1. When I consider what we have just heard from the apostolic reading, that the unspiritual man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:14), and when I think that here in this present gathering of your Charity there must be many who are unspiritual, who still are wise according to the flesh and cannot yet raise themselves to a spiritual understanding, I am in great doubt how I may, as the Lord shall grant, manage to say or to explain according to my small measure what has been read from the Gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1); for the unspiritual man does not perceive this. What then, brothers? Shall we be silent about it? Then why is it read, if it is to be passed over in silence? Or why is it heard, if it is not explained? But again, what good is it explained, if it is not understood? And so, since I do not doubt that there are again among your number some who can not only grasp what is explained but even understand it before it is explained, I will not cheat those who can grasp it out of fear of being superfluous to the ears of those who cannot.

Finally, the mercy of God will be present, so that perhaps enough is given to all, and each one grasps what he can; for the one who speaks also says what he can. For who can say it as it is? I dare to say, my brothers, that perhaps not even John himself said it as it is, but he too said it as he could; for he was a man speaking about God, inspired by God indeed, yet still a man. Because he was inspired, he said something; if he had not been inspired, he would have said nothing. But because he was an inspired man, he did not say the whole of what is, but he said what a man could say.

2. For this John, dearest brothers, was one of those mountains of which it is written: Let the mountains receive peace for your people, and the hills righteousness (Ps 72:3 (71:3)). The mountains are lofty souls; the hills are little souls. But the mountains receive peace for this reason, that the hills may be able to receive righteousness. What is the righteousness that the hills receive? Faith, for the righteous one lives by faith (Rom 1:17). But the lesser souls would not receive faith unless the greater souls, which are called mountains, were illuminated by Wisdom herself, so that they might be able to pass on to the little ones what the little ones can grasp, and the hills might live by faith, because the mountains receive peace.

It was by these mountains that it was said to the Church, Peace be with you (Jn 20:19); and these mountains, in announcing peace to the Church, did not divide themselves against him from whom they received peace, so that they might announce peace truly and not falsely.

3. For there are other mountains that cause shipwreck, against which, when anyone drives his ship, it is broken apart. For when land is seen by those in peril, it is easy, so to speak, to make for the land; but sometimes land is seen in a mountain, and rocks lie hidden beneath the mountain, and when someone makes for the mountain, he runs upon the rocks; and there he finds no harbor, but lamentation. So there were certain mountains, and they appeared great among men; and they made heresies and schisms, and divided the Church of God. But those who divided the Church of God were not those mountains of which it was said: Let the mountains receive peace for your people (Ps 72:3 (71:3)). For how did they receive peace who divided unity?

4. But those who received peace to announce to the people contemplated Wisdom herself, as far as it could be reached by human hearts—that which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man (1 Cor 2:9). If it did not enter into the heart of man, how did it enter into the heart of John? Or was John not a man? Or perhaps it did not enter into the heart of John, but the heart of John entered into it? For what enters into the heart of man comes up to man from below; but where the heart of man enters, that is above man.

Even so, brothers, it can be said that if it entered into the heart of John, if it can be put in any way, it entered into the heart of John insofar as John himself was not a man. What does this mean, 'was not a man'? Insofar as he had begun to be an angel; for all the saints are angels, because they are announcers of God. Therefore, to the carnal and unspiritual who are unable to perceive the things that are of God, what does the Apostle say? For when you say, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, are you not men? (1 Cor 3:4) What did he wish to make of those whom he reproached for being men? Do you wish to know what he wished to make of them? Hear in the Psalms: I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High (Ps 82:6 (81:6)). To this, then, God calls us, that we should not be men. But we shall not be men, for the better, unless we first acknowledge ourselves to be men—that is, that we may rise from humility to that height—lest, when we think we are something though we are nothing (Gal 6:3), we not only fail to receive what we are not but even lose what we are.

5. Therefore, brothers, John too was one of these mountains, who said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1). This mountain had received peace; he was contemplating the divinity of the Word. What kind of mountain was this? How lofty? He had passed beyond all the peaks of the earth, passed beyond all the expanses of the air, passed beyond all the heights of the stars, passed beyond all the choirs and legions of angels. For unless he had passed beyond all these things that were created, he would not have arrived at the one through whom all things were made. You cannot conceive what he passed beyond unless you see where he arrived. Do you ask about heaven and earth? They were made. Do you ask about the things that are in heaven and on earth? Surely these too, much more, were made.

Do you ask about the spiritual creatures—the angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, virtues, principalities? These too were made. For when the Psalm enumerated all these things, it concluded thus: He himself spoke, and they were made; he himself commanded, and they were created (Ps 148:5). If he spoke, and they were made, they were made through the Word; but if they were made through the Word, the heart of John could not have arrived at what he says—In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1)—unless he had passed beyond all the things that were made through the Word. What kind of mountain, then, is this, how holy, how high among those mountains that received peace for the people of God, so that the hills might receive righteousness!

6. See, then, brothers, whether John is perhaps one of those mountains of which we sang a little while ago: I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to me (Ps 121:1 (120:1)). Therefore, my brothers, if you wish to understand, lift up your eyes to this mountain; that is, raise yourselves to the Evangelist, raise yourselves to his meaning. But because these mountains receive peace, and the one who places his hope in man cannot be in peace, do not so lift up your eyes to the mountain as to think that your hope is to be placed in man; rather, say, I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to me, so that you immediately add: My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Ps 121:2 (120:2)).

Therefore let us lift up our eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to us; and yet it is not the mountains themselves in which our hope is to be placed, for the mountains receive what they may minister to us. Therefore, where the mountains too receive it, there our hope is to be placed. When we lift up our eyes to the Scriptures, since the Scriptures have been ministered through men, we lift up our eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to us; but yet, because it was men who wrote the Scriptures, they did not shine of themselves; rather, he was the true light, who enlightens every man coming into this world (Jn 1:9). John the Baptist too was a mountain, who said: I am not the Christ (Jn 1:20); lest anyone, placing his hope in the mountain, fall away from the one who illuminates the mountains, he himself confessed and said: For of his fullness we have all received (Jn 1:16). So you ought to say, I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to me, lest you credit to the mountains the help that comes to you; but follow on, and say: My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Ps 121:2 (120:2)).

7. Therefore, brothers, I have given these warnings for this reason: that when you lifted up your heart to the Scriptures, as the Gospel sounded forth—In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1), and the rest that was read—you might understand that you had lifted your eyes to the mountains. For unless the mountains said these things, you would not find from where to think of them at all. Therefore help came to you from the mountains, that you might at least hear these things; but you cannot yet understand what you have heard. Call for help from the Lord, who made heaven and earth; for the mountains were able to speak in such a way that they cannot themselves give light, since they too were enlightened by hearing. From there that John received what he said, brothers—he who reclined upon the breast of the Lord (Jn 13:23) and drank from the breast of the Lord what he might give us to drink.

But he gave us words to drink; the understanding, however, you must take from the same source from which he too had drunk who gave you to drink: so that you lift your eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to you, that from there you may receive, as it were, the cup—that is, the word given you to drink; and yet, because your help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth, you may fill your breast from the same source from which he filled his—from where you said, My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Ps 121:2 (120:2)). Let him, therefore, who can, fill himself.

Brothers, I have said this: let each one lift up his heart in whatever way he sees fit, and grasp what is said. But perhaps you will say that I am more present to you than God is. God forbid. He is far more present; for I appear to your eyes, but he presides over your consciences. Lend your ears to me, your heart to him, that you may fill both. See, you lift up your eyes and these bodily senses to us—and not to us, for we are not of those mountains, but to the Gospel itself, to the Evangelist himself; but the heart is to be filled by turning to the Lord. And let each one so lift it up that he sees what he lifts and where he lifts it. What did I mean by 'what he lifts and where he lifts it'? Let him see what sort of heart he lifts, since he lifts it to the Lord, lest, weighed down by the burden of carnal pleasure, it fall before it has been lifted up. But does anyone see himself carrying the burden of the flesh? Let him take pains, through continence, to purify what he lifts up to God. For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8).

8. For see, what good is it that the words sounded forth—In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1)? We too said words when we spoke. Was the Word with God a word like that? Did not the things we said sound forth and pass away? Did the Word of God, then, sound forth and come to an end? How were all things made through him, and without him was nothing made (Jn 1:3)? How is that which was created through him governed through him, if it sounded forth and passed away? What kind of word, then, is it that is both spoken and does not pass away?

Let your Charity attend: it is a great matter. By daily speaking, words have become cheap to us, because, by sounding and passing, they have become cheap, and they seem to be nothing other than words. There is a word even within man himself, which remains inside; for the sound proceeds from the mouth. There is a word that is spoken truly, spiritually—that which you understand from the sound, not the sound itself. See, I speak a word when I say 'God.' How short is what I have said—four letters and two syllables! Is this the whole of God, four letters and two syllables? Or, as cheap as this is, so precious is what is understood in them? What happened in your heart when you heard 'God'? What happened in my heart when I said 'God'? Some great and supreme substance was thought of, one that transcends every changeable creature, carnal and spiritual.

And if I should ask you, 'Is God changeable or unchangeable?' you will answer at once: 'Far be it from me either to believe or to think God changeable: God is unchangeable.' Your soul, however small, however perhaps still carnal, could not answer me except that God is unchangeable; but every creature is changeable. How, then, were you able to flash up to that which is above every creature, so that you answered me with certainty that God is unchangeable? What, then, is that in your heart when you think of a certain living substance, everlasting, almighty, infinite, present everywhere, everywhere whole, nowhere enclosed? When you think these things, this is a word about God in your heart. But is this the sound that consists of four letters and two syllables? Therefore whatever things are spoken and pass away are sounds, are letters, are syllables. This word passes away, the word that sounds; but that which the sound signified is both in the one who thinks who spoke it, and in the one who understands who heard it, and it remains while the sounds pass away.

9. Turn your mind to that word. Suppose you can have a word in your heart, like a plan born in your mind, so that your mind gives birth to the plan, and the plan is present like the offspring of your mind, like a son of your heart. For first the heart begets a plan to construct some building, to undertake something large on the earth; the plan is already born, and the work is not yet completed. You see what you are going to do; but another does not marvel at it until you have done it and built the structure, and brought that work to completion and perfection. Then men gaze at the marvelous structure and admire the plan of the builder; they are astonished at what they see, and they love what they do not see. Who is there who can see a plan?

If, then, the human plan is praised from some great structure, do you wish to see what sort of plan of God the Lord Jesus Christ is—that is, the Word of God? Consider this structure of the world; see what things were made through the Word, and then you will know what sort of Word it is. Consider these two bodies of the world, heaven and earth: who can unfold in words the adornment of heaven? Who can unfold in words the fruitfulness of the earth? Who worthily praises the changes of the seasons? Who worthily praises the power of seeds? You see what things I pass over in silence, lest by mentioning them at length I say too little, perhaps, of what you can conceive.

From this structure, then, consider what sort of Word it is through which it was made; and it was not the only thing made. For all these things are seen, because they belong to the bodily senses. Through that Word the angels too were made; through that Word the archangels too were made; the powers, thrones, dominions, principalities; through that Word were made all things (Jn 1:3): from this consider what sort of Word it is.

10. Perhaps someone now answers me, I know not who: And who can conceive this Word? Do not, then, form for yourself something cheap, as it were, when you hear 'Word,' and connect it with the words you hear every day: 'He said such words, he spoke such words, you are telling me such words'; for by constantly speaking the names of words, words have become cheap, as it were. And when you hear, In the beginning was the Word (Jn 1:1), lest you should think it something cheap, of the sort you are accustomed to conceive when you were used to hearing human words, hear what you should think: the Word was God (Jn 1:1).

11. Let some unbelieving Arian now come forth, I know not who, and say that the Word of God was made. How can it be that the Word of God was made, when God made all things through the Word? If the Word of God itself was also made, through what other word was it made? If you say this—that there is a Word of the Word through which it was made—I say that that one is the only-begotten Son of God. But if you do not speak of a Word of the Word, grant that the one through whom all things were made was not made. For that through which all things were made could not be made through itself.

Believe the Evangelist, then. For he could have said, 'In the beginning God made the Word,' just as Moses said, In the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gen 1:1); and he enumerates everything thus: God said, Let it be made, and it was made. If he said it, who said it? Surely God. And what was made? Some creature. Between God who speaks and the creature that was made, what is there through which it was made, except the Word? For God said, Let it be made, and it was made. This Word is unchangeable; although changeable things are made through the Word, the Word itself is unchangeable.

12. Do not, then, believe that the one through whom all things were made was made, lest you not be remade through the Word, through whom all things are remade. For you have already been made through the Word, but you must be remade through the Word; but if your faith concerning the Word should be bad, you will not be able to be remade through the Word. And if it has befallen you to be made through the Word, so that you were made through him, yet through yourself you fall away; if you fall away through yourself, let him who made you remake you; if you are made worse through yourself, let him who created you recreate you. But how shall he recreate you through the Word, if you think something bad about the Word? The Evangelist says, In the beginning was the Word; and you say, In the beginning the Word was made. He says, All things were made through him; and you say that the Word itself too was made. The Evangelist could have said, In the beginning the Word was made; but what does he say? In the beginning was the Word (Jn 1:1). If it 'was,' it was not made, so that all these things might be made through it, and without it nothing. If, then, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1)—if you cannot conceive what it is, wait until you grow. That is solid food; take milk, that you may be nourished, that you may be strong enough to take solid food (1 Cor 3:2).

13. Certainly, brothers, as to what follows—All things were made through him, and without him was nothing made (Jn 1:3)—see that you do not think that 'nothing' is something. For many who understand badly are accustomed, from without him was nothing made, to suppose that 'nothing' is something. Sin, indeed, was not made through him; and it is plain that sin is nothing, and that men become nothing when they sin. An idol, too, was not made through the Word; it does have a certain human form, but man himself was made through the Word; for the form of a man in the idol was not made through the Word; and it is written: We know that an idol is nothing (1 Cor 8:4).

Therefore these things were not made through the Word; but whatever things have been made naturally, whatever things are in the creatures, absolutely all things that are fixed in heaven, that shine from above, that fly beneath the sky, and that move throughout the whole nature of things, the whole creation without exception—let me say it more plainly, let me say it, brothers, that you may understand—from the angel down to the little worm. What is more splendid than an angel among creatures? What is lower than a little worm among creatures? Through the one through whom the angel was made, through him the little worm too was made; but the angel is worthy of heaven, the little worm of earth. He who created them, he himself arranged them. If he were to place the worm in heaven, you would find fault; if he wished angels to be born from rotting flesh, you would find fault; and yet God does nearly this, and is not to be found at fault. For all men, born of flesh, what are they but worms? And from worms he makes angels.

For if the Lord himself says, But I am a worm, and not a man (Ps 22:6 (21:7)), who hesitates to say what is written also in Job: How much more is man rottenness, and the son of man a worm (Job 25:6)? First he said, man is rottenness; and afterward, the son of man a worm: because the worm is born from rottenness, therefore man is rottenness, and the son of man a worm. See what he willed to become for your sake, he who in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1). Why was this done for your sake? That you might suckle, you who could not eat solid food.

In every way, then, brothers, take it thus: All things were made through him, and without him was nothing made (Jn 1:3). For the whole creation was made through him, greater and lesser; through him the things above were made, the things below; spiritual, corporeal—through him they were made. For no form, no structure, no harmony of parts, no substance of any kind whatever, which can have weight, number, and measure, exists except through that Word, and from that creating Word, to whom it was said: You have arranged all things in measure, and number, and weight (Wis 11:21).

14. Therefore let no one deceive you, when perhaps you feel disgust at flies. For some have been mocked by the devil and captured by means of flies. For fowlers are accustomed to place flies in a trap, that they may deceive hungry birds; so these men too were deceived by the devil by means of flies. For someone, I know not who, was feeling disgust at flies; a Manichee found him afflicted with disgust; and when he said that he could not endure flies and hated them violently, that one at once said: Who made them? And because he was afflicted with disgust and hated them, he did not dare to say, God made them—yet he was a Catholic. The other at once added: If God did not make them, who made them? Plainly, said he, I believe that the devil made flies. And the other at once: If the devil made the fly, as I see you confess, since you understand prudently, who made the bee, which is a little larger than a fly? That man did not dare to say that God made the bee and did not make the fly, because the case was a near one. From the bee he led him to the locust, from the locust to the lizard, from the lizard to the bird, from the bird he led him to the beast, then to the ox, then to the elephant, and at last to man; and he persuaded the man that man was not made by God. So that wretch, when he felt disgust at flies, became a fly himself, whom the devil might possess. For Beelzebub is said to be interpreted 'prince of flies'; of which it is written: Dying flies spoil the sweetness of the oil (Eccl 10:1).

15. What then, brothers? Why have I said these things? Close the ears of your heart against the wiles of the enemy; understand that God made all things and set them in their own ranks. But why do we suffer many evils from a creature that God made? Because we have offended God. Do the angels suffer these things? Perhaps in this life too we would not fear them. Blame your sin for your punishment, not the judge. For on account of pride God appointed this least and most abject creature to torment us: so that, when a man has been proud and has exalted himself against God; and, though he is mortal, has terrified a mortal; and, though he is a man, has not recognized his neighbor as a man; when he has lifted himself up, he is made subject to fleas.

Why is it that you puff yourself up with human pride? A man hurled an insult at you, and you were afraid, and you grew angry; resist the fleas so that you may sleep: recognize who you are. For that you may know, brothers, that these things, which would be troublesome to us, were created to tame our pride: God was able to tame the proud people of Pharaoh by means of bears, lions, and serpents; yet he sent flies and frogs upon them, that pride might be tamed by the most worthless things.

16. All things, therefore, brothers, absolutely all things were made through him, and without him was nothing made (Jn 1:3). But how were all things made through him? What was made in him is life (Jn 1:3-4). For it can be said thus: What was made, in him is life; therefore the whole is life, if we so pronounce it. For what was not made in him? For he is the Wisdom of God; and it is said in the Psalm: You have made all things in Wisdom (Ps 104:24 (103:24)). If, then, Christ is the Wisdom of God, and the Psalm says, You have made all things in Wisdom, then just as all things were made through him, so they were made in him. If, then, all things are in him, dearest brothers, and what was made in him is life, then earth too is life, then wood too is life. We do indeed speak of wood as life, but according to the understanding of the wood of the cross, from which we received life. Therefore the stone too is life.

It is shameful to understand it so, lest again that most filthy sect of the Manichees creep in upon us and say that the stone has life, and the wall has a soul, and the cord has a soul, and the wool and the garment too. For madmen are accustomed to say this, and when they have been checked and repulsed, they bring it forward, as it were, from the Scriptures, saying: Why is it said, What was made in him is life (Jn 1:3-4)? For if all things were made in him, all things are life. Do not let them lead you astray: pronounce it thus: What was made; here make a slight pause, and then add, in him is life. What does this mean? The earth was made; but the earth itself which was made is not life. Yet in Wisdom herself there is, spiritually, a certain rational principle by which the earth was made; and this is life.

17. I will tell your Charity how I can. A carpenter makes a chest. First he has the chest in his skill; for if he did not have the chest in his skill, from where would he produce it by making it? But the chest is in the skill in such a way that it is not the very chest that is seen by the eyes. In the skill it exists invisibly; in the work it will exist visibly. See, it has been made in the work; has it ceased to be in the skill? Both that has been made in the work, and that which is in the skill remains: for that chest can rot away, and from the one that is in the skill another can be made. Consider, then, the chest in the skill, and the chest in the work. The chest in the work is not life; the chest in the skill is life, because the soul of the craftsman lives, in which all these things exist before they are produced.

So then, dearest brothers, because the Wisdom of God, through whom all things were made, contains all things according to skill before it fashions all things; therefore the things that are made through that skill are not at once life, but whatever was made, in him is life. You see earth; there is earth in the skill: you see heaven; there is heaven in the skill: you see the sun and the moon; these too are in the skill: but outside they are bodies, in the skill they are life.

See, if you can in any way; for a great thing has been said: and if not by me as a great man, or not through me as something great, yet it is from the Great One. For these things were not said by me, a little one; but he to whom I look in order to speak is no little one. Let each one grasp it as he can, as far as he can; and let him who cannot, nourish his heart, that he may be able. From where should he nourish it? Let him nourish it with milk, that he may come to solid food. Let him not depart from the Christ who was born in the flesh until he arrives at the Christ who was born of the one Father, the Word, God with God, through whom all things were made; for that is the life which is in him, the life that is the light of men.

18. For this is what follows: And the life was the light of men (Jn 1:4); and from that life men are enlightened. Cattle are not enlightened, because cattle do not have rational minds that can see wisdom. But man was made to the image of God (Gen 1:27); he has a rational mind through which he can perceive wisdom. Therefore that life through which all things were made, that life itself is light: and not the light of just any animals, but the light of men. From which a little later he says: It was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (Jn 1:9). By that light John the Baptist was enlightened; by that same light John the Evangelist too. He was full of that light who said: I am not the Christ; but he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to loosen (Jn 1:20, 27). By that light he was enlightened who said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1). Therefore that life is the light of men.

19. But perhaps foolish hearts cannot yet grasp this light, because they are weighed down by their sins, so that they cannot see it. Let them not on that account think the light is, as it were, absent, because they cannot see it: for they themselves, on account of their sins, are darkness. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (Jn 1:5). Therefore, brothers, just as a man placed in the sun but blind has the sun present to him, while he himself is absent from the sun, so every fool, every wicked man, every impious man is blind in heart. Wisdom is present, but when it is present with a blind man, it is absent from his eyes: not because it is absent from him, but because he is absent from it.

What, then, should such a man do? Let him cleanse the means by which God can be seen. Just as, if he could not see because he had dirty and wounded eyes, with dust or rheum or smoke rushing in, the physician would say to him: Clean out of your eye whatever evil there is, that you may be able to see the light of your eyes. The dust, the rheum, the smoke are sins and iniquities; remove all these from there, and you will see the wisdom that is present: for God is that very wisdom; and it is said: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8).

1. It is good, brothers, that, passing over no passage, we should go through the text of the divine Scriptures, and especially of the holy Gospel, as we are able; and that, according to our capacity, we should be fed, and minister to you that from which we too are fed. We remember that on the past Lord's Day the first chapter was treated, that is: 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 was nothing made. What was made, in him is life; and the life was the light of men; and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (Jn 1:1-5). Up to this point, I believe, it was treated: let all who were present recall it; and those who were not present, believe us and those who wished to be present. Now then, since we cannot always repeat everything, for the sake of those who wish to hear what follows, and to whom it is a burden if the earlier matters are repeated to the defrauding of the later; let those who were not present deign not to demand the things passed over, but together with those who were present to hear now the things at hand.

2. There follows: There was a man sent from God, whose name was John (Jn 1:6). For the things that were said above, dearest brothers, were said of the ineffable divinity of Christ, and almost ineffably. For who will grasp: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God (Jn 1:1)? And lest the name of Word become cheap to you, through the habit of daily words: And the Word was God (Jn 1:1). This Word is the selfsame about which we spoke much yesterday: and may the Lord have granted that, even merely by speaking, we brought something to your hearts. In the beginning was the Word. It is the selfsame, it is in the same manner; as it is, so it always is; it cannot be changed: this is 'is.' This is the name he told to his servant Moses: I am who I am; and: He who is sent me (Exod 3:14).

Who, then, will grasp this, when you see all mortal things changeable; when you see not only that bodies vary through their qualities—being born, growing, declining, dying—but also that the souls themselves are stretched and torn apart by the affection of diverse wills: when you see that men can both attain wisdom, if they bring themselves near to its light and warmth, and can lose wisdom, if by evil affection they withdraw from it? When, therefore, you see that all these things are changeable, what is that which 'is,' except that which transcends all the things that so exist that they do not truly exist? Who, then, will grasp this? Or who, however he may strain the powers of his mind to attain, as he can, that which 'is,' will be able to arrive at that which he has somehow attained with his mind?

For it is just as if someone were to see his homeland from afar, and a sea lay between; he sees where he is to go, but he has no way to go. So we wish to arrive at that stability of ours, where what is, is, because this alone always is in such a way as it is; the sea of this world lies between, along which we go, even though we now see where we are going: for many do not even see where they are going. Therefore, that there might also be a way by which we might go, he came from there, the one to whom we wished to go. And what did he do? He set up the wood by which we might cross the sea. For no one can cross the sea of this world unless carried by the cross of Christ. This cross even one weak of eyes sometimes embraces: and he who does not see from afar where he is going, let him not depart from it, and it will carry him through.

3. And so, my brothers, let me impress this upon your hearts: if you wish to live devoutly and as Christians, cling to Christ according to that which he was made for us, so that you may arrive at him according to that which he is, and according to that which he was. He drew near, that this might be done for us; because for us he was made this, by which the weak might be carried, and might cross the sea of the world, and arrive at the homeland; where there will no longer be need of a ship, because no sea is crossed. It is better, then, not to see with the mind that which is, and yet not to depart from the cross of Christ, than to see it with the mind and despise the cross of Christ. It is good, and best beyond this, if it can be done, both that one should see where he must go, and should hold to that by which he is carried as he goes.

This the great minds of the mountains, who were called mountains, were able to do—those whom the light of righteousness especially illuminates: they were able, and they saw that which is. For John, seeing, said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1). They saw this, and in order to arrive at that which they saw from afar, they did not depart from the cross of Christ, and they did not despise the humility of Christ. But the little ones, who cannot understand this, not departing from the cross and passion and resurrection of Christ, are carried in that same ship to that which they do not see—the ship in which those too who see arrive.

4. But indeed certain philosophers of this world arose and sought the Creator through the creature: for he can be found through the creature, as the Apostle plainly says: For his invisible things, from the foundation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through the things that have been made; his eternal power also and divinity, so that they are without excuse (Rom 1:20). And there follows: Because, when they knew God: he did not say, Because they did not know him; but, Because, when they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, or give thanks; but they became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened (Rom 1:21). Whence was it darkened? It follows, and he says more openly: For saying that they were wise, they became fools (Rom 1:22).

They saw where they were to come; but, ungrateful to the one who granted them what they saw, they wished to attribute to themselves what they saw; and, made proud, they lost what they were seeing, and turned from there to idols and images and the worship of demons, to adore the creature and to despise the Creator. But it was already as men cast down that they did these things: yet in order that they might be cast down, they became proud; and when they were proud, they said that they were wise. These, then, of whom he said, When they knew God, saw this that John says, that all things were made through the Word of God. For these things too are found in the books of the philosophers: and that God has an only-begotten Son, through whom all things are. They were able to see that which is, but they saw it from afar: they were unwilling to hold to the humility of Christ, in which ship they would have safely arrived at that which they were able to see from afar; and the cross of Christ became cheap to them.

The sea must be crossed, and you despise the wood? O proud wisdom! you mock the crucified Christ; he is the very one you saw from afar: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God (Jn 1:1). But why was he crucified? Because the wood of his humility was necessary for you. For you had swelled with pride, and had been cast far from that homeland; and the way is cut off by the waves of this world, and there is no way to cross to the homeland unless you are carried by the wood. Ungrateful one, you mock him who came to you that you might return! He himself was made the way, and that through the sea: therefore he walked on the sea, to show that there is a way in the sea. But you, who cannot walk on the sea as he did, let yourself be carried by the ship, be carried by the wood: believe in the crucified, and you will be able to arrive.

For your sake he was crucified, to teach humility; and because, if he had come thus as God, he would not have been recognized. For if he had come thus as God, he would not have come to those who could not see God. For according to that which he is as God, he neither comes nor departs; since he is everywhere present and is contained in no place. But according to what did he come? In that he appeared as man.

5. Because, then, he was a man in such a way that God lay hidden in him, a great man was sent before him, by whose testimony he might be found to be more than a man. And who is this? There was a man (Jn 1:6). And how could this man speak the truth about God? Sent from God (Jn 1:6). What was he called? Whose name was John (Jn 1:6). Why did he come? This man came for a testimony, to bear witness concerning the light, that all might believe through him (Jn 1:7). What sort of man was this who would bear witness concerning the light? This John was something great, of immense merit, great grace, great loftiness! Marvel, indeed marvel; but as at a mountain. A mountain, however, is in darkness unless it is clothed with light. Therefore marvel at John only so far as to hear what follows: He was not the light (Jn 1:8); lest, when you think the mountain is the light, you make shipwreck on the mountain instead of finding comfort. But what ought you to marvel at? The mountain as a mountain. But raise yourself to him who illuminates the mountain, who was raised up for this, that he might first receive the rays and announce them to your eyes. Therefore, he was not the light.

6. Why, then, did he come? But that he might bear witness concerning the light (Jn 1:8). Why this? That all might believe through him (Jn 1:7). And concerning what light would he bear witness? He was the true light (Jn 1:9). Why is true added? Because an enlightened man too is called light; but the true light is that which enlightens. For our eyes too are called lights; and yet, unless either a lamp is lit by night or the sun comes out by day, these lights are open for no purpose. The enlightened man.

So then John too was light, but not the true light: because, unenlightened, he was darkness; but by enlightenment he was made light. But unless he were enlightened, he would have been darkness, like all the impious, to whom, now that they believed, the Apostle said: You were once darkness. But now, because they had believed, what? But now you are light, he says, in the Lord (Eph 5:8). Unless he added in the Lord, we would not understand. Light, he says, in the Lord: darkness not in the Lord were you. For you were once darkness—there he did not add, in the Lord. Therefore darkness in yourselves, light in the Lord. So too he was not the light, but that he might bear witness concerning the light (Jn 1:8).

7. But where is the light itself? He was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (Jn 1:9). If every man coming, then John himself too. He himself, then, enlightened the one by whom he wished to be pointed out. Let your Charity understand: for he was coming to weak minds, to wounded hearts, to the bleary eyesight of the soul. For this he had come. And from where could the soul see that which perfectly is? Just as it often happens that from some illuminated body it is recognized that the sun has risen, which we cannot see with our eyes. For even those who have wounded eyes are able to see a wall lit and illumined by the sun, or a mountain, or a tree, or something of this kind they are able to see; and in something else that is illumined, that rising is shown to them which they still bear too weak an eyesight to see.

So then all those to whom Christ had come were too weak to see him: he shone upon John; and through him, confessing that he was shone upon and enlightened, not the one who shone and enlightened, was recognized the one who enlightens, recognized the one who illumines, recognized the one who fills. And who is he? Who enlightens, he says, every man coming into the world (Jn 1:9). For if man had not departed from there, he would not need to be enlightened: but for this reason he is to be enlightened here, because he departed from there, where man could always have been enlightened.

8. What then? If he came here, where was he? He was in this world (Jn 1:10). He both was here, and he came here: he was here through divinity; he came here through the flesh: because, when he was here through divinity, he could not be seen by the foolish and the blind and the wicked. The wicked themselves are the darkness of which it was said: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (Jn 1:5). See, he is here even now, and he was here, and he is always here; and he never departs, he departs nowhere. You need to have the means by which you may see that which never departs from you; you need not to depart from him who departs nowhere; you need not to forsake him, and you will not be forsaken. Do not fall, and he will not set for you. If you fall, he sets for you; but if you stand, he is present to you.

But you did not stand: recall from where you fell, from where the one who fell before you cast you down. For he cast you down not by force, not by a shove, but by your own will. For if you had not consented to evil, you would have stood, you would have remained enlightened. But now, because you have already fallen and become wounded in heart—the means by which that light could be seen—he came to you in such a form as you could see; and he showed himself such a man that he sought testimony from a man. God seeks testimony from a man, and God has a man as witness; God has a man as witness, but for man's sake: so weak are we! Through a lamp we seek the day: for John himself was called a lamp, the Lord saying: He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to exult for an hour in his light; but I have a testimony greater than John's (Jn 5:35-36).

9. Therefore he shows that for the sake of men he willed to be pointed out through a lamp, for the faith of believers, so that through that same lamp his enemies might be confounded. For those enemies who tempted him and said: Tell us: By what authority do you do these things? I too will ask you, he said, one question: tell me, the baptism of John, from where is it? from heaven, or from men? And they were troubled, and said among themselves: If we say from heaven, he will say to us: Why then did you not believe him? (because he had borne witness to Christ, and had said: I am not the Christ, but he is). But if we say it is from men, we fear the people, lest they stone us; for they held John as a prophet (Luke 20:2-6). Fearing stoning, but more fearing the confession of the truth, they answered the truth with a lie; and iniquity lied to itself (Ps 27:12 (26:12)). For they said: We do not know (Luke 20:7).

And the Lord, because they had shut themselves off against him by denying that they knew what they did know, did not himself open to them, because they did not knock. For it was said: Knock, and it will be opened to you (Matt 7:7). But not only did they not knock, that it might be opened; rather, by denying, they barred the very door against themselves. And the Lord said to them: Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things (Luke 20:8). And they were confounded through John; and there was fulfilled in them: I have prepared a lamp for my Christ; his enemies I will clothe with confusion (Ps 132:17-18 (131:17-18)).

10. He was in the world, and the world was made through him (Jn 1:10). Do not think that he was in the world in the way that earth is in the world, that heaven is in the world, that the sun, moon, and stars are in the world, that trees, cattle, and men are in the world. He was not in the world in that way. But how was he? As a craftsman, governing what he made. For he did not make in the way that a carpenter makes. The chest he makes is outside him, and it is placed in another spot while it is being fashioned; and although it is nearby, the one who fashions it sits in another spot, and is outside the thing he fashions: but God, poured into the world, fashions it; placed everywhere, he fashions it, and does not withdraw anywhere, nor does he, as it were, turn from outside the mass he fashions. By the presence of his majesty he makes what he makes; by his presence he governs what he made. So then he was in the world as the one through whom the world was made. For the world was made through him, and the world did not know him (Jn 1:10).

11. What does the world was made through him mean? Heaven, earth, sea, and all things that are in them are called the world. Again, in another sense, the lovers of the world are called the world. The world was made through him, and the world did not know him (Jn 1:10). For did the heavens not know their Creator, or did the angels not know their Creator, or did the stars not know their Creator, whom the demons confess (Jas 2:19)? All things everywhere bore witness. But who did not know him? Those who, by loving the world, were called the world.

For by loving we dwell with the heart: and by loving, they deserved to be called by the name of that in which they dwelt. Just as we say: That house is bad; or: That house is good: in the one we call bad we do not accuse the walls; or in the one we call good we do not praise the walls: but a bad house means bad inhabitants, and a good house means good inhabitants. So too the world means those who inhabit the world by loving it. Who are they? Those who love the world: for they dwell with their heart in the world. For those who do not love the world dwell in the world in the flesh; but with the heart they inhabit heaven, as the Apostle says: But our citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20). Therefore the world was made through him, and the world did not know him (Jn 1:10).

12. He came to his own: because all these things were made through him. And his own did not receive him (Jn 1:11). Who are his own? The men he made. The Jews, whom he first made to be over all the nations. Because the other nations adored idols and served demons; but that people had been born of the seed of Abraham: and they especially are his own; because, through the flesh which he deigned to take on, they are also his kindred. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. Did they not receive him at all, did no one receive him? Was no one, then, made safe? For no one will be made safe except him who has received Christ when he came.

13. But he added: But as many as received him (Jn 1:12). What did he grant them? Great kindness! Great mercy! He was born the only one, and he would not remain alone. Many men, when they have had no children, after their prime is past adopt children for themselves; and they do by their will what they could not do by nature: this men do. But if someone has an only son, he rejoices in him the more; because he alone will possess everything, and there will be no one to divide the inheritance with him, so that he should remain the poorer. Not so with God: the only-begotten, the same one whom he had begotten and through whom he had created all things, he sent into this world, so that he would not be one alone, but would have adopted brothers. For we were not born of God as that Only-begotten was, but adopted through his grace. For he, the Only-begotten, came to loose the sins in which we were entangled, lest, because of the hindrance of those sins, he should not adopt us: those whom he willed to make his brothers, he himself loosed, and made coheirs.

For the Apostle says thus: But if a son, then an heir through God (Gal 4:7); and again: Heirs indeed of God, but coheirs of Christ (Rom 8:17). He was not afraid to have coheirs; because his inheritance does not become cramped if many possess it. Those very ones, indeed, while he possesses them, become his inheritance, and he in turn becomes their inheritance. Hear how they become his inheritance: The Lord said to me: You are my Son; this day I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance (Ps 2:7-8). How does he become their inheritance? He says in the Psalm: The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup (Ps 16:5 (15:5)). Let us possess him, and let him possess us: let him possess us as Lord; let us possess him as salvation, let us possess him as light. What, then, did he give to those who received him? He gave them power to become sons of God, to those who believe in his name (Jn 1:12): that they might hold to the wood, and cross the sea.

14. And how are they born? These, because they become sons of God and brothers of Christ, are surely born. For if they are not born, how can they be sons? But the sons of men are born of flesh and blood, and of the will of a man, and of the embrace of marriage. But how are these born to him? Who are born not of bloods—as it were, of male and female. 'Bloods' is not Latin: but because in Greek it was put in the plural, the one who was translating preferred to put it thus, and as it were to speak less correctly according to the grammarians, and yet to set forth the truth for the hearing of the weak. For if he had said 'blood' in the singular, he would not have set forth what he meant: for men are born of the bloods of male and female. Let us say it, then, and not fear the rods of the grammarians, provided we arrive at the solid and surer truth. Let the one who understands rebuke me, ungrateful that he understood.

Not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man (Jn 1:13). He put 'flesh' for the woman: because, when she had been made from the rib, Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh (Gen 2:23); and the Apostle says: He who loves his wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh (Eph 5:28-29). 'Flesh,' then, is put for the wife, just as sometimes 'spirit' is put for the husband. Why? Because he rules, she is ruled: he ought to command, she to serve. For where the flesh commands and the spirit serves, the household is perverse. What is worse than a household where the woman has command over the man? But the household is rightly ordered where the man commands, the woman obeys. So a man himself is rightly ordered where the spirit commands, the flesh serves.

15. These, then, were born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God (Jn 1:13). But that men might be born of God, first God was born of them. For Christ is God, and Christ was born of men. He sought, indeed, only a mother on earth, because he already had a Father in heaven: born of God, through whom we might be created; and born of a woman, through whom we might be recreated. Do not marvel, then, O man, that you are made a son by grace, that you are born of God according to his Word. First the Word himself willed to be born of man, so that you might be born of God without anxiety, and might say to yourself: Not without cause did God will to be born of man, except that he reckoned me to be of some worth, so that he might make me immortal, and was born mortally for my sake. Therefore, when he had said, they were born of God; as if lest we should marvel and shudder at so great a grace, so that it should seem incredible to us that men are born of God, as if making you free of anxiety, he says: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). Why, then, do you marvel that men are born of God? Consider God himself born of men: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

16. But because the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, by that very birth he made an eye-salve, by which the eyes of our heart might be wiped clean, and we might be able to see his majesty through his humility. Therefore the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; he healed our eyes: and what follows? And we saw his glory (Jn 1:14). No one could see his glory unless he were healed by the humility of the flesh. From what cause could we not see? Let your Charity attend, then, and see what I say. There had rushed upon man, as it were, dust into the eye, earth had rushed in, it had wounded the eye, he could not see the light: this wounded eye is anointed; he had been wounded by earth, and earth is applied there that he may be healed. For all eye-salves and medicines are nothing but from the earth. You were blinded by dust, you are healed by dust: therefore the flesh had blinded you, the flesh heals you. For the soul had become carnal by consenting to carnal affections; from this the eye of the heart had been blinded.

The Word was made flesh: this physician made you an eye-salve. And since he came in such a way as to extinguish the vices of the flesh by means of the flesh, and to slay death by means of death; therefore it was brought about in you that, since the Word was made flesh, you might be able to say: And we saw his glory. What sort of glory? Such as the Son of man was made? That is his humility, not his glory. But to what was the eyesight of man brought, healed through the flesh? We saw, he says, his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14). Concerning grace and truth we will treat more fully in another place in this same Gospel, if the Lord deigns to grant it. Let this now suffice, and be built up in Christ, and be strengthened in faith, and be watchful in good works: and do not depart from the wood, by which you may be able to cross the sea.

1. The grace and truth of God, with which the only-begotten Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, appeared full to the saints, we have undertaken in the name of the Lord, and promised to your Charity, to distinguish from the Old Testament, since it is a matter of the New Testament. Be present, then, attentive, so that God may grant both what I grasp and what you grasp to hear. For it will remain that, if the seed which is scattered in your hearts the birds have not carried off, nor the thorns choked, nor the heat scorched, when the rain of daily exhortations comes, and with your good thoughts—by which that is done in the heart which is done in a field with the harrow, so that the clod is broken and the seed is covered and can sprout—you may bring forth fruit, at which the husbandman may rejoice and be glad (See Matt 13:3-8). But if, in return for good seed and good rain, we have brought forth not fruit but thorns, neither will the seed be accused, nor will the rain be at fault, but fire due to thorns is prepared (See Heb 6:7-8).

2. We are men—which, I think, need not long be urged upon your Charity—Christians; and if Christians, then surely by that very name belonging to Christ. We bear his sign on our forehead: of which we are not ashamed, if we also bear it in our heart. His sign is his humility. By a star the Magi recognized him; and this was a sign given concerning the Lord, heavenly and splendid: he did not will a star on the forehead to be his sign for the faithful, but his cross. From where he was humbled, from there he was glorified: from there he raised up the humble, to where he himself, humbled, descended.

We belong, then, to the Gospel, we belong to the New Testament. The Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (Jn 1:17). We question the Apostle, and he tells us that we are not under the Law, but under grace. He sent, then, his Son, made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal 4:4-5). See, for this Christ came, to redeem those who were under the Law: that we might now be not under the Law, but under grace. Who, then, gave the Law? He gave the Law who also gave grace: but the Law he sent through a servant, while with grace he himself descended. And from what cause had men become under the Law? By not fulfilling the Law. For he who fulfills the law is not under the law, but with the law: but he who is under the law is not lifted up, but pressed down by the law. And so the Law makes all men who are placed under the Law guilty; and to this end it is over their head, to show sins, not to take them away.

The Law, then, commands; the giver of the law has mercy in that which the law commands. Men, trying to fulfill by their own strength what was commanded by the law, by their own rash and headlong presumption fell; and they are not with the law, but were made guilty under the law: and since by their own strength they could not fulfill the law, having been made guilty under the law, they implored the help of a deliverer; and the guilt of the law made the proud sick. The sickness of the proud became the confession of the humble: now the sick confess that they are sick; let the physician come, and heal the sick.

3. Who is the physician? Our Lord Jesus Christ. Who is our Lord Jesus Christ? He who was seen even by those by whom he was crucified. He who was seized, buffeted, scourged, smeared with spittle, crowned with thorns, hung on the cross, who died, was wounded with a lance, taken down from the cross, placed in a tomb. That same one is our Lord Jesus Christ; that very one indeed, and he is wholly the physician of our wounds, that crucified one who was insulted, at whose hanging his persecutors wagged their heads and said: If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross (Matt 27:40): he is wholly our physician, he indeed.

Why, then, did he not show those who insulted him that he was the Son of God: so that, if he allowed himself to be raised upon the cross, at least when they said to him, If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross, he would then have come down, and shown them that he was truly the Son of God, whom they had dared to mock?

He would not. Why would he not? Was it perhaps because he could not?

He plainly could. For which is greater, to come down from the cross, or to rise from the tomb? But he bore with those who insulted him: for the cross was undertaken not as a demonstration of power, but as an example of patience. There he cured your wounds, where he long bore his own: there he healed you from everlasting death, where he deigned to die in time. And did he die, or did death die in him? What kind of death is it that slew death?

4. Is he, then, our Lord Jesus Christ wholly the one who was seen, and held, and crucified? Is he wholly this?

He is that one indeed, but not wholly that which the Jews saw; the whole Christ is not this.

And what is he?

In the beginning was the Word (Jn 1:1).

In what beginning?

And the Word was with God (Jn 1:1).

And what sort of Word?

And the Word was God (Jn 1:1).

Was this Word perhaps made by God?

No. For this was in the beginning with God (Jn 1:2).

What then? Are the other things that God made not like the Word?

No: because all things were made through him, and without him was nothing made (Jn 1:3).

How were all things made through him?

Because what was made, in him was life (Jn 1:3-4): and before it was made, it was life. What was made is not life: but in the skill, that is, in the Wisdom of God, before it was made, it was life. What was made passed away; what is in Wisdom cannot pass away. Life, then, was in him, that which was made.

And what sort of life?

For the soul too is the life of the body: our body has its own life; and when it has lost that life, there is the death of the body:

was that life, then, of such a kind?

No: but the life was the light of men (Jn 1:4).

Is it the light of cattle?

For this light is the light both of men and of cattle. There is a certain light of men: let us see in what men differ from cattle, and then we will understand what the light of men is.

You do not differ from cattle except in understanding: do not boast of anything else. Do you presume on strength? You are beaten by the beasts. Do you presume on speed? You are beaten by flies. Do you presume on beauty? How great is the beauty in the feathers of a peacock! From where, then, are you better? From the image of God. Where is the image of God? In the mind, in the understanding.

If, then, you are better than the beast for this reason, that you have a mind by which you understand what the beast cannot understand; and a man is a man from this, that he is better than the beast; the light of men is the light of minds. The light of minds is above minds, and surpasses all minds. This was that life through which all things were made.

5. Where was it? Was it here; or was it with the Father, and not here? Or, what is truer, was it both with the Father and here? If, then, it was here, why was it not seen? Because the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (Jn 1:5). O men, do not be darkness, do not be unbelieving, unjust, wicked, rapacious, greedy, lovers of the world: for these are darkness. The light is not absent, but you are absent from the light. A blind man in the sun has the sun present, but he himself is absent from the sun. Do not, then, be darkness. For this is perhaps the grace of which I am about to speak, that we should no longer be darkness, and the Apostle may say to us: For you were once darkness; but now you are light in the Lord (Eph 5:8).

Because, then, the light of men—that is, the light of minds—was not seen, it was necessary that a man should bear testimony concerning the light, not indeed a man of darkness, but one already enlightened. Yet not because he was enlightened was he himself the light; but that he might bear witness concerning the light. For he was not the light (Jn 1:8).

And what was the light?

It was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (Jn 1:9).

And where was it?

It was in this world (Jn 1:10).

And how was it in this world? Is this light in the world in the way that this light of the sun, the moon, and lamps is?

No. Because the world was made through him, and the world did not know him (Jn 1:10): that is, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (Jn 1:5). For the world is darkness; because the lovers of the world are the world.

For did the creature not recognize its Creator? Heaven gave testimony by the star; the sea gave testimony, it carried the Lord walking upon it; the winds gave testimony, at his command they grew still; the earth gave testimony, it trembled when he was crucified: if all these gave testimony, how did the world not know him, except that the world means the lovers of the world, dwelling with their heart in the world? And the world is bad, because the inhabitants of the world are bad: just as a house is bad—not the walls, but the inhabitants.

6. He came to his own, that is, he came to his own things: and his own did not receive him (Jn 1:11). What hope is there, then, except that as many as received him, he gave them power to become sons of God (Jn 1:12)? If they become sons, they are born: if they are born, how are they born? Not of the flesh, not of bloods, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of a man; but they were born of God (Jn 1:13). Let them rejoice, then, that they were born of God; let them presume that they belong to God; let them receive the proof that they were born of God: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). If the Word was not ashamed to be born of man, are men ashamed to be born of God? But because he did this, he healed us: because he healed us, we see. For this, that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, became a medicine for us, so that, because we had been blinded by earth, we might be healed by earth: and, being healed, what should we see? And we saw, he says, his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14).

7. John bears witness concerning him, and cries out, saying: This was he of whom I said: He who comes after me has been set before me (Jn 1:15). He comes after me, and has gone before me.

What does has been set before me mean? He has gone before me: not, he was made before I was made; but, he has been placed ahead of me: this is, has been set before me.

Why has he been set before you, since he came after you?

Because he was before me (Jn 1:15).

Before you, O John? What is so great, if he was before you? Well, since you bear witness to him: let us hear him himself saying: And before Abraham was, I am (Jn 8:58).

But Abraham too arose in the midst of the human race; many before him, many after him: hear the voice of the Father to the Son: Before the morning star I begot you (Ps 110:3 (109:3)). He who was begotten before the morning star himself enlightens all. For a certain one who fell was called the morning star: for he was an angel, and was made the devil; and Scripture said of him: The morning star, who rose in the morning, has fallen (See Isa 14:12). From what cause a morning star? Because, being enlightened, he shone. From what cause was he made dark? Because he did not stand in the truth (Jn 8:44). Therefore he is before the morning star, before every enlightened being; since the one from whom all who can be enlightened are enlightened must be before every enlightened being.

8. Therefore this follows: And of his fullness we all have received (Jn 1:16).

What have you received?

And grace for grace (Jn 1:16).

For the words of the Gospel stand thus, compared with the Greek copies. He does not say: And of his fullness we all have received grace for grace; but he says thus: And of his fullness we all have received, and grace for grace—that is, we have received: so that he wished us to understand that we have received I know not what of his fullness; and over and above, grace for grace. For of his fullness we received, first, grace; and again we received grace, grace for grace. What grace did we first receive? Faith. Walking in faith, we walk in grace. For from where did we merit this? By what preceding merits of ours? Let no one flatter himself, let him return into his conscience, let him search the hidden places of his thoughts, let him return to the sequence of his deeds: let him not consider what he is, if he is now something; but what he was, that he might become something; he will find that he was worthy of nothing but punishment.

If, then, you were worthy of punishment, and he came who would not punish sins but forgive sins; grace was given to you, not wages repaid. Why is it called grace? Because it is given freely. For you did not buy by preceding merits what you received. This first grace, then, the sinner received, that his sins might be forgiven. What did he merit? Let him question justice; he finds punishment: let him question mercy; he finds grace. But this God had also promised through the prophets: and so, when he came to give what he had promised, he gave not only grace, but also truth. How was the truth displayed? Because what was promised was done.

9. What, then, is grace for grace? By faith we merit God; and because we were not worthy to have our sins forgiven, from the fact that we received so great a gift though unworthy, it is called grace. What is grace? What is given freely. What is given freely? Given as a gift, not repaid. If it was owed, wages were repaid, not grace given as a gift; but if it was truly owed, you were good: but if, as is true, you were bad, yet you believed in him who justifies the impious (what is, who justifies the impious? Out of the impious he makes the pious); consider what ought to have hung over you through the law, and what you have attained through grace. Having attained this grace of faith, you will be righteous by faith. For the righteous one lives by faith (Rom 1:17); and you will merit God by living from faith: when you have merited God by living from faith, you will receive as your reward immortality, and eternal life. And that too is grace. For by what merit do you receive eternal life? By grace. For if faith is grace, and eternal life is, as it were, the wages of faith: God indeed seems to repay eternal life as something owed (Owed to whom? To the faithful one, because he merited it through faith); but because faith itself is grace, eternal life too is grace for grace.

10. Hear the Apostle Paul confessing grace, and afterward demanding what is owed. What is the confession of grace that is in Paul? I who was formerly a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and insolent: but, he says, I obtained mercy (1 Tim 1:13). He said he was unworthy to obtain it: yet he obtained it, not through his own merits, but through the mercy of God. Hear him now demanding what is owed, who first had received undeserved grace: For I, he says, am now being poured out, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: for the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness (2 Tim 4:6-8). Now he demands what is owed, now he requires what is owed. For see the words that follow: which the Lord, the just judge, will repay me on that day (2 Tim 4:8). To receive grace beforehand, he had need of a merciful father: to receive the reward of grace, of a just judge. He who did not condemn the impious, will he condemn the faithful? And yet, if you think rightly, he himself first gave the faith by which you merited him: for you did not merit, out of your own, that anything should be owed to you.

Therefore, when he afterward bestows the reward of immortality, he crowns his own gifts, not your merits. Therefore, brothers, we all have received of his fullness: of the fullness of his mercy, of the abundance of his goodness we have received. What? The remission of sins, that we might be justified by faith. And over and above, what? And grace for grace; that is, in return for this grace in which we live by faith, we are to receive another: and what, indeed, but grace? For if I say that this too is owed, I attribute something to myself, as to one to whom it is owed. But God crowns in us the gifts of his mercy: provided that we walk perseveringly in that grace which we first received.

11. For the Law was given through Moses, which held men guilty. For what does the Apostle say? The Law slipped in, that the offense might abound (Rom 5:20). This was profitable to the proud, that the offense might abound: for they gave themselves much, and attributed much, as it were, to their own strength; and they could not fulfill righteousness, unless he helped who had commanded. God, wishing to tame their pride, gave the Law, as if saying: See, fulfill it, lest you think there is no one to command. There is no lack of one to command, but there is a lack of one to fulfill.

12. If, then, there is a lack of one to fulfill, from what cause does he not fulfill? Because he was born with the transmission of sin and death. Born of Adam, he drew with him what was there conceived. The first man fell; and all who were born of him drew from him the concupiscence of the flesh. It was necessary that another man should be born who drew no concupiscence. Man, and man: a man unto death, and a man unto life. So the Apostle says: For since indeed by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor 15:21).

Through what man came death, and through what man the resurrection of the dead?

Do not hurry: it follows, and he says: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:22).

Who belong to Adam?

All who were born of Adam.

Who belong to Christ?

All who were born through Christ.

Why are all in sin?

Because no one was born apart from Adam. But to be born of Adam was a matter of necessity, out of condemnation: to be born through Christ is a matter of will and of grace. Men are not compelled to be born through Christ: it was not because they willed it that they were born of Adam. Yet all who are of Adam are sinners with sin: all who are through Christ are justified and righteous, not in themselves, but in him. For if you ask about them in themselves: they are Adam: if you ask about them in him, they are Christ's.

Why?

Because that Head, our Lord Jesus Christ, did not come with the transmission of sin: but yet he came with mortal flesh.

You died in Adam, rise again in Christ.

13. The death of sinners was a punishment: in the Lord it was a gift of mercy, not the punishment of sin. For the Lord had nothing for which he should justly die. He himself says: Behold, the prince of this world comes, and in me he finds nothing (Jn 14:30).

Why, then, do you die?

But that all may know that I do the will of my Father, arise, let us go from here (Jn 14:31). He had no reason for which he should die, and he died: you have a reason, and do you disdain to die? Deign to suffer with an even mind, through your own merit, what he deigned to suffer in order to free you from everlasting death.

Man, and man: but the one, only a man; this one, God-man. The one, a man of sin; this one, of righteousness. You died in Adam, rise again in Christ: for both are owed by you. You have now believed in Christ, yet you will pay what you owe from Adam. But the bond of sin will not hold you forever; because the temporal death of your Lord slew your eternal death. This is grace, my brothers, this too is truth, because it was promised and displayed.

