Homilies on Luke

A few days ago you told me that you had read certain commentaries on Matthew and on Luke, of which one was dull both in thought and in words, while the other played with words and dozed in its ideas. So you ask me to set aside trifles of that kind and at least translate the thirty-nine homilies of our Adamantius on Luke, as they stand in the Greek: a tiresome task, like torture, to write, as Tully says, with another’s stomach and not one’s own. Yet I will do it now, precisely because you are not asking for loftier things. For what the holy Blesilla once demanded at Rome, that I render into our language his twenty-five volumes on Matthew, five others on Luke, and thirty-two on John, is beyond my strength, my leisure, and my labour. You see how much your authority and your wish count with me. I have set aside for a little while the books of Hebrew Questions, so that at your bidding I might dictate in spare hours these pieces, such as they are, not my own but another’s; especially as I hear on my left a raven, a bird of ill omen, croaking, and in wonderful fashion laughing at the colours of all the other birds, though he himself is wholly dark. So I confess, before he can raise the objection, that in these discourses Origen plays like a boy at dice: the works of his manhood and the serious works of his old age are another matter. If it please you, if I am able, and if the Lord grants me the opportunity to turn them into the Latin tongue, once I have first completed the work I set aside, then you will be able to see, or rather through you the Roman tongue will learn, how much good it did not know before and has now begun to know. Besides this, in a few days I intend to send you the commentaries on Matthew of the most eloquent Hilary and of the blessed martyr Victorinus, which they published in different styles but with one grace of the Spirit, so that you may know how great a zeal for the holy Scriptures our own people too once had.

On the prologue of Luke, up to the place where he says, “to write to you, most excellent Theophilus.” Just as long ago among the people of the Jews many laid claim to prophecy, and some were false prophets, one of whom was Hananiah son of Azzur, while others were true prophets, and there was among the people the grace of discerning spirits, by which some were received among the prophets and some were rejected, as if by the most experienced money-changers: so now in the New Testament many have tried to write Gospels, but not all have been received. And so that you may know that not only four Gospels but very many were written, from which these that we have were chosen and handed down to the churches, let us learn it from Luke’s prologue itself, which runs thus: “Since many have tried to set in order a narrative” (Luke 1:1). This expression, “have tried,” carries a hidden accusation against those who rushed into writing Gospels without the grace of the Holy Spirit. For Matthew and Mark and John and Luke did not “try” to write; they wrote the Gospels filled with the Holy Spirit. “Many,” then, “have tried to set in order a narrative of the things that have been most clearly made known among us.” The church has four Gospels, the heresies a great many; of these one is entitled “according to the Egyptians,” another “according to the Twelve Apostles.” Basilides too dared to write a Gospel and to give it his own name. “Many have tried” to write, and “many have tried to set in order”; only four Gospels are approved, from which the doctrines are to be drawn in the person of our Lord and Saviour. I know a certain Gospel which is called “according to Thomas,” and one “according to Matthias,” and we have read many others, so as not to seem ignorant of anything, because of those who think they know something if they have come to know these. But in all of them we approve nothing other than what the church approves, that is, that only four Gospels are to be received. I have said this because at the beginning it was read: “Many have tried to set in order a narrative of the things that have been confirmed among us.” They attempted and tried to write about the things that have been most clearly ascertained among us. Luke shows his own state of mind by the expression in which he says, “most clearly shown among us,” that is, πεπληροφορημένων (which the Latin language cannot express in one word). For he had come to know it with sure faith and reason, and did not waver on any point as to whether it was so or otherwise. This happens to those who have believed most faithfully and have obtained what the prophet prays for when he says, “Strengthen me in your words” (Ps 119:28); hence the apostle too says of those who were firm and strong, “that you may be rooted and grounded in faith” (Eph 3:17). For if anyone is rooted and grounded in faith, though a storm arise, though winds blow, though rain pour down, he will not be shaken nor fall, because the building is founded with a solid mass upon the rock (Matt 7:24–25). And let us not think that firmness of faith is given by these bodily eyes; it is the mind and reason that grant it. Let unbelievers believe signs and wonders, which human sight beholds; but let the believer, more prudent and strong, follow reason and the word, and so judge what is true and what is false. “Just as they handed them down to us who from the beginning were themselves eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.” In Exodus it is written, “The people saw the voice of God” (Exod 20:18). Surely a voice is heard rather than seen; but it was written so that it might be shown to us that the voice of God is seen with other eyes, with which those who deserve it behold it. Moreover, in the Gospel it is not a voice that is seen but the word, which is greater than a voice. Hence it is now said, “Just as they handed them down to us who from the beginning were themselves eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.” The apostles, then, themselves saw the Word: not because they had looked upon the body of the Lord Saviour, but because they saw the Word. For if, by seeing Jesus in the body, they had seen the Word of God, then Pilate too, who condemned him, saw the Word of God, and Judas the traitor, and all who cried out, “Crucify, crucify him, take him away from the earth”: they would have seen the Word of God. But far be it that any unbeliever should see the Word of God. To see the Word of God is what the Saviour means when he says: “He who sees me sees also the Father who sent me” (John 14:9). “Just as they handed them down to us who from the beginning were themselves eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.” From Luke’s words we are clearly taught that the end of one kind of learning is the learning itself, while the end of another kind of learning is reckoned in action. For example, the science of geometry has as its end only the science and learning itself. But there is another science whose end demands action: in medicine, for instance, I must know the theory and doctrines of medicine, not only so that I may know what I ought to do, but so that I may do it, that is, lance wounds, prescribe a moderate and restricted diet, feel the heat of fevers in the pulse of the veins, and by courses of treatment dry up, temper, and check an excess of humours. If anyone only knows these things and has not followed them up in action, his knowledge will be empty. Something like the relation between the science of medicine and its practice is found also in the knowledge and ministry of the word: “Just as they handed them down to us who from the beginning were themselves eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.” So we understand that by his saying “were themselves eyewitnesses” teaching and knowledge are signified, and by his saying “were ministers of the word” works are shown. “Having followed from the beginning”: “It seemed good to me also, having followed from the beginning.” He presses and repeats the point that he did not learn what he is going to write by hearsay but had followed it himself from the beginning. Hence he is rightly praised by the apostle, who says, “whose praise is in the gospel through all the churches” (2 Cor 8:18). This is said of no one else, and it is handed down as said only of Luke. “It seemed good to me also, having followed all things from the beginning, to write to you carefully in order, most excellent Theophilus.” Someone thinks that he wrote the Gospel to a certain Theophilus; but all of you who hear us speaking, if you are such as to be loved by God, you too are Theophiluses, and the Gospel is written to you. If anyone is a Theophilus, he is most excellent and most strong; for that is what is expressed more pointedly in Greek by κράτιστος. No Theophilus is weak. And as it is written of the people of Israel when they went out of Egypt that there was no one weak among their tribes, so, to speak boldly, I will say that everyone who is a Theophilus is strong, having strong might from God and from his word, so that he can know the truth of the words in which he was instructed, understanding the word of the Gospel in Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” Chapter 1. Those who want to hold up some excuse for their sins think that no one is without sin, and they use the testimony written in Job: “No one is clean from filth, not even if his life on earth be but one day; and his months are numbered” (Job 14:4–5). They bring forward only its sound and are wholly ignorant of its interpretation. To them we shall reply briefly that being without sin is understood in the Scriptures in two ways: one, never to have sinned at all; the other, to have ceased to sin. If, then, they say that he is called without sin who has never sinned, we too agree that no one is without sin, because all of us human beings have sinned at some time, even if afterwards we followed virtue. But if they understand that no one is without sin in the sense of denying that anyone, after his vices, so turns to the virtues that he no longer sins at all, their opinion is false. For it can happen that one who sinned before and has ceased to sin is said to be without sin. So too our Lord Jesus Christ presented to himself a glorious church, “not having spot” (Eph 5:27): not because the churchman never had a spot, but because he is no longer spotted; “not having wrinkle,” not because the wrinkle of the old man was never in him, but because he has ceased to have it. In this way also what follows is to be understood, “that it may be holy and without blemish”: not that it was without blemish from the beginning (for this cannot even be supposed of a human being, that his soul was never stained), but that it is reckoned pure and sincere because it has ceased to be stained any longer. We have said this to show that a person, because he has ceased to sin, can be called without sin and without blemish. Hence it is written most plainly of Zechariah and Elizabeth: “They were both righteous before God, walking”; indeed, “they were both righteous before the Lord in all things, proceeding in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” Let us consider more carefully the praises of Zechariah and Elizabeth which holy Luke writes in his history: not only that we may know that they were praiseworthy, but that, taking up a holy zeal, we too may become worthy of praise. He could have written simply, “they were both righteous, walking in all the commandments”; but as it is, “both righteous before God” is added of necessity. For it can happen that someone is righteous in the sight of men but not in the sight of God. For example, when no one has anything evil to say of me, and considering everything in me finds nothing to disparage, I am righteous in the sight of men. Suppose everyone holds the same opinion of me, and they look for something to disparage in me and yet cannot find it, but praise me with one voice: I am righteous in the sight of a great many men; but the judgment of men is not certain. For they do not know whether in the hidden places of my heart I have at some time sinned, whether I have looked at a woman to lust after her (Matt 5:28) and adultery has been born in my heart. When people see me giving alms according to my means, they do not know whether I did it because of God’s commandment or sought the praise and favour of men. It is a hard thing to be righteous in the sight of God, so that you do some good for no other reason than for the good itself, and seek God alone as the rewarder of a good work. The apostle says something like this: “whose praise is not from men but from God” (Rom 2:29). Blessed is he who is righteous and praiseworthy in the sight of God. For men, even if they seem to have sure judgment, still cannot pronounce with certainty. It sometimes happens that they praise one who is not praiseworthy and disparage one who least deserves disparagement. God alone is a just judge both in praise and in blame. So it is fittingly added here in praise of the righteous: “They were both righteous before God.” Solomon too urges something like this in Proverbs, saying, “Son, provide good things in the sight of God and of men” (Prov 3:4). There follows another praise of Zechariah and Elizabeth: “walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.” When we judge well and rightly concerning anyone, we walk in the ordinances of the Lord; when we do this or that, we walk in his commandments. Therefore I think holy Luke, wishing to proclaim them with perfect praise, said, “They were both righteous, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.” Someone may say to me: If this praise is perfect, what is meant by “blameless”? It would have been enough to say, “walking in all the ways and ordinances of the Lord,” unless it could happen that someone walks in all the commandments of God and yet does not walk blameless. And how can it happen that one who walks in all the commandments and ordinances of God is open to blame? I shall answer briefly: if this were not so, we would never find it written in another place, “Justly pursue what is just” (Deut 16:20). For unless there were something just that we might pursue unjustly, we would not be commanded to pursue justly what is just. For when we do God’s commandment and spatter our conscience with the filth of vainglory, so as to please men, or when some other motive that does not please God goes before the good work, even though we do God’s precept, we still do not do it blamelessly, and we pursue unjustly what is just. It is hard, then, to walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, according to the testimony and praise of God in Christ Jesus. This praise is to be rendered on the day of judgment by him before whose judgment seat we must all be made manifest, so that each may receive what he has done through the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor 5:10). For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God, to receive what we deserve in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “There appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right of the altar of incense.” Chapter 1. Things that are bodily and without sense do nothing themselves in order to be seen by another; only another’s eye, directed at them, sees them, whether they will or not, when it turns its gaze upon them. For what can a human being, or anything else enclosed in a gross body, do when it is present so as not to be seen? On the contrary, things that are heavenly and divine, even when they are present, are not seen unless they themselves will it; it lies in their will to be seen or not to be seen. It was the grace of God that he appeared to Abraham or to the other prophets: not that the eye of Abraham’s heart alone was the cause of his seeing God, but that the grace of God freely offered itself to be seen by a righteous man. Understand this not only of God the Father, but also of the Lord Saviour and of the Holy Spirit, and, to come down to lesser beings, of the cherubim and seraphim. For it may be that even now, while we are speaking, an angel stands beside us, and yet, because we do not deserve it, we cannot see him. For although the eye, whether of our body or of our soul, strains to behold, unless the angel appears of his own accord and offers himself to be seen, even one who truly desires it will not see. So wherever it is written, “God appeared” to this one or that, as also here, “There appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right of the altar of incense,” understand it as I have said. Whether it is God or an angel, with Abraham or with Zechariah, he will be seen or not seen as he wills or does not will. And we say this not only of the present age but also of the age to come, when we have departed from the world: God and the angels will not appear to all, so that not everyone who goes out of the body at once deserves to see the angels and the Holy Spirit and the Lord Saviour and God the Father himself; only he will see who has a pure heart (Matt 5:8) and shows himself such as to be worthy of the sight of God. And although one who is pure of heart and one who is still spattered with some filth are in the same place, the one place can neither harm nor help anyone: he who has a pure heart will see God, but he who is not such will not see what the others behold. Something like this I must understand also of Christ, who was once seen in the body: not all who saw him were able to see him. For they saw only his body; but according to what he was as Christ they could not see him. But the disciples saw him and contemplated the greatness of his divinity. This is why, I think, when Philip asked and said, “Show us the Father, and it is enough for us,” the Saviour answered: “Have I been with you so long, and you have not known me? Philip, he who sees me sees the Father also” (John 14:8–9). For neither Pilate, who saw Jesus, beheld the Father, nor Judas the traitor, because neither Pilate nor Judas saw Christ according to what he was as Christ, nor did the crowd that pressed upon him. Only those saw Jesus whom he knew to be worthy of his sight. Let us too, then, labour that God may appear to us even now. For the holy word of the Scriptures has promised that he is found by those who do not tempt him and appears to those who are not unbelieving towards him; and in the age to come may he not be hidden from us, but may we see him face to face, and have the confidence of a good life, and enjoy the sight of almighty God in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “Do not fear, Zechariah,” up to the place where he says of John, “He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah.” Chapter 1. When Zechariah saw the angel, he was terrified. For an unfamiliar form presenting itself to human sight troubles the mind and dismays the spirit. So the angel, knowing that this is human nature, first heals his alarm, saying, “Do not fear, Zechariah,” and revives him as he trembles and gladdens him with new tidings, adding: “Your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear a son, and you will call his name John, and you will have joy and gladness.” When a righteous person comes into the world and enters the racecourse of this life, the ministers of his birth rejoice and are lifted up on high. But when one is born who is destined for an evil life, and as it were sent off to a prison-house for punishment, the minister is dismayed and downcast. Do you want an example of a holy man all of whose fruit is praiseworthy? See how Jacob begot twelve sons, all of whom became patriarchs and princes of the people of God and of his portion: in all of them Jacob rejoiced as their father, just as now joy is announced to all at the birth of John. And let anyone who has once come down to the work of begetting children for the benefit of others, and has been willing to give himself to this service, pray God that such a son may enter the world for him, so that he may rejoice the more at his birth. So it is written of John: “He will be great in the sight of the Lord” (Luke 1:15). He shows the greatness of John’s soul, in that it lies open to the eyes of God; and also that smallness is something properly seen in the soul’s virtue. This is how I understand also what is said in the Gospel: “Do not despise one of these least ones” who are in the church. “Least” is understood there in distinction from “greater.” I am not told not to despise one who is great, because one who is great cannot be despised; but I am told not to despise one of the least. And so that you may know that “least” and “little” are not said at random but for the reason we have given, it is written: “Whoever causes one of these least ones to stumble” (Matt 18:6). The least is caused to stumble; the great cannot be made to stumble. It follows of John: “And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.” The birth of John too is full of wonder. For as an archangel announced the coming of our Lord and Saviour, so an archangel announces the birth of John: “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.” The people of the Jews did not see our Lord at all when he worked signs and wonders and healed their infirmities; but John, while still in his mother’s womb, leaps for joy and, though he cannot yet do so, strains to burst forth from the womb at the coming of the Mother of Jesus. “For behold,” says Elizabeth, “as soon as your greeting came to my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” John was still in his mother’s womb and had already received the Holy Spirit. For that was not the beginning of his being and nature. Scripture says of him that “he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.” John turns many; but the Lord turns not many but all. This is his work, to turn all to God the Father. “And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah.” He does not say “in the soul of Elijah,” but “in the spirit and power of Elijah.” There was power and spirit in Elijah, as in all the prophets, and, according to the dispensation of the body, in the Lord Saviour himself as well, of whom a little later it is said to Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” The spirit, then, that had been in Elijah, and the power that was in him, appeared also in John. Elijah was taken up; but John was the Forerunner of the Lord and died before him, so that, going down to the underworld, he might proclaim his coming there. I think that the mystery of John is being fulfilled in the world even to this day. Whoever is going to believe in Christ Jesus, the spirit and power of John run ahead to his soul, and prepare for the Lord a perfect people, and in the rough places of the heart make the ways level and straighten the paths, “to make ready for the Lord a perfect people.” Not only at that time were the ways prepared and the paths made straight; even to this day the spirit and power of John go before the coming of the Lord Saviour. O great mysteries of the Lord and of his dispensation! Angels run before Jesus; angels daily ascend and descend for the salvation of human beings (John 1:51), in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On Zechariah’s falling mute. Chapter 1. Zechariah the priest, while offering incense in the temple, is condemned to silence and held fast, or rather speaks only by nods, and remains mute until the birth of his son John. Where does this narrative point? The silence of Zechariah is the silence of the prophets among the people of Israel. God no longer speaks to them; the Word who was from the beginning with the Father, God, has passed over to us, and Christ is not silent to us; among them he is silent to this day. That is why Zechariah the prophet too fell silent. That he was both a prophet and a priest is most clearly proved by his own words. But what is meant by what follows: “He kept nodding to them,” making up for the loss of his voice by nods? I think that works done without word are such that they differ in no way from nods. But where reason and word have gone before and the work has followed, they ought not to be reckoned mere nods, since they are adorned with word or reason. If, then, you see the way of life of the Jews to be without reason and word, so that they cannot give a reason for what they do, understand that what went before in Zechariah is being fulfilled up to now in what he prefigured. Their circumcision is like nods. For unless a reason for circumcision is given, circumcision is a nod and a mute work. The Passover and the other festivals are nods rather than truth. To this day the people of Israel is deaf and mute; nor could one who had cast the Word away from himself be anything but deaf and mute. Long ago Moses said, “But I am alogos”: although the Latin translator rendered it otherwise, it can properly be translated “without word” or “without reason”; and after he said this, he received the reason and word which he had confessed he did not have before. The people of Israel, before it received the law, was in a sense mute, without reason and word; then it received the word, of which Moses was the image. This people, then, does not now confess what Moses confessed then, that it is mute and alogos, but by nods and silence it shows that it has no word and no reason. Does it not seem to you a confession of folly when none of them can give the reason for the precepts of the law and the oracles of prophecy? Christ has ceased to be among them; the Word has left them; what is written in Isaiah has been fulfilled: “The daughter of Zion will be left like a booth in a vineyard, and like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a city under siege” (Isa 1:8). When they were left, salvation passed over to the nations, so that they might be provoked to jealousy. Looking, then, at the dispensation and secret counsel of God, how Israel was cast off for our salvation, we must take care lest, since they were cast out for our sake, we should be worthy of greater punishment, we for whose sake the others were abandoned, if we have done nothing worthy of the adoption of God and of his mercy, by which he adopted us and counted us among his sons, in Christ Jesus (Rom 11:11), to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “When Elizabeth had conceived, she hid herself,” up to the place where he says, “He will be great.” Chapter 1. When Elizabeth conceived, she hid herself for five months, saying, “Thus the Lord has done to me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.” I ask why, after she understood that she was pregnant, she avoided being seen in public. Unless I am mistaken, it is this: even those who are joined in marriage do not have every time free for intercourse with each other; there is a time when they withdraw from the work of marriage. For if the husband is old and the wife aged, it is a matter of the greatest shame for them to serve desire and to serve the marriage bed, when these things seem, by God’s will, to have been taken away from them by the condition of the body and by old age. So she, who at the angel’s word and by God’s dispensation had been joined again to her husband, was ashamed that, old and almost decrepit, she had returned to the work of the young. That is why she hid herself for five months: not until the ninth month, when the birth was coming on, but until Mary conceived. For when Mary conceived and came to her, and Mary’s greeting sounded in her ears, the infant leaped for joy in Elizabeth’s womb, and she prophesied, filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the words the Gospel narrative records; “and these words were talked about through all the hill country.” For when the rumour went out among the people that she had a prophet in her womb, and that the one carried by the Virgin was something greater than a man, then she no longer hides herself but shows herself in full freedom and exults that she carries in her womb the Forerunner of the Saviour. Next the Scripture records that in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. Again, turning it over in my mind, I ask why God, once he had decided that the Saviour should be born of a virgin, did not choose a girl without a betrothed, but precisely one who was already betrothed. Unless I am mistaken, this is the reason. He had to be born of a virgin who not only had a betrothed but, as Matthew writes, had already been given to her husband, though her husband did not yet know her (Matt 1:18, 25), so that her very condition might not display the shame of a virgin, if a virgin were seen with a swelling womb. Hence I have found it finely written in the letter of a certain martyr, I mean Ignatius, the second bishop of Antioch after Peter, who in a persecution fought with the beasts at Rome: “The virginity of Mary was hidden from the prince of this age.” It was hidden because of Joseph, hidden because of the marriage, hidden because she was thought to have a husband. For if she had not had a betrothed and, as was thought, a husband, she could never have been hidden from the prince of this world. At once the devil’s silent thought would have crept in: How is this woman, who has not lain with a man, pregnant? This conception must be divine; it must be something more sublime than human nature. On the contrary, the Saviour had arranged that the devil should not know of his dispensation and his taking up of a body; so in his birth he concealed it, and later he commanded his disciples not to make him known. And when he was tempted by the devil himself, he nowhere confessed that he was the Son of God, but only answered that it was not right for him to worship the devil, or to make these stones bread, or to throw himself down from on high (Matt 4:3–10). And in saying these things he always kept silent that he was the Son of God. Look in another Scripture too, and you will find that it was Christ’s will that the devil should not know of the coming of the Son of God. For the apostle, declaring that the opposing powers did not know of his passion, says: “We speak wisdom among the perfect; but not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed; but we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which none of the rulers of this age knew. For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor 2:6–8). The mystery of the Saviour, then, was hidden from the rulers of this age. But an objection that can be raised against this ought, I think, to be resolved before someone else puts it forward: how was what was hidden from the rulers of this age not hidden from a demon, especially the one who said in the Gospel, “You have come before the time to torment us; we know who you are, the Son of God” (Matt 8:29)? But consider that one lesser in wickedness knew the Saviour; whereas one who is greater in crime, crafty and wicked, is hindered from knowing the Son of God by the very fact that he is greater in evil. We too, if we have less evil in us, can more easily advance to virtue; but if there is more evil in us, we must sweat greatly to be freed from the greater wickedness. So much for Mary’s having a betrothed. But since the angel greeted Mary with a new expression, which I could not find anywhere in Scripture, a few words must be said about this too. For what he says, “Hail, full of grace,” which in Greek is κεχαριτωμένη, I do not remember having read anywhere else in the Scriptures; nor is such an expression, “Hail, full of grace,” ever addressed to a man. This greeting is reserved for Mary alone. For if Mary had known that a similar expression had been addressed to anyone else (and she had knowledge of the law, and was holy, and had come to know the oracles of the prophets by daily meditation), the greeting would never have frightened her as something strange. That is why the angel says to her: “Do not fear, Mary, for you have found favour with the Lord. