Wisdom of Solomon 11

What that rock from which the Israelites drank was to signify is attested to by Paul with these words, “They drank from a spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was the Christ.” This rock, struck by the wood of the cross and announced by the spirits (that is, by the writings) of the prophets, poured forth the living water that fills all of the elect, restoring and satisfying them for all eternity. For this reason the Truth says, “Whoever thirsts, let him come to me and drink, and rivers of living water will flow from his heart.” And elsewhere, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him, the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up for eternal life.” This rock is also called most high, because in it is contained the immense grace of the Spirit. And also hard rock, since it is firm and stable, and whoever is wise builds his house on it in such a way that no storm can shake it.

On Ecclesiasticus 2:8

It indicates in a mysterious way that the people of God and the sheep of his pasture, whom the great Shepherd rescued with the price of his blood, will have their thirst quenched with the fountain of living water and that their persecutors, falling into eternal destitution, will be given over to everlasting death. Similar to this passage is the one pronounced by the Lord through Isaiah against his adversaries: “See, my servants will eat, and you will be hungry. See, my servants will drink and you will be thirsty. See, my servants will rejoice and you will be downcast. See, my servants will shout for joy of heart, but you will cry out for sorrow of heart and howl for anguish of spirit.” One must therefore receive that drink that rises from the springs of Israel, and the one who drinks it will have in himself a “spring of water that wells up for eternal life,” that drink that the Savior promises he will drink together with the apostles in the kingdom of the Father. It gladdens the hearts of human beings, so that those who drink it can say, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” And, full of the Holy Spirit, the mother of the Lord prophesied, “He has filled the hungry with good things,” those who previously did not have the food of the Lord, and “he has sent the rich away empty,” those who did everything they could to do away with him, rejecting the one whom they recognized to be a prophet. Of them, that is, of the Jewish people, the psalmist elsewhere sings, “The rich grow poor and are hungry.” “But those who seek the Lord,” that is, the multitude of the peoples, “lack nothing.”

On Ecclesiasticus 2:8

If it happens that the yoke of Christ seems to us neither light nor sweet, this must be attributed to our obstinacy. Affected as we are by diffidence and by lack of faith regarding his precept, indeed his counsel, which says, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell (that is, abandon) all of your belongings, then come and follow me,” we rebel with a futile perverseness, turning again to the pursuit of earthly goods. And then, once the devil has our soul bound by these chains, what else does he need to do, when he wants to remove our spiritual joy, than to sadden us by the decrease or the total loss of earthly goods? He seeks a very precise goal with his clever deceptions. Indeed, once the sweetness of the Savior’s yoke and the lightness of his burden become heavy (through the perversity of our vicious longing), once we are trapped by the snares of those riches we have acquired in view of our rest and tranquility, will he not continuously torment us with the lash of worldly cares, drawing from our very selves the reasons for tearing us to bits? “Everyone is caught in the snares of his sins.” The prophet also says, “Look, all you who light the fire and surround yourselves with flames: walk by the heat of your fire, in the midst of the flames you have ignited.” Solomon also testifies to this: “Everyone will be punished through that by which he has sinned.” The pleasures that we enjoy end in torments, and the delights and pleasures of the body will turn against their author like executioners.

Conferences 3:24.24

Silence was imposed on Zechariah, symbolizing the silence of the Mosaic law. Having appeared to us in the flesh, Christ, like a great legislator, rendered the law mute, wanting to himself be the model of the law. Zechariah, in fact, put his faith in the angel who purified his silence: “I am Gabriel, who stands before the face of God, and I have been sent to speak with you and to bring you this joyful news. And see, you will be mute and unable to talk until the day on which these things take place, because you have not believed my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.” Very fittingly was he punished by the loss of his voice, since the Creator of voices was to be born. Not only did he have to endure being the symbol of those who do not believe in the law, but he also did not believe that the voice that was commanded to announce these things had come by the work of the Creator, and, not believing the angel’s words, rightly was he deprived of his voice. In fact, as the wise Solomon says, “By those very things through which one sins, he is later punished,” so that he might learn to believe in the voice that comes from the wilderness.

