but the other remained naked, who could not clothe himself again, having been stripped of the singular spoil of virtue. Whence he received a tunic of skins, because, as a sinner, he could not have a spiritual one. Joseph, therefore, left behind his garments and laid bare the shamelessness of the adulteress, which afterward could not lie hidden. For she went out of doors and herself published the very temptations of her adultery, raising her voice, on the ground that the Hebrew had fled away, leaving his garments behind. She, therefore, was making known what she ought to have concealed, that by a fabricated charge she might injure the innocent. But the just man knows not how to accuse, and therefore the shameless woman did this with impunity. I would call her, then, truly stripped, even while keeping another's garments; she who had lost all the veils of chastity, and him sufficiently adorned.
sufficiently defended, whose voice was not heard, yet whose innocence spoke. So Susanna afterward, while she kept silence in the judgment, spoke better by the oracle, and therefore deserved the prophet's defense, she who did not seek the aid of her own voice. That man, then, I would call the more blessed, when he was being cast into prison, because he was undergoing martyrdom for the sake of chastity. For chastity is a good gift, but of lesser merit when it incurs no danger; but where it is defended even at the peril of one's life, there it is more fully crowned. With his cause unheard and the truth of his faith unexamined, Joseph is cast into prison as though guilty of a crime, but the Lord did not desert him even in prison. Let not the innocent be troubled when they are assailed by false charges, when justice is oppressed and they are thrust into prison.
God visits his own even in prison, and therefore there is more of his help where there is more peril. But what wonder is it if Christ visits those placed in prison, who recorded that he himself was shut up in prison in his own people, as you have it written: 'I was in prison, and you did not come to me'? Whither does the divine mercy not penetrate? Joseph found such grace that he who had been shut up in prison should himself rather keep the bars of the prison, that the keeper of the keys should yield his office to him, and entrust to his power all the prisoners. And so not only did Joseph not feel the prison, but he even relieved others of the prison's hardship. The authors of this injury, then, are a woman and eunuchs:
but the woman is one of the Egyptians, who are wont to mingle wanton words with men, to provoke the modest, to pursue those who flee, to press hard upon the bashful. Since she could not defend her own vices, she falsely accused the innocent, mixing treachery with treachery, holding another's goods, herself condemning others, setting no limit to her fury. For what cause was there for cruelty, except that she saw herself opposed in her desires and her forbidden longings cheated of their consent? See on what account a prison is opened, that it may receive the innocent; chains are loosed for the guilty, that they may be laid upon the faithful; the adulterers of truth are released, that he may be shut in who refused adultery of the faith. But of these eunuchs what shall I say?
who ought to be an example to other eunuchs, that their status is fragile and slight, and that all their hope rests in the royal will, for whom a slight offense is the greatest peril, while their favorable fortunes are a cheap service. The one boasted that he was set over the wine, the other that he was set over the bakers. Each gave offense, and they were sent into prison and committed to holy Joseph by the prison-keeper himself; and when they had been there many days, they saw a dream. And when Joseph visited them again, he found them sad and troubled in mind, because they were disturbed by a dream whose interpreter they could not find. 'Is not the interpretation of a dream from God?' he says. 'Tell it to me, then.' And the chief of the wine told his dream:
'There was a vine before my sight, and in the vine three roots, and it was blossoming, bearing buds, ripe clusters of grapes; and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand. And I took it and pressed it into the cup and gave the cup into Pharaoh's hands.' And Joseph said to him: 'The three roots are three days. Yet three days, and Pharaoh will call to mind your office and will restore you to your former post, and you will give the cup into Pharaoh's hands. But remember me through your own self, when it shall be well with you, and you will show mercy to me and will remember me before Pharaoh and will bring me out of this prison, because I was stolen away by theft from the land of the Hebrews, and here I have done nothing evil, but they put me into the pit of this prison.' The other's dream it is not pleasant to relate.
You surely remember my words, that even then I shrank from interpreting it for the man whose outcome I shrink from, whose death I dread. Let us first speak of the one who seemed blessed to himself when he was set over the wine, and reckoned this the highest summit of all power, that he gave the cup to the king. This was his glory, this his magnificence in this world: deprived of it he grieved, restored to it he rejoiced. But this is a dream, and all the power of the world is a dream, not the truth. In the end, through a dream he saw his office restored to him. And Isaiah says that men of this kind are such, who in this world are delighted with prosperous things.
