SERMON 1
Today, the Lord has summoned a father with his two sons and made them the center of our attention.’ By this beautiful figure He has desired to open up for us an unfathomable revelation of His own love, the fierce jealousy of the Jewish race, and the penitent return of the Christian people.’
SERMON 5
The Two Sons as Types of the Gentiles and the Jews: The Allegorical Interpretation.
Not to pay his obligations is often a trait of a clever and shameless debtor. By long and artful caviling he taxes his creditor’s patience.
This is our fifth sermon on the departure and return of the Prodigal Son. In it we shall try, as we have promised,’ to raise its historical sense? to a mystical’ and extraordinary‘ sense which God gave‘ it.’ In the case of so great a loan? entrusted to me, I am, through my own power, a rather unsuitable debtor. Therefore, pray that through God’s power I may be found a payer acceptable to yourselves.
‘A certain man had two sons,’ the passage says. Since the time when Christ took upon Himself the burden of our flesh, and, being God, clothed Himself with human vesture,’ God with truth calls Himself man. The Lord [ie., God the Father} truly calls Himself the father of two sons,’’ because the Deity mixed into the humanity, as also the human tenderness joined to the Deity, has mingled” man and God, and it united’? the Lord to a Father.
Therefore, this man [in the parable], this father, had two sons. He had them through the bounty of the Creator, not because he was under any necessity to beget them, and he commanded their existence, rather than merited it… .For’® Christ was a man before our eyes in such a way that He always remained God in the mystery of His Godhead.
‘He had two sons,’ namely, two peoples: the Jews and the Gentiles. Prudent knowledge of the Law made the Jewish people His elder son, and the folly of paganism made the Gentile world His younger son. For, just as truly as wisdom brings venerable gray hairs,’* so does folly take away the traits of an adult. So morals, not age, made the Gentiles the younger son; and not years, but understanding [of the Law], made the Jews the elder son.
‘And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the property which falls to me.’ The younger son [representing the Gentile world] addressed this petition to the Knower of hearts by his desire rather than his voice. For, with us, it is our own will which gets us good things from God or bad. See the result. He who in company with his father possessed the whole property became through this use of his own will the possessor of only a fraction of it. That is what he got by his request: ‘Give me the share of the property that falls to me.’
And what is that share? What? Conduct, speech, knowledge, reason, judgment-—all those characteristics which in this earthly habitat belong to a man above other living beings; in other words, according to the Apostle, the law of nature,
But he carried out the division in this way. To the younger He gave those five gifts of nature which we have mentioned. For the elder He divinely wrote the five Books of the Law. Through these arrangements the divided property was to have unequal value, but a numerical parity. The one share of property was to hold together through human arrangement, the other was to stand firm by divine ordination. But each of these two laws was intended to lead the two sons to the knowledge of their Father. Each law was to bring reverence to its Author.
‘And not many days later, the younger son gathered up all his wealth, and took his journey into a far country; and there he squandered his fortune in loose living.’ We stated that not age, but morals, had made him the younger son.
That is why the text said: ‘Not many days later.’ And rightly, because in the very beginning of the world the Gentile race hastened off to the Fatherland of idols. It sojourned into the foreign country of the Devil more in spirit than in place. Through its vain thoughts it roamed through all the elements,!® and it was not by bodily motion that it was hurled from land after land. For, this younger son was in his Father’s presence, yet he lacked this Father; although he was in his own house, he did not feel at home.”
Hence it is that these Gentile peoples—this loose-living son—through their desire of worldly eloquence, through the brothels of the schools,’’ through senseless disputation at the meeting places of the philosophical sects, dissipated the property of God the Father. By their conjectures they exhausted everything there was in the line of speech, knowledge, reason, and judgment. But, even after that, these poor wetches still suffered the greatest need and intensest hunger to know the truth. Philosophy enjoined the task of seeking God, but of that truth to be learned it gathered no fruit.
Consequently, these Gentile peoples kept on adhering to the chieftain’? of that country. He kept on banishing them into that world of his; that is, into his one country house of multitudinous superstitions. He did this that they might feed swine, that is, the devils who say to the Lord: ‘If thou cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.’*® Yes, he sent them that they might feed the devils with incense, sacrificial victims, blood—and then get false replies from the oracles as the reward for all this labor. They killed many an animal in order to enable a creature which had no intelligence while alive to prophesy after being killed; to empower that which had never uttered speech with its mouth to speak with its entrails after death.
But in all this these Gentile peoples found nothing divine, nothing of salutary value. So they despaired of God, of His providence, of His judgment, and of all the future, and they betook themselves from the school down to the gluttony of the belly, eager to fill themselves with the pods which the swine were wont to eat.
