For those who think only of the flesh are like the beasts and cattle; and those who so act have already worn away the image of God within themselves. But let the flesh be governed like a handmaid, and let the soul be preferred as the lawful mistress. But if it be done otherwise—if we do not acknowledge ourselves made after the image of God, and think more of the flesh than of the soul—I fear lest the Holy Spirit should reprove us through the prophet, saying: 'Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts, and made like unto them.' Willingly hear the divine readings in church, as you are accustomed, and read them over again in your houses.
If anyone is so occupied that he cannot apply himself to the divine Scripture before his meal, let it not irk him to read something from the divine Scriptures at his own banquet, so that, as the flesh is fed with food, so the soul may be refreshed with God's word, that the whole man—that is, the outer and the inner—may rise up satisfied from the holy and saving banquet. For if the flesh alone is fed and the soul is not refreshed with God's word, the handmaid is satisfied and the mistress is tormented with hunger.
And how unjust this is, your holiness cannot be ignorant; and therefore, as I have already said, you ought to hear and read the divine readings with such desire, that from them, in your houses and elsewhere, wherever you may be, you may be able even to speak and to teach others, and, like clean animals ruminating the word of God with constant thought, may be able both to take in yourselves the useful juice—that is, the spiritual sense—and, with God helping, to serve it to others; fulfilling that which is written: 'And thy cup which inebriates, how excellent it is!'; fulfilling that which the blessed Apostle exhorts and admonishes, saying: 'Whether you eat or drink, or whatever else you do, do all to the glory of God.'
And if infirmity does not forbid it, fast daily, and rise to the vigils with eager and fervent devotion, on account of that which is written: 'Day and night my spirit watches unto Thee, O God,' and again: 'To Thee will I pray, O Lord; in the morning Thou shalt hear my voice,' and again: 'At midnight I rose to give thanks to Thy name, O Lord.' To this same thing our Lord and Savior also exhorts and admonishes in the Gospel, saying: 'Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation'—which may He deign to grant, to whom is honor and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. XVII. ON THE READING OF THE GOSPEL, WHERE IT SAYS: LET NOT THY LEFT HAND KNOW WHAT THY RIGHT HAND DOES.
The Gospel reading, dearest brethren, which has just now been recited to us, seems to me such that it cannot be understood according to the letter; and therefore, with God's help, let us seek how we may be able to arrive at its spiritual sense. For thus it says: 'Take heed that you do not your righteousness before men, to be seen by them,' and again: 'When you do alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand does,' whereas elsewhere He says: 'So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works.' Attend diligently, brethren, and humbly and wisely seek the understanding of the divine Scripture. For the Lord cannot be contrary to Himself in the Gospel reading.
For since He Himself said that alms should be done in secret, and He Himself admonished it be done publicly, that His precepts might not seem to be contrary to one another, it demands a sober understanding. For he who does alms in order that he may desire to be praised by men, even if he does it secretly, does it publicly, because he seeks praise from men. But he who does alms for the sole love of God, that the rest may imitate him unto good work, and that not himself, but the Lord, may be praised, even if he does alms publicly, does it hiddenly, because for that alms he desires not what is seen, but what is not seen, and chooses to receive not praise from men, but reward from God. This we ought also to take from fasting. For when the Lord Himself says:
'Anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou be not seen by men to be fasting'—do we then act against the precepts of Christ, we who publicly proclaim a fast, and, in the sight of all the people, fast together with the people itself? In this sense too it must be understood, that no one should fast for human praise, but for the pardon of sins, for divine mercy. Therefore let each one question his own conscience, and, if he does alms for God alone, let him do it securely and publicly, that whoever sees him may imitate him. For that also which the Lord says, 'Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand does,' is recognized to pertain to what we said above. For by the right hand is understood the love of God, by the left hand the vanity or cupidity of the world.
And if you give alms for human praise, the left hand does the whole, the right hand nothing at all. But if you give alms for the remission of sins and the love of eternal life, the right hand does the whole. What then does it mean, 'Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand does,' except that what the love of God does, the vanity or cupidity of the world may not corrupt or destroy? For if anyone believes he can fulfill this according to the letter, what will he do, if his right hand should ache? Ought he not to give alms with the left? Or, if he wishes to redeem a captive, how will he be able to open the chest or loosen the purse, if he does not join the left hand to his right?