'As one who eats and drinks in dreams seems to himself to be filled with food or drink while he sleeps, but when he has awakened he begins to hunger the more' — then he understands how empty was that food and drink of the dreamer — 'so he who sleeps in this world and does not open his eyes to the divine mysteries, as long as he is weighed down by the sleep of the body, thinks this worldly power to be of some moment' — as though he sees it in dreams — but when he has awakened, he detects how empty is the pleasure of this world.
Consider now that true Hebrew, that interpreter not of a dream but of truth and of a glorious vision, who came from that fullness of divinity and the freedom of heavenly grace into this bodily prison; whom the allurement of this world could not change, whom no corruption of worldly pleasure could overturn; who, being tempted, did not fall; being assailed, did not assail; and at last, seized by the garment of the body, as it were by a certain adulterous hand of the synagogue, stripped off the flesh and ascended free of death. The harlot brought false accusation when she could not hold him whom the prison did not terrify, whom the powers below did not detain. Nay rather, the very place to which he had descended as one to be punished, thence he set others free:
where the chains of death bound them, there he himself loosed the chains of the dead. Consider, then, this Hebrew saying to that chief of the eunuchs, who had incurred the royal offense and whom he had restored to his office: 'Remember me through your own self, when it shall be well with you, and you will show mercy to me and will remember me.' Therefore he repeated it a second time, because he knew that, once he had received back his power, the man would not recall from what injury he had escaped. Therefore he admonished him a second time, because he had freed him a second time, so that, if the memory of the former benefit did not hold him, at least that of the later might come over him, and he might not despise the author of his own salvation, nor violate him by treacherous transgression. But what is worse, the forgetfulness of a benefit quickly creeps in amid prosperous circumstances.
Restored to his office, he was not mindful, but became forgetful of his interpreter; he forgot him. Yet even though that man forgot, Christ did not forget, but spoke to him, and through the little slave spoke, saying to him: 'Remember me through your own self,' that is, recall, by the contemplation of your office, what you heard. But even though you have now forgotten, you will remember me, that you may escape the peril, you who have forgotten the benefit. Yet, lifted up by power, he did not recall. And how great was this power — a service of wine? Lo, whence comes all this boasting! Because he was the chief of the eunuchs who served wine in the royal cups. 'And it came to pass,' it says, 'after two years.'
I would lie about the time of our eunuch here, were the very days not to agree: for after two years he received back his office, nor did he remember, but was reminded. For he learned that even the kingdom itself in this world was a dream, he who did not believe his own dream. He learned, too, that even kings' .... are dreams, and that their own powers are not perpetual. But let sorrow quickly pass over this place, lest by the very recollection it grow raw; nor does it delight me to remember even my own speech, which at that time either grief poured forth or the affront to the Church wrung out. Admonished, then, of himself by the king's dream, he says: 'I remember my sin.' That confession is indeed late, but would that it were true. After sin you confess what before sin you ought to have guarded against.
How quickly you had forgotten 'Remember me'! You surely know that this was the word at that time, but you had dulled ears through the pride of power, and, drunk with wine, you did not hear the words of sobriety. At least now remember me, you who confess your sin too late. You who entreat a little slave, why do you deny the Master? Be inebriated now, not with wine, but with the Holy Spirit. Recall what he suffered, with whom you slept your sleep and dreamed your dream. The other, too, was a chief, and the chief of the king's banquets, the things that pertained to the work of the bakers. He believed himself exalted, because he had the royal bread in his power: he did not know that there were many windings to this power.
He who was himself soon to be given over to the ultimate punishment threatened others, nor did he listen to the one who, though a little slave of the Lord, yet spoke an oracle: that by the very command of the king — about whom he greatly flattered himself — he was to lose his head, and to be left as food for the birds. This example at least ought to have called you back, that you should not trust in treachery. There are other examples too of the pride and frailty of the royal ministers, which the history of a later time contains. Doeg too was a chief, and the chief of the king's animals, for the training of mules, that is, of gelded animals. He too betrayed the priest of the Lord and stirred up the king by fraud to the peril of the priest; and he too was a Syrian. Do I lie at all, when both homeland and deeds agree?
Haman too, set over the king's chamber and himself a chief, while with wicked rashness he strove to invade the churches of the Lord and to despoil and persecute the faithful people, paid for his sacrileges with grievous punishments. But let us return to that chief of the wine, who, as it were heavy with much unmixed wine, long forgot the author of his benefit, yet at length, to provide an interpreter for the king, brought to mind the course of the matter — not as one grateful, but as one shrewd. When the king learned of this, he too ordered him to be summoned, and, drawn out of prison, asked him whether he could interpret the dream for him. Delighted by his explanation, the king removed the wrong and conferred honor upon him. So see whether these things too do not fit the present.