The Epicureans knew this. When they were frequenting the Platonic and Aristotelian schools, and found there no elucidation of the divinity or of knowledge, they offered themselves to Epicurus, the most recent promoter of despair and pleasure. And they ate pods. In other words, they opened their mouths wide to the sinfully sweet pleasures of the body, and they themselves gave food to the devils who continually grow fat on the vices and filth of bodies. For, just as he who unites himself to God ‘is one spirit with Him,” so he who associates himself with the Devil becomes one devil with him.
Despite his desire, this younger son did not satisfy his belly with those pods. Why? Because no one was giving to him. Assuredly, the Devil was eager to use this hunger for knowledge and distress of pleasure, in order to make the Gentile son the more eager to get forbidden goods and to commit sins. But God, the Father, allowed the Gentile son to hunger for another reason: that the confutation of his error might become an occasion of salvation. He abandoned the Jewish son in just such a way as not to let him perish utterly, and He suffered the Gentile son to endure hunger that he might come back.
He does come back now to his Father and cries: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee.’ Every day in her prayer the Church testifies that the younger son has returned to his Father’s house, and is calling God his Father, for she prays: ‘Our Father, who art in heaven,’ ‘I have sinned against heaven and before thee”! He sinned against heaven when he said in blasphemy that the sun in the sky and the moon and the stars are gods, and when he profaned these same beings by adoring them.
‘I am no longer worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired men.’ This is to say: because I am no longer worthy of the glory of a son, or of pardon, I hope to earn the wages of a laborer’s toil. May he who has lost the honor of being a son retain at least the sustenance of life in his daily bread.
But the father runs out, he runs out from afar. ‘When as yet we were sinners, Christ died for us.’?? The Father runs out, He runs out in His Son, when through Him He descends from heaven and comes down upon earth. ‘With me,’ the Son says, ‘is he who sent me, the Father.”
He ‘fell upon his neck.’ He fell, when through Christ the whole Divinity came down as ours and reposed in human nature. ‘And he kissed him.’ When? When ‘mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed.” ‘He gave the best robe,’ that which Adam lost, the everlasting glory of immortality. ‘He put a ring upon his finger.’ The ring of honor, the title of liberty, the outstanding pledge of the spirit, the seal of the faith, the dowry of the heavenly marriage. Hear the Apostle: ‘I betrothed you to one spouse, that I might present you a chaste virgin to Christ.” ‘And sandals upon his feet.’ That his feet might be shod when he preached the Gospel, ‘that the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace might be beautiful.’
‘And he killed for him the fattened calf.’ About that David sang: ‘And it shall please God better than a young calf, that bringeth forth horns and hoofs.?” The calf was slain at this command of the Father, because the Christ, God as the Son of God, could not be slain without the command of His Father. Listen to the Apostle: ‘He who has not spared even His own son but has delivered Him for us all.’** He is the calf who is daily and continually immolated for our food.
But the elder brother—the elder son coming from the field, the people of the Law—‘The harvest indeed is abundant, but the laborers are few’**—hears the music in the Father’s house, and he hears the dancing, yet he does not wish to enter. Every day we gaze upon this same occurrence with our own eyes. For the Jewish people comes to the house of its Father, that is, to the Church. Because of its jealousy it stands outside. It hears the cithara of David resounding, and the music from the singing of the psalms, and the dancing carried on by so many assembled races. Yet it does not wish to enter. Through jealousy it remains without. In horror it judges its Gentile brother by its own ancient customs, and meanwhile it is depriving itself of its Father’s goods, and excluding itself from His joys.
‘Behold, these many years I have been serving thee, and have never transgressed one of thy commands; and yet thou hast never given me a kid.’ As we already mentioned, this remark should be passed over rather than mentioned. For the Jewish son is speaking, and the words are not those of a doer, but of a man venting his anger.
The Father steps outside and says to his son: ‘Son, thou art always with me.’ How? In the person of Abel, and of Henoch, of Sem, Noe, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and all the holy men from whom stems Christ’s Jewish lineage read in the Gospel when it says: ‘Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob,” and the rest.
‘And all that is mine is thine.’ How? Because for you is the law, for you is prophecy, for you the temple, for you the priesthood, for you the sacrifices, for you the kingdom, for you the gifts, for you—and this is the greatest gift of all—Christ was born. But because you through your jealousy wish to destroy your Brother, you are no longer worthy to possess your Father’s banquets and joys.
Within the narrow confines of this sermon we could not expound matters so extensive as fully as we desired. But the points which seem brief in our sermon form an ample field for you to exercise the power of perception which your own knowledge gives you. May this simple yet hidden comparison not be unpleasant. It has forced us to. unfold and explain these allegorical’! and lofty matters, rather than to tell or declaim them.
