Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 24

From the books of the Old Testament and then also from those of the New, we are taught that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are of a single substance. Indeed, the book of Genesis begins, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was invisible and shapeless, and darkness was over the abyss, and the Spirit of God moved over the waters.” He was the beginning, he who spoke to the Jews who had asked him who he was, saying, “The beginning, who speaks to you.” The Spirit of God, then, moved over the waters as creator, sustaining the creation by the virtue of his power, so that, producing from them all the living species, he gave the heat of his own fire to the crude elements, and the nature of water (suggesting even then the mystery of baptism) received sanctifying power and for the first time brought forth animated bodies to life. David, inspired by God, testifies, “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were fixed, and by the Spirit of his mouth all of their power.” See how rich his brief words are, and how he clearly returns to the mystery of unity: by “Lord” indicating the Father, indicating the Son with the term “Word” and designating the Holy Spirit with the expression “from the mouth of the Most High.” And so the term “Word” would not be understood as the emanation of the voice, he says that the heavens were fixed through him. And so the term “Spirit” would not be understood as breath, he showed in him the fullness of the power of heaven. In fact, where there is power, there must be a person. By saying “all” he means not a power taken from the Father or from the Son but a power perfect in the Holy Spirit, not in such a way that he alone would have that which is in the Father and in the Son, but that he would have it fully, together with them both.

Book of the Catholic Faith 77-78

Malachi says, “The Lord whom you seek will come to his holy temple, and the angel of the covenant whom you desire.” Similarly in Exodus, the Father says to the lawgiver, “See, I send my angel who goes before you, who guards you on your way and who brings you to the place I have prepared. Honor him, and listen to his voice, and do not disregard him, because he will not forgive you when you sin. My name is on him.” Perhaps because you hear “angel” you do not believe it is God the creator but some created angel? Impossible! You are confused by a tremendous folly if you believe that God would have given his power and his very name to some angel, and therefore (contrary to your word and mine) that it was not the only God who did everything. Why do you say the angel is equal to him when this cannot be so? Indeed, who above the clouds is equal to the Lord? Or who among the children of God is like God? That is, among the good angels and among the holy people whom, in adoptive love, the divine mercy calls children. From where did Christ come? Well, from where did he come? Clearly, he came from nowhere else than from God. Listen to Christ speak by the mouth of Solomon: “I came forth from the mouth of the Most High.” And to what the Father says of him in the Psalms: “From the womb before the dawn I begot you.” Here and elsewhere, Christ says through Solomon, “Before the hills I was brought into the world.” And Zechariah, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: after the glory he sent me to the peoples, to those who plundered you. Whoever strikes you strikes the apple of my eye, because, look, I will raise my hand over you, and they will be plunder for those who served them. And you will know that the Lord of hosts sent me.”

On Mary’s Perpetual Virginity 5

The apostle Paul was not only referring to the Father when he said, “Who alone has immortality.” He was referring to the one and only God, which is the Trinity itself. For that which is itself eternal life is not mortal according to any changeableness. Therefore the Son of God, because “he is eternal life,” is also himself understood with the Father, where it is said, “Who only has immortality.” For we, too, are made partakers of this eternal life and become, in our own measure, immortal. But the eternal life itself, of which we are made partakers, is one thing; we ourselves, who, by partaking of it, shall live eternally, are another. For if he had said, “Whom in his own time the Father will show, who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords; who only has immortality,” not even then would it be necessarily understood that the Son is excluded. For neither has the Son separated the Father from himself, because he himself, speaking elsewhere with the voice of wisdom (for he himself is the Wisdom of God), says, “I alone compassed the circuit of heaven.” And therefore it is even more unnecessary that the words “who has immortality” should be understood of the Father alone, omitting the Son, when they are said thus: “That you keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: whom in his own time he will show, who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords; who only has immortality, dwelling in the light that no one can approach; whom no one has seen or can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.” In these words neither the Father, nor the Son nor the Holy Spirit is specially named, but the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords; in other words, the one and only and true God, the Trinity itself.

On the Trinity 1:6.10

Here we must inquire separately as to the field and the treasure hidden in it, and in what sense the person who has found this hidden treasure goes away with joy and sells all that he has in order to buy that field. … I believe, based on the context, that the field is the Scripture planted with what appears in the historical witnesses, the law and the prophets, and the rest of the thoughts. For the planting of the words in the whole of Scripture is great and varied. “The treasure hidden in the field,” however, is the thoughts concealed and lying under that which is obvious, “of wisdom hidden in a mystery,” “even Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.”

Commentary on Matthew 10:5

The place that offered rest to this people, with its twelve springs and seventy palm trees, has had a sacred meaning in our mysteries. In fact, after the baptism of the twelve apostles, who are our springs, spouts of pure doctrine overflow to fill hearts. The sacred psalm thus resounds, “In the churches, bless the Lord God from the springs of Israel.” By the seventy palm trees is symbolized the whole number of the thousands of martyrs who, fighting for the truth to death, receive the palm of the heavenly calling. In the Apocalypse the apostle John speaks of them thusly: “I saw an enormous throng whom no one could count, from every tribe, people and tongue. They were clothed in white garments and had palms in their hands,” palms that Wisdom, that palm that rises at Kadesh, gave to the victors.