The wrong was inflicted before he was known to the king, and grace was rendered when he became known to the king. Thus the king is free of fault, because both that which the holy man suffered was unconnected with the king's wrong, and that which he received is proper to the king's grace. Now the dream and its interpretation are of this sort: 'Whatsoever God does,' he says, 'he has shown to Pharaoh. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years. The dream of Pharaoh is one. And the seven lean cows, which came up after them, are seven years, and the seven lean ears, corrupted by the wind, are seven years. There will be a famine for seven years.'
'But the word which I have said — "Whatsoever God does he has shown to Pharaoh" — behold, seven years are coming of great abundance in the whole land of Egypt; but after these will come seven years of famine, and they will forget the abundance in all Egypt, and the famine will consume the whole land, and the abundance of the land will not be recognized because of the famine which is to be after these; for it will be exceedingly severe. And as for Pharaoh's dreaming the dream twice, it is because the word will be true from God, and God will hasten to do it.' An old dream, recent realities. By the latter the former were consumed, and where before was a plenty of abundance, there was made a want of all things.
But if anyone had given the king such counsel, that he should reserve something of the earlier abundance for the later period of his rule, the lavish overflow of his bestowing would have abounded for the remaining time as well. But the immoderate prodigality of the earlier age left the later destitute too, and men plundering everything were unwilling to bring in any Joseph. And though I am no Joseph — for who is equal to this? — yet I cried out that those fat cows signify not only wantonness but also a neglect of divine reverence — for of the faithless it is said: 'Fat bulls have beset me,' and of the people of the Jews it is written:
'He grew fat and gross and became sleek, and he forsook God who made him' — and therefore that dream of worldly superabundance cannot be perpetual: there will be a time in which a harsh famine would succeed it. Nor do I think this dream was shown to one or two, but set before all, in that the seven years of this world, fat and rich with worldly abundance, are swallowed up by those ages which are to come, in which there will be perpetual rest and a spiritual observance of the law, which Ephraim, that tribe of the fathers fruitful to God, may keep — a good cow, not she who is distended with a bodily udder, but she who abounds with spiritual milk and grace, upon the beauty of whose neck God says he sits, as it is written:
'Ephraim is a heifer taught to love victory. But I have passed over the beauty of her neck.' Let not, therefore, the oil of the sinner make fat our head, nor ought false fruits to delight us, lest it be said of us too: 'You have sown impiety, and you have reaped its iniquities. You have eaten false fruit, because you have trusted in your chariots.' Nor does it move me that he has lean ears corrupted by the wind, because David too was the better at the time when he wasted away like a spider, and a contrite spirit is the sacrifice of God, and those come forth more excellent whom in this world the malignant spirit has plagued with grievous wrongs. Whence I reckon that Joseph the rather deserved mystical rewards, because he spoke of mystical things.
For what does the ring inserted on his finger mean, except that we may understand the pontificate of the faith was conferred upon him, that he himself might seal others? What does the robe, which is the garment of wisdom, mean, except the headship of prudence assigned to him by that heavenly King? The golden necklace seems to express a good understanding; the chariot also signifies the lofty summit of his merits. And who is he who received a wife from among the nations, except him who gathered to himself a Church out of the nations and received from her a son, Manasseh, through whom he forgot all his sorrows, which he had over the sacrileges of the Jews? He received also another son, Ephraim, through whose increase it was made clear that the humility assumed in the flesh both did not humble the divinity and heaped up its glory.
Finally, whoever suffered famine was sent to Joseph. Who are these, except those of whom it is said: 'They will return at evening and will suffer famine like dogs'? But the famine was not of one place, but of the whole earth, because there was none who did good. Therefore the Lord Jesus, pitying the world's fasts, opened his storehouses and laid open the hidden treasures of heavenly mysteries, of knowledge and of wisdom, so that nourishment might be lacking to none. For Wisdom said: 'Come, eat my bread'; and therefore by him alone it is said: 'The Lord feeds me, and I shall lack nothing,' who is filled by Christ. Christ, then, opened his storehouses and sold, seeking not the coin of money, but the price of faith and the wage of devotion.