SERMON 20
But, now, let us draw forth the inner meaning of all this. When Christ embarked, in the boat of His Church, to cross the sea of the world, the blasts of the Gentiles, the whirlwinds of the Jews, the tempests of persecutors, the storm clouds of the mob, and the foggy mists of the devils all descended in fury to make one storm over all the world. The waves of kings were foaming, the billows of the mighty seethed, the rage of subjects resounded, nations swirled like whirlpools, sharp rocks of infidelity came into view, groans resounded from Christian shores, the shipwrecks of the fallenaways were drifting about, and there was one crisis, one shipwreck of all the world. ‘So the disciples came to the Lord, and woke Him, saying, Lord, save us! We are perishing! But He said to them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Thus awakened by His disciples, Christ controls the sea, that is, the world; He pacifies the earth, softens the kings, placates the mighty, calms the waves, soothes the nations, and makes the Romans Christians. In their case, too, He brings the one-time persecutors of the Christian name to live out the word of the Christian faith. Christian princes preserve this tranquility, the Church holds it, Christianity possesses it, the Gentile world admires it.
SERMON 27
Yet another scandal of this type is the one Satan contrived against the Jews. For he furrowed the wide rock on which to step, and roughened it till it was completely a hazard, and changed the rock of this whole footing into a stumbling-stone to make it a cause of ruin for unfortunate men. Scripture says: ‘Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and a rock of scandal.” Consequently, the Psalmist begs with anxious prayer: ‘Keep me from the snare, which they laid for me, and from the stumbling blocks of them that work iniquity.” Because he leaped across the hazard and overcame the stumbling block, he gloried thus: “Thou hast exalted me on a rock, and Thou hast conducted me; for Thou hast been my hope.’
We have treated the first kind of scandal. Now let us talk also about the second kind, which, we said, arises from human cleverness. The soothsayer Balaam’® set up a scandal for the people of Israel when he went to meet their warriors, not with men in armor, but with women arrayed in all their finery. He hoped to make the men drop their arms for debauchery, change their triumph into disgrace, bring the avengers of guilt into guilt themselves, and—to put it briefiy —~to profane all their holiness into depravity. As a result of it all, when Moses was meting out punishment, he sentenced Balaam thus: Kill Balaam the soothsayer, because he set up a stumbling-block before the children of Israel.
SERMON 36
The Daughter of Jairus and the Woman with the Hemorrhage as Types of the Synagogue and the Church
A gentlemanly borrower soon pays what he has promised. He does not tax his creditor’s good will by frequently putting him off, or keep him in anxiety by long waiting. When the account of the ruler of the Synagogue, or the related account which springs from it, that of the woman with the hemorrhage, was enticing us away from the customary brevity of our sermons, we preferred to cut our discourse’ in half lest it seem to start anew to such an extent as to overburden your patience to listen.
The ruler of the Synagogue hastened to meet the Lord, and fell prostrate on the ground, He explained his case, manifested his grief, excited the compassion of his Benefactor, and begged Him to come with speed to effect a cure. In contrast, the Lord met the woman before He was entreated. While passing by, He gave her an occasion of recovering health; while silent Himself, He understood the case of the silent woman, and saw her wound even when she was hiding it. With her, it was in secret that the Lord carried on His important work of healing. And while He was making His way after being petitioned in public, her knowledge sprang from her faith, penetrated to His divinity, and discovered that great secret.
Oh, happy is that woman! In the midst of such a great multitude she was so much alone with Christ that only she was aware both of her restoration to health and His exalted power! Happy is she who found such access that no one could stop her. Happy she who by such a path struggled and crept up to her Creator, before she was upbraided by anyone because of her sore, and before she was free from its repugnance. She knew that with men and through their power the way to full health was closed to her. Men are more accustomed to shrink away from wounds than to cure them. God cleanses human wounds; He does not despise them. He does not shrink from human sores, but heals them. Nor does He detest the suppurations from the human body; rather, He cleanses them. God cannot, He cannot be soiled through contact with His creature.
But the Evangelist poses a problem when he states: ‘And Jesus instantly perceiving in Himself that power had gone forth from Him, turned to the crowd and said, Who touched my cloak?’ While He was asking as if professing ignorance, did He perceive that power had gone forth from Him, and fail to know to whom it had gone? Did He know that He had let it go forth, without knowing to whom? Did He, who was certain that health had been conferred, doubt about the beneficiary?
No. The Lord asked here, not because of any error of one in ignorance, but with the majesty of Him who knows both the present and the future. He was not investigating something hidden to Him; rather, He manifested that it was well known to Him, in this way. He so asked His questions that He alone revealed the hidden matter to all those unaware of it. Not as an unknowing examiner, but as a questioner who knew everything beforehand, He drew His petitioner into the center of attention. She was silent, making suggestions only by her thoughts, in ready waiting behind His back for the measures by which He exercised His powers. He made her stand before all so that she who had gained health for herself might also bring faith for all; that she who had His power might acknowledge His majesty; that she who had made Him so fully known might not go away again unknown, herself, as she expected.
