Sermon 95
SERMO 95
ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL MK 8:1-9
Where the miracle of the seven loaves is reported.
Feasts in the Holy Scriptures.
Expounding the holy scriptures to you, it is as if we break bread for you. You, being hungry, receive it and from the fullness of praise let your hearts overflow: and you who are rich in feasts, be not meager in works and good deeds. What I give to you is not mine. What you eat, I eat: whence you live, I live. We have in heaven a common storeroom: for from there comes the word of God.
The miracle of the seven loaves allegorically.
Seven loaves signify the septiform operation of the Holy Spirit: four thousand men, the Church established under the four Gospels: seven baskets of fragments, the perfection of the Church. For this number very often figures perfection. Whence it is that it is said: Seven times a day I will praise you? Is a man mistaken who praises the Lord so many times? What is then: I will praise you seven times; if not, I will never cease from praise? For he who says, seven times, signifies the whole time. Whence in the span of seven days, the ages revolve. What then is: Seven times a day I will praise you, if not what is said in another place: His praise shall always be in my mouth? Because of this perfection, John writes to the seven Churches. The book of Revelation is by Saint John the Evangelist: he writes to the seven Churches. Be truthful, recognize the baskets. For those fragments were not lost: but since you also belong to the Church, they have profited you indeed. That I expound these things for you, I minister to Christ: you calmly listen, you recline. I sit in the body, I stand in the heart, and I minister to you anxiously; lest perhaps some vessel offends any of you, not the food. You know the feasts of God, you have often heard, they seek minds, not bellies.
Mysteries in those who are satisfied with the seven loaves.
Certainly four thousand men were fed with seven loaves: what miracle is more wonderful? And yet it was little, unless even seven baskets were filled with the leftover fragments. Oh, great mysteries! They accomplished works, and their works spoke. If you understand those deeds, they are words. And you belong to the four thousand, because you live under the fourfold Gospel. Women and children did not count in the number. For it was thus said: "And those who ate were four thousand men, excluding women and children." As if those senseless and effeminate were without number. Yet let them eat as well. Let them eat: perhaps the children grow, and will not be children; perhaps the effeminate are corrected, and are purified. Let them eat: we distribute, we expend. However, God inspects his banquet, and if they do not correct themselves, He who knows how to invite also knows how to separate.
What manner of person is the one who invited to the banquet?
You know, dearest ones: recall the Gospel parable; because the Lord entered to inspect those reclining at a certain banquet of his. The head of the household who had invited, as it is written, found there a man not wearing the wedding garment. For to the wedding the bridegroom, handsome in form beyond the children of men, had invited. That bridegroom, made lowly for the sake of a lowly bride, so that he might make her beautiful. From where was the handsome made lowly? If I do not prove it, I blaspheme. The prophet gives me testimony of his beauty, saying: He is handsome in form beyond the children of men. Another prophet gives me testimony of his deformity, saying: We saw him, and he did not have appearance or beauty; but his face was despised, his position deformed. O prophet who said: He is handsome in form beyond the children of men, you are contradicted: another prophet steps forth against you, and says: You lie: We saw him. What is it that says: He is handsome in form beyond the children of men? We saw him not having appearance or beauty. Therefore, do these two prophets disagree in the corner of peace? Both spoke of Christ, both spoke of the cornerstone. The walls meet in the corner. If they did not agree, it is not a building, but a ruin. The Prophets agree, let us not let them be in quarrel. Rather, let us recognize their peace: for they do not know how to quarrel. O Prophet who said: He is handsome in form beyond the children of men, where did you see? Answer, answer, where did you see? When he was in the form of God, he did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. There I saw. Do you doubt that he who is equal to God is handsome beyond the children of men? You answered: let him who said: We saw him, and he did not have appearance or beauty, answer. You said: say where you saw. He takes the beginning from his words: where he finished, there this one begins. Where did he finish? Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Behold where he saw the handsome in form beyond the children of men: you say, where you saw that he did not have appearance or beauty. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant; being made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man. He still speaks of his deformity: He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Behold where I saw. Therefore both peacefully agree, and both are pacified. What is more handsome than God? What is more deformed than the Crucified?
