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For he could not excuse the rest of the servants, not because they received it securely when the Lord bowed to their feet, but because, struck with trembling, they did not dare to contradict. A kind of fearful burden had fallen upon them: because the ruler of the world deigned to bow himself to servile feet. Peter alone, first of the legion, most steadfast in confidence, held the Lord's hands, and pressed forth his own tears with piety. Bowed with the one bowed: the servant bent together with the Lord. God stretches out his hands to wash the feet, and he stretches out his suppliant hands to make excuse. 'Lord, dost thou wash my feet?' (John XIII, 6). If thou shouldst command an angel, it would be in some way burdensome to me. Dost thou wash my feet, thou who didst create earth and heaven?
Didst thou not gather the sea into one? and wilt thou fill the basin for my sake? My iniquities are gone over my head, and dost thou bow to the uncleanness of my feet? If heaven is not clean before thee, can the touch of my soles be clean? 'Thou shalt not wash my feet for ever' (in the same place, 8). You have said well, Peter, that I shall not wash your feet for ever. For I do not love to repeat a mystery that is one and singular: nor did I command a twin sacrament to be repeated. I shall not wash your feet for ever. Nevertheless, one thing is necessary: if you now refuse the service of servitude, you shall have no part with me in the kingdom of heaven (in the same place). Suffer me to fulfil all righteousness.
So also your fellow-servant John made excuse at the Jordan, so also you make excuse at the basin. 'Suffer it now; what I do thou knowest not, but thou shalt know hereafter.' Blessed Peter still, as it were, held the figure of an infant, thrusting away the Lord's hands: just as also now, when we wash the feet of infants, a sweet contradiction of the innocent children anticipated us with a delightful spectacle — they thrust away, they wept, they wailed, they cried, who knew not what we were doing. Such also was Peter, to whom it is said, 'What I do now thou knowest not, but thou shalt know hereafter.' The knowledge of the heavenly kingdom was shown, and skill grew in the infant. He cries out, offering himself to the Lord: 'Not my feet only, but also my hands and my head' (in the same place, 9). Wash all of me, that washed I may come to thy grace.
If I had known this, I would not have contradicted, but for the sake of thy inheritance, fulfil thy will as thou wilt. O blessed word! O dear mystery! O sweet service! 'Unless I wash thy feet, thou shalt have no part with me.' Why are your feet, that is, of the whole human race, still set in the forgetfulness of terror? Are they not cleansed for the way of the kingdom? Therefore I wash your feet, that you may walk the straight path, and come to my kingdom. On the way there are many robbers and many dragons, abundant serpents, scorpions lying in wait. If you wish that to be fulfilled for you which I have said, you shall tread upon serpents and scorpions, and nothing shall hurt you.
Suffer me to wash your feet, to shoe them with the shoes of the Gospel of peace, that you may be a good runner, a beautiful announcer, and as though clad with pearls in the shoes of the Gospel, it may be said of you: 'How beautiful are the feet of them that bring good tidings, that announce peace' (Romans X, 15)! Therefore we washed the feet of the infants; they received a new shoe, and their feet were made beautiful, so that wherever they enter, the sight of their feet may be beautiful above royal footwear. When they shall say, 'Peace be to this house,' peace shall rest upon your worthy house: because at the solemn feast of your infants their dear feet have been washed unto eternal life. SERMON XXVII. On the woman who poured ointment over the head of Jesus. The Lord who is contained by heaven reclined at table in a house.
He is anointed with ointment, he who from his own name gave the ointment of chrism, who nourishes all the trees of oil-sap, and within the inward parts of the olives curdles the fatness of most fragrant oil, who bade the olive twig hang on the lips of the flying dove. He did not spurn the woman's ointment, he who created cinnamon, balsam, spices, choice myrrh, gum-resin, and cassia. He is anointed with ointment at a new table, because it was a new thing that he who made heaven and earth should recline with fishermen. Precious was the ointment: because he himself was beautiful in form above the sons of men (Psalm XLIV, 3), who reclined amid the little stones. The Passion was drawing near, the woman, the Church, ran with the ointment.
She stood behind, because she understood Christ as he would rise again. Before, she anointed him for burial; afterward she adored him at the message of the angels. The house was made fragrant with ointment, the world gave off an odour, because he who was unclean was cleansed. Judas envies, and says, 'Why this waste? cannot this ointment be sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?' (Mark XIV, 4, 5). What do you say, Judas? You are understood: this is not piety, but covetousness. There is no waste in such a deed: yours shall be a hostile betrayal. She pours out the ointment through a good affection of mind, you sell your Lord while you love silver. What do you say? It could be sold for three hundred pence, and do you offer your Lord for thirty pieces of silver?