While she was blushing over her wound and with so much concern fearing Him as God, the woman found her faith getting darkened. Clouds of confusion obscured the light in her mind. Therefore, the voice of her questioning Lord, like a salutary wind, drove the clouds away, dispersed the mists, and enlightened her faith. It made her who had recently been in darkness of the night brighter than the very sun. For, she shines throughout the whole world, is resplendent in the whole of the Church, and is glorious among its members. Is she, then, less than a sun? If she had returned unseen—give me leave to say it—she would have escaped her Physician, not tested Him. She could have ascribed what she obtained to herself rather than to her Healer. She would have believed that she had drawn her cure from the hem of His garment, not from His penetrating understanding. For, what would she have believed to be truly His whose power she had experienced in her own case, but which in her wish she had deemed to be something outside Him?
Before her cure, perhaps it was because of her shame that she kept herself hid, and because of her humility that she thought herself unworthy. But after her cure, why did she not of her own accord run up to give Him thanks, and honor, and glory for such a great deed? After she saw that the Lord persisted in His questioning, that the disciples said that jostling from the crowd was the reason why He had been touched, and that she could not remain hidden, after fear and trembling in her own conscience began to trouble her, she came into the midst of them all. She wanted to profess public belief in Him whom she had privately recognized as her Physician, and to adore Him as God, and to become herself a remedy for sickness as great as hers, both to present and future men. As the Evangelist narrates: ‘But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened within her, came and fell dowa before Him, and told Him all the truth.’
However, the historical narrative should always be raised to a higher meaning,’ and mysteries of the future should become known through figures of the present. Therefore, we should now unfold, by allegorical discourse, what symbolic teaching’ is contained beneath the outward appearance of the ruler of the Synagogue, or his daughter, or the woman afflicted with the hemorrhage.
In respect to His divinity, Christ cannot be moved from place to place; but walking by means of His human nature He comes, strides, and hastens to the daughter of the ruler of the Synagogue. Without doubt, she is the Syangogue, for Christ said: ‘I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’
But, while Christ was hastening to her, His Church which was located out among all the nations was suffering a hemorrhage and losing the blood of the human race. The integrity of nature had been lost. While human skill kept trying to cure the weakness of the race, it increased it. For, the censure of human frailty, and the severity of the discipline of this world, did indeed continually shed the blood of nations. But it could not obliterate the enemy, nor check the wars of the citizens, nor blot out the insanity of crimes.
Therefore, as a result of such cares, this Church had a running wound. She saw that whatever substance she had possessed and still possessed was used up—that is, her soul, mind, power of discernment, ingenuity, toil, industry, and planning. (All these endowments can indeed be ascribed to her officials, the physicians trying to cure the sick.) When she perceived that Christ was present as He was passing by, she came up behind Him because, soiled with blood, she did not deserve to look upon His face.
She came up behind Him. That is, she follows the hearing of faith and getting very close she touches, so to speak, the very fringe of His garment. She does this while she is not honored among the fathers, is not sanctified by the Law, does not publicly bring herself forward among the Prophets, does not receive honor even from the very Body* of the Lord, while she is deemed a stranger even by the group of men reborn from Christ.
She follows Christ behind His back, that is, in this last age of time.’ She is established as sacred by a hidden bond of faith, and she has truly touched his cloak (which she found in the Sepulchre) through this, that she has faith in these insignia of the risen Lord, and preaches them. But, while Christ is employing His powers in the case of his Church, He is not paying attention to the ruler’s daughter. And the Synagogue dies—in order that she, too, who has died through the Law and perished through nature, may return to life through faith.
‘While He was speaking, there came some from the house of the ruler of the Synagogue, and they said, Do not trouble the Master, the girl is dead.’ Today, also, the Jews do not want Christ to be troubled. They desire Him not to come. They have faithlessly destroyed their apprehension of His Ressurrection, and proclaim that He is dead.
But I see how that, too, is consistent with our assertion! For, as Scripture tells, the daughter of the ruler of the Synagogue spent twelve years in life. So, too, it is recounted, did this woman endure her sore for twelve years, since the health of life both were to be restored at the latest and fulfilled time. That number twelve rounds off the time of human life. To make a year, the number twelve is divided and applied to the months. Consequently, the Prophet indicates’ that Christ came in the acceptable year of the Lord. The Apostle, too, approves the teaching that Christ came in the fullness of time: ‘When the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son.’
Pray, brethren, that just as the Synagogue has died to itself and the Law, in order to live to Christ, so we, too, may die in our sins in order to live in Christ.
SERMON 38
“You have heard that it was said to the ancients.’ To what ancients? Obviously, to the Jews. Malice rather than age made them ancient; their fury kept them so eager for vengeance that they demanded a head in return for an eye, and a life in payment for a tooth. Consequently, the Law was restraining their demand for vengeance. It aimed to bring those who were too weak to relish forgiving a fault, to relish, if you will, a portion of vengeance, that is, to demand vengeance only equal to the injury which the offender had inflicted in his anger.
