4 Saturday before Nativity

According to Christ's declaration, the harvest indeed was great, but the laborers were few. In addition to those first chosen, he appointed seventy others and sent them to every village and city of Judea before his face to be his forerunners and to preach the things that belonged to him.The authority that they carried to rebuke evil spirits and the power of crushing Satan was not given to them that they might be regarded with admiration. It was given to them so that Christ would be glorified by their means. Those whom they taught would believe that he was by nature God and the Son of God. He was invested with so great glory and supremacy and might, as to be even able to bestow upon others the power of trampling Satan under their feet.

"I was looking at Satan, who fell like lightning from the heavens." It was not that he was actually in the heavens. He was not in them when he said, "I will place my throne above the stars," but he fell from his greatness and his dominion. "I was looking at Satan, who fell like lightning from the heavens." He did not fall from heaven, because lightning does not fall from heaven, since the clouds create it. Why then did he say "from the heavens"? This was because it was as though it was from the heavens, as if lightning which comes suddenly. In one second, Satan fell beneath the victory of the cross. Ordinary people were anointed and sent out by reason of their mission and were highly successful in a second, through miracles of healing those in pain, sickness and evil spirits. It was affirmed that Satan suddenly fell from his dominion, like lightning from the clouds. Just as lightning goes out and does not return to its place, so too did Satan fall and did not again have control over his dominion. "Behold, I am giving you dominion."

Thou, who hast bound the strong man, and spoiled all that was in his house, who hast given us power over serpents and scorpions to tread upon them, and upon all the power of the enemy; who hast delivered the serpent, that murderer of men, bound to us, as a sparrow to children, whom all things dread, and tremble before the face of Thy power...

(Orat. in Pass. et cruce Domini.) But now through the power of Christ boys make a mock at pleasure, which formerly led away the aged, and virgins stedfastly trample upon the desires of serpentine pleasure. Some also tread upon the very sting of the scorpion, that is, of the devil, namely death, and fearing not destruction, become witnesses of the word. But many giving up earthly things walk with a free step in heaven, dreading not the prince of the air.

Behold, I have given you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you; that is, the power to cast out every kind of unclean spirit from possessed bodies. Although, even literally, it can be rightly understood; for instance, Paul, attacked by a viper, suffered no harm. And John, as history reports, being given poison, was not harmed. I indeed reason that this distinguishes between serpents, which harm with their bite, and scorpions, which harm with their tail; that serpents openly rage, while scorpions secretly lay traps, signifying either men or demons. Serpents, who present the poison of wicked persuasion against the virtues at the outset; scorpions, who seek to corrupt consummated virtues at the end.

That is, I give you the power of casting out every kind of unclean spirit, from the bodies possessed. And as far as regards themselves, He adds, And nothing shall hurt you. Although it might also be taken literally. For Paul when attacked by a viper suffered no injury. (Acts 28:5.) John having drunk poison is not harmed by ita. But I think there is this difference between serpents who bite with the teeth, and scorpions who sting with the tail, that the serpents signify men or spirits raging openly, scorpions signify them plotting in secret. Or serpents are those which east the poison of evil persuasion upon virtues just beginning, scorpions which go about to corrupt at last virtues which have been brought to perfection.

Third, He subjoins the occasion of vain exultation, when He adds: Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, namely with respect to bodily snares, according to what is said to the serpent in Genesis 3: "She shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for her heel"; and over all the power of the enemy, with respect to spiritual snares, concerning which in Ephesians 6: "Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world," etc., up to "in the heavenly places."

And nothing shall harm you, on account of supernatural protections, according to that passage of Mark, the last chapter: "In my name they shall cast out demons, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents. And if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not harm them." And this power conferred upon them could be an occasion for presumption, according to what is said of Hezekiah, at whose prayers God worked wonders, in 2 Chronicles 32: "Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, and He heard him and gave him a sign; but he did not render according to the benefits he had received, because his heart was lifted up, and wrath came upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem."

Hence the multitude of divine gifts was for many an occasion of downfall, as is said of Lucifer in Ezekiel 28: "You were the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty"; and a little after: "Your heart was lifted up"; and therefore: "You sinned, and I cast you out from the holy mountain of God, and I destroyed you," etc. And therefore a certain holy man used to say that it is a great grace not to have grace, because all these exterior graces are nothing but temptations, and anyone outwardly exalted ought to fear that passage of Job 30: "You have lifted me up and, as it were setting me upon the wind, You have dashed me down mightily."

It is not the poor simply, but those that have wished to become poor for righteousness' sake, that He pronounces blessed-those who have despised the honours of this world in order to attain "the good;" likewise also those who, through chastity, have become comely in person and character, and those who are of noble birth, and honourable, having through righteousness attained to adoption, and therefore "have received power to become the sons of God," and "to tread on serpents and scorpions," and to rule over demons and "the host of the adversary."

Lo! I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and all the power of the enemy—as much as to say: Man of old having sinned when the serpent in Paradise assailed him, it was said to him: He shall lie in wait for thy heel, but thou for his head; that is, Ye shall be divided and at enmity against each other, that man may not be under obedience to him. So the warfare was then waged on equal terms, each having the power to hurt the other; for the serpent watching for the heel of man, that is, besetting his path in order to hurt him on finding him out of the path, as he could do by creeping about his heel; while man being of upward stature and on his guard, and not straying from his path, was able to bruise the head of the serpent. And now having conquered the serpent and brought him finally to shame, and having through his agency unjustly endured death for the whole race, and nailed the bond against it to the cross and blotted it out, I rose again on the third day victorious over death, and became the champion who has achieved victory for all the human race, for through me the victory has been extended to all humanity. Be ye therefore of good courage. Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and on all the power of the enemy. He says in effect the serpent is no longer able to hurt your heel, being himself trampled down under your feet

Jesus sanctified Baptism by being Himself baptized. If the Son of God was baptized, what godly man is he that despiseth Baptism? But He was baptized not that He might receive remission of sins, for He was sinless; but being sinless, He was baptized, that He might give to them that are baptized a divine and excellent grace. For since the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise partook of the same, that having been made partakers of His presence in the flesh we might be made partakers also of His Divine grace: thus Jesus was baptized, that thereby we again by our participation might receive both salvation and honour. According to Job, there was in the waters the dragon that draweth up Jordan into his mouth. Since, therefore, it was necessary to break the heads of the dragon in pieces, He went down and bound the strong one in the waters, that we might receive power to tread upon serpents and scorpions. The beast was great and terrible. No fishing-vessel was able to carry one scale of his tail: destruction ran before him, ravaging all that met him. The Life encountered him, that the mouth of Death might henceforth be stopped, and all we that are saved might say, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is drawn by Baptism.

This same Macarius once went down from Scetis to a place named Terenuthis, and he climbed into an old pagan burial place to sleep. He put one of the bodies under his head as a pillow. The demons hated him when they saw his assurance and tried to frighten him by calling out, 'Lady, come with us to bathe.' Another demon answered from underneath Macarius, as though he were the dead woman, 'I have a pilgrim on top of me, and can't move.' Macarius was not frightened, but confidently thumped the body, saying, 'Get up and go if you can.' When the demons heard it, they cried out and said, 'You have defeated us,' and they fled in confusion.

A brother asked Pambo, 'Why does the enemy prevent me doing good to my neighbour?' He said, 'Do not talk like that, or you will make God a liar. Say, "It is I myself do not want to be kind to others." For God came down to us and said, "I have given you the power of treading upon scorpions and snakes" (Luke 10:19), and so you are beyond the power of the enemy. Why then do you not tread down these evil spirits?'

(Hom. in Cant.) For pleasure is called in Scripture a serpent, which by nature is such that if its head has reached a wall so as to press upon it, it drags its whole body after it. So nature has given man the habitation which was necessary for him. But by means of this necessity, pleasure assaults the heart, and perverts it to the indulgence of immoderate ornament; in addition to this it brings in its train covetousness, which is followed by lust, that is, the last member or tail of the beast. But as it is not possible to draw back the serpent by its tail, so to remove pleasure we must not begin with the last, unless one has closed the first entrance to evil.

For the Lord, through means of suffering, "ascending into the lofty place, led captivity captive, gave gifts to men," and conferred on those that believe in Him the power "to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and on all the power of the enemy," that is, of the leader of apostasy. Our Lord also by His passion destroyed death, and dispersed error, and put an end to corruption, and destroyed ignorance, while He manifested life and revealed truth, and bestowed the gift of incorruption.

For this end did He put enmity between the serpent and the woman and her seed, they keeping it up mutually: He, the sole of whose foot should be bitten, having power also to tread upon the enemy's head; but the other biting, killing, and impeding the steps of man, until the seed did come appointed to tread down his head,-which was born of Mary, of whom the prophet speaks: "Thou shalt tread upon the asp and the basilisk; thou shalt trample down the lion and the dragon;"-indicating that sin, which was set up and spread out against man, and which rendered him subject to death, should be deprived of its power, along with death, which rules [over men]; and that the lion, that is, antichrist, rampant against mankind in the latter days, should be trampled down by Him; and that He should bind "the dragon, that old serpent" and subject him to the power of man, who had been conquered so that all his might should be trodden down.

Just as if any one, being an apostate, and seizing in a hostile manner another man's territory, should harass the inhabitants of it, in order that he might claim for himself the glory of a king among those ignorant of his apostasy and robbery; so likewise also the devil, being one among those angels who are placed over the spirit of the air, as the Apostle Paul has declared in his Epistle to the Ephesians, becoming envious of man, was rendered an apostate from the divine law: for envy is a thing foreign to God. And as his apostasy was exposed by man, and man became the [means of] searching out his thoughts (et examinatio sententiae ejus, homo factus est), he has set himself to this with greater and greater determination, in opposition to man, envying his life, and wishing to involve him in his own apostate power. The Word of God, however, the Maker of all things, conquering him by means of human nature, and showing him to be an apostate, has, on the contrary, put him under the power of man. For He says, "Behold, I confer upon you the power of treading upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy," in order that, as he obtained dominion over man by apostasy, so again his apostasy might be deprived of power by means of man turning back again to God.

Then lest we should suppose this was spoken of beasts, He added, And over all the power of the enemy.

And again, in other words, He said, 'I give unto you power to tread on serpents, and on scorpions, and on scolopendras, and on all the might of the enemy.' And now we, who believe on our Lord Jesus, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, when we exorcise all demons and evil spirits, have them subjected to us.

Since we possess the Lord Jesus who has freed us by his suffering, let us always look on him and hope for medicine for our wounds from his sign. That is to say, if perhaps the poison of greed spreads in us, we should look to him, and he will heal us. If the malicious desire of the scorpion stings us, we should beg him, and he will cure us. If bites of worldly thoughts tear us, we should ask him, and we will live. These are the spiritual serpents of our souls. The Lord was crucified in order to crush them. He says concerning them, "You will tread upon serpents and scorpions, and they will do no harm to you."

The authority of both offices will have to be equally divided, as it proceeds from one and the same Lord, (the God) of apostles and prophets. Who is He that shall bestow "the power of treading on serpents and scorpions? " Shall it be He who is the Lord of all living creatures or he who is not god over a single lizard? Happily the Creator has promised by Isaiah to give this power even to little children, of putting their hand in the cockatrice den and on the hole of the young asps without at all receiving hurt.

"Behold, I give you authority" to trample upon his powers. For "serpents and scorpions" are the ranks of demons, creeping along the ground, and those among them who sting in a more visible manner are "serpents," while those who strike in a more hidden manner are "scorpions." For example, the demon of fornication and murder is a serpent, for he incites to visible evildoings; but that demon who, under the pretext of illness, for instance, induces a person to make use of baths, fragrant ointments, and other luxuries, may be called a scorpion, since he has a hidden sting and secretly strives to sting the flesh, so as to lead the one who heeds him into a greater transgression. But thanks be to the Lord, Who has given authority to tread upon them!

