Sermon 341 augm

Sermon 341 augmented.

The sermon of the same about Psalm 21 and how in three ways
Christ is spoken of in the Scriptures, namely according to divinity.
"both according to the assumed man and according to the head"
It is of the Church, and of the three rods of Jacob.

In Psalm 21, Christ is portrayed.

This Psalm, as known to all Christians, since it is written there: They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones; they stare and gloat over me, they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. For it is represented in the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. However, I do not think it is unknown to you how the person of our Lord Jesus Christ is recommended and insinuated into the hearts of the faithful; nevertheless, you are to be reminded, because some are unaware, many have forgotten what they heard, and some wish to be confirmed in what they hold, and there are also those who want to hear from us even what they are firm in because of us. However, this understanding, which, according to the strength the Lord deigns to supply, I try to insinuate to your charity, is useful for understanding many obscure things in the most sacred books, that is, how Christ is spoken of.

The persona of Christ is suggested in three ways in the Scriptures.

For as far as we have been able to observe the holy pages, it is named in three ways: when it is proclaimed either through the law and prophets, or through apostolic letters, or through the faith of the events which we recognize in the Gospel. One way is according to God and that divinity equal and co-eternal with the Father before the assumption of flesh. Another way is when, having assumed flesh, now the same God who is man and the same man who is God, is read and understood according to a certain property of his excellence by which he is not equated with other men, but is the mediator and head of the Church. The third way is when somehow the whole Christ in the fullness of the Church, that is, the head and body, according to the fullness of a certain perfect man, in which perfect man we are members, is preached to the believers and offered as recognizable to the wise. However, we cannot recall or explain all the testimonies of the Scriptures in such a short and narrow time which prove all these three types, but we will not leave them unproven, so that, with certain testimonies being mentioned, you may already be able to observe and find the rest which we are not permitted to mention due to the constraints of time, in the Scriptures yourselves.

The first way. Christ, the only Son of God, according to the testimony of John.

To the first type, therefore, of introducing our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, the only Son of God, through whom all things were made, pertains that which is most noble and illustrious in the Gospel according to John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men; and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. These words are wondrous and astounding before they are understood; once understood, they are to be embraced. However, to understand them is not afforded by human resources but by the inspiration of Him who deemed it worthy to inspire fishermen to speak of these things. For this was said by that fisherman, the son of Zebedee, who left his father and boat and nets and followed God, not abandoning his human father, but choosing God as his father. Certainly, the entire world was accounted as abandoned for him who left his little boat and nets. For our Lord Jesus Christ did not regard what the poor had left behind who followed Him, that is, what they had left behind in their substance, but what they had abandoned in their desires. For everyone who has little desires to have more, and he who abandons the little that he had abandons the greater desire for what he wanted to have. Therefore, when that rich man went away from the Lord in sorrow, he called Him a good teacher to receive advice, and leaving Him as though He were an evil teacher, the disciples, after hearing through God's mercy that even the rich could enter the kingdom of heaven, from whose salvation they had despaired, said, when they heard that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, they said: Behold, we have left all and followed You: what then shall we have? And the Lord said: You will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. He also promised a great reward to those who leave everything and follow Him, and great solace in the promise and joy in the fulfillment, for whoever leaves behind everything they had for His sake in this world shall receive a hundredfold in this world, and in the world to come eternal life. If all these things are explained more diligently, they hold and divert us from our proposed matter. Nevertheless, let your charity now attend to what pertains to our assumed matter, that the first poor left behind all they had and followed God and became apostles, and as much credit is accorded to those leaving little as to those leaving much. And what is truly to be wondered at, is that the rich man, hearing from the mouth of the Lord that all must be left and God followed, went away sorrowful, hearing this from the mouth of the Lord; now, men who have not seen the Lord in the flesh hear this from His Gospel and do what that man did not, and thus is fulfilled in them: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

God chooses the lowly of the world.

Why then did the Lord choose first the lowly, the poor, the unlearned, the uncultured, when he had before his eyes a great crowd, indeed fewer in comparison to many poor but in their kind many rich, noble, learned, wise ones, whom he also later favored—for he did not abandon them; all such kinds came to the faith—the Apostle explains the mystery: He chose the weak of this world to confound the strong; and chose the foolish to confound the wise; and God chose the ignoble of the world and those who are not, that is, are not counted, as if they are, so that those who are might be brought to nothing. For he had come to teach humility, to conquer pride; a humble God had come. He would by no means seek the highborn here, who had come so humbly. First, because he chose to be born of that woman who was betrothed to a craftsman. Therefore, he did not choose high birth, lest nobility boast in this land. He did not even choose a most splendid city to be born in, but was born in Bethlehem of Judea, which is not even deemed worthy of the name city. For even today the inhabitants of that place call it a village: it is so small and insignificant and nearly nothing, unless it was ennobled by Christ's birth. He came, therefore, not as a noble from a future place, but to make the place noble, and that in all other things of our Lord Jesus Christ, which are too long to recount. Therefore, he chose the weak, the poor, the unlearned, the ignoble: not because he deserted the strong, the rich, the wise, the noble, but if he had first chosen them, they would be seen to be chosen by merit of their own dignities, wealth, and birth, and thus, inflated by these things, they would not receive the salvation of humility, without which no one can return to that life from which they had not fallen except by pride. The physician, therefore, cures the disease by opposite means: the cold with warm remedies, the hot with cold, the wet with dry, the cold with warm. Therefore, if we see the art of medicine heal the ill by opposites, it is not surprising if we are healed by the humility of God, who were sick with human pride. Thus the Lord gained the preacher from the fisherman more salubriously than a fisherman from a preacher. For the orator Cyprian was a martyr, but first the apostle was a fisherman. Later Christians became emperors, but first fishermen preached Christ. And to such an extent did God truly confound strong things by choosing weak ones—he confounded them to heal, cast them down to lift them up—that what we have known in our times and cannot be hidden was manifested to us, known with clear faith by the things themselves, that God chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong. For in our times an emperor came to the city of Rome: there is the temple of the emperor, there is the tomb of the fisherman. Therefore, that pious and Christian emperor did not proceed to the proud temple of the emperor to seek health from the Lord, but to the tomb of the fisherman, where he might imitate that humble fisherman, so that he might obtain something from the Lord by his gaze, which a proud emperor could not deserve.

