6 Sunday before Elevation

Virtue does not have a single form. In the example of Martha and Mary, there is added the busy devotion of the one and the pious attention of the other to the Word of God, which, if it agrees with faith, is preferred even to the very works, as it is written: "Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her." So let us also strive to have what no one can take away from us, so that not careless but diligent hearing may be granted to us. For even the seeds of the heavenly Word itself are likely to be taken away if they are sowed by the wayside. Let the desire for wisdom lead you as it did Mary. It is a greater and more perfect work. Do not let service divert the knowledge of the heavenly Word.… Nor is Martha rebuked in her good serving, but Mary is preferred because she has chosen the better part for herself, for Jesus abounds with many blessings and bestows many gifts. And therefore the wiser chooses what she perceives as foremost.

May you then like Mary be influenced by the desire of wisdom. For this is the greater, this the more perfect work. Nor let the care of ministering to others turn thy mind from the knowledge of the heavenly word, nor reprove or think indolent those whom thou seest seeking after wisdom.

At present alleluia is for us a traveler's song, but this tiresome journey brings us closer to home and rest where, all our busy activities over and done with, the only thing that will remain will be alleluia.That is the delightful part that Mary chose for herself, as she sat doing nothing but learning and praising, while her sister, Martha, was busy with all sorts of things. Indeed, what she was doing was necessary, but it wasn't going to last.

Our Lord therefore, who was not at a loss, for He had shown He was the Lord, answered as follows, And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha. The repetition of the name is a mark of love, or perhaps of drawing the attention, that she should listen more earnestly. When twice called, she hears, Thou art troubled about many things, that is, thou art busied about many things. For man wishes to meet with something when he is serving, and can not; and thus between seeking what is wanting and preparing what is at hand, the mind is distracted. For if Martha had been sufficient of herself, she would not have required the aid of her sister. There are many, there are diverse things, which are carnal, temporal, but one is preferred to many. For one is not from many, but many from one. Hence it follows, But one thing is needful. Mary wished to be occupied about one, according to that, It is good for me to cling close unto the Lord. (Ps. 73:28.) The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, are one. To this one he does not bring us, unless we being many have one heart. (Acts 4:32.)

(Serm. 104.) What then? Must we think that blame was cast upon the service of Martha, who was engaged in the cares of hospitality, and rejoiced in having so great a guest? If this be true, let men give up ministering to the needy; in a word, let them be at leisure, intent only upon getting wholesome knowledge, taking no care what stranger is in the village in want of bread; let works of mercy be unheeded, knowledge only be cultivated.

(Serm. 104.) Our Lord then does not blame the actions, but distinguishes between the duties. For it follows, Mary hath chosen that good part, &c. Not thine a bad one, but hers a better. Why a better? because it shall not be taken away from her. From thee the necessary burden of business shall one time be taken away. For when thou comest into that country, thou wilt find no stranger to receive with hospitality. But for thy good it shall be taken away, that what is better may be given thee. Trouble shall be taken away, that rest may be given. Thou art yet at sea; she is in port. For the sweetness of truth is eternal, yet in this life it is increased, and in the next it will be made perfect, never to be taken away.

(de Qu. Evang. l. ii. q. 30.) Now mystically, by Martha's receiving our Lord into her house is represented the Church which now receives the Lord into her heart. Mary her sister, who sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word, signifies the same Church, but in a future life, where ceasing from labour, and the ministering to her wants, she shall delight in Wisdom alone. But by her complaining that her sister did not help her, occasion is given for that sentence of our Lord, in which he shows that Church to be anxious and troubled about much service, when there is but one thing needful, which is yet attained through the merits of her service; but He says that Mary hath chosen the good part, for through the one the other is reached, which shall not be taken away.

And the Lord answered and said to her: Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but only one thing is necessary. And blessed David, defining this one thing necessary for man, desires to continually cling to God, saying: But it is good for me to cling to God, to put my hope in the Lord God (Psalm LXXII). And elsewhere: One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple (Psalm XXVI). Therefore, one and only theology, that is, contemplation of God, to which all merits of justifications and all studies of virtues are justly postponed.

And the Lord answering said to her. After the rational comparison, the Evangelist subjoins the judicial determination: concerning which four things are introduced, namely the humiliation of the active life, the commendation of the contemplative life, the promulgation of the sentence, and the assignment of the cause.

First, therefore, as regards the humiliation of the active life, he says: Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. Therefore he repeats the name of Martha, so that he might rouse her to consider her own defect, and this with attention to the divine word: just as it is said of Moses in Exodus 3 that the Lord, seeing that he went forward to look, called him from the midst of the bush and said: "Moses, Moses." And the Lord, wishing to rouse sinners to attention, repeats the call in Jeremiah 22: "O earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord." And so now he rouses Martha, showing that in her there is a threefold defect, namely of anxiety in thought, disturbance in affection, and division in action. And all these things hinder us from tending wholly toward God.

Hence excessive anxiety is to be avoided, according to that passage in the last chapter of Philippians: "Be anxious for nothing, but in every prayer let your petitions be made known before God"; and the last chapter of First Peter: "Casting all your anxiety upon him, for he has care of you."

Disturbance is also to be avoided: hence John 14: "Let not your heart be troubled nor let it fear. You believe in God; believe also in me." Hence also concerning Christ, Isaiah 42: "He shall not be sad nor turbulent." For a troubled eye is not fit for seeing.

Division is also to be avoided: hence Sirach 11: "Son, let not your pursuits be in many things." And these disadvantages belong to the active life, not the contemplative; hence First Corinthians 7: "He who is with a wife is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. And the unmarried woman and the virgin thinks about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and spirit; but she who is married thinks about the things of the world." — Thus therefore the importunity of action is humbled through the showing of its disadvantage and defect.

And he was capable of busying himself about many things; but the one thing, the work of life, he was powerless, and disinclined, and unable to accomplish. Such also was what the Lord said to Martha, who was occupied with many things, and distracted and troubled with serving; while she blamed her sister, because, leaving serving, she set herself at His feet, devoting her time to learning: "Thou art troubled about many things, but Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." So also He bade him leave his busy life, and cleave to One and adhere to the grace of Him who offered everlasting life.

Moreover, to speak more precisely, the Lord forbids not hospitality, but its elaborateness and vanity, that is, distraction and anxiety. Why, He says, "Martha, you are anxious and... troubled about many things," that is, you are distracted and worried? We have need only of eating a little, not of a variety of dishes.

Mary has chosen the best part, which will not be taken away from her. Behold, the part of Martha is not blamed, but Mary's is praised. For he does not say that Mary has chosen a good part, but the best, so that Martha's part may also be indicated as good. But why the part of Mary is the best is explained when it is said: Which will not be taken away from her. For the active life ceases with the body. For who will give bread to the hungry in the eternal homeland, where no one is hungry? Who will give drink to the thirsty, where no one thirsts? Who will bury the dead, where no one dies? Therefore, with the present age, the active life is taken away. But the contemplative life begins here, so that it may be perfected in the heavenly homeland. For the fire of love that begins to burn here, when it sees the very one whom it loves, burns more intensely in love. Therefore the contemplative life is by no means taken away, because it is perfected with the light of the present age being withdrawn.

Second, with regard to the commendation of the contemplative life, he adds: But one thing is necessary: this, namely, is the kingdom of God, which once possessed, nothing is lacking; whence Matthew 6: "Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you"; and in the Psalm: "One thing have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek"; this, however, is the blessed life, which consists in cleaving to God, to which the contemplative life is devoted; in whose person it is said in the Psalm: "But it is good for me to cleave to God." And this is that one thing which is necessary; because "he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit," as is said in First Corinthians 6. He who has this one thing has every good; whence as a figure of this it is said in Tobit 10: "Having all things together in you alone, we ought not to have let you go from us"; and Wisdom 7: "All good things came to me together with her," etc. And therefore the Lord said to Moses, in the person of the contemplative man, in Exodus 33: "I will show you all good."

Third, with regard to the promulgation of the judgment, it is added: Mary has chosen the best part; because, namely, she chose the one thing above all else. "For the one is set before the many," as Augustine says, because "not the one from the many, but the many from the one. Many are the things that were made; one is he who made them. Very good are the things he made — how much better is he who made them"; indeed, he is simply the best. And this is the portion of the contemplative soul; whence Lamentations 3: "The Lord is my portion, said my soul; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him"; and in the Psalm: "How good is the God of Israel to those who are upright in heart"! Very good, I say, and the best; therefore the contemplative soul says in the Psalm: "I cried to you, O Lord; I said: You are my hope, my portion in the land of the living," namely, with Mary; which indeed the contemplatives have already chosen, by contemplating and desiring it. Whence in the person of the contemplative it is said in Deuteronomy 3: "I will cross over and see this excellent land, and that noble mountain, and Lebanon." And on account of love for this, he wished to possess nothing on earth except poverty alone, according to that word of the Psalm: "For one day in your courts is better than a thousand. I have chosen to be abject in the house of my God"; because, as is said in Matthew 13, "the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which when a man found, he hid," etc.

Fourth, as regards the assignment of the cause, he adds: Which shall not be taken away from her. The Gloss says: "The part of Martha is not reproved, for it too is good, but the part of Mary is praised, and why it is the best is added: Which shall not be taken away from her." "From the opposite, understand that from Martha the part which she chose shall be taken away, because the labor of multiplicity passes away, and the charity of unity remains." And this is the reason why the part of Mary is simply better and more worthy of choice, because the contemplative life begins here and is perfected in the future. This is signified in the figure of John, according to what is said in the last chapter of John: "So I will him to remain," as if the contemplation once begun remains, "until I come," to be perfected when I shall have come. And because it is more enduring, therefore it is better, as the Apostle says of charity in First Corinthians thirteen: "Charity never fails," and from this he concludes that charity is the greatest. So also concerning the contemplative life; whence Bede in the Gloss says: "Which begins to burn here, when it shall see him whom it loves, will be more greatly kindled in love"; Isaiah thirty-one: "Whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem." Whence, as far as it is in itself, it is to be preferred, according to that passage in Second Corinthians four: "While we contemplate not the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

On account of this, the contemplative life is simply more to be desired as that which is better and of itself to be preferred, both because it is more secure, and because it is more sweet, and because it is more stable; nevertheless the active life is not to be despised, but for place and time it is to be preferred for a time, both because it is prior, and because it is more laborious, and because it is more fruitful: for it avails both for oneself and for others.

And this is well signified in the two wives of Jacob, namely Rachel and Leah, of whom one signifies the active life, the other the contemplative. Whence the Bridegroom sometimes compels the Bride to go forth to action, according to what is said in Song of Songs two: "Let your voice sound in my ears," etc. Whence, if the question concerns superiority, simply speaking the contemplative is better, according to what Gregory says in the sixth book of the Moralia: "Great are the merits of the active life, but those of the contemplative are greater." For Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her.

But if the question is raised concerning choosability, sometimes the active life is to be preferred, namely for an imperfect man, who must first exercise himself in the field of action, or when someone is obligated to the works of the active life by precept or by office: and therefore sometimes doubt arises in the choice, according to that passage in Philippians 1: "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if to live in the flesh, this is for me the fruit of labor, and what I shall choose, I know not. For I am straitened between the two, having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, which is far the better: but to remain in the flesh is necessary for your sake." — Therefore spiritual men must sometimes go out, sometimes enter in, sometimes ascend, sometimes descend, as Jacob saw, Genesis 28.

Now this Gospel is customarily read on the Assumption of the Virgin, either because its ending most fittingly applies to Mary, when it says: Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken from her. For although this was said literally of Mary Magdalene, yet it is more truly said of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Whence Bernard: "Mary has chosen the best part. The best indeed: good is the fruitfulness of marriage, better however is the chastity of virginity, but altogether best is virginal fruitfulness, or fruitful virginity: it is the privilege of Mary, it shall not be given to another, because it shall not be taken from her." — Or also, because in this Gospel there is described in the two sisters the perfection of the active and the contemplative lives, both of which were in the Virgin most perfectly. For what was given to these two sisters in parts was given to Mary wholly and completely. Whence Jerome: "To others it was given in parts, but into Mary the fullness of grace poured itself all at once."

Or, because here there is treated the twofold reception of Christ: bodily and spiritual: bodily by Martha in the lodging of the outer house: spiritual by Mary in the lodging of the inner house. And this twofold reception was most perfectly in Mary, who received him in the chamber of the body, nourished and fed and raised him and diligently ministered to him: she also received him in the chamber of the heart, by seeing him, believing, loving, and imitating him. And from both of these she was blessed: whence below in chapter 11: "Blessed is the womb that bore you"; "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it." Whence Augustine: "More blessed was Mary in receiving the faith of Christ than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. For maternal kinship would have profited Mary nothing, had she not more happily borne him in her mind than in her flesh."

Or also, because here three things are set forth, namely divine lodging, divine ministry, divine companionship: which three were most perfectly in the Virgin Mary: lodging in the village, ministry in Martha, and companionship in Mary.

Rightly the Virgin Mary in receiving Christ was a castle fortified and elevated with towers of virtues, whose first tower was the strength of severity, concerning which Song of Songs chapter four says: "Your neck is like the tower of David, which was built with bulwarks; a thousand shields hang from it," because the Virgin Mary could be overcome by no vice. The second tower was the rectitude of discernment, concerning which Song of Songs chapter seven says: "Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, which looks toward Damascus"; where the discernment of good from evil is understood. The third tower was the abundance of devotion, concerning which the last chapter of Song of Songs says: "I am a wall, and my breasts are like a tower," on account of the sweetness of devotion, in which she excelled. Whence these three towers were built by the Holy Spirit through grace upon the three powers of the soul: the first upon the irascible, the second upon the rational, and the third upon the concupiscible. And from these the Virgin was a stronghold fit for receiving the beloved Son of the Father, who was the power and wisdom of the Father, because the Virgin was most strong, most prudent, and most devout.

Rightly also in ministering she was Martha, who ministered to the Lord faithfully and humbly and courageously. So also Mary, though she was the Mother, made herself a handmaid and servant, according to that passage above in chapter one: "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word." Whence she was prefigured by that good woman Abigail, who, when she was sought by David in marriage, offered herself for service: 1 Kings chapter twenty-five: "Behold, let your handmaid be a servant, to wash the feet of your servants." Such was the Virgin Mary on account of her exceeding humility; whence she said of herself: "He has regarded the humility of his handmaid." And this is what Augustine says: "Everyone who is of sound mind understands that Mary was the minister of Christ in the performance of her work and in the most steadfast truth of her faith. For without doubt she was his minister, who bore him in her womb and nourished and cherished him when brought forth in birth, and, as the Gospel says, laid him in a manger, and fleeing from the face of Herod went into Egypt, and attended to his entire infancy with the tender affection of a mother."

Rightly also was Mary in dwelling together or in contemplating. For she herself, like the other Mary, stood beside Christ, according to that passage in John 19: "There stood beside the cross of Jesus his Mother and his Mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." For the Virgin herself was the one who most closely drew near to him, and therefore she most fully received his words and preserved them for others. For above in chapter two it is said: "Mary kept all these words." Whence she was rightly signified by the ark of the covenant of the Lord, of which it is said in Hebrews 9: "In which was a golden urn containing manna," through her great devotion of charity; "and the rod of Aaron," through her great uprightness of virtue; "and the tablets of the testimony," through her great knowledge of the contemplation of truth. And she herself was also most supremely contemplative. Whence Bernard says: "Blessed Mary penetrated the most profound abyss of divine wisdom, beyond what can be believed, so that, as far as the condition of a creature permits without personal union, she may be seen as immersed in that inaccessible light." And Bede says: "What did she not know of God, in whom the Wisdom of God lay hidden and from whose womb he fashioned a body for himself?"

And thus it is clear how this Gospel passage was assigned to the Assumption of the Virgin not through human invention but through divine inspiration, because the Holy Spirit enclosed within it a commendation of the Virgin with respect to her multitude of prerogatives; for the preservation of which he adds at the end: Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken from her. For Mary chose the best part both in grace and in glory, in which is enclosed the perfect and proper praise of the Virgin; for as Jerome says: "Just as in comparison with God no one is good, so in comparison with the Mother of the Lord no woman is found perfect, however much she may be proven outstanding in virtues." Therefore among women she alone is the best through every manner of superabundance, by reason of which "she is seen to have neither a predecessor like her nor a successor."

A brother went to visit Silvanus on Mount Sinai. When he saw the brothers hard at work, he said to the old man, ' "Labour not for the meat which perisheth" (John 6:27) and "Mary hath chosen the best part" (Luke 10:42).' Silvanus said to his disciple Zacharias, 'Put this brother in a cell where there is nothing.' When three o'clock came, the visitor kept looking at the door, to see when they would send someone to invite him to eat but no one did so. So he got up and went to Silvanus and said, 'Abba, don't the brethren eat today?' He said, 'Yes, they have eaten already.' The brother said, 'Why didn't you call me?' He replied, 'You are so spiritual you do not need food. We are earthly, and since we want to eat, we work with our hands. But you have chosen the good part, reading all day, and not wanting to take earthly food.' When the brother heard this he prostrated himself in penitence and said, 'Forgive me, abba.' Silvanus said, 'I think Mary always needs Martha, and by Martha's help Mary is praised.'

Together with the work the Teacher set forth doctrine, not only in deed but also by His word, even as He did to Mary and Martha, who both offered service unto Him, but the service of Mary was more perfect than that of Martha, and both ministered unto Him, the one only according to the body, and the other according to the spirit, and our Lord received both services, and pronounced blessed the service which was superior to its fellow, saying, "Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." As if a man should say, "Do thou also, O Martha, forsake that service which is imperfect, and be exalted in thy service to the more excellent grade." And Jesus did not reject the ministration of Martha, for according to the measure of her knowledge and of her love was the measure of her ministration; but He wished that she would offer great instead of little things, and instead of the service of the body the service of the spirit. And the service of Mary and of Martha was like exactly unto the service of the holy Apostles of the old and of the latter times, for that bodily service which they also offered unto Him in one place after another was like unto that of Martha; but that other service which He taught them to offer unto Him in the commandment, "Ye shall possess nothing," was the counterpart of the service of the blessed Mary. For there are many who, like Martha and Zacchaeus, and those women who clave to Him, and who ministered unto Him from their possessions, are justified, and there are some whose service like that of Mary and the Apostles is wholly of the spirit; and Jesus wished and desired this service, so that all the children of men might arrive at perfection.

