Letters 140.49–140.67

Then he goes on to say: "Let all the seed of Israel fear him." Since Jacob and Israel were one man with two names (not without a great sacrament; but we cannot say everything in one book, in which we have already gone far and have not yet said anything on the other three questions, that is, on the outer darkness, on the breadth, length, height, and depth, and on the five and five virgins), what he said above, "all the seed of Jacob," he says accordingly here as "all the seed of Israel." But why above "magnify him" and afterward "let them fear him"? Magnifying suits praise, of which he had said, "You who fear the Lord, praise him," on which I have already said much. For there is the love or charity of God, which, being perfect, casts out fear. Why then again, "Let all the seed of Israel fear him"? "For you did not receive," says the apostle, "the spirit of slavery again in fear." But the same apostle prescribes fear to the wild olive grafted into the olive, that is, to the Gentiles added to the root of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so that they too might become Israel, that is, belong to the seed of Abraham.

This grafting of the wild olive, after the natural branches were cut off because of the pride of unbelief, the Lord himself also foretold in the Gospel, on the occasion of that centurion who believed in him from among the Gentiles. For then he said: "Truly I say to you, I have not found such faith in Israel"; and he added: "Therefore I say to you that many will come from east and west and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will go into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." So he signified that the wild olive is grafted in because of humility (for that centurion had said, "I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed"), and that the natural branches were broken off because of their pride, namely of those who, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and wishing to establish their own, did not submit to the righteousness of God. For of these, swollen with vain elation, it was said that they will go into the outer darkness, because, boasting of being the seed of Abraham, they refused to become the seed of Abraham so as to be children of the promise; because they did not receive the faith of the New Testament, in which the righteousness of God is commended, wishing to establish their own, that is, trusting as it were in their own merits and works, they scorned to be children of the promise, that is, children of grace, children of mercy, so that "he who glories may glory in the Lord," believing in him who justifies the ungodly, that is, who makes the ungodly godly, so that his faith may be counted as righteousness, and that may be fulfilled in him which not his merit demanded but which the Lord promised as a benefit.

So the apostle, dealing with those who were being grafted into the olive by grace, says: "You will say, the branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. Well; they were broken off because of unbelief. But you stand by faith; do not be high-minded, but fear." For it is God's benefit, not your merit; as he says elsewhere too: "By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, but it is the gift of God; not from works, lest anyone be lifted up. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared that we should walk in them." In this understanding of grace, then, there is the fear of which it is said, "Do not be high-minded, but fear." But this fear is a different one; it is not that servile fear which love casts out. For with that one we fear falling into the torment of punishment, but with this one we fear losing the grace of the benefit.

Therefore, although the apostle says to the faithful belonging to the New Testament, as I mentioned a little earlier, "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery again in fear, but you received the spirit of adoption as sons, in which we cry, Abba, Father," that is, so that there may be in us the faith that works through love, not so much fearing punishment as loving righteousness; yet, because the soul does not become righteous except by participation in a better one, who justifies the ungodly (for what does it have that it has not received?), it ought not, by attributing to itself what is God's, to glory as if it had not received it. For this reason it is told: "Do not be high-minded, but fear." And this fear is prescribed even to those who, living by faith, are heirs of the New Testament and called into freedom. For "to be high-minded" means to be proud, as he shows clearly enough in another place by the opposite, where he says, "not minding high things, but agreeing with the lowly." By saying "agreeing with the lowly," he certainly made plain that by "minding high things" he meant nothing else than being proud.

"There is no fear in love," then, because "perfect love casts out fear"; but that servile fear, the fear by which, when one abstains from an evil work, one is terrified by punishment, not delighted by righteousness. This fear love casts out, love which is not delighted by wickedness even if impunity were offered; not that fear by which the soul fears to lose the very grace by which it came about in it that not sinning delights it, by which it fears that God may abandon it, even if he punished it with no tortures of pain. This fear is chaste; love does not cast it out but takes it in. For of it it is written: "The fear of the Lord is chaste, enduring for ever and ever." He would by no means call this one enduring unless he knew of another that would not endure; and he rightly called this one chaste, for love, by which the soul cleaves to God, is not without it; the soul that says in another psalm: "You have destroyed everyone who goes whoring away from you; but for me it is good to cleave to God." For a wife too who has an adulterous mind, even if from fear of her husband she does not commit adultery, yet what is lacking in the act is present in the will; but a chaste wife fears in another way; for she too fears her husband, but chastely. In short, the one fears that her husband may come upon her in anger, the other that he may go away offended; for to one who does not love, the husband's presence is irksome, but to one who loves, his absence. With chaste fear, then, enduring for ever and ever, "let all the seed of Israel fear" God; let them fear him whom they love, not minding high things but agreeing with the lowly; let them work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in them both to will and to work according to his good will.