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” It is said of John too, “He will be great,” and the angel Gabriel himself testifies to it; but when Jesus came, truly great, truly exalted, he who had been great before became less. For “he,” it says, “was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for an hour in his light” (John 5:35). The greatness of our Saviour did not appear when he was born; but now, after it seemed crushed by his adversaries, it has shone out. See the greatness of the Lord: “The sound of his teaching has gone out into all the earth, and his words to the ends of the world” (Ps 19:4). Our Lord Jesus, who is the power of God (1 Cor 1:24), has spread through the whole world and is here with us now, according to what we read in the apostle: “When you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 5:4). The power of the Lord Saviour is with those who are separated from our world in Britain, and with those in Mauretania, and with all under the sun who have believed in his name. See, then, the greatness of the Saviour, how it has spread through the whole world; and yet I have not yet set out his true greatness. Ascend to the heavens and see how he has filled the heavenly places; for he appeared to the angels. Descend in thought into the abysses, and you will see that he went down even there. For “he who descended is the same who ascended, that he might fill all things,” so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth” (Eph 4:10; Phil 2:10). Consider the power of the Lord, that he has filled the world, that is, the heavenly, the earthly, and the infernal regions, how he has passed through heaven itself and ascended to the heights. For we read that the Son of God passed through the heavens (Heb 4:14). If you see these things, you will at the same time perceive that “He will be great” was not said in passing, but is a word fulfilled in deed. Great is our Lord Jesus, both present and absent, and he grants a share of his strength to this gathering and assembly of ours. That each of us may deserve to receive it, let us pray to the Lord God, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country,” up to the place where he says, “There will be a fulfilment of the things spoken.” Chapter 1. The better come to the worse, so that by their coming they may bestow some benefit on them. So the Saviour came to John, to sanctify his baptism; and Mary, as soon as she heard the angel announce that she had conceived the Saviour and that her kinswoman Elizabeth was with child, arose with haste and went into the hill country and entered the house of Elizabeth. And Jesus, who was in her womb, was hastening to sanctify John, who was still in his mother’s womb. Indeed, before Mary came and greeted Elizabeth, the infant did not leap in the womb; but as soon as Mary spoke the word which the Son of God in his mother’s womb had prompted, the infant leaped for joy, and then for the first time Jesus made his forerunner a prophet. It was fitting too that Mary, with the most worthy offspring of God, after God had spoken with her, should go up into the hill country and dwell in the higher places. Hence it is written: “Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country.” She ought also, being diligent and not slothful, to hasten with diligence and, filled with the Holy Spirit, to be led to higher places and to be protected by the power of God, by which she had been overshadowed. She came, then, to a city of Judah, into the house of Zechariah, and greeted Elizabeth. “And it came to pass, when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit.” There is no doubt, then, that she who was then filled with the Holy Spirit was filled because of her son. For the mother did not first deserve the Holy Spirit; but when John, still shut up in the womb, had received the Holy Spirit, then she too, after the sanctification of her son, was filled with the Holy Spirit. You will be able to believe this if you learn something similar about the Saviour too. Blessed Mary is found prophesying, as we find in some copies; for we are not unaware that according to other manuscripts these words too are prophesied by Elizabeth. Mary, then, was filled with the Holy Spirit when she began to have the Saviour in her womb. For as soon as she received the Holy Spirit, the maker of the Lord’s body, and the Son of God began to be in her womb, she too was filled with the Holy Spirit. “The infant, then, leaped in Elizabeth’s womb, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit, and cried out with a loud voice and said: Blessed are you among women.” At this point, so that simple people may not be deceived, we must refute what the heretics usually object. For someone, I do not know who, burst into such madness as to assert that Mary was denied by the Saviour because after his birth she was joined to Joseph; and he said it (with what mind, he who said it knows). If, then, heretics ever object something of this kind to you, answer them and say: Surely Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, says, “Blessed are you among women.” If Mary is proclaimed blessed by the Holy Spirit, how did the Saviour deny her? Moreover, as for their assertion that she married after giving birth, they have nothing from which to prove it. For those sons who were called Joseph’s were not born of Mary, nor is there any Scripture that records such things. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this come to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” When she says, “How does this come to me?” she does not speak in ignorance, especially being filled with the Holy Spirit, as though she did not know that the Mother of the Lord had come to her according to God’s will; she speaks in this sense: What good have I done? What works of mine are so great that the Mother of the Lord should come to me? By what righteousness, by what good deeds, by what faithfulness of mind have I deserved this, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? “For behold, as soon as your greeting came to my ears, the infant in my womb leaped with exultation.” The soul of blessed John was holy, and though still shut up in his mother’s womb and yet to come into the world, he knew, as if by the sense of experience, what Israel did not know. So he leaped; and not simply leaped, but leaped for joy. For he had perceived that his Lord had come to sanctify his servant before he came forth from his mother’s womb. Would that it might befall me to be called a fool by unbelievers for having believed such things! The deed itself and the truth show that I have believed not folly but wisdom, and that what is thought foolish among them is an occasion of salvation for me. For unless the birth of the Saviour had been heavenly and blessed, unless it had had something divine, surpassing humanity, his teaching would never have penetrated the whole world. If he had only been in Mary’s womb and had not been the Son of God, how could it have happened, both at that time and now, that manifold diseases not only of bodies but also of souls should be cured? Which of us was not foolish, we who now, through the mercy of God, have understanding and thirst for God? Which of us was not without faith in righteousness, we who now through Christ have righteousness and pursue righteousness? Which of us was not wandering and astray, we who now, because of the coming of the Saviour, are not tossed about and troubled, but are on the way, namely in him who said, “I am the way” (John 14:6)? We can gather the rest too and see that everything written of him is recorded as worthy of divine wonder: his birth, his upbringing, his power, his passion, and his resurrection work in us not only at that time but now as well. Who gathered you, catechumens, into the church? What spur drove you to leave your homes and come together in this assembly? For we did not go round your houses one by one; but the almighty Father by invisible power puts this ardour into the hearts of those he knows to be worthy, so that you come to the faith as if unwilling and reluctant, especially at the beginning of your religion, when you receive the faith of salvation with fear, as if trembling and afraid. I beseech you, catechumens, do not draw back: let none of you be fearful and afraid, but follow Jesus, who goes before you. He draws you to salvation; he gathers you into the church, now indeed upon earth, but, if you bring forth worthy fruits, into the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. “Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfilment of the things spoken to her by the Lord.” For these things blessed Mary too magnifies the Lord Jesus. The soul magnifies the Lord, the spirit God. What interpretation these words have we shall seek, sift, and discuss, if the Lord grants that we gather again in the church, so that you may come festively to the house of God and lend your ears to the divine reading, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “My soul magnifies the Lord,” up to the place where he says, “He shows strength to those who fear him.” Chapter 1. Elizabeth prophesies before John; Mary prophesies before the birth of the Lord Saviour. And just as sin began from a woman and then reached the man, so also salvation had its beginning from women, so that the rest of women too, laying aside the frailty of their sex, might imitate the life and conduct of those holy women who are described above all now in the Gospel. Let us look, then, at the virgin’s prophecy. “My soul,” she says, “magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.” Two things, the soul and the spirit, perform a twofold praise. The soul proclaims the Lord, the spirit God; not that the praise of the Lord is one thing and the praise of God another, but because he who is God is also Lord, and he who is Lord is also God. It is asked how she magnifies the Lord. For if the Lord can receive neither increase nor decrease, and is what he is, in what sense does Mary now say, “My soul magnifies the Lord”? If I consider that the Lord Saviour is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15), and see that my soul was made after the image of the Creator, so as to be an image of the image (for my soul is not itself, properly speaking, the image of God, but was made after the likeness of the prior image), then I shall see this. Like those who paint portraits and, taking for instance a single face of a king, apply the skill of their art to expressing the original likeness, each of us, forming his soul after the image of Christ, makes of it a greater or lesser image, either faded and dirty or clear and shining, bright with the likeness of the original image. When, therefore, I make the image of the image, that is, my soul, great, and magnify it in deed, thought, and word, then the image of God is made great, and the Lord himself, whose image is in our soul, is magnified. And as the Lord grows in our image, so, if we are sinners, he is diminished and decreases. But instead of the image of the Saviour we put on other images: instead of the image of the Word, of wisdom, of righteousness, and of the other virtues, we take on the form of the devil, so that it is said of us, “Serpents, brood of vipers” (Matt 23:33). We put on the mask of a lion, of a dragon, and of foxes, when we are venomous, cruel, and cunning; and also of a goat or a pig, when we are more prone to lust. I remember that once, when I was discussing Deuteronomy at the place where it is written, “You shall not make any likeness of any animal” (Deut 4:16–17), I said that, since the law is spiritual, some make in themselves the image of a male, others of a female; one has the likeness of birds, another of reptiles and serpents, and another makes the likeness of God. How this is to be understood, whoever reads that discussion will know. Mary’s soul, then, first magnifies the Lord and afterwards rejoices in God. For unless we first believed, we could not rejoice. “For he has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid.” What lowliness of Mary did the Lord look upon? What did the Mother of the Saviour have that was lowly and abject, she who carried the Son of God in her womb? What she says, then, “He has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid,” is as if she had said: He has looked upon the righteousness of his handmaid, he has looked upon her temperance, he has looked upon her fortitude and wisdom. For it is fitting that he should look upon virtues. Someone may reply and say: I understand how God looks upon the righteousness and wisdom of his handmaid; but how he regards lowliness is not clear enough. Let one who asks such things consider that in the Scriptures humility is proclaimed specifically as one of the virtues. For the Saviour says: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt 11:29). And if you want to hear the name of this virtue as the philosophers too call it, listen: the humility which God regards is the same as what they call ἀτυφία or μετριότης. We too can name it by a kind of circumlocution: when someone is not puffed up but humbles himself. For one who is puffed up falls, according to the apostle, into the judgment of the devil; for the devil too began from being puffed up and from pride. “Lest,” he says, “being puffed up he fall into the judgment of the devil” (1 Tim 3:6). “He has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid”: God has looked upon me, she says, lowly and pursuing the virtue of gentleness and self-abasement. “For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.” If I understand “all generations” simply, I interpret it of believers. But if I search out something deeper, I shall notice how much it profits to say, “For he who is mighty has done great things for me,” since everyone who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 18:14). God looked upon the lowliness of blessed Mary; therefore he who is mighty has done great things for her, “and holy is his name. And his mercy is from generation to generation.” The mercy of God extends not to one generation, nor two, nor three, nor even five, but for ever, from generation to generation, to those who fear his power. “He has shown strength with his arm.” Though you come to the Lord weak, if you fear him, you will be able to hear the promise which the Lord makes to you because of your fear. What is this promise? “To those who fear him,” it says, “he has shown strength.” Strength, or sovereignty, is royal power. For κράτος, which we can call imperium, is so called because it holds all things under itself. If, then, you fear the Lord, he gives you strength, or sovereignty; he gives you a kingdom, so that, made subject to the King of kings, you may possess the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “She remained with her three months,” up to the place where he says, “And he spoke, blessing the Lord.” Chapter 1. The reason both for what is said and for what is recorded as done must be worthy of the Holy Spirit and of the faith of Christ, to which we believers are called. So now too we must seek the cause why Mary, after conceiving, came to Elizabeth and remained with her three months, or what reason Luke, who was writing the history of the Gospel, had for writing this too, that she remained with her three months and afterwards returned to her home. Surely there must be some reason, which the following discourse will show, if the Lord opens our heart. For if, merely because Mary came to Elizabeth and greeted her, the infant leaped for joy, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied what is written in the Gospel and in one hour made such progress, it is left to our conjecture how much John progressed in three months while Mary stayed with Elizabeth. For it would be quite unfitting that in a single moment of an hour the infant leaped and, as it were, frolicked for joy, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, but that over three months neither John nor Elizabeth progressed from the close presence of the Mother of the Lord and of the Saviour himself. John, then, was being trained; as if in the athletic school of his holy mother he was exercised for three months and prepared in his mother’s womb, so that, born wonderfully, he might be nourished more wonderfully still. For since he was nourished beyond the usual way, nothing is written of how he was suckled at his mother’s breasts or held in a nurse’s lap; at once there follows: “And he was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation to Israel.” Then we read: “Now the time was fulfilled for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.” Many think it superfluous to say, “Now the time was fulfilled for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.” For what woman can give birth unless she has first completed the time of bearing? But let one who contemplates the Scriptures most carefully, and hears the people speaking, attend to the reading and observe whether, in the Old or the New Testament, he finds written at the birth of a sinner, “The time was fulfilled for her to give birth”: he will never find it at all. But wherever a righteous man is born, there the days are fulfilled; there the fulness of his coming into the world is completed. The birth of a righteous man has fulness; the birth of a sinner has, so to speak, emptiness and void. So much for the words, “The time was fulfilled for her to give birth.” “Her neighbours and kinsfolk rejoiced with his mother,” and wanted to give the child a name in honour of his father, so that he would be called Zechariah. But Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, said, “John is his name.” Then, when they sought good reasons why he should be called John in particular, since no one in his family had this name, they asked the father, who, unable to answer, spoke by hand and letters. For he wrote on a tablet, “John is his name”; and as soon as the stylus was pressed into the wax, his tongue, which had been bound before, was loosed. He recovered speech, but not merely human speech: his tongue had been bound, yet not by a human bond, for unbelief had bound it. As soon as it was loosed, it ceased to be merely human, and he spoke, blessing God, and prophesied what is written in the Gospel, which, the Lord Jesus Christ granting it, we shall discuss when the time comes; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “Filled with the Holy Spirit, he prophesied,” up to the place where he says, “For you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.” Chapter 1. Zechariah, filled with the Holy Spirit, utters two prophecies in all, the first about Christ, the second about John. This is plainly proved by his words, in which he speaks of the Saviour as present and already living in the world, and then of John. For “filled with the Holy Spirit he prophesied, saying: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and brought about the redemption of his people.” For as God was visiting and willing to redeem his people, Mary remained with Elizabeth for three months after the angel had spoken to her, so that by a certain ineffable power the present Saviour might instruct not only John, as we said earlier, but also Zechariah, as the Gospel narrative now declares. For little by little he too, over three months, received increase of the Holy Spirit and was being taught without knowing it, and he prophesied of Christ, saying: “who has given redemption to his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David,” in which Christ was born according to the flesh. And truly, because he was the horn of salvation, this prophecy is sung in the house of David. For “a vineyard was made on a horn” (Isa 5:1). On what horn? In Christ Jesus, in him of whom it is now written: “He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets: salvation from our enemies.” Let us not think it is now said of bodily enemies, but of spiritual ones. For the Lord Jesus came, mighty in battle, to destroy all our enemies, to free us from their snares. “From the hand of our enemies and from the hand of those who hate us, to show mercy to our fathers.” I think that at the coming of the Lord Saviour, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob too enjoyed the mercy of God. For it is not credible that those who earlier saw his day and rejoiced should afterwards, at his coming and his birth from the Virgin, have received no benefit. And why do I speak of the patriarchs? Following the authority of the Scriptures I will boldly climb higher: the presence of the Lord Jesus and his dispensation helped not only earthly but also heavenly things. Hence the apostle too says: “making peace through the blood of his cross, whether on earth or in heaven” (Col 1:20). And if the presence of the Lord profited in heaven and on earth, why are you afraid to say that his coming profited our forefathers as well, so that what is said is fulfilled: “to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham our father, to grant us to be delivered without fear from the hand of our enemies”? Often people are delivered from the hand of enemies, but not without fear. For when fear and danger have gone before, and so someone has been rescued from the hand of enemies, he is delivered indeed, but not without fear. But the coming of the Lord Jesus rescued us from the hand of our enemies without fear. For we did not feel our enemies nor see them fighting against us; we do not know how we were suddenly snatched from their jaws and snares, in an instant and a moment, and he transferred us into the inheritance and portion of the righteous. “And we have been delivered from the hand of enemies without fear, that we may serve God in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High.” Seeking within myself the reason why he speaks not as if about John but to John himself, “And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High,” and the rest (for it was superfluous to speak to one who could not hear and to address a little infant at the breast), I think I can find this: just as John was born wonderfully, came into the world at the angel’s announcement, and was brought forth on earth after Mary had stayed three months with Elizabeth, so also everything written about him is recorded as done wonderfully. If you doubt that one just brought forth from his mother’s womb could hear his father’s words and know what was said to him, “And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High,” consider that what went before was much more wonderful: “Behold, as soon as the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the infant leaped for joy in my womb.” For if, while still shut up in his mother’s womb, he hears Jesus and, hearing, leaped and rejoiced, why should you not believe that, once born, he could hear and understand his father’s prophecy, saying to him: “And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Highest, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways”? I think Zechariah hastened to speak to the little one because he knew that he would soon dwell in the desert and that he himself could not have his company. For the child “was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation to Israel.” Moses too dwelt in the deserts; but later, when the years of his youth were already completed, he fled from Egypt and for further years tended flocks; whereas John, as soon as he was born, passed over to the deserts, and he who was greater among those born of women was shown worthy of a greater upbringing. Of him the prophet speaks: “Behold, I send my angel before your face” (Mal 3:1). Rightly he is called an angel who had been sent before the Lord, and who could hear and understand his father’s prophecy as soon as he was born. Therefore let us who believe such great wonders believe likewise in the resurrection; let us believe also the promises that are to come, and the kingdom of heaven which the Spirit daily promises us. May we receive all these things, as they are written, more wonderfully than we can perceive, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “And the child grew and became strong in spirit,” up to the place where he says, “This was the first enrolment, made under Quirinius, governor of Syria.” Chapters 1 and 2. In the holy Scriptures something is said to grow in two ways: one bodily, where the human will is of no avail; the other spiritual, where the cause of growth lies in human effort. It is of the second, the spiritual, that the evangelist now speaks: “And the child grew and became strong in spirit.” What he says is this: he grew in spirit, and did not remain in the measure in which he began; the spirit was always growing in him, and as the spirit increased at every hour and moment, his soul too received its increases, and not only his soul but also his understanding and mind followed the increases of the spirit. As for God’s command, “Increase and multiply” (Gen 1:28), I do not know how those who take it simply and according to the letter can explain it. Granted that “multiply” refers to number, and multiplication takes place when people become more than they were before; but what follows, “Increase,” is not in our power. For what human being would not wish to add to his stature (Matt 6:27), to become taller? If, then, something is commanded so that it may be done (for it is foolish to command what the one commanded cannot do), and we are commanded to grow, then on that reading we are commanded to do what we cannot. Do you want to know how “Increase” is understood? Listen to what Isaac did, of whom it is said: “Isaac advanced and became greater, until he became great,” or “exceedingly great” (Gen 26:13). For his will, always stretching toward better things, made its advances; his mind contemplated something more divine; and his memory exercised itself to store up more in its treasury and to retain it more firmly. In this way it came about that one who had cultivated all his virtues in the field of the soul fulfilled the command that says, “Increase.” Therefore John too, while still a little child, grew and multiplied. Yet it is very hard for a little child to grow in spirit, and among mortals … “And the child grew and became strong in spirit.” “Grew” is one thing, “became strong” another. Human nature is weak, and to become stronger it needs divine help. We read, “The flesh is weak.” By what help, then, is it to be strengthened? Surely by the spirit. For “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt 26:41). One who wishes to become stronger ought to be strengthened only in the Spirit. Many are strengthened in the flesh and made robust in body; but the athlete of God must be made strong in spirit, and when he has been strengthened in this way, he will crush the wisdom of the flesh and, having become spiritual, will subject the body to the rule of the mind. Let us not think, then, that the history of John was written simply, as something that has nothing to do with us, when it says, “he grew and became strong in spirit”; it was written for our imitation, so that, multiplied spiritually in the sense we have described, we may receive increase. “And he was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation to Israel.” It