Letters 21.24–22.6

"And put a ring on his hand": the seal of likeness to Christ, according to the saying: "Believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." And to the prince of Tyre, who had lost the likeness of the Creator, it is said: "You are the seal of likeness and a crown of beauty; you were born in the delights of the paradise of God." Isaiah too speaks of this seal: "Then those who are sealed will be manifest." This seal is given on the hand, since Scripture signifies works of righteousness by it, as there: "The word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet"; and to Jerusalem: "I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your hands." Again, to the man clothed in the long robe another place of the seal is shown: "Pass through the midst of Jerusalem and put a sign on the foreheads of the men who groan and grieve over all the iniquities that are done in their midst." Why? So that afterwards they may say: "The light of your face has been sealed upon us, O Lord."

"And shoes on his feet." For he had lost the dignity of the Bridegroom; he could not celebrate the Passover with bare feet. These are the shoes of which the Lord says: "And I shod you with hyacinth." "And shoes on his feet," so that the snake lying in wait might nowhere attack the sole of the one walking, that he might walk more safely over scorpions and serpents, that he might be prepared for the gospel of peace, no longer walking according to the flesh but according to the spirit, and that the prophetic word might suit him: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of peace, who bring good news of good things!"

"And bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and feast, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life, was lost and is found." The fatted calf that is sacrificed for the salvation of penitents is the Savior himself, on whose flesh we feed daily and whose blood we drink. You, faithful reader, understand with me with what richness we are filled when we burst out in the overflow of his praises, saying: "My heart has poured forth a good word; I speak my works to the king"; although some, more superstitiously than truly, not considering the context of the psalm, think this is to be understood as spoken in the person of the Father. And when he says, "Let us feast, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life, was lost and is found," it has the same sense as the preceding parable, where it is said: "So, I tell you, there will be joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

"And they began to feast." This banquet is celebrated daily; daily the father receives the son; Christ is always sacrificed for believers.

"But his elder son was in the field." Up to this point we have discussed the person of the younger son, whom, according to the present parable, we must take to be the tax collectors and sinners who were called to repentance by the Lord, and, according to the mystical senses, to be a prophecy also of the future calling of the Gentiles. Now the discussion passes to the elder son, whom many refer simply to the person of all the saints, and many specifically to the Jews. As regards the saints, the interpretation is not difficult in the words, "I have never transgressed your command," though his envy at his brother's return seems to stand against it. As regards the Jews, while jealousy at a brother's salvation fits them, it conflicts with this, that he says he never transgressed his command. What we think about these we shall try to explain in their places. "But his elder son was in the field," sweating with toil in earthly works, far from the grace of the Holy Spirit, an exile from the father's counsel. This is the one who says: "I have bought a field and must go out and see it; I ask you, have me excused"; this is the one who buys five yoke of oxen and, weighed down by the burden of the law, enjoys the pleasure of the earthly senses; this is the one who, having married a wife, cannot go to the wedding, and, having become flesh, can in no way be one with the spirit. To his person also belong the workers of that parable in which they are sent into the vineyard at the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours, that is, by different callings, and are indignant that the workers of the eleventh hour are made equal to them.

"And as he came, he drew near to the house and heard music and dancing." What is written at the head of a certain psalm, "for maeleth", fits this sense, since maeleth means a chorus singing together as one. Some Latin writers wrongly think symphonia is a kind of instrument, whereas this word signifies harmonious singing together in praise of God; for symphonia is rendered in Latin as "consonance".

"And he called one of the servants and asked what these things were." Even now Israel asks why God rejoices in taking up the Gentiles, and, tormented by jealousy, cannot know the father's will.

"He said to him: Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe." The cause of joy, that praises of God are sung with one voice throughout the whole world, is the salvation of the Gentiles, the salvation of sinners. The angels rejoice, all creation agrees in joy, and of Israel alone it is said: ...

"But he was angry and would not go in." He is angry that his brother was received in his absence; he is angry that he lives whom he thought dead. Even now Israel stands outside, and even now, while the disciples hear the Gospels in the church, his mother and brothers stand outside seeking him.

"But his father came out and began to entreat him." How kind and merciful a father! He begs his son to share the joy of the house; and he begs through the apostles, the preachers of the gospel. One of them, Paul, says: "We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God"; and elsewhere: "It was necessary that the word of the Lord be spoken first to you; but since you judge yourselves unworthy, see, we turn to the Gentiles."

