowd answered and said: We have heard from the law that the Christ remains for ever. And how do You say, The Son of Man must be lifted up (John 12:32, 34)? Why is it, then, that the disciples cannot understand the secret of the Lord's passion, so often repeated to them, while the Jews, at a single word, and one put so obscurely that the Evangelist thinks it worth explaining: Now He said this, he says, signifying by what death He was to die (John 12:33), at once understand that the lifting up of the cross is signified, unless because the disciples, whose life they most desired to see, could not bear to hear of His death? Him whom they knew to be not only an innocent man but also true God, they thought could by no means even die. And because they were used to hearing Him speak often in parables, whenever He said anything about His passion they believed it was not to be understood as it sounded, but, with love dictating, was to be referred allegorically to something else. The Jews, however, because they had conspired to put Him to death, understood whatever He said about His passion or cross; for He was speaking of what they themselves most earnestly both wished to be done and were busying themselves to go and bring about. And thus in a wonderful and unusual way the same

mystery of the cross to be undergone, which love hides from the faithful, envy discloses to the unbelieving.

Now it came to pass, as He drew near to Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging. And when he heard the crowd passing by, he asked what this was. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. This blind man signifies allegorically the human race, which, expelled in its first parent from the joys of paradise and knowing nothing of the brightness of the light above, suffers the darkness of its condemnation; but when Jesus is said to draw near to Jericho, the blind man is given light. For Jericho is interpreted moon. And the moon in sacred speech is put for the failing of the flesh, because, as it wanes through its monthly phases, it designates the failing of our mortality. While, then, our Maker draws near to Jericho, the blind man returns to the light, because when the Godhead takes upon Itself the failing of our flesh, the human race receives back the light it had lost. And this blind man is rightly described both as sitting by the way and as begging. For the Truth Himself said: I am the way (John 14:6). Therefore whoever does not know the brightness of the eternal light is blind; but if he already believes in the Redeemer, he sits by the way. If, however, he already believes, but neglects to ask that he may receive the eternal light, and ceases from prayers, he is a blind man sitting by the way indeed, but by no means begging. But if he both believes and prays earnestly, the blind man both sits by the way and begs.

And he cried out, saying: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And those who went before rebuked him, that he should be silent. But he cried out much more, Son of David, have mercy on me. What do these signify who go before Jesus as He comes, if not the crowds of carnal desires and the tumults of vices, which, before Jesus comes to our heart, scatter our thought with their temptations and disturb the voices of the heart in prayer? For often, when we wish to turn to God after committing vices, when we strive to pray against these very vices which we have committed, the phantoms of the sins we have done meet the heart, dazzle the sight of our mind, confound it, and weigh down the spirit and the voice of our supplication. But he whom the crowd rebukes that he should be silent cries out more and more, because the heavier the tumult of carnal thoughts by which we are pressed, the more ardently we ought to persist in prayer.

And Jesus, standing, commanded him to be brought to Him. Behold, He stands who before was passing by; because while we still suffer crowds of phantoms in prayer, we perceive Jesus as in some measure passing by. But when we persist vehemently in prayer, Jesus stands and restores the light, because God is fixed in the heart, and the lost light is restored.

And when he had drawn near, He asked him, saying: What do you wish that I should do for you? And he said: Lord, that I may see. Did He who could restore the light not know what the blind man wanted? But He wishes that to be asked for which He foreknows both that we shall ask and that He will grant. For He urges us to prayer importunately, and yet He says: For your Father knows what you need before you ask Him (Matt. 6:8). He asks, then, to this end, that He may be asked; He asks to this end, that He may rouse the heart to prayer.

Hence the blind man too at once adds: Lord, that I may see. Behold, the blind man seeks from the Lord not gold but light; he thinks little of seeking anything apart from light. For even if a blind man can have whatever he likes, without light he cannot see what he has. Let us therefore imitate him whom we have heard to have been saved both in body and in mind; let us seek from the Lord not false riches, not earthly gifts, not fleeting honours, but light: that light, namely, which we can see together with the angels alone, which no beginning begins and no end confines. To this light the way is surely faith. Hence it is rightly added at once to the blind man about to be given light:

And Jesus said to him: Receive your sight; your faith has made you whole. And at once he saw, and followed Him, glorifying God. He sees and follows who does the good that he understands. But he sees and does not follow who understands the good indeed, but disdains to do good works. For he follows Jesus who imitates Him. Hence He says: If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me (John 12:26). Let us consider, then, where He walks, that we may be worthy to follow. And so it comes about that not only does our life advance towards God, but this very conversion of ours kindles others also to the praise of God; hence it is added there:

And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. For the people gave praise to God not only for the gift of light obtained, but also for the merit of the faith that obtained it. They gave praise to God because they both saw that Jesus had mercifully and powerfully restored the light to the one who asked, and recognized that the cry of persevering faith can soon obtain what it has rightly sought. Hence it is to be noted that the Lord, appearing in the flesh, confirmed by examples all that He taught by words. For He who commanded us: So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:16), Himself also, in all that He began to do and to teach (Acts 1:1), sought not His own glory from men, but the Father's (John 8:50).

CHAPTER XIX.

And having entered, He was walking through Jericho; and behold, a man named Zacchaeus, who was a chief of the publicans, and he was rich; and he sought to see Jesus, who He was, and could not because of the crowd, for he was small of stature; and running ahead, he climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. The things that are impossible with men are possible with God (Luke 18:27). For behold, the camel, having laid down the load of its hump, passes through the eye of a needle (Matt. 19:24); that is, a rich man and a publican, leaving the burden of riches and despising the mind for fraud, climbs the narrow gate and the strait way that leads to life (Matt. 7:14). With wonderful devotion of faith, to see the Saviour, he makes up by climbing a tree for what he lacked by nature; and therefore he rightly received, though he himself did not dare to ask, the blessing of the Lord's being received as guest, which he desired. Mystically, however, Zacchaeus, which is interpreted justified, signifies the people of believers from the Gentiles. The more occupied they were with worldly cares,

the more he had been made lowly by the crimes that weighed him down. But he was washed, but he was sanctified, but he was justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God, he who sought to see the Saviour entering Jericho, but could not because of the crowd. For he desired to share in the grace of faith which the Saviour brought to the world, but the ingrained habit of vices stood in the way of his attaining his wish. For that same crowd of harmful habit which above rebuked the blind man as he cried out, that he should not ask for light, also holds back the publican as he looks up, that he may not see Jesus. But as the blind man overcame the voices of the crowds by crying out more and more, so the small man must surmount the obstacle of the harmful crowd by seeking higher things, must leave earthly things, must climb the tree of the cross. For the sycamore, which is a tree like the mulberry in its leaves but surpassing it in height, whence also it is called celsa by the Latins, is called the foolish fig. And the same cross of the Lord, which feeds believers like a fig, is mocked by unbelievers as foolish. For we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles foolishness; but to those who are called, Jews and Gentiles, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:23–24). This tree, namely, Zacchaeus, small of stature, climbs, that he may be raised up, when anyone who is humble and conscious of his own infirmity, trusting in the Lord, proclaims: But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 6:14). And having climbed the sycamore, he sees the Lord passing near, because through this praiseworthy foolishness he gazes on the light of heavenly wisdom, if not yet as it is, steadily, yet already swiftly and as it were in passing.

And when He had come to the place, Jesus, looking up, saw him. Walking through Jericho, the Saviour came to the place where Zacchaeus, running ahead, had climbed the sycamore; because, having sent through the world the heralds of His word, in whom He Himself, to be sure, both spoke and went, He came to the people of the nations, who, being already raised on high by faith in His passion, burned to be made blessed also by knowing the face of His divinity. Looking up He saw him, because He chose him, lifted by the grace of faith above earthly desires and standing out above the unbelieving crowds. For God's seeing is choosing or loving. Hence that saying: The eyes of the Lord are upon the just (Ps. 33:16). For we too love to look at what we love, and hasten to turn our gaze away from what we abhor. Jesus, then, saw him who saw Him, because He chose him who chose Him, and loved him who loved Him. This order of progress, that is, of coming through faith in the Lord's incarnation to the knowledge of the Godhead, as by a sycamore for contemplating the face of Jesus, the excellent teacher shows when he says: For I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Christ Jesus, and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). And likewise, reproaching others: You have become, he says, such as have need of milk, not of solid food (Heb. 5:12), calling the weak things of the temporal dispensation milk, and the lofty things of the eternal majesty solid food.

And He said to him: Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide in your house. And making haste

he came down, and received Him joyfully. The Lord once stayed in the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, that is, He taught in the synagogue of the Jews; but because with venomous tongue they found fault with Him for not being washed before dinner, for healing on the Sabbath, for receiving publicans and sinners, for disputing against avarice, and for doing the other things worthy of God, wearied of their misdeeds He departed, and withdrew, saying: Your house shall be left to you desolate (Matt. 23:38). But today He must abide in the house of little Zacchaeus, that is, with the grace of the new light shining, rest in the lowly heart of the believing nations. And that Zacchaeus is bidden to come down from the sycamore and so to prepare a dwelling for Christ in his house, this is what the Apostle says: For even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer (2 Cor. 5:16). For even if He died out of weakness, yet He lives by the power of God.

And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying that He had turned aside to a sinful man. It is plain that the Jews always hated the salvation of the Gentiles, for it is written: But on the following Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of the Lord. And the Jews, seeing the crowds, were filled with jealousy, and contradicted the things that were said by Paul (Acts 13:44–45). And elsewhere: Even the faithful brethren disputed against the prince of the apostles, saying: Why did you go in to men who have the foreskin, and eat with them (Acts 11:2–3)?

But Zacchaeus, standing, said to the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore fourfold. While others slander him as a sinful man, Zacchaeus himself, standing, that is, persisting in the truth of the faith which he had begun, proves that he is not only converted from a sinner but also has his conversation among the perfect. For since the Lord says: If you will be perfect, go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor (Matt. 19:21), whoever lived innocently before his conversion can, once converted, give all to the poor. But he who has taken anything by fraud must first restore it according to the law, and then give to the poor what remains to him. And so he too, because he keeps nothing for himself, scatters all that is his, gives to the poor; his justice remains for ever and ever (Ps. 111:9). And this is that wise foolishness which the publican had gathered from the sycamore as the fruit of life: namely, to restore what was seized, to leave what was his own, to despise things visible, to desire even to die for things invisible, to deny himself, and to long to follow the footsteps of that Lord who is not yet seen.

Jesus said to him: Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. Zacchaeus is called a son of Abraham, not because he was begotten of his stock, but because he imitated his faith; so that, as Abraham at the Lord's command left his land, his kindred and his father's house in hope of a future inheritance, so he too, to gain treasure in heaven, should leave his goods to be shared among the poor. And He says finely, He too, so that not only those who justly

persevere, but also those who come to their senses from injustice, belong to the children of the promise. Otherwise: Salvation, which once filled the house of the Jews, has today shone upon the people of the nations, because this people too is a son of Abraham by believing in Him. Of which the Apostle says: But if you are Christ's, then you are the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:29). And, as he says elsewhere, that Abraham himself may be father of the circumcision, not to those only who are of the circumcision, but also to those who follow the footsteps of the faith which is in the uncircumcision of our father Abraham (Rom. 4:12).

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. This is what He says elsewhere: I came not to call the just, but sinners (Matt. 9:13). A loving Master indeed, who does not disdain to explain His mysteries to the murmuring crowds: that the repentance of sinners is so far from being rejected that the Son of God Himself was sent to earth chiefly to seek it. And to impress upon us the dispensation of His loving-kindness, He very often calls Himself the Son of Man, earnestly commending to us what He became in His kindness for us.

As they heard these things, He went on and spoke a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God would be manifested at once. It is the Lord's custom to confirm a discourse given beforehand by parables added after it. Having received and commended, then, the repentance of the rich publican, He adds a parable and teaches that the repentance of sinners pleases Him more than the justice of the proud, and that He will reign more widely among the Gentiles, humble because of their ignorance of the law, than among the Jews, lifted up by the justice which is from the law. And because the disciples, having heard above of the Lord's passion and resurrection to be fulfilled at Jerusalem, did not understand what was said, thinking that the kingdom of God would come forthwith, He enlightens this ignorance of theirs and shows that He will first spread the faith of His kingdom through the whole world, and so at the end of the world will come as judge and king of all ages.

He said therefore: A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. That nobleman is He to whom the blind man cried out above: Son of David, have mercy on me (Luke 18:38). And as He came to Jerusalem they sang together: Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel (Matt. 21:9). The far country is the Church from the Gentiles. Of which it is said by the Father to that same nobleman, who speaks: But I am appointed King by Him (Ps. 2:6): Ask of Me, and I will give You the Gentiles for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession (Ps. 2:8). This inheritance and possession, namely, is called a far country for a twofold reason: either because it cries to the Lord from the ends of the earth, or because salvation is far from sinners (Ps. 118:155). And though God is present everywhere, yet the true God is far away from the understanding of those who worship idols. But those who were far off have been made near in the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:13).

And having called his ten servants, he gave them ten pounds. The number ten pertains to the law, because of the Decalogue. The householder therefore calls ten servants,

because He chooses disciples instructed through the letter of the law. He gives them ten pounds, because He reveals that the sayings of the law are to be understood spiritually. For after His passion and resurrection He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. For the pound, which the Greeks call mna, weighs a hundred drachmas. And every word of Scripture, because it suggests the perfection of the heavenly life, shines as it were with the weight of the number one hundred.

And he said to them: Trade until I come. Offer to the peoples, He says, the words of the law and the prophets, examined by mystical interpretation, and receive from them the confession of faith and uprightness of conduct. According to what the Psalmist commands his hearers, saying: Take up a psalm, and give the timbrel (Ps. 80:3). That is, receive the praise of preaching in the earnest attention of the heart, and render back the devotion of work in the chastisement of the flesh. For a timbrel is a skin stretched on wood. And the skin stretched on wood is our flesh afflicted after the example of the Lord's cross.

But his citizens hated him; and they sent an embassy after him, saying: We will not have this man to reign over us. By citizens He means the impious Jews. Of whom He declares elsewhere: But now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father (John 15:24). They not only hated Him while present, even to the death of the cross, but also after His resurrection sent persecution upon the apostles and spurned the preaching of the heavenly kingdom.

And it came to pass that he returned, having received the kingdom. He signifies the time when He will come in most manifest and most exalted brightness, who appeared lowly to them when He said: My kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36).

And he commanded the servants to whom he had given the money to be called, that he might know how much each had gained by trading. That he might know, He says: not that anything is hidden from Him to whom it was most truly said: Lord, You know all things (John 21:17). But that he might know, He says, meaning that he might make all to know. For then the works and thoughts of all are shown openly to all. As in Deuteronomy: The Lord your God tries you, it says, that He may know whether you love Him (Deut. 13:3); that is, that He may make it known. Let no one suppose that only those to whom the grace of preaching was given, and not also those to whom it was preached, are then to be called to judgement. For they are the money which the good servants gained by trading. Moreover, let him know that those too to whom it was never preached will be present there to be condemned, of whom we shall speak below.

And the first came, saying: Lord, your pound has gained ten pounds. The first servant is the order of teachers sent to the circumcision, which received one pound to trade with, because it was commanded to preach one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. But this same pound gained ten pounds, because by teaching it joined to itself the people set under the law.

And he said to him: Well done, good servant; because you have been faithful in a little, you shall have authority over ten cities.

The servant is faithful in a little who does not adulterate the word of God, but speaks as from God, before God, in Christ (2 Cor. 2:17). For whatever gifts we receive in the present are very little and slight in comparison with those to come, because we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, that which is in part will be done away (1 Cor. 13:9–10). And the ten cities are the souls coming through the word of the law to the grace of the Gospel. Over them he is then rightly set, to be glorified, who has lent them the money of the word in a manner worthy of God. Hence a certain excellent trader, addressing the cities over which he presided, that is, the souls which he had received to govern, says: What is our hope or joy, or crown of glory? Is it not you, before the Lord Jesus (1 Thess. 2:19)?

And the second came, saying: Lord, your pound has made five pounds. This servant is the company of those who were sent to evangelize the uncircumcision, to whom, as they went to preach, the Lord had given one pound, that is, one and the same faith which was entrusted also to the circumcision; but this made five pounds, because it converted to the grace of the Gospel faith the Gentiles, who had before been enslaved to the senses of the body.

And to him he said: Be you also over five cities. That is, shine great and exalted from the faith and conversion of the souls which he had instructed. Of these Isaiah speaks mystically: In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt, speaking the tongue of Canaan (Isa. 19:18). For the five cities in the land of Egypt are the five senses of the body which we use in this world, namely sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. And he who looks on a woman to lust after her (Matt. 5:28); he who turns away his ears so as not to hear the poor man (Prov. 21:13); he who is drunk with wine, wherein is wantonness (Eph. 5:18); he who delights to crown himself with roses before they wither (Wis. 2:8); he whose hands are full of blood, and whose right hand is filled with gifts (Ps. 25:10): the five cities of such a man speak the tongue of Egypt, that is, all his senses do the works of darkness. For Egypt means darkness. But he who stops his ears so as not to hear of blood, and shuts his eyes so as not to see evil (Isa. 33:15), who tastes and sees how sweet the Lord is (Ps. 33:9), who chastises his body and brings it into subjection (1 Cor. 9:27), who can say with the Apostle, We are the good odour of Christ unto God (2 Cor. 2:15): the cities of such a man speak with a changed tongue, which is what Canaan is interpreted. And he who by teaching had changed them from darkness is rightly said to be set over five cities, because he is honoured not only for his own progress but also for the progress of his hearers, whom he called to the light.

And another came, saying: Lord, behold your pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin. For I feared you, because you are a severe man: you take up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow. The servant who, bidden to trade, laid up the Lord's money that he had received in a napkin, represents those who, though fit to preach, refuse either so much as to undertake the office of preaching, enjoined by the Lord through the Church,

or to discharge it worthily once they have taken it up. For to tie the money up in a napkin is to hide the gifts received under the idleness of a sluggish torpor. For there are men who flatter themselves with this perversity, so as to say: "It is enough that each one render account for himself. What need is there to preach to others, so that one should be compelled to render account for them too, when before the Lord even those are without excuse to whom the law was not given, and who did not fall asleep after hearing the Gospel, since through the creature they could have known the Creator?" For this is, as it were, to reap where He did not sow, that is, to hold guilty of impiety even those to whom the word of the law or of the Gospel was not ministered. But these, as though avoiding a peril of judgement, rest in sluggish languor from the ministry of the word, and this is, as it were, to tie up in a napkin what they have received.

He says to him: Out of your own mouth I judge you, wicked servant (Luke 19:22). He is called a wicked servant because he is both slothful and idle in carrying on the business, and insolent and proud in accusing the Lord's judgement.

You knew that I am an austere man, taking up what I did not lay down, and I reap what I did not sow; and why did you not give my money to the bank? (Luke 19:22–23). What he had thought he said by way of excuse is turned into his own fault. "If," He says, "you knew me to be hard and cruel, and to pursue what belongs to others and to reap there where I have not sown, why did not a thought of that kind strike fear into you, so that you would know that I would seek my own the more diligently, and would give my money, or silver, to the bank?" For the Greek word ἀργυρίῳ signifies both. "The words of the Lord," it says, "are pure words, silver tried by fire" (Ps. 11:7). The money and the silver, then, is the preaching of the Gospel and the divine word, which ought to have been given to the bank, that is, imparted to the ready and prepared hearts of the faithful. To this bank, namely the mind of the hearers, no other money is to be brought than the Lord's, so that every word of one who teaches may follow the sense of Scripture. For that the Lord here says that not just any money, but His own, is to be lent out by the money-changers, the Apostle expounds, saying: If anyone speaks, [let it be] as the words of God (1 Pet. 4:11).

And I, coming, would surely have required it with interest (Luke 19:23). He who receives the money of the word from a teacher, and buys it by believing, must pay it back with interest by working, so that what he has learned by hearing he may also carry out in deed. For in interest money is received back that was not even given. Or certainly he pays interest on the loan of the word received who, from what he hears, strives to understand other things also, which he has not yet learned from the preacher's mouth.

And he says to those standing by: Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas. And they said to him: Lord, he has ten minas (Luke 19:24–25). Rightly does he lose the grace bestowed, which he neglected to share with others by preaching, so that it may be increased for him who laboured with it. According to what is said to the angel of the Church of Ephesus: And I will move your lampstand from its place, unless you do penance (Rev. 2:5). And when the royal anointing, which Saul lost by his pride, David earned by his obedience: "The Spirit," it says,

"of the Lord departed from Saul, and was directed upon David from that day and thenceforward" (1 Sam. 16:13–14). But that the mina taken away from the wicked servant was ordered to be given to him who had ten minas indicates mystically, as I think, that when the fullness of the Gentiles has entered, all Israel will be saved (Rom. 11:25–26), and that then the abundance of spiritual grace which we now suddenly exercise is to be conferred upon the teachers of that people.

But I say to you that to everyone who has it shall be given; but from him who has not, even what he has shall be taken away from him (Luke 19:26). This saying looks back to what precedes, teaching that he can lose the gift of God who, having, has not, that is, does not use it; and that it is increased in him who, having, has, that is, uses it well. And since this exchange of graces is wont to take place in this life, it is to be noted that that examination by the returning Lord is even now carried out in part, but is then to be fulfilled universally. For daily, having received the kingdom from the Father, He returns, because He looks upon the state of the Church sojourning on earth. Daily, among so great a number of faithful servants, He lends money to this one who is to trade with it; in another He examines the measure of the work accomplished; this one, labouring faithfully and prudently, He endows with the gift of ampler grace; that one, who pursues soft idleness and leisure wasted in luxury, He deprives even of what He had given. But when the universal judgement is made manifest — a thing terrible even to speak of — many who seemed fit for teaching will, for the harm of their negligence, be reckoned among the untaught. But other, simpler brethren, wholly ignorant even of the first elements, will nevertheless, for the devotion of their excellent way of life, receive the highest rewards among the apostolic teachers. For he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward (Matt. 10:41).

But as for those enemies of mine who would not have me reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me (Luke 19:27). He signifies the impiety of the Jews, or of all the reprobate who refuse to be converted to Christ, which is to be punished on the day of judgement; so that by the two faithful servants the teachers of both peoples are signified, by the ten and five minas the believing peoples themselves, by the wicked servant bad catholics, by the enemies who would not have Him reign over them the impiety of those who preferred either never to hear the word of faith or to corrupt it by evil interpretation, and by the reaping of the unsown field the examination even of those to whom it did not befall to hear the word of God. By these five persons the whole human race as it will be on the day of judgement is expressed.

And having said these things, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem (Luke 19:28). The parable finished, He goes up to Jerusalem, to show that the parable had been put forward above all concerning what would befall that same city, which not long afterwards was both to slay Him Himself and, for its hatred of His kingdom, to perish in a hostile slaughter.

And it came to pass, when He had drawn near to Bethphage and Bethany, to the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of His disciples, saying: Go into the village that is over against you (Luke 19:29–30). Bethphage was a little village of the priests on the Mount of Olives. Bethany too was a small township or city

on the side of the same mount, about fifteen furlongs from Jerusalem, as John the evangelist makes plain, where Lazarus was raised from the dead; and a church now built there shows his tomb as well. Now Bethphage is called "house of the mouth", Bethany "house of obedience". These the Saviour, as He was about to come to Jerusalem, exalted by the condescension of His presence, because before His Passion, by teaching, He filled many with the gifts of devout confession and spiritual obedience. These fair cities are reported to be set on the Mount of Olives, that is, in the Lord Himself, who refreshes us with the anointing of spiritual gifts and with the light of knowledge and piety. Hence, when He said elsewhere: A city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden (Matt. 5:14), He at once added: Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a bushel (ibid. 5:15); because the same Mount of Olives, that is, the supreme distributor of spiritual graces, who raises up His city so that it may stand out, also kindles it with the oil of gladness so that it may give light. And because He would not have that same light put under a bushel, He sent the disciples into the village that was over against them; that is, He took care to dispatch teachers who by evangelizing would penetrate the untaught and barbarous shores of the whole world, as it were the walls of a village set over against them. And rightly are two sent, whether on account of knowledge of the truth and purity of work, or on account of the mystery of the twofold love, namely of God and of neighbour, to be preached throughout the world.