was said recently that John’s conception too had something astonishing about it, when the infant leaped in the womb and, not yet born, recognized his Lord; and his birth was no lesser miracle, when the words of Zechariah’s prophecy were turned to him as though he could hear, saying, “And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High.” Fittingly, then, one who had been so conceived and born did not wait to be brought up by his father until the day of his manifestation to Israel, but withdrew, fleeing the tumult of towns, the crowds of people, the neighbourhood of cities, and went off into the deserts, where the air was purer and the sky more open and God closer, so that, since neither the mystery of baptism nor the time of preaching had yet come, he might devote himself to prayer and converse with angels, and call upon the Lord and hear him answering and saying, “Here I am” (Isa 58:9). For as Moses spoke and God answered him, so I think John spoke in the desert and the Lord answered him. I think this because I am moved by a sure reason from the Scriptures. For if among those born of women no one was greater than John the Baptist, and God answered Moses, it follows that he answered John too, who was greater than Moses, who was brought up in the desert, whose birth the same archangel announced who also announced the Lord’s, and whose father, who did not believe he would be born, was struck dumb. John, then, was in the desert and was nourished in a new manner beyond human nature, as Matthew too records: “His food was locusts and wild honey” (Matt 3:4). For since he was the minister of the Saviour’s first coming and spoke only of the dispensation of the Lord’s flesh, and his prophecy heralded him who had been born of the Virgin, he did not have domestic honey, strained by human care, but wild honey; and a winged creature that is not large and does not rise on high, but a small winged creature, scarcely rising from the ground, leaping rather than flying. What more? It is said most plainly that locusts were his food, a small creature and a clean one. Consider, then, dearest brothers, that he who had been born in a new way was nourished in a new way. After this the Scripture adds: “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrolment, under Quirinius, governor of Syria” (Luke 2:1–2). Someone may exclaim, “What a Gospel story!” But that the first enrolment of the whole world took place under Caesar Augustus, that among all the rest Joseph too, with Mary, betrothed to him and pregnant, gave in his name for the census, and that Jesus was born before the enrolment was completed, seems to one who looks more carefully to signify a certain mystery: that in the registration of the whole world Christ too had to be enrolled, so that, enrolled with all, he might sanctify all, and, registered in the census with the world, he might grant the world communion with himself; so that after this enrolment he might enrol with himself in the book of the living all from the world who believed in him, and whoever believed in him might afterwards be enrolled with his saints in heaven; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text that an angel came from heaven and announced the Lord’s birth to shepherds. Chapter 2. My Lord Jesus is born, and an angel comes down from heaven announcing his birth. Let us see, then, whom he sought out to announce his coming to. He did not come to Jerusalem, he did not seek out the scribes and Pharisees, he did not enter the synagogue of the Jews; he found shepherds keeping the night watches over their flocks and says to them: “Today a Saviour is born, who is Christ the Lord.” Do you think that the divine word of the Scriptures means nothing more than this, that an angel came to shepherds and spoke to them? Hear, shepherds of the churches, shepherds of God, that his angel is always coming down from heaven and announcing to you that “today a Saviour is born to you, who is Christ the Lord.” For unless that Shepherd comes, the shepherds of the churches will not be able to keep the flock well by themselves; their guarding is weak unless Christ pastures and guards it with them. We read a little while ago in the apostle, “We are God’s fellow workers” (1 Cor 3:9). The good shepherd who imitates the Good Shepherd (John 10:11) is a fellow worker of God and of Christ. And he is a good shepherd precisely because he has the best Shepherd with him, pasturing alongside him. For God has set in the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers, all for the perfecting of the saints (Eph 4:11–12). These things have been said rather simply. But if we must rise to a more sacred understanding, I would say that certain angels were shepherds who governed human affairs. Each of them kept his own charge and, watching day and night, could no longer bear the labour, though he worked diligently to govern the nations entrusted to him; and when the Lord was born, an angel came and announced to the shepherds that the true Shepherd had arisen. For instance, to come to an example, there was a certain shepherd of Macedonia, and he needed the help of the Lord; therefore a man of Macedonia appeared to Paul in a dream, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9). But why do I speak of Paul, when he said these things not to Paul but to Jesus, who was in Paul? The shepherds, then, need the presence of Christ. That is why the angel comes down from heaven and says: “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you news of great joy.” Truly great joy for those to whom the care of human beings and of provinces had been entrusted, that Christ had come into the world. The angel who administered the affairs of Egypt gained much benefit after the Lord came down from heaven, so that the Egyptians became Christians. It profited also all who held the various provinces: for instance, the governor of Macedonia, the governor of Achaia, and those of the other regions. For it is not right to believe that evil angels preside over their provinces and that good angels have not been entrusted with the same provinces. What he says of individual provinces I think we should believe also of all human beings in general. Two angels attend each person, one of righteousness, the other of iniquity. If good thoughts are in our heart and righteousness springs up in our soul, there is no doubt that the angel of the Lord is speaking to us. But if evil things are turning over in our heart, the angel of the devil is speaking to us. Just as there are two angels for each human being, so, I think, in the several provinces too there are different angels, some good and some evil. For instance, at Ephesus, because of those in that city who were sinners, most evil angels presided; again, because many in it were believers, there was also the angel of the church of the Ephesians, surely a good one. What we have said of Ephesus is to be understood of all provinces. Before the coming of the Lord Saviour these angels could bring little benefit to those entrusted to them, and their efforts could not achieve their effect. There is a sign of how little they could help those subject to them. Listen to what we say: when the angel of the Egyptians was helping the Egyptians, scarcely one proselyte believed in God, and that happened through the angel’s administration of the Egyptians. Indeed, because a good many proselytes from the Egyptians and Idumaeans received the faith of Christ, the Scripture says: “You shall not abhor the Egyptian, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt, nor the Idumaean, because he is your brother. If sons are born to them, in the third generation they shall enter the assembly of God” (Deut 23:7–8). And so it happened that some from all nations became proselytes, and this too with the help of the angels who had the nations subject to them. But now whole peoples of believers come to faith in Jesus, and the angels to whom the churches have been entrusted, strengthened by the presence of the Saviour, bring many proselytes, so that assemblies of Christians are gathered throughout the whole world. Therefore let us rise and praise the Lord, and become, instead of a fleshly Israel, a spiritual Israel. Let us bless almighty God in deed, thought, and word, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “And there was a multitude of the heavenly host,” up to the place where he says, “They found Mary and Jesus lying in the manger.” Chapter 2. Our Lord and Saviour is in Bethlehem, and a multitude of the heavenly host praises God and says: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.” The multitude of the heavenly host says this because it had already failed in giving help to human beings and saw that it could not fulfil the work entrusted to it without him who could truly save and could help the guardians themselves too, so that human beings might be saved. It is written in the Gospel that some men, cleaving the sea with oars against contrary winds, were already exhausted, and, toiling for twenty-five or thirty stadia, could not reach harbour; and afterwards the Lord came upon them, calmed the swelling waves, and freed from imminent danger the ship whose sides were being battered from every side (John 6:19). So understand that the angels too wanted to give help to human beings and to grant them health from their sicknesses, for they are all ministering spirits sent to serve for the sake of those who have obtained salvation (Heb 1:14); and as far as lay in their power they helped human beings. But they saw that their medicine was far weaker than those people’s care required. To understand what we mean from an example, picture a city where very many are sick, and the hands of many physicians are applied; let there be various wounds, let a creeping putrefaction penetrate daily into the dead flesh; and yet let the physicians called in to cure be unable to find any further remedies or to overcome the greatness of the evil by the science of their art. When things have come to such a pass, let a chief physician arrive who has the highest knowledge of the art; and let those who could not heal before, seeing the putrefaction of the wounds cease at the master’s hand, not envy him nor be tormented with jealousy, but break out into praise of the chief physician and glorify God who has sent a man of such great knowledge both to them and to the sick. In this likeness the multitude of the host of angels was heard saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of good will.” For after the Lord came to earth, he made peace by the blood of his cross, both for the things on earth and for those in heaven (Col 1:20). For the angels, wishing that human beings should remember their Creator, when they had done everything in their power for them to be healed, and those people had been unwilling to look to health, see him who was able to heal and, glorifying him, say: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace.” Let the careful reader of Scripture ask how the Saviour says, “I did not come to bring peace upon earth, but a sword” (Matt 10:34), and yet now the angels sing at his birth, “on earth peace.” Indeed, in another place it is said in his person: “My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you; not as this world gives peace do I give peace” (John 14:27). Let him see, then, whether what we put forward can solve the question. If it were written “on earth peace” and the sentence ended there, the question would rightly arise. But as it is, what is added after “peace,” “among men of good will,” solves the question. For the peace which the Lord does not give upon earth is not the peace of good will. He did not say simply, “I did not come to bring peace,” but with the addition “upon earth”; nor, on the other hand, did he say, “I did not come to bring peace upon earth to men of good will.” The angels said these things to the shepherds; and they did not speak only at that time: even to this day, unless they speak to the shepherds and join their own work to theirs, it is said to the shepherds: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain; unless the Lord guards the city, he who guards it will labour in vain” (Ps 127:1). If it is permissible to speak boldly while following the meaning of the Scriptures, in each church there are two bishops, one visible, the other invisible: the one evident to the sight of the flesh, the other to the understanding. And just as a man who has managed well the stewardship entrusted to him is praised by the Lord, and if badly, is subject to blame and fault, so also the angel. For it is written in the Apocalypse of John: “But you have there a few names who have defiled” this or that; and again, “You have there those who teach the doctrine of the Nicolaitans”; and then, you have those who commit this or that sin; and the angels to whom the churches have been entrusted are accused. If the angels have concern for how the churches are governed, what need is there to say how much fear human beings should have, that they may attain salvation labouring together with the labouring angels? I think that an angel and a man can be found together as good bishops of a church, sharing in a sense in one work. Since this is so, let us ask almighty God that angels and men, the bishops of the churches, may be a help to us, and let us know that both are judged by the Lord on our account. And if they are judged, and the fault and sin is found not in their carelessness but in our negligence, we shall be convicted and punished. For while they do everything and strive for our salvation, we nonetheless shall be idle as regards our sins. But it often happens that while we labour, they do not fulfil their office and are at fault. “And it came to pass,” it says, “when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another: Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this word that has come to pass, which the Lord has shown us. They came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the child.” Because they came with haste, and not slowly or with weary step, they found Joseph, the steward of the Lord’s birth, and Mary, who brought forth Jesus in childbirth, and the Saviour himself lying in the manger. This was what the prophet foretold, saying: “The ox knows its owner, and the ass its lord’s manger.” The ox is a clean animal, the ass an unclean one. “The ass knows its lord’s manger”: it was not the people of Israel that knew its Lord’s manger, but an unclean animal from the Gentiles. “But Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood me” (Isa 1:3). Understanding this manger, let us strive to know the Lord and to become worthy of the knowledge of him, and to take to ourselves his birth and the resurrection of his flesh, and also the glorious second coming of his majesty, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “When the days of his circumcision were fulfilled,” up to the place where he says, “a pair of turtledoves and two young pigeons.” Chapter 2. In that Christ died, he died for sin: not because he himself sinned, for he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth; but he died so that we, who died to sins when he died, might no longer live to sin and vices (Rom 6:10–11). Hence it is written: as we died together with him then, when he died, and rose together with him when he rose, so we were circumcised with him and, after the circumcision, cleansed by a solemn purification. Therefore we no longer need fleshly circumcision. And so that you may know that he was circumcised for our sake, hear Paul proclaiming it most plainly: “In him,” he says, “dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all principality and power; in whom you also were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, in which we also rose again through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Col 2:9–12). His death, then, and his resurrection and his circumcision were done for us. “When,” it says, “the days for circumcising the child were fulfilled, his name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived.” The name of Jesus, glorious and worthy of all adoration and worship, was not brought into the world by human beings but by a more excellent and greater nature. Hence the evangelist pointedly added: “And his name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” Then follows: “And when the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him to Jerusalem.” “For their purification,” it says. Whose? If it were written “for her purification,” that is, of Mary who had given birth, no question would arise, and we would boldly say that Mary, being a human being, needed purification after childbirth. But as it is, when it says “the days of their purification,” it seems to mean not one person but another as well, or several. So Jesus needed purification, and was unclean, or polluted by some defilement. Perhaps I seem to speak rashly, but I am moved by the authority of the Scriptures. See what is written in Job: “No one is clean from defilement, not even if his life be but one day.” He did not say, “No one is clean from sin,” but “No one is clean from defilement.” For defilement and sins do not mean the same thing. And so that you may know that defilement means one thing and sin another, Isaiah teaches plainly, saying: “The Lord will wash away the defilement of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst, the defilement by a spirit of judgment and the blood by a spirit of burning” (Isa 4:4). Every soul that has been clothed with a human body has its own defilement. And so that you may know that Jesus too is to be understood as defiled, according to the shame of the cross, not according to the holy flesh he assumed, which, the apostle says, was “in the likeness of sinful flesh” by his own will, because he had taken a human body for our salvation, listen to the prophet Zechariah saying: “Jesus was clothed in filthy garments” (Zech 3:3). This also tells against those who deny that our Lord had a human body and say that it was woven of heavenly and spiritual elements. For if his body was from heavenly things, and, as they falsely assert, from the stars and some other more sublime and spiritual nature, let them answer why a spiritual body could be filthy, or how they interpret what we have quoted, “Jesus was clothed in filthy garments.” And if they are compelled by necessity to accept that a filthy garment is to be understood as a spiritual body, they must consequently say that what is set down among the promises has been fulfilled, namely, “It is sown a natural body, it rises a spiritual body,” and that we shall rise polluted and filthy; which it is sacrilege even to think, especially for one who knows that it is written: “It is sown in corruption, it rises in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it rises in glory; it is sown in weakness, it rises in power; it is sown a natural body, it rises a spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:42–44). It was fitting, then, that for our Lord and Saviour, who had been clothed in filthy garments and had taken an earthly body, those things should be offered which according to the law were accustomed to cleanse defilement. Prompted by this passage, I take up again a question often asked among the brothers. Little children are baptized for the remission of sins. Of what sins? Or at what time did they sin? Or how can there be any reason for the washing in little children, except according to the sense we spoke of a little earlier: “No one is clean from defilement, not even if his life on earth be but one day”? And because the defilements of birth are put away through the sacrament of baptism, for this reason little children too are baptized. For “unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven” (John 3:5). “When,” it says, “the days of their purification were completed.” The days of righteousness too are completed. For the soul is not purified as soon as it is born, nor can it attain perfect purity at its very birth; but as it is written in the law, “If she has borne a male, the mother shall sit seven days in unclean blood, and then thirty-three in pure blood,” and at the last the infant himself will sit in the purest blood: so, because the law is spiritual and has a shadow of the good things to come (Rom 7:14; Heb 10:1), we can understand that true purification comes to us after a time. I think that even after the resurrection from the dead we shall need a sacrament that washes and purifies us, for no one will be able to rise without defilements, nor can any soul be found that is at once free of all vices. Hence in the regeneration of baptism the sacrament is taken up, so that just as Jesus, according to the dispensation of the flesh, was purified by an offering, so we too may be purified by spiritual regeneration. “They brought him, according to the law of Moses, to Jerusalem, to present him before the Lord.” Where are those who deny the God of the law, who say that it was not this God but another who was proclaimed by Christ in the Gospel? “God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” Are we to think, then, that the good God made his Son subject to the law of the Creator and to the jurisdiction of an enemy, a law which that enemy himself had given? Rather, he was made under the law precisely “to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal 4:4–5), and to make them subject to another law, of which we read a little while ago, “Attend, my people, to my law,” and the rest. So they brought him and set him before the Lord, fulfilling the precepts of what Scripture? Surely of that one: “As it is written,” it says, “in the law of Moses, that every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”; and three times a year every male shall appear before the Lord God. The males, which were holy because they had opened their mother’s womb, were offered before the altar of the Lord. “Every male,” it says, “that opens the womb.” This sounds like something sacred. For whatever male you speak of that comes forth from the womb, he does not open his mother’s womb as the Lord Jesus did, because in all women it is not the birth of an infant but intercourse with a man that opens the womb. But the womb of the Lord’s mother was opened at the time when the child was brought forth, because before the birth of Christ no male at all touched that holy womb, worthy of all reverence and honour. I dare to say something: that in what is written, “The Spirit of God will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35), there was the beginning of the seed and of the conception, and the new fetus grew in the womb without the womb being opened. Hence the Saviour also says: “I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people” (Ps 22:6). He saw in his mother’s womb the uncleanness of bodies; hemmed in on every side by her inward parts, he suffered the confinement of earthly dregs; hence he likens himself to a worm and says, “I am a worm and not a man.” For a man is usually born of male and female; but I was not born of male and female according to human custom and nature, but after the manner of a worm, whose seed comes from nowhere else, but whose origin is in, and from, the very bodies in which it grows. Because, then, “every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord,” he was brought to Jerusalem to appear before God, and on account of what follows: “to offer a sacrifice according to what is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” We see a pair of turtledoves and two young pigeons offered for the Saviour. For my part, I think those birds blessed which were offered for the Lord’s birth; and as I marvel at Balaam’s ass and heap felicity upon it because it was found worthy not only to see the angel of God but also to open its mouth and break out into human speech, so much more do I proclaim and extol these birds, because they were offered for our Lord and Saviour. “To offer for him a pair or two young pigeons.” Perhaps I shall seem to bring forward something new, though little enough for his majesty. Just as the generation of the Saviour was new, not from a man and a woman but from the Virgin alone, so too the pair of turtledoves and the two young pigeons were not such as we behold with the eyes of the flesh, but such as the Holy Spirit is, who descended in the form of a dove and came upon the Saviour when he was baptized in the Jordan (Matt 3:16). Such too was the pair of turtledoves: they were not birds like those that fly through the air; something divine and more august than human contemplation appeared in the form of a dove and a turtledove, so that he who was being born for the whole world, and was to suffer, should not be cleansed before the Lord by such victims as all human beings are, but so that his dispensation, which was new in everything, might have new sacrifices also, according to the will of almighty God in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On Simeon, that he came into the temple in the Spirit, up to the place where he says, “Now you are dismissing your servant, Lord, in peace.” Chapter 2. A reason worthy of God’s gift must be sought. Simeon, a holy man pleasing to the Lord, as is written in the Gospel, waiting for the consolation of Israel, had received an answer from the Holy Spirit that he would not meet death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. What did it profit him to see Christ? Did he have in the promise only this, to see him, and gain no benefit from seeing him? Or is there hidden some gift worthy of God which blessed Simeon both deserved and received? A woman touched the fringe of Jesus’ garment and was healed (Matt 9:20–22). If she gained so much benefit from the edge of his garment, what are we to think of Simeon, who took the infant into his arms and, holding him, rejoiced and was glad, seeing that he carried the little one who had come to set prisoners free and to free himself from the bonds of the body; knowing that no one can release anyone from the prison of the body with hope of the life to come except him whom he held in his arms? Hence he says to him: “Now you are dismissing, Lord, your servant in peace.” For as long as I did not hold Christ, as long as I did not clasp him in my arms, I was shut in and could not go out of my bonds. This is to be understood not only of Simeon but of the whole human race. If anyone is departing from the world, if anyone is being released from prison, the house of those in bonds, to go and reign, let him take Jesus in his hands and put his arms around him and hold him wholly in his embrace, and then he will be able to go rejoicing where he desires. Consider how great a dispensation went before, that Simeon might deserve to hold the Son of God. First he had received an answer from the Holy Spirit that he would not see death unless he had first seen the Lord’s Christ. Then he did not enter the temple by chance or for no reason, but came into the temple in the Spirit of God. For “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Rom 8:14). The Holy Spirit, then, led him into the temple. You too, if you wish to hold Jesus and embrace him with your hands and become worthy of going out of prison, strive with all labour to have the Spirit as your guide and to come to the temple of God. Behold, you now stand in the temple of the Lord Jesus, that is, in his church; this is the temple built of living stones. And you stand in the temple of the Lord when your life and conduct are most worthy of the name of church. If you come into the temple in the Spirit, you will find the child Jesus, you will lift him in your arms and say: “Now you are dismissing your servant, Lord, in peace, according to your word.” Notice at the same time that peace has been added to the release and dismissal. For he does not say, “I wish to be dismissed,” but, with an addition, to be dismissed “in peace.” The same was promised also to blessed Abraham: “But you shall go to your fathers in peace, nourished in a good old age” (Gen 15:15). Who is it that dies in peace, except one who has the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding and guards the heart of the one who possesses it? Who departs from this world in peace, except one who understands that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and has nothing hostile, nothing opposed to God, but has taken into himself all peace and concord through good works, and so is dismissed in peace to go to the holy fathers, to whom holy Abraham also went? Why do I speak of the fathers? He goes to Jesus himself, who is the prince and Lord of the patriarchs, of whom it is said: “It is better to depart and be with Christ” (Phil 1:23). He has Jesus who dares to say, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). That we too, then, standing in the temple and holding the Son of God and embracing him, may be worthy of release and of departure to better things, let us pray to almighty God, and let us pray also to the child Jesus himself, whom we long to speak with and to hold in our arms; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “His father and mother were marvelling at what was said about him,” up to the place where he says, “Behold, this one is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel.” Chapter 2. “And his father,” it says, “and his mother were marvelling at what was said about him.” Let us gather together what was said and written about him at the birth of Jesus, and we shall then be able to see that each item is