John drew from the breast of Christ the things that he wrote about the Word of God.

Why, therefore, did I say it? Because we recalled that way of insinuating Christ according to his divinity before the taking on of flesh, a certain method that is wondrous and astounding to all who hear, but known to few who understand, when they strike upon it so as to be dazzled as if by a flash of that eternal and ineffable light, saying and recalling: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and so on. We said this so that you would not ask us superfluously the understanding of these words, believing you can understand this by the inspiration of Him, by whose inspiration it occurred that a simple fisherman preached these things. For that fisherman did not know them of himself, nor was he so great in genius or learning to penetrate with the sharpness of mind and transcend all this air and all the ethereal powers, and thence arrive at the luminaries, virtues, powers and natures of angels and all the most eminent spiritual creatures, which had fallen into no sin, but always adhered to the contemplation of immutable truth, indeed to surpass even that and reach what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man. What is the Word of the Father, how is it the Word? Is it a thought? a sound? Certainly not. For if it is a thought, it involves time; if it is a sound, it is transmitted through the beaten air. Not so the Word of God, but the Word remaining, and always the proclaimed Word and not a removed one, or rather not even proclaimed, lest some bodily extension should be understood. And how should it be said, no human mouth can speak this: reverently it is believed that the Word was begotten; only He can express and speak Himself, the Son of God alone; to whom He speaks, he can understand Him, but cannot express Him. Whence did the fisherman see this, unless He Himself wished to reveal it? The fisherman saw it from where he drank; but whence did he drink this? Let us consider the Lord's banquet, if by chance we might find where the fisherman drank this. All the disciples were reclining with the Lord; it is written in the Gospel that John used to recline on the Lord's chest. Why then is it surprising if he drank from His chest what he spoke about His divinity? For the Lord of the banquet and the Lord of those reclining would not allow His disciple to fill his belly from that table and not fill his mind from His chest. So indeed He did: He fed and satiated His disciple from His chest. But he, being satiated, burped, and that burp is the Gospel. Thus you have seen with the eyes of faith in the Gospel the fisherman feasting; listen to him burping: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. You despised it when you heard the word—for words are heard every day—; now despise it no more because the Word was God. "And how shall I understand God and the Word?" Let Him make you drink, who satiated the fisherman. For now, listen to him burping, believe in him burping, so that you too may ascending through the step of faith be satiated with the vivacity of understanding.

We believe not in two but one Word.

"What then?" you will say. "Should I now believe the Word of God to be the Son of God." The only Son of God, not two words, but one Word, although there are two words in Scripture, for example, those two commandments pertaining either to double love, or to recompense. For the Lord says certain things to the righteous placed on the right, and says other things to the wicked placed on the left. He does not say to the righteous what He says to the wicked. As if two words are distributed by the narrator according to our capacity, according to our merits: here they are distributed, but there, something [is distributed], as, if I can present a certain analogy from physical things— nonetheless fitting to the senses of the weak—if I can say, how the brightness of fire or a star or the moon or the sun is one and is in the same way. However, if it is considered by different eyes, by some clear and healthy, by others wounded and sore, to some it appears to be a serene light, to others as if raging and angry. For it reflects off the wounded sight and creates pain, where it was causing joy to the healthy. Behold, it is serene, behold, it is fierce. Is it itself divided, itself dissimilar? No, but according to the merits of the diverse viewers. Pay attention, my brothers, and from small things recognize greater things. Thus the one Word of God, but it distributes what is worthy according to merits, saying to those: "Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," but to those saying: "Depart into everlasting fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels." What is as different as "come into the kingdom," and "go into everlasting fire"? Is it therefore a different word? No. It is one, but the merits of the hearers are different. Listen to the prophet in the Psalms saying the same thing: "God has spoken once: I have heard these two things." A great question: already, if you have understood those things which I have said, do not be disturbed. He has spoken once, and you have heard two things? He has spoken once according to the one Word, so how have you heard two? "For power belongs to you," he says, "and mercy to you, Lord" — therefore power to punish, mercy to deliver. Hear what follows: "For you will reward," he says, "each according to his works."

"Inexpressible Trinity... desires the hearts of lovers."