This is the righteousness of God; this is what God gives to man when he justifies the ungodly. The proud Jews, ignorant of this righteousness of God and wishing to establish their own, did not submit to the righteousness of God; by this pride they are cast down so that the humble wild olive may be grafted in. And they will go into the outer darkness, about which among other things you asked, while many come from east and west to recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. For they are now in exterior darkness, from which correction is not to be despaired of; but if they despise it, they will go into the outer darkness, where there will be no room for correction; since God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all; but the light of the heart, not of these eyes which are in the flesh, nor at all such as is imagined by the fancy of this visible light; although there too there is seeing, but far otherwise, far differently. For who can explain in words what kind of light love itself is? Who can show it by any example from the things that lie open to the bodily senses? Or perhaps love is not light? Listen to the apostle John; for he said what I just mentioned, "God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all," and again he says, "God is love." And so, if God is light and God is love, surely love is light itself, which is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Likewise he says: "He who hates his brother is in darkness until now." This is the darkness into which the devil and his angels advanced by their great pride. For "love is not jealous, is not puffed up"; it is not jealous because it is not puffed up; for where puffing up goes before, jealousy at once follows, since pride is the mother of envy.

The devil and his angels, then, turned away from the light and warmth of love and advanced too far into pride and envy, grew numb as with icy hardness. And therefore they are placed figuratively as it were in the north. Hence, since the devil lay heavy on the human race, with the grace of the Savior about to come it is said in the Song of Songs: "Arise, north wind, and come, south wind, and blow through my garden, and the spices will flow." Arise, you who rushed in, who lie heavy on your subjects, who oppress those you possess; arise, so that those whose souls you bent by pressing on them may be relieved of your weight and stand upright. "And come, south wind," he says, calling on the Spirit of grace, blowing from the south as from the warm and bright quarter, so that the spices may flow. Hence the apostle says: "We are the good fragrance of Christ in every place." Hence also it is said in a certain psalm: "Turn back our captivity, Lord, like a torrent in the south wind": the captivity, namely, in which they were held under the devil as under the north wind, where, with iniquity abounding, they had grown cold and in a way frozen. For hence the Gospel too says: "Because iniquity will abound, the love of many will grow cold." But when the south wind blows the ice melts and the torrents flow, that is, when sins are forgiven the peoples run together to Christ in love. Hence it is written elsewhere too: "Like ice in fair weather, so your sins will melt away."

Accordingly, the rational creature, whether in an angelic spirit or in a human soul, was so made that it cannot itself be the good by which it becomes happy; but its changeableness, if it is turned to the unchangeable good, becomes happy; hence if it turns away, it is miserable. Its turning away is its vice, and its turning toward is its virtue. Its nature, then, is not evil, because a created spirit of rational life, even when deprived of the good by participation in which it is made happy, that is, even when vicious, is better than the body that is highest among bodies, that is, this light which is perceived by the eyes of the flesh, since it too is a body; and any incorporeal nature whatever is superior to every body, not in bulk, since bulk belongs only to bodies, but by a certain power by which it surpasses every image that the mind turns over, drawn from the bodily senses. But just as, among bodies themselves, the lower ones, such as earth and water and air itself, become better by participation in a better one, that is, when they are lit by light and quickened by warmth, so incorporeal rational creatures become better by participation in the creator himself, when they cleave to him with most pure and most holy love; and if they lack this altogether, they grow dark and in a way hardened.