"But he answered his father: See, so many years I have served you." The father humbly begs for harmony; the son, following the righteousness that is in the law, does not submit to the righteousness of God. And what greater righteousness of God is there than to pardon penitents and to save a returning son? "See, so many years I have served you, and I have never transgressed your command": as if this very thing were not transgressing the command, to envy another's salvation and to boast of one's righteousness before God, when no one is clean in his sight. For who will rejoice that he has a chaste heart, even if his life were but one day? David confesses and says: "For see, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother conceived me"; and in another place: "If you mark iniquities, Lord, who will endure?" And this one says he never transgressed the command, though he was so often handed over to captivity for idolatry. "See, so many years I have served you, and I have never transgressed your command." This is what the apostle Paul says: "What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained righteousness, the righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because it was not by faith, but as if by works of the law." So it can also be said in the person of one who, according to the same apostle, lived blamelessly in the righteousness that is from the law; although to me the Jew seems rather to boast than to tell the truth, after the example of that Pharisee: "God, I thank you that I am not like other men, robbers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector." Tell me, does not this man seem to you to say of his brother what the Pharisee said of the tax collector: "This one, who has devoured all his property living with prostitutes"? But the father's words do not agree with his claim, "I have never transgressed your command"; for he did not confirm that what the son said was true, but calmed his anger in another way: "Son, you are always with me." Did he say, "You speak well, and you have done everything I commanded"? No, but: "You are always with me." You are with me by the law that binds you; you are with me while you are disciplined by me even in captivities; you are with me not because you fulfilled my precepts, but because I did not let you go away into a far country; you are with me, finally, according to what I said to David: "If his sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments, if they profane my statutes and do not keep my commandments, I will visit their iniquities with the rod and their injustices with scourges; but my mercy I will not take away from him." By this testimony what the elder son boasts of is also proved false, since he did not walk in God's judgments and did not do his commandments; and we are taught how, not doing these things, he was always with the father: while, sinning, he is visited with the rod, and mercy is not denied him when visited. Nor is it surprising that he dared to lie to his father, since he could envy his brother, especially since on the day of judgment some will lie even more shamelessly: "Did we not eat and drink in your name, and do many mighty works, and cast out demons?" What "and all that is mine is yours" means will be explained more fittingly in its place.

"And you never gave me a kid, that I might feast with my friends." "So much blood," Israel says, "has been shed, so many thousands of men have been slain, and none of them has become the redeemer of our salvation. Josiah himself, who pleased you in your sight, and recently the Maccabees, who fought for your inheritance, were killed by the swords of enemies, against the right of holiness, and no blood has given us back our freedom: see, we are still subject to Roman rule. No prophet, no priest, no righteous man has been sacrificed for us; and for the dissolute son, that is, for the Gentiles, for the sinners of the whole creation, glorious blood has been shed; and while you did not give lesser things to the deserving, you have granted greater things to the undeserving." "You never gave me a kid, that I might feast with my friends." You are wrong, Israel; say rather, "that I might feast with you." Or can there be any joy for you unless the father celebrates the banquet with you? Learn at least from the present example: when the younger son returned, both the father and the servants rejoice. "Let us eat," he says, "and feast," not "eat and feast." But you, with the mind with which you envy your brother, with which you withdraw from the father's sight and are always in the field, want even now to go to a banquet in his absence. "You never gave me a kid." The father never gives worse gifts. You have the calf that was sacrificed: come in, eat with your brother. Why do you ask for a kid, when the lamb has been sent to you? And lest you pretend not to know that he has been sent, John points him out to you in the desert: "See the Lamb of God, see him who takes away the sin of the world." And the father, merciful and granting repentance, urges you to the calf and does not sacrifice the kid, which he knows stands on the left. But you, at the end of the age, will sacrifice for yourself a kid, the Antichrist, and will be glutted on his flesh with your friends, the unclean spirits, and the prophecy will be fulfilled: "You crushed the heads of the dragon; you gave him as food to the peoples of Ethiopia."

"But when this son of yours came, who has devoured all his means living with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him." Even now Israel confesses that the one who was slain was the fatted calf; they understand that Christ has come, but they are tormented by envy and do not want to be saved unless their brother perishes.