worthy of wonder. That is why his father (for Joseph was so called, because he was his foster father) marvelled, and his mother marvelled, at all that was said about him. What, then, were the things that report had spread about the child Jesus? There were shepherds in that region, keeping watch and observing the watches of the night over their flock. At the very hour of Jesus’ birth an angel came and said to them: “I bring you news of great joy. Go, and you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger.” The angel had not yet finished speaking, and behold, a multitude of the heavenly host began to praise and bless God. When the shepherds had seen this in fear, and the angel had departed from them, they said to one another: “Let us go to Bethlehem and see what has come to pass, which the Lord has shown us.” They came and found the child. Both they and the parents, seeing what had happened, marvelled at it. And it is written of Simeon that he increased the report of the wonder, or rather was a great part of it: he held the child in his arms and said: “Now you are dismissing your servant, Lord, in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation.” The summit, and so to speak the crown, of the things that were being spread about Jesus, at which his father and mother marvelled, was the word of Simeon. For it was not enough for him to hold the child and to utter what is written of himself; he blessed the child’s father and mother, and prophesied also of the infant himself, saying: “Behold, this one is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that will be spoken against. And a sword will pierce through your own soul too, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” What does he mean by saying, “Behold, this one is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel”? I have found something like this written in the Gospel according to John: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind” (John 9:39). As, then, he came for judgment, so that those of the nations who did not see might see, and those of Israel who saw before might become blind, so he came for the fall and rising of many. For at the coming of the Lord Saviour those who had stood before fell, and those who had fallen rose. This is one interpretation of the saying, “Behold, this one is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel.” But there is also something deeper to be understood, especially against those who bark against the Creator and, gathering here and there from the Old Testament testimonies they do not understand, deceive the hearts of the simple. For they say: Behold the God of the law and the prophets; see what sort of God he is: “I,” he says, “will kill, and I will make alive; I will strike, and I will heal; and there is none who can deliver out of my hands” (Deut 32:39). They hear “I will kill” and do not hear “I will make alive”; they hear “I will strike” and scorn to hear “and I will heal.” On such pretexts they slander the Creator. Therefore, before interpreting the sense of “I will kill and make alive, I will strike and heal,” I will set against them the testimony of the Gospel and speak against the heretics; for there are countless heresies that receive the Gospel according to Luke. If the Creator is bloodthirsty, and so savage and cruel, because he says, “I will kill and make alive, I will strike and heal,” then it is most plain that Jesus too is his Son; for the same things are written of him: “Behold, this one is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel.” Not only for rising, but also for fall. If it is evil to kill, let it be evil also to come for a fall. What will they answer? Will they withdraw from his worship, or will they seek some interpretation and flee to figurative readings, so that his coming for a fall sounds kindly rather than severe? And how will it be just, when something of this kind is found in the Gospel, to flee to allegories and new understandings, but when it is found in the Old Testament, to accuse at once and to accept no explanation, however probable? But even what follows, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind,” they will not be able to make good, however they try to expound it. But I, because I wish to be a man of the church, and to be called not by the name of some heresiarch but by the name of Christ, and to have the name which is blessed upon earth, and because I long both in deed and in understanding to be and to be called a Christian, seek the same kind of reasoning in the old law and in the new. God says, “I will kill”: I gladly accept that God should kill me. For while the old man is in me and I still live as a mere man, I long for God to kill the old man in me and to make me alive from the dead. For “the first man,” it says, “was from the earth, earthly; the second man from heaven, heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor 15:47–49). In this sense also is understood the saying, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” All of us human beings have in us both sight and blindness. Adam both saw and did not see. Eve too is described as having seen before her eyes were opened. “The woman saw,” it says, “that the tree was good for food and very pleasing to the eyes to look at, and taking of the fruit of the tree she ate, and gave to her husband, and they ate” (Gen 3:6). So they were not blind, but saw. Then it follows: “And their eyes were opened.” So they whose eyes were afterwards opened had been blind and did not see. But they who had seen well before, after they transgressed the Lord’s command, began to see badly, and afterwards lost the sight of obedience, as the offence stole it away. So I understand also what God says: “Who made the mute and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? Is it not I, the Lord God?” (Exod 4:11). There is an eye of the body, with which we behold these earthly things, an eye according to the mind of the flesh, of which Scripture says, “vainly puffed up by the mind of the flesh” (Col 2:18). Against it we have another, better eye, which perceives divine things; and because it was blind in us, Jesus came to make it see, so that those who did not see might see, and those who saw might become blind. In this sense, then, is to be understood also the text we now have in hand: “Behold, this one is set for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel.” I have something in me that stands badly, and the pride of sin lifts itself up: let this fall, let this be overthrown. And if it falls, what had fallen before will rise and stand. My inner man once lay crushed, and the outer man stood erect. Before I believed in Jesus, the good in me lay prostrate and the evil stood. After he came, the evil that was in me fell, and this was fulfilled: “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus” (2 Cor 4:10); and this: “Put to death your members which are on earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, lust, idolatry, sorceries” (Col 3:5), and the rest. The fall of all these has been a useful fall. And of this fall it is said: “Wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered” (Matt 24:28). For cadaver (“carcass”) takes its name from casus (“fall”). This is the one fall to which Jesus came first; nor can he bring about a rising unless a fall has gone before. He came first to destroy what was evil in me, so that, when that has been destroyed and put to death, what is good in me may rise and be made alive, and so that we may attain the kingdom of heaven through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “His father and mother were marvelling at what was said about him,” and again up to the place where Anna is written of. Chapter 2. Luke, who wrote, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the holy one who is born will be called the Son of God,” and who plainly handed down to us that Jesus is the son of a virgin and was not conceived of human seed, is the same who testified that Joseph was his father, saying: “His father and mother were marvelling at what was said about him.” What reason, then, was there for him to call one who was not his father his father? One who is content with a simple explanation says: the Holy Spirit honoured him with the name of father because he had brought up the Saviour. But one who inquires into something deeper can say that, since the order of generation is traced from David down to Joseph (Matt 1:1–16), Joseph was called the Lord’s father so that he, who was not the Saviour’s father, might not seem to be named for nothing, and so that the order of generation might stand (Luke 3:23). His father and mother, then, marvelled at what was said about him by the angel, by the multitude of the heavenly host, and by the shepherds. For hearing all these things they marvelled exceedingly. Next the Scripture says: “Simeon blessed him and said to Mary his mother: Behold, this one is set for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against. And a sword will pierce through your own soul too, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” We must consider how the Saviour came for the fall and the rising of many. One who explains it simply can say that he came for the fall of unbelievers and the rising of believers. But a careful interpreter says that no one falls who did not stand before. Show me, then, who it was that stood and for whose fall the Saviour came, and also who it is that rises. For surely he rises who had fallen before. We must certainly consider whether perhaps the Saviour came not for the fall of some and the rising of others among the many, but for the fall and the rising of the same people. “For judgment,” he says, “I came, that those who did not see may see, and those who saw may become blind” (John 9:39). For there is in us something that saw before and afterwards ceased to see, and something else that did not see and afterwards began to see. For example, I want to see with those eyes with which I did not see before and which were opened to me later; for after their disobedience the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened, as we discussed in the previous sermon. Now we must interpret what is meant by this saying: “Behold, this one is set for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel.” I must first fall, and when I have fallen, afterwards rise well; so that the Saviour is not the cause of an evil fall, but has made me fall precisely so that I may rise, and the fall will have been far more useful to me than the time when I seemed to stand. For I stood in sin at the time when I lived for sin; and because I stood in sin, the first benefit for me was that I should fall and die to sin. The holy prophets too, when they contemplated something more august, fell on their faces; and they fell so that their sins might be more fully purged by the fall. The Saviour grants you this very thing first, that you should fall. You were a pagan: let the pagan in you fall. You loved a harlot: first let the harlot in you perish. You were a sinner: let the sinner in you fall, so that you may then rise again and say: “If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; and if we are conformed to his death, we shall be also to his resurrection” (Rom 6:5, 8). This one, then, is set for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, that is, in those who can see with full sight and reason. “And for a sign that will be spoken against.” Everything that the history narrates of the Saviour is spoken against. The virgin is a mother: this is spoken against. The Marcionites speak against this sign and say that he was not born of a woman at all. The Ebionites speak against the sign, saying that he was born of a man and a woman just as we are born. He had a human body, and this is a sign that is spoken against. For some say that he came from heaven; others, that he had a body such as ours, so that through the likeness of his body he might also redeem our bodies from sins and give us hope of resurrection. He rose from the dead, and this is a sign that is spoken against: how he rose, and whether he rose himself, such as he was when he died, or rather rose in a body of better substance. There is endless contention: some say he showed Thomas the marks of the nails in his hands (John 20:27); others counter: if he had the same body, how did he enter and stand there when the doors were shut? You see, then, how a question is raised by various arguments even about his resurrection, and it becomes a sign that is spoken against. I think that this too, that he was foretold by the mouth of the prophets, is a sign that is spoken against. For there are many heretics who assert that he was not foretold by the prophets at all. Why need I go on at length? Everything the history narrates of him is a sign that is spoken against: not that those who believe in him speak against it, for we know that everything written is true; but because among unbelievers everything written of him is a sign that is spoken against. Then Simeon says: “And a sword will pierce through your own soul too.” What is this sword that pierces not only the hearts of others but even Mary’s? It is plainly written that at the time of the passion all the apostles were made to stumble, as the Lord himself said: “You will all be made to stumble this night” (Matt 26:31). So they were all made to stumble, so much so that Peter too, the chief of the apostles, denied him three times. What? Do we think that, when the apostles were made to stumble, the Mother of the Lord was immune from stumbling? If she did not suffer stumbling at the Lord’s passion, then Jesus did not die for her sins. But if all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified by his grace and redeemed (Rom 3:23–24), then surely Mary too was made to stumble at that time. And this is what Simeon now prophesies, saying: Through your own soul too, you who know that as a virgin you gave birth without a man, you who heard from Gabriel, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you,” the sword of unbelief will pass, and you will be struck by the point of doubt, and your thoughts will tear you this way and that, when you see him whom you had heard to be the Son of God, and knew to have been begotten without the seed of a man, crucified and dying and subjected to human punishments, and at the last lamenting with tears and saying, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matt 26:39). “And a sword will pierce through your own soul too, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” There were evil thoughts in people, which were revealed so that, brought into the open, they might be destroyed, and, once put to death, might cease to be, and he who died for us might kill them; for as long as the thoughts were hidden and not brought into the open, it was impossible for them to be wholly put to death. Hence we too, if we have sinned, ought to say: “I have made my sin known to you, and I have not hidden my iniquity. I said, I will declare my injustice against myself to the Lord” (Ps 32:5). For if we do this, and reveal our sins not only to God but also to those who can heal our wounds and sins, our sins will be blotted out by him who says: “Behold, I will blot out your iniquities like a cloud, and your sins like darkness” (Isa 44:22). After Simeon’s prophecy, because women too had to be saved, there comes a prophetess, of whom it is written: “And there was Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.” What a fine order! The woman does not come before the man; first comes Simeon, who took the infant and held him in his arms, then the woman, whose words are not set down, but it is said in general that she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Israel. And rightly the holy woman deserved to receive the spirit of prophecy, because by long chastity and long fasting she had climbed to this summit. Look, women, at the testimony of Anna, and imitate it, if it ever befalls you to lose your husbands. Consider what is written of her: “She lived seven years with her husband from her virginity,” and the rest; that is why she was a prophetess. For the Holy Spirit did not dwell in her at random or by chance. It is good, and the first thing, if a woman can possess the grace of virginity. But if she cannot, and it befalls her to lose her husband, let her remain a widow. And this she ought to have in mind not only after her husband’s death but even while he lives, so that, even if her resolve is never put to the test, she may be crowned by the Lord, and may say: This I vow and promise: if something human that I do not wish for should befall me, I will do nothing else but remain undefiled and a widow. But as it is, second and third and fourth marriages are found, not to speak of more, and we are not unaware that such a marriage will cast us out of the kingdom of God. For just as not only sexual immorality but also marriages exclude from the dignities of the church (for neither a bishop nor a presbyter nor a deacon nor a widow can be twice married), so perhaps the twice married will also be cast out of the assembly of the firstborn and of the spotless of the church, which has neither spot nor wrinkle: not that he is sent into eternal fire, but that he has no part in the kingdom of God. I remember that when I was interpreting what is written to the Corinthians, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, with all who call upon him,” I said that there is a difference between the church and those who call upon the name of the Lord. For I think that the once married, the virgin, and the one who persists in chastity belong to the church of God; but the twice married, even if he has a good life and excels in the other virtues, does not belong to the church and to that number who have no wrinkle or spot or anything of the kind, but belongs to the second rank, to those who call upon the name of the Lord, and who are indeed saved in the name of Jesus Christ, yet are by no means crowned by him; to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “And the child grew and became strong,” up to the place where he says, “Did you not know that I must be in the things that are my Father’s?” Chapter 2. My Lord Jesus was born, and his parents went up to Jerusalem to fulfil what had been commanded in the law and to offer for him a pair of turtledoves and two young pigeons. Simeon held him in his arms, as was read a little while ago, and prophesied of him what the history narrates; and after everything had been completed according to custom, the parents return to where Jesus was then living; and he grew and became strong in wisdom and grace. He had not yet completed the forty days of purification, he had not yet come to Nazareth, and already he was taking in all wisdom. Scripture could have said, “he grew and became strong and received the spirit”; but he who had emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil 2:7), as soon as the sacrifice for his purification had been offered, filled up again what he had emptied: not that his body at once became larger, but that something more sacred was being shown, as the Scripture reports: “And the child grew and became strong, and was filled with wisdom.” Let us look whether it is written anywhere else of a child, “he grew and became strong,” so that by comparing many passages we may understand what more is said of our Lord. Of John: “And the child grew and became strong”; and yet “and was filled with wisdom” is not added, but “became strong in spirit.” But here, of the Lord: “He grew,” it says, “and became strong, and was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40). All these things were said of a child who had not yet completed twelve years. But when he was twelve years old, he stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents, not knowing it, seek him anxiously and do not find him. They seek him among their relatives, they seek him in the company, they seek him among acquaintances, and among all these they do not find him. Jesus, then, is sought by his parents, together with his father, who had been his nurturer and companion when he went down to Egypt; and yet he is not found as soon as he is sought. For Jesus is not found among kinsfolk and relatives according to the flesh, not among those joined to him bodily. My Jesus cannot be found in the company of the many. Learn where those who seek him find him, so that you too, seeking with Joseph and Mary, may find him. “And seeking,” it says, “they found him in the temple.” Not anywhere else, but in the temple; and not simply in the temple, but in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. You too, then, seek Jesus in the temple of God; seek him in the church; seek him among the teachers who are in the temple and do not go out of it. If you seek in this way, you will find him. But if someone says he is a teacher and does not have Jesus, he is a teacher in name only, and therefore Jesus, the Word and Wisdom of God, cannot be found with him. He was found, it says, “in the midst of the teachers.” Understand “in the midst of the teachers” now as it is written of the prophets in another place: “If,” it says, “a revelation is made to another sitting by, let the first be silent” (1 Cor 14:30). They find him sitting in the midst of the teachers, and not only sitting but questioning and listening to them. Now too Jesus is present; he questions us and listens to us speaking. “And all,” it says, “were amazed.” At what were they amazed? Not at his questions, though these too were wonderful, but at his answers. For to ask is one thing, to answer another. He questioned the teachers, and because they could not answer, he himself answered the questions he had asked. That “answer” means not an exchange of conversation but teaching in the holy Scriptures, let the divine law teach you: Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice. That answer concerned the things in which the Lord instructed Moses, who did not know them. Sometimes Jesus asks, sometimes he answers, as we said above. Though his questioning is wonderful, his answer is much more wonderful still. That we too, then, may hear him, and that he may put to us questions which he himself resolves, let us beseech him and seek him with great labour and sorrow, and then we shall be able to find him whom we seek. For it is not written in vain: “Your father and I have been seeking you in sorrow.” One who seeks Jesus must seek not negligently, not carelessly, not in passing, as some seek and therefore cannot find. But let us say: “We seek you in sorrow.” And when we have said this, he will answer our soul as it labours and seeks with sorrow, and will say: “Did you not know that I must be in the things that are my Father’s?” Where are the impious and mad heretics who assert that the law and the prophets do not belong to the Father of Jesus Christ? Surely Jesus was in the temple built by Solomon, and he confesses that that temple belongs to his Father, whom he revealed to us and whose Son he said he was. Let them answer how one God is good and another just. Since, then, the Saviour is the Son of the Creator, let us praise together the Father and the Son, whose is the law and whose is the temple; to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “And the child grew and became strong,” up to the place where he says, “He questions the elders in the temple.” Chapter 2. Since some who seem to believe the holy Scripture deny the divinity of the Saviour, as if for the glory of almighty God, it seems right to me that they be taught by the authority of the Scriptures themselves that something divine came into a human body, and not only into a human body but also into a human soul. Indeed, if we attend carefully to the meaning of the Scriptures, that soul had something more than the other souls of human beings. For every human soul, before it comes to the virtues, is soiled with vices; but the soul of Jesus was never stained with the filth of sin. For before he reached his twelfth year, the Holy Spirit writes of him in Luke’s Gospel: “And the child grew and became strong, and was filled with wisdom.” Human nature does not admit of being filled with wisdom before twelve years. To have a share of wisdom is one thing, to be filled with wisdom another. We do not doubt, then, that something divine appeared in the flesh of Jesus, and not only above man but above every rational creature as well. “And he grew,” it says. For he had humbled himself, taking the form of a servant, and by the same power by which he had humbled himself, he grows. He had appeared weak, because he had taken a weak body, and so he is strengthened again. The Son of God had emptied himself (Phil 2:7), and therefore he is filled again with wisdom, “and the grace of God was upon him.” Not when he came to youth, not when he was teaching openly, but while he was still a little child, he had the grace of God; and as everything in him was wonderful, so his childhood too was wonderful, so that he was filled with the wisdom of God. “His parents went to Jerusalem, according to custom, for the feast day of the Passover. And when he had become twelve years old.” Observe carefully that before he was twelve years old he was filled with the wisdom of God and with the other things written of him. When, then, as we said, he was twelve years old, and the days of the feast had been completed according to custom, and the parents were returning with the child Jesus, the boy stayed behind in Jerusalem, and his parents did not know it. Here too understand something more sublime than human nature allows. For he did not simply stay behind, with his parents not knowing where he was; but as it is written in John’s Gospel that the Jews were plotting against him and he slipped out of their midst and did not appear, so too now I think the boy stayed behind in Jerusalem and his parents did not know where he had stayed. Nor should we wonder that they are called parents, since the one for giving birth, the other for his service, deserved the names of father and mother. It follows: “We have been seeking you,” it says, “in sorrow.” I do not think they sorrowed because they thought the boy had gone astray or perished; nor could it happen that Mary, who knew that she had conceived by the Holy Spirit, who had heard the angel speaking, the shepherds running, and Simeon prophesying, should fear losing the boy because he had wandered off. Put this opinion away especially regarding Joseph, who had been commanded by an angel to take the child and go to Egypt, and who had heard, “Do not fear to take Mary your wife, for what is born in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Matt 1:20; 2:13). It could never happen that he feared the loss of a child whom he knew to be divine. The sorrow and searching of the parents signify something other than the simple reader understands. Just as you, when you read the Scriptures, seek their meaning with a kind of sorrow and torment, not because you think the Scriptures have erred or contain something wrong, but because they hold within them the word and reason of truth and you cannot find what is true: so they too were seeking him, lest perhaps he had withdrawn from them, lest, leaving them, he had passed over to other places, and, what I think more likely, lest he had returned to heaven, to come down again when it pleased him. So they sought the Son of God in sorrow. And when they sought him, they did not find him among their kinsfolk; for human kinship could not contain the Son of God. They did not find him among their kinsfolk, because divine things were greater than mortal knowledge and understanding. Where, then, do they find him? In the temple; for there the Son of God is found. If you too ever seek the Son of God, seek him first in the temple; hasten there; there you will find Christ, the Word and Wisdom, that is, the Son of God. Since he was a little child, he is found in the midst of the teachers, sanctifying and instructing them. Because he was a little child, he is found in their midst not teaching them but questioning them, and this as befitted his age, to teach us what becomes children, however wise and learned they may be: that they should listen to their teachers rather than desire to teach, and should not boast with vain display. He questioned the teachers, I say, not to learn something, but to instruct them by questioning. For from one fountain of teaching flow both questioning and answering wisely; and it belongs to the same knowledge to know what to ask and what to answer. It was fitting that the Saviour should first become the teacher of learned questioning, so that afterwards he might answer questions according to the reason and word of God; to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “Why were you seeking me?” up to the place where he says, “Mary kept all these words in her heart.” Chapter 2. Mary and Joseph sought Jesus among their relatives and did not find him; in the company, and could not find him. They sought him in the temple, and found him with the teachers, in the midst of the instructors. Wherever there are teachers, Jesus is found in the midst of the teachers, provided the teacher sits in the temple and never goes out of it. Jesus benefited his teachers: those whom he seemed to question he taught, speaking in their midst, and in a sense he roused them to seek what, up to that point, they could not tell whether they knew or did not know. Jesus is found in the midst of the teachers, and when found he