Homily 6:8

But the “heaven of the heavens” belongs to you, Lord. And the earth that you assigned “to the children of mortals,” for them to see and to touch, was not the one that we now see and touch. “It was invisible and confused,” an abyss, on which no light shone. In other words, “darkness ruled over the abyss,” that is, a darkness greater than that in the abyss. The abyss today, of visible waters, even in their depths have a semblance of light, perceivable in any case by fish and by the animals that crawl on the ocean floor. That other, rather, was altogether virtually nothing, because it was still absolutely without form. It was, however, such as could assume a form. You, Lord, brought forth “the world from unformed matter”—what was almost nothing, drawn by you out of nothing, to bring forth the great things that we human beings admire. This is truly the marvel of these corporeal heavens, that is, of the firmament, which you created between the waters on the second day, after the light was created, saying, “Let it be so. And so it was.”

Confessions 12.8.8

We can ask ourselves if the Scripture calls “heaven and earth” all the things already distinguished and arranged in their order. Or if, by the term “heaven and earth,” it means the matter itself of the universe, originally unformed, which by the ineffable command of God was differentiated and arranged in the formed and magnificent natures that we now admire. Although we in fact read in Scripture, “You who made the world, drawing it from formless matter,” we nevertheless cannot say that the matter itself (of whatever kind it may be) was not made by him from whom we declare and profess by faith that all things come. Consequently, we also call “world” the ordered arrangement of all the formed and distinct things, whatever they may be, while on the contrary, we call “heaven and earth” the matter itself, as if the latter were the primordial germ of the heaven and the earth. So “heaven and earth,” something confused and mixed, is capable of receiving forms from God the creator.

Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis 1:3.10

"Over time, in fact, the sea diminishes." Perhaps this alludes to him who, threatening the sea, dries it up. "And a desolate river is dried up." It does not say "rivers" but "a river," since all rivers are a single river, as the accounts in the book of Genesis tell us: "A spring rose from the ground." The one who created that river now dries it up, and, according to his will, he will render it invisible, when by his will he exhausts the sea and puts an end to the other elements of visible creatures. There is nothing surprising in the fact that Job spoke of what happened in the past and of what must take place in the future. Indeed, he speaks from the point of view of God, for whom future events, decided once and for all, are seen as having happened and passed. Thus it is not possible that events arranged by the creating hand would oppose his order. And therefore Job rightly recalled it, to indicate that when the visible elements are gone and creatures have been renewed, the ruler given by God to this dwelling will also be renewed. - "Homilies on Job 17"

“Over time, in fact, the sea diminishes.” Perhaps this alludes to him who, threatening the sea, dries it up. “And a desolate river is dried up.” It does not say “rivers” but “a river,” since all rivers are a single river, as the accounts in the book of Genesis tell us: “A spring rose from the ground.” The one who created that river now dries it up, and, according to his will, he will render it invisible, when by his will he exhausts the sea and puts an end to the other elements of visible creatures. There is nothing surprising in the fact that Job spoke of what happened in the past and of what must take place in the future. Indeed, he speaks from the point of view of God, for whom future events, decided once and for all, are seen as having happened and passed. Thus it is not possible that events arranged by the creating hand would oppose his order. And therefore Job rightly recalled it, to indicate that when the visible elements are gone and creatures have been renewed, the ruler given by God to this dwelling will also be renewed.