14. This was not in the Old Testament, because the Law threatened, it did not assist; it commanded, it did not heal; it showed the sickness, it did not take it away: but it was preparing for that physician who would come with grace and truth; just as, to someone whom a physician wishes to cure, he might first send his servant, that he may find him bound. He was not well, he was unwilling to be healed, and, lest he be healed, he boasted that he was well: the Law was sent, it bound him; he finds himself guilty, now he cries out about his bonds. The Lord comes, he cures with somewhat bitter and sharp medicines: for he says to the sick man: Bear it; he says: Endure; he says: Do not love the world, have patience, let the fire of continence cure you, let your wounds endure the knife of persecutions. You were afraid, though bound: he, free and not bound, drank what he was giving you; he suffered first, that he might console you, as if saying: What you fear to suffer for yourself, I suffer first for you. This is grace, and great grace. Who worthily praises it?

15. I am speaking of the humility of Christ, my brothers. The majesty of Christ and the divinity of Christ—who can speak of it? In explaining and stating, so as to speak somehow of the humility of Christ, we are not sufficient, indeed we fall short: we commit the whole to those who think, we do not fulfill it for those who hear. Consider the humility of Christ. But who, you say, explains it to us, unless you speak? Let him speak within. Better does he speak who dwells within than he who cries out without. Let him himself show you the grace of his humility, who has begun to dwell in your hearts. But now, if in explaining and dispensing his humility we fall short, who can speak of his majesty? If the Word was made flesh troubles us: In the beginning was the Word—who will explain it? Hold fast, then, brothers, to this solid ground.

16. The Law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (Jn 1:17). Through a servant the Law was given; it made men guilty: through the Emperor indulgence was given; it freed the guilty. The Law was given through Moses. Let the servant not attribute to himself anything more than what was done through him. Chosen for a great ministry, like a faithful one in the house, but yet a servant, he can act according to the Law, he cannot loose from the guilt of the Law. The Law, therefore, was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

17. And lest perhaps someone say: Were not grace and truth given through Moses, who saw God? he at once added: No one has ever seen God (Jn 1:18).

And from where did God become known to Moses?

Because the Lord revealed himself to his servant.

What Lord?

Christ himself, who sent the Law ahead through a servant, that he himself might come with grace and truth. For no one has ever seen God (Jn 1:18).

And from where did he appear to that servant, as far as he could grasp it?

But the only-begotten, he says, Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he himself has made him known (Jn 1:18).

What does in the bosom of the Father mean?

In the secret place of the Father. For God does not have a bosom, as we have in our garments, nor is he to be thought of as sitting as we do, nor perhaps girded so as to have a fold: but because our bosom is within, the secret place of the Father is called the bosom of the Father. In the secret place of the Father, he who knew the Father, he himself made him known. For no one has ever seen God (Jn 1:18).

He himself, then, came, and told whatever he saw. What did Moses see? Moses saw a cloud, saw an angel, saw fire: all that is a creature; it bore the type of its Lord, it did not present the presence of the Lord himself. For you have it openly in the Law: And Moses spoke with the Lord face to face, as a friend with his friend (Exod 33:11). You follow that same Scripture, and you find Moses saying: If I have found grace in your sight, show me yourself plainly, that I may see you (Exod 33:13). And it is not enough that he said it: he received the answer: You cannot see my face (Exod 33:20). Therefore, my brothers, an angel was speaking with Moses, bearing the type of the Lord: and all those things that were done there through the angel were promising this grace and truth that was to come. Those who search the Law well know this: and when it is fitting that we too should say something of it, as far as the Lord reveals, we do not keep silent to your Charity.

18. But know this, that all the things that were seen bodily were not that substance of God. For we see those things with the eyes of the flesh: from where is the substance of God seen? Question the Gospel: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). There were men who, deceived by the vanity of their own heart, would say: The Father is invisible, but the Son is visible. From where visible? If on account of the flesh, because he took on flesh; that is plain. For of those who saw the flesh of Christ, some believed, some crucified him: and those who believed wavered when he was crucified; and unless they touched it after the resurrection, faith would not have been called back to them. If, then, the Son is visible on account of the flesh; we too grant it, and it is the catholic faith: but if before the flesh, as they say—that is, before he was incarnate—they rave greatly, and err greatly. For those visible things were made bodily through a creature, in which a type might be shown: the substance itself was certainly not demonstrated and made manifest. And let your Charity attend to this gentle proof. The Wisdom of God cannot be seen with the eyes. Brothers, if Christ is the Wisdom of God, and the Power of God; if Christ is the Word of God; the word of a man is not seen with the eyes—can the Word of God be seen so?

19. Drive out, then, carnal thoughts from your hearts, that you may truly be under grace, that you may belong to the New Testament. Therefore eternal life is promised in the New Testament. Read the Old Testament, and see that to a people still carnal the same things indeed were enjoined as to us. For to worship one God is enjoined on us too. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain (Exod 20:7) is enjoined on us too: which is the second precept. Observe the sabbath day (Exod 20:8) is enjoined on us all the more: because it is enjoined to be observed spiritually. For the Jews observe the sabbath day in a servile way, for luxury, for drunkenness. How much better would their women make wool than dance on that day on the balconies? Far be it, brothers, that we should say they observe the sabbath. The Christian observes the sabbath spiritually, abstaining from servile work. For what is it to abstain from servile work? From sin. And from where do we prove it? Question the Lord: Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin (Jn 8:34). Therefore the observance of the sabbath is enjoined on us too, spiritually. Now all those precepts are enjoined on us all the more, and are to be observed: You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, You shall not covet your neighbor's goods, You shall not covet your neighbor's wife (Exod 20:13-17). Are not all these enjoined on us too?

But seek the reward, and you will find it said there: That your enemies may be driven from before your face, and that you may receive the land which God promised to your fathers. Because they could not grasp invisible things, they were held by visible ones. Why were they held? Lest they perish utterly and slip away to idols. For they did this, my brothers, as we read, forgetting the great miracles that God did before their eyes. The sea was divided; a way was made amid the waves; their pursuing enemies were covered by the same waters through which they passed: and when Moses, the man of God, had withdrawn from their eyes, they asked for an idol, and said: Make us gods to go before us, for that man has abandoned us (Exod 32:1). All their hope was placed in a man, not in God. See, the man died: did God, who had drawn them out of the land of Egypt, die? And when they had made themselves the image of a calf, they adored it, and said: These are your gods, O Israel, who freed you from the land of Egypt (Exod 32:4). How soon they forgot so manifest a grace! By what means, then, was such a people to be held, except by carnal promises?

20. The things enjoined there in the Decalogue of the Law are the same as those enjoined on us; but the things promised are not the same as those promised to us. What is promised to us? Eternal life. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (Jn 17:3). The knowledge of God is promised: that is grace for grace. Brothers, now we believe, we do not see: for this faith there will be a reward, to see what we believe. The prophets knew this, but it was hidden before he came.

For a certain sighing lover says in the Psalms: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after (Ps 27:4 (26:4)). And do you ask what he seeks? Perhaps he asks carnally for a land flowing with milk and honey, although these things are to be sought and asked for spiritually: or perhaps the subjection of his enemies, or the death of his foes, or the empires and resources of this world. For he burns with love, and sighs greatly, and is on fire, and pants. Let us see what he asks: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after. What is this that he seeks after? That I may dwell, he says, in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life (Ps 27:4 (26:4)). And suppose that you dwell in the house of the Lord, from what will your joy there come? That I may contemplate, he says, the delight of the Lord (Ps 27:4 (26:4)).

21. My brothers, from where do you cry out, from where do you exult, from where do you love, except that there is there a spark of this love? What do you desire, I ask you? Can it be seen with the eyes? Can it be touched? Is it some beauty that delights the eyes? Were not the martyrs vehemently loved; and when we commemorate them, do we not catch fire with love? What do we love in them, brothers? Limbs torn by wild beasts? What is more foul, if you question the eyes of the flesh? What more beautiful, if you question the eyes of the heart?

How does a most handsome young thief seem to you? How your eyes recoil! Do the eyes of the flesh recoil? If you question them, nothing is more shapely than that body, nothing more well-ordered; both the symmetry of the limbs and the delightfulness of color entice the eyes: and yet when you hear that he is a thief, you flee the man in your mind. On the other side you see an old man, bent, leaning on a staff, scarcely moving himself, furrowed all over with wrinkles: what do you see that delights the eyes? You hear that he is righteous; you love him, you embrace him.

Such rewards have been promised us, my brothers: love such a thing, sigh for such a kingdom, desire such a homeland; if you wish to arrive at that with which our Lord came—that is, at grace and truth. But if you covet bodily rewards from God, you are still under the Law, and therefore you will not fulfill the Law itself. For when you see these temporal things abound in those who offend God, your steps waver, and you say to yourself: See, I worship God, every day I run to church, my knees are worn out with prayers, and I am constantly sick: men commit murders, commit robberies; they exult and abound, it is well with them.

Were such things, then, what you were seeking from God? Surely you belonged to grace. If God gave you grace for this reason, that he gave it freely, love freely. Do not love God for a reward; let him himself be your reward. Let your soul say: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may contemplate the delight of the Lord (Ps 27:4 (26:4)). Do not fear that you will faint with weariness: such will be that delight of beauty, that it is always present to you, and you are never satisfied; rather, you are always satisfied, and never satisfied. For if I say that you will not be satisfied, there will be hunger; if I say that you will be satisfied, I fear weariness: where there will be neither weariness nor hunger, I know not what to say; but God has what he may display to those who do not find how to say it, and what believers may receive.

1. Most often your Holiness has heard, and you know very well, that John the Baptist, the more distinguished he was among those born of women, and the more humble in acknowledging the Lord, so much the more did he merit to be the friend of the bridegroom; zealous for the bridegroom, not for himself; not seeking his own honor, but that of his judge, before whom he went as a herald. And so to the preceding prophets it was granted to foretell things to come concerning Christ; but to this one, to point him out with the finger. For just as Christ was unknown to those who did not believe the prophets before he came, so he was unknown to them when present. For he had come, first, humbly and hidden; the more hidden, the more humble: but the peoples, spurning through their pride the humility of God, crucified their Savior, and made him their condemner.

2. But he who first came hidden, because he came humble, will he not afterward come manifest, because exalted? You heard just now the Psalm: God will come manifest, our God, and will not keep silence (Ps 50:3 (49:3)). He kept silence that he might be judged, he will not keep silence when he begins to judge. It would not be said, he will come manifest, unless he had first come hidden; nor would it be said, he will not keep silence, except that he first kept silence.

How did he keep silence?

Question Isaiah:

He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer he was without voice, so he did not open his mouth (Isa 53:7).

But he will come manifest, and will not keep silence.

How manifest?

A fire will go before him, and around him a mighty tempest (Ps 50:3 (49:3)). That tempest is to take all the chaff from the threshing floor, which is now being threshed; and the fire is to burn what the tempest has taken away.

But now he is silent: he is silent in judgment, but he is not silent in precept. For if Christ is silent, what do these Gospels mean? What do the apostolic voices mean, what the songs of the Psalms, what the utterances of the prophets? For in all these Christ is not silent. But he is silent now, so as not to take vengeance: he is not silent, so as not to admonish.

But he will come splendid for vengeance, and will appear to all, even to those who do not believe in him. But now, because even when present he was hidden, it was fitting that he should be despised. For unless he were despised, he would not be crucified: if he were not crucified, he would not pour out blood, the price by which he redeemed us. But that he might give a price for us, he was crucified; that he might be crucified, he was despised; that he might be despised, he appeared humble.

3. Yet because he appeared, as it were in the night, in a mortal body, he lit a lamp for himself by which he might be seen. That lamp was John, of whom you have already heard much: and the present reading of the Gospel contains the words of John, first—what is chief—confessing that he himself was not the Christ. But there was such excellence in John that he could have been believed to be the Christ: and in this his humility was proved, that he said he was not, when he could have been believed to be. Therefore: This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to him, to ask him: Who are you? (Jn 1:19) They would not have sent unless they were moved by the excellence of his authority, because he dared to baptize. And he confessed, and did not deny (Jn 1:20). What did he confess? And he confessed: I am not the Christ (Jn 1:20).

4. And they asked him: What then? Are you Elijah? (Jn 1:21) For they knew that Elijah was to precede Christ. For the name of Christ was not unknown to anyone among the Jews. They did not think this man was the Christ: they did not think at all that Christ was not to come. While they hoped he would come, they stumbled thus over him when present, they stumbled as over a humble stone. For that stone was still small, though already cut from the mountain without hands: as the prophet Daniel says he saw a stone cut from the mountain without hands. But what follows? And that stone grew, he says, and became a great mountain, and filled the whole face of the earth (Dan 2:34-35).

Let your Charity see what I say: Christ, before the Jews, was already cut from the mountain. By the mountain he wishes the kingdom of the Jews to be understood. But the kingdom of the Jews had not filled the whole face of the earth. From there that stone was cut, because from there the Lord was born into their presence. And why without hands? Because without a man's work the Virgin bore Christ. So then that stone was already cut without hands, before the eyes of the Jews: but it was humble. Not undeservedly; because that stone had not yet grown and filled the whole world: which it showed in its kingdom, which is the Church, by which it filled the whole face of the earth. Because, then, it had not yet grown, they stumbled over it as over a stone: and there was fulfilled in them what is written: Whoever falls upon this stone will be broken to pieces; and on whomever that stone falls, it will crush them (Matt 21:44). First they fell upon him as humble; he is to come exalted over them: but that he might, coming as exalted, crush them, first as humble he shook them. They stumbled over him, and were shaken; not crushed, but shaken: he will come exalted, and will crush them. But the Jews are to be pardoned, because they stumbled over the stone that had not yet grown. What sort are those who stumbled over the mountain itself? You already recognize of whom I speak. Those who deny the Church spread over the whole world stumble, not over the humble stone, but over the mountain itself: which that stone became as it grew. The blind Jews did not see the humble stone: how great a blindness it is not to see the mountain!

Because, then, it had not yet grown, they stumbled over it as over a stone: and there was fulfilled in them what is written: Whoever falls upon this stone will be broken to pieces; and on whomever that stone falls, it will crush them (Matt 21:44). First they fell upon him as humble; he is to come exalted over them: but that he might, coming as exalted, crush them, first as humble he shook them. They stumbled over him, and were shaken; not crushed, but shaken: he will come exalted, and will crush them. But the Jews are to be pardoned, because they stumbled over the stone that had not yet grown. What sort are those who stumbled over the mountain itself? You already recognize of whom I speak. Those who deny the Church spread over the whole world stumble, not over the humble stone, but over the mountain itself: which that stone became as it grew. The blind Jews did not see the humble stone: how great a blindness it is not to see the mountain!

5. Therefore they saw him humble, and did not recognize him. He was being pointed out to them through the lamp. For first that man, than whom no one greater had arisen among those born of women, said: I am not the Christ. And it was said to him: Are you Elijah? He answered, I am not (Jn 1:21). For Christ sends Elijah ahead before himself: and he said, I am not, and made a question for us. For it is to be feared lest those who understand less should think John said the contrary of what Christ said. For in a certain place, when the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel was saying certain things about himself, those disciples answered him: How then do the scribes—that is, the experts in the Law—say that Elijah must first come? And the Lord said: Elijah has already come, and they did to him what they would; and if you wish to know, he is John the Baptist (Matt 17:10-13). The Lord Jesus Christ said: Elijah has already come, and he is John the Baptist: but John, when questioned, confessed himself not to be Elijah, just as he confessed himself not to be the Christ. And surely, as he confessed truly that he was not the Christ, so he confessed truly that he was not Elijah either. How, then, shall we compare the words of the herald with the words of the judge? Far be it that the herald should lie: for he speaks what he hears from the judge. Why, then, does that one say, I am not Elijah: and the Lord, He is Elijah? Because in him the Lord Jesus Christ wished to prefigure his own coming to be, and to say this, that John was in the spirit of Elijah. And what John was at the first coming, that Elijah will be at the second coming. As there are two comings of the judge, so there are two heralds. The judge indeed is the same one, but the heralds are two: not two judges. For it was fitting that the judge should first come to be judged. He sent the first herald before him, he called him Elijah; because at the second coming Elijah will be what John was at the first.

6. For let your Charity attend how truly I speak. When John was conceived, or rather when he was born, the Holy Spirit prophesied this concerning that man as something to be fulfilled: And he will be, he says, the forerunner of the Most High, in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17). Therefore not Elijah, but in the spirit and power of Elijah. What is, in the spirit and power of Elijah? In the same Holy Spirit, in the place of Elijah. Why in the place of Elijah? Because what Elijah was for the second coming, that John was for the first. Rightly, then, did John just now answer in the proper sense. For the Lord spoke figuratively: He is Elijah, John: but this man, as I said, in the proper sense: I am not Elijah. If you note the figure of the forerunning, John himself is Elijah: for what the one was at the first coming, that the other will be at the second. If you ask about the proper sense of the person, John is John, Elijah is Elijah; the Lord, then, rightly with respect to the prefiguration: He is Elijah: but John rightly with respect to the proper sense: I am not Elijah. Neither did John speak falsely, nor the Lord falsely: neither the herald falsely, nor the Judge falsely; provided that you understand.

But who will understand? He who has imitated the humility of the herald, and has recognized the loftiness of the judge. For nothing is humbler than the herald himself. My brothers, John had no merit so great as that of this humility, that, when he could deceive men and be thought the Christ and be held for the Christ (for he was of such great grace and such great excellence), he nevertheless confessed openly, and said: I am not the Christ.

Are you Elijah? Now if he had said: I am Elijah; then Christ would already be coming at the second coming to judge, not still being judged at the first. As if saying: Elijah too is to come; I am not, he says, Elijah. But observe the humble one before whom John came, lest you should perceive the exalted one before whom Elijah is to come. For the Lord also completed it thus: He is John the Baptist who is to come (See Matt 11:14). By the very prefiguration this man came, by which in the proper sense Elijah is to come. Then Elijah, in the proper sense, will be Elijah; now, by likeness, he was John. Now John, in the proper sense, is John, by likeness is Elijah. Both heralds gave their likenesses to each other, and kept their proper identities: but the Lord judge is one, whether that herald goes before, or this one.

7. And they asked him: What then? Are you Elijah? And he said: No. And they said to him: Are you the prophet? And he answered: No. They said therefore to him: Who are you? that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say of yourself? He said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness (Jn 1:21-23). Isaiah said that. In John this prophecy was fulfilled: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Crying what? Make straight the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God (Isa 40:3). Does it not seem to you to belong to a herald to say: Come out, make a way? Except that the herald says, Come out: John says, Come. The herald drives away from the judge, John calls to the judge. Rather, John calls to the humble one, lest the judge be perceived as exalted. I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said. He did not say: I am John, I am Elijah, I am a prophet. But what did he say? This I am called: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord: I am the prophecy itself.

8. And those who had been sent were of the Pharisees: that is, of the leaders of the Jews. And they questioned, and said to him: Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? (Jn 1:24-25) It seemed, as it were, a matter of boldness to baptize, as if: In what character? We ask whether you are the Christ; you say you are not: we ask whether perhaps you are his forerunner, because we know that before the coming of Christ Elijah is to come; you deny that you are: we ask whether perhaps you are some herald going far in advance—that is, a prophet—and have received this power; you do not say that you are a prophet either. And John was not a prophet: he was greater than a prophet. The Lord gave such a testimony of him: What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? Surely: Not shaken by the wind, you understand; for John was not this, like one moved by the wind: for he who is moved by the wind is blown about by every seducing breath. But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? For John was clothed in rough garments—that is, a tunic made of camel's hair. See, those who are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings. Therefore you did not go out to see a man clothed in soft garments. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet is this man (Matt 11:7-9): because the prophets foretold long before, John pointed him out when present.

9. Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? John answered them, and said: I baptize in water; but there has stood in your midst one whom you do not know (Jn 1:25-26). For he was not seen, being humble, and therefore the lamp was lit. See how he gives place, who could be thought to be something else. He it is who comes after me, who has been set before me. As we have already said, that is, has been placed ahead of me. The strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to loosen (Jn 1:27). How greatly he abased himself! And therefore he was greatly raised up; since he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14:11).

From this your Holiness ought to see that, if John so humbled himself as to say, I am not worthy to loosen the strap; how greatly ought those to be humbled who say: We baptize, what we give is ours, and what is ours is holy. He says: Not I, but he: they say: We. John is not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandal: but if he said he was worthy, how humble would he be? And if he said he was worthy, and said it thus: He comes after me, who has been set before me, the strap only of whose sandal I am worthy to loosen; he would have humbled himself greatly. But when he does not say he is worthy even for this, he was truly full of the Holy Spirit, who as a servant so acknowledged his Lord, and merited to become a friend out of a servant.

10. These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1:28-29). Let no one arrogate it to himself and say that he himself takes away the sin of the world. Now attend, against what proud men John was pointing his finger. The heretics were not yet born, and already they were being exposed: against those he cried out then from the river, against whom now he cries out from the Gospel.

Jesus comes; and what does he say? Behold the Lamb of God. If a lamb is innocent, John too is a lamb. Or was John not himself innocent? But who is innocent? How far innocent? All come from that transmission and from that stock of which David, groaning, sings: I was conceived in iniquity, and in sins my mother nourished me in the womb (Ps 51:5 (50:7)). He alone, then, is the Lamb who did not come thus. For he was not conceived in iniquity; because he was not conceived from mortality: nor did his mother nourish him in sins in the womb, whom a virgin conceived, a virgin bore; because she conceived by faith, and received him by faith. Therefore, behold the Lamb of God. This one has no transmission from Adam: he took only flesh from Adam, he did not take on sin. He who did not take on sin from our mass is the very one who takes away our sin. Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world.

11. You know that certain men sometimes say: We, who are holy, take away sins from men: for if the one who baptizes is not holy, how does he take away another's sin, when he himself is a man full of sin? Against these disputations let us not speak our own words, let us read this one: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world. Let men have no presumption in men: let the sparrow not migrate to the mountains (See Ps 11:1 (10:1)), let it trust in the Lord; and if it lifts its eyes to the mountains, from where its help will come, let it understand that its help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (See Ps 121:1-2 (120:1-2)).

John was of such great excellence; it is said to him: Are you the Christ? He says: No. Are you Elijah? He says: No. Are you the prophet? He says: No. Why then do you baptize? Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world: this is he of whom I said: After me comes a man who has been set before me, because he was before me (Jn 1:29-30). He comes after me, because he was born later: he has been set before me, because he was preferred to me: he was before me, because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

12. And I did not know him, he said: but that he might be made manifest to Israel, for this reason I came baptizing in water. And John bore witness, saying: I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained upon him: and I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me: He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit: and I saw, and bore witness that this is the Son of God (Jn 1:31-34).

Let your Charity attend a little: when did John learn who Christ was? For he was sent to baptize in water. It was asked, why? That he might be made manifest to Israel, he said. What did the baptism of John profit? My brothers, if it profited anything, it would remain even now, and men would be baptized with the baptism of John; and so they would come to the baptism of Christ. But what does he say? That he might be made manifest to Israel: that is, that to Israel itself, to the people of Israel, Christ might be made manifest, he came to baptize in water. John received the ministry of baptism, in the water of repentance to prepare the way of the Lord, not being himself the Lord: but when the Lord was known, the way was prepared for him superfluously; because to those who know him he himself was made the way: and so the baptism of John did not last long. But how was the Lord shown? Humble; so that for this reason John received a baptism, in which the Lord himself might be baptized.

13. And did the Lord need to be baptized? And I, questioning, quickly answer: Did the Lord need to be born? Did the Lord need to be crucified? Did the Lord need to die? Did the Lord need to be buried? If, then, he undertook so great a humility for us, was he not going to undertake baptism?

And what did it profit that he undertook the baptism of a servant?

That you might not disdain to undertake the baptism of the Lord.

Let your Charity attend. There were going to be in the Church certain catechumens of loftier grace. For it sometimes happens that you see a catechumen abstaining from all intercourse, bidding farewell to the world, renouncing all that he possessed, distributing it to the poor; and he is a catechumen, instructed perhaps even in saving doctrine above many of the faithful. It is to be feared lest this man say within himself, concerning holy Baptism by which sins are forgiven: What more am I going to receive? See, I am better than this believer and that believer: thinking of the faithful who are either married, or perhaps unlearned, or who have and possess their own goods, which he himself has already distributed to the poor, and reckoning himself better than the one already baptized, he might disdain to come to Baptism, saying: Am I going to receive this, which this man and that man have? And he might set before himself those whom he despises, and, as it were, it might seem beneath him to receive what his inferiors received, because he now seems to himself better: and yet all his sins are upon him, and unless he comes to saving Baptism, where sins are loosed, he cannot, with all his excellence, enter into the kingdom of heaven.

But that he might invite that excellence to his baptism, that sins might be forgiven it, the Lord himself came to the baptism of his servant; and although he himself had nothing that should be forgiven him, nor anything that should be washed away in him, he undertook baptism from a servant; and, as it were, he addressed the proud son, exalting himself and disdaining perhaps to receive, along with the unlearned, that from which salvation could come to him, and as if saying: How far do you stretch yourself? How far do you exalt yourself? How great is your excellence? How great your grace? Can it be greater than mine? If I came to a servant, do you disdain to come to the Lord? If I undertook the baptism of a servant, do you disdain to be baptized by the Lord?

14. For that you may know, my brothers, that not out of any necessity of a bond of sin the Lord was coming to John; as the other evangelists say, when the Lord came to him to be baptized, John himself said: Do you come to me? I ought to be baptized by you (Matt 3:14). And what did he himself answer him? Allow it for now; let all righteousness be fulfilled (Matt 3:15). What is, let all righteousness be fulfilled? I came to die for men, do I not have to be baptized for men? What is, let all righteousness be fulfilled? Let all humility be fulfilled. What then? Was he not going to undertake baptism from a good servant, who undertook his passion from bad servants? Attend, then. The Lord being baptized, if John baptized for this reason, that in his baptism the Lord might show humility, would no one else be baptized with the baptism of John? But many were baptized with the baptism of John; the Lord was baptized with the baptism of John, and the baptism of John ceased: thereafter John was sent into prison; afterward no one is found baptized with that baptism.

If, then, John too came baptizing for this reason, that the humility of the Lord might be shown to us, so that, because he undertook it from a servant, we should not disdain to undertake it from the Lord; would John baptize the Lord alone? But if John baptized the Lord alone, there would be no lack of those who would think the baptism of John holier than that of Christ: as if Christ alone had merited to be baptized with the baptism of John, but with the baptism of Christ the human race. Let your Charity attend. With the baptism of Christ we have been baptized, not only we, but also the whole world, and it is baptized until the end. Which of us can in any part be compared to Christ, the strap of whose sandal John said he was unworthy to loosen? If, then, that Christ, a man of such great excellence, God, alone were baptized with the baptism of John, what would men be going to say? What kind of baptism did John have? He had a great baptism, an ineffable sacrament: see, only Christ merited to be baptized with the baptism of John. And so the baptism of the servant would seem greater than the baptism of the Lord. Others too were baptized with the baptism of John, lest the baptism of John seem better than that of Christ; but the Lord too was baptized, so that, the Lord undertaking the baptism of a servant, other servants should not disdain to undertake the baptism of the Lord: for this, then, John had been sent.

15. But did he know Christ, or did he not know him? If he did not know him, why did he say, when Christ came to the river: I ought to be baptized by you? that is: I know who you are. If, then, he already knew him, surely he then recognized him when he saw the dove descending. It is plain that the dove did not descend upon the Lord except after he ascended from the water of baptism. The Lord, being baptized, ascended from the water, the heavens were opened, and he saw the dove upon him. If, then, after the baptism the dove descended, and before the Lord was baptized John said to him: Do you come to me? I ought to be baptized by you?—before, he knew the one to whom he said: Do you come to me? I ought to be baptized by you?—how then did he say: And I did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me: He upon whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove, and remaining upon him, he it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit (Jn 1:33)?

It is no small question, my brothers. If you have seen the question, you have seen no small thing: it remains for the Lord himself to give the solution of it. Yet this I say: if you have seen the question, it is no small thing. See, John has been placed before your eyes, John the Baptist standing at the river; see, the Lord comes, still to be baptized, not yet baptized: hear the voice of John: Do you come to me? I ought to be baptized by you; see, he now recognizes the Lord, by whom he wishes to be baptized. The Lord, baptized, ascends from the water, the heavens are opened, the Spirit descends, now John recognizes him: if he recognizes him only now, why did he say before, I ought to be baptized by you? But if he does not recognize him only now, because he already knew him, what is it that he said: I did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me: He upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon him like a dove, he it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit?

16. Brothers, if this question were solved today, it would burden you, I do not doubt, because much has already been said. But know that this question is such that this alone destroys the party of Donatus. I have said this to your Charity in order to make you attentive, as I usually do; and at the same time that you may pray for us and for yourselves, that the Lord may grant us to speak worthy things, and that you may merit to grasp worthy things. For now, deign to put it off today.

But this I say briefly for now, until it is solved: question peacefully, without quarrel, without contention, without altercations, without enmities; and seek among yourselves, and question others, and say: This question our bishop proposed to us today, intending to solve it sometime, if the Lord grant it. But whether it is solved or not solved, suppose that I have proposed what moves me: for I am moved greatly.

John says: I ought to be baptized by you; as though Christ were known to him. For if he did not know him by whom he wished to be baptized, he was speaking rashly: I ought to be baptized by you. He knew him, then. If he knew him, what then is it that he says: I did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize in water, he himself said to me: He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, like a dove, he it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit? What shall we say? That we do not know when the dove came? Lest perhaps they hide there, let the other evangelists be read, who said it more plainly: and we find most openly that the dove descended then, when the Lord ascended from the water. For over the baptized one the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit descending. If he recognized him already baptized, how does he say to him as he comes to baptism: I ought to be baptized by you?

Chew this over among yourselves for now, confer about it among yourselves, treat it among yourselves. May the Lord our God grant that, before you hear it from me, he may reveal it to one of you first. Yet, brothers, know this, that through the solution of this question the party of Donatus will have no voice at all concerning the grace of Baptism—where they spread mists before the unskilled, and stretch nets for flying birds—if they have any shame: their mouths will be entirely shut.

1. As the Lord willed, we have arrived at the day of our promise: he will also grant this, that we may be able to arrive at the rendering of the promise itself. For then the things we say, if they are useful both to us and to you, are from him: but the things that are from man are lies; as our Lord Jesus Christ himself said: He who speaks a lie, speaks from his own (Jn 8:44). No one has of his own except a lie and sin. But if a man has anything of truth and righteousness, it is from that fountain which we ought to thirst for in this desert, so that, bedewed by it as with certain drops, and meanwhile consoled in this pilgrimage, lest we faint on the way, we may be able to come to its rest and satisfaction.

If, then, he who speaks a lie, speaks from his own; he who speaks the truth, speaks from God. John is truthful, Christ is the truth; John is truthful, but everyone truthful is truthful from the truth: if, then, John is truthful, and a man cannot be truthful except from the truth; from whom was he truthful, except from him who said: I am the truth (Jn 14:6)? Therefore neither could the truth speak against the truthful one, nor the truthful one against the truth. The truth sent the truthful one; and therefore he was truthful, because he was sent by the truth.

If the truth had sent John, Christ had sent him. But what Christ does with the Father, the Father does: and what the Father does with Christ, Christ does. Neither does the Father do anything separately without the Son; nor the Son anything separately without the Father: inseparable love, inseparable unity, inseparable majesty, inseparable power, according to these words which he himself set down: I and the Father are one (Jn 10:30). Who, then, sent John? If we say, the Father, we say true; if we say, the Son, we say true: but to say it more plainly, the Father and the Son. But the one whom the Father and the Son sent, one God sent; because the Son said: I and the Father are one.

How, then, did he not know the one by whom he was sent? For he said: I did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize in water, he himself said to me (Jn 1:33).

I question John: He who sent you to baptize in water, what did he say to you?

He upon whom you see the Spirit descending, like a dove, and remaining upon him, he it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit (Jn 1:33).

Did he who sent you, O John, say this to you?

Plainly he did.

Who, then, sent you?

Perhaps the Father.

The Father is true God, and the Son, God, is the truth: if the Father sent you without the Son, God sent you without the truth: but if you are truthful for this reason, that you speak the truth, and speak from the truth; the Father did not send you without the Son, but the Father and the Son sent you together: if, then, the Son too sent you with the Father, how did you not know him by whom you were sent? The one whom you had seen in the truth, he himself sent you that he might be recognized in the flesh, and said: He upon whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove, and remaining upon him, he it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit (Jn 1:33).

2. Did John hear this, that he might know the one whom he did not know, or that he might more fully know the one whom he already knew? For if in every respect he did not know him, he would not say to him, as he came to the river to be baptized: I ought to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? He knew him, then. But when did the dove descend? When the Lord was already baptized, and ascending from the water.

But if he who sent him said: He upon whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove, and remaining upon him, he it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit; and he did not know him, but recognized him when the dove descended; but the dove descended then, when the Lord ascended from the water; and yet John had recognized the Lord when the Lord was coming to him at the water: it is made manifest to us that in some respect John knew the Lord, in some respect he did not yet know him. But unless we understand this, he was a liar.

How was he truthful in recognizing him, who says: Do you come to me to be baptized, and I ought to be baptized by you? Is he truthful when he says this? And how, again, is he truthful when he says: I did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize in water, he himself said to me: He upon whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove, and remaining upon him, he it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit? The Lord became known through the dove, not to him who did not know him, but to him who in him knew something, did not know something. It is for us, then, to seek what John did not yet know in him, and learned through the dove.

3. Why was John sent baptizing? I remember that I have already said to your Charity what I could. For if the baptism of John were necessary to our salvation, it ought to be practiced even now. For it is not the case that men are not saved now, or that more are not saved now, or that there was one salvation then and another now. If Christ has been changed, salvation too has been changed: if salvation is in Christ, and Christ himself is the same, salvation is the same for us.

But why was John sent baptizing?

Because it was fitting that Christ should be baptized.

Why was it fitting that Christ should be baptized?

Why was it fitting that Christ should be born? Why was it fitting that Christ should be crucified? For if he had come to demonstrate the way of humility, and to make himself the very way of humility, in all things humility was to be fulfilled by him. He deigned to give authority to his own baptism from this, that servants might recognize with what eagerness they ought to run to the baptism of the Lord, since he himself did not disdain to undertake the baptism of a servant. For this was granted to John, that the baptism should be called his own.

4. Let your Charity attend to this, and distinguish, and know it. The baptism that John received was called the baptism of John: he alone received such a gift: no one before him among the righteous, no one after him, received a baptism that should be called his own baptism. He received it, indeed; for of himself he could do nothing: for if anyone speaks from himself, he speaks a lie from his own. And from where did he receive it, except from the Lord Jesus Christ?

From him he received the power to baptize, whom he afterward baptized. Do not marvel: for Christ did this in John just as he did a certain thing in his mother. For of Christ it was said: All things were made through him (Jn 1:3): if all things through him, then Mary too was made through him, of whom Christ was afterward born. Let your Charity attend: just as he created Mary, and was created through Mary; so he gave baptism to John, and was baptized by John.

5. For this reason, then, he received baptism from John, that, receiving from an inferior what was inferior, he might exhort his inferiors to that which was superior. But why was he not the only one baptized by John, if John had been sent for this, by whom Christ might be baptized, that he might prepare the way of the Lord (Jn 1:23), that is, of Christ himself? This too we have already said; but we recall it, because it is necessary to the present question. If our Lord Jesus Christ alone had been baptized with the baptism of John—hold to what we say; let the world not have so much power as to delete from your hearts what the Spirit of God wrote there; let the thorns of cares not have so much power as to choke the seed that is sown in you: for why are we compelled to repeat the same things, except that we are not secure about the memory of your heart?—if, then, the Lord alone had been baptized with the baptism of John, there would be no lack of those who would so regard it as to think the baptism of John greater than the baptism of Christ. For they would say: That baptism is so far greater that Christ alone merited to be baptized with it.

Therefore, that an example of humility might be given us by the Lord, for receiving the salvation of baptism, Christ undertook what he had no need of, but which for our sake was needed. And again, lest this very thing that Christ received from John should be preferred to the baptism of Christ, others too were permitted to be baptized by John. But for those who were baptized by John, it did not suffice them: for they were baptized with the baptism of Christ; because the baptism of John was not the baptism of Christ. Those who receive the baptism of Christ do not seek the baptism of John: those who received the baptism of John sought the baptism of Christ.

Therefore the baptism of John sufficed for Christ. How would it not suffice, when it was not even necessary for him? For no baptism was necessary for him; but to exhort us to his own baptism, he undertook the baptism of a servant. And lest the baptism of a servant should be preferred to the baptism of the Lord, others were baptized with the baptism of a fellow servant. But those who were baptized with the baptism of a fellow servant, it was fitting that they should be baptized with the baptism of the Lord: but those who are baptized with the baptism of the Lord have no need of the baptism of a fellow servant.

6. Since, then, John had received a baptism that should properly be called John's; but the Lord Jesus Christ was unwilling to give his own baptism to anyone, not so that no one should be baptized with the baptism of the Lord, but so that the Lord himself should always baptize: this was brought about, that the Lord should baptize even through ministers—that is, that those whom the Lord's ministers were going to baptize, the Lord should baptize, not they. For it is one thing to baptize through ministry, another to baptize through power.

For baptism is such as is the one in whose power it is given; not such as is the one through whose ministry it is given. The baptism of John was such as John was: a righteous baptism, as of a righteous man, yet of a man; but one who had received from the Lord this grace, and so great a grace, that he was worthy to go before the judge, and to point him out with the finger, and to fulfill the voice of that prophecy: The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord (Isa 40:3). But the baptism of the Lord is such as the Lord is: therefore the baptism of the Lord is divine, because the Lord is God.

7. But the Lord Jesus Christ could, if he willed, give to some servant of his the power to give his baptism, as it were in his stead, and transfer from himself the power of baptizing, and establish it in some servant of his, and give to the baptism transferred into a servant as great a force as the baptism given by the Lord would have. He was unwilling to do this, for this reason, that in him the hope of the baptized might rest, by whom they would recognize themselves as baptized. He was unwilling, then, that a servant should place hope in a servant. And therefore the Apostle cried out, when he saw men wishing to place hope in himself: Was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor 1:13) Paul, then, baptized as a minister, not as the power itself: but the Lord baptized as the power.

Attend. He could also give this power to servants, and was unwilling. For if he gave this power to servants—that is, that what was the Lord's should be theirs—there would be as many baptisms as there were servants; so that, as it was called the baptism of John, so it would be called the baptism of Peter, so the baptism of Paul, so the baptism of James, the baptism of Thomas, of Matthew, of Bartholomew: for that baptism was called the baptism of John. But perhaps someone resists, and says: Prove to us that that baptism was called the baptism of John. I will prove it, the Truth himself saying it, when he questioned the Jews: The baptism of John, from where is it? from heaven, or from men? (Matt 21:25) Therefore, lest there should be called as many baptisms as there were servants who baptized after receiving power from the Lord, the Lord kept the power of baptizing for himself, and gave the ministry to servants. A servant says that he baptizes; he says it rightly, as the Apostle says: I baptized also the household of Stephanas (1 Cor 1:16): but as a minister. Therefore, if he is even bad, and it happens that he has the ministry, and if men do not know him, yet God knows him: God permits baptism to be given through him, who kept the power for himself.

8. But this John did not know in the Lord. That he was the Lord, he knew; that he ought to be baptized by him, he knew: and he confessed that he was the truth, and that he himself was truthful, sent by the truth; this he knew. But what did he not know in him? That he was going to keep for himself the power of his baptism, and not transmit and transfer it into any servant: but that, whether a good servant baptized in ministry, or a bad servant baptized in ministry, the one who was baptized would not know himself to be baptized, except by the one who kept the power of baptizing for himself.

And that you may know, brothers, that John did not know this in him, and learned it through the dove: for he knew the Lord, but that he was going to keep the power of baptizing for himself, and give it to no servant, he did not yet know; according to this he said: And I did not know him. And that you may know that he learned this there, attend to what follows: But he who sent me to baptize in water, he himself said to me: He upon whom you see the Spirit descending, as a dove, and remaining upon him, he it is.

He it is—what?

The Lord.

But he already knew the Lord. Suppose, then, that John said up to this point: I did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize in water, he himself said to me.

We ask, what did he say?

It follows: He upon whom you see the Spirit descending, as a dove, and remaining upon him. I do not say the words that follow; for now attend:

He upon whom you see the Spirit descending, like a dove, and remaining upon him, he it is.

But he it is—what? What did the one who sent me wish to teach me through the dove? That he was the Lord? I already knew the one by whom I had been sent: I already knew the one to whom I said: Do you come to me to be baptized? I ought to be baptized by you: so far, then, did I know the Lord, that I wished to be baptized by him, not that he should be baptized by me: and then he said to me: Allow it for now; let all righteousness be fulfilled; I came to suffer, do I not come to be baptized? Let all righteousness be fulfilled, my God says to me; let all righteousness be fulfilled, let me teach full humility: I know the proud in my future people, I know that there will be certain men in some more excellent grace, so that, when they see certain unlearned people baptized, they—because they seem to themselves better, whether in continence, or in almsgiving, or in doctrine—may disdain perhaps to receive what those inferiors received; it is fitting that I heal them, that they may not disdain to come to the baptism of the Lord, because I came to the baptism of a servant.

9. So then John already knew this, and knew the Lord. What, then, did the dove teach? What did he who had sent him, to whom he says, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending, as a dove, and remaining upon him, he it is, wish to teach through the dove—that is, through the Holy Spirit coming thus?

Who is he?

The Lord.

I know.

But did you already know this, that this Lord, having the power of baptizing, would give that power to no servant, but would keep it for himself, so that everyone who is baptized through the ministry of a servant should attribute it not to the servant, but to the Lord? Did you already know this?

I did not know this: indeed, what did he say to me? He upon whom you see the Spirit descending as a dove, and remaining upon him, he it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.

He does not say: He it is who is the Lord; he does not say, he it is who is Christ; he does not say, he it is who is God; he does not say, he it is who is Jesus; he does not say, he it is who was born of the Virgin Mary, later than you, before you: he does not say this; for John already knew this. But what did he not know? That this same Lord was going to have so great a power of Baptism and keep it for himself, whether present on earth, or absent in body in heaven and present in majesty, that he would keep the power of Baptism for himself: lest Paul say, My baptism; lest Peter say, My baptism. Therefore see, attend to the words of the Apostles. None of the Apostles said: My baptism. Although the Gospel of all was one, yet you find them say: My gospel: you do not find them say: My baptism.

10. This, then, John learned, my brothers. What John learned through the dove, let us too learn. For the dove did not teach John, and not teach the Church, to which Church it was said: My dove is one (Song 6:9). Let the dove teach the dove; let the dove know what John learned through the dove. The Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove. But this that John was learning in the dove, why did he learn it in a dove? For it was fitting that he should learn it: and perhaps it was not even fitting except that he should learn it through a dove.

What shall I say about the dove, my brothers? Or when is the capacity of either heart or tongue sufficient for me to say it as I wish? And perhaps I do not even wish it worthily, as it ought to be said; and even if I can say it as I wish: how much less as it ought to be said? I would rather hear this from a better man than say it to you.

11. John learns him whom he knew: but he learns in him that in which he did not know him; in that in which he knew him he does not learn. And what did he know? The Lord. What did he not know? That the power of the Lord's baptism would pass from the Lord into no man, but that the ministry would plainly pass: the power from the Lord into no one, the ministry into both good and bad. Let the dove not shudder at the ministry of the bad, let it look to the power of the Lord. What does a bad minister do to you, where the Lord is good? What does a malicious herald hinder you, if the judge is benevolent? John learned this through the dove. What is it that he learned? Let him himself repeat it: He himself said to me, he says: He upon whom you see the Spirit descending, as a dove, and remaining upon him, this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. Therefore let not the seducers deceive you, O dove, who say: We baptize. O dove, recognize what the dove taught. This is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. Through the dove it is learned that this is he; and do you think you are baptized by the power of the one by whose ministry you are baptized? If you think this, you are not yet in the body of the dove; and if you are not in the body of the dove, it is no wonder that you do not have simplicity. For simplicity is especially designated through the dove.

12. Why did John learn, through the simplicity of the dove, that this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit, my brothers, except that those who scattered the Church were not doves? They were hawks, they were kites. The dove does not tear. And you see them stir up ill will against us, as if over the persecutions they suffered. They suffered, indeed, bodily persecutions, as it were, when they were the scourges of the Lord plainly giving discipline for a time, lest he condemn forever, if they did not recognize it and correct themselves.

But those persecute the Church who persecute by deceit; those wound the heart more grievously who wound with the sword of the tongue; those shed blood more bitterly who slay Christ, as far as in them lies, in a man. They seem terrified, as it were at the judgment of the authorities. What does the authority do to you, if you are good? But if you are bad, fear the authority: For it does not bear the sword in vain (Rom 13:4), says the Apostle. Do not draw your own sword, with which you strike Christ. Christian, why do you persecute in a Christian? What did the emperor persecute in you? He persecuted the flesh; you persecute the spirit in a Christian. You do not slay the flesh. And yet they do not spare the flesh either: as many as they could, they killed by striking; they spared neither their own nor others. This is known to all. The authority stirs up ill will, because it is lawful: he acts in a way that stirs up ill will who acts by right: he acts without stirring up ill will who acts outside the laws.

Let each one of you attend, my brothers, to what a Christian has. That he is a man, he has in common with many: that he is a Christian, sets him apart from many; and what he is as a Christian belongs to him more than what he is as a man. For in that he is a Christian, he is renewed to the image of God, by whom man was made to the image of God: but in that he is a man, even a bad man could be one, even a pagan, even an idolater.

This you persecute in a Christian, the better thing he has: for you wish to take from him that by which he lives. For he lives temporally according to the spirit of life by which the body is animated; but he lives unto eternity according to the Baptism which he received from the Lord: this you wish to take from him, which he received from the Lord; this you wish to take from him, that by which he lives. Robbers wish to despoil those whom they wish to despoil in such a way that they themselves may have more, and the others have nothing: you both take from this man, and there will be no more with you; for you do not gain more, because you take from this man. But truly they do what those do who take away the soul; they both take from another, and they themselves do not have two souls.

13. What, then, do you wish to take away? From where does the one whom you wish to rebaptize displease you? You cannot give what he already has, but you make him deny what he has. What did the pagan, the persecutor of the Church, do more bitterly? Swords were drawn against the martyrs, beasts were let loose, fires were brought near: why these things? That the one who suffered them might say: I am not a Christian. What do you teach the one whom you wish to rebaptize, except that he should first say: I am not a Christian? To which the persecutor once held out the flame, to this you bring forth the tongue: by seducing you do what he did not do by killing.

And what is it that you are going to give, and to whom are you going to give it? If he tells you the truth, and, not seduced by you, does not lie, he will say: I have it.

You ask: Do you have Baptism?

I have it, he says.

As long as you say 'I have it,' you say, I am not going to give it.

Then do not give it: for what you wish to give cannot cling to me; because what I have received cannot be taken from me. But yet wait; let me see what you wish to teach me.

Say, he says, first: I do not have it.

But this I have: if I say, I do not have it, I lie; for what I have, I have.

You do not have it, he says.

Teach me that I do not have it.

A bad man gave it to you.

If Christ is bad, a bad one gave it to me.

No, he says, Christ is not bad: but Christ did not give it to you.

Who, then, gave it to me? Answer: I know that I received it from Christ.

He gave it to you, he says, but some traitor, I know not who, not Christ.

I will look at who the minister was, I will look at who the herald was; I do not dispute about the officer, I attend to the judge: and perhaps what you charge against the officer, you lie: but I do not wish to discuss it; let the Lord of both take cognizance of the case of his officer: perhaps, if I require you to prove it, you do not prove it; rather, you lie: it has been proved that you could not prove it:

but I do not place my case there, lest, when I begin earnestly to defend innocent men, you should think that I had placed my hope in innocent men: let the men have been whatever sort they were, I received from Christ, I was baptized by Christ.

No, he says, but that bishop baptized you, and that bishop is in communion with those people.

I was baptized by Christ, I know it.

From where do you know? The dove that John saw taught me. O wicked kite, do not tear me from the bowels of the dove: I am numbered among the members of the dove; because what the dove taught, this I know. You say to me: This man baptized you, or that man baptized you; through the dove it is said to me and to you: This is he who baptizes: whom do I believe, the kite, or the dove?

14. Just tell me, that you may be confounded through that lamp, by which the earlier enemies too were confounded, your equals the Pharisees, who, when they questioned the Lord by what authority he did these things:

I too will ask you, he says, this question: Tell me: The baptism of John, from where is it? from heaven or from men? And those who were preparing to hurl their deceits were ensnared by the question, and began to turn it over among themselves, and to say: If we say that it is from heaven, he will say to us: Why did you not believe him? For John had said of the Lord: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29). Why, then, do you ask by what authority I do it? O wolves, by the authority of the Lamb I do what I do. But that you might know the Lamb, why did you not believe John, who said: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world? Knowing, then, what John had said of the Lord, they said among themselves: If we say that the baptism of John is from heaven, he will say to us: Why then did you not believe him? If we say that it is from men, we will be stoned by the people; for they hold John as a prophet (Matt 21:25-26). On the one side they feared men, on the other they were confounded to confess the truth. Darkness answered darkness, but they were overcome by the light. For what did they answer? We do not know (Matt 21:27): what they knew, they said, we do not know. And the Lord, neither do I tell you, he says, by what authority I do these things (Matt 21:27).

And the first enemies were confounded. From what? From the lamp. Who was the lamp? John. Do we prove that he was a lamp? We prove it. For the Lord says: He was a burning and shining lamp (Jn 5:35). Do we prove that the enemies were confounded over him too? Hear the Psalm: I have prepared, he says, a lamp for my Christ; his enemies I will clothe with confusion (Ps 132:17-18 (131:17-18)). The gift of Christ is not defiled.

15. As long as we walk in the darkness of this life by the lamp of faith, let us too hold to the lamp John, and let us through it too confound the enemies of Christ; rather, let him himself confound his enemies through his lamp. Let us too ask what the Lord asked the Jews, let us ask and say: The baptism of John, from where is it? from heaven, or from men? See what they are going to say, whether they too, like enemies, are not confounded over the lamp. What are they going to say? If they say: From men; their own people too will stone them: but if they say: From heaven; let us say to them: Why then did you not believe him?

They say perhaps: We believe him.

How, then, do you say that you baptize, and John says: This is he who baptizes?

But the ministers, they say, of so great a judge, through whom one is baptized, ought to be righteous.

And I say, and we all say, that the ministers of so great a judge ought to be righteous: let the ministers be righteous, if they will; but if those who sit in the seat of Moses are unwilling to be righteous, my master has made me secure, of whom his Spirit said: This is he who baptizes. How has he made me secure? The scribes, he says, and the Pharisees sit in the seat of Moses; what they say, do; but what they do, do not do: for they say, and do not (Matt 23:2-3).

If the minister is righteous, I count him with Paul, I count him with Peter; with these I count righteous ministers: because truly righteous ministers do not seek their own glory; for they are ministers, they do not wish to be held as judges, they shudder at hope being placed in them: therefore I count a righteous minister with Paul. For what does Paul say? I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase: neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters; but God who gives the increase (1 Cor 3:6-7).

But the minister who is proud is counted with the devil: yet the gift of Christ is not defiled, which flows pure through him, which passes through him clear and comes to fertile ground. Suppose that he himself is stony, that out of water he can bear no fruit: yet water passes through the stony channel, the water passes to the garden beds; in the stony channel it generates nothing, but yet it brings very much fruit to the gardens.

For the spiritual power of the Sacrament is like the light: it is received pure by those to be enlightened, and if it passes through the unclean, it is not soiled. Let the ministers plainly be righteous, and not seek their own glory, but the glory of him whose ministers they are: let them not say: The baptism is mine; because it is not theirs. Let them attend to John himself. See, John was full of the Holy Spirit; and he had a baptism from heaven, not from men: but to what extent did he have it? He himself said: Prepare the way of the Lord (Isa 40:3). But when the Lord was known, he himself was made the way; there was no longer need of the baptism of John, by which the way of the Lord might be prepared.

16. Yet what are they accustomed to say to us? See, after John there was baptizing. For before this question was well treated in the Catholic Church, many erred in it, even great and good men: but because they were of the members of the dove, they did not cut themselves off, and there was fulfilled in them what the Apostle said: If you think otherwise in anything, this too God will reveal to you (Phil 3:15). From this those who separated themselves were made unteachable. What, then, are they accustomed to say? See, after John there was baptizing; after heretics is there no baptizing? Because certain men who had the baptism of John were ordered by Paul to be baptized: for they did not have the baptism of Christ (See Acts 19:3-5). Why, then, do you exaggerate the merit of John, and, as it were, cast away the unhappiness of heretics? I too grant you that heretics are wicked: but the heretics gave the baptism of Christ, which baptism John did not give.

17. I return to John, and say: This is he who baptizes. For John is better than a heretic in the same way that John is better than a drunkard, in the same way that John is better than a murderer. If we ought to baptize after a worse man, because the Apostles baptized after a better man; whoever among them shall have been baptized by a drunkard—I do not say by a murderer, I do not say by the henchman of some criminal, I do not say by a plunderer of others' goods, I do not say by an oppressor of orphans, not by a separator of married couples; I say none of these: I say what is customary, I say what is daily, I say that by which all are summoned, even in this city, when it is said to them: Let us feast, may it be well with us, and on such a feast day of the Kalends of January you ought not to fast; I say those light, daily things: when one is baptized by a drunken man, who is better: John or the drunkard? Answer, if you can, that your drunkard is better than John: you will never dare this. Therefore you, because you are sober, baptize after your drunkard. For if the Apostles baptized after John, how much more ought a sober man to baptize after a drunkard? Or do you say: The drunkard is in unity with me? Then was John, the friend of the bridegroom, not in unity with the bridegroom?

18. But I say to you yourself, whoever you are: Are you better, or John? You will not dare to say: I am better than John. Therefore let your people baptize after you, if they are better than you. For if there was baptizing after John, be ashamed that there is no baptizing after you. You are going to say: But I have the baptism of Christ, and I teach it.

At some point, then, acknowledge the judge, and do not be a proud herald. You give the baptism of Christ, therefore there is no baptizing afterward: after John there was baptizing for this reason, that he gave not the baptism of Christ, but his own; because he had so received it that it should be his. Therefore you are not better than John: but the baptism that is given through you is better than that of John. For it is Christ's, but that one was John's.

And what was given by Paul, and what was given by Peter, is Christ's: and if it was given by Judas, it was Christ's. Judas gave it, and there was no baptizing after Judas; John gave it, and there was baptizing after John: because if baptism was given by Judas, it was Christ's; but that which was given by John was John's. Not Judas to John, but the baptism of Christ given even through the hands of Judas, we rightly prefer to the baptism of John given even through the hands of John. For indeed it was said of the Lord, before he suffered, that he baptized more than John; then it was added: Although he himself did not baptize, but his disciples (Jn 4:1-2). He himself, and not he himself: he himself by power, they by ministry; they applied servitude to baptizing, the power of baptizing remained in Christ.