says to those who sought him: “Why were you seeking me? Did you not know that I must be in the things that are my Father’s?” First, taking it in the simple sense, let us arm ourselves against the impious heretics who say that the Creator is not the Father of Christ Jesus, nor the God of the law, nor of the prophets. Behold, the God of the temple is declared his Father. Let the Valentinians blush, hearing Jesus say, “I must be in the things that are my Father’s.” Let all the heretics blush who receive the Gospel according to Luke and despise what is written in it. Let these things, as I said, be understood in the simpler sense. But since it is added, “But they did not understand the saying,” let us examine the meaning of Scripture more carefully. Were they so foolish and witless as not to know what he meant, namely that “I must be in the things that are my Father’s” meant “in the temple”? Or does it signify something higher, which edifies the hearers more? Each of us, if he is good and perfect, is a possession of God the Father and has Jesus in his midst. Let us believe him when he says, “I must be in the things that are my Father’s.” I suspect that this is a more rational, living, and true temple of God than the one built as a figure by earthly work. Hence, as he was in that temple as a figure, so he left it as a figure. For he went out of the earthly temple saying, “Behold, your house will be left to you desolate” (Matt 23:38); and leaving that house he came to the possession of God the Father, to the churches spread through the whole world, and says: “I must be among those who are my Father’s.” At that time, then, they did not understand the word that he spoke to them. Notice at the same time this too: as long as he was in his Father’s possession, he was above; and because Joseph and Mary did not yet have full faith, they could not remain above with him; so it is said that he went down with them. Jesus often goes down with his disciples; he does not always stay on the mountain, nor does he hold to the heights without end. He is on the mountain with Peter, with James, with John, and again in another place with the other disciples (Matt 17:1). And because those who were labouring with various sicknesses could not climb the mountain, he went down and came to those who were below. Now too it is written, “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.” Let us learn, children, to be subject to our parents: the greater is subject to the lesser. For because he saw that Joseph was greater in age, he honoured him with a parent’s honour, giving an example to all sons to be subject to their parents. And if they have no fathers, let them be subject to those who are of an age to be their fathers. Why do I speak of parents and children? If Jesus, the Son of God, is subject to Joseph and Mary, shall I not be subject to the bishop, who has been ordained by God as a father to me? Shall I not be subject to the presbyter, who has been set over me by the Lord’s favour? I think that Joseph understood that Jesus, though subject to him, was greater than he, and, knowing that one greater was subject to him, he exercised his authority with trembling. Let each one see, then, that often an inferior is set over better men, and that sometimes it happens that he who is subject is better than he who seems to himself to be set over him. When one higher in rank understands this, he will not be lifted up with pride because he is greater, but will know that a better man is subject to him, just as Jesus too was subject to Joseph. Then it follows: “But Mary kept all these words in her heart.” She suspects something more than of a mere man, and so she kept all his words in her heart, not as those of a boy of twelve years, but as of him who had been conceived by the Holy Spirit, whom she saw advancing in wisdom and grace before God and men. Jesus advanced in wisdom; he was seen to be wiser at each stage of life. Was he not wise, that he should become wiser? Or, since he had emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, was he taking back what he had laid aside, and being filled with the virtues which, a little earlier, when he took a body, he had seemed to leave behind? He advanced, then, not only in wisdom but in age. There is an advance in age. Two ages are spoken of in the Scriptures: one of the body, which is not in our power but under the law of nature; the other of the soul, which properly lies with us, and by which, if we will, we grow daily and come to the summit, so that we are no longer children tossed about and carried around by every wind of doctrine, but, ceasing to be children, begin to be men and say: “When I became a man, I put away the things of a child” (1 Cor 13:11). The advance of this age, as I said, which brings increase to the soul, is in our power. And if this testimony is not enough, let us take this example too from Paul: “Until we all attain,” he says, “to the perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fulness of the body of Christ” (Eph 4:13). It lies with us, then, to attain to the measure of the age of the body of Christ; and if it lies with us, let us strive with all labour to put off the child and destroy him and to attain to the further ages, so that we too may hear: “But you shall go to your fathers in peace, nourished in a good old age,” a spiritual old age, surely, which is truly a good old age, white-haired and reaching to the end, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and honour and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,” up to the place where he says, “Make his paths straight.” Chapter 3. When the prophetic word was sent to the Jews alone, Jewish kings were put in the title. For example: “The vision which Isaiah son of Amos saw against Judaea and against Jerusalem in the reign of Uzziah and Jotham and Ahaz and Hezekiah” (Isa 1:1); and I see no one else named for Isaiah’s time except the kings of Judaea. In some prophets we read the kings of Israel too, as here: “And in the days,” it says, “of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel” (Amos 1:1). But when the mystery of the Gospel was to be preached and the Gospel sown throughout the whole world, with John in the desert as its first herald, the rule of Tiberius governed the Roman world; and then the word of the Lord is described as coming to John in the fifteenth year. And if salvation were to be announced only to those of the nations who were going to believe, and Israel wholly excluded, it would have been enough to say: “In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea.” But because many from Judaea and from Galilee were going to believe, these realms too are put in the title, and it is said: “Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, under the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, the word of the Lord came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.” Long ago the word of God came to Jeremiah son of Hilkiah in Anathoth in the days of Josiah king of Judah (Jer 1:1–2); now the word of God comes to John son of Zechariah in the desert, as it never came to the prophets in the desert. But because the children of the desolate woman were to be more than those of her who has a husband (Gal 4:27; Isa 54:1), the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. And consider at the same time that it makes more sense if the desert is understood mystically and not according to the simple letter. For one who preaches in a desert does a pointless thing, shouting where no one hears him speak. The Forerunner of Christ, then, the voice of one crying in the desert, preaches in the desert of the soul, which had no peace. Not only then but now too, first the burning and shining lamp comes and preaches the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; then the true light follows, when the lamp itself says, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). The word comes in the desert, and he goes into all the region around the Jordan. For what other places should the Baptist have gone round but those near the Jordan, so that whoever wished to repent would be close at hand for the washing of water? Moreover, Jordan is interpreted “descending.” And the descending river of God, running with a broad rush, is our Lord the Saviour, in whom we are baptized. He preaches this true saving water, for the remission of sins as well, in baptism. Come, catechumens, repent, so that you may receive baptism for the remission of sins. He receives baptism for the remission of sins who ceases to sin. For if anyone comes to the washing still sinning, there is no remission of sins for him. Therefore I beseech you, do not come to baptism without caution and careful circumspection, but first show fruits worthy of repentance. Spend some time in good conduct, keep yourselves clean from all filth and vices; and then remission of sins will come to you, when you yourselves have begun to despise your own sins. Forgive your offences, and they will be forgiven you. What is now quoted from the Old Testament we read written in the prophet Isaiah; for there it is said: “The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Isa 40:3). The Lord wants to find a way in you, so that he may enter your souls and make his journey. Prepare for him the path of which it is said, “Make his paths straight.” “The voice of one crying in the desert”: the voice cries, “Prepare the way.” For first the voice reaches the ears; then after the voice, or rather with the voice, the word penetrates the hearing. In this sense Christ was announced by John. Let us see, then, what the voice announces about the Word. “Prepare,” it says, “the way for the Lord.” What way are we to prepare for the Lord? A bodily one? Can the Word of God travel by such a road? Or is the way to be prepared for the Lord within, and a straight and level path laid in our heart? This is the way by which the Word of God has entered, a way that lies within the capacity of a human being. The heart of man is great, wide, and capacious, if only it is pure. Do you want to know its greatness and breadth? See how great a wealth of divine understanding it contains. “He himself,” it says, “gave me knowledge of the things that are, to know the order of the world and the working of the elements, the beginning and end and middle of the ages, the changes of the seasons and the passing of the months, the cycles of the years and the positions of the stars, the natures of animals and the rage of wild beasts, the violence of winds and the thoughts of men, the varieties of trees and the powers of roots.” You see that the heart of man is not small, since it contains so much. Understand this not of bodily size but of its power, which contains so great a knowledge of truth. And so that I may lead even the simple to believe, from everyday examples, that the heart of man is great, let us look. Whatever cities we have passed through we hold in our mind, and their character and the layout of their streets, walls, and buildings turn over in our heart. The road we have travelled we retain in the picture and description of memory; the sea we have sailed we embrace in silent thought. The heart of man, as I said, is not small, since it can contain so much. And if it is not small, containing so much, then the way of the Lord is prepared in it, and the path made straight, so that the Word and Wisdom of God may walk in it. Prepare the way for the Lord by good conduct, and keep the path by excellent works; let the Word of God walk in you without any stumbling and grant you knowledge of his mysteries and of his coming; to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “Every valley shall be filled,” up to the place where he says, “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” Chapter 3. Let us see what is foretold at the coming of Christ; the first thing written among them concerns John: “The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” What follows properly concerns the Lord Saviour. For not every valley was filled by John, but by the Lord Saviour. Let each consider himself, what he was before he believed; then he will notice that he was a low valley, a steep valley sunk into the depths. When the Lord Jesus came and sent the Holy Spirit as his deputy, every valley was filled. It was filled with good works and the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Love does not let you remain a valley. And if you have peace and wisdom and goodness, you will not only cease to be a valley but will begin to be a mountain of God. We see this happening and being fulfilled more every day among the Gentiles: “Every valley shall be filled”; and in the people of Israel, which has been brought down from on high: “Every mountain,” it says, “and hill shall be brought low.” That people was once a mountain and a hill, and it has been brought down and destroyed. “By their offence salvation has been given to the Gentiles, to make them jealous” (Rom 11:11). And if you say that the opposing powers, which were raised up against mortals, are the mountains and hills that have been brought down, you will not be wrong. For that valleys of this kind may be filled, those must be brought low. But let us consider whether this too, which was prophesied of Christ’s coming, has been fulfilled. For it follows: “And all crooked things shall become straight.” Each of us was crooked, if indeed he does not remain so to this day; and through the coming of Christ, which has taken place in our soul, all crooked things have been made straight. For what does it profit you that Christ once came in the flesh, unless he has also come to your soul? Let us pray that his coming may happen to us daily, and that we may say, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). For if Christ lives in Paul and does not live in me, what will it profit me? But when he has come to me too, and I have enjoyed him as Paul enjoyed him, then I too shall speak like Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Let us consider, then, the other things foretold at the coming of Christ. Nothing was rougher than you. Look at your former impulses, look at your anger and the other vices, if indeed they have ceased to be what they were, and you will understand that nothing was rougher than you, and, to speak more pointedly, nothing more uneven. Your conduct was uneven, your speech and works uneven. Then my Lord Jesus came and levelled your rough places, turned all that was disordered into level ways, so that there might be in you a road without stumbling, smooth and most pure, and God the Father might walk in you, and Christ the Lord make his dwelling with you and say: “My Father and I will come and make our dwelling with him” (John 14:23). It follows: “And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” You were once flesh; or rather, to say something more wonderful, while you are still in the flesh you see the salvation of God. What is meant by “all flesh,” so that none is excepted that does not see the salvation of God, I leave to be understood by those who know the mysteries of the Scriptures. We must attend to what John says to those who were coming out to baptism. If anyone wants to be baptized, let him come out. For one who remains in his former state and does not leave his habits and custom does not come to baptism rightly. And so that you may understand what it is to come out to baptism, take the testimony and listen to the words in which God speaks to Abraham: “Go out from your land” (Gen 12:1), and the rest. To the crowds coming out to the washing, then (not those who had come out, but only those coming out), John speaks what follows. For if they had already come out, he would never have said to them, “brood of vipers.” Whatever, then, he says to them, he says to you, catechumens, men and women. You who are planning to come to baptism, take care that it may not perhaps be said to you, “brood of vipers.” And what follows too will be said to you, unless you expel the crookedness and venom of serpents from your heart: “Who showed you how to flee from the wrath to come?” A great wrath hangs over this world: the whole world is to suffer the wrath of God; the wrath of God will overturn the vastness of heaven and the breadth of the earth, the choirs of stars, the splendour of the sun, and the nightly comfort of the moon. For all these things will pass away because of the sins of men. Long ago the wrath of God came only upon all things on earth, “because all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth” (Gen 6:12); but now the wrath of God is to come upon heaven and upon earth: “The heavens will pass away, but you will remain” (it is said to God), “and they will all grow old like a garment” (Ps 102:26). See of what kind and how great the wrath is that is to consume the whole world; it will punish those who deserve punishment, and will find material on which to work. Each of us, by what he has done, has prepared material for the wrath. For “according to your hardness and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God,” it is said to the Romans (Rom 2:5). Then follows: “Who showed you how to flee from the wrath to come? Bear, therefore, fruits worthy of repentance.” And to you who come to baptism it is said: “Bear fruits worthy of repentance.” Do you want to know what the fruits of repentance are? Love is the fruit of the Spirit; joy is the fruit of the Spirit; peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control, and the rest of that kind (Gal 5:22–23). If we have all these, we have borne fruits worthy of repentance. Again it is said to those who came to John’s baptism: “And do not begin to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father; for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” John, the last of the prophets, prophesies the casting out of the former people and the calling of the Gentiles. For to those who boasted of Abraham he says: “And do not begin to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father.” And of the Gentiles he says: “For I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” From what stones? He was surely not pointing to irrational, bodily stones, but to human beings without sense and once hard, in whom, because they worshipped stones and wood, was fulfilled what was sung in the psalm: “Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them” (Ps 115:8). Truly those who make idols and trust in them are like their gods: without sense, without any reason, they have been turned into stones and wood. For though they see such great order, beauty, and function in creation, such great beauty of the world, they will not understand the Creator from his creatures, nor do they consider that there is some providence in so great an ordering, some ruler; but they are blind, seeing the world only with those eyes with which irrational cattle and beasts see. For they do not notice that in the things they see, which are governed by reason, some reason is present. This because John had said: “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” Let us too, then, beseech God that, if we were ever stones, we may be turned into children of Abraham in place of those wretched ones who were cast out and lost the promise and the adoption by their own fault. I will set down one more testimony about stones. In the song of Exodus it is written: “Let them be turned into stones, until your people pass over, O Lord, until this people of yours whom you have acquired pass over” (Exod 15:16). God is asked, then, that we be turned for a while into stones (for this is what the Greek, ἀπολιθωθήτωσαν, expresses more pointedly) until the people of the Jews passes over. There is no doubt that, after they have passed over, the Gentiles will cease to be stony and, in place of a hard heart, will receive in Christ a human and rational nature; to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “Behold, the axe is laid at the root of the trees,” up to the place where he says, “Tax collectors also came to be baptized by him.” Chapter 3. John was saying already at that time, “Behold, the axe is laid at the root of the trees.” If the consummation had already been coming on and the end of the ages at hand, no question would arise for me. For I would say that “Behold, the axe is laid at the root of the tree,” and “For every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire,” were prophesied because they were being fulfilled at that time. But since so many ages have flowed by since then, and so countless years have passed from that time to the present day, we must inquire how the Holy Spirit says in the prophet, “Behold, the axe is laid at the root of the trees.” I think it is prophesied to the people of Israel that its cutting down is near. For to those who were coming out to him to be baptized he said, among other things, “Bear fruits worthy of repentance”; and he said, as if to Jews, “Do not begin to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father; for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” So when he says, “Behold, the axe is laid at the root of the trees,” he is speaking to the Jews. With this sense agrees also the apostle’s statement that by this axe of unbelief the branches were broken off and cut away, so that it cut off from the tree not the root but what had sprouted from the root, so that branches of the wild olive could be grafted onto the root of the original tree (Rom 11:17–20). “Every tree, then, that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire”: for it has this end, to be burned up in the fire. Then three classes are brought in asking John about their salvation: one which Scripture calls the crowds going out to baptism, another which it names tax collectors, the third which is classed under the name of soldiers. “The crowds asked him, saying, What shall we do? And he answered them: Whoever has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and whoever has food, let him do likewise.” I do not know whether this is a fitting command for the crowd. It suits apostles rather than the common people that one who has two tunics should give one to him who has none. And so that you may know that this suits apostles rather than the people, hear what the Saviour says to them: “Do not take two tunics on the road” (Matt 10:10). The double garment, then, with which each is clothed, and the command to give the other to one who has none, have a different meaning. For the Saviour wants us, just as we must not serve two masters, so also not to have two tunics nor to be wrapped in a double garment, lest one be the clothing of the old man and the other of the new. On the contrary, he desires that we strip off the old man and put on the new. Thus far the explanation is easy. But it is asked how, according to this interpretation, we are commanded to give the garment to one who has none. Who is this who has not even one garment upon his flesh, who is naked, who is covered by no garment at all? I do not say this as though generosity and mercy to the poor were not commanded; it is an exceeding mercy that we should cover even the naked with our second tunic. But I say this: that this passage looks also to a deeper understanding, and that the tunic must be given to one who had none at all. Who, then, is this who has no tunic? Surely he who has no God at all. We must strip ourselves, then, and give it to him who is naked. One has God; another, the opposing power, has him not at all. And as it is written that we should cast our sins into the depth of the sea (Mic 7:19), so vices and sins must be thrown away from us and thrown upon him who was the cause of them for us. “And whoever has food,” it says, “let him do likewise.” Whoever has food, let him give to him who has none, so that he may bestow on him not only a garment but also something to eat. “Tax collectors also came to be baptized by him.” Even according to the simple understanding this teaches tax collectors to seek nothing more than is commanded in the law; for those who exact more transgress not John’s command but that of the Holy Spirit who spoke in John. But I do not know whether, according to the anagogical sense, the passage signifies something more excellent, and whether we ought to bring out such mystical things in such an audience, especially among those who do not look into the marrow of the Scriptures but delight only in the surface. It is dangerous, but must nevertheless be touched on briefly and in passing. When we have gone out from the world and this life of ours has been changed, there will be some sitting at the boundaries of the world, as if in the office of tax collectors, searching most diligently to see whether they find anything of theirs in us. The prince of this world seems to me to be like a tax collector; hence it is written of him: “The prince of this world comes, and he has nothing in me” (John 14:30). That too which we read in the apostle, “Render to all their dues: tax to whom tax, toll to whom toll, honour to whom honour; owe no one anything except to love one another” (Rom 13:7–8), is to be understood in a sacred sense. Therefore let us take care lest, when we have nothing we can pay as toll, we ourselves be dragged off for the debt, as happens with the tax collectors of the world too, when someone is shut up to serve the state itself for a debt. Many of us are to be held by tax collectors of this kind. Jacob, that holy man, did not greatly fear them, nor was he afraid that anything owed in the tax collectors’ tolls would be found in him. Hence he spoke boldly to that tax collector Laban: “See whether anything of yours is with me” (Gen 31:32); on which Scripture bears witness, saying: “And Laban found nothing with Jacob.” Our Saviour, then, and the Holy Spirit who spoke in the prophets, teach not only human beings but also angels and invisible powers. Why do I speak of the Saviour? The prophets themselves too and the apostles preach all that they utter not only to human beings but also to angels. That you may know this is true: “Attend, heaven,” it says, “and I will speak”; and, “In the sight of the angels I will sing to you”; and, “Praise the Lord, heavens of heavens, and let the waters that are above the heavens praise the name of the Lord”; and, “Let his angels praise him”; and, “In every place of his dominion, bless the Lord, my soul.” You find in very many places, especially in the psalms, that speech is addressed to angels too, power being given to man, to one, however, who has the Holy Spirit, to speak even to angels. Of these I will give one example, so that we may know that angels too are instructed by human voices. It is written in the Apocalypse of John: “To the angel of the church of the Ephesians write: I have something against you”; and again, “To the angel of the church at Pergamum write: I have something against you.” Surely it is a man who writes to angels and gives them some command. I do not doubt that angels are present in our assembly too, not only in general to every church but also individually; of them the Saviour says: “Their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 18:10). There is a double church present here, one of human beings, the other of angels. If we say anything according to reason and according to the intent of the Scriptures, the angels rejoice and pray with us. And because angels are present in the church, at least in the church that deserves it and belongs to Christ, women when they pray are commanded to have a covering on the head because of the angels (1 Cor 11:10), namely those who attend the saints and rejoice in the church. We do not see them, because our eyes are smeared with the filth of sins; but the apostles of Jesus see them, to whom he says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (John 1:51). If I had this grace, to see as the apostles saw and to behold as Paul beheld, I would now perceive a multitude of angels, as Elisha saw, while Gehazi, who stood with him, did not. Gehazi was afraid of being captured by the enemy, since Elisha alone could see. But Elisha, as a prophet of the Lord, prays and says: “O Lord, open the eyes of this boy, and let him see that many more are with us than with them” (2 Kgs 6:16–17). And at once, at the holy man’s prayer, Gehazi beheld the angels he had not seen before. We have said this to show that tax collectors were taught by John, not only those who serve the public revenues, but also those who came to repentance. There were other tax collectors besides the bodily ones, as there were also other soldiers, who came out to the baptism of repentance. For not only John the prophet came, but the Saviour himself, to preach saving repentance to human beings and to angels and to the other powers, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:10–11); to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “I baptize you with water,” up to the place where he says, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Chapter 3. The people received John, who is less than Christ, wondering and thinking whether perhaps he himself was the Christ; but him who had come, greater than John, they did not receive. Do you want to know the reason? Learn it: John’s baptism was seen; Christ’s baptism was invisible. “For I,” he says, “baptize you in water; but he who comes after me is greater than I; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” When does Jesus baptize with the Holy Spirit, and again when does he baptize with fire? Does he baptize with Spirit and fire at one and the