Homilies on Job 17

Question: If you would say that the Son made what was made by command of the Father. Response: It is not as you claim, that the Son made what was made under the Father’s orders. Rather, by his will he created everything that he deemed in his providence should be created, since the prophet Isaiah says, “Thus says the Lord, ‘I made the earth by my word, and on it I created human beings. With my hand I spread out the heavens, giving order to all their ranks, that they might shine in the sky.’ ” And, “My plan shall stand as valid, and I have fulfilled my entire purpose.” And still, “Thus says the Lord, who created the heavens and the earth. He made it and rendered it stable.” And further, “I am the first, and I am eternal. My hand laid the foundations of the earth, my right hand spread the heavens.” And still, “I made the earth with great power and with a mighty arm.” And in Jeremiah, “He formed the earth by his power; he established the world with his wisdom; with his intelligence he spread the heavens and made the waters in heaven roar.” And further, “Lord, you made the heaven and the earth with great power and a strong arm. You make their children after them suffer the punishment for the iniquity of their ancestors.” And in Solomon, “It was not difficult for your almighty hand, which created the world from invisible matter.” And in Psalm 134, “Everything he wanted, the Lord has done, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in the abyss.” And in Psalm 113, “Our God is in the heavens.” And again, “In heaven and on earth he made all that he willed.” And in Psalm 64, “You make the mountains firm by your strength, robed in power.” Since it is written that he did all these things, not under the command of the Father but by his power, how is it that you consider him to be inferior to the Father?

Against Varimadus 1:11

In Wisdom it says, "He who created the world from formless matter," and the opposite, "We were made from nothing." The sense of Scripture affirms that God created the elements all at once, with darkness also mixed in with them. And God called this confusion of elements (that is, air, fire, water, land and darkness) formless matter, as it says in Genesis: "The earth, moreover, was invisible and formless." And from this confusion he then created the world, also establishing the firmament, so that, once the waters were gathered in a single place, it might be the dwelling of the human race. Having distinguished and separated the elements, he made an inhabitable dwelling in the cavity that remained. - "Questions from the Old Testament 2.20"

In Wisdom it says, “He who created the world from formless matter,” and the opposite, “We were made from nothing.” The sense of Scripture affirms that God created the elements all at once, with darkness also mixed in with them. And God called this confusion of elements (that is, air, fire, water, land and darkness) formless matter, as it says in Genesis: “The earth, moreover, was invisible and formless.” And from this confusion he then created the world, also establishing the firmament, so that, once the waters were gathered in a single place, it might be the dwelling of the human race. Having distinguished and separated the elements, he made an inhabitable dwelling in the cavity that remained.

Questions from the Old Testament 2:20

Everything was made through the Word, from the angels to the smallest worm. What among creatures is more exalted than an angel? What is easier to overlook than a worm? Well, he who made the angel also made the worm. The angel, however, was made for heaven, the worm for the earth. This was how the one who created them arranged it. If God had put the worm in heaven, you might criticize him. Likewise, if he had wanted the angel to be born of corruptible flesh. And yet God does something similar to this, and there is nothing to reproach him for. What, in fact, are human beings born of the flesh, if not worms? And God makes these worms into angels. If the Lord does not hesitate to say, “I am a worm and not a man,” who would hesitate to say what is written in the book of Job, “How much more are human beings rot, and their children worms?” First he says, “human beings are rot,” and then, “their children are worms.” The man is rot and his child a worm, because worms are born of decay. See what he who in the beginning was the Word wanted to do for you—the Word who was with God, the Word who was God. And why did he lower himself like this for you? So that you might feed on milk, given that you were still unable to nourish yourself on solid food. And therefore, brothers and sisters, it is in this sense that you must understand the words, “Everything was made through him, and without him nothing was made.” Every creature, without exception, was made through him, the smallest just as the greatest, things above us just as things below us, things spiritual just as things corporeal—everything was made through him. There is no form, no cohesion or harmony of parts, no substance that can be measured by weight, number or height—nothing exists except through that Word and originates from that creator Word, to whom the word of Scripture refers, “You have arranged all things in number, weight and measure.”