Therefore his disciples baptized, and Judas was still there among his disciples: whom, then, Judas baptized, were they not baptized again; and whom John baptized, were they baptized again? Plainly again, but not with a repeated baptism. For those whom John baptized, John baptized: but those whom Judas baptized, Christ baptized. So then those whom a drunkard baptized, those whom a murderer baptized, those whom an adulterer baptized, if it was the baptism of Christ, Christ baptized. I do not fear the adulterer, nor the drunkard, nor the murderer; because I attend to the dove, through which it is said to me: This is he who baptizes.

19. Moreover, my brothers, it is madness to say that he was of better merit—I do not say Judas, but any of men—than the one of whom it was said: Among those born of women none has arisen greater than John the Baptist (Matt 11:11). Therefore not any servant is preferred to this man, but the baptism of the Lord, given even through a bad servant, is preferred to the baptism even of the friend who was a servant. Hear what sort of false brothers the apostle Paul commemorates, preaching the word of God out of envy, and what he says of them: And in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice (Phil 1:18). For they announced Christ, out of envy indeed, but yet Christ. Look not at the means, but at whom: is Christ preached to you out of envy? Look at Christ, avoid envy. Do not imitate the bad preacher, but imitate the good one who is preached to you.

Christ, then, was preached by some out of envy. And what is it to envy? A dreadful evil. By this very evil the devil was cast down, this most malignant plague cast down many: and certain preachers of Christ had it, whom nevertheless the Apostle permits to preach. Why? Because they preached Christ. But he who envies, hates; and he who hates, what is said of him? Hear the apostle John: He who hates his brother is a murderer (1 Jn 3:15). See, after John there was baptizing, after a murderer there was no baptizing; because John gave his own baptism, the murderer gave the baptism of Christ. Which Sacrament is so holy that it is not polluted even when a murderer ministers it.

20. I do not reject John, but rather I believe John. What do I believe John? What he learned through the dove. What did he learn through the dove? This is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. Now then, brothers, hold this, and fix it in your hearts. For if today I should wish to say more fully why through a dove, time would not suffice. For because the thing to be learned was imparted to John through the dove—the thing that John did not know in Christ, although he already knew Christ—I have set forth, as far as I judge, to your Holiness: but why this very thing had to be shown through a dove, if it could be said briefly, I would say it: but because it must be said at length, and I do not wish to burden you, then, just as I have been helped by your prayers to fulfill what I promised; with the further help, again and again, of your devout attention and good wishes, that too will become clear to you, why John, what he learned in the Lord—that he himself is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit, and transferred the power of baptizing to none of his servants—ought not to learn except through the dove.

1. I confess to your Holiness, I had feared that this cold weather would make you cold about gathering: but because by this celebration and your large attendance you show that you are fervent in spirit, I do not doubt that you have also prayed for me, that I may discharge my debt to you. For I had promised, in the name of Christ, to discourse today, since the narrowness of time then prevented us from being able to explain by treatment why God wished to show the Holy Spirit through the form of a dove. That this might be explained, today's day has dawned for us; and I perceive that, by a desire to hear and by devout devotion, you have gathered more numerously. May God fulfill your expectation out of our mouth. For you loved, that you might come: but what did you love? If us, this too is well; for we wish to be loved by you, but we do not wish hope to be placed in us. Because, then, we love you in Christ, love us in return in Christ, and let our love for one another groan to God: for that very groan is the groan of the dove.

2. If, then, it is the groan of the dove, which we all know—but doves groan in love; hear what the Apostle says, and do not marvel that the Holy Spirit willed to be shown in the form of a dove: For what we should pray for as we ought, he says, we do not know: but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that cannot be uttered (Rom 8:26). What then, my brothers, are we going to say this, that the Spirit groans, where there is perfect and eternal blessedness for him with the Father and the Son? For the Holy Spirit is God, just as the Son of God is God, and the Father is God. Three times I said God, but I did not say three gods: for it is rather God three times than three gods; because the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God: this you know very well. Therefore the Holy Spirit does not groan in himself, with himself, in that Trinity, in that blessedness, in that eternity of substance: but he groans in us, because he makes us groan.

And it is no small thing, that the Holy Spirit teaches us to groan: for he intimates to us that we are on pilgrimage, and teaches us to sigh for the homeland, and by that very desire we groan. He for whom it is well in this world—rather, he who thinks that it is well with him, who exults in the joy of carnal things, and the abundance of temporal things, and a vain happiness—has the voice of the raven: for the voice of the raven is clamorous, not given to groaning. But he who knows himself to be in the pressure of this mortality, and to be on pilgrimage away from the Lord, not yet to hold that perpetual blessedness that has been promised us, but to have it in hope, going to have it in reality, when the Lord comes splendid in his manifestation, who first came hidden in humility; he who knows this, groans. And as long as he groans for this, he groans well: the Spirit taught him to groan, from the dove he learned to groan.

For many groan in earthly unhappiness, whether shaken by losses, or weighed down by sickness of body, or shut up in prisons, or bound with chains, or tossed by the waves of the sea, or hedged about by some snares of enemies, they groan: but they do not groan with the groan of the dove, they do not groan with the love of God, they do not groan in the spirit. Therefore such people, when they have been freed from those very pressures, exult in loud voices: where it appears that they are ravens, not doves. Rightly was the raven sent from the ark, and did not return; the dove was sent, and returned: those two birds Noah sent. He had there a raven, he had also a dove; both these kinds that ark contained: and if the ark prefigured the Church, you surely see that it is necessary that in this flood of the world the Church should contain both kinds, both the raven and the dove. Who are the ravens? Those who seek their own. Who are the doves? Those who seek the things that are Christ's (See Phil 2:21).

3. For this reason, then, when he sent the Holy Spirit, he showed him visibly in two ways: through a dove, and through fire: through a dove, over the Lord baptized; through fire, over the disciples gathered together. For when the Lord had ascended into heaven after the resurrection, having spent forty days with his disciples, when the day of Pentecost was completed, he sent them the Holy Spirit, as he had promised. The Spirit, then, coming at that time, filled that place, and after a first sound was made from heaven as of a violent blast being borne along, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: There appeared to them, it says, divided tongues as of fire, which also settled upon each one of them; and they began to speak in tongues, as the Spirit gave them to utter (Acts 2:2-4). By the one we saw a dove over the Lord, by the other divided tongues over the disciples gathered together: there simplicity, here fervor is shown.

For there are those who are called simple, and they are lazy: they are called simple, but they are sluggish. Not such was Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit: he was simple, because he harmed no one; he was fervent, because he reproved the impious. For he did not keep silent to the Jews: his are those flaming words: Stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you have always resisted the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51). A great onslaught: but the dove rages without gall. For that you may know that he raged without gall, those who were ravens, when they heard these words, ran at once to stones against the dove; Stephen began to be stoned: and he who a little before, raging and fervent in spirit, had as it were made an onslaught against enemies, and as if violently had inveighed against them in words fiery and so flaming, as you have heard: Stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears—so that one who heard those words would think that Stephen, if he were allowed, would at once wish them to be consumed: when the stones came against him from their hands, on bended knee he said: Lord, do not lay this offense to their charge (Acts 7:60). He had clung to the unity of the dove. For his master, over whom the dove descended, had done that first; who, hanging on the cross, said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34). Therefore, that those sanctified by the Spirit should have no deceit, it was shown in the dove: that simplicity should not remain cold, it was shown in the fire. And let it not disturb you that the tongues were divided. For tongues differ, and therefore he appeared in divided tongues. Tongues, it says, divided as of fire, which also settled upon each one of them. Tongues differ among themselves, but the diversity of tongues is not schism. In the divided tongues do not fear scattering, recognize unity in the dove.

4. So then, so it was fitting that the Holy Spirit should be shown coming over the Lord, that each one might understand that, if he has the Holy Spirit, he ought to be simple as a dove; to have with his brothers true peace, which the kisses of doves signify. For ravens too have kisses, but in ravens the peace is false, in the dove the peace is true. Therefore not everyone who says, Peace be with you, is to be heard as a dove.

From where, then, are the kisses of ravens distinguished from the kisses of doves? Ravens kiss, but they tear; the nature of doves is innocent of tearing: where, then, there is tearing, there is no true peace in the kisses; those have true peace who have not torn the Church. For ravens feed on death, the dove does not have this; it lives on the fruits of the earth, its food is innocent: which truly, brothers, is to be marveled at in the dove. There are very small sparrows that even kill flies: none of these things does the dove; for it does not feed on death. Those who tore the Church feed on deaths.

God is able; let us pray that those revive who are devoured by them and do not feel it. Many acknowledge it, for they revive; for at their coming we daily give thanks in the name of Christ. Only be you so simple that you may be fervent; and let your fervor be in your tongues. Do not keep silent; speaking with burning tongues, kindle the cold.

5. For what, my brothers? Who does not see what they do not see? And no wonder; because they are like the raven that was sent out from the ark and was unwilling to return from there. For who does not see what they do not see? And they are even ungrateful to the Holy Spirit himself. See, the dove descended over the Lord, and over the Lord baptized; and there appeared that holy and true Trinity, which to us is one God. For the Lord ascended from the water, as we read in the Gospel: And behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit descending like a dove, and it remained upon him: and at once a voice followed: You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Mark 1:10-11). The Trinity appears most manifestly: the Father in the voice, the Son in the man, the Spirit in the dove. In this Trinity, to which the Apostles were sent, let us see what we see, and what is a marvel that they do not see: for they do not truly fail to see, but to that which strikes their face they shut their eyes. To what were the disciples sent, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19), by him of whom it was said: This is he who baptizes? For it was said to the ministers by him who kept this power for himself.

6. For this is what John saw in him, and recognized what he did not know: not that he did not know him to be the Son of God, or that he did not know him to be the Lord, or that he did not know him to be the Christ, or indeed that he did not know this either, that he himself was going to baptize in water and the Holy Spirit; for this too he knew: but that in such a way as to keep that very power for himself, and transfer it to none of the ministers—this is what he learned in the dove.

For through this power, which Christ alone kept for himself, and poured out into none of the ministers, although he deigned to baptize through his ministers, through this stands the unity of the Church, which is signified in the dove, of which it was said: My dove is one, she is the only one of her mother (Song 6:9). For if, as I have already said, my brothers, the power were transferred from the Lord to a minister, there would be as many baptisms as there were ministers, and the unity of Baptism would no longer stand.

7. Attend, brothers: before our Lord Jesus Christ came to baptism (for after baptism the dove descended, in which John recognized something proper, when it had been said to him: He upon whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove, and remaining upon him, he it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit), he knew that he himself baptizes in the Holy Spirit; but that it was with such a property, that the power should not pass from him into another, although by his giving—this he learned there.

And from where do we prove that John already knew this too, that the Lord was going to baptize in the Holy Spirit; so that this may be understood, that he learned in the dove that the Lord was going to baptize in the Holy Spirit in such a way that that power should pass into no other man? From where do we prove it? The dove descended when the Lord was already baptized: but before the Lord came to be baptized by John in the Jordan, we said that he knew him, by those words where he says: Do you come to me, to be baptized? I ought to be baptized by you (Matt 3:14).

But see, he knew the Lord, he knew the Son of God: from where do we prove that he already knew that he himself baptizes in the Holy Spirit?

Before he came to the river, when many ran to John to be baptized, he said to them: I indeed baptize you in water: but he who comes after me is greater than I, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to loosen; he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire (Matt 3:11): this too he already knew. What, then, did he learn through the dove, lest he be afterward found a liar (which may God turn from us to suppose); except that there was going to be a certain property in Christ such that, although many ministers were going to baptize, whether righteous or unrighteous, the holiness of Baptism would not be attributed except to him over whom the dove descended, of whom it was said: This is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit? Let Peter baptize, this is he who baptizes: let Paul baptize, this is he who baptizes; let Judas baptize, this is he who baptizes.

8. For if Baptism is holy according to the diversity of merits, then, because the merits are diverse, the baptisms will be diverse; and each one is thought to receive something the better, the better the one from whom he is seen to have received it. The saints themselves—understand, brothers—the good who belong to the dove, who belong to the lot of that city Jerusalem, the good themselves in the Church, of whom the Apostle says: The Lord knows who are his (2 Tim 2:19); are of diverse graces, they do not all have equal merits: some are holier than others, some are better than others. Why then, if one is baptized, for example, by that righteous holy man, and another by another of inferior merit before God, of inferior rank, of inferior continence, of inferior life, is what they received nevertheless one and equal and the same, except because this is he who baptizes?

Just as, then, when a good man and a better man baptize, this one did not for that reason receive a good thing, and that one a better; but although the ministers were a good man and a better, what they received is one and equal, it is not better in the one, and inferior in the other: so too when a bad man baptizes, out of some either ignorance of the Church, or toleration (for the bad are either unknown, or tolerated; the chaff is tolerated, until at the last the threshing floor is winnowed), that which was given is one, and not unequal on account of unequal ministers; but one and equal, on account of: This is he who baptizes.

9. Therefore, dearly beloved, let us see what they are unwilling to see; not that they do not see it, but that they grieve to see it: as though it were shut against them. To what were the disciples sent, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to baptize as ministers? To what were they sent? Go, he said, baptize the nations (See Matt 28:19). You have heard, brothers, how that inheritance came: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession (Ps 2:8). You have heard how the law went forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (See Isa 2:3): for there the disciples heard: Go, baptize the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19).

We were made attentive, when we heard: Go, baptize the nations. In whose name? In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is one God, because it is not, in the names of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; but, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Where you hear one name, there is one God: just as it was said of the seed of Abraham, and the apostle Paul expounds it: In your seed all the nations will be blessed: he did not say: In your seeds, as in many; but as in one: And in your seed, which is Christ (Gal 3:16). Just as, then, because there he does not say, in your seeds, the Apostle wished to teach you that Christ is one: so here too, when it was said, in the name, not, in the names; just as there, in the seed, not, in seeds; one God, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, is proved.

10. But: See, say the disciples to the Lord, we have heard in what name we should baptize, you have made us ministers, and you said to us: Go, baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: where shall we go?

Where? Did you not hear? To my inheritance. You ask: Where shall we go? To that which I bought with my blood.

Where, then? To the nations, he says.

I thought he said: Go, baptize the Africans in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Thanks be to God: the Lord has solved the question, the dove has taught. Thanks be to God: the Apostles were sent to the nations; if to the nations, to all tongues. This the Holy Spirit signified, divided in the tongues, united in the dove. The tongues are divided here, the dove couples here. Have the tongues of the nations agreed, and the one tongue of Africa disagreed? What more evident, my brothers? In the dove, unity; in the tongues of the nations, fellowship.

For at one time the tongues also disagreed through pride, and then out of one were made many tongues. For after the flood certain proud men, as though trying to fortify themselves against God, as if anything were lofty against God, or anything safe for pride, raised up a tower; as though, lest a flood, if one should come afterward, should destroy them. For they had heard and reckoned that all iniquity had been destroyed by the flood: they were unwilling to refrain from iniquity; they sought the height of a tower against a flood; they built a lofty tower. God saw their pride, and caused this error to be sent upon them, that they should not understand one another speaking; and through pride diverse tongues were made.

If pride made the diversities of tongues, the humility of Christ gathered the diversities of tongues. Now what that tower had separated, the Church gathers. Out of one tongue many were made; do not marvel, pride did this: out of many tongues one is made; do not marvel, love did this. For although the sounds of the tongues are diverse, in the heart one God is invoked, one peace is kept. From where, then, dearly beloved, ought the Holy Spirit to be shown, designating a certain unity, except through a dove, so that to the Church at peace it might be said: My dove is one? From where ought humility to be shown, except through a simple and groaning bird, not through a proud bird that exalts itself like the raven?

11. And perhaps they will say: Because, then, there is a dove, and one dove, apart from the one dove there can be no Baptism: therefore if the dove is with you, or you are the dove, when I come to you, give me what I do not have. You know that this is theirs: now it will appear to you that it is not from the voice of the dove, but from the cry of the raven.

For let your Charity attend a little, and fear the snares: rather, beware, and take the words of those who contradict as to be spat out, not swallowed down and given to the bowels. Do with them what the Lord did, when they offered him a bitter drink; he tasted, and spat it out (See Matt 27:34): so you too, hear, and cast it away. For what do they say? Let us see.

See, he says, you are the dove, O Catholic Church, it was said to you: My dove is one, she is the only one of her mother: to you surely it was said.

Wait, do not question me: if it was said to me, prove it first; if it was said to me, I wish to hear it quickly.

He says: It was said to you.

I answer with the voice of the Catholic Church: To me.

But this, brothers, which sounded from my mouth alone, sounded, I think, also from your hearts, and we all said together, it was said to the Catholic Church: My dove is one, she is the only one of her mother.

Apart from the dove herself, he says: There is no Baptism; I was baptized apart from the dove herself; therefore I do not have Baptism: if I do not have Baptism, why do you not give it to me when I come to you?

12. And I question: for now let us set aside to whom it was said: My dove is one, she is the only one of her mother; we are still seeking: either it was said to me, or it was said to you; let us set aside to whom it was said. This, then, I ask: if the dove is simple, innocent, without gall, peaceable in kisses, not savage in claws; I ask whether to the members of this dove belong the greedy, plunderers, the deceitful, drunkards, the disgraceful: are they members of this dove?

Far be it, he says.

And indeed, brothers, who would say this? To say nothing else, if I name plunderers alone, they can be members of the hawk, not members of the dove: kites plunder, hawks plunder, ravens plunder; doves do not plunder, do not tear: therefore plunderers are not members of the dove.

Was there not even one plunderer among you? Why does the Baptism remain that a hawk gave, not a dove? Why do you not baptize among your own selves after plunderers and adulterers and drunkards, after the greedy among your own selves? Or are all these members of the dove? Thus you dishonor your dove, that you make for her vulture's members.

What then, brothers, what do we say? The bad and the good are in the Catholic Church: but there only the bad are. But perhaps I say this with a hostile mind: and let this afterward be inquired into. And there too they certainly say that there are good and bad: for if they say that they have only the good; let their own people believe them, and I subscribe. There are among us, let them say, none but the holy, the righteous, the chaste, the sober; no adulterers, no usurers, no defrauders, no perjurers, no wine-bibbers: let them say it; for I do not attend to their tongues, but I touch their hearts. But since they are known to us and to you and to their own, just as you too are known to your own in the Catholic Church and to them; let neither us reproach them, nor them flatter themselves.

We confess that in the Church there are both good and bad, but like the grain and the chaff. Sometimes the one baptized by the grain is chaff; and the one baptized by the chaff is grain. Otherwise, if the one baptized by the grain avails, and the one baptized by the chaff does not avail: it is false, This is he who baptizes. But if it is true, This is he who baptizes: then what is given by him avails; and, as a dove, he baptizes. For that bad man is not a dove, nor does he belong to the members of the dove: nor can it be said, in the Catholic Church, nor among them, if they say their Church is the dove, that he is the dove. What, then, do we understand, brothers? Since it is manifest, and known to all, and even if they are unwilling they are convicted: that there too, when the bad give it, there is no baptizing after them; and here, when the bad give it, there is no baptizing after them. The dove does not baptize after the raven: why does the raven wish to baptize after the dove?

13. Let your Charity attend: and why was something designated through the dove, so that when the Lord was baptized the dove came—that is, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove—and remained upon him, since at the coming of the dove John recognized this, a certain proper power in the Lord to baptize? Because through this proper power, as I have said, the peace of the Church was made firm. And it can happen that someone has Baptism apart from the dove: but that Baptism should profit him apart from the dove, cannot be.

Let your Charity attend, and understand what I say: for by this circumvention too they often seduce those of our brothers who are lazy and cold. Let us be more simple and more fervent.

See, they say, did I receive it, or did I not receive it?

I answer: You received it.

If, then, I received it, there is nothing for you to give me; I am secure, even by your own testimony: for I say that I received it, and you confess that I received it; the tongue of both makes me secure: what, then, do you promise me? Why do you wish to make me a Catholic, when you are not going to give me anything more, and you confess that I have already received what you say you have? But when I say: Come to me, I say it because you do not have it, you who confess that I have it: why do you say: Come to me?

14. The dove teaches us. For she answers from the head of the Lord, and says: You have Baptism, but you do not have the love by which I groan.

What is this, he says: I have Baptism, I do not have love? I have the sacraments, and not love?

Do not cry out; show me how the one who divides unity has love.

I, he says, have Baptism.

You have it, but that Baptism without love profits you nothing; because without love you are nothing. For that Baptism, even in him who is nothing, is not nothing: that Baptism indeed is something, and a great something; on account of him of whom it was said: This is he who baptizes. But lest you should think that what is great could profit you anything if you were not in unity, the dove descended over the one baptized, as though saying: If you have Baptism, be in the dove, lest what you have not profit you. Come, then, to the dove, we say: not that you may begin to have what you did not have, but that what you had may begin to profit you. For outside you had Baptism to your ruin: if you have it within, it begins to profit you to salvation.

15. For Baptism not only did not profit you, but it even did you harm.

Even holy things can do harm: for in the good, holy things are present unto salvation; in the bad, unto judgment. For certainly, brothers, we know what we receive, and surely what we receive is holy, and no one says it is not holy: and what does the Apostle say? But he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself (1 Cor 11:29). He does not say that the thing is bad: but that the bad man, by receiving badly, receives unto judgment the good thing he receives. Was the morsel that was handed to Judas by the Lord bad? Far be it. The physician would not give poison: the physician gave health; but by receiving unworthily, the one who received it without peace received it to his ruin.

So then it is also with the one who is baptized.

I have it, he says, for myself.

I confess, you have it: observe what you have; by the very fact that you have it, you will be condemned.

Why?

Because you have the thing of the dove apart from the dove. If you have the thing of the dove in the dove, you have it securely. Suppose you are a soldier: if you have your emperor's mark within, you serve securely; if you have it outside, that mark not only does not profit you for service, but you will even be punished as a deserter. Come, then, come, and do not say: I already have it, it already suffices me. Come; the dove calls you, by groaning she calls you.

My brothers, I say to you; call by groaning, not by quarreling: call by praying, call by inviting, call by fasting; from your love let them understand that you grieve for them. I do not doubt, my brothers, that if they see your grief, they will be confounded, and will revive.

Come, then, come: do not fear; fear if you do not come: rather, do not fear, but mourn. Come, you will rejoice if you come: you will indeed groan in the tribulations of the pilgrimage; but you will rejoice in hope. Come where the dove is, to whom it was said: My dove is one, she is the only one of her mother. Do you see one dove over the head of Christ, do you not see tongues in the whole world? The same Spirit through the dove, the same also through the tongues: if through the dove the same Spirit, and through the tongues the same Spirit, the Holy Spirit was given to the whole world, from which you cut yourself off, so that you cry out with the raven, not groan with the dove. Come, then.

16. But perhaps you are anxious, and say: Having been baptized outside, I fear lest I be guilty from that, because I received it outside. You have now begun to recognize what is to be groaned over: you say truly, that you are guilty; not because you received it, but because you received it outside. Hold, then, what you received, amend the fact that you received it outside: you received the thing of the dove, apart from the dove: there are two things you hear; You received it, and: You received it apart from the dove: that you received it, I approve; that you received it outside, I disapprove. Hold, then, what you received; it is not changed, but acknowledged: it is the mark of my King, I will not be sacrilegious; I correct the deserter, I do not alter the mark.

17. Do not boast of Baptism, for I say, it is the same; see, I say, it is the same; the whole Catholic Church says, it is the same: the dove notices, and acknowledges, and groans, because you have it outside; she sees there what she acknowledges, she sees also what she corrects. It is the same, come. Do you boast that it is the same, and are unwilling to come?

What, then, of the bad, who do not belong to the dove? The dove says to you: The bad too, among whom I groan, who do not belong to my members, and among whom I must groan—do they not have what you boast of having? Do not many drunkards have Baptism? Do not many of the greedy? Do not many idolaters, and what is worse, secretly? Did not the pagans go to idols, or used to go publicly? Now in secret Christians seek out fortune-tellers, consult astrologers. And these have Baptism, but the dove groans among the ravens. Why, then, do you rejoice that you have it? You have this, which a bad man too has. Have humility, love, peace: have the good that you do not yet have, that the good you have may profit you.

18. For what you have, Simon Magus too had: the Acts of the Apostles are witnesses, that canonical book to be recited every year in the Church. At the anniversary solemnity after the passion of the Lord you know that book is recited, where it is written how the Apostle was converted, and from a persecutor made a preacher: where also on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was sent in divided tongues as of fire. There we read that many believed in Samaria through the preaching of Philip: but it is understood to be either one of the Apostles, or one of the deacons; because we read that seven deacons were ordained there, among whose names is also that of Philip. Through the preaching of Philip, then, the Samaritans believed; Samaria began to abound with the faithful: there was that Simon Magus; through his magic arts he had driven the people mad, so that they thought him the power of God: yet, moved by the signs that were done by Philip, he too believed; but how he believed, the things that followed afterward showed: Simon too was baptized.

The Apostles who were at Jerusalem heard this; Peter and John were sent to them, and found many baptized: and because none of them had yet received the Holy Spirit, as he then descended—to show the signification of the nations that were going to believe, that those upon whom the Holy Spirit descended should speak in tongues—they laid hands on them, praying for them, and they received the Holy Spirit. That Simon, who was not in the Church a dove, but a raven, because he sought the things that were his own, not the things that were Jesus Christ's; whence among Christians he had loved power rather than righteousness, saw that through the laying on of the Apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given (not because they gave it, but because at their prayer it was given), and said to the Apostles: What will you take from me in money, that through the laying on of my hands the Holy Spirit may also be given? And Peter said to him: Your money be with you unto perdition; since you thought the gift of God was to be purchased with money (Acts 8:19-20).

To whom does he say: Your money be with you unto perdition? Surely to one baptized. He already had Baptism: but he did not cling to the bowels of the dove. Hear that he did not cling; note the very words of the apostle Peter: for it follows: You have no part nor lot in this faith; for I see you to be in the gall of bitterness (Acts 8:21, 23). The dove has no gall: Simon had it; therefore he was separated from the bowels of the dove. What did Baptism profit him? Do not, then, boast of Baptism, as though salvation from it alone sufficed you: do not be angry, lay aside the gall, come to the dove; here what outside not only did not profit you, but even did you harm, will profit you.

19. Nor say: I do not come, because I was baptized outside. See, begin to have love, begin to have fruit, let fruit be found in you, and the dove will send you inside. We find this in Scripture. The ark had been built of imperishable wood: the imperishable wood is the saints, the faithful belonging to Christ. For just as in the temple the living stones of which the temple is built were called the faithful men; so the imperishable wood is the men who persevere in faith. In that ark, then, was imperishable wood; for the ark is the Church: there the dove baptizes; for that ark was borne upon the water: the imperishable wood was baptized within. We find a certain wood baptized outside, all the trees that were in the world. Yet the water itself was the same, it was not another: all of it had come from heaven, and from the depths of the springs: it was the same water in which the imperishable wood that was in the ark was baptized, and in which the wood outside was baptized.

The dove was sent out, and at first found no rest for her feet: she returned to the ark; for all things were full of waters, and she preferred to return rather than to be rebaptized. But that raven was sent out before the water dried up: rebaptized, he was unwilling to return; he died in those waters. May God turn from us the death of that raven. For why did he not return, except that he was cut off by the waters? But the dove, finding no rest for her feet, when the water cried out to her from every side: Come, come, dip here; just as these heretics cry out: Come, come, here you have it: she, finding no rest for her feet, returned to the ark (See Gen 8:6-12).

And Noah sent her again, just as the ark sends you, that you may speak to them: and what did the dove do afterward? Because there was wood baptized outside, she brought back to the ark a branch of olive. That branch had both leaves and fruit: let there not be in you words alone, let there not be in you leaves alone; let there be fruit, and you return to the ark, not by yourself, the dove calls you back. Groan outside, that you may call them back inside.

20. For indeed, if this fruit of the olive be examined, you will find what it was. The fruit of the olive signifies love. From where do we prove this? Just as oil is pressed down by no liquid, but, bursting through all, springs up and rises above: so too love cannot be pressed into the depths; it must necessarily rise to the heights. Therefore the Apostle says of it: I show you a yet more excellent way (1 Cor 12:31). Because we said of oil that it rises above, lest perhaps the Apostle did not say of love: I show you a more excellent way, let us hear what follows: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become like sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal (1 Cor 13:1).

Go now: Grant it, and cry out: I am eloquent: go now, and cry out: I am learned. How eloquent? How learned? Have you spoken with the tongues of angels? And yet if you spoke with the tongues of angels, not having love, I would hear sounding brass and clanging cymbals. I seek some solid thing, I would find fruit among the leaves: let there not be words alone, let them have the olive, let them return to the ark.

21. But, you will say, I have the sacrament. You say truly: the sacrament is divine; you have Baptism, and I confess it. But what does the same Apostle say? If I should know all the sacraments, and have prophecy and all faith, so as to move mountains: lest perhaps you should also say this: I have believed, it suffices me. But what does James say? The demons too believe, and tremble (Jas 2:19). Faith is great, but it profits nothing if it does not have love. The demons too confessed Christ. Therefore, believing but not loving, they said: What have we to do with you? (Mark 1:24) They had faith, they did not have love: therefore they were demons. Do not boast of faith; you are still to be compared with the demons. Do not say to Christ: What have I to do with you? For the unity of Christ speaks to you. Come, recognize peace, return to the bowels of the dove. You were baptized outside; have fruit, and you return to the ark.

22. And you:

Why do you seek us, if we are bad?

That you may be good. For this reason we seek you, because you are bad: for if you were not bad, we would have found you, we would not be seeking you. He who is good has already been found: he who is bad is still being sought. For this reason we seek you; return to the ark.

But I already have Baptism.

If I should know all the sacraments, and have prophecy and all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing (1 Cor 13:2). Let me see fruit there, let me see the olive there, and you are called back to the ark.

23. But what do you say?

See, we suffer many evils.

These—if you suffered them for Christ, not for your own honors.

Hear what follows: for they sometimes boast that they give many alms, that they give to the poor; that they suffer troubles: but for Donatus, not for Christ.

See for what you suffer: for if you suffer for Donatus, you suffer for a proud man; you are not in the dove, if you suffer for Donatus. He was not the friend of the bridegroom: for if he were the friend of the bridegroom, he would seek the glory of the bridegroom, not his own. See the friend of the bridegroom saying: This is he who baptizes. He for whom you suffer was not the friend of the bridegroom. You do not have the wedding garment; and if you have come to the banquet, you are to be cast out (See Matt 22:11-13); rather, because you have been cast out, therefore you are wretched: return at some point, and do not boast. Hear what the Apostle says: If I distribute all my goods to the poor, and hand over my body to be burned, but have not love (1 Cor 13:3). See what you do not have. If I hand over, he says, my body to be burned; and surely for the name of Christ: but because there are many who do that boastfully, not with love, therefore: If I hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:3). With love those martyrs acted who suffered in the time of persecution; with love they acted: but these act out of swelling and out of pride; for, since a persecutor is lacking, they hurl themselves down. Come, then, that you may have love.

But we have martyrs.

What martyrs? They are not doves, and so they tried to fly, and fell from the rock.

If we are the dove, let us groan, let us endure, let us hope.

24. You see, then, my brothers, that all the divine pages cry out against them, all prophecy, the whole Gospel, all the apostolic letters, every groan of the dove; and they do not yet awaken, they do not yet rouse themselves. But if we are the dove, let us groan, let us endure, let us hope; the mercy of God will be present, that the fire of the Holy Spirit may blaze up in your simplicity; and they will come. We must not despair; pray, preach, love; the Lord is fully able. They have already begun to recognize their own face: many have recognized it, many have blushed; Christ will be present, that the rest too may recognize it. And surely, my brothers, even if the chaff alone remain there, let all the grains be gathered: whatever has borne fruit there, let it return to the ark through the dove.

25. Now, failing everywhere, what do they set before us, finding nothing to say?

They have taken our country houses, they have taken our estates. They produce the testaments of men. See where Gaius Seius donated an estate to the Church over which Faustinus presided.

Of what Church was Faustinus bishop? What is the Church?

the Church, he said, over which Faustinus presided:

but Faustinus did not preside over the Church; he presided over a faction. The dove, however, is the Church. Why do you shout? We have not devoured estates—let the dove have them; let it be asked which is the dove, and let her have them. For you know, my brothers, that these estates do not belong to Augustine; and if you do not know it, and suppose that I rejoice in the possession of estates, God knows—he himself knows what I feel about those estates, or what I endure on their account; he knows my groans, if he has deigned to grant me any share in the dove.

Here, then, are the estates: by what right do you defend the estates? By divine right or human?

Let them answer: We have divine right in the Scriptures, human right in the laws of kings.

By what does anyone possess what he possesses? Is it not by human right? For by divine right, the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof (Ps 24:1 (23:1)). God made the poor and the rich from one clay, and one earth supports both poor and rich. Yet by human right one says: This estate is mine, this house is mine, this slave is mine. By human right, then, by the right of emperors. Why? Because it is through the emperors and kings of this age that God distributed these very human rights to the human race. Do you wish that we read the laws of the emperors and deal with the estates according to them? If you wish to possess by human right, let us recite the laws of the emperors; let us see whether they were willing that anything be possessed by heretics.

But what is the emperor to me?

It is by his right that you possess the land. Either do away with the rights of emperors, and then who dares to say: That estate is mine, or that slave is mine, or this house is mine? But if, in order that these things may be held by human beings, they have received the rights of kings, do you wish that we recite the laws, so that you may rejoice that you have even a single garden, and attribute it to nothing but the gentleness of the dove, because you are permitted to remain even there? For laws are read out, plain laws, in which the emperors decreed that those who outside the communion of the Catholic Church usurp for themselves the name of Christian, and refuse to worship in peace the author of peace, should dare to possess nothing in the name of the Church.

26. But what have we to do with the emperor?

But I have already said: it is a matter of human right. And yet the Apostle wished kings to be served, wished kings to be honored, and said: Reverence the king (See 1 Pet 2:17). Do not say: What have I to do with the king? What, then, have you to do with your possession? It is through the rights of kings that possessions are possessed. You have said: What have I to do with the king? Then do not call your possessions your own; for you have renounced the very human rights by which possessions are possessed.

But I am dealing with divine right, he says.

Then let us recite the Gospel; let us see how far the Catholic Church belongs to Christ, upon whom the dove came, which taught: This is he who baptizes (See Jn 1:33). How, then, can he possess by divine right who says: I baptize, when the dove says, This is he who baptizes (See Jn 1:33), when Scripture says, My dove is one, she is the only one of her mother (Song 6:9)? Why have you torn the dove apart? Rather, you have torn your own bowels apart: for you tear yourselves apart, while the dove remains whole.

Therefore, my brothers, if they have nowhere anything to say, I will say what they should do: let them come to the Catholic Church, and with us they will have not only the earth, but also him who made heaven and earth.

1. We rejoice together at your numbers, because, beyond what we could hope, you have eagerly gathered. This is what gladdens us and consoles us in all the labors and dangers of this life: your love for God, your devout zeal, your sure hope, and the fervor of your spirit. You heard, when the Psalm was read, that the needy and poor man cries out to God in this world (See Ps 12:5 (11:6)). For it is the voice, as you have often heard and ought to remember, not of one man, and yet of one man: not of one, because the faithful are many—many grains groaning among the chaff, scattered throughout the whole world; but of one, because all are members of Christ, and so are one body. This people, then, needy and poor, does not know how to rejoice in the world; and its sorrow is within, and its joy is within, where none sees but he who hears the one who groans and crowns the one who hopes.

The joy of the world is vanity. With great expectation it is hoped that it will come, and it cannot be held when it has come. For this day, which is joyful to those who are perishing today in this city, will surely not exist tomorrow; nor will the very same men be tomorrow what they are today. All things pass, and all things fly away, and like smoke they vanish—and woe to those who love such things! For every soul follows what it loves. All flesh is grass, and all the glory of flesh is as the flower of grass; the grass has withered, the flower has fallen; but the word of the Lord abides forever (Isa 40:6-8). Behold what you should love, if you wish to abide forever. But you were going to say: How can I lay hold of the Word of God? The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14).

2. Therefore, dearly beloved, let it belong to our neediness and our poverty that we also grieve for those who seem to themselves to abound. For their joy is like that of madmen. And just as a madman often rejoices in his madness and laughs, and bewails the one who is healthy, so we too, dearly beloved, if we have received the medicine that comes from heaven—since we too were all mad—as though made well, because we no longer love the things we used to love, let us groan to God over those who are still raving. For he is able to make even them well. And they need to look at themselves and be displeased with themselves. They wish to watch a spectacle, yet they do not know how to watch themselves. For if they would turn their eyes a little upon themselves, they would see their own confusion. Until that happens, let our pursuits be other, let the diversions of our soul be other. Our sorrow is worth more than their joy.

As far as the number of the brothers is concerned, it is hard that any of the men should have been swept off by that festivity; but as for the number of the sisters, it saddens us, and this is the more to be grieved over, because they do not rather hurry to the Church, whom, if not fear, then surely modesty ought to have called back from the public spectacle. Let him see to this who sees, and his mercy will be present to heal all. But let us who are gathered here be fed at the banquet of God, and let his discourse be our joy. For he has invited us to his Gospel; and he himself is our food, than which nothing is sweeter—but only if one has a healthy palate in the heart.

3. I think it well that your Charity remembers that this Gospel is being recited in order, with fitting readings; and I suppose you have not forgotten what has already been treated, especially the more recent matters concerning John and the dove. Concerning John, that is, what new thing he learned about the Lord through the dove, he who already knew the Lord. And this was found out by the inspiration of the Spirit of God: that John already knew the Lord indeed, but that the Lord himself would so baptize as to transfer the power of baptizing from himself to no one—this he learned through the dove, because it had been said: Upon whomever you see the Spirit descending like a dove, and remaining upon him, this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit (Jn 1:33). What does "this is he" mean? Not another, even though through another.

But why through a dove? Many things have been said, and I neither can nor need to weave them all again; chiefly, however, on account of peace; because even the wood that was baptized outside, since the dove found fruit in it, she brought to the ark: just as you remember the dove sent forth by Noah from the ark, which was floating in the flood and was washed by baptism, not submerged. So when it had been sent forth, it brought back an olive branch; but it had not leaves only, it had fruit as well. And so this is to be wished for our brothers who are baptized outside, that they may have fruit: the dove will not leave them outside, unless she has brought them back to the ark. And the fruit is wholly love, without which a person is nothing, whatever else he may have.

And we have recalled and reviewed this, said most abundantly by the Apostle. For he says: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal; and if I have all knowledge, and know all mysteries, and have all prophecy, and have all faith (but how did he say all faith?) so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I distribute all my goods to the poor, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:1-3). But in no way can those say that they have love who divide unity. These things have been said; let us look at what follows.

4. John bore witness, because he saw. What witness did he bear? That this is the Son of God (Jn 1:34). It was fitting, then, that he should baptize who is the only-begotten Son of God, not the adopted. Adopted sons are ministers of the only-begotten; the only-begotten has the power, the adopted the ministry. Although a minister baptize who does not belong to the number of the sons, because he lives badly and acts badly, what consoles us? This is he who baptizes.

5. The next day again John was standing, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he says: Behold the Lamb of God (Jn 1:35-36). This Lamb, surely, in a singular sense: for the disciples too were called lambs: Behold, I send you as lambs in the midst of wolves (Lk 10:3). They too were called light: You are the light of the world (Mt 5:14); but otherwise was he of whom it was said: He was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (See Jn 1:9). So too the Lamb in a singular sense, alone without stain, without sin; not one whose stains have been wiped away, but one in whom there was no stain at all. For what? Because John said of the Lord, Behold the Lamb of God (Jn 1:36), was John himself not a lamb? Was he not a holy man? Was he not the friend of the bridegroom? Therefore he in a singular sense: This is the Lamb of God; because by the blood of this Lamb alone could men be redeemed, in a singular way.

6. My brothers, if we recognize our price, that it is the blood of the Lamb, who are those who today celebrate the festival of the blood of some woman or other? And how ungrateful they are! Gold was snatched, they say, from a woman's ear, and blood ran, and the gold was placed on a balance or scale, and the blood far outweighed it. If the blood of a woman had weight enough to tip the scale of gold, what weight has the blood of the Lamb to tip the scale of the world, through whom the world was made?

And indeed that spirit, whoever he is, in order to press down the scale, was appeased with blood. The unclean spirits knew that Jesus Christ would come; they had heard it from the angels, they had heard it from the prophets, and they expected that he would come. For if they did not expect it, why did they cry out: What have we to do with you? Have you come before the time to destroy us? We know who you are, the Holy One of God (See Mk 1:24; Mt 8:29)? They knew that he would come, but they did not know the time.

But what did you hear in the Psalm concerning Jerusalem? For your servants have taken pleasure in her stones, and they will have pity on her dust: you, rising up, he says, will have mercy on Zion, for the time has come to have mercy on her (Ps 102:13-14 (101:14-15)). When the time came for God to have mercy, the Lamb came. What kind of Lamb is it that wolves fear? What kind of Lamb is it that, being slain, slew the lion? For the devil was called a lion going about and roaring, seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet 5:8): the lion was conquered by the blood of the Lamb. Behold the spectacles of Christians. And what is greater, they with the eyes of the flesh see vanity, we with the eyes of the heart see truth.

Do not suppose, brothers, that the Lord our God has dismissed us without spectacles: for if there are no spectacles, why have you gathered together today? Behold what we have said, you have seen, and you have cried out: you would not cry out, had you not seen. And it is a great thing to behold throughout the whole world the lion conquered by the blood of the Lamb, the members of Christ drawn out from the teeth of lions and joined to the body of Christ. Therefore some spirit imitated something of the sort, so as to wish his image to be bought with blood, because he knew that the human race was at some time to be redeemed by precious blood. For the evil spirits invent for themselves certain shadows of honor, so as in this way to deceive those who follow Christ.

So far, my brothers, that those very men who seduce by amulets, by incantations, by the contrivances of the enemy, mix into their incantations the name of Christ: because they can no longer seduce Christians into taking poison, they add a little honey, so that through what is sweet what is bitter may lie hidden, and may be drunk to one's ruin. So far that I have known at a certain time a priest of that Capped One in the habit of saying: Even the Capped One himself is a Christian. To what end is this, brothers, except that otherwise Christians cannot be seduced?

7. Do not, then, seek Christ anywhere else than where Christ willed himself to be preached to you; and as he willed to be preached to you, so hold him, so write him in your heart. He is a wall against all the assaults and against all the snares of the enemy. Do not fear; nor does he tempt unless he has been permitted; it is established that he does nothing unless permitted or sent. He is sent, like an evil angel, by the ruling power; he is permitted, when he asks for something: and this, brothers, does not happen except that the just may be tested and the unjust punished. Why, then, do you fear? Walk in the Lord your God, be assured: what he does not will you to suffer, you do not suffer; what he has permitted you to suffer is the lash of one correcting, not the punishment of one condemning.

We are being trained for an everlasting inheritance, and we disdain to be lashed! My brothers, if any boy refused to be struck with blows or lashes by his father, how would he be called proud, hopeless, ungrateful for his father's discipline? And to what end does a human father train his human son? That he may be able not to lose the temporal goods that he acquired for him, that he gathered for him, that he does not wish him to lose, which he himself who leaves them behind was unable to hold forever.

He does not teach the son to possess together with him, but to possess after him. My brothers, if a father teaches his son as his successor, and the one he teaches is himself likewise to pass through all those things through which the one who admonished him is also to pass, how do you wish our Father to train us—our Father whom we are not to succeed, but to whom we are to come, and with whom we are to abide forever in an inheritance that does not wither, nor die, nor know hail? He is himself both the inheritance and the Father. Him we shall possess; and ought we not to be trained?

Let us, then, bear with the training of the Father. When our head aches, let us not run to those who chant spells, to fortune-tellers, and to the remedies of vanity. My brothers, shall I not bewail you? I find these things every day; and what shall I do? Do I not yet persuade Christians that hope is to be placed in Christ? Behold, if some remedy has been applied to a man, and he dies (for how many have died with remedies? and how many have lived without remedies?), with what countenance does the soul go forth to God? It has lost the sign of Christ, it has taken on the sign of the devil.

But perhaps he may say: I have not lost the sign of Christ?

Then you have had the sign of Christ together with the sign of the devil. Christ does not want partnership, but wants to possess alone what he has bought. He bought it at so great a price that he might possess it alone: you make the devil his partner in it, the devil to whom you had sold yourself through sin. Woe to the double-hearted (Sir 2:12), who in their heart make a part for God and a part for the devil. God, angered because a part is made there for the devil, departs, and the devil will possess the whole. Not without reason, then, does the Apostle say: Neither give place to the devil (Eph 4:27). Let us, then, know the Lamb, brothers; let us know our price.

8. John was standing, and two of his disciples (Jn 1:35). Behold, two of John's disciples: because John was such a friend of the bridegroom, he did not seek his own glory, but bore witness to the truth: did he wish his disciples to remain with him, so as not to follow the Lord? Rather, he himself showed his disciples whom they should follow. For they regarded him as the Lamb; and he said: Why do you attend to me? I am not the Lamb; Behold the Lamb of God (Jn 1:36)—of whom also he had said above: Behold the Lamb of God (Jn 1:29). And what does the Lamb of God profit us? Behold, he says, him who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29). The two who were with John, having heard this, followed him. Let him come, let him teach us, and converse with us.

9. Let us look at what follows. Behold the Lamb of God (Jn 1:36): this was John. And the two disciples heard him speaking, and they followed Jesus. But Jesus, turning and seeing them following him, says to them: What do you seek? They said: Rabbi (which is interpreted Teacher), where do you dwell? (Jn 1:37-38) They did not follow him as though already to cleave to him: for it is plain when they cleaved to him, since he called them from the boat. For among these two was Andrew, as you have just heard; and Andrew was the brother of Peter; and we know in the Gospel that the Lord called Peter and Andrew from the boat, saying: Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men (Mt 4:19). And from that time they cleaved to him, so as not to withdraw.

For now, then, that these two follow him, they do not follow as though not going to withdraw; but they wished to see where he dwelt, and to do what is written: Let your foot wear out the threshold of his doors; rise to come to him continually and to be trained in his precepts (See Sir 6:36). He showed them where he was staying: they came and were with him. What a blessed day they spent, what a blessed night! Who is there to tell us what they heard from the Lord? Let us also build in our heart, and make a house where he may come and teach us; let him converse with us.

10. What do you seek? They said to him: Rabbi (which is interpreted Teacher), where do you dwell? He says to them: Come and see. And they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day; and it was about the tenth hour (Jn 1:38-39). Do we think it was of no concern to the Evangelist to tell us what hour it was? Can it be that he wished us to notice nothing there, to seek nothing? It was the tenth hour. This number signifies the law, because the law was given in ten commandments. But the time had come for the law to be fulfilled through love, because by the Jews it could not be fulfilled through fear. Hence the Lord says: I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Mt 5:17). With good reason, then, at the tenth hour these two followed him at the testimony of the friend of the bridegroom; and at the tenth hour he heard: Rabbi, which is interpreted Teacher. If at the tenth hour the Lord was called Rabbi, and the number ten pertains to the law, the teacher of the law is none other than the giver of the law. Let no one say that one gave the law and another teaches the law: he himself teaches it who gave it; he is the teacher of his own law, and he teaches it. And mercy is on his tongue; therefore he mercifully teaches the law, as it is said of wisdom: She carries law and mercy on her tongue (See Prov 31:26). Do not fear that you cannot fulfill the law; flee to mercy. If it is too much for you to fulfill the law, use that covenant, use that bond, use the prayers that the heavenly jurist has appointed and composed for you.

11. For those who have a case and wish to petition the emperor seek out some learned jurist, by whom their petition may be composed; lest perhaps, if they ask otherwise than they ought, they not only fail to obtain what they ask, but even receive punishment instead of a benefit. So when the Apostles sought to make their petition, and did not find how to approach God the emperor, they said to Christ: Lord, teach us to pray (Lk 11:1)—that is: Our jurist, our assessor, indeed our fellow-sitter with God, compose our petition for us. And the Lord taught them from the book of the heavenly law, taught them how to pray; and in the very thing he taught, he set a certain condition: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Mt 6:12).

If you do not petition according to the law, you will be guilty. Do you tremble at the emperor when you have become guilty? Offer the sacrifice of humility, offer the sacrifice of mercy, say in your prayer: Forgive me, since I too forgive. But if you say it, do it. For what will you do, where will you go, if you have lied in your prayer? Not as is said in the law court—you will be deprived of the benefit of the rescript; rather, you will not even obtain the rescript. For it is a principle of forensic law that one who has lied in his petition does not profit by what he has obtained. But this is among human beings, because a human being can be deceived; the emperor could be deceived when you sent your petition: for you said what you wished, and the one to whom you said it does not know whether it is true; he handed you over to be refuted by your adversary, so that if before the judge you are convicted of lying—since the emperor could only grant it, not knowing whether you had lied—there you will be deprived of the very benefit of the rescript to which you brought the rescript. But God, who knows whether you lie or speak the truth, does not bring it about that in judgment it does not profit you; rather, he does not even permit you to obtain it, because you have dared to lie to the truth.

12. What, then, will you do? Tell me. To fulfill the law in every part, so that you offend in nothing, is difficult: guilt, then, is certain; and you refuse to use the remedy? Behold, my brothers, what a remedy the Lord has set against the diseases of the soul.

What, then?

When your head aches, we praise you if you place the Gospel at your head, and have not run to an amulet. For to this point has the weakness of human beings been brought, and people who run to amulets are so to be bewailed, that we rejoice when we see a man laid up in his bed, tossed by fevers and pains, who has placed his hope nowhere except in setting the Gospel at his head: not because it was made for this, but because the Gospel has been preferred to amulets.

If, then, it is placed at the head so that the pain of the head may cease, is it not placed at the heart so that the heart may be healed of sins? Let it be done, then.

Let what be done?

Let it be placed at the heart, let the heart be healed. It is good, good, that you not be anxious about the health of the body, except to ask it of God. If he knows it profits you, he will give it; if he does not give it to you, it would not have profited you to have it. How many lie sick in their beds who are innocent; and if they had been well, would go forth to commit crimes? To how many is health a hindrance? The robber who goes forth to the highway to kill a man—how much better for him to have been sick! The man who rises by night to break through another's wall—how much better for him to be tossed by fevers! He would be sick more innocently; he is well to his own wickedness.

God, then, knows what is good for us: let us only see to it that our heart be healthy of sins; and when perhaps we are lashed in the body, let us beseech him. Paul the Apostle asked him to take away the goad of the flesh, and he was unwilling to take it away. Was he troubled? Was he saddened and did he say he was forsaken? Rather he said he was not forsaken, because what he wished to be taken away was not taken away, so that the weakness might be healed. For this he found in the voice of the physician: My grace is sufficient for you; for power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9).

How, then, do you know that God does not want to heal you? Still it is good for you to be lashed. How do you know how rotten is what the physician cuts, as he drives the iron through the rotten flesh? Does he not know the measure—what he is doing, how far he is doing it? Does the howling of the one being cut draw back the hands of the physician who cuts with skill? The one cries out; the other cuts. Is he cruel who does not heed the one crying out, or rather merciful, who pursues the wound in order to heal the sick man? These things, my brothers, I have said so that no one may seek anything besides the help of God when perhaps we are under some chastisement of the Lord. See that you do not perish, see that you do not depart from the Lamb and be devoured by the lion.

13. We have said, then, why the tenth hour: let us look at what follows. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who had heard from John and had followed him. He found his brother Simon, and says to him: We have found the Messiah, which is interpreted Christ (Jn 1:40-41). "Messiah" in Hebrew is "Christ" in Greek, and "Anointed" in Latin. For "Christ" is named from anointing. "Anointing" is the Greek; therefore "Christ" means "anointed." He is anointed in a singular sense, anointed above all; whence all Christians are anointed, he above all. As it says in the Psalm, listen: Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows (Ps 45:7 (44:8)). For his fellows are all the saints; but he in a singular sense is the Holy of holies, in a singular sense anointed, in a singular sense Christ.

14. And he led him to Jesus. And Jesus, looking upon him, said: You are Simon, the son of John; you shall be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter (Jn 1:42). It is no great thing that the Lord said whose son this man was. What is great to the Lord? He knew all the names of his saints, whom he predestined before the foundation of the world; and do you marvel that he said to one man: You are the son of so-and-so, and you shall be called such-and-such? Is it great that he changed his name, and made Peter out of Simon? But "Peter" comes from "rock" (petra), and the rock is the Church: therefore in the name of Peter the Church is figured. And who is secure, except the one who builds upon the rock?

And what does the Lord himself say? Whoever hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a prudent man building upon the rock (he does not yield to temptations): the rain came down, the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it did not fall; for it was founded upon the rock. Whoever hears my words and does not do them (now let each one of us fear and beware), I will liken him to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand: the rain came down, the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell; and great was its ruin (Mt 7:24-27). What does it profit one to enter the Church who wishes to build upon the sand? For by hearing and not doing, he builds indeed, but upon the sand. For if he hears nothing, he builds nothing; but if he hears, he builds. But we ask, where. For if he hears and does, upon the rock; if he hears and does not do, upon the sand. There are two kinds of builders: either upon the rock, or upon the sand.

What, then, of those who do not hear? Are they secure? Does he call them secure, because they build nothing? They are naked under the rain, before the winds, before the floods: when these come, they sweep them away before they cast down houses. Therefore there is one security: both to build, and to build upon the rock. If you wish to hear and not to do, you build; but you build a ruin: and when temptation comes, it casts down the house, and with its very fall it sweeps you away. But if you do not hear, you are naked, and you yourself are swept off by those temptations.

Hear, then, and do; this is the one remedy. How many perhaps today, by hearing and not doing, have been swept off by the flood of this festivity? For by hearing and not doing, this annual festivity comes as a flood, the torrent is filled, and it will pass and dry up; but woe to the one whom it has carried off! Let your Charity, then, know this: that unless one both hears and does, he does not build upon the rock; and he does not belong to that great name which the Lord so commended. For he made you attentive. For if Peter had been so called before, you would not so see the mystery of the rock; and you would think he was so called by chance, not by the providence of God: therefore the Lord willed him first to be called otherwise, so that by the very change of name the vital force of the sacred sign might be commended.