O only Word, sweet Word, inspire in us Your love; but it inspires through the Holy Spirit. For thus is the Trinity: the Father who begot, the Word that was begotten, and the Spirit by whom love is inspired; who begot and what was begotten and by whom it is inspired. That the most sweet and excellent and ineffable Trinity may be loved, surpassing all the creation which it initiated, perfected, and ordered, utterly surpassing, it desires the hearts of those who love. But "desires" is rightly said, for it makes one desire. For the Spirit is also said to rejoice, because it makes one rejoice. And about God: The Lord your God tests you, that He may know if you love Him. What does it mean "that He may know," if not that He may make you know? Therefore, He sustains the hearts of those who desire, purely love, and love freely, because they find nothing better to love—or if they find something better, let them accept this as their reward; let them seek this, if they do not find better. So if your Creator did not give Himself to you, whom you find nothing better than, you should always lament rather than seek anything else; if your Creator did not give Himself to you, than whom there is nothing better, even if He accepts these words to be said about Himself—He accepts them because we are little ones, He accepts them because if we wanted to say something worthy, we would say nothing at all—if therefore your Creator, as I had begun to say, did not want to give Himself to you, you should always lament rather than anything else. But now He offers Himself, and you seek something else; He somewhat begs to be loved, by whom He is not loved. O you are miserable, not He! He therefore seeks hearts sincerely loving Him, which with pious intention surpass all mutable creation—they surpass, however, if they are humble: high places are not surpassed by high. If you want to surpass all creation and reach what you have heard from the mouth of the full fisherman, be humble, seek piously. For when you have transcended all mutable things, both corporeal and spiritual, you will come to contemplate that Trinity, and you will drink from where he drinks; to whom when you arrive, you will laugh at all calumniators—and when you have laughed at first, afterwards perhaps you will weep for those who, with vain contentions, excite smoke for themselves so that they may not see it.

"Do not think of God corporeally."

This, then, will be enough, brothers, to have suggested to you. But so that you may understand, knock on Him. Let no one say to himself with carnal thought, "How was the Word with God, and how was it in the womb of the virgin, to be born? Did the Word itself descend, so that when it was in the womb of the Virgin Mary, it left the Father? If it did not leave the Father, how could it be here? Or perhaps half remained with the Father, and half was in the womb? Or perhaps a large part remained with the Father, and a little bit or a small piece descended to the Virgin's womb?" Do not divide God into pieces; let the discord of your thoughts unite in Him in some way, He is not divided among them; let Him gather you, do not scatter Him. "And how," you ask, "am I to understand? I do not know, I cannot. He is both with the Father and in the womb of the virgin. Who can understand this?" But you hear about God; you are forming a certain kind of body for yourself out of the habit of carnal thoughts. When you do that, it is necessary to divide. For you do not find the whole thing everywhere. One part of the earth is here, another outside in the street, not the same, because it is earth, because it is a body: one part is large, another small. So too water is divided: one part is near this shore, another near that, and the part that is here is not the same as the part that is there; although the whole seems to be spread out everywhere in its places, it does not have the same part everywhere, but one part here, another elsewhere. So this diffusion of the ether: one air is in this basilica, and another in that, because there is one air throughout, but one part is in this, another part is in that; the part that is there is not the part that is here, nor is the part here the part that is there. So too are the parts of the sky: those we look at when we see the east are different parts from those we look at when we turn to the west. It cannot be that one and the same part is everywhere: even if the whole seems to be everywhere in parts, the whole of it is not everywhere, but one part is elsewhere, another elsewhere. Therefore, do not think of God corporally. Or perhaps you cannot think of anything but such things? I will give an example, perhaps, from where this may come to your understanding for the intention of your love.

The Word of God is illustrated by human examples.

You want to divide the Word of God, and it doesn't seem credible to you that the whole is with the Father, the whole is in the womb of the Virgin Mary. I say further: the whole is wherever you want, but it does not take on the person of man everywhere, with whom it becomes one God and man. I don't want you to divide: take as much as you can. Do you want to divide the Word of God? Listen to the word of man. Certainly, it seemed to you that the Word of God could not be both in Mary and with the Father, except by being divided, as if one part of it were here, another part there. When you hear the word from us, or when you hear words from us—pay attention to what we speak: for you receive a better lesson from this word, which is said to many of you, than from those, though they are of the same nature, which you say to each other. For you deal with fewer, we deal with so many: everyone hears what we say, and everyone hears the whole. If I were to place bodily food for you to eat, you would divide the food among yourselves, and one would take one part, another another part, to eat. Even if you all ate the same and one food, nevertheless you would not all eat the same parts, but you would divide among yourselves in portions what was set down, one taking this part, another that; one food would reach all, but not the whole food to all. Certainly, this would be the case. However, as that food would be placed before your mouth, so now a certain food of voices and words is placed before your ears, and yet the whole reaches everyone. Or perhaps, when I speak, does one person take one syllable for himself, another person another? Or one person one word, another person another word? If so, I would have to say as many words as I see people, for them to reach everyone, even single words. And it's easily done: I say more than there are people here, and everything reaches everyone. Therefore, the word of man is not divided by syllables, so that everyone hears, and the Word of God is chopped up into pieces, so that it might be everywhere? Do we think, brothers, that these sounding and passing words can be in any way compared to the unchanging Word? Or because I have said these things, have I made a comparison? But however, I wanted to explain to you that what God displays in corporeal things may help you believe those things that are yet unseen about spiritual matters. But now, let us move on to better things. For words sound and pass away. Think about spiritual things, think about justice. Thinking about justice being placed in these western parts, thinking about justice being placed in the east, how is it that both think of the whole and see the whole? For he who sees justice, according to which he does something, acts justly. He sees inwardly, acts outwardly. How does he see inwardly, if nothing is present to him seeing? But if it is present, because he is placed in part, will the thought of the other not reach to the same part? But when you, placed here, see the same thing in mind that he sees placed so far away, and it shines wholly to you, wholly to him, see that those things which are divine and incorporeal are wholly everywhere, and believe the Word wholly in the Father, wholly in the womb. For you believe this of the Word of God, who is God with God.