Others understood the words "one thing is needful" not as referring to food, but to attentiveness to teaching. Thus, by these words the Lord instructs the apostles that when they enter anyone's house, they should not demand anything luxurious, but be content with what is simple, caring for nothing more than attentiveness to teaching. Perhaps understand by Martha the active virtue, and by Mary – contemplation. The active virtue has distractions and anxieties, while contemplation, having become master over the passions (for Mary means mistress), exercises itself in the sole examination of divine sayings and judgments. So then, if you can, ascend to the level of Mary through mastery over the passions and the pursuit of contemplation. But if this is impossible for you, be Martha, devote yourself to the active life, and through that receive Christ. Note this: "which shall not be taken away from her." The one who labors in works has something that is taken away from him, that is, cares and distraction. For, having attained to contemplation, he is freed from distraction and vanity, and thus something is taken away from him. But the one who labors in contemplation is never deprived of this good part, that is, contemplation. For in what more shall he advance, when he has reached the very highest, I mean, the contemplation of God, which is equal to deification? For whoever has been deemed worthy to behold God becomes a god, since like is encompassed by like.

But he said: Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. The Savior beautifully agreed to the testimony of the woman, meaning not only her who was worthy to physically bear the Word of God, but also all those who spiritually, by the hearing of faith, conceive the same Word, and in the custody of good works strive either to bear it in their own heart or in the hearts of others, and as if to nurture it, asserting that they are blessed. For even the mother of God, and indeed she was blessed because she became the minister of the Word made flesh temporally, but much more blessed because she remained the eternal guardian of the same Word always to be loved. With this sentence, he silently strikes the wise of the Jews, who sought not to hear and keep the Word of God, but to deny and blaspheme it.

"A certain woman from the crowd, raising her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you." And Jesus said: "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it."

Not only is she blessed who conceived and nursed him, but also those who follow her. And who are they? Those who hear the word of God and fulfill it. Eve, having transgressed the commandment of God, destroyed the house which God had prepared for us unto salvation; but the wise woman built the house and restored our salvation.

Third, indeed, as regards the approbation of the expressed praise, he adds: But he said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God. He does not say this by way of opposing, but rather by way of adding, as if he were saying: not only blessed is the womb that bore me, the Word made flesh, but even more blessed is the one who receives the word uttered by me. Whence Mary too was not only blessed because she bore Christ in the flesh, but even more blessed, because she most perfectly bore him in the mind, according to what Augustine says: "Mary was more blessed in conceiving the faith of Christ than the flesh of Christ." For blessed is everyone who hears and obeys, according to that text of John 13: "If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."

And therefore he adds: And keep it: and therefore James 1: "Be doers of the word and not hearers only." By this word Christ did not wish merely carnal kinship to be praised in itself: for thus it is said to the Jews above in the third chapter: "Do not presume to say: We have Abraham as our father," etc.; but spiritual kinship, because the union of minds is holier than that of bodies. And therefore, when his mother and brethren sought him, he said in Matthew 12: "Whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, sister, and mother." And for this reason the Virgin Mary was praiseworthy in conceiving, because she conceived by faith: and therefore Elizabeth said to her above in the first chapter: "Blessed is she who believed, for there shall be a fulfillment of those things which were told her by the Lord." — From which appears a wondrous commendation of truth, which makes all who adhere to it blessed, not only those adhering by carnal kinship, as the Virgin Mary, but also by spiritual love, as any holy soul. For as Augustine says: "Beatitude is joy in the truth"; to which joy shall come those who hear, love, and do the truth, according to that text of Ecclesiasticus 24: "Those who hear me shall not be confounded, and those who work in me shall not sin, and those who elucidate me shall have eternal life."

Spiritually, however, it should be noted here that the woman from the crowd bears the type of the Law, which commends carnal generation, according to the promise made to Abraham, Genesis 15: "Look up at the heaven," etc.; and to David, whence in the Psalm: "Of the fruit," etc.; whence Romans 9: "Of whom is Christ according to the flesh," etc. But Christ bears the type of grace and the spirit, who indeed commends spiritual generation, according to that text of Matthew 12: "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?" The conception of this spiritual generation first takes place in faith, as it were in the unity of the Church: John 7: "He who believes in me, as the Scripture says," etc. As a sign of which thing also the Virgin Mary conceived through faith: Luke 1: "Blessed is she who believed." Birth, however, comes about through works: Ecclesiasticus twenty-four: "I said, I will water the garden of plantings," etc. But those who believe and do not work are like those of whom Isaiah thirty-seven says: "The children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring forth." Nursing takes place in love and contemplation; Song of Songs one: "Let him kiss me with a kiss, for your breasts are better than wine," etc.; and Proverbs five: "A most beloved hind and a most graceful fawn," etc. And thus in these three are intimated the reception of grace, the exercise of the active life, and the consolation of the contemplative life. And this whole is enclosed in "faith, which works through love," which only those who possess will be blessed.

But He blesses those who keep the word of God, not, however, in order to deprive His Mother of blessedness, but in order to show that even She would have received no benefit from having given birth to Him and nursed Him at Her breast, if She had not possessed all the other virtues. He says this also because it is timely. Since those who envied Him and did not listen to His words reviled those who did listen, He, contrary to them, especially blesses those who listen. Perhaps He also says this on account of the healed deaf man, so that he too, having heard the word, might keep it, lest the ability to hear that was granted him should serve to his condemnation.

Possessing both natures, that is, the human and the divine, [Christ] endured the passion in his humanity, in order that without distinction he who suffered should be called both Lord of glory and Son of man, even as it is written: "Who descended from heaven."

Some people, certainly, find very surprising what the Lord said in the Gospel, "Nobody has ascended into heaven, except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven." How, they ask, can the Son of man be said to have come down from heaven, when it was here that he was taken on in the Virgin's womb? People who say this are not to be rejected but instructed. I think, you see, that they are raising this question out of piety but are not yet able to understand what they are inquiring about. They do not realize, I mean, that the divinity took on the humanity in such a way as to become one person, God and man; and that the humanity was attached to the divinity in such a way that Word, soul and flesh were the one Christ. And that is why it could be said, "No one has ascended into heaven, except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven."

As a human being he was on earth, not in heaven where he now is … although in his nature as Son of God he was in heaven, but as Son of man he was still on earth and had not yet ascended into heaven. In a similar way, although in his nature as Son of God he is the Lord of glory, in his nature as Son of man he was crucified.

Spiritual birth happens when human beings, being earthly, become heavenly. And this can only happen when they are made members of me. So that he may ascend who descended, since no one ascends who did not descend. Therefore everyone who needs to be changed and raised must meet together in a union with Christ so that the Christ who descended may ascend, considering his body (that is to say, his church) as nothing other than himself.

"And no man hath ascended into heaven, but He that came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven." Behold, He was here, and was also in heaven; was here in His flesh, in heaven by His divinity; yea, everywhere by His divinity. Born of a mother, not quitting the Father. Two nativities of Christ are understood: one divine, the other human: one, that by which we were to be made; the other, that by which we were to be made anew: both marvellous; that without mother, this without father. But because He had taken a body of Adam, for Mary was of Adam, and was about to raise that same body again, it was an earthly thing He had said in saying, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." But this was a heavenly thing, when He said, "Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he shall not see the kingdom of God." Come then, brethren! God has willed to be the Son of man; and willed men to be sons of God. He came down for our sakes; let us ascend for His sake. For He alone descended and ascended, He who saith, "No man hath ascended into heaven, but He who came down from heaven." Are they not therefore to ascend into heaven whom He makes sons of God? Certainly they are: this is the promise to us, "They shall be equal to the angels of God." Then how is it that no man ascends, but He that descended? Because one only descended, only one ascends. What of the rest? What are we to understand, but that they shall be His members, that one may ascend? Therefore it follows that "no man hath ascended into heaven, but He who came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven." Dost thou marvel that He was both here and in heaven? Such He made His disciples. Hear the Apostle Paul saying, "But our conversation is in heaven." If the Apostle Paul, a man, walked in the flesh on earth, and yet had his conversation in heaven, was the God of heaven and earth not able to be both in heaven and on earth?

Therefore, if none but He descended and ascended, what hope is there for the rest? The hope for the rest is this, that He came down in order that in Him and with Him they might be one, who should ascend through Him. "He saith not, And to seeds," saith the apostle, "as in many; but as in one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." And to believers he saith, "And ye are Christ's; and if Christ's, then are Abraham's seed." What he said to be one, that he said that we all are. Hence, in the Psalms, many sometimes sing, to show that one is made of many; sometimes one sings, to show what is made of many. Therefore was it only one that was healed in the pool; and whoever else went down into it was not healed. Now this one shows forth the oneness of the Church. Woe to them who hate unity, and make to themselves parties among men! Let them hear him who wished to make them one, in one, for one: let them hear him who says, Be not ye making many: "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. But neither he that planteth is anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." They were saying, "I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas." And he says, "Is Christ divided?" Be ye in one, be one thing, be one person: "No man hath ascended into heaven, but He who came down from heaven." Lo! we wish to be thine, they said to Paul. And he said to them, I will not that ye be Paul's, but be ye His whose is Paul together with you.

(De Pecc. mer. et remiss. c. xxxi) After taking notice of this lack of knowledge in a person, who, on the strength of his magisterial station, set himself above others, and blaming the unbelief of such men, our Lord says, that if such as these do not believe, others will: No one hath ascended into heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven. This may be rendered: The spiritual birth shall be of such sort, as that men from being earthly shall become heavenly: which will not be possible, except they are made members of Me; so that he who ascends, becomes one with Him who descended. Our Lord accounts His body, i. e. His Church, as Himself.

(ut sup.) Although He was made the Son of man upon earth, yet His Divinity with which, remaining in heaven, He descended to earth, He hath declared not to disagree with the title of Son of man, as He hath thought His flesh worthy the name of Son of God. For through the Unity of person, by which both substances are one Christ, He walked upon earth, being Son of God; and remained in heaven, being Son of man. And the belief of the greater, involves belief in the less. If then the Divine substance, which is so far more removed from us, and could for our sake take up the substance of man so as to unite them in one person; how much more easily may we believe, that the Saints united with the man Christ, become with Him one Christ; so that while it is true of all, that they ascend by grace, it is at the same time true, that He alone ascends to heaven, Who came down from heaven.

(Tr. xii. c. 8) But thou wonderest that He was at once here, and in heaven. Yet such power hath He given to His disciples. Hear Paul, Our conversation is in heaven. (Phil. 3:20) If the man Paul walked upon earth, and had his conversation in heaven; shall not the God of heaven and earth be able to be in heaven and earth?

If a man of set purpose descend naked to the valley, and there providing himself with clothes and armour, ascend the mountain again, he who ascended may be said to be the same with him who descended.

In the descending way, there is consummation in humility and beginning in love, while the opposite is true of the ascending way. Hence, in descending, we begin with the liveliness of desire and go to the humility of service. Wherefore Christ came to the humility of serving us. Wherefore also as the soul has Angels going up, so must it have them going down. Hence: "No one has ascended into heaven except Him who has descended from heaven."

The principle saving us is He who alone can enter heaven by Himself, and all others through Him; and this is Christ the Lord. Therefore He says: "And no one has ascended into heaven," that is, no one has the power of ascending thither; "except He who descended from heaven," through the assumption of humanity: "the Son of Man, who is in heaven," through the presence and immensity of the Divinity: therefore everyone who ascends and is saved, ascends through Him. Concerning this power of ascending and descending, Ephesians 4: "He who descended is the same one who also ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things." Concerning His existence in heaven, in chapter 1: "The Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." He it is who makes one ascend from death to life: in chapter 8: "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed."

But a question arises concerning what He says: "No one ascends into heaven except He who descended from heaven." Against this: All the saints ascend, and yet none of them descended. Likewise, the body of Christ ascended into heaven, and yet did not descend from heaven. Likewise it is objected: if this is understood of Christ, it is understood either according to the divine nature or the human. Not according to the human, because that nature did not descend from heaven, and moreover at that time, when he was speaking, it was not in heaven. It cannot be according to the divine, because it did not ascend, since it could not become greater nor did it change place.

Some respond that the exception here comprehends not only Christ, who is the head, but rather the whole body of Christ; and all those and only those who belong to his body ascend.

But this cannot stand, because the body did not descend from heaven. Therefore it must be understood that "to ascend" is here said by one's own power, not power given from elsewhere, and thus only Christ was able to do so.

To what is objected concerning the body, Augustine responds that it is no obstacle, because the body is like a garment; whence if someone descended naked from a mountain and ascended clothed, we say: no one ascended except he who descended; so also in the matter at hand.

To what is asked — according to which nature is this said? — I respond: It must be said that in that statement three things are said of one hypostasis: "to ascend" belongs to him by reason of the human nature; "to descend," by reason of the divine in relation to the human, because he humbled himself by assuming flesh; but "to be in heaven," as at that time, according to the divine nature purely. And thus the whole cannot be referred back to one nature, but to one hypostasis.

And no one hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven —thus very clearly showing that no one at all had ascended into the upper place except the Lord Christ Himself.

For no man hath ascended up to heaven but He That came down from heaven the Son of man. For since the Word of God came down from heaven, He says that the son of man came down, refusing after the Incarnation to be divided into two persons, and not suffering certain to say that the Temple taken by reason of need of the Virgin is one Son, the Word again which appeared from God the Father another: save only as regards the distinction which belongs to each by nature. For as He is the Word of God, so Man too of a woman, but One Christ of both, Undivided in regard of Sonship and God-befitting Glory. For how does He clothe as its own the Temple of the Virgin, with what befitteth the bare Word Alone: and again appropriateth to Himself what befitteth the Flesh only? For now He saith that the Son of man hath come down from heaven: but at the time of His Passion, He feareth, and is sore afraid, and very heavy, and is recorded as Himself suffering the Sufferings which befitted His Human Nature only.

(xxvii. Mor. c. 8. al. 11.) For as much as we are made one with Him, to the place from which He came alone in Himself, thither He returns alone in us; and He who is ever in heaven, daily ascendeth to heaven.

"Descended from heaven" refers to his origin from the Spirit. For though Mary contributed to his growth in the womb and birth all that is natural to her sex, his body did not owe to her its origin. The "Son of man" refers to the birth of the flesh conceived in the Virgin; "who is in heaven" implies the power of his eternal nature—an infinite nature, which could not restrict itself to the limits of the body—of which it was itself the source and base. By the virtue of the Spirit and the power of God the Word, though he sojourned in the form of a servant, he was ever present as Lord of all within and beyond the circle of heaven and earth. So he descended from heaven and is the Son of man, yet is in heaven. For the Word made flesh did not cease to be the Word. As the Word, he is in heaven, as flesh he is the Son of man. As Word made flesh, he is at once from heaven, and Son of man and in heaven. For the power of the Word, abiding eternally without body, was present still in the heaven he had left. The flesh owed its origin to him and to no one else. So the Word made flesh, though he was flesh, nonetheless never ceased to be the Word.

It is not possible by the laws of bodies for the same object to remain and to descend. The one is the change of downward motion, the other the stillness of being at rest. The infant wails but is in heaven: the boy grows but remains ever the immeasurable God. By what perception of human understanding can we comprehend that he ascended where he was before, and he descended who remained in heaven? The Lord says, "What if you should behold the Son of man ascending to where he was before?" The Son of man ascends where he was before. Can sense apprehend this? The Son of man—who is in heaven—descends from heaven. Can reason cope with this? The Word was made flesh—can words express this? The Word becomes flesh, that is, God becomes man. The man is in heaven: the God is from heaven. He ascends who descended, but he descends and yet does not descend. He is as he ever was, yet he was not ever what he is. We pass in review of the causes, but we cannot explain the manner. We perceive the manner but cannot understand the causes. Yet, if we understand Christ Jesus even in this way, we shall know him. If we seek to understand him further, we shall not know him at all.

(de Trin. c. 16.) Or, His descending from heaven is the source of His origin as conceived by the Spirit: Mary gave not His body its origin, though the natural qualities of her sex contributed its birth and increase. That He is the Son of man is from the birth of the flesh which was conceived in the Virgin. That He is in heaven is from the power of His everlasting nature, which did not contract the power of the Word of God, which is infinite, within the sphere of a finite body. Our Lord remaining in the form of a servant, far from the whole circle, inner and outer, of heaven and the world, yet as Lord of heaven and the world, was not absent therefrom. So then He came down from heaven because He was the Son of man; and He was in heaven, because the Word, which was made flesh, had not ceased to be the Word.

If, again, he allege His own word when He said, "I and the Father are one," let him attend to the fact, and understand that He did not say, "I and the Father am one, but are one." For the word are is not said of one person, but it refers to two persons, and one power. He has Himself made this clear, when He spake to His Father concerning the disciples, "The glory which Thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; that the world may know that Thou hast sent me." What have the Noetians to say to these things? Are alI one body in respect of substance, or is it that we become one in the power and disposition of unity of mind? In the same manner the Son, who was sent and was not known of those who are in the world, confessed that He was in the Father in power and disposition. For the Son is the one mind of the Father. We who have the Father's mind believe so (in Him); but they who have it not have denied the Son. And if, again, they choose to allege the fact that Philip inquired about the Father, saying, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us," to whom the Lord made answer in these terms: "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? " and if they choose to maintain that their dogma is ratified by this passage, as if He owned Himself to be the Father, let them know that it is decidedly against them, and that they are confuted by this very word. For though Christ had spoken of Himself, and showed Himself among all as the Son, they had not yet recognised Him to be such, neither had they been able to apprehend or contemplate His real power. And Philip, not having been able to receive this, as far as it was possible to see it, requested to behold the Father. To whom then the Lord said, "Philip, have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." By which He means, If thou hast seen me, thou mayest know the Father through me. For through the image, which is like (the original), the Father is made readily known. But if thou hast not known the image, which is the Son, how dost thou seek to see the Father? And that this is the case is made clear by the rest of the chapter, which signifies that the Son who "has been set forth was sent from the Father, and goeth to the Father."

And for this reason three seasons of the year prefigured the Saviour Himself, so that He should fulfil the mysteries prophesied of Him. In the Passover season, so as to exhibit Himself as one destined to be sacrificed like a sheep, and to prove Himself the true Paschal-lamb, even as the apostle says, "Even Christ," who is God, "our passover was sacrificed for us." And at Pentecost so as to presignify the kingdom of heaven as He Himself first ascended to heaven and brought man as a gift to God.

Since Nicodemus had said, "We know that Thou art a teacher come from God," on this very point He sets him right, all but saying, "Think Me not a teacher in such manner as were the many of the prophets who were of earth, for I have come from heaven (but) now. None of the prophets hath ascended up thither, but I dwell there." Seest thou how even that which appears very exalted is utterly unworthy of his greatness? For not in heaven only is He, but everywhere, and He fills all things; but yet He speaks according to the infirmity of His hearer, desiring to lead him up little by little. And in this place He called not the flesh "Son of Man," but He now named, so to speak, His entire Self from the inferior substance; indeed this is His wont, to call His whole Person often from His Divinity, and often from His humanity.

It is the Son, too, who ascends to the heights of heaven, [John 3:13] and also descends to the inner parts of the earth. [Ephesians 4:9]

It is the Son, too, who ascends to the heights of heaven, and also descends to the inner parts of the earth.