15. And on the next day he wished to go forth into Galilee, and he found Philip. He says to him: Follow me. Now he was from the city of Andrew and Peter. And Philip found Nathanael (Jn 1:43-45): Philip already called by the Lord. And he said to him: Him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets wrote, we have found, Jesus the son of Joseph (Jn 1:45). He was called the son of him to whom his mother was betrothed. For that he was conceived and born of her while she remained untouched, all Christians well know from the Gospel. This Philip said to Nathanael; he added also the place, from Nazareth (Jn 1:45). And Nathanael said to him: From Nazareth can anything good come (Jn 1:46). How is it to be understood, brothers? Not as some pronounce it: for it is also wont to be pronounced thus: From Nazareth can anything good come? For Philip's voice follows, and says: Come and see (Jn 1:46). But this reply can follow both pronunciations, whether you pronounce it as affirming: From Nazareth something good can come; and the other: Come and see; or as doubting, and asking the whole thing: From Nazareth can anything good come? Come and see. Since, then, whether it be pronounced in the one way or the other, the words that follow do not conflict; it is for us to seek what we should rather understand in these words.

16. What kind of man this Nathanael was, we prove in what follows. Hear what kind of man he was: the Lord himself bears witness. Great is the Lord, made known by the testimony of John; blessed is Nathanael, made known by the testimony of the truth. For although the Lord might not be commended by the testimony of John, he bore witness to himself; for the truth is sufficient for its own testimony. But because human beings could not grasp the truth, they sought the truth by a lamp: and therefore John, through whom the Lord might be shown, was sent.

Hear the Lord bearing witness to Nathanael: And Nathanael said to him: From Nazareth can anything good come? Philip says to him: Come and see. And Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and says of him: Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile (Jn 1:46-47). A great testimony! This was not said to Andrew, nor said to Peter, nor to Philip, which was said of Nathanael: Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile (Jn 1:47).

17. What, then, do we make of this, brothers? Ought this man to be first among the Apostles? Not only is he not found first among the Apostles, but Nathanael is neither in the middle nor last among the twelve—he to whom the Son of God bore so great a testimony, saying: Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile (Jn 1:47). Is the reason sought? So far as the Lord intimates, we find it with probability. For we ought to understand that this Nathanael was learned and skilled in the Law: for that reason the Lord was unwilling to place him among the disciples; because he chose the unlearned, that by them he might confound the world.

Hear the Apostle saying these things: For consider your calling, brothers, that not many are powerful, not many are noble: but God chose the weak things of the world, to confound the strong; and the lowly things of the world and the contemptible God chose, and the things that are not, as though they were, that the things that are might be brought to nothing (1 Cor 1:26-28). If a learned man were chosen, perhaps he would say he was chosen for this reason, that his learning deserved to be chosen. Our Lord Jesus Christ, wishing to break the necks of the proud, did not seek a fisherman through an orator; but from a fisherman he won an emperor. Cyprian was a great orator, but Peter the fisherman came first, through whom afterward there would believe not only the orator, but also the emperor. No noble was first chosen, no learned man; because God chose the weak things of the world, to confound the strong.

This man, then, was great and without guile: for this reason alone he was not chosen, lest the Lord should seem to anyone to have chosen the learned. And it came from his very learning in the Law that, when he had heard from Nazareth—for he had searched the Scriptures, and knew that from there the Savior was to be expected, which other scribes and Pharisees did not easily know—this man, then, most learned in the Law, when he had heard Philip saying: We have found Jesus, of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets wrote, from Nazareth, the son of Joseph; that man who knew the Scriptures excellently, on hearing the name of Nazareth, was raised up in hope, and said: From Nazareth something good can come.

18. Now let us look at the rest concerning him: Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile (Jn 1:47). What is, in whom there is no guile? Did he perhaps have no sin? Was he perhaps not sick? Was the physician perhaps not necessary to him? Far from it. No one here is born such that he does not need that physician. What, then, does it mean, in whom there is no guile? Let us seek somewhat more attentively; it will appear presently in the name of the Lord.

The Lord says "guile" (dolus); and everyone who understands Latin words knows that guile is when one thing is done and another pretended. Let your Charity attend. "Guile" (dolus) is not "grief" (dolor): I say this because many brothers less skilled in Latin speak so as to say "guile torments him" for what is "grief." Guile is fraud, it is pretense. When someone covers something in his heart and speaks another thing, it is guile, and he has, as it were, two hearts: he has one fold of the heart, as it were, where he sees the truth; and another fold, where he conceives a lie. And that you may know this to be guile, it is said in the Psalms: Deceitful lips (Ps 12:2 (11:3)). What is, deceitful lips? It follows: With a heart and a heart they have spoken evil things (Ps 12:2 (11:3)). What is, with a heart and a heart, but with a double heart?

If, then, there was no guile in this man, the physician judged him curable, not healthy. For one thing is healthy, another curable, another incurable: he who is sick with hope is called curable; he who is sick with despair, incurable; but he who is already healthy needs no physician. The physician, then, who had come to heal, saw this man curable, because there was no guile in him. How was there no guile in him? If he is a sinner, he confesses himself a sinner. For if he is a sinner and calls himself just, there is guile in his mouth. Therefore in Nathanael he praised the confession of sin; he did not judge that he was not a sinner.

19. Therefore, when the Pharisees, who seemed to themselves just, reproached the Lord because the physician mingled with the sick, and said: Behold with whom he eats, with publicans and sinners (See Mt 9:11); the physician answered the madmen: The healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are ill: I have not come to call the just, but sinners (Mt 9:12-13). This is to say: Because you call yourselves just, while you are sinners, you judge yourselves healthy, while you languish; you repel the medicine, you keep no health.

Hence that Pharisee who had invited the Lord to dinner seemed to himself healthy: but that sick woman burst into the house, where she had not been invited, and made shameless by her desire for health, drew near, not to the Lord's head, not to his hands, but to his feet; she washed them with tears, wiped them with her hair, kissed them, anointed them with ointment—a sinful woman who made peace with the footprints of the Lord. That man, as though healthy, reproached the physician—that Pharisee who was reclining there; and he said within himself: If this man were a prophet, he would know what woman had touched his feet (See Lk 7:39). He had suspected that the Lord did not know, because he did not repel her, as though to avoid being touched by unclean hands: but the Lord knew, and permitted himself to be touched, so that by the touch itself he might heal.

The Lord, seeing the heart of the Pharisee, put forth a likeness: Two debtors owed a certain moneylender; one owed him fifty denarii, the other five hundred: when they had nothing to repay, he forgave them both; which of them loved him more? And he said: I suppose, Lord, the one to whom he forgave more. And turning to the woman, he said to Simon: Do you see this woman? I entered into your house, you gave me no water for my feet; but she washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair: you gave me no kiss; she has not ceased to kiss my feet: you gave me no oil; she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I say to you: her many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, he loves little (Lk 7:41-47). This is to say: You are more sick, but you think yourself healthy; you think little is forgiven you, when you are the greater debtor.

Rightly did she, because there was no guile in her, deserve the medicine. What is, there was no guile in her? She confessed her sins. This too he praises in Nathanael, that there was no guile in him: for many Pharisees who abounded in sins called themselves just, and brought guile, through which they could not be healed.

20. He saw, then, this man in whom there was no guile, and said: Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile. Nathanael says to him: Whence do you know me? Jesus answered and said: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you; that is, under the fig tree. Nathanael answered him and said: Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel (Jn 1:48-49). Something great this Nathanael could understand, in what was said: When you were under the fig tree, I saw you, before Philip called you. For he uttered such a word: You are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel; such as Peter uttered so long after, when the Lord said to him: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven (Mt 16:17). And there he named the rock, and praised the firm foundation of the Church in that faith. Here this man already says: You are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel. Whence? Because it was said to him: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

21. It is to be asked whether this fig tree signifies something. For hear, my brothers: we find a fig tree cursed, because it had leaves only and had no fruit. At the origin of the human race, when Adam and Eve had sinned, they made themselves girdles of fig leaves: therefore fig leaves are understood as sins. Now Nathanael was under the fig tree, as it were under the shadow of death. The Lord saw him, of whom it was said: For those who sat under the shadow of death, a light has risen for them (See Mt 4:16; Isa 9:2). What, then, was said to Nathanael? You say to me, O Nathanael: Whence do you know me? You now already speak with me, because Philip called you. The one whom he had already called through the apostle, he saw to belong to his Church.

O you Church, O you Israel, in whom there is no guile; if you are the people of Israel in whom there is no guile, you have now already known Christ through the Apostles, as Nathanael knew Christ through Philip. But in his mercy he saw you before you knew him, while you lay under sin. For did we first seek Christ, and not he us? Did we come, sick, to the physician, and not the physician to the sick? Had not that sheep been lost, and the shepherd, leaving the ninety-nine, sought it and found it, which he joyfully carried back on his shoulders? Had not that drachma been lost, and the woman lit a lamp, and sought through her whole house until she found it? And when she had found it: Rejoice with me, she says to her neighbors, for I have found the drachma which I had lost (See Lk 15:9).

So we too had been lost like the sheep, and had been lost like the drachma: and our shepherd found the sheep, but he sought the sheep; the woman found the drachma, but she sought the drachma. Who is the woman? The flesh of Christ. What is the lamp? I have prepared a lamp for my Christ (Ps 132:17 (131:17)). Therefore we were sought, that we might be found; having been found, we speak. Let us not be proud, because before we were found, we were lost, had we not been sought. Therefore let not those whom we love, and wish to win for the peace of the Catholic Church, say to us:

What do you want with us?

why do you seek us, if we are sinners? We seek you for this reason, that you may not perish: we seek, because we have been sought; we wish to find you, because we have been found.

22. And so, when Nathanael had said: Whence do you know me? the Lord said to him: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you (Jn 1:48). O you Israel without guile, whoever you are, O people living by faith, before I called you through my apostles, when you were under the shadow of death and did not see me, I saw you. The Lord then says to him: Because I said to you: I saw you under the fig tree, you believe: you will see greater things than these (Jn 1:50). What is this, you will see greater things than these? And he says to him: Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man (Jn 1:51).

Brothers, I have said something greater than is I saw you under the fig tree. For it is more that the Lord justified us when we were called, than that he saw us lying under the shadow of death. For what would it have profited us if we had remained there, where he saw us? Would we not still be lying down? What is this greater thing? When did we see the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man?

23. I had already at some time spoken of these ascending and descending angels; but lest you have forgotten, I say it briefly, as one recalling: for I would say more if I were not recalling, but only now introducing it.

Jacob saw a ladder in a dream, and on that ladder he saw angels ascending and descending; and the stone which he had placed at his head, he anointed (See Gen 28:12-18). You have heard that "Messiah" is "Christ," you have heard that "Christ" is "anointed." For he did not so place the anointed stone, that he would come and adore it: otherwise it would be idolatry, not a signifying of Christ. The signifying, then, was made, as far as the signifying ought to be made, and Christ was signified. The stone was anointed, but not as an idol. The stone was anointed: why a stone? Behold, I lay in Zion a chosen stone, precious, and whoever believes in him will not be confounded (1 Pet 2:6; Isa 28:16). Why anointed? Because "Christ" comes from "chrism." But what did he then see on the ladder? Angels ascending and descending. So it is also with the Church, brothers: the angels of God, the good preachers, preaching Christ; that is, they ascend and descend upon the Son of man. How do they ascend, and how do they descend? We have an example from one man: hear the apostle Paul; what we have found in him, let us believe of the other preachers of the truth.

See Paul ascending: I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago, caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows: and that he heard ineffable words which it is not permitted a man to utter (2 Cor 12:2-4). You have heard him ascending; hear him descending. I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to carnal: as to little ones in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not solid food (1 Cor 3:1-2). Behold, he who had ascended descends. Ask where he had ascended. To the third heaven. Ask where he descended. To giving milk to the little ones. Hear that he descends: I became a little one, he says, in your midst, as if a nurse should cherish her children (1 Thess 2:7).

For we see both nurses and mothers descend to the little ones: and if they know how to say Latin words, they cut them short, and shake their tongue, as it were, so that from a fluent tongue they may make childish endearments; because if they spoke otherwise, the infant would not hear, nor would the infant make progress. And some fluent father, if he is so great an orator that the law courts resound with his tongue and the tribunals are shaken; if he has a little son, when he returns home he sets aside the forensic eloquence to which he had ascended, and with a childish tongue descends to the little one. Hear in one place the Apostle himself ascending and descending, in one sentence: For whether, he says, we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or whether we are sober, it is for you (2 Cor 5:13). What is, we are beside ourselves, it is for God? That we may see those things which it is not permitted a man to utter. What is, we are sober, it is for you? For I judged that I knew nothing among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). If the Lord himself ascends and descends; it is manifest that his preachers too ascend by imitation, descend by preaching.

24. And if we have held you somewhat longer, it was by design, that the unsuitable hours might pass: we suppose that those people have by now finished their vanity. But let us, brothers, now that we have been fed at the saving banquet, do what remains, so that we may solemnly fill the Lord's day with spiritual joys, and compare the joys of truth with the joys of vanity: and if we shudder, let us grieve; if we grieve, let us pray; if we pray, let us be heard; if we are heard, we win them too.

1. The miracle indeed of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which he made wine out of water, is no wonder to those who know that God did it. For he himself made the wine that day at the marriage in those six water jars, which he commanded to be filled with water—he who every year makes this in the vines. For just as what the servants put into the jars was turned into wine by the work of the Lord, so too what the clouds pour out is turned into wine by the work of the same Lord. But that we do not wonder at, because it happens every year: by its constancy it has lost its power to astonish. And yet it deserves greater consideration than what was done in the jars of water. For who is there who considers the works of God, by which this whole world is ruled and administered, and is not amazed and overwhelmed by miracles? If he were to consider the force of a single grain of any seed whatever, it is a great thing, an awe to one considering it.

But because human beings, intent on other things, have lost the consideration of the works of God, in which they might daily give praise to the Creator; God has, as it were, reserved to himself certain unusual things to do, so that, like sleeping men, he might rouse them by something more marvelous to worship him. A dead man rose again, and people marveled: so many are born every day, and no one marvels. If we consider more prudently, it is a greater miracle that one should exist who was not, than that one who was should come to life again. Yet the same God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, does all these things through his Word, and he who created governs.

The earlier miracles he did through his Word, God with him: the later miracles he did through that same Word of his, incarnate and made man for our sake. As we marvel at the things done through the man Jesus, let us marvel at the things done through the God Jesus. Through the God Jesus were made heaven and earth, the sea, and all the adornment of heaven, the riches of the earth, the fruitfulness of the sea; all these things that lie before our eyes were made through Jesus, God. And we see these things, and if his Spirit is in us, they so please us that the maker is praised: not so that, turning to the works, we are turned away from the maker, and, setting our face, as it were, toward the things he made, set our back toward him who made them.

2. And these things indeed we see, and they lie before our eyes: what of those things we do not see, such as the angels, the Virtues, Powers, Dominations, and every inhabitant of this supercelestial fabric, not lying before our eyes? Although often the angels too, when it was fitting, have shown themselves to human beings. Did not God make all these things through his Word, that is, through his only Son our Lord Jesus Christ?

What of the human soul itself, which is not seen, and yet through the works it exhibits in the flesh offers great wonder to those who consider well—by whom was it made, but by God? and through whom was it made, but through the Son of God? I do not yet speak of the soul of man. The soul of any beast whatever—how it rules its own mass! It puts forth all the senses, the eyes for seeing, the ears for hearing, the nostrils for perceiving smell, the judgment of the mouth for distinguishing flavors, and finally the limbs themselves for carrying out their offices. Is it the body that does these things, and not the soul, that is, the dweller in the body? And yet it is not seen by the eyes, and from the things it does it stirs wonder.

Let your consideration now pass also to the human soul, to which God has granted understanding to know its Creator, to discern and distinguish between good and evil, that is, between just and unjust: how great things it does through the body! Consider the whole world ordered in the very commonwealth of mankind: by what administrations, what orders of powers, conditions of cities, laws, customs, arts! All this is carried on through the soul, and this force of the soul is not seen. When it is withdrawn from the body, a corpse lies there: but when it is present to the body, it first, as it were, preserves it from rot. For all flesh is corruptible, and dissolves into decay, unless it is held together by a certain seasoning of the soul.

But this it has in common with the soul of a beast: more to be wondered at are the things I have spoken of, which pertain to the mind and understanding, where also it is renewed unto the image of its Creator, to whose image man was made. What will this force of the soul be, when both this body has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality (1 Cor 15:54)? If it can do so much through corruptible flesh, what will it be able to do through a spiritual body after the resurrection of the dead? Yet this soul, as I have said, of a nature and substance to be wondered at, is an invisible and intelligible thing: and even this was made through Jesus, God, because he himself is the Word of God. All things were made through him, and without him was nothing made (Jn 1:3).

3. Since, then, we see such great things done through the God Jesus, why do we marvel at water turned into wine through the man Jesus? For he did not so become man that he lost what he was as God: man was added to him, God was not lost. He himself, then, did this, who did all those things. Let us therefore not marvel that God did it; but let us love that he did it among us, and did it for our restoration. For he intimates something to us in these very deeds. I think it was not without cause that he came to the marriage. Apart from the miracle, something of mystery and sacred sign lies hidden in the deed itself. Let us knock that he may open, and make us drunk with the invisible wine: because we too were water, and he made us wine, he made us wise; for we have a taste for faith in him, we who before were foolish. And perhaps it pertains to that very wisdom, with honor for God, and with praise of his majesty, and with love of his most powerful mercy, to understand what was accomplished in this miracle.

4. The Lord, invited, came to the marriage. What wonder if he came to that house for a marriage, who came into this world for a marriage? For if he did not come for a marriage, he has no bride here. And what is it that the Apostle says: I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ (2 Cor 11:2)? What is it that he fears, lest the virginity of Christ's bride be corrupted by the craft of the devil? I fear, he says, lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his craftiness, so your minds too be corrupted from the simplicity and chastity that is in Christ (2 Cor 11:3). He has here, then, a bride whom he redeemed with his blood, and to whom he gave the Holy Spirit as a pledge.

He rescued her from the bondage of the devil: he died for her offenses, he rose again for her justification. Who will offer such things to his bride? Let men offer whatever adornments of the earth; gold, silver, precious stones, horses, slaves, lands, estates: will anyone offer his own blood? For if he gave his blood to his bride, there would be no one to take a wife. But the Lord, dying without fear, gave his blood for her whom, rising again, he would have, whom he had already joined to himself in the womb of the Virgin. For the Word is the bridegroom, and human flesh the bride; and both are one Son of God, and the same Son of man: where he became head of the Church, that womb of the Virgin Mary was his bridal chamber, from there he came forth as a bridegroom from his chamber, as Scripture foretold: And he, like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, rejoiced like a giant to run the way (Ps 19:5 (18:6)); he came forth from the chamber as a bridegroom, and, invited, came to the marriage.

5. By reason of a certain sacred sign, he seems not to acknowledge the mother from whom the bridegroom came forth, and to say to her: What have I to do with you, woman? My hour has not yet come (Jn 2:4). What is this? Did he come to the marriage for this, that he might teach mothers to be despised? Surely the one to whose marriage he had come was taking a wife in order to beget children; and from those whom he desired to beget, he surely wished to be honored: did he then come to the marriage in order to dishonor a mother, when marriages themselves are celebrated and wives taken for the sake of having children, to whom God commands that honor be rendered to parents? Without doubt, brothers, something lies hidden there.

For it is so great a matter that certain men—those whom the Apostle warned us to beware of, as we recalled above, saying: I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his craftiness, so your minds too be corrupted from the simplicity and chastity that is in Christ—disparaging the Gospel and saying that Jesus was not born of the Virgin Mary, would try to take from this an argument for their error, so as to say: How was she his mother, to whom he said: What have I to do with you, woman?

We must therefore answer them, and explain why the Lord said this; lest they, raving against the sound faith, seem to have found something whereby the chastity of the virgin bride may be corrupted, that is, whereby the faith of the Church may be violated. For truly, brothers, the faith of those is corrupted who prefer falsehood to truth. For these men who seem so to honor Christ as to deny that he had flesh, proclaim him nothing other than a liar. Those, then, who build up falsehood in human beings, what do they expel from them, but the truth? They let in the devil, they shut out Christ; they let in the adulterer, they shut out the bridegroom: groomsmen, that is, or rather pimps of the serpent. For they speak to this end, that the serpent may possess and Christ be shut out. How does the serpent possess? When falsehood possesses. When falsity possesses, the serpent possesses: when truth possesses, Christ possesses. For he himself said: I am the truth (Jn 14:6); but of the serpent he said: And he did not stand in the truth, because the truth is not in him (Jn 8:44). Now Christ is the truth in such a way that you receive all that is true in Christ. The true Word, God equal to the Father; a true soul, true flesh, true man, true God, true nativity, true passion, true death, true resurrection. If you call any of these false, decay enters, from the venom of the serpent are born the worms of lies, and nothing will remain whole.

6. What, then, is it, he says, that the Lord says: What have I to do with you, woman? Perhaps in what follows the Lord shows us why he said this: My hour, he says, has not yet come. For thus he says: What have I to do with you, woman? My hour has not yet come (Jn 2:4). And why this was said must be inquired into. First, then, let us on this point withstand the heretics.

What does the drowsy serpent say, the ancient hisser and breather of poisons? What does he say?

Jesus did not have a woman for a mother.

How do you prove it?

Because he said, he replies: What have I to do with you, woman?

Who told this, that we should believe that he said this? Who told this? Surely John the Evangelist. But this same John the Evangelist said: And the mother of Jesus was there. For he so narrated it: On the next day a marriage took place at Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now Jesus had come there, invited to the marriage with his disciples (See Jn 2:1-2).

We hold two statements brought forth by the Evangelist. The mother of Jesus was there, the Evangelist said: what Jesus said to his mother, the same Evangelist said. And as he said that Jesus answered his mother, so that first he said: His mother says to him, see, brothers, that against the tongue of the serpent you have a fortified virginity of heart.

There in the Gospel itself, by the narration of that same Evangelist, it is said: The mother of Jesus was there; and: His mother said to him. Who told this? John the Evangelist. And what did Jesus answer his mother? What have I to do with you, woman? Who tells this? The same John the Evangelist. O most faithful and most truthful Evangelist, you tell me that Jesus said: What have I to do with you, woman? why did you set beside him a mother whom he does not acknowledge? For you said that the mother of Jesus was there, and that his mother said to him: why did you not rather say: Mary was there; and: Mary said to him? You tell both: His mother said to him; and: Jesus answered her: What have I to do with you, woman? Why this, except that both are true?

But those people are willing to believe the Evangelist in this, that he narrates Jesus to have said to his mother: What have I to do with you, woman? and unwilling to believe the Evangelist in this, that he says: The mother of Jesus was there; and: His mother said to him. But who is it that withstands the serpent and holds the truth, whose virginity of heart is not corrupted by the craft of the devil? He who believes both to be true; both that the mother of Jesus was there, and that Jesus answered his mother in that way. But if he does not yet understand in what way Jesus said: What have I to do with you, woman? let him meanwhile believe that he said it, and that he said it to his mother. Let there first be devotion in the believer, and there will be fruit in the one who understands.

7. I ask you, O faithful Christians: Was the mother of Jesus there?

answer: She was.

How do you know?

answer: The Gospel says this.

What did Jesus answer his mother?

answer: What have I to do with you, woman? My hour has not yet come.

And this, how do you know?

answer: The Gospel says this.

Let no one corrupt this faith for you, if you wish to keep a chaste virginity for the bridegroom. But if it is asked of you why he answered his mother thus, let him who understands speak; but let him who does not yet understand nevertheless most firmly believe that Jesus answered this, and that he answered his mother. By this devotion he will deserve even to understand why he answered thus, if by praying he knocks, and approaches the door of truth not by wrangling. Only let him beware, lest while he thinks he knows, or is ashamed not to know why he answered thus, he be driven to believe either that the Evangelist lied who says: The mother of Jesus was there; or that Christ himself suffered a false death for our offenses, and showed false scars for our justification; and that he spoke falsely: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (Jn 8:31-32). For if the mother is false, the flesh false, the death false, the wounds of the passion false, the scars of the resurrection false; then not the truth, but rather falsity, will set free those who believe in him.

Nay rather, let falsity yield to truth, and let all be confounded who wish to seem truthful for this reason, that they try to show Christ to be deceitful; and who are unwilling to have it said to them: We do not believe you, because you lie; while they say that the truth itself lied. To whom nevertheless, if we say: How do you know that Christ said: What have I to do with you, woman? they answer that they have believed the Gospel. Why do they not believe the Gospel when it says: The mother of Jesus was there; and: His mother said to him? Or if the Gospel lies in this, how is it believed in what Jesus said: What have I to do with you, woman? Why do not the wretches rather faithfully believe that the Lord answered thus not a stranger but his mother; and devoutly inquire why he answered thus?

For there is a great difference between him who says: I wish to know why Christ answered this to his mother; and him who says: I know that Christ did not answer this to his mother. It is one thing to wish to understand what is closed, another to refuse to believe what is open. He who says: I wish to know why Christ answered his mother thus, wishes the Gospel, which he believes, to be opened to him: but he who says: I know that Christ did not answer this to his mother, charges the Gospel itself with falsehood, where he believed that Christ answered thus.

8. Now then, if you please, brothers, those men being repulsed, and ever wandering in their own blindness unless they are humbly healed, let us inquire why our Lord answered his mother thus. He was born in a singular way, of the Father without a mother, of the mother without a father; without a mother, God; without a father, man; without a mother before the ages, without a father at the end of the ages. What he answered, he answered his mother: because: The mother of Jesus was there; and: His mother said to him. All this the Gospel says. There we learn that the mother of Jesus was there, where we learn what he said to her: What have I to do with you, woman? My hour has not yet come. Let us believe the whole, and seek what we do not yet understand.

And first see this, lest perhaps, just as the Manichees found an occasion for their faithlessness because the Lord said: What have I to do with you, woman? so the astrologers may find an occasion for their fallacy because he said: My hour has not yet come. And if he said this according to the astrologers, we committed sacrilege by burning their books. But if we did rightly, as was done in the times of the Apostles, then the Lord did not say according to them: My hour has not yet come. For the empty talkers and seduced seducers say: You see that Christ was under fate, who says: My hour has not yet come.

To whom, then, must we answer first; the heretics, or the astrologers? For both come from that serpent, wishing to corrupt the virginity of the Church's heart, which she has in an unimpaired faith. First, if you please, let us answer those whom we had set before us, to whom indeed we have already for the most part answered. But lest they suppose that we have nothing to say about these words which the Lord answered his mother, we rather instruct you against them: for to refute them, I think that what has already been said is sufficient.

9. Why, then, does the son say to his mother: What have I to do with you, woman? My hour has not yet come. Our Lord Jesus Christ was both God and man: according to what he was as God, he had no mother; according to what he was as man, he had one. She was, then, the mother of his flesh, the mother of his humanity, the mother of the weakness which he took on for our sake. But the miracle which he was about to do, he was about to do according to his divinity, not according to his weakness; according to what he was as God, not according to what he was, born weak. But the weak thing of God is stronger than men (1 Cor 1:25).

The mother, then, was demanding a miracle; but he, as though not acknowledging the human flesh, since he was about to do divine deeds, says, as it were: What in me works the miracle, you did not beget; my divinity you did not beget: but because you begot my weakness, I will acknowledge you then, when that very weakness shall hang upon the cross. For this is the meaning of: My hour has not yet come. For then he acknowledged her, who surely always knew her. And before he was born of her, he knew his mother in predestination; and before he himself, as God, created her from whom he himself, as man, would be created, he knew his mother: but at a certain hour he does not acknowledge her, in a mystery; and at a certain hour, which had not yet come, he again acknowledges her, in a mystery. For he acknowledged her then, when that which she bore was dying. For that by which Mary was made was not dying, but that which was made from Mary was dying: the eternity of the divinity was not dying, but the weakness of the flesh was dying.

He gave that answer, then, distinguishing, in the faith of believers, who he is, and by what means he came. For he came through a mother, a woman, being God and Lord of heaven and earth. According to that he is Lord of the world, Lord of heaven and earth, he is surely Lord also of Mary; according to that he is creator of heaven and earth, he is creator also of Mary: but according to what is said, made of a woman, made under the Law (Gal 4:4), he is the son of Mary. He himself is the Lord of Mary, he himself the son of Mary: he himself the creator of Mary, he himself created from Mary. Do not wonder that he is both son and Lord: for as he was called the son of Mary, so also the son of David; and he is the son of David for this reason, that he is the son of Mary. Hear the Apostle saying openly: Who was made for him of the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom 1:3). Hear him also Lord of David; let David himself say this: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand (Ps 110:1 (109:1)). And Jesus himself put this to the Jews, and from it confuted them.

As, then, he is both son and lord of David: son of David according to the flesh, lord of David according to the divinity: so he is the son of Mary according to the flesh, and the lord of Mary according to his majesty. Since, then, she was not the mother of his divinity, and it was through the divinity that the miracle was to come which she was asking; he answered her: What have I to do with you, woman? but lest you think that I deny you to be my mother: My hour has not yet come: for there I will acknowledge you, when the weakness whose mother you are shall begin to hang upon the cross.

Let us prove whether this is true. When the Lord suffered, as the same Evangelist says, who knew the Lord's mother, and who has shown us the Lord's mother also at this marriage, he himself narrates: There was there, beside the cross, the mother of Jesus, and Jesus said to his mother: Woman, behold your son; and to the disciple: Behold your mother (See Jn 19:25-27). He commends his mother to the disciple: he commends his mother, being about to die before his mother, and to rise before his mother's death; man commends man to man. This Mary had borne. That hour had now come, of which he had then said: My hour has not yet come.

10. So far as I judge, brothers, the heretics have been answered: let us answer the astrologers. And from what do they themselves try to prove that Jesus was under fate? Because he himself says, they reply: My hour has not yet come. Therefore we believe him; and if he had said: I have no hour, he would have shut out the astrologers: but behold, they say, he himself said: My hour has not yet come. If, then, he had said: I have no hour, he would have shut out the astrologers, and there would have been no occasion for their calumny: but now, because he said: My hour has not yet come, what can we say against his own words?

It is strange that the astrologers, by believing the words of Christ, try to convince Christians that Christ lived under a fated hour. Let them, then, believe Christ saying: I have power to lay down my soul, and to take it up again: no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself, and take it up again (Jn 10:18). Is this power, then, under fate? Let them show a man who has the power, while he lives, of when he is to die: they will not show one at all. Let them, then, believe God saying: I have power to lay down my soul, and to take it up again: and let them inquire why it was said: My hour has not yet come, and not for that reason place under fate the founder of heaven, the creator and orderer of the stars. For if fate came from the stars, the founder of the stars could not be under the necessity of the stars. Add that not only did Christ not have what you call fate; but neither do you, nor I, nor he, nor any human being.

11. Nevertheless the seduced seduce, and put forth fallacies to human beings: they spread their nets to catch human beings, and that in the public squares. For those who spread nets to catch wild beasts do so in the woods and in the wilderness: how wretchedly vain are the human beings for whose catching nets are spread in the marketplace! Money is received when human beings sell themselves to human beings; these people give money to sell themselves to vanities. For they go in to the astrologer to buy for themselves masters, such as it shall please the astrologer to give—whether Saturn, or Jupiter, or Mercury, or whatever else of sacrilegious name. He went in free, that, having paid his money, he might go out a slave. Rather, he would not go in, if he were free: but he went in where his master, error, and his mistress, desire, dragged him. Whence also the Truth says: Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin (Jn 8:34).

12. Why, then, did he say: My hour has not yet come? Rather, because he had it in his power when he would die, he did not yet see that it was opportune to use that power. Just as we, brothers, for example, speak thus: It is now the fixed hour at which we should go out to celebrate the sacraments? If we go out before it is needful, are we not perverse and out of order? Since, then, we do not act except when it is opportune; do we for that reason, in these actions, when we speak so, take fate into account?

What, then, is: My hour has not yet come? When I know it is opportune for me to suffer, when my passion will be useful, that very hour has not yet come; then I will suffer of my own will: so that you may keep both: My hour has not yet come; and: I have power to lay down my soul, and to take it up again.

He had come, then, having in his power when he would die. But if he had died before he had chosen his disciples, it would surely have been out of order: if he were a man who did not have his hour in his power, he could die before he had chosen his disciples; and if perhaps he were to die when the disciples had already been chosen and trained, it would be granted to him, he would not do it himself. But truly he who had come holding in his hand when he would go, when he would return, how far he would run, to whom the lower regions would lie open, not only when dying but also when rising, so that he might show us the hope of his Church's immortality, showed in the head what the members ought to expect. He who rose in the head will rise also in the rest of the members. The hour, then, had not yet come, the opportunity was not yet.

The disciples were to be called, the kingdom of heaven was to be announced, mighty works were to be done, the divinity of the Lord was to be commended in miracles, the humanity of the Lord was to be commended in the very fellow-suffering of mortality. For he who hungered, because he was man, fed so many thousands with five loaves, because he was God: he who slept, because he was man, commanded the winds and the waves, because he was God. All these things were to be commended first, so that there might be something for the Evangelists to write, something to be preached to the Church. But when he had done as much as he judged sufficient, the hour came—not of necessity, but of will; not of constraint, but of power.

13. What, then, brothers? Because we have answered these and those, shall we say nothing of what the water jars mean, what the water turned into wine, what the steward of the feast, what the bridegroom, what the mother of Jesus mean in mystery, what the marriage itself! All these things are to be said, but you are not to be overburdened. I wished indeed, in the name of Christ, even yesterday, when a sermon is wont to be owed to your Charity, to do this with you, but I was not permitted, certain necessities hindering. If, then, it please your Holiness, let us defer to tomorrow what pertains to the mystery of this deed, and not overburden both your weakness and our own. There are perhaps many today who have gathered on account of the solemnity of the day, not on account of hearing a sermon. Tomorrow let those who will come, come to hear; so that we neither defraud the eager nor burden the disdainful.

1. May the Lord our God be present, to grant us to render what we promised. For yesterday, if your Holiness remembers, when we were shut out by the narrowness of time from completing the sermon we had begun, we deferred to today, so that the things which in this deed of the Gospel reading were placed mystically in sacred signs might, with his help, be opened up. There is, then, no need now to dwell longer on commending God's miracle. For it is God himself who, throughout the whole of creation, does daily miracles, which have grown cheap to human beings not through their easiness but through their constancy: but the rare things that were done by the same Lord, that is, by the Word incarnate for our sake, brought greater astonishment to human beings: not because they were greater than the things he does daily in creation, but because these things that happen daily are accomplished, as it were, by a natural course; while those were shown to the eyes of human beings by the efficacy of a power, as it were, present.

We said, as you remember, one dead man rose again, and people were astonished; while no one marvels that daily those are born who were not. So who would not marvel at water turned into wine, when God does this every year in the vines? But because all the things that the Lord Jesus did avail not only to rouse our hearts by miracles, but also to build them up in the doctrine of faith; it behooves us to search out what all those things mean, that is, what they signify. For the significations of all these, as you recall, we deferred to today.

2. That the Lord, invited, came to the marriage, even apart from the mystical signification, he wished to confirm that he himself made marriage. For there were going to be those, of whom the Apostle spoke, forbidding to marry (See 1 Tim 4:3), and saying that marriage was an evil, and that the devil had made it: whereas the same Lord says in the Gospel, when asked whether it is lawful for a man to dismiss his wife for any cause whatever, that it is not lawful except for the cause of fornication. In which answer, if you remember, he said this: What God has joined, let man not separate (Mt 19:6). And those who are well instructed in the Catholic faith know that God made marriage, and that as the joining is from God, so divorce is from the devil. But for this reason it is lawful to dismiss a wife in the cause of fornication, because she herself first refused to be a wife, who did not keep conjugal faith to her husband.

Nor are those who vow their virginity to God, although they hold a higher grade of honor and holiness in the Church, without marriage: for they too belong to the marriage along with the whole Church, in which marriage the bridegroom is Christ.

And so, then, the Lord, invited, came to the marriage, that conjugal chastity might be made firm, and that the sacred sign of marriage might be shown: because the bridegroom of that marriage too figured the person of the Lord, to whom it was said: You have kept the good wine until now (Jn 2:10). For Christ has kept the good wine until now, that is, his Gospel.

3. Now let us begin to uncover the very coverings of the sacred signs, so far as he grants in whose name we made the promise to you. There was prophecy in ancient times, and no times have ceased from the dispensation of prophecy: but that prophecy, when Christ was not understood in it, was water. For in the water the wine in a way lies hidden. The Apostle says what we are to understand in this water: Until this present day, he says, as long as Moses is read, the same veil is placed over their heart; which is not unveiled, because in Christ it is done away. And when you have passed over, he says, to the Lord, the veil will be taken away (See 2 Cor 3:14-16). By the veil he means the covering of the prophecy, so that it was not understood.

The veil is taken away when you have passed over to the Lord: so foolishness is taken away when you have passed over to the Lord, and what was water becomes wine for you. Read all the prophetic books, with Christ not understood: what will you find so insipid and silly? Understand Christ there, and not only does what you read have savor, but it even makes you drunk; changing the mind from the body, so that, forgetting what is behind, you may stretch out to the things that are before (See Phil 3:13).

4. Therefore prophecy, from ancient times, from the very point at which the order of those born runs in the human race, was not silent about Christ: but it was hidden there; for it was as yet water. By what do we prove that in all the earlier times, up to the age in which the Lord came, prophecy did not fail concerning him? By the Lord himself saying it. For when he had risen from the dead, he found his disciples doubting about the very one whom they had followed. For they had seen him dead, and did not hope that he would rise, and their whole hope had collapsed. Whence did that robber, praised, deserve to be in paradise that very day? Because, fixed on the cross, he then confessed Christ, when the disciples doubted about him.

He found them, then, wavering, and in a way reproaching themselves that they had hoped for redemption in him. Yet they grieved that he had been killed without fault, because they knew him to be innocent. And this they themselves said after the resurrection, when he found some of them sad on the road: Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem, and do you not know what was done in it in these days? But he said to them: What things? And they said: About Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in deeds and words in the sight of God and of all the people, how our priests and rulers handed him over to the condemnation of death, and fixed him on the cross. But we hoped that he was the one who would redeem Israel; and now this is the third day today since these things were done (Lk 24:18-21). When one of the two whom he found on the road going to a nearby village had said these and other things; he answered and said: O foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken! Was it not fitting that Christ should suffer all these things, and enter into his glory? And beginning from Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things that were about himself (Lk 24:25-27).

Likewise in another place, when he willed even to be handled by the hands of his disciples, that they might believe he had risen in the body: These are the words, he says, which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms about me. Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and he said to them: Thus it is written, that Christ should suffer, and rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Lk 24:44-47).

5. These things from the Gospel, which are surely plain, being understood, all those mysteries will lie open which are hidden in this miracle of the Lord. See what he says, that it was fitting that the things written about him should be fulfilled in Christ. Where are they written? In the Law, he says, and the Prophets, and the Psalms. He passed over nothing of the old Scriptures. That was the water; and therefore those men were called foolish by the Lord, because to them as yet water had savor, not wine. But how did he make wine out of water? When he opened their understanding, and expounded to them the Scriptures, beginning from Moses through all the Prophets. Whence, now made drunk, they said: Was not our heart burning on the road, when he opened the Scriptures to us? (Lk 24:32) For they understood Christ in those books in which they had not known him.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, changed the water into wine, and what had no savor has savor, what did not make drunk makes drunk. For if he had commanded the water to be poured out from there, and so himself sent in wine from the hidden recesses of creation, from which he made bread too when he fed so many thousands (See Mt 14:19-21)—for the five loaves did not hold the fill of five thousand men, nor even twelve baskets full, but the omnipotence of the Lord was, as it were, a fountain of bread; so he could also, the water being poured out, pour in wine: but if he had done this, he would have seemed to disapprove the old Scriptures. But since he turned the water itself into wine, he showed us that the old Scripture too is from him: for at his command the water jars were filled. From the Lord indeed is that Scripture too; but it has no savor, if Christ be not understood there.

6. But attend to what he himself says: The things written in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms about me. Now we know from what times the Law narrates, that is, from the beginning of the world: In the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gen 1:1). From there up to this time which we now pass through is the sixth age, as you have often heard and know. For the first age is reckoned from Adam to Noah; the second, from Noah to Abraham; and, as the Evangelist Matthew follows and distinguishes in order, the third, from Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the migration into Babylon; the fifth, from the migration into Babylon to John the Baptist; the sixth, from then to the end of the age.

For this reason also on the sixth day God made man to his own image (See Gen 1:27): because in this sixth age there is manifested through the Gospel the reforming of our mind, according to the image of him who created us; and the water is turned into wine, so that we may now have a taste of Christ made manifest in the Law and the Prophets. Therefore there were there six water jars (See Jn 2:6), which he commanded to be filled with water. Those six water jars, then, signify the six ages, in which prophecy did not fail. Those six times, then, distributed and distinguished as it were by joints, would be like empty vessels, were they not filled by Christ. What did I say, times that would run emptily, unless in them the Lord Jesus were preached? The prophecies have been fulfilled, the water jars are full: but that the water may be turned into wine, let Christ be understood in all that prophecy.

7. What, then, is: They held two or three measures each (See Jn 2:6)? This expression commends a mystery to us especially. By "measures" (metretas) he means certain measures, as if he said urns, amphorae, or something of the kind. The name of a measure is "metreta," and this measure took its name from measure. For the Greeks call a measure "metron": from this they are called "metretae." They held, then, two or three measures each.

What do we say, brothers? If it said three only, our mind would run to nothing but the mystery of the Trinity. But perhaps not even so ought we quickly to turn our understanding away from it, because it said two or three: because, the Father and the Son being named, consequently the Holy Spirit too is to be understood. For the Holy Spirit is not the Spirit of the Father only, or of the Son only; but the Spirit of the Father and the Son. For it is written: If anyone loves the world, the Spirit of the Father is not in him (See 1 Jn 2:15): likewise it is written: But whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ, this one is not his (Rom 8:9). But it is the same Spirit of the Father and the Son. And so, the Father and the Son being named, the Holy Spirit too is understood; because the Spirit is of the Father and of the Son. But when the Father and the Son are named, two measures, as it were, are named; but when the Holy Spirit is understood there, three measures. Therefore it was not said, holding measures, some two, others three: but the same six water jars held two or three measures each. As though he said: Even when I say two, I wish the Spirit of the Father and the Son to be understood along with them: and when I say three, I more plainly declare the Trinity itself.

8. Whoever, then, names the Father and the Son, ought there to understand, as it were, the mutual love of the Father and the Son, which is the Holy Spirit. For perhaps, the Scriptures being examined—which I do not say in such a way that I can teach it today, or as if something else could not be found: but nevertheless, perhaps, the Scriptures, when searched, indicate that the Holy Spirit is love. And do not think love to be a cheap thing. But how is it cheap, when all things that are said to be not cheap are said to be dear (cara)? If, then, the things that are not cheap are dear, what is dearer than love (caritas) itself?

But love is so commended by the Apostle that he says: I show you a more excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal: and if I know all mysteries and all knowledge, and have prophecy and all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing: and if I distribute all my goods to the poor, and deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 12:31-13:3). How great, then, is love, which, if it is lacking, the rest are had in vain; if it is present, all things are had rightly?

Yet the apostle Paul, praising love most copiously and abundantly, said less of it than what the apostle John, whose this Gospel is, said briefly. For he did not hesitate to say: God is love (1 Jn 4:8). It is also written: Because the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5). Who, then, would name the Father and the Son, and not there understand the love of the Father and the Son? When he has begun to have it, he will have the Holy Spirit: but if he does not have it, he will be without the Holy Spirit. And just as your body without the spirit, which is your soul, if it be such, is dead; so your soul without the Holy Spirit, that is, without love, if it be such, will be reckoned dead.

Therefore the water jars held two measures, because in the prophecy of all times the Father and the Son are preached: but there too is the Holy Spirit; and therefore it was added, or three. I and the Father are one (Jn 10:30), he says: but far be it that the Holy Spirit be lacking, where we hear: I and the Father are one. Yet because he named the Father and the Son, let the water jars hold two measures; but hear, or three: Go, baptize the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19). And so, in that they are said to be two, it is not expressed, but understood; but in that they are said to be or three, the Trinity too is expressed.

9. But there is also another understanding, not to be passed over, and I will say it too: let each choose what he pleases; we do not withhold what is offered. For it is the table of the Lord, and it does not behoove the minister to defraud the guests, especially such as are so hungry that your eagerness is apparent. The prophecy which is dispensed from ancient times pertains to the salvation of all the nations. To the people of Israel alone indeed was Moses sent, and to that people alone the Law was given through him, and the Prophets themselves were from that people, and the very distribution of the times was distinguished according to that same people; whence also the water jars are said to be according to the purification of the Jews (See Jn 2:6):

but nevertheless it is manifest that that prophecy was announced to the other nations as well; since Christ was hidden in him in whom all the nations are blessed, as was promised to Abraham, the Lord saying: In your seed all the nations will be blessed (Gen 22:18). But he was not yet understood, because the water had not yet been turned into wine. Therefore the prophecy was dispensed to all the nations. And that this may stand out more pleasantly, let us recall, as time allows, certain things about the individual ages, as about the individual water jars.

10. At the very beginning Adam and Eve were the parents of all the nations, not of the Jews only; and whatever was figured in Adam concerning Christ pertained surely to all the nations, who have salvation in Christ. What, then, shall I best say about the water of the first jar, but what the Apostle says about Adam and Eve? For no one will say that I have understood it perversely, when I bring forth not my own understanding but the Apostle's. How great a mystery, then, concerning Christ does that one thing contain, which the Apostle recalls, saying: And the two shall be in one flesh: this is a great sacred sign (Eph 5:31-32)? And lest anyone should understand this greatness of the sacred sign in every individual man having a wife: But I, he says, speak in Christ and in the Church (Eph 5:32). What is this great sacred sign: The two shall be in one flesh? When the Scripture of Genesis was speaking of Adam and Eve, whence it came to these words: Therefore a man will leave father and mother, and will cleave to his wife; and the two shall be in one flesh (Gen 2:24).

If, then, Christ cleaved to the Church, so that the two might be in one flesh, how did he leave his Father? how his mother? He left his Father, because though he was in the form of God, he did not count it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil 2:6-7). For this is to have left the Father, not because he deserted and withdrew from the Father; but because he did not appear to human beings in that form in which he is equal to the Father. How did he leave his mother? By leaving the synagogue of the Jews, of which he was born according to the flesh; and by cleaving to the Church, which he gathered out of all the nations.

Therefore the first jar too held prophecy concerning Christ: but when the things I speak of were not preached among the peoples, it was as yet water, it had not yet been changed into wine. And because the Lord enlightened us through the Apostle, to show us what we should seek there in that one sentence: The two shall be in one flesh; a great sacred sign in Christ and in the Church; now it is permitted us to seek Christ everywhere, and to drink wine from all the jars. Adam sleeps that Eve may come to be: Christ dies that the Church may come to be. To Adam sleeping Eve is made from his side: to Christ dead the side is struck with a lance, that the sacraments may flow forth, by which the Church is formed.

To whom is it not apparent that in those deeds done then, things to come were figured, since the Apostle says that Adam himself is a form of the one to come? Who is, he says, a form of the one to come (Rom 5:14). All things were prefigured mystically. For surely God was not unable to draw out a rib from a man awake, and to form a woman. Or was it perhaps that his side might not hurt when the rib was taken away, that for this reason he had to sleep? Who is there who so sleeps that bones are torn out of him without his waking? Or, because God was tearing it out, did the man for that reason not feel it? He could, then, have torn it out even from a man awake without pain, who could do so from one asleep. But without doubt the first jar was being filled: the prophecy of that time was being dispensed concerning this present time.

11. Christ was figured also in Noah, and in that ark of the world (See Gen 6-7). For why were all the animals enclosed in the ark, unless that all the nations might be signified? For God did not lack the power to create again every kind of animal. For when all things were not, did he not say: Let the earth bring forth (Gen 1:24), and the earth brought forth? From what source, then, he made them then, from the same he could remake them; by a word he made them, by a word he could remake them: except that he was commending a mystery, and was filling the second jar of the prophetic dispensation, so that through wood the figure of the world might be set free; because on wood the life of the world was to be fixed?

12. Now in the third jar, to Abraham himself, as I have already recalled, it was said: In your seed all the nations will be blessed (Gen 22:18). And who does not see whose figure his only son bore, who carried for himself the wood for the sacrifice by which he himself was being led to be offered? For the Lord carried his own cross, as the Gospel says. Let it suffice to have recalled this from the third jar.

13. But concerning David, what shall I say of the fact that his prophecy pertained to all the nations; when we have just now heard a Psalm, and it is hard for a psalm to be spoken in which this does not sound forth? But surely, as I said, we have just now sung: Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you will inherit among all the nations (Ps 82:8 (81:8)). And therefore the Donatists are, as it were, cast out from the marriage: just as that man who did not have a wedding garment was invited and came, but was cast out from the number of the called, because he did not have a garment for the bridegroom's glory; for whoever seeks his own glory, not Christ's, does not have a wedding garment: for they refuse to sound in harmony with the voice of him who was the friend of the bridegroom, and said: This is he who baptizes (See Jn 1:33).

And not undeservedly was it cast at that man who did not have a wedding garment, by way of rebuke, that he did not have it: Friend, why have you come here? (See Mt 22:12) And as that man was struck dumb, so too are these. For what does the noise of the mouth profit, when the heart is dumb? For within, with themselves, they know that they have nothing to say. Within they are struck dumb, without they make a noise. They hear, willing or unwilling, sung even among themselves: Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you will inherit among all the nations: and by not communing with all the nations, what else do they recognize than that they themselves are disinherited?

14. What I was saying, then, brothers, is that the prophecy pertains to all the nations: for I wish to show another sense in what was said: Holding two or three measures each: to all the nations, I say, the prophecy pertains; we have just recalled that this was shown in Adam, who is a form of the one to come. But who does not know that from him all the nations arose: and that in his name, in four letters, the four parts of the world are indicated by their Greek appellations? For if they are said in Greek, East, West, North, South, as Sacred Scripture recalls them in many places; in the first letters of the words you find Adam: for the four mentioned parts of the world are called in Greek anatole, dysis, arktos, mesembria. If you write these four names as four lines one beneath another, in their first letters Adam is read.

This was figured in Noah on account of the ark, in which were all the animals, which signified all the nations: this in Abraham, to whom it was said more openly: In your seed all the nations will be blessed: this in David, of whose Psalms, to pass over the rest, we have just sung: Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you will inherit among all the nations. For to what God is it said: Arise, but to him who slept? Arise, O God, judge the earth. As though it were said: You slept, having been judged by the earth; arise, that you may judge the earth. And to what does that prophecy pertain: For you will inherit among all the nations?

15. But now in the fifth age, as it were in the fifth jar, Daniel saw a stone cut from a mountain without hands, and that it broke all the kingdoms of the earth; and that the stone grew, and became a great mountain, so that it filled the whole face of the earth (See Dan 2:34-35). What is more open, my brothers? A stone is cut from a mountain: it is the stone which the builders rejected, and which has become the head of the corner (Ps 118:22 (117:22)). From what mountain is it cut, but from the kingdom of the Jews, whence our Lord Jesus Christ was born according to the flesh? And it is cut without hands, without human work; because without a husband's embrace he arose from a virgin. That mountain from which it was cut had not filled the whole face of the earth: for the kingdom of the Jews had not held all the nations. But the kingdom of Christ, we see, occupies the whole world.

16. Now to the sixth age belongs John the Baptist, than whom no one greater has arisen among those born of women: of whom it was said: Greater than a prophet (See Mt 11:11, 9). How did he too show that Christ was sent to all the nations? When the Jews came to him to be baptized, and lest they be proud of the name of Abraham: Brood of vipers, who showed you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bring forth fruit worthy of repentance (Mt 3:7-8); that is, be humble: for he was speaking to the proud. But from what were they proud? From their carnal descent, not from the fruit of imitating their father Abraham. What does he say to them? Do not say: We have Abraham for our father: for God is able from these stones to raise up sons to Abraham (Mt 3:9).

By "stones" he meant all the nations, not on account of firmness, as the stone was called which the builders rejected; but on account of the stolidity and hardness of folly, because they had been made like to those whom they worshiped: for they worshiped insensate images, being equally insensate. Whence insensate? Because in the Psalm it is said: Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them (Ps 115:8 (113:16)). Therefore when human beings have begun to worship God, what do they hear? That you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust (Mt 5:45).

Therefore, if a man is made like to that which he worships; what is: God is able from these stones to raise up sons to Abraham? Let us question ourselves, and we see that it has been done. For we came from the nations; but from the nations we would not have come, unless God had raised up from stones sons to Abraham. We have been made sons of Abraham by imitating his faith, not by being born through the flesh. For just as they, by degenerating, were disinherited; so we, by imitating, were adopted. Therefore, brothers, even this prophecy of the sixth jar pertained to all the nations; and therefore it was said of all: Holding two or three measures each.

17. But how do we show that all the nations pertain to the two or three measures? For it was the part of one weighing it, as it were, that he should call those same ones two which he had called three, namely to commend the sacred sign. How are there two measures? The circumcision and the uncircumcision. These two peoples Scripture recalls, and it passes over no kind of human being, when it says: The circumcision and the uncircumcision; in these two names you have all the nations: they are two measures. Of these two walls coming from different directions, in order to make peace in himself, Christ was made the cornerstone (See Eph 2:14-20).

Let us show three measures too in those same all the nations. There were three sons of Noah, through whom the human race was restored (See Gen 9:19). Whence the Lord says: The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened (Mt 13:33). Who is this woman, but the flesh of the Lord? What is the leaven, but the Gospel? What are the three measures, but all the nations, on account of the three sons of Noah? Therefore the six water jars, holding two or three measures each, are the six ages of time, holding the prophecy that pertains to all the nations, whether signified in the two kinds of human beings, that is, Jews and Greeks, as the Apostle often recalls; or in three, on account of Noah's three sons. For the prophecy was figured as reaching all the way to all the nations. For in that it reaches, it was called a measure (metreta), as the Apostle says: We have received a measure of reaching all the way to you (See 2 Cor 10:13-14). For evangelizing to the nations, he says this, a measure of reaching all the way to you.

1. In the Psalm you have heard the groan of the poor man, whose members throughout the whole earth suffer tribulations until the end of the age. Take care, my brothers, to be among these members and of these members: for the tribulation will all pass away. Woe to those who rejoice! The Truth says: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be consoled (Mt 5:4). God became man: what will man be, for whom God became man? Let this hope console us in every tribulation and temptation of this life. For the enemy does not cease to persecute; and if he does not rage openly, he acts by ambush. For what does he do? And upon their anger they acted deceitfully (Ps 55:3 (54:4)). Hence he is called a lion and a dragon. But what is said to Christ? And you will trample the lion and the dragon (Ps 91:13 (90:13)). The lion on account of open anger, the dragon on account of hidden ambushes. The dragon cast Adam out of paradise; the same one, as a lion, has persecuted the Church, as Peter says: Because your adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet 5:8). Do not let the devil seem to you to have lost his ferocity: when he flatters, then he is the more to be guarded against.