Is the ointment worth more than Christ, the Anointed of the anointed, the Holy of holies, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords? You rightly reckon the chrism precious: why then do you demand a cheap price for Christ? That ointment sweet spices curdled: Christ was uttered forth from the Father's heart, from whom he gave off the odour of the enlightenment of the blind, the hearing of the deaf, the raising up of the lame, and the resurrection of the dead. And do you bargain a cheap price for him amid the traffic of the Jews? But the Lord who gladly received the ointment, himself refutes the murmurer. 'For this cause you complain: Nothing has perished by the service of the woman. Why are you distressed about the poor? You have always the power, if only you dispose yourself to do mercy; and I am poor, I am before you, and do you not understand me?'
I recline with you, and do you sell me? The Jews gave the price, Judas took the silver, yet he himself did not possess the price, because he ran to the noose: nor did they themselves possess him whom they had bought. Let Christ the Redeemer sing, let Judas the seller groan, let the Jew the buyer blush. Behold, Judas sold, the Jew bought. They did an evil bargain, both were harmed, they destroyed themselves. O you, Judas! O you, Jew! seller and buyer you wished to be — how much better if you had been redeemed by Christ? Judas sold, the Jew bought: an unhappy traffic! neither does the one have the price, nor does the other have Christ whom he had bought.
To this bargain come all you who purchase the Lord — not to hold him, but to crucify him, not to embrace him, but to fasten him with nails. If you had wished to have a bargain, you would not vainly give silver. You are deceived, you have procured a cruel market, and you have devised false counsel, and you have destroyed both yourselves and the wretched one to whom you counted out the money. Behold, we are redeemed in the bargain of graces, here the bodies of many dead are redeemed, they are raised from their own tombs. They cried out to the Redeemer, and you cried out to the one hanging on the cross. They obeyed in Jerusalem, and you led the Lord outside Jerusalem. They said, 'The dead shall not praise thee, O Lord; but we who live bless thee' (Psalm CXIII, 17, 18):
And you were saying, 'Crucify him, crucify him' (Luke 23:21). You fixed the nails; they opened their eyes. They abandoned their own tombs, while you sealed the tomb of Christ, setting a great stone upon it, and with a futile watch you sealed within the sepulchre him who lay against the Lord. Did you set a seal against him as he reigns in heaven? He who came down when the heavens were bowed — can he not push away the stone of the tomb? He who leads out the captives in strength (Ps. 68:6) — can he not smite your guards with blindness? At the cross they were witnesses, being dead; made alive, they announced the Lord as he rose again, and the soldiers confirmed it.
And you carried on another traffic, giving money to the soldiers, that they might say, 'His disciples came and stole him away' (Matt. 28:13). O Jews, ever vain! The mystery of the rising Christ could not be hidden. In vain did you lose your silver — there upon the betrayer, here upon the soldiers. But the angels who brought the tidings laughed at you. The nations rejoiced, and the angelic powers believed concerning the Lord. Where is he whom you bought? Where is he for whom you counted out the money? You could have been redeemed freely; and even now, if you wish to be redeemed, drink the blood which you shed. That very blood we also drink, if you are willing, and you, singing with us: 'And how excellent is your cup that makes me drunk!' (Ps. 23:5).
That very blood redeemed us in the world, which now shines in heaven in the living Lamb. SERMON XXVIII. On the thief crucified with Christ. It is read above among the genuine sermons of St. Fulgentius with this beginning, 'A thing to be wondered at beyond all others,' etc. SERMON XXIX. Again, from the same source. Among the praises of the righteous and those commendations with which we ought to attend the testimony of those who do well, and to urge the confession of the sinner, this same safeguard is ours: that by every figure we may show our Lord, the Creator, Founder and Governor of all things, to be generous in bestowing gifts and merciful in remitting sins. This the present Gospel reading persuades me — not without good cause — to speak in praise of the thief, who left to sinners an example of his faith and confession!