The second way: Our faith is nourished by the sacrament of the incarnation.

[3].And listen to another suggestion, another way of introducing Christ, which Scripture proclaims. It says this before assuming flesh. But how does Scripture proclaim this? "The Word," it says, "was made flesh, and dwelt among us." For he who said: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made," would proclaim the divinity of the Word to us in vain if he were silent about the humanity of the Word. For in order that I may see that, it is dealt with me from here; in order that I might be purified to contemplate that, he himself aids my weakness. By taking from human nature the very nature of man, he became man. He came with the burden of flesh to him who lay wounded in the way, to instruct and nourish our little faith with the sacrament of his incarnation, and to make our understanding clear to see that which he never lost by that which he assumed. For he began to be man, he did not cease to be God. Therefore, this is the proclamation of our Lord Jesus Christ according to what he is as mediator, according to what he is as the head of the Church, that God is man and man is God, when John says: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."

Paul agrees with John in praises of the incarnate Word.

Listen now to both statements in that most well-known passage of the Apostle Paul: "Who, being in the form of God," he says, "did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." This is: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." How did the Apostle say: "Did not consider it robbery to be equal with God," if he was not equal with God? But if the Father is God, and He is not God, how is he equal? Therefore where it says: "The Word was God," here it states, "Did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." And where it says: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us," here it states: "But He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant." Take heed. Therefore, by becoming man, by the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us, by this He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant. For what did He empty? Not to lose divinity, but to take on humanity, appearing to men as He was not before He became man. By appearing thus He emptied Himself, that is, preserving the divinity of majesty and presenting the garment of human flesh. Therefore, by emptying Himself, taking the form of a servant, not taking the form of God—for when speaking of the form of God, He did not say: "He took," but: "being in the form of God"; but when it came to the form of a servant, He said: "Taking the form of a servant"—then, through this, He became the mediator and the head of the Church, through whom we are reconciled to God, through the sacrament of His humility and passion and resurrection and ascension and future judgment, so that the two statements may be heard when God has spoken once. Where are two statements heard? Where He renders to each according to his works.

Virginity of the mind should be preserved by all the faithful.

Therefore, holding onto this, do not marvel at the questions of men that spread like cancer, as the apostle said; but guard your ears and the virginity of your mind, as though betrothed by the friend of the bridegroom to be presented as a chaste virgin to Christ. The virginity of the body should be in a few in the Church, the virginity of the mind in all. This virginity the serpent wants to corrupt, about which the same Apostle says: "I have betrothed you to one man to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. And I fear that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your minds may be corrupted from the chastity that is in Christ." He said, "your minds," that is, your thoughts. For this is more proper. For senses are also understood to mean those of this body: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching. The Apostle feared that our minds would be corrupted, where there is the virginity of faith. Now, therefore, O soul, keep your virginity, to be fruitful later in the embrace of your bridegroom. Henceforth, guard your ears with thorns as it is written. The question of the Arians disturbed the weak brothers of the Church, but in the mercy of the Lord the Catholic faith prevailed. For he did not abandon his Church, even if disturbed for a time, so that it would always supplicate him, by whom it would be established on solid rock. And still the serpent murmurs and does not remain silent: he seeks by the promise of a certain knowledge to cast out from the paradise of the Church, whom he may not allow to return to that paradise, from where he was first cast out.

The doctrine of the Arians is refuted by the books of Scripture.

Listen, my brothers: what took place in that paradise, takes place in the Church. Let no one deceive you away from this paradise: it is enough that we have fallen from there; or let us be corrected by experience. He is the same serpent, who always suggests impiety; at times he promises impunity, just as he did there: "You will not surely die," he says, because God said: "You will surely die." He suggests such things now, so that Christians live badly: "Will he destroy all?" He says, "I will condemn, I will forgive those who change themselves: let them change their deeds, I will change my threats." Therefore, he is the one who murmurs and whispers and says, "Behold, it is written: The Father is greater than I, and you say he is equal to the Father?" I take what you say, and I take both, because I read both. Why do you take one and not wish for the other? For you have read both with me. Behold, I accept the Father is greater than I, not from you, but from the Gospel; and you accept him as equal to God from the Apostle. Unite both: let both agree, for he who spoke through John in the Gospel, the same spoke through Paul in the letter. He cannot be in discord with himself, but you do not wish to understand the harmony of the Scriptures, since you love to argue yourself. "But from the Gospel," you say, "I prove: The Father is greater than I." And I from the Gospel: I and the Father are one. "How are both true?" How does the Apostle teach us? Listen: I and the Father are one. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. Listen: The Father is greater than I. But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. Behold, I have shown why greater; you show in what way equal. For we read both. He is lesser than the Father, in that he is the Son of man; equal to the Father, in that he is the Son of God, because the Word was God. Mediator and God and man: God equal to the Father, man lesser than the Father. Therefore, he is both equal and lesser: equal in the form of God, lesser in the form of a servant. So you tell me how he is equal. Is he equal in one part, and lesser in another part? Behold, except for the acceptance of flesh, show me an equal and lesser. From whence will you demonstrate, I want to see.

The wisdom of heretics is carnal and foolish.