But amid all these ambushes and his temptations, what shall we do, but what we heard there: But I, when they were troublesome to me, clothed myself with sackcloth, and humbled my soul in fasting (Ps 35:13 (34:13)). There is one who hears; do not hesitate to pray: but he who hears abides within. Do not direct your eyes to some mountain, do not lift your face to the stars or the sun or the moon. Do not suppose that you are then heard, when you pray over the sea: rather, detest such prayers. Only cleanse the chamber of your heart: wherever you are, wherever you pray, he is within who hears, within in the secret place, which he calls the bosom when he says: And my prayer will return into my bosom (Ps 35:13 (34:13)). He who hears you is not outside you. Do not go far away, nor exalt yourself, as if to touch him with your hands. Rather, if you exalt yourself, you will fall: if you humble yourself, he himself will draw near. Here is the Lord our God, the Word of God, the Word made flesh, the Son of the Father, the Son of God, the Son of man: lofty that he might make us, humble that he might restore us, walking among human beings, suffering human things, hiding divine things.

2. He went down, as the Evangelist says, to Capernaum, he and his mother, and his brothers, and his disciples, and they remained there not many days (Jn 2:12). Behold, he has a mother, has brothers, has disciples too: from the same source brothers, from which a mother. For our Scripture is not accustomed to call brothers only those who are born from the same man and woman, or from the same womb, or from the same father though from different mothers; or at least from the same degree, such as cousins on the father's or mother's side: our Scripture knows how to call not only these brothers. As it speaks, so it is to be understood. It has its own language: whoever does not know this language is troubled, and says: Whence brothers for the Lord? Did Mary then bear again? Far be it. From this began the dignity of virgins. That woman could be a mother, she could not be a wife. But she was called woman according to the female sex, not according to a corruption of her integrity: and this from the language of Scripture itself. For Eve too, made at once from the side of her husband, not yet touched by her husband, you know was called woman: And he formed her into a woman (See Gen 2:22).

Whence, then, brothers? Kinsmen of Mary are the Lord's brothers, kinsmen of whatever degree. By what do we prove it? From Scripture itself. Lot was called the brother of Abraham; he was the son of his brother (See Gen 14:14, 12). Read, and you will find that Abraham was the uncle of Lot, and they were called brothers. Whence, but because they were kinsmen? Likewise Jacob had Laban the Syrian as his maternal uncle: for Laban was the brother of Jacob's mother, that is, of Rebecca the wife of Isaac. Read the Scripture, and you will find that an uncle and a sister's son are called brothers. This rule being known, you will find that all the blood-kin of Mary are brothers of Christ.

3. But those disciples were brothers in a higher sense; because even those kinsmen would not be brothers, if they were not disciples: and they would be brothers to no purpose, if they did not acknowledge the master as brother. For in a certain place, when his mother and his brothers had been announced to him as standing outside, while he was speaking with his disciples, he said: Who is my mother, or who are my brothers? And stretching out his hand over his disciples, he said: These are my brothers: and: Whoever does the will of my Father, he is to me mother, and brother, and sister (See Mt 12:48-50).

Therefore Mary too, because she did the will of the Father. This the Lord magnified in her, that she did the will of the Father, not that flesh begot flesh. Let your Charity attend. Therefore when the Lord seemed admirable in the crowd, doing signs and wonders, and showing what lay hidden in the flesh, certain souls, in admiration, said: Blessed is the womb that bore you (Lk 11:27). And he: Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it (Lk 11:28). This is to say: Even my mother, whom you have called blessed, is blessed for this reason, that she keeps the word of God: not because in her the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; but because she keeps that very Word of God through which she was made, and which was made flesh in her. Let human beings not rejoice in temporal offspring; let them exult if they are joined to God in spirit. These things we have said on account of what the Evangelist says, that with his mother and his brothers and his disciples he dwelt in Capernaum a few days.

4. What follows from there? And the Passover of the Jews was near, and he went up to Jerusalem (Jn 2:13). He narrates another matter, as the recollection of the one announcing it had it. And he found in the temple those selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting: and when he had made, as it were, a whip of small cords, he cast them all out of the temple; the oxen also and the sheep, and he poured out the money of the money changers, and overturned the tables; and to those who sold doves, he said: Take these things hence, and do not make my Father's house a house of trade (Jn 2:14-16).

What have we heard, brothers? Behold, that temple was as yet a figure, and the Lord casts out of it all who were seeking their own, who had come to the market. And what were they selling there? The things that human beings needed in the sacrifices of that time. For your Charity knows that to that people, on account of its carnality and its heart still of stone, such sacrifices were given, by which it might be held back from sliding into idols; and they offered there sacrifices, oxen, sheep, and doves: you know, because you have read it. It was not, then, a great sin, if they sold in the temple what was bought to be offered in the temple; and yet he cast them out of it.

What, if he had found drunkards there, what would the Lord do; if those selling things that are lawful, and not against justice (for what is honestly bought is not unlawfully sold), he nevertheless drove out, and did not allow the house of prayer to become a house of trade? If the house of God ought not to become a house of trade, ought it to become a house of drinking? But when we say these things, they gnash their teeth against us: and the psalm which you heard consoles us: They gnashed their teeth at me (Ps 35:16 (34:16)). We too know how to hear that by which we may be cured, even though the lashes are redoubled upon Christ, because his word is lashed: Lashes were gathered against me, he says, and they did not know it (Ps 35:15 (34:15)). He was lashed with the lashes of the Jews, he is lashed with the blasphemies of false Christians: they multiply lashes for their Lord, and do not know it. Let us do, so far as he himself helps: But I, when they were troublesome to me, clothed myself with sackcloth, and humbled my soul in fasting.

5. Yet we say, brothers (for he himself too did not spare them: he who was to be lashed by them, first lashed them), that he showed us a certain sign in making a whip of small cords, and with it lashing the undisciplined who were making trade of the temple of God. For indeed each one weaves himself a cord by his sins. The prophet says: Woe to those who draw their sins like a long cord! (Isa 5:18) Who makes a long cord? He who adds sin to sin. How are sins added to sins? When the sins that have been committed are covered over by other sins.

He committed a theft; that it may not be found out that he did it, he seeks an astrologer. It would have been enough to have committed the theft; why do you wish to add sin to sin? behold two sins. When you are forbidden to go to the astrologer, you blaspheme the bishop: behold three sins. When you hear: Put him outside the Church; you say: I take myself off to the party of Donatus: behold you add a fourth. The cord grows: fear the cord. It is good for you to be corrected here, while you are lashed for it; lest at the end it be said: Bind his feet and hands, and cast him into the outer darkness (Mt 22:13). For each one is bound fast by the cords of his own sins (Prov 5:22). The Lord says the one, another Scripture says the other; but the Lord says both. By their own sins human beings are bound, and cast into the outer darkness.

6. Who are they, however, who sell oxen? that we may seek in the figure the mystery of the deed. Who are they who sell sheep and doves? They are those who seek their own in the Church, not the things of Jesus Christ (See Phil 2:21). They have everything for sale, who refuse to be redeemed: they refuse to be bought, and they wish to sell. For it is good for them to be redeemed by the blood of Christ, that they may come to the peace of Christ. For what does it profit to acquire in this world anything temporal and transitory, whether it be money, or the pleasure of the belly and the throat, or honor in human praise? Are not all things smoke and wind? do not all things pass away, run away? And woe to those who cling to the things that pass away, because they pass away together with them. Are not all things a torrent rushing headlong into the sea? And woe to him who falls in, because he will be dragged into the sea.

Therefore we ought to hold back all our affections from such desires. My brothers, those who seek such things, sell. For that Simon too wished to buy the Holy Spirit for this reason, that he wished to sell the Holy Spirit; and he supposed the Apostles to be such merchants as the Lord cast out of the temple with the whip. For he himself was such, and wished to buy what he might sell: he was of those who sell doves. For indeed in a dove the Holy Spirit appeared. Those, then, who sell doves, brothers, who are they, but those who say: We give the Holy Spirit? For why do they say this, and at what price do they sell? At the price of their own honor. They receive as their price temporal chairs, so that they themselves may seem to sell doves. Let them beware of the whip of small cords. The dove is not for sale: it is given freely, because it is called grace.

Therefore, my brothers, just as you see those who sell, the hucksters, each one praises what he sells: how many platforms have they set up? Primian has one platform at Carthage, Maximian has another, Rogatus has another in Mauretania, this man and that have another in Numidia, whom we can no longer even name. So someone goes about to buy a dove, and each one, on his own platform, praises what he sells. Let that man's heart be turned away from every seller; let him come where it is received freely. Nor are they thus ashamed, brothers, that through their own bitter and malicious dissensions, when they attribute to themselves what they are not, when they are puffed up thinking themselves to be something when they are nothing, they have made so many parties out of themselves. But what has been fulfilled in them, that they refuse to be corrected, but what you heard in the Psalm: They were torn asunder, and were not pricked to compunction (Ps 35:15 (34:16))?

7. Who, then, sell oxen? By oxen are understood those who dispensed the holy Scriptures to us. The Apostles were oxen, the Prophets were oxen. Whence the Apostle says: You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain. Is God concerned about oxen? Or does he say it for our sake? For he says it for our sake; because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes, in hope of having a share (1 Cor 9:9-10; Deut 25:4). Therefore those oxen left us the record of the Scriptures. For they did not dispense from their own, because they sought the glory of the Lord. For what did you hear in that Psalm? And let them say always: Let the Lord be magnified, who wish the peace of his servant (Ps 35:27 (34:27)). The servant of God, the people of God, the Church of God. Let those who wish the peace of his Church magnify the Lord, not the servant; and let them say always: Let the Lord be magnified. Who should say it? Those who wish the peace of his servant.

That voice is the manifest voice of that very people, that very servant, which you heard in the lamentations in the Psalm, and you were moved when you heard it, because you are of it. What was sung by one resounded from all hearts. Blessed are those who recognized themselves in those voices as in a mirror. Who, then, wish the peace of his servant, the peace of his people, the peace of the one whom he calls his only one, and whom he wishes to be rescued from the lion: Rescue my only one from the hand of the dog (Ps 22:20 (21:21))? Those who say always: Let the Lord be magnified.

Therefore those oxen magnified the Lord, not themselves. See the ox magnifying his Lord, because the ox knew its owner (Isa 1:3): notice the ox fearing lest the owner of the ox be forsaken, and presumption be placed in the ox; how it dreads those who wish to place hope in it: Was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor 1:13) What I gave, I did not give: you received it freely, the dove descended from heaven. I, he says, planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase: neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase (1 Cor 3:6-7). And let them say always: Let the Lord be magnified, who wish the peace of his servant.

8. But these men deceive the peoples by the Scriptures themselves, so that they may receive honors and praises from them, and that the people may not be turned to the truth. But because they deceive the peoples by the very Scriptures, from whom they seek honors; they sell the oxen, they sell the sheep too, that is, the very common folk. And to whom do they sell them, but to the devil? For indeed, my brothers, if Christ's Church is one, and is unique; whatever is cut off from it, who carries it away, but that roaring lion going about, seeking whom he may devour? Woe to those who are cut off! for she will remain whole. For the Lord knows who are his (2 Tim 2:19).

Yet, so far as it is in them, they sell oxen and sheep, they sell doves too: let them watch out for the whip of their own sins. Surely when they suffer something of the kind on account of these iniquities of theirs, let them recognize that the Lord has made a whip of small cords, and admonishes them by it to change themselves, so that they may not be traders: for if they do not change themselves, they will hear at the end: Bind their hands and feet, and cast them into the outer darkness (See Mt 22:13).

9. The disciples then remembered that it was written: Zeal for your house has consumed me (Jn 2:17; Ps 69:9 (68:10)): because it was by zeal for the house of God that the Lord cast those men out of the temple. Brothers, let each Christian, as a member of Christ, be consumed by zeal for the house of God. Who is consumed by zeal for the house of God? He who, in whatever perverse thing he perhaps sees there, takes pains to have it corrected, desires to have it amended, does not rest: if he cannot amend it, he bears with it, he groans. The grain is not shaken out of the threshing floor, it endures the chaff; that it may enter the granary, when the chaff has been separated. You, before the granary, if you are grain, do not let yourself be shaken out of the threshing floor; lest you be gathered up by the birds before you are gathered into the granary. For the birds of heaven, the airy powers, wait to snatch something from the threshing floor, and they snatch only what has been shaken out from it.

Therefore let zeal for the house of God consume you: let zeal for the house of God consume each Christian, in which house of God he is a member. For your own house is not more yours than the house where you have everlasting salvation. You enter your own house for temporal rest; you enter the house of God for everlasting rest. If, then, you take pains that nothing perverse be done in your own house; in the house of God, where salvation is set before you and rest without end, ought you to allow, so far as it is in you, anything perverse that you perhaps see? For example, you see a brother running to the theater? forbid him, admonish him, be saddened, if zeal for the house of God consumes you. You see others running and wishing to get drunk, and to do this in holy places, which is fitting nowhere? forbid those you can, hold back those you can, frighten those you can, coax those you can; only do not rest.

Is he a friend? let him be admonished gently. Is she a wife? let her be most severely restrained. Is she a maidservant? let her be checked even with blows. Do whatever you can, according to the person you bear; and you fulfill: Zeal for your house has consumed me. But if you are cold, slack, looking only to yourself, and as it were self-sufficient, and saying within yourself of your own affairs: What is it to me to care about other people's sins? my own soul is enough for me; let me keep it whole for God: come now, does that servant not come into your mind who hid his talent, and refused to put it out? For was he not accused, not because he lost it, but because he kept it without profit?

So then hear, my brothers, that you may not rest. I am about to give you counsel: let him give it who is within; because even if he gives it through me, it is he who gives. You know what each of you does in his own house, with a friend, with a lodger, with his client, with a greater, with a lesser: as God gives an entrance, as he opens a door by his word, do not rest from winning for Christ; because you were won by Christ.

10. The Jews said to him: What sign do you show us, that you do these things? And the Lord: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews therefore said: This temple was built in forty-six years, and you say: In three days I will raise it up? (Jn 2:18-20) They were flesh, they had a taste for carnal things: but he was speaking spiritually. But who could understand of what temple he was speaking? But we do not seek much; through the Evangelist he opened it to us, he said of what temple he spoke: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. This temple was built in forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days? But he was speaking, the Evangelist says, of the temple of his body (Jn 2:21). And it is manifest that the Lord, slain, rose again after three days.

In this way it is known to us all: and though it be closed to the Jews, because they stand outside; yet to us it is open, because we know in whom we believe. The destroying and rebuilding of this very temple we are about to celebrate in the annual solemnity: to which we exhort you, that you prepare yourselves, if any of you are catechumens, to receive grace; now is the time, now let be conceived what may then be born. Therefore this we know.

11. But perhaps this is required of us, whether the temple built in forty-six years has any sacred sign. There are indeed many things that could be said on this; but what can be said briefly and easily understood, this for now we say. Brothers, we have already said, unless I am mistaken, yesterday, that Adam was one man, and that he himself is the whole human race. For so we said, if you remember. He was, as it were, broken, and, scattered, is gathered, and as it were is melted into one by spiritual fellowship and concord. And one poor man groans now, that very Adam, but is renewed in Christ: because Christ came without sin, that he might dissolve Adam's sin in his own flesh, and that he might restore in himself Adam, the image of God.

From Adam, then, is the flesh of Christ: from Adam, then, is the temple which the Jews destroyed, and which the Lord raised up in three days. For he raised up his own flesh: see, because he was God equal to the Father. My brothers, the Apostle says: He who raised him from the dead. Of whom does he speak? Of the Father: Having become, he says, obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: for which reason God also raised him from the dead, and gave him a name that is above every name (Phil 2:8-9). The Lord was raised up and exalted. Who raised him up? The Father, to whom he said in the Psalms: Raise me up, and I will repay them (Ps 41:10 (40:11)). Therefore the Father raised him up. Did he not himself? But what does the Father do without the Word? what does the Father do without his Only-begotten? For hear that he too was God: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Did he say: Destroy the temple, which the Father may raise up in three days? But as, when the Father raises up, the Son too raises up; so, when the Son raises up, the Father too raises up: because the Son said: I and the Father are one (Jn 10:30).

12. What, then, does the number forty-six mean? For now, because that very Adam is throughout the whole world, you heard yesterday in the four Greek letters of four Greek words. For if you write those four words one beneath another, that is, the names of the four parts of the world, of the East, the West, the North, and the South, which is the whole world (whence the Lord says that he will gather his elect from the four winds, when he comes to judgment (See Mt 24:31)): for if you make those four Greek names: anatole, which is East; dysis, which is West; arktos, which is North; mesembria, which is South: the first letters of the words make Adam.

How, then, do we find there also the number forty-six? Because the flesh of Christ was from Adam. The Greeks reckon numbers by letters. What we call A, they in their own language put as alpha, and alpha is called one. But where in numbers they write beta, which is their B, it is called two in numbers. Where they write gamma, it is called three in their numbers. Where they write delta, it is called four in their numbers: and so through all the letters they have numbers. M, which we call M, and they call mu, signifies forty: for they call it mu. Now see what number these letters have; and there you will find the temple built in forty-six years. For Adam has alpha, which is one: it has delta, which is four; you have five: it has alpha again, which is one; you have six: it has also mu, which is forty: you have forty-six.

These things, my brothers, were said even by our earlier elders, and this number forty-six was found in the letters. And because our Lord Jesus Christ took a body from Adam, but drew no sin from Adam; he took thence a bodily temple, not the iniquity which is to be driven from the temple: but that very flesh which he drew from Adam (for Mary is from Adam, and the Lord's flesh from Mary) the Jews crucified; and he was to raise up in three days that very flesh which they were going to kill on the cross: they destroyed the temple built in forty-six years, and he in three days raised it up.

13. We bless the Lord our God, who has gathered us for spiritual gladness. Let us be always in humility of heart, and let our joy be with him. Let us not be puffed up by any prosperity of this age, but let us know that our happiness is not except when these things have passed away. Now let our joy, my brothers, be in hope: let no one rejoice as in a present thing, lest he stick fast on the way. Let the whole joy be of future hope, let the whole desire be of eternal life. Let all our sighs pant for Christ: let him, the one most beautiful, who loved even the foul that he might make them beautiful, be desired; let us run to him alone, let us groan to him alone; and let them say always: Let the Lord be magnified, who wish the peace of his servant (Ps 35:27 (34:27)).

Unless one is born anew (Jn 2:23-25; 3:1-5).

1. Opportunely the Lord has provided for us today the order of this reading: for since we undertook to consider and treat the Gospel according to John in order, I believe your Charity has noticed it. Opportunely, then, it has come about that today you heard from the Gospel: Unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he will not see the kingdom of God (See Jn 3:5). For it is time that we exhort you who are still catechumens: who have so believed in Christ that you still carry your sins. But no one laden with sins will see the kingdom of heaven; because unless they are forgiven him, he will not reign with Christ: and they cannot be forgiven except to him who has been born again of water and the Holy Spirit.

But let us notice how all the words stand, so that here those who are sluggish may find with what solicitude they must hasten to lay down their burden. For if they were carrying some heavy load, of stone, or of wood, or even of some gain—if they carried grain, if wine, if money—they would run to lay down the burdens: they carry the burden of sins, and are sluggish to run. One must run to lay down this burden; it presses, and it sinks one down.

2. Behold, you have heard that when the Lord Jesus Christ was at Jerusalem at the Passover on the feast day, many believed in his name, seeing the signs that he did. Many believed in his name: and what follows? But Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them (Jn 2:23-24). What, then, does this mean: They believed in his name; and: Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them? Or had they perhaps not believed in him, and were pretending that they had believed, and for that reason Jesus did not entrust himself to them? But the Evangelist would not say: Many believed in his name, unless he bore them true witness. A great thing, then, and a marvelous thing: men believe in Christ, and Christ does not entrust himself to men.

Especially since he is the Son of God, he surely suffered willingly; and if he were unwilling, he would never have suffered; and if he were unwilling, he would not even have been born: but if he willed this only, that he should merely be born, and not die, and should do whatever he willed; because the Son of the almighty Father is almighty. Let us prove it from the facts themselves. For when they wished to seize him, he withdrew from them; the Gospel says so: And when they wished to cast him down from the brow of the hill, he withdrew from them unharmed (See Lk 4:29-30). And when they came to arrest him, already sold by Judas the betrayer, while that man thought he had it in his power to hand over his master and Lord; there too the Lord showed that he suffered by will, not by necessity. For when the Jews wished to arrest him, he said to them: Whom do you seek? And they said: Jesus of Nazareth. And he: I am he. At this voice, they went backward, and fell (See Jn 18:4-6). In that, answering, he cast them down, he showed his power; that in that he was arrested by them, he might show his will. Therefore that he suffered was of mercy. For he was handed over for our offenses, and rose again for our justification (Rom 4:25). Hear his own words: I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again: no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself, that I may take it up again (Jn 10:18).

Since, then, he had such great power, since he preached it by words and showed it by deeds; what does it mean that Jesus did not entrust himself to them, as if they could harm one unwilling, or do anything to one unwilling, especially since they had already believed in his name? And the Evangelist says of those same men: They believed in his name, of whom he says: But Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them. Why? Because he himself knew all men, and because he had no need that anyone should bear witness about a man; for he himself knew what was in a man (Jn 2:24-25). The maker knew better what was in his own work than the work itself knew what was in itself. The creator of man knew what was in man, which man himself, created, did not know. Do we not prove this from Peter, that he did not know what was in himself, when he said: With you unto death? (See Mt 26:35) Hear that the Lord knew what was in man: You with me unto death? Amen, amen, I say to you, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times (Mt 26:34). Man, then, did not know what was in himself; but the creator of man knew what was in man.

Yet many believed in his name, and Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them. What do we say, brothers? Perhaps what follows will show us what the mystery of these words means. That men had believed in him is manifest, is true: no one doubts it, the Gospel says so, the truthful Evangelist testifies. Likewise that Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them, this too is manifest, and no Christian doubts it; because this too the Gospel says, and the same truthful Evangelist testifies. Why, then, did they believe in his name, and Jesus did not entrust himself to them? Let us look at what follows.

3. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, Nicodemus by name, a ruler of the Jews: he came to him by night, and said to him, Rabbi (Jn 3:1-2). You already know this, that Rabbi means teacher. We know that you have come from God as a teacher: for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him (Jn 3:2). Therefore this Nicodemus was of those who had believed in his name, seeing the signs and wonders that he did. For above he said this: But when he was at Jerusalem at the Passover on the feast day, many believed in his name. Why did they believe? It follows and says, seeing the signs that he did. And what does it say of Nicodemus? There was a ruler of the Jews, Nicodemus by name: he came to him by night, and said to him: Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher. This man too, then, had believed in his name. And from what had he believed? It follows: For no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.

If, then, Nicodemus was of those many who had believed in his name, let us now notice in this Nicodemus why Jesus did not entrust himself to them. Jesus answered and said to him: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God (Jn 3:3). To those, then, Jesus entrusts himself, who have been born anew. Behold, those men had believed in him, and Jesus did not entrust himself to them. Such are all catechumens: they already believe in the name of Christ, but Jesus does not entrust himself to them. Let your Charity attend and understand. If we say to a catechumen: Do you believe in Christ? he answers: I believe, and signs himself: he already carries the cross of Christ on his forehead, and is not ashamed of the cross of his Lord. Behold, he has believed in his name. Let us question him: Do you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink the blood of the Son of man? he does not know what we say, because Jesus has not entrusted himself to him.

4. Since, then, Nicodemus was of that number, he came to the Lord: but he came by night; and this perhaps pertains to the matter. He came to the Lord, and came by night: he came to the light, and came in darkness. But those born again of water and the Spirit, what do they hear from the Apostle? You were once darkness; but now light in the Lord: walk as sons of light (Eph 5:8): and again: But let us who are of the day be sober (1 Thess 5:8). Those, then, who have been born again, were of the night, and are of the day: they were darkness, and are light. Now Jesus entrusts himself to them, and they do not come to Jesus by night as Nicodemus did, they do not seek the day in darkness. For such men now even make profession: Jesus has come to them, he has wrought salvation in them: because he himself said: Unless one eats my flesh and drinks my blood, he will not have life in him (See Jn 6:53).

And in that the catechumens have the sign of the cross on their forehead, they already belong to the great house; but let them become from servants sons. For they are not nothing who already belong to the great house. But when did the people of Israel eat manna? When they had crossed the Red Sea. But what the Red Sea signifies, hear the Apostle: But I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea (1 Cor 10:1). Why did they pass through the sea, as if you asked him; he goes on and says: And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Cor 10:2).

If, then, the figure of the sea availed so much, how much will the reality of Baptism avail? If what was done in the figure led the people, once they had crossed, to the manna; what will Christ show in the reality of his baptism, when his people have crossed through him? Through his baptism he brings the believers across, all their sins being slain, as enemies pursuing them, just as in that sea all the Egyptians perished. Where does he bring them across, my brothers? where does Jesus bring them across through Baptism, whose figure Moses then bore, who brought them across through the sea? Where does he bring them across? To the manna. What is the manna? I am, he says, the living bread, who came down from heaven (Jn 6:51).

The faithful receive the manna, having now crossed through the Red Sea. Why the Red Sea? it is now a sea, why also red? That Red Sea signified the baptism of Christ. Whence is the baptism of Christ red, but as consecrated by the blood of Christ? Where, then, does he lead the believers and the baptized? To the manna. Behold, I say manna: it is known what the Jews, that people of Israel, received, it is known what God rained on them from heaven; and the catechumens do not know what the Christians receive. Let them be ashamed, then, that they do not know; let them cross through the Red Sea, let them eat the manna: so that, as they have believed in the name of Jesus, so Jesus may entrust himself to them.

5. Therefore attend, my brothers, to what this man answers who came to Jesus by night. Although he came to Jesus, yet because he came by night, he still speaks from the darkness of his flesh. He does not understand what he hears from the Lord, he does not understand what he hears from the light, which enlightens every man coming into this world. The Lord had already said to him: Unless one is born anew, he will not see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus says to him: How can a man be born when he is old? (See Jn 3:3-4) The Spirit speaks to him, and he has a taste for the flesh. He has a taste for his own flesh, because he does not yet have a taste for the flesh of Christ.

For when the Lord Jesus had said: Unless one eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, he will not have life in him; certain of those who followed him were scandalized, and said within themselves: This is a hard saying; who can hear it? (Jn 6:60) For they thought Jesus said this, that they could cook him cut up like a lamb, and eat him: shrinking from his words, they withdrew, and followed him no more. So the Evangelist says: And the Lord himself remained with the twelve: and they to him: Lord, behold those men have left you; and he: Do you too wish to go away? (See Jn 6:67-68) Wishing to show that he was necessary to them, not that they were necessary to Christ. Let no one frighten Christ, when he is told to be a Christian; as if Christ will be more blessed if you are a Christian. It is good for you to be a Christian: for if you are not, it will be no evil to Christ. Hear the voice of the Psalm: I said to the Lord, You are my God, for you have no need of my goods (Ps 16:2 (15:2)). Therefore you are my God, for you have no need of my goods.

If you are without God, you will be the less; if you are with God, God will not be the greater. Not from you is he the greater, but you without him are the less. Grow, then, in him, do not withdraw yourself, as though he would thereby fail. You will be restored, if you draw near; you will fail, if you withdraw. He remains whole when you draw near, he remains whole even when you fall. When, then, he had said to the disciples: Do you too wish to go away? Peter, that rock, answered with the voice of all: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life (Jn 6:68). In his mouth the flesh of the Lord had a good savor. But the Lord expounded it to them, and said: It is the Spirit that gives life: when he had said: Unless one eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, he will not have life in him; lest they understand it carnally: It is the Spirit, he says, that gives life, but the flesh profits nothing: the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life (Jn 6:63).

6. This spirit and this life that Nicodemus had no taste for, who had come to Jesus by night. Jesus said to him: Unless one is born anew, he will not see the kingdom of God. And he, having a taste for his own flesh, in whose mouth the flesh of Christ had as yet no savor: How, he says, can a man, when he is old, be born again? Can he enter again into his mother's womb, and be born? (See Jn 3:4) This man knew only one birth, from Adam and Eve; from God and the Church he did not yet know: he knew only those parents who beget unto death; he did not yet know those parents who beget unto life: he knew only those parents who beget those who will succeed them; he did not yet know those who, ever living, beget those who will abide.

Since, then, there are two births, he understood one. One is from the earth, the other from heaven; one is from the flesh, the other from the Spirit; one is from mortality, the other from eternity; one is from male and female, the other from God and the Church. But these two are each single; neither the one can be repeated, nor the other. Rightly did Nicodemus understand the birth of the flesh: so do you too understand the birth of the spirit, as Nicodemus understood the birth of the flesh. What did Nicodemus understand? Can a man enter again into his mother's womb, and be born? So, whoever tells you to be born again spiritually, answer what Nicodemus said: Can a man enter again into his mother's womb, and be born? I am already born of Adam, Adam cannot beget me again: I am already born of Christ, Christ cannot beget me again. As the womb cannot be repeated, so neither can Baptism.

7. He who is born of the Catholic Church is born, as it were, of Sarah, is born of the free woman: he who is born of heresy is born, as it were, of the maidservant, but from the seed of Abraham. Let your Charity notice how great a sacred sign this is. God testifies, and says: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Exod 3:6). Were there not other patriarchs? was there not before these the holy Noah, who alone in the whole human race, with his whole house, deserved to be set free from the flood, in whom and in his sons the Church was figured? By the wood that bore them they escape the flood.

Then afterward the great men whom we know, whom Sacred Scripture commends, Moses faithful in all his house (See Num 12:7). And those three are named, as if they alone had deserved well of him: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: this is my name forever (Exod 3:15). A great sacred sign! The Lord is able to open both our mouths and your hearts, so that we may speak as he has deigned to reveal, and you may grasp as is good for you.

Three fathers and one people: there the figure, here the reality. 8. These three, then, are patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now you know that the sons of Jacob were twelve, and from them the people of Israel: because Jacob himself is Israel, and the people of Israel are twelve tribes, belonging to the twelve sons of Israel. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, three fathers, and one people. Three fathers, as it were at the beginning of the people; three fathers in whom the people was figured: and the people itself, the earlier, the present people. For in the people of the Jews the people of the Christians was figured. There the figure, here the reality; there the shadow, here the body, as the Apostle says: But these things happened to them in a figure. It is the Apostle's word: They were written, he says, for our sake, upon whom the end of the ages has come (1 Cor 10:11).

Let your mind now run back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In these three we find free women bearing, and maidservants too bearing: we find there the offspring of the free women, we find there too the offspring of the maidservants. The maidservant signifies nothing good: Cast out the maidservant, he says, and her son; for the son of the maidservant will not be heir with the son of the free woman (Gen 21:10). The Apostle recalls this; and in those two sons of Abraham, the Apostle says there was a figure of the two Testaments, the Old and the New (See Gal 4:22-24). To the Old Testament belong the lovers of temporal things, the lovers of this world: to the New Testament, the lovers of eternal life. Therefore that Jerusalem on earth was a shadow of the heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of us all, which is in heaven: and these are the Apostle's words (See Gal 4:25-26). And about that city from which we are pilgrims, you know much, you have already heard much.

But we find a marvelous thing in these births, that is, in these offspring, in these generations of free women and maidservants, namely four kinds of human beings: in which four kinds is completed the figure of the future Christian people, so that it is no wonder that of those three it was said: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For among all Christians, brothers, attend: either through the bad the good are born, or through the good the bad are born, or through the good the good, or through the bad the bad: beyond these four kinds you cannot find any. These I will repeat again, notice, retain; shake out your hearts, do not be sluggish: grasp, lest you be caught, how there are four kinds of all Christians. Either through the good the good are born, or through the bad the bad are born, or through the good the bad, or through the bad the good. I think it is plain.

Through the good, the good: if both those who baptize are good, and those who are baptized believe rightly, then they are rightly numbered among the members of Christ. Through the bad, the bad: if both those who baptize are bad, and those who are baptized come to God with a double heart, and do not keep those ways of life which they hear in the Church, so that they are there not wheat but chaff. For how many such there are, your Charity knows. Through the bad, the good: sometimes an adulterer baptizes, and the one who is baptized is justified. Through the good, the bad: sometimes those who baptize are holy; those who are baptized refuse to keep the way of God.

9. I think, brothers, it is known in the Church, and is made manifest by daily examples, the things we say: but let us consider them in our earlier fathers, because they too had these four kinds. Through the good, the good: Ananias baptized Paul (See Acts 9:17-18). What of through the bad, the bad? The Apostle speaks of certain preachers of the Gospel, whom he says are accustomed to announce the Gospel not chastely, whom he bears with in Christian fellowship, and says: For what? as long as in every way, whether by occasion or in truth, Christ is announced, and in this I rejoice (Phil 1:18). Was he malevolent, and did he rejoice over another's evil? But because even through the bad the truth was preached, and through the mouths of the bad Christ was preached; if these men baptized any like themselves, the bad were baptizing the bad: if these men baptized any such as the Lord admonishes when he says: Do what they say; but what they do, do not do (See Mt 23:3), the bad were baptizing the good. The good were baptizing the bad, as Simon Magus was baptized by the holy Philip.

These four kinds, then, are known, my brothers. Behold, again I repeat them, hold them, count them, notice them; beware of those that are evil, hold to those that are good. Through the good the good are born, when through the holy the holy are baptized: through the bad the bad, when both those who baptize and those who are baptized live wickedly and impiously: through the bad the good, when those who baptize are bad, and those who are baptized are good: through the good the bad, when those who baptize are good, and those who are baptized are bad. Ishmael and Isaac, the party of Donatus and the Church.

10. How do we find these things in those three names: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? We take the maidservants for the bad, we take the free women for the good: the free women bear the good; Sarah bore Isaac: the maidservants bear the bad; Hagar bore Ishmael. We have in the one Abraham both that kind where through the good the good, and that kind where through the bad the bad. Through the good the bad—where are they figured? Rebecca the wife of Isaac was a free woman: read, she bore twins, one was good, the other bad. You have Scripture saying openly, with the voice of God: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated (Mal 1:2-3; Rom 9:13). These two Rebecca bore, Jacob and Esau: one of them is chosen, the other rejected; one succeeds to the inheritance, the other is disinherited. God does not make his people from Esau; but he makes it from Jacob.

One seed, but diverse those who were conceived: one womb, but diverse those who were born. Did not the free woman bear Jacob, who as a free woman bore Esau? They struggled in their mother's womb, and it was said to Rebecca, while they struggled there: Two peoples are in your womb (Gen 25:23). Two men, two peoples; a good people, a bad people: but nevertheless in one womb they struggle. How many bad there are in the Church, and one womb carries them, until at the end they are distinguished: and the good cry out against the bad, and the bad cry back against the good, and both struggle in the bowels of one. Will they always be together? At the end one comes forth to the light, the birth is declared which here is figured in a sacred sign: and then it will appear: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.

11. Now then we have found, brothers, both from the good the good, from the free woman Isaac: and from the bad the bad, from the maidservant Ishmael: and from the good the bad, Esau from Rebecca. From the bad the good—where shall we find them? Jacob remains, that in the three patriarchs the completion of these four kinds may be concluded. Jacob had free women as wives, he had maidservants too: the free women bear, the maidservants too bear, and there come to be twelve sons of Israel. If you count all of whom they were born, not all are from the free women, not all from the maidservants: but nevertheless all from one seed. What, then, my brothers? did those who were born of the maidservants not possess the land of promise together with their brothers? We find there good sons of Jacob born of maidservants, and good sons of Jacob born of free women. Their birth from the wombs of maidservants did them no harm, since in their father they acknowledged their seed, and consequently held the kingdom with their brothers.

As, then, in the sons of Jacob it did not harm those who were born of maidservants, so as to keep them from holding the kingdom, and receiving the land of promise equally with their brothers; the birth from maidservants did not harm them, but the paternal seed prevailed: so whoever are baptized through the bad seem, as it were, born of maidservants; but nevertheless, because they are from the seed of the word of God, which is figured in Jacob, let them not be saddened, they will possess the inheritance together with their brothers.

Let him, then, be secure who is born of good seed; only let him not imitate the maidservant, if he is born of a maidservant. Do not imitate the bad maidservant in her pride. For why did the sons of Jacob, born of maidservants, possess the land of promise with their brothers, while Ishmael, born of a maidservant, was driven out of the inheritance? Why, but because he was proud, and they were humble? He raised his neck, and wished to seduce his brother, playing with him.

12. A great sacred sign is there. Ishmael and Isaac were playing together; Sarah saw them playing, and said to Abraham: Cast out the maidservant and her son; for the son of the maidservant will not be heir with my son Isaac (Gen 21:10). And when Abraham was saddened, the Lord confirmed for him the word of his wife. Here now the sacred sign is manifest, because that deed was bringing to birth some future thing. She saw them playing, and says: Cast out the maidservant and her son. What is this, brothers? For what evil had Ishmael done to the boy Isaac, that he was playing with him? But that playing was a mockery; that playing signified a deception. For let your Charity attend to a great sacred sign. The Apostle calls that a persecution; that very playing, that very sport, he calls a persecution: for he says: But as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also now (Gal 4:29); that is, those born according to the flesh persecute those born according to the spirit.

Who are those born according to the flesh? The lovers of the world, the lovers of this age. Who are those born according to the spirit? The lovers of the kingdom of heaven, the lovers of Christ, those desiring eternal life, worshiping God freely. They play, and the Apostle calls it persecution. For after the Apostle said these words: And as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also now; he went on, and showed of what persecution he was speaking: But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the maidservant and her son; for the son of the maidservant will not be heir with my son Isaac (Gal 4:30). We ask where Scripture says this, that we may see whether any persecution of Ishmael against Isaac went before: and we find that this was said by Sarah, when she saw the boys playing together. That playing which Scripture says Sarah saw, this the Apostle calls persecution.

More, then, do those persecute you who, by mocking you, seduce you: Come, come; be baptized here, here you have the true baptism. Do not play; there is one true baptism; that other is a sport: you will be seduced, and that persecution will be grievous to you. It would be better for you to win Ishmael to the kingdom; but Ishmael is unwilling, because he wishes to play. Hold you the inheritance of the father, and hear: Cast out the maidservant and her son; for the son of the maidservant will not be heir with my son Isaac.

13. These men even dare to say that they are accustomed to suffer persecution from Catholic kings, or from Catholic princes. What persecution do they endure? Affliction of the body: whether, however, they have ever suffered it, or how they have suffered it, let them know themselves, and consult their own consciences; yet they have suffered affliction of the body: the persecution which they inflict is more grievous. Beware when Ishmael wishes to play with Isaac, when he flatters you, when he offers another baptism: answer: I have Baptism already. For if this baptism is true, he who wishes to give you another wishes to mock you. Beware the persecutor of the soul. For if the party of Donatus has ever suffered anything from Catholic princes, it has suffered according to the body, not according to the mockery of the spirit.

Hear and see in those very ancient deeds all the signs and tokens of things to come. We find that Sarah afflicted the maidservant Hagar: Sarah is free: after the maidservant began to be proud, Sarah complained to Abraham, and said: Cast out the maidservant; she has raised her neck against me. And as though it were done by Abraham, the woman complained of Abraham. But Abraham, who was held by the maidservant not by the lust of using her, but by the office of begetting, since Sarah had given her to him that he might take up offspring by her, said to her: Behold your maidservant, use her as you wish (Gen 16:6). And Sarah afflicted her grievously, and she fled from her face.

Behold, the free woman afflicted the maidservant, and the Apostle does not call that persecution; the servant plays with the master, and he calls it persecution: that affliction is not called persecution, and that playing is called persecution. What seems to you, brothers? Do you not understand what is signified? So, then, when God wishes to stir up the powers against heretics, against schismatics, against the scatterers of the Church, against those who blow Christ away, against the blasphemers of Baptism, let them not wonder; because God stirs it up, that Hagar may be beaten by Sarah. Let Hagar know herself, let her lay down her neck: because when, humbled, she departed from her mistress, an angel met her, and said: What is it, Hagar, maidservant of Sarah? when she had complained of her mistress, what did she hear from the angel? Return to your mistress (See Gen 16:8-9). To this end, then, she is afflicted, that she may return. And would that she may return; because her offspring, like the sons of Jacob, will hold the inheritance with their brothers.

14. But they wonder that the Christian powers are moved against the detestable scatterers of the Church. Should they then not be moved? And how would they render to God an account of their rule? Let your Charity attend to what I say, because this pertains to the Christian kings of this world, that in their times they should wish their mother the Church, from whom they were spiritually born, to be at peace.

We read the visions of Daniel and the prophetic deeds. Three boys in the fire praised the Lord: King Nebuchadnezzar marveled at the boys praising God, and at the fire around them being harmless; and when he had marveled, what did King Nebuchadnezzar say—he, neither a Jew nor circumcised, he who had set up his statue and compelled all to adore it; yet, moved by the praises of the three boys, when he saw the majesty of God present in the fire, what did he say? And I issue a decree to all tribes and tongues in all the earth. What decree? Whoever speaks blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, will be destroyed, and their house unto perdition (See Dan 3:96 (3:29)).

Behold how a foreign king rages, lest the God of Israel be blasphemed, because he was able to free three boys from the fire: and they are unwilling that Christian kings should be roused, because Christ is blown away, by whom not three boys, but the whole world together with the kings themselves is freed from the fire of hell? For those three boys, my brothers, were freed from a temporal fire. Is it not the same God of the Maccabees as of the three boys? Those he freed from the fire: these failed in body amid fiery torments, but in soul they remained in the lawful commandments. Those were openly freed, these secretly crowned. It is more to be freed from the flame of hell than from the furnace of a human power.

If, then, King Nebuchadnezzar praised and proclaimed and gave glory to God, because he freed three boys from the fire, and gave such great glory that he sent a decree throughout his kingdom: Whoever speaks blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, will be destroyed, and their house unto perdition: how should these kings not be moved, who attend not to three boys freed from the flame, but to themselves freed from hell, when they see Christ, by whom they were freed, blown away among Christians, when they hear it said to a Christian: Say that you are not a Christian? Such things they wish to do, and yet they are unwilling even to suffer such things.

15. For see what kind of things they do, and what kind of things they suffer. They kill souls, they are afflicted in body: they cause everlasting deaths, and they complain of suffering temporal ones. And yet what do they suffer? They bring forth to us some martyrs or other of theirs in the persecution. Behold, Marculus was thrown down from a rock: behold, Donatus of Bagai was thrown into a well. When did the Roman powers decree such punishments, that men should be thrown down? But what do our people answer? What was done I do not know: yet what do our people hand down? That these men threw themselves down, and slandered the powers.

Let us recall the custom of the Roman powers, and see whom we should believe. Our people say that those men threw themselves down: if they are not the disciples of those very men who now throw themselves from rocks with no one persecuting them, let us not believe it: what wonder if those men did what they are accustomed to do? For the Roman powers never used such punishments. For could they not kill openly? But those who wished themselves to be honored as dead did not find a more notorious death. In short, whatever it is, I do not know it. And if you have suffered, O party of Donatus, bodily affliction from the Catholic Church, you, Hagar, have suffered from Sarah; return to your mistress.

This passage, being a necessary one, has held us somewhat longer, so that we were quite unable to expound the whole text of the Gospel reading. Brothers, let this for now suffice your Charity, lest these things that have been said be shut out of your hearts by the saying of others. Hold these things, say such things, go forth blazing, kindle the cold.

1. From the fact that yesterday we made your Charity attentive, we understand that you have gathered more eagerly and in greater numbers: but for now let us render, if you please, the sermon owed to the Gospel reading in order; then your Charity will hear about the peace of the Church, either what we have done, or what we hope still to do.

Now, then, let the whole attention of the heart be brought to the Gospel; let no one think of anything else. For if he who is wholly present scarcely takes it in; he who divides himself among diverse thoughts, does he not pour out even what he had taken in? But your Charity remembers that last Lord's day, so far as the Lord deigned to help, we discoursed on spiritual regeneration: which reading we have had read to you again, so that what was not then said we may, in the name of Christ and with the help of your prayers, complete.

2. Spiritual regeneration is one, just as carnal generation is one. And what Nicodemus said to the Lord, he said truly, that a man, when he is old, cannot return again into his mother's womb, and be born. He indeed said that a man, when he is old, cannot do this, as if, even were he an infant, he could. For he absolutely cannot, whether fresh from the womb, or already of advanced age, return again into the maternal bowels, and be born. But just as for carnal nativity the female bowels avail for bearing once; so for spiritual nativity the bowels of the Church avail, that each may be baptized once.

Therefore, lest perhaps anyone say: But this man was born in heresy, and this one was born in schism; all that has been cut away, if you remember, which was discussed with you concerning our three fathers, of whom God willed to be called the God, not because they alone existed, but because in them alone was completed the wholeness of signifying the future people. For we found one born of a maidservant disinherited, one born of a free woman an heir: again we found one born of a free woman disinherited, one born of a maidservant an heir. Born of a maidservant, disinherited, Ishmael; born of a free woman, an heir, Isaac; born of a free woman, disinherited, Esau; born of maidservants, heirs, the sons of Jacob. And so in those three fathers the whole figure of the future people was seen: and not undeservedly God said: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: this, he says, is my name forever.

Rather let us remember what was promised to Abraham himself: for this was promised to Isaac, this was promised also to Jacob. What do we find? In your seed all the nations will be blessed. One man then believed what he did not yet see: men see, and are blinded. That has been fulfilled in the nations which was promised to one: and they are separated from the communion of the nations, who refuse even to see what has been fulfilled. But what does it profit them that they refuse to see? They see, willing or unwilling; the open truth strikes even closed eyes.

3. An answer was given to Nicodemus, who was of those who had believed in Jesus, and Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them. For to certain men he did not entrust himself, although they had already believed in him. So you have it written: Many believed in his name, seeing the signs that he did. But Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them. For he had no need that anyone should bear witness about a man; for he himself knew what was in a man. Behold, those men already believed in Jesus, and Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them (See Jn 2:23-25).

Why? Because they were not yet born again of water and the Spirit. Hence we exhorted, and we exhort, our brothers the catechumens. For if you question them, they have already believed in Jesus: but because they do not yet receive his flesh and blood, Jesus has not yet entrusted himself to them. What should they do, that Jesus may entrust himself to them? Let them be born again of water and the Spirit, let the Church bring forth those whom she labors to bear. They have been conceived, let them be brought forth to the light: they have breasts at which to be nursed, let them not fear lest, once born, they be suffocated, let them not withdraw from the maternal breasts.

4. No man can return into his mother's bowels, and be born again. But someone was born of a maidservant? Did those then who were born of maidservants return into the wombs of free women, that they might be born anew? The seed of Abraham was in Ishmael too; and that Abraham might be able to make a son of the maidservant, his wife was the author of it. He was born of the man's seed, and not of her womb, but only of the wife's consent. Was he disinherited because he was of a maidservant? If he were disinherited for the reason that he was born of a maidservant, no sons of maidservants would be admitted to the inheritance. The sons of Jacob were admitted to the inheritance: but Ishmael was disinherited not because he was born of a maidservant, but because he was proud toward his mother, proud against his mother's son; for his mother was rather Sarah than Hagar. Her womb was lent, her will came in; Abraham would not do what Sarah did not wish: rather, then, he was Sarah's son.

But because he was proud toward his brother, and proud in playing, because in mocking; what does Sarah say? Cast out the maidservant and her son; for the son of the maidservant will not be heir with my son Isaac. Therefore it was not the bowels of the maidservant that cast him outside, but the servile neck. And if a free man is proud, he is a servant; and, what is worse, of a bad mistress, of pride itself.

And so, my brothers, answer that a man cannot be born again; answer in security that a man cannot be born again. Whatever is done a second time is a mockery; whatever is done a second time is a sport. Ishmael plays, let him be put outside. For Sarah noticed them playing, the Scripture says, and said to Abraham: Cast out the maidservant and her son. The playing of the boys displeased Sarah; she saw the boys playing at something new. Do not those who have sons wish this, to see their sons playing? She saw it, and disapproved. She saw something or other in the play: she saw a mockery in that play, she noticed the pride of the servant; it displeased her, she cast him outside.

Those born of maidservants, being wicked, are put outside, and one born of a free woman, Esau, is put outside. Let no one, then, presume because he is born of the good, let no one presume because he is baptized through the holy. He who is baptized through the holy, let him still beware lest he be not Jacob but Esau. This, then, brothers, I would say: it is better to be baptized by men who seek their own and love the world, which the name of the maidservant signifies, and to seek spiritually the inheritance of Christ, so as to be like a son of Jacob from a maidservant, than to be baptized through the holy and to be proud, so as to be an Esau to be put outside, though born of a free woman.

These things, brothers, hold fast. We do not stroke you; let no hope of yours be in us: we flatter neither ourselves nor you; each carries his own burden. Ours it is to speak, lest we be judged badly: yours it is to hear, and to hear with the heart, lest what we give be demanded back; rather, when it is demanded, let gain be found, not loss.

5. The Lord says to Nicodemus, and expounds to him: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. You, he says, understand carnal generation, when you say: Can a man return into his mother's bowels? he must be born of water and the Spirit for the sake of the kingdom of God. If he is born for the sake of the temporal inheritance of a human father, let him be born of the bowels of a carnal mother: if for the sake of the everlasting inheritance of God the Father, let him be born of the bowels of the Church. A father who will die begets through a wife a son who will succeed him: God begets of the Church sons who will not succeed him, but will abide with him.

And it follows: What is born of the flesh is flesh; and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Spiritually, then, we are born, and in the spirit we are born by word and sacred sign. The Spirit is present, that we may be born: the Spirit is invisibly present from whom you are born, because you too are born invisibly. For it follows, and says: Do not wonder that I said to you, you must be born anew: the Spirit breathes where it wills, and you hear its voice, but you do not know whence it comes, or where it goes. No one sees the Spirit: and how do we hear the voice of the Spirit? A Psalm sounds, it is the voice of the Spirit; the Gospel sounds, it is the voice of the Spirit; the divine word sounds, it is the voice of the Spirit. You hear its voice, and you do not know whence it comes, and where it goes. But if you too are born of the Spirit, you will be such that he who is not yet born of the Spirit does not know about you, whence you come, and where you go. For having said this, he says: So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

6. Nicodemus answered and said to him: How can these things be? And indeed, carnally, he did not understand. In him was happening what the Lord had said, he was hearing the voice of the Spirit, and did not know whence it had come and where it was going. Jesus answered and said to him: You are a teacher in Israel, and you do not know these things? O brothers, what, do we suppose the Lord wished, as it were, to insult this teacher of the Jews? The Lord knew what he was doing, he wished him to be born of the Spirit. No one is born of the Spirit unless he is humble: because humility itself makes us born of the Spirit; for the Lord is near to the contrite of heart. The man was puffed up with his teaching, and seemed to himself to be of some importance, because he was a teacher of the Jews: he lays aside his pride for him, that he may be able to be born of the Spirit: he insults him as though unlearned; not because the Lord wishes to seem superior. What is great in it, God toward a man, the truth toward a lie? Should Christ be called greater than Nicodemus, can he be called so, is it even to be thought? If Christ were called greater than the angels, it would be laughable: for he is incomparably greater than every creature, through whom every creature was made. But he stirs up the pride of the man: You are a teacher in Israel, and you do not know these things? As though saying: Behold, you know nothing, proud ruler; be born of the Spirit: for if you are born of the Spirit, you will keep the ways of God, so as to follow the humility of Christ.

For he is high above all the angels in this way, that though he was in the form of God, he did not count it robbery to be equal to God; but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man: he humbled himself, having become obedient unto death (and lest any kind of death please you), even the death of the cross. He hung, and was insulted. He could have come down from the cross; but he delayed, that he might rise from the tomb. The Lord bore with proud servants; the physician, with the sick. If he did this, what of those who must be born of the Spirit? if he did this, the true teacher in heaven, not of men only, but also of angels. For if the angels are taught, they are taught by the Word of God. If they are taught by the Word of God, seek whence they are taught; and you will find: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The man's neck is taken away, but the rough and hard one, that there may be a gentle neck to bear the yoke of Christ, of which it is said: My yoke is gentle, and my burden is light.

7. And it follows: If I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe; how, if I tell you heavenly things, will you believe? What earthly things did he say, brothers? Is "Unless one is born anew" an earthly thing? Is "The Spirit breathes where it wills, and you hear its voice, and you do not know whence it comes, and where it goes" an earthly thing? For if he were speaking of this wind, as some have understood, when it was asked of them what earthly thing the Lord said, when he says: If I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe; how, if I tell you heavenly things, will you believe?

So when it was asked of certain people what earthly thing the Lord said, in their straits they said: What he says, "The Spirit breathes where it wills, and you hear its voice, and you do not know whence it comes, and where it goes," he said of this wind. For what did he name as earthly? He was speaking of spiritual generation: he goes on and says: So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Then, brothers, which of us does not see, for example, the south wind going from the south to the north; or another wind coming from the east to the west? how, then, do we not know whence it comes and where it goes?

What, then, did he say as earthly, which men did not believe? Was it that which he had said about the raising up of the temple? For he had taken his body from the earth, and was preparing to raise up that very earth, taken from an earthly body. He was not believed when he said he would raise up the earth. If, he says, I have told you earthly things and you do not believe: how, if I tell you heavenly things, will you believe? That is, if you do not believe that I can raise up the temple cast down by you; how will you believe that through the Spirit men can be regenerated?

8. And it follows: And no one has ascended into heaven, except him who descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven. Behold, he was here, and was in heaven: he was here in the flesh, in heaven in his divinity; nay, everywhere in his divinity. Born of a mother, not withdrawing from the Father. Two nativities of Christ are understood; one divine, the other human: one through which we were made, the other through which we were remade: both marvelous; the one without a mother, the other without a father. But because he had taken a body from Adam, because Mary was from Adam, and he was to raise up that very body: he had said something earthly: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. But he said something heavenly: Unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he will not see the kingdom of God.

Come now, brothers, God willed to be the Son of man, and willed men to be sons of God. He himself descended for our sake; let us ascend for his sake. For he alone descended and ascended, who says this: No one has ascended into heaven, except him who descended from heaven. Will those then not ascend into heaven whom he makes sons of God? They will surely ascend: this is the promise to us: They will be equal to the angels of God. How, then, does no one ascend, except him who descended? Because one descended, one ascended. What of the rest? what is to be understood, but that they will be his members, so that one ascends? Therefore it follows: No one has ascended into heaven, except him who descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven. Do you wonder that he was both here and in heaven? Such did he make his disciples. Hear the apostle Paul saying: But our citizenship is in heaven. If Paul the apostle, a man, walked in the flesh on earth, and had his citizenship in heaven, could not the God of heaven and earth be both in heaven and on earth?