And this, apparently, has nothing in common with what preceded it. But if one carefully examines the thought of the Lord, it will turn out that this too is closely related to what came before. Since Nicodemus called the Lord a Teacher and a Prophet, He says: "Do not consider Me a prophet who is of the earth, sent by God to teach, but consider Me as having come down from above, as the Son, and not as being of the earth. None of the prophets ascended into heaven, but only I alone am to ascend, just as I also descended." Having heard that the Son of Man came down "from heaven," do not think that the flesh came down from heaven. Indeed, Apollinarius thought this way, that Christ, having a body from heaven, passed through the Virgin as through a channel. But since Christ, consisting of two natures, was one Hypostasis or one Person, the names of the Man are applied to the Word, and again the names of the Word are applied to the Man. So here also it is said that the "Son of Man" came down from heaven, because He is one Person and one Hypostasis. Then, lest you, having heard "who came down," should think that the One who came down is no longer in heaven, He says "who is in heaven." Therefore, having heard that I came down, do not think that I am not there; but I am both present here bodily and seated there with the Father in Divinity.

But when thou hearest that the Son of man came down from heaven, think not that His flesh came down from heaven; for this is the doctrine of those heretics, who held that Christ took His Body from heaven, and only passed through the Virgin.

Jesus replied. Here he answers the question. First, he lays down the causes of spiritual regeneration. Secondly, he explains what he says (3:16). Now there are two causes of spiritual regeneration, namely, the mystery of the incarnation of Christ, and his passion. So first, he treats of the incarnation; secondly, of the passion (3:14).

Here we should consider, first of all, how this answer of Christ is an adequate reply to the question of Nicodemus. For above, when the Lord was speaking of the Spirit, he said: you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. We understand by this that spiritual regeneration has a hidden source and a hidden end. Now the things in heaven are hidden from us: "Who will search out the things in heaven?" (Wis 9:16). Therefore, the sense of Nicodemus' question, How can all this happen? is this: How can something come from the secret things of heaven or go to the secret things of heaven? So before answering, the Lord expressed this interpretation of the question, saying, how will you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?

And immediately he begins to show whose prerogative it is to ascend into heaven, namely, anyone who came down from heaven, according to the statement of Ephesians (4:10): "He who descended is he who ascended." This is verified even in natural things, namely, that each body tends to a place according to its origin or nature. And so in this way it can come about that someone, through the Spirit, may go to a place which carnal persons do not know, i.e., by ascending into heaven, if this is done through the power of one who descended from heaven: because he descended in order that, in ascending, he might open a way for us: "He ascends, opening the way before them" (Mi 2:13).

Some have fallen into error because of his saying, the One who came down from heaven, the Son of Man. For since Son of Man designates human nature, which is composed of soul and body, then because he says that the Son descended from heaven, Valentinus wanted to maintain that he even took his body from heaven and thus passed through the Virgin without receiving anything from her, as water passes through a pipe; so that his body was neither of an earthly substance nor taken from the Virgin. But this is contrary to the statement of the Apostle, writing to the Romans (1:3): "who was made from the seed of David according to the flesh."

On the other hand, Origen said that he descended from heaven as to his soul, which, he says, had been created along with the angels from the very beginning, and that later this soul descended from heaven and took flesh from the Virgin. But this also conflicts with the Catholic faith, which teaches that souls do not exist before their bodies.

Therefore, we should not understand that the Son of Man descended from heaven according to his human nature, but only according to his divine nature. For since in Christ there is one suppositum, or hypostasis, or person of the two natures, the divine and human natures, then no matter from which of these two natures this suppositum is named, divine and human things can be attributed to him. For we can say that the Son of Man created the stars and that the Son of God was crucified. But the Son of God was crucified, not according to his divine nature, but according to his human nature; and the Son of Man created the stars according to his divine nature. And so in things that are said of Christ, the distinction is not to be taken with respect to that about which they are said, because divine and human things are said of God and man indifferently; but a distinction must be made with respect to that according to which they are said, because divine things are said of Christ according to his divine nature, but human things according to his human nature. Thus, to descend from heaven is said of the Son of Man, not according to his human nature, but according to his divine nature, according to which it was appropriate to him to have been from heaven before the incarnation, as is said, "Heaven belongs to the Lord" (Ps 113:16).

He is said to have come down, but not by local motion, because then he would not have remained in heaven; for nothing which moves locally remains in the place from which it comes down. And so to exclude local motion, he adds, who lives in heaven. As if to say: He descended from heaven in such a way as yet to be in heaven. For he came down from heaven without ceasing to be above, yet assuming a nature which is from below. And because he is not enclosed or held fast by his body which exists on earth, he was, according to his divinity, in heaven and everywhere. And therefore to indicate that he is said to have come down in this way, because he assumed a human nature, he said, the Son of Man came down, i.e., insofar as he became Son of Man.

Or it can be said, as Hilary does, that he came down from heaven as to his body: not that the material of Christ's body came down from heaven, but that the power which formed it was from heaven.

But why does he say, No one has gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who lives in heaven? For have not Paul and Peter and the other saints gone up, according to 2 Corinthians (5:1): "We have a house in the heavens." I answer that no one goes up into heaven except Christ and his members, i.e., those believers who are just. Accordingly, the Son of God came down from heaven in order that, by making us his members, he might prepare us to ascend into heaven: now, indeed, in hope, but later in reality. "He has raised us up, and has given us a place in heaven in Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:6).

It was good that the Lord ordained that, by the lifting up of the brazen serpent, the wounds of those who were bitten should be healed; for the brazen serpent is a type of the cross.… In the same way, the world was crucified in its allurements. Therefore not a real but a brazen serpent was hung. This is so because the Lord took on himself the likeness of a sinner in his body but, in actuality, was without sin. In this way, he imitated a serpent through the deceitful appearance of human weakness, so that when he laid aside the slough of the flesh, he might destroy the cunning of the true serpent.

The cross is raised and appears above the earth, which until recently malice had kept hidden. It is raised, not to receive glory (for with Christ nailed to it what greater glory could it have?) but to give glory to God who is worshiped on it and proclaimed by it.… It is not surprising that the church rejoices in the cross of Christ and robes herself in festal clothes, revealing her bridal beauty as she honors this day. Nor is it surprising that this great throng of people has gathered together today to see the cross exposed aloft and to worship Christ whom they see raised upon it. For the cross is exposed in order to be raised and is raised to be exposed. What cross? The cross, which a little while ago was hidden in a place called The Skull but now is everywhere adored. This is what we rejoice over today; this is what we celebrate; this is the point of the present feast; this is the manifestation of the mystery.… For this hidden and life-giving cross had to be exposed, set on high like a city on a hill or a lamp on a stand, for all the world to see.

Let me try to explain, as far as the Lord enables me to, what these signs mean. The rod stands for the kingdom, the snake for mortality. It was by the snake that humanity was given death to drink. The Lord was prepared to take this death on himself. So when the rod came down to earth it had the form of a snake because the kingdom of God, which is Jesus Christ, came down to earth. He put on mortality, which he also nailed to the cross.… In his mercy God provided a remedy, a remedy that restored health at the time but also foretold the wisdom that was to come in the future.… Whoever has been bitten by the snakes of sin need only gaze on Christ and will have healing for the forgiveness of sins. And so, brothers, it is the mortality that the Lord took on himself that the church must go on experiencing as his body, of which he is the head, as man, in heaven. So the church experiences mortality, which was inflicted through the seduction of the serpent. We owe death to the sin of the first persons, but afterward we shall reach eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But when does the church arrive at life and return to the kingdom? At the end of the world. That is why he took it by the tail, which is the end, in order to restore his rod to its original condition.

He endured death, then; but death He hanged on the cross, and mortal men are delivered from death. The Lord calls to mind a great matter, which was done in a figure with them of old: "And as Moses," saith He, "lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that every one who believeth on Him may not perish, but have everlasting life." A great mystery is here, as they who read know. Again, let them hear, as well they who have not read as they who have forgotten what perhaps they had heard or read. The people Israel were fallen helplessly in the wilderness by the bite of serpents; they suffered a great calamity by many deaths: for it was the stroke of God correcting and scourging them that He might instruct them. In this was shown a great mystery, the figure of a thing to come: the Lord Himself testifies in this passage, so that no man can give another interpretation than that which the truth indicates concerning itself. Now Moses was ordered by the Lord to make a brazen serpent, and to raise it on a pole in the wilderness, and to admonish the people Israel, that, when any had been bitten by a serpent, he should look to that serpent raised up on the pole. This was done: men were bitten; they looked and were healed. What are the biting serpents? Sins, from the mortality of the flesh. What is the serpent lifted up? The Lord's death on the cross. For as death came by the serpent, it was figured by the image of a serpent. The serpent's bite was deadly, the Lord's death is life-giving. A serpent is gazed on that the serpent may have no power. What is this? A death is gazed on, that death may have no power. But whose death? The death of life: if it may be said, the death of life; ay, for it may be said, but said wonderfully. But should it not be spoken, seeing it was a thing to be done? Shall I hesitate to utter that which the Lord has deigned to do for me? Is not Christ the life? And yet Christ hung on the cross. Is not Christ life? And yet Christ was dead. But in Christ's death, death died. Life dead slew death; the fullness of life swallowed up death; death was absorbed in the body of Christ. So also shall we say in the resurrection, when now triumphant we shall sing, "Where, O death, is thy contest? Where, O death, is thy sting?" Meanwhile brethren, that we may be healed from sin, let us now gaze on Christ crucified; for "as Moses," saith He, "lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth on Him may not perish, but have everlasting life." Just as they who looked on that serpent perished not by the serpent's bites, so they who look in faith on Christ's death are healed from the bites of sins. But those were healed from death to temporal life; whilst here He saith, "that they may have everlasting life." Now there is this difference between the figurative image and the real thing: the figure procured temporal life; the reality, of which that was the figure, procures eternal life.

(de Pecc. mer. et remiss. c. xxxii) Many dying in the wilderness from the attack of the serpents, Moses, by commandment of the Lord, lifted up a brazen serpent: and those who looked upon it were immediately healed. The lifting up of the serpent is the death of Christ; the cause, by a certain mode of construction, being put for the effect. The serpent was the cause of death, inasmuch as he persuaded man into that sin, by which he merited death. Our Lord, however, did not transfer sin, i. e. the poison of the serpent, to his flesh, but death; in order that in the likeness of sinful flesh, there might be punishment without sin, by virtue of which sinful flesh might be delivered both from punishment and from sin.

(Tr. xii. c. 11) As then formerly he who looked to the serpent that was lifted up, was healed of its poison, and saved from death; so now he who is conformed to the likeness of Christ's death by faith and the grace of baptism, is delivered both from sin by justification, and from death by the resurrection: as He Himself saith; That whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. What need then is there that the child should be conformed by baptism to the death of Christ, if he be not altogether tainted by the poisonous bite of the serpent?

(Tr. xii. c. 11) But there is this difference between the figure and the reality, that the one recovered from temporal death, the other from eternal.

With the wonderful skill of heavenly teaching, the Lord directs our attention to the teacher of the Mosaic law and to the spiritual meaning of his law, by recalling some of the ancient history and explaining that it happened as a figure of his own passion and of human salvation.

The sins that drag down soul and body to destruction at the same time are appropriately represented by the serpents, not only because they were fiery and poisonous [and] artful at bringing about death, but also because our first parents were led into sin by a serpent. And from being immortal they became mortal by sinning. The Lord is aptly made known by the bronze serpent, since he came in the likeness of sinful flesh. Just as the bronze serpent had the likeness of a fiery serpent but had absolutely none of the strength of harmful poison in its members—rather by being lifted up it cured those who had been stricken by the [live] serpents—so the Redeemer of the human race did not clothe himself in sinful flesh but in the likeness of sinful flesh, in order that by suffering death on the cross in [this likeness] he might free those who believed in him from all sin and even from death itself.Just as those who looked at the bronze serpent that had been lifted up as a sign were cured at that time from temporal death and the wounds that the serpents' bites had caused, so too those who look at the mystery of the Lord's passion by believing, confessing [and] sincerely imitating it are saved forever from every death they have incurred by sinning in mind and body.

He introduces the teacher of the Mosaic law, to the spiritual sense of that law; by a passage from the Old Testament history, which was intended to be a figure of His Passion, and of man's salvation.

Here the second point is touched upon, namely how the Son of God saves, namely through His passion. Therefore He says: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert": Numbers 21: "Moses made a bronze serpent and set it up as a sign; those who had been struck, looking upon it, were healed." "So must the Son of Man be lifted up," namely on the gibbet of the cross, so that all who look upon Him through faith may be healed.

Chrysostom asks concerning what he says: "As Moses lifted up," etc.: why, when expressing the passion, did he not say "to hang on the cross," so as to speak more plainly?

I respond: It must be said that the Lord was revealing the mystery of the passion to Nicodemus as something honorable, as something credible, as something hidden: as something honorable, lest the man, still carnal, should despise and recoil from it; therefore he said "to be lifted up," not "to be hung." As something credible, so that he might give assent; therefore through the preceding marvelous figure he intimates the marvelous effect of the passion. Also as something hidden, so that he might hold it more dearly; and therefore he does not explain it but leaves him a place for meditating, and through this for making progress and for arriving at the gift of understanding.

That the Jews would fasten Christ to the cross. In Isaiah: "I have spread out my hands all day to a people disobedient and contradicting me, who walk in ways that are not good, but after their own sins." Also in Jeremiah: "Come, let us cast the tree into His bread, and let us blot out His life from the earth." Also in Deuteronomy: "And Thy life shall be hanging (in doubt) before Thine eyes; and Thou shall fear day and night, and shalt not trust to Thy life." Also in the twenty-first Psalm: "They tore my hands and my feet; they numbered all my bones. And they gazed upon me, and saw me, and divided my garments among them, and upon my vesture they cast a lot. But Thou, O Lord, remove not Thy help far from me; attend unto my help. Deliver my soul from the sword, and my only one from the paw of the dog. Save me from the mouth of the lion, and my lowliness from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare Thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the Church I will praise Thee." Also in the cxviiith Psalm: "Pierce my flesh with nails through fear of Thee." Also in the cxlth Psalm: "The lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice." Of which sacrifice Sophonias said: "Fear from the presence of the Lord God, since His day is near, because the Lord hath prepared His sacrifice, He hath sanctified His elect." Also in Zechariah: "And they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced." Also in the eighty-seventh Psalm: "I have called unto Thee, O Lord, the whole day; I have stretched out my hands unto Thee." Also in Numbers: "Not as a man is God suspended, nor as the son of man does He suffer threats." Whence in the Gospel the Lord says: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in the Son may have life eternal."

Him should not perish but have eternal life. Having explained sufficiently, and set before him the reason, why His Word of teaching does not run forth into the boundless and supernatural, but descends again to those things that were typically done by Moses of old, knowing that he could by leadings by means of figures scarce arrive at knowledge of the truth, rather than by the exactitude of spiritual inspirations, He saith He must surely be lifted up, as the serpent was by Moses, showing that search of history is most necessary, and all but saying to this man of no understanding, Search the Scriptures, for they are they which testify of Me. For serpents were springing upon them of Israel in the wilderness, and they, falling like ears of corn, and not a little distressed at this danger unexpectedly visiting them, with most piteous cry called for salvation from above and from God. But He, since He was Good and full of compassion, as God, commands Moses to set up a brazen serpent; and commands them therein to have a forethought of the salvation by faith. For the remedy to one bitten, was to look at the serpent put before him, and faith along with the sight wrought deliverance at the last extremity to the beholders. So much for the history. But it represents in act as it were in a type, the whole Mystery of the Incarnation. For the serpent signifies bitter and manslaying sin, which was devouring the whole race upon the earth, manifoldly biting the soul of man, and infusing the varied poison of wickedness. And no otherwise could we escape it thus conquering us, save by the succour alone which is from heaven. The Word of God then was made in the likeness oj sinful flesh, that He might condemn sin in the flesh, as it is written, and to those who gaze on Him with more steadfast faith, or by search into the Divine doctrines, might become the Giver of unending salvation. But the serpent being fixed upon a lofty base, signifies that Christ was altogether clear and manifest, so as to be unknown to none, or His being lifted up from the earth, as Himself says, by His Passion on the Cross.

This story is a type of the whole mystery of the incarnation. For the serpent signifies bitter and deadly sin, which was devouring the whole race on the earth … biting the Soul of man and infusing it with the venom of wickedness. And there is no way that we could have escaped being conquered by it, except by the relief that comes only from heaven. The Word of God then was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, "that he might condemn sin in the flesh," as it is written. In this way, he becomes the Giver of unending salvation to those who comprehend the divine doctrines and gaze on him with steadfast faith. But the serpent, being fixed upon a lofty base, signifies that Christ was clearly manifested by his passion on the cross, so that none could fail to see him.

It was shown by the brazen [serpent], which by its nature cannot suffer, that he would suffer on the cross, who by his nature cannot die.

Now, he says, the stars are the gods of destruction, which impose upon existent things the necessity of alterable generation. These, he says, Moses denominated serpents of the wilderness, which gnaw and utterly ruin those who imagined that they had crossed the Red Sea. To those, then, he says, who of the children of Israel were bitten in the wilderness, Moses exhibited the real and perfect serpent; and they who believed on this serpent were not bitten in the wilderness, that is, (were not assailed) by (evil) powers. No one therefore, he says, is there who is able to save and deliver those that come forth from Egypt, that is, from the body and from this world, unless alone the serpent that is perfect and replete with fulness. Upon this (serpent), he says, he who fixes his hope is not destroyed by the snakes of the wilderness, that is, by the gods of generation. (This statement) is written, he says, in a book of Moses. This serpent, he says, is the power that attended Moses, the rod that was turned into a serpent. The serpents, however, of the magicians-(that is,) the gods of destruction-withstood the power of Moses in Egypt, but the rod of Moses reduced them all to subjection and slew them. This universal serpent is, he says, the wise discourse of Eve. This, he says, is the mystery of Edem, this the river of Edem; this the mark that was set upon Cain, that any one who findeth him might not kill him. This, he says, is Cain, whose sacrifice the god of this world did not accept. The gory sacrifice, however, of Abel he approved of; for the ruler of this world rejoices in (offerings of) blood. This, he says, is he who appeared in the last days, in form of a man, in the times of Herod, being born after the likeness of Joseph, who was sold by the hand of his brethren, to whom alone belonged the coat of many colours. This, he says, is he who is according to the likeness of Esau, whose garment-he not being himself present-was blessed; who did not receive, he says, the benediction uttered by him of enfeebled vision. He acquired, however, wealth from a source independent of this, receiving nothing from him whose eyes were dim; and Jacob saw his countenance, as a man beholds the face of God. In regard of this, he says, it has been written that "Nebrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord." And there are, he says, many who closely imitate this (Nimrod): as numerous are they as the gnawing (serpents) which were seen in the wilderness by the children of Israel, from which that perfect serpent which Moses set up delivered those that were bitten. This, he says, is that which has been declared: "In the same manner as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so also must the Son of man be lifted up." According to the likeness of this was made in the desert the brazen serpent which Moses set up. Of this alone, he says, the image is in heaven, always conspicuous in light.