same time, or at different and separate times? “But you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” The apostles were baptized with the Holy Spirit after his ascension into heaven (Acts 2); but Scripture does not record that they were baptized with fire. But just as John by the river Jordan waited for those who came to baptism, and drove some away, saying, “Brood of vipers,” and the rest, but received those who confessed their vices and sins, so the Lord Jesus will stand in the river of fire beside the flaming sword (Gen 3:24), so that whoever, after departing this life, desires to pass over to paradise and needs purification, he may baptize in this stream and send across to what he longs for; but whoever does not have the sign of the earlier baptisms, he will not baptize in the washing of fire. For one must first be baptized with water and the Spirit, so that, when he comes to the river of fire, he may show that he has kept the washings of water and of the Spirit, and then deserve to receive also the baptism of fire in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the people’s suspicion about John, whether perhaps he himself was the Christ. Chapter 3. Even love has its danger if it goes beyond measure. For one who loves someone ought to consider the nature and merits of the one loved, and not love him more than he deserves. For if he goes beyond the measure and limit of love, both the one who loves and the one who is loved will be in sin. To make this clearer, let us give an example. The people admired John and loved him; and indeed he was worthy of wonder, so that more should be granted to him than to other men, because he had lived differently from all mortals. We are not all content with simple food, but delight in a variety of dishes; one wine does not suffice us to drink, and we buy wines of varied taste. But John always ate locusts, always wild honey, and was content with simple and meagre food, lest his body grow fat on richer fare and be weighed down by exquisite dishes; for our bodies are of such a nature that they are weighed down by superfluous food, and when the body is weighed down, the soul too is burdened, which, spread through the whole body, is subject to its passions. Therefore it is rightly commanded to those who can observe it: “It is good not to eat meat nor drink wine, nor anything by which your brother is made to stumble” (Rom 14:21). John, then, was of a wonderful life and very different from the conduct of other men. He had no purse, no servant, not even a mean hut. He lived in the desert not only until the day of his manifestation to Israel, but even at the time when he was preaching repentance to the people he was in the wilderness of Judaea and refreshed himself with plain water, so as to be different from others in drink too. We who live in cities, in the midst of crowds, seek finer clothes and food and lodgings; but see with what clothing he who lived in the desert was dressed. He had made himself a tunic of camel’s hair and was girded with a leather belt. Everything in him was new, and because of the unlikeness of his life all who saw him admired him, and admiring him honoured him most zealously, above all because he baptized the penitent for the remission of sins. For these reasons they loved him most justly, but did not keep measure in their love: for they wondered whether perhaps he himself was the Christ. Guarding against this disordered and irrational love, the apostle Paul said of himself: “But I fear lest anyone should think of me beyond what he sees in me or hears from me, and lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me” (2 Cor 12:6–7), and so on. Fearing that he too might incur this, he did not wish to declare about himself all that he knew, lest anyone should think him more than he saw and, exceeding the measure of honour, say what had been said of John, that he himself was the Christ. Some indeed said this of Dositheus, the heresiarch of the Samaritans, and others of Judas the Galilean. Indeed, some broke out into such boldness of love that they invented certain new and unheard-of monstrosities about Paul. For some say that the saying about sitting at the right and left of the Saviour is said of Paul and Marcion: that Paul sits at the right, Marcion at the left. Others again, reading, “I will send you the Advocate, the Spirit of truth,” will not understand it of the third Person, besides the Father and the Son, a divine and sublime nature, but of the apostle Paul. Do not all these seem to you to have loved more than is expedient, and, while admiring each one’s virtue, to have lost the measure of love? We suffer this in the church: many, loving us more than we deserve, boast and say things in praise of our sermons and teaching which our conscience does not accept. Others, slandering our treatises, accuse us of holding what we know we have never held. But neither those who love too much nor those who hate keep the rule of truth: some lie through love, others through hatred. Hence we must put a bridle on love and allow it only so much freedom to roam that it does not fall over the precipice. It is written in Ecclesiastes: “Do not be overly righteous, nor think more than you should, lest perhaps you be stupefied” (Eccl 7:16). Following this example I can say something similar: Do not love a man with all your soul and with all your strength; do not love an angel with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength; but keep the commandment, according to the Saviour’s word, for God alone. For “you shall love,” he says, “the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Matt 22:37). Someone may answer me and say: The Saviour commands, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength, and your neighbour as yourself.” I want to love Christ; teach me, then, how I should love him. For if I love him with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my strength, I act against the commandment, by loving another besides the one God in this way. But if I love him less than the almighty Father, I fear I may be found impious and profane towards the Firstborn of all creation. Teach me and show me the reason, how, walking in the middle between the two, I ought to love Christ. Do you want to know with what love Christ is to be loved? Listen briefly. You shall love the Lord your God in Christ. Do you think one can have a different love for the Father and for the Son? Love the Lord Christ together with him. Love the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father, with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength. And if someone inquires and says, Prove from the Scriptures what you assert, let him hear the apostle Paul, who had a rational love, saying: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor strength nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour” (Rom 8:38–39); to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor,” up to the place where he says, “And he will gather the wheat into his barn.” Chapter 3. Christ is God; and whoever worships him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24). Our God is also a consuming fire (Deut 4:24). God is called by two names, spirit and fire: spirit to the righteous, fire to sinners. So too angels are called spirits and fire: “Who makes,” it says, “his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire” (Heb 1:7). To the holy, angels are spirits; but to those who deserve it they bring fire and supply burning. In this sense our God and Saviour too, though he is spirit, came to cast fire upon the earth. He is spirit, according to what is written: “But when you turn to the Lord, the veil will be taken away; and the Lord is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:16–17). But he came to cast fire not upon heaven but upon the earth, as he himself shows when he says: “I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I will but that it be kindled already?” (Luke 12:49). For if you have turned to the Lord, who is spirit, Christ will be spirit to you, and he does not come to cast fire upon the earth. But if you do not turn to God, but have earth and its fruit, he comes to cast fire upon your earth. Something like this is written also of God: “The fire of his wrath has been kindled, not up to heaven above but down to the underworld below, and it will devour not heaven but the earth and its produce.” Why have I mentioned these things? Because the baptism with which Jesus baptizes is in the Holy Spirit and in fire. I remember what I said recently, and the earlier explanation still stands; but I want to bring in something new as well. If you are holy, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit; if a sinner, you will be plunged into fire; and one and the same baptism will be turned into condemnation and fire for the unworthy and for sinners, while to those who are holy and turn to the Lord with full faith the grace of the Holy Spirit and salvation will be given. He, then, who is said to baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire has his winnowing fork in his hand, and will clear his threshing floor, and will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. I want to find the reason why our Lord has a winnowing fork, and why the light chaff is carried off here and there by a gentle wind, while the heavy wheat is brought together into one place; for without wind wheat and chaff cannot be separated. I think temptations are to be understood by the wind, which, in the mixed heap of believers, show some to be chaff and others wheat. For when your soul has been overcome by some temptation, it is not the temptation that turns you into chaff; but because you were chaff, that is, light and unbelieving, the temptation shows what you were in secret. On the contrary, when you bear trials bravely, it is not the temptation that makes you faithful and patient; it brings into the open the virtue of patience and fortitude that was in you and was hidden. “Do you think,” says the Lord, “that I spoke to you for any other reason than that you might appear righteous?” And elsewhere: “I afflicted you and brought you into want, that what was in your heart might be made manifest.” In this way too the storm does not make a building stand on sand or on firm ground: when it arises, it will not overthrow what is founded on firm ground, but what wavers on sand it proves at once not to have been well founded. Therefore, before the storm arises, before the blasts of the winds rise up, before the rivers swell, while all is still quiet, let us turn all our effort to the foundations of our buildings; let us build our house with the varied and firm stones of God’s commandments, so that when persecution rages against Christians and a hard whirlwind rises, we may show that we have a building upon the rock, Christ Jesus (Matt 7:24–25). But if anyone (may it be far from us) denies Christ, let him know that he did not deny Christ at the moment when he seemed to deny him; he had long had the seeds and roots of denial, and at that time what he had was recognized and brought into the open. Let us pray, then, to the Lord that we may be a building that no storm overturns, founded upon the rock, through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “With many other exhortations he preached,” up to the place where he says, “The Holy Spirit descended upon him.” Chapter 3. One who teaches the word of the Gospel announces not one thing but very many. This is what Scripture signifies when it says: “With many other exhortations he preached.” So John preached to the people other things too which are not written; but consider how many of those that are written announce Christ. For he pointed to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, preached salvation to tax collectors, taught soldiers discipline, spoke of the clearing of the threshing floor and the cutting down of trees, and the other things the Gospel history narrates. Besides what is written, then, he is shown to have announced also things that are not written, in that it is said: “With many other exhortations he preached to the people.” And as it is related of Christ in the Gospel according to John that he said many other things which are not written in this book, which, if they were written, I think the world itself could not contain the books that would be written (John 21:25), so understand in the present passage that perhaps Luke, since some things announced by John were too great to be entrusted to writing, did not wish to state them by name but only indicated that they had been said; and therefore he said, “With many other exhortations he preached to the people.” Let us admire John for what follows, above all that among those born of women none was greater than John the Baptist (Matt 11:11), and that by the merit of his virtue he rose to such a reputation that he was thought by many to be the Christ; but there is something much more wonderful. Herod the tetrarch had royal power and could kill him when he wished (Mark 6:17–18); and when he had done an unjust thing, against the law of Moses, taking his brother’s wife, who had a daughter by her former husband, John did not fear him, did not defer to his person, did not, as I said, consider his royal power, did not dread death; for he knew, even had he not been a prophet, that if provoked Herod could kill him. Knowing all this, he rebuked Herod with prophetic freedom and denounced the incestuous marriage; and for this he was shut in prison, where he was concerned not about death nor about the uncertain outcome of his trial, but in chains he thought about Christ, whom he had announced. And because he could not go to him himself, he sends his disciples to ask, “Are you he who is to come, or do we look for another?” You notice that he taught even in prison, since he had disciples even in that place, and for that reason he was instructing them there himself. And when among other things a question arose about Jesus, he sends some of his disciples and asks, “Are you he who is to come, or do we look for another?” The disciples return and report to their master what the Saviour had commanded them to report; armed for battle by his words, John dies confidently and is gladly beheaded, strengthened by the very voice of the Lord in his belief that he was truly the Son of God. So much about John and his freedom, and about the madness of Herod, who added this to his many crimes, first shutting John in prison and afterwards beheading him. But since the Lord was baptized, and the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him, and a voice thundered from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”: it must be said that at the baptism of Jesus heaven was unlocked, and that the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended for the dispensation and the remission of sins, not his, who had committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth (1 Pet 2:22), but the sins of the whole world; so that, after the Lord had ascended on high and led captivity captive, he might give us the Spirit who had come to him. He had indeed given him already at the time of the resurrection, saying: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they will be forgiven them; if you retain anyone’s, they will be retained” (John 20:22–23). For the Holy Spirit descended upon the Saviour in the form of a dove, a gentle, innocent, and simple bird. Hence we too are commanded to imitate the innocence of doves. Such is the Holy Spirit: pure, winged, rising on high. Therefore in prayer we say: “Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will rest?” (Ps 55:6), that is, who will give me the wings of the Holy Spirit? And in another place the prophetic word promises: “If you sleep among the lots, the wings of a dove covered with silver, and the back parts of her back in the paleness of gold” (Ps 68:13). For if we rest among the lots of the Old and New Testaments, the wings of a dove covered with silver will be given us, that is, the words of God, and her back parts gleaming with the brightness and sheen of gold, so that our understanding may be filled with the understanding of the Holy Spirit, that is, that our speech and mind may be filled by his coming, and we may neither say nor understand anything except what he has suggested; and that all sanctification, in heart, in words, and in deed, may come from the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the genealogy of the Saviour, in that different ancestors are given for him in Matthew and in Luke. Chapter 3. Our Lord and Saviour, who is the Saviour of many, whose better generation Scripture did not teach, is now described as born according to the order of the fathers. And though his divinity is not subject to a beginning, he willed to be born for your sake, who were born in the flesh; and yet the order of his birth is not told in the same way by the evangelists, a thing that has greatly disturbed some. For Matthew, beginning to weave the series of his birth, goes from Abraham until he reaches the point of saying, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was thus”; and he describes not him who was baptized but him who came into the world. Luke, however, setting out his birth, does not lead down from higher to lower, but, having first spoken of him as baptized, goes up to God himself. Nor are the same persons in his generation when he is said to descend and when he is said to ascend. For the one who presents him as descending brings in women, and not just any, but sinners and those whom Scripture had censured; while the one who narrates him as baptized makes mention of no woman. For in Matthew, as we said, Tamar is named, who lay by fraud with her father-in-law; and Ruth the Moabite, not of the race of Israel; and Rahab, whose origin I cannot tell; and the wife of Uriah, who violated her husband’s bed. For since our Lord and Saviour had come for this purpose, to take upon himself the sins of human beings (and God made him who had committed no sin to be sin for us), therefore, descending into the world, he took on the person of sinful and vicious human beings, and willed to be born of the stock of Solomon, whose sins are recorded, and of Rehoboam, whose offences are related, and of the others, many of whom did evil in the sight of God. But when he ascends from the washing and a second order is described, he is born not through Solomon but through Nathan, who rebuked his father over the death of Uriah and the birth of Solomon. Moreover, in Matthew the word “begot” is always added, but here it is wholly absent. For there it is written: “Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah and his brothers, Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar,” and “begot” is always set down to the end. But in Luke, where Jesus ascends from the washing, he is called “son”: “being, as was thought, the son of Joseph”; and in so long a series of names, apart from his being thought the son of Joseph, the word for begetting is not written. In Matthew “beginning” is not written; but here, because he was to ascend from baptism, “beginning” is read, Scripture reporting: “And Jesus himself was beginning.” For when he was baptized and took up the mystery of the second birth, so that you too might destroy the former birth and be born in the second regeneration, then he is said to have begun. And as the people of the Jews, when it was in Egypt, had no beginning of months, but when it went out of Egypt was then told, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months, the first of the months of the year” (Exod 12:2), so one who has not yet been baptized is not said to have begun. Let us not think that “beginning” was added for nothing to the words “Jesus himself was.” And what he says, “about thirty years old,” must also be considered. Joseph was thirty years old when he was released from bonds and, having interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, was made ruler of Egypt and gathered wheat in the time of plenty, so as to have something to distribute in the time of famine. I think that Joseph’s thirty years went before as a figure of the Saviour’s thirty years. For this Joseph did not gather such wheat as that Joseph in Egypt, but true and heavenly wheat, so that, having gathered wheat in the time of plenty, he might have something to distribute when famine was sent upon Egypt: not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of God (Amos 8:11). He gathers from the prophets, from the law, from the apostles, words of abundance, so that, when books are no longer being written, nor any new testament composed, nor are the apostles sending out what Jesus had brought into the apostles’ barns, that is, into their souls and those of all the saints, he may distribute it and nourish Egypt in peril of famine, and above all his brothers, of whom it is written: “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing to you” (Ps 22:22). Other people too have words of patience, words of justice, and words of the other virtues: this is the wheat that Joseph distributed to the Egyptians. But there is another grain that he distributed to his brothers, that is, to his disciples, from the land of Goshen, the land that looks to the east: the wheat of the Gospel, the wheat of the apostles. From this wheat we must make bread, yet so that it is not mixed with the old leaven; and let us have new bread from the wheat of the Scriptures, flour ground in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned,” and on his first temptation. Chapter 4. When you read in the Gospel, “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned,” and in the Acts of the Apostles where it is said that they were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4), take care not to think the apostles equal to the Saviour; but know that Jesus, the apostles, and any other of the saints are full of the Holy Spirit according to the measure of their vessel. For example, if you wish to say, “These vessels are full of wine or oil,” you do not at once judge that they are full with an equal measure (for one can hold a sextarius, another an urn, another an amphora); in the same way both Jesus and Paul were full of the Holy Spirit, but Paul’s vessel was much smaller than Jesus’ vessel, and yet each was full according to its measure. Having received baptism, then, the Saviour, full of the Holy Spirit, who had come upon him from heaven in the form of a dove, was led by the Spirit. For since “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Rom 8:14), and he, beyond all others, was properly the Son of God, he too had to be led by the Holy Spirit. For it is written: “And he was led by the Spirit into the desert” (Matt 4:1). For forty days Jesus is tempted, and what the temptations were we do not know; perhaps they were passed over because they were too great to be entrusted to writing. If one may say so: as the world could not contain all the books, if what Jesus did and taught had been written, so the world could not have borne the forty days’ temptations by which the Lord was tempted by the devil, had Scripture told them. It is enough for us to know only this, that he was in the desert forty days, was tempted by the devil, and ate nothing in those days. For he was putting to death the mind of the flesh by constant and continuous fasting; and when the days were completed, he was hungry. “And the devil said to him: If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” “Tell this stone,” he says. What stone? Surely the devil was pointing to the one he wanted to become bread. What kind of temptation is this? When the Son had asked the Father for bread, would the crafty deceiver give a stone instead of bread? Was this what the devil wanted, that the stone should become bread, and not rather that he might turn, not a stone into bread, but a man into the stone which he had pointed to as bread? I think that to this day the devil shows a stone and urges each one to say, “Tell this stone to become bread.” With every temptation with which human beings were to be tempted, the Lord, by reason of his taking of flesh, was tempted first; and he is tempted so that we too, through his victory, may conquer. What I am saying may perhaps be obscure unless it is made clearer by an example. If you see heretics eating the falsehood of their doctrines as bread, know that their teaching is the stone that the devil shows. And do not think that he has only one stone; he has many stones, and Matthew brings him in saying, “Tell these stones to become loaves” (Matt 4:3). Marcion said it, and the devil’s stone became bread for him. Valentinus said it, and another stone was turned into bread for him. Basilides too had such a thing, and the other heretics. Hence we must take careful precautions lest, eating the devil’s stone, we think we are eating the bread of God. Otherwise, what temptation was there in bread being made from a stone and eaten by the Saviour? Suppose that at the devil’s proposal the Lord turned a stone into bread, ate what he had made by his own power, and satisfied his hunger: what kind of temptation, what victory over the devil, would this be, if these things were written in the simple sense? But considered with the reasoning we have given, they show both that it would have been a temptation had these things been done, and a victory in that their doing was scorned. At the same time it is shown that this bread which is made from a stone is not the word of God, which feeds a man, of which it is written: “Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God shall man live.” I will answer you, crafty and wicked one, who are not afraid to tempt me: there is another bread, the word of God, which gives life to man. And let us note at the same time that it is not the Son of God who says this, but the man whom the Son of God deigned to assume; for he answers as a man and says, “It is written, Man lives not by bread alone” (Matt 4:4); from which it is clear that it was not God but the man who was tempted. Sifting the meaning of Scripture carefully, I think I find the reason why John did not describe the Lord’s temptation, but only Matthew, Luke, and Mark. For John, who had begun from God, saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1), and could not weave the order of a divine generation but had only expressed that he was from God and with God, added, “And the Word became flesh.” And since God, of whom he was speaking, cannot be tempted, he does not bring in his being tempted by the devil. But since “the book of the generation of Jesus Christ” is narrated of him in Matthew’s Gospel, and his generation is described in Luke, and in Mark it is a man who is tempted, therefore a like answer is reported: “Man lives not by bread alone.” If, then, the Son of God, who is God, became man for you and is tempted, you who are by nature a man should not be indignant if perhaps you are tempted. And if, when tempted, you imitate him who was tempted for you, and overcome every temptation, you will have hope with him who was then a man but now has ceased to be a man. For he who was once a man, after he was tempted and the devil departed from him until the time of his death, has risen from the dead and will die no more; but every man is subject to death; therefore he who will never die is no longer a man but God. And if he who was once a man is God, you too must become like him. When we are like him and see him as he is, you too will necessarily become God, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Both the Son of God and the Antichrist are eager to reign. But the Antichrist desires to reign in order to kill those he has subjected to himself; Christ reigns in order to save. And each of us, if he is blessed, is ruled by Christ: by the Word, by wisdom, by righteousness, by truth. But if we are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, we are ruled by sin, of which the apostle says: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body” (Rom 6:12). Two kings, then, hasten to reign in rivalry: the devil, king of sin, over sinners; Christ, king of righteousness, over the righteous. And the devil, knowing that Christ had come to take away his kingdom, so that those who were under him might begin to be under Christ, showed him all the kingdoms of the world and of the people of this age: how some are ruled by sexual immorality, others by avarice; some are carried away by the pursuit of popularity, others captured by the allurements of beauty. Nor should it be thought that, in showing him the kingdoms of the world, he showed him, for example, the kingdom of the Persians and that of the Indians; but he showed him all the kingdoms of the world, that is, his own kingdom, how he reigned in the world, so that, urging him to do what he wanted, he might begin to have even Christ subject to him. “Do you want,” he says, “to reign over these people?” He showed him the countless multitudes of people who were held under his rule. And indeed, if we are willing to confess our misery and unhappiness plainly, the devil is king of almost the whole world; hence he is called by the Saviour the prince of this world. When he says, then, “You see these people who are under my rule,” he showed him in a moment of time, that is, in the present course of the ages, which in comparison with eternity is like a moment. For the Saviour had no need for the dignities and affairs of this age to be shown him: as soon as he turned the gaze of his eyes to look, he saw