Or serpents are those which visibly hurt, as the evil spirit of adultery and murder. But those are called scorpions which invisibly injure, as in the sins of the spirit.

Serpents indeed at one time under a figure were made to bite the Jews, and kill them because of their unbelief. But there came One who should destroy those serpents; even the Brazen Serpent, (Numb. 21:8.) the Crucified, so that if any one should look on Him believing, he might be healed from his wounds and saved.

For neither is it any profit to us to cast out demons, but to those who are so cleansed by the power of the Lord; as the Lord Himself somewhere instructs us, and shows, saying: "Rejoice ye, not because the spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." Since the former is done by His power, but this by our good disposition and diligence, yet (it is manifest) by His assistance.

(in Esai. 4.) There are some who are written indeed not in life, but according to Jeremiah in the earth, (Jer. 17:13.) that in this way there might be a kind of double enrolment, of the one indeed to life, but of the other to destruction. But since it is said, Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, (Ps. 69:28.) this is spoken of those who were thought worthy to be written in the book of God. And in this way a name is said to be put down in writing or blotted out, when we turn aside from virtue to sin, or the contrary.

However, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you. They are forbidden to rejoice over the subjection of spirits, being flesh, because casting out spirits, like performing other virtues, is sometimes not a merit of the one doing it, but the invocation of Christ's name does this, given for the condemnation of those who invoke, or for the benefit of those who see and hear it, so that although men may despise those who perform the signs, they still honor God, at whose invocation such great miracles are done. For also, in the Acts of the Apostles, the sons of Sceva appeared to cast out demons, and Judas the apostle, with the intention of a traitor, is narrated to have performed many signs among the other apostles.

Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. If Satan (he said) through pride lost the seat of heaven with his companions, it is not fitting for you to rejoice over their humiliation, but over your own exaltation, so that where they fell from, humbled, you may ascend. Additionally, it must not be foolishly supposed that God inscribes the good in heaven and the wicked on earth as a remedy for forgetfulness, as Jeremiah says: All who abandon you shall be ashamed; those who turn away shall be written in the earth (Jer. XVII). But it must be understood beneficially that whether celestial or terrestrial deeds one has performed, he is, as it were, recorded by these deeds, eternally fixed in the memory of God.

They are forbidden to rejoice in the subjection of the spirits to God, since they were flesh; for to cast out spirits and to exercise other powers is sometimes not on account of his merit who works, but is wrought through the invocation of Christ's name to the condemnation of those who mock it, or to the advantage of those who see and hear.

As if he said, It becomes you to rejoice not in the putting down of the evil spirits, but in your own exaltation. But it would be well for us to understand, that whether a man has done heavenly or earthly works, he is thereby, as if marked down by letter, for ever fixed in the memory of God.

The soil is Scripture which brings forth all kinds of trees pleasant to the sight, as regards the intellect, and good for food as regards the affective dispositions, that is, the manifold theories both delighting and sustaining. In the heavenly paradise, there is no planting, except of eternal reasons, and although there is sustainment in the fact of the predestination of all the saints, I will rejoice rather over my own. And this is what the Lord suggests: "Rejoice rather in this, that your names are written in heaven." Paul could speak of the heavenly paradise, because he was caught up to the third heaven. We do not know, but we speak of the earthly paradise.

Fourth, he adds the prohibition of vain exultation, when he says: Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you: because such joy is like the joy of the proud over their own promotion and the abasement of others, which does not befit true Saints, according to Ecclesiasticus 8: "Do not rejoice over your dead enemy"; and Job 31: "If I rejoiced at the ruin of him who hated me." Do not also rejoice, because such joy is ruinous, according to Proverbs 14: "Mourning takes hold of the end of joy." Such is the joy over a transitory good, according to Job 20: "The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment"; and again Job 21: "They rejoice at the sound of the organ, they spend their days in good things, but in a moment they descend to hell." Hence the Lord did not want the disciples to rejoice in miracles, but rather in torments and reproaches, according to Matthew 5: "Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you," etc.; and afterward: "Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for your reward is great in heaven." So also the Apostles did, according to Acts 5: "The Apostles went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus." Therefore do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, although it has been divinely granted, lest it become an occasion of pride and consequently of ruin. On account of which Augustine says that "the Lord said to his disciples: Learn from me, not to raise the dead, not to walk upon the waters, but that I am meek and humble of heart"; because they ought not to rejoice in miracles, but in humility.

But rejoice that your names, etc. After the Savior repressed vain joy in the disciples, here secondly he invites them to true joy. And he does this by proposing a fourfold cause or matter of joy. For he shows that joy was to come to the disciples from God's infallible foreknowledge, from his irreproachable providence, from his incomprehensible power, and from his desirable presence. And in these four they had very great matter for exulting.

The first joy was concerning God's infallible foreknowledge: with regard to which he says: But rejoice that your names are written, in the book of life, in heaven: which is called the book of life because the things written in it live, according to that passage of John 1: "What was made, in him was life"; or because according to its inscription a person is predestined to life. Whence according to it the final judgment will be made, as is said in Revelation 20: "Books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life"; in which book indeed the wicked will not be found finally inscribed, according to what is said in the Psalm: "Let them be blotted out from the book of the living, and let them not be written with the just." This indeed is said, not because this book is changed, but because many seem inscribed according to present justice, who will appear not inscribed according to divine foreknowledge. Since therefore this belongs only to those who are finally good and to be saved, and is an interminable and infallible good, therefore one should rightly rejoice over this, not over the gift of miracles, which belongs to the good and the wicked alike. Whence the wicked are not inscribed in heaven, but rather in the earth, according to that passage of Jeremiah 17: "Those who depart from you shall be written in the earth." As a sign of this, the Lord, confounding the unbelief of the Pharisees, who were estranged from the kingdom of heaven, "wrote with his finger on the ground," as is said in John 8.

And note that the divine knowledge is called a book, but the knowledge of simple awareness is called simply a book: and in this all things and all persons are inscribed, according to that passage of the Psalm: "Your eyes saw my imperfect being, and in your book all shall be written." And there is the knowledge of approbation, and this is called the book of life, and in this none are inscribed according to truth except those who are finally good; and concerning this, Exodus 32: "Either forgive them this offense, or blot me out from your book, which you have written." Upon which the Gloss says that "he said this with confidence, knowing that he could not be blotted out"; for he speaks of the inscription of foreknowledge, not of present justice.

To rejoice only in the fact that they were able to work miracles and crush the herds of demons was possibly likely to produce in them the desire of arrogance. The neighbor and relative of this passion constantly is pride. Most usefully the Savior of all rebukes the first boasting and quickly cuts away the root that sprang up in them—the shameful love of glory. He was imitating good farmers who, when they see a thorn springing up in their parks or gardens, immediately tear it up with the blade of the pickax before it strikes its root deep.

Why, O Lord, dost not Thou permit men to rejoice in the honours which are conferred by Thee, since it is written, In thy name shall they rejoice all the day? (Ps. 89:16.) But the Lord raises them up by greater joys. Hence He adds, But rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

To be sure he did, as being an envious (spirit), and in his very confession only petulant, and evil in adulation-just as if it had been Christ's highest glory to have come for the destruction of demons, and not for the salvation of mankind; whereas His wish really was that His disciples should not glory in the subjection of evil spirits but in the fair beauty of salvation. Why else did He rebuke him? If it was because he was entirely wrong (in his invocation), then He was neither Jesus nor the Holy One of God; if it was because he was partially wrong-for having supposed him to be, rightly enough, Jesus and the Holy One of God, but also as belonging to the Creator-most unjustly would He have rebuked him for thinking what he knew he ought to think (about Him), and for not supposing that of Him which he knew not that he ought to suppose-that he was another Jesus, and the holy one of the other god.

However, teaching the disciples not to be high-minded, the Lord says: "nevertheless do not... rejoice in this... that the demons are subject to you" (for from this others receive benefit, namely those who receive healing), "but rather rejoice that your names are... written... in heaven" not with ink, but by God's remembrance and grace. The devil falls from heaven, while people living on earth are written in heaven. Therefore, the true joy is in this, "that your names are written in heaven" and are not forgotten by God.

For the names of the saints are written in the book of life not in ink, but in the memory and grace of God. And the devil indeed fell from above; but men being below have their names inscribed above in heaven.

But because the joy with which He saw them rejoice savoured of vain-glory, for they rejoiced that they were as it were exalted, and were a terror to men and evil spirits, our Lord therefore adds, Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you, &c.

Lastly, he unveils the heavenly mystery by which it pleased God to reveal His grace, rather to the little ones than the wise of the world. Hence it follows, That thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent.

Or by a babe we should here understand one who knew nothing of exalting himself, and of boasting in proud words of the excellence of his wisdom, as the Pharisees often do.

Or, when you read all things, you acknowledge the Almighty, not the Son lower than the Father; when you read delivered, you confess the Son, to whom by the nature of one substance all things rightly belong, not conferred as a gift by grace.

But that you may know that as the Son revealed the Father to whom He will, the Father also reveals the Son to whom He will, hear our Lord's words, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood have not revealed it to thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

(con. Greg. Sabell. 3. con. gentes 6.) We know also that the Saviour often speaks as man. For His divine nature has human nature joined to it, yet you would not, because of His clothing Himself with a body, be ignorant that He was God. But what do they answer to this, who wish to make out a substance of evil, but form to themselves another God, other than the true Father of Christ? And they say that he is unbegotten, the creator of evil and prince of iniquity, as well as the maker of the world's fabric. (Gen. 1:1.) Now our Lord, affirming the word of Moses, says, I give thanks unto thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.

(Tract. in Matt. 11:22.) The followers of Arius, not rightly understanding this, rave against our Lord, saying, If all things were given to him, that is, the dominion of the creatures, there was a time when He had them not, and so was not of the substance of the Father. For if He had been, there would be no need for Him to receive. But hereby is their madness the rather detected. For if before He had received them, the creature was independent of the Word, how will that verse stand, In him all things consist? (Col. 4:17.) But if as soon as the creatures were made, they were all given to Him, where was the need to give, for by him were all things made? (John 13.) The dominion of the creation is not then, as they think, here meant, but the words signify the dispensation made in the flesh. For after that man sinned, all things were confounded; the Word then was made flesh, that He might restore all things. All things therefore were given Him, not because He was wanting in power, but that as Saviour He should repair all things; that as by the Word all things at the beginning were brought into being, so when the Word was made flesh, He should restore all things in Himself.

(Orat. 1. cont. Arian.) But though our Lord says this, it is plain that the Arians object to Him, saying, that the Father is not seen by the Son. But their folly is manifest, as if the Word did not know Itself which reveals to all men the knowledge of the Father and Itself; for it follows, And to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

Because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to infants. He gives thanks, rejoices in the Father, that he has revealed the mysteries of his arrival to the apostles, which the scribes and Pharisees, who consider themselves wise and prudent, and wisdom justified by her children (Luke VII), have ignored. Where he beautifully opposed infants, that is, the humble, to the wise and prudent, not as foolish and dull but to show he condemned pride, not intellect. For this is the key about which he says elsewhere: You have taken away the key of knowledge, that is, the humility of faith in Christ, by which you could have arrived at the recognition of his divinity, but you preferred to despise and reject it.

Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. In these words of the Lord, we receive examples of humility, so that we might not rashly discuss the heavenly counsel concerning the calling of some and the rejection of others. For when He mentioned both, He did not immediately give a reason but said it was pleasing to God in this way. He thus showed that it cannot be unjust what is pleasing to the Just. Hence, in rewarding the workers in the vineyard, when he made some laborers equal in reward despite their unequal work, and one who sweated more in labor sought more reward, he said: Did you not agree with me for a denarius? But I want to give to this last one as I give to you. Or is it not lawful for me to do what I wish? (Matt. XX). In all these things arranged outwardly, the hidden justice of the will is the open cause of reason.