"But he said to him: Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours." He calls him son, though he refuses to come in. But how are all God's things the Jews'? Surely not the angels, thrones, dominions, and the other powers? So let us understand "all" as the law, the prophets, the divine oracles. These he gave him, so that he might meditate on his law day and night; according to the rule we have often explained, that "all" in the Scriptures is not always to be referred to the whole, but to the greatest part, as here: "All have turned aside, together they have become useless"; and elsewhere: "All who came before me were thieves and robbers"; and Paul to the Corinthians: "I have become all things to all, that I might win all"; and to the Philippians: "For all seek their own things, not the things of Christ Jesus." Although it must be believed that the father never denied anything to the one whom he urges to eat the calf.

"We had to feast and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come back to life, was lost and is found." Let us too, then, be confident that we, who were dead through sins, can live through repentance. And here the son himself returns; but in the earlier parables, that is, of the sheep and the drachma, what had strayed is carried back, and what was lost is found. And the three parables close with a similar ending, since in this one too it is put, "was lost and is found," so that we may understand that the same receiving of sinners is signified by different likenesses.

Let this be said, then, in the person of the Gentile and the Jew; but let us see how this parable can be understood of the saint in general and the sinner. That the rest fits the righteous man is not in doubt; the point that troubles the reader is why a righteous man should envy a sinner's salvation and be so filled with anger that he is overcome neither by his brother's mercy nor by his father's prayers nor by the joy of the whole house. To this we shall answer briefly that all the righteousness of this world is not righteousness in comparison with God. For just as Sodom is justified by the sins of Jerusalem, not because it is itself righteous, but because lesser sins become righteousness by comparison with greater, so all human righteousness is not righteousness when compared with God. Finally Paul, who had said, "As many, then, as are perfect, let us think this," in another place confesses and cries out: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out!" and elsewhere: "We know in part and we prophesy in part," and "Now we see through a mirror in an enigma," and to the Romans: "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?" From all this we are taught that God's righteousness alone is perfect, who makes his sun rise on the righteous and the unrighteous, and gives the late and the early rain to the deserving and the undeserving alike, who invites to the wedding from the streets, corners, and squares, and who seeks and finds the sheep, which, unlike the repentant son, could not or would not return by itself, and when he has found it carries it back on his shoulders; for it had labored much in its wandering.

And so that we may learn that envy can fall even on the saints and that pure mercy is left to God alone, let us consider the example of the sons of Zebedee: when their mother, moved by affection, asked for something too great for them, the other ten disciples were indignant. "And Jesus called them and said: You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever of you wishes to be greater, let him be your minister, and whoever wishes to be first among you, let him be your servant; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Let it seem dangerous to no one, blasphemous to no one, that we have said the evil of envy could creep in even among the apostles, since we think this even of the angels. For "the stars are not clean in his sight," and "against his angels he perceived something perverse"; and in the psalms it is said: "No one living will be justified in his sight." He does not say "no man will be justified", but "no one living", that is, not an evangelist, not an apostle, not a prophet, and (I climb higher) not an angel, not thrones, not dominions, not powers and the other virtues. God alone is the one in whom sin does not fall; the rest, since they have free will, as man too was made in the image and likeness of God, can turn their will either way. But if you are not led by this view, at least be moved by the authority of that parable in which workers are sent into the vineyard throughout the whole day. At the first hour Adam, Abel, and Seth are called; at the third, Noah; at the sixth, Abraham; at the ninth, Moses; at the eleventh, the people of the Gentiles, to whom it is said: "Why do you stand here idle all day?" And they answered: "No one has hired us." That our Savior's coming is the last hour, the apostle John is witness, saying: "Brothers, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, now many antichrists have arisen; by this we know that it is the last hour." If this interpretation displeases you, I follow wherever you lead, provided you admit that those who were called first are righteous. When I have obtained this, I shall infer: how then did the righteous murmur against the master of the house, saying: "These who came last and worked one hour, you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the heat"? They seem indeed to say justly that the wage of one who sweated from the first hour until night ought not to be equal to that of one who was at work for one hour; but that very righteousness has envy in it, in that it envies another's happiness. Finally the Lord rebukes the envious eye in them, saying: "Or is your eye evil because I am good?" Hence the apostle calls him alone righteous, alone immortal; not that the angels are unrighteous and mortal, but that he is immortal and righteous in comparison with whom all righteousness is found to be iniquity.