Accordingly, unbelieving people are darkness; those who are converted to God through faith become light by a kind of preliminary illumination. If, advancing in this, they come from faith to sight, so as to be worthy also to behold what they believe, as far as so great a good can be beheld, they will receive the perfect image of God; for to such the apostle says: "You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord." Further, the devil and his angels are darkness exterior to unbelieving people; for they have turned further away from that love and advanced into their own arrogance and obstinacy. And since at the last judgment Christ will say to those whom he separates to his left, "Go into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels," he will say that those who are to be joined to these malignant spirits and condemned together with them will go into the outer darkness, that is, into the penal company of the devil and his angels. The opposite of this punishment is what is said to the good servant, "Enter into the joy of your lord"; so that as much as that darkness is outer, so much is that light inner. These things are not to be thought of with an empty image of distances of place; only the bulk of bodies occupies spaces of place. Such is not the spirit of life, such is not the rational soul, much less God, the most kind founder and most just ordainer of all. These are said to draw near or to become far, to enter or to go out, by wills and affections.

But because those who do evil, that is, dark works, take delight in them, and a punishment will follow that torments, therefore the Lord, where he speaks of the outer darkness, adds also, "there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth," lest they foolishly suppose that they will enjoy even in that punishment such delights as the wicked enjoy here when they grow dark through unbelief and injustice. For because they willingly use goods unjustly, they will justly be tormented unwillingly by evils. Hence the outer darkness can also be understood as bodily punishments (for the body is exterior to the soul): so that the evils of the soul, in which, turned away from the light of love, it delights in sins, would be the exterior darkness, and the evils of the body, by which it will be tormented eternally without end, the outer darkness. Only this is feared by those who are still held by servile fear. For if they were allowed always to roll and wrap themselves with impunity in that exterior darkness which is in sins, they would surely never wish to approach God and be enlightened and cling to him through love, where there is the chaste fear that endures for ever and ever, a fear which does not torment but makes the soul cling more tenaciously to that good, from which, if it lets go, it falls.

"Let all the seed of Israel fear him." And see the reason he joins to it: "For he has not scorned," he says, "nor despised the prayer of the poor man." By the poor man he means the humble; hence "Do not be high-minded, but fear." Let all the seed of Israel fear him, then, because he has not despised the prayer of one who was not high-minded but feared. This can be fitted to the head too, because the Savior of the body himself became poor for our sake, though he was rich, so that by his poverty we might become rich. For he became poor in the form of a servant, in which also he poured out his prayer; for in it he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death. See, then, what he says: "For he has not scorned nor despised the prayer of the poor man, nor turned his face away from me." Where is "Why have you forsaken me?", if he did not even turn his face away from him, unless it is that even when forsaking he does not forsake, when he does not hear us in temporal goods, not for folly to us, but so that we may become wise as to what he takes away and what he offers us? "He has not scorned," he says, "nor despised the prayer of the poor man, nor turned his face away from me; and when I cried to him, he heard me." He did, then, what he was asked a little before, when he said to him in prayer, "Do not depart from me." For if he heard him, he surely did it; so he did not depart. He did not forsake him, then, in this way, he who forsook him in another way, so that we might become wise as to how we ought rather to wish not to be forsaken by him.

"With you is my praise." What harm, then, do they do who taunt me as one conquered, because you forsook me in temporal things? "In the great church I will confess to you": not one as great as this synagogue, which mocks the death of one forsaken, but in the great church spread through all nations, which believes in the resurrection of one not forsaken. This is that only one which he asks to be delivered from the hand of the dog, of which he also said a little earlier, "In the midst of the church I will sing to you"; and now, when he says, "I will confess to you," it is certainly in those who will confess, in whom he also speaks. Confession, however, is not only of sins but also of the praise of God, as he himself says in the Gospel: "I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to little ones." Therefore he goes on to say: "I will pay my vows before those who fear him. The poor will eat and be satisfied, and they will praise the Lord who seek him." These are the little ones of whom he said, "And you have revealed them to little ones": those who fear him and are poor, that is, humble, who are not high-minded, but fear with that chaste fear, not the fear by which punishment is dreaded, but by which grace is preserved.