Entering into it, you will find a colt of an ass tied, on which no man ever sat. Loose it and bring it. And if anyone asks you why you loose it, you shall say to him thus: Because the Lord desires its service (Luke 19:30–31). Entering the world, the preachers found the people of the nations entangled in the bonds of unbelief. For each one was bound with the cords of his own sins, not only of the nations but of the Jews as well. For all have sinned, and lack the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Hence it is well that in Matthew an ass too is found tied with the colt. For the ass, which was a beast of burden and, broken in, had drawn the yoke of the law, signifies the synagogue; the colt of the ass, wanton and free, represents the people of the nations. On which no man ever sat: that is, no rational teacher had put on it the bridle of reproof, by which it would be compelled either to restrain its tongue from evil or to walk the narrow way of life; no one had, by persuading it to what is profitable, put on it the garments of salvation, by which it might be warmed spiritually. For a man would be sitting on it if someone using reason were to correct its follies by keeping them down. Hence not undeservedly can the two disciples sent to bring the animals to the Lord be understood, after the example of the parable above, as the two orders of preachers, one directed to the Gentiles, the other to the circumcision. And it is to be noted that the three evangelists who wrote in the Greek tongue mention only the colt; but Matthew alone, who wrote his Gospel for the Hebrews and in the Hebrew speech, relates that the ass too was loosed and brought to the Lord, so as to show that the salvation of that same Hebrew people also, if it repents, is not to be despaired of. Loose it, He says, and bring it. For whatsoever

you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven (Matt. 18:18).

And those who had been sent went away, and found the colt standing, as He had told them (Luke 19:32). Mark writes that the colt was found outside before the door, where two ways met. Now the door is He Himself who says: I am the door of the sheep; by me if anyone enters in he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out, and shall find pastures (John 10:7, 9). These pastures of life this colt, that is, the people of the Gentiles, lacked, while it still stood tied where two ways met, outside this door. And rightly where two ways met, because it did not hold with certainty the one way of life and faith, but in its error followed the many and doubtful paths of the sects. Of these it is fittingly added:

And as they were loosing the colt, its owners said to them: Why do you loose the colt? (Luke 19:33). For it had many owners, since, not devoted to a single doctrine and superstition, it was dragged about, wretched, at the pleasure of unclean spirits into various and divers errors, going to dumb idols as it was led. In fact, by a certain native usage of Scripture, what is unclean is called common, as the voice from heaven also says to Peter: What God has cleansed, do not you call common (Acts 11:9). For he who is holy belongs to God alone, and is common to no one with Him. But he who is a sinner and unclean belongs to many. For many demons possess him, and therefore he is called common.

But they said: Because the Lord has need of it. And they led it to Jesus (Luke 19:34–35). Those who had spoken against the loosing of the colt fall quiet on hearing the Lord's name; because the masters of errors, who withstood the teachers coming for the salvation of the Gentiles, [continued] to defend their own darkness only until, with miracles bearing witness, the power of the true possessor and Lord shone forth. But after the might of the Lord's faith appeared, the complaints of the adversaries everywhere giving way, the free company of believers, to carry God in their heart, is brought.

And casting their garments upon the colt, they set Jesus on it (Luke 19:35). The garments of the apostles can be understood as the teaching of the virtues, or the exposition of the Scriptures, or certainly the varieties of the Church's doctrines, with which they cover the hearts of men, before naked and cold, so that they may become worthy of Christ as rider.

And as He went, they spread their garments beneath in the way (Luke 19:36). While the ass carries the Lord, the disciples strew their garments in the way, because, stripping themselves of the clothing of their own body, they prepare with their blood a way for the simpler servants of God, so that with untroubled step of mind they may walk to Jerusalem, whither Jesus leads. For Jesus, sitting on the little ass, makes for Jerusalem when, either ruling the soul of each of the faithful, He leads, as it were, His beast of burden to the vision of inmost peace, or also when He presides over holy Church universally and kindles her to the desire of the peace above. And since, according to the other evangelists, not only the disciples but also very many of the crowd were spreading their garments in the way, by them can be signified also those who, following the examples of the martyrs, subdue their bodies through abstinence,

so as to prepare the Lord's way to the mind, or to offer good examples to those who follow.

And when He was now drawing near to the descent of the Mount of Olives, all the crowds of those going down began rejoicing to praise God with a loud voice (Luke 19:37). As the Lord comes down from the Mount of Olives, the crowds, rejoicing and praising, themselves come down together with Him, because, since the author of mercy has humbled Himself of His own will, it is necessary that those who most need mercy should imitate the footsteps of His humility as far as they are able. It is necessary, I say, that we, beholding how Jesus came down from the Mount of Olives, that is, how, being in the form of God, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, should ourselves also be humbled under His mighty hand, that we may be found worthy to be exalted in the time of visitation.

For all the mighty works which they had seen, saying: Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord (Luke 19:37–38). They had indeed seen many mighty works of the Lord, but they marvelled most at the raising of Lazarus, which had lately been done, the crowd that was with Him when He called him from the tomb and raised him from the dead bearing witness. For the prophet too, and the crowd, came to meet Him, because they had heard that He had done this sign. For it is to be noted that the Saviour did not now go to Jerusalem coming for the first time from Galilee, that is, five days before the Pasch; but in the past year, in the seventh month, He had come there for the feast day of Tabernacles, as John records, and thenceforth for six continuous months, that is, until the day of the Pasch on which He suffered, He now did signs and taught in Jerusalem, now went up the Mount of Olives, now, driven out of Judaea, went away across the Jordan, now stayed with His disciples in the city of the desert which is called Ephrem; but at no time in that period did He return to Galilee. For all the mighty works, then, which they had seen Him do over so long a time, the crowds praise God, saying:

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; peace in heaven, and glory in the highest (Luke 19:38). Now Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord is rather to be taken thus, that in the name of the Lord is understood as in the name of God the Father, though it can also be understood as in His own name, since He too is Lord. Whence it is written elsewhere: The Lord rained from the Lord. But His own words better direct our understanding, when He says: I came in the name of my Father, and you did not receive me; another will come in his own name, him you will receive (John 5:43). For Christ is the master of humility, who humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death (Phil. 2:8). He does not, then, lose His divinity when He teaches us humility. And Christ is King of Israel not to exact tribute, or to arm an army with steel and to vanquish enemies visibly, but King of Israel in that He rules minds, in that He takes counsel for eternity, in that He leads into the kingdom of heaven those who believe, hope and love. That the Son of God, then, equal to the Father, the Word through whom all things were made, willed to be King of Israel is condescension, not promotion; it is a sign of compassion, not an increase of power. For He who was called

King of the Jews on earth is in heaven Lord of the angels. But since Christ in the flesh shone forth as the propitiation of the whole world, that is, both of men and of angels, things heavenly and things earthly together fittingly sing in answer to one another in praise of His dispensation. For at His birth the hosts of the heavenly powers, praising God, sing: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men (Luke 2:14); and when He is about to triumph over the prince of the world and soon to return Himself to heaven, mortals give back praise in turn: Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.

And some of the Pharisees from among the crowds said to Him: Master, rebuke Thy disciples (Luke 19:39). Wondrous the madness of the envious! Him whom they do not hesitate to call Master, because they knew Him to teach true things, they think, as though better instructed, that His disciples ought to be reproved; and they urge Him to correct those whom He has trained, Him whom they see shine forth as God by the approving signs.

To whom He said: I tell you that if these keep silent, the stones will cry out (Luke 19:40). When the Lord was crucified, all His acquaintances stood afar off; they feared to confess as God Him whom they saw fastened to the wood; but while these were silent, the stones and rocks with a great cry sang the King who comes in the name of the Lord. For He gave up the spirit, and behold, the earth was moved, and the rocks were rent, and the tombs were opened: and Him whom men, through fear or through unbelief, trembled to confess, even the hardest elements proclaim with open mouth as God and Lord of the world. But by a higher mystery He shows under the name of stones the nations of the Gentiles, once unbelieving and hard of heart, from whom, taking away the heart of stone, He gave a heart of flesh (Ezek. 11:19), that is, one capable of feeling and humane, by which they might believe, praise and discern God their Creator. Even if, then, the crowds of men keep silent, the stones will cry out, because blindness in part has befallen Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles should enter in, and so all Israel should be saved (Rom. 11:25–26).

And when He drew near, seeing the city, He wept over it, saying: If you also had known (Luke 19:41–42). That by the Lord's weeping is described that overthrow of Jerusalem which was carried out by Vespasian and Titus, the Roman princes, no one who reads the history of its destruction is unaware. But first we must ask what is meant by what is said: Seeing the city, He wept over it, saying: If you also had known. For the loving Redeemer wept over the ruin of the faithless city, which the city itself did not know was to come. To which the weeping Lord rightly says: If you also had known — understand: you would have wept, you who now, because you know not what threatens, exult. Whence there is added:

And indeed in this your day, the things that are for your peace (Luke 19:42). For while it gave itself to the pleasures of the flesh and did not foresee the evils to come, in its day it had the things that could be for its peace. But why it had present goods for peace is made plain when there is added:

But now they are hidden from your eyes (Luke 19:42). For if the evils that were threatening had not been hidden from the eyes of its heart, it would not have been glad in present prosperity. Its punishment also, which, as

I said before, threatened from the Roman princes, is soon added as well, when it is said:

For the days shall come upon you, and your enemies shall surround you with a rampart. And they shall surround you, and hem you in on every side, and lay you low to the ground, and your children who are in you (Luke 19:43–44). This too which is added: And they shall not leave in you a stone upon a stone (Luke 19:44) — the very removal of that same city now bears witness to it, for while it is now built in that place where the Lord had been crucified outside the gate, that former Jerusalem was overthrown from its foundations. As to the fault for which the punishment of its overthrow was brought upon it, there is added:

Because you have not known the time of your visitation (Luke 19:44). For the Creator of all deigned to visit her through the mystery of the Incarnation, but she was not mindful of the fear and love of Him. Hence too, through the prophet, in rebuke of the human heart, the birds of heaven are brought forward in witness, when it is said: The kite in the heaven has known its time; the turtle-dove and the swallow and the stork have kept the time of their coming; but my people has not known the judgement of the Lord (Jer. 8:7).

And having entered into the temple, He began to cast out those who sold in it and those who bought, saying to them: It is written that my house is a house of prayer (Luke 19:45–46). He who recounted the evils to come, and at once entered the temple to cast out of it those who sold and bought, assuredly made it known that the ruin of the people came above all from the fault of the priests. For, describing the overthrow, yet striking those who sold and bought in the temple, He showed by the very effect of His deed whence the root of perdition sprang.

But you have made it a den of robbers (Luke 19:46). Those who sat in the temple to receive gifts — there was no doubt that they sought to do injury to some who did not give. The house of prayer, then, had been made a den of robbers, because they knew how to stand in the temple for this end: either to strive to persecute bodily those who did not give gifts, or to slay spiritually those who gave. But since our Redeemer does not withdraw the words of preaching even from the unworthy and ungrateful, after He had maintained the vigour of discipline by casting out the perverse, He soon displayed the gift of grace; for there is added:

And He was teaching daily in the temple (Luke 19:47). These things we have run through, treating them briefly according to the history; now let us take them up again to be examined in the moral sense. Seeing the city, He wept over it, saying: If you also had known. This He did once, when He announced that the city would perish. This our Redeemer by no means ceases to do daily through His elect, when He sees that some have passed from a good life to reprobate ways. For He bewails those who do not know why they are bewailed, because, according to the words of Solomon, they rejoice when they have done evil, and exult in the worst things (Prov. 2:14). If they had recognized the damnation that threatens them, they would bewail themselves with tears for their offences. And indeed in this your day, the things that are for your peace. The perverse soul has its own day here, which rejoices in passing time. To it the things that are present are for peace, because while it is glad in temporal things, while it is lifted up by honours, while in

the will of the flesh it is dissolved, while it is terrified by no dread of the punishment to come, it has peace in its own day — it which will have the grievous stumbling of its damnation in a day not its own. For it is to be afflicted there where the just will rejoice. But now they are hidden from your eyes. The perverse soul, given over to present things, dissolved in earthly pleasures, hides from itself the evils that follow, because it shuns foreseeing the things to come which would disturb its present gladness. And while it abandons itself in the delight of the present life, what else is it doing but going with closed eyes into the fire? For the days shall come upon you, and your enemies shall surround you with a rampart. What greater enemies has the human soul ever had than the malignant spirits? They besiege it as it goes out from the body, whom, while it was set in the love of the flesh, they cherished with deceitful delights. They surround it with a rampart, because, bringing back before the eyes of its mind the iniquities which it committed, they hem it in, dragging it into the fellowship of their own damnation. And they shall surround you, and hem you in on every side. The malignant spirits hem in the soul on every side when they unfold before it the iniquities not only of deed, but also of speech, and moreover of thought, so that she who before spread herself abroad through many things in wickedness may at the last be straitened in retribution on account of all things. And they shall lay you low to the ground, and your children who are in you. Then is the soul laid low to the ground through the knowledge of its guilt, when the flesh which it believed to be its life is driven to return to the dust. Then in death its children fall, when the unlawful thoughts which now proceed from it are scattered in the final punishment of life, as it is written: In that day all their thoughts shall perish. These hard thoughts, namely, can also be understood through the signification of stones. For there follows: And they shall not leave in you a stone upon a stone. For when the perverse mind adds further perversity to a perverse thought, what else does it do but set stone upon stone? But in the destroyed city stone is not left upon stone, because when the soul is led away to its punishment, the whole construction of its thoughts is scattered from it. Because you have not known the time of your visitation. Almighty God is wont to visit the perverse soul also in many ways. For He visits it constantly by precept, sometimes by the scourge, sometimes by miracle, so that it may both hear true things which it did not know, and, though still proud and contemptuous, may either return pierced with sorrow or, overcome by benefits, blush for the evil it has done. But because it does not at all know the time of its visitation, it is handed over at the end of life to those enemies with whom it is bound together in the fellowship of its damnation at the eternal judgement. And having entered into the temple, He began to cast out those who sold in it and those who bought. As the temple of God is in the city, so is the life of the religious in the faithful people. And often some take up the habit of religion, but while they obtain the place of the sacred orders, they turn the office of holy religion into the commerce of earthly trade. For those are sellers in the temple who bestow for a reward what is due to certain persons by right. For to sell justice is to keep it for the receiving of a reward.

And those are buyers in the temple who, while they are unwilling to pay their neighbour these things which are just, and while they disdain to do the thing owed by right, buy sin by giving a reward to their patrons. To these it is well said: My house is a house of prayer. But you have made it a den of robbers. For when at times perverse men hold the place of religion, they slay with the swords of their malice there where they ought to have given life to their neighbours by the intercession of their prayer. The temple and house of God is also the very mind and conscience of the faithful; and if ever it brings forth perverse thoughts to the injury of a neighbour, robbers, as it were, sit in a den, and slay those who walk in simplicity, when they plunge the swords of injury into those who are guilty in nothing. For the mind of the faithful is no longer a house of prayer but a den of a robber when, having abandoned innocence and the simplicity of holiness, it strives to do that by which it may harm its neighbours. But since against all these perverse things we are unceasingly instructed by the words of our Redeemer through the sacred pages, there is done even to this day what is reported to have been done when it is said:

And He was teaching daily in the temple. For when He finely instructs the mind of the faithful to beware of evils, the Truth teaches daily in the temple.

But the chief priests and the scribes and the chiefs of the people sought to destroy Him, and they did not find what they might do to Him (Luke 19:47–48). Either because He taught daily in the temple, or because He had cast the robbers out of the temple, or because, coming thither as King and Lord, He received from so great a crowd of believers the praise of a heavenly hymn, the envious chiefs sought to destroy Him.

For all the people hung upon Him, hearing Him (Luke 19:48). This can be understood in two ways: either that, fearing the tumult of the people, they did not find what they might do to Jesus, whom they had resolved to destroy; or that they sought to destroy Jesus for this reason, that they saw more people, their own teaching neglected, flocking to hear Him. Meanwhile it is pleasing to observe in a few words how beautifully the legal shadow of the Pasch agrees with our true Pasch, in which Christ was sacrificed, not only by reason of the mystery but also by reason of the time. On the tenth day, it says, of the first month let each take a lamb by the families of his house. According to which rite you shall take also a kid, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month (Exod. 12:3, 5–6). For on the tenth day of the first month, that is, five days before the Pasch, as John the evangelist testifies, the whole people, going out to the Mount of Olives, took the Lord from there. He is a lamb, because He came to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin; a kid, because He was charged with sin. Those brought the lamb home who sang rejoicing: Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; [those brought] the kid who, zealous against Him, said: Master, rebuke Thy disciples. The lamb, the whole people who hung upon Him hearing Him; the kid, the chiefs who desired to destroy Him. And for five days before the Pasch, that is, from the tenth moon to the fourteenth, they kept the lamb or kid that they were to sacrifice. For although even then they thirsted for His blood,

yet no one laid hands on Him, because His hour had not yet come. Those kept the lamb who listened gladly to His words; the kid, those who, lying in wait, sought to catch something from His mouth that they might accuse Him. But when the fourteenth day was completed, that is, had declined towards evening, after He had handed on to His disciples the sacraments of His body and blood to be celebrated, when those came who were to seize and bind Him, there began to be fulfilled what follows: And the whole multitude of the children of Israel shall sacrifice it at evening (Exod. 12:6). For there stood by the cross of Jesus not only the impious, to deride His death, but also the holy, to mourn. It has pleased me to touch on these things in a few words, in order to remind the reader that all that follows from here up to the Lord's Passion belongs to the figure of the lamb kept in the house and made ready for slaughter.

CHAPTER XX.

And it came to pass on one of the days, as He was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the Gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came together, and spoke, saying to Him: Tell us by what authority Thou doest these things (Luke 20:1–2). In different ways they build up the same calumny as above, when they said: By Beelzebub the prince of demons he casts out demons (Luke 11:15). For when they say: By what authority doest Thou these things? they doubt the power of God, and wish it to be understood that what He does is the devil's. Adding also:

Or who is it that gave Thee this authority? (Luke 20:2). Most manifestly they deny the Son of God, who they think works signs not by His own power but by another's.

And answering He said to them: I also will ask you one word. Answer me: was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? (Luke 20:3–4). The Lord could have refuted the calumny of His tempters by an open answer, but He wisely asks a question, so that they may be condemned either by their own silence or by their own verdict.

But they reasoned among themselves, saying: If we say, From heaven, he will say: Why then did you not believe him? (Luke 20:5). He whom you confess to have had prophecy from heaven bore witness to me, and from him you have heard, therefore, by what authority I do these things.

But if we say, From men, the whole people will stone us; for they are sure that John is a prophet (Luke 20:6). They saw, then, that whichever of these they answered, they would fall into the snare, fearing stoning, but fearing more the confession of the truth.

And they answered that they did not know whence it was. And Jesus said to them: Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things (Luke 20:7–8). I do not tell you what I know, because you will not confess what you know. Most justly repulsed, they went away confounded indeed, and there was fulfilled what God the Father says in the psalm through the Prophet: I have prepared a lamp for my Christ (Ps. 131:17), that is, John himself; His enemies I will clothe with confusion (ibid. 131:18). But it is to be noted that for two reasons above all the knowledge of the truth is to be hidden from those who seek it: namely, when he who seeks is either too little capable of understanding what he seeks, or, through hatred or contempt of the truth itself, is unworthy that it should

to be opened to him what he seeks. Because of the first of these the Lord says: I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now (John 16:12). Because of the other He instructs the disciples: Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine (Matt. 7:6).

And He began to tell the people this parable: A man planted a vineyard, and let it out to tenants, and he himself went abroad for a long time. While the Lord was teaching the people and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came together and, testing Him, asked by what authority He was doing signs. Having overcome them with their own craft, the Lord carries on with what He had begun. Indeed, with them also listening, He addresses rather the people, because it hears His words more gladly; that is, bringing in a parable by which He might both convict those men of impiety and teach that the kingdom of God was to be transferred to the Gentiles. So the man who planted the vineyard is He who, according to another parable, hired labourers into His vineyard (Matt. 20:1). For the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house of Israel (Isa. 5:7). The tenants are the same as the labourers who are said to have been hired at the first, third, sixth and ninth hour to cultivate the vineyard. He himself went abroad, not by change of place. For whence can God be absent, who says: I fill heaven and earth (Jer. 23:24)? and elsewhere: I am a God at hand, and not from afar, says the Lord? But He is said to go away from the vineyard so as to leave the vinedressers free choice in their working. Like this is what He says through Isaiah of the vineyard let out to tenants: And I waited for it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes (Isa. 5:4).

And at the season he sent a servant to the cultivators, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard. They beat him and sent him away empty. Well did He set down a season of fruits, not of yields. For no fruit of the Jews appeared, no yield of this vineyard was found, although it was sought often and with care. So the servant who was sent first is understood as Moses the lawgiver himself, who for forty years without break sought from the cultivators some fruit of the law he had given; but they beat him and sent him away empty. For they provoked Moses in the camp, and Aaron the holy one of the Lord. And Moses was afflicted on their account, because they embittered his spirit. This servant too declares openly in a song what he thinks of the fruit of the vineyard, saying: For their vine is of the vineyard of Sodom, and their offshoot of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, a cluster of bitterness to them. Their wine is the rage of dragons, and the incurable rage of asps (Deut. 32:32–33).

And he proceeded to send another servant. But they, beating this one also and treating him shamefully, sent him away empty. The other servant signifies David, prophet and king, who was sent after Moses so that, after the decrees of the law, he might stir the tenants of the vineyard to the practice of good works by the measures of psalmody and the sweetness of the harp. For David himself, to lift the heart of the people to things above, ordained that among the rites of carnal sacrifices the praises of the Lord be sung continually with sweet melody. But this one too they treated shamefully and sent away empty. For saying: What part have we in David, or

what inheritance in the son of Jesse (1 Kgs. 12:16)? they exchanged the kingdom together with David for an ignoble stock, and religion for impiety. Yet he prays for this vineyard, which, transplanted from Egypt, covered the mountains of Palestine with its shade, that it be not utterly destroyed: O Lord God of hosts, turn now, look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vineyard, and direct that which Thy right hand has planted (Ps. 79:15–16). Where he likewise sets out who that man is who planted this vineyard, namely the Lord God of hosts.

And he proceeded to send a third, and him too they wounded and cast out. By the third servant understand the choir of the prophets, who confronted the people with continual testimonies and foretold the evils that were coming upon this vineyard and hung over it. But which of the prophets did they not persecute? and they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One (Acts 7:52). These indeed said much of the barrenness of this vineyard, but let it suffice to set down the lament of Jeremiah alone: But I, he says, planted you a choice vine, wholly a true seed. How then have you turned into a degenerate thing, a strange vine (Jer. 2:21)? For the protection of this vineyard, that is, lest there should spring up in it or in its place a herb of frail and weak sweetness soon to perish, we read that Naboth the Jezreelite was not only wounded but even killed. And though we receive from him no prophetic saying, yet we receive a prophetic deed, because by his own blood he prophesied the many martyrs who would be for this vineyard. That under these three grades of servants the figure of all the teachers under the law can be comprehended, the Lord shows plainly elsewhere, saying: For all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning Me (Luke 24:44).