the sins that reign and those who are ruled by vices, and the prince of the world himself, the devil, coming upon him and rejoicing, to his own destruction, that he had so many under his rule. So the devil says to the Lord: Have you come to fight against me and take from my rule those whom I now hold subject? I do not want you to contend, I do not want you to struggle, lest you have any trouble in the contest. There is one thing I ask: fall down and worship me, and receive all the kingdom I hold. But our Lord and Saviour does want to reign, and to have all nations subject to him, so that they may serve righteousness, truth, and the other virtues; but he wants to reign as righteousness, so as to reign without stain and do nothing unseemly; and he does not want to be crowned without labour by becoming subject to the devil, nor to reign over others in such a way that he himself is ruled by the devil. So Jesus says to him: “It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve” (Matt 4:10). All these, he says, I want to be subject to me precisely so that they may worship the Lord God and serve him only. This is the desire of my kingdom. But you want me to receive from you sins, which I have come to destroy, and which I long to take away from others too. Know and understand that I abide by what I said: that the Lord God alone may be worshipped; and I will bring all these under my power and subject them to my kingdom. Let us too rejoice to be subject to him, and let us pray the Lord that he may put to death the sin that reigns in our body, and that Christ Jesus alone may reign in us, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Search the Scriptures, so that even in passages thought to be simple you may find mysteries of no small importance. Let us search the beginning of the Gospel reading, all of us who heard it today, and what was hidden comes into the open. “And the devil brought Jesus to Jerusalem.” It is incredible that the devil should lead the Son of God and that he should follow. He followed, plainly, as an athlete going to the contest, setting out of his own accord. He did not dread the tempter, nor fear the snares of the most cunning enemy, and in a sense he said: Lead where you will, tempt as you please. I give myself freely to be tempted; I endure what you suggest. I offer myself in whatever you tempt me with; you will find me stronger in everything. “So he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said: If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.” He brought him to the top, to the summit of the temple, and urges him to throw himself down from there. When he proposed this deceitfully and pressed him with the lure of glory, the Saviour said: “It is written: You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” And consider at the same time how the devil tempts. He dares to tempt from no other source: taking a testimony from the divine books, from the psalms, he says: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written: He has commanded his angels concerning you, and they will bear you up in their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” Where did you get the knowledge, devil, that these things are written? Have you read the prophets, or come to know the divine oracles? Though you are silent, I will answer for you. You read them, not that you yourself might become better by reading holy things, but that by their plain sense you might kill those who are friends of the letter. You know that if you wished to speak from other books, you would deceive no one, and your assertions could have no authority. So Marcion read the Scriptures, like the devil; so Basilides, so Valentinus, so as to say with the devil to the Saviour: “It is written that he has commanded his angels concerning you, and they will bear you up in their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone” (Matt 4:6). If ever you hear a testimony from Scripture, take care not to assent at once to the speaker, but consider whose it is, what his opinion is, what his intent; lest perhaps he pretend to be holy when he is not, and, infected with the poison of heresy, a wolf lurk under a sheep’s skin, lest perhaps the devil be speaking in him from the Scriptures. And as the devil speaks from the Scriptures as occasion offers, so, on the contrary, Paul, for the benefit of his hearers, takes testimony not only from the Scriptures but also from secular books, and says: “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies.” And again, from another: “For we are also his offspring.” And from the comic poet: “Evil conversations corrupt good morals” (1 Cor 15:33). But neither will the devil, if he speaks from the Scriptures, be able to deceive me on that account; nor will Paul, if he takes some example from pagan literature, in any way put me off his words. For Paul took words even from those outside precisely in order to sanctify them. Let us see, then, what the devil says to the Lord from the Scriptures. For it is written: “He has commanded his angels concerning you, and they will bear you up in their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” See how crafty he is even in the testimonies themselves. For he wants to diminish the glory of the Saviour, as though he needed the help of angels and would strike his foot unless he were lifted up by their hands. He takes a testimony and interprets it of Christ, though it is written not of Christ but of the saints in general. Freely and with full confidence I contradict the devil: this cannot be understood of the person of Christ. For he has no need of the help of angels who is greater than the angels and has obtained an inheritance and a name better than theirs. “To which of the angels did God ever say: You are my Son, today I have begotten you?” (Heb 1:5). To none of them did he speak as to a son: “Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire”; but he spoke so to his own Son properly, of whom he says countless things in the prophets. The Son of God, I say, has no need of the help of angels. Learn rather, devil, that unless Jesus helps the angels, they will strike their foot. And if any of the angels has been seen to strike his foot (of whom we read a little while ago that “we shall judge angels”), he struck it because he did not stretch out his hand to Jesus, so that, held by him, he might not stumble. For because you trust in your own power and do not call upon the protection of Jesus, you strike your foot, and you have refused to believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God. And so that you may know that you have interpreted it badly, and that what follows is to be understood not of Christ but of the saints, listen. It is not Jesus Christ whom God delivers from ruin and the noonday demon, but the saints. Read the ninetieth psalm, which begins, “He who dwells in the help of the Most High will abide in the protection of the God of heaven,” and you will find that these words fit a righteous man rather than the Son of God: “A thousand will fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you; yet with your eyes you will look and see the reward of sinners,” and the rest, which is to be interpreted of the person of the righteous man. But even so, perversely adducing testimonies so as to claim that they are to be understood of the Saviour, the devil keeps silent and passes over the verses written against himself. For when he had said, “He has commanded his angels concerning you, and they will bear you up in their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone,” he kept silent about what follows: “You will walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you will trample the lion and the dragon.” Why are you silent, devil, unless because you are the basilisk, you are the little king of all serpents, having more harmful poison than the rest? You kill anyone as soon as you see him, and you take as your ally another opposing power, which is called the asp and is subject to the righteous man; and for this reason you keep silent about it all. You are the dragon, you are the lion, of whom it is written: “You will tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and you will trample the lion and the dragon.” But though you keep silent, we who read the Scriptures more rightly know that we have power to trample you, and that this authority has been given us not only in the Old Testament, as is now sung in the psalm, but also in the New, as the Saviour says: “Behold, I give you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will harm you” (Luke 10:19). Let us take up arms, strengthened by so great a power, and do everything so that by our conduct we may trample the lion and the dragon. And so that you may know how the lion is trampled and the dragon crushed, read the Epistle of Paul in which he says that sinners are trampled by the Son of God. As, then, one who is a sinner is trampled by the Son of God, so, on the contrary, one who is righteous tramples the lion and the dragon, and tramples all the power of the enemy, in the name of Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit,” up to the place where he says, “And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.” Chapter 4. First, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert for forty days. While he was being tempted by the devil, because he still had to contend against him, the Spirit is mentioned once and twice without any addition. But when he had fought and overcome the three temptations which Scripture records, see what is set down, pointedly and carefully, about the Spirit: “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit.” “Power” has been added, because he had trampled the dragon and defeated the tempter at close quarters. “So Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into the land of Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the region; and he taught in their synagogues and was glorified by all.” Take care not to judge only those people blessed and to think yourself deprived of his teaching. If what is written is true, the Lord speaks not only then in the assemblies of the Jews but also today in this assembly; and not only in this one, but in other gatherings too, and in the whole world Jesus teaches, seeking instruments through which to teach. Pray that he may find me too tuned and fit for singing. For as almighty God seeks prophets at the time when mortals need prophecy, and finds them, for example Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, so God seeks instruments through which to teach his word, or to instruct the peoples in their synagogues, and to be glorified by all. Jesus is glorified by all now more than at the time when he was known only in one province. “Then he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and, entering the synagogue on the sabbath day according to his custom, he stood up to read; and the book of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, and unrolling the book he found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me.” It was not by chance that he unrolled the book and found the reading that prophesied of him; this too was God’s providence. For as it is written that a sparrow does not fall into the snare without the will of the Father, and that the hairs of the apostles’ heads are all numbered (Matt 10:29–30), so perhaps this too, that the book of Isaiah in particular was found, and no other reading but this one which spoke of the mystery of Christ, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me” (for it is Christ who speaks these words), is to be thought to have come about not at random and by chance but by the providence and dispensation of God. Let us consider, then, what he spoke in the prophet and afterwards proclaimed of himself in the synagogue. “He has sent me,” he says, “to preach good news to the poor.” The poor signify the nations. For they were poor, possessing nothing at all: not God, not the law, not the prophets, not righteousness and the other virtues. For this reason God sent him to announce to the poor: “to proclaim release to captives.” We were the captives, whom Satan had bound for so many years, holding them captive and subject to himself. Jesus came to proclaim release to captives, and sight to the blind. For by his word and by the preaching of his teaching the blind see. The proclamation of release, then, is to be understood not only of captives but also of the blind. “To send the broken forth into freedom.” What was so broken and crushed as man, who was released and healed by Jesus? “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” According to the simple understanding they say that the Saviour preached the Gospel in Judaea for one year, and that this is what is meant by “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of retribution”; unless perhaps the divine word signifies some mystery in the proclamation of the year of the Lord. For there will be other days, not such as we now see in the world, and other months, and a different order of calendars. As these will be different, so the year of the Lord that is to come will be one that pleases. All these things were foretold so that, after sight in place of blindness, after freedom from chains, after healing from various wounds, we may come to the acceptable year of the Lord. “When Jesus had read these things, he rolled up the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.” Now too, if you wish, in this synagogue and assembly your eyes can be fixed on the Saviour. For when you direct the chief sight of your heart to wisdom and truth and to the contemplation of the Only-begotten of God, your eyes are looking at Jesus. Blessed the congregation of which Scripture testifies that the eyes of all were fixed on him! How I would wish this assembly to have a like testimony, that the eyes of all, catechumens and faithful, women and men and children, not the eyes of the body but of the soul, should look at Jesus. For when you have looked at him, your faces will be brighter from his light and his gaze, and you will be able to say: “The light of your face has been signed upon us, Lord” (Ps 4:6). To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb,” and the rest, up to the place where he says, “But none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” As far as the plain sense of the history goes, Jesus had not yet stayed in Capernaum, nor is he described as having done any sign there, since he had not been there. Moreover, before he came to Capernaum, he is recorded as having been in his own country, that is, in Nazareth. “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, Physician, heal yourself. Whatever we have heard was done in Capernaum, do here also in your own country.” Hence I think some mystery lies hidden in the present passage, and that Nazareth is a type of the Jews, and Capernaum a type of the Gentiles, who have gone before them (Rom 11:25). Knowing, then, that he would not have honour in his own country (neither he, nor a prophet, nor the apostles), Jesus did not wish to preach there, but preached among the Gentiles, lest the people of his own country should say to him: “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, Physician, heal yourself.” For there will be a time when the people of the Jews will say: Whatever signs and wonders I have heard were done in Capernaum, among the Gentiles, do among us too, in your own country; what you have shown to the whole world, show to us too. Preach your word to the people of Israel, so that at least, when the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel may be saved (Rom 11:25–26). That is why the Saviour seems, in consequence, to have answered the questioning Nazarenes there: “No prophet is accepted in his own country.” And I think that what is said is true more according to the mystery than according to the letter, although Jeremiah was not accepted in Anathoth, his own country, nor Isaiah, whatever his country was, nor the rest of the prophets. But it seems to me rather to be understood thus: we should say that the country of all the prophets was the people of the circumcision, and that it did not receive the prophets and their prophecies, while the nations, which had been far from the prophets and had no knowledge of them, received the prophecy of Jesus Christ. No prophet, then, is accepted in his own country, that is, among the people of the Jews. But we, who were strangers to the covenant and aliens from the promises (Eph 2:12), have received the prophets with all our heart, and we have Moses and the prophets preaching of Christ more than they have, who, because they did not receive Jesus, did not receive those either who announced him. Hence to what he had said, “No prophet is accepted in his own country,” he adds something else: “But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months.” What he says is this: Elijah was a prophet, but he was among the people of the Jews. But when he was about to do something wonderful, though there were many widows in Israel, he left them and came to a widow in Zarephath of Sidon, a Gentile woman, unfolding a figure of what was to come: for when famine prevailed, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of God, he came to the widow of whom the prophet too testifies, saying, “Many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband” (Isa 54:1). And when he had come, he multiplies her bread and food. You were the widow in Zarephath of Sidon, from whose borders the Canaanite woman comes out, wanting her daughter healed, and because of her faith she deserved to receive what she asked. There were many widows, then, among the people of Israel, but to none of them was Elijah sent except to the widow woman in Zarephath. And he says something else belonging to the same sense: “There were many lepers in Israel in the days of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian,” who surely was not of Israel. Consider the many lepers to the present day in Israel according to the flesh; see, by contrast, those covered with the squalor of leprosy cleansed by the spiritual Elisha, our Lord and Saviour, and yourself cleansed by the sacrament of baptism, and it is said to you: “Rise and go into the Jordan, and wash, and your flesh will be restored to you” (2 Kgs 5:10). Naaman rose and went, and by washing fulfilled the mystery of baptism, and his flesh became like the flesh of a child, of one born in the washing of regeneration in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “Teacher, what good shall I do to possess eternal life?” up to the place where he says, “Go and do likewise.” Though there are many precepts in the law, the Saviour set down in the Gospel only those which by a kind of short road lead the obedient to eternal life. For he is answering what the teacher of the law had asked him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to possess eternal life?” (this reading according to Luke was recited to you today). He answered: “What is written in the law? How do you read?” “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” And then: “You have answered well,” he says; “do this and you will live.” There is no doubt that by doing this he would receive the eternal life about which the teacher of the law had asked. At the same time we are clearly taught in the precept of the law to love God. In Deuteronomy it is written: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your mind,” and the rest, “and your neighbour as yourself.” And the Saviour testified to these, saying, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt 22:40). But when the teacher of the law, wishing to justify himself and to show that no one was his neighbour, said, “Who is my neighbour?” the Lord brought in a parable, which begins, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho,” and the rest; and he teaches that the man going down was neighbour to no one except to him who was willing to keep the commandments and prepare himself to be a neighbour to everyone who needs help. For this is what is set at the end, after the parable: “Which of these three seems to you to have been neighbour to him who fell among robbers?” For neither the priest nor the Levite was his neighbour; but, as the teacher of the law himself answered, he who showed mercy was his neighbour. Hence the Saviour says, “Go and do likewise.” One of the presbyters, wishing to interpret the parable, used to say that the man who went down is Adam; Jerusalem is paradise; Jericho, the world; the robbers, the opposing powers; the priest, the law; the Levite, the prophets; the Samaritan, Christ; the wounds, disobedience; the beast, the Lord’s body; and the pandochium, that is, the inn, which receives all who wish to enter, he interpreted as the church. Further, the two denarii are understood as the Father and the Son; the innkeeper, the head of the church, to whom its stewardship has been entrusted. And the Samaritan’s promise that he would return figured the Saviour’s second coming. Though these things are said reasonably and beautifully, it is not to be thought that they apply to everyone. For not everyone goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho, nor do all dwell in the present age for that reason, even though he who was sent came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The man, then, who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among robbers because he himself chose to go down. And the robbers are none other than those of whom the Saviour says, “All who came before me were thieves and robbers” (John 10:8). Yet he fell not among thieves but among robbers far worse than thieves, who, when he had fallen among them on his way down from Jerusalem, stripped him and laid blows on him. What are the blows? What are the wounds with which the man was wounded? Vices and sins. Then, because the robbers who had stripped and wounded him do not stay by the naked man, but, having laid on further blows, leave him, therefore it is written: “Stripping him and inflicting wounds, they went away,” leaving him not dead but half dead. And it happened that on the same road first a priest and then a Levite went down, who perhaps had done some good to other people, but not to this man who had gone down from Jerusalem to Jericho. For the priest saw him (the law, I think); the Levite saw him (the prophetic word, I suppose). And when they had seen him, they left him and passed by. For providence was keeping the half-dead man for one who was stronger than the law and the prophets, namely the Samaritan, whose name means “guardian.” He it is who neither slumbers nor sleeps, guarding Israel. For the sake of the half-dead man this Samaritan set out, not going down from Jerusalem to Jericho as the priest and the Levite did; or, if he did go down, he went down to save and guard the dying man. To him the Jews said, “You are a Samaritan and have a demon” (John 8:48). Though he denied having a demon, he would not deny being a Samaritan; for he knew that he was the guardian. So when he came to the half-dead man and saw him rolling in his own blood, he had pity and came to him, to become his neighbour. He bound his wounds, poured on oil mixed with wine, and did not say what is read in the prophet: “There is no poultice to apply, nor oil, nor bandages” (Isa 1:6). This is the Samaritan whose care and help all who are sick need. The man who went down from Jerusalem, fell among robbers, and was wounded by them and left half alive needed this Samaritan’s help above all. And so that you may know that it was by God’s providence that this Samaritan came down to care for the man who had fallen among robbers, you will be clearly taught by the fact that he had with him bandages, oil, and wine. These, I think, the Samaritan carried with him not for this one half-dead man alone, but for others too who had been wounded for various reasons and needed bandages and oil and wine. He had the oil of which it is written, “to make the face glad with oil”; and without doubt the swellings of the wounds of the man he cared for were soothed with oil too. And with wine he cleanses the wounds, mixing in something sharp. And he set the wounded man on his beast, that is, on his own body, in that he deigned to assume a man. This Samaritan bears our sins and grieves for us (Isa 53:4); he carries the half-dead man and brings him into the pandochium, that is, into the church, which receives all and denies its help to no one, to which Jesus calls everyone, saying, “Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you” (Matt 11:28). And after he has brought him in, he does not leave at once, but stays one day in the inn with the half-dead man and tends his wounds not only by day but also by night, giving him all his care and diligence. And when he wished to set out in the morning, from his tested silver, from his tested money, he takes two denarii and charges the innkeeper (without doubt the angel of the church), commanding him to care for the man diligently and bring him to health, the man whom he himself had cared for during the short time. The two denarii seem to me to be the knowledge of the Father and the Son, and the understanding of the mystery of how the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father. These are given as wages to the angel, so that he may care more diligently for the man entrusted to him; and he is promised that whatever of his own he spends on healing the half-dead man will be repaid at once. Truly this guardian of souls was more a neighbour than the law and the prophets: he showed mercy to the man who had fallen among robbers and proved himself his neighbour not so much in word as in deed. Since, then, according to what follows, it is possible for us to imitate Christ and to have mercy on those who have fallen among robbers, to come to them, bind their wounds, pour in oil and wine, set them on our own beast, and bear their burdens, therefore the Son of God, exhorting us to such things, speaks not so much to the teacher of the law as to all of us: “Go and do likewise.” If we do likewise, we shall attain eternal life in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “When you go with your adversary,” and the rest, up to the place where he says, “And you will pay the last mite.” If it were not implanted in our nature to judge what is just, the Saviour would never say, “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is just?” (Luke 12:57). But lest we wander too far in proving this statement, especially since many more difficult things are attached to this chapter, it will be enough to have touched on it. Let us rather spread the sails of our souls to God and pray for the coming of his word, that it may interpret the parable of which it is written: “When you go with your adversary to the ruler, make an effort on the way to be freed from him, lest he hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will not come out from there until you pay the last mite.” I see four persons set down: the adversary, the ruler, the judge, and the officer. And since the evangelist Matthew seems to say something similar where he says, “Be well disposed to your adversary while you are on the way with him,” I ask whether the sense is the same or whether there is some resemblance, since in Matthew one person is omitted and another changed. The ruler is omitted, and in place of the officer the attendant is put in; but the adversary and the judge are set down alike by both. We go, then, with our adversary to the ruler, and while we are still on the way we must labour hard to be freed from him. For the word is ambiguous and can refer either to the ruler or to the adversary: “lest he hand you over” (whether the adversary or the ruler) “to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and you will not come out from there until you pay the last mite”; for which Matthew says, “until you pay the last quadrans” (Matt 5:26). Both write the word “last”; but they seem to differ in that one put “quadrans” and the other “mite.” Certain more hidden things must be touched on, so that we may understand that the adversary is one thing and the other three persons, the ruler, the judge, and the officer, another. We read (if anyone is willing to accept a writing of this kind) of angels of righteousness and of iniquity disputing over the salvation and destruction of Abraham, each band wishing to claim him for its own company. If this displeases anyone, let him turn to the book entitled the Shepherd, and he will find that two angels attend every person: an evil one who urges to perverse things, and a good one who persuades to all that is best. It is written elsewhere that two kinds of angels attend a person, for good or for evil. Of the good ones the Saviour too makes mention, saying, “Their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 18:10). Ask at the same time whether the angels of the little ones in the church always see the face of the Father, while the angels of others do not have freedom to look upon the Father’s face; for it is not to be hoped that the angels of all see the face of the Father who is in heaven. If I belong to the church, however least I may be, my angel has freedom and confidence always to see the face of my Father who is in heaven. But if I am outside, not of that church which has neither spot nor wrinkle nor anything of the kind, and am proved by the fact itself to be a stranger to such a congregation, my angel has no confidence to look upon the face of my Father who