By his vows he wants us to understand the sacrifice of his body, which is the sacrament of the faithful. Therefore, when he had said, "I will pay my vows before those who fear him," he at once added: "The poor will eat and be satisfied." For they will be satisfied with the bread which came down from heaven who, cleaving to him and keeping his peace and love, imitate his humility; therefore they are poor. In this poverty and satisfaction the apostles above all shone. "And they will praise," he says, "the Lord, who seek him," understanding that it is not by their own merits but by his grace that they have been satisfied. For they seek him, because they are not among those who seek their own things, not those of Jesus Christ. Finally, even if the flesh of those who praise him suffers temporal tribulation or death, "their hearts will live for ever and ever." This life of the heart is not in the bodily senses; it is hidden in the light that is within, not in the darkness that is outside, in the end of the commandment, not in the beginning of sin. Now "the end of the commandment is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned": the love that "is not jealous, is not puffed up," because it is not high-minded but fears, and so it cleaves with the chaste fear that endures for ever and ever. But "the beginning of all sin is pride," by which the devil advanced irrevocably into the exterior darkness, and by envying man and persuading him to something like himself, cast him down. To this man it is said in a certain Scripture: "Why is earth and ash proud, since in its life it has cast away its inmost parts?" "In its life" is said as if in its own and, as it were, private life, in which all pride delights.

Hence love, caring for the common good rather than the private, is said "not to seek its own." By this love hearts live for ever and ever, as if satisfied with the heavenly bread, of which the one who satisfies says himself: "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life in you." Rightly, then, the hearts of those who are satisfied will live for ever and ever. For the life is Christ, who dwells in their hearts, for now by faith, afterward also by sight. For they see now "through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face." Hence love itself is now exercised in good works of charity, by which it stretches itself out to help wherever it can; and this is the breadth. Now with long-suffering it bears adversity and perseveres in what it has truly held; and this is the length. But it does all this for the sake of attaining eternal life, which is promised to it on high; and this is the height. This love arises from a hidden source, where we are in a way grounded and rooted, where the causes of the will of God are not traced out, by whose grace we have been saved, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy." For "of his own will he begot us by the word of truth"; and this will of his is in what is hidden. Trembling as it were at the depth of this secret, the apostle cries: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and untraceable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord?" And this is the depth. For "altitudo" is a word common to the high and the deep; but when it is said of the high, the eminence of loftiness is commended; when of the deep, the difficulty of searching and knowing. Hence it is said to God: "How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are made exceedingly deep." And again: "Your judgments are like a great abyss." Hence, then, comes that saying of the apostle which you put among the things to be asked about: "For this reason," he says, "I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit, that Christ may dwell in the inner man through faith in your hearts, so that, rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, to know also the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

Attend to everything carefully. "For this reason," he says, "I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named." You ask, for what reason. He had said this above: "Therefore I ask that you not lose heart in my tribulations for you." This, then, is what he wishes for them, that they may not lose heart in the apostle's tribulations, which he endured for them; and for this he bent his knees to the Father. Next, where they might get the power not to lose heart, he goes on to say: "that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit." These are the riches of which he says, "O the depth of the riches!" For they have hidden causes, where, with no merits going before, what do we have that we have not received? Then he goes on and adds what he wishes: "that Christ," he says, "may dwell in the inner man through faith in your hearts." This is the life of hearts, by which we live for ever and ever, from the beginning of faith to the end, which is sight. "So that, rooted and grounded in love," he says, "you may be able to comprehend with all the saints." This is the communion of a certain divine and heavenly commonwealth; from here the poor are satisfied, not seeking their own things but those of Jesus Christ, that is, not pursuing private advantages but caring for the common good, where the salvation of all is; for of that very bread with which such people are satisfied the apostle says in a certain place: "One bread, one body, we who are many." What then are they to comprehend? "What is the breadth," he says, as I have already said, in good works, by which goodwill reaches out even to loving enemies; "and length," so that troubles may be borne with long-suffering for the sake of this breadth; "and height," so that for these things an eternal reward in the heavens may be hoped for, not anything vain and temporal; "and depth," from which the free grace of God arises according to the secret and hidden purpose of his will. For there we are rooted, there grounded: rooted with regard to husbandry, grounded with regard to building; and since this is not from man, the same apostle says in another place: "You are God's husbandry, God's building." All this takes place while in this pilgrimage of ours faith works through love. But in the age to come, perfect and full love, without any enduring of evils, will not believe by faith what it does not see, nor desire by hope what it does not hold, but will contemplate for ever the unchangeable sight of the truth, whose restful work without end will be to praise what it loves and to love what it praises. Of this he goes on to say: "to know also the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