Now, He suffered all these things for us; and He suffered them really, and not in appearance only, even as also He truly rose again. But not, as some of the unbelievers, who are ashamed of the formation of man, and the cross, and death itself, affirm, that in appearance only, and not in truth, He took a body of the Virgin, and suffered only in appearance, forgetting, as they do, Him who said, "The Word was made flesh; " and again, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up; " and once more, "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto Me." The Word therefore did dwell in flesh, for "Wisdom built herself an house." The Word raised up again His own temple on the third day, when it had been destroyed by the Jews fighting against Christ. The Word, when His flesh was lifted up, after the manner of the brazen serpent in the wilderness, drew all men to Himself for their eternal salvation.

Let them not therefore ascribe to the law the unbelief of certain [among them]. For the law never hindered them from believing in the Son of God; nay, but it even exhorted them so to do, saying that men can be saved in no other way from the old wound of the serpent than by believing in Him who, in the likeness of sinful flesh, is lifted up from the earth upon the tree of martyrdom, and draws all things to Himself, and vivifies the dead.

After having spoken of the very great benefaction that had come to man by Baptism, He proceeds to mention another benefaction, which was the cause of this, and not inferior to it; namely, that by the Cross. As also Paul arguing with the Corinthians sets down these benefits together, when he says, "Was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized into the name of Paul?" for these two things most of all declare His unspeakable love, that He both suffered for His enemies, and that having died for His enemies, He freely gave to them by Baptism entire remission of their sins.

But wherefore did He not say plainly, "I am about to be crucified," instead of referring His hearers to the ancient type? First, that you may learn that old things are akin to new, and that the one are not alien to the other; next, that you may know that He came not unwillingly to His Passion; and again, besides these reasons, that you may learn that no harm arises to Him from the Fact, and that to many there springs from it salvation. For, that none may say, "And how is it possible that they who believe on one crucified should be saved, when he himself is holden of death?" He leads us to the ancient story. Now if the Jews, by looking to the brazen image of a serpent, escaped death, much rather will they who believe on the Crucified, with good reason enjoy a far greater benefit. For this takes place, not through the weakness of the Crucified, or because the Jews are stronger than He, but because "God loved the world," therefore is His living Temple fastened to the Cross.

And it seems that the type and sign, which was erected to counteract the serpents which bit Israel, was intended for the salvation of those who believe that death was declared to come thereafter on the serpent through Him that would be crucified, but salvation to those who had been bitten by him and had betaken themselves to Him that sent His Son into the world to be crucified. For the Spirit of prophecy by Moses did not teach us to believe in the serpent, since it shows us that he was cursed by God from the beginning; and in Isaiah tells us that he shall be put to death as an enemy by the mighty sword, which is Christ.

For tell me, was it not God who commanded by Moses that no image or likeness of anything which was in heaven above or which was on the earth should be made, and yet who caused the brazen serpent to be made by Moses in the wilderness, and set it up for a sign by which those bitten by serpents were saved? Yet is He free from unrighteousness. For by this, as I previously remarked, He proclaimed the mystery, by which He declared that He would break the power of the serpent which occasioned the transgression of Adam, and [would bring] to them that believe on Him [who was foreshadowed] by this sign, i.e., Him who was to be crucified, salvation from the fangs of the serpent, which are wicked deeds, idolatries, and other unrighteous acts. Unless the matter be so understood, give me a reason why Moses set up the brazen serpent for a sign, and bade those that were bitten gaze at it, and the wounded were healed; and this, too, when he had himself commanded that no likeness of anything whatsoever should be made.

I say nothing of what was figured by this cure. Thus, too, the golden Cherubim and Seraphim were purely an ornament in the figured fashion of the ark; adapted to ornamentation for reasons totally remote from all condition of idolatry, on account of which the making a likeness is prohibited; and they are evidently not at variance with this law of prohibition, because they are not found in that form of similitude, in reference to which the prohibition is given.

Christ Himself (they say further) in His gospel imitates Moses' serpent's sacred power, in saying: "And as Moses upreared the serpent in the desert, so it behoveth the Son of man to be upreared." Him they introduce to bless their eucharistic (elements).

Having spoken before about regeneration through baptism, he then speaks also of the benefaction accomplished for us through the cross. For the cross and death are the cause of the grace bestowed upon us through baptism, since in baptism we portray the death of the Lord. He does not say directly that I will be crucified, but recalls the serpent and the ancient history (Num. 21:5–9), and in this way accomplishes several things at once: on the one hand, He teaches us that the old is akin to the new and that the Lawgiver of the Old and New Testaments is one and the same, although Marcion, Manes, and the rest of the assembly of such heretics reject the Old Testament, saying that it is the legislation of an evil demiurge (craftsman); on the other hand, He teaches that if the Jews escaped death by looking upon the bronze image of the serpent, then all the more shall we escape the death of the soul by looking upon the Crucified One and believing in Him. Compare, if you will, the type with the reality. There, a likeness of a serpent, having the appearance of a serpent but not having its venom: so too here, the Lord is Man, but free from the venom of sin, having come in the likeness of sinful flesh, that is, in the likeness of flesh subject to sin, but He Himself is not sinful flesh. Then, those who looked were delivered from bodily death, while we are delivered from spiritual death. Then, the one hung up healed from the bites of serpents, but now Christ heals the wounds inflicted by the dragon of the mind. When you hear "must be lifted up," understand it thus: to be hung. For He was hung on high, so that He who sanctified the earth by walking upon it might also sanctify the air. Understand "to be lifted up" also thus: to be glorified. For the cross truly became the exaltation and glory of Christ. By that in which He seemed condemned, He condemned the prince of this world. I will explain a little. Adam died justly, because he sinned. The Lord died not by a debt of justice, because He did not sin. Before the crucifixion of the Lord, death justly held dominion over men. But since the Lord was found to be without sin, what could the devil find in Him deserving of death? And since He was put to death unjustly, He conquered the one who killed Him, and in this way also freed Adam from the death that was justly inflicted upon him as one who had sinned. And in another way. Two things dominated over the human race: pleasure and sorrow. The Lord, having passed through both, proved unconquerable. The tempter first approached Him on the mountain with the offer of pleasure (Matt. 4:3, 6, 9); but, finding Him unconquerable through this, he employed great cunning, bringing sorrow, so that at least through it he might master Him, and for this he raised up everything against Him: the denial of the disciples, the mockery of the soldiers, the blasphemy of the passersby, death at the hands of the Jews, but even in this he found Him unconquerable. For the sorrow on the cross could not arouse in the Lord hatred toward those who crucified Him, but He continued to love them and prayed for them, saying: "Father, do not hold this sin against them" (Luke 23:34). Do you see how He conquered by that through which He appeared to have been conquered? Thus, the cross became both His exaltation and His glory.

(in loc.) See then the aptness of the figure. The figure of the serpent has the appearance of the beast, but not its poison: in the same way Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, being free from sin. By Christ's being lifted up, understand His being suspended on high, by which suspension He sanctified the air, even as He had sanctified the earth by walking upon it. Herein too is typified the glory of Christ: for the height of the cross was made His glory: for in that He submitted to be judged, He judged the prince of this world; for Adam died justly, because he sinned; our Lord unjustly, because He did no sin. So He overcame him, who delivered Him over to death, and thus delivered Adam from death. And in this the devil found himself vanquished, that he could not upon the cross torment our Lord into hating His murderers: but only made Him love and pray for them the more. In this way the cross of Christ was made His lifting up, and glory.

Here he mentions the mystery of the passion, in virtue of which baptism has its efficacy: "We who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, have been baptized into his death" (Rom 6:3). And with regard to this he does three things. First, he gives a symbol for the passion. Secondly, the manner of the passion. Thirdly, the fruit of the passion.

He takes the symbol from the old law, in order to adapt to the understanding of Nicodemus; so he says, Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert. This refers to Numbers (21:5) when the Lord, faced with the Jewish people saying, "We are sick of this useless food," sent serpents to punish them; and when the people came to Moses and he interceded with the Lord, the Lord commanded that for a remedy they make a serpent of bronze; and this was to serve both as a remedy against those serpents and as a symbol of the Lord's passion. Hence it says that this bronze serpent was lifted up as a sign (Nm 21:9).

Now it is characteristic of serpents that they are poisonous, but not so the serpent of bronze, although it was a symbol of a poisonous serpent. So, too, Christ did not have sin, which is also a poison: "Sin, when it is fully developed, brings forth death" (Jas 1:15); but he had the likeness of sin: "God sent his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom 8:3). And thus Christ had the effect of the serpent against the insurgence of inflamed concupiscences.

He shows the manner of the passion when he says, so must the Son of Man be lifted up: and this refers to the lifting up of the cross. So below (12:34) when it says, "The Son of Man must be lifted up," it also has, "He said this to indicate the manner of his death."

He willed to die lifted up, first of all, to cleanse the heavens: for since he had cleansed the things on earth by the sanctity of his life, the things of the air were left to be cleansed by his death: "through him he should reconcile all things to himself, whether on earth or in the heavens, making peace through his blood" (Col 1:20). Secondly, to triumph over the demons who prepare for war in the air: "the prince of the power of the air" (Eph 2:2). Thirdly, he wished to die lifted up to draw our hearts to himself: "I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself" (below 12:32). And fourthly, because in the death of the cross he was lifted up in the sense that there he triumphed over his enemies; so it is not called a death, but a lifting up: "He will drink from the stream on the way, therefore he will lift up his head" (Ps 109:7). Fifthly, he willed to die lifted up because the cross was the reason for his being lifted up, i.e., exalted: "He became obedient to the Father even to death, the death of the cross; on account of which God has exalted him" (Phil 2:8).

"That everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but may have eternal life": in chapter 11: "He who believes in Me, even if he shall have died, shall live; and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall not die forever." He most fittingly describes the passion in relation to the figure, so that it may become more credible; and most fittingly did the figure precede, because, just as there they were not healed by the serpent unless they looked upon it, so neither are they healed through Christ unless they believe in Him.

The question concerns what he says: "That everyone who believes in him may not perish." Therefore no one who has faith will be condemned, however wicked he may be. If you say that this is understood of formed faith, then according to this no one who has formed faith can be condemned.

I respond: It must be said that here he speaks of true faith; but true faith excludes a twofold pretense. For faith is feigned either because one believes but does not love, or because one believes and loves but does not persevere. True faith, therefore, is that which loves what it believes and perseveres; and everyone such will be saved.

Seest thou the cause of the Crucifixion, and the salvation which is by it? Seest thou the relationship of the type to the reality? there the Jews escaped death, but the temporal, here believers the eternal; there the hanging serpent healed the bites of serpents, here the Crucified Jesus cured the wounds inflicted by the spiritual dragon; there he who looked with his bodily eyes was healed, here he who beholds with the eyes of his understanding put off all his sins; there that which hung was brass fashioned into the likeness of a serpent, here it was the Lord's Body, builded by the Spirit; there a serpent bit and a serpent healed, here death destroyed and a Death saved. But the snake which destroyed had venom, that which saved was free from venom; and so again was it here, for the death which slew us had sin with it, as the serpent had venom; but the Lord's Death was free from all sin, as the brazen serpent from venom. For, saith Peter, "He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." And this is what Paul also declares, "And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." For as some noble champion by lifting on high and dashing down his antagonist, renders his victory more glorious, so Christ, in the sight of all the world, cast down the adverse powers, and having healed those who were smitten in the wilderness, delivered them from all venomous beasts that vexed them, by being hung upon the Cross. Yet He did not say, "must hang," but, "must be lifted up"; for He used this which seemed the milder term, on account of His hearer, and because it was proper to the type.

Now the fruit of Christ's passion is eternal life; hence he says, so that everyone who believes in him, performing good works, may not be lost, but have eternal life. And this fruit corresponds to the fruit of the symbolic serpent. For whoever looked upon the serpent of bronze was freed from poison and his life was preserved. But he who looks upon the lifted up Son of Man, and believes in the crucified Christ, he is freed from poison and sin: "Whoever believes in me will never die" (below 11:26), and is preserved for eternal life. "These things are written that you may believe... and that believing you may have life in his name" (below 20:31).

Truly through the Son of God shall the world have life; for for no other cause came He into the world, except to save the world. God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

For He came down and died, and by that death delivered us from death: being slain by death, He slew death. And you know, brethren, that this death entered into the world through the devil's envy. "God made not death," saith the Scripture, "nor delights He in the destruction of the living; but He created all things to be." But what saith it here? "But by the devil's envy, death entered into the whole world." To the death offered for our entertainment by the devil, man would not come by constraint; for the devil had not the power of forcing, but only cunning to persuade. Hadst thou not consented, the devil had brought in nothing: thy own consenting, O man, led thee to death. Of the mortal are mortals born; from immortals we are become mortals. From Adam all men are mortal; but Jesus the Son of God, the Word of God, by which all things were made, the only Son equal with the Father, was made mortal: "for the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."

He endured death, then; but death He hanged on the cross, and mortal men are delivered from death. The Lord calls to mind a great matter, which was done in a figure with them of old: "And as Moses," saith He, "lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that every one who believeth on Him may not perish, but have everlasting life." A great mystery is here, as they who read know. Again, let them hear, as well they who have not read as they who have forgotten what perhaps they had heard or read. The people Israel were fallen helplessly in the wilderness by the bite of serpents; they suffered a great calamity by many deaths: for it was the stroke of God correcting and scourging them that He might instruct them. In this was shown a great mystery, the figure of a thing to come: the Lord Himself testifies in this passage, so that no man can give another interpretation than that which the truth indicates concerning itself. Now Moses was ordered by the Lord to make a brazen serpent, and to raise it on a pole in the wilderness, and to admonish the people Israel, that, when any had been bitten by a serpent, he should look to that serpent raised up on the pole. This was done: men were bitten; they looked and were healed. What are the biting serpents? Sins, from the mortality of the flesh. What is the serpent lifted up? The Lord's death on the cross. For as death came by the serpent, it was figured by the image of a serpent. The serpent's bite was deadly, the Lord's death is life-giving. A serpent is gazed on that the serpent may have no power. What is this? A death is gazed on, that death may have no power. But whose death? The death of life: if it may be said, the death of life; ay, for it may be said, but said wonderfully. But should it not be spoken, seeing it was a thing to be done? Shall I hesitate to utter that which the Lord has deigned to do for me? Is not Christ the life? And yet Christ hung on the cross. Is not Christ life? And yet Christ was dead. But in Christ's death, death died. Life dead slew death; the fullness of life swallowed up death; death was absorbed in the body of Christ. So also shall we say in the resurrection, when now triumphant we shall sing, "Where, O death, is thy contest? Where, O death, is thy sting?" Meanwhile brethren, that we may be healed from sin, let us now gaze on Christ crucified; for "as Moses," saith He, "lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth on Him may not perish, but have everlasting life." Just as they who looked on that serpent perished not by the serpent's bites, so they who look in faith on Christ's death are healed from the bites of sins. But those were healed from death to temporal life; whilst here He saith, "that they may have everlasting life." Now there is this difference between the figurative image and the real thing: the figure procured temporal life; the reality, of which that was the figure, procures eternal life.

Thus did God love the human race, that He gave His only begotten Son for the life of the world. For unless the Father had delivered life, we would not have life; and unless that life itself had died, death would not have been slain. Indeed, the Lord Christ Himself is life, of whom the evangelist John says: This is the true God, and eternal life. He also, by the Prophet, threatened death with death, saying: I will be your death, O death; I will be your sting, O hell! As if He were saying: By dying, I will slay you, I will consume you, I will take away all your power, I will rescue the captives you held. You wished to hold the innocent; it is just that you lose those you wished to hold.

Our Redeemer and Maker, who was Son of God before the ages, became Son of man at the end of ages. Thus the one who, through the power of his divinity, had created us to enjoy the happiness of everlasting life, might himself restore us, through the weakness of our humanity, to recover the life we had lost.

Note here, that the same which he before said of the Son of man, lifted up on the cross, he repeats of the only begotten Son of God: viz. That whosoever believeth in Him, &c. For the same our Maker and Redeemer, who was Son of God before the world was, was made at the end of the world the Son of man; so that He who by the power of His Godhead had created us to enjoy the happiness of an endless life, the same restored us to the life we have lost by taking our human frailty upon Him.

Here the third point is touched upon, namely the motivating reason for saving in this way; and this was the immensity of divine love toward lost mankind. On account of which He says: "For God so loved the world," that is, worldly and sinful man: that "He gave His Only-begotten Son": Ephesians 2: "God, who is rich in mercy, on account of His exceeding charity with which He loved us, when we were dead in sins, made us alive together with Christ." Therefore exceeding, because He gave more than was necessary: Romans 8: "He who did not spare even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." He gave Him, I say, for all as regards sufficiency, but as regards efficacy, for the elect and for believers. Therefore He adds: "That everyone who believes in Him" may not "perish, but may have eternal life." The passion avails none but believers, because, as it is said in Hebrews 11, "without faith it is impossible to please God."

But as soon as you look at any real Christian writings, you find that they are talking about something quite different from this popular religion. They say that Christ is the Son of God (whatever that means). They say that those who give Him their confidence can also become Sons of God (whatever that means). They say that His death saved us from our sins (whatever that means).

To beget is to become the father of: to create is to make. And the difference is this. When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers and a bird begets eggs which turn into little birds. But when you make, you make something of a different kind from yourself. A bird makes a nest, a beaver builds a dam, a man makes a wireless set—or he may make something more like himself than a wireless set: say, a statue. If he is a clever enough carver he may make a statue which is very like a man indeed. But, of course, it is not a real man; it only looks like one. It cannot breathe or think. It is not alive.

Now that is the first thing to get clear. What God begets is God; just as what man begets is man. What God creates is not God; just as what man makes is not man. That is why men are not Sons of God in the sense that Christ is.

He desireth to show openly herein, that He is God by Nature, since one must needs deem that He Who came forth from God the Father, is surely God also, not having the honour from without, as we have, but being in truth what He is believed to be. With exceeding skill does He say this, having joined therewith the love of God the Father to us, well and opportunely coming to discourse thereon. For He shames the unbelieving Nicodemus, yea rather, He shows that he is ungodly also. For the not coming readily to believe, when God teaches anything, what else is it, than laying upon the Truth a charge of falsehood? Besides this, in saying that He was given for the life of the world, He persuades him to consider seriously, of how great punishment they will be in danger, who from their mad folly, have made of no account so wondrous grace of God the Father. For God, says He, so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son.