For thus we read: when the Lord suffered for us, two thieves were hanging on crosses with him, of whom one confessed and the other blasphemed. Now he who blasphemed said, 'If you are the Christ, save yourself and us.' And the other answering rebuked him, saying, 'Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? We indeed suffer justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong' (Luke 23:39ff.); and, that he might commend his confession with prayer, he himself said to the Lord, 'Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom' (ibid. 42). To him, who so quickly acknowledged, so quickly confessed concerning himself, and so quickly prayed for himself, the Lord answered with fitting brevity:
'Amen, I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise' (ibid. 43). That there might be fulfilled what he had foretold through Isaiah, saying, 'You shall pray, and he will quickly hear; you shall cry out, and he will say, Behold, I am here' (Isa. 58:9). Behold, brothers, the Lord chose that the one confessing to him should be in paradise — he who has his own kingdom in heaven. 'With me, therefore, you shall be,' he said — because it is the mark of a greater one to honor his inferior with his companionship. For if he had said, 'I shall be with you,' the Lord would seem to have exalted the sinner into pride rather than to have rewarded him, as the evangelist says: 'It is enough for the servant that he be as his master, and for the disciple as his teacher' (Matt. 10:25). 'With me, therefore, you shall be,' is said to the sinner — that is to say:
'I do not hasten to heaven just yet, that I may not deny to you who confess the kingdom you have asked.' But he said, 'You shall be with me in paradise' — not, 'You shall sit with me in heaven.' For he who alone descended from the bosom of the Father, he alone sits at the right hand of the Father. And he who alone descended from the Father, he alone ascends to the Father. This thief, then, by confessing conquered the martyrs unto paradise; by praying he conquered the apostles unto the kingdom: violent in the world, violent in the reward. For to Peter it is said, 'Follow me' (John 21:19); to the thief the reply is, 'I will not forsake you.' With one confession, with one praise, he both offered faith to Peter and conferred knowledge on Paul. For the one was a denier, the other a persecutor.
The thief alone, in a like passion, on a like cross, was found a true herald of the Lord. Ever, then, is the Lord toiling for sinners, gentle among sinners, praying for sinners, giving to sinners. For either as advocate he prays, or as judge he gives. Stephen saw the advocate standing; Paul recognized the judge seated. And so, my brothers, that the confessing thief might be rewarded, the Lord came to paradise; that Adam might be snatched from his punishments, the Lord, a complete man, descended to the lower regions. This one he honored, that one he set free. To this one he appointed a place in paradise without punishment; that one he freed from penal Tartarus. This is what he said:
'Today you shall be with me in paradise' — for the Lord went first with the thief to paradise, before he descended for Adam to Tartarus. For descending on the first day he placed that one in rest; and ascending on the third day he led this one forth to the light. But which of them was the happier after his sin, I do not know. For paradise had its first inhabitant without sin; the thief it received as a second, after sin. And because in the praises of God the voice of every creature is heard and its meaning understood, I think paradise was astonished that it had cast out Adam the sinner, but received the thief, a sinner. Whence I believe it said: 'If for sinners there is surely one and the same condition, since Adam was cast out from me because he sinned, why then does the thief dwell in me together with Enoch and Elijah?'
'For that one I recognize as caught up to me, another as translated to me, this one as placed within me.' The just confession of sinners has made the thieves happy. He who had been guilty in the world becomes the third in paradise. And whereas Enoch and Elijah are to come to die for the Lord, the thief alone dies with the Lord, and with the Lord enters paradise. [Sermons] are lacking. On the Resurrection of the Lord. XXX. Again, from the same source. XXXI. Again, from the same source. XXXII. Again, from the same source. XXXIII. SERMON XXXIV. On the sacrament of the altar. These things, brothers, are therefore called sacraments, because in them one thing is seen, another understood. What is seen has a bodily appearance; what is understood has a spiritual fruit. If, then, you wish to understand the body of Christ,
hear the Apostle saying, 'You are the body of Christ and members' (1 Cor. 12:27). If, then, you are the body of Christ and members, your mystery is set upon the Lord's table; you receive your mystery, unto that which you are. You answer 'Amen,' and by answering you subscribe to it. For you hear, 'The body of Christ,' and you answer, 'Amen.' Be a member of the body of Christ, that the 'Amen' may be true. Why, then, in bread? Let us bring nothing here of our own. Let us hear the same Apostle again. When he spoke of this sacrament, he said: 'One bread, one body, we many are' (ibid. 17). Understand and rejoice. Unity, godliness, truth, love: one bread, one body, we many are.
Recall, indeed, that bread is not made from one grain, but from many. When you were exorcized, you were, as it were, ground; when you were baptized, you were, as it were, moistened together; when you received the fire of the Holy Spirit, you were, as it were, baked. Be what you see, and receive what you are. This the Apostle said of the bread. What we should understand about the cup, though not stated, he sufficiently showed. For just as, that there may be the visible appearance of bread, many grains are sprinkled together into one — as though there came about what holy Scripture says of the faithful, 'They had one soul, and one body in God' (Acts 4:32) — so also concerning the vine, brothers. Recall whence wine is made. Many grapes hang on the cluster, but the juice of the grapes is blended into one.