But the lord of the vineyard said: What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Perhaps when they see him they will respect him. That the lord of the vineyard is said to speak in a doubting and not a deliberative manner does not come from ignorance. For what could the lord of the vineyard not know, who in this place is understood as God the Father? But God is always said to be in doubt so that free will may be reserved to man. When the tenants saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying: This is the heir; let us kill him, that the inheritance may become ours. The Lord proves most plainly that the rulers of the Jews crucified the Son of God not through ignorance but through envy. For they understood that this was He to whom it was said: Ask of Me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance (Ps. 2:8). And therefore, as if taking counsel for themselves, they said: Behold, the whole world is gone after Him, and if we let Him alone thus, all will believe in Him (John 12:19; 11:48). The inheritance of the Son, then, is the Church given to Him from all the nations, which the Father did not leave Him by dying, but which He Himself wonderfully acquired by His own death, because by rising He possessed it. This the wicked tenants strove to snatch away by killing Him, when the Jews, crucifying Him, tried to extinguish the faith that is through Him, and rather to put forward their own righteousness which is of the law, and to instil it into the nations who were to be taught.

And they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Outside the vineyard the heir of the vineyard is slain, because Jesus, that He might sanctify

the people by His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Or else He was cast out of the vineyard and killed because He was first repulsed from the heart of the unbelieving and then given over to the cross. In figure of this, Moses set the altar of holocaust, on which the blood of the victims was to be poured, not within the tabernacle but at the door, teaching mystically that the altar of the Lord's cross too was to be set outside the gate of Jerusalem, and that Christ Himself, the true victim of the Father, was not to be received into the inmost heart by the house of the Jews which He had come to sanctify, but was to be dyed outside with His own blood. But what is said according to Mark in changed order: And taking him they killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard (Mark 12:8), marks the obstinacy of those who would not believe even when the apostles preached the Lord crucified and raised from the dead, but cast Him out like a worthless corpse. For, as far as lay in them, shutting Him out of their borders, they gave Him over to the Gentiles to receive.

What then will the lord of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and will give the vineyard to others. On hearing this, they said: God forbid. They contradicted the Lord's judgement because they knew it was against their own faithlessness. For they understood the parable, not as men already prepared by the merit of holiness to grasp the words of the mystery, but as men inflamed by the flames of malice to do what was being spoken of; and so they were ready to recognize what they had had in mind, though it was spoken in parables, as something long since premeditated. Since, then, the Jews denied that it would be just for the knowledge of the divine law, which they themselves despised, to be transferred to the Gentiles, see what the Saviour answers.

But He, looking at them, said: What then is this that is written: The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner? How, He says, will this prophecy be fulfilled, which says that the stone rejected by the builders is to be set at the head of the corner, unless because Christ, rejected and killed by you, is to be preached to the Gentiles who will believe? so that, as a corner-stone joining the two in Himself, He may build out of both peoples one city of the faithful for Himself, one temple. For the same masters of the Synagogue whom He had above called tenants He now calls builders, because those who were bidden to cultivate the people subject to them, like a vineyard, to bear the fruits of life, were also bidden to build and adorn it like a house worthy of God as its indweller. Hence the Apostle too, writing to the faithful, says: You are God's husbandry, God's building (1 Cor. 3:9). But those who as bad husbandmen strove to deny the fruit of God's vineyard, the same as bad masons strove to withdraw from the house of God the precious chosen stone, which was to be set either in the foundations or in the corner, that is, to snatch the faith of Christ from their hearers. But although they were unwilling, the same stone made firm the head of the corner, because He joined by His faith as many of both peoples as He willed.

Everyone who falls upon that stone will be shattered. But on whomever it falls, it will crush him. It is one thing to offend Christ by evil works, another to deny Him by impiety. He who is a sinner and yet believes in Him falls indeed upon the stone and is shattered, but is not utterly crushed; for he is kept through

wisdom unto salvation. But on whom it shall fall, that is, upon whom the stone itself shall rush, and who has denied Christ utterly, it will crush him, so that not even a potsherd remains in which a little water might be drawn. Or else He speaks of those who fall upon Him as those who now despise Him or do Him injuries. Therefore they do not yet perish utterly, but are nevertheless shattered, so that they do not walk upright. But on those upon whom it falls, it will come upon them from above in the judgement with the punishment of perdition. Therefore He said it will crush them, that the impious may be like the dust which the wind drives from the face of the earth (Ps. 1:4).

And the chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on Him at that hour, and they feared the people. For they knew that He had spoken this parable against them. The chief priests and the scribes sought to kill the Lord as one speaking falsely against them, but by this very seeking they showed that what He said was true. For He is the heir whose unjust death He said was to be avenged; they are the wicked tenants, who could be held back from killing the Son of God for a little while indeed by human fear, until His hour should come, but never restrained by divine love. In the moral sense, when the mystery of baptism is entrusted to each of the faithful to exercise by working, it is as though a vineyard were let out to him to cultivate. One servant is sent, a second and a third, to receive of the fruit, when the law, the psalmody and the prophecy are read, whose admonition he is to follow by acting well. But the servant who is sent is treated shamefully or beaten and cast out when the word that is heard is either despised or, what is worse, even blasphemed. Moreover he kills the heir who is sent, as far as lies in him, who has trodden underfoot the Son of God and done outrage to the Spirit of grace by whom he was sanctified. When the bad cultivator is destroyed, the vineyard will be given to another, when every humble man will be enriched with the gift of grace which the proud man despised. And this too, that the chief priests and the scribes, seeking to lay hands on Jesus, are held back by fear of the people, is done daily in the Church, when some brother in name only is either ashamed or afraid to attack the unity of the Church's faith and peace, which he does not love, because of the multitude of good brethren dwelling with him. Yet he, as the Lord says of the ostrich, the most foolish of birds, when the time comes will raise his wings on high, because by persecuting the Church he will rejoice, as it were, to deliver the Lord to the cross and to hold Him up to show.

And watching Him, they sent spies who should feign themselves just, that they might catch Him in His speech and deliver Him to the rule and authority of the governor. The chief priests and the scribes, seeking to seize the Lord, feared the people, and so what they could not do by themselves they tried to bring about by the governor's hands, so that they themselves might seem free of His death. For lately, under Caesar Augustus, Judaea, made subject to the Romans when the census was held in the whole world, had been made tributary, and there was great sedition among the people, some saying that tribute ought to be paid for the security and quiet for which the Romans fought on behalf of all, while the Pharisees, who applauded themselves for their righteousness, strove on the contrary [to show] that the people of God, who [paid] tithes,

paid and gave first-fruits and the other things written in the law, ought not to be subject to human laws. The tinder of this sedition grew so strong that after the Lord's passion, when the Romans pressed upon them, they preferred to lose their country, their nation and their kingdom, that noble temple with its worship, indeed the very light, rather than pay tribute.

And they questioned Him, saying: Master, we know that You speak and teach rightly, and do not accept persons, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not? The flattering and deceitful question draws the one answering towards fearing God rather than Caesar and saying that tribute ought not to be paid, so that the governor's officers, who according to the other evangelists are read to have been present, hearing it, might at once seize Him as the leader of sedition against the Romans.

But perceiving their guile, He said to them: Why do you tempt Me? Show Me a denarius; whose image and inscription does it bear? Wisdom always acts wisely, so that tempters are confuted above all by their own words. Show Me, He says, a denarius. This is a kind of coin that was reckoned at ten coins, and it bore the image of Caesar. Let those who think the Saviour's questioning is ignorance and not a dispensation learn from the present passage that Jesus could certainly have known whose image was on the coin. But He asks so as to answer their speech fittingly.

Answering, they said: Caesar's. And He said to them: Render therefore the things that are Caesar's to Caesar, and the things that are God's to God. Let us not think that Augustus is meant by Caesar, but Tiberius his stepson, who had succeeded in his stepfather's place, and under whom the Lord also suffered. But all the Roman rulers from the first, Gaius Caesar, who had seized the supreme power, were called Caesars. Further, in what He says: Render the things that are Caesar's to Caesar, let us understand coin, tribute and money; and the things that are God's to God, tithes, first-fruits, offerings and victims. Just as He Himself pays tribute for Himself and Peter, and renders to God the things that are God's, doing the Father's will. Otherwise: Render the things that are Caesar's to Caesar, and the things that are God's to God: as Caesar requires of you the stamp of his image, so also does God; so that, as the coin is rendered to him, so to God [is rendered] the soul, lit up and sealed by the light of His countenance. Hence the Psalmist says: The light of Thy countenance, O Lord, is sealed upon us (Ps. 4:7). For this light is the whole of man and his true good, which is beheld not with the eyes but with the mind. And he said sealed upon us, as a denarius is sealed with the king's image. For man was made to the image and likeness of God, which he corrupted by sinning. His good, then, is true and eternal if he is sealed by being born again.

And they could not take hold of His word before the people, and marvelling at His answer they were silent. They who ought to have believed at such wisdom marvelled that their cunning had found no room to lay a snare.

Then there came to Him some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection. There were two heresies among the Jews, one of the Pharisees and the other of the Sadducees. The Pharisees

put forward the righteousness of the traditions and observances which they call deuteroses; whence they were also called the separated ones by the people. The Sadducees, whose name is interpreted the just, also claimed for themselves what they were not. While the former believed in the resurrection both of the body and of the soul, and confessed angels and spirits, the latter, according to the Acts of the Apostles, denied them all.

And they asked Him, saying: Master, Moses wrote for us that if any man's brother dies having a wife, and he is without children, his brother should take her as wife and raise up seed to his brother. See the distance between the letter and the spirit. According to the letter, the brother is compelled to marry in this life so as to raise up seed for the dead man; but the spirit is the teacher of chastity.

There were therefore seven brothers, and the first took a wife and died without children. And the next took her, and he too died without a son. And the third took her. Likewise all seven also, and they left no seed, and died. Last of all the woman died too. Those who did not believe in the resurrection of bodies, judging that the soul perishes with the bodies, fittingly invent a tale of this kind, to convict of madness those who affirm the resurrection of the dead. It may be, however, that this really happened at some time among their people.

In the resurrection, then, whose wife of them will she be? for the seven had her as wife. They put forward the shamefulness of the tale in order to deny the truth of the resurrection. But mystically these seven brothers who died without children fit all the reprobate, who through the whole life of this world, which turns in seven days, remain barren of good works. When they have been snatched away one by one by a wretched death, at the last the worldly way of life itself, which they had passed without life-giving work, will pass away like a barren wife.

And Jesus said to them: The children of this world marry and are given in marriage. Since the Lord says: Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine (Matt. 7:6), and He Himself is found to have said certain things, whether here about the glory of the resurrection or elsewhere about the mystery of His dispensation or even of His divinity, which many who were present did not receive, either by resisting or by despising them, He is not to be thought to have given what is holy to dogs or cast pearls before swine. For He did not give to them those who were able to grasp it, whom it was not right to neglect because of the uncleanness of others. Indeed, when tempters questioned Him, He answered them so that they had nothing to say against Him; and although they wasted away in their own poisons rather than being filled with His food, yet others who were able to grasp it heard many things profitably by occasion of them.

But those who shall be accounted worthy of that world and of the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor take wives. This is not to be understood as though only the worthy will either rise again or be without marriage, while the unworthy, that is, sinners, are to be believed either not to rise at all or to rise to marriage; rather it is to be held that all will both rise again and remain without marriage in that world. But the Lord

the Saviour, in order to rouse minds to seek the glory of the resurrection, chose to speak only of the elect. But if in the resurrection they neither marry nor take wives, then the bodies that rise are bodies able to marry and take wives, that is, the members of women and men distinguished by their definite forms, but bound to no pleasure or need of lying together. For no one says of a stone or a tree, and of those things that have no genital members, that they do not marry or take wives, but of those who, though able to marry, yet for another reason do not marry.

For neither can they die any more. For marriages are for the sake of children; children for the sake of succession; succession because of death. Where, then, there is no death, there are no marriages either.

For they are equal to the angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. Equal to the angels and sons of God are they who, renewed by the glory of the resurrection, without any fear of death, without any stain of corruption, without any activity of earthly condition, enjoy the everlasting vision of God; and whoever then desires to ascend to that equality of angelic dignity must now condescend to the least of the brethren.

But that the dead rise again, Moses also showed at the bush, when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. To prove the truth of the resurrection He could have used other examples much plainer, among which is this: The dead shall be raised up, and those who are in the tombs shall rise again. It is asked, then, what the Lord meant by bringing forward this testimony, which seems ambiguous or not sufficiently to bear on the truth of the resurrection. But the Sadducees received only the five books of Moses, rejecting the oracles of the prophets. It would have been foolish, then, to bring testimonies from those whose authority they did not follow. Further, to prove the eternity of souls He sets down an example from Moses: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Exod. 3:6). And at once He adds

Now He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. So that when He had proved that souls remain after death, which among other things they denied (for it could not be that He should be the God of those who did not exist at all), the resurrection of the bodies too, which did good or evil together with the souls, would follow in consequence.

For all live to Him. All, that is, those whose Lord is God. They live to Him, by the true life indeed, by which the just live even when they die in the body. Of which the Lord says elsewhere: He who believes in Me, even if he is dead, shall live (John 11:25). Believe, then, and even if you die you will live. But if you do not believe, even while you live you are dead. For the widow who lives in pleasures is dead while living (1 Tim. 5:6).

And some of the scribes answered and said: Master, You have spoken well. And they no longer dared to ask Him anything. The chief priests, the Sadducees and the scribes, seeking an occasion of false accusation, and

to find some word open to their snares, because they were refuted in their arguments, ask no more, but quite openly seize Him and hand Him over to the Roman power. From this we understand that the poisons of envy can indeed be overcome, but with difficulty brought to rest.

And He said to them: How do they say that the Christ is the Son of David, when David himself says in the book of Psalms: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at My right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet? David then calls Him Lord, and how is He his son? Jesus' question profits us to this day against the Jews. For these too, who confess that the Christ is to come, assert that He is a mere man and a holy man of the stock of David. Let us then, taught by the Lord, ask them: if He is a mere man and only the son of David, how does David call Him his Lord? They are not blamed because they call Him the son of David, but because they do not believe Him the Son of God. For He is both David's Lord, abiding as God before the ages, and appeared as David's son, being born as man at the end of the ages. And that the enemies are subjected by the Father signifies not the weakness of the Son but the unity of nature by which the one works in the other. For the Son too subjects enemies to the Father, because He glorifies the Father upon the earth.

And in the hearing of all the people He said to His disciples: Beware of the scribes, who like to walk about in schools, and love greetings in the market-place, and the first seats in the synagogues, and the first places at feasts. To walk about in robes means to go out in public clothed in finer garments; in this, among other things, that rich man who feasted splendidly every day is described as having sinned (Luke 16:19). It is to be noted, however, that He does not forbid those to whom it belongs by the order of their office to be greeted in the market-place or to sit or recline in the first places; but He teaches that those who love these things unduly, whether they have them or indeed do not have them, are to be shunned by all the faithful as reprobate, rebuking with just severity the mind, that is, not the rank; although this too is not free from fault, if the same men who desire to be called masters of the Synagogue in the chair of Moses desire to be present at lawsuits in the market-place. We are bidden to beware of those greedy of vainglory for a twofold reason: lest we be led astray by their pretence, thinking that what they do is good, or be inflamed by emulation, rejoicing in vain to be praised for the good things they pretend.

Who devour the houses of widows, making a pretence of long prayer: these will receive the greater condemnation. He does not say only, They will receive condemnation, but added greater, to suggest that even those who pray standing at the street corners that they may be seen by men (Matt. 6:5) deserve condemnation, but that those who do these things at greater length, as if more religious, seeking not only praise from men but also money, are to be punished with a lengthier condemnation. For there are those who, pretending to be just and of great merit before God, do not hesitate to take money from any of the weak and from those troubled by the consciousness of their sins, as though they would be their advocates at the judgement. And when the hand stretched out to the poor man, prayers

is wont to swear, they keep vigil, above all in prayers, for this purpose: to take a coin from the poor man. To them that curse upon Judas fits not undeservedly: When he is judged, may he go out condemned, and may his prayer become sin (Ps. 108:7). For he goes out condemned when he is judged, and receives back his prayer as sin, who, held now in great esteem among men, at the divine examination finds not only that he does not intercede for others, but that even his own merits cannot suffice for him; nay, he pays among his crimes the penalty for the very prayers by which he deceived human judgement.

CHAPTER XXI.

And looking up He saw the rich who were putting their gifts into the treasury. Because in the Greek tongue φυλάσσειν means to keep, and in the Persian tongue riches are called gaza, the place where riches are kept is usually called a gazophylacium. Now it was a chest with an opening above, set beside the altar on the right as one entered the house of the Lord, into which the priests who kept the doors put all the money that was brought to the temple of the Lord, and it is kept for the restoration of the same temple. Read the Chronicles. And even now He who goes about among those praying in the house of the Lord Himself also looks upon those who bring gifts, and whom He sees worthy He praises; whom He sees reprobate, He condemns.

And He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two small coins, and He said: Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all. Morally this passage indeed makes known to us how acceptable to God is whatever we offer with a good mind, since He weighs the heart

BOOK SIX. READ WITH PROFIT.

When Solomon, wisest of kings, was building a temple to the Lord in figure of Christ and the Church, he foretold this too among other things by not unfitting examples of figures: that when at last the truth and light of those things which were then signified in shadow should come and appear, all that shadowy, so to speak, and imaginary arrangement of types would at once be wholly taken away. For after the house of incomparable workmanship had been made of stone, wood and gold, he sent and, in figure of the people that would believe from among the Gentiles, took Hiram from Tyre, the son of a widow woman (1 Kgs. 7:13–14); without doubt [a figure] of her who, putting the two coins mentioned above into the treasury, is praised for having put in more than all. Of the tribe of Naphtali, it says, his father a Tyrian, a worker in bronze, and full of wisdom and understanding and skill (ibid.). And all the vessels which Hiram made for King Solomon in the house of the Lord were of brass. In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in clay ground. For he who made all his vessels not by hammered but by cast work first, of course, to the likeness

and not the substance, and does not weigh how much is in a man's sacrifices, but out of how much it is brought forth. But according to the laws of allegory, the rich who were putting gifts into the treasury signify the Jews puffed up by the righteousness of the law, while the poor widow signifies the simplicity of the Church. She is rightly called poor, because she has cast away either the spirit of pride or sins, as the riches of the world. And a widow, because her husband suffered death for her, and now, hidden from her eyes in the inner places of heaven, lives as it were in the region of another country. She puts two small coins into the treasury because into the sight of the divine Majesty, where the offerings of our work are kept as though written down and sealed by a fixed number, she brings either the gifts of the love of God and of neighbour or those of her faith and prayer; which, small in view of her own frailty but accepted for the merit of her loving devotion, surpass all the works of the proud Jews.

For all these have put into the gifts of God out of their abundance; but she, out of her want, has put in all the living that she had. Out of his abundance the Jew puts into the gifts of God, who, presuming on his own righteousness, prays thus with himself: God, I thank Thee that I am not as the rest of men, robbers, unjust, etc. (Luke 18:11). But the Church puts all her living into the gifts of God, since she understands that all she lives by is not of her own merit but of God's gift, saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner (ibid. 18:13). And elsewhere: My strength I will keep to Thee, for Thou, God, art my protector; my God, His mercy shall go before me (Ps. 58:10–11).

of each vessel formed a mould of clay, necessary indeed until the work of the vessel was completed, but afterwards not only fit for no use but even, so that the finished vessel might appear, without any doubt to be broken. As a mould of clay, then, the ceremonies of the law go before, so that the gifts of the gospel truth may follow like vessels of brass. Let the cheap shell, put together for a time, be worn away, so that the brightness of the lasting ornament that lay hidden may be shown. Let the ashes of the heifer that sanctified the defiled be taken away, and let the cross of Christ that redeems the world be preached. When the time presses on in which the bronze sea, by whose life-giving water all who are to enter the Church are to be baptized; in which the twin pillars of the law, bearing lilies for capitals, are to strengthen on either side the gate of the sheep devoted to Christ; in which twice five lavers made ready for washing the victims of our works; in which, finally, the countless thousands of vessels of election are to be carried to the mount of the temple: the clay ground is broken up which in the plain had long covered these hidden things. That is, when the proclaiming of the Lord's passion was at hand, through

than the sacraments of the Church, long hidden under the veil of the letter, came to light, that shadow which concealed the heavenly secrets totters little by little and now begins to be destroyed. Hence rightly, after the offering of the poor widow, that is, the faith of the Church praised by the Lord's mouth, the Evangelist went on to add:

And when some were saying of the temple that it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, He said: As for these things which you see, the days will come in which there shall not be left a stone upon a stone that shall not be thrown down. For formerly Jerusalem was that great royal city, where a most famous temple had been built to God. But after He came who was the true temple of God, and began to open the mysteries of the heavenly Jerusalem, that earthly one was destroyed when the heavenly appeared, and in that temple there did not remain a stone upon a stone. Formerly there was a high priest, purifying the people with the blood of bulls and goats; but from the time the true High Priest came, who would purify believers with His own blood (Heb. 13), that former high priest is nowhere, nor is any place left to him. Formerly there was an altar, and sacrifices were celebrated; but when the true Lamb came, who offered Himself as a victim to God (Heb. 9), all those things, set up as it were for a time, ceased. For this reason indeed the divine dispensation arranged that both the city itself and the temple and all those things should be overthrown together, lest someone perhaps still a little one and a suckling in the faith, if he saw those things standing, while he gazes astonished at the rite of the sacrifices and the order of the ministries, should be carried away by the very sight of their various forms. But God, providing for our weakness and willing that His Church be multiplied, caused all those things to be overthrown and utterly taken away, so that, those things having ceased, we might believe without any hesitation that these things are true, of which a type had gone before in them.

And they asked Him, saying: Master, when shall these things be? And what sign when they begin to come to pass? Because, when some were praising the buildings of the temple, the Lord had answered openly that all these things would be destroyed, the disciples, as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, as Matthew and Mark testify, ask in private the time and signs of the foretold destruction.

And He said: See that you be not led astray. For many will come in My name, saying, I am he: and the time has drawn near. Do not therefore go after them. Many leaders arose when the destruction of Jerusalem was imminent, who declared that they were christs, and that the time of liberty was drawing near at any moment. Many heresiarchs came forth in the Church even in the very times of the apostles, who, among very many other things contrary to the truth, preached that the day of the Lord was at hand. These the Apostle condemns in the Epistle to the Thessalonians. Many Antichrists came in the name of Christ, of whom the first is Simon Magus, to whom, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, all who were in Samaria gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying: This man is the power of God, which is called great (Acts 8:10). Because for a long time he had bewitched them with his magic arts.

But when you hear of wars and seditions, do not be terrified. These things must first come to pass, but the end is not at once.

Wars pertain to enemies; seditions, to citizens. Both of these, it is agreed, abounded more than enough from the time of the Lord's passion among the people of the Jews, who chose for themselves a seditious robber in place of the Saviour. But the apostles are warned not to be terrified when these things go before, nor to desert Jerusalem and Judaea. Because, namely, the end does not follow at once, which was rather to be deferred to the fortieth year, that is, the desolation of the homeland and the final destruction of the city and the temple.

Then He said to them: Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be great earthquakes in various places, and pestilences, and famines. It is agreed that these things happened according to the letter before the end of the desolation of the temple, that is, in the time of the Jewish sedition. But kingdom against kingdom, and the pestilence of those whose speech creeps like a canker (2 Tim. 2:17), and the famine of hearing the word of God (Amos 8:11), and the shaking of the whole earth, and separation from the true faith, can also be understood of the heretics, who, fighting against one another, bring about the victory of the Church.

And there shall be terrors from heaven, and great signs. Whoever reads the history of Josephus will find that these too were fulfilled at the same time. For, as he relates, a star like a sword, hanging over Jerusalem for a whole year, terrified the anxious citizens with an ill-omened portent. And likewise chariots and armed horsemen were seen for forty days running through the air and imitating the manner of men in battle. And a heifer too, brought to the sacrifices, gave birth to a lamb between the hands of those sacrificing. And by what desert these things happened is added at once, when it is said:

But before all these things they will lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you into synagogues and prisons, dragging you before kings and governors for My name's sake. This indeed had been either the only or the greatest cause of destruction for the Jewish nation, that after the slaying of the Lord the Saviour it harried with impious cruelty the heralds and confessors of His name as well.