Observe the impiety of thinking according to the flesh, as it is written: To think according to the flesh is death. I put aside, without yet speaking of the incarnation of our Lord and only Son of God, but as if it has not yet happened what has already happened, I consider with you: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I consider with you: Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Show me there anyone lesser. What will you say? Will you divide God through qualities, that is, through certain bodily or animal affections, by which we perceive one thing to be different from another? Naturally, I can indeed say it, but whether it is for you to understand, let God see. Therefore, as I began to say, before the assumption of flesh, before the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, show me one lesser, show me one equal. Is God something different so that the Son is lesser in one part, equal in another? As if we should say: “Certain are bodies,” would you say to me: “Equal in length, but lesser in strength.” For often two bodies occur such that they are equal in the stature of length, but in strength, one is lesser, the other greater. Shall we then consider such things as bodies: shall we consider God and His Son in such a way? May God turn away these thoughts from the hearts of Christians. He was entirely with the Father, entirely in the flesh, entirely above the angels. But perhaps you will think thus, saying: “Equal in both strength and length, but different in color”? Where is color, except in bodies? But there is the light of wisdom. Show me the color of wisdom. Show me the color of justice. If these have no color, would you speak those things of God, if you had the color of modesty?

"In God, everything that is said is the same thing."

What then will you say? In power they are equal, but is the Son lesser in wisdom? God is unjust if He gives equal power to one of lesser wisdom. If they are equal in wisdom, but the Son is lesser in power, God is envious, who gives lesser power to one of equal wisdom. But in God, everything that is said is the same. For in God there is not one thing as power and another as wisdom and another as strength and another as justice or another as chastity. Whatever of these things you say about God, neither is it understood as this and that, nor is anything worthily said, because these are qualities of souls, which that light in some way pervades and affects according to their qualities. Just as when this visible light rises upon bodies, if it is taken away, there is one color for all bodies, or rather, it is to be said that there is no color; but when it illuminates the bodies brought before it, although itself is of one kind, yet for the different qualities of bodies it sheds different splendors upon them. Therefore, these affections are of the souls, which are well affected by that light which is not affected, and shaped by that which is not shaped.

"Whoever begins to think about God will find that silence with the ineffable voice of the heart is to be praised."

Nevertheless, we speak these things about God, brothers, because we have found nothing better to say. I call God just, because in human words I find nothing better: for He is beyond justice. It is said in the Scriptures: The Lord is just and loves justice. But it is also said there that God repents, and it is also said there that God does not know. Who would not shudder? God does not know, God repents? Therefore, the Scripture has descended to these words healthily, which you shudder at, lest you think those things you consider great are spoken worthily. Just as if you wanted to believe that God repents something according to human emotion, and another who understands better would correct you, explaining to you, if you find anything like that in the Scriptures, that it is not said because God suffers such a thing as you do in the condemnation of your counsel or act with the pain of heart, but because He changes beyond what men think, since if men do such a thing, they do it repenting if they turn away from their purpose, although His certain and eternal counsel remains, but what He was expected to do and does otherwise is figuratively said that He repents. And so if you were to ask: "What is said worthily about God?" Perhaps someone might respond to you saying He is just. But another who understands better might also say that even this word is surpassed by His excellence, and it is unworthy to say this about Him, although it is said appropriately according to the capacity of men. Yet, when he wishes to prove from the Scriptures, because it is written: The Lord is just, it is rightly answered to him that it is stated in the same Scriptures that God repents. As you do not accept this according to the custom of speakers, as men usually repent, so you should understand that what is said just does not fit His supereminence, although the Scripture has well placed it, so that through whatever words, step by step, the mind may be led to that which cannot be spoken. Indeed, you call God just, but understand something beyond justice which you are accustomed to think even of man. But the Scriptures have called Him just, therefore they also called Him repenting and not knowing, which you no longer wish to say. Therefore, just as you understand those things you shudder at to be said because of your weakness, so also those things you highly value are said because of some weakness of the stronger ones. However, whoever transcends these things and begins to think worthily of God, as far as it is granted to man, will find silence praised by the ineffable voice of the heart.

Let us hold to the Word of God which is in His nature and which is in His mercy.

Therefore, brothers, since this is the power in God which is justice—and whatever you may say of Him, you say the same, though nothing said is worthy—you cannot say the Son is equal to the Father through justice and not equal through power, or equal through power and not equal through knowledge, because if He is equal in one aspect, He is equal in all aspects, since whatever you say of Him is the same and of the same value. Therefore, it is sufficient that you cannot say how the Son is equal to the Father unless you attribute certain diversities in the substance of God. When you do this, the truth will cast you out, and you will not reach that sanctuary where the purest vision is held. However, since you cannot say He is equal in one part and unequal in another, because there are no parts in God, you cannot say He is equal in one quality and lesser in another, because there are no qualities in God; according to God, you cannot say He is equal except in every way equally: hence where can you say He is lesser, except because He took the form of a servant? Thus, brothers, always bear this in mind. If you receive a rule in the Scriptures, the light itself will show you all things. Wherever you find the Son named as equal to the Father, accept it according to a certain divine essence; wherever you find Him named as lesser, accept it according to the form of the servant taken: as it is said: "I am who I am," and as it is said: "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob"; thus you will hold to what is in His nature, and what is in His mercy.

The Divine Scripture shows the Lord Jesus as the Son of God and man.