So also the Lord Christ, signifying that we belong to him, willed to consecrate the mystery of our peace and unity upon his own table. He who receives the mystery of unity, and does not hold the bond of peace, receives the mystery not for himself, but as a testimony against himself. SERMON XXXV. On the second day of Easter. Yesterday the Resurrection was read from the Gospel — read, moreover, from the Gospel according to Mark. But today, as you heard the reader announce, the Resurrection of the Lord was recited to us from the Gospel as Luke the evangelist wrote it; of which you are often to be reminded, and ought to hold in memory. It ought not to disturb you that another evangelist says something, if some other has passed over anything:
because even he who passes over what another said, has said something which that other had passed over. Some things one alone says, and the other three do not say. Some things they say about the Lord, and others do not say. Some things three say, and one does not say. But so great is the authority of the holy Gospel that, because in them the one Spirit was speaking, what even one has said is true. This, then, which you have just heard — that the Lord Jesus, after he rose from the dead, found two of his disciples on the road conversing with each other about the things which had happened, and said to them, 'What are these words which you are exchanging with one another, and why are you sad?' (Luke 24:17) — Luke the evangelist alone said. Mark touched on this briefly (chap.
16:12), that he appeared to two on the road; but what they said to the Lord, or what the Lord said to them, he passed over. What, then, has this reading conferred upon us? Something great, if we understand. Jesus appeared, he was seen with the eyes, but he was not recognized. The Master walked with them on the road, and he himself was the Way. And not yet were they walking on the road, but he found them straying from the way. For when he had been with them, before the passion, he had foretold all things — that he was to suffer, and to die, and to rise again on the third day. He had said all things, but his death was their forgetting. So troubled were they when they saw him hanging on the wood, that they forgot him teaching, did not await him rising again, nor hold to him promising.
'We,' they say, 'were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel' (Luke 24:21). O disciples, you were hoping? Then do you no longer hope? Christ lives, and hope is dead in you? The living Christ found the hearts of the disciples dead: to whose eyes he then both appeared and did not appear — and yet he was seen. For if he was not seen, how did they hear him questioning, and answer him as he questioned? On the road he walked with them as a companion, and he himself was the leader. Certainly they saw, but they did not recognize. For their eyes were held, as we have heard, that they should not recognize him (ibid. 16): they were not held from seeing, but held from recognizing. Come now, brothers — where did the Lord will to be recognized?
In the breaking of bread (ibid. 35). We are secure: we break the bread, and we recognize the Lord. He willed to be recognized nowhere but there, for our sake — who were not to see him in the flesh, and yet were to eat his flesh. Whoever, then, you are, if you are faithful; whoever you are, if not vainly are you called a Christian; whoever you are, if not without cause you enter the Church; whoever you are, if with fear and hope you hear the word of God — let the breaking of bread console you. The absence of the Lord is not absence. Have faith, and he is with you. [They] did not have faith: for when he had risen, they did not believe, nor did they hope that he could rise. They had lost faith, they had lost hope. They walked dead with Life itself. Life walked with them, but in their hearts there was not yet life.
And you, therefore, if you wish to have life, do what they did: to recognize God, they received him with hospitality. The Lord seemed as one going on to a distant place. But they held him back, and before they came to the place, they urged him, saying, 'Stay here now with us; the day has declined toward evening.' Hold the guest, if you wish to know the Savior. What unbelief had taken away, hospitality restored. The Lord, therefore, presented himself in the breaking of bread. Unknown, he speaks with men; in the breaking of bread he is recognized, because there eternal life is received. He is received in hospitality who prepares a home in heaven. For he says, 'There are many dwelling-places with my Father' (John 14:2). Meanwhile the Lord of heaven willed to be a guest;
he deigned to be a guest, that you, by receiving him, might have the blessing. Let no one be proud because he gives to the poor. Christ was poor here: learn where you should seek the Lord, learn where you may have him, learn whence you may recognize him — when you eat. For the faithful know something which they understand better. The Lord Jesus was made known, and after he was known, he appeared nowhere. He withdrew in body from them, who was held by faith. Therefore he is absent, that faith may be built up. For if you see, where is faith? But if you believe even what you do not see, when you shall see, you will rejoice. That toward which you now believe, let faith be built up, for the sight shall be restored. That which we do not see shall come; see how it may find you. For what men say — 'Where is he? When will it be?