And it shall turn out for you as a testimony. A testimony, namely, against whom, if not against those who either by persecuting inflict deaths, or by seeing do not imitate? For the death of the just is a help to the good, a testimony to the wicked, so that the perverse may perish without excuse from the very thing from which the elect take an example in order to live. But, having heard of so many terrors, the hearts of the weak could be troubled, and therefore a consolation is added, when it is at once subjoined:

Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how you shall answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist and gainsay. As if He were saying openly to His weak members: Do not be terrified, do not be afraid. You go to the contest, but I do the fighting. You utter the words, but it is I who speak.

And you will be betrayed by parents, and brothers, and kinsmen, and friends, and some of you they will put to death, and you will be hated by all for My name's sake. Evils that are inflicted by strangers cause less grief; but those torments rage more within us which we suffer from those on whose minds we were relying, because

along with the loss of the body, the evils of lost charity torment us. But because the things foretold concerning the affliction of death are hard, a consolation concerning the joy of the resurrection is at once added, when it is said:

And a hair of your head shall not perish. We know that flesh when cut feels pain; hair when cut does not feel pain. He says therefore to His martyrs: A hair of your head shall not perish, plainly saying, that is: Why do you fear lest that perish which feels pain when cut, when even that in you which does not feel pain when cut cannot perish? Otherwise: A hair of the head of the Lord's disciples shall not perish, because not only all the brave deeds or words of the saints, of whom it is said: The Lord keeps all their bones (Ps. 33:21), but also the fleeting (so to speak) and most slender surface of the thoughts of the faithful, which comes forth from the hidden root of the heart as hair from the head, will be kept with the just Judge and rewarded with a fitting recompense. Hence rightly the Prophet, to show how acceptable to the Lord are the merits even of good thoughts, says: And the remnants of thoughts shall keep holiday to Thee (Ps. 75:11). Hence also the Nazirites in the law are commanded to let their hair grow in the time of their consecration, and no razor is said to have come upon the head of Samuel. But on the other hand, the captive woman, that she may be able to marry an Israelite man, and the one cleansed of leprosy, that he may deserve to communicate with the Church, are commanded to shave off all the hairs of their body, because namely every thought of the wise, which is good, pleasing and perfect, is saved for ever, and its reward is with the Lord; but the thought of the deeds of the foolish and the wicked, as a root unworthy of God's sight, must be cut away by repentance.

And in your patience you shall possess your souls. The possession of the soul is placed in the virtue of patience for this reason, that patience is the root and guardian of all the virtues. And through patience we possess our souls, because while we learn to rule ourselves, we begin to possess that very thing which we are. For we have been wonderfully so made that reason possesses the soul, and the soul the body. But the soul's right is driven back from the possession of the body if the soul is not first possessed by reason. The Lord therefore showed patience to be the guardian of our condition, who taught us to possess ourselves in it. Now true patience is to bear the evils of others with an even mind, and to be moved by no resentment against him who inflicts the evils. For he who so bears the evils of his neighbour that he yet grieves in silence and seeks a time for fitting retaliation does not practise patience, but makes a show of it.

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by an army, then know that its desolation has drawn near. Up to this point are the things which were to come during forty years, the end not yet arriving; from here the end itself of the desolation, which was brought about by the Roman army, is set forth in the Lord's words.

Then let those who are in Judaea flee to the mountains. The Ecclesiastical History relates that all the Christians who were in Judaea, when the destruction of Jerusalem was imminent, being warned by the Lord, left the place, and beyond the Jordan

dwelt in a certain city named Pella, until the desolation of Judaea was completed.

And let those who are in the midst of her depart; and let those who are in the countryside not enter into her. For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. It seems indeed to belong to a fitting admonition that those who are outside should not enter into her; but those who are in the midst, how shall they depart, the city being already surrounded by an army? Unless perhaps we say that what He put before, "then", that is, "then let those who are in Judaea flee", refers not to the very time of the siege, but to the time just before the siege, when the Roman soldiery had first begun to spread through the borders of Galilee or Samaria, so that each one might then hasten to flee while there was still time for flight. And these are days of vengeance, namely days demanding vengeance for the Lord's blood.

But woe to those who are with child and those who nurse in those days. Woe, when captivity is at hand, to those with child and those who nurse, or give suck, as some interpret it. Their wombs or their hands, weighed down with the burden of children, hinder in no small measure the need to flee. Read also the history of the Kings, where the wife of Jonathan, in avoiding the evil of captivity by over-hasty flight, received back her son, who had slipped from her bosom, lame for ever.

For there shall be great distress upon the land, and wrath upon this people. This distress and wrath cling as an inseparable companion to that people, scattered through all nations, to this day; yet it is not to be believed that they will cling for ever. For after the Lord showed the course of this same distress or wrath, saying:

And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles. At once, according to the prophecy which sings: In wrath mindful of His mercy, He added and said:

Until the times of the nations be fulfilled. For the times of the nations are those which the Apostle recalls, saying: That blindness in part has befallen Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in, and so all Israel should be saved (Rom. 11:25–26). And when Israel has obtained the promised salvation, it is perhaps not rashly hoped that it will also return to its native soil and rejoice in the possession and habitation of its former metropolis, since it is said to be oppressed thus not for ever, but until the times of the nations be fulfilled. And what follows when the times of the nations are fulfilled, and all Israel thus saved, the Lord makes plain in order. For according to Matthew the disciples asked this too, inquiring not only the time of the overthrow of the temple, but also the sign of His coming and of the consummation of the world.

And there shall be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and the waves. Since therefore, as the Lord indicates in what follows, when the universal judgement appears heaven and earth will pass away, and, as we read in the Apocalypse of John, the sea will be no more, rightly, as that same judgement presses on, the roaring of the sea and the waves is thrown into confusion, the world is tainted as its inhabitants crush one another, and the greatest lights of heaven, their rays struck with a new dread, veil a troubled

face. And just as trees driven to their fall are wont to send before them signs of their crashing and movement, so as the end approaches the elements nod and tremble as if in fear. Therefore what Matthew says: The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven (Matt. 24:29), signifies the very presence of the judgement, when, as the glory of the true light appears, all the lights of the world are counted as darkness and shadows. But what Luke says: There shall be signs in the sun and moon and stars, points to the forerunners of that same judgement, near at hand, as it were heralds. Among these is that saying of the Prophet too: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and manifest day of the Lord comes (Joel 2:31). Likewise what Luke says: And upon the earth distress of nations, I think is the very thing which Matthew, describing the times of Antichrist, says: For then there shall be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor shall be (Matt. 24:21). And what Luke adds, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and the waves, is the herald of that which John saw that the sea would have [an end] among the other changeable things of the world.

Men withering away for fear and expectation of the things which shall come upon the whole world. For the powers of the heavens shall be moved. I believe that the very coming of the Judge is signified by this sentence, when, according to the parable of another place, all, that is, both the wise and the foolish virgins, roused by an unwonted cry, trim their lamps, that is, count up their works with them, for which with the greatest fear they await the outcome of the eternal decision, now at the very point of coming. For until then almost the whole world will go on without any fear of the Judge, as the Apostle testifies, who says: For when they shall say, Peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them (1 Thess. 5:3). Then, therefore, as fear and expectation of the strict examination come upon the whole world, many who seemed to flourish in this world, when they see themselves without fruit, will wither. Then the faith which had flourished without works will wither away as the just Judge tests it. Nor is it a wonder that men, that is, those earthly either by nature or by mind, should be troubled at His judgement, at whose sight even the powers of the heavens themselves, that is, the angelic powers, will tremble, as blessed Job also testifies, who says: The pillars of heaven tremble and are afraid at His nod. What then do the boards do, when the pillars tremble? What does the little twig of the desert suffer, when the cedar of paradise is shaken?

And then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty. In power and majesty they will see Him whom, when He was set in lowliness, they would not hear, so that they may then feel His might the more severely, the less they now bend the neck of the heart to His patience. But because these things were said against the reprobate, the words are presently turned to the consolation of the elect, for there follows:

But when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near. When the plagues of the world, He says, grow frequent, when the terror of the judgement is shown by the shaking of the powers, lift up your heads, that is, gladden your hearts. Because while the world is ending,

of which you are not friends, the redemption which you seek draws near. For in sacred Scripture the head is often put for the mind. Because, as the members are ruled by the head, so thoughts are ordered by the mind. To lift up our heads, therefore, is to raise our minds to the joys of the heavenly homeland. And that the world ought to be trodden underfoot and despised, the Lord shows by a far-seeing comparison. For there follows:

And He spoke to them a likeness: See the fig tree, and all the trees: when they now put forth fruit from themselves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is near. He teaches plainly, then, that as the coming summer is recognized from the fruit of the trees, so from the ruin of the world the kingdom of God is recognized to be near. By these words, surely, it is shown that the fruit of the world is ruin. For it grows to this end, that it may fall. It buds to this end, that it may consume with disasters whatever it has brought forth. And the kingdom of God is well compared to summer, because then the clouds of our sorrow pass away, and the days of life shine with the brightness of the eternal Sun.

Amen, I say to you, that this generation shall not pass away until all things come to pass. The Lord commends greatly what He thus pronounces. In a manner, if it is lawful to say so, it is His oath: Amen, I say to you. For Amen is interpreted "true", and yet it has not been translated, although "Truly I say to you" could have been said; neither the Greek translator dared to do this, nor the Latin. It has remained thus, it has not been translated, so that it might have honour under the veil of a secret, not that it might be denied, but lest, laid bare, it should grow cheap. Therefore the Truth says "Truly I say to you", the Truth which, even if it did not say so, could by no means lie. Yet He commends, He presses it home, He as it were rouses the sleeping, He makes them attentive, He does not wish to be despised: Amen, He says, I say to you, that this generation shall not pass away until all things come to pass. And by "generation" He means either the whole human race, or specifically that of the Jews.

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away. The heaven which will pass away we ought to understand not as the ethereal or starry heaven, but the airy one, from which the birds of heaven and the clouds of heaven take their name; as Peter testifies, who says that the heavens were of old, and the earth out of water and through water, standing by the word of God, whereby the world that then was perished. But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are laid up, reserved for fire on the day of judgement and of the perdition of ungodly men (2 Pet. 3:5–7). He teaches plainly that no other heavens will perish by fire than those which perished by water, that is, these empty and cloudy spaces of the windy air. For it is not to be believed that the water of the flood, which rose only fifteen cubits above the tops of the mountains, reached beyond the bounds of the air and the ether. But wherever it could reach, there, doubtless, according to the aforesaid statement of blessed Peter, the fire of the judgement will also reach. But if heaven and earth shall pass away, it may be asked how Ecclesiastes says: A generation passes, and a generation comes, but the earth stands for ever (Eccl. 1:4). But by a plain reason heaven and earth pass away as to that form which they now have,

yet in their essence they subsist without end. For the fashion of this world passes away (1 Cor. 7:31). And the angel to John: There shall be (he says) a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21:1). These are not other things to be created, but these very ones are renewed. Heaven and earth, therefore, will both pass away and be, because it will be wiped clean by fire of that form which it now has, and yet it will always be preserved in its own nature. Hence it is said through the Psalmist: Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed (Ps. 101:27). And this last change of theirs they announce to us even now by the very alternations with which they vary without ceasing for our uses. For the earth fails of its beauty in the dryness of winter, and grows green again in the moisture of spring. The heaven is daily overcast with the darkness of night, and is renewed by the brightness of day. From this, then, from this let every believer gather both that these things perish, and yet that they are restored through renewal, which, as is plain, are now continually repaired as if out of failing.

But take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly. For as a snare it shall come upon all who sit upon the face of the whole earth. O foolish presumption of the human heart, which does not foresee the lamentable end of greed, drunkenness and surfeiting, not even when the Judge Himself bears witness, but, after it has learned the edict of the eternal King, spurns it after the manner of a wicked servant! And surely, if some skilled and wise physician were to instruct us, saying: Take heed to yourselves, lest anyone (for example) take too greedily of the juice of this or that herb; for if he does, sudden death will come upon him, with how much care would each one keep the commands of the physician who warned him, lest, that is, he perish by tasting what was forbidden? But now the Saviour and Lord of souls and bodies alike commands that the herb of drunkenness and of surfeiting be avoided, and also that of worldly cares, that they be shunned as deadly juices; and yet how many of us are not afraid not only to be wounded by them, but even to be consumed? No other cause, I believe, than that they disdain to give to the Lord's words the faith which they give to a physician's. For had they believed, by believing they would surely fear, and by fearing they would guard against the danger hanging over them. But they, on the contrary, by their torpor prove how justly it was said: When the Son of Man comes, do you think He will find faith on the earth (Luke 18:8)?

Watch therefore at all times, praying, that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things which are to come, and to stand before the Son of Man. He who desires to stand before the Son of Man, and, according to the Apocalypse of John, to serve Him day and night in His temple, and not to be cast accursed from His sight into the eternal fire, must not only be chastened from worldly enticements, but also pray and watch, and do this not on certain particular days, but at all times, according to what the psalm says: I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall be ever in my mouth (Ps. 33:2). For thus he will deserve to dwell in the house of the Lord, to praise Him for ever and ever.

And by day He was teaching in the temple, but by night He went out and lodged on the mount which is called Olivet. And

all the people came early in the morning to Him in the temple to hear Him. What the Lord commands in words He confirms by His own examples. For He who exhorts us to watch and to pray before the sudden coming of the universal judgement and before the uncertain departure of each of us, setting aside both the delights and the cares of this life, Himself also, as the time of His passion drew near, presses on in vigils of teaching and in prayers, showing likewise by example that this is to watch worthily for God: to show the way of truth to all one's neighbours by word or by deed, and, for those for whom He was to suffer, either to call them to faith by a word or to commend them to the Father in prayer. And we too, when amid prosperity we live soberly and justly and godly, and amid adversity never despair of the height of the divine mercy, are indeed teaching in the temple every day, because we give the faithful a pattern of good work. And by night we lodge on the Mount of Olives, because in the darkness of straits we breathe again in the consolation of spiritual joy; according to him who said: But I, like a fruitful olive tree in the house of the Lord, have hoped in the mercy of my God (Ps. 51:10). That is, as one who has spent the fruit of mercy on those he could, I do not doubt that the Lord will have mercy on me. And all the people come early to hear us too, when, either the works of darkness being scattered or the clouds of distress being overcome by God's grace, walking honestly as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, the sons of light imitate us (Rom. 13:12–13).

CHAPTER XXII.

Now the feast day of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Pasch, was drawing near. Pasch, which in Hebrew is called phase, is named not from suffering, as many suppose, but from passing over, because the destroyer, seeing the blood on the doors of the Israelites, passed over and did not strike them; or the Lord Himself, bringing help to His people, walked above. Searching out the sacrament of this word more loftily, the evangelist John says: Jesus, knowing that His hour had come, that He should pass out of this world to the Father (John 13:1). Where he declares plainly that the day of this festival is mystically called in the law a passing over for this reason, that on it the Lamb of God, who was to take away the sins of the world, was either Himself to pass out of this world, or to lead us by a saving passage, as it were out of Egyptian slavery. According to the letter of the Old Testament, this indeed is the difference between the Pasch and the unleavened bread: that the Pasch is the name of that one day alone on which the lamb was slain towards evening, that is, on the fourteenth moon of the first month; and on the fifteenth moon, when the going out from Egypt took place, the festival of Unleavened Bread followed, a solemnity appointed for seven days of it, that is, up to the evening of the twenty-first day of the same month. But the Scripture of the Gospel is accustomed indifferently to put both the day of unleavened bread for the Pasch and the Pasch for the days of unleavened bread. For Luke says: The feast day of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Pasch. Likewise John, when the matter was taking place on the first day of Unleavened Bread, that is, on the fifteenth moon, says: And they did not enter into the praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but that

they might eat the pasch (John 18:28). Because, namely, the day of the Pasch too was commanded to be celebrated with unleavened loaves, we too, as if keeping a perpetual Pasch, are commanded always to pass out of this world. For when the lamb has been sacrificed towards evening on one day, seven days of unleavened bread follow in order. Because Christ Jesus, having once suffered for us in the flesh in the fullness of times, commands that through the whole time of this world, which runs in seven days, we must live in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth; and He admonishes us always with all our effort to flee the desires of the world as the bonds of Egypt, and, as it were, to enter among ourselves upon a solitude of the virtues set apart from worldly converse.

And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might put Him to death; but they feared the people. Matthew testifies that these things were done two days before the Pasch, when the chief priests and the elders of the people and the scribes had gathered in the court of Caiaphas. And they feared the people, not fearing a riot, but guarding against His being taken out of their hands by the help of the people.

And Satan entered into Judas, who is called Iscariot, one of the twelve. John writes in his Gospel that when the Lord had dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, and after the morsel, then Satan entered into him. But this is not contrary to Luke, who records that he had already been invaded by Satan even before the morsel, because him whom he now entered in order to deceive, he afterwards entered in order to possess more fully one already handed over to him. Now he entered so as to tempt him as one still another's; then so as to drag him, as his own, to do whatever harmful things he wished.

And he went away and spoke with the chief priests and the magistrates, how he might betray Him to them; and they were glad. In saying: He went away and spoke, he shows that he entered upon the plan of his wicked mind not invited by the chief priests, nor constrained by any necessity, but of his own free will.

And they agreed to give him money. And he promised; and he sought an opportunity to betray Him without a crowd. Many today shudder at the crime of Judas, that he sold his Lord and Master and God for money, as monstrous and wicked, and yet they do not beware. For when for bribes they bear false witness against anyone, surely, since they deny the truth for money, they sell the Lord for money. For He Himself said: I am the truth (John 14:6). When they defile the fellowship of brotherhood with some plague of discord, they betray the Lord, because God is charity. And even if no one gives them money, they sell the Lord for pieces of silver, because they take on the image of the prince of this world, that is, the examples of the ancient enemy, neglecting the image of the Creator to which they were made. For just as John the Baptist, who died not for confessing Christ but for defending the truth, yet died for Christ, since he underwent martyrdom for the truth, so on the contrary he who spurns the laws of charity and truth surely betrays Christ, who is truth and charity; above all when he sins not through weakness or ignorance creeping in, but after the likeness of Judas seeks an opportunity, so that, witnesses

being absent, he may exchange truth for a lie, virtue for crime.

And the day of Unleavened Bread came, on which the Pasch had to be killed. And He sent Peter and John, saying: Go and prepare the Pasch for us, that we may eat. He calls the fourteenth of the first month the day of the unleavened bread of the Pasch, when, the leaven having been cast out, the pasch, that is, the lamb, was customarily killed towards evening, as has already been said above. Expounding this the Apostle says: For Christ our pasch has been sacrificed (1 Cor. 5:7). For this Pasch had then to be killed, that is, it was ordained by the Father's counsel and decree. And although He was crucified on the following day, that is, on the fifteenth moon, yet on this night on which the lamb was sacrificed He both handed on to His disciples the mysteries of His flesh and blood to be celebrated, and, held and bound by the Jews, He consecrated the beginning of His own sacrifice, that is, of His passion.

But they said: Where do You wish us to prepare? We have no dwelling, we have no tent. Let them hear who have a care for building houses, and who plan the furnishing of ambitious porticoes, whom the display of costly marbles and ceilings picked out in gold delight: let them recognize Christ, the Lord of all, who had no place where He might lay His head. And for this reason the disciples ask Him: Where do You wish us to prepare for You to eat the pasch?

And He said to them: Behold, as you enter into the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house into which he enters. It is a sign indeed of foreknowing divinity that, while speaking with the disciples, He knows what is to happen elsewhere. And beautifully, as the disciples are about to prepare the Pasch, a man carrying a jar of water meets them, to show that the mystery of this Pasch is to be celebrated for the perfect cleansing of the whole world. For the water signifies the washing of grace, the jar a perfect measure. They prepare the Pasch, then, where a jar of water is brought in, because, namely, the time is at hand in which the figurative blood is to be removed from the threshold for the worshippers of the true Pasch, and the baptism of the life-giving font consecrated for taking away sins.

And you shall say to the master of the house: The Master says to you: Where is the guest chamber where I may eat the pasch with My disciples? Deliberately the names both of the water-carrier and of the lord of the house are passed over, so that it may be signified that the means is to be given to all who wish to celebrate the Pasch, that is, to be imbued with the sacraments of Christ, who seek to receive Christ into the lodging of their mind.

And he will show you a large upper room furnished, and there make ready. And going, they found as He had told them, and they prepared the pasch. The large upper room is the spiritual law, which, going out from the narrows of the letter, receives the Saviour in a lofty place. For he who still keeps the letter that kills, who has understood nothing else in the lamb than a beast, he doubtless keeps the Pasch in the lowest places, because he does not yet learn to grasp the majesty of the spirit. But he who has followed the water-carrier, that is, the herald of grace, into the house of the Church, he, by transcending through the life-giving Spirit the roof of the letter,

prepares a dwelling for Christ in the high guest-chamber of the mind, because he understands that all the sacraments of the Pasch, and the other decrees of the law, were written of Him.

And when the hour was come, He reclined, and the twelve apostles with Him (Luke 22:14). He means the hour of eating the pasch, which, as has often been impressed upon the reader, was at hand according to the edicts of the law when the fourteenth day of the first month had been brought on to evening and the fifteenth moon was already appearing over the earth.

And He said to them: With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you before I suffer (Luke 22:15). He desires first to eat the typical pasch with His disciples, and so to declare to the world the mysteries of His passion, so that He might both stand forth as one who approves the ancient and legal pasch, and, by teaching that it had pertained to the figure of His own dispensation, forbidding [it] to be shown forth carnally any longer, might show that, the shadow passing away, the light of the true Pasch had now come. This the time and order of the ending of the manna in the days of Joshua beautifully prefigures, where it is written: And they kept the pasch on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho, and on the next day they ate of the fruits of the land unleavened loaves, and parched grain of the same year. And the manna ceased after they ate of the fruits of the land, and the children of Israel used that food no more (Josh. 5). For Joshua, having taken over the people at the death of Moses, for some while refreshed them beyond the Jordan with the accustomed nourishment of the manna, by which he too is refreshed, although he had recognized and long ago tasted the fruit of the land of promise. Then he crosses the Jordan, circumcises with knives of stone, and does not take away the accustomed manna for three and a half months, that is, until the day of the Pasch was completed. For when Moses was dead Joshua is appointed leader, because, when the law had been corrupted by the traditions of the Pharisees, Christ becomes incarnate. Joshua beyond the Jordan feeds [the people] with manna and is fed, because the Lord until the time of His baptism both Himself keeps the ceremonies of the law and desires them to be kept by all. Joshua circumcises with stone the people led across the Jordan, because, once the grace of baptism had been celebrated, the Saviour by the severity of faith cuts off even the allurements of the thoughts, which the law had been unable to do. And for three and a half years, as if being nourished with the accustomed manna, He does not cease to observe the sacraments of the law, though calling [men] little by little to the heavenly promises, until at the appointed time, eating the desired pasch with His disciples, He at last, as morning dawned, offers the most pure mysteries of His body and blood, consecrated on the altar of the cross, as the unleavened bread of the land of promise for the instruction of the faithful. Finally, what follows:

For I say to you that from this time I will not eat it until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God (Luke 22:16). How well this accords with the words of Joshua, who says: And the children of Israel used that food no more, but ate of the fruits of the land of Canaan (Josh. 5)! — I will not eat it, He says, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God, that is: I will by no means celebrate the Mosaic pasch any longer, until, spiritually understood, it is fulfilled in the Church; for the Church is the kingdom of God. Of which He says to the disciples elsewhere: The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). In which kingdom the Lord today too eats the old pasch fulfilled, when the things which Moses

commanded the untaught people to observe carnally, He carries out spiritually in His members, that is, in the Church herself.