SERMON 40
But is that death of the shepherd advantageous to the sheep? Let us investigate. It leaves them abandoned, exposes them defenseless to the wolves, hands over the beloved flock to the gnawing jaws of beasts, gives them over to plunder and exposes them to death. All this is proved by the death of the Shepherd, Christ. From the time when He laid down His life for His sheep, and permitted Himself to be slain through the fury of the Jews, His sheep have been suffering invasions from the piratical Gentiles. Like prisoners to be slain in jails, they are shut up in the caves of robbers. They are torn unceasingly by persecutors who are like raging wolves. They are snapped at by heretics who are like mad dogs with savage teeth.
SERMON 44
The Pharisee® established a chair of pestilence, too. He made human traditions more important than God’s laws, and dissipated the abundant light which the Jewish people had.
SERMON 80
‘Do not be afraid’—-for love possesses the good, and dread harasses the evil. Fear terrifies the impious, and affection warms the loyal. ‘Do not be afraid.’ This is tantamount to saying: Let the Jew fear who did the betraying, and Pilate who sentenced Christ, and the soldier who mocked Him, and the impious who crucified Him, and the cruel who gave Him cups of gall, and the heartless ones who guarded the sepulchre, and the scoundrels who paid for a fraud and tried to sell away a proof, who in their inhumanity grieved over the Lord’s Resurrection, but not over having slain Him. You, in contrast, ought to rejoice, not fear, because He whom you sought as dead has arisen. He whom you mourned as one slain is alive.
But now hear how impiety also arises at the Resurrection of Christ. ‘Behold, some of the guards came into the city and reported to the chief priest all that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders, and had consulted together they gave much money to the soldiers, telling them, Say his disciples came by night and stole him while we were sleeping.’ Those who disperse money seek goods to be saved, not lost. When Judas was selling, the Jews bought Christ in order to destroy Him; now they spend much money in order to lose themselves, their Law, Temple, and country. The bloody, deceitful men! They set a price for falsehood, draw up an agreement about perfidy. By wicked negotiations they buy a fraud against belief, and a robbery from truth. They bribe the soldiers to give the name of robbery to what was the mystery of the Resurrection.
‘His disciples came by night and stole him.’ Not content to have slain the Master, they plot how they can ruin the disciples. They pretend that the power of the Master is the crime of the disciples.
‘His disciples came by night and stole him.’ The soldiers clearly were the losers, and so were the Jews in their guile. But the disciples took their Master away not by theft but by faith; by virtue, not by fraud; by holiness, not by sin. They took Him away alive, not dead. That is why they are sent to Galilee—to be able to see Him, since God is not seen in a place of perfidy.
SERMON 83
At the death of Moses the angels were present,’ and God Himself took care of his burial. The Jews kept their camp in one place, halted their journey, endured a dreadful delay in the desert, enjoined thirty days of mourning and honored this body of a servant by these obsequies of thirty days.” Therefore, did not the true Christ, the one Lord, the Creator of the world, the Redeemer of all men—did not He deserve tears from His disciples three days after His tragic passion and death, the death of the Cross?
‘The disciples,’ says Scripture, ‘were shut within for fear of the Jews.’ If they were in fear and shut within, they surely were not feasting. And if they were not enjoying a meal, that was not a home but a jail. Theirs was not a banquet couch, but a tomb. At that time, all the distress of the Lord’s passion had passed over to His disciples. The whole lance of sorrow was piercing not only their sides, but their very hearts. Their hands and feet were held fast by the nails of the clinging grief. The bitter spirit of the Jews was then giving them vinegar and gall to drink. For them the sun had set and the day had waned. At that time severe temptation of thought was dashing them against the crags of infidelity to shipwreck their faith. Despair, which is worse than all evils and is in adversity always the last one to arrive, was already laying them out in sombre tombs.
SERMON 88
The text continues: ‘And many of the children of Israel he shall bring back.’ To whom? Let the angel tell, that the heretic® may be silenced in his blasphemies and denials. Let the angel tell, that the faithful soul may hear and rejoice. Let the heretic believe and return. ‘He shall bring back.’ To whom? ‘To the Lord their God,’ the text says.
Who is this God? He is the One of whom the Prophet states: “This is our God, and there is no other apart from him. He found out all the way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved.” When did He give it? Then, indeed, when he wrote on the tablets of the Law a rule for the whole of life and a norm of disciplinary control. Be attentive, my hearer, that you may know who this our God is, apart from whom there is no other. Who is He? ‘Afterwards He was seen upon earth and conversed with men.’
SERMON 93
Perhaps the hearer is surprised and troubled that Christ came to a dinner, and to the dinner of a Pharisee at that. However, He entered the Pharisee’s house not to take the Jewish foods, but to dispense divine mercy. He reclined at table, not to partake of the cups made savory with honey and crowned with flowers, but to draw tears from other founts— the very eyes of a penitent. God’s hunger is for the groans of delinquents, and His thirst is for the tears of sinners.