But let it not trouble you, because this, too, is said according to this distinction which the Lord spoke in the Gospel and in the psalm which we have just sung. But to explain and make it clearer with a more manifest testimony, it is said in the Gospel: To my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. To my Father and your Father, do not be disturbed. For the Father is always to the Son: the Son is never not begotten, and He is never not the Father. But He is our Father in a different way, through the mercy of adoption. He begot Him, He adopted us. He begot Him before the morning star, which you should not take as a single star, but mystically the morning star is what carries the light, not that it is the light, but that it is illuminated by the light to carry the light. For it is also said of that archangel who did not stand in the truth because as the morning star he arose, but he did not stay in that very light. Therefore, every soul that is illuminated to shine is called morning star; if it turns away from the illuminating light, it is darkened. Therefore, John the evangelist says of the Lord Himself: He was the true light. And as if it were asked, "What is the true light?" he says, it enlightens every man—therefore it is not one that is enlightened, but the one that enlightens. But of John the Baptist, he says: He was not that light. But what kind of light was he not? The kind that enlightens and is not enlightened. For John was a light that was enlightened because he received from His fullness. Whence the Lord Himself says: And you were willing to rejoice for a season in his light. And to His disciples, He says: You are the light of the world. For they were illuminated to be a light, but He was the true light which enlightens every man, another kind of light made that is enlightened. Therefore, the true light that enlightens is our Lord Jesus Christ; the made light that is enlightened is John, the apostles, all holy souls and the most blessed intellectual spirits, who by receiving the light become morning stars. Therefore, before the morning star, I begot you, before every creature plainly. It is to be understood as before every creature, in which the spiritual and rational creation, which is illuminated, holds principal rank. Therefore, brothers, let us hold on to both in our Lord Jesus Christ: that according to His divinity, He is equal to the Father, and according to His humanity, He is less than the Father. But what I began to say, let no one be offended, that He said: my Father and your Father. For always the Father of the only-begotten Son, always He born and born before the morning star, that is, before every creature which becomes light by illuminating. Rightly therefore, my Father and your Father, because we have received from Him to be sons of God: who gave us the power to become sons of God. And our adoption, which the Apostle speaks of, is well known to your charity, of which he says: Waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body, and again: God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive the adoption of sons. Deservingly therefore, He first singularly says my Father, then your Father. But how my God and your God? Now, if the rule is known, what are you expecting from me? My Father always, my God since He became man. Hear the psalm that was read: I was cast upon You from the womb, from my mother’s belly You are my God. I believe it is said enough about that modality also, by which our Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, the head of the Church, made a mediator, through whom we are reconciled to God, is signified in the Scriptures as God and man.

"The third way: The whole Christ according to the Church, that is, the head and the body."

The third way is how the whole Christ according to the Church, that is the head and the body, is preached. For both the head and the body are one Christ, not because he is not whole without the body, but because he has deigned to be whole with us, who is always whole without us, not only in that he is the Word, the only-begotten Son equal to the Father, but also in the very man he assumed and with whom he is both God and man. However, brothers, how are we his body, if not also one Christ with us? Where will we find this, that Christ is one head and body, that is body with his head, bride with her bridegroom? He speaks as if individually in Isaiah, and the same one speaks, and see what he says: “He has bound a turban on me like a bridegroom and adorned me with ornaments like a bride.” He calls the same one bridegroom and bride: bridegroom according to the head, bride according to the body. Two seem to be, and one is. Otherwise how are we members of Christ, with the Apostle saying most openly: “You are the body of Christ and members.” If we are members of Christ, and all together we are the body: not only those who are here, but throughout the whole earth; nor only for this time, but—what shall I say?—from just Abel to the end of the age, where men no longer generate or are generated, whatever just ones have passed through this life, whatever is here now—not in place, but in this life—whatever is to come thereafter, all this is one body of Christ, and individuals members. So, if all are the body, and individuals are members, there must be a head of which this is the body. And he is, he says, the head of the body, the Church, the firstborn, holding the preeminence. And because of him, he says also that he is the head of all principality and power, this church which is now on a pilgrimage is joined to that celestial church, where we have angels as citizens, because we would arrogantly claim we will be equal to them after the resurrection of our bodies, unless the truth had promised, saying: “They will be equal to the angels of God”; and thus the one church is made the city of the great king, whose son even he wanted to be, from whose pilgrim part he assumed flesh, its king and begetter, to recall what had strayed from there. For this is Zion in the mystery's figure, of which it is written: “A man will say, Mother Zion, and a man was born in her, and the Most High himself founded her,” that is, the very one who was made man in her, while being most humble, the Most High himself founded her, because all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made. A body truncated cannot be said whole without its head, but the head wishes to be united with its body. And one Christ with his body by consent, not by necessity. For we need the good of God, God does not need our good. Listen to the prophet: “I said to the Lord: You are my God, because you do not need my goods.”

Of Christ the head and His mystical body.

Thus, Christ is sometimes hinted at in the Scriptures so that you may understand the Word as equal to the Father. Sometimes, so that you may understand Him as the mediator who became man when the Word was made flesh to dwell among us, when the Only Begotten, through whom all things were made, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Likewise, sometimes you understand the head and the body, as the Apostle himself most plainly explains what was said about man and woman in Genesis: "And the two shall become one flesh." Observe the one explaining, so that we do not seem to say anything based on our conjectures. And he said, "The two shall become one flesh," and added: "This is a great mystery." And lest anyone thought this was concerning man and woman according to the natural joining of both sexes and their bodily mixture: "But I speak," he said, "concerning Christ and the Church." According to this, therefore, in reference to Christ and the Church, it is taken what was said: "The two shall become one flesh: they are no longer two, but one flesh." Just as the bridegroom and the bride, so the head and the body, because the head of the woman is man. Therefore, whether I say the head and the body, or I say the bridegroom and the bride, understand one thing. And hence the same Apostle, even when he was still Saul, heard: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" because the body is joined to the head, and when already the preacher of Christ suffered from others, the things which he himself had done as a persecutor: "To make up," he said, "what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ in my flesh," showing that what he suffered pertained to the afflictions of Christ. This cannot be understood concerning the head, which now in heaven suffers nothing of the sort, but concerning the body, that is, the Church, which body with its head is one Christ.

