Sermon 7

sermO 7

ABOUT THE BUSH IN WHICH THERE WAS A FLAME
And the bush was not consumed.
Sermon Given
By the fast of the fiftieth day

A great miracle.

When the divine reading was read, we also awaited with our hearts the great miracle that God's servant Moses had made with great attention, and we too became attentive, considering how the fire appeared in the bush and the bush was not consumed. Then we noticed that the holy Scripture first mentioned that the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in the bush. Then Moses was no longer speaking as if with the angel, but as with the Lord. Thirdly, we noticed that when Moses inquired about the name of God, so that he might have something to tell the children of Israel when they asked what the name of the God who had sent him was, He answered: I am who I am. And not in a passing manner, but with emphasis by repetition, He added saying: Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: He who is sent me to you. Finally, after stating His name, He further added and said: This you shall say to them: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. About these things, listen to the gift of the Lord. They are indeed great and like volumes of the mysteries of God, which if we try to unfold fittingly and sufficiently, neither strength nor time will suffice.

The burning bush signified the people of the Jews.

Therefore, what we can briefly say is that it is not without purpose, not in vain, not without some secret significance. In the bush, there was a flame, and the bush was not consumed. For the bush is a certain kind of thorns, and it could not be praised as something the earth produced for the sinner. For it was initially said to the sinning man: The earth will produce thorns and thistles for you. Nor should we think that the fact that the bush was not consumed, that is, the flame did not take hold, is something good. For if the flame signifies something good, in which an angel or the Lord appeared - hence when the Holy Spirit came, divided tongues like fire were seen by them - we must be consumed by this fire, not, however, be not consumed because of hardness. The bush that was not consumed symbolized the people who resisted God. Therefore, the bush symbolized the thorny people of the Jews, to whom Moses was sent. And so the bush was not consumed because the hardness of the Jews, as I said, resisted the law of God. For if that thorny people were not signified, Christ would not be crowned by them with thorns.

Did the Angel of the Lord or the Lord Himself appear?

However, that the same one who spoke to Moses is called both the angel of the Lord and the Lord is a great question, and it should not have a rash affirmator, but a cautious inquirer. There are two opinions that can be derived from this, any one of which may be true, both according to faith. What I said about which one of them is true, I meant what the writer sensed. For when we, inquiring into the Scriptures, feel something that the writer perhaps did not sense, we should not, however, feel anything that is contrary to the rule of faith, the rule of truth, or the rule of piety. Therefore, I propose both opinions. There may also be a third that escapes me. From these two proposed, choose whichever you will. Some say it is for this reason that he is called both the angel of the Lord and the Lord, because it was Christ, about whom the Prophet openly says that he is the angel of great counsel. For angel is the name of an office, not of nature. For an angel is called in Greek what is known in Latin as a messenger. A messenger, therefore, is the name of an action: by doing, that is, by announcing something, he is called a messenger. Who would deny that Christ announced the kingdom of heaven to us? Then a messenger, that is, an angel, is sent by the one who announces something through him. And who would deny that Christ was sent? He who so often says: I have not come to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me, He Himself specifically was sent. For even that pool of Siloam is interpreted as "Sent". Hence, He who anointed the eyes with clay commanded to wash the face from it. For no one's eye is opened, except the one who is cleansed by Christ. Therefore, the same angel, the same Lord.

The Catholic faith concerning the unity and Trinity of God.

But here arises something else to be cautioned against. For there are not lacking heretics who say that the natures of the Father and the Son are different and discordant, and that they are not of one and the same substance. However, the Catholic faith believes that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God, a Trinity of one substance, inseparable, equal, not confused by mixture, nor separated by distinction. Therefore, those who try to persuade that the Son is not of the same substance as the Father argue from this, that the Son was seen by the fathers. They say, "The Father was not seen; however, the invisible and visible are of diverse natures. And therefore," they say, "it is said of the Father: 'Whom no man has seen, nor can see'; so that He who was seen is not only to be believed as not the Father but understood rather as the Son, a creature, who was seen not only by Moses but also by Abraham, and not only by Abraham but also by Adam himself and the other fathers." The Catholic faith does not say this. But what does it say? God the Father, God the Son; immutable Father, immutable Son; eternal Father, coeternal Son; invisible Father, invisible Son. For if you say the Father is invisible, the Son visible, you have distinguished them, indeed you have separated the substances. How have you found grace, who have lost the faith? Therefore, this question is solved thus: God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in their own nature are invisible. However, He appeared when He willed, to whom He willed. Not as He is, but as He willed, to whom all things are subject. For if your soul, being invisible in your body, makes a sound to appear, and the voice in which your soul appears when you speak is not the substance of your soul; the soul is one thing, the voice is another, and yet it appears in that thing which it is not. So also God, if He appeared in fire, is not fire; if He appeared in smoke, is not smoke; if He appeared in sound, is not sound. These things are not God, but they signify God. Having retained this belief, we securely believe that it could be said that the Son who appeared to Moses was called both the Lord and the Angel of the Lord.

The opinion of those thinking that it was not Christ but an angel who was sent.