Now he sold not to a few in Judaea only, but he sold to all, that he might be believed on by all the nations. And all the regions came into Egypt to Joseph to buy, for the famine had prevailed. For all are hungry whom Christ has not fed. Let us therefore buy the foods by which we may drive away hunger. Let no one be turned back by the contemplation of his own poverty; let no one who has no silver be afraid. Christ seeks not silver, but faith, which is more precious than silver. In short, Peter, who had no silver, bought him. 'Silver and gold,' he says, 'I have none, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Christ Jesus, rise up and walk.' And the prophet Isaiah says:
You who thirst, go to the water; and whoever of you has no silver, go, buy and drink and eat without silver and without the price of wine. For he sought no price from us who paid the price of his own blood for us, since he redeemed us not with gold and silver, but with his precious blood. Therefore you owe that price by which you were bought. Even if he does not always exact it, you nevertheless owe it. Buy Christ for yourself, then, not with that which few possess, but with that which all possess by nature, though few offer it through fear. What Christ demands back from you is his own. He himself gave life to all; he himself offered his death for all. Pay back to your maker that which by the law you are bound to pay. This is no ordinary contract; not all easily perceive it.
In short, those virgins in the Gospel, whom the bridegroom shut out at his coming, were left outside for this reason: because they had not bought the oil that was for sale. Wherefore it is said to them: 'Go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.' And that merchant is not without reason commended who sold all that he had and bought the pearl. And Jacob said to his sons: 'Why are you slothful? Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy us food.' Not once only did Jacob say this; daily he says it to all his sons who come too late to the grace of Christ: 'Why are you slothful? Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt.' From this grain comes the kernel that rises again. He, therefore, who endures hunger must ascribe it to his own sloth.
'Behold,' he says, 'I have heard that there is grain in Egypt.' The younger are accustomed to hear something sooner than the elder, while many, placed outside, go about. But this trafficking the old man hears first—yet that old man in whom is the long-lived hoariness of faith; the old man perceives it first, the old man in whom old age is venerable and the years of old age a spotless life. Nor do all undertake this trafficking, save the sons of Jacob, and they of more advanced age. Therefore ten go forth; the younger does not go. The father did not send him, lest, he says, weakness befall him. Benjamin the younger was still subject to weakness. Benjamin indeed is read as a patriarch, but in that Benjamin Paul, of the tribe of Benjamin, was prefigured.
Rightly did Jacob doubt concerning his weakness. In short, he was made weak that he might be healed; he suffered blindness, but this weakness was unto salvation. In short, that blindness brought light. We have received the history; let us come to know the mystery. Without Benjamin the patriarchs had first gone forth, without Paul the apostles. Neither of the two came first, but, summoned by the first, each by his coming made the merchandise of his predecessors more abundant. 'There is grain in Egypt,' he says—that is: where the famine is greater, there the abundance is greater. Great is the grain in Egypt. In short, God the Father also says: 'Out of Egypt I called my son.' From that kernel comes that fruitfulness; for there could have been no harvest unless the Egyptians had first sown the kernel.
There is therefore grain, which no one before believed to exist; in this grain the patriarchs traffic. And they indeed had brought silver, but the good Joseph gave grain and gave back the silver; for Christ is not bought with money, but with grace: your price is faith, with this the divine mysteries are bought. And this grain is carried by that ass, before unclean under the law, but now clean in grace. Yet Benjamin the younger was held back and still clung to his father's affection. The bonds of the law held him, his father's custom. The famine grew stronger because he came late. Two intercede for him, Reuben and Judah—that is, humility and confession. By these as sureties Joseph deals with the father, to these he is entrusted, of whom one is the firstborn, the other one raised up again.
The law belongs to the firstborn, the Gospel to the one raised up. By these Benjamin the younger is led down, and accompanied by sweet odours he arrives, bearing with him resin, by which the stones of marble are joined together, because by his own preaching, as by a spiritual resin, he too would join together living stones; bearing also honey, by which the harmful matter of a wound is consumed within without any bitterness of cutting. For such was Paul's preaching, that he might abolish corrupt affection and empty out tainted humour by the sting of his discourse, desiring rather to cauterize than to lance the diseased inwards of the mind. That incense of prayer and cassia and the drop, the marks of burial, the prophet David taught us to be, saying: 'Myrrh and the drop and cassia from your garments.'