Let the Christ-opposing heretic again hear, and let him come forward and say, what is the greatness of the Love of God the Father, or how we should reasonably marvel at it. But he will say that the marvel of the love is seen, in His giving His Son for us, and that the Only Begotten. In order then that the great love of God the Father may remain and be preserved, let Him be held to be Son not a creature, I mean Son of the Essence of the Father, that is to say, Consubstantial with Him Who begat Him, and God verily and in truth. But if, according to thy speech, o thou, He possesseth not the being of the Essence of God the Father, He will also lose the being by Nature Son and God, and the wide-spread marvel of the Love of God will at length come to nought: for He gave a creature for creatures, and not truly His Son. Vainly too will the blessed Paul trouble us, saying, He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God? For confessedly he that despised trampleth under foot, but not the Very Son, but a fellow servant of Moses, if indeed creature be always akin to creature, in respect at least of having been made, even if it surpass the glory of another, in the excellences of being greater or better. But the word of Paul is true; and a severer penalty shall he pay who hath trodden under foot the Son, not as though he were transgressing against a creature, or one of the fellow servants of Moses. Great then and above nature is the Love of the Father, Who for the life of the world gave His Own Son and Who is of Himself.

Abraham had many servants. Why did he [God] not tell him to offer up one of them as a sacrifice? It was only because his love would not be shown in a servant. His son was thus needed, so that through him Abraham's love would be revealed. God had servants like this, but he did not show his love through any of them for his creatures, but rather through his Son, so that through him his love toward us might be proclaimed.…From [the time of] Abraham, the symbols of the wood and of the lamb began to take shape. Isaac was a symbol of the lamb [caught] in the tree, and Jacob showed the wood that was life-giving for water. Thus wood was esteemed as worthy for him to hang upon it, because not a bone in him was broken. As for the earth, its fruits are stimulated by wood, and for the sea, its treasures are taken by means of wood. This is also the case for the body and the soul. Thus it [the wood of the cross] was carved by the fury of the savage crowd. It was like a mute person in its silence, but in its use it bore fruit exalting the status of human beings.

Let us praise the Son first of all, venerating the blood that expiated our sins. He lost nothing of his divinity when he saved me, when like a good physician he stooped to my festering wounds. He was a mortal man, but he was also God. He was of the race of David but Adam's creator. He who has no body clothed himself with flesh. He had a mother who, nonetheless, was a virgin. He who is without bounds bound himself with the cords of our humanity. He was victim and high priest—yet he was God. He offered up his blood and cleansed the whole world. He was lifted up on the cross, but it was sin that was nailed to it. He became as one among the dead, but he rose from the dead, raising to life also many who had died before him. On the one hand, there was the poverty of his humanity; on the other, the riches of his divinity. Do not let what is human in the Son permit you wrongfully to detract from what is divine. For the sake of the divine, hold in the greatest honor the humanity, which the immortal Son took on himself for love of you.

God, who loved the world, gave his only begotten Son as a manifest token of his love. If the evidence of his love is this, that he bestowed a creature on creatures, gave a worldly being on the world's behalf, granted one raised up from nothing for the redemption of objects equally raised up from nothing, such a cheap and petty sacrifice is a poor assurance of his favor toward us. Gifts of price are the evidence of affection: the greatness of the surrender is evidence of the greatness of the love. God, who loved the world, gave no adopted son but his own, his only begotten [Son]. Here is personal interest, true sonship, sincerity; not creation, or adoption, or pretence. Here is the proof of his love and affection, that he gave his own, his only begotten Son.

(vi. de Trin. c. 40) If it were only a creature given up for the sake of a creature, such a poor and insignificant loss were no great evidence of love. They must be precious things which prove our love, great things must evidence its greatness. God, in love to the world, gave His Son, not an adopted Son, but His own, even His Only Begotten. Here is proper Sonship, birth, truth: no creation, no adoption, no lie: here is the test of love and charity, that God sent His own and only begotten Son to save the world.

The sum of all is God, the Lord of all, who from love of his creatures has delivered his Son to death on the cross. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for it. Not that he was unable to save us in another way, but in this way it was possible to show us his abundant love abundantly, namely, by bringing us near to him by the death of his Son. If he had anything more dear to him, he would have given it to us, in order that by it our race might be his. And out of his great love he did not even choose to urge our freedom by compulsion, though he was able to do so. But his aim was that we should come near to him by the love of our mind. And our Lord obeyed his Father out of love for us.

What He saith, is of this kind: Marvel not that I am to be lifted up that ye may be saved, for this seemeth good to the Father, and He hath so loved you as to give His Son for slaves, and ungrateful slaves. Yet a man would not do this even for a friend, nor readily even for a righteous man; as Paul has declared when he said, "Scarcely for a righteous man will one die." Now he spoke at greater length, as speaking to believers, but here Christ speaks concisely, because His discourse was directed to Nicodemus, but still in a more significant manner, for each word had much significance. For by the expression, "so loved," and that other, "God the world," He shows the great strength of His love. Large and infinite was the interval between the two. He, the immortal, who is without beginning, the Infinite Majesty, they but dust and ashes, full of ten thousand sins, who, ungrateful, have at all times offended Him; and these He "loved." Again, the words which He added after these are alike significant, when He saith, that "He gave His Only-begotten Son," not a servant, not an Angel, not an Archangel. And yet no one would show such anxiety for his own child, as God did for His ungrateful servants.

His Passion then He sets before him not very openly, but rather darkly; but the advantage of the Passion He adds in a clearer manner, saying, "That every one that believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." For when He had said, "must be lifted up," and alluded to death, lest the hearer should be made downcast by these words, forming some mere human opinions concerning Him, and supposing that His death was a ceasing to be, observe how He sets this right, by saying, that He that was given was "The Son of God," and the cause of life, of everlasting life. He who procured life for others by death, would not Himself be continually in death; for if they who believed on the Crucified perish not, much less doth He perish who is crucified. He who taketh away the destitution of others much more is He free from it; He who giveth life to others, much more to Himself doth He well forth life. Seest thou that everywhere there is need of faith? For He calls the Cross the fountain of life; which reason cannot easily allow, as the heathens now by their mocking testify. But faith which goes beyond the weakness of reasoning, may easily receive and retain it. And whence did God "so love the world"? From no other source but only from his goodness.

In His address to Nicodemus He says: "So God loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And again: "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

The love of God for the world is great and extended so far that He gave not an angel, not a prophet, but His Son, and moreover His Only-Begotten (1 John 4:9). If He had given even an angel, that deed would not have been small. Why? Because an angel is His faithful and obedient servant, while we are enemies and apostates. But now, when He gave His Son, what surpassing love He showed! Again, if He had many sons and gave one, even that would have been a very great thing. But now He gave His Only-Begotten. Can His goodness then be worthily praised? The Arians say that the Son is called Only-begotten because He alone was produced and created by God, while everything else was then created by Him. The answer to them is simple. If He had been called Only-begotten without the word "Son," then your subtle invention would have had a basis. But now, since He is called both Only-begotten and Son, the word "Only-begotten" cannot be understood as you understand it, but rather that He alone was begotten of the Father. Note, I ask you, that just as above He said that the Son of Man came down from heaven, not meaning that His flesh did come down from heaven, but He attributed what belongs to God to the man on account of the unity of the Person and the unity of the Hypostasis, so here again He attributes what belongs to the man to God the Word. "God gave," He says, "His Son to death." Although God remained impassible, yet since by Hypostasis One and the Same was both God the Word and Man subject to suffering, it is said that the Son is given over to death, who indeed also suffered in His own flesh. What is the benefit of the Son being given? It is great and inconceivable for man — that everyone who believes in Him should receive two blessings: one, that he should not perish; the other, that he should have life, and moreover eternal life. The Old Testament promised long life to those who pleased God in it, but the Gospel rewards such people with life not temporal, but eternal and indestructible.

(in loc.) As He said above, that the Son of man came down from heaven, not meaning that His flesh did come down from heaven, on account of the unity of person in Christ, attributing to man what belonged to God: so now conversely what belongs to man, he assigns to God the Word. The Son of God was impassible; but being one in respect of person with man, who was passible, the Son is said to be given up to death; inasmuch as He truly suffered, not in His own nature, but in His own flesh. From this death follows an exceeding great and incomprehensible benefit: viz. that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The Old Testament promised to those who obeyed it, length of days: the Gospel promises life eternal, and imperishable.

Above, the Lord assigned as the cause of spiritual regeneration the coming down of the Son and the lifting up of the Son of Man; and he set forth its fruit, which is eternal life. But this fruit seemed unbelievable to men laboring under the necessity of dying. And so now the Lord explains this. First, he proves the greatness of the fruit from the greatness of God's love. Secondly, he rejects a certain reply (v 17).

Here we should note that the cause of all our good is the Lord and divine love. For to love is, properly speaking, to will good to someone. Therefore, since the will of God is the cause of things, good comes to us because God loves us. And God's love is the cause of the good of nature: "You love everything which exists" (Wis 11:25). It is also the cause of the good which is grace: "I have loved you with an everlasting love, and so I have drawn you" i.e., through grace (Jer 31:3). But it is because of his great love that he gives us the good of glory. So he shows us here, from four standpoints, that this love of God is the greatest.

First, from the person of the one loving, because it is God who loves, and immeasurably. So he says, For God so loved: "He has loved the people; all the holy ones are in his hand" (Dt 33:3). Secondly, from the condition of the one who is loved, because it is man, a bodily creature of the world, i.e., existing in sin: "God shows his love for us, because while we were still his enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (Rom 5:8). Thus he says, the world. Thirdly, from the greatness of his gifts, for love is shown by a gift; as Gregory says: "The proof of love is given by action." But God has given us the greatest of gifts, his Only Begotten Son, and so he says, that he gave his Only Begotten Son. "God did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for all of us" (Rom 8:32).

He says his Son, i.e., his natural Son, consubstantial, not an adopted son, i.e., not those sons of which the Psalmist says: "I said: You are gods" (Ps 81:6). This shows that the opinion of Arius is false: for if the Son of God were a creature, as he said, the immensity of God's love through the taking on of infinite goodness, which no creature can receive, could not have been revealed in him. He further says Only Begotten, to show that God does not have a love divided among many sons, but all of it is for that Son whom he gave to prove the immensity of his love: "For the Father loves the Son, and shows him everything that he does" (below 5:20).

Fourthly, from the greatness of its fruit, because through him we have eternal life. Hence he says, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life, which he obtained for us through the death of the cross.

But did God give his Son with the intention that he should die on the cross? He did indeed give him for the death of the cross inasmuch as he gave him the will to suffer on it. And he did this in two ways. First, because as the Son of God he willed from eternity to assume flesh and to suffer for us; and this will he had from the Father. Secondly, because the will to suffer was infused into the soul of Christ by God.

Note that above, when the Lord was speaking about the coming down which belongs to Christ according to his divinity, he called him the Son of God; and this because of the one suppositum of the two natures, as was explained above. And so divine things can be said about the suppositum of the human nature, and human things can be said about the suppositum of the divine nature, but not with reference to the same nature. Rather, divine things are said with reference to the divine nature, and human things with reference to the human nature. Now the specific reason why he here calls him the Son of God is that he set forth that gift as a sign of the divine love, through which the fruit of eternal life comes to us. And so, he should have been called by that name which indicates the power that produces eternal life; and this power is not in Christ as Son of Man but as Son of God: "This is the true God and eternal life," as we read in 1 John (5:20); "In him was life" (above 1:4).

Note also that he says, should not perish. Someone is said to be perishing when he is hindered from arriving at the end to which he is ordained. But the end to which man is ordained is eternal life, and as long as he sins, he turns himself from that end. And although while he is living he cannot entirely perish in the sense that he cannot be restored, yet when he dies in sin, then he entirely perishes: "The way of the wicked will perish" (Ps 1:7).

He indicates the immensity of God's love in saying, have eternal life: for by giving eternal life, he gives himself. For eternal life is nothing else than enjoying God. But to give oneself is a sign of great love: "But God, who is rich in mercy, has brought us to life in Christ" (Eph 2:5), i.e., he gave us eternal life.

"For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him may be saved." So far, then, as it lies in the physician, He is come to heal the sick. He that will not observe the orders of the physician destroys himself. He is come a Saviour to the world: why is He called the Saviour of the world, but that He is come to save the world, not to judge the world? Thou wilt not be saved by Him; thou shalt be judged of thyself.

(Tr. xii. c. 12) For why is He called the Saviour of the world, but because Ho saves the world? The physician, so far as his will is concerned, heals the sick. If the sick despises or will not observe the directions of the physician, he destroys himself.

He shows that our damnation is not on the part of God, when he says: and it should be continued thus from the preceding: I have truly said that God gave His Son, "that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life," not, I say, that he be condemned. "For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world," namely by condemning it, "but that the world might be saved through Him": 1 John 3: "In this we have known the love of God, that He first loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins," therefore for the purpose of propitiation, not for condemnation.

But a question arises concerning what he says, that "he did not send his Son into the world to judge." Against this: It is stated in chapter 5: "The Father has given all judgment to the Son."

I respond: There is a twofold coming: the first and the second, the first of mercy, the second of justice. In the first he came to propitiate, not to judge, but in the second he will come to judge.

My argument, accordingly, good reader, holds sure that he never wrought for the punishment of man but for his benefit, and he himself elsewhere exclaims: For the Father hath not sent the Son to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

Having plainly called Himself the Son of God the Father, He thought not good to leave the word without witness, but brings forward proof from the quality, so to say, of the things themselves, making the hearers more steadfast unto faith. For I was not sent, saith He, like the law-expounder Moses, condemning the world by the law, nor introducing the commandment unto conviction of sin, nor do I perform a servile ministry, but I introduce loving-kindness befitting the Master: I free the embondaged, as Son and Heir of the Father, I transform the law that condemneth into grace that justifieth, I release from sin him that is holden with the cords of his transgressions, I am come to save the world, not to condemn it. For it was right, it was right, saith He, that Moses, as a servant, should be a minister of the law that condemns, but that I as Son and God should free the whole world from the curse of the law and, by exceedingness of lovingkindness, should heal the infirmity of the world. If then the grace that justifieth is better than the commandment that condemneth, how is it not meet to conceive that He surpasseth the measure of the servant Who introduceth so God-befitting authority, and releaseth man from the bonds of sin?

This then is one aim of the passage under consideration, and no mean one. A second besides this, revolving through the same circuit, and introducing a consideration akin to those above, will be given from love of learning. The Saviour saw that Nicodemus was cleaving to the law of Moses, and was fast held to the more ancient commandment, and was somehow startled at the new Birth through the Spirit, shrinking from the new and Gospel polity, supposing it seems that this would be more burdensome than the things already enjoined. Being therefore not ignorant, as God, of the fear which from his ignorance had sprung upon him, by using one short argument, He frees him from all trouble on this score, and shows that the commandment of Moses, by reason of its condemning the world, is harder to be borne, and introduces Himself as a mild Judge, saying, For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

For there are two Advents of Christ, that which has been, and that which is to be; and the two are not for the same purpose; the first came to pass not that He might search into our actions, but that He might remit; the object of the second will be not to remit, but to enquire. Therefore of the first He saith, "I came not to condemn the world, but to save the world"; but of the second, "When the Son shall have come in the glory of His Father, He shall set the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on His left." And they shall go, these into life; and these into eternal punishment. Yet His former coming was for judgment, according to the rule of justice. Why? Because before His coming there was a law of nature, and the prophets, and moreover a written Law, and doctrine, and ten thousand promises, and manifestations of signs, and chastisements, and vengeances, and many other things which might have set men right, and it followed that for all these things He would demand account; but, because He is merciful, He for a while pardons instead of making enquiry. For had He done so, all would at once have been hurried to perdition. For "all," it saith, "have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Seest thou the unspeakable excess of His lovingkindness?

Yet if He "came not to judge the world," how is "he that believeth not judged already," if the time of "judgment" has not yet arrived? He either means this, that the very fact of disbelieving without repentance is a punishment, (for to be without the light, contains in itself a very severe punishment,) or he announces beforehand what shall be. For as the murderer, though he be not as yet condemned by the decision of the judge, is still condemned by the nature of the thing, so is it with the unbeliever. Since Adam also died on the day that he ate of the tree; for so ran the decree, "In the day that ye eat of the tree, ye shall die"; yet he lived. How then "died" he? By the decree; by the very nature of the thing; for he who has rendered himself liable to punishment, is under its penalty, and if for a while not actually so, yet he is by the sentence.

Lest any one on hearing, "I came not to judge the world," should imagine that he might sin unpunished, and should so become more careless, Christ stops such disregard by saying, "is judged already"; and because the "judgment" was future and not yet at hand, He brings near the dread of vengeance, and describes the punishment as already come. And this is itself a mark of great lovingkindness, that He not only gives His Son, but even delays the time of judgment, that they who have sinned, and they who believe not, may have power to wash away their transgressions.

He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." Moreover, when John (the Baptist) was asked what he happened to know of Jesus, he said: "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand.

Since there are two comings of Christ, one that has already taken place and another that is future, concerning the first coming he says that the Son was not sent to judge the world (for if He had come for this purpose, all would have been condemned, since all have sinned, as Paul also says (Rom. 3:23)), but He came primarily to save the world. Such was His purpose. But in practice, it turned out that He condemns those who did not believe. The Law of Moses came primarily for the exposure of sin (Rom. 3:20) and the condemnation of transgressors. For it pardoned no one, but as soon as it found someone sinning in anything, it immediately imposed punishment as well. Thus, the first coming did not have as its purpose to judge, except for those who in practice did not believe, for they are already condemned; but the second coming will be expressly for the purpose of judging all and rendering to each according to his deeds.

Here the Lord excludes an objection that might be made. For in the old law it was promised that the Lord would come to judge: "The Lord will come to judge" (Is 3:14). So someone might say that the Son of God had not come to give eternal life but in order to judge the world. The Lord rejects this. First, he shows that he has not come to judge. Secondly, he proves it (v 18).

So he says: The Son of God has not come to judge, because God did not send his Son, referring to his first coming, into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. The same thing is found below (12:47): "I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world."

Now man's salvation is to attain to God: "My salvation is in God" (Ps 61:8). And to attain to God is to obtain eternal life; hence to be saved is the same as to have eternal life. However, because the Lord says, "I did not come to judge the world," men should not be lazy or abuse God's mercy, or give themselves over to sin: because although in his first coming he did not come to judge but to forgive, yet in his second coming, as Chrysostom says, he will come to judge but not to forgive. "At the appointed time I will judge with rigor" (Ps 74:3).

However, this seems to conflict with what is said below (9:39): "I came into this world to judge." I answer that there are two kinds of judgment. One is the judgment of distinction, and the Son has come for this in his first coming; because with his coming men are distinguished, some by blindness and some by the light of grace. The other is the judgment of condemnation; and he did not come for this as such.