9. If, then, no one but he descended and ascended, what hope is there for the rest? This is the hope for the rest, that he descended for this reason, that in him and with him those might be one who through him were to ascend. He does not say: And to seeds, says the Apostle, as in many; but as in one: And to your seed, which is Christ. And to the faithful he says: But you are Christ's; and if Christ's, then you are the seed of Abraham. What he called one, by this he said that we all are. Therefore in the Psalms sometimes many sing, that it may be shown that of many one is made; sometimes one sings, that it may be shown what is made of many. Therefore one man was healed in that pool; and whoever else went down was not healed. Therefore this one man commends the unity of the Church.

Woe to those who hate unity, and make parties for themselves among men! Let them hear him who wished to make them one in the one toward the One: let them hear him saying: Do not make yourselves many: I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase: but neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. They were saying: I am Paul's, I am Apollos's, I am Cephas's. And he: Is Christ divided? Be in one, be one thing, be one: No one has ascended into heaven, except him who descended from heaven. Behold, we wish to be yours, they said to Paul. And he: I do not wish you to be Paul's, but be his whose, together with you, Paul is.

10. For he descended and died, and by that very death freed us from death: slain by death, he slew death. And you know, brothers, that this death entered the world through the envy of the devil. God did not make death, Scripture says; nor does he rejoice, it says, in the destruction of the living: for he created all things that they might be. But what does it say there? But through the envy of the devil death entered the world. To the death offered him by the devil, man would not have come led by force: for the devil did not have the power of compelling, but the cunning of persuading. Had you not consented, the devil would have brought in nothing: your consent, O man, led you to death. From a mortal, mortals are born; from immortals, mortals made. From Adam, all men are mortal: but Jesus the Son of God, the Word of God, through whom all things were made, the Only-begotten equal to the Father, was made mortal; because the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

11. Therefore he took on death, and hung death on the cross; and from that very death mortals are freed. What was done in figure among the ancients, the Lord recalls: And as, he says, Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life. A great sacred sign, and those who have read it, know it. But let them hear, either those who have not read it, or those who perhaps have forgotten what they read or heard.

The people of Israel were being laid low in the wilderness by the bites of serpents, a great slaughter of many dead was taking place: for it was a plague of God chastising and lashing, that he might train them. A great sacred sign of a thing to come was shown there—the Lord himself testifies in this reading, so that no one can interpret it otherwise than as the Truth itself indicates about itself. For it was said to Moses by the Lord that he should make a bronze serpent, and lift it up on wood in the wilderness, and admonish the people of Israel, that if anyone were bitten by a serpent, he should look at that serpent lifted up on the wood.

It was done: men were bitten, they looked, and were healed. What are the biting serpents? The sins arising from the mortality of the flesh. What is the serpent lifted up? The death of the Lord on the cross. For because death came from the serpent, it was figured by the likeness of a serpent. The bite of the serpent is deadly, the death of the Lord life-giving. The serpent is looked at, that the serpent may avail nothing. What is this? Death is looked at, that death may avail nothing. But whose death? The death of life: if it can be said: The death of life; nay, because it can be said, it is said marvelously. But shall what was to be done not be said? Shall I hesitate to say what the Lord deigned to do for me? Is not Christ life? and yet Christ on the cross. Is not Christ life? and yet Christ dead. But in the death of Christ, death died; because life dead slew death, the fullness of life swallowed up death: death was swallowed up in the body of Christ.

So we too will say in the resurrection, when, now triumphing, we will sing: Where, O death, is your strife? where, O death, is your sting? Meanwhile now, brothers, that we may be healed of sin, let us look upon Christ crucified; because as Moses, he says, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life. As those who looked upon that serpent did not perish by the bites of the serpents; so those who look by faith upon the death of Christ are healed of the bites of sins. But those were healed from death unto temporal life: but here he says, that they may have eternal life. For this is the difference between the figured image and the reality itself: the figure bestowed temporal life; the reality itself, of which that was the figure, bestows eternal life.

12. For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Therefore, so far as it is in the physician, he came to heal the sick. He destroys himself who refuses to observe the precepts of the physician. The Savior came to the world: why was he called Savior of the world, but that he might save the world, not judge the world? You do not wish to be saved by him; from yourself you will be judged. And why do I say, you will be judged? See what he says: He who believes in him is not judged; but he who does not believe: what do you expect him to say but, is judged? already, he says, he has been judged. The judgment has not yet appeared, but the judgment is already done. For the Lord knows who are his: he knows who will remain unto the crown, who will remain unto the flame; he knows the wheat on his threshing floor, he knows the chaff; he knows the crop, he knows the weeds. Already he has been judged who does not believe. Why judged? Because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. Blot out what you made, that God may save what he made.

13. But this is the judgment, that the light came into the world, and men loved darkness more than the light: for their works were evil. My brothers, whose works did the Lord find good? No one's: he found everyone's works evil. How, then, did certain men do the truth, and come to the light? For this too follows: But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they are done in God. How did certain men do a good work, that they might come to the light, that is, to Christ? and how did certain men love darkness? For if he found all sinners, and heals all from sin, and that serpent in which the death of the Lord was figured heals those who had been bitten, and on account of the bite of the serpent the serpent was raised up, that is, the death of the Lord, on account of mortal men, whom he found unjust; how is it understood: This is the judgment, that the light came into the world, and men loved darkness more than the light: for their works were evil?

What is this? for whose were the good works? Did you not come to justify the impious? But they loved, he says, darkness more than the light. There he placed the force: for many loved their sins, many confessed their sins: because he who confesses his sins, and accuses his sins, already acts with God. God accuses your sins: if you too accuse them, you are joined to God. There are, as it were, two things: man and sinner. What you hear, man, God made: what you hear, sinner, man himself made. Blot out what you made, that God may save what he made.

You must hate in yourself your own work, and love in yourself the work of God. But when what you made has begun to displease you, from there your good works begin, because you accuse your evil works. The beginning of good works is the confession of evil works. You do the truth, and come to the light. What is: You do the truth? You do not stroke yourself, you do not flatter yourself, you do not fawn on yourself; you do not say: I am just, when you are unjust, and you begin to do the truth. But you come to the light that your works may be made manifest, because they are done in God; because this very thing, that your sin displeased you, would not displease you, unless God shone upon you, and his truth showed it to you.

But he who, even when admonished, loves his sins, hates the admonishing light and flees it, that the evil works he loves may not be reproved. But he who does the truth accuses his evil things in himself; he does not spare himself, he does not pardon himself, that God may pardon: because what he wishes God to pardon, he himself acknowledges, and comes to the light; to whom he gives thanks, because he has shown him what to hate in himself. He says to God: Turn your face from my sins: and with what countenance does he say it, unless he say again: For I acknowledge my misdeed, and my sin is ever before me. Let that be before you which you do not wish to be before God. But if you put your sin behind you, God will twist it back to you before your eyes; and he twists it back then, when there will be no fruit of repentance.

14. Run, lest the darkness overtake you, my brothers: awake to your salvation, awake while it is time; let no one be held back from the temple of God, let no one be held back from the work of the Lord, let no one be called away from continual prayer, let no one be defrauded of his customary devotion. Awake, then, while it is day: the day shines, Christ is the day. He is ready to pardon, but those who acknowledge; but to punish those who defend themselves, and boast themselves just, and think themselves to be something, when they are nothing. But he who walks in his love and in his mercy, even though freed from those deadly and grievous sins, such as misdeeds, murders, thefts, adulteries; on account of those that seem to be small sins of the tongue, or of thoughts, or of immoderation in things permitted, does the truth of confession, and comes to the light in good works: since the small sins, if neglected, when many, slay.

Small are the drops that fill the rivers: small are the grains of sand; but if much sand be laid on, it presses and crushes. What a neglected bilge does is what an inrushing wave does: little by little it comes in through the bilge; but by coming in for a long time and not being bailed out, it sinks the ship. But what is it to bail out, but by good works to act so that sins do not overwhelm—by groaning, fasting, giving, pardoning?

But the journey of this age is troublesome, it is full of temptations; in prosperity, lest it puff up; in adversity, lest it break. He who gave you the happiness of this age, gave it for your consolation, not for your corruption. Again, he who lashes you in this age does it for amendment, not for condemnation. Bear the father training you, lest you feel the judge punishing you. These things we say to you daily, and they are often to be said, because they are good and saving.

1. The order of the Gospel reading according to John, as you can remember, you who take care for your own progress, so follows that this which was just read is set before us to be treated today. From the very beginning up to today's reading, what was said before, you remember has already been treated. And if perhaps you have forgotten much of it, surely at least our office remains in your memory. What you will hear here about the baptism of John, even if you do not hold it all, yet I believe you hold that you have heard it: what was said also, why the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove; and how that most knotty question was solved, that John learned something or other which he did not know about the Lord through the dove, when he already knew him, when, as the Lord came to be baptized, he said: I ought to be baptized by you, and you come to me? When the Lord answered him: Allow it for now, that all righteousness may be fulfilled.

2. Now, then, the order of the reading compels us to return to the same John. He is the one who was prophesied through Isaiah: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Such testimony he gave to his Lord, and (because the Lord deigned it) to his friend: and his Lord and his friend himself also bore testimony to John. For he said of John: Among those born of women there has not arisen a greater than John the Baptist. But because he set himself before him, in that which was more than John, he was God. But he who is least, he says, in the kingdom of heaven, is greater than he. Least in nativity, greater in power, greater in divinity, majesty, glory: as, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

But John had so borne testimony to the Lord in the earlier readings that he called him indeed the Son of God, but did not call him God, nor yet denied it: he had been silent about God, he had not denied God, but he was not altogether silent about God: for perhaps we find this in today's reading. He had called him the Son of God: but men too were called sons of God. He had said that he was of such great excellence that he himself was not worthy to loose the strap of his sandal. Now that greatness gives much to be understood, whose sandal strap he was not worthy to loose—he than whom no one greater had arisen among those born of women. For he was more than all men and angels. For we find that an angel forbade a man to fall at his feet. For when in the Apocalypse an angel was showing certain things to John, who wrote this Gospel, John, terrified by the greatness of the vision, fell at the feet of the angel. And he: Rise, see that you do not do this; adore God, for I am your fellow servant and of your brothers. The angel, then, forbade a man to fall at his feet. Is it not manifest that he is above all the angels, to whom such a man, than whom no greater has arisen among those born of women, says he himself is unworthy to loose the strap of his sandal?

3. Yet let John say something more evident, that our Lord Jesus Christ is God. Let us find this in the present reading, because perhaps we have sung of him too: God has reigned over all the earth: against which those are deaf who think he reigns in Africa alone. For it was not not said of Christ, when it was said: God has reigned over all the earth. For who is our other king, but our Lord Jesus Christ? He himself is our king. And what did you hear in that Psalm, in the recent verse just sung? Sing to our God, sing: sing to our king, sing. The one he called God, the same he called our king: Sing to our God, sing: sing to our king, sing with understanding. Do not wish to understand in one part the one to whom you sing: For God is king of all the earth.

And how is he king of all the earth, who was seen in one part of the lands, in Jerusalem, in Judea, walking among men, born, suckling, growing, eating, drinking, watching, sleeping, sitting wearied at the well, seized, lashed, smeared with spittle, crowned with thorns, hung on wood, struck with a lance, dead, buried? how, then, king of all the earth? What was seen in a place was flesh: to fleshly eyes the flesh appeared; in mortal flesh the immortal majesty was hidden. And with what eyes will the immortal majesty be able to be beheld through the framework of the flesh? There is another eye, there is an inner eye.

For Tobit too did not have no eyes, when, blind in his bodily eyes, he gave his son precepts of life. The one held his father's hand, that he might walk on his feet: the other gave his son counsel, that he might keep the way of justice. And here I see eyes, and here I understand eyes. And better are the eyes of the one giving counsel of life, than the eyes of the one holding the hand. Such eyes Jesus too sought, when he said to Philip: So long a time I am with you, and you have not known me? Such eyes he sought, when he said: Philip, he who sees me, sees also the Father. These eyes are in the understanding, these eyes are in the mind. Therefore when the Psalm had said: For God is king of all the earth; it added at once: Sing with understanding.

For what I say: Sing to our God, sing; I call God our king. But you saw our king among men as a man, you saw him suffer, crucified, dead: something lay hidden in that flesh which you could see with fleshly eyes. What lay hidden there? Sing with understanding; do not seek with the eyes what is beheld with the mind. Sing with the tongue, because among you is flesh; but because the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, render the sound to the flesh, render to God the gaze of the mind. Sing with understanding, and you see that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

4. Let John too give testimony: After these things Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea, and there he stayed with them, and baptized. Having been baptized, he baptized. He did not baptize with the same baptism with which he was baptized. The Lord, baptized by a servant, gives baptism, showing the way of humility, and leading to the baptism of the Lord, that is, his own baptism, by giving an example of humility, because he himself did not refuse the baptism of the servant. And in the baptism of the servant the way was being prepared for the Lord, and the Lord, baptized, made himself the way for those who come. Let us hear him: I am the way, the truth, and the life. If you seek the truth, hold the way: for the way itself is the truth. It is the goal to which you go, it is the way by which you go; you do not go through one thing to another, you do not come through another to Christ: through Christ you come to Christ. How, through Christ to Christ?

Through Christ the man to Christ the God: through the Word made flesh, to the Word which in the beginning was God with God; from that which man ate, to that which the angels daily eat. For so it is written: He gave them the bread of heaven: man ate the bread of angels. What is the bread of angels? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. How did man eat the bread of angels? And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

5. But because we have said that the angels eat, brothers, do not think it is done by bites. For if you understand this, God whom the angels eat is, as it were, torn to pieces. Who tears justice to pieces? But again someone says to me:

And who is it that eats justice?

Whence, then: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be filled? The food which you eat through the flesh, that you may be restored, fails; that it may repair you, it is consumed: eat justice, and you are restored, and it remains whole.

Just as by seeing this bodily light these eyes of ours are restored, and it is a bodily thing that is seen by the bodily eyes. For many, when they have been for a long time in darkness, their sight is weakened, as by a fasting from light. The eyes, defrauded of their food (for they feed on light), are wearied by the fast and weakened, so that they cannot see the very light by which they are restored: and if it is absent for a longer time, they are extinguished, and the very keenness of light, as it were, dies in them. What then? because so many eyes are daily fed by this light, does it become less? Both they are restored, and it itself remains whole. If God could show this with bodily light to bodily eyes; does he not show to clean hearts that light which is untiring, remaining whole, failing in no part?

What light?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. Let us see whether it is light.

For with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we will see light. On earth the fountain is one thing, the light another. Thirsting, you seek a fountain, and to reach the fountain you seek light: and if it is not day, you light a lamp to reach the fountain. That fountain is itself the light; to the thirsty it is a fountain, to the blind it is light: let the eyes be opened to see the light, let the mouth of the heart be opened to drink the fountain; what you drink, this you see, this you hear. God becomes your all; because, of the things you love, he is your all.

If you attend to visible things, God is neither bread, nor is God water, nor is God this light, nor is God a garment, nor is God a house. For all these things are visible, and are single: what is bread, is not water; and what is a garment, is not a house; and what these things are, is not God: for they are visible. God is your all: if you hunger, he is bread to you; if you thirst, he is water to you; if you are in darkness, he is light to you, because he remains incorruptible; if you are naked, he is the garment of immortality to you, when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality. All things can be said of God, and nothing is worthily said of God. Nothing is broader than this poverty. You seek a fitting name, you do not find it; you seek to speak in any way at all, you find all things. What is alike, a lamb and a lion? Of Christ both are said: Behold the Lamb of God. How a lion? The lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered.

6. Let us hear John: Jesus baptized. We said that Jesus baptized. How, as Jesus? how, as Lord? how, as Son of God? how, as the Word? But the Word was made flesh. Now John too was baptizing in Aenon near Salim. Aenon is a certain pool. Whence is it understood that it was a pool? Because there were many waters there, and they came, and were baptized. For John had not yet been cast into prison. If you remember (behold, I say it again), I said why John baptized: because it was fitting that the Lord be baptized. And why was it fitting that the Lord be baptized? Because many were going to despise Baptism, on the ground that they seemed to be endowed already with a greater grace than they saw in other faithful. For example, a catechumen already living continently might despise a married man, and say that he was better than that faithful man. That catechumen could say in his heart: What need have I to receive Baptism, that I may have what this man too has, than whom I am already better?

Therefore, lest that neck cast down certain men greatly puffed up by the merits of their own righteousness, the Lord willed to be baptized by a servant; as though addressing his chief sons: Why do you exalt yourselves? why do you raise yourselves up, because you have, this one prudence, this one learning, this one chastity, this one strength of patience? Can you have as much as I who gave it? And yet I was baptized by a servant, and you disdain to be baptized by the Lord. This is: That all righteousness may be fulfilled.

7. But someone will say: It was enough, then, that John baptized the Lord; what need was there for others to be baptized by John? This too we have said: that if the Lord alone were baptized by John, this thought would not be lacking to men, that John had a better baptism than the Lord. For they would say: So great was the baptism that John had, that Christ alone was worthy to be baptized with it. Therefore, that the better baptism which the Lord was about to give might be shown, and that the one might be understood as, so to speak, the servant's, the other as, so to speak, the Lord's, the Lord was baptized, that he might give an example of humility: but he was not baptized alone by him, lest the baptism of John seem better than the baptism of the Lord.

But to this end our Lord Jesus Christ provided a way, as you have heard, brothers, that no one, arrogant because he has an abundance of some grace, should disdain to be baptized with the baptism of the Lord. For however much a catechumen progresses, he still carries the burden of his own iniquity: it is not forgiven him, until he comes to Baptism. Just as the people of Israel were not rid of the people of the Egyptians until they had come to the Red Sea; so no one is rid of the pressure of sins until he has come to the fountain of Baptism. The fountain never thirsts.

8. There arose, then, a question from the disciples of John with the Jews about purification. John was baptizing, Christ was baptizing: the disciples of John were stirred; people were running to Christ, they were coming to John. For those who came to John, he sent them to Jesus to be baptized; those were not sent to John who were baptized by Christ. The disciples of John were troubled, and began to treat the question with the Jews, as is wont to happen. You may understand that the Jews said that Christ was greater, and that people ought to run to his baptism. They, not yet understanding, were defending the baptism of John. It came to John himself, that he might solve the question. Let your Charity understand. And here too the very usefulness of humility is recognized, and it is shown whether, in that question, when men were erring, John wished to glory in himself.

For perhaps he said: You speak truly, you contend rightly, my baptism is better. For that you may know that my baptism is better, I baptized Christ himself. John could have said this, since Christ was baptized by him. As far as he might stretch himself, if he wished, where had he room to stretch himself? But he knew better before whom to humble himself: him whom he knew himself to precede by birth, to him he wished to yield by confession; he understood that his own salvation was in Christ. He had already said above: Of his fullness we have all received: And this is to confess God. For how do all men receive of his fullness, unless he be God? For if he were a man in such a way as not to be God, he too would receive of the fullness of God, and so would not be God. But if all men receive of his fullness, he is the fountain, they the drinkers. Those who drink the fountain can both thirst and drink; the fountain never thirsts, the fountain has no need of itself. Men have need of the fountain; with dry insides, with dry throats, they run to the fountain that they may be restored: the fountain flows that it may restore; so the Lord Jesus.

9. Let us see, then, what John answered: They came to John, and said to him: Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, behold, here he baptizes, and all come to him: that is: What do you say? are they not to be forbidden, that they may rather come to you? He answered and said: A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven. Of whom do you suppose John said this? Of himself: As a man, he says, I received from heaven. Let your Charity attend. A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said: I am not the Christ.

As though saying, why do you deceive yourselves? you yourselves, how did you put this question to me? What did you say to me? Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness. You know, then, what testimony I bore him: am I now going to say that he is not the one I said he was? Therefore, because I received something from heaven that I might be something, do you wish me to be empty, so as to speak against the truth? A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said: I am not the Christ.

You are not the Christ: but what, if you are greater than he, because you baptized him?

I was sent: I am a herald, he is the judge.

Let us hear the friend of the bridegroom, not the adulterers.

10. And hear a testimony much more vehement, much more express. See what is done with us; see what we ought to love; see that to love some man in place of Christ is adultery. Why do I say this? Let us attend to the voice of John: an error could have been made about him, he himself could have been thought to be the one he was not; he rejected from himself a false honor, that he might hold the solid truth. See what he says of Christ, what of himself: He who has the bride is the bridegroom. Be chaste, love the bridegroom. But what are you, who say to us: He who has the bride is the bridegroom? But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom.

The Lord our God will be present, in keeping with the stirring of my heart—for it is full of much groaning—to say what I grieve over: but I beseech you, by Christ himself, that what I shall not be able to say, you yourselves may think; for I know my grief cannot be expressed worthily enough. For I see many adulterers, who wish to possess the bride bought at so great a price, loved when she was foul that she might become beautiful, by that buyer, that liberator, that adorner; and they so act with their words that they may be loved in place of the bridegroom. Of him it was said: This is he who baptizes. Who comes forth here and says: I baptize? who comes forth here and says: What I shall give, this is holy? who comes forward here who says: It is good for you to be born of me? Let us hear the friend of the bridegroom, not the adulterers of the bridegroom: let us hear one zealous, but not for himself.

11. Brothers, go back with your heart to your own homes—I speak of carnal things, I speak of earthly things; I speak in human terms, on account of the weakness of your flesh. Many of you have wives, many wish to have them, many, even if they do not wish it, have had them; many who do not at all wish to have wives, were born of the wives of your fathers: there is no heart that this affection does not touch; no one in human affairs is so far astray from the human race that he does not feel what I say.

Suppose someone, having set off abroad, had entrusted his bride to his friend: See, I beg you, you are dear to me, lest perhaps in my absence someone be loved in my place. What sort of man, then, is he who, guarding the bride or wife of his friend, takes pains indeed that no one else be loved, but if he wishes himself to be loved in place of his friend, and wishes to use her who was entrusted to him, how detestable does he appear to the whole human race? Let him see her attending a little too wantonly at the window, or joking with someone, he forbids it as though jealous: I see one jealous, but let me see for whom; whether for the absent friend, or for himself present.

Suppose our Lord Jesus Christ did this. He entrusted his bride to his friend, he set off abroad to receive a kingdom, as he himself says in the Gospel, and yet he is present in his majesty. Let the friend deceive him who has set off across the sea; and if he deceives him, woe to him who deceives! why do they try to deceive God, God who looks upon the hearts of all, and searches the secrets of all? Some heretic arises, and says: I give, I sanctify, I justify, I do not wish you to go to that sect. He is zealous indeed, but see for whom. Do not go to idols, he is rightly zealous: not to fortune-tellers, he is rightly zealous. Let us see for whom he is zealous: What I give is holy, because I give it; he whom I baptize is baptized, he whom I do not baptize is not baptized.

Hear the friend of the bridegroom, learn to be zealous for your friend: hear his voice: This is he who baptizes. Why do you wish to arrogate to yourself what is not yours? Is he who left his bride here so absent? Do you not know that he who rose from the dead sits at the right hand of the Father? If the Jews despised him hanging on the wood, do you despise him sitting in heaven?

Let your Charity know that I suffer great grief over this matter: but, as I said, I leave the rest to your thoughts. For I do not say, were I to speak the whole day; were I to weep the whole day, I am not equal to it: I do not say, had I, as the prophet says, a fountain of tears; but if I were turned into tears, and became tears, into tongues, and became tongues, it is too little.

12. Let us return, let us see what this man says: He who has the bride is the bridegroom; she is not my bride.

And do you not rejoice at the marriage?

Rather I rejoice, he says: But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom. I do not, he says, rejoice because of my own voice, but I rejoice because of the voice of the bridegroom. I am in the hearing, he in the speaking: for I am to be enlightened, he is the light; I am in the ear, he is the Word.

Therefore the friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him.

Why does he stand?

Because he does not fall.

Why does he not fall?

Because he is humble. See him standing on solid ground: I am not worthy to loose the strap of his sandal. You humble yourself well, deservedly you do not fall, deservedly you stand, deservedly you hear him, and rejoice with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom.

So too the Apostle, the friend of the bridegroom, is himself zealous, not for himself, but for the bridegroom. Hear the voice of one zealous: I am zealous for you with the zeal of God, he said; not with my own, not for myself, but with the zeal of God.

Whence? how? for whom are you zealous, or for whose sake are you zealous?

For I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ.

What, then, do you fear? why are you zealous?

I fear, he says, lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his craftiness, so your minds too be corrupted from the chastity that is in Christ.

The whole Church is called a virgin. You see that the members of the Church are diverse, and that they are endowed with diverse gifts and rejoice in them: some men married, some women married, some men widowed who seek wives no more, some women widowed who seek husbands no more, some who keep their integrity from their earliest age, some who have vowed their virginity to God; the gifts are diverse, but all these are one virgin. Where is this virginity? for it is not in the body. It belongs to few women, and, if virginity can be spoken of in men, the holy integrity even of the body, in few men, is in the Church, and is a more honorable member: but the other members keep virginity not in the body, but all in the mind.

What is the virginity of the mind? Whole faith, solid hope, sincere love. This virginity he feared, who was zealous for the bridegroom, lest it be corrupted by the serpent. For just as a member of the body is violated in a certain place, so the seduction of the tongue violates the virginity of the heart. Let her not be corrupted in the mind, who is unwilling without cause to keep the virginity of the body.

13. What, then, shall I say, brothers? The heretics too have virgins, and many are the virgins of the heretics. Let us see whether they love the bridegroom, for whose sake this virginity is kept.

For whom is it kept?

For Christ, she says.

Let us see whether for Christ, not for Donatus: let us see for whom this virginity is kept; you will be able to prove it quickly. Behold, I show the bridegroom, because he himself shows himself: John bears him witness: This is he who baptizes. O you, virgin, if you keep your virginity for this bridegroom, why do you run to him who says: I baptize; when the friend of your bridegroom says: This is he who baptizes?

Then your bridegroom holds the whole world; why are you corrupted in a part? Who is the bridegroom? For God is king of all the earth. Your bridegroom himself holds the whole, because he bought the whole. See at what price he bought it, that you may understand what he bought: what price did he give? He gave his blood. Where did he give it, where did he pour out his blood? In his passion. Do you not sing to your bridegroom, or pretend to sing, when the whole world was bought: They pierced my hands and my feet, they numbered all my bones: but they considered and gazed upon me; they divided my garments among themselves, and over my garment they cast lots? You are the bride, recognize the garment of your bridegroom. Over which garment was the lot cast? Ask the Gospel; see to whom you are betrothed, see from whom you receive the pledge.

Ask the Gospel; see what it says to you in the passion of the Lord. There was there a tunic: let us see of what kind: woven from the top. What does the tunic woven from the top signify, but love? what does the tunic woven from the top signify, but unity? Attend to this tunic, which not even the persecutors of Christ divided. For he says: They said among themselves: Let us not divide it, but cast lots over it. Behold whence you heard the Psalm. The persecutors did not cut up the garment: Christians divide the Church.

14. But what shall I say, brothers? Let us see openly what he bought. For there he bought, where he gave the price. For how much did he give? If he gave for Africa, let us be Donatists, and let us not be called Donatists, but Christians; because Christ bought Africa alone: although even here not the Donatists alone. But in his transaction he was not silent about what he bought. He made out a deed: thanks be to God, he did not deceive us. The bride needs to hear that deed, and there to understand for whom she vowed her virginity. There, in that very psalm where it was said: They pierced my hands and my feet, they numbered all my bones; where the passion of the Lord is most openly declared: which psalm is read every year in the last week, with all the people attentive, the passion of Christ being at hand—both among us and among them this psalm is read.

Attend, brothers, to what he bought there; let the deed of transaction be recited; what he bought there, hear: All the ends of the earth will be reminded and turned to the Lord; and all the families of the nations will adore in his sight: for the kingdom is his, and he will rule over the nations. Behold what he bought. Behold, because God is king of all the earth, he is your bridegroom. Why, then, do you wish so rich a one to be reduced to rags? Acknowledge: he bought the whole, and you say: You have a part here. O if only you pleased the bridegroom, O if only you spoke uncorrupted, and not corrupted, what is worse, in heart, not in body! You love a man in place of Christ, you love one who says: I baptize: you do not hear the friend of the bridegroom saying: This is he who baptizes; you do not hear him saying: He who has the bride is the bridegroom. I do not have the bride, he said: but what am I? The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom.

15. Evidently, then, my brothers, it profits these people nothing to keep virginity, to have continence, to give alms; all those things that are praised in the Church profit them nothing: because they tear apart unity, that is, that tunic of love. What do they do? Many among them are eloquent, of great tongues, rivers of tongues. Do they speak with the tongues of angels? Let them hear the friend of the bridegroom, zealous for the bridegroom, not for himself: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

16. But what do they say?

We have Baptism.

You have it, but not your own. It is one thing to have, another to be its master. You have Baptism, because you received it that you might be baptized, you received it as one enlightened; if, however, you have not darkened yourself: and when you give, you give as a minister, not as a possessor; you cry out as a herald, not as a judge. Through the herald the judge speaks, and yet in the records it is not written: The herald said; but: The judge said. Accordingly, see whether what you give is your own, by your power. But if you received it, confess with the friend of the bridegroom: A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven. Confess with the friend of the bridegroom: He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him.

But O if only you stood and heard him, and did not fall so as to hear yourself! For by hearing him, you would stand and hear: but you speak, and puff up your own head. I, says the Church, if I am the bride, if I have received the pledge, if I am redeemed by the price of his blood, I hear the voice of the bridegroom; and I hear the voice of the friend of the bridegroom then, if he gives glory to my bridegroom, not to himself. Let the friend say: He who has the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him, and rejoices with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom.

Behold, you have the Sacraments, and I grant it. You have the form, but you are a branch cut off from the vine; you show the form, I seek the root: from the form fruit does not come forth, except where the root is; but where is the root, except in love? And hear the form of the branches; let Paul speak: If I know, he says, all mysteries, and have all prophecy and all faith (and how great a faith?), so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

17. Therefore let no one sell you fables. Pontius too worked a miracle; and Donatus prayed, and God answered him from heaven. First, either they are deceived or they deceive. Lastly, suppose he move mountains: But have not love, he says, I am nothing. Let us see whether he had love. I would believe it, had he not divided unity. For against these miracle-mongers, so to speak, my God has made me cautious, saying: In the last times false prophets will arise, working signs and wonders, to lead into error, if it be possible, even the elect: behold, I have foretold it to you. The bridegroom, then, has made us cautious, that we ought not to be deceived even by miracles. For sometimes even a deserter frightens a provincial; but whether he is in the camp, and whether that mark with which he was sealed profits him anything, this he attends to who does not wish to be frightened and seduced.

Let us therefore hold to unity, my brothers: apart from unity, even he who works miracles is nothing. For the people of Israel were in unity, and did not work miracles: apart from unity were the magicians of Pharaoh, and they did things like those of Moses. The people of Israel, as I said, did not do them: who were saved with God, those who did them, or those who did not? Peter the apostle raised a dead man; Simon Magus did many things: there were there certain Christians who could do neither what Peter did, nor what Simon did; but in what did they rejoice? Because their names were written in heaven. For when the disciples returned, our Lord Jesus Christ said this, on account of the faith of the nations. For the disciples themselves said, glorying: Behold, Lord, in your name even the demons are subject to us. They confessed well indeed, they paid honor to the name of Christ; and yet what does he say to them? Do not glory in this, that the demons are subject to you; but rejoice, that your names are written in heaven.

Peter cast out demons; some little widow woman or other, some layman or other, of whatever sort, having love, holding the integrity of faith, does not do this: Peter is the eye in the body, the other is a finger in the body; yet he is in that body in which Peter too is; and if the finger is of less worth than the eye, it is nevertheless not cut off from the body. It is better to be a finger and to be in the body, than to be an eye and to be plucked out of the body.

18. Accordingly, my brothers, let no one deceive you, let no one seduce you: love the peace of Christ, who was crucified for you, though he was God. Paul says: Neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. And does any one of us say that he is something? If we say that we are something, and do not give him the glory, we are adulterers; we wish ourselves to be loved, not the bridegroom. Love Christ, you, and us in him, in whom you too are loved by us. Let the members love one another in turn, but let all live under the head. Compelled by grief indeed, my brothers, I have been forced to say many things, and have said little: I have not been able to finish the reading; the Lord will be present, that it may be opportunely finished. For I did not wish to burden your hearts further, which I wish to be free for groanings, and for prayers for those who are still deaf, and do not understand.

1. This reading from the holy Gospel teaches us the excellence of the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the humility of the man who deserved to be called the friend of the bridegroom; that we may distinguish what difference there is between man, a man, and the man who is God. For the man who is God is our Lord Jesus Christ, God before all ages, and man in our age: God of the Father, man of the Virgin; yet one and the same Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God and man. But John was sent before him as one of excellent grace; enlightened by him who is the light.

For of John it was said: He was not the light, but that he might bear witness to the light. He can indeed be called light, and he too is rightly called light; but enlightened, not enlightening. For the light that enlightens is one thing, and the light that is enlightened another: for our eyes too are called lights, and yet in darkness they are open, and do not see. But the enlightening light is light of itself, and is light to itself, and does not need another light that it may be able to shine, but the rest need it that they may shine.

2. John, then, confessed, as you have heard, that when Jesus was making many disciples, and it was reported to him as though to provoke him—for they narrated it as though to one envious: Behold, he makes more disciples than you—he confessed what he was, and from this deserved to belong to him, because he did not dare to say of himself what the other is. This, then, John said: A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven. Therefore Christ gives, the man receives. You yourselves bear me witness that I said: I am not the Christ, but that I was sent before him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom.

He did not make himself a joy out of himself. For he who wishes to rejoice in himself will be sad: but he who wishes to rejoice in God will always rejoice; because God is everlasting. Do you wish to have everlasting joy? Cleave to him who is everlasting. Such John said himself to be. Because of the voice of the bridegroom the friend of the bridegroom rejoices, he says, not because of his own voice: and he stands, and hears him. If, then, he falls, he does not hear him: for of a certain one who fell, it was said: And he did not stand in the truth; it was said of the devil. Therefore the friend of the bridegroom ought to stand and hear. What is it to stand? To remain in the grace which he received. And he hears the voice at which he may rejoice.

So was John: he knew whence he rejoiced, he did not arrogate to himself what he himself was not; he knew himself enlightened, not the enlightener. But he was the true light, says the Evangelist, which enlightens every man coming into this world. If, then, every man, John himself too; because he too is of men. For although no one greater than John arose among those born of women, yet he too is one of those who are born of women. Is he to be compared with him who, because he willed it, was born; and therefore by a new birth, because newly born? For both generations of the Lord are unusual, both the divine and the human: the divine has no mother, the human has no father.

John, then, is one of the rest, but yet of greater grace, so that among those born of women no one arose greater than he; and he gave so great a testimony to our Lord Jesus Christ that he calls him the bridegroom, himself the friend of the bridegroom, yet not worthy to loose the strap of his sandal. Of this your Charity has now heard much: let us see what follows; for it is somewhat dense to understand. But since John himself says that a man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven; whatever we do not understand, let us ask him who gives from heaven: because we are men, and can receive nothing, unless he gives who is not a man.

3. This, then, follows, and John says: This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled. What is his joy? That he rejoices at the voice of the bridegroom. It is fulfilled in me, I have my grace, I take no more upon myself, lest I lose even what I have received. What is this joy? He rejoices with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom.

Let a man understand, then, that he ought not to rejoice in his own wisdom, but in the wisdom that he received from God. Let him seek nothing more, and he does not lose what he found. For many became foolish for this reason, that they said they were wise. The Apostle reproves them, and says of them: Because what is known of God is manifest to them: for God has manifested it to them. Of certain ungrateful, impious men, hear what he says: For God has manifested it to them. For his invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made; his everlasting power also and divinity, so that they themselves are inexcusable. Why inexcusable? Because, knowing God; he did not say, because they did not know him; knowing God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks; but they became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened: for saying that they were wise, they became fools.

For if they had known God, they would at the same time have known that none but God had made them wise. They would not, then, attribute to themselves what they did not have of themselves, but to him from whom they had received it. But by not giving thanks they became foolish. Therefore God took from the ungrateful what he had given freely. John was unwilling to be this; he wished to be grateful: he confessed that he had received, and said that he rejoiced because of the voice of the bridegroom, and said: This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled.

4. He must increase, but I must decrease. What is this? He must be exalted, but I must be humbled. How does Jesus increase? how does God increase? The perfect does not increase. But God neither increases nor decreases. For if he increases, he is not perfect: if he decreases, he is not God. But Jesus, who is God, how does he increase? If in age, because he deigned to be man, and was a child; and though he is the Word of God, as an infant he lay in the manger, and though he himself founded his own mother, he sucked the milk of infancy from his mother: because, then, Jesus increased in the age of the flesh, for this reason perhaps it was said: He must increase, but I must decrease.

But why this too? John and Jesus, as far as the flesh is concerned, were of the same age: there were six months between them, they had grown up alike; and if our Lord Jesus Christ had wished to be here longer before his death, and John himself to be here with him, as they had grown up alike, so they could grow old alike: why, then: He must increase, but I must decrease? First, because the Lord was already thirty years old: does a young man, if he is already thirty years old, still increase? Already from that very age men begin to decline, and to incline toward a heavier age, and from there to old age. But even if they were both boys, he would not say: He must increase, but I must decrease; but he would say: We must increase together. But now he is thirty years old, and so is the other: the six months that were between them distinguish no age; reading finds that rather than looking does.

5. What, then, is: He must increase, but I must decrease? A great sacred sign is this! let your Charity understand. Before the Lord Jesus came, men gloried in themselves: that man came, that the glory of man might decrease, and the glory of God increase. For he came without sin, and found all with sin. If he came thus, to forgive sins, let God bestow, let man confess. For the confession of man is the humility of man: the compassion of God is the loftiness of God. If, then, he came to forgive man his sins, let man acknowledge his humility, and let God show his mercy.

He must increase, but I must decrease: that is, he must give, but I must receive; he must be glorified, but I must confess. Let man understand his rank, and confess to God, and hear the Apostle saying to the proud and puffed-up man, wishing to exalt himself: For what have you that you did not receive? but if you received it, why do you glory as though you had not received it? Let man, then, understand that he has received, who wished to call his own what is not his, and let him decrease: for it is good for him that God be glorified in him. Let him decrease in himself, that he may be increased in God.

These testimonies and this truth Christ and John signified even by their own passions. For John was beheaded, Christ was exalted on the cross; so that there too might appear what is: He must increase, but I must decrease. Then Christ was born when the days were already beginning to grow longer, John was born when the days began to grow shorter. Creation itself and the passions themselves bore witness to the words of John saying: He must increase, but I must decrease.

Let the glory of God, then, increase in us, and let our glory decrease, so that ours too may increase in God. For this the Apostle says, this Holy Scripture says: He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. Do you wish to glory in yourself? you wish to increase: but to your own harm you increase badly. For he who increases badly is justly decreased. Let God, then, increase, who is always perfect, let him increase in you. For the more you understand God, and the more you grasp, God seems to increase in you: but in himself he does not increase, but is always perfect. You understood a little yesterday, you understand more today, you will understand much more tomorrow: the very light of God increases in you; thus God, as it were, increases, who remains always perfect.

Just as if someone's eyes were being cured from former blindness, and he began to see a little light, and on another day saw more, and on the third day still more, the light would seem to him to increase: yet the light is perfect, whether he sees it or does not see it. So it is also with the inner man: he progresses indeed in God, and God seems to increase in him; yet he himself decreases, that he may fall from his own glory, and rise into the glory of God.

6. And now distinctly and manifestly appears what we have just heard. He who comes from above is above all. See what he says of Christ. What of himself? He who is of the earth is of the earth, and speaks of the earth. He who comes from above is above all; that is Christ: But he who is of the earth is of the earth, and speaks of the earth; that is John. And is this the whole of it, John is of the earth, and speaks of the earth? all the testimony that he bears about Christ, does he speak of the earth? are the voices of God not heard from John, where he bears witness about Christ? How, then, does he speak of the earth? But he was speaking of the man. As far as the man himself is concerned, he is of the earth, and speaks of the earth: but if he speaks anything divine, he is enlightened by God. For if he were not enlightened, the earth would speak earth.

Therefore the grace of God is one thing, the nature of man another. Question the nature of man now: he is born and grows, he learns these customary things of men. What does he know but earth from the earth? He speaks human things, knows human things, has a taste for human things; carnal, he judges carnally, suspects carnally: behold, that is the whole man.

Let the grace of God come, let it enlighten his darkness, as it says: You will enlighten my lamp, O Lord; my God, enlighten my darkness; let it take up the human mind, turn it to its own light: it begins now to say what the Apostle says: Not I, however, but the grace of God with me; and: But I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me. This is: He must increase, but I must decrease. Therefore John, as far as John is concerned, is of the earth, and speaks of the earth: if you have heard anything divine from John, it is of the one enlightening, not of the one receiving.

7. He who comes from heaven is above all; and what he has seen and heard, this he testifies; and no one receives his testimony. From heaven he comes, he is above all, our Lord Jesus Christ: of whom it was said above: No one has ascended into heaven, except him who descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven. And he is above all; and what he has seen and heard, this he speaks. For the Son of God himself also has a Father; he has a Father, and hears from the Father. And what he hears from the Father, what is it? who unfolds this? When can my tongue, when can my heart be sufficient, either the heart to understand, or the tongue to bring forth, what it is that the Son heard from the Father? Perhaps the Son heard the Word of the Father? Rather, the Son is the Word of the Father. You see how here every human effort is wearied; you see how here all the conjecture of our breast fails, and all the straining of our darkened mind.

I hear Scripture saying that the Son speaks what he hears from the Father; and again I hear Scripture saying that the Son himself is the Word of the Father: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We speak words flying and passing away: as soon as your word has sounded in your mouth, it passes; it makes its noise and passes into silence. Can you follow your sound, and hold it that it may stand still? Yet your thought remains, and from that very remaining thought you say many passing words. What do we say, brothers? When God spoke, did he employ a voice, employ sounds, employ syllables? If he employed these, in what language did he speak? Hebrew, or Greek, or Latin? There languages are necessary, where there is the distinction of nations. But there no one can say that God spoke in this language, or in that language.

Attend to your heart. When you conceive a word that you may speak—for I will say, if I can, what we may attend to in ourselves, not whereby we may comprehend that—when, then, you conceive a word that you may bring forth, you wish to say a thing, and the very conception of the thing in your heart is already a word; it has not yet come forth, but it is already born in the heart, and remains that it may come forth: but you attend to him to whom it may come forth, with whom you speak; if he is Latin, you seek a Latin word; if he is Greek, you ponder Greek words; if he is Punic, you attend whether you know the Punic language; according to the diversity of hearers you employ diverse languages, that you may bring forth the conceived word: but that which you had conceived in the heart was held by no language.

Since, then, God speaking did not seek a language, and did not assume a manner of speaking, how was he heard by the Son, when God spoke the Son himself? For just as you have the word that you speak in your heart, and it is with you, and the conception itself is spiritual (for just as your soul is spirit, so the word too that you have conceived is spirit; for it has not yet received sound so as to be divided through syllables, but remains in the conception of the heart and in the mirror of the mind): so God uttered the Word, that is, begot the Son. And you indeed beget a word in time even in the heart: God begot the Son without time, through whom he created all times. Since, then, the Word of God is the Son, and the Son has spoken to us, not his own word, but the Word of the Father, he wished to speak himself to us, who was speaking the Word of the Father.

This, then, as was fitting and proper, John said: as we have been able, we have expounded it. He to whose heart a worthy understanding of so great a matter has not yet come, has where to turn himself, has where to knock, has one from whom to seek, has one from whom to ask, has one from whom to receive.

8. He who comes from heaven is above all; and what he has seen and heard, this he testifies; and no one receives his testimony (Jn 3:31-32). If no one, why did he come? Then it is the no one of certain people. There is a people prepared for the wrath of God, to be condemned with the devil; of these no one receives the testimony of Christ. For if it were absolutely no one, no human being at all, then what is it that follows: He who has received his testimony has set his seal that God is true (Jn 3:33)? Surely, then, it is not no one, if you yourself say, He who has received his testimony has set his seal that God is true. John, then, if questioned, would perhaps answer and say: I know what I said—no one. For there is a certain people born for the wrath of God, and foreknown to this end. For God knows who are going to believe and who are not going to believe; who will persevere in what they have believed, and who will fall away, God knows; and all who are to be in eternal life are numbered before God, and he already knows that people set apart. And if he himself knows it, and gave the prophets to know it through his Spirit, he gave John to know it too.

John, then, was attending—not with his own eye, for as far as he himself is concerned he is of the earth and speaks of the earth, but in that grace of the Spirit which he had received from God he saw a certain people, ungodly and unbelieving; and attending to that people in its unbelief, he said, The testimony of him who comes from heaven, no one receives. Of whom, no one? Of those who are to be at the left hand, those to whom it will be said, Go into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Mt 25:41). Who, then, are those who receive it? Those who are to be at the right hand, those to whom it will be said, Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Mt 25:34).

He attended, then, in the spirit to the division, though in the human race there is a mixture; and what is not yet separated in place he separated in his understanding, separated by the gaze of his heart; and he saw two peoples, of the faithful and of the unfaithful. He attended to the unfaithful and said, He who comes from heaven is above all; and what he has seen and heard, this he testifies; and no one receives his testimony. Then he turned himself away from the left and looked to the right, and went on to say, He who has received his testimony has set his seal that God is true (Jn 3:33).

What is he has set his seal that God is true, except that man is a liar, and God is true? For no human being can say what belongs to the truth unless he is enlightened by him who cannot lie. God, then, is true; but Christ is God. Do you wish to prove it? Take his testimony, and you find it: He who has received his testimony has set his seal that God is true. Who? He himself who comes from heaven and is above all is the true God. But if you do not yet understand him to be God, you have not yet received his testimony; receive it, and you set your seal; understanding with conviction, you acknowledge with certainty that God is true.

The peace of unity in the Trinity.

9. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God (Jn 3:34). He himself is the true God, and God sent him: God sent God. Join the two together: one God, true God sent by God. Ask about each one, God; and ask about both, God. Not each one God and both gods, but each single one God and both God. For so great there is the love of the Holy Spirit, so great the peace of unity, that when you ask about each one, God is the answer given you; when you ask about the Trinity, God is the answer given you.

For if a man's spirit, when it clings to God, is one spirit—the Apostle saying openly, He who clings to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor 6:17)—how much more is the Son, who is equal and clings to the Father, together with him one God? Hear another testimony. You know how many believed when they sold all that they had and laid it at the feet of the apostles, that it might be distributed to each as each had need; and of that gathering of holy ones what does Scripture say? They had one soul and one heart in the Lord (Acts 4:32). If love made one soul out of so many souls, and one heart out of so many hearts, how great is the love between the Father and the Son? Surely it can be greater than among those men who had one heart.

If, then, the heart of many brothers is one because of love, and the soul of many brothers is one because of love, will you say that God the Father and God the Son are two? If they are two gods, there is not there the highest love. For if here there is so great a love that it makes your soul and your friend's soul one soul, how is it that there the Father and the Son are not one God? Far be it that a faith unfeigned should hold this. Indeed, understand from this how far that love surpasses. The souls of many men are many, and if they love one another, they are one soul; yet in men they may also be called many souls, because the union is not so great. But there you may say one God; you may not say two or three gods. From this is commended to you the surpassing excellence and the very summit of a love so great that no greater can be.

10. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God (Jn 3:34). This he was certainly saying about Christ, to distinguish himself from him. For what? Did not God send John himself? Or did he not himself say, I am sent before him (Jn 3:28), and, He who sent me to baptize in water (Jn 1:33); and was it not said of him, Behold, I send my angel before you, and he will prepare your way (Mal 3:1)? Does not he too speak the words of God, of whom it was even said that he is more than a prophet (See Mt 11:9)? If, then, God sent him too, and he too speaks the words of God, how do we take it that he said of Christ, by way of distinction, For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God?

But see what he adds: For God does not give the Spirit by measure (Jn 3:34). What is this: For God does not give the Spirit by measure? We find that God does give the Spirit by measure. Hear the Apostle saying, According to the measure of the gift of Christ (Eph 4:7). To men he gives by measure; to the only Son he does not give by measure. How does he give to men by measure? To one indeed is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another kinds of tongues, to another the gift of healings (1 Cor 12:8-10). Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? (1 Cor 12:29-30) This one has one gift, that one another; and what that one has, this one does not have: it is a measure, a certain dividing out of gifts.

To men, then, it is given by measure, and there concord makes one body. Just as the hand receives one thing that it may work, the eye another that it may see, the ear another that it may hear, the foot another that it may walk, yet the soul is one which does all things—in the hand that it may work, in the foot that it may walk, in the ear that it may hear, in the eye that it may see—so too the gifts of the faithful are diverse, distributed as it were to the members, to each its own measure. But Christ, who gives, does not receive by measure.

The Father, in sending the Son, sent another self.

11. For hear still what follows; for of the Son he had said, For God does not give the Spirit by measure: The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand (Jn 3:35). He added, He has given all things into his hand, that you might know here too with what distinction it was said, The Father loves the Son. For why? Does the Father not love John? And yet he has not given all things into his hand. Does the Father not love Paul? And yet he has not given all things into his hand. The Father loves the Son—but as a Father the Son, not as a master a servant; as an Only-begotten, not as one adopted. And so he has given all things into his hand. What is all things? That the Son is as great as the Father is. For he begot him equal to himself, who counted it no robbery to be in the form of God, equal to God (See Phil 2:6). The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. Therefore, when he deigned to send the Son to us, let us not suppose that something less than the Father has been sent to us. The Father, in sending the Son, sent another self.

12. For the disciples, still supposing that the Father is something greater than the Son, seeing the flesh and not understanding the divinity, said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us (Jn 14:8). As though they said: We now know you, and we bless you because we know you; for we give you thanks because you have shown yourself to us; but the Father we do not yet know. Therefore our heart burns, and is busy with a certain holy desire of seeing your Father who sent you; show him to us, and we will desire nothing more from you; for it is enough for us when he has been shown, than whom no one can be greater.

A good longing, a good desire—but small understanding. For the Lord Jesus himself, attending to little ones seeking great things, and himself great among the little ones and little among the little ones, said to Philip, who had said this, one of the disciples, Have I been with you so long a time, and have you not known me, Philip? (Jn 14:9) Here Philip could answer: We have known you; but did we say to you, Show us yourself? You we have known, but the Father we are seeking. He at once added, He who has seen me has seen the Father also (Jn 14:9).

If, then, one equal to the Father has been sent, let us not estimate him by the weakness of the flesh, but let us think of the majesty clothed in flesh, not crushed by flesh. For remaining God with the Father, he became a man among men, that you, through him who for your sake became a man, might be made such as can grasp God. For man could not grasp God: man could see man, but could not grasp God. Why could he not grasp God? Because he had not the eye of the heart by which to grasp him. There was, then, something within that was wounded, and something without that was whole: he had the eyes of the body whole, the eyes of the heart wounded. He was made man for the eye of the body, that by believing in him who could be seen bodily, you might be healed unto seeing the very one whom you could not see spiritually.

Have I been with you so long a time, and have you not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father also. Why did they not see him? Behold, they saw him, and they did not see the Father: they saw the flesh, but the majesty lay hidden. What the disciples who loved him saw, the Jews who crucified him also saw. He was, then, wholly within, and so within in the flesh that he remained with the Father; for he did not forsake the Father when he came to the flesh.

13. A carnal way of thinking does not grasp what I say: let it defer understanding, and begin from faith; let it hear what follows: He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who is unbelieving toward the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him (Jn 3:36). He did not say, the wrath of God comes to him, but, the wrath of God remains upon him. All who are born mortal have the wrath of God with them. What wrath of God? The wrath which the first Adam received. For if the first man sinned and heard, You shall die the death (Gen 2:17), he was made mortal, and we began to be born mortal; we were born with the wrath of God. From there the Son came, having no sin, and was clothed with flesh, was clothed with mortality. If he shared with us the wrath of God, are we slow to share with him the grace of God?

He, then, who is unwilling to believe in the Son, the wrath of God remains upon him. What wrath of God? That of which the Apostle says, We too were by nature children of wrath, like the rest (Eph 2:3). All, then, are children of wrath, because they come from the curse of death. Believe in Christ, made mortal for your sake, that you may receive him immortal; for when you have received his immortality, you too will not be mortal. He was living, you were dying: he died, that you might live. He brought the grace of God, he took away the wrath of God. God conquered death, lest death conquer man.

1. It is not strange to the ears of your Charity that John the evangelist flies higher like an eagle, and transcends the mist of the earth, and gazes upon the light of truth with steadier eyes. For many things from his Gospel have already, by our ministry and with the Lord's help, been treated; and in order there follows this reading, which has been recited today. The things I am going to say, with the Lord's gift, many of you will hear in such a way that you recognize them again rather than learn them. Yet your attention ought not on that account to be sluggish, because it is not a coming to know, but a recognizing.

This has been read, and this reading we carry in our hands to be treated: that the Lord Jesus was speaking at Jacob's well with the Samaritan woman. For great mysteries are spoken there, and the likenesses of great things, feeding the hungry soul, refreshing the weary.

2. For when the Lord had heard this, that the Pharisees had learned that he was making more disciples than John, and baptizing more (although Jesus did not baptize, but his disciples), he left the land of Judea, and went away again into Galilee (Jn 4:1-3). On this there is no need to dispute at length, lest by lingering on what is plain we suffer shortness of time for scrutinizing and opening up the obscure things. Surely, if the Lord had known that the Pharisees had so learned about him—that he was making more disciples and baptizing more—that this would have availed them to salvation in following him, so that they too might be disciples and themselves wish to be baptized by him, he would all the more not have left the land of Judea, but for their sake would have remained there; but because he knew their knowledge, he knew along with it their envy too, for they did not learn this in order to follow but in order to persecute; and so he went away from there.

He indeed, even when present, could have not been seized by them if he had not willed it; not been killed, if he had not willed it; for he could even have not been born, if he had not willed it. But because in every matter that he did as man he was offering an example to those who would believe in him (for any servant of God does not sin if he withdraws to another place, seeing perhaps the fury of those persecuting him or seeking his life for evil; yet the servant of God would seem to himself to sin if he did this, unless the Lord had gone before him in doing it), this good Master did this in order to teach, not because he was afraid.

3. Perhaps this too may trouble someone: why it was said, Jesus baptized more than John; and after it was said, he baptized, it was added, although Jesus did not baptize, but his disciples (Jn 4:1-2). What then? Was a false thing said, and corrected, when it was added, although Jesus did not baptize, but his disciples? Or are both true, because Jesus both baptized and did not baptize? For he baptized, because he himself cleansed; he did not baptize, because he himself did not dip in the water. The disciples furnished the ministry of the body; he furnished the help of his majesty. For when would he cease from baptizing, as long as he does not cease from cleansing? Of him it was said by the same John, speaking in the person of John the Baptist, This is he who baptizes (Jn 1:33). Therefore Jesus still baptizes; and as long as we must be baptized, Jesus baptizes. Let a man come without anxiety to the lower minister, for he has a higher Master.