Confessing (confiteor) does not always signify penitence, but also thanksgiving, as is frequently found in the Psalms. (Ps. 18:49; 30:12; 52:9.)

He therefore gives thanks that He had revealed to the Apostles as unto babes the sacraments of His coming, of which the Scribes and Pharisees were ignorant, who think themselves wise, and are prudent in their own sight.

To the wise and prudent then He opposed not the dull and foolish, but babes; that is, the humble, to show that He condemned pride, not quickness of mind.

Or by the words, All things are delivered to me, He means not the elements of the world, but those babes to whom by the Spirit the Father made known the Sacraments of His Son; and in whose salvation when He here spoke He was rejoicing.

Secondly, he shows him to be rejoicing over irreproachable providence: with respect to which he adds: In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, that is, in spiritual joy, which ought to be in the Holy Spirit, not in the flesh, according to that passage in Romans 14: "The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but justice and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit"; whence also the glorious Virgin above in chapter one: "My spirit has rejoiced," she says, "in God my savior." And in this he gave the disciples a manner of rejoicing and at the same time expressed the reason they ought to rejoice, when he adds: I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you are not only creator through power, but also governor through providence, according to that passage in Jeremiah 23: "I fill heaven and earth"; and Isaiah last chapter: "Heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet." To this universal provider he confesses with a confession, namely of praise. Confession is not only of fault, according to that passage in James 5: "Confess your sins to one another"; but also of true faith, of which it is said in Romans 10: "With the heart one believes unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation"; but also of divine praise, according to that passage in Hebrews 13: "Let us offer a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips confessing his name"; and in the Psalm: "Confess to the Lord, for he is good," etc. And in this way it is taken here as praise of God himself as governor.

Moreover, he praises him for his providence: on account of which he adds: That you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and have revealed them to little ones. For this happens according to the judgment of divine providence, that "God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble," as is said in James 4; and in the Psalm: "The Lord is on high and regards the lowly, and knows the lofty from afar." Therefore these things, that is, the mysteries of our redemption, he hid from the wise and the prudent of the world, who consider themselves to be wise in divine matters and prudent in temporal matters, according to what is said in 1 Corinthians 1: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject"; and afterwards he adds: "God has made foolish the wisdom of this world"; and therefore Isaiah 5: "Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes and prudent before yourselves." For from such people the divine mysteries are hidden, but on the contrary they are revealed to little ones: whence in the Psalm: "The declaration of your words gives light and gives understanding to little ones." And note that "he does not say to the foolish and the dull, but to little ones, that is, to the humble, to show that he does not condemn the sharpness of intelligence, but the swelling of pride," as the Gloss says. Whence Bernard: "Humility is the key of knowledge," according to that passage in Proverbs 11: "Where there is humility, there is wisdom."

And since this judgment of providence is irreproachable, he therefore adds: Even so, Father, for so it was well-pleasing before you: as if to say: justly, because it pleases you: for, as the Gloss says, "that which has pleased the Just One cannot be unjust." Hence it suffices to have given this reason, nor did he wish to assign another, either because this one is most sufficient and primary, according to that passage in Exodus thirty-three: "I will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be clement to whom it shall please me"; and Romans nine: "He has mercy on whom he wills," etc. Or so that curiosity may be restrained, lest we dare to scrutinize the judgments from above; hence the Gloss: "From this we receive an example of humility, lest we rashly scrutinize the counsels from above"; for it is said in Proverbs twenty-five: "The searcher of Majesty shall be overwhelmed by glory." Or to show that divine providence is to be praised in all its deeds and altogether irreproachable in all things, according to that verse of the Psalm: "The Lord is just in all his ways and holy in all his works."

Therefore one must rejoice and exult in the irreproachable providence of God, not dispute with presumptuous petty reasonings; because, as Gregory says, "divine judgments are not to be rashly scrutinized, but to be venerated with fearful silence."

Jesus therefore, rejoicing in the spirit, said: "I thank Thee, O Father, God of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes;" the Master and Teacher applying the name babes to us, who are readier to embrace salvation than the wise in the world, who, thinking themselves wise, are inflated with pride. And He exclaims in exultation and exceeding joy, as if lisping with the children, "Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight." Wherefore those things which have been concealed from the wise and prudent of this present world have been revealed to babes. Truly, then, are we the children of God, who have put aside the old man, and stripped off the garment of wickedness, and put on the immortality of Christ; that we may become a new, holy people by regeneration, and may keep the man undefiled.

After we have repented of our sins, renounced our wickedness, and have been purified by baptism, we turn back to the eternal light, as children to their Father. "Rejoicing in the spirit, Jesus said, 'I praise you, Father, God of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to little ones.' " The Educator and Teacher is naming us "little ones," meaning that we are more ready for salvation than the worldly wise who, believing themselves wise, have blinded their own eyes. He cries out in joy and in great delight, as if attuning himself to the spirit of the little ones, "Yes, Father, for such was your good pleasure." That is why he has revealed to little ones what has been hid from the wise and prudent of this world.

He sent them, decorated with apostolic dignity and distinguished by the work of the grace of the Holy Spirit. He gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out. Having performed many miracles, they returned, saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject to us in your name." As I have already said, he was full of joy, or rather of exultation because he knew that those he sent had benefited many, and they, above all others, had learned his glory by experience. Being good and loving to humanity and wishing that all should be saved, he found his reason for rejoicing in the conversion of those who were in error, the enlightenment of those in darkness, and the acknowledgment of his glory by those who were without knowledge and instruction.

He saw in truth that through the operation of the Holy Spirit, which He gave to the holy Apostles, the acquisition of many would be made, (or that many would be brought to the faith.) He is said therefore to have rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, that is, in the results which came forth through the Holy Spirit. For as one who loved mankind He considered the conversion of sinners to be a subject for rejoicing, for which He gives thanks. As it follows, I give thanks unto thee, O Father.

Now here, say they whose hearts are perverted, the Son gives thanks to the Father as being inferior. But what should prevent the Son of the same substance with the Father from praising His own Father, who saves the world by Him? But if you think that because of His giving thanks He shows Himself to be inferior, observe, that He calls Him His Father, and the Lord of heaven and earth.

(adv. Hær. 42.) But a Gospel composed by Marcion has, "I give thanks to Thee, O Lord," being silent as to the words of heaven and earth, and the word Father, lest it should be supposed that He calls the Father the Creator of the heaven and the earth.

(25. Moral. c. 14.) We receive these words as an example of humility, that we should not rashly presume to scan the heavenly counsel, concerning the calling of some, and the rejection of others; for that cannot be unjust which seemed good to the Just One. In all things therefore, externally disposed, the cause of the visible system is the justice of the hidden will.

Again, our Lord Jesus Christ confesses this same Being as His Father, where He says: "I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth." What Father will those men have us to understand [by these words], those who are most perverse sophists of Pandora? Whether shall it be Bythus, whom they have fabled of themselves; or their Mother; or the Only-begotten? Or shall it be he whom the Marcionites or the others have invented as god (whom I indeed have amply demonstrated to be no god at all); or shall it be (what is really the case) the Maker of heaven and earth, whom also the prophets proclaimed,-whom Christ, too, confesses as His Father,-whom also the law announces, saying: "Hear, O Israel; The Lord thy God is one God?"

The proof that the Son knows the Father perfectly rests on the fact that he is "the one who is from God." The Son has clear knowledge of the Father, because he is from God. The fact that he is from God is a sign and indication that he knows him clearly. An inferior essence would not be able to have clear knowledge of a superior essence, even if the difference between them were slight.

(Hom. 38. in Matt.) Now He does not rejoice and give thanks because the mysteries of God were hid from the Scribes and Pharisees, (for this were not a subject of rejoicing, but of lament,) but for this cause gives He thanks, that what the wise knew not, babes knew. But moreover He gives thanks to the Father, together with whom He Himself does this, to show the great love wherewith He loves us. He explains in the next place, that the cause of this thing was first His own will and the Father's, who of His own will did this. As it follows, Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.

(Hom. 38. in Matt.) But after He had said, I thank thee that thou hast revealed them to babes, lest you should suppose that Christ was destitute of the power to do this, He adds, All things are delivered to me of my Father.

For a feeling of deficiency is the preparation for coming perfection. For whoever by the presence of the apparent good perceives not that he is destitute of the true good, is deprived of the true good.

It is therefore the peculiar gift bestowed by God upon the Hebrews, that they believe Moses; and the peculiar gift bestowed upon the Gentiles is that they love Jesus. For this also the Master intimated, when He said, 'I will confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast concealed these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes.' By which it is certainly declared, that the people of the Hebrews, who were instructed out of the law, did not know Him; but the people of the Gentiles have acknowledged Jesus, and venerate Him; on which account also they shall be saved, not only acknowledging Him, but also doing His will. But he who is of the Gentiles, and who has it of God to believe Moses, ought also to have it of his own purpose to love Jesus also. And again, the Hebrew, who has it of God to believe Moses, ought to have it also of his own purpose to believe in Jesus; so that each of them, having in himself something of the divine gift, and something of his own exertion, may be perfect by both.

For on this account Jesus is concealed from the Jews, who have taken Moses as their teacher, and Moses is hidden from those who have believed Jesus. For, there being one teaching by both, God accepts him who has believed either of these. But believing a teacher is for the sake of doing the things spoken by God. And that this is so our Lord Himself says, 'I thank thee, Father of heaven and earth, because Thou hast concealed these things from the wise and elder, and hast revealed them to sucking babes.' Thus God Himself has concealed a teacher from some, as foreknowing what they ought to do, and has revealed him to others, who are ignorant what they ought to do.

Who shall be invoked as the Lord of heaven, that does not first show Himself to have been the maker thereof? For He says, "I thank thee, (O Father, )and own Thee, Lord of heaven, because those things which had been hidden from the wise and prudent, Thou has revealed unto babes." What things are these? And whose? And by whom hidden? And by whom revealed? If it was by Marcion's god that they were hidden and revealed, it was an extremely iniquitous proceeding; for nothing at all had he ever produced in which anything could have been hidden-no prophecies, no parables, no visions, no evidences of things, or words, or names, obscured by allegories and figures, or cloudy enigmas, but he had concealed the greatness even of himself, which he was with all his might revealing by his Christ.

Now, if He has designated His Christ as an enlightener of the Gentiles, saying, "I have set thee for a light of the Gentiles; " and if we understand these to be meant in the word babes -as having been once dwarfs in knowledge and infants in prudence, and even now also babes in their lowliness of faith-we shall of course more easily understand how He who had once hidden "these things," and promised a revelation of them through Christ, was the same God as He who had now revealed them unto babes.

His "Father" He Himself adores. When acknowledged by Peter as the "Christ (the Son) of God," He does not deny the relation.

As a good father, seeing his children succeed in something worthy of praise, rejoices, so too the Savior rejoiced that the apostles were deemed worthy of such blessings. Therefore He thanks the Father that such mysteries were hidden "from the wise," that is, the Pharisees and scribes who interpreted the Law, and from "the understanding," that is, the disciples of these same scribes. For he who teaches is wise, and he who learns and comprehends the lessons is understanding; for example, Gamaliel is wise, and Paul is understanding, for the former is the teacher, and the latter understands that which the former instructs. The Lord calls His disciples "babes" because they were not from those skilled in the Law, but were chosen for the most part from the common class of people and from fishermen. However, they could also be called babes on account of their innocence. But those (the Pharisees and scribes) were not truly wise and understanding, but only seemed so. Therefore, these mysteries were hidden "from the wise and understanding" who seemed to be such, but in reality were not. For if they had truly been such, the mysteries would have been revealed to them. "Yes, Father," I thank You, "for such was Your good pleasure," that is, that such was Your good pleasure and will, and so it was pleasing to You.