The teaching of the law is good, and Christ does not criticize it, but he says, "If you would enter life, keep the commandments," indicating the beginning of this route but not its completion. Through this he shows that the law is not alien to himself, but perfection comes from himself.

The Lord said to a certain young man, "If you would enter life, keep the commandments." He did not say "If you would have life" but "If you would enter life," defining that life as eternal life. Let us first consider then the love of this life. For this life is loved, whatever its quality; and however troubled it is, however wretched, people are afraid to end it. Hence we should see, we should consider, how much eternal life is to be loved, when this miserable life that must at some time be ended is so loved. Consider, brothers, how much that life is to be loved when it is a life you never end. You love this life, where you work so much, run, are busy, pant. In this busy life the obligations can scarcely be counted: sowing, plowing, working new land, sailing, grinding, cooking, weaving. And after all this hard work your life comes to an end. Look at what you suffer in this wretched life that you so love. And do you think that you will always live and never die? Temples, rocks, marbles, all reinforced by iron and lead, still fall. And a person thinks that he will never die? Learn therefore, brothers, to seek eternal life, when you will not endure these things but will reign with God forever.

(de Cons. Ev. ii. 63.) This may seem a discrepancy, that Matthew here gives it, Why askest thou me concerning good? whereas Mark and Luke have, Why callest thou me good? For this, Why askest thou me concerning good? may seem rather to be referred to his question, What good thing shall I do? for in that he both mentioned good, and asked a question. But this, Good Master, is not yet a question. Either sentence may be understood thus very appropriately to the passage.

(de Trin. i. 13.) Or, because he sought eternal life, (and eternal life consists in such contemplation in which God is beheld not for punishment, but for everlasting joy,) and knew not with whom he spake, but thought Him only a Son of Man, therefore He says, Why askest thou me concerning good, calling me in respect of what you see in me, Good Master? This form of the Son of Man shall appear in the judgment, not to the righteous only, but to the wicked, and the very sight shall be to them an evil, and their punishment. But there is a sight of My form, in which I am equal to God. That one God therefore, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is alone good, because none see Him to mourning and sorrow, but only to salvation and true joy.

(Serm. 84, 1.) And He said not, If thou desirest life eternal; but, If thou wilt enter into life, calling that simply life, which shall be everlasting. Here we should consider how eternal life should be loved, when this miserable and finite life is so loved.

"If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." These words are the words of our Savior, in which the sum of our whole salvation is set forth for us with respect to two things: first, with respect to the reward of eternal retribution; there: "If you wish to enter into life": second, with respect to the merit of human action, there: "keep the commandments." And this is the right order, because the end moves the agent to apply himself toward the due end.

Let us therefore follow the form of this great Master; and before we say anything about these precepts, let us first speak about the observance of the precepts.

The Lord sets forth first the motive, then adds the act by which we can arrive at the due end. And it should be noted that there are four things which move us to observe the commandments of God. The first is the authority or dignity of the one commanding: the second is the utility of observance: the third is the peril of transgression: the fourth is the irreproachability of the commandments. Since therefore He who commands the precepts to be observed is of great authority, and the observance of the commandments is of great utility, and in transgression great peril consists, and the commandment is irreproachable: therefore there is no one who can have an excuse regarding the observance of the commandments.

From the first consideration comes forth the first act, that is, doing good, under the guidance of the commandments. "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Indeed this consideration of God's commandments leads to good deeds. The command of the Lord is right in itself, for righteousness is nothing else than rectitude. Within the law, rectitude exists through itself; in the one observing the law, rectitude exists through participation. It is fitting, therefore, to consider, accept, and love God's commandments. If Adam and Eve had done it, they would not have fallen. In this way you will be transformed through love.

Scripture enlightens a priori by means of directive precepts. It is fitting to have light before oneself. For the bidding is a lamp, and the teaching a light; and this leads to heaven. Hence, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." And to the commandments are added the counsels. And this is what Scripture teaches us everywhere.

The first mode first and principally fixes its gaze upon being itself, saying that He Who Is is the primary name of God. The second mode fixes its gaze upon the good itself, saying that this is the primary name of God. The first pertains especially to the Old Testament, which above all proclaims the unity of the divine essence; whence it was said to Moses: I am who I am; the second pertains to the New, which determines the plurality of persons, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore our master Christ, wishing to raise the young man who had kept the Law to evangelical perfection, principally and precisely attributed the name of goodness to God. No one, he said, is good but God alone. Damascene therefore, following Moses, says that He Who Is is the primary name of God; Dionysius, following Christ, says that the good is the primary name of God.

(Verse 17) Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one good God. Because he had called a good teacher, and not God, or the Son of God, he learns that even a holy man is not good in comparison to God, of whom it is said: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good (Psalm 117:1). But lest anyone think that the goodness of God excludes the Son of God, we read in another place: The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep (John 10). And in the Prophet, the good Spirit and the good earth. Therefore, the Savior did not reject the testimony of goodness. But the teacher eliminated error without God.

But because he had styled Him Good Master, and had not confessed Him as God, or as the Son of God, He tells him, that in comparison of God there is no saint to be called good, of whom it is said, Confess unto the Lord, for he is good; (Ps. 118:1.) and therefore He says, There is one good, that is, God. But that none should suppose that by this the Son of God is excluded from being good, we read in another place, The good Shepherd layeth down his life for his sheep. (John 10:11.)

For Our Saviour does not reject this witness to His goodness, but corrected the error of calling Him Good Master apart from God.

Wherefore then doth Christ thus reply to him, saying, "There is none good?" Because He came unto Him as a mere man, and one of the common sort, and a Jewish teacher; for this cause then as a man He discourses with him. And indeed in many instances He replies to the secret thoughts of them that come unto Him; as when He saith, "We worship we know what;" and, "If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true." When therefore He saith, "There is none good;" not as putting Himself out from being good doth He say this, far from it; for he said not, "Why dost thou call me good? I am not good;" but, "there is none good," that is, none amongst men.

And when He saith this self-same thing, He saith it not as depriving even men of goodness, but in contradistinction to the goodness of God. Wherefore also He added, "But one, that is, God;" and He said not, "but my Father" that thou mightest learn that He had not revealed Himself to the young man. So also further back He called men evil, saying, "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children." For indeed there too He called them evil, not as condemning the whole race as evil (for by "ye," He means not "ye men"), but comparing the goodness that is in men with the goodness of God, He thus named it; therefore also He added, "How much more shall your Father give good things to them that ask Him?" And what was there to urge Him, or what the profit that He should answer in this way? He leads him on by little and little, and teaches him to be far from all flattery, drawing him off from the things upon each, and fastening him upon God, and persuading him to seek after the things to come, and to know that which is really good, and the root and fountain of all things, and to refer the honors to Him.

Christ also answers thus, because of that He said, What good thing shall I do? For when we depart from evil and do good, that which we do is called good by comparison with what other men do. But when compared with absolute good, in the sense in which it is here said, There is one good, our good is not good. But some one may say, that because the Lord knew that the purpose of him who thus asked Him was not even to do such good as man can do, that therefore He said, Why askest thou me concerning good? as much as to say, Why do you ask me concerning good, seeing you are not prepared to do what is good. But after this He says, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. Where note, that He speaks to him as yet standing without life; for that man is in one sense without life, who is without Him who said, I am the life. Otherwise, every man upon earth may be, not in life itself, but only in its shadow, while he is clad in a body of death. But any man shall enter into life, if he keep himself from dead works, and seek living works. But there are dead words and living words, also dead thoughts and living thoughts, and therefore He says, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

Or perhaps these precepts are enough to introduce one, if I may say so, to the entrance of life; but neither these, nor any like them, are enough to conduct one to the more inward parts of life. But whoso transgresses one of these commandments, shall not even come to the entrance in unto life.

These words prove that the Law gave to such as kept it not only temporal promises, but also life eternal. And because the hearing these things made him thoughtful, He saith unto him, Which?

"But," say they, "God is `good, 'and `most good, ' and `pitiful-hearted, 'and `a pitier, 'and `abundant in pitiful-heartedness, ' which He holds `dearer than all sacrifice, ' `not thinking the sinner's death of so much worth as his repentance', `a Saviour of all men, most of all of believers.

That is why the Lord says, "Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but One, that is, God." This means, if you call Me good thinking I am one of the teachers, you speak wrongly, for no man is essentially good; both because we are changeable and easily turned away from good, and because, by comparison with God's goodness, human goodness is counted as wickedness.

But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto Him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother, and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The Lord directs the enquirer to the commandments of the law, so that the Jews could not say that He despised the law.

Who said to him: why do you ask me? Here he presents the response. First he responds, as is found in Mark, why do you call me good? But here, why do you ask me? Both can be understood. But what Matthew says, why do you ask me? has no difficulty; but according to what Mark says, the Arians adopted the error, saying that the Father is good by essence, the Son by participation; therefore they held the Son to be unequal to the Father. But it should be noted that he says: one is good, God. But by the name of God is understood the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit: hence from this every other creature is excluded, because it is not good by essence. But why does he respond in this way? Jerome says that he responds to the man's mind, who was commending that goodness which is customary in a man; because they adhered more to the traditions of men than of God, as is said above at 15:6: you have made void the commandment of God for your traditions. Therefore he rebukes him, because he was asking of him as of a good man, and not as of God. But what is it that he says, why do you ask me about the good? He says this as knowing his disposition, because he did not have the mind to obey the good, and every temporal good is imperfect and a shadow in comparison with the divine good; Isaiah 64:6: all our justices are as the rag of a menstruous woman. Hence all these goods are from God; therefore if you wish to have them, ask of him: for he alone is good; Psalm 135:1: praise the Lord, for he is good. Therefore have recourse to God. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. For some have imperfect life, some perfect life, and some are totally outside of life, as those who are in sin, or unbelievers, because the just man lives by faith (Heb 10:38). Some therefore have an incipient and imperfect life, as the just in this world; but those have a perfect life who are already in eternal life; hence if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments, because man is led in through the commandments. Ezekiel 20:11: I gave them my commandments and showed them my judgments. But were the commandments sufficient for salvation? I say no, except through faith in the mediator and through charity; hence the Apostle in Galatians 2:21: if justice be by the law, then Christ died in vain. Likewise Proverbs 7:2: keep my commandments, and you shall live.

When Christ says to him, "If you would enter life, keep the commandments," the man expects him to add immediately, "my commandments." "Which ones?" he asks. He was quite deceived in his expectation. For Christ did not answer him as he expected but simply pointed him to the law. This is not because the law is perfection, for "no one is justified by the law," as it is written, but because the life lived according to law is a kind of introduction to the eternal life, briefly acquainting trainees to the things above. "For the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ." The law is the starting point for social justice. Christ is the perfection. For the beginning of good is to act justly, he says. Just action then is shown by the law, but goodness is shown by Christ. The law taught us to repay those who wish to harm us, as in "eye for eye, tooth for tooth." But Christ taught us to let go such balanced vengeance with a view to the greater good, teaching that "if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if anyone would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well."

This young man has grown impudent from studying the law. He is worried about his salvation. Jesus sends him back to the law so that he might understand that, in the very thing in which he takes pride, he has as yet done no righteous work. For the Lord answered him with the words of the law. But the young man, like the boastful and impudent people of whom he is a type, put his trust in the law, but he did not really comply with it at all. For they had been ordered not to kill, yet they had killed the prophets. They knew they were not to commit adultery, yet they had brought corruption on the faith and adultery on the law and had worshiped other gods. They knew not to steal, yet by stealth they had dissolved the commandments of the law, before Christ restored the freedom of believing in the faith. They knew not to bear false witness, yet they denied that Christ rose from the dead. They were ordered to honor father and mother, yet they had separated themselves from the family of God the Father and their mother the church. They were ordered to love their neighbor as themselves, yet they persecuted Christ, who had assumed the body of us all and had become neighbor to each one of us by the condition of the assumed body; they persecuted him to the punishment of the cross. So the young man was ordered to cast off and cut out all these vices and to return to the law.

(Verse 18, 19.) But if you want to enter life, keep the commandments. He said to him, 'Which ones?' Jesus replied, 'You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. Honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.' This young man is tempting, and from this we can prove that when the Lord tells him, 'If you want to enter life, keep the commandments,' he deceitfully asks what those commandments are: as if he himself had not read them, or as if the Lord could command something contrary to God.

Therefore when Christ said, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments," he saith, "Which?" Not tempting, far from it, but supposing there were some others besides those of the law that should procure him life, which was like one who was very desirous.

These commandments are sufficient for someone entering on the ground level of the path of eternal life. But they are not sufficient to lead one to the higher life, and certainly not to perfection. One who fails in just one of these commandments cannot even enter the beginnings of life. Anyone who wishes to enter the early stages of the path of life must be free from adultery and murder and any kind of theft. For just as the adulterer and murderer will not enter into life, so neither will the thief. Many of those who are said to believe in Christ are guilty of this sin. Just look at their daily business and the way money is entrusted to them and the crafts they practice.

And Jesus, condescending as to a weak one, most graciously set out to him the precepts of the Law; Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder; and of all these precepts follows the exposition, And thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. For the Apostle says, Whoso loveth his neighbour has fulfilled the Law? (Prov. 13:10.) But it should be enquired, why the Lord has enumerated only the precepts of the Second Table? Perhaps because this young man was zealous in the love of God, or because love of our neighbour is the step by which we ascend to the love of God.

He said to him: which? There follows the exposition of the response, in which he recounts the commandments. And first he sets forth the commandments; secondly the root, at you shall love your neighbor as yourself. He says therefore Jesus said: you shall not kill etc. And why does he not mention the commandments of the first table? Because he saw him inclined to the love of God; therefore it was not necessary. Likewise these are preliminary to love. And first he sets forth the negative; secondly the affirmative. First he begins from the greater: you shall not kill, which is against life in act; you shall not commit adultery, which is against life in potency; you shall not steal, which is against the goods of the person; you shall not bear false witness, which is against the person.

Are we to paint ourselves out that our neighbours may perish? Where, then, is (the command), "Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself? " "Care not merely about your own (things), but (about your) neighbour's? " No enunciation of the Holy Spirit ought to be (confined) to the subject immediately in hand merely, and not applied and carried out with a view to every occasion to which its application is useful.

Likewise he sets forth the affirmative: honor your father. Then he sets forth the root: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Romans 13:8: he that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

The rich young man claimed to have kept the commandments. Then he heard the greater commandment: "If you wish to be perfect, you still lack one thing: sell all that you have and give it to the poor"; you will not lose it, but "you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." What good does it do you if you follow the law and do not follow me? He went away sad and sorrowful, as you have heard, for he had great wealth.What he heard, we too have heard. The Word of Christ is the gospel. He sits in heaven, but he does not cease to speak on earth. Let us not be deaf, for he shouts. Let us not be dead, for he thunders. If you are not willing to do the greater commandments, do the lesser ones. If the burden of the greater is too much for you, take up the lesser. Why are you slow to do either? Why do you oppose both? The greater commandments are "Sell everything that you have and give to the poor and follow me." The lesser are "You shall not commit murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not steal; honor your father and mother; love your neighbor as yourself." So do these things. Why do I shout to you that you must sell your possessions when I cannot get you to admit that you should not take someone else's? You have heard, "You shall not steal." You rob. Before the eyes of so great a judge, I now hold you not a thief but a robber. Spare yourself; pity yourself. This life still gives you time. Don't reject reproof. Yesterday you were a thief; do not also be one today. Perhaps you have also been one today? Do not be one tomorrow. Sometime end your sin and expect good reward. You want to have your goods, but you are unwilling to be good. Your life is contrary to your hopes. If it is a great good to have a good house, how great an evil is it to have an evil soul?

(de. Op. Monach. 25.) Nor need it be made a scruple in what monasteries, or to the indigent brethren of what place, any one gives those things that he has, for there is but one commonwealth of all Christians. Therefore wheresoever any Christian has laid out his goods, in all places alike he shall receive what is necessary for himself, shall receive it of that which is Christ's.

(cont. Faust. v. 9.) Nor are such only partakers in the kingdom of heaven, who, to the end they may be perfect, sell or part with all that they have; but in these Christian ranks are numbered by reason of a certain communication of their charity a multitude of hired troops; those to whom it shall be said in the end, I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; (Mat. 25:35.) whom be it far from us to consider excluded from life eternal, as they who obey not the commands of the Gospel.

Fear causes one to withdraw from evil and from the occasion of evil; and because the root of all evils is cupidity, therefore fear disposes to poverty of spirit, in which humility is joined together with poverty, so that the perfect man may thus be distanced from the fount of all fault, namely from pride and cupidity. And hence it is that poverty of spirit is the foundation of all evangelical perfection. Whence he who wishes to come to the summit of perfection must first lay this foundation, according to that passage in Matthew nineteen: If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all that you have: behold, perfect poverty, which retains absolutely nothing for itself: and follow me: behold, humility, which causes a man, by denying himself, to take up his cross and follow Christ, who is the most principal foundation of all perfection.

Matthew 19, where it is said: If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and come follow me; The Gloss: "Behold, the contemplative life, which pertains to the Gospel." It is certain that the Lord was not calling him to riches, and yet was counseling him to renounce all things: nor to manual labor, but rather to the contemplative life, as the Gloss says: therefore etc.

Ambrose, in the book On Duties, near the beginning, where he says thus: "Every duty is either ordinary or perfect; which we can prove by the authority of the Scriptures. For we have in the Gospel: If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. You shall not kill, etc. These are ordinary duties, in which something is lacking. If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and where he says that enemies are to be loved and prayer is to be made for those who slander and persecute us, if we wish to be perfect. This is the perfect duty, which the Greeks called catorthoma, by which all things that could have had any failings are corrected." Generosity, therefore, which is considered according to the middle duty, preserves moderation in giving. Poverty of spirit, however, which is considered according to the perfect duty, bestows all.

To the objection that to beg is indifferent: it must be said that to beg, in itself, is not a matter of perfection unless a universal renunciation of all things is presupposed; which indeed is according to divine counsel, in which the Lord expressed to the young man that if he fulfilled that counsel, by that very fact he would arrive at the summit of perfection. For He said: If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all things: nor did He add: hand them over to me, that I may put them in my purse, and let all things be held in common; but rather: give to the poor; nor did He subjoin: go to earn your sustenance by the labor of your hands; but rather: come, follow me. In which, according to what the Gloss expounds, is understood a calling to contemplation, or to imitating Christ and preaching the Gospel.

(Gennadius, de Eccles. Dogm. 36.) It is good to distribute with discrimination to the poor; it is better, with resolve of following the Lord, to strip one's self of all at once, and freed from anxiety to suffer want with Christ.