4. But perhaps someone says: Christ indeed baptizes in spirit, not in body—as though anyone were imbued even with the sacrament of bodily and visible Baptism by another's gift than his. Do you wish to know that he himself baptizes, not only in spirit, but also in water? Hear the Apostle: As Christ, he says, loved the Church, and gave himself up for her, cleansing her by the washing of water in the word, that he might present the Church to himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing (Eph 5:25-27). Cleansing her. By what? By the washing of water in the word. What is the baptism of Christ? The washing of water in the word. Take away the water, it is not baptism; take away the word, it is not baptism.

5. Now, then, these things having been laid down first, by which he came to the conversation with that woman, let us see what remains—things full of mysteries and pregnant with sacred signs. But it was necessary, he says, for him to pass through Samaria. He came, then, to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the estate which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's spring was there (Jn 4:4-6). It was a well; but every well is a spring, though not every spring is a well. For where water flows from the earth and is offered for the use of those who draw it, it is called a spring; but if it is ready at hand and on the surface, it is called only a spring; if, however, it is in a deep and low place, it is so called a well that it does not lose the name of spring.

6. Jesus, then, wearied from the journey, was sitting thus by the spring. It was about the sixth hour (Jn 4:6). Now the mysteries begin. For Jesus is not wearied in vain; the Power of God is not wearied in vain; he is not wearied in vain, by whom the wearied are refreshed; he is not wearied in vain, by whose forsaking us we are wearied, by whose presence we are made firm. Yet Jesus is wearied, and wearied from the journey, and sits, and sits beside a well, and at the sixth hour sits wearied. All these things hint at something, mean to indicate something; they make us attentive, they urge us to knock. May he himself, then, open both to us and to you, who deigned so to urge us that he said, Knock, and it will be opened to you (Mt 7:7).

For you Jesus was wearied from the journey. We find a strong Jesus, and we find a weak Jesus: a strong and a weak Jesus. Strong, because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: this was in the beginning with God (Jn 1:1-2). Do you wish to see how strong this Son of God is? All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing (Jn 1:3); and they were made without labor. What, then, is stronger than he through whom all things were made without labor? Do you wish to know him weak? The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). The strength of Christ created you; the weakness of Christ re-created you. The strength of Christ brought it about that what was not should be; the weakness of Christ brought it about that what was should not perish. He founded us by his strength; he sought us by his weakness.

7. He, then, being weak, nourishes the weak, like a hen her chicks; for to this he made himself like: How often, he says to Jerusalem, would I have gathered your children under my wings, as a hen gathers her chicks, and you would not? (Mt 23:37) But you see, brothers, how a hen grows weak with her chicks. No other bird is recognized as a mother. We see any sparrows you like building nests before our eyes; we daily see swallows, storks, doves building nests; yet, except when we see them in their nests, we do not recognize them as parents. But the hen so grows weak among her chicks that, even if the chicks themselves do not follow, even if you do not see her young, you still recognize the mother. So it is, with wings drooping, feathers bristling, voice hoarse, all her limbs drooping and cast down, that, as I said, even if you do not see her young, you still understand her to be a mother.

So, then, Jesus is weak, wearied from the journey. His journey is the flesh taken up for us. For how does he who is everywhere, who is nowhere absent, have a journey? Where does he go, or whence does he come, except that he would not come to us unless he took up the form of visible flesh? Because, then, he deigned to come to us in this way, to appear in the form of a servant by taking up flesh, that very taking-up of flesh is his journey. Therefore wearied from the journey—what else is it than wearied in the flesh? Jesus is weak in the flesh; but do not you be weak; in his weakness be you strong, because what is weak of God is stronger than men (1 Cor 1:25).

His weakness is our strength.

8. Under this image of things Adam, who was a figure of the one to come (Rom 5:14), gave us a great token of a sacred sign; or rather God gave it in him. For he merited even in his sleep to receive a wife, and from his rib a wife was made for him; because from Christ sleeping on the cross the Church was to come from his side, from the side, that is, of one sleeping; for from the side too of him hanging on the cross, struck by the lance, the sacraments of the Church flowed forth.

But why did I wish to say this, brothers? Because the weakness of Christ makes us strong. A great image went before there. God was able to draw flesh from the man, from which to make the woman, and that would seem rather to have been the more fitting. For the weaker sex was being made, and weakness ought rather to have been made from flesh than from bone; for bones are stronger than flesh. He did not draw off flesh, from which to make the woman, but drew off a bone, and, the bone being drawn off, the woman was formed, and in the place of the bone flesh was filled in. He could have restored bone for bone; he could, to make the woman, have drawn off not a rib but flesh. What, then, did he signify? The woman was made in respect of the rib, as it were strong; Adam was made in respect of the flesh, as it were weak. It is Christ and the Church: his weakness is our strength.

9. Why, then, the sixth hour? Because it is the sixth age of the world. Reckon in the Gospel as it were one hour, one age, from Adam to Noah; a second from Noah to Abraham; a third from Abraham to David; a fourth from David to the deportation to Babylon; a fifth from the deportation to Babylon to the baptism of John: from there the sixth is being enacted.

Why do you wonder? Jesus came, and by humbling himself he came to the well. He came wearied, because he bore weak flesh. The sixth hour, because it is the sixth age of the world. To the well, because to the depth of this dwelling of ours. Whence it is said in the Psalms, Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord (Ps 130:1 (129:1)). He sat, as I said, because he was humbled.

This woman, who bore the type of the Church, came from foreigners.

10. And a woman came (Jn 4:7). A figure of the Church, not yet justified, but now to be justified; for this is what the discourse is about. She came in ignorance, found him, and the matter is transacted with her. Let us see what, let us see why: A woman came from Samaria to draw water. The Samaritans did not belong to the nation of the Jews; for they were foreigners, although they inhabited neighboring lands. It would be long to recount the origin of the Samaritans, lest many things hold us and we fail to speak of necessary matters; it is enough, then, that we reckon the Samaritans among foreigners. And lest you suppose I have said this more boldly than truly, hear the Lord Jesus himself, what he said about that Samaritan, one of the ten lepers whom he had cleansed, who alone returned to give thanks: Were not ten cleansed? And where are the nine? Was there no one to give glory to God but this foreigner? (Lk 17:17-18)

It belongs to the image of the matter that this woman, who bore the type of the Church, came from foreigners; for the Church was to come from the Gentiles, a foreigner to the race of the Jews. Let us, then, hear ourselves in her, and in her recognize ourselves, and in her give thanks to God for ourselves. For she was a figure, not the truth; because she herself both first showed forth a figure, and became the truth. For she believed in him who was presenting in her a figure to us. She came, then, to draw water. Simply she had come to draw water, as men or women are wont to do.

11. Jesus says to her: Give me to drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. That Samaritan woman, then, says to him: How is it that you, being a Jew, ask drink of me, who am a Samaritan woman? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans (Jn 4:7-9). You see the foreigners: the Jews would not at all use their vessels. And because the woman was carrying with her a vessel with which to draw water, she wondered at this, that a Jew asked drink of her, which the Jews were not wont to do. But he who was asking for drink was thirsting for the faith of that very woman.

The Holy Spirit is the gift of God.

12. In short, hear who it is that asks for drink. Jesus answered and said to her: If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink, you perhaps would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water (Jn 4:10). He asks for drink, and he promises drink. He is in need, as one about to receive, and he overflows, as one about to satisfy. If you knew, he says, the gift of God. The gift of God is the Holy Spirit. But he still speaks to the woman in a hidden way, and little by little enters into her heart. Perhaps he is now teaching. For what is sweeter and kinder than this exhortation? If you knew the gift of God, and knew who it is that says to you, Give me to drink, you perhaps would ask, and he would give you living water: thus far he held her in suspense.

Living water is the common name for that which comes out from a spring. For that which is collected from rain in pools or cisterns is not called living water. And even if it has flowed from a spring and stood collected in some place, and has not let in to itself that from which it was flowing, but, its passage broken, has been as it were separated from the channel of the spring, it is not called living water; but that water is called living which is received flowing. Such was the water in that spring. What, then, was he promising who was asking?

13. Yet the woman, still in suspense, says: Lord, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep (Jn 4:11). See how she understood living water—the water, that is, which was in that spring. You wish to give me living water, and I carry something to draw with, and you do not. The living water is here; how are you going to give it to me? Understanding one thing, and being carnally minded, she in a manner knocks, that the Master may open what is closed. She was knocking out of ignorance, not out of zeal—still to be pitied, not yet to be instructed.

14. The Lord says something more plainly about that living water. For the woman had said: Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and himself drank from it, and his sons, and his cattle? (Jn 4:12) This living water you cannot give me, since you have nothing to draw with; do you perhaps promise some other spring? Can you be better than our father, who dug this well, and himself with his household used it?

Let the Lord, then, say what he called living water. Jesus answered and said to her: Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but he who drinks of the water that I will give him will not thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (Jn 4:13-14). The Lord spoke more openly: It will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. He who drinks of this water will not thirst forever. What is plainer than that he was promising not visible but invisible water? What is plainer than that he was speaking not carnally but spiritually?

15. Yet still that woman is minded toward the flesh: she was delighted not to thirst, and supposed that this had been promised her by the Lord according to the flesh. This indeed will be, but in the resurrection of the dead. Already she wanted this. For God had once granted to his servant Elijah that for forty days he should neither hunger nor thirst (See 1 Kgs 19:8). He who could grant this for forty days, could he not grant it always?

Yet she was sighing, unwilling to be in need, unwilling to toil. She was compelled to come constantly to that spring, to be burdened with a weight by which her need might be supplied; and when what she had drawn was used up, she was compelled to return again; and this toil was daily for her, because that neediness was refreshed, not extinguished. Delighted, then, with such a gift, she asks that he would give her the living water.

16. Nevertheless, let us not pass it by, since the Lord was promising something spiritual. What is, He who drinks of this water will thirst again? It is true according to this water; and it is true according to what that water signified. For the water in the well is the pleasure of the world in its dark depth; from there men draw it with the water-jar of desires. For bending down they let down their desire, that they may come to the pleasure drawn from the depth; and they enjoy the pleasure, their desire going before and being sent ahead.

For he who has not sent his desire ahead cannot come to the pleasure. Set down, then, as the water-jar, desire; and as the water from the depth, pleasure: when anyone has come to the pleasure of this world—it is food, it is drink, it is the bath, it is the spectacle, it is intercourse—will he not thirst again? Therefore he who drinks of this water, he says, will thirst again; but if he receives from me water, he will not thirst forever. We shall be satisfied, he says, with the good things of your house (Ps 65:4 (64:5)). Of what water, then, is he going to give, except of that of which it is said, With you is the spring of life (Ps 36:9 (35:10))? For how shall they thirst who will be made drunk with the abundance of your house (Ps 36:8 (35:9))?

17. He was promising, then, a certain fullness and satiety of the Holy Spirit; and she did not yet understand; and not understanding, what did she answer? The woman says to him: Lord, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw (Jn 4:15). Need was compelling her to the toil, and weakness was refusing the toil. Would that she had heard: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Mt 11:28). For this is what Jesus was saying to her, that she might no longer toil; but she did not yet understand.

18. In short, willing that she should understand, Jesus says to her: Go, call your husband, and come here (Jn 4:16). What is, Call your husband? Did he wish to give her that water through her husband? Or, because she did not understand, did he wish to teach her through her husband? Perhaps as the Apostle says of women: But if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home (1 Cor 14:35)? But there it is said, let them ask their husbands at home, where there is no Jesus to teach; in short, it is said to the women whom the Apostle was forbidding to speak in church. But when the Lord himself was present, and present was speaking to one present, what need was there that he should speak to her through her husband? Did he speak through her husband to Mary sitting at his feet and taking in his word, when Martha, very busy about much serving, was murmuring even about her sister's happiness (See Lk 10:39-40)?

Therefore, my brothers, let us hear and understand what the Lord says to the woman: Call your husband. For perhaps he says even to our soul: Call your husband. Let us also inquire about the husband of the soul. Why is not Jesus himself now the true husband of the soul? Let understanding be present, since what we are going to say is scarcely grasped except by the attentive: let understanding, then, be present that it may be grasped, and that very understanding will perhaps be the husband of the soul.

19. Seeing, then, that the woman did not understand, and wishing her to understand, he says, Call your husband. This is why you do not know what I say—because your understanding is not present: I am speaking according to the spirit, you are hearing according to the flesh. The things I speak pertain neither to the pleasure of the ears, nor to the eyes, nor to smell, nor to taste, nor to touch; by the mind alone are they grasped, by understanding alone are they drawn in: that understanding is not present to you; how do you grasp what I say? Call your husband: present your understanding.

For what is it to you to have a soul? It is no great thing, for the beast too has one. By what are you better? Because you have understanding, which the beast does not have. What, then, is, Call your husband? You do not grasp me, you do not understand me: I speak to you of the gift of God, but you are thinking of flesh; you are unwilling to thirst according to the flesh, while I am addressing the spirit; your understanding is absent: Call your husband. Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding (Ps 32:9 (31:9)).

Therefore, my brothers, to have a soul and not to have understanding—that is, not to apply it, nor to live according to it—is a beast's life. For there is in us something beastlike by which we live in the flesh, but it must be ruled by understanding. For the movement of the soul, moving itself according to the flesh and desiring to flow out immoderately into carnal delights, the understanding rules from above. Which ought to be called the husband? The one who rules, or the one who is ruled? Without doubt, when life is well ordered, the understanding rules the soul, while itself belonging to the soul. For it is not something other than the soul, but the understanding is something of the soul; just as the eye is not something other than the flesh, but the eye is something of the flesh. But although the eye is something of the flesh, yet it alone enjoys the light; the other carnal members can be flooded with light, but cannot perceive light; the eye alone is both flooded with it and enjoys it.

So in our soul there is something which is called understanding. This very part of the soul, which is called understanding and mind, is illuminated by a higher light. Now that higher light, by which the human mind is illuminated, is God; for it was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (Jn 1:9). Such a light was Christ, such a light was speaking with the woman; and she was not present in understanding by which she might be illuminated by that light, and not only flooded but also enjoy it. Therefore the Lord, as if to say: I wish to illumine, and there is no one present whom I may illumine; Call, he says, your husband: apply the understanding through which you may be taught, by which you may be ruled.

So, then, set down the soul apart from understanding as a woman, and to have understanding as a husband. But this husband does not rule his woman well unless he himself is ruled by a higher one. For the head of the woman is the man, but the head of the man is Christ (1 Cor 11:3). The head of the man was speaking with the woman, and the husband was not present. And as if the Lord said: Apply your head, that he may take up his head: therefore call your husband, and come here; that is, be present, be here; for you are as if absent while you do not understand the voice of the truth present; be present, but do not be alone; with your husband be here.

20. And still she, that husband not yet called, does not understand—still she is minded toward the flesh; for the husband is absent: I have, she says, no husband (Jn 4:17). And the Lord follows on, and speaks mysteries. You may understand that in reality this woman did not then have a husband, but was associating with some not lawful husband, an adulterer rather than a husband. And the Lord to her: You have well said: I have no husband (Jn 4:17). How, then, did you say, Call your husband? And hear that the Lord well knew that she had no husband: He says to her, and so on. Lest perhaps the woman should suppose that the Lord said, You have well said: I have no husband, because he had learned this from the woman, not because he himself knew it by his divinity, hear something that you did not say: For you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly (Jn 4:18).

21. Again he compels us to search out something more subtle about these five husbands. For many have understood—not indeed absurdly, nor in every way improbably—that the five husbands of this woman are the five books of Moses. For the Samaritans used them, and were under the same Law; for from there they had circumcision as well.

But since what follows constrains us—and the one whom you now have is not your husband—it seems to me that we can more easily take the five former husbands of the soul to be the five senses of the body. For when anyone is born, before he can use mind and reason, he is ruled only by the senses of the flesh. The soul in a little child desires or shuns what is heard, what is seen, what is smelled, what is tasted, what is felt by touch. It desires whatever soothes, it shuns whatever offends these five senses. For pleasure soothes these five senses, pain offends them. According to these five senses, as it were five husbands, the soul first lives, because it is ruled by them.

But why are they called husbands? Because they are lawful. For they were made by God, and given by God to the soul. Weak as yet is the soul that is ruled by these five senses, and acts under these five husbands; but when it has come to the years of exercising reason, if the best discipline and the teaching of wisdom takes it up, there succeeds to those five husbands, to rule it, none but a true, lawful husband, better than they, one who rules better, and who rules unto eternity, cultivates unto eternity, instructs unto eternity. For those five senses do not rule us unto eternity, but unto these temporal things, to be either desired or shunned.

But when the understanding, imbued with wisdom, has begun to rule the soul, it now knows not only to shun the pit and to walk on the level, which the eyes show to the weak soul; nor only to hear tuneful voices sweetly and to repel discordant ones; or to be delighted by pleasant smells and to spit out stenches; or to be charmed by sweetness and offended by bitterness; or to be soothed by smooth things and hurt by rough ones. For all these things are necessary to the weak soul. What rule, then, is applied through that understanding? It is not white and black that it is going to distinguish, but just and unjust, good and evil, useful and useless, chastity and unchastity—this that it may love, that that it may avoid; love and hatred—in this that it may abide, in that that it may not.

22. This husband had not succeeded to those five husbands in this woman. For where he does not succeed, error reigns. For when the soul has begun to be capable of reason, it is ruled either by a wise mind or by error; but error does not rule, it destroys. After those five senses, then, that woman was still wandering, and error was tossing her about. But this error was not a lawful husband, but an adulterer; therefore the Lord said to her: You have well said: I have no husband. For you have had five husbands: the five senses of the flesh first ruled you; you came to the age for using reason, and you did not arrive at wisdom, but fell into error. So after those five husbands, the one whom you now have is not your husband.

And what was it, if it was not a husband, but an adulterer? Call, then, not the adulterer, but your husband; that you may grasp me by understanding, and not, through error, hold some false opinion about me. For the woman was still wandering, who was thinking of that water, while the Lord was already speaking of the Holy Spirit. Why was she wandering, except that she had an adulterer, not a husband? Take away, then, from here this adulterer who corrupts you, and go, call your husband. Call, and come, that you may understand me.

23. The woman says to him: Lord, I see that you are a prophet (Jn 4:19). The husband began to come, he had not yet fully come. She supposed the Lord to be a prophet. He was indeed also a prophet, for he says of himself, A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country (Jn 4:44). Likewise it was said of him to Moses, I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brothers, like you (Deut 18:18)—like, that is, in the form of the flesh, not in the eminence of his majesty. Therefore we find the Lord Jesus called a prophet. And so this woman is now not greatly mistaken. I see, she says, that you are a prophet. She begins to call her husband, to shut out the adulterer: I see that you are a prophet. And she begins to ask about what was wont to trouble her.

For there had been a dispute between the Samaritans and the Jews, because the Jews adored God in the temple built by Solomon, while the Samaritans, placed far from there, did not adore in it. Therefore the Jews boasted that they were better, because they adored God in the temple. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans, because they said to them: How do you boast, and claim to be better than we, because you have a temple which we do not have? Did our fathers, who pleased God, adore in that temple? Did they not adore on this mountain, where we are? Better, then, do we, they say, entreat God on this mountain, where our fathers entreated him. Both sides were contending in ignorance, because they had no husband: those puffed up for the temple, these for the mountain, against each other.

24. The Lord, however, what does he now teach the woman, as one whose husband has begun to be present? The woman says to him: Lord, I see that you are a prophet. Our fathers adored on this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to adore. Jesus says to her: Woman, believe me (Jn 4:19-21). For the Church will come, as is said in the Song of Songs; she will come and pass over from the beginning of faith. She will come that she may pass over, and she cannot pass over except from the beginning of faith. Deservedly, now that the husband is present, she hears, Woman, believe me. For there is now in you one who may believe, because your husband is present. You began to be present in understanding when you called me a prophet. Woman, believe me: for unless you believe, you will not understand (Isa 7:9).

Therefore: Woman, believe me, that an hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you adore the Father. You adore what you do not know; we adore what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming (Jn 4:21-23). When? And now is. What hour, then? When the true adorers will adore the Father in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:23)—not on that mountain, not in the temple, but in spirit and in truth. For the Father too seeks such to adore him (Jn 4:23).

Why does the Father seek such to adore him—not on a mountain, not in a temple, but in spirit and in truth? God is spirit (Jn 4:24). If God were a body, he would have to be adored on a mountain, because a mountain is corporeal; he would have to be adored in a temple, because a temple is corporeal. God is spirit; and those who adore him must adore in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:24).

25. We have heard, and it is plain; we had gone outside, we have been sent within.

Oh, if I could find, you used to say, some high and solitary mountain! For I believe that God is on high, and the more from on high he hears me.

Because you are on a mountain, do you suppose yourself near to God, and that you are quickly heard, as crying out as if from close by? He dwells on high, but he looks upon the lowly things (Ps 138:6 (137:6)).

The Lord is near (Ps 34:18 (33:19)).

To whom? Perhaps to the lofty?

To those who are of a bruised heart (Ps 34:18 (33:19)).

A wonderful thing: he both dwells on high and draws near to the lowly: he looks upon the lowly things, but the lofty he knows from afar (Ps 138:6 (137:6)). He sees the proud from afar, and the loftier they seem to themselves, the less near he is to them. Were you seeking a mountain, then? Come down, that you may reach him. But do you wish to ascend? Ascend; do not seek a mountain. The ascents, it says, are in his heart (so the Psalm says), in the valley of weeping (Ps 84:5-6 (83:6-7)). The valley has lowliness. Therefore do the whole thing within. And if perhaps you are seeking some high place, some holy place, within show yourself a temple to God. For the temple of God is holy, which you are (1 Cor 3:17). Do you wish to pray in a temple? Pray in yourself. But first be a temple of God, because he will hear the one who prays in his temple.

26. The hour comes, then, and now is, when the true adorers will adore the Father in spirit and in truth. We adore what we know, you adore what you do not know, because salvation is from the Jews (Jn 4:23,22). He gave much to the Jews; but do not take those reprobate ones. Take that wall to which another is joined, so that, made at peace in the cornerstone, which is Christ, they may be coupled together. For there is one wall from the Jews, one from the Gentiles: far apart are those walls, but only until they are joined in the corner. But the foreigners were strangers, and pilgrims from the covenants of God (See Eph 2:12). According to this, then, it was said, We adore what we know. It was said in the person of the Jews indeed, but not of all the Jews, not of the reprobate Jews, but of such as the apostles were, such as the prophets were, such as were all those holy ones who sold all their goods and laid the prices of their things at the feet of the apostles. For God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew (Rom 11:2).

27. This woman heard this, and added something. She had a while ago called him a prophet; she saw that the one with whom she spoke said such things as were now more than belonged to a prophet; and see what she answered: The woman says to him: I know that the Messiah is coming, who is called the Christ; when, then, he comes, he will show us all things (Jn 4:25). What is this? Now, she says, the Jews are contending about the temple, and we are contending about the mountain; when he comes, he will both spurn the mountain and overthrow the temple; he will teach us all things, that we may know how to adore in spirit and in truth. She knew who could teach her, but she did not yet recognize the one who was teaching. Now, then, she was worthy that it should be revealed to her. Now "Messiah" is "anointed"; "anointed" in Greek is "Christ"; in Hebrew it is "Messiah"; whence also in Punic "Messe" is said for "anoint." For these tongues are kindred and neighbors—Hebrew, Punic, and Syriac.

28. So, then, the woman says to him: I know that the Messiah is coming, who is called the Christ; when, then, he comes, he will announce all things to us. Jesus says to her: I am he, who am speaking with you (Jn 4:25-26). She called her husband; her husband became the head of the woman, Christ became the head of the husband. Now the woman is set in order in faith, and is ruled so as to live well. After she heard this, I am he, who am speaking with you, what could she now say further, when Christ the Lord willed to manifest himself to the woman to whom he had said, Believe me?

29. And immediately his disciples came, and wondered that he was speaking with a woman (Jn 4:27). Because he was seeking the lost, he who had come to seek what had perished, this they wondered at. For they wondered at a good thing, they did not suspect anything evil. Yet no one said, What are you seeking, or why are you speaking with her? (Jn 4:27)

30. The woman, then, left her water-jar (Jn 4:28). Having heard, I am he, who am speaking with you, and having received Christ the Lord into her heart, what should she do but now leave the water-jar and run to evangelize? She threw away desire, and hastened to announce the truth. Let those who wish to evangelize learn: let them throw the water-jar down at the well. Recall what I said above about the water-jar: it was the vessel from which water was drawn; it is called by a Greek name "hydria," because in Greek "water" is "hydor"—as if one were to say "water-pot." She threw away, then, the water-jar, which now was not for use but for a burden; for greedily she had desired to be satisfied with that water. To announce Christ, with the burden cast off, she ran to the city, and says to those men, Come and see a man who told me everything that I ever did. Step by step—lest they should as it were be angered, and indignant, and persecute. Come and see a man who told me everything that I ever did; can he be the Christ? (Jn 4:29) They went out of the city, and came to him (Jn 4:30).

31. And meanwhile the disciples were asking him, saying: Rabbi, eat. For they had gone to buy food, and had come back. But he said: I have food to eat that you do not know. The disciples, then, said to one another: Has anyone brought him something to eat? (Jn 4:31-33) What wonder if that woman did not understand the water? Behold, the disciples do not yet understand the food. But he heard their thoughts, and now instructs them as a master—not roundabout, as he did with her whose husband he was still requiring, but now openly: My food, he says, is to do the will of him who sent me (Jn 4:34).

Therefore his drink too was in that woman, that he might do the will of him who had sent him. This is why he said, I thirst, give me to drink; namely, that he might work faith in her, and drink her faith, and transfer her into his own body; for his body is the Church. He himself, then, he says, is my food, that I may do the will of him who sent me.

32. Do you not say that there are yet four months, and the harvest comes? (Jn 4:35) He was burning for the work, and was arranging to send out laborers. You reckon four months until the harvest; I show you another harvest, white and ready. Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and see that the regions are already white for the harvest (Jn 4:35). He is going, then, to send reapers. For in this is the saying true, that one is he who reaps, and another he who sows; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. I sent you to reap what you did not labor for; others labored, and you have entered into their labor (Jn 4:36-38).

What then? Did he send reapers, not sowers? Where the reapers? Where others had already labored. For where there had already been labor, surely there had been sowing; and what had been sown was now made ripe, and was calling for the sickle and the threshing. Where, then, were the reapers to be sent? Where the prophets had already preached; for they are the sowers. For if they were not the sowers, whence had it come to that woman, I know that the Messiah is coming? Now that woman was ripe fruit, and the harvests were white, and were calling for the sickle. I sent you, then: where? To reap what you did not sow: others sowed, and you have entered into their labors.

Who labored? Abraham himself, Isaac, and Jacob. Read their labors: in all their labors is the prophecy of Christ; and therefore they are the sowers. Moses and the other patriarchs and all the prophets—how much did they endure in that cold when they were sowing? Therefore now in Judea the harvest was ready. Deservedly there was a ripe crop there, when so many thousands of men brought the prices of their goods and, laying them at the feet of the apostles, with shoulders freed from worldly burdens, followed Christ the Lord: truly a ripe harvest.

What came of this? From that harvest a few grains were cast out, and they sowed the whole world, and another harvest rises which is to be reaped at the end of the world. Of this harvest it is said, Those who sow in tears will reap in joy (Ps 126:5 (125:5)). To this harvest, then, not the apostles, but the angels will be sent: The reapers, he says, are the angels (Mt 13:39). This harvest, then, grows among the weeds, and waits to be purged at the end.

But that harvest was already ripe, to which the disciples were first sent, where the prophets had labored. Yet, brothers, see what was said: That he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. They had labors of different times; but they will enjoy joy alike, they are about to receive together the reward, eternal life.

Christ is announced through Christian friends.

33. Now from that city many of the Samaritans believed in him, because of the word of the woman bearing witness: He told me everything that I ever did. When the Samaritans, then, had come to him, they asked him to remain with them; and he remained there two days. And many more believed because of his word; and they said to the woman: We now believe, not because of your speech; for we ourselves have heard, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world (Jn 4:39-42).

And this little is to be noticed, because the reading is finished. The woman announced first, and at the woman's testimony the Samaritans believed, and asked him to remain with them, and he remained there two days, and more believed; and when they had believed, they said to the woman: We no longer believe because of your word, but we ourselves have come to know, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world—first by report, afterward by his presence. So it is done today with those who are outside, and are not yet Christians: Christ is announced through Christian friends; as if through that woman, that is, through the Church announcing him, they come to Christ, they believe through this report; he remains with them two days, that is, he gives them the two commandments of love; and many more, and more firmly, believe in him, because he is truly the Savior of the world.

Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe (Jn 4:43-53).

I am speaking to the people of God: so many of us have believed—what signs did we see? We heard the Gospel, we consented to the Gospel, through the Gospel we believed in Christ; we saw no signs, we demand none.

1. Today's Gospel reading follows yesterday's reading, and is set before us for discussion. In it, indeed, the meanings are not difficult to investigate, but worthy to be preached, worthy of admiration and praise. Accordingly, let us rather recall this passage of the Gospel with commendation than treat it as difficult. For Jesus went away, after the two days that he had spent in Samaria, into Galilee, where he had been brought up. And the Evangelist went on to say: For Jesus himself bore witness that a prophet has no honor in his own country (Jn 4:43-44). Jesus did not depart from Samaria after two days because he had no honor in Samaria; for Samaria was not his own country, but Galilee was. Since, then, he had so quickly left it, and had come to Galilee where he had been brought up, how does he bear witness that a prophet has no honor in his own country? It would seem rather that he could have borne witness that a prophet has no honor in his own country if he had scorned to go on into Galilee and had remained in Samaria.

2. Let your Charity, then, attend to a sacred sign of no small import suggested to us, the Lord prompting and granting what I am to say. You have learned the question proposed; seek out its solution. But let us repeat the proposition, that we may make the solution welcome. It moves us why the Evangelist said, For Jesus himself bore witness that a prophet has no honor in his own country. Moved by this, we unfold the preceding words, that we may find why the Evangelist wished to say this; and we find his preceding words narrating thus: that after two days he set out from Samaria into Galilee.

Was it for this, then, O Evangelist, that you said Jesus bore witness that a prophet has no honor in his own country—because after two days he left Samaria and hastened to come into Galilee? On the contrary, I seem to myself to understand more fittingly that, if Jesus had no honor in his own country, he would not, having left Samaria, hasten to that very country. But unless I am mistaken—indeed, because it is true, and I am not mistaken—the Evangelist saw better than I what he was saying; he saw the truth better than I, who drank it from the Lord's breast. For this is John the Evangelist, who among all the disciples lay upon the Lord's breast (See Jn 13:23); and whom the Lord, owing love to all, yet loved beyond the rest (See Jn 21:20). Would he, then, be mistaken, and I think rightly? Rather, if I am wise with godliness, let me hear obediently what he said, that I may deserve to perceive what he perceived.

3. Receive, therefore, dearly beloved, what I here perceive, without prejudice, if you have perceived anything better. For we all have one Master, and in one school we are fellow students. This, then, is what I perceive; and see whether what I perceive is not either true, or close to the truth.

In Samaria he spent two days, and the Samaritans believed in him; so many days he spent in Galilee, and the Galileans did not believe in him. Unfold, or recall to memory, yesterday's reading and sermon. He came into Samaria, where first that woman had proclaimed him, with whom he had spoken great mysteries at Jacob's well: when he had been seen and heard, the Samaritans believed in him because of the woman's word, and believed more firmly because of his word, and more believed: so it is written. There, after spending two days (by which number of days the number of the two commandments is mystically commended, on which two commandments the whole Law and the Prophets depend (See Mt 22:40), as you remember we commended yesterday), he goes on into Galilee, and comes to the city of Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine (See Jn 2:1-11). But there, when he turned the water into wine, as John himself writes, his disciples believed in him; and surely the house was full of crowds of banqueters. So great a miracle was done, and no one believed in him but his disciples (See Jn 2:11).

This city of Galilee he now visited again. And behold, a certain royal official, whose son was sick, came to him, and began to ask him to come down to that city or house, and heal his son; for he was beginning to die (See Jn 4:46-47). Did the one who asked not believe? What do you expect to hear from me? Ask the Lord what he perceived about him. For when asked, he answered such things: Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe (Jn 4:48). He reproved the man as lukewarm in faith, or cold, or of altogether no faith—but as one desiring, by means of his son's health, to test what Christ was, who he was, how much he could do. For we have heard the words of the one asking; we do not see the heart of the one distrusting; but he declared it, who both heard the words and looked into the heart.

In short, the Evangelist himself shows by the testimony of his narrative that the man who desired the Lord to come to his house, to heal his son, had not yet believed. For after it was announced to him that his son was well, and he found him healed at the very hour at which the Lord had said, Go, your son lives, then, it says, he himself believed, and his whole household (Jn 4:53). If, then, he himself and his whole household believed because his son was announced to him as well, and he compared the hour of the announcers with the hour of the one foretelling, then when he was asking, he did not yet believe.

The Samaritans had awaited no sign, they had believed only at his word; but his own townsmen deserved to hear, Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe; and yet there, when so great a miracle had been done, no one believed but he himself and his household. At his word alone the many Samaritans believed; at that miracle only that one household believed, where it was done.

What, then, brothers, what does the Lord commend to us? Then Galilee of Judea was the Lord's own country, because he had been brought up there; but now, because that matter portends something—for "wonders" are not so called without cause, except that they portend something; for a "wonder" (prodigium) is so named as it were "porro-dicium," because it says something further off, signifies something further off, and portends that something is to be—because, then, all those things were portending something, all those things were foretelling something, let us now make the country of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh (for he had no country on earth except according to the flesh, which he took on earth); let us make, then, the country of the Lord the people of the Jews. Behold, in his own country he has no honor.

Now attend to the crowds of the Jews; attend to that nation now scattered over the whole world, and torn up by its roots; attend to the branches broken, cut off, scattered, dried up, by whose breaking the wild olive deserved to be grafted in (See Rom 11:17-24): see the crowd of the Jews; what does it say now? The one you worship, the one you adore, was our brother. And let us answer: A prophet has no honor in his own country. In short, they saw the Lord Jesus walking on earth and doing miracles—giving light to the blind, opening the ears of the deaf, loosing the mouths of the mute, binding tight the limbs of the paralyzed, walking on the sea, commanding the winds and the waves, raising the dead; they saw him doing such great signs, and scarcely a few of them believed.

I am speaking to the people of God: so many of us have believed—what signs did we see? Therefore that which was done then portended what is being done now. The Jews were, or are, like the Galileans; we are like those Samaritans. We heard the Gospel, we consented to the Gospel, through the Gospel we believed in Christ; we saw no signs, we demand none.

4. For although he was one of the twelve elect and holy ones, yet he was an Israelite, of the Lord's nation, that Thomas who desired to put his fingers into the places of the wounds. The Lord reproved him as he did this royal official. To this one he said, Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe; but to that one he said, Because you have seen, you have believed. He had come to the Galileans after the Samaritans who had believed at his word, among whom he had done no miracles, whom, firm in faith, he had securely left so soon, because he had not left them by the presence of his divinity. Therefore, when the Lord said to Thomas, Come, put in your hand, and do not be unbelieving, but believing; and when he, the places of the wounds being touched, cried out and said, My Lord and my God, he is rebuked and it is said to him, Because you have seen, you have believed (Jn 20:27-29). Why, except that a prophet has no honor in his own country? But because among the foreigners this prophet has honor, what follows? Blessed are those who do not see and believe (Jn 20:29).

We have been foretold; and what the Lord praised beforehand, he deigned to fulfill in us. Those who crucified him saw and touched, and yet few believed; we did not see, we did not handle, we heard, we believed. May the blessedness which he promised come to be in us, be perfected in us; both here, because we have been preferred to his own country; and in the age to come, because in place of the broken branches we have been grafted in.

5. For he was showing that he would break these branches, and graft in this wild olive, when, moved by the faith of the centurion, who said to him, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed; for I too am a man set under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it: turning to those who were following him, he said, Amen I say to you, I have not found such great faith in Israel (Mt 8:8-10). Why did he not find such great faith in Israel? Because a prophet has no honor in his own country.

Could not the Lord also have said to that centurion what he said to this royal official, Go, your son lives (Jn 4:50)? See the distinction: this royal official desired the Lord to come down to his house; that centurion said he was unworthy. To the one it was said, I will come and heal him; to the other it was said, Go, your son lives. To the one he promised his presence; the other he healed by a word. Yet this one wrung from him his presence; that one said he was unworthy of his presence. Here he yielded to pride; there he conceded to humility. As if he said to this one: Go, your son lives, do not make me weary. Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe: you want my presence in your house; I can also command by a word; do not you believe because of signs: the foreign centurion believed that I could do it by a word, and before I did it he believed; you, unless you see signs and wonders, do not believe.

Therefore, if it is so, let the proud branches be broken, let the humble wild olive be grafted in: yet let the root remain, those being cut off, these being received. Where does the root remain? In the patriarchs. For the country of Christ is the people of Israel, because from them he came according to the flesh; but the root of this tree is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the holy patriarchs. And where are they? In rest with God, in great honor: so that into Abraham's bosom that poor man, helped, was lifted up after the body's departure, and in Abraham's bosom was seen from afar by the proud rich man (See Lk 16:22-23). Therefore the root remains, the root is praised; but the proud branches deserved both to be cut off and to wither; and the humble wild olive, by their cutting off, found a place.

6. Hear, then, how the natural branches are cut off, how the wild olive is grafted in, from that very centurion, whom I thought I should mention because of the comparison with this royal official. Amen, he says, I say to you, I have not found such great faith in Israel: therefore I say to you, that many from the east and the west (Mt 8:10-11). How widely the wild olive had occupied the earth! This world was a bitter forest; but because of humility, because of "I am not worthy that you should come under my roof," many from the east and the west will come. And suppose they will come: what will become of them? For if they will come, they have already been cut off from the forest: where are they to be grafted, lest they wither? And they will recline, he says, with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob (Mt 8:11). At what banquet?—lest perhaps you should invite to living forever, but to much drinking. They will recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. Where? In the kingdom, he says, of heaven. And what will become of those who came from the stock of Abraham? What will become of the branches with which the tree was full? What, except that they will be cut off, that these may be grafted in? Show that they will be cut off: But the sons of the kingdom will go into the outer darkness (Mt 8:12).

7. Let the prophet, then, have honor among us, because he had no honor in his own country. He had no honor in the country in which he was founded; let him have honor in the country which he founded. For in it the founder of all things was founded; he was founded in it according to the form of a servant. For that very city in which he was founded, that very Zion, that very nation of the Jews, that very Jerusalem, he himself founded, when he was, with the Father, the Word of God: for all things were made through him, and without him was made nothing (Jn 1:3).

Of that man, then, of whom we have heard today—the one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus—a Psalm too has spoken beforehand, saying: "Mother Zion," a man will say (Ps 87:5 (86:5)). A certain man, the mediator of God and men, the man, says, "Mother Zion." Why does he say, "Mother Zion"? Because from there he received flesh, from there the Virgin Mary, from whose womb the form of a servant was taken, in which he deigned to appear most lowly. "Mother Zion," a man says; and this man who says "Mother Zion" was made in her, was made man in her. For God was before her, and was made man in her. He who was made man in her, he himself, the Most High, founded her—not the most lowly. He was made man in her, most lowly, because the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14): he, the Most High, founded her, because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; all things were made through him (Jn 1:1,3). But because he founded that country, let him have honor here. The country in which he was begotten cast him out; let the country which he regenerated receive him.

He who went down first into the pool after the moving of the water was made well (Jn 5:1-18).

1. There ought to be no wonder that a miracle was done by God; for it would be a wonder if a man had done it. We ought to rejoice rather than wonder that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was made man, more than that, being God, he did divine things among men. For it is more for our salvation that he was made for the sake of men, than that he did things among men; and it is more that he healed the vices of souls, than that he healed the diseases of bodies that were to die. But because the soul itself did not know him by whom it was to be healed, and had eyes in the flesh with which to see things done bodily, but did not yet have sound eyes in the heart, by which it might know the hidden God, he did what it could see, that it might be healed in that by which it could not see.

He entered a place where there lay a great multitude of the sick, the blind, the lame, the withered; and although he was the physician both of souls and of bodies, and one who had come to heal all the souls of those who would believe, of those sick ones he chose one to heal, that he might signify unity. If we consider the doer with a mediocre heart, and as it were with merely human grasp and understanding, then, as far as power is concerned, he accomplished nothing great; and as far as kindness, he did little. So many lay there, and one was cured, when by one word he could have raised them all up. What, then, is to be understood, except that that power and that goodness were acting more upon what souls should understand in his deeds for eternal salvation, than upon what bodies should merit for temporal salvation?

For the health of bodies, which is truly awaited from the Lord, will be at the end, in the resurrection of the dead: then what lives will not die; then what is healed will not sicken; then what is satisfied will not hunger or thirst; then what is renewed will not grow old. But now, in those deeds of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, both the opened eyes of the blind were closed in death, and the bound limbs of the paralyzed were dissolved in death; and whatever was healed temporally in mortal members failed at the end; but the soul that believed made the passage to eternal life.

To the soul, then, that was to believe, whose sins he had come to forgive, to heal whose diseases he had humbled himself, he gave a great sign in this sick man healed. Of this matter and this sign the deep sacred meaning, as far as the Lord deigns to grant, I will speak as I can, with you attentive and helping our weakness by prayer. But whatever I cannot, he himself will supply in you, by whose help I do what I can.

2. About this pool, which was surrounded by five porticoes, in which lay a great multitude of the sick, I remember we have treated repeatedly; and I am about to say a thing which many will recognize with me rather than learn. Yet it is not amiss to repeat even what is known, that both those who did not know may be instructed, and those who knew may be confirmed. Accordingly, things as it were known are to be touched on briefly, not idly drummed in.

That pool and that water seem to me to have signified the people of the Jews. For that peoples are signified by the name of waters, the Apocalypse of John openly shows us: where, when many waters were shown to him, and he had asked what they were, he received the answer that they were peoples (See Rev 17:15). That water, then, that is, that people, was shut in by the five books of Moses, as by five porticoes. But those books brought the sick to light, they did not heal them. For the Law convicted sinners, it did not absolve them. Therefore the letter without grace made guilty those whom grace, when they confessed, set free. For this the Apostle says: For if a law had been given that could give life, righteousness would altogether be from the Law. Why, then, was the Law given? He goes on and says: But Scripture shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe (Gal 3:21-22).

What is plainer? Have not these words expounded to us both the five porticoes and the multitude of the sick? The five porticoes are the Law. Why did the five porticoes not heal the sick?

Because if a law had been given that could give life, righteousness would altogether be from the Law.

Why, then, did they hold those whom they did not heal?

Because Scripture shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

3. What, then, was being done, that in that troubled water those should be healed who could not be healed in the porticoes? For suddenly the water was seen to be troubled, and by whom it was troubled was not seen. You may believe that this was wont to be done by an angelic power, yet not without some signifying sacred meaning. After the water was troubled, one who could went down, and he alone was healed; after him, whoever should send himself down would do so in vain.

What, then, does this mean, except that one Christ came to the people of the Jews; and by doing great things, by teaching useful things, he troubled the sinners, troubled the water by his presence, and stirred them up to his Passion? But he troubled it while hidden. For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:8). To go down, then, into the troubled water is to believe humbly in the Lord's Passion. There one was healed, signifying unity; afterward whoever came was not healed, because whoever is outside unity cannot be healed.

4. Let us see, then, what he wished to signify in that one whom, himself too keeping the mystery of unity, as I said before, he deigned of so many sick ones to heal as one. He found in his years a certain number of sickness: he had been thirty-eight years in his infirmity (Jn 5:5). How this number pertains rather to sickness than to health must be explained a little more carefully. I want you attentive; the Lord will be present, that I may speak fittingly, and that you may hear sufficiently.

The number forty is commended to us as sacred in a certain perfection. I think it is known to your Charity: the divine Scriptures very often attest it. Fasting is consecrated by this number: you know it well. For Moses fasted forty days, and Elijah as many, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ himself fulfilled this number of fasting. By Moses is signified the Law, by Elijah are signified the Prophets, by the Lord is signified the Gospel. Therefore on that mountain three appeared, where he showed himself to the disciples in the brightness of his countenance and his garment. For he appeared in the midst between Moses and Elijah, as though the Gospel had testimony from the Law and the Prophets. Whether, then, in the Law, or in the Prophets, or in the Gospel, the number forty is commended to us in fasting.

Now the great and general fasting is to abstain from iniquities and the unlawful pleasures of the world; this is the perfect fasting: that, renouncing ungodliness and worldly desires, we may live temperately, and justly, and devoutly in this world (Titus 2:12). What reward does the Apostle add to this fasting? He goes on and says: awaiting that blessed hope, and the manifestation of the glory of the blessed God, and of our Savior Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13). In this world, then, we celebrate as it were a Lent of abstinence, when we live well, when we abstain from iniquities and from unlawful pleasures. But because this abstinence will not be without reward, we await that blessed hope, and the revelation of the glory of the great God, and of our Savior Jesus Christ. In that hope, when out of hope it has been made a reality, we are to receive the reward of a denarius. For that very reward is paid to the laborers working in the vineyard, according to the Gospel (See Mt 20:9-10), which I believe you remember; for not everything is to be recounted, as though to the untaught and unskilled. The denarius, then, which received its name from the number ten, is paid; and, joined to the number forty, it makes fifty: whence with labor we celebrate Lent before Easter; but with gladness, as having received the reward, the fifty days after Easter. For to this as it were salutary labor of a good work, which pertains to the number forty, is added the denarius of rest and happiness, that it may become fifty.

5. The Lord Jesus himself also signified this much more openly, when after the resurrection he spent forty days on earth with his disciples (See Acts 1:3); but on the fortieth day, when he had ascended into heaven, after ten days had passed he sent the reward of the Holy Spirit (See Acts 2:1-4). These things were signified, and by certain significations the realities themselves were anticipated. We are fed by significations, that we may be able to come to the realities themselves that endure. For we are laborers, and we still labor in the vineyard: when the day is finished, the work finished, the reward will be restored. But what laborer endures to receive the reward, except one who is fed while he labors? For will you too give your laborer only the reward? Will you not also bring him something by which to repair his strength at his labor? Surely you feed the one to whom you are going to give the reward.

Accordingly, the Lord too feeds us as we labor in these significations of the Scriptures. For if that gladness of the sacred meanings to be understood is taken away from us, we fail in our labor, and there will be no one to come to the reward.

6. How, then, is the work perfected by the number forty? Perhaps because the Law was given in ten commandments, and the Law was to be preached throughout the whole world; which whole world is comprised in four parts—east and west, south and north—whence the denarius, multiplied by four, comes to forty. Or because through the Gospel, which has four books, the Law is fulfilled: for in the Gospel it was said, I have not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it (Mt 5:17). Whether, then, that cause, or this, or some other more probable one that lies hidden from us—it does not lie hidden from the more learned—it is yet certain that by the number forty is signified a certain perfection in good works, which good works are exercised especially in a certain abstinence from the unlawful desires of the world, that is, in the general fasting. Hear the Apostle too saying, The fullness of the Law is love (Rom 13:10). Love from where? Through the grace of God, through the Holy Spirit. For we would not have it from ourselves, as though making it for ourselves. It is the gift of God, and a great gift: For the love of God, he says, has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5). Love, then, fulfills the Law, and most truly it was said, The fullness of the Law is love. Let us seek this love, how it is commended by the Lord.

Remember what I proposed: I want to explain the number thirty-eight years in that sick man, why that thirty-eighth number is of sickness rather than of health. Therefore, as I was saying, love fulfills the Law. To the fullness of the Law in all works pertains the number forty; but in love two commandments are commended to us. Look, I beg you, and fix in memory what I say; do not be despisers of the word, lest your soul become a path, where the grains cast do not sprout: And the birds of heaven will come, he says, and gather them up (See Mt 13:4,19). Take it in, and store it in your hearts. Two commandments of love have been commended by the Lord: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind; and: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets (Mt 22:37-40).

Deservedly that widow too put all her substance, two mites, into the gifts of God (See Mk 12:42-44); deservedly too, for that sick man wounded by robbers, the innkeeper received two coins with which he might be healed (See Lk 10:35); deservedly Jesus spent two days among the Samaritans, that he might confirm them in love (See Jn 4:40). By this number two, then, when something good is signified, love above all, divided in two, is commended. If, then, the number forty has the perfection of the Law, and the Law is not fulfilled except in the twofold commandment of love, why do you wonder that he was sick who was two short of forty?

7. Let us therefore now see by what sacred sign this sick man is cured by the Lord. For the Lord himself came, the teacher of love, full of love, making the word short upon the earth, as was foretold of him (See Rom 9:28); and he showed that on the two commandments of love depend the Law and the Prophets. From there, then, hung Moses with his forty, from there Elijah with his, this number the Lord brought in his testimony. This sick man is cured by the Lord present; but what does he first say to him? Do you wish to be made well? (Jn 5:6) He answered that he had no man by whom he might be put into the pool (See Jn 5:7). Truly he needed a man for his healing, but that man who is also God. For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5). The man, then, who was needed came: why should the healing be delayed? Rise, he says, take up your pallet, and walk (Jn 5:8).

He said three things: Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.

But Rise was not the command of a work, but the working of healing. To him, now healed, he commanded two things: Take up your pallet, and walk. I ask you, why would not Walk suffice? Or surely, why would not Rise suffice? For when he had risen healed, he would not have remained in the place. Would he not have risen for this, that he might go away? It moves me, then, that he commanded two things, who found him lying two short: for as it were by commanding two things, he fulfilled what was lacking.

8. How, then, may we find in these two commands of the Lord those two commandments of love signified? Take up, he says, your pallet, and walk. What are those two commandments, brothers? Recall them with me. For they ought to be most well known, and not only come to mind when they are recalled by us, but never be erased from your hearts. Always think entirely that God and neighbor are to be loved: God with the whole heart, with the whole soul, and with the whole mind; and the neighbor as oneself. These are always to be thought of, these to be meditated on, these to be retained, these to be done, these to be fulfilled.

The love of God is first in the order of commanding; but the love of neighbor is first in the order of doing. For he who commanded you this love in two commandments would not commend to you the neighbor first, and afterward God; but first God, afterward the neighbor. But you, because you do not yet see God, by loving the neighbor earn to see him whom you love; by loving the neighbor you cleanse the eye for seeing God, as John says plainly: If you do not love the brother whom you see, how will you be able to love God whom you do not see? (1 Jn 4:20) See, it is said to you: Love God. If you say to me, Show me the one I am to love—what shall I answer, except what John himself says: No one has ever seen God (1 Jn 4:12)? And lest you suppose yourself altogether estranged from seeing God: God, he says, is love; and he who abides in love abides in God (1 Jn 4:16). Love, then, your neighbor; and look within yourself at the source from which you love your neighbor; there you will see, as you can, God.

Begin, then, to love your neighbor. Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the needy without a roof into your house; if you see one naked, clothe him, and do not despise the household of your own seed. But in doing these things, what do you obtain? Then your light will break forth as the morning (Isa 58:7-8). Your light is your God, the morning light to you, because he will come to you after the night of the world; for he neither rises nor sets, because he always abides. He will be the morning to you returning, who had made the setting to you perishing. Therefore, Take up your pallet, he seems to me to have said: Love your neighbor.

9. But it is still closed, and needs expounding, I think—why in the taking up of the pallet the love of neighbor is commended; unless perhaps this offends us, that by a pallet, a kind of dull and senseless thing, the neighbor is commended. Let the neighbor not be angry, if he is commended to us by a thing that is without soul and without sense. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ himself was called a cornerstone, that he might found two in himself. He was called also a rock, from which water flowed forth: and the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4). What wonder, then, if Christ is a rock, the neighbor is wood? Yet not just any wood: as neither was that just any rock, but one from which water had flowed forth for the thirsty; nor just any stone, but a cornerstone, which coupled in itself two walls coming from different directions. So neither should you take the neighbor as just any wood, but as a pallet.

What, then, in the pallet, I ask you? What, except that that sick man was carried by the pallet? But when made well, he carries the pallet. What was said by the Apostle? Carry one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:2). The law of Christ, then, is love, and love is not fulfilled unless we carry one another's burdens. Bearing with one another in love, he says, being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:2-3). When you were sick, your neighbor carried you; you have been made well, carry your neighbor. Carry one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. So, O man, you will fulfill what was lacking to you.

Take up, then, your pallet. But when you have taken it up, do not remain; walk. By loving the neighbor, and by having care for your neighbor, you make a journey. Where do you journey, except to the Lord God, to him whom we ought to love with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with the whole mind? For we have not yet come to the Lord, but we have the neighbor with us. Carry, then, the one with whom you walk, that you may come to the one with whom you desire to abide. Take up, then, your pallet, and walk.

10. This man did it, and the Jews were scandalized. For they saw a man on the Sabbath day carrying his pallet, and they did not bring a charge against the Lord that he had made him well on the Sabbath, so that he might answer them that if any of their cattle had fallen into a pit, surely on the Sabbath day they would pull it out and save their beast (See Lk 14:5); so they were now no longer objecting that a man had been made well on the Sabbath day, but that he was carrying his pallet. If the healing was not to be deferred, was the work also to be commanded? It is not lawful for you, they say, to do what you are doing, to take up your pallet (See Jn 5:10). And he held up the author of his healing to the slanderers: He who, he says, made me well, he himself said to me: Take up your pallet, and walk (Jn 5:11). Should I not receive a command from the one from whom I had received healing? And they: Who is that man who said to you: Take up your pallet, and walk? (Jn 5:12)

11. But he who had been made well did not know who it was from whom he had heard this. For Jesus, when he had done this and given the command, had withdrawn from him in the crowd (See Jn 5:13). See how this too is fulfilled. We carry the neighbor, and we walk, toward God; but the one toward whom we walk we do not yet see; and so that man too did not yet know Jesus. This sacred meaning is commended, that we believe in him whom we do not yet see; and, that he may not be seen, he withdraws into the crowd. It is hard to see Christ in a crowd: a certain solitude is necessary for our mind; by a certain solitude of attention God is seen. A crowd has noise; this seeing desires secrecy. Take up your pallet, carry, you who were carried, your neighbor; and walk, that you may arrive.

Do not seek Jesus in the crowd; he is not as one of the crowd: he goes before the whole crowd. That great fish rose first from the sea, and sits in heaven interceding for us; like a great priest, alone he entered into the inner part of the veil: the crowd stands outside. Walk you, who carry your neighbor; if you have learned to carry, you who were wont to be carried. In short, now you do not yet know Jesus, you do not yet see Jesus: what follows afterward? Because he did not cease to take up his pallet and to walk: Jesus saw him afterward in the temple (Jn 5:14). In the crowd he did not see him; in the temple he saw him. The Lord Jesus indeed saw him both in the crowd and in the temple; but that sick man does not recognize Jesus in the crowd, recognizes him in the temple. He arrived, then, at the Lord; he saw him in the temple, saw him in a consecrated place, in a holy place. And what does he hear from him? Behold, you have now been made well; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you (Jn 5:14).