As a loving father rejoices to see his sons do right, so Christ also rejoices that His Apostles were made worthy of such good things. Hence it follows, In that hour, &c.

The distinction may be, that it is said, the wise, meaning, the Pharisees and Scribes who interpret the law, and the prudent, meaning those who were taught by the Scribes, for the wise man is he who teaches, but the prudent man he who is taught; but the Lord calls His disciples babes, whom He chose not from the teachers of the law, but out of the multitude, and by calling, fishermen; babes, that is, as devoid of malice.

The mysteries then were hid from those who think themselves wise, and are not; for if they had been, these would have been revealed to them.

(non occ.) For all other things have been produced by Christ from nothing, but He alone was incomprehensibly begotten of His Father; Who therefore of the Only-begotten alone, as a true Son, is by nature the Father. Hence He alone says to His Father, I give thanks to thee, O Father, Lord, &c. that is, I glorify thee. Marvel not that the Son glorifies the Father. For the whole substance of the Only-begotten is the glory of the Father. For both those things which were created, and the Angels, are the glory of the Creator. But since these are placed too low in respect of His dignity, the Son alone, since He is perfect God like His Father, perfectly glorifies His Father.

Now a revelation is the communication of knowledge in proportion to each man's nature and capacity; and when indeed the nature is congenial, there is knowledge without teaching; but here the instruction is by revelation.

If the kingdom of heaven is as a grain of mustard seed, and faith is as a grain of mustard seed, surely faith is the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of heaven is faith. One who has faith has the kingdom. The kingdom and faith is among us. We read, "The kingdom of heaven is within you," and "Have faith in yourselves." Peter, who had all faith, received the keys of the kingdom of heaven to unlock it also for others.

In another place, a grain of mustard seed is introduced where it is compared to faith. If then the mustard seed is the kingdom of God, and faith is as the grain of mustard seed; faith is truly the kingdom of heaven, which is within us. (Luke 17:21.) A grain of mustard seed is indeed a mean and trifling thing, but as soon as it is crushed, it pours forth its power. And faith at first seems simple, but when it is buffeted by adversity, pours forth the grace of its virtue. The martyrs are grains of mustard seed. They have about them the sweet odour of faith, but it is hidden. Persecution comes; they are smitten by the sword; and to the farthest boundaries of the whole world they have scattered the seeds of their martyrdom. The Lord Himself also is a grain of mustard seed; He wished to be bruised that we might see that we are a sweet savour of Christ. (2 Cor. 2:15.) He wishes to be sown as a grain of mustard seed, which when a man takes he puts it into his garden. For Christ was taken and buried in a garden, where also He rose again and became a tree, as it follows, And it waxed into a great tree. For our Lord is a grain when He is buried in the earth, a tree when He is lifted up into the heaven. He is also a tree overshadowing the world, as it follows, And the fowls of the air rested in his branches; that is, the heavenly powers and they whoever (for their spiritual deeds) have been thought worthy to fly forth. Peter is a branch, Paul is a branch, into whose arms, by certain hidden ways of disputation, we who were a far off now fly, having taken up the wings of the virtues. Sow then Christ in thy garden; a garden is truly a place full of flowers, wherein the grace of thy work may blossom, and the manifold odour of thy different virtues be breathed forth. Wherever is the fruit of the seed, there is Christ.

He said therefore, "To what is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed. The kingdom of God is the preaching of the Gospel and the knowledge of the Scriptures which leads to life. And concerning which it is said to the Jews, 'The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits' (Matthew XXI). The kingdom is therefore like a mustard seed, due to the fervor of faith particularly, or because it is said to expel poison. Hence, we also read elsewhere that perfect faith is compared to a mustard seed because it evidently conquers all doctrines of perversity, by its simplicity and humility.

He said therefore: To what is it like, etc. After he refuted those who slandered the miracles done on the Sabbath, here he shows secondly that good works are to be done without ceasing. And first he urges this through the guidance of a natural example; but secondly, through the manifestation of a divine decree, at the passage: And he went through cities and towns.

He guides, therefore, by example in a twofold manner: by the first of which we are instructed to advance continually in the knowledge of truth; but by the second, to advance in the fervor of charity, at the passage: And again he said: To what is it like.

First, therefore, he shows continual progress in the knowledge of truth under the metaphor of the grain of mustard seed, and this in a threefold manner, namely with respect to the properties which the grain of mustard seed has in itself, and insofar as it is sown, and insofar as it is grown.

First therefore, regarding the property of the mustard seed in itself, by which it is likened to the knowledge of truth, he says: Therefore he said: To what is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? The kingdom of heaven is here called the knowledge or doctrine of truth: whence Bede in the Gloss: "The kingdom of heaven is the preaching of the Gospel, concerning which it is said elsewhere: The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof, according to that passage in Matthew twenty-one." This knowledge is rightly called a kingdom, because truly the kingdom of heaven is nothing other than the perfect knowledge of divine truth; John seventeen: "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

Or else; The kingdom of God is the Gospel, through which we gain the power of reigning with Christ. As then the mustard seed is surpassed in size by the seeds of other herbs, yet so increases as to become the shelter of many birds; so also the life-giving doctrine was at first in the possession only of a few, but afterwards spread itself abroad.

While His adversaries were ashamed, and the people rejoiced, at the glorious things that were done by Christ, He proceeds to explain the progress of the Gospel under certain similitudes, as it follows, Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? It is like a grain of mustard seed, &c. (Mat. 17:19.)

I know quite well that, to you as to me, the Church which once felt like a refuge, now often feels like a trap. There is nowhere else to go! (I wonder if this desperate feeling, the last state of loyalty hanging on, was not, even more often than is actually recorded in the Gospels, felt by Our Lord's followers in His earthly life-time?) I think there is nothing to do but to pray, for the Church, the Vicar of Christ, and for ourselves; and meanwhile to exercise the virtue of loyalty, which indeed only becomes a virtue when one is under pressure to desert it...

The 'protestant' search backwards for 'simplicity' and directness - which, of course, though it contains some good or at least intelligible motives, is mistaken and indeed vain. Because 'primitive Christianity' is now and in spite of all 'research' will ever remain largely unknown; because 'primitiveness' is no guarantee of value, and is and was in great part a reflection of ignorance. Grave abuses were as much an element in Christian 'liturgical' behaviour from the beginning as now. (St Paul's strictures on eucharistic behaviour are sufficient to show this!)

Still more because 'my church' was not intended by Our Lord to be static or remain in perpetual childhood; but to be a living organism (likened to a plant), which develops and changes in externals by the interaction of its bequeathed divine life and history - the particular circumstances of the world into which it is set. There is no resemblance between the 'mustard-seed' and the full-grown tree. For those living in the days of its branching growth the Tree is the thing, for the history of a living thing is pan of its life, and the history of a divine thing is sacred.

The wise may know that it began with a seed, but it is vain to try and dig it up, for it no longer exists, and the virtue and powers that it had now reside in the Tree. Very good: but in husbandry the authorities, the keepers of the Tree, must look after it, according to such wisdom as they possess, prune it, remove cankers, rid it of parasites, and so forth. (With trepidation, knowing how little their knowledge of growth is!) But they will certainly do harm, if they are obsessed with the desire of going back to the seed or even to the first youth of the plant when it was (as they imagine) pretty and unafflicted by evils. The other motive (now so confused with the primitivist one, even in the mind of any one of the reformers): aggiornamento: bringing up to date: that has its own grave dangers, as has been apparent throughout history. With this 'ecumenicalness' has also become confused.

There is written in these words of the Lord, "Someone took and threw it into his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of heaven roosted in its branches." Let us look more closely to find out to whom all these things pertain. We said before that the nature of mustard might resemble the holy martyrs because they are rubbed by different sufferings. Since Scripture says, "And it grew and became a tree, and the birds of heaven roosted in its branches," I think that this is more properly compared to the Lord Christ himself. Born a man, he was humbled like a seed and in ascending to heaven was exalted like a tree. It is clear that Christ is a seed when he suffers and a tree when he rises. He is a seed when he endures hunger and a tree when he satisfies five thousand men with five loaves. In the one case, he endures barrenness in his human condition, in the other he bestows fullness by his divinity. I would say that the Lord is a seed when he is beaten, scorned and cursed, but a tree when he enlightens the blind, raises the dead and forgives sins. In the Gospel, he says that he is a seed: "Unless the grain of wheat, falling upon the earth, dies."

As the text says, the kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed, because the kingdom is brought by a word from heaven. It is received through hearing and sown by faith. It takes root through belief and grows by hope. It is diffused by profession, and it expands through virtue. It is spread out into branches. To these branches, it invites the birds of heaven, the powers of spiritual insight. In those branches, it receives them in a peaceful abode.

A man took it and planted it in his garden. The man is Christ, the garden is His Church, always to be cultivated by His teachings and gifted with His gifts. It is well said that the same man who planted the seed also took it, because indeed the gifts which He bestowed on us with the Father from divinity, He also took with us from humanity, whence it is said, 'He received gifts among men.' And elsewhere Peter said, 'And having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.'"

And it grew and became a tree. The preaching of the Gospel spread throughout the world, and it grows also in the mind of each believer, because no one becomes perfect suddenly, but the ascent (he says) is arranged in his heart in the valley of tears (Psalm 83): and later: They shall go from strength to strength, the God of gods shall be seen in Zion (Ibid.). Certainly, the ascent from the valley of tears is gradual, so that on the mountain of heavenly joys the God of gods may be seen. And by growing, the mustard seed rises not like herbs that quickly wither, but like a tree, rejoicing in long endurance and rich fertility. And note that while the barren fig tree in the old vineyard is reproved, immediately in the garden of the Gospel a new mustard tree is born.

And the birds of the air rest in its branches. The branches of this tree are the diversities of teachings, in which chaste souls, who know how to tend towards the heavens with the wings of virtues, delight to nest and rest. Who will give me (he says) wings like a dove, and I will fly and rest (Psalm 54)? In the mustard seed, the humility of the Lord's incarnation itself can be understood, which a man took and put in his garden, because Joseph, taking the body of the crucified Savior, buried it in a garden. But it grew and became a tree, because He rose and ascended into heaven. It spread out branches in which the birds of the air rested, because He sent preachers into the world, in whose words and consolations the faithful would find rest from the fatigue of this life.

Now the man, is Christ, the garden, His Church, to be cultivated by His discipline. He is well said to have taken the grain, because the gifts which He together with the Father gave to us from His divinity, He took from His humanity. But the preaching of the Gospel grew and was disseminated throughout the whole world. It grows also in the mind of every believer, for no one is suddenly made perfect. But in its growth, not like the grass, (which soon withers,) but it rises up like the trees. The branches of this tree are the manifold doctrines, on which the chaste souls, soaring upwards on the wings of virtue, build and repose.

And this knowledge in the fatherland is sublime and delightful, but on the way it ought to be humble and fervent, in designation of which he adds: It is like a grain of mustard seed. It is therefore likened to a grain of mustard seed, because it is small in size and great in power or fervor: in which it is intimated that our knowledge ought to be humble, according to that passage in Romans eleven: "Be not high-minded, but fear"; and twelve: "Not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think unto sobriety, and to each one as God has divided the measure of faith," because, as it is said in Proverbs eleven, "where there is humility, there is also wisdom," etc. It is also intimated that it ought to be fervent and burning: whence the Gloss of Bede: "The knowledge of the Scriptures is compared to a grain of mustard seed on account of the fervor of faith, or because it is said to expel poisons, that is, all doctrines of depravity." Therefore it is said below in seventeen: "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mulberry tree: Be uprooted and transplanted into the sea, and it shall obey you."