And having taken the cup, He gave thanks and said: Take and divide it among you (Luke 22:17). This cup too belongs to that old Pasch to which He desired to put an end. Having taken it, He gave thanks, doubtless for this reason: that the old things were to pass away, and all things were to come new.

For I say to you that I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God come (Luke 22:18). This little verse can indeed also be taken simply, that from this hour of the supper until the time of the resurrection, when He was to come in the kingdom of God, He would not drink wine. For afterwards the apostle Peter testifies that He took food and drink, saying: We who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead (Acts 10:41). But far more consistently [it is taken thus]: that, just as above [He denied] that He would any longer taste the typical eating of the lamb, so too He denies that He will any longer taste the typical drink of the pasch, until, the glory of His resurrection having been shown and made manifest, faith in the kingdom of God comes to the world. So that, through the two greatest edicts of the law, namely the paschal eating and drinking, being spiritually changed, you might learn that all the sacraments of the law, or the commands which seemed to sound carnally, were now henceforth to be transferred to a spiritual observance.

And having taken bread, He gave thanks, and broke, and gave to them, saying: This is My body, which is given for you. Do this in commemoration of Me (Luke 22:19). The solemnities of the old pasch, which were performed in commemoration of the ancient deliverance from Egypt, being ended, He passed over to the new, which the Church desires to frequent in memory of her redemption. So that, substituting for the flesh and blood of the lamb the sacrament of His own flesh and blood in the figure of bread and wine, He might show that He Himself is the one to whom the Lord swore, and it will not repent Him: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek (Ps. 109:4). And He Himself breaks the bread which He holds out, to show that the breaking of His body would not come about without His own free will, but that, as He says elsewhere, He has power to lay down His life and to take it up again. And as He had given thanks over the old things that were to be ended, so too He gives thanks to the Father over the new things that were to begin, giving us likewise an example, that in the beginning or completion of every good work the Father who is in heaven is to be glorified. And what He says, Do this in commemoration of Me, the apostle Paul expounds. For when he had set down His words, as He said: Do this in commemoration of Me; this is My body which is broken for you; and again: This cup is the new testament in My blood; do this, as often as you shall drink, in commemoration of Me, he added by way of exposition, saying: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He come (1 Cor. 11:24–26).

Likewise the cup also, after He had supped, saying: This cup is the new testament in My blood, which shall be shed for you (Luke 22:20). Where he says, Likewise the cup also, there is understood from the common [clause] "He gave to them", so that the sentence is complete: Likewise the cup also, after He had supped, He gave to them. Because

Since, then, bread strengthens the flesh, and wine produces blood in the flesh, the one is referred mystically to the body of Christ, the other to the blood. But because we must abide in Christ, and Christ in us, the wine of the Lord's cup is mixed with water. For as John bears witness, the waters are peoples (Rev. 17:15). And it is lawful for no one to offer water alone, nor wine alone, just as neither the grain of wheat alone without the admixture of water and its making into bread, lest such an offering should signify that the head is to be separated from the members, and should pretend either that Christ could have suffered without love for our redemption, or that we could be saved and offered to the Father without the passion of Christ. And if anyone is troubled why, when the Saviour delivered His body and blood to the apostles after they had supped, we are taught by the custom of the universal Church to receive the same sacraments fasting, let him hear in brief that the apostles communicated after supper then because it was necessary that that typical pasch should first be completed, and so passage made to the sacraments of the true Pasch. Now, in honour of so great and so awesome a sacrament, it has pleased the masters of the Church that we should first be fortified by participation in the Lord's passion, first be hallowed inwardly and outwardly by spiritual banquets, and only then refresh the body with earthly meats and common food. And what He says, This cup is the new testament in My blood, looks to the distinction from the old Testament, which was dedicated with the blood of goats and calves, the lawgiver saying as he sprinkled: This is the blood of the testament which God has commanded unto you (Heb. 9:20). For it is necessary that the patterns of heavenly things should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these, as the Apostle declares through the whole Epistle to the Hebrews, distinguishing between the law and the Gospel, with a most beautiful exposition and a complete account.

But yet, behold, the hand of him that betrays Me is with Me on the table. And the Son of Man indeed goes according to what has been determined, but yet woe to that man by whom He shall be betrayed (Luke 22:21–22). He who had foretold His passion foretells also of the betrayer, giving room for repentance, so that, when he understood that his thoughts and secret counsels were known, he might repent of his deed. And yet He does not point him out specifically, lest, being openly rebuked, he should become more shameless. He puts the crime among the number, so that the one who is conscious of it may do penance. He foretells the punishment too, so that the punishments announced might correct one whom shame had not overcome. But today too, and for ever, woe to that man who approaches the table of the Lord with malice, who, with snares hidden in his mind, who, with his heart polluted by some crime, does not fear to take part in the secrets of the mysteries of Christ. For he, after the example of Judas, betrays the Son of Man, not indeed to Jewish sinners, but still to sinners, namely to his own members, with which he presumes to violate that inestimable and inviolable body of the Lord. He sells the Lord who, neglecting love and fear of Him, is shown to love and care more for earthly and perishable things, nay even criminal ones. Woe, I say, to that man of whom Jesus, who on the most holy altars, in the course of the sacrifice, as being about to consecrate what has been set forth,

is without doubt present, is compelled, with the heavenly ministers standing about Him, to complain: Behold, He says, the hand of him that betrays Me is with Me on the table.

And they began to inquire among themselves which of them it was that would do this (Luke 22:23). And certainly the eleven apostles knew that they were contemplating nothing of the kind against the Lord, but they believe the Master more than themselves, and fearing their own frailty, they sorrowfully inquire about a sin of which they had no consciousness. Judas too, shameless, inquires, as Matthew and Mark record, so as by boldness to feign a good conscience.

And there arose also a contention among them, which of them should seem to be the greater (Luke 22:24). Just as it is the custom of the good always to seek out in the Scriptures the examples of the Fathers who went before, by which they may advance to better things, and, having recognized which, they may be humbled concerning their own deeds, so on the contrary the reprobate, if perchance they find anything reprehensible in the elect, are wont to embrace it most gladly, as if to cover their own wickedness by it, or to defend it as just. And so they read far more eagerly that a contention arose among the disciples of Christ, which of them should seem to be the greater, than that the multitude of believers had one heart and one soul (Acts 4:32). They recall far more tenaciously that a dissension arose between Barnabas and Paul, so that they departed from one another, than what the same Paul says: For whereas there is among you jealousy and contention, are you not carnal? are you not men? (1 Cor. 3:3) — as though the weakness of the saints were put before us for imitation, and not rather this, that they recovered from weakness and became strong in battle; and this above all in a passage where the very cause of their contention is unknown to us. For it is not incredible that, in accordance with what is commanded elsewhere: Strive to enter by the narrow gate (Luke 13:24), they contended in outdoing one another in honour. But whatever the cause for which they contended, let us rather consider not what the disciples, still carnal, did, but what the spiritual Master commanded.

And He said to them: The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who have power over them are called benefactors. But you not so. But he who is the greater among you, let him become as the younger, and he who leads, as one who serves (Luke 22:25–26). When the disciples were striving about precedence, the kindly Master does not rebuke them for the contention they had begun, but with modest reasoning describes the pattern of humility which they are to follow. Yet in keeping this pattern the greater and the leaders, that is, the teachers of the Church, need no small discretion, namely that they should not, like the kings of the Gentiles, lord it over their subjects and rejoice to be exalted by them with empty praises, but should preside after the example of the King, and become also servants. For indeed it is necessary that they be companions in humility to those who act rightly, in such a way as to be roused up by zeal for justice against the vices of offenders, so that they both set themselves above the good in nothing, and, when the fault of the wicked demands it, at once acknowledge the power of their precedence. For lest the mind of one who presides be carried away to pride by delight in his power, it is rightly said by a certain wise man: They have made you ruler; be not lifted up, but be among them as one of them (Sir. 32:1). Hence also Peter says: Not lording it over

the clergy, but being made a pattern to the flock (1 Pet. 5:3). And yet sometimes one offends more gravely if among the perverse equality rather than discipline is kept; for because Eli, overcome by a false tenderness, would not strike his offending sons, before the strict Judge he struck himself together with his sons with a cruel condemnation. Hence it is necessary that tenderness show the ruler to his subjects as a mother, and discipline as a father. And amid these things one must take care with anxious circumspection that neither strictness be rigid nor tenderness slack.

For which is greater, he who reclines or he who serves? Is not he who reclines? But I am in the midst of you as one who serves (Luke 22:27). To the words of exhortation He adds His own examples, which John the evangelist, recording them more fully, writes among other things: If I, Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet (John 13:14). Although by the word "serving" all the things that God did in the flesh can also be understood. For He signifies that He pours out even the sacrament of His own blood in ministering to us, when He says: Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give His life a redemption for many (Matt. 20:28), showing this too as the chief kind of ministering to be imitated by the greater in the Church, that we should not only bestow on the brethren the ministries of works of mercy, of almsgiving, of saving doctrine, of spiritual example, but also learn, just as He laid down His life for us, so we too to lay down our lives for one another.

But you are they who have remained with Me in My temptations; and I appoint to you, as My Father has appointed to Me, a kingdom (Luke 22:28–29). Not the beginning of patience, but perseverance, is rewarded with the glory of the heavenly kingdom. For indeed perseverance, which by another name is called constancy, is a certain strength and fortitude of mind, and (if I may so put it) the pillar of all the virtues. When it stands well upright and firm, nothing is surer, nothing safer for good morals. But if, struck by some whirlwind, it is cast down, it does not fall alone; for absolutely all the goods of the soul collapse together. Just as, then, the Father appointed a kingdom to the Son, whom, having become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, He exalted, and gave Him the name which is above every name (Phil. 2:8–9), so too the same Son will lead those who remain with Him in temptations to the eternal kingdom. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also [in the likeness] of His resurrection (Rom. 6:5). From the sublimity of this promise the unhappy Judas is excepted. For he must be believed to have gone out even before the Lord said these things. He not only scorned to remain with Him in His temptations, but actually helped the very authors of His temptations. Excepted too are those who, having heard the words of the incomprehensible sacrament, went back and walked no more with Him. For those who withdraw from the Lord could not be saved, except as many as returned by repenting.

That you may eat and drink at My table in the kingdom (Luke 22:30). This table, set before all the saints for their enjoyment, is the glory of the heavenly life. That food and drink of which it is said elsewhere: Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice

(Matt. 5:6), for they shall be filled — that is, by enjoying the long-desired and beloved joy of the true and unshaken good. And that you may sit upon thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Luke 22:30). This is that change of the right hand of the Most High of which the psalm sings (Ps. 76:11), that those who now in humility rejoice to serve their fellow servants should then, exalted, be fed at the Lord's table with the meats of eternal life; that those who here, unjustly judged in temptations, remain with the Lord, should there come with Him as just judges over their tempters; and that the more they have been despised by this world in great humility, the more they should then, having received their seats, grow to a greater height of power.

And the Lord said: Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired you, that he might sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not (Luke 22:31–32). Lest the eleven apostles should glory, or ascribe to their own strength the fact that they almost alone among so many thousands of the Jews were said to have remained with the Lord in temptations, He shows that they too, had they not been protected by the aid of the Lord helping them, could have been crushed by the same storm along with the rest. But when Satan desires to tempt them, and to shake them as one who cleanses wheat by winnowing, He teaches that no one's faith is tempted by the devil except by God's permission. For Satan's desiring the good in order to sift them is his panting with the heats of malice for their affliction. For in so far as, out of envy, he seeks their temptation, in so far, as it were begging for their testing, he perishes. But when the Saviour, praying for Peter, entreats not that he may not be tempted but that his faith may not fail, that is, that after the fall of his denial he may rise again by repentance to his former state, He intimates that it is profitable for the saints to be tried by the flames of temptations, so that either, being tempted, they may be shown to have been strong, or, having come to know their own weakness through temptations, they may learn to be stronger, and so, when they have been proved, they too may receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him (Jas. 1:12).

And you, once converted, strengthen your brethren (Luke 22:32). As I (He says) have protected your faith by praying, lest it fail when Satan tempts, so do you remember to raise up and strengthen all the weaker brethren by the example of your repentance, lest perchance they despair of pardon. This same thing He urges also after the resurrection, when to him, professing three times that he loved Him (for it was fitting that the love of a threefold confession should wash away the fear of a threefold denial), He likewise three times commends His sheep to be fed.

And he said to Him: Lord, I am ready to go with You both into prison and to death. And He said: I tell you, Peter, the cock shall not crow today until you deny that you know Me (Luke 22:33–34). Because the Lord had said that He had prayed for Peter's faith, Peter, conscious of his present affection and fervent faith but ignorant of his future fall, does not believe that he could in any way fall away from Him. But He who alone knows what is in man, lest any of the faithful should either trust incautiously in his own standing or despair too incautiously over his fall, both, as God, foretells the manner, the time and the number of his denial, and, as merciful, promises the aid of His defence.

When I sent you without purse and scrip and shoes, did you lack anything? But they said: (Luke 22:35)

Nothing. Then He said to them: But now he who has a purse, let him take it, and likewise a scrip; and he who has none, let him sell his tunic and buy a sword (Luke 22:35–36). How justly the judgement of the Fathers defines discretion as the mother and nurse of all the virtues is proved also from this saying of the Lord, who does not instruct His disciples by the same rule of living in time of persecution as in time of peace. For there are virtues which must be held always and steadfastly; there are those which must be changed with provident discretion according to time and place. For who does not know that heartfelt mercy, kindness, humility, patience, modesty, chastity, faith, hope, charity and the like are to be kept by the faithful without any interval of time? But fasting, thirst, vigils, nakedness, reading, psalmody, prayer, manual labour, teaching, silence and other things of this kind — if anyone thinks they must always be carried out, he will not only deprive himself of their fruit, but also incur the mark of an indiscreet obstinacy, nay, of a stubborn folly. So the Master and Lord of the virtues, to convey the measure of discretion, when the disciples were sent to preach, commands them to take nothing on the way, ordaining, that is, that those who proclaim the Gospel should live by the Gospel. But when the danger of death is at hand, and the whole nation together is persecuting shepherd and flock alike, He decrees a rule suited to the time, permitting them to take money, namely what is necessary for their living, until, the madness of the persecutors having been laid to rest, the time for preaching the Gospel should return. Here He gives us too an example: that, when a just cause sometimes presses, certain things of the rigour of our rule of life may be set aside without fault. For instance, when we make a journey through inhospitable regions far off, it is lawful to carry more by way of provision for the way than we had at home. He bids them also to take up the sword, if they have one, or, if they have none, to buy one, so that readers may know that the disciples did not lack the means of resisting, but rather that the Master had the love of suffering. And here, even if there were no other cause for drawing the sword, this would have sufficed: that, the servant's ear being cut off, it should be healed by the Lord's touch, and the beneficent power of the Saviour should admonish even His smiters that they should prefer not to endure the wrath of the One they had struck, but to receive the faith of the One who would rise again.

For I say to you that this which is written must yet be fulfilled in Me: "And He was reckoned among the unjust." For the things concerning Me have an end (Luke 22:37). See why the disciples are told to take purse, scrip and sword: namely, because the Lord was to be reckoned among the unjust, which Isaiah sets down among other things in describing His passion (Isa. 53:12), intimating either the robbers, in whose midst He was to be crucified, or the dead in hell, to whom He was to descend through death. For then too He was reckoned among the unjust, when He descended into hell, and those whom He found there as His own He called back to the realms above. In accordance with what another prophet sings to Him: Thou also by the blood of Thy testament hast sent forth Thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water (Zech. 9:11).

But they said: Lord, behold, here are two swords. And He said to them: It is enough (Luke 22:38). Two swords suffice for a testimony that the Saviour suffered of His own will. One, which would teach both that the apostles had

the boldness to fight for the Lord, and, the ear being struck off by its blow, that the Lord, even when about to die, had the tenderness and the power of healing. The other, which, never drawn from the scabbard, would show that they were not permitted to do all that they could for His defence.

And going out, He went, according to His custom, to the Mount of Olives. And His disciples also followed Him (Luke 22:39). The Lord, who was to be betrayed by a disciple, goes to the place of His accustomed retreat, where He could most easily be found. Where, then, are those who contend that He feared death and was crucified against His will? And beautifully He leads His disciples, instructed in the mysteries of His body and blood, out to the Mount of Olives, to signify that all who are baptized in His death are to be confirmed with the most high chrism of the Holy Spirit, so that they can say with the Psalmist: The light of Thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us; Thou hast given gladness in my heart (Ps. 4:7). And of whom it is added before: From the time of their corn, wine and oil they are multiplied (ibid. 4:8).

And when He was come to the place, He said to them: Pray, lest you enter into temptation (Luke 22:40). It is impossible for the human soul not to be tempted. Hence in the Lord's Prayer too we say: Lead us not into temptation (Matt. 6:13), not refusing temptation altogether, but praying for strength to endure in temptations. So here too He does not say, Pray that you be not tempted, but, Lest you enter into temptation, that is, lest temptation overcome you at the last and hold you within its snares. For instance, the martyr who sheds his blood for the confession of the Lord has indeed been tempted, but not bound by the nets of temptation; but he who denies falls into the toils of temptation.

And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw. And kneeling down He prayed, saying (Luke 22:41). Having given the apostles the command to pray, He Himself too, withdrawn from them, prays alone for all, signifying that His prayer is as far removed from ours as His passion is; and He prays kneeling, to show humility of mind by the bearing of the flesh. And He was withdrawn from them a stone's throw, as though He were admonishing them figuratively by this to direct the stone towards Him, that is, to bring the temptation of the law, which was written on stone, right up to Him. For that stone can reach as far as Him, since Christ is the end of the law unto justice for everyone who believes (Rom. 10:4).

Father, if Thou wilt, remove this cup from Me. But yet not My will, but Thine be done (Luke 22:42). He asks that the cup be removed from Him, not indeed from fear of suffering, but from mercy towards the former people, lest it drink the cup it has poured out. Hence too He did not pointedly say, Remove the cup from Me, but, this cup, that is, the cup of the Jewish people, which cannot plead the excuse of ignorance if it kills Me, having the law and the prophets, who daily prophesy of Me. And yet, returning into Himself, what He had held tremblingly in the person of man, He confirms by the power of the Son of God.

But yet not My will, but Thine be done. Let not this be done (He says) which I speak with human feeling, but that for which I came down to earth by Thy will. If

then (He says) it can be brought about that the multitude of the Gentiles should believe without the destruction of the Jews, I refuse the passion. But if they are to be blinded so that all the nations may see, not My will, Father, but Thine be done. Otherwise: the Saviour, drawing near to His passion, took upon Himself the voice of the weak, saying: Father, if Thou wilt, remove this cup from Me, and He took on their fear in order to remove it. And again, showing strength of mind through obedience, He says: But yet not My will, but Thine be done. So that, when there looms what we do not wish to happen, we may through weakness ask that it may not happen, in such a way that through strength we may be ready for the will of our Maker to be done even against our own will.

And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him (Luke 22:43). Elsewhere we read that angels came and ministered to Him. In evidence, then, of both natures, it is recorded both that angels ministered to Him and that an angel strengthened Him, since He who existed as God before the ages became man at the end of the ages. And before He was exalted through the glory of the resurrection, He was above the angels in His divinity, but yet, as it is written, made lower than the angels in His humanity (Ps. 8:6), in which He was also subject to death. But after He trampled death by rising again, He set His humanity even above the majesties of the archangels. Certainly, if heresy flatters itself at all from this, so as to assert that He was weak who needed the help of an angel to strengthen Him, let it remember that the Creator of the angels did not need the protection of His creature. For He, had He wished, could have brought down twelve thousand legions of angels from heaven. Then, further, [it must be said] that He was necessarily strengthened in the same manner in which He was also sorrowful. For if He is sorrowful for us, that is, sorrowful because of us, it is necessary that He also be strengthened because of us and for us.

And being in an agony, He prayed the longer (Luke 22:43). What should He ask for Himself in agony, who, set upon earth, bestowed heavenly things with power? But as death drew near He expressed in Himself the struggle of our mind, we who suffer a certain force of terror and dread when through the dissolution of the flesh we draw near to the eternal judgement. For then not without reason is the soul of anyone terrified, when after a little while it finds that which it cannot change for eternity.

And His sweat became as drops of blood running down upon the earth (Luke 22:44). Let no one ascribe this sweat to weakness, for it is even against nature to sweat blood. Nor can it in any way serve the heresy of weakness, since it profits, against the heresy that pretends a phantom, towards [proof of] the reality of the body through the sweating of blood. But rather let him understand that through the earth watered and hallowed with His blood it was openly declared — not to Him, who knew it, but to us — that He was already obtaining the effect of His prayer, namely that He might cleanse with His blood the faith of the disciples, which earthly frailty still convicted; and that whatever offence that faith had suffered from His death, He Himself might blot out wholly by dying; nay, that the whole wide world, dead in sins,

He might by His own innocent death raise again to heavenly life.

And when He had risen from prayer and come to His disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow. And He said to them: Why do you sleep? Rise, and pray, lest you enter into temptation (Luke 22:45–46). That is, lest the cup of My passion weigh upon you. Here He clearly shows that He had prayed for them too, whom He also earnestly admonishes to become partakers of His prayers by watching and praying.

While He was yet speaking, behold a crowd, and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him (Luke 22:47). Why he kisses Him the other evangelists make plain, namely, so that by this sign they might be able to recognize that He was the one whom he was betraying. And the Lord accepts the traitor's kiss, not to teach us to dissemble, but so as not to seem to flee the betrayal, at the same time fulfilling also that saying of David: With those who hated peace I was peaceable (Ps. 119:7).

And Jesus said to him: Judas, with a kiss you betray the Son of Man (Luke 22:48). The Son of Man, He says, you betray, because the flesh, not the divinity, is seized. Yet this convicts the ungrateful man the more, that he betrayed Him who, though He was the Son of God, yet for our sake willed to be the Son of Man. And as if He said: For your sake, ungrateful one, I took up what you betray. I think indeed it should be pronounced as a question, as though He rebukes the traitor with the affection of one who loves him: Judas, with a kiss do you betray the Son of Man? That is: do you inflict a wound with the pledge of love, and shed blood with the office of charity, and bring death with the instrument of peace — do you, a servant, betray your Lord, a disciple your Master, one chosen your Author?

And those who were about Him, seeing what was about to happen, said to Him: Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the servant of the chief of the priests, and cut off his right ear (Luke 22:49–50). Peter did this, as John the evangelist teaches, doubtless with the same ardour of mind with which he had done other things. For he knew how Phinehas, by punishing the sacrilegious, had received the reward of justice and of an everlasting priesthood. But as for what follows:

And Jesus answering said: Suffer it thus far (Luke 22:51). It is not to be thought as though what had been done up to this point pleased Him, but that He did not wish more to be done; for in the words which Matthew sets down that the Lord said: Put back your sword into its place; for all who take the sword shall perish by the sword (Matt. 26:52), it was rather to be understood that the whole deed, in which Peter used the sword, displeased the Lord. For this is the truer [interpretation]: that when they had asked Him, saying, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? He then answered: Suffer it thus far; that is, let not what is about to happen trouble you; they are to be permitted to go so far, that is, to seize Me, and that the things written of Me may be fulfilled. But during the delay of the words of those questioning the Lord and of Him answering, Peter, in his eagerness to defend, struck with greater agitation on the Lord's behalf. But things which could be done simultaneously could not also be said simultaneously. For [Luke] would not say, And Jesus answering, unless He were answering their question. For

what He judged about Peter's deed, Matthew alone says. Where, moreover, Matthew did not say, "Jesus answered Peter: Put back your sword," but said, "Then Jesus said to him: Put back your sword," which shows that the Lord said it after the deed.