It is in our power whether we wish to be perfect. Yet whoever wishes to be perfect ought to sell what he has—and not sell them in part, as Ananias did and Sapphira, but to sell it all. When he has sold it to give it all to the poor, he has begun to prepare for himself a treasure in the kingdom of heaven. Nor is this sufficient for perfection unless after despising riches he follows the Savior, that is, abandons evil and does good. For more easily is a little purse despised than one's will. Many abandon their wealth but do not follow the Savior. To follow the Savior is to be an imitator of him and walk in his steps. Anyone who says that he believes in Christ must himself also walk in the steps he walked in.

(Verse 21.) If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. It is in our power to choose to be perfect. However, whoever wishes to be perfect must sell what they have: and not sell only a portion, as Ananias and Sapphira did (Act. V); but sell everything: and when they have sold, give everything to the poor, and thus prepare for themselves treasure in the kingdom of heaven. And this is not enough for perfection unless one follows the Savior after despising riches, that is, by leaving behind evils and doing good. For it is easier to despise a purse than pleasure. Many who leave behind riches do not follow the Lord. But he who is an imitator of the Lord follows him and walks in his footsteps. For whoever says that they believe in Christ should walk as he walked (1 John 2:6).

(cont. Vigilant. 15.) That Vigilantius asserts that they who retain the use of their property, and from time to time divide their incomes among the poor, do better than they who sell their possessions and lavish them in one act of charity, to him, not I, but God shall make answer, If thou wilt be perfect, Go and sell. That which you so extol, is but the second or third grade; which we indeed admit, only remembering that what is first is to be set before what is third or second.

For many who leave their riches do not therefore follow the Lord; and it is not sufficient for perfection that they despise money, unless they also follow the Saviour, that unless having forsaken evil, they also do what is good. For it is easier to contemn the hoard than quit the propensityb; therefore it follows, And come and follow me; for he follows the Lord who is his imitator, and who walks in his steps.

What then saith Christ? Since He was going to enjoin something great, He setteth forth the recompenses, and saith, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come, and follow me."

Seest thou how many prizes, how many crowns, He appoints for this race? If he had been tempting, He would not have told him these things. But now He both saith it, and in order to draw him on, He also shows him the reward to be great, and leaves it all to his own will, by all means throwing into the shade that which seemed to be grievous in His advice. Wherefore even before mentioning the conflicts and the toil, He shows him the prize, saying "If thou wilt be perfect," and then saith, "Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor," and straightway again the rewards, "Thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come, and follow me." For indeed to follow Him is a great recompense. "And thou shalt have treasure in Heaven."

For since his discourse was of money, even of all did He advise him to strip himself, showing that he loses not what he hath, but adds to his possessions, He gave him more than He required him to give up; and not only more, but also as much greater as Heaven is greater than earth, and yet more so.

But He called it a treasure, showing the plenteousness of the recompense, its permanency, its security, so far as it was possible by human similitudes to intimate it to the hearer. It is not then enough to despise wealth, but we must also maintain poor men, and above all things follow Christ; that is, do all the things that are ordered by Him, be ready for slaughter and daily death. "For if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." So that to cast away one's money is a much less thing than this last commandment, to shed even one's very blood; yet not a little doth our being freed from wealth contribute towards this.

Seest thou how far the praises of poverty have proceeded, and where it places thee, to what men it leads thee on, and how it makes thee a follower of the Lord? If it were good to have gold, Christ, who have the unutterable blessings, would have given this to His disciples. But now so far from giving it them, He forbad them to have it. Wherefore Peter also, so far from being ashamed of poverty, even glories in it, saying, "Silver and gold have I none; but what I have give I thee." And who of you would not have desired to utter this saying? Nay, we all would extremely, perhaps some one may say. Then throw away thy silver, throw away thy gold. "And if I throw it away, thou wilt say, shall I receive the power of Peter?" Why, what made Peter blessed, tell me? Was it indeed to have lifted up the lame man? By no means, but the not having these riches, this procured him Heaven. For of those that wrought these miracles, many fell into hell, but they, who did those good things, attained a kingdom. And this you may learn even of Peter himself. For there were two things that he said, "Silver and gold have I none;" and, "In the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk."

Which sort of thing then made Him glorious and blessed, the raising up the lame man, or the casting away his money? And this you may learn from the Master of the conflicts Himself. What then doth He Himself say to the rich man seeking eternal life? He said not, "raise up the lame," but, "Sell thy goods, and give to the poor, and come and follow me, and thou shall have treasure in Heaven."

One might inquire , since he is perfect who has all the virtues and no longer practices connected to vice, how it is that he might become perfect who sells his own substance and gives it to the poor. For should you present someone having done this, how might he become anger-free as a consequence, if he be easily susceptible to anger? How without grief, and better able to endure all such things which are able evoke grief? How will he be beyond all fear, of that which concerns trials, or of death, or of those things such as are able to bring fear to the as-yet unperfected soul? Will the person who gives away [his] substance in such a fashion, and gives to the poor, be free from all desire? For one might say that the ability to give away all one's substance by itself could produce a certain kind of human suffering from poverty leading one to, on the one hand, repent of having done such a daring thing, and on the other to desire possessions equivalent [to that which was given away]. And if indeed that which is called pleasure, being an irrational impulse of the soul, is a passion, how might one give away all substance and give to the poor at one time, and at the same time be released from being impelled irrationally? Someone may also add a question, as to how one is able by having given away one's substance and given to the poor to become wise the wisdom of God, so as to offer a reason to each one who asks concerning the faith that is in him (cf. 1 Pet 3.15), concerning each of those things which have been believed, and concerning those things spoken in a hidden fashion in the holy Scriptures? Take note that this line of questioning is truly genuine and not easily resolved. For were we to say that someone has become perfect through this [act] alone, even if he be not connected to the things we have outlined [above], we would be confronted by a paradox in saying that someone is at the same time perfect and a sinner (for the irascible man is a sinner, as is the one who grieves the grief of the world, and the one who fears tribulations or death, and desires things that are absent, and irrationally impels the soul to things that are not good as though they were good). At the same time, were we to say that someone, by selling a substance and giving it to the poor, assumes all the virtues even becoming inspired of God, as it were, and puts away all vice from himself, we would be speaking with credulity (if I may speak in a more common manner), but I do not know if truly. Perhaps indeed those who hear this explanation for the difficulty raised will mock us, as though we speak without prudence.

Someone, who keeps to the letter and in no way offers a figurative reading of the [contents] of the passage, might seem more prudently, offering a rejoinder in this way, as though credulous, but if the things said are worthy or not of the thoughts according to the passage, indeed you yourself will judge. One may say therefore that, since he who distributes to the poor is assisted by their prayer for his own salvation, receiving for his own lack an abundance of spiritual things from those who are lacking bodily things (as the Apostle indicated in the second [letter] to the Corinthians), might it be that someone else could experience the same thing and be assisted greatly by it, with God hearkening unto the prayers of those who have found rest in such poverty—[that] among such people there may perhaps be those who are similar to the Apostles though a little inferior to them, people who are poor in bodily things, as were [the Apostles], but who are wealthy in spiritual things? This person then who accepts poverty in exchange for wealth for the sake of becoming perfect (having been persuaded by the words of Jesus) might be assisted quickly, as indeed the Apostles of Christ [were], so as to become wise in Christ, and courageous, and righteous, and modest, and free of all passion. One who defends such an [interpretation] may say that one need not suppose that this [perfection] happened to him on the same day he sold [his] substance and gave [it] to the poor, but perhaps from that day God's providential care would begin to direct him to such things, what I would call the praiseworthy impassibility and every virtue. Advancing as did Isaac on account of the assistance from God given him in Christ, he will become "greater, until such time as" he has increased "greatly," he may become "exceedingly abundant" in every virtue (cf. Gen 26.13), with every shred of vice having been destroyed from his soul. And the person who would offer this explanation is not constrained to say that the man becomes perfect by this [act] itself, namely that he gave his substance over to the poor, while sinning in other matters.

If every commandment is fulfilled in this one word, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, and if he is perfect who has fulfilled every command, how is it that the Lord said to the young man, If thou wilt be perfect, when he had declared, All these have I kept from my youth up. Perhaps that he says, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, was not said by the Lord, but added by some one, for neither Mark nor Luke have given it in this place. Or otherwise; It is written in the Gospela according to the Hebrews, that, when the Lord said, Go, and sell all that thou hast, the rich man began to scratch his head, being displeased with the saying. Then the Lord said unto him, How sayest thou, I have kept the Law, and the Prophets, since it is written in the Law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself? For how many of thy brethren sons of Abraham, clothed in filth, perish for hunger? Thy house is full of many good things, and nothing goes thereout to them. The Lord then, desiring to convict this rich man, says to him, If thou will be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor; for so it will be seen if thou dost indeed love thy neighbour as thyself. But if he is perfect who has all the virtues, how does he become perfect who sells all that he has and gives to the poor? For suppose one to have done this, will he thereby become forthwith free from anger, desire, having every virtue, and abandoning all vice? Perhaps wisdom may suggest, that he that has given his goods to the poor, is aided by their prayers, receiving of their spiritual abundance to his want, and is made in this way perfect, though he may have some human passions. Or thus; He that thus exchanged his riches for poverty, in order that he might become perfect, shall have assistance to become wise in Christ, just, chaste also, and devoid of all passion; but not so as that in the moment when he gave up all his goods, he should forthwith become perfect; but only that from that day forward the contemplation of God will begin to bring him to all virtues. Or again, it will pass into a moral exposition, and say, that the possessions of a man are the acts of his mind. Christ then bids a man to sell all his evil possessions, and as it were to give them over to the virtues which should work the same, which were poor in all that is good. For as the peace of the Apostles returns to them again, (Mat. 10:13.) unless there be a son of peace, so all sins return upon their actors, when one will no longer indulge his evil propensities; and thus there can be no doubt that he will straightway become perfect who in this sense sells all his possessions. It is manifest that he that does these things, has treasure in heaven, and is himself become of heaven; and he will have in heaven treasure of God's glory, and riches in all God's wisdom. Such an one will be able to follow Christ, for he has no evil possession to draw him off from so following

And after He had laid down these limitations for us, and had explained unto us the various grades in the righteousness of the just, Jesus continued in His speech to teach us perfection, and said unto that learned man who asked Him, that is to say, in teaching him He taught all His disciples, "If thou wishest to be perfect, go, sell all thy possessions, and give them to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven." And here even we have not as yet begun to walk in the path of righteousness, for that a man should take up his cross and go forth after Jesus is one rule of life, for as the dwelling in the womb is one thing, and the going forth of the child from the belly is another, and the existence of a man in the world, after being born from the womb, is another. Even so the righteousness which is in the world is like unto the substance of the child within the womb, and the commandment, "Go and sell all thy possessions, and give to the poor, and there shall be treasure for thee in heaven," is the belly from which is born out of the old womb the new creation, and it is that door through which he goeth forth from one world to the other; but that commandment, "Take up thy cross and come after Me," belongs to the perfect rule and conduct, and it is the path of spiritual life.

Now the reward hath Jesus set in the midst between the righteous and the perfect, "Go, sell thy possessions, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven"; behold the reward for righteousness! And He calleth this reward "treasure," because the men who hasten after the righteousness of the world do good works on the condition that there is a reward, and well did Jesus in His words place the treasure at the end of the way of the righteousness which is in the world, that their wages being set before them they may run direct to where they are, even as do those who contend in a game, and before whom is set the crown which will make them to gain the victory. Into the land of the perfect our Lord did not make a reward to enter, because it would be a disgrace unto the perfect to labour in the rule of the spirit for wages; for behold the spiritual mindedness in which the perfect stand is the wages of the just and righteous, because they have wrought good things in the world on the condition that they should be changed and become spiritual beings, and be freed from all the carnal mindedness, and the passions, and the subjection of the world.

See two kinds of life which we have heard set before men; the Active, to which pertains, Thou shalt not kill, and the rest of the Law; and the Contemplative, to which pertains this, If thou wilt be perfect. The active pertains to the Law, the contemplative to the Gospel; for as the Old Testament went before the New, so good action goes before contemplation.

But to those who would be perfect in grace, He shows how they may come to perfection, Jesus saith unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go, and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor. Mark the words; He said not, Go, and consume all thou hast; but Go, and sell; and not some, as did Ananias and Sapphira, but All. And well He added, that thou hast, for what we have are our lawful possessions. Those therefore that he justly possessed were to be sold; what had been gained unjustly were to be restored to those from whom they had been taken. And He said not, Give to thy neighbours, nor to the rich, but to the poor.

"My work was my subsistence." Nay, but "all things are to be sold, and divided to the needy." "But provision must be made for children and posterity.

Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect go and sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow Me. But when the man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Everything, He says, which you say you have accomplished, you have done by fulfilling only the letter of the law, as do the Jews. But if you would be perfect, that is, be My disciple and a Christian, go and sell all that you have, and give everything all at once, keeping nothing back with which to give alms continuously. For He did not say, "give repeatedly to the poor," but "give" once and for all and be stripped of your wealth. But since there are some who give alms but who lead a life full of every kind of filth, He adds, "and come and follow Me," that is, possess every other virtue as well. The young man, however, was sorrowful, for though he desired eternal life, and the soil of his heart was deep and fertile, yet the thorns of wealth were choking him. For it says, "he had great possessions." He who has few possessions is not similarly restrained by them, for the bond of many possessions is more tyrannical. Because the Lord was conversing with a rich man, He said, "Do you love wealth? Know that you will have treasure in heaven."

Jesus said to him: if you wish to be perfect, go etc. First the pursuit is presented; secondly the way; thirdly, because it is difficult, the reward is presented; fourthly the consummation of perfection. He says therefore if you wish to be perfect, go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor. For we ought to strive toward perfection; Hebrews 6:1: leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us go on to things more perfect. But Origen asks: the perfection of the law is love; but he had said you shall love your neighbor as yourself; why then did he say if you wish to be perfect, since he was already perfect? Some say that in certain manuscripts that passage you shall love your neighbor as yourself is not included. And this is clear, because in Mark it is not included. Otherwise it can be said that he said it, but not in this order, because in the Gospel of the Nazarenes it is thus: the Lord said, you shall not kill etc., up to the passage about love. And afterwards follows, all these etc., and then follows, you shall love your neighbor etc. Nevertheless the solution is clear, because love of neighbor is twofold, namely love according to the common way, and love of perfection. Hence he says go and sell all etc., not a part, as Ananias and Sapphira did, as is found in Acts 5:2. And give to the poor, not to the rich. 1 Corinthians 13:3: if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor. Psalm 111:9: he has distributed, he has given to the poor. And not to one, but to many. But what of this? Would he not immediately be perfect? It seems not, because passions are still in him; therefore he is not perfect in virtue. Origen says that he is immediately perfect, just as those are perfect to whom he distributed his goods. 2 Corinthians 8:14: let your abundance supply their want, and let their abundance be a supplement to your want. Hence the perfection of those passes into him, just as he that receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive the reward of a prophet etc., above at 10:41. Hence the way of perfection is not go and sell all that you have; but only what follows, and give to the poor. Another response is if you wish to be perfect, not that you would immediately be perfect, but you will have a certain beginning of perfection, because unburdened of these things, you will be able more easily to contemplate heavenly things. Augustine says that vigils and such things are instruments of perfection; but in what follows is perfection, and follow me. Hence above at 4:20: Peter and Andrew, leaving all things, followed him. And so also Matthew above at 9:9. But when you give up all these things, the better use is to give to the poor, and in this one's neighbor must be considered. Hence if perfection is not in these things, in what does it consist? It must be said that it consists in the perfection of charity; Colossians 3:14: above all things have charity, which is the bond of perfection. Hence the love of God is perfection, but the relinquishing of things is the way to perfection. And how? Augustine in the book of Eighty-three Questions says that the increase of charity is the diminishing of cupidity; the perfection of charity is no cupidity. Therefore he is perfect in charity who loves God even to the contempt of himself and his own. Hence it is difficult and practically impossible for anyone to possess riches without being enticed by them: and this is clear from Gregory, of whom it is read that when he thought he could better serve Christ in a secular guise, so many things began to spring up against him that he was held not only in appearance, but also in mind. Therefore nothing makes the spirit so free as not being occupied with riches: and this is the way of perfection. Hence it is one thing to be perfect, and another to have the state of perfection. Whoever has perfect charity even to the contempt of himself and his own possesses perfection. The state of perfection is twofold, that of prelates and of religious; but equivocally, because the state of religious is for acquiring perfection; hence to this man it was said: if you wish to be perfect, and if you wish to come to the state of perfection. But the state of prelacy is not for acquiring perfection for oneself, but for communicating what has been acquired: hence the Lord, in the last chapter of John (21:17), said to Peter: Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep; and he did not say if you wish to be perfect etc. Hence such is the difference between the perfection of religious and of prelates as between a student and a master. Hence to a student it is said: if you wish to learn, enter the schools to learn. To a master it is said: teach and bring to completion. Hence the state of the religious is more secure, because ignorance is not imputed to them as it is to a prelate. Hence just as it would be ridiculous for a master to know nothing, so etc. But granted that each does what pertains to him, and makes good use of his office, I say that there is no comparison except as between a student and a master: hence a prelate is in a more perfect state, even if you were to give Elijah or anyone whatsoever. But there is a question: if a prelate is perfect, is he not bound to sell all things? I say that this would follow if in the words go and sell all that you have there were perfection; but there is not, but it is the way and the preamble to acquiring perfection; therefore it is not necessary that he sell what he has. But because it rarely happens that one has perfection together with riches, by one who comes to perfection all things must be relinquished; therefore the Lord gives what is easier. Hence if a prelate were suitable and administered his charge well, I say that he would be more perfect; just as someone can say: I wish to enter the schools to learn, but it is presumptuous to say, when one knows nothing, that he wishes to be a master. Hence Augustine in the City of God: the higher office, without which the people cannot be governed, even if it is decently administered, is indecently sought. Likewise it is one thing to be a prelate and another to be in the state of a prelate. Are parish priests or pastors in the state of perfection? I say that they are not in the state, because they do not constitute a state. Every state is given with solemnity, as the order of the episcopate and religious life. But when a parish is given, it is not given with solemnity; hence they do not have the state of perfection: which is clear, because to some are committed care and administration, and if one has not been promoted, he can give it up and marry, and sometimes has become a religious. But a bishop would not give up the episcopate except with the permission of a superior; a pastor can do so by entering religious life. If, however, he were in a more perfect state, he would now fall from the state, and so would sin: hence he can have perfection according to act, but not the state; because no state is given except with solemnity. Go therefore and sell all that you have, and give to the poor, because through this you will have a great reward, because the reward corresponds to the merit. And you shall have treasure in heaven. In a treasure there are two things, stability and abundance. You shall have a treasure and an abundance of spiritual goods. Psalm 111:3: glory and riches are in his house. Isaiah 33:6: and faith shall be in your times, the riches of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. And come, follow me. Here is the end of perfection. Hence those are perfect who follow God with their whole heart. Hence Genesis 17:1: walk before me, and be perfect. And follow me, i.e., imitate the life of Christ; hence above at 16:24: if any man will come after me, let him deny himself. For imitation consists in the care of preaching, teaching, and having charge of souls. Hence Chrysostom says: it was said to Peter, follow me, namely in taking up the care of the whole world. Job 23:11: my foot has kept to his steps.