The Book of Promises and Predictions of God 1:38.55

SOULS that love truth and God, that long with much hope and faith to put on Christ completely, do not need so much to be put in remembrance by others, nor do they endure, even for a while, to be deprived of the heavenly desire and of passionate affection to the Lord; but being wholly and entirely nailed to the cross of Christ, they perceive in themselves day by day a sense of spiritual advance towards the spiritual Bridegroom. Being smitten with the heavenly longing, and hungering for the righteousness of the virtues, they have a great and insatiable desire for the shining forth of the Spirit. Even if they are privileged through their faith to receive the knowledge of Divine mysteries, or are made partakers of the gladness of heavenly grace, they put no trust in themselves, thinking themselves to be somewhat, but the more they are permitted to receive spiritual gifts, the more insatiable they are of the heavenly longing, and the more they seek on with diligence. The more they perceive in themselves a spiritual advance, the more hungry and thirsty they are for the participation and increase of grace; and the richer they spiritually are, the more do they esteem themselves to be poor, being insatiable in the spiritual longing for the heavenly Bridegroom, as the scripture says, They that eat Me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink Me shall yet be thirsty [Ecclesiasticus 24:21] - "The 50 Spiritual Homilies 10.1"

Christ is for you both the shepherd and the door; he is both the pasture and the provider. “I alone am the door of the sheep,” I declare. “The one who enters through me I will accept. He will be able to come and go and to find the pastures.” The pastures the good Shepherd has prepared for you and where he has placed you are not those various sweet, mixed grasses that you love, which are here one minute and gone the next according to the changing of the seasons. The Word of God is your pasture, and its commandments are the sweet fields where you graze. Those pastures were savored by the one who sang to God, “How sweet are your words to my palate, more than honey in my mouth.” The same person refers to these pastures when addressing the sheep of the Lord: “Taste and see how sweet the Lord is.” Therefore, read the laws of the Decalogue of the Old Testament where they tell us “not to kill, not to steal, not to speak false testimony,” and those that follow. Read the New Testament’s praise of these commandments: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” and those that follow, and still many more transmitted from the prophets and the apostles. These are the pastures referred to when the Shepherd turns and exclaims to the sheep, “Work for food that does not perish.” It does not perish because the Word of God remains forever. The Word of the Lord is your food, indeed, not only food but also drink. Thus, through the prophet, he addresses the people of old: “However many partake of me will still be hungry, and however many drink of me will still have thirst.” And referring directly to himself he says the same thing: “My flesh is real food, my blood is real drink.” These pastures are found next to the water that recreates, and these pastures and water are found only in the catholic church. Here your pastures are found in the commandments of life, here is found the fountain of water that flows to eternal life. Those streams will renew you when you come to be baptized in order to be restored in Christ. This is the water that must water your pastures so that you can grow; only the baptism of Christ produces fruits from the commandments, and only these nourish us so that we may be satisfied.

Sermon 366:3

25–27

We will first speak of the nature itself of the rivers, according to what we have learned from writers in the natural sciences, so as to then expound their allegories. The Pishon is a river that is also called the Ganges, which flows out of paradise toward the regions of India. Pishon means “multitude,” since the river is formed from the confluence of ten large rivers. The Ganges received its name from king Gangaro of India. It is also said that it has floods like those of the Nile, inundating the lands of the East. The Tigris is a river of Mesopotamia that flows out of paradise and runs toward Assyria, and after many bends it empties into the Dead Sea. It received this name because of its velocity, which is like that beast called the tiger, which runs with great agility. The Euphrates is a river of Mesopotamia, full of gems, that springs from paradise and flows across Babylon. It receives its name from the harvests, that is, from its fruitfulness, since in Hebrew Euphrata means “fertility,” and it irrigates some parts of Mesopotamia like the Nile does Alexandria. Sallust, a very reliable author, says that the Tigris and the Euphrates rise at the same source in Armenia and, following separate courses, move away from each other leaving a space of many miles, and that the land they embrace is called Mesopotamia. The Jordan is a river of Judea that receives its name from two sources, one of which is called Ghor and the other Dan. These begin at a great distance from each other but then flow together into a single bed, called the Jordan from that point on. It begins at the feet of Mount Lebanon and separates Judea from Arabia, and after a sinuous course it flows into the Dead Sea. The Gihon River flows out of paradise and encircles all of Ethiopia. It was given this name because it irrigates the entire land of Egypt with its floods. Ge in Greek is the same as “earth” in Latin. The Egyptians call it the Nile for the silt that it carries and that causes fertility: for this reason the Nile is called Niam ciaon, and previously in Latin it was called Melo. It makes its appearance in the Nile lake, from which it enters Egypt from the south; there it encounters winds from the north that make the waters regress, swelling and flooding Egypt. The identification of the four rivers of paradise, which come from a single source, with the wisdom of the king born of David, indicates that the four Gospels proceed from our Lord Jesus Christ, true Son of God and also true Son of man, that is, of David, since he took flesh from David’s descendant. And the Gospels irrigate all the lands of the peoples with their preaching, so that Christ’s faithful might cause many fruits of virtue to germinate. The course of the Jordan also comes from the same source, since the sacrament of baptism has come into the world that the offenses of the human race might be purified by its administration. It sends forth discipline as light, since its precepts give the light of eternal life to those who follow it faithfully. For this reason, when Christ sent his disciples to teach and baptize the nations after his resurrection, he said to them in the Gospel, “Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. See, I am with you all days, to the end of the world.”

On Ecclesiasticus 6:2