And when He had touched his ear, He healed him. The Lord never forgets His loving-kindness, who does not allow even His enemies to be wounded. They bring death upon the just one; He heals the wounds of His persecutors, teaching in a mystery that even those who have been wounded by consenting to His death can be healed if they are converted. According to allegory, this servant is the people of the Jews, bound over by undue obedience to the chief priests, so much so that at their persuasion they asked that Barabbas be released, but that Jesus, whom a little before, singing hosanna, they had been acclaiming as son of David and king, be crucified. In the Lord's passion this people lost the right ear, that is, the spiritual understanding of the law, content only with the left, that is, with the usefulness of the letter. This ear, namely, is cut off by Peter's sword, not because he takes away the sense of understanding from those who hear, but because he discloses to the negligent that it has been taken away by divine judgement. But in those of the same people who chose to believe, the same right ear has been restored to its former office by the condescension of divine loving-kindness. Otherwise: the ear cut off for the Lord's sake and healed by the Lord signifies hearing renewed, the oldness taken away, so that it may be in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. To whomever this has been granted by Christ, it will be granted also to reign with Christ. Hence fittingly Malchus too, the name by which that servant was called, is interpreted "king" or "one who will reign". That he was found a servant, moreover, also belongs to that oldness which gives birth into slavery, which is Hagar. But when healing had come, freedom too was prefigured.

But Jesus said to those who had come to Him, the chief priests and the officers of the temple and the elders. It is asked how Jesus is said to address the chief priests, the officers of the temple and the elders who had come to Him, when in the other evangelists they are reported not to have come themselves, but to have sent servants while they waited in the court of Caiaphas. But since the high priests, Pharisees and elders so managed the Lord's killing that they themselves might seem innocent of His blood (let Him be handed over not by us, but by His own disciple; let Him be seized not by us, but by the tribune and the crowds; let Barabbas be chosen in His stead not by us, but by the people; finally, let Him be condemned not by us, but by the governor, and be fastened to the cross not by our hand, but by that of the Roman soldiery), the evangelist, wishing to show that those by whose counsel everything was carried out were above all guilty of His blood, says that the chief priests and the officers of the temple and the elders came to seize the Saviour, so that it might be inferred from this that, just as they came not in their own persons but through those whom they sent to arrest Christ (what else was this than that they themselves came in the power of their command?), so all who with impious voices cried out for Him to be crucified killed Him, not indeed in their own persons, but nevertheless through him who was driven to this crime by their clamour.

Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not stretch out your hands against Me. But this is your hour and the power of darkness. It is foolish (He says) to seek with swords and clubs one who of his own accord hands himself over into your hands; and to track down by night, through a betrayer, as though he were hiding and avoiding your eyes, one who teaches daily in the temple. But you gather against Me in darkness for this reason: because your power, with which you arm yourselves against the light of the world, is in darkness.

And seizing Him, they led Him to the house of the chief priest. By the chief priest he means Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, as John the evangelist testifies.

But Peter followed at a distance. Rightly did he follow at a distance who was already very near to denying. For he could not have denied, had he clung close to Christ. Yet in this he is to be revered by us with the greatest admiration, that he did not abandon the Lord even when he was afraid. That he fears belongs to nature; that he follows, to devotion; that he denies, to being taken unawares; that he repents, to faith. Otherwise: that Peter follows at a distance the Lord going to His passion signified the Church, which would indeed follow, that is, imitate the Lord's sufferings, but very differently. For the Church suffers for herself, but He for the Church.

And when a fire had been kindled in the middle of the courtyard and they were sitting round it, Peter was in their midst. There is a fire of love, there is also one of covetousness. Of the former it is said: I came to cast fire on the earth, and what do I will but that it burn? (Luke 12:49). Of the latter: Behold, all you who kindle a fire, girt about with flames, walk in the light of your fire and in the flames which you have set alight (Isa. 50:11). The former, descending from heaven upon the believers in the upper room of Sion, taught them to praise God in various tongues. The latter, fed with earthly fuel in the courtyard of Caiaphas, kindled the crowds with flames of denying the Lord. With the former Moses consumed the golden head of the idol; with the latter Zedekiah consumed the writings of the prophesying Jeremiah. Whoever extinguishes the vicious and harmful burning within himself can sing to the Lord: For I have become like a wineskin in the frost; I have not forgotten Thy justifications (Ps. 118:83). But he who has lost the flame of the virtues hears from the Lord: Because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many grows cold (Matt. 24:12). Numbed for a time by this cold, the apostle Peter longed to be warmed at the coals of the persecutors, because he was seeking the solace of temporal comfort in the company of the faithless. But without delay, looked upon by the Lord, he left both their fire with his body and his unfaithfulness with his heart.

When a certain maidservant had seen him sitting by the light, and had looked intently at him, she said: This man too was with Him. What does it mean that a maidservant first betrays him, when men certainly could have recognized him better, unless that this sex too might be seen to have sinned in the killing of the Lord, and this sex too be redeemed through the Lord's passion? And therefore a woman first received the mystery of the resurrection, and keeps its commands, so as to wipe out the old error of the transgression.

But he denied Him, saying: Woman, I do not know Him.

Some, out of a devout affection towards the apostle Peter, interpret this passage as though he spoke rightly in saying that he did not know Him whom the human mind cannot comprehend, since no one knows the Son but the Father (Matt. 11:27). Again, when questioned a second time, he would have said, "O man, I am not," preferring to deny himself rather than Christ. And when questioned a third time, in saying, "Man, I do not know what you are saying," he would have signified that he did not know their sacrileges, that is, that he condemned them by rejecting and execrating them. But how frivolous this exposition is, both the Lord, who with truthful attestation had foretold that He would be denied three times by Peter, makes plain, and Peter himself, who shows by the tears that followed that he said these things not on purpose but by being taken unawares.

And after a little while another, seeing him, said: You too are one of them. But Peter said: O man, I am not. In this denial of blessed Peter we learn that Christ is denied not only by the one who says that He is not the Christ, but also by the one who, though he is a Christian, denies that he is one; for the Lord did not say to Peter, "You will deny that you are My disciple," but, "You will deny Me." He denied Him, therefore, when he denied that he was His disciple.

And after an interval of about one hour, a certain other man insisted, saying: Truly this man too was with Him, for he too is a Galilean. Not that the Galileans spoke one language and the people of Jerusalem another, since both were Hebrews, but because each province and region, having its own peculiarities, cannot avoid its native sound of speech. Hence in the Acts of the Apostles, when those on whom the Holy Spirit had settled were speaking in the tongues of all nations, among the others who had gathered from various regions of the world, those too who lived in Judaea are reported to have said in wonder: Behold, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how have we heard, each of us, our own language in which we were born? (Acts 2:7–8).

And Peter said: Man, I do not know what you are saying. And immediately, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. Holy Scripture is often accustomed to indicate the quality of events through the state of the times. Hence Peter, who denied at midnight, repented at cockcrow. He also, after the resurrection, in the light of day, professed three times that he loved the Lord whom he had denied three times, because, to be sure, what he had gone astray in through the darkness of forgetfulness he both corrected by the remembrance of the light now hoped for, and, having obtained the presence of that same true light, set fully upright whatever he had overturned. By this cock I think some one of the teachers is to be understood, who, rousing us as we lie and rebuking us as we drowse, says: Awake, you just, and do not sin (1 Cor. 15:34).

And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said: Before the cock crows, you will deny Me three times. And going outside, Peter wept bitterly. When the Lord looked at him, Peter, returning to his heart, wiped away the stain of denial with the tears of repentance, because God's mercy is necessary not only when repentance is being done, but in order that it may be done. For His looking is His having mercy. Hence the Psalmist: How long (he says) shall my enemy be exalted

over me? Look upon me and hear me, O Lord my God (Ps. 12:3–4), that is, have mercy and help. How harmful indeed is the talk of the faithless! Among the Jews Peter denied that he knew even as a man Him whom among his fellow disciples he had confessed to be the Son of God. Could he, then, have done penance while held back in the courtyard of Caiaphas? He goes outside so that, set apart from the council of the impious, he may wash away the filth of his fearful denial with unrestrained weeping.

And the men who were holding Him mocked Him, striking Him, and they blindfolded Him and struck His face. In this place the prophecy is fulfilled which says: With a rod they will strike the cheek of the judge of Israel (Mic. 5:1). But He who was then beaten with the blows of the Jews is beaten even now with the blasphemies of false Christians. They blindfolded Him, moreover, not so that He might not see their crimes, but so that He might hide His face from them, as they once did to Moses. For if they believed Moses, they would perhaps believe the Lord too. This veil remains to this day upon their heart, not taken away, but for us who believe in Christ it has been removed. For not in vain, as He died, was the veil of the temple torn in the middle.

And they questioned Him, saying: Prophesy, who is it that struck you? And they said many other things against Him, blaspheming. These things they did as if in insult to Him who had wished to be held a prophet by the peoples; but by the disposing of Him who suffers, all things are done for us, so that, as Peter exhorts, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, we may arm ourselves with the same thought (1 Pet. 4:1). And heretics too, or the Jews to this day who deny that Jesus is God, and bad catholics, who, provoking Him with reprobate deeds, do not suppose that their thoughts and works of darkness are seen by Him, say as if mocking Him: Prophesy, who is it that struck you?

And when it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together, and they led Him into their council, saying: If you are the Christ, tell us. They did not desire the truth, but were preparing a false charge. For, since they hoped that the Christ to come would be only a man of the stock of David, as they themselves answered Him on another occasion when He questioned them, they sought this from Him as a great thing, so that if He said, "I am the Christ" (in the sense in which alone they understood it) of the seed of David, they might accuse Him falsely of arrogating to Himself royal power.

And He said to them: If I tell you, you will not believe Me. And if I also question you, you will not answer Me, nor let Me go. He had often told them that He was the Christ, namely when He said: I and the Father are one (John 10:30); and again: The works that I do in the name of My Father, these bear witness of Me, but you do not believe (John 10:25–26), and other such things. He had also asked how they could say that the Christ was the son of David, when David himself in the Spirit called Him his Lord, so that, challenged by such a question, they might learn that He was not only true man, because the son of David, but also true God, because the Lord of David. But they were willing neither to follow and believe Him when He spoke, nor to inquire and answer Him when He questioned, nor

to let Him go free, who had been proved innocent. But they who sought to accuse the seed of David falsely hear something greater.

But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. If, then, to you, O Jew, pagan and heretic, the contempt, the weakness and the cross in Christ are a disgrace, see that through these things the Son of Man is to sit at the right hand of God the Father, and that He who was born a man from the virgin's childbearing is to come in His majesty with the clouds of heaven. Hence the Apostle too, when he had described the abasements of the cross, added, saying: Because of this God also has exalted Him and has given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is in the glory of God (Phil. 2:9–11).

And they all said: Are you, then, the Son of God? You say that I am. He so tempers His answer that He both speaks the truth and lies open to no false charge from His words. For He preferred to prove that He was the Christ, the Son of God, rather than to say it, so that the ground for condemning Him might be taken away from those who themselves confess what they lay against Him.

But they said: What further need have we of testimony? For we ourselves have heard it from His mouth. They took the Lord's testimony, that He had called Himself the Christ and the Son of God, from His saying: The Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. And to those who asked, "Are you, then, the Son of God?" He answered: You say that I am. They condemn themselves, then, by their own sentence, who hand over to death Him whom by the testimony both of His mouth and of His works they recognize to be God. They condemn the Arians too, who refuse to understand, now that the Lord has been glorified after His death, the words that announce the divine majesty, which the very executioners who were about to crucify Him understood while He was still bound and scourged and mocked.

CHAPTER XXIII.

And the whole multitude of them arose and led Him to Pilate. So that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled which He foretold about His death: For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and scourged and spat upon. And after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him (Luke 18:32–33). By "Gentiles" He means the Romans. For Pilate was a Roman, and the Romans had sent him into Judaea as governor; to him the Jews hand over the Lord to be crucified, wishing in this way to make themselves as it were strangers to His killing, so that not their innocence but their madness is displayed.

And they began to accuse Him, saying: We have found this man subverting our nation and forbidding tribute to be given to Caesar, and saying that He is Christ a king. The Jews are convicted of impiety in that, accusing the Saviour, they cannot find anything plausible to lay against Him, not even falsely. And therefore, as Mark says: their testimonies did not agree (Mark 14:56). But He, to give us an example of patience, just as before when He was beaten, so now when He is accused is silent and holds His peace.

And Pilate questioned Him, saying: Are you the king of the Jews? And He answered and said: You say so. With the same

word He answers the governor with which He also answers the chief priests, so that they may be condemned by their own sentence. And it is to be noted that, when two things were laid against the Lord, namely that He forbade tribute to be given to Caesar and that He called Himself Christ a king, Pilate thought he should question Him on the one point only, about the kingship. For it may have happened that Pilate too had heard that judgement of the Lord in which He said: Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's (Matt. 22:21), and therefore, counting this charge as worthless, as an open lie of envious men, he judged only that which he did not know to be worth inquiring into.

And Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds: I find no cause in this man. This is what He Himself said to the disciples, among other things, on the day before He suffered: For the prince of this world is coming, and in Me he has nothing (John 14:30). But since the prince of the world, that is, Pilate, acquitted Him, in whom he found no cause for which to condemn Him, see what the Jews do, who are busy not to search out the truth from love of equity, but to condemn the just one under the goad of envy.

But they grew more insistent, saying: He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judaea, beginning from Galilee even to this place. Here the speech of the accusers shows rather both that the one accused is innocent and that those who accuse are perverse. For to have taught the people, and by teaching to have stirred them out of the sloth of former times, and in such activity to have passed through from Galilee to Judaea, that is, through the whole land of promise from end to end, is plainly a sign not of crime but of virtue. For a lover of the Lord could, as indeed one did, put the same statement in the place of praise, saying to good hearers: You know the word that was spread throughout all Judaea. For beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached, [you know] Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because the Lord was with Him (Acts 10:37–38). Finally Pilate, thinking that the Saviour need not even be questioned about this, on finding an occasion desires rather to free himself from judging Him. For there follows:

But Pilate, hearing of Galilee, asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that He was of Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him back to Herod, who was himself also at Jerusalem in those days. Pilate, so as not to be forced to pass sentence against one whom he knew to be guiltless and handed over out of envy, sent Him to Herod to be heard, so that he who was tetrarch of His homeland might rather either acquit Him or punish Him. But by divine Providence, so that no excuse might remain to the Jews, as though not they but the Romans had crucified Christ, Herod too, who was a Jew by birth and religion, was permitted to show, with his soldiery, what he thought of Him. At the same time the impiety of both provinces is shown, Judaea, that is, in which He was born, and Galilee, in which He was brought up and lived, conspiring in His death.

And Herod, at the sight of Jesus, rejoiced greatly. For he was

desiring for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him, and he hoped to see some sign done by Him. And he questioned Him with many words, but He answered him nothing. He was silent and did nothing, because his cruelty did not deserve to see divine things, and the Lord shunned display. And perhaps in Herod all the impious are signified, who, if they have not believed the law and the prophets, cannot see the wonderful works of Christ in the Gospel either.

And the chief priests and the scribes stood by, accusing Him vehemently. When the chief priests and scribes accused Him, the Lord answered a few things before Pilate and nothing before Herod, namely so that He might not, by clearing Himself of the charge, be released by the governor, and the benefit of the cross be put off. For it was indeed just that He should answer in some part to Pilate, who was passing sentence unwillingly, but that He should consider Herod and the other leading men of the Jews unworthy in every way of His speech, because they were condemning an innocent man against the decrees of their own law. On account of those things, then, though He would not answer, the likeness of the Lamb was given for this purpose, that in His silence He might be held not guilty but innocent. For when He was silent, He showed patience like a lamb to be sacrificed for the whole flock; but when He answered, He fought like a good shepherd for the sheep entrusted to Him against the snares of wolves and robbers.

And Herod with his soldiery despised Him and mocked Him, clothed in a white garment, and sent Him back to Pilate. That He is clothed in a white garment gives signs of a spotless passion, since the spotless Lamb of God was to take away the sins of the whole world. For He who was despised and mocked in a white garment Himself suffered and was buried in chaste flesh. Otherwise: that He is mocked clothed here in white, but according to the other evangelists in a purple or scarlet garment, expresses the twofold kind of martyrdom with which He is adorned through the sufferings of holy Church. She too, marvelling at the harmless death of the same Lord, her bridegroom, says: My beloved is white and ruddy (Song 5:10). White, that is, in action; ruddy in blood. And He Himself, flowering with the various blossoms of His members, brings forth lilies in peace, roses in war.

And Herod and Pilate became friends on that very day. For before they had been enemies to each other. This most wicked pact of Herod and Pilate, which they struck in killing Christ, their successors keep to this day as if by hereditary right, when Gentiles and Jews, at odds in mind as they are in race and religion, yet agree in persecuting Christians and in destroying the faith of Christ in them.

And Pilate, having called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, said to them. Consider how much zeal Pilate shows for releasing Jesus. First, when the chief priests accuse Him, he says that he has found no cause in Him. Then, when they persist in what they had begun, he sends Him to Herod, to find out whether even he can discover any crime in Him, or perhaps wishes to decide that He should be released. Lastly, having learned Herod's will too, and no crime having been found in Jesus, [he seeks] the judgement of the people also, to whom he had been accustomed to release one man at the Passover,

he seeks. Again also, and a third time, wishing to release Him, he questions them. But the more carefully he seeks a helper in releasing Jesus, whom he does not find, the more he shows to be criminal those whom he finds with one mind desiring His death:

You have brought this man to me as one who turns the people away, and behold, I, having examined Him before you, find no cause in this man in those things of which you accuse Him. In saying this Pilate indeed acquitted Jesus, whom he proved guiltless; but, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, the one he acquitted by judgement he crucified by a mystery.

Nor did Herod. For I sent you to him, and behold, nothing deserving death has been done by Him. Hear, blind Jew; hear, cruel pagan. Pilate himself confesses that neither he nor Herod found anything deserving death in Christ, but only that in killing or mocking an innocent man they yielded to the clamours of another's cruelty. Let those writings perish, then, which, composed against Christ so long afterwards, show not that He was accused before Pilate of the magic art, but that you are to be accused before the Lord of faithlessness and falsehood.

I will therefore chastise Him and release Him. With scourges and mockeries I will treat Him as much as you yourselves order, provided that you do not thirst for innocent blood.

Now he was obliged to release one to them at the feast day. He was obliged, bound not by the sanction of imperial law but by the annual custom of the nation, which he was glad to please by such things.

But the whole crowd cried out together, saying: Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas, who had been cast into prison for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder. Their petition, which they obtained with so much effort, clings to the Jews to this day. For since, given the choice, they chose a robber instead of Jesus, a murderer instead of the Saviour, the taker of life instead of the giver, they deservedly lost salvation and life, and sank themselves so deep in robberies and seditions that they lost both their homeland and their kingdom, which they loved more than Christ, and have not to this day deserved to recover the freedom, whether of soul or of body, which they sold.

And Pilate spoke to them again, wishing to release Jesus. But they kept shouting, saying: Crucify, crucify Him. How great the cruelty of the faithless, which desires not only to kill an innocent man but to kill Him by the worst kind of death, that is, to crucify Him! For the crucified, hanging on the wood, fastened to the wood with nails through feet and hands, were put to death by a prolonged death, and lived a long time on the cross, not because a longer life was chosen, but because death itself was drawn out, so that the pain might not end too soon. But He, by the worst of deaths, slew every death. For it was the worst only in the understanding of the Jews; for it had been chosen by the Lord. He was to have His very cross as His sign; that very cross, over the vanquished devil, He was to set like a trophy on the foreheads of the faithful, so that the Apostle might say: But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal. 6:14).

But he said to them a third time: Why, what evil has this man done? I find no cause of death in Him. I will chastise Him, therefore, and release Him. This chastisement, by which he sought above all to satisfy the people, so that they would not rage as far as crucifying the Saviour: that he not only offered it by repeated asking, but also displayed it to the desires of the wicked by mocking and scourging Him, both the words of John the evangelist and the very pillar to which He is bound bear witness. He who is accustomed to loose those in fetters submitted limbs full of God to blows. This pillar, set up in the church of Mount Sion, shows to those who see it, even to this day, sure traces of the Lord's blood. But though Pilate does these things, consider what the insatiable fury of the sacrilegious craves.

But they pressed on with loud voices, demanding that He be crucified, and their voices prevailed. Since they saw that the whole accusation which they had brought against the Lord had been emptied by Pilate's frequent and careful questioning, at last, shameless, they turn to entreaties alone, so as to accomplish by demanding and shouting what they had been unable to do by accusing and, as it were, by reasoning. That the persecutors of the blessed martyrs too kept this order of raging from then on, ecclesiastical history amply shows.

And Pilate gave sentence that their petition should be done. And he released to them him who had been cast into prison for murder and sedition, whom they were asking for; but Jesus he handed over to their will. The seditious robber and author of murders was released to the people of the Jews, that is, the devil, who long ago had been driven from the homeland of light for the fault of pride and cast into the prison of darkness; and therefore the Jews cannot have peace, because they preferred to choose the prince of seditions rather than the Lord. But since Barabbas is interpreted "son of the father" or "son of their master", he can bear the type of Antichrist, whom those to whom it is said, You are of your father the devil (John 8:44), will prefer to the true Son of God. Antichrist, moreover, is called the son of the devil not by being born of him, but, like other sinners, by imitating him.

And as they led Him away, they seized a certain Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him to carry behind Jesus. John the evangelist relates that the Lord carried the cross for Himself. From this it is understood that the cross was first carried by the Lord, and then laid on Simon, whom they happened to meet as they went out, in a very fitting order of the mystery. For He suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21). He [Simon] is well described as carrying the cross after Jesus, according to what He Himself commands: And let him take up his cross and follow Me (Matt. 16:24). And since this Simon is said to be not a man of Jerusalem but a Cyrenian (for Cyrene is a city of Libya, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles), the peoples of the Gentiles are rightly designated by him. Once strangers and foreigners to the testaments, they are now, by obeying the faith, citizens and members of God's household; and, as is said elsewhere: Heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). Hence beautifully Simon, obeying,

Cyrene is interpreted "heir". Nor should it be passed over that Simon is reported to have come from the country. For the country is called in Greek pagos, from which the pagans take their name, because they are strangers to the city of God and, as it were, ignorant of civil life. But Simon, coming out of the pagus, carries the cross behind Jesus when the people of the nations, having abandoned pagan rites, obediently embrace the footsteps of the Lord's passion.

And there followed Him a great crowd of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him. But Jesus, turning to them, said. A great crowd together followed the Lord's cross, but not with one and the same mind. For the people followed so as gladly to watch the dying of Him whose death they had obtained; but the women, so as to weep for Him whom they desired to live, as about to die, dying, and dead. Yet it was not because a numberless company of believing men too was not most sorrowful at His passion that the mourning of the women alone followed Him, but because the female sex, as the more despised, could more freely show what it felt against the chief priests and rulers in their presence. But since the Lord knows those who are His, passing over now the crowd of the raging people, He turned His eyes and face to the women who loved and mourned Him, saying:

Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep over Me, but weep over yourselves and over your children. Do not lament Me (He says) as about to die, whose swift resurrection can undo death, whose death will destroy both every death and the very author of death. Rather wash yourselves and your offspring with worthy fountains of tears, lest you be condemned with the faithless to eternal death in vengeance for My cross. And it should be noted, when He calls them daughters of Jerusalem, that not only the women who had come with Him from Galilee, but also women citizens of that same city clung to Him. And now too a twofold crowd follows Jesus as He goes to be sacrificed, when some read, hear and recall the history of His passion as tales worthy of laughter, others with weeping eyes, as is fitting; these receive the mysteries of His flesh and blood as cheap and common food, those with a heart worthy of so great a thing. But when the Lord looks upon a contrite and humbled heart, He straightway adds the grace of saving compunction, whence, as a consoler, He bestows more graciously, more sweetly and more gently.