Christ demands a fitting body as the head.

Therefore, present yourselves as a body worthy of such a head, a bride worthy of such a bridegroom. That head cannot possess anything other than a worthy body; nor does that man wed a wife unless she is worthy. "That he might present to himself," it is said, "a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing." This is the bride of Christ, having neither spot nor wrinkle. Do you not want to have a spot? Do what is written: "Wash yourselves, be clean, remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes." Do you not want to have wrinkles? Be stretched out upon the cross. For it is not enough to be washed, but also to be stretched out, so that you may be without spot or wrinkle. For sins are removed by washing, but a desire for the future world is created by being stretched out, for which reason Christ was crucified. Hear Paul himself, who was washed: "Not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration." Hear the same one stretched out: "Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Therefore, deservedly, he, without spot of iniquity and without wrinkle of a double heart, as a good and faithful friend of the bridegroom, promises to present a chaste virgin to one man without spot or wrinkle. For it is not without reason that the prophecy of Isaiah near the fuller's field is mentioned.

God seeks those who knock to open that which is closed.

All these things, brothers, are like mysteries: whatever in the Scriptures sounds absurd or unnecessary, they are closed. However, they are not closed and empty: God encloses something full, but seeks those who knock to open. Certainly weigh it. For, to say something cheerfully, when children buy nuts for themselves, to avoid being deceived, they weigh them with their hand, and when they find them heavy, they hold what is still closed more securely. Weigh, therefore, when you hear some closed sentences in such holy Scriptures, so illustrious, known to the entire world, spread over the whole earth; from the time they were preached until now, nothing else has happened in human affairs than what was predicted there. Therefore, great is the weight of authority. According to this weight, weigh the sentences, and let your soul - which perhaps wanted to despise - say what was said: And the two shall be in one flesh. Already it was saying to itself: "What is this? Truly, would God cure how a man and woman mix, to say: They shall be two in one flesh?" Do not discard it; you are a child: weigh it. "And how," it says, "do I weigh it?" Say to yourself: "Indeed, any foolish person would say this, let alone some who is called a man of God. Moses, who wrote these things, at least had a moderate heart." Add, because these things were not made known to the whole world and are honored throughout the whole world by the religion of believers without cause: "He would not say: They shall be two in one flesh, unless there is something unknown, which human thought shudders at, but it is enclosed in some way. It is not empty." When you have said these things to yourself, you weigh it; if you have weighed it, you have found that it is heavy; you hold securely. But perhaps you are so weak a child that you cannot break it: just hold it and rejoice, know that you are holding something full; there will be no lack of someone who breaks and feeds you. "And who," it says, "will break it?" There is someone who will break it thoroughly - let us deal with you as with a little child -, give it to a kind father who said: I do not say these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. Behold the apostle - certainly in some respect he is a father -, he breaks for you what you carry enclosed, which you have already weighed and felt heavy. Do not fear - he who has paternal love for you will break it, when he says: Even though you have numerous tutors in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I have begotten you in Christ Jesus through the Gospel, and as a mother, when he says: I became a child among you, as a nurse tenderly cares for her own children. {Therefore he did not say "mother," because sometimes mothers, either more delicate or not loving their children, when they have given birth, hand them over to others to be nursed. Again, if he had only said: As a nurse tenderly cares, and did not add: her own children, it would seem that he received them to be nursed by another who gave birth. Therefore, he called himself both a nurse, since he nourished, and his own children, as he himself gave birth to them saying: My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you. But he labors as the Church gives birth, in its womb, not with its seed.} Therefore, give this father or mother - call it what you will: he does not get angry, as he wished to be both in affection, while being neither in sex -, give what you carry enclosed, so heavy from such great authority, to break. It is written in the book of Genesis: it is not a light matter, something is hidden there enclosed. Did it not seem that someone who said it spoke of a sacrament? "For I feel it: it is heavy, but still enclosed." But I say, he said, in Christ and in the Church. Behold the food: eat, who did not despise what was enclosed. But he who despised and discarded what was enclosed will not reach the food.

Of the three rods which the patriarch Jacob placed in the water.

Another thought comes to my mind, since I have mentioned the nut, which most fittingly we weave into this discourse, because it has come to speak about hidden sacraments. For it was not without reason that Jacob placed three variegated rods in the water, where the livestock would drink at their meeting time, nor did he wish them to be from one wood, but from different kinds. Indeed, for the result he was aiming at, it would have sufficed that they were from one wood, nor was there need for three, but either less or more, provided he placed variegated rods in the waters. What, then, is meant by placing three rods and of three woods, if not to signify a mystery, but this is closed? According to the strength that the Lord deigns to grant us, I will break and open it for you. Jacob had a pact with his father-in-law whose sheep he was tending, that if any variegated ones were born either in the sheep or in the goats, they would be his, that is, they would belong to the shepherd as his wage. For this reason, he arranged for the variegated rods, which the livestock, seeing them at conception, would, through the desire imparted by sight, bear varied offspring. In the varied livestock was signified the diversity of nations. And those livestock were of one form, and they conceived varied ones and bore varied ones. Indeed, from one Jewish people came the first preachers of the Gospel, but for many nations to be born, it was necessary that they conceive varied ones and bear varied ones. And this is Jacob’s portion. For in Jacob, Christ was prefigured. That lesser people, indeed, in Jacob, where it was said: And the greater shall serve the lesser. I remember explaining to your holiness about Esau and Jacob, to whom it was also said in that blessing which he received from his father: All nations shall serve you. The diversity of nations, then, pertained to Jacob, but unless there were announcers from the Jewish people, so that the livestock of one form, having conceived from drinking from the rods, would not bear faithful ones through the diversity of nations.