When is he to come?' — Be certain, he will come. And if you wish, he will come [to you]. For there will be great trembling for those who have not believed, and great joy for those who have believed. The faithful shall rejoice, the unbelieving shall be confounded. The faithful will give thanks to the Lord, because the things they believed are true; the unbelieving will be confounded, because they supposed them false. I praise those who do not see and yet believe, because when they shall see they will rejoice. For the cause of our salvation the Lord took flesh, in which he also took death. He rose on the third day, no longer thereafter to die; and having received again the substance of flesh which he had laid down, he first made for us the example of incorruptible resurrection.
Ascending in the same body to the Father, he sits at the right hand of God, sharing the Father's judgment in mercy — whom we hope will come to judge the living and the dead; so that we too may believe concerning ourselves that we shall receive from that very dust the same flesh, the same bones, the same restoration of members that shall abide forever. We are all to rise again, but not all to rejoice. 'The day will come,' he says, 'when all who are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth: those who have done good, unto the resurrection of life; those who have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment' (John 5:28-29). So he will act, that punishment be rendered to confusion, and reward to joy. Those shall go into eternal burning, but the just into life eternal (Matt. 25:46).
SERMON XXXVI. On the praises of Mary from the childbearing of the Savior. The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ today has flooded the whole world with the new light of his coming. Today God descended from heaven to man, that in heaven he might prepare an ascent for man. Today we have received one born of God, the Son of the Virgin, the Savior of all who believe: God from the Father, man from the mother; God hidden, man made manifest. And since the devil, speaking through the serpent to Eve, brought death into the world through Eve's ears, God through the angel bore the Word to Mary, and poured forth life to all ages. The angel uttered the word, and the Virgin conceived Christ. O union made without defilement, where the husband is the word, and the wife the little ear!
With this splendor the Son of God is conceived; with this purity he is brought forth. No heaviness could come upon her who conceived; the guest of the womb, coming to gladden the world, did not sadden her womb. The Physician, passing from heaven through the Virgin, after his passage caused the Virgin to remain unharmed. For he who could restore by touch the broken members of bodies in others — how much more could he, in his own mother, not violate by his birth what he found intact! For by his childbearing the integrity of her body was increased rather than diminished; and her virginity was enlarged rather than driven away. In the members of a small body she sustained him who sustains the heavens. Her inmost parts are full, and yet the conscience of the Virgin knew no defilement.
Though she was with child, she rejoiced with a wholesome lightness: for the light which she had within her could not have weight. Mary was made the window of heaven, because through her God poured the true light upon the ages; Mary was made the heavenly ladder, because through her God descended to the earth, that through her men might merit to ascend to the heavens. For to them it will be permitted to ascend thither, who have believed that God descended to the earth through the Virgin Mary. Mary was made the restoration of women, because through her they are shown to have been drawn back from the ruin of the first curse. In short, three evils of Eve are proved to be shut out by three goods of Mary. For to Eve it was said:
'In sorrows and in griefs you shall bring forth, and your turning shall be toward your husband, and he shall rule over you' (Gen. 3:16). By these three evils, then, the women who do not follow Mary subject themselves — to sorrow, to grief, to servitude. Mary, on the contrary — hear by which three most illustrious goods she is exalted: the angelic salutation, the divine blessing, and the fullness of grace. For thus the angel is read to have saluted her: 'Hail, Mary, full of grace: blessed are you among women' (Luke 1:28). When he says, 'Hail,' he showed her a heavenly salutation; when he said, 'Full of grace,' he showed that the wrath of the first sentence was wholly shut out and the grace of full blessing restored; when he said:
'Blessed are you among women,' he expressed the blessed fruit of her virginity, so that from it whoever perseveres a virgin may be called blessed among women. For Eve had been cursed, whom we now believe to have returned, through Mary, to the blessing of glory. Come, virgins, to the Virgin, and rejoice; lay down the curse of transgression, and take up the blessing of restoration. Cast away the sorrows which Eve received through the serpent, and take up the honors which Mary received through the angel. Drive off the sadness of her who conceives, cast away the groans of her who gives birth, that this Son of the Virgin alone may rule over you.
Come, virgins, to the Virgin; come, you who conceive, to her who conceived; come, you who give birth, to her who gave birth; come, mothers, to the Mother; come, you who nurse, to her who nursed; come, young women, to the young woman. For this reason the Virgin Mary took up all these courses of nature in our Lord Jesus Christ, that she might come to the aid of all women fleeing to her, and thus, as a new Eve preserving virginity, might restore the whole race of women coming to her, just as our Lord Jesus Christ, the new Adam, recovers the whole race of men — who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God, throughout all ages of ages. Amen. SERMON XXXVII. On the third day of Easter.