Or if one must receive a stranger and, according to the Lord's precept, wash the feet of the saints, I do not see how he can fulfill this while the left hand is unaware. To this also pertains that which the Lord said: 'Do not pray in the corners of the streets, but enter,' He says, 'into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret.' Behold, you yourselves well recognize that not even this can always be fulfilled according to the letter. For we ourselves and the whole people pray not only in our chambers, but also come together to the church and bend the knee together with all the people. And are we, in doing these things, contrary to the precepts of Christ, who said that we ought to pray in our chambers with the door shut? It is not so.
Whence this sense too agrees with the earlier saying. Attend diligently, therefore, how this ought to be understood. If ever you pray to God and ask of Him that which is seen, you pray publicly and with an open door, because you wish to receive from God that which is seen. But if you should wish to entreat for the pardon of sins and for eternal life, even if you pray publicly, you pray with the door shut, because you do not ask that which is seen, but that which is not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. If you seek temporal things, then, as I have already said above, you pray publicly and with an open door; if you seek eternal things, your prayer is secret, because you desire to receive not the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen.
He therefore who in truth seeks those things which are not seen shall also receive, by the Lord's recompense, those things which are seen; for He does not lie who says: 'Seek therefore first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be given to you besides.' Nor do we say this, brethren, that we should not pray to the Lord for temporal things—that is, for the health of our bodies, or for the peace of peoples, or for an abundance of fruits. We ought also to ask these things of God, but in the second and third place, so that the love of the soul and the desire of eternal life may hold the first place in every intention of our prayer. Let us pray for the body, but let us entreat, beyond all comparison, more for the soul.
And therefore, dearest brethren, as often as this Gospel reading is read to you, you ought to receive its understanding in that order which we have suggested above, so that whether in alms, or in fasts, or in prayers, whether in the right hand or in the left, we may strive to observe this: that whatever we do, we do it not for the vanity or cupidity of the world, but for the love of eternal blessedness—which may He deign to grant, who with the Father lives and with the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. XVIII. ON THE CALLING OF ABRAHAM. Just now, when the divine reading was being read, we heard the Lord saying to blessed Abraham: 'Go forth,' He says, 'from thy land and from thy kindred and from thy father's house.'
For all things, dearest brethren, which were written in the Old Testament bore forth a type and image of the New Testament. So too the Apostle Paul says: 'For all these things happened to them in a figure; and they were written for our sake, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.' If therefore these things which we read to have been done bodily in Abraham were written for our sake, then, if we live in holiness and justice, we see them fulfilled spiritually in ourselves. 'Go forth,' He says, 'from thy land and from thy kindred and from thy father's house.' All these things, dearest brethren, we both believe and perceive to be fulfilled in us through the sacrament of baptism. Our land is our flesh.
Well do we go forth from our land when, forsaking carnal habits, we cling to the footsteps of Christ. Does it not seem to you that he happily goes forth from his own land, that is, from his very self, who from proud is made humble, from wrathful becomes patient, from lustful chaste, from covetous generous, from envious kindly, from bloodthirsty gentle? Truly, dearest brethren, he happily goes forth from his own land who is thus transformed for the love of God. Indeed even in private conversation we are accustomed so to speak that, if some wicked man suddenly begins to practice good works, we say of him: 'That man has gone out of himself.' And truly he is rightly said to have gone well out of himself, who, having renounced his vices, delights in the virtues. 'Go forth,' says the Lord, 'from thy land.'
Our land, that is, our flesh, before baptism was a land of the dying; after baptism it is made a land of the living. This is the land of which the prophet had sung, saying: 'I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.' Therefore through baptism we have been made a land of the living and not of the dying, that is, of the virtues and not of the vices, as I have said—provided, however, that after receiving baptism we do not return to the wallowing-place of the vices; provided that, after we have been made a land of the living, we do not do the works of death which bind us fast and are lustful. 'And come,' says the Lord, 'into the land which I will show thee.' For then do we come with joy to the land which the Lord shows,
if first, from our land, that is, from our flesh, with His help we drive out our vices and sins. 'Go forth,' He says, 'from thy kindred.' By this kindred are understood the vices and sins, which in a certain manner are born with us at our birth and from infancy are nourished by evil habits. Therefore we go forth from our kindred when through the grace of baptism we are emptied of all sins and vices—yet in such a way that afterward, with God's help, we labor as much as we can, so that, the vices being driven out, we may be filled with virtues. For if after baptism, having been emptied of all evils, we choose to be slothful and idle, I fear that there be fulfilled in us that which is written in the Gospel:
'When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest, and findeth none. Afterward, returning, if he find the house empty, he taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and the last state of that man is worse than the first.' Therefore let us so go forth from our kindred, that is, from our sins and vices, that we may never afterward wish to return to these evils, like a dog to its own vomit. 'Go forth,' says the Lord, 'also from thy father's house.' And this too, dearest brethren, we ought to understand spiritually. Before the grace of Christ our father was the devil. Of him the Lord in the Gospel says, reproving the Jews: 'You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do.'