The sacrament of the Christian people preached by the apostles.

But how could the cattle conceive the diversity of nations? This could indeed be done from three rods. For the animals were in conception when he varied the rods, that is, he stripped them at intervals, and placed them in the water, from which they would draw in drinking the desire for diversity, which would appear in the colors of the offspring. But this could be done from any number and any kind of rods! However, the mystery of the future Christian people was not known to the Jewish people, except to a few holy prophets and a few envious teachers of the law to whom the Lord says: "Woe to you who hold the keys of the kingdom of heaven, neither entering yourselves nor allowing others to enter." They are also signified in that likeness where the tenants of the vineyard who did not pay the rent said: "This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours" - which they would not have said unless they had known Christ in some part, although His divinity, by which He is equal to the Father, was hidden from them: "For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory." But He did not send preachers from their number, but chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong, so that it would be said: "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the investigator of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" Therefore, the mystery which was hidden from them was revealed to the uneducated and unskilled, and through the baptism of Christ, was also made known to various nations: for this reason, the cattle conceived varied offspring from the three rods placed in the water. For as long as God the Father was proclaimed, the incarnation of the Son, which was still prophetically foretold and understood by very few, was hidden, the diversity of nations was not brought forth. But what happened was that the sheep drank from the three rods, that is, the first Israelites, through whom a diversity of nations pertaining to Jacob’s lot - that is, to the inheritance of Christ - would be born; of these Israelites, the Apostle says: "For I too am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin." For Peter and Andrew and John and James and the other apostles and other first preachers of Christ were also Israelites, of whom the Apostle says that the Gentiles are their debtors: "For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they ought also to minister to them in material things." Therefore, those Israelites were like one kind of cattle, because they were of one nation: they drank in a way the mystery of the incarnation of the Lord, so that through the mystery of the Lord’s incarnation they would bring forth various nations in the Gospel, that is, the diversity of the cattle.

The sacrament of the Lord's incarnation is shown in three rods.

How, then, is the sacrament of the Lord's incarnation shown in the three rods? From where were those rods? One was from a nut tree, another was from a plane tree, and another from a storax. Thus it is written. Therefore, let us question our faith about what it believes concerning the incarnation of the Lord. For we believe He was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. He who was born pertains to the nut tree rod. For just as one reaches the nut through the wood to the food, so our Lord Jesus Christ would not bear us unless we reached His body through the wood of the cross. This is so clear that you understood my voice beforehand; for you declared with your voice what I was beginning to explain. Who led you to that food, so that you understood so quickly, except He who hung on the wood? For if not for the cross of the Lord, you would not be Christians; if you were not Christians, you would not receive this so quickly and so sweetly. To what does the plane tree rod correspond? We say that Christ was born of the Holy Spirit. I think the plane tree rod fittingly pertains to the Holy Spirit. For the remaining storax rod, it is undoubted that it should be attributed to the inviolate integrity of the Virgin Mary because of its sweetest fragrance. From this the most delightful fragrance and the sweet-smelling fame of the birth of the Lord began, because He was born of a virgin. The understanding of the plane tree rod is more laborious, how it is shown to pertain to the Holy Spirit. The Lord will be present, aided by your prayers, and will reveal through our ministry and our humble and devoted service for your advancement, how we should take the plane tree rod to mean the Holy Spirit. In the plane tree I seek what I should choose, and I find the tree of the plane tree praised for nothing else but providing the broadest shade for those resting from the heat. Those who know such a tree understand that I am speaking the truth. The plane tree is chosen and desired for the breadth of its shade and the delight of its coolness, where we rest from the heat. But the Virgin Mary, who was not going to conceive a son through the heat of lust, but in a certain coolness of the most faithful chastity and uncorrupted virginity, not desiring male embraces, but conceiving by faith, a pregnant virgin, a virgin giving birth, a virgin remaining, received this from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit Himself provided her with coolness from the heat of all carnal desire, and therefore He is figured by the plane tree rod. I would be lying if in the very Gospel the angel did not speak and say to her: The Spirit of God will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Final exhortation.

Now therefore, beloved, as the Lord wills, he provides not from our merit, but because of our faith which he himself deigns to give. As we always say and it should never be silent: every progress of the word may be found in your works. Very miserable is the land that, when well watered, either does not produce fruit or even generates thorns. Mourn with us those whom we lament. We are accustomed to say that fasts through these festive days of the pagans should be undertaken, so that we might pray to God for those pagans. But we so deeply abhor the wretched excesses of many, that we urge you, brothers, to pray with us for certain Christian brothers, that they might allow themselves to be corrected and improved from such wickedness someday. For what is this, how much and how grievous a wrong it is! Such a Christian, who disdains such small and trivial entertainment, what will he disdain, what will he endure for Christ when some temptation of tribulation comes? He who is overwhelmed by a drop, how will he be carried away by a river? Therefore, brothers, I have not said our sorrow to your holiness in vain. Those who are here today who did not fast yesterday, let them grieve that they have lived thus on other festive days of the pagans, with us being sorrowful for them, and someday they may deign to take away both our sadness and their own wickedness.