But those who think that he was truly the angel of the Lord, not Christ but a sent angel, must explain why he is called Lord. For just as it is asked by those who declare it to be Christ why he is called an angel, so it is required from those who declare him an angel why he is called Lord. But those who say it was Christ, I have already recounted how they explain why he is called an angel; because the Prophet openly said that the Lord Christ is the angel of great counsel. Therefore, those who say it was an angel must answer why he is called Lord. They too respond: As in the Scriptures the Prophet speaks and it is said that the Lord speaks, not because the Lord is the Prophet, but because the Lord is in the Prophet, so also when the Lord deigns to speak through an angel, as through an Apostle, as through a Prophet, it is rightly said that the angel speaks of himself and the Lord because of the indwelling God. Indeed, Paul was a man and Christ God, and yet the Apostle himself says: Do you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me? The Prophet also said: I will hear what the Lord God speaks in me. He who speaks in a man, also speaks in an angel. Therefore, the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses, and it is said to him: Lord, and he said: I am who I am. It is the voice of the inhabitant, not of the temple.

Three appeared to Abraham: what this signifies.

For if Christ existed for that reason when he is called an angel, because he was one, what shall we do when three appeared to Abraham? What do we say here? Three appeared, and Abraham, speaking as if to one, says: Lord. What do we say? Why three? Was it the Trinity itself? Why then Lord? Because the Trinity is one Lord, not three Lords, and the Trinity is one God, not three gods; one substance, three persons. For neither is the Father the Son, nor is the Son the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit either the Father or the Son. But the Father is not except as of the Son; the Son is not except as of the Father; the Spirit is both of the Father and of the Son. Although some say among those three that one excelled, whom Abraham called Lord when he had appeared with two others as Christ with his angels. But what do we do, since when two were sent to Sodom appearing to Lot, brother of Abraham, he recognizes divinity in them, and although he sees two, he calls them Lord. And he in the three calls them Lord, and he in the two calls them Lord. Therefore, let us not separate the Trinity and make a duality in Sodom; I think we understand better that our fathers recognized the Lord in the angels, they understood him dwelling in the dwelling place, they did not give glory to those carrying but to the one residing. This opinion is confirmed not only by the Epistle written to the Hebrews, where it is said: For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast (for he was speaking of the Old Testament, he commended that angels spoke there but God was honored in his angels, and through the angels the inner inhabitant was heard), but also in the Acts of the Apostles Stephen says, reproaching and rebuking the Jews: Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears - stiff-necked, unburnt thorns - you always resist the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the bush was not burned, because the Spirit of the flame was resisted by the thorns of sins. You always resist the Holy Spirit. Which of the Prophets did your fathers not kill? And where it is mentioned: You who received the law by ordinances of angels and have not kept it. If he had said “angels,” not “of angels,” there would be no lack of those who would say, “It is Christ,” because he is called the angel of great counsel. Christ is an angel, but are the angels Christ? And the Apostle Paul says that the seed of Abraham was dispensed from the Old Testament to the New. And how was it dispensed? Disposed, he says, through angels in the hand of a Mediator.

What it is: I am who I am.

So now the angel, and in the angel the Lord, was saying to Moses who was asking His name: I am who I am. This is what you will say to the children of Israel: He who is has sent me to you. Being is the name of unchangeability. For all things that are changed cease to be what they were and begin to be what they were not. Being is. True being, pure being, genuine being belongs only to him who does not change. He possesses true being to whom it is said: You will change them and they will be changed, but you are the same. What does it mean: I am who I am, except, I am eternal? What does it mean, I am who I am, except, I cannot be changed? No creature, neither heaven, nor earth, nor angel, nor power, nor seat, nor dominations, nor authorities. Therefore, with this being the name of eternity, it is more that He deigned to have the name of mercy: I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. This is in itself, that is to us. For if He only wished to be that which He is in Himself, what would we be? Moses, if he understood, nay, because he understood when it was said to him: I am who I am; He who is has sent me to you, this much. He believed it to be much for men, he saw it to be much distant from men. For he who has worthily understood this, which is what it is and truly is, and has been touched by what light of the most true essence, even if briefly as if by a glimmer, sees himself far below, far removed, far dissimilar, as he said: I said in my trance. For having been taken up in mind, he saw something, I don't know what, that was more to Him. And this was what was true. He said, I said in my trance. What? I am cast away from the sight of your eyes. Therefore, when towards that which was said, not towards that which was seen, Moses saw himself far unequal and as if less capable, from which he inflamed with desire itself of seeing what is, was saying to God with whom he was speaking: Show me yourself. As it were, therefore, from that excellence of essence far dissimilar he might despair, He raises up the one despairing because he had seen him fearing, as if He were saying: Because I said: I am who I am; and: He who is has sent me, you understood what it is to be, and you despaired to comprehend. Lift up your hope: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Thus I am what I am, thus I am being itself, so that I do not wish to be absent from men. If in any way we can seek God and investigate Him who is, and indeed not far from each one of us: For in Him we live and move and have our being; let us therefore praise ineffably His essence and love His mercy.