SERMON 95
The text says: ‘Now one of the Pharisees asked him to dine with him.’ Brethren, the Pharisee is called the Catholic of the Jews, for he believes in the resurrection, and disagrees with the Sadducee who denies it. That is why this Pharisee invited Christ, that is, the Author of the resurrection, to dine with him. For, he who dines with Christ cannot die. Indeed, he lives forever.
‘So he went into the house of the Pharisee.’ Into what house? Assuredly, it was into the Synagogue that He went and reclined at table. Brethren, Christ reclined at table in the Synagogue during the time when He reposed in the grave, but He transmitted His body to the table of the Church, that this flesh from heaven might be a help to salvation for the nations who would eat it. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink of his blood, you shall not have life in you.’ Those who have been instructed in the heavenly mysteries know how the flesh of Christ is eaten, and how His blood is drunk.
But then she heard that Christ had come to the house of the Pharisee—that is, to the Synagogue. She heard that there—that is, at the Jewish Pasch—He had instituted the mysteries of His Passion, disclosed the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, and revealed the secret of our Redemption. She ignored the Scribes like contemptible doorkeepers. ‘Woe to you lawyers! you who have taken away the key of knowledge.’ She broke open the doors of quarrels, and despised the very superiority of the Pharisaical group. Ardent, panting, perspiring, she made her way to the large inner chamber of the banquet of the Law. There she learned that Christ, betrayed amid sweet cups and a banquet of love, had died through the fraud of the Jews, according to the Prophet’s statement: ‘For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken evil things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him. But thou, a man of one mind, my guide, and familiar, who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent.’
‘Upon learning that he was at table in the Pharisee’s house’ —that is, that in the Synagogue He had been sentenced altogether unjustly through every conceivable pretext, had suffered, been crucified, and buried. Nevertheless, the Church does not let that great. injury inflicted on Him deter her from fervor of faith. Instead, she carries her ointment, she bears the oil of Christian chrism. She has not deserved to see the bodily face of Christ. Therefore, she stands behind Him, not in place but in time. She clings to His footsteps that she may follow Him. And soon she pours out tears of desire more than of regret, that she may deserve to see Him when He returns, whom she did not deserve to see when He was going away. Therefore, with welling love she sheds her tears upon the feet of the Lord. With her hands of good works she holds the feet of those who preach His kingdom. She washes them with tears of charity, kisses them with praising lips, and pours out the whole ointment of mercy, until He will turn her—(what means this word, turn? It means, come back)—until He will come back to her and say to Simon, say to the Pharisces, say to those who deny, say to the nation of the Jews: ‘I came into thy house; thou gavest me no water for my feet.’
SERMON 109
‘Your reasonable service,’ the Apostle says. A service which is warm because it is reasonable is true fervor, but one which is not restrained by reason is fanaticism. Consequently, the Jewish nation, when it sought a god for itself in an unreasonable way,” lost God to whom it had been giving a reasonable service. The sons of Aaron,® unmindful of making their service reasonable, and presuming to add earthly fire to that ordained by God, changed the flame used on the sanctifying sacrifices into a flame of vengeance against themselves. When Saul,’ swollen with pride at the height of his kingly authority, thought that what was permitted to the priesthood was permitted also to himself, he became a rash violator of the altar, and lost the kingly authority he had received. The Jew, while he cultivated the Law without the reasonableness of the Law, put the Author of the Law to death. The Gentile, unmindful of reasonableness while serving monstrous gods and whole clans of gods, did not deserve to come to the service of God who is one and true. Arius thinks that he does a service to the Father by blaspheming the Son. And while he is attributing a beginning to the Son, the pitiful man is putting a limit upon the Father. Photinus, while denying that the Son is co-eternal with the Father, is elaborately explaining how the Father was not always existent precisely as Father. So it is with all the heresies. While they are spread to the insult of God, and lie about the Trinity through their terms, they further blasphemies.
SERMON 114
O Hebrew, what is there that you have not lost? And if you have lost it, why do you glory as if you had not lost it? Where is your temple? your priest? your sacrifice? your incense? your purifications? the devout celebration of your festivals, which you thought should never be omitted?
Rightly are you circumcized that you may be a Jew, because you have been cut away from all those goods mentioned above. For it is written: ‘Cursed be he that abideth not in all the precepts which have been written in the books of the Law.” If the man who offends against one precept is cursed, how often will he be cursed who will stand convicted of having observed none of them?
SERMON 115
And rightly does he compare the Law to a marriage in the flesh, because the Law did not possess a spiritual union with the Synagogue. For, when the Law had accepted her as its bride for the promotion of discipline, the abundance of holy offspring, the increase of modesty, the protection of chastity, the sacred and revered inner sanctuary of the heavenly chamber, and the mystical unity of the heavenly couch—then it found in her the defilement of complete infidelity. For, she came to meet such a great man, that is, the Law, and she was not elegant in her manners, nor arrayed with the Jewels of virtues, nor stately in her pace, nor covered with that truly brilliant veil of virginal modesty. Rather, she was wanton in her eyes, loose in her steps, forward with her seductiveness, completely illusive with guile and pretense.