Second, as to the property of it insofar as it is sown, he adds: Which a man took and cast into his garden. By this garden is understood the Church militant; Song of Songs 4: "A garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, my sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed." This is the garden of delight, "where the seeds of virtues grow"; in which the seed of faith must first be sown. But this is done through a man, because the preaching of faith is sown through human ministry; as a figure of which, Genesis 2: "God took the man and placed him in the paradise of delight, to work it and to keep it." Such was Paul; 1 Corinthians 3: "I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase." For it belongs to a man, that is, to one who is rational and prudent, to preach the teachings of faith; but the supreme sower of this faith was Christ, who is called Man par excellence, according to that word of the Psalm: "Shall not Sion say: This man and that man was born in her," etc. Whence he also calls himself everywhere the Son of Man, because humanity existed in him according to its fullest meaning, both as to perfection and as to infirmity; Philippians 2: "Made in the likeness of men and found in appearance as a man." And this man sowed this seed when he preached the doctrine of the Gospel; Matthew 13: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field." He who preaches falsehoods is opposed to this man. Whence it is added there: "But while men slept," that is, prelates, "the enemy man came and oversowed cockle in the midst of the wheat," etc.

Third, as to the property of it insofar as it has grown, he adds: And it grew and became a great tree; which is said with regard to the progress of faith in the strength of its powers. Whence the Gloss: "It grows, not like herbs, which quickly wither and collapse, but like a tree, which rejoices in long age and unexpected fruitfulness"; Colossians 1: "In the word of the truth of the Gospel, which has come to you, as also in the whole world it bears fruit and grows, as also in you"; and a little after: "That you may walk worthy of God, pleasing in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God." But this knowledge grows so much higher through truth as its root descends more deeply through humility; whence Isaiah 37: "That which shall be saved of the house of Judah and that which shall remain shall send roots downward and shall bear fruit upward."

And because the knowledge of faith growing in itself overflows unto the salvation of others, therefore he adds: And the birds of the air rested in its branches. By the birds of the air are understood spiritual men: Isaiah 60: "Who are these who fly as clouds and as doves to their windows?" of whom Proverbs 1: "In vain is the net cast before the eyes of the winged." By the branches of the tree are understood the teachings of truth proceeding from the mouth of the wise: whence in Sirach 24, Wisdom says: "I like a terebinth have spread out my branches, and my branches are of honor and grace." The birds therefore of the air rest in the branches of the growing mustard, because those who arrive at the knowledge of truth are quieted under the teaching of a faithful doctor. Whence the Gloss: "In its branches, that is, in the diverse teachings, spiritual men rest, who ascend to the heights on the wings of virtues." As a figure of this, Daniel 4: "I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth." "Its leaves were most beautiful, and its fruit abundant, and food for all was in it. Under it dwelt the beasts of the earth, and in its branches the birds of the air abode."

Thus therefore a small seed grows into the greatness of a tree through continuous increase. He therefore who is small ought to labor continuously toward the advancement of merit, so that he may thus become a tree whose summit reaches to heaven through the hope and desire of eternal things.

The mode of His love and His instruction we have shown as we could. Wherefore He Himself, declaring Himself very beautifully, likened Himself to a grain of mustard-seed; and pointed out the spirituality of the word that is sown, and the productiveness of its nature, and the magnificence and conspicuousness of the power of the word; and besides, intimated that the pungency and the purifying virtue of punishment are profitable on account of its sharpness. By the little grain, as it is figuratively called, He bestows salvation on all humanity abundantly. Honey, being very sweet, generates bile, as goodness begets contempt, which is the cause of sinning. But mustard lessens bile, that is, anger, and stops inflammation, that is, pride. From which Word springs the true health of the soul, and its eternal happy temperament.

The Kingdom of God is likened to "a grain of mustard seed." And the Kingdom of God is the teaching and preaching, for through preaching it reigned in the souls of men. As mustard is small in appearance but has much power, so also many despise the evangelical teaching and consider it foolishness, but if a person receives it and plants it "in his garden," that is, in his soul, then it produces a great and spreading tree, and "the birds of the air," that is, people who desire to soar to the heights, "lodge in its branches." For those who rise above earthly things find rest in the branches of the preaching, that is, in expansive thoughts. For example, Paul received a seed, a brief instruction from Ananias, but having planted this seed in his well-cultivated garden, he produced branches, that is, abundant and good teaching (Acts 9:17–22) and epistles, in which those lofty in mind and wisdom found shelter not only in that time, such as the Corinthians, Dionysius, Hierotheus, and very many others, but also those who lived in all ages. Under the mustard seed one may also understand the Lord Himself. In appearance, as the son of a carpenter and exceedingly poor, He was not great. But when He fell into the heart of the earth, through death and burial in the tomb (John 12:24), then He put forth beautiful branches — the apostles, under whom all those find rest who formerly were tossed about by every wind of error, for example, the pagans, who are like birds on account of the easy inclination of their mind in any direction, their susceptibility to deception, and their great fickleness. For all such who go astray are like the birds of heaven, that is, of the air.

Or, any man receiving a grain of mustard seed, that is, the word of the Gospel, and sowing it in the garden of his soul, makes it a great tree, so as to bring forth branches, and the birds of the air (that is, they who soar above the earth) rest in the branches, (that is, in sublime contemplation.) For Paul received the instruction of Ananias (Acts 9:17.) as it were a small grain, but planting it in his garden, he brought forth many good doctrines, in which they dwell who have high heavenly thoughts, as Dionysius, Hierotheus, and many others.

The grain of wheat is Christ, because he was spiritual leaven for us, and many think that Christ is the leaven that enlivens the virtue which we have received. Since the leaven in the flour surpassed its own kind in strength and not in appearance, Christ was preeminent among the fathers, equal in body, incomparable in divinity. The holy church is prefigured in the woman in the Gospel. We are her flour, and she hides the Lord Jesus in the inner parts of our mind until the radiance of heavenly wisdom envelopes the secret places of our spirit.

There are three measures: of the flesh, of the soul and of the spirit. This is truer of the spirit in which we all live.… The woman, who prefigures the church, mixes with them the virtue of spiritual doctrine, until the whole hidden inner person of the heart is leavened and the heavenly bread arises to grace. The doctrine of Christ is fittingly called leaven, because the bread is Christ. The apostle said, "For we, being many, are one bread, one body." Leavening happens when the flesh does not lust against the Spirit, nor the Spirit against the flesh. We mortify the deeds of the flesh, and the soul, aware that through the breath of God it has received the breath of life, shuns the earthly germs of worldly needs.

Many think Christ is the leaven, for leaven which is made from meal, excels its kind in strength, not in appearance. So also Christ (according to the Fathers) shone forth above others equal in body, but unapproachable in excellence. The Holy Church therefore represents the type of the woman, of whom it is added, Which a woman, took and hid in three measures (sata) of meal, till the whole was leavened.

But we are the meal of the woman which hide the Lord Jesus in the secrets of our hearts, until the heat of heavenly wisdom penetrates our innermost recesses. And since He says it was hid in three measures, it seems fitting that we should believe the Son of God to have been hid in the Law, veiled in the Prophets, manifested in the preaching of the Gospel. Here however I am invited to proceed farther, because our Lord Himself has taught us, that the leaven is the spiritual teaching of the Church. Now the Church sanctifies with its spiritual leaven the man who is renewed in body, soul, and spirit, seeing that these three are united in a certain equal measure of desire, and there breathes forth a complete harmony of the will. If then in this life the three measures abide in the same person until they are leavened and become one, there will be hereafter an incorruptible communion with them that love Christ.

A woman took some yeast when the church, by the Lord's generosity, secured the energy of love and faith from on high. She hid this in three measures of flour until the whole batch was leavened. She did this when she performed her ministry of imparting the word of life to parts of Asia Minor, Europe and Africa, until all the ends of the world were on fire with love for the heavenly kingdom.

And again he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God, and what is it like? It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until the whole was leavened." A measure called "satum" is a unit of measure according to the custom of the province of Palestine, holding one and a half modii. Therefore, the leaven refers to love, which heats up and stirs the mind. That woman, to whom he previously laid his hands and who immediately stood up straight glorifying God, signifies the Church, of which we are the flour; all who, through the exercise of fear and hope, are ground down by the upper and lower millstones, so that according to the Apostle, we may be one bread and one body in Christ. Therefore, the woman hid the leaven of love in three measures of flour, because the Church commands that we love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength. Under the type of Sarah, it is said to Abraham: "Hurry, get three measures of fine flour, knead it, and make cakes" (Gen. XVIII). Also, in the three measures of flour, the three fruits of the Lord's seed can be understood, namely the thirtieth, the sixtieth, and the hundredth, that is, of the married, the continent, and the virgins. And it is fitting that he says until the whole was leavened, because the love hidden in our mind ought to grow until it changes the whole mind into its perfection, so that the soul can love, act, and remember nothing except the love of its Creator. This indeed begins here, but there it is perfected, where, since God is all in all, he warms everyone with the same fire of his love.

The Satum is a kind of measure in use in the province of Palestine, holding about a bushel and a half.

Or, by the leaven He speaks of love, which kindles and stirs up the heart; the woman, that is, the Church, hides the leaven of love in three measures, because she bids us love God with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our strength. And this until the whole is leavened, that is, until love moves the whole soul into the perfection of itself, which begins here, but will be completed hereafter.

And again he said: To what is it like, etc. After he set forth an example inciting to continuous progress in the knowledge of truth, here he adds an example inciting to progress in the fervor of charity, and this under the metaphor of leaven, from whose likeness he incites to continuous progress in charity with respect to its threefold analogous property, namely that which leaven has on the part of its own nature, on the part of another's industry, and on the part of both.

First, therefore, with respect to the property which it has on the part of its own nature, through which he intends to arouse us to progress in charity, he says: And again he said: To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? And here by the kingdom of God is rightly understood the love of God, because God reigns only in those who love him: Colossians 1: "He rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love"; because, as is said in Romans 14, "the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but justice and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

The leaven is small in quantity, yet it immediately seizes the whole mass and quickly communicates its own properties to it. The Word of God operates in us in a similar manner. When it is admitted within us, it makes us holy and without blame. By pervading our mind and heart, it makes us spiritual. Paul says, "Our whole body and spirit and soul may be kept blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." The God of all clearly shows that the divine Word is poured out even into the depth of our understanding.…We receive the rational and divine leaven in our mind. We understand that by this precious, holy and pure leaven, we may be found spiritually unleavened and have none of the wickedness of the world, but rather be pure, holy partakers of Christ.

With regard, indeed, to the following similitude, I have my fears lest it should somehow presage the kingdom of the rival god! For He compared it, not to the unleavened bread which the Creator is more familiar with, but to leaven. Now this is a capital conjecture for men who are begging for arguments. I must, however, on my side, dispel one fond conceit by another," and contend with even leaven is suitable for the kingdom of the Creator, because after it comes the oven, or, if you please, the furnace of hell.

(Serm. 111.) Or, the three measures of meal are the race of mankind, which was restored out of the three sons of Noah. The woman who hid the leaven is the wisdom of God.

And since charity and joy dilate and warm the heart from within, and this is the outward likeness with leaven, therefore he adds: It is like leaven.

And note that by leaven is sometimes understood the corruption of peace and unity, as above in the twelfth chapter: "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy"; and this quite rightly, because leaven is old dough, corrupted by age and turned to sourness, which corrupts the remaining mass and turns it to sourness. Therefore it is pointedly said in First Corinthians five: "Purge out the old leaven." — Sometimes by leaven is understood fervor and love, as here, because leaven heats the dough and induces a certain fervor as if from something hidden and interior: whence not unfittingly leaven is charity. Nor is it contrary to reason that leaven should be taken in this way and in that way by reason of diverse properties. Whence Augustine, in the third book of On Christian Doctrine: "Since things appear similar to other things in many ways, let us not think it prescribed that whatever a thing has signified by similitude in some passage, we should believe it always signifies this. For the Lord used leaven both in blame, when He said: Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and in praise, when He said: The kingdom of heaven is like a woman who hid leaven in three measures of flour." Moreover many things of this kind, as he says, are similar in Scripture, just as "the lion signifies Christ, Apocalypse five: The lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered; the devil, First Peter five: Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, etc.; and so also very many others." The cause of this diversity is the multiplicity of properties, from which the diversity of similitudes and representations arises in figures.