The Christian view is that men were created to be in a certain relationship to God (if we are in that relation to Him, the right relation to one another will follow inevitably). Christ said it was difficult for "the rich" to enter the Kingdom of Heaven,1 referring, no doubt, to "riches" in the ordinary sense. But I think it really covers riches in every sense—good fortune, health, popularity, and all the things one wants to have. All these things tend—just as money tends—to make you feel independent of God, because if you have^them you are happy already and contented in this life. You don't want to turn away to anything more, and so you try to rest in a shadowy happiness as if it could last forever. But God wants to give you a real and eternal happiness. Consequently He may have to take all these "riches" away from you: if He doesn't, you will go on relying on them. It sounds cruel, doesn't it? But I am beginning to find out that what people call the cruel doctrines are really the kindest ones in the long run. I used to think it was a "cruel" doctrine to say that troubles and sorrows were "punishments." But I find in practice that when you are in trouble, the moment you regard it as a "punishment," it becomes easier to bear. If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it's not so bad.

Imagine a set of people all living in the same building. Half of them think it is a hotel, the other half think it is a prison. Those who think it a hotel might regard it as quite intolerable, and those who thought it was a prison might decide that it was really surprisingly comfortable. So that what seems the ugly doctrine is one that comforts and strengthens you in the end. The people who try to hold an optimistic view of this world would become pessimists: the people who hold a pretty stern view of it become optimistic.

The dangers of apparent self-sufficiency explain why Our Lord regards the vices of the feckless and dissipated so much more leniently than the vices that lead to worldly success. Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger.

One of the dangers of having a lot of money is that you may be quite satisfied with the kinds of happiness money can give and so fail to realise your need for God. If everything seems to come simply by signing cheques, you may forget that you are at every moment totally dependent on God. Now quite plainly, natural gifts carry with them a similar danger. If you have sound nerves and intelligence and health and popularity and a good upbringing, you are likely to be quite satisfied with your character as it is. 'Why drag God into it?' you may ask. A certain level of good conduct comes fairly easily to you. You are not one of those wretched creatures who are always being tripped up by sex, or dipsomania, or nervousness, or bad temper. Everyone says you are a nice chap and (between ourselves) you agree with them. You are quite likely to believe that all this niceness is your own doing: and you may easily not feel the need for any better kind of goodness. Often people who have all these natural kinds of goodness cannot be brought to recognise their need for Christ at all until, one day, the natural goodness lets them down and their self-satisfaction is shattered. In other words, it is hard for those who are 'rich' in this sense to enter the Kingdom.

"How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! And I say unto you, that it is easier for a camel to enter in through the eye of a needle, than a rich man into the kingdom of God." Now by a camel He means not the animal of that name, but a thick cable rather: for it is the custom of those well versed in navigation to call the thicker cables "camels."

Observe however, that He does not altogether cut away the hope of the rich, but reserves for them a place and way of salvation. For He did not say that it is impossible for a rich man to enter in, but that he does so with difficulty.

(ap. Anselm.) The Lord took occasion from this rich man to hold discourse concerning the covetous; Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, &c.

The arrogant young man, when told to make good his failure to obey the law, is downcast and sad. To the people of which he is a prototype, the cross and Passion are a stumbling block. There is no salvation for this young man there. But he glories in the law, despises the Gentiles and refuses to cross into the freedom of the gospel; therefore it will be difficult for him to enter the kingdom of heaven. For few of them—and compared with the multitude of the Gentiles they are very rare—were those Jews who would believe. It was difficult for them to bend their will, long hardened under the law, to the gospel's preaching of humility. But more easily will the camel pass through the eye of a needle. A camel cannot fit into the eye of a needle, nor can the bulk of the huge beast be received by the narrow mouth of the tiny hole. In the beginning of this book in discussing John's clothing I pointed out that the camel signifies the Gentiles. For this beast obeys the word, is restrained by fear, is tolerant of fasting and kneels to take on its burden with a kind of ordered discipline. In this comparison the wildness of the Gentiles has been tamed by obedience to God's commandments. These then enter the very narrow path of the heavenly kingdom, that is, the needle, which is the preaching of the gospel word. By it the wounds of the body are stitched together, the torn clothing is rewoven, and death itself is pricked. Therefore this is the route of this new preaching. Into it the weakness of the Gentiles will enter with less difficulty than the opulence of the rich man, that is, of the one taking pride in the law.

To have riches is no sin; but moderation is to be observed in our havings. For how shall we communicate to the necessities of the saints, if we have not out of what we may communicate?

It is a dangerous toil to become rich; and guiltlessness occupied in increasing its wealth has taken upon itself a sore burden; the servant of God gains not the things of the world, clear of the sins of the world. Hence is the difficulty of entering the kingdom of heaven.

(Verse 23) But Jesus said to his disciples: Amen I say to you, that it is difficult for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And how did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, being rich, enter into the kingdom of heaven (Genesis 13 and 36), and in the Gospel Matthew and Zacchaeus, leaving their riches behind, are proclaimed by the testimony of the Lord? But it must be considered that at the time they entered, they ceased to be rich. Therefore, they will not enter as long as they are rich. And yet, because riches are difficult to despise, he did not say, 'It is impossible for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven,' but rather 'It is difficult.' Where difficulty is presented, not impossibility is claimed; but rarity is demonstrated.

Because riches once gained are hard to be despised, He saith not it is impossible, but it is hard. Difficulty does not imply the impossibility, but points out the infrequency of the occurrence.

What then saith Christ? "How hardly shall the rich enter into the kingdom of Heaven!" blaming not riches but them that are held in subjection by them. But if the rich man "hardly," much more the covetous man. For if not to give one's own be an hindrance to entering the kingdom, even to take of other men's goods, think how much fire it heapeth up.

Why can it have been, however, that He said to His disciples, that "hardly shall a rich man enter in," they being poor men, and having no possessions? Instructing them not to be ashamed of their poverty, and, as it were, excusing Himself to them for suffering them to have nothing.

But though there be a difference between having and loving riches, yet it is safer neither to have nor to love them.

Whence in Mark the Lord expounding the meaning of this saying, speaks thus, It is hard for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of heaven (Mark 10:24.) They trust in riches, who build all their hopes on them.

What am I to fasten on as the cause of this madness, except the weakness of faith, ever prone, to the concupiscences of worldly joys?-which, indeed, is chiefly found among the wealthier; for the more any is rich, and inflated with the name of "matron," the more capacious house does she require for her burdens, as it were a field wherein ambition may run its course. To such the churches look paltry. A rich man is a difficult thing (to find) in the house of God; and if such an one is (found there), difficult (is it to find such) unmarried.

Then said Jesus unto His disciples, Verily I say unto you, That it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. As long as a man is rich and he has in excess while others do not have even the necessities, he can in no way enter the kingdom of heaven. But when all riches have been shed, then he is not rich and so he can enter. For it is just as impossible for a man with wealth to enter the kingdom of heaven as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. See how Christ first said it was difficult to enter, but here that it is completely impossible. Some say that "camel" is not the animal, but the thick cable used by sailors to cast their anchors.

And Jesus said to his disciples. Here the reason for the aforementioned doctrine is presented. And first the reason is assigned; secondly he responds to the astonishment of the disciples, at and when they had heard these things, the disciples wondered very much. He says therefore and Jesus said to his disciples etc. The occasion for saying this word was that the man went away sad, because he had said, go, sell what you have etc. A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven: he does not say impossible. And he says rich man, not one who has riches: because some have them and do not love them, but others have them, and love them, and trust in them. Those who have and do not love can enter into the kingdom of heaven. For if this were not so, Paul would not say: charge the rich of this world not to be high-minded, nor to trust in the uncertainty of riches. But one who has and loves, it is difficult, etc. Above at 13:22: the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke up the word. Proverbs 28:20: he that makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent. Sirach 31:8: blessed is the rich man who is found without blemish, and who has not gone after gold etc. But this is difficult; therefore it follows: who is he, and we will praise him? For he has done wonderful things in his life.

"Gifts blind the eyes of the wise and alter the words of the just." They blind the eyes, not bodily, but spiritual; therefore they take away the light of wisdom. "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," because he has an earthly and heavy heart.

Only the Christian Church can offer any rational objection to a complete confidence in the rich. For she has maintained from the beginning that the danger was not in man's environment, but in man. Further, she has maintained that if we come to talk of a dangerous environment, the most dangerous environment of all is the commodious environment. I know that the most modern manufacture has been really occupied in trying to produce an abnormally large needle. I know that the most recent biologists have been chiefly anxious to discover a very small camel. But if we diminish the camel to his smallest, or open the eye of the needle to its largest--if, in short, we assume the words of Christ to have meant the very least that they could mean, His words must at the very least mean this--that rich men are not very likely to be morally trustworthy. Christianity even when watered down is hot enough to boil all modern society to rags. The mere minimum of the Church would be a deadly ultimatum to the world. For the whole modern world is absolutely based on the assumption, not that the rich are necessary (which is tenable), but that the rich are trustworthy, which (for a Christian) is not tenable. You will hear everlastingly, in all discussions about newspapers, companies, aristocracies, or party politics, this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man. The whole case for Christianity is that a man who is dependent upon the luxuries of this life is a corrupt man, spiritually corrupt, politically corrupt, financially corrupt. There is one thing that Christ and all the Christian saints have said with a sort of savage monotony. They have said simply that to be rich is to be in peculiar danger of moral wreck.

Instead of looking at books and pictures about the New Testament I looked at the New Testament. There I found an account, not in the least of a person with his hair parted in the middle or his hands clasped in appeal, but of an extraordinary being with lips of thunder and acts of lurid decision, flinging down tables, casting out devils, passing with the wild secrecy of the wind from mountain isolation to a sort of dreadful demagogy; a being who often acted like an angry god--and always like a god. Christ had even a literary style of his own, not to be found, I think, elsewhere; it consists of an almost furious use of the a fortiori. His "how much more" is piled one upon another like castle upon castle in the clouds. The diction used about Christ has been, and perhaps wisely, sweet and submissive. But the diction used by Christ is quite curiously gigantesque; it is full of camels leaping through needles and mountains hurled into the sea. Morally it is equally terrific; he called himself a sword of slaughter, and told men to buy swords if they sold their coats for them. That he used other even wilder words on the side of non-resistance greatly increases the mystery; but it also, if anything, rather increases the violence. We cannot even explain it by calling such a being insane; for insanity is usually along one consistent channel. The maniac is generally a monomaniac. Here we must remember the difficult definition of Christianity already given; Christianity is a superhuman paradox whereby two opposite passions may blaze beside each other. The one explanation of the Gospel language that does explain it, is that it is the survey of one who from some supernatural height beholds some more startling synthesis.

(ap. Anselm.) It is explained otherwise; That at Jerusalem there was a certain gate, called, The needle's eye, through which a camel could not pass, but on its bended knees, and after its burden had been taken off; and so the rich should not be able to pass along the narrow way that leads to life, till he had put off the burden of sin, and of riches, that is, by ceasing to love them.

(Mor. xxxv. 16.) Or, by the rich man He intends any one who is proud, by the camel he denotes the right humility. The camel passed through the needle's eye, when our Redeemer through the narrow way of suffering entered in to the taking upon Him death; for that passion was as a needle which pricked the body with pain. But the camel enters the needle's eye easier than the rich man enters the kingdom of heaven; because if He had not first shown us by His passion the form of His humility, our proud stiffness would never have bent itself to His lowliness.

(Verse 24 and following) And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, 'Who then can be saved?' But Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.' This statement shows that it is not difficult, but impossible. For if a camel cannot enter through the eye of a needle, so a rich person cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, no rich person will be saved. But if we read Isaiah, how the camels of Midian and Ephah come to Jerusalem with gifts and offerings (Isa. 60): and how those who were previously bent and distorted by the corruption of vices enter the gates of Jerusalem, we will see how even these camels, to whom the rich are compared, when they have unloaded the heavy burden of sins and the corruption of the whole body, are able to enter through the narrow gate and the narrow way that leads to life (Above 7). But when the disciples asked and were amazed at the severity of his words, he tempered the severity of his statement with his mercy, saying: What is impossible for men is possible for God.

According to this, no rich man can be saved. But if we read Isaiah, how the camels of Midian and Ephah came to Jerusalem with gifts and presents, and they who once were crooked and bowed down by the weight of their sins, enter the gates of Jerusalem, we shall see how these camels, to which the rich are likened when they have laid aside the heavy load of sins, and the distortion of their whole bodies, may then enter by that narrow and strait way that leads to life.

But having said it was hard; as He proceeds, He shows that it is even impossible, and not merely impossible, but even in the highest degree impossible; and this He showed by the comparison concerning the camel and the needle.

"It is easier" saith He, "for a camel to enter in by the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of Heaven." Whence it is shown, that there is no ordinary reward for them that are rich, and are able to practise self command. Wherefore also He affirmed it to be a work of God, that He might show that great grace is needed for him who is to achieve this.

The Gentile souls are likened to the deformed body of the camel, in which is seen the humpback of idolatry; for the knowledge of God is the exaltation of the soul. The needle is the Son of God, the fine point of which is His divinity, and the thicker part what He is according to His incarnation. But it is altogether straight and without turning; and through the womb of His passion, the Gentiles have entered into life eternal. By this needle is sewn the robe of immortality; it is this needle that has sewn the flesh to the spirit, that has joined together the Jews and the Gentiles, and coupled man in friendship with angels. It is easier therefore for the Gentiles to pass through the needle's eye, than for the rich Jews to enter into the kingdom of heaven. For if the Gentiles are with such difficulty withdrawn from the irrational worship of idols, how much more hardly shall the Jews be withdrawn from the reasonable service of God?

He adds something which seems to pertain to impossibility; hence he says and again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Above the Lord had said that it was difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven; here that it is impossible, just as it is impossible for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Hence take it that for a rich man who has riches and does not love them, it is difficult; but for one who loves them and trusts in them, it is impossible to enter the kingdom of heaven. For that a camel cannot enter through the eye of a needle is from nature; but that a rich man who loves riches cannot enter the kingdom of heaven is from divine justice; and sooner could all things be overturned than divine justice be changed. Others, like Jerome, say: impossibility is not indicated, but difficulty. In a certain Gloss whose author is unknown, it is found that in Jerusalem there was a gate called the eye of the needle, through which laden camels could not pass: so a rich man cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless he unburdens himself from the attachment to riches. But it is easier for a camel to be unburdened than for a rich man to put aside this attachment. Chrysostom explains mystically: by the camel are signified the gentiles, who were burdened with the sin of idolatry; by the rich, the Jews; the needle is Christ, the eye of the needle is the passion. Hence it was easier for the gentile people to pass through the passion of Christ than for the Jews, because they could not come except by leaving behind the ceremonies of the law, and this they would not do. Hence a demon was asked what is the graver sin, and he said to have what belongs to another; to whom it was answered: you lie. On the contrary, he says, because other sinners I often lose, but these I do not lose. Or thus, it is easier etc., so that by the rich man we understand the proud; by the camel, Christ; by the eye of the needle, the passion of Christ: therefore it was easier for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for the proud man to be humbled.

The absolutely impossible may also be called the intrinsically impossible because it carries its impossibility within itself, instead of borrowing it from other impossibilities which in their turn depend upon others. It has no unless clause attached to it. It is impossible under all conditions and in all worlds and for all agents.

"All agents" here includes God Himself. His Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense. This is no limit to His power. If you choose to say "God can give a creature free-will and at the same time withhold free-will from it," you have not succeeded in saying anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words "God can". It remains true that all things are possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things but nonentities. It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because His power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God.

Many people are deterred from seriously attempting Christian chastity because they think (before trying) that it is impossible. But when a thing has to be attempted, one must never think about possibility or impossibility. Faced with an optional question in an examination paper, one considers whether one can do it or not: faced with a compulsory question, one must do the best one can. You may get some marks for a very imperfect answer: you will certainly get none for leaving the question alone. Not only in examinations but in war, in mountain climbing, in learning to skate, or swim, or ride a bicycle, even in fastening a stiff collar with cold fingers, people quite often do what seemed impossible before they did it. It is wonderful what you can do when you have to.

We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity—like perfect charity—will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God's help.

At least, when the disciples were troubled, He said, "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."

Therefore, having first "beheld them, He said unto them, The things which are impossible with men, are possible with God." For with a mild and meek look, having soothed their shuddering mind, and having put an end to their distress (for this the evangelist signified by saying, "He beheld them"), then by His words also He relieves them, bringing before them God's power, and so making them feel confidence.

But if thou wilt learn the manner of it likewise, and how what is impossible may become possible, hear. For neither for this end did He say, "The things which are impossible with men, are possible with God," that thou shouldest give it up, and abstain, as from things impossible; but that having considered the greatness of the good work, thou shouldest hasten to it readily, and having besought God to assist thee in these noble contests, shouldest attain unto life.

This must not be so understood as though it were possible for God to cause that the rich, the covetous, the avaricious, and the proud should enter into the kingdom of heaven; but to cause him to be converted, and so enter.

It has learnt not to respect life; how much more food? [You ask] "How many have fulfilled these conditions? "But what with men is difficult, with God is easy. Let us, however, comfort ourselves about the gentleness and clemency of God in such wise, as not to indulge our "necessities" up to the point of affinities with idolatry, but to avoid even from afar every breath of it, as of a pestilence.

How is it, then, that we read, "With men these things are impossible, but with God all things are possible; " and again, "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise? " Let me ask you, if you were to manumit your slave (seeing that the same flesh and soul will remain to him, which once were exposed to the whip, and the fetter, and the stripes), will it therefore be fit for him to undergo the same old sufferings? I trow not.

In this way they hold the Monarchy, but they hold neither the Father nor the Son. Well, but "with God nothing is impossible." True enough; who can be ignorant of it? Who also can be unaware that "the things which are impossible with men are possible with God? " The foolish things also of the world hath God chosen to confound the things which are wise.

And Jesus beholding, said to them: with men this is impossible etc. Here he responds to their astonishment, saying: with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. But what is it that he says? For it seems that free will perishes if it is impossible with men. It is true that man has it of himself that he can sin; but to rise again and to do works of salvation, this he does not have of himself without the help of God's grace: for it is God himself who can do these things. Romans 9:16: it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. Hence Job 42:1: I know that you can do all things, and with you nothing is impossible. Hence according to human power it is impossible for man to be saved, because human power does not change the will; but it belongs to God alone to change it, as is found in Philippians 2:13: who works in us both to will and to accomplish.