He therefore called the devil the father of men, not because they were born of him, but because they imitated his wickedness—not that they could have been born of him, but that they willed to imitate him. For that the devil was formerly our father, the psalmist calls to mind in the person of God speaking to the Church, saying: 'Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline thine ear, and forget thy people and thy father's house.' Consider therefore first what he said: 'Hear, O daughter,' he says. He who says 'Hear, O daughter' is surely a father. When he said, 'Forget thy people and thy father's house,' he surely admonishes that the father must be forsaken. We are therefore invited by God the Father to forsake, by a blessed and happy exchange, the devil as our father.
We rightly forsake the devil as our father if, with God's help, we always strive to avoid or flee his cunning and his wicked devices. All these things, therefore—that we may be able to go forth from our land, that is, from carnal manner of life, and forsake our kindred, that is, the vices and sins, and flee from the house of the devil our father—we have merited not by our own strength, but by the gift of Christ's grace. And therefore let us labor, as much as we can, with God's help, lest we return again to fellowship or friendship with the devil, or to the vices, or to carnal lusts, on account of that which is written:
'Thou art now made whole; sin no more, lest something worse befall thee.' But rather, by imitating the faith of Abraham and continually doing good works, may we attain not only to pardon, but also to the fellowship and friendship of God. Fearing also that which the Lord spoke to Moses concerning this same matter, we ought to consider it with great fear and trembling. For thus He says: 'When the Lord shall have delivered to you the land of the Canaanites, beware that you never join friendships with the inhabitants of that land, which would be to you unto ruin.'
Since we believe that through the grace of baptism all crimes and sins have been expelled from us, if afterward we join friendships with those very vices and sins, consenting to them unto covetousness or lust, without doubt their friendship becomes to us unto ruin. And therefore let us labor, as much as we can, with God's help, for the salvation of the soul, and let us hasten to bring virtues into the field of our heart, which sins and crimes had been wont to possess, so that there may be fulfilled in us that which the blessed Isaac, as a type of Christ, said in blessing his son: 'Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a full field, which the Lord hath blessed'—which may He deign to grant, to whom belong honor and dominion with the Father in the Holy Spirit unto ages of ages. Amen.
XIX. CONCERNING ABRAHAM AND ISAAC HIS SON. That reading, dearest brethren, in which the blessed Abraham is recorded to have offered his son Isaac as a holocaust, is for this reason not recited in its own place on the days of Lent: because, as you yourselves know, it is reserved for the vigils of Easter, on account of the sacrament of the Lord's Passion. And because at that time there is no room to say anything about it, now, if you bid, let us make known to the ears of your charity, as briefly as we can, its exposition according to that which our fathers, under the Lord's inspiration, expounded. The Lord therefore said to Abraham: 'Take thy son whom thou lovest, Isaac, and thou shalt offer him to Me as a holocaust upon one of the mountains which I shall show thee.'
But he, rising up, saddled his ass and took with him two young men and Isaac his son, and came to the place which the Lord had shown him, on the third day. For Abraham, when he offered his son Isaac, held the type of God the Father, while Isaac bore the figure of the Lord the Savior. And that they came to the place of immolation on the third day shows forth the mystery of the Trinity. For that the third day ought in sacrament or mystery to be taken for the Trinity is frequently found in the sacred volumes, as in Exodus: 'A journey of three days,' He says, 'we will go in the wilderness'; and again, when they had come to Mount Sinai, it was said to the people:
'Be ye sanctified and be ready against the third day'; and Joshua, about to cross the Jordan, admonished that the people should be ready on the third day; and the Lord rose again on the third day. This we have said because the blessed Abraham came on the third day to the place which the Lord had shown him. The two young men whom Abraham bade to remain with the ass held the type of the people of the Jews, who, because they were not going to believe in Christ, were for that reason unable to ascend or come to the place where He was to be immolated. That ass signifies the synagogue; and that ram, which was held fast by its horns among the thorns, is itself also seen to have held the type of the Lord. For Christ too was held, as it were by His horns, among the thorns, when upon the horns of the cross He hung, fixed fast by the driving of the nails.