Second, as to the property on the part of another's industry, he adds: Which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour. According to the literal sense, as Bede says, "a satum is a kind of measure according to the custom of Palestine, holding a modius and a half."

And note that by this woman is understood divine wisdom, or the Church: Proverbs last chapter: "Who shall find a valiant woman?" etc. The flour, moreover, represents the faithful, who are ground between two millstones, namely the upper and the lower, that is, fear and hope: Deuteronomy twenty-four: "You shall not take the lower and the upper millstone as a pledge." From which flour is made one bread, which Christ transforms into His mystical body: First Corinthians ten: "We being many are one bread in Christ."

But the three measures are the three classes of the faithful, in whom the wisdom of God hid love on the way, namely good prelates, good contemplatives, and good actives. Whence the Gloss: "Three measures, three kinds of men: Noah, Daniel, and Job"; Ezekiel 14: "If Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the midst of it, they shall be delivered by their own righteousness." This first exposition therefore accords more closely with the literal sense; Bede in the Gloss expounds it otherwise and in manifold ways, so that there may appear to him the "manifold wisdom of God," "which is hidden in mystery."

Second, by the three measures are understood the three modes of loving, namely with the whole heart, with the whole soul, and with the whole mind. Whence Bede's Gloss: "The Church hid the leaven of love in three measures of flour, because it commands that we love God with our whole heart, with our whole soul, and with all our strength"; Deuteronomy 6: "You shall love the Lord your God," etc.; and Matthew 22: "You shall love the Lord your God," etc. "On this commandment," etc.

In the third way thus, so that by the three measures are understood spirit and soul and body, from which man is made whole. The Gloss: "So that spirit and soul and body, brought back into unity, may not be at variance with one another," according to that passage of 1 Thessalonians 5: "May your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire without complaint unto the day of the coming of the Lord," etc.

In the fourth way thus, so that by the three measures are understood the three powers of the soul, which are reformed by charity. The Gloss: "Let the three powers of the soul be brought back into one, so that in reason we may possess prudence, in the irascible hatred of vices, in the concupiscible desire for virtues," according to that passage of Micah 6: "To do judgment and to love mercy and to walk solicitously with your God."

In the fifth way thus, so that charity may be joined and in a certain way mingled with faith in the Trinity, so that one may not only believe in the true God, but also by believing tend toward him. Whence the Gloss: "The Church mingles man's faith in three measures of flour, that is, with belief in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Whence it is said of charity in 1 Corinthians 13 that it "believes all things."

In the sixth way thus: by the three measures, the threefold fruit to which charity is ordered; whence the Gloss: "In these measures can be understood the fruits of that dominical seed, namely thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold, that is, of the married, the continent, and virgins"; concerning which Matthew 13: "It bears fruit and yields some indeed a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold."

Seventh, by the three measures of flour can be understood the three portions of the human race dispersed throughout the whole world from the three sons of Noah; concerning whom Genesis 10: "These are the generations of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth."

In the eighth way, according to Hilary, by the flour is understood Scripture: by the three measures, the three parts of Scripture, namely the Mosaic, the prophetic, and the evangelical. And in these the wisdom of God hid charity, because, Matthew twenty-two, "on these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets."

In the ninth way, according to Ambrose, thus: "The woman is the Church: her flour is us: who hid the Lord Jesus as leaven in our inward parts, until the heat of heavenly wisdom covers them over."

In the tenth way, according to Bernard, thus: "The woman is the Virgin Mary: the three measures, the threefold nature or substance in the one person of Christ, namely flesh, soul, and Divinity. The first measure is ancient, the second is new, but the third is eternal. These, moreover, she mixed through the leaven of her faith and love." Whence Hugh: "Because love burned singularly in her mind, therefore he worked miracles in her flesh." As a figure of this it is said in Genesis eighteen: "Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said to her: Make haste, mix three measures of fine flour." And so did the blessed Virgin, because at the word of the Angel she immediately consented: "Behold," she said, "the handmaid of the Lord," etc.

From these things, therefore, it is apparent how from one small matter the Holy Spirit drew forth various understandings outwardly through his Saints, so that from this there might appear "the manifold wisdom of God," which after the manner of the woman hid leaven in the measures. For, as Dionysius says, the whole of mystical theology, "which is hidden in mystery," itself wholly consists in ecstatic love according to the threefold hierarchical power: purgative, illuminative, and perfective.

Third, as to the effect on the part of both, he adds: Until the whole was leavened: the Gloss: "Charity hidden in the mind must grow so long until it changes the whole mind into its own perfection, so that it loves nothing besides God." For just as leaven spreads more and more, so also does the charity of God. Whence Gregory: "The love of God is never idle; for it works great things, if it exists: but if it refuses to work, it is not love"; and Bernard: "Charity either advances or declines"; whence "Charity never fails," but converts the whole into its own nature after the manner of leaven and fire. Whence Exodus nineteen: "The whole of Mount Sinai smoked, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire."

For this fire and heat of charity is begun on the way, but it occupies the whole heart in the homeland: Isaiah thirty-one: "The Lord said, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem." Whence, just as from the heart, which is at the center, vital heat flows into the whole body, so from perfect charity all the assemblies of the works of the virtues receive heat and vigor, by which they tend upward. And just as it is said: "If your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light," so, if your heart is burning, your whole body will be made warm: if the heart is divine, the whole man is divine through deifying love, according to that word of the Psalm: "My flesh and my heart have failed: God of my heart, and God is my portion forever."

Or else, by the leaven our Lord means the Holy Spirit, the Sower proceeding (as it were) from the seed, which is the word of God. But the three measures of meal, signify the knowledge of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, which the woman, that is, Divine wisdom, and the Holy Spirit, impart.

The divine teaching "is like leaven, which a woman," that is, human nature, "took and hid in three measures of meal," that is, in body, soul, and spirit, so that all was sanctified, as the blessed Paul says (1 Tim. 4:5), and became one lump of dough through communion with the Holy Spirit. By the woman you may understand the soul, and by the three measures its three powers: the mind, the heart, and the will. Whoever hides the word of God in these powers will make them entirely spiritual, so that neither will the mind doubt the teaching, nor will the heart and will strive toward what is unreasonable, but they will be leavened and become like the Word of God.

Or, for the woman you must understand the soul; but the three measures, its three parts, the reasoning part, the affections, and the desires. If then any one has hidden in these three the word of God, he will make the whole spiritual, so as not by his reason to lie in argument, nor by his anger or desire to be transported beyond control, but to be conformed to the word of God.

Surely few are saved. You recall the question from the Gospel just read to us. The Lord was asked: Are there few who are saved? What did the Lord respond to this? He did not say: Not few, but many are saved. He did not say this. But what did He say when He heard: Are there few who are saved? Strive to enter through the narrow gate. Therefore, when He heard: Are there few who are saved? The Lord confirmed what He heard. Few enter through the narrow gate. In another place, He Himself said: Narrow is the way and constricted that leads to life, and few are those who find it. But wide and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who walk through it. Why do we rejoice in crowds? Listen to me, few. I know that many hear, and few obey. I see the threshing floor, I seek the grains. And grains are scarcely visible when the threshing floor is being threshed, but it will be winnowed. Therefore, few are saved in comparison to the many lost. For indeed, these few will form a great mass. When the winnower comes, carrying his winnowing fork in his hand, he will cleanse his threshing floor; he will gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. Let not the chaff mock the grain. This speaks truth, it deceives no one. Therefore be among many, many, but in comparison to certain many, few. Such a mass will come forth from this threshing floor to fill the barn of heaven.

(Serm. 111.) Now our Lord in no wise contradicts Himself when He says, that there are few who enter in at the strait gate, and elsewhere, Many shall come from the east and the west; (Matt. 8:11.) for there are few in comparison with those who are lost, many when united with the angels. Scarcely do they seem a grain when the threshing floor is swept, but so great a mass will come forth from this floor, that it will fill the granary of heaven.

(in reg. ad int. 240.) For as in earthly life the departure from right is exceeding broad, so he who goes out of the path which leads to the kingdom of heaven, finds himself in a vast extent of error. (int. 241.). But the right way is narrow, the slightest turning aside being full of danger, whether to the right or to the left, as on a bridge, where he who slips on either side is thrown into the river.

(Hom. in Psalm 1, 15.) For the soul wavers to and fro, at one time choosing virtue when it considers eternity, at another preferring pleasures when it looks to the present. Here it beholds ease, or the delights of the flesh, there its subjection or captive bondage; here drunkenness, there sobriety; here wanton mirth, there overflowing of tears; here dancing, there praying; here the sound of the pipe, there weeping; here lust, there chastity.

Because many, I tell you, will seek to enter, and will not be able. They seek to enter provoked by the love of salvation, and will not be able deterred by the harshness of the journey. They seek this out of ambition for rewards, from which they soon flee because of the fear of the burdens. Not because the yoke of the Lord is harsh or the burden is heavy, but because they do not want to learn from Him that He is gentle and humble of heart, so that they may find rest for their souls: and thus, the gate by which one enters into life is narrow.

Urged thereto by their love of safety, yet shall not be able, frightened by the roughness of the road.

Whence he adds: And he said to them: Strive to enter through the narrow gate: Matthew 7: "How narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leads to life, and few there are who find it!" This gate is Christ: John 10: "I am the door"; he himself is the way; John 14: "I am the way"; "no one comes to the Father except through me." This way is strait and the gate narrow, not on account of the smallness of power, but on account of the straitness of modesty and the rectitude of justice; whence Chrysostom: "The strait gate is Christ, not by smallness of power, but by reason of humility. Christ does not receive into himself except those who have stripped themselves of sins and laid down every burden of the world." And therefore Matthew 19: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." Therefore the gate of heaven is called narrow, because unless one reduces himself to smallness and austerity, he cannot enter.

And because few are of this kind, he therefore adds: Because many, I say to you, will seek to enter: Gloss: "Prompted by love of salvation and rewards"; and will not be able, Gloss: "Terrified by the harshness of the journey," because they do not seek with a whole and full will. For they wish to attain Christ but are unwilling to follow him, according to that saying of Proverbs thirteen: "The sluggard wills and wills not." Hence Chrysostom: "Unless someone walks along the way, he will not be able to reach the gate. If you have not been and are not on the way of justice, and you think that you know Christ, you lie: just as one who hears that honey is sweet but does not taste it knows the name of honey but is ignorant of the grace and flavor of honey"; hence the slothful, who will and will not, cannot enter; likewise neither can those who desire both the present age and God, of whom Hosea five says: "With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, and shall not find him." And of such it is said in Matthew six: "No one can serve two masters"; "you cannot serve God and mammon." These do not go straight to heaven; hence 3 Kings eighteen: "How long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, follow him."

Because it is impossible to enter the kingdom of heaven with desires for earthly things, and it is difficult to lay these aside, therefore one must strive against appetite; and for this reason he says: Strive to enter through the narrow gate, as if to say: it is impossible to enter with desires, which many seek to do; but at least strive, having trampled upon your desires. Hence also Matthew eleven: "From the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." Nor does it stand against this that it is said in the same place: "My yoke is sweet," because the gate and heavenly way is narrow for those beginning, but is widened for those advancing, and is broad for those arriving. For the first the Psalm said: "Because of the words of thy lips I have kept hard ways"; for the second: "I have run the way of thy commandments, when thou didst enlarge my heart"; for the third: "I have been delighted in the way of thy testimonies, as in all riches." For these three it is said in Proverbs four: "The path of the just, as a shining light, goes forward and increases even to the perfect day"; and again after: "I will lead thee by the paths of equity, which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps shall not be straitened, and running thou shalt have no stumbling block."