12. Then he, after he had seen Jesus, and recognized Jesus as the author of his healing, was not slow in evangelizing the one whom he had seen: he went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well (Jn 5:15). He was announcing, and they were raging; he was preaching his own salvation, they were not seeking their own salvation.

13. The Jews were persecuting the Lord Jesus, because he did these things on the Sabbath (See Jn 5:16). Let us hear, then, what the Lord now answered the Jews. About men being made well on the Sabbath I have said what he is wont to answer—that they did not despise their own cattle on the Sabbath, either freeing them or feeding them. About the pallet being carried, what did he answer? A manifest bodily work had been done before the eyes of the Jews: not the health of the body, but a working of the body, which did not seem so necessary as health. Let the Lord, then, say openly the sacred meaning of the Sabbath, and that the sign of observing one day was given to the Jews for a time; but that the very fulfillment of the sacred meaning had come in him. My Father, he says, works until now, and I work (Jn 5:17). He sent a great tumult upon them; at the Lord's coming the water is troubled, but he who troubles it is hidden. Yet one great sick man is to be healed by the troubled water—the whole world, when the Lord has suffered.

14. Let us see, then, the answer of the Truth: My Father works until now, and I work. Did Scripture, then, say falsely that God rested from all his works on the seventh day (Gen 2:2)? And does the Lord Jesus speak against this Scripture ministered through Moses, when he himself says to the Jews, If you believed Moses, you would believe me also; for he wrote about me (Jn 5:46)? See, then, lest Moses meant to signify something by saying that God rested on the seventh day. For God had not been wearied in making his creation, and did not need rest like a man. How had he been wearied who had made it by a word? Yet that too is true, that God rested from his works on the seventh day; and this is true which Jesus says, My Father works until now.

But who can unfold in words—a man to men, a weak one to the weak, an unlearned one to those desiring to learn, and perhaps, if he knows anything, unable to bring it forth and unfold it to men who perhaps grasp it with difficulty, even if what is grasped could be unfolded? Who, I say, my brothers, can unfold in words how God both works at rest and rests in working? I beg you to defer this until you have made progress; for that seeing seeks the temple of God, seeks a holy place: carry the neighbor and walk; there you will see him, where you do not look for the words of men.

15. This perhaps we can rather say: that in the very fact that God rested on the seventh day, he signified by a great sacred sign our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ himself, who was speaking these things and saying, My Father works until now, and I work. For the Lord Jesus too is surely God. For he is the Word of God, and you have heard that in the beginning was the Word; and not just any Word, but the Word was God, and all things were made through him: perhaps it was signified that he would rest on the seventh day from all his works. For read the Gospel, and see how many things Jesus did. He worked our salvation on the cross, that all the things foretold by the prophets might be fulfilled in him: he was crowned with thorns, hung upon the wood; he said, I thirst, he received vinegar in a sponge, that what was said might be fulfilled, And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink (Ps 69:21 (68:22)). But when all his works were fulfilled, on the sixth day of the week, his head bowed, he gave up his spirit, and in the tomb on the Sabbath he rested from all his works.

It is, then, as if he said to the Jews: Why do you expect that I should not work on the Sabbath? The Sabbath day was commanded to you for my signification. You attend to the works of God; I was there when they were made, all things were made through me, I know: My Father works until now. The Father made light; but he said that light should be made: if he said it, he worked by a word; his Word was I, I am: through me the world was made in those works, through me the world is ruled in these works. My Father both worked then when he made the world, and works until now when he rules the world; therefore both through me he made it when he made it, and through me he rules it when he rules it. He said these things, but to whom? To the deaf, the blind, the lame, the sick, who did not recognize the physician, and, as if in a frenzy with mind lost, wished to kill him.

16. Accordingly, what did the Evangelist go on to say? For this reason, then, the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father. Not in any ordinary way; but how? Making himself equal to God (Jn 5:18). For we all say to God, Our Father who are in heaven (Mt 6:9); we read that the Jews too said, Since you are our Father (Isa 63:16). Therefore they were not angry on this account, because he called God his Father, but because he did so in a way far other than men do.

See, the Jews understand what the Arians do not understand. For the Arians say that the Son is unequal to the Father, and from this the heresy has been driven out of the Church. See, those very blind ones, the very killers of Christ, yet understood the words of Christ. They did not understand him to be the Christ, nor did they understand him to be the Son of God; but yet they understood in those words that such a Son of God was being commended as would be equal to God. Who he was they did not know; yet they recognized that such a one was being proclaimed, because he called God his Father, making himself equal to God.

Was he not, then, equal to God? He did not make himself equal, but the one who begot him begot him equal. If he had made himself equal to God, he would fall through robbery. For he who wished to make himself equal to God when he was not, fell (See Isa 14:14), and from an angel became the devil; and he poured this pride into man, by which he himself had been cast down. For this he said to man, whose standing he, fallen, envied: Taste, and you will be like gods (Gen 3:5)—that is, seize by usurpation what you were not made; for I too, by seizing, was cast down. He did not betray this, but persuaded it.

But Christ, equal to the Father, was born, not made: born of the substance of the Father. Whence the Apostle thus commends him: Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal to God. What is, he did not count it robbery? He did not usurp equality with God, but was in that equality in which he was born. And we, how should we come to a God who is equal? He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil 2:6-7). He did not, then, empty himself by losing what he was, but by taking what he was not. The Jews, despising this form of a servant, could not understand the Lord Christ to be equal to the Father; although they did not in the least doubt that he said this of himself, and therefore they raged: and yet he still bore with them, and sought the healing of those who raged.

1. John the Evangelist, among his fellows and partners the other evangelists, received this special and proper gift from the Lord (upon whose breast he reclined at the supper (See Jn 13:23), that by this it might be signified that he drank deeper secrets from his innermost heart): that he should say of the Son of God those things which can perhaps stir up the attentive minds of little ones, but cannot fill those not yet capable; while to certain more grown-up minds, coming to a certain inwardly mature age, he gives in these words something by which they may both be exercised and fed.

You have heard it as it was read, and you remember whence this sermon has come. For yesterday it was read that the Jews wished to kill Jesus for this reason, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal to God (Jn 5:18). What displeased the Jews, this pleased the Father himself. This without doubt also pleases those who honor the Son as they honor the Father; for if it does not please them, they will displease. For God will not be greater because he pleases you, but you will be less if he displeases you. Against this slander of theirs, coming either from ignorance or from malice, the Lord speaks—not at all what they may grasp, but something by which they may be stirred and disturbed, and perhaps, even disturbed, may seek the physician. But he said things that would be written down, so that they might also afterward be read by us. Let us, then, have seen what was done in the hearts of the Jews when they heard these things: what is done in us when we hear these things, let us think on the more.

For heresies have not arisen, and certain dogmas of perversity ensnaring souls and casting them headlong into the deep, except while the good Scriptures are understood not well; and what is understood in them not well is also rashly and boldly asserted. And so, dearly beloved, we ought to hear these things very cautiously, for the grasping of which we are little ones; and with a devout heart and with trembling, as it is written, holding to this rule of soundness: that what, according to the faith with which we have been imbued, we have been able to understand, we may rejoice over as over food; but what, according to the sound rule of faith, we have not yet been able to understand, we may put away doubt and defer understanding—that is, that even if we do not know what something is, we may yet in no way doubt that it is good and true.

And I too, brothers, who have undertaken to speak to you, must be considered by you—who it is that has undertaken, and what he has undertaken: for I have undertaken to treat divine things, a man; spiritual things, a carnal one; eternal things, a mortal one. Let vain presumption also be far from me, dearly beloved, if I wish to dwell soundly in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth (1 Tim 3:15): according to my own measure I take in what I set before you; where it is opened, I am fed with you; where it is closed, I knock with you.

2. The Jews, then, were stirred up and indignant; rightly indeed, that a man dared to make himself equal to God; but wrongly for this reason, that in the man they did not understand God. They saw the flesh, they did not know God; they discerned the dwelling, they were ignorant of the dweller. That flesh was a temple, God dwelt within. Jesus, then, was not making the flesh equal to the Father, was not comparing the form of a servant to the Lord; not what was made for our sake, but what he was when he made us. For who Christ is—I speak to Catholics—you know, because you have believed well: not the Word only, nor the flesh only; but the Word was made flesh, that he might dwell among us. I rehearse about the Word what you know: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: here is equality with the Father. But the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn 1:1,14): in respect of this flesh the Father is greater.

So the Father is both equal and greater: equal to the Word, greater than the flesh; equal to him through whom he made us, greater than him who was made for our sake. To this sound catholic rule, which you ought especially to know, which you who know it should hold, from which your faith ought by no means to slip, which is to be wrung from your heart by no arguments of men, let us direct the things we understand; and the things we perhaps do not understand, let us defer to be directed to this rule at some time, when we shall be fit.

We know, then, the Son of God equal to the Father, because we know in the beginning God the Word. Why, then, did the Jews wish to kill him? Because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his Father, making himself equal to God: seeing the flesh, not seeing the Word. Let the Word, then, speak even against them through the flesh, and let the inner dweller sound through his dwelling, that he who can may know who dwells within.

3. What, then, does he say to them? Jesus, accordingly, answered and said to them—who were stirred up that he made himself equal to God—Amen, amen I say to you, the Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing (Jn 5:19). What the Jews answered to this is not written; and perhaps they kept silent. Yet certain persons, who wish to be held Christians, do not keep silent, and in a manner conceive from these words certain things to be said against us: which are not to be despised, both for their sake and for ours.

For the Arian heretics, saying that—not through the flesh, but before the flesh—the Son himself who took on the flesh is less than the Father is, and is not of the same substance as the Father is, take from these words a handle for slander, and answer us: You see that the Lord Jesus, when he noticed that the Jews were moved by this, that he made himself equal to God the Father, added such words as to show that he was not equal. For it moved the Jews, they say, against Christ, that he made himself equal to God; and Christ, wishing to correct them from this commotion, and to show them that the Son is not equal to the Father—that is, equal to God—said, as if to say: Why are you angry? why are you indignant? I am not equal, for the Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing. For he who cannot, they say, do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing, is surely less, not equal.

4. In this twisted and crooked rule of his heart, let the heretic hear us not yet rebuking, but still as it were inquiring, and let him unfold to us what he perceives. For I suppose, whoever you are (for let us make him as it were present here), you hold with us that in the beginning was the Word.

I hold it, he says.

And that the Word was with God?

This too, he says, I hold.

Follow on, then, and hold this more firmly, that the Word was God.

This too, he says, I hold; but that God is greater, this God is less.

Now this smacks of something pagan, I know not what: I supposed I was speaking with a Christian. If there is a God greater, and there is a God less, we worship two gods, not one God.

Why? he says. And do not you say that there are two gods equal to each other?

This I do not say: for this equality I so understand that I understand there also undivided love; and if undivided love, then perfect unity. For if the love which God has sent to men makes of the many hearts of men one heart, and makes the many souls of men one soul, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles of those who believed and loved one another, They had one soul and one heart toward God (Acts 4:32): if, then, my soul and your soul, when we are of one mind and love each other, become one soul, how much more are God the Father and God the Son, in the spring of love, one God?

5. But attend to these words, by which your heart was moved, and recall with me what we were inquiring about the Word. We now hold: the Word was God: I add another thing, that when he had said, This was in the beginning with God, the Evangelist at once added, All things were made through him (Jn 1:2-3). Now I stir you up by inquiring, now I move you against yourself, and call you against yourself: only hold in memory these things about the Word, that the Word was God, and all things were made through him. Now hear the words by which you were moved to say the Son is less—namely, because he said, The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing.

So it is, he says. Unfold this for me a little.

You understand it thus, as far as I suppose: that the Father does certain things, while the Son watches how the Father does them, that he too may be able to do the things that he has seen the Father doing. You have set up as it were two craftsmen: the Father and the Son so, as also a master and a pupil, in the way that craftsman fathers are wont to teach their sons their craft. See, I come down to your carnal way of thinking, I think for the moment as you do: let us see whether this thought of ours finds a way out consistent with the things we have already spoken of the Word, alike, and alike perceive—that the Word is God, and all things were made through him.

Set up, then, the Father as it were a craftsman doing certain works, but the Son as it were a pupil who cannot do anything except what he sees the Father doing: for he watches in a manner the hands of the Father, that as he has seen him fashion, so he too may fashion something like it in his own works. But all those things that this Father does, and wishes that the Son should watch him and himself do the like—through whom does he do them? Come now, you must stand by your earlier opinion, which you reviewed with me and held with me: that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and all things were made through him. You, then, when you have held with me that all things were made through the Word, again, by a carnal taste and a childish impulse, you make for yourself in your mind a God doing, and a Word watching, so that when God has done it, the Word too may do it.

For what does God do apart from the Word? For if he does anything, then not all things were made through the Word; you have lost what you held: but if all things were made through the Word, correct what you understood badly. The Father did it, and he did it only through the Word: how does the Word watch, that it may see the Father doing without the Word what the Word may likewise do? Whatever the Father did, he did it through the Word: either it is false, All things were made through him. But it is true, All things were made through him. Did it seem too little to you, perhaps? And without him was made nothing (Jn 1:3).

6. Withdraw, then, from that prudence of the flesh, and let us inquire in what way it was said, The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing. Let us inquire, if we are worthy to lay hold of it. For I confess, it is a great matter, altogether arduous, to see the Father doing through the Son—the Father and the Son not doing separate works, but the Father doing whatever work through the Son, so that no works are done either by the Father without the Son or by the Son without the Father: because all things were made through him, and without him was made nothing.

These things being most firmly established in the foundation of faith, now what is it to see that the Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing? You seek, as I suppose, to know the Son doing; seek first to know the Son seeing. For surely what does he say? The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing. Attend to what he said, except what he sees the Father doing. The seeing goes before, and the doing follows: for he sees in order to do. Why do you already seek to know how he does, while you do not yet know how he sees? Why do you run to what is later, leaving what is first? He said himself seeing and doing; not, doing and seeing: for he cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing.

Do you wish me to unfold for you how he does? Unfold for me how he sees. If you cannot unfold this, neither can I that: if you are not yet fit to perceive this, neither am I that. Let each of us, then, inquire, let each knock, that each may deserve to receive. Why, as if learned, do you slander the unlearned? I to the doing, you to the seeing, both of us unlearned—let us inquire of the Master, let us not in his school childishly quarrel.

Yet together we have already learned that all things were made through him. Therefore it is manifest that the Father does not do other works, which the Son sees, that he himself may do similar ones; but the Father does the same works through the Son, because all things were made through the Word. But how God does, who knows? I do not say how he made the world, but how he made your eye, to which, clinging carnally, you compare invisible things with visible. For you think such things of God as you have been accustomed to see with these eyes. But if God could be seen with these eyes, he would not say, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Mt 5:8). Therefore you have the eye of the body for seeing a craftsman, but you do not yet have the eye of the heart for seeing God: and so what you are wont to see in a craftsman, you wish to transfer to God. Set earthly things on the earth; the heart upward.

7. What then, dearly beloved? Are we going to unfold what we have asked—how the Word sees, how the Father is seen by the Word, what the seeing of the Word is? I am not so bold, so rash, as to promise to unfold this both for me and for you: somehow I guess at your measure, but I know my own. If, then, it is agreeable, let us not delay longer; let us run through the reading, and see the carnal hearts disturbed by the words of the Lord—disturbed to this end, that they may not remain in what they hold.

Let some plaything be wrung from them, as from children, with which they distract themselves to their harm, that more useful things may be implanted in those who are more grown-up, that those who were creeping on the earth may be able to make progress. Rise, seek, sigh, pant with desire, and knock at what is closed. But if we do not yet desire, do not yet long, do not yet sigh, we will either cast pearls to anyone at all, or we ourselves will find only pearls of whatever sort.

Let me, then, dearly beloved, have stirred up desire in your heart. Conduct leads to understanding: a kind of life leads to a kind of life. One life is earthly, another heavenly; one life is of cattle, another of men, another of angels. The life of cattle seethes with earthly pleasures, seeks only earthly things, is bent down and cast forth in them: the life of angels is heavenly only: the life of men is midway between that of angels and that of cattle. If a man lives according to the flesh, he is compared to cattle; if he lives according to the spirit, he is joined to the angels.

When you live according to the spirit, inquire even in that angelic life whether you are little or grown. For if you are still little, the angels say to you: Grow; we eat bread, you are nourished with milk, the milk of faith, that you may come to the food of his form. But if there is still a longing for filthy pleasures, if frauds are still planned, if lies are not avoided, if lies are heaped up with perjuries—does so unclean a heart dare to say: Unfold to me how the Word sees, even if I could, even if I myself already saw?

But further, if perhaps I am not in these ways of conduct, and yet am far from that seeing—how much farther is he who is not yet caught up by that supernal desire, weighed down by earthly desires?

There is a great difference between one who turns away and one who desires; and again a great difference between one who desires and one who enjoys. You live like cattle: you turn away. The angels: they enjoy fully. But you, if you do not live like cattle, you now do not turn away: you desire something, and do not grasp it; you have begun, by that very desire, the life of the angels. Let it grow in you, and be perfected in you; and may you grasp this, not from me, but from him who made both me and you.

8. Yet the Lord did not leave us just anyhow, who wished it to be understood that in what he said, The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing, the Father does not do other works which the Son sees, and the Son other works when he has seen the Father doing—but the same works both the Father and the Son. For he went on to say, For whatever things he does, these the Son likewise does (Jn 5:19).

Not, when he has done them, does the Son likewise do other things; but whatever things he does, these the Son likewise does. If the Son does these things which the Father does, then the Father does them through the Son: if through the Son he does the things which the Father does, then the Father does not do some things and the Son other things; but the works of the Father and the Son are the same. And how does the Son too do the same things? Both the same and likewise. Lest perhaps the same, but unlike: the same, he says, and likewise. And how could he do the same things not likewise? Take an example, which I think is not too great for you: when we write letters, our heart makes them first, and then our hand. Surely you all cried out approval just now, except because you recognized it? What I said is certain, and manifest to us all. Letters are made first by our heart, then by our body: the hand serves the commanding heart; the heart and the hand make the same letters: surely the heart not other, the hand not other? The hand indeed makes the same letters, but not likewise: for our heart makes them intelligibly, but the hand visibly.

See how the same things are made unlike. So it was too little for the Lord to say, Whatever things the Father does, these the Son also does, unless he added, and likewise. For what if you understood it in this way—as whatever things the heart does, these the hand also does, but not likewise? But here he added, these the Son likewise does. If he both does these things and does them likewise, awake; let the Jew be restrained, let the Christian believe, let the heretic be refuted: the Son is equal to the Father.

9. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him everything that he himself does (Jn 5:20). See, there it is, shows. He shows to one who is as it were what? Surely as it were to one seeing. We come back to that which we cannot unfold, how the Word sees. See, man was made through the Word; but man has eyes, has ears, has hands, diverse members in the body: through the eyes he can see, through the ears he can hear, through the hands work; diverse members, diverse offices of the members. That member cannot do what another can: yet, because of the unity of the body, the eye sees both for itself and for the ear, and the ear hears both for itself and for the eye. Is anything of the kind to be supposed in the Word, since all things are through him? And Scripture said in a Psalm: Understand, you who are foolish among the people; and you fools, be wise at last. He who planted the ear, will he not hear? Or he who formed the eye, does he not consider? (Ps 94:8-9 (93:8-9)) If, then, the Word formed the eye, because all things are through the Word; if the Word planted the ear, because all things are through the Word: we cannot say, The Word does not hear, the Word does not see; lest the Psalm rebuke us and say, You fools, be wise at last.

And so, if the Word hears and the Word sees, the Son hears and the Son sees: yet are we to seek even in him eyes and ears in different places? Does he hear from one place, see from another; and can his ear not do what the eye does, and the eye not do what the ear can? Or is he wholly sight, and wholly hearing? Perhaps so: indeed not perhaps, but truly so; provided, however, that both his seeing and his hearing be in a way far other than ours. Both seeing and hearing are together in the Word, nor is hearing one thing there and seeing another; but the hearing is sight, and the sight hearing.

10. And we, who hear in one way and see in another—how do we know this? We return, perhaps, to ourselves, if we are not transgressors, to whom it was said: Return, transgressors, to the heart (Isa 46:8). Return to the heart: why do you go away from yourselves, and perish from yourselves? Why do you go the ways of solitude? You wander astray; return.

To where?

To the Lord. It is quick: first return to your heart; an exile from yourself, you wander outside; you do not know yourself, and you ask by whom you were made! Return, return to the heart, take yourself away from the body: your body is your dwelling; your heart perceives even through your body, but your body is not what your heart is; leave even your body, return to your heart.

In your body you found eyes in one place, ears in another: in your heart do you find this? Or in your heart do you not have ears? Of which, then, did the Lord say, He who has ears for hearing, let him hear (Mt 11:15)? Or in your heart do you not have eyes? Whence the Apostle says, The eyes of your heart enlightened (Eph 1:18). Return to the heart; see there what you perceive, perhaps, about God, because there is the image of God. In the inner man Christ dwells, in the inner man you are renewed to the image of God, in his image recognize its author.

See how all the senses of the body report inwardly to the heart what they have perceived outwardly: see how many ministers one inner ruler has, and what he does within himself even without these ministers. The eyes report to the heart white and black; the ears report to the same heart tuneful and discordant things; the nostrils report to the same heart fragrant and foul things; the taste reports to the same heart bitter and sweet things; the touch reports to the same heart smooth and rough things: and the heart reports to itself just and unjust things. Your heart both sees and hears, and judges the other things perceived by sense; and where the senses of the body do not reach, it discerns just and unjust, evil and good things.

Show me the eyes, ears, nostrils of your heart. Diverse are the things that are referred to your heart, and diverse members are not found there. In your flesh you hear in one place, see in another: in your heart you hear where you see. If this is the image, how much more powerful is he whose image it is? Therefore the Son both hears and the Son sees, and the very seeing and hearing is the Son: and for him to hear is the same as to be, and for him to see is the same as to be. For you to see is not the same as to be: because even if you lose your sight, you can be; and if you lose your hearing, you can be.

11. Do we suppose we have knocked? Has something been raised up in us by which we may, even faintly, surmise whence the light comes to us? I think, brothers, that when we speak these things, and when we meditate, we exercise ourselves. And when we exercise ourselves in them, and again are as it were bent back by our own weight to these accustomed things, we are like those with sore eyes, when they are brought out to see the light, if perhaps before they had no sight at all, and begin somehow to repair that very sight through the diligence of physicians. And when the physician wishes to prove how much health has come to them, he tries to show them what they desired to see and could not when they were blind: and now, the keenness of their eyes somehow returning, they are brought out to the light; and when they have seen, they are in a manner beaten back by the very brightness, and answer the physician who is pointing it out: Now, now I saw it, but I cannot see it.

What, then, does the physician do? He calls them back to accustomed things, and adds a salve, that he may nourish the desire toward that which was seen and could not be seen, and from that very desire he may be more fully cured; and if any biting remedies are applied for the repairing of health, he bears them bravely, so that, kindled with love of that light, he says to himself: When will it be that I may see with sound eyes what I could not with wounded and weak ones? He urges the physician, and asks that he may be cured.

Therefore, brothers, if perhaps something of the kind has been done in your hearts, if you have somehow raised your heart to see the Word, and, beaten back by its light, have fallen back to accustomed things: ask the physician to apply the biting salves, the commandments of righteousness. There is something for you to see, but there is not yet that by which you may see. You did not believe me before that there is something to see: led by a kind of reasoning you were brought; you drew near, you strained, you throbbed, you fled back. You know surely that there is something to see, but that you are not fit to see it. Therefore be cured. What are the salves? Do not lie, do not perjure, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not defraud. But you are accustomed to it, and with some pain you are called back from the custom: this is what bites, but it heals. For I tell you more freely, out of fear both mine and yours: if you cease to be cured, and neglect to be fit to enjoy this light through the soundness of your eyes, you will love darkness; and by loving darkness you will remain in darkness; and by remaining in darkness you will even be cast into the outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt 22:13). If the love of light did nothing in you, let the fear of pain do it.

12. I think I have spoken sufficiently, and yet I have not finished the Gospel reading: if I were to say the rest, I would burden you, and I fear that even what has been drawn in may be poured out; let these things, then, suffice for your Charity. We are debtors, not now, but always, as long as we live; because for your sake we live. Yet console our weak, laborious, perilous life in this world by living well; do not sadden us and wear us out by your evil ways. For when we are offended by your evil life, if we flee from you, and separate ourselves from you, and do not come to you, will you not complain and say: If we were sick, you would have cured us; and if we were weak, you would have visited us? See, we cure, see, we visit; but let it not be done to us as you have heard from the Apostle: I fear lest I have labored among you in vain (Gal 4:11).

1. In the previous sermon, as far as our affection and poverty of understanding moved us, we spoke, on occasion of the Gospel words where it is written, The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing, of what the seeing of the Son is—that is, the seeing of the Word, because the Son is the Word: and since all things were made through the Word, how it can be understood that the Son first sees the Father doing, and only then he himself does what he has seen done; whereas the Father has done nothing except through the Son. For all things were made through him, and without him was made nothing (Jn 1:3). Yet we said nothing unfolded; but because we understood nothing unfolded either. For sometimes speech fails where even understanding advances; how much more does speech suffer failure when the understanding has no perfection?

Now, therefore, as far as the Lord grants, let us briefly run through the reading, and at least today complete the appointed task. If perhaps any time or strength remains, we will go back over, if we can (as far as it can be done both by us and among you), what the seeing of the Word is, what it is for something to be shown to the Word. For all things have been said here, which, if they are understood according to a human and carnal sense, the soul full of phantasms makes for us nothing other than certain images, as it were, of two men, the Father and the Son—the one showing, the other seeing; the one speaking, the other hearing: all of which are idols of the heart; which, if they have already been cast down from their temples, how much more are they to be cast down from Christian breasts?

2. The Son cannot, he says, do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing. This is true, hold this: provided, however, that you do not lose what you held at the very opening of this Gospel, that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; and especially that all things were made through him. For what you have now heard, join to that hearing, and let both agree in your hearts. So, then, the Son cannot do anything of himself except what he sees the Father doing, in such a way that yet the Father does the things he does only through the Son, because the Son is his Word: and in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and all things were made through him. For whatever things he does, these the Son likewise does; not other things, but these; nor unlike, but likewise.

3. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him everything that he himself does (Jn 5:20). To what he said above, except what he sees the Father doing, this too seems to pertain, that he shows him everything that he himself does. But if the Father shows what he does, and the Son cannot do unless the Father has shown, and the Father cannot show unless he has done; the consequence will be that the Father does not do all things through the Son: but further, if we hold it fixed and unshaken that the Father does all things through the Son, then before he does, he shows the Son. For if the Father, when he has done, shows the Son, so that the Son may do what is shown—things which, being shown, are already done—then without doubt the Father does something without the Son. But the Father does not do anything without the Son, because the Son of God is the Word of God, and all things were made through him.

It remains, then, perhaps, that the things the Father is going to do, he shows to be done, so that they may be done through the Son. For if the Son does the things which the Father shows as done, the things which the Father shows as done he surely did not do through the Son. For they could not be shown to the Son unless done; the Son could not do them unless shown: therefore done without the Son. But it is true, All things were made through him: therefore before they were done, they were shown. But this we said must be deferred, to which we are to return when the reading has been run through, if, as we said, any time or strength remains to us, to go back over the things we deferred.

4. Hear something further and more difficult: And greater works than these, he says, will he show him, so that you may marvel (Jn 5:20). Greater than these: than what greater? It readily occurs—than those you have just heard, the cures of bodily sicknesses. For from that man who had been thirty-eight years in his infirmity and was healed by the word of Christ, the whole occasion of this sermon arose: and for this reason the Lord could say, Greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For there are works greater than these, and the Father will show them to the Son. He did not say "he showed," as of the past, but "he will show," of the future—that is, he is going to show.

Again a difficult question arises. For is there something with the Father which has not yet been shown to the Son? Is there something with the Father which still lay hidden from the Son, when the Son was speaking these things? For if he will show—that is, is going to show—he has not yet shown; and he is going to show the Son then, when he also shows these very persons: for it follows, so that you may marvel. And this is difficult to see, how the eternal Father shows, as it were temporally, some things to the coeternal Son, who knows all things that are with the Father.

5. What, however, are those greater works? For this perhaps is easy to understand. For as the Father, he says, raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will (Jn 5:21). Greater works, then, are to raise the dead than to heal the sick. But as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. Some, then, the Father, others the Son? But all things are through him: therefore the Son gives life to the same ones to whom the Father does; because not other things, nor otherwise, but these things the Son too likewise does. So it is plainly to be understood, and so to be held: but remember that the Son gives life to whom he will. Hold here, then, not only the power of the Son, but also the will. Both the Son gives life to whom he will, and the Father gives life to whom he will; and the Son gives life to the same ones as the Father: and by this the power and the will of the Father and the Son are the same.

What is it, then, that follows? For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father (Jn 5:22-23): which he so added, as if giving a reason for the previous statement. It moves much; be attentive.

The Son gives life to whom he will, the Father gives life to whom he will: the Son raises the dead, as the Father raises the dead. For the Father judges no one. If at the judgment the dead are to be raised, how does the Father raise the dead, if he judges no one? For all judgment he has given to the Son. But in that judgment the dead are raised; and they rise again, some to life, others to punishment:

and if the Son does all this, but the Father does not do it for the reason that the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, it will seem contrary to what was said, As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. They raise together, then. If they raise together, they give life together. They judge together, then: how, then, is it true, For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son?

Let the questions proposed move you for the time; the Lord will grant that, solved, they may delight. So it is, brothers; every question, unless when proposed it makes one attentive, will not delight when set forth. Let the Lord himself, then, go on, lest perhaps in the things he subjoins he open himself somewhat. For he weaves his light beneath a cloud; and it is hard, after the manner of the eagle, to fly above all the mist by which the whole earth is covered, and to see in the words of the Lord the purest light (See Jn 1:9). Lest, then, perhaps by the heat of his rays he should scatter our gloom, and deign somewhat to open himself in what follows, let us, these things deferred, see what comes next.

6. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him (Jn 5:23). This is true and plain. For all judgment he has given to the Son, as he said above, that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father.

What if there are found those who honor the Father and do not honor the Son?

It cannot be, he says: He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

Therefore no one can say: I was honoring the Father, because I did not know the Son.

If you were not yet honoring the Son, neither were you honoring the Father. For what is it to honor the Father, except that he has a Son? For it is one thing when God is commended to you because he is God, and another thing when God is commended to you because he is Father. When he is commended to you because he is God, the creator is commended to you, the almighty is commended to you, a certain supreme, eternal, invisible, unchangeable spirit is commended to you: but when he is commended to you because he is Father, nothing else is commended to you than that he also has a Son; because he cannot be called Father if he has no Son, just as neither can he be called Son if he has no Father.

But lest perhaps you should honor the Father indeed as greater, but the Son as less, so that you say to me: I honor the Father, for I know that he has a Son; and I do not err in the name of the Father, for I do not understand the Father without the Son, yet I honor the Son too as less: the Son himself corrects you, and calls you back, saying, that all may honor the Son—not as inferior, but as they honor the Father. He, then, who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

I, you say, wish to give greater honor to the Father, less to the Son. There you take away honor from the Father, where you give less to the Son. For what else seems to you, thinking so, but that the Father either was unwilling or unable to beget a Son equal to himself? If unwilling, he envied; if unable, he failed. Do you not see, then, that by thinking so—where you wish to give greater honor to the Father—there you are insulting to the Father? Accordingly, honor the Son as you honor the Father, if you wish to honor both the Father and the Son.

7. Amen, amen I say to you, that he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life; and does not come into judgment, but has passed—not, now passes, but has already passed—from death into life (Jn 5:24). And attend to this: He who hears my word: and he did not say, believes me; but, believes him who sent me. Let him hear, then, the word of the Son, that he may believe the Father. Why does he hear your word, and believe another? Is it not so, that when we hear someone's word, we believe that same one bringing forth the word, and we lend faith to the one speaking to us?

What, then, did he wish to say: He who hears my word, and believes him who sent me; except that his word is in me? And what is, he hears my word, except, he hears me? But he believes him who sent me: because when he believes him, he believes his word; and when he believes his word, he believes me; because I am the Word of the Father.

There is peace, then, in the Scriptures, and all things are ordered, in no way quarreling. Do you cast away the strife of your heart, understand the harmony of the Scriptures. Would the truth say things contrary to itself?

8. He who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life; and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. You remember what we had set down above, that as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. He now begins to open himself, and to speak of the resurrection of the dead, and behold, now the dead rise again.

For he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and will not come into judgment.

Prove that he has risen again.

But he has passed, he says, from death into life. He who has passed from death to life, without doubt has surely risen again. For he would not pass from death to life unless he were first in death and not in life: but when he has passed, he will be in life and will not be in death. He was dead, then, and lived again; he had perished, and was found.

Accordingly there now takes place a certain resurrection, and men pass from a certain death to a certain life: from the death of unbelief to the life of faith; from the death of falsehood to the life of truth; from the death of iniquity to the life of righteousness. This too, then, is a certain resurrection of the dead.

9. Let him open it more fully, and let it grow clear to us, as he has begun. Amen, amen I say to you, that an hour is coming, and now is (Jn 5:25). We were awaiting at the end the resurrection of the dead; for so we have believed: or rather, we were not awaiting it, but plainly we ought to await it; for it is no false thing we believe, that at the end the dead will rise again. When, then, the Lord Jesus wished to suggest to us a certain resurrection of the dead before the resurrection of the dead—not like that of Lazarus, or of that widow's son, or of the ruler of the synagogue's daughter, who rose to die again (for of those dead too a certain resurrection took place before the resurrection of the dead): but as here he says, he has, he says, eternal life; and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. To what life? To eternal life. Not, then, like the body of Lazarus: for he too passed from the death of the tomb to the life of men, but not eternal, to die again; whereas the dead who will rise at the end of the world will pass into eternal life.

When, then, our Lord Jesus Christ, the heavenly Master, the Word of the Father and the Truth, wished to show us a certain resurrection of the dead to eternal life, before the resurrection of the dead to eternal life: An hour is coming, he says. You, without doubt, imbued with the faith of the resurrection of the flesh, were awaiting that hour of the end of the world, the day of judgment; and lest in this place you should await that, he added, and now is. What he says, then, An hour is coming, he does not say of that last hour, where, at the command and the voice of the archangel, and at the trumpet of God, the Lord himself will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first: then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord (See 1 Thess 4:16-17).

That hour will come, but it is not now. But what this hour is, take note: An hour is coming, and now is. What takes place in it? What, except the resurrection of the dead? And what kind of resurrection? That those who rise may live forever. This will be also in the last hour.

10. What, then? How do we understand these two resurrections? Is it perhaps that those who rise now will not rise then; so that there is now a resurrection of some, then of others? It is not so. For by this resurrection, if we have rightly believed, we have risen; and we ourselves who have already risen await another resurrection at the end. But both now we have risen to eternal life, if we abide perseveringly in that faith; and then we shall rise to eternal life, when we shall be made equal to the angels.

Let him himself, then, distinguish, let him himself open what we have dared to speak: how there takes place a resurrection before the resurrection, not of some and others, but of the same; nor such as that of Lazarus, but to eternal life. He will plainly open it. Hear the Master growing clear, and our Sun stealing into our hearts; not the Sun that the eyes of the flesh desire, but that to which the eyes of the heart burn to be opened.

Let us, then, hear him: Amen, amen I say to you, that an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead—see the resurrection expressed—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who have heard will live (Jn 5:25). Why did he add, those who have heard will live? For could they hear unless they were alive? It would suffice, then: An hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. We would already understand them to be living; since, unless they were living, they could not hear. Not, he says, because they live do they hear, but by hearing they come to life again: they will hear, and those who have heard will live.

What, then, is they will hear, except, they will hearken? For as far as concerns the hearing of the ear, not all who will hear will live: for many hear and do not believe; by hearing and not believing they do not hearken: by not hearkening they do not live.

And so here, those who will hear is nothing other than those who will hearken. Those, then, who have hearkened will live: let them be certain, let them be secure, they will live. Christ is preached, the Word of God, the Son of God, through whom all things were made, surely by the grace of the dispensation, having taken flesh, born of a Virgin, an infant in the flesh, a young man in the flesh, suffering in the flesh, dying in the flesh, rising in the flesh, ascending in the flesh, promising resurrection to the flesh, promising resurrection to the mind—to the mind before the flesh, to the flesh after the mind. He who hears and hearkens will live; he who hears and does not hearken, that is, hears and despises, hears and does not believe, will not live.

Why will he not live?

Because he does not hear.

What is, he does not hear?

He does not hearken. Therefore those who have heard will live.

11. Attend now to what we had said should be deferred, that it may now, if it can be done, be opened. He at once subjoined, concerning this very resurrection: For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself (Jn 5:26). What is, the Father has life in himself? He does not have life elsewhere, but in himself. For his living is in him; it is not from elsewhere, not another's: he does not as it were borrow life, nor as it were become a partaker of a life which is not what he himself is; but he has life in himself, so that that very life is himself to himself.

If I shall be able to say yet a little about it, with examples set forth for the forming of your understanding, with the Lord's help I shall be able, and through the devotion of your attention. God lives, and the soul also lives: but the life of God is unchangeable, the life of the soul is changeable. God neither advances nor fails; but he himself is always in himself, is just as he is: not otherwise now, otherwise afterward, otherwise before. But the life of the soul is greatly now in one way, now in another: it lived foolish, it lives wise; it lived unjust, it lives just: now it remembers, now it forgets; now it learns, now it cannot learn; now it loses what it had learned, now it grasps what it had lost: changeable is the life of the soul.

And when the soul lives in iniquity, that is its death: but when it becomes just, it is made a partaker of another life, which is not what it itself is; for by raising itself to God and clinging to God, it is justified by him. For it is said, To the one who believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness (Rom 4:5). By falling away from him it becomes unjust, by advancing toward him it becomes just. Does it not seem to you like something cold that, brought near to fire, grows warm, and removed from the fire grows numb? Does it not seem to you like something dark that, brought near to light, grows bright, and removed from the light grows black? Such a thing is the soul, not such a thing is God.

A man too can say that he has light now in his eyes. Let your eyes, then, say, as it were in a voice of their own, if they can: We have light in ourselves. Against this it is said: You do not properly say that you have light in yourselves: you have light, but in heaven; you have light, if perhaps it is night, but in the moon, in lamps, not in yourselves: for closed you lose what open you perceive. You do not have light in yourselves: when the sun sets, keep the light, if you can: it is night, and you enjoy the nocturnal light; the lamp removed, keep the light: but when, the lamp taken away, you remain in darkness, you do not have light in yourselves.

This, then, is to have light in oneself, not to be in need of light from another. See where, if anyone understands, he shows the Son equal to the Father, when he says, As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself: so that this only is the difference between the Father and the Son—that the Father has life in himself, which no one gave him; but the Son has life in himself, which the Father gave.

12. But here too a certain cloud arises that must be scattered. Let us not fail, let us be attentive: these are the pastures of the mind, let us not be disdainful, that we may live.

See, you say, you yourself confess that the Father gave life to the Son, so that he has it indeed in himself, as the Father has life in himself—the one not in need, let the other too not be in need; that the one be life, let the other also be; and both joined in one life, not two; because there is one God, not two gods: and this very thing is to be life. How, then, did the Father give life to the Son? Not as though the Son was previously without life, and, in order to live, received life from the Father: for if this were so, he would not have life in himself.

See, I was speaking of the soul. The soul exists: even if it is not wise, even if it is not just, it is a soul; even if it is not devout, it is a soul. It is, then, one thing for it to be a soul, another to be wise, to be just, to be devout. There is, then, something by which it is not yet wise, not yet just, not yet devout; yet it is not nothing, yet there is not no life: for by certain of its works it shows itself to be life, even if it does not show itself wise, devout, just. For unless it lived, it would not move the body; it would not command the feet to step, the hands to work, the eyes to gaze, the ears to hear; it would not open the mouth for the voice, nor move the tongue for the distinguishing of voices. By these works, then, it shows that it lives, and that there is something better than the body: but does it by these works show itself wise, devout, just? Do not the foolish too, and the ungodly, and the unjust, walk, work, see, hear, speak?

But when it raises itself to something which it itself is not, and which is above it, and from which it itself is, it receives wisdom, righteousness, devotion: without which, when it was, it was dead, and did not have the life by which it itself lived, but the life by which it gave life to the body. For it is one thing in the soul by which the body is given life, another by which the soul itself is given life. For it is better than the body; but better than the soul itself is God. The soul itself, then, even if it be unwise, unjust, ungodly, is the life of the body. But because its own life is God, just as, when it is in the body, it furnishes the body with vigor, beauty, mobility, the offices of the members; so when its life, God, is in it, he furnishes it with wisdom, devotion, righteousness, love. It is, then, one thing that is furnished to the body from the soul, another that is furnished to the soul from God: it gives life, and is given life; dead, it gives life, if it is not itself given life.

And so, when the word comes and is poured into those who hear, and they are made not only hearers but also obeyers, the soul rises from its death to its life; that is, from iniquity, from foolishness, from ungodliness, to its God, who is to it wisdom, righteousness, brightness. Let it rise to him, let it be enlightened by him. Draw near, he says, to him.

And what will it be for us?

And be enlightened (Ps 34:5 (33:6)). If, then, by drawing near you are enlightened, and by withdrawing you are darkened, your light was not in you, but in your God. Draw near, that you may rise; if you withdraw, you will die. If, then, by drawing near you live, by withdrawing you die, your life was not in you. For it is your very life that is your light. For with you is the spring of life, and in your light we shall see light (Ps 36:9 (35:10)).

13. Not, then, as the soul is something other before it is enlightened, and becomes better when it is enlightened by participation in something better; not in this way is the Word of God, the Son of God, something other before it received life, so that by participating it has life: but it has life in itself; and through this it is itself the very life.

What, then, does he say: He granted the Son to have life in himself?

I would say briefly: He begot the Son. For he was not without life, and received life; but by being born he is life. The Father is life by not being born; the Son is life by being born. The Father from no father, the Son from God the Father. The Father, what he is, is from no one: but what he is as Father, is because of the Son. But the Son both what he is as Son is because of the Father; and what he is, is from the Father. This, then, he said: He gave life to the Son, that he might have it in himself; as if he said: The Father, who is life in himself, begot the Son, who would be life in himself. For by saying "he begot," he wished "he gave" to be understood.

As if we said to anyone: God gave you to be. To whom did he give it? If he gave being to someone already existing, he did not give being to him; because he was, before being given to one who could receive. When, then, you hear, He gave you to be, you were not one who could receive, and by existing you received that you should be. The builder gave to this house to be. But what did he give it? That it should be a house. To whom did he give it? To this house. What did he give it? That it should be a house. How could he give to a house to be a house? For if it was a house, to whom would he give it to be a house, when it was already a house? What is it, then: He gave it to be a house? He made it to be a house.

What, then, did he give the Son? He gave him to be the Son, he begot him to be life: this is, He granted him to have life in himself, so that he should be life not in need of life, lest he be understood to have life by participation. For if he had life by participation, he could also, by losing it, be without life: do not take this in the Son, do not think it, do not believe it. The Father, then, abides life, and the Son too abides life: the Father life in himself, not from the Son; the Son life in himself, but from the Father. Begotten by the Father so as to be life in himself: but the Father, unbegotten, life in himself. Nor did he beget a lesser Son, who by growing should become equal. For he was not aided by time toward his own perfection, through whom times were created perfect. Before all times he is coeternal with the Father. For the Father was never without the Son: but the Father is eternal; therefore the Son too is coeternal.

What of you, soul? You were dead, you had lost life; hear the Father through the Son. Rise, receive life; that in him you may receive the life which you do not have in yourself—in him who has life in himself. The Father, then, and the Son give you life; and the first resurrection takes place, when you rise to participate in the life which you yourself are not, and by participating are made living. Rise from your death to your life, which is your God; and pass from death to eternal life. For the Father has eternal life in himself; and unless he begot such a Son as would have life in himself, then not as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, would the Son too give life to whom he willed.

14. What, then, of that resurrection of the body? For these who hear and live, whence do they live, except by hearing? For the friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him, and rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom's voice (Jn 3:29), not because of his own voice; that is, by participating, not by existing, they hear and live: and all who hear, live; because all who obey, live. Say something, Lord, also about the resurrection of the flesh. For there have been those who denied it, and said that this is the only resurrection, which takes place through faith. Of which resurrection the Lord just now made mention, and inflamed us, that certain dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and will live. Not that of those who hear some will die and others will live; but all who hear will live, because all who obey will live. See, we see the resurrection of the mind: let us not, then, lose faith about the resurrection of the flesh. And unless you, Lord Jesus, speak of it, whom shall we set against the contradictors?

For all the sects which have presumed to insinuate some religion into men have not denied this resurrection of minds: lest it be said to them, If the soul does not rise, why do you speak to me? what do you wish to do in me? if you do not make from worse a better, why do you speak? if you do not make from the unjust a just man, why do you speak? but if you make from the unjust a just man, from the ungodly a devout one, from the foolish a wise one, you confess that my soul rises, if I obey you, if I believe you.

Therefore, wishing to be believed, all who established a sect even of some false religion could not deny this resurrection of minds; all agreed about it: but many denied the resurrection of the flesh; they said the resurrection had already taken place in faith. Such men the Apostle resists, saying: Among whom are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they overturn the faith of some (2 Tim 2:17-18). They said the resurrection had already taken place, but in such a way that no other was to be hoped for: and they reproved men who hoped for the resurrection of the flesh, as though the resurrection that had been promised were already, by believing, fulfilled in the mind.

The Apostle reproves them.

Why does he reprove them? Were they not saying what the Lord just now was speaking, An hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who have heard will live?

But I am still speaking about the life of minds, Jesus says to you; I am not yet speaking about the life of bodies; but I am speaking about the life of the life of bodies—that is, of souls, in which is the life of bodies: for I know there are bodies lying in tombs, I know too that your bodies will be in tombs; I am not yet speaking of that resurrection: I am speaking of this one; in this one rise, lest in that one you rise to punishment. But that you may know that I am speaking of that one, what do I add? For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself (Jn 5:26). This life, which the Father is, which the Son is, to what does it pertain? to the soul, or to the body? For the body does not perceive that life of wisdom, but the rational mind. For not every soul can perceive wisdom. For the beast too has a soul; but the soul of the beast cannot perceive wisdom. The human soul, then, can perceive this life which the Father has in himself, and granted the Son to have life in himself; because that is the true light which enlightens—not every soul, but every man coming into this world (Jn 1:9). When, then, I speak to the mind itself, let it hear, that is, obey, and live.

15. Do not, then, Lord, be silent about the resurrection of the flesh; lest men not believe it, and we remain arguers, not preachers. Therefore, as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. Let those who hear understand, let them believe that they may understand, let them obey that they may live. Let them hear yet another thing, lest they suppose the resurrection to be finished here. And he has given him power also to execute judgment (Jn 5:27).

Who?

The Father.

To whom did he give it?

To the Son. For to him to whom he granted to have life in himself, he gave power also to execute judgment. Because he is the Son of man (Jn 5:27). For this Christ is both the Son of God and the Son of man. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; this was in the beginning with God (Jn 1:1-2). See how he granted him to have life in himself. But because the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14), made man of the Virgin Mary, he is the Son of man.

Accordingly, because he is the Son of man, what did he receive?

Power to execute judgment.

What judgment?

At the end of the world: and there will be the resurrection of the dead, but of bodies. Souls, then, God raises, through Christ the Son of God; bodies God raises, through the same Christ the Son of man. He gave him power. This power he would not have unless he received it, and were a man without power.

But he himself is the Son of man, who is also the Son of God. For by clinging to the unity of person, the Son of man to the Son of God, one person was made, and the same one is the Son of God who is also the Son of man. But what he has on account of what, must be distinguished. The Son of man has a soul, has a body. The Son of God, who is the Word of God, has a man, as the soul has a body. As the soul having a body does not make two persons, but one man; so the Word having a man does not make two persons, but one Christ. What is a man? A rational soul having a body. What is Christ? The Word of God having a man. I see of what things I speak, and who speaks, and to whom I speak.

16. Now hear about the resurrection of bodies—not me, but the Lord about to speak, for the sake of those who have risen by rising from death, by clinging to life.

To what life?

To one that does not know death.

Why does it not know death?

Because it does not know changeableness.

Why does it not know changeableness?

Because it is life in itself. And he gave him power also to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man.

What judgment, what kind of judgment?

Do not marvel at this, because I said, He gave him power also to execute judgment.

Because an hour is coming (Jn 5:28). He did not add, and now is: therefore he wishes to suggest a certain hour at the end of the world. There is an hour now, that the dead may rise; there will be an hour at the end of the world, that the dead may rise: but let them rise now in mind, then in flesh; let them rise now in mind through the Word of God the Son of God, let them rise then in flesh through the Word of God made flesh, the Son of man. For not even to the judgment of the living and the dead will the Father himself come: nor yet does the Father withdraw from the Son.

How, then, will he himself not come?

Because he himself will not be seen in the judgment. They will look on him whom they have pierced (Jn 19:37). That form will be the judge, which stood beneath the judge; that will judge which was judged: for it was judged unjustly, it will judge justly.

The form of a servant, then, will come, and it itself will appear. For how would the form of God appear to the just and the unjust? For if the judgment took place only among the just alone, the form of God would appear as to the just: but because the judgment is to be of the just and the unjust, and it is not permitted that the unjust should see God—for blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Mt 5:8)—such a judge will appear as can be seen both by those whom he will crown and by those whom he will condemn. The form of a servant, then, will be seen; the form of God will be hidden. The Son of God will be hidden in the servant, and the Son of man will appear; because he gave him power also to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man. And because he alone will appear in the form of a servant, but the Father will not appear, because he is not clothed with the form of a servant; therefore he said above, The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son (Jn 5:22).

It was well deferred, then, that he himself should be the expositor who was the proposer. For above it was hidden; now, I think, it is manifest that he gave him power also to execute judgment, because the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son: because the judgment is to be through that form which the Father does not have. And what kind of judgment? Do not marvel at this; because an hour is coming: not the one that now is, that souls may rise; but the one that is to come, that bodies may rise.

17. Let him say this more expressly, that the heretic who denies the resurrection of the body may find no slander—although the understanding now grows clear. When above it had been said, An hour is coming, he added, and now is: but now, An hour is coming; he did not add, and now is. Yet let him break, by the open truth, all the handles, all the little keys of slanders, all the knots of the snares. Do not marvel at this; because an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs (Jn 5:28). What is more evident? what more express? Bodies are in tombs: souls are not in tombs, neither of the just nor of the unjust. The soul of the just man was in Abraham's bosom, the soul of the unjust man was tormented in hell (See Lk 16:22-23): in the tomb, neither the one nor the other. Above, when he said, An hour is coming, and now is; I beg you, attend. You know, brothers, that to the bread of the belly one comes with labor; how much more to the bread of the mind? With labor you stand and hear; but we with greater labor stand and speak. If we labor for your sake, ought you not to labor together for the sake of those same selves of yours?

Above, then, when he said, An hour is coming, and added, and now is, what did he subjoin? When the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who have heard will live. He did not say, all the dead will hear, and those who have heard will live: for he wished the unjust dead to be understood. And do all the unjust hearken to the Gospel? The Apostle says plainly: But not all hearken to the Gospel (Rom 10:16). Yet those who hear will live; because all who hearken to the Gospel will pass to eternal life through faith: yet not all hearken, and this is now. But at the end, all who are in the tombs—that is, the just and the unjust—will hear his voice, and will come forth (See Jn 5:28-29). How is it that he was unwilling to say, and will live? For all will come forth, but not all will live. For in what he said above, And those who have heard will live; in that very hearkening he wished eternal and blessed life to be understood, which not all will have who come forth from the tombs. Now, then, both by the mention of tombs and by the express coming forth from the tombs, we plainly understand the resurrection of bodies.

18. All will hear his voice, and will come forth.

And where is the judgment, if all will hear, and all will come forth? It is as if all is confused; I see nothing distinguished. Surely you received power to judge, because you are the Son of man; behold, you will be present at the judgment, bodies will rise: say something about the judgment itself, that is, about the separation of the evil and the good.

And hear this too: Those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; but those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment (Jn 5:29).

Above, when he was speaking of the resurrection of minds and souls, did he make a distinction? But all who hear will live; because by hearkening they will live. But in rising and coming forth from the tombs, not all will go to eternal life, but those who have done well: but those who have done ill, to judgment. For here he put "judgment" for "punishment." And there will be a separation, and not such as it is now. For even now we are separated, not in places, but in conduct, in affections, in desires, in faith, in hope, in love. For we live together with the unjust; but the life of all is not one: in hiddenness we are separated, in hiddenness we are set apart; like grains on the threshing floor, not like grains in the barn. And the grains are both separated on the threshing floor and mixed: they are separated, when they are stripped from the chaff; they are mixed, because they are not yet winnowed.

Then the separation will be open, as of conduct, so also of life; as of wisdom, so also of bodies. Those who have done well will go to live with the angels of God; those who have done ill, to be tormented with the devil and his angels. And the form of a servant will pass away. For to this it had presented itself, that it might execute judgment: after the judgment it will go on from here, will lead with itself the body whose head it is, and will offer the kingdom to God. Then plainly will be seen that form of God, which could not be seen by the unjust, to whose sight the form of a servant was to be exhibited.

He says elsewhere thus: These will go into eternal burning (of certain ones on the left); but the just into eternal life (Mt 25:46): of which he says in another place, But this is eternal life, that they may know you the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (Jn 17:3). Then there will appear the one who, though he was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal to God (Phil 2:6): then he will show himself as he promised he would show himself to those who love him. For he who loves me, he says, keeps my commandments; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will show myself to him (Jn 14:21). To those to whom he was speaking, he was present: but they saw the form of a servant; the form of God they did not see. By the beast they were being led to the inn to be cured, but when healed they will see; for I will show, he says, myself to him. How is he shown equal to the Father? When he says to Philip, He who sees me sees also my Father (Jn 14:9).

19. I can do nothing of myself: as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just (Jn 5:30). Because we were going to say to him: You will judge, and the Father will not judge, because he has given all judgment to the Son; therefore you will not judge according to the Father: he added, I can do nothing of myself: as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just; because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me (Jn 5:30). Surely the Son gives life to whom he will. He does not seek his own will, but the will of him who sent him. Not my own, not my private will; not mine, not the Son of man's; not mine, which resists God.