But in that Isaac himself carried the wood for his own immolation, in this too he prefigured Christ the Lord, who to the place of His Passion Himself bore His own cross. Concerning which mystery much had been foretold long before through the prophet: 'And His,' he says, 'shall be the dominion upon His shoulders.' For then did Christ hold dominion upon His shoulders when with wondrous humility He bore His cross. Not unfittingly does the cross of Christ signify dominion. For by it the devil is conquered and the whole world is called back to the knowledge and grace of Christ. Indeed thus also Paul said, when he spoke of the Lord's Passion: 'He became obedient to the Father unto death, even the death of the cross;'
'wherefore God also hath exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name.' This we have said, brethren, that your charity might recognize that the dominion of Christ, of which it is written, 'And the dominion shall be upon His shoulders,' is nothing other than His cross. And therefore that reading is read at Easter, when the true Isaac, whose type Abraham's son bore, is affixed for the human race to the gibbet of the cross. It is also read in that same reading that the blessed Abraham, coming with his son, saw the place from afar and said to the young men: 'Sit here with the ass; I and the boy will go on, and when we have worshipped, we will return to you.' Why is it said to the young men, who held the figure of the Jews: 'Sit here with the ass'?
Could that ass sit, brethren? But for this reason it is said, 'Sit with the ass,' because the people of the Jews, who were not going to believe in Christ, could not stand, but, as weak and, as it were, languid with sin, having despised the staff of the cross, was about to fall to the ground. The blessed Abraham therefore says: 'Sit here with the ass; I and the boy will go on, and when we have worshipped, we will return to you.' What is it that thou sayest, blessed Abraham? Thou goest to immolate thy son, and thou sayest thou wilt return with thy son? For if thou offer him as a holocaust, he surely will not be able to return with thee. The blessed Abraham could answer: 'I speak the truth, and I both offer my son and will return with my son to you.'
'So great is my faith that I believe that He who deigned to give him to me from a barren mother is able even to raise him up when dead; and therefore I speak the truth, that when we have worshipped, we will return to you.' But that the ram was slain and Isaac was not slain came to pass for this reason: because Isaac was a figure and not the reality, and in him therefore was designated that which was afterward accomplished in Christ. Behold the Lord contending with men in great love. Abraham offered to God a mortal son not destined to die, and God delivered to death His immortal Son for men. Yet it can also be thus understood concerning the blessed Isaac and that ram, that in the blessed Isaac was signified the divinity, in the ram the humanity of Christ.
And because in the Passion it is believed that not the divinity but the humanity was crucified, therefore not Isaac but the ram is immolated. For the only-begotten of God is offered, and the first-born of the Virgin is immolated. Hear another sacrament, dearest brethren. The blessed Jerome the priest wrote that he had learned most certainly from the ancient and elder Jews that Isaac was offered in that very place where afterward Christ was crucified. Indeed, from the place from which the blessed Abraham was bidden to set out, on the third day one arrives at the place where Christ was crucified.
Moreover this too is reported by the tradition of the ancients: that Adam, the first man, was at one time buried in that very place where the cross was fixed, and for this reason it was called the place of Calvary, because the first head of the human race is said to be buried there. And truly, brethren, it is not unfittingly believed that the physician was raised up there where the sick man lay. And it was fitting that, where human pride had fallen, there divine mercy should bend down, and that that precious blood, while it deigned by its dripping to touch even bodily the dust of the ancient sinner, should be believed to have redeemed it.
These things, dearest brethren, according to what we were able, we have gathered from various volumes of the Scriptures for the profit of your soul and have suggested out of the contemplation of charity. But you yourselves, with the Lord's help, as you more frequently reread the divine Scriptures, if you attend diligently, I believe that you may be able to find even a better exposition. I ask you, brethren, that whoever desires his son or his household servant to be baptized, let him not delay even now to offer him to the Church, because it is not just that a thing which is believed to be so great and so glorious should be sought negligently or more slowly than is expedient.