"Strive to enter in by the narrow door." This reply may seem perhaps to wander from the scope of the question. The man wanted to learn whether there would be few who are saved, but he explained to him the way whereby he might be saved himself. He said, "Strive to enter in by the narrow door." What do we answer to this objection?… It was a necessary and valuable thing to know how a man may obtain salvation. He is purposely silent to the useless question. He proceeds to speak of what was essential, namely, of the knowledge necessary for the performance of those duties by which people can enter the narrow door.

I now consider it my duty to mention why the door to life is narrow. Whoever would enter must first before everything else possess an upright and uncorrupted faith and then a spotless morality, in which there is no possibility of blame, according to the measure of human righteousness.… One who has attained to this in mind and spiritual strength will enter easily by the narrow door and run along the narrow way.

"Wide is the door, and broad the way that brings down many to destruction." What are we to understand by its broadness? It means an unrestrained tendency toward carnal lust and a shameful and pleasure-loving life. It is luxurious feasts, parties, banquets and unrestricted inclinations to everything that is condemned by the law and displeasing to God. A stubborn mind will not bow to the yoke of the law. This life is cursed and relaxed in all carelessness. Thrusting from it the divine law and completely unmindful of the sacred commandments, wealth, vices, scorn, pride and the empty imagination of earthly pride spring from it. Those who would enter in by the narrow door must withdraw from all these things, be with Christ and keep the festival with him.

(Mor. 11. c. 50.) Now when He was about to speak of the entrance of the narrow gate, He said first, strive, for unless the mind struggles manfully, the wave of the world is not overcome, by which the soul is ever thrown back again into the deep.

(24, 40. in Matt.) What then is that which our Lord says elsewhere, My yoke is easy, and my burden is light? (Matt. 11:30.) There is indeed no contradiction, but the one was said because of the nature of temptations, the other with respect to the feeling of those who overcame them. For whatever is troublesome to our nature may be considered easy when we undertake it heartily. Besides also, though the way of salvation is narrow at its entrance, yet through it we come into a large space, but on the contrary the broad way leadeth to destruction.

More easily, it may be, through the "strait gate" of salvation will slenderer flesh enter; more speedily will lighter flesh rise; longer in the sepulchre will drier flesh retain its firmness.

For Christ has hidden enemies as well. All who live unrighteously and impiously are enemies of Christ, even if they are marked with His name and called Christians. To whom He will say: "I never knew you"; and they say: "Lord, in Your name we ate and drank, in Your name we performed many miracles." What, we ate and drank in Your name? They did not boast of their own foods, and from there they claimed to belong to Christ. There is a certain food that is eaten and drunk, and it is Christ; and by His enemies Christ is eaten and drunk. The faithful know the spotless Lamb which they consume; and may they consume so as not to be debtors to punishment! For as the Apostle says: "Whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment upon themselves." Therefore, the enemies of Christ are those who choose to live unrighteously rather than obey Him, and when it is said He will come to judge the living and the dead, they fear His coming. If it were up to them, they would prevent Him from coming. Because they could not stop Him from coming, they would try to stop Him from returning.

But when the head of the family has entered and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying: Lord, open to us. The head of the family is evidently Christ, who is everywhere fully present in divinity, indeed He is within those whom He gladdens with His vision in the heavenly homeland, but as if He is still outside to those whom He secretly helps as a comforter in this journey, according to what He promised: Behold, I am with you all days until the end of the age (Matt. XXVIII). But He will enter and shut the door when He leads His whole body, which is the Church, glorified by the glory of the resurrection to the joy of His contemplation, taking away from the reprobates the place of repentance, which He now opens to all who piously knock. For standing outside and knocking at the door is to beg in vain for the mercy they had neglected from God, being separated from the lot of the blessed.

And He will answer and say to you: I do not know where you are from. How does He not know where they are from? When the Psalm says: The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain (Ps. XCIII). And elsewhere it is written: He knows the deceiver and him who is deceived; unless knowing by God is sometimes said to mean acknowledging, sometimes approving. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish (Ps. I). And thus He knows the reprobates whom He judges by knowing, for He would not judge those He did not at all know, and yet in some way He does not know where they are from, among whom He does not approve the character of His faith and love.

The master of the house is Christ, who since as very God He is every where, is already said to be within those whom though He is in heaven He gladdens with His visible presence, but is as it were without to those whom while contending in this pilgrimage, He helps in secret. But He will enter in when He shall bring the whole Church to the contemplation of Himself. He will shut the door when He shall take away from the reprobate all room for repentance. Who standing without will knock, that is, separated from the righteous will in vain implore that mercy which they have despised. Therefore it follows, And he will answer and say to you, I know you not whence ye are.

But when the householder shall have entered. After he has aroused them to continual progress in good work on account of the difficulty in merit, here secondly he arouses them to this on account of the severity in the future judgment, which he shows in two ways, namely, because he will reject the supplication of prayers and the allegation of reasons.

First, as regards the rejection of supplication, he says: But when the master of the house has entered and shut the door, through judicial severity; Matthew twenty-five: "Those who were ready entered with him to the wedding, and the door was shut." And note that Christ is called the master of the house in respect of the just: whence Matthew twenty: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man, a master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard." He is called the master of the house because he has a large household; in whose figure, Job one: "The possession of Job was seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she-asses, and a very great household."

He is also a judge in respect of the wicked, for whom he shuts the door of mercy: whence it is said in Deuteronomy eleven: "Take heed lest you depart from the Lord, and the Lord being angry shut up heaven, and the rains not descend." This gate is open throughout the entire span of the way, but is closed at the end: Ezekiel forty-six: "But the gate shall not be shut until the evening; and the people of the land shall worship at the entrance of that gate on Sabbaths and on New Moons before the Lord."

And because the withdrawal of mercy leads man to the recognition of his own misery, and this in turn leads to the importunity of prayers, therefore he adds: And you shall begin to stand outside and knock at the door, through belated penitence: Wisdom five: "Seeing this, they shall be troubled with terrible fear"; "saying within themselves, repenting"; and Hebrews twelve: "He found no place of repentance, although he had sought it with tears." Saying: Open to us, Lord, through importunate supplication: Matthew twenty-five: "Last of all the other virgins come, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us."

And he shall answer and say to you: I know you not, whence you are, through final reprobation; Proverbs one: "Then they shall cry out, and I will not hear; they shall rise early and shall not find me, because they held discipline hateful and did not receive the fear of the Lord"; whence also Proverbs six: "The jealousy and fury of the husband will not spare in the day of vengeance, nor will he yield to anyone's prayers."

And note that the Lord is said not to know us, not because he does not know us by simple knowledge, since it is said in Job twelve: "He himself knows both the deceiver and the one who is deceived"; and in the Psalm: "In your book all shall be written"; but because he does not know them with the knowledge of approbation, because it is said in Second Timothy two: "The Lord knows those who are his"; Job eight: "If it swallows him up from his place, it will deny him and say: I knew you not."

But that they who cannot enter are regarded with wrath, He has shown by an obvious example, as follows, When once the master of the house has risen up, &c. as if when the master of the house who has called many to the banquet has entered in with his guests, and shut to the door, then shall come afterwards men knocking.

(Moral. 2. c. 5.) For God not to know is for Him to reject, as also a man who speaks the truth is said not to know how to lie, for he disdains to sin by telling a lie, not that if he wished to lie he knew not how, but that from love of truth he scorns to speak what is false. Therefore the light of truth knows not the darkness which it condemns. It follows, Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, &c.

How often has He already displayed Himself as a Judge, and in the Judge the Creator? How often, indeed, has He repelled, and in the repulse condemned? In the present passage, for instance, He says, "When once the master of the house is risen up; " but in what sense except that in which Isaiah said, "When He ariseth to shake terribly the earth? " "And hath shut to the door," thereby shutting out the wicked, of course; and when these knock, He will answer, "I know you not whence ye are; "and when they recount how "they have eaten and drunk in His presence," He will further say to them, "Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

How often has He already displayed Himself as a Judge, and in the Judge the Creator? How often, indeed, has He repelled, and in the repulse condemned? In the present passage, for instance, He says, "When once the master of the house is risen up; " but in what sense except that in which Isaiah said, "When He ariseth to shake terribly the earth? " "And hath shut to the door," thereby shutting out the wicked, of course; and when these knock, He will answer, "I know you not whence ye are; "and when they recount how "they have eaten and drunk in His presence," He will further say to them, "Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." But where? Outside, no doubt, when they shall have been excluded with the door shut on them by Him.

The "master of the house" is the Lord. He calls all people to be filled and to delight in inexhaustible blessings. Those who are diligent strive to enter before the hour of the meal itself. But for the lazy and those who arrive after the hour of the meal, the doors are shut. And what is the hour of the meal if not the present life? It is truly the most excellent time for preparation for spiritual nourishment. When the master of the house "rises," that is, rises for judgment, and "shuts the door," that is, the path of virtue, along which one cannot walk after departing from this life (for we can walk the path of virtue only in this life), then although those who lived here negligently will "knock at the door," for only then with useless repentance will they seek the path of virtue, calling upon it with bare words, without deeds, as if with blows and knocking; yet the master of the house, having rightly locked the doors, will act as though he does not even know where they are from. He will act justly in doing so, because they are of the devil, and the Lord knows His own (2 Tim. 2:19).

Then you will begin to say: We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets. Or simply to be understood that the Jews, rejecting the mysteries of faith, think themselves known to the Lord if they only bring victims to the temple, feast before the Lord, listen to the reading of the prophets, not knowing what the Apostle says: The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. XIV); and elsewhere: Whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame (Phil. III), that is, in carnal circumcision; or mystically it is to be felt that they eat and drink before the Lord, who receive the food of the word with worthy eagerness. Hence, those who say these things, as if explaining, add: And you taught in our streets. For sacred Scripture is sometimes food for us, sometimes drink. In more obscure places it is food, because it is as if it is broken down by explaining and swallowed by chewing. Truly, it is drink in clearer places, because it is taken in as it is found. Therefore, they testify that they understood both the hidden and revealed commands of the sacred word, who complain to the judge rejecting them that they ate and drank before him. But it is greatly to be feared what is added.

Or mystically, he eats and drinks in the Lord's presence who eagerly receives the food of the word. Hence it is added for explanation, Thou hast taught in our streets. For Scripture in its more obscure places is food, since by being expounded it is as it were broken and swallowed. In the clearer places it is drink, where it is taken down just as it is found. But at a feast the banquet does not delight him whom the piety of faith commends not. The knowledge of the Scriptures does not make him known to God, whom the iniquity of his works proves to be unworthy; as it follows, And he will say unto you, I know not whence ye are; depart from me.

Second, as to the rejection of the allegation of reasons, he adds: Then you will begin to say: We ate before you and drank: behold, the allegation of familiarity in life; and in our streets you taught, as to familiarity in doctrine. Or the first can be referred to the miracles which Christ performed among the Jews, when he multiplied the loaves, John 6, and changed water into wine, John 2: the second to teachings. For these had seen miracles and heard teachings: whence Matthew 11: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if in Tyre and Sidon had been done the mighty works that have been done in you, they would long ago have done penance in sackcloth and ashes." Thus they allege knowledge of Christ, because they knew his works and miracles, and they also knew his words and teachings. Such will be the wicked Christians at the judgment, of whom it is said in Titus 1: "They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him."

This refers to the Israelites, who, according to the practice of their law, when offering victims to God, eat and are merry. They heard also in the synagogues the books of Moses, who in his writings delivered not his own words, but the words of God.