In this mystery the figure of the cross is shown. For he who died because he willed it died in the way he willed. Not in vain, then, did he choose such a kind of death, unless that in it too he might stand out as the teacher of this breadth and length and height and depth. For the breadth is in that beam which is fixed crosswise at the top; this belongs to good works, because the hands are stretched out there. The length is in the part visible from that beam down to the ground; for there one in a way stands, that is, persists and perseveres, which is ascribed to long-suffering. The height is in that part of the wood which is left upward from the crossbeam, that is, at the head of the crucified, because the expectation of those who hope well is of things above. And that part of the wood which does not appear, which is fixed and hidden, from which the whole rises up, signifies the depth of free grace, in which the minds of many are worn out trying to trace it, so that at last it is said to them: "O man, who are you to answer back to God?"

The hearts of the poor who are satisfied will live, then, for ever and ever: that is, of the humble, burning with love, not seeking their own things but rejoicing in the fellowship of the saints. This was done first in the apostles. But by praising God, that is, by preaching the grace of God, since it is said, "They will praise the Lord who seek him," see in what follows what peoples they gained.

"All the ends of the earth," he says, "will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship in his sight, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he will rule over the nations." He who was mocked, crucified, forsaken, gains this kingdom, and will hand it over at the end to God the Father, not so as to lose it himself, but so that what he sowed in faith when he came less than the Father he may bring to sight, in which, being equal, he did not withdraw from the Father. "All the rich of the earth have eaten and worshiped." By the rich of the earth we must understand the proud, if above we rightly understood the poor as the humble, of whom he says in the Gospel: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"; for they are the meek, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, to each of which proclamations he joined a beatitude. By contrast, then, the rich of the earth in this place are to be understood as the proud. For not in vain are they distinguished in this way, so that of the poor it was said above, "The poor will eat and be satisfied," but here, "All the rich of the earth have eaten and worshiped." For they too have been brought to the table of Christ and receive of his body and blood, but they only worship, they are not also satisfied, because they do not imitate him. For eating the poor one, they disdain to be poor, though Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in his steps. But that he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross, the rich scorn, and they refuse to suffer similar things, out of swelling, not greatness, out of sickness, then, not health. But because God raised him from the dead and gave him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, they too, moved by the fame of his exaltation and the glory of his name spread everywhere in the church, come to the table, eat and worship; yet they are not satisfied, because they do not hunger and thirst for righteousness; for such people will be satisfied. Although perfect satisfaction will be in that eternal life, when from this pilgrimage we come from faith to sight, from the mirror to the face, from the enigma to plain truth; yet it is not unfitting to say that one is satisfied by the poverty of Christ who, for his righteousness, that is, for participation in the eternal Word, which he has begun meanwhile by faith, not only temperately despises all temporal goods but also patiently endures evils.

Such were the fishermen and tax collectors, because he chose the despised things of this world to confound the strong. Of these it was said, "The poor will eat and be satisfied." But because they did not keep this satisfaction to themselves, they praised the Lord, as it were belching it forth, that is, they preached, seeking him, that is, not seeking their own things but burning with love for him. By their preaching the world was moved, so that all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations worship in his sight, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he will rule over the nations. By this spreading of the church even the proud, that is, the rich of the earth, were brought to eat, and though not satisfied, they nevertheless worship. For the prophecy of the psalm has kept this order here, which we see being fulfilled. And he adds: "In his sight all will fall down who go down into the earth," that is, all who, by loving earthly goods, do not go up into heaven. For they do not do what the apostle says: "If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; set your mind on things above, not on those on earth." But rather, the happier they seem to themselves in earthly goods, the more they go down into the earth, that is, are pressed down into earthly things. And therefore they will fall down in his sight, that is, where he sees, not where men see, who think them lofty and exalted.