SERMON 141
So, what God commands an angel relates. His spirit fulfills it and His power brings it to perfection. The virgin believes it, and nature takes it up. The tale is told from the sky, and then proclaimed from all the heavens. The stars show it forth, and the Magi tell it about. The shepherds adore, and the beasts are aware. As the Prophet testified: ‘The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib.’ You, O man, if you did not recognize Him soon along with the angels, do acknowledge Him now, even though very late, in company with the beasts. Otherwise, while you loiter, you may be deemed less than those very animals with whom you were previously compared. Look, they give homage with their tails, they manifest their pleasure with their ears, they lick with their tongues, and with whatever sign they can they acknowledge that their Creator, in spite of His nature, has come into yours. Yet, you argue and quibble along with the Jews who turned away from their inns their Master whom the beasts welcomed in their cribs. If, therefore, you will at length give reverent ear at least to the angels, at least properly, if not joyfully, receive from us the message which the angel will speak.
SERMON 145
‘Thou shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for He shall save his people.’ Not someone else’s people will He save. From what will He save them? ‘From their sins.’ O most faithless man, if you do not believe the Christians when they say that He who forgives sins is God, believe at least the Jews when they say: ‘Because thou, being a man, makest thyself God,” and ‘Who can forgive sins, but God only”: They who did not believe that He was forgiving sins were denying that He is God. Do you believe that He forgives sins, yet hesitate to admit that He is God?
SERMON 146
Isaias had foretold that a virgin would bring forth the God of heaven,’® the King of the earth, the Lord of all regions, the renewer of the world, the slayer of death, the restorer of life, the Author of perpetuity. The very occurrence of the Lord’s nativity proved how sad this was for worldly men, how frightening to kings, and how terrifying to the Jews. For, when Judea heard and Herod learned from the words of the Magi that Christ was born, the Jews and Herod quickly devised means to destroy and kill Him. While they feared a successor, they tried to slay the Saviour of all men. At length, since they could not find Him, they devastated His country, mixed mothers’ milk with blood, and beat to death the infants of His own years. They dismembered the companions of His innoocence, because they could not find for punishment sharers in any guilt of His. If they did all this after Christ was already born, what would they in their wild fury have done to Him when He was conceived?
SERMON 156
‘When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea,’ the text says, ‘in the days of king Herod, behold, there came a Magi from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is the newly born king of the Jews? We have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.’ When Jesus was born, the Source of things arose, the Maker of the race was begotten, the Creator of nature was born, in order to repair nature, restore the race, re-establish the original state. The first man, Adam, the father of the race, the origin of all posterity, lost by his sin the good of nature, the freedom of his race, and the life of his offspring. Consequently, his unfortunate posterity endured the evil of nature, the slavery of the race, the death of their offspring. Hence it came about that Christ by His birth restored nature, took away death by dying, summoned life back by His resurrection. He who had given man his soul from heaven now enabled him to stand firm in the flesh, lest some earthly stain might again overwhelm his spiritual insight and bring him to a fall of the body. As the Apostle said: “The first man was of the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven, heavenly. As was the earthy man, such also are the earthy; and as is the heavenly man, such also are the heavenly.’ John the Evangelist also stated: ‘No one who is born of God commits sin; but the Begotten of God preserves him.” Thus it is that Christ was born to elevate those prostrate in an earthy seed up to a heavenly nature.
‘When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea.’ Bethlehem, brethren, is called in Hebrew the house of bread. These words indicate the house of Juda; they name the race, that the pledge of the promise may be fulfilled, and also the truth of that prophecy which Jacob spoke: ‘Juda, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; the sons of your father shall bow down to you.” Later, the text continues: “The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come for whom the things have been stored up, and he shall be the expectation of nations.” Wherefore David also said: ‘Juda is my king.
‘When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of King Herod.’ What means this, that it was in the time of a very wicked king that God descended to earth, divinity entered into® flesh, a heavenly union occurred with an earthly body? What does this mean? When does one not truly a king come to drive out a tyrant, avenge his country, renew the face of the earth, and restore freedom? Herod, an apostate, invaded the kingdom of the Jewish race, took away the Jews’ liberty, profaned their holy places, disrupted the established order, abolished whatever there was of discipline and religious worship. Rightly, therefore, did divine aid succor that holy race which had no human help. Rightly did God support the race which had no man to be its helper.
‘Behold there came Magi from the East to Jerusalem, saying, Where is the newly born king of the Jews. We have seen his star.’ And what is that which is seen? Truly, what the Apostle said: ‘Being rich, he became poor? When He was rich in his divinity, He became a poor man in our flesh; He who made, owns, and sustains all creation began to have one star.