And let those who are not found living as He taught, be understood to be no Christians, even though they profess with the lip the precepts of Christ; for not those who make profession, but those who do the works, shall be saved, according to His word: "Not every one who saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. For whosoever heareth Me, and doeth My sayings, heareth Him that sent Me. And many will say unto Me, Lord, Lord, have we not eaten and drunk in Thy name, and done wonders? And then will I say unto them, Depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity. Then shall there be wailing and gnashing of teeth, when the righteous shall shine as the sun, and the wicked are sent into everlasting fire. For many shall come in My name, clothed outwardly in sheep's clothing, but inwardly being ravening wolves. By their works ye shall know them. And every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire." And as to those who are not living pursuant to these His teachings, and are Christians only in name, we demand that all such be punished by you.

This is spoken generally to the Israelites. For Christ is from them according to the flesh (Rom. 9:5), and with them He ate and drank. However, the words "we ate and drank before You" can also be understood in a higher sense. In performing the lawful worship and offering bloody sacrifices to God, the Israelites ate and made merry; they also listened to the reading of the Divine books in the synagogues. And through the prophets, without doubt, it was the Lord Himself who taught. For the prophets did not offer their own teaching, but proclaimed the word of God, which is why they said: "Thus says the Lord" (Isa. 56:1; Jer. 2:1, 5; Ezek. 3:27). Therefore, for the Jews, if they did not accept the faith that justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4:5), bloody worship was not sufficient for justification. And in my opinion, this can also apply to Christians in name only, who are negligent in their way of life. Do we not also eat the Divine Body? And do we not drink the Blood of God before Him, approaching the Divine Table daily? And does not the Lord teach in the streets — that is, in our souls? But there will be no benefit to us if we are only hearers of the Divine Law and not doers of it (Rom. 2:13). On the contrary, hearing will serve as the cause of greater torments for us, just as partaking of the Divine Mysteries will be counted as condemnation. Take note, then, that those in the streets whom the Lord teaches are rejected. But if we have Him as Teacher not in broad hearts, but in narrow, contrite, and grief-stricken hearts, then we shall not be rejected.

Or it is said to the Israelites, simply because Christ was born of them according to the flesh, and they ate and drank with Him, and heard Him preaching. But these things also apply to Christians. For we eat the body of Christ and drink His blood as often as we approach the mystic table, and He teaches in the streets of our souls, which are open to receive Him.

Observe also that they are objects of wrath in whose street the Lord teaches. If then we have heard Him teaching not in the streets, but in poor and lowly hearts, we shall not be regarded with wrath.

(reg. brev. ad int. 282.) He perhaps speaks to those whom the Apostle describes in his own person, saying, If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have all knowledge, and give all my goods to feed the poor, but have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. For whatever is done not from regard to the love of God, but to gain praise from men, obtains no praise from God.

And He will say to you: I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. He does not (say) that the feasting of legal festivals helps, one whom the piety of faith does not commend, the knowledge of Scriptures does not make known to God, whom the iniquity of deeds shows to His eyes as unworthy.

And since the allegation of knowledge avails little without the allegation of imitation and work, therefore he adds: And he will say to you: I do not know you, whence you are. Chrysostom: "I do not recognize my image in you. You cannot receive the wages of my soldiers, you who have carried the banners of the tyrant." Chrysostom says this not with respect to the image of creation, of which it is said in the Psalm: "Man passes through as an image"; but with respect to the image of re-creation, of which Augustine says: "The Lord does not know them, since he does not find in them the mark of faith and love." Whence the denial of knowledge does not regard the strangeness of persons, against which they allege familiarity, but only the diversity of conduct, according to that saying in Habakkuk 1: "Your eyes are pure, O Lord, and you cannot look upon iniquity."

Therefore he adds: Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity: Psalm: "Depart from me, all you who work iniquity."

Now the reason for this departure is the distance between justice and iniquity; 2 Corinthians 6: "What participation has justice with iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And what agreement has Christ with Belial?" Since therefore the reprobate will be unjust and darkened and men of Belial; but Christ the judge will be just, will be the true light, will be supremely good: therefore he will compel the wicked to descend into hell through the final judgment, saying: "Depart from me, you cursed, into eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels." Since therefore man will be judged not according to the greatness of knowledge, but the strength of work: one must continually devote oneself to good works: whence Romans 2: "Not the hearers of the Law, but the doers are just before God"; on account of which, in the Psalm: "God has spoken once: these two things have I heard, that power belongs to God, and to you, O Lord, belongs mercy, for you will render to each one according to his works."

Let us, then, not only call Him Lord, for that will not save us. For He saith, "Not every one that saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall be saved, but he that worketh righteousness." Wherefore, brethren, let us confess Him by our works, by loving one another, by not committing adultery, or speaking evil of one another, or cherishing envy; but being continent, compassionate, and good. We ought also to sympathize with one another, and not be avaricious. By such works let us confess Him, and not by those that are of an opposite kind. And it is not fitting that we should fear men, but rather God. For this reason, if we should do such wicked things, the Lord hath said, "Even though ye were gathered together to Me in My very bosom, yet if ye were not to keep My commandments, I would cast you off, and say unto you, Depart from Me; I know you not whence ye are, ye workers of iniquity."

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Weeping is usually stirred by heat, gnashing of teeth by cold. Where a double hell is shown: that is, of excessive cold, and of intolerable heat. Blessed Job's sentence agrees with this saying: They pass by violently from the waters of snow to excessive heat (Job. XXIV). Or certainly the gnashing of teeth betrays the feeling of the indignant, because each one repents too late, groans too late, is angry at themselves too late, who have sinned with such obstinate wickedness.

But the twofold punishment of hell is here described, that is, the feeling cold and heat. For weeping is wont to be excited by heat, gnashing of teeth by cold. Or gnashing of teeth betrays the feeling of indignation, that he who repents too late, is too late angry with himself.

There will be weeping there. Here now thirdly, after he has urged them to continual progress by showing the difficulty in merit and the severity in judgment, he urges the same by showing the calamity in punishment. Which indeed he does in two ways, namely from the consideration of one's own abjection and from the consideration of the glorification of others.

First therefore, as regards the consideration of one's own abjection, he says: There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, as regards the punishment of sense. And the punishment of heat is touched upon, from which comes the weeping of eyes, and the punishment of cold, from which comes the gnashing of teeth. These two bodily punishments are more fully expressed, either because these two qualities are active and more afflictive: on account of which Job 24: "They shall pass from the waters of snow to excessive heat." Or because sin is committed in the body in two ways, namely through the concupiscence of the eyes and through the concupiscence of the flesh, whence they are punished in both: Wisdom 11: "By what things a man sins, by these also is he tormented." Or because weeping comes from within, and the gnashing of teeth comes from without: and in these is understood the totality of punishments, especially bodily ones. Whence the Gloss of Bede: "Note that by weeping, which belongs to the eyes, and gnashing, which belongs to the teeth, the true resurrection of the bodies of the impious is understood." This weeping, however, will not be a dissolution of moisture, but through pain and groaning: or if it will be, there will be a miraculous restoration of moisture, just as also miraculously in such great torments they will have bodies sustained by spirits.

And because the punishment of sense is conjoined with the punishment of loss, which will be the loss of the fellowship of the Saints in the glory of paradise; therefore he adds: When you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the kingdom of God, that is, all the Patriarchs and Prophets. The former had been an example of living in life: whence John 8: "If you are children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham"; the latter in life and doctrine: 2 Peter 1: "We have the more firm prophetic word, to which you do well to attend." Or the Patriarchs were those to whom the promise was made; the Prophets those through whom the promulgation of the promise was made, according to that passage above in chapter one: "As he spoke through the mouth of his holy Prophets who have been from of old." And both the former and the latter urged and called men to enter the kingdom of God, which those who are children of the flesh and who refused to be imitators of the Saints will not enter, but will be excluded. Therefore he adds: But you will be cast out; Revelation last chapter: "Outside are dogs and sorcerers and the unchaste and those who serve idols and everyone who loves and practices falsehood." As a figure of this, Genesis 21 says: "Cast out the handmaid and her son: for the son of the handmaid shall not be heir with the son of the free woman"; because John 8 says: "The servant does not remain in the house forever, but the son remains forever."

Or the teeth will gnash which here delighted in eating, the eyes will weep which here wandered with desire. By each He represents the real resurrection of the wicked.

Vain, too, is [the effort of] Marcion and his followers when they [seek to] exclude Abraham from the inheritance, to whom the Spirit through many men, and now by Paul, bears witness, that "he believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness." And the Lord [also bears witness to him, ] in the first place, indeed, by raising up children to him from the stones, and making his seed as the stars of heaven, saying, "They shall come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, and shall recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven;" and then again by saying to the Jews, "When ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of heaven, but you yourselves cast out." This, then, is a clear point, that those who disallow his salvation, and frame the idea of another God besides Him who made the promise to Abraham, are outside the kingdom of God, and are disinherited from [the gift of] incorruption, setting at naught and blaspheming God, who introduces, through Jesus Christ, Abraham to the kingdom of heaven, and his seed, that is, the Church, upon which also is conferred the adoption and the inheritance promised to Abraham.

For how happens it, if the kingdom belong to the most lenient god, that it is closely followed up by a fervent judgment, the severity of which brings weeping? With regard, indeed, to the following similitude, I have my fears lest it should somehow presage the kingdom of the rival god! For He compared it, not to the unleavened bread which the Creator is more familiar with, but to leaven.

These words are fitting both for the Jews, to whom the Lord spoke them, and for the unbelievers of the last times.

This also refers to the Israelites with whom He was speaking, who receive from this their severest blow, that the Gentiles have rest with the fathers, while they themselves are shut out. Hence He adds, When you shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God, &c.

The shepherds therefore come from nearby to see, and the Magi come from afar to worship. This is the humility by which the wild olive tree deserved to be grafted into the olive tree, and to produce an olive against nature; because it deserved to change nature through grace. For when the world was becoming entirely wild and bitter with this wild olive, it shined forth, having been made rich through the grace of grafting. For they come from the ends of the earth, according to Jeremiah, saying: Truly our fathers have worshipped lies. And they come, not from one part of the world, but as the Gospel according to Luke says, from the East, and from the West, from the North and the South, who will recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Thus, the whole world is called from the four corners into faith by the grace of the Trinity.

Secondly, as to the consideration of the glorification of others, he adds: And they shall come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, that is, from the universality of the nations gathered from every part of the world. For when the Jews were rejected on account of their carnality, the Lord called the nations as spiritual children; whence it is said in John 10: "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, and those I must bring." These were gathered from every part of the world through the ministry of the Apostles, according to that of the Psalm: "All nations, whatsoever thou hast made, shall come and shall adore before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name"; and Isaiah 43: "From the east I will bring thy seed, and from the west I will gather thee: I will say to the north: give up; and to the south: do not withhold." Therefore they are said to be called from such distant parts on account of the diversity of customs, from which they are called to the unity of charity and felicity.

On account of which he adds: And they shall recline in the kingdom of God: Isaiah 25: "The Lord shall make for all peoples in this mountain a feast of fat things, a feast of vintage, of fat things full of marrow, of vintage refined."

Behold, therefore, the things which are foretold in a mystery are fulfilled. But whereas He said also, 'Many shall come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and shall recline in the bosom of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob;' this also is, as you see, in like manner fulfilled. Wherefore I entreat you, my fellow-servants and helpers, that you would learn diligently the order of preaching, and the ways of absolutions, that you may be able to save the souls of men, which by the secret power of God acknowledge whom they ought to love, even before they are taught.

For it was especially unpleasant for the Jews to hear that others, from among the Gentiles, would recline with Abraham and (other) forefathers (of theirs), while they themselves would be cast out.