For behold, the days will come in which they will say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not given suck. Then they will begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us. He means the days of the siege and captivity to come from the Romans. Of these He said to the disciples earlier, among other things: Then let those who are in Judaea flee to the mountains. And a little later: But woe to those who are with child and those who give suck in those days (Matt. 24:16, 19). For it is natural too, when captivity is imminent and slaughter by the enemy rages through fields and cities, that all who can escape should seek out every high or hidden refuge in which to hide. And Josephus relates specifically that, as the Romans pressed upon them, the Jews vied with one another in seeking the hollows of the mountains and the caves of the hills.

So that he testifies of himself that, at the destruction of the city of Jotapata, in a certain fortification in a cave, he was betrayed with forty companions, found, and taken by the enemy. It can also be understood, from the superfluous [addition] that He says the barren and those who do not bear are to be called blessed, of those who have castrated themselves, in either sex, for the kingdom of heaven. It is said to the mountains and hills: Fall upon us, and cover us, when any who are mindful of their own frailty, at the onset of the moment of temptations, seek to be defended by the examples, admonitions and prayers of any lofty men, whether in virginity itself, or in martyrdom, or in any other virtue.

For if they do these things in the green wood, what shall be done in the dry? The green wood signifies Himself and His elect, the dry the impious and sinners. If therefore, He says, I who did no sin, who am deservedly called the tree of life, who bring forth the twelve fruits of grace each month, do not go out from the world without the fire of the Passion, what torment do you think awaits those who, empty of fruit, moreover do not fear to give the very tree of life to the flames? If now is the time that judgement should begin at the house of God, and all who will live godly in Christ suffer persecution, what is the end of those who do not believe the Gospel of God?

And there were also two other malefactors led with Him, to be put to death. That what He said might be fulfilled: And He was reckoned with the wicked. But He was reckoned with the wicked in death, that He might justify the wicked in the resurrection, He who, being in the form of God, was made man for men's sake, that He might give men power to become sons of God (John 1:12).

And when they had come to the place which is called of Calvary, there they crucified Him. Outside the city of Jerusalem and outside the gate there were places in which the heads of the condemned were cut off, and they took the name of Calvary, that is, of the beheaded. And for this reason the Lord was crucified there, that where formerly was the ground of the condemned, the banners of martyrdom might be raised. And as for us He was made the curse of the cross, and was scourged, and crucified, so for the salvation of all He is crucified as a guilty man among the guilty, that where sin abounded grace might more abound. How indeed the Lord was placed on the cross, and what royal figure that same position of His most sacred body contains in itself, Sedulius in his Paschal poem has beautifully told in verse:

And lest anyone be ignorant that the figure of the cross is to be revered, / which, rejoicing, bore the Lord by a mighty design, / it gathers from it the four regions of the four-square world. / The splendid East shines from the Author's head, / His sacred feet are bathed by the setting star. / His right hand holds the North, His left raises the middle axis, / and all nature lives from the limbs of its Creator, / and Christ rules the world embraced on every side by the cross.

The Apostle also describes the moral figure of the most holy cross, where he says: Rooted and grounded in charity, that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length, height and depth, to know also the charity of Christ which surpasses knowledge (Eph. 3:17–19). For in the breadth he signifies the good works of charity, in the length perseverance in holy

way of life even to the end, in the height the hope of heavenly rewards, in the depth the unsearchable judgements of God, whence this grace came to men. And these are so fitted to the mystery of the cross that in the breadth is understood the crossbeam on which the hands are stretched out, because it signifies works. In the length, from that [beam] down to the ground, where the whole crucified body is seen to stand, which signifies to persist, that is, to remain with long-suffering. In the height, from the crossbeam itself upwards, the part which rises at the head, because of the expectation of things above, lest those good works and perseverance in them be thought to be done for the earthly and temporal benefits of God, but rather for that everlasting thing which faith, which works through love, hopes for from above. And in the depth, that part of the wood which lies hidden, fixed in the secret places of the earth, but from which all that stands out rises, just as by the hidden will of God man is called to share in so great a grace, one in this way, another in that; and the charity of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that surely where that peace is which surpasses all understanding.

And the robbers, one on the right, and the other on the left. The robbers who were crucified with the Lord on either side signify those who, under the faith and confession of Christ, undergo either the contest of martyrdom or the rules of a stricter continence. But as many as do these things for eternal and heavenly glory alone are surely signified by the merit and faith of the robber on the right. But those who renounce the world either with an eye to human praise or with any less worthy intention, not undeservedly imitate the mind and deeds of the blasphemer, the robber on the left. Of such the Apostle says: If I deliver my body to be burned, if I give all my goods to feed the poor, if I do many other things, but have not charity, it profits me nothing (1 Cor. 13:3). But truly, blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:10).

And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Because Luke set out to write of the priesthood of Christ under the figure of the calf, rightly in his Gospel the Lord both intercedes for His persecutors by the right of a priest, and by the same office opens the gate of paradise to the confessing robber. For it must not be thought that He prayed these things to the Father in vain, but rather that He obtained what He prayed for in those who believed after His Passion. It is indeed to be noted that He offered prayers to the Father not for those who, kindled by the goads of envy and pride, chose to crucify rather than confess Him whom they understood to be the Son of God, but certainly for those who, having a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge (Rom. 10:2), did not know what they had done (Luke 23:34). And the apostle John too says: There is a sin unto death; I do not say that one should pray for that (1 John 5:16). Imitate therefore your Lord: intercede for your enemies, and if you cannot yet, at least take care that you do not presume to pray against them. For so, increased by daily progress, you will at some time, with the Lord's help, come to this too, that you can even intercede for them.

Dividing His garments, they cast lots. And the people stood looking on. These things the Evangelist John sets out more fully, namely that the soldiers, dividing the rest into four parts according to their own number, cast lots for the tunic which was seamless, woven from the top throughout. Now the fourfold garment of the Lord figured His fourfold Church, spread, that is, through the whole world, which consists of four parts, and distributed equally, that is, harmoniously, through all those same parts. But that tunic allotted [by lot] signifies the unity of all the parts, which is held together by the bond of charity. For if charity, according to the Apostle, both has a more excellent way, and surpasses knowledge, and is above all commandments (Eph. 3:19), rightly is the garment by which it is signified said to be woven from above. And in the lot what is commended but the grace of God? For thus in one it came to all, when the lot pleased all, because the grace of God too comes to all in unity; and when the lot is cast, it falls not to the person or merits of anyone, but by the hidden judgement of God.

And the rulers derided Him, saying with them: He saved others, let him save himself, if he is the Christ, the chosen of God. Even unwilling, the rulers and peoples of the Jews confess that He saved others. So your own sentence condemns you. For He who saved others could certainly have saved Himself if He had willed. Let him save himself (they say) if he is the Christ, the chosen of God. Nay, He refused to save Himself by coming down from the cross precisely because He is the Christ, the chosen of God. For He who came for this, that He might be crucified for us, neglected to save Himself by coming down from the cross for this reason, that with the rest of sinners He took care, by dying, to save also those who crucified Him.

And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming up and offering Him vinegar, saying: If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself. The Jews themselves were the vinegar, degenerating from the wine of the patriarchs and prophets. With this vinegar, that is, the soldiers gave the Lord drink, whom they handed over to death at their prompting. And it is to be noted that the Jews, blaspheming, mock the title of Christ and Son of God, entrusted to them by the authority of Scripture. But the soldiers, as being ignorant of the Scriptures, insult not the Christ, the chosen of God, but the King of the Jews.

And there was also an inscription written over Him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew: This is the King of the Jews. Beautifully the title that testifies Christ to be King is placed not below but above the cross, because although on the cross He suffered for us in the weakness of man, yet above the cross He shone with the majesty of a king. And fittingly too, since He is at once king and priest, when He offered to the Father the choice victim of His own flesh on the altar of the cross, He also displays by the title the dignity of king with which He was endowed, so that it may become known to all who are willing to read, that is, to hear and believe, that through the cross He did not lose His rule, but rather confirmed and strengthened it. Hence the Apostle too, when he had described the shame of the cross, added: For which cause God also exalted Him, and gave Him the name which is above every

name, etc. (Phil. 2:9). For that this name was written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin is what the same Apostle adds in what follows: And let every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father (ibid. 2:11). As regards the letter, these three languages stood out there above the rest: Hebrew because of the Jews glorying in the law, Greek because of the wise men of the Gentiles, Latin because of the Romans, who even then ruled many and almost all nations. Whether the Jews will it or not, then, every kingdom of the world, all worldly wisdom, all the mysteries of the divine law testify that Jesus is King of the Jews, that is, ruler of those who believe in and confess God.

And one of the robbers who were hanging blasphemed Him, saying: If you are the Christ, save yourself and us. It perhaps troubles some how the other evangelists say that the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him. One of them indeed reviled Him, according to the testimony of Luke; the other both looked upon Him and believed in God. But let us understand that they, touching briefly on this passage, put the plural number for the singular. As in the Epistle to the Hebrews we read it said in the plural: They stopped the mouths of lions (Heb. 11:33), when Daniel alone is understood to be meant. And it is said in the plural: They were sawn asunder (ibid. 11:37), when this is handed down of Isaiah alone. In the psalm also, what was said: The kings of the earth stood up and the princes met together (Ps. 2:2), is found in the Acts of the Apostles to be the plural number put for the singular. For by kings they understood Herod, by princes Pilate, they who brought forward the testimony of that same psalm. And what is more customary (for example) than that someone should say, The peasants too insult me, even if only one insults him?

But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying: Do you not fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive what our deeds deserve; but this man has done nothing evil. And he said to Jesus: Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. Who would not marvel at the spirit of this robber? Nay rather, who can worthily marvel at the grace of the Lord helping him, or venerate it with worthy thanksgiving? On the cross nails had bound his hands and feet; nothing in him had remained free from torment but heart and tongue; at God's inspiration he offered Him all that he found free in himself, so that, according to what is written, he might believe with the heart unto justice and confess with the mouth unto salvation (Rom. 10:10). Now the Apostle testifies that three virtues above all abide in the heart of the faithful, saying: But now there abide faith, hope, charity (1 Cor. 13:13). All of these the robber, filled with sudden grace, both received and kept on the cross. For he had faith, who believed that the Lord would reign, whom he saw dying together with himself. He had hope, who asked for entrance to His kingdom. Charity too he held fast in his death, who both reproved his brother and fellow robber, dying for a like crime, for his iniquity, and proclaimed to him the life which he had come to know. He who came to the cross such as he was by guilt, see what manner of man he departs from the cross by grace. He confessed the Lord,

whom he saw dying with him in human weakness, when the apostles denied Him whom they had seen working miracles by divine power.

And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to you: Today you shall be with Me in paradise. A most beautiful example of a conversion to be striven for, that pardon is granted so quickly to the robber, and the grace is more abundant than the prayer. For the Lord always gives more than He is asked. For he asked that the Lord should remember him when He came into His kingdom. But the Lord says: Amen I say to you, today you shall be with Me in paradise. For to be with Christ is life, because where Christ is, there is the kingdom. Some fit the two robbers crucified with the Lord to two kinds of the baptized. For all we who have been baptized in Christ Jesus have been baptized in His death (Rom. 6:3). For both were crucified alike, but one became worse on the cross by blasphemies, the other was made a martyr by confession. For through the baptism by which, when we were sinners, we are washed, some, while they praise God who suffered in the flesh with faith, hope and charity, are crowned; others, while they refuse to have either the faith or the works of baptism, are deprived of the gift they received.

And it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour, and the sun was darkened. The brightest light of the world drew back its rays, lest it should see the Lord hanging, or the impious blasphemers enjoy its light. And it is to be noted that the Lord was crucified at the sixth hour, that is, when the sun was about to withdraw from the centre of the world; but at dawn, that is, when the sun was already rising, He celebrated the mysteries of His resurrection. For by the state of the time He signified what He showed by the effect of the work. For He died for our sins, and rose again for our justification (Rom. 4:25). For when Adam too sinned, it is written that he heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise in the breeze after midday (Gen. 3:8). After midday, that is, when the light of faith was declining. In the breeze, when the fervour of charity was growing cold. And He was heard walking, because He had withdrawn from sinning man. The order of reason therefore required that at the same moment of time at which He had then shut the gate of paradise to sinning Adam, the Lord should now open it to the penitent robber.

And the veil of the temple was torn in the middle. This happened as the Lord was breathing His last, as Matthew and Mark testify, but Luke told it by anticipation. For wishing to join miracle to miracle, when he had said, The sun was darkened, he thought he should at once add: And the veil of the temple was torn in the middle. Now the veil of the temple is torn so that the secrets of the testament and all the mysteries of the law, which before were covered, might appear and pass over to the people of the nations. For before it had been said: In Judaea God is known, His name is great in Israel (Ps. 75:2). But now: Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and Thy glory (he says) above all the earth (Ps. 56:6). And in the Gospel He said before: Do not go into the way of the Gentiles (Matt. 10:5). But after the Passion: Go, teach all nations (Matt. 28:19).

And crying with a loud voice Jesus said: Father, into Thy hands

I commend My spirit; and saying this He breathed His last. By calling upon the Father He declares Himself to be the Son of God. But by commending His spirit He intimates not a failing of His strength, but His confidence in a power one with the Father's. For He loves to give glory to the Father, that He may build us up to give glory to the Creator. He commends His spirit to the Father, then, according to what He says in another psalm with gladdened heart and with lips exulting in the hope of rising again: For Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, nor wilt Thou give Thy holy one to see corruption (Ps. 15:10).

And the centurion, seeing what had been done, glorified God, saying: Truly this man was just. Not the centurion alone glorified God, but the soldiers too who were with him guarding Jesus (as Matthew writes), when they had seen the earthquake and the things that were done, feared greatly, saying: Truly this was the Son of God (Matt. 27:54). How great then the blindness of the Jews, who, when so many mighty works had been done by the Lord, and such great signs appeared at His death, refused to believe, and, more insensible than the Gentiles, disdained to glorify or fear God. Hence rightly by the centurion is signified the faith of the Church, which, once the veil of the heavenly mysteries has been opened by the Lord's death, at once affirms Jesus to be both truly a just man and truly the Son of God, while the synagogue is silent. For the very sum of a hundred, which in the bending of the fingers, as was also mentioned above, passes from the left hand to the right, accords most fittingly with the sacraments and faith of the Church, to which the Gospel has been entrusted in place of the law, and the heavenly kingdom promised in place of the riches of the earth.

And all the crowd of those who were present together at that sight, and saw the things that were done, returned beating their breasts. That they beat their breasts, since it is a sign of repentance and of grief, can be understood in two ways. For either they grieved that He whose life they had loved had been unjustly slain, or they trembled at Him whose death they remembered that they had procured, now more greatly glorified in death. But whether this cause or that, or both, compelled different and disagreeing persons in the crowd to beat the breast, the difference of nation from nation is to be noted. For the Gentiles, fearing God as Christ dies, glorify Him with the voice of open confession; the Jews, only beating their breasts, return home in silence.

And all His acquaintance stood afar off, and the women who had followed Him from Galilee, seeing these things. This is what the Lord Himself complains of to the Father in the psalm, when the course of His Passion has been set out, saying: Thou hast put friend and neighbour far from Me, and My acquaintance because of misery (Ps. 87:19).

And behold, a man named Joseph, who was a councillor, a good and just man. He had not consented to their counsel and deeds. He is called a decurion because he is of the order of the curia and administers the office of the curia; he is also commonly called a curial, from his administering civil duties.

Of Arimathaea, a city of Judaea, who himself also was waiting for the kingdom of God. Of Arimathaea: this is Ramathaim

the city of Elkanah and Samuel, in the region of Thamna near Diospolis.

This man went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. This Joseph is praised as having been of great dignity in the world, but of greater merit with God, so that by the justice of his merits he was worthy to bury the Lord's body, and by the nobility of his worldly power he was able to receive that same body. For not any unknown person could approach the governor and obtain the body of one crucified.

And having taken it down He wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a sepulchre hewn [in rock], in which no one had yet been laid. And by the simple burial of the Lord the ambition of the rich is condemned, who cannot do without riches even in their tombs. But according to the spiritual understanding we can also perceive this, that he wraps Jesus in a clean linen cloth who receives Him with a pure mind. And He is laid in a new tomb lest, if other bodies remained there after the resurrection, it should be pretended that another had risen. And it is well recorded that the tomb was hewn from rock, lest, if it had been built of many stones, it should be said that He was carried off by theft when the foundations of the tomb had been dug under. Otherwise: the Lord alone is shut in the tomb, so that His burial may be shown to be singular, that is, unlike ours, just as the other secrets of His dispensation too differed from the frailty of our nature, and His resurrection singular also. For He appeared as an old man, but conceived and born of a virgin mother. And He was tempted in all things, but in the likeness [of ours] without sin. And He died, but as He Himself willed. And He was buried, but for as long as He willed. And He was raised, but when He willed. This then is what He says: I am alone until I pass over (Ps. 140:10). And elsewhere, of His singular burial: In peace in the selfsame I will sleep and I will rest, for Thou, O Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope (Ps. 4:9–10), that is, while the resurrection of the other mortals is kept for the end, Thou hast promised that I, by a singular gift, shall rise from the dead on the third day.

And it was the day of the Parasceve, and the Sabbath was dawning. Parasceve is interpreted preparation, the name by which the Jews who lived among the Greeks called the sixth day of the week, which we now call the sixth feria, because on that day, namely, they prepared what would be needed for the Sabbath, according to the command once given about the manna: But on the sixth day you shall gather twice as much, etc. (Exod. 16:5). But the Jews who live among the Romans more usually call it in Latin the pure supper. Since therefore on the sixth day man was made, and the whole creation of the world was completed, and on the seventh the Maker rested from His work, whence He also commanded that this day be called the Sabbath, that is, rest, rightly the Lord, crucified on that same sixth day, fulfilled the mystery of man's restoration. Hence when He had taken the vinegar He said: It is consummated (John 19:30), that is, the whole work of the sixth day, which I undertook for the resurrection of the world, is completed. But resting in the tomb on the Sabbath, He awaited the coming of the resurrection, which was to come on the eighth day. Where at the same time our

devotion an example shines out, for whom in this sixth age of the world it is necessary to suffer for the Lord, and as it were to be crucified to the world; but in the seventh age, that is, when one pays the debt of death, it is fitting that the bodies remain in the tombs and the souls in secret peace with the Lord, and rest after good works, until at length, when the eighth age comes, the bodies themselves too, purified by the resurrection, receive together with the souls the incorruption of the eternal inheritance. Hence it is beautifully not read in Genesis that the seventh day had an evening, because the rest of souls which is now in that world is not to be ended by any sorrow, but to be increased by the fuller joy of the resurrection to come.

And the women who had come with Him from Galilee, following after, saw the sepulchre, and how His body was laid. We read above that all His acquaintance stood afar off, and the women who had followed Him. So, when these acquaintances of Jesus were returning to their own homes after His body had been taken down, the women alone, who loved Him more closely, following the burial, desired to see how He was laid, so that at a fitting time they might offer Him the gift of their devotion. And holy women still do the same on the day of the Parasceve, when humble souls, burning with the greater love of the Saviour the greater the frailty of which they are conscious in themselves, diligently follow the traces of His Passion in this world, in which the rest to come must be prepared, and, if perhaps they may be able to imitate it, weigh with careful attention in what order that same Passion was accomplished.

And returning they prepared spices and ointments. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. The commandment was that the silence of the Sabbath should be kept from evening to evening, and therefore the devout women, when the Lord had been buried, were busy preparing ointments as long as it was lawful to work, that is, until sunset. And this they did not only on the day of the Parasceve, but, when the Sabbath was over, that is, at sunset, as soon as leave to work returned, they bought spices, that coming in the morning they might anoint His body, as Mark the Evangelist testifies. For they did not wish to go to the tomb on the evening of the Sabbath, when the hour of night was already upon them. Having seen the Lord's burial, those return and prepare spices and ointments who, having read, heard and remembered the Lord's Passion, at once turn themselves to performing the works of virtue in which Christ delights; and on the Sabbath, their spices prepared, they keep silence, meaning to come to the Lord with gifts after the Sabbath, when, the parasceve of the present life ended, rejoicing in blessed rest they wait for the time when, as the time of the resurrection appears, they may go to meet Christ with the fragrant [deeds] of spiritual actions, as with spices.

CHAPTER XXIV.

And on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared. One of the Sabbath, or the first of the Sabbath, is the first day after the Sabbath, which Christian custom calls the Lord's Day because of the Lord's resurrection. And that the women came to the tomb very early in the morning, according to

the history, indeed, a great fervour of charity in seeking and finding the Lord is shown; but according to the mystical sense an example is given us to approach the most holy body of the Lord with face enlightened and the darkness of vices shaken off. For that venerable tomb too bore the figure of the Lord's altar, on which the mysteries of His flesh and blood are wont to be celebrated. Hence ecclesiastical [custom] holds that these same mysteries ought to be consecrated not on silk, not on dyed cloth, but on pure linen, like the linen cloth in which Joseph wrapped Him. So that, as He offered for us to death the true substance of an earthly and mortal nature, so we too, in commemoration of that same dread and venerable sacrament, may lay upon the altar linen pure from the growth of the earth, and white, and chastened by a manifold kind, as it were, of mortifications. And the spices which the women bring signify the odour of virtues and the sweetness of prayers with which we ought to approach the altar. Hence John in his Apocalypse, when he had described golden bowls in the hand of the angels, that is, pure consciences in the heart of the elect, full of odours, added in explanation, and said: Which are the prayers of the saints.

And they found the stone rolled back from the sepulchre, and going in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. How the stone was rolled back by the angel Matthew has sufficiently set out. But the rolling back of the stone mystically intimates the unsealing of the mysteries which were covered by the veil of the letter. For the law was written on stone. When its covering is taken away, the body of the Lord is not found dead, but is proclaimed living. For even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer.

And it came to pass, while they were dismayed in mind about this, behold, two men stood by them in shining apparel. They were dismayed in mind, because they were both astonished that a stone of such immense size had been rolled away, and grieved that a body of such surpassing veneration was not found. And as, when the Lord had been tempted in the wilderness, angels came at once upon the completed victory and ministered to Him, so, when that same Saviour had suffered in the flesh, after the struggles of death overcome there come angels, to announce the glory of the Triumphant One not only by a word of consolation but also by their shining dress. And as angels are read to have stood by the body of the Saviour laid in the tomb, so they are to be believed to be present also at the celebration of the mysteries of that same most sacred body at the time of consecration, since the Apostle admonishes women to have a veil in church because of the angels (1 Cor. 11:10).

And as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the ground, they said to them: Why do you seek the living with the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Do not (they say) seek among the dead, that is, in the tomb, which is properly the place of the dead, Him who has already risen from the dead to life. And we too, after the example of the women devoted to God, whenever we enter the church and draw near to the heavenly mysteries, whether because of the presence of the angelic host or because of reverence for the sacred offering, ought to go in with all humility and fear. For at the sight of the angels

we bow our face to the ground when, contemplating what are the eternal joys of the citizens above, we humbly call to mind that we are ashes and earth. As blessed Abraham says: I will speak to my Lord, though I am dust and ashes (Gen. 18:27). And it is to be noted that the holy women, when the angels stood by them, are said not to have fallen to the ground, but to have bowed their face to the ground. Nor do we read that any of the saints, at the time of the Lord's resurrection, worshipped prostrate on the ground when either the Lord Himself or angels had been seen by them. Hence the ecclesiastical custom has prevailed that, whether in memory of the Lord's resurrection or in hope of our own, both on all Lord's days and during the whole time of the fifty days, we pray not with bent knees, but with faces bowed to the ground.

Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying: The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again. On the third day the Lord, as He Himself had foretold (as we learn from this passage) among the disciples, to the women too who followed Him as well as to the men, celebrated the triumph of His resurrection. For on the day of the Parasceve, giving up His spirit at the ninth hour, buried in the evening, He rose early on the first day of the week, as Mark the evangelist plainly indicates. Not undeservedly, then, did He lie in the tomb one day and two nights, because He joined the light of His single death to the darkness of our double death. For He came to us, who were held in the death of spirit and of flesh; He brought to us His one death, that is, of the flesh, and loosed our two which He took upon Himself. For if He had undergone both, He would have freed us from neither; but He mercifully took the one, and justly condemned both. He set His single death against our double, and by dying subdued our double death.

And they remembered His words. Let the women who, standing at the Lord's tomb, remember the words He had spoken beforehand about His dispensation, give us a pattern, that while celebrating the very mysteries of the Lord's Passion we may always with due veneration remember not only that same blessed Passion, but also the resurrection from the dead, and the glory of the ascension into heaven as well.

And going out from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest. As in the beginning the woman was the author of the fault to the man, and the man the executor of the error, so now she who had first tasted death first saw the resurrection, and, lest she should bear among men the reproach of perpetual guilt, she who had passed the fault on to the man passed on grace as well.

And it was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the other women who were with them, who told these things to the apostles. Mary Magdalene is the sister of Lazarus, who anointed the Lord with ointment. Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, of whom we read above. Mary of James is the mother of James the Less and of Joseph, as Mark the evangelist says, the sister of the Lord's mother, whence James himself also deserved to be called the brother of the Lord.

And these words seemed to them as idle talk, and they did not believe them. That the disciples were slow to believe the Lord's resurrection, not so much

the weakness of those men was, so to speak, to be our strength. For the resurrection itself was shown to them in their doubting by many proofs. And when we, reading of these things, recognize them, what else happens but that we are made firm by their doubting?

But Peter rose and ran to the tomb, and stooping down he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering in himself at what had happened. Luke records Peter's running briefly; but John sets out more fully how it was done, saying that the disciple whom Jesus loved also ran with Peter, meaning, that is, himself. Hence it is asked how Luke can say of Peter, And stooping down he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves (Luke 24:12), when John indicates rather that he himself did this, while Peter, going into the tomb, saw not only the linen cloths but also the napkin that had been over His head. But it is to be understood that Peter first, stooping down, saw what Luke records and John passes over; and afterwards went in, so as to examine the inside more carefully, went in, however, before John entered.

And behold, two of them were going that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was sixty stadia distant from Jerusalem, and they were talking with one another of all these things that had happened. The stadium, by which the Greeks, on the authority (as they say) of Hercules, measure the lengths of roads, is the eighth part of a mile, and so sixty stadia make seven thousand five hundred paces. This length of journey fits well those who walked certain of the Saviour's death and burial, doubtful of His resurrection. For who will doubt that the resurrection, which took place after the seventh day of the week, accords with the number eight? So the disciples who went along speaking of the Lord completed the sixth mile of the journey they had begun, because they grieved that He who lived without reproach had come to death, which He underwent on the sixth day of the week; they completed the seventh as well, because they did not doubt that He had rested in the tomb. But of the eighth they covered only half, because they did not yet fully believe the glory of the resurrection already accomplished. Now Emmaus is the very same as Nicopolis, a notable city of Palestine, which, restored after the clearing of Judaea under the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, changed its name along with its condition.

And it came to pass, while they were talking and questioning together, that Jesus Himself also drew near and went with them. The Lord drew near and accompanied those who were speaking of Him, both to kindle in their minds faith in His resurrection and, by the presence of His hidden majesty, to show that He will always fulfil what He promised. For where two or three are gathered in My name, there (He says) am I in the midst of them.

But their eyes were held, so that they should not recognize Him. And He said to them, What are these words that you exchange with one another as you walk, and are sad? The Lord did indeed appear, but He did not show them a form that they might recognize. So the Lord did outwardly, in the eyes of the body, what was being done within them, in the eyes of the heart. For inwardly, within themselves, they both loved

and doubted; and the Lord was outwardly both present to them and at their side, and did not show who He was. So to those speaking of Him He gave His presence, but from those doubting of Him He hid the form by which He might be known.

And one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said to Him, Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things that have been done there in these days? They thought Him a stranger whose face they did not recognize. And indeed He truly was a stranger to them, since, having already received the glory of the resurrection, He stood far off from the frailty of their nature. He was a stranger to them, since He still remained foreign to their faith, which, as it were, knew nothing of His resurrection.

To whom He said, What things? And they said to Him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. They confess Him a prophet, and a great one; they are silent about the Son of God, either, that is, because they did not yet fully believe, or because they were anxious not to fall into the hands of the persecuting Jews, since they did not know who it was with whom they were speaking, and so concealed what they believed to be true.

And how our chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who would redeem Israel. Rightly did they walk sad, for in a manner they also reproached themselves for having hoped for redemption in Him whom they had now seen dead, and whom they did not believe would rise again. And they grieved most of all that He had been killed without fault, for they knew Him to be innocent.

And now besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Moreover, certain women of our company terrified us, who were at the tomb before daylight, and not finding His body, came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who say that He is alive. They are rightly said to have terrified them, for they were able rather to add, by the Lord's body not being found, to the sorrow with which those men's minds were grieving, than to see, in His resurrection announced by the angels, a joy by which they might be refreshed.

And some of ours went to the tomb, and found it just as the women had said, but Him they did not find. Since Luke himself said above that Peter ran to the tomb, and now has reported Cleopas as saying that some of them had run to the tomb, he is understood to bear witness that two went to the tomb. But he first mentioned Peter alone, because it was to him that Mary had first brought the news.

And He said to them, O foolish and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory? And beginning from Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things that were about Himself. At this place there lies upon us no need to interpret Scripture, but a twofold need to humble ourselves, who are neither taught in the Scriptures as much as we ought, nor intent, as much as is fitting, on fulfilling what we have perhaps been able to learn. For if Moses and all the prophets spoke of Christ, and that He would enter into His glory through the narrow way of the passion,

on what grounds do they boast that they are Christians, who, according to the measure of their strength, neither investigate how the Scriptures pertain to Christ, nor desire to attain through the sufferings of tribulation to the glory they long to have with Christ?

And they drew near to the village to which they were going, and He made as though He would go farther, and they constrained Him, saying, Stay with us, for it is towards evening and the day is now far spent. And He went in with them. The simple Truth did nothing by duplicity; but in what is said, He made as though He would go farther, He showed Himself to the disciples in the body such as He was with them in their mind. They were to be tested, whether these men, though they did not yet love Him as God, could at least love Him as a stranger. But because those with whom the Truth was walking could not be strangers to charity, they invite Him to lodge with them as a stranger. Yet why do we say they invite, when it is written there, And they constrained Him? From this example, indeed, it is gathered that strangers are not only to be invited to hospitality, but even to be drawn in.

And it came to pass, while He was at table with them, He took bread, and blessed and broke it, and was handing it to them, and their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him. Him whom they did not recognize in the exposition of sacred Scripture they recognize in the breaking of bread. They were not enlightened by hearing God's precepts; they were enlightened by doing them. For it is written: Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified (Rom. 2:13). Whoever, then, wishes to understand what he has heard, let him make haste to fulfil in deed what he has already been able to understand.

And He vanished from their eyes. And they said to one another, Was not our heart burning within us while He spoke on the way and opened the Scriptures to us? I came, He says, to cast fire on the earth, and what do I will but that it burn (Luke 12:49)? For the Lord cast fire on the earth when by the breath of the Holy Spirit He set on fire the heart of the carnal. And the earth burns when the heart of the carnal, formerly cold in its pleasures, abandons the desires of the present age and is kindled to the love of God. Was not our heart (they say) burning within us while He spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us? For by the word that is heard the spirit is set aflame, the chill of the body withdraws, the mind becomes anxious in heavenly desire, a stranger to earthly desires. True love, once it has filled the mind, torments it in tears. But while it is tormented by such ardour, it is fed by its very torments; it delights to hear the heavenly precepts, and by as many commands as it is taught, by so many torches, as it were, is it inflamed.

And rising up that same hour, they went back to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, saying that the Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. There was already a report that Jesus had risen, made by those women and by Simon Peter, to whom He had already appeared. For these two found those to whom they came in Jerusalem saying this. It may be, then, that earlier on the way they had been unwilling, out of fear, to say that they had heard He had risen, when they said only that angels had been seen by the women. For not knowing with whom they were speaking, they might rightly have been anxious lest

by spreading something about everywhere concerning Christ's resurrection they should fall into the hands of the Jews. Of all the men, then, the Lord is understood to have appeared first to Peter, at least of all those whom the four evangelists and the apostle Paul have recorded. For Paul speaks to the Corinthians of the Lord, that He was buried, and that He rose on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, and afterwards to the eleven.

And they told what had happened on the way, and how they recognized Him in the breaking of the bread. Besides the fact that, in keeping with the state of their mind, still ignorant that Christ had to die and rise again, their eyes suffered something similar, not because the Truth deceived, but because they themselves were unable to perceive the truth and supposed something other than the reality, it was also done for the sake of a definite mystery that another likeness was shown them in Him, and that so they should not recognize Him except in the breaking of the bread: so that no one should think he has recognized Christ if he is not a partaker of His body, that is, of the Church, whose unity the Apostle commends in the sacrament of the bread, saying, We, being many, are one bread, one body (Rom. 12 [recte 1 Cor. 10:17]); so that when He handed them the blessed bread their eyes should be opened and they should recognize Him. Opened, that is, to the knowledge of Him, the impediment by which they were held from recognizing Him being removed. And we may not unfittingly take it that this impediment in their eyes was from Satan, so that Jesus should not be recognized; but yet permission was given by Christ only as far as the sacrament of the bread, so that, once the unity of His body was partaken of, the enemy's impediment is understood to be removed, so that Christ can be recognized.

But while they were saying these things, Jesus stood in their midst and said to them, Peace be to you. It is I; do not be afraid. John too is understood to record this showing of the Lord after the resurrection, speaking thus: When therefore it was evening on that day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be to you, and so on. As to John's saying that the apostle Thomas was not with them then, when according to Luke those two, of whom one was Cleopas, returning to Jerusalem found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, it is without doubt to be understood that Thomas went out from there before the Lord appeared to them as they were saying these things.

But they were troubled and terrified, and supposed that they saw a spirit. What the heretic Manichees suspect and believe about Christ, that He was not true flesh but was a spirit, this was the first thought that arose in the hearts of the apostles. And those Manichees indeed never believe that Jesus was a man. But the disciples knew the man with whom they had lived for so long. But after He died, what they had known, when would they believe that this which could die could be raised up? So He appeared to their eyes such as they had known Him. And not believing that true flesh could rise from the tomb on the third day, they thought they were seeing a spirit. This error of the apostles is the sect of the Manichees. And when they

are faced with these things, they are wont to answer thus: What evil do we believe? Because we believe Christ to be God, we believe He was a spirit; we do not believe He was flesh. A spirit is better than flesh. We believe what is better; what is worse we refuse to believe. If there is nothing evil in this talk, let Jesus leave His disciples in this error. What evil did the disciples too believe? They believed Christ a spirit. For they did not think that He was nothing, but a spirit. You think you are in danger from a slight disease: hear the physician's verdict.

And He said to them, Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? What thoughts, if not false, diseased, ruinous ones? For Christ would have lost the fruit of His passion if there were not the truth of the resurrection. Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? As if a good husbandman were to say: What I planted there, there let me find, not thorns, which I did not plant. Let it come down into your heart, for it is from above. But these thoughts did not come down from above; they came up in the heart itself like a bad weed.

See My hands and feet, that it is I Myself. Handle and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see Me to have. He deigned to commend His resurrection as certain and true by many and various proofs, in order to build up faith, to drive unbelief from the heart, and to remove all doubt about His resurrection. It was too little to offer Himself to be seen by the eyes if He did not also offer Himself to be handled by the hands. In showing the disciples bones and flesh to be touched, He plainly signifies the state of the true resurrection which was accomplished in Him and is to be in us. For our body in that glory of the resurrection will not, as Eutychius, bishop of the city of Constantinople, wrote, be impalpable, finer than winds and air. For in that glory of the resurrection our body will be fine indeed through the working of spiritual power, but palpable through the truth of its nature. Nor let the Apostle's saying be thought to conflict with this assertion: That flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50). For in this place the Apostle, by the name of flesh and blood, signifies not the substance of a true body, but the corruption of mortality, as he himself goes on to explain, saying: Nor shall corruption possess incorruption (ibid.). For flesh is spoken of in sacred Scripture in one sense according to nature, in another according to sin, in another according to the corruption of mortality which came about from sin. According to nature, when it is said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh (Gen. 2:23). And: The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). According to sin, when it is said: The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Gal. 5:17). According to corruptibility, when it is written: And He remembered that they are flesh (Ps. 77:39), that is, frail and dying; for the Psalmist himself shows that he meant this by the name of flesh, since he at once adds: A wind that goes and does not return (ibid.). The flesh, therefore, shall not possess the kingdom of God, that is, flesh according to sin or mortality. And yet the flesh shall possess the kingdom of God, that is, flesh according to nature.

And this the Lord, after the resurrection, offered to the disciples to be seen and handled. And of it blessed Job, when he was describing the glory of the resurrection, says: And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see God (Job 19:26). Read the letter of Saint Augustine to Consentius on the body of the Lord after the resurrection.

And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and feet. Not only His hands and feet, in which the marks of the nails clearly appeared, but, as John bears witness, He also showed the side that had been pierced by the lance: so that, by showing the scar of His wounds, He might heal the wound of their doubt and unbelief. But as after the resurrection, by laying open the places of the nails and the lance, He deigned to strengthen the faith and hope of the disciples, so on the day of judgement He will come to confound the impiety of the proud and their unbelief by showing both those same tokens of His passion and the cross itself as well; that is, so that He may show openly to all angels and men that He is the very one who died at the hands of the impious and for the impious, and they shall see (as it is written) Him whom they pierced, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him (Rev. 1:7). It should certainly be noted that the pagans are wont at this place to build a slander, and with foolish chatter to mock the faith in the resurrection that we hope for. For if your God Himself (they say) had not the power to heal the wounds inflicted on Him by the Jews, but carried the traces of the scars with Him (as you say) into heaven, with what rashness do you think He will restore your limbs from the dust to wholeness? To whom it must be answered that our God, who was able to raise His flesh, glorified now with everlasting immortality, from the tomb when He willed and as He willed, raised it also such as He willed. For it does not follow that He who is proved to have done the greater things could not do the lesser. But surely, for the sake of His dispensation, He who did the greater refrained from doing the less; that is, He who destroyed the kingdom of death would not blot out the signs of death. First, namely, that by these He might establish for the disciples faith in His resurrection. Next, that in pleading with the Father for us He may always show what kind of death He bore for the life of mortals. Third, that to those redeemed by His death He may ever renew, by setting before them the tokens of that same death, how mercifully they have been helped, and that therefore they may not cease to sing the mercies of the Lord for ever, but those who are redeemed by the Lord may say, For He is good, for His mercy endures for ever. Lastly, that at the judgement He may declare to the faithless also how justly they are condemned, by showing, among their other crimes, the scar of the wounds which He received from them. Just as if some most valiant soldier, at his King's command, toiling in single combat for the safety of the whole nation, should, though he has received many wounds, yet kill the enemy, strip his spoils, and bring back victory to his nation; and being asked by the physician to whose care he is committed whether he would rather be healed so that no traces of the wounds remain, or rather so that the scars indeed remain but all disfigurement and foulness is wholly gone, should answer that he would rather wish it so

to be healed that, the whole state of his former health and comeliness being recovered, he may carry about with him for ever the signs of so great a triumph. Just so the Lord, as a sign of perpetual victory, chose not to abolish the wounds of the passion received for us, but rather to bring their scars into heaven. Yet nothing of this prejudges our faith in the resurrection, of which it is foretold by a truthful promise: And not a hair of your head shall perish (Luke 21:18).

But while they still did not believe, and wondered for joy, He said, Have you here anything to eat? To make known the truth of His resurrection, He deigns not only to be touched by the disciples but also to eat with them; not indeed as though needing food after the resurrection, nor as signifying that we shall need food in the resurrection we await, but so that in this way He might establish the nature of the risen body, lest they should think it not a body but a spirit, and that it appeared to them not solidly but as an image. He ate by power, not by necessity. For the thirsty earth drinks up water in one way, the burning ray of the sun in another: the one from need, the other from power.

And they offered Him a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb. And when He had eaten before them, taking what remained He gave it to them. What do we believe the broiled fish signifies, if not the Mediator of God and men Himself, the man who suffered? For He, deigning to lie hidden in the waters of the human race, willed to be caught in the snare of our death, and was, as it were, broiled by tribulation at the time of His passion. But He who deigned to become a broiled fish in the passion became for us a honeycomb in the resurrection. Or did He who willed the tribulations of His passion to be figured in the broiled fish will to express in the honeycomb both natures of His person? For a honeycomb is honey in wax; and honey in wax is divinity in humanity. Thus the Redeemer shows His own, so as to lay down the way of imitation for us who follow. For see, in His meal He willed to join the honeycomb to the broiled fish, because He receives into eternal rest in His body those who, while they suffer tribulations here for God, do not withdraw from the love of inward sweetness. The honeycomb is taken with the broiled fish, because those who here undergo affliction for the truth are there filled with true sweetness.

And He said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you. That is, while I was still in the mortal flesh in which you too are. For He had then been raised in the same flesh, but He was not with them in the same mortality. And after He rose He was indeed with them for forty days (as we read) in the showing of His bodily presence, but He was not with them in the fellowship of human weakness.

For all things must be fulfilled that are written in the law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning Me. See how He took away every evasion. He was seen, He was touched, He ate; it was certainly He. Yet, lest He should seem to have mocked the human senses in some way, He put His hand to the Scriptures. Let the pagans say what they will: He was a magician, He was able to show Himself in this way. Surely

could a magician prophesy about himself before he was born? Give us the Scriptures, because what you see was foreseen beforehand, what you behold was foretold beforehand. Hear, O daughter, and see (Ps. 44:11): hear what was foretold, see it fulfilled.

Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, For thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day. He offers Himself to be seen by the eyes, He offers Himself to be handled by the hands. That is little: read, He calls the Scriptures to mind. And this is little: He opens the understanding, so that you may understand what you read. Then, after commending the truth of His body, He commends the unity of the Church.

And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. The madness of heretics lurks not in a corner; the Church is spread over the whole world, all nations have the Church; let no one deceive us: she is the true one, she is the catholic one; she began from Jerusalem, she has come to us, and she is both there and here. For she did not leave there in order to come here. She grew; she did not move away. And rightly is it written so among the other mysteries of the Lord's goodness, and so it behoved that the ministers of the word, who were to preach in the name of Christ, crucified and raised from the dead, repentance and remission of sins to all nations, should begin from Jerusalem: not only because to them were entrusted the oracles of God, because theirs is the adoption of sons, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service, and the promises, because theirs are the fathers, and from them is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever (Rom. 9:4–5); but also so that this greatest token of God's goodness might rouse the nations, which were entangled in various errors and crimes, to the hope of obtaining pardon, when they saw that even to those who crucified the Son of God not only pardon of their guilt from the Father had been granted, but also the joy of eternal life.

And you are witnesses of these things, and I send the promise of My Father upon you. That the promise of the Father is the name for the grace of the Holy Spirit is made known more fully in the Gospel of John, and here too briefly, when there follows:

But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Of this power, that is, the Holy Spirit, the angel also says to Mary: And the power of the Most High shall overshadow you (Luke 1:35). And the Lord Himself elsewhere: For I too know that power has gone out from Me (Luke 8:46). And Luke himself, more openly, in the Acts of the Apostles, mentions this promised power from on high and the staying in the city that was commanded. He commanded them (he says) not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard from My mouth. For John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence (Acts 1:4–5). And a little after: But you shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you, and you shall be My witnesses (ibid., 1:8). It is certainly to be noted that there are some whom either imperfection or age forbids the office of preaching, and yet haste drives them on; they are to be admonished to consider that the Truth Himself, who could have strengthened in an instant whom He wished, in order to give an example to those who follow

so that the imperfect should not presume to preach, after He had fully instructed the disciples about the power of preaching, at once added: But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. For we stay in the city if we confine ourselves within the cloisters of our minds, lest we wander outwardly by speaking, so that when we are perfectly clothed with the divine power, then we may go out, as it were, from ourselves, teaching others also.

And He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He departed from them and was carried up into heaven. Passing over all that could have been done by Him with the disciples through the forty days, he silently joins to the first day of His resurrection the last day, on which He ascended into heaven. And beautifully, when about to ascend into heaven, He leads the disciples whom He is to bless out to Bethany. First because of the name of the town, which is called house of obedience; for He who came down because of the disobedience of the perverse ascended, surely, because of the obedience of the converted: for He died, as the Apostle says, for our offences, and rose again for our justification (Rom. 4:25). Next, also because of the site of that village, or little town, which is related to be situated on the side of the Mount of Olives; because, that is, the house of the obedient Church, worthy to lodge the apostles, has laid the foundations of its faith, hope and love nowhere else than in the side of the highest mountain itself, that is, of Christ. From which side, opened by the lance, it rejoices that the sacraments of blood and water flowed forth for it, by which it is at once born and nourished. From whose most fruitful summit, that is, the height of the Godhead, it longs for the gifts of spiritual anointing, and eagerly awaits the promises of everlasting light and peace. Third, because, as John writes, Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia off (John 11:18). Which number, made up as it is of seven and eight, and so suited to the mysteries of the Scriptures, contains either the present life and the life to come, or the Old and New Testaments, or the sabbath of souls in the age to come and the resurrection of the flesh, or certainly some other mystery, always heavenly and spiritual. And therefore rightly those to whom He opened the knowledge of both Testaments, whom He also taught the whole rule of living and hoping, He leads fifteen stadia to the place where He was to bless them, and the precepts of teaching

should hand over, He led out. Rightly did He set the place of the glorious ascension fifteen stadia apart from the place of the most victorious passion, so that all who desire either to live or to die for Him He might strengthen alike with the desire and with the love, first of resting after death, and at the end of being raised from the dead.

And they, worshipping, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. When the Lord had ascended into heaven, the disciples, worshipping in the place where His feet last stood, at once return to Jerusalem, because they had been commanded to await there the promise of the Father which they had heard from the mouth of the Lord. They bring back great joy, because they rejoice that their God and Lord, after the triumph of the resurrection, has also passed into the heavens. They remain continually in the temple, praising and blessing God, so that in the place of prayer and amid the devotions of praises they may await the promised coming of the Holy Spirit with hearts ready and prepared in all things. And let us too, after the example of the disciples, having celebrated in Jerusalem, and that in the vision of peace, the solemnities of the Lord's passion and resurrection, presently seek the fields of Bethany with Christ as our leader, so that with a quiet mind, already pacified from every whirlwind of discords, we may be imbued with the sacraments of His flesh and blood; let us take care to be ourselves a house of obedience, following indeed in the footsteps of Him who, that He might give us a pattern of living, became obedient unto death (Phil. 2:8). For thus shall we too deserve to be lifted up by His daily blessing, if, mindful daily of His triumphal ascension into heaven, praising and blessing God, we rest in Jerusalem, that is, in the vision of supernal peace, hoped for and longed for even now, like men awaiting their lord, when he shall return from the wedding (Luke 12:36). And since the blessed evangelist Luke is taken to be signified, among the four living creatures of heaven, by the calf, by whose sacrifice those chosen for the priesthood were commanded to be consecrated, because he undertook to set forth the priesthood of Christ more fully than the others, most beautifully did he who began his Gospel from the ministry of the temple through the priesthood of Zachary complete it in the devotion of the temple, when he closed it with the apostles there, the future ministers, that is, of the new priesthood, not in the blood of victims but in the praise and blessing of God. Amen.