‘Where is the newly born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.’ By saying: ‘Where is He who was born king of the Jews,’they do not ask a question, but taunt. When those who know question those who do not know, they themselves do not lack knowledge. Rather, they are reproving the negligent, challenging the lazy, betraying the evil, and chastizing the haughty. They are lodging the charge that the servants have not met their Lord in welcome. Why should those address questions to men who already knew from God what they were asking about? What good would human information do them, who for their purpose were receiving service from the stars of heaven? What good was the light of the Temple for them who had marvelous light from a star of heaven?
‘Where is the newly born king of the Jews?’ This is tantamount to saying: Why does the king of the Jews lie in a manger, and not repose in the Temple? Why is He not resplendent in purple, rather than poorly clad in rags? Why does He lie hidden in a cave, and not on display in the Sanctuary? The beasts have received in a manger Him whom you have disdained to receive in His house. As it has been written: ‘The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib.’ But you, O Israel, have not sought out your Master.
“We have seen his star.’ The star appeared not of itself, but by command; not because of the gravitation of heaven, but by an impulse of God; not because of the law of the stars, but of the novelty of signs; not because of any clear climate in the sky, but because of the power of Him being born; not from art, but from God; not because of an astrologer’s knowledge, but the Creator’s foreknowledge; not by an arithmetical reckoning, but by a divine decree; through heavenly care, not Chaldaean curiosity; not through art of magic, but because of Jewish prophecy.
SERMON 166
The rain of manna fed the Jewish people for forty years* in the desert. It did not by its customary service cause an increase of sprouts from the earth, but streamed on the earth like harvested grains. It took away all the toil of human labor, and by its pleasant dew® offered and spread out heavenly produce for the hungry.
For forty days an exploring party, sent out by God’s command, traversed the Promised Land.” Thus, this sacred number was to summon the Israelites to the Promised Land, just as it now by its forty periods of fasting summons us, and leads us to heaven. Now, an investigation from heaven explores and traverses the land of our body for forty days, to attack and expel the tribes of vices and enable a legion of virtues to possess the region of our heart.
SERMON 170
‘And he began to send them forth two by two.’ It is not strange, brethren, if the Trinity which employed the three teams, of four horses each, which resulted from dividing the number twelve, now mounts also a chariot drawn by two horses. This was done that the vocation of the two peoples might be clearly shown by two messengers, as the Apostle states: ‘Is God the God of the Jews only, and not of the Gentiles also? Indeed of the Gentiles also.” It was done, too, to fulfill the prophesy of Isaias, who testified that he had seen a rider of a two-horse chariot, when he heard it said to him: ‘What dost thou see? And he replied: I see a rider of a two-horse chariot.’** Because of this he cried out right away that Babylon had fallen, and all its graven gods.
Source. Archive.org – Translated by GEORGE E. GANSS, S.J. SAINT PETER CHRYSOLOGUS SELECTED SERMONS and SAINT VALERIAN HOMILIES. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, INC., Washington, D.C. 1953.
Sermon 72A
The Lord kept warning his disciples of these things time and time again, placing them before their eyes, and, as it were, setting up the arena for his Passion and leading them into it. He was signifying that there would be as many kinds of abuse as there would be kinds of wild beasts; that there would be as many spectators as persecutors, who, in seeking not a victory from the conflict, but only an assent to the death of the Victor, would shout: “Crucify, crucify.” They would go so far as to lift up their savage eyes and their lethal voices to heaven, or rather against heaven, until in their cruel feeding frenzy by contending with holy blood they would smear themselves and their posterity and wallow in that blood, as they yell: “His blood be upon us and upon our children.”
Sermon 76
Meanwhile, the Jews either wickedly buy their crimes, or,even worse, they sell someone else’s, while setting a price onsins, paying out money in compensation for offenses, and pouring out in wicked deeds what they gathered with all wickedness. So they procure Judas as the betrayer of their Lord, and they settle on a price for the blood of the Redeemer of the world; so with a purse they seal off faith in the opened tomb, so as to purchase with cash acquired by sins the sin of denying the Resurrection.
They gave the soldiers, it says, a large sum of money and said: “Say that his disciples came at night, and stole him while we were asleep. And if the governor hears about it, we shall persuade him and keep you safe.” And they took the money and did as they had been taught, and that is the story that has spread among the Jews to this very day (vv.12–15). Among the Jews: but not among the Christians? Jew, what you were trying to conceal in Judea with gold, has shone and radiated throughout the whole world by faith. The disciples received Christ, they did not steal him; you have procured unbelief, but you have not stolen the truth. O Jew, Christ has risen, and you have lost your money. “His blood be on us and on our children.” O Jew, Christ is alive, but you have killed yourself and your descendants.
Source. Roger Pearse – Translated by William B. Palardy. St. Peter Chrysologus: Selected Sermons, Volume 3 (Fathers of the Church). The Catholic University of America Press. Washington, D.C. 2005.