is in heaven. For this reason the angels are anxious for the good, knowing that if they have guided us well and brought us to salvation, they too have confidence to see the face of the Father. For as, if salvation is obtained for human beings by their care and diligence, they always behold the Father’s face, so, if a person falls through their negligence, they know well that it is a matter of danger for themselves too. And as a good bishop and an excellent steward of the church knows that it belongs to his merit and virtue if the sheep of the flock entrusted to him have been kept safe, so understand it also of the angels. It is a disgrace for an angel if a righteous man has been entrusted to him and has sinned; as, on the contrary, it is a glory for an angel if the one entrusted to him, even the least in the church, has remained so. For they will see the face of the Father who is in heaven, not now and then but always, while others do not see it always. For according to the merit of those whose angels they are, the angels will contemplate the face of God always, or never, or less, or more. Clear knowledge of this matter belongs to God, and to anyone, though such is rarely found, whom Christ has enlightened. Let us see first, then, who is the adversary with whom we make the journey. The adversary is always with us. Unhappy and wretched are we! Whenever we sin, our adversary exults, knowing that he has the opportunity, before the prince of this age who had sent him, to exult and boast that he, the adversary of this or that person, for example, has made him subject to the prince of this age through so many sins of such a kind, through this and that offence. But it sometimes happens that, if someone is equipped with the armour of God and has covered himself on every side, the adversary tries indeed to inflict a wound but has no means of striking. The adversary always walks with us and never leaves us; he looks for an opportunity to lay snares, to see if he can somehow overthrow us, so as to slip an evil thought into the ruling part [ἡγεμονικόν] of our heart. “When you go to the ruler.” Who is this ruler? “When the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered the sons of Adam, he fixed the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God, and his people Jacob became the Lord’s portion, Israel the cord of his inheritance” (Deut 32:8–9). So from the beginning the earth was divided among rulers, that is, angels. For Daniel testifies more plainly that those whom Moses had named angels are rulers, saying, “The prince of the kingdom of the Persians, and the prince of the kingdom of the Greeks, and Michael the prince of the nations.” And each of us has an adversary clinging to him, whose work is to lead us to the ruler and say: O ruler, for example, of the kingdom of the Persians, this man who was under you I have guarded as was necessary; none of the other rulers could take him over to himself, not even he who boasted that he had come for this purpose, to snatch people from all the inheritances of the Persians or the Greeks and of all nations and make them subject to the inheritance of God. Christ our Lord conquered all the rulers and, passing their boundaries, transferred captive peoples to himself for salvation. You too were of the portion of some ruler; Jesus came and snatched you from the perverse power and offered you to God the Father. Our adversary, then, walks along, leading us to his ruler. Hence, believing that all the words of the Scriptures have a reason, I do not think it is for nothing that “judge” is set down in Greek with the article, which signifies singularity, while “ruler” is written simply, without the article. “When you go with your adversary.” He says pointedly “your.” For not all are adversaries of all, but each has his own, who follows him everywhere and is his companion. “When you go with your adversary to a ruler.” He did not put “ruler” with the article, lest he seem to indicate a definite one, but without the article, to show that he is one of many, which is better understood in Greek. For each of us does not have a ruler of his own. One who is a Syrian is under the ruler of the Syrians, and each is under the ruler of his own nation; it is enough that I have gone so far, without passing from this discussion to another, greater one, so as to mention the other nations too. Hence it is said: “See Israel according to the flesh.” For one who is wise, to have made a beginning is to have said enough, though it is right to have begun this discourse before the people. He who wants, he says, to lead you to his own ruler and take you away from another ruler: “When you go with your adversary to the ruler, make an effort on the way to be freed from him.” Unless you labour with all zeal while you are still on the road, before you enter in to the ruler, before the ruler hands you over to the judge prepared by the adversary, you will try afterwards in vain. Make an effort, then, to be freed from him, or from the ruler to whom the adversary drags you. Make an effort to have wisdom, justice, fortitude, and temperance, and then will be fulfilled: “Behold the man, and his works before his face.” Unless you make an effort, you will not be able to break the pact of the adversary, whose friendship is set against God. “When you go with your adversary to the ruler, make an effort on the way.” Something lies hidden in this place, and there is a secret in “make an effort on the way.” The Saviour says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). If you make an effort to be freed from the adversary, be in the way; and when you stand in him who says, “I am the way,” it is not enough to have stood, but make an effort to be freed from the adversary. Unless you make an effort to be freed from the adversary, listen to what follows for you. … the adversary, or the ruler … from the adversary, drags you to the judge. How fitting is the word “drag,” showing in a sense that those who resist and are unwilling are dragged and forced to go to condemnation! For what murderer goes to the judge with quick step? Who hastens gladly to his own condemnation, and is not dragged unwilling and resisting? For he knows that he is going to receive the sentence of death. “Lest he drag you to the judge.” Who do you think this judge is? I know no other judge but my Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it is said elsewhere: “And he will set the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left” (Matt 25:33). And again: “Whoever confesses me, I too will confess him before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I will deny him before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 10:32–33). “He drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer.” Each of us suffers loss for each sin, and the size of the loss is reckoned according to the quality and nature of the offence. I should bring some testimony from the Scriptures about loss and fines of money. One suffers a loss of five hundred denarii and owes them; another is condemned for fifty denarii; and the sum is forgiven to both by the creditor. Again, another, as Scripture says, “there was brought to him one who owed ten thousand talents” (Matt 18:24), is condemned for ten thousand talents. Why need I pursue more? Each one pays a different fine according to the quality and quantity of his sin. If what you sin is little, you will be struck with the loss of a mite, as Luke wrote, or, as Matthew wrote, of a quadrans. Nevertheless it is necessary to pay even that for which one was found a debtor; for you will not come out from there unless you pay even the least things. But one who is faithful is struck by no loss, but is enriched daily; for the whole world of riches is his. The unbeliever, however, has not even an obol. One is condemned for a denarius, another for a mina, another for a talent. And the investigator of this business is he who knows the measures of all sins: this offence is condemned to a talent; that sin deserves a fine of such a kind. For it is written, “When he had begun to settle accounts.” Account must be rendered by all of us. There is no other time for settling accounts except the time of judgment, when it will be clearly known what was entrusted to us, and what gain or loss we have made, which of us received a mina, which one talent, which two, which five (Matt 25:15). There is no need to point out more, since it is enough to have said in general that we shall render an account, and that, if we are found debtors, we shall be dragged to the judge and handed over by the judge to the officer. Each of us has his own officers; but the whole multitude is handed over to several, according to what is written in Isaiah: “My people, your officers strip you, and those who are powerful rule over you” (Isa 3:12). The officers rule if we owe anything. But if we have confidence and have lived with a free brow, I will gladly keep the commandment: “Render to all their dues: tax to whom tax, fear to whom fear, toll to whom toll, honour to whom honour” (Rom 13:7). If I have rendered everything to everyone, I come to the officer and answer with fearless mind: I owe you nothing. The officer comes to demand; I resist him. For I know that if I owe nothing, he has no power over me. But if I am a debtor, my officer will throw me into prison, in the order described above. For the adversary leads me to the ruler, the ruler to the judge, and the judge will hand me over to the officer, and the officer will throw me into prison. What is the law of this prison? I do not come out of it, nor does the officer let me go out, unless I pay the whole debt. The officer has no power to remit to me even a quadrans or the least portion; there is one who can forgive debtors who have nothing to pay. “There came to him,” it says, “one who owed five hundred denarii and another fifty; and when they had nothing with which to repay, he forgave them both” (Luke 7:41–42). He who forgave is the Lord; but this one who is the officer is not the lord but is appointed by the lord to exact debts. You were not worthy to have five hundred or fifty denarii forgiven you, nor did you deserve to hear, “Your sins are forgiven you”; but you will be thrown into prison, and there payment will be exacted from you through labour and works, or through punishments and torments, and you will not come out from there until you pay the quadrans, or the last mite, which in Greek can be called “thin.” Our sins, however, are fat; for it is written, “The heart of this people has grown fat” (Matt 13:15; Acts 28:27). Or a sin is thin and slight by comparison with a greater one. Blessed, then, first, is he who does not sin; and second, he who by comparison has at least a thin sin. And even among the thin and slight there is a difference of sins. Unless there were small money, it would never be said, “You will not come out from there until you pay the last quadrans.” How, without small money, would he speak of the last mite, which is a denarius, or a coin, or an obol, or a stater? But if we owe a great sum, like the one who is written to have owed ten thousand talents (Matt 18:24), how long we shall be shut in prison until we pay the debt I cannot plainly declare. For if one who owes little will not come out unless he pays the small quadrans, surely for one who is bound by so great a debt endless ages will be counted for paying it. Therefore let us make an effort to be freed from the adversary while we are on the way, and let us be joined to the Lord Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “Whoever wishes to save his soul will lose it,” up to the place where he says, “The kingdom of God is within you.” “Whoever seeks,” he says, “to save his soul will lose it, and whoever loses it will save it.” Martyrs seek to save their souls; therefore they lose them, in order to save them. But those who wish to save their souls so as not to lose them destroy both body and soul together in Gehenna. Therefore, he says, do not fear those who can kill the body, but fear rather him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Let this much be said briefly on the subject, according to the powers of our understanding. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit (1 Cor 2:14), and therefore cannot be saved. It is sown a natural body, it rises a spiritual body (1 Cor 15:44). Moreover, he who clings to the Lord becomes one spirit (1 Cor 6:17). If, then, he who is joined to the Lord, though he was natural, is by that very fact turned into a spiritual being and is one spirit, let us too lose our soul, so that, clinging to the Lord, we may be transformed into one spirit. And when asked about the kingdom of God, the Saviour answered the Pharisees: “The kingdom of God,” he says, “does not come with observation, nor will they say, Behold here, or behold there; for the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20–21). The Saviour does not say to all, “The kingdom of God is within you”; for in sinners there is the kingdom of sin, and without any doubt either the kingdom of sin or the kingdom of God rules in our heart. Hence let us consider more attentively what we do, what we say, and what we think, and then we shall see whether the rule of God reigns in us or the rule of sins. Knowing this difference, the apostle warns some, saying, “Let not sin reign in your mortal body” (Rom 6:12). If any of us desires the kingdom of God, he is ruled by it. If anyone is tormented by the fire of avarice, he is ruled by avarice. Moreover, one who has injustice as his queen is ruled by her. One who is puffed up by the ambition of vainglory is ruled by popular favour. One who grieves, who fears something, who loves, who desires: each of these things rules him, according as he is possessed by various passions. Knowing all these things, and how many kinds of kingdoms there are, let us rise and pray to God to take away from us the kingdom of the enemy, so that we may be under the kingdom of almighty God, that is, under the kingdom of wisdom, peace, righteousness, and truth, all of which are understood in the only-begotten Son of God, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the colt of the ass being untied by the disciples. It was read in the Gospel according to Luke how, when the Saviour had come to Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples to untie the colt of an ass which was tied, and on which no man had ever sat (Luke 19:29–30). This seems to me to belong rather to a higher understanding than to simple history. The ass was tied. Where? Opposite Bethphage and Bethany. Of these, Bethany is interpreted “house of obedience,” and Bethphage “house of jaws,” a priestly place; for the jaws were given to the priests, as is commanded in the law. There, then, where there is obedience, where there is a place assigned to the priests, the Saviour sends his disciples to untie the colt of an ass on which no man had ever sat. But what else can sit upon an ass besides a man? I want to take an example for a moment, so that what I am going to say may be understood. It is written in Isaiah: “The vision of the four-footed beasts in tribulation and distress,” and the rest, up to the place where he says, “The riches of asps will not profit them” (Isa 30:6). Let each of us consider how great a wealth of asps he carried before, how great riches of beasts, and how no rational man ever sat upon our ass, not the word of Moses, not of Isaiah, not of Jeremiah, nor of all the other prophets; and he will see that the Word and Reason of God sat upon us when the Lord Jesus came and commanded his disciples to go and untie the colt of the ass, which before had been tied, so that it might go free. So the colt of the ass, untied, is brought to Jesus, who, sending the disciples to untie it, had said: “If anyone asks you why you are untying the colt, tell him that the Lord has need of it.” This colt had many masters before the Saviour had need of it; but after he began to be its master, the many masters ceased to be. For no one can serve God and mammon. When we served wickedness, we were subject to many passions and vices. The colt, then, is untied, because the Lord has need of it. You are the colt of the ass: what need does the Son of God have of you? What does he seek from you? He needs your salvation; he longs for you to be loosed from the bonds of sins. Then the disciples put their garments on the ass and seat the Saviour on it. They take up the word of God and set it upon the souls of the hearers. They strip off their garments and spread them on the road. The garments of the apostles are upon us: their good works are our adornment; the apostles want their clothing to be trodden by us. And indeed the ass untied by the disciples and carrying Jesus walks upon the garments of the apostles when it imitates their teaching and life. Which of us is so blessed that Jesus sits upon him? As long as he was on the mountain, he stayed with his apostles; but when he began to approach the descent, then the crowd of people met him. Had he not come to the descent, the multitude could not have met him. He came down and sat upon the colt of the ass, and all the people with one voice praised God. Seeing this, the Pharisees said to the Lord: “Rebuke them.” He answered them: “If these are silent, the stones will cry out.” When we speak, the stones are silent; when we are silent, the stones cry out. For the Lord is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. At what time shall we be silent? When the love of many grows cold, when what was foretold by the Saviour is fulfilled: “Do you think the Son of Man, when he comes, will find faith on earth?” Therefore let us pray for the Lord’s mercy, that the stones may not cry out while we are silent; but let us speak and praise God in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “And when he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it,” up to the place where he says, “He drove out all who were selling doves.” Chapter 19. When our Lord drew near to Jerusalem, seeing it he wept and said: “If you too had known on this day the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes, for days will come upon you, and your enemies will surround you with a rampart.” What is said contains mysteries, and we hope, as God opens them, to be able to disclose what lies hidden. First, then, his weeping must be considered. All the beatitudes that Jesus spoke in the Gospel he confirms by his own example, and what he taught he proves by his witness. “Blessed,” he says, “are the meek.” Like this is what he says of himself: “Learn from me, for I am meek” (Matt 11:29). “Blessed are the peacemakers”: and who else is such a peacemaker as my Lord Jesus, who is our peace, who dissolved the enmity and destroyed it in his own flesh? “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake”: no one so suffered persecution for righteousness’ sake as the Lord Jesus, who was crucified for our sins. The Lord, then, showed all the beatitudes in himself. On the same pattern, since he had said, “Blessed are those who weep,” he himself wept, to lay the foundations of this beatitude too. He wept over Jerusalem, saying: “If you too had known on this day the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes,” and the rest, up to the place where he says, “because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Someone among the hearers may say: What is said is plain, and has been fulfilled in deed concerning Jerusalem. For the Roman army surrounded it and laid it waste to the point of extermination, and the time will come when stone will not be left upon stone in it. I do not deny that that Jerusalem was destroyed because of the crimes of its inhabitants; but I ask whether this weeping concerns this Jerusalem of ours too. For we are the Jerusalem that is wept over, we who seem to ourselves to have greater insight. For if, after the mysteries of truth, after the word of the Gospel, after the teaching of the church, after the sight of its sacraments, any of us has sinned, he is lamented and wept over. For no pagan is wept over, but he who belonged to Jerusalem, because after his sins his enemies, namely the opposing powers and wicked spirits, surround him, and set a rampart around him, and besiege him, and do not leave stone upon stone; above all if, after much self-control, after some years of chastity, someone has been overcome and, enticed by the blandishments of the flesh, has lost his endurance and purity. If you have committed sexual immorality, they will not leave stone upon stone in you. For he says in another place: “I will not remember his former righteous deeds; in his sin, in which he has been caught, in that I will judge him.” This, then, is the Jerusalem that is wept over. After this it is said: “He entered the temple.” And when he had entered, he drove out those who were selling doves. He did not drive out the buyers, for those who buy also possess what they have bought. Jesus drove out of his Father’s temple those who sell and throw away what they had, after the likeness of that prodigal son who received his substance from his father and lost everything by excessive drinking (Luke 15:13). If anyone sells, then, he is driven out, especially if he was selling doves. Why did he name no other birds but doves? This creature is simple and comely. I fear lest a fault of this kind be found in us too. For if I sell for a price what has been revealed and entrusted to me by the Holy Spirit to bring out to the people, and do not teach without a fee, what else am I doing but selling doves, that is, the Holy Spirit? And when I have sold him, I am driven out of the temple of God. Therefore let us ask the Lord that we may all buy rather than sell. For if we do not sell, we know and understand our salvation; otherwise the enemies will surround our city. And if once the hostile army has encircled us, we shall not deserve God’s tears. Let us rise, then, at dawn and beseech the Lord that we may at least eat the crumbs that fall from his table. Scripture marvels that the queen of Sheba came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and when she had seen his meal and furnishings and the service of his house, she was astonished and was wholly in wonder (1 Kgs 10:1–5). If we do not gladly embrace such great riches of our Lord, so great a store of his word and abundance of his teachings, if we do not eat the bread of life, if we are not fed on the flesh of Christ and do not drink his blood, if we despise the banquet of our Saviour, we must know that God has both kindness and severity. Of these, let us pray rather for his kindness, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the question of the Sadducees which they put to the Lord, about the woman who had seven husbands; and again on the denarius which the Saviour ordered to be shown to him. Chapter 20. There is a sect among the Jews called the Sadducees; it denies the resurrection of the dead and holds that the soul perishes with the body and does not breathe again after death. So, putting a question to the Lord, they made up a story of a woman with seven husbands, who after her first husband married a second to raise up seed for the former; and when he died, a third, and again a fourth; and in this way she had come to the seventh. The question is asked, then, which of the seven brothers will claim her as wife in the resurrection of the dead. They put forward this problem, laying a trap for the Saviour’s words, at the time when they had seen him teaching his disciples about the resurrection. The Saviour answered them: “You are wrong, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection of the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but will be like the angels in heaven.” Those who will be like angels will surely be angels. And at the same time we learn that angels do not have marriages. Here, where there is death, marriage and children are necessary; where there are immortals, there is need neither of marriage nor of children. I will put to myself a very troublesome question, not easily solved, in the person of those who are most zealous for the Scriptures and meditate day and night on the law of the Lord (Ps 1:2). Where, they say, is it written, “They neither marry nor are given in marriage”? Going over both the Old and the New Testament in memory and mind, I do not remember such a thing related anywhere. If perhaps it escapes me, let one who knows more teach me; I gladly learn what I do not know. But as far as I can judge, he will find nothing of the kind in either the Old or the New Testament. The whole error of these people arose from the prophetic readings, which they do not understand; among them is this in Isaiah: “My elect will not have children for a curse” (Isa 65:23). And in Deuteronomy, among the blessings: “Blessed are the children of your womb” (Deut 28:4). And they think these things will be in the resurrection, not understanding that spiritual blessings were foretold. For Paul, the chosen vessel, interpreting spiritually all these blessings set down in the law, and knowing that they are not fleshly, says to the Ephesians: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing” (Eph 1:3), when, rising from the dead, we attain eternal blessedness. And finding something similar in the psalms, they slip into the same error: “Your wife,” it says, “like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house; your children like young olive shoots around your table,” up to the place where it says, “May the Lord bless you from Zion, and may you see the good things of Jerusalem” (Ps 128:3–5). So, they say, when Jerusalem has been rebuilt and restored to its ancient state, then he will see the good things that Scripture records. Those who understand Jerusalem spiritually, and know that this is said of the Jerusalem which is heavenly, which is above, which is our mother (Gal 4:26), will see its good things, of which we have often spoken, and what we have just quoted from the psalm: “Your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house, your children like young olive shoots around your table.” To the Sadducees, a part of the Jews, who understood all this bodily, the Saviour says: “You do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God.” Let this be said briefly about the question the Sadducees put to the Lord. Further, on what is added about the image of Caesar we must touch on a few points too. Some think the Saviour meant simply, “Render the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar,” that is, pay the tribute you owe. But which of us objects to paying tribute to Caesar? The passage, then, has something mystical and secret. There are two images of man: one which he received from God when he was made in the beginning, as is written in Genesis, “after the image and likeness of God” (Gen 1:26); the other, that of the man of dust, that is, the earthly, which he took on after he was cast out of paradise because of disobedience and sin, persuaded by the allurements of the prince of this age. For as a coin or denarius bears the image of the emperors of the world, so he who does the works of the ruler of this darkness bears the image of him whose works he does; and Jesus commanded that this image be rendered and cast away from our face, and that we take up that image after which from the beginning we were made in the likeness of God. And so it comes about that we render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. “Show me,” he says, “a coin”; for which Matthew writes “denarius.” When he had received it, he said, “Whose inscription does it have?” They answered and said, “Caesar’s.” To them he said again, “Render, then, the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar, and the things that are God’s to God.” In agreement with this Paul too spoke, saying, “As we have borne the image of the man of dust, let us bear also the image of the heavenly man” (1 Cor 15:49). When he says, then, “Render the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar,” he means: lay aside the person of the man of dust, cast away the earthly image, so that, putting on the person of the heavenly man, you may render to God the things that are God’s. God asks something back from us. What does he ask back? Read Moses: “And now what does the Lord ask of you?” and the rest that follows. God, then, asks of us and entreats us, not because he needs anything that we should give him; he asks so that, after we have given it to him, he may give that very thing back for our salvation. To make this clearer, I will set out the parable of the minas. He who had received one mina and made ten, and offered it to the Lord by whom the mina had been entrusted to him, received another as well, which he did not have before. For the Lord commands the mina of him who had not multiplied what he received to be taken away and given to him who has the others. “Take away,” he says, “the mina and give it to him who has ten minas” (Luke 19:24). In this way what we give to God he will restore to us, together with what we did not have before. God demands and asks of us so that he may have occasion to give, so that he may give to the very one who paid out. For by his grace the mina was multiplied, and to each who was worthy more was given than he hoped. Therefore let us rise and pray God that we may be worthy to offer him gifts which he may restore to us, and that he may grant heavenly things in place of earthly ones, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.