Reclining without a wedding garment, rejected.
This therefore is the bridegroom, handsome in form beyond the sons of men, made deformed that he might make the bride beautiful, to whom it is said, "O beautiful among women!" of whom it is said, "Who is this that ascends, made white, illuminated, not darkened by the color of falsehood?" Therefore, he who called to the wedding found a man not having a wedding garment, and said to him: "Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?" But he was speechless. For he did not find what to answer. And the householder who had entered said: "Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." For so small a fault such a great punishment? Indeed, great. The fault of not having a wedding garment is called small: small, but to those who do not understand. Why would he be so angry, why would he judge so, as to send him with bound hands and feet into outer darkness, where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth, because of a wedding garment which he did not have, unless the fault were very grave not to have a wedding garment? I say: because you were invited through me, and if he invited you, he invited you through us. You are all at the feast, have a wedding garment. I explain what it is, that you all may have it, and if anyone hears me now who does not have it, before the householder comes and inspects his guests, let him change for the better, receive the wedding garment, and recline securely.
One cast represents many.
For not truly, beloved, does he who was cast out from there signify one man: far from it. They are many. And the Lord Himself who proposed this parable, Himself the Bridegroom, the convener of the feast and the vivifier of the guests, Himself explained to us that that man does not signify one man, but many, there, in that place, in the same parable. I do not go far, I explain there, I break there, and I put forth for eating there. For He said, when he who did not have a wedding garment was sent from there into outer darkness: He said therefore, and followed with the addition: For many are called, but few are chosen. You cast one out from here, and you say: For many are called, but few are chosen. Without a doubt, the chosen were not cast out: and they were those few who remained reclining; and many were in that one, because that one is one body of evildoers, who does not have a wedding garment.
The wedding garment, charity.
What is the wedding garment? Let us seek it in the Holy Scriptures. What is the wedding garment? Undoubtedly it is something that the wicked and the good do not have in common: let us find this, and we find the wedding garment. Among the gifts of God, what is it that the good and the wicked do not have in common? That we are humans and not beasts is a gift of God: but this is common to both the good and the wicked. That the light rises for us from heaven, rains descend from the clouds, fountains flow, fields bear fruit, are gifts, but common to both the good and the wicked. Let us enter the wedding; let us leave outside others who did not come when called. Let us consider the guests themselves, that is, the Christians. Baptism is a gift of God, both the good and the wicked have it. The Sacraments of the Altar both the good and the wicked receive together. Saul the wicked prophesied, and was hostile to a holy and most just man; while he was persecuting him, he prophesied. Are only the good said to believe? Even demons believe, and tremble. What shall I do? I have examined everything, and I have not yet reached that garment. I have unfolded my envelope, I have considered everything, or almost everything, and I have not yet reached that garment. Somewhere the Apostle Paul brought me a great envelope of great matters; he laid it before me, and I said to him, Show me if by chance you have found that wedding garment here. He began to unfold each one, and say: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, if I have all knowledge, and prophecy, and all faith, so that I can move mountains; if I distribute all my goods to the poor, and give my body to be burned. Great garments: but it is not yet the wedding garment. Now bring out the wedding garment for us. Apostle, why do you keep us in suspense? Perhaps prophecy is indeed a gift of God, which the wicked do not have. He says, If I do not have charity, I am nothing, it profits me nothing. Behold the wedding garment: put it on, O guests, that you may recline securely. Do not say: We are too poor to have that garment. Clothe others, and be clothed yourselves. It is winter: clothe the naked: Christ is naked; and whoever does not have the wedding garment, He will give it. Run to Him, ask Him: He knows how to sanctify His faithful ones, He knows how to clothe His naked ones. That you may, having the wedding garment, not fear the outer darkness, the binding of hands and feet; let not your works fail. If they fail, what will you do with your hands bound? With your feet bound, where will you flee? Hold onto that wedding garment, put it on, and recline securely, when He comes to inspect. The day of judgment will come: He now grants a long interval, for the one who was once naked to be clothed.