For I fear lest some women offer their little ones too slowly for this reason: because they are reluctant to come with them to the vigils. For we most certainly believe that those who, as soon as Lent begins, are willing to offer those who are to be baptized, and faithfully come with them to the vigils, and whose children in lawful order receive the sacrament of baptism—they themselves also will obtain the pardon of their sins, by the bestowal of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belong honor and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto ages of ages. Amen. XX. CONCERNING SAINT JOSEPH, I.
As often as the readings from the Old Testament are recited to you, beloved, as I have frequently admonished, you ought not to attend only to what sounds in the word, but to what is understood and has savor in the spirit. So too the Apostle admonishes us, saying: 'The letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth.' For all these things which are read in the Old Testament, as the Apostle says, 'happened to them in a figure, but were written for our sake.' For when the Christian people faithfully comes to church, what does it profit them to hear how the holy patriarchs either took wives or begot sons, unless they perceive by the spiritual sense why these things were done, or what these matters prefigured?
Behold, we have heard that the blessed Jacob begot a son and called his name Joseph, and loved him more than the rest of his sons. In this place the blessed Jacob held the figure of God the Father, and holy Joseph also bore the type of the Lord the Savior. Jacob loved his son, and God the Father loved His only-begotten. Jacob sent his son to take care of his brothers, and God the Father sent His only-begotten Son to visit the human race languid with sins. Joseph, while he sought his brothers, wandered in the wilderness, and Christ sought the human race, which was wandering in the world; in which world He too, as it were, wandered, because He was seeking those who wandered. Joseph sought his brothers in Shechem. Shechem is interpreted 'shoulder.'
For sinners always turn their back to the face of the just. For the shoulders are behind. For just as Joseph's brothers, struck with envy, offered to fraternal love rather their back than their face, so also the unhappy Jews chose rather to envy than to love the Author of salvation coming to them. Of such it is said in the psalm: 'Let their eyes be darkened that they see not, and their back bow thou down always.' Joseph found his brothers in Dothan. Dothan is interpreted 'failing.' Truly they were in a great failing who were plotting fratricide. Therefore his brothers, seeing Joseph, plotted concerning his death. So the Jews, seeing the true Joseph, Jesus Christ, resolved all with one counsel to crucify Him.
As Joseph's brothers stripped him of his coat of many colors reaching to the ankles, so the Jews stripped Christ, through the death of the cross, of His bodily tunic. Joseph, stripped of his tunic, is cast into the cistern, that is, into the pit, and Christ, stripped of human flesh, descended into hell. Joseph, after he is lifted out of the cistern, is sold to the Ishmaelites, that is, to the Gentiles; and Christ, after He returns from hell, is acquired by all the Gentiles through the commerce of faith. Joseph, by the counsel of Judah, is sold for thirty pieces of silver, and Christ, by the counsel of Judas Iscariot, is sold in the same manner.
But that in different translations Joseph is written to have been sold at an unequal price—some said for twenty pieces of silver, others for thirty—this signified spiritually that Christ was not to be believed or loved equally by all. Indeed even now in the Church some love Him more, others less. Christ is worth more to him who loves Him with greater charity. Joseph went down into Egypt, and Christ into the world. Joseph saves Egypt from the scarcity of grain, and Christ frees the world from the famine of the word of God. For unless Joseph's brothers had sold him, Egypt would have failed; it is true, brethren, unless the Jews had crucified Christ, the world would have perished.
Let us examine, however, dearest brethren, whence Joseph's brothers raged so cruelly against the blessed Joseph. Whence, if not from the poison of envy, through which death entered into the world? Indeed, hear the Scripture saying: 'His brothers envied him, and they could not speak peaceably to him.' For the blessed Joseph saw a dream, as it were of himself standing with his brothers in the field and binding sheaves, and the eleven sheaves of his brothers worshipping his sheaf. This was then fulfilled in that Joseph, when his brothers worshipped him in Egypt. And not unfittingly were the barren sheaves compelled to worship the fruitful sheaf, by which they were to be delivered from the peril of famine.