And so that you may understand the injustice of the hired workers in this same parable we have set before us, pay attention a little. The one hired at the first hour deserves more than the one sent into the vineyard at the third hour; again the worker of the third hour comes before the worker of the sixth, and the one of the sixth surpasses the worker of the ninth. How is it, then, that all envy the last, and do not demand the same justice among themselves? You who were hired at the ninth hour, why do you envy the one sent into the vineyard at the eleventh? Whatever you answer, however much you assert that the labor was different, so that in different labor you deserve a greater reward, you will be subject to the same judgment from the man of the sixth hour. And you, hired at the sixth hour, envy the last because he receives the denarius with you, that is, equal salvation, although the glory of salvation differs according to labor. The man of the third hour can say the same of you, and again the first of the third. Yet among themselves, despite unequal labor and different lengths of calling, they gladly accept an equal reward; only in the last worker, that is, in the salvation of the Gentiles, do they disagree, do wrong to the master, and are convicted of envy under all the parables.

I do not doubt that the speech of my littleness will seem unpolished to you; but I have often pleaded that speech cannot be refined unless one's own hand has polished it. So forgive my aching eyes, that is, forgive one who dictates, especially since in church matters it is not words that are sought but meaning; that is, life must be sustained by bread, not by pods.

"Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house; and the king will desire your beauty." In the forty-fourth psalm God speaks to the human soul, that, after the example of Abraham, going out from its land and its kindred, it may leave the Chaldeans, whose name is interpreted "as it were demons", and dwell in the land of the living, for which the prophet sighs elsewhere, saying: "I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living." But it is not enough for you to go out from your homeland unless you forget your people and your father's house, and, despising the flesh, are joined to the Bridegroom's embrace. "Do not look back," he says, "nor stay anywhere in the surrounding region; save yourself on the mountain, lest you be caught." It does not help, having put your hand to the plow, to look back, or to return home from the field, or, after putting on Christ's tunic, to come down from the housetop to fetch another garment. A great wonder: a father urges his daughter not to remember her father! "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father," is said to the Jews; and elsewhere: "He who commits sin is of the devil." Born first of such a parent, we are black, and after repentance, not yet having climbed to the summit of virtue, we say: "I am black and beautiful, daughter of Jerusalem." I have gone out from the house of my childhood, I have forgotten my father, I am reborn in Christ. What reward do I receive for this? It follows: "And the king will desire your beauty." This, then, is that great mystery: "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two will be" (in one flesh? No longer, as there, in one flesh, but in spirit). Your Bridegroom is not arrogant, not proud: he married an Ethiopian wife. As soon as you are willing to hear the wisdom of the true Solomon and come to him, he will confess to you all he knows, and the king will bring you into his chamber, and, your color wonderfully changed, those words will suit you: "Who is she who comes up made white?"

I write this, my lady Eustochium (for I must call the bride of my Lord "lady"), so that from the very beginning of your reading you may recognize that I am not now going to speak the praises of virginity, which you have shown you approve most highly by following it; nor to list the troubles of marriage: how the womb swells, the infant wails, the concubine torments, the care of the house worries, and how death at last cuts off all that are thought good things (for married women too have their own rank, "honorable marriage and the bed undefiled"); but so that you may understand that, as you go out from Sodom, you must fear the example of Lot's wife. There will be no flattery in this little book (for a flatterer is a smooth-spoken enemy), no pomp of rhetorical speech to set you already among the angels and, by setting out the blessedness of virginity, put the world under your feet.

I do not want pride to come to you from your resolve, but fear. You walk laden with gold; you must beware of the robber. This life is a racecourse for mortals: here we contend, that we may be crowned elsewhere. No one walks safely among serpents and scorpions. "My sword," says the Lord, "has been made drunk in heaven," and do you think there is peace on earth, which brings forth thorns and thistles, which the serpent eats? "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of this world and of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." We are surrounded by great columns of enemies; all things are full of foes. The frail flesh, soon to be ashes, fights alone against many. But when it has been dissolved, and the prince of this world has come and found nothing in it, then, secure, you will hear through the prophet: "You will not fear the terror of the night, the arrow that flies by day, the business that walks in darkness, the attack and the noonday demon. A thousand will fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you." But if their multitude troubles you, and at every enticement of the vices you begin to burn, and your thought says to you, "What shall we do?", Elisha will answer: "Do not fear, for those with us are more than those with them"; and he will pray and say: "Lord, open the eyes of your girl, and let her see." And with your eyes opened you will see the fiery chariot that will lift you to the stars like Elijah, and then you will sing joyfully: "Our soul has escaped like a sparrow from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we are set free."