For Paul came to preach the cross of the Lord—the ever-green holm-oak and the nuts, whose shell is harder, whose fruit is more tender (and rightly was Aaron's priestly rod of nut-wood, and Jeremiah's staff of this same kind)—and also double silver. Who would doubt that these gifts are not idle, since both the patriarch's life and the apostle's word ever flourish in the hearts of individuals, and the eloquence of the saints, like silver tried in the fire, shines forth with the brightness of wholesome precept? Nor without reason do they bring double silver, in whom Paul's coming was prefigured, who gave double honour to the presbyters who labour in word and doctrine. And Joseph saw them and Benjamin his brother by the same mother.
Now the Hebrews are seen and are seen by Christ, who is the true Joseph, when they come with the type of Paul, and he speaks to them gentle and mild things, that they may take food together. But before, because they came without Benjamin, he recognized them indeed, but turned himself away from them, as it is written: 'And he spoke harsh things to them,' because they did not recognize him by whom they were recognized. By the merit of Paul, therefore, they advanced, whom the Lord Jesus loved more than the rest of the brothers, as a younger brother begotten of the same mother. Let the Jews mark him whom they denied as Lord—him who, though crucified, loves more those sprung from their synagogue, as from the same parent, if even late they should come to know the author of their salvation.
But conscious of their own offences, they do not believe that Christ's mercy is so great that he should forgive sin and remit wrong. And therefore it was prefigured in the patriarchs what manner of men they would be. They were invited to grace, called to the banquet of the saving table, and they suspected that a calumny was being prepared against them, that a snare was being laid. And they began to wish to plead their cause before the man who was over the house, at the door of the house. Still they hesitate to enter, and prefer to be justified by their own works—they who wish to build up their case rather than receive grace—and therefore in the gates they are refuted.
But he who awaits the fruit of the virginal womb and the Lord's inheritance, who traffics in the merchandise of the Son, is not ashamed in the gate, but at the departure of this life drives off the enemy, lest, conscious of grave guilt, he obstruct one hastening to higher things. Whence mystically the steward of the house answered them. And understand who this is, when you read of Moses 'faithful in all his house.' For the stewards of the house are Moses, Peter, Paul, and the other saints, but Christ alone is Lord. For it is written that 'Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be said, but Christ as a son in his own house, which house we are, if we hold fast the freedom and the glory of hope.' This steward of the house, then, answered them:
'Peace be to you, fear not. For your God and the God of your fathers has given you treasures in your sacks; your silver I have received as approved.' For they had said: 'We found each man's silver in our sacks; we returned our silver by weight.' O great mysteries, and clearly expressed! This is to say: Why are you puffed up? Do you so often claim to have your own silver in your sacks? For what do you have that you did not receive? But if you received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it? Already you are filled, you are made rich. You who believe you have silver—but it is the God of your fathers who gave you the silver. He is your God, he is the God of your fathers, whom you denied.
But he pardons. He is indulgent, he receives you back, if you return. He it is who seeks not your silver, but gives his own. He gave you the silver in your sacks. Now your sacks have silver, which once had mud; and therefore he is yours who says: 'You have torn my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.' Christ is the gift of gladness. He himself is your silver, he himself is your price. The Lord Jesus does not exact from you the price of his grain, he does not seek the weight of your silver. Your silver is reprobate, the silver of the sack is not good. 'Your silver I have received as approved'—that is:
It is not that material silver, but your spiritual silver, this is the approved kind, which you brought with faithful devotion like the sons of Jacob, which is given without loss and reckoned without any expenditure, since by such a price the harm of death is shut out and the gain of life is acquired. Now they prepared their gifts until Joseph should enter at midday. The faith of Paul hastened the midday. Before, he was blind; afterward he began to see the light of righteousness, since 'he who reveals his way to the Lord and hopes in him—the Lord also will bring forth his righteousness as the light, and his judgment as the noonday.' And to Abraham, when God appeared at the oak of Mamre, it was midday, for whom from the presence of the Lord the eternal light shone.
It is midday when the true Joseph enters into his house to dine. For then the day shines more, when we celebrate the sacraments. 'And they brought him,' it says, 'their gifts.' We bring the gifts, he sets out the banquet. He says: 'Set out the bread loaves, which only the Hebrews eat, the Egyptians cannot eat.' But before the banquet, how great the condescension! What a moral lesson of his practice, of his diligence and grace! The brothers were still suspicious about the calumny which they thought was being made against them by Joseph. He invited them to the meal; their affection wavered, his grace persevered. He is first to address them, first to ask: 'How are you?' And again he says: 'Is your aged father well?'