As long as we are held in this frail little body, as long as we have this treasure in earthen vessels, and the spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit, there is no sure victory. "Our adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking something to devour." "You have made darkness," says David, "and it was night. In it all the beasts of the forest will pass through, the lions' whelps roaring to seize and to seek their food from God." The devil does not seek unbelievers, not those who are outside, whose flesh the Assyrian king roasts in the pot; he hurries to snatch from the church of Christ. His food, according to Habakkuk, is choice. He longs to overthrow Job, and, having devoured Judas, he asks for power to sift the apostles. The Savior did not come to send peace upon the earth, but a sword. Lucifer fell, who rose in the morning; and he who was nourished in the paradise of delights deserved to hear: "If you are raised on high like an eagle, I will bring you down from there, says the Lord." For he had said in his heart: "I will set my throne above the stars of heaven, and I will be like the Most High." Hence daily God says to those who descend by the ladder of Jacob's dream: "I said: You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High. But you will die like men and fall like one of the princes." For the devil fell first; and since God stands in the assembly of the gods and judges among the gods, the apostle writes to those who cease to be gods: "For where there are divisions and rivalries among you, are you not men, and walking according to man?"

If the apostle Paul, a chosen vessel prepared for the gospel of Christ, because of the goads of the flesh and the incitements of vice, subdues his body and brings it into subjection, lest, having preached to others, he himself be found reprobate, and yet sees another law in his members warring against the law of his mind and taking him captive in the law of sin; if, after nakedness, fasts, hunger, prison, scourgings, and punishments, he turns on himself and cries out, "Unhappy man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?", do you think you ought to be secure? Beware, I beg you, lest God should ever say of you: "The virgin of Israel has fallen; there is none to raise her up." I speak boldly: though God can do all things, he cannot raise up a virgin after her fall. He is able indeed to free her from punishment, but he is not able to crown one who has been corrupted. Let us fear that prophecy, lest it be fulfilled in us too: "And good virgins will fail." Notice what it says: "good virgins will fail", for there are also bad virgins. "Whoever," he says, "looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." So virginity perishes even in the mind. These are the bad virgins, virgins in flesh, not in spirit, the foolish virgins who, having no oil, are shut out by the Bridegroom.

But if those virgins too, who are virgins, are not saved by the virginity of their bodies because of other faults, what will become of those who have prostituted the members of Christ and changed the temple of the Holy Spirit into a brothel? At once they will hear: "Come down, sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground; there is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans; you will no longer be called soft and delicate. Take the millstone, grind meal, uncover your veil, bare your legs, cross the rivers, and your shame will be uncovered and your disgrace will appear"; and this after the bridal chambers of the Son of God, after the kisses of her kinsman and bridegroom, she of whom the prophetic word once sang: "The queen stood at your right hand in a robe of gold, clothed in many colors." She will be stripped, and her skirts will be thrown over her face; she will sit by the waters of solitude, and, setting down her pitcher, she will spread her feet to everyone passing by, and will be defiled to the crown of her head. It would have been better for her to have submitted to marriage, to have walked on level ground, than, straining for the heights, to fall into the depth of hell. Let not, I beg you, the faithful city Zion become a harlot, lest after the Trinity has been her guest demons dance there and sirens and hedgehogs nest. Let not the band of the breast be loosed; but as soon as lust tickles the senses, as soon as the soft fire of pleasure pours its sweet heat over us, let us burst out with the words: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what the flesh can do to me." When the inner man begins to waver a little between vices and virtues, say: "Why are you sad, my soul, and why do you trouble me? Hope in the Lord, for I will confess to him, the salvation of my countenance and my God." I do not want you to let a thought grow; let nothing of Babylon, nothing of confusion, grow up in you. Kill the enemy while he is small; let wickedness be crushed in the seed. Hear the psalmist saying: "Wretched daughter of Babylon, blessed is he who will repay you your repayment; blessed is he who will take and dash your little ones against the rock." Since, then, it is impossible that the familiar heat of the marrow should not rush into a person's senses, he is praised, he is proclaimed blessed, who, as soon as he begins to have such thoughts, kills them and dashes them against the rock; and the rock is Christ.