Tractates on the Gospel of John 1:13

When we read that God brought all his works to completion in six days and, in considering the number six, discover that it is a perfect number and that the order of the creatures that were made is arranged in such a way as to appear to be the progressive distinction of the very divisors that comprise this number, the expression addressed to God in another passage of the Scriptures should come to mind: “You have arranged all things with measure, number and weight.” We must further ask ourselves (and we can if we invoke God’s help, which will allow us to do so, infusing in us the strength) if these three properties—measure, number and weight, according to which the Scripture says that God has arranged all things—in some way existed before the universe was created, or were they also created and, if they already existed, where were they. In fact, before the creation nothing existed besides the Creator. They were therefore in him—but how? In fact, we read that these things also, which are created, were in him. Should we perhaps identify these properties with God, or should we perhaps instead say that the works of the creation are, so to speak, in him who guides and governs them? But how can these properties be identified with God? He is in fact neither measure nor number nor weight, nor all of these properties taken together. Or should we perhaps think that God is to be identified with these properties as we know them in creatures and therefore limit in things we measure, number in things we count and weight in things we touch? Or should we alternatively think that, in the sense that measure assigns to each thing its limit, number gives to each its specific form, and weight draws everything to its rest and stability, it is God who is identified with these three perfections in a fundamental, true and unique sense, since it is he who limits and he who gives specific form and order to all things? That is why the phrase, “You have arranged all things by measure, number and weight,” according to the way that human intelligence and language could express itself, means nothing other than, “You have arranged all things in yourself.”

On Genesis 4:3.7

I must confess that I do not know why mice and frogs were created, but I nonetheless understand that all things are beautiful in their kind, even if, because of our sins, they seem otherwise to us. Truthfully, I cannot consider the body and limbs of a living being without finding a measure, a proportion and an order that contribute to a harmonious unity. I do not understand where all these properties come from except from that supreme measure and proportion, and that supreme order, that exist in the absolutely perfect, unchanging and eternal essence of God.… When you see in all these beings their measure, their proportion and their order, look for the Creator in them, since you will find none other than the One in whom is supreme measure, supreme proportion and supreme order, that is, God, of whom Scripture says with absolute truth, “You have arranged all things with measure, number and weight.” In this way, in the smallness of an ant you may find more reason to praise God than in crossing a river astride a tall beast of burden.

On Genesis, Against the Manichaeans 1:16.26

This uncreated Trinity put some indications of the Trinity in its creation. As it is written, “You arranged all things with measure, number and weight.” In fact, any body, small or large, can be quantified according to the number of its parts, can be measured and has weight. And quantity cannot exist without weight, nor measure without weight and quantity. None of these properties can exist without the other two. It is easy, however, to observe weight, quantity and measure in material objects; let us see if they can be found in incorporeal objects. In the human soul one finds memory, thought and will. In fact, you think what you want, and this is what your memory contains. Your will is your love. That is, you remember what you bear with love in your thoughts. Memory, intellect and will (which we have said is love) are three inseparable aspects—one of these cannot exist without the others. A certain Father once elegantly mentioned how all three are in the soul when praying to God: your memory, your intellect and your desire, and in this the image of God has been shown. The human soul is therefore an image of God: not born but created, not equal but similar.

On the Trinity, to Felix 7

The writers of secular letters held that arithmetic was the first among the disciplines, given that music, geometry and astronomy, which follow it, have need of arithmetic for the explanation of their laws. For example, the relationship between simple and double, which is proper to music, has need of arithmetic. Geometry, since it has the triangle, the rectangle and other similar figures for its object, needs arithmetic. Astronomy as well, since it calculates the positions and movement of the stars, needs arithmetic. However, no one would affirm that music, geometry and astronomy need to exist for there to be arithmetic. One therefore concludes that arithmetic is the source and mother of the other sciences. We know that Pythagoras celebrated this to the point of recalling that everything was created by God under the laws of number and of measure, also saying that some things were created in motion, others at rest, though in such a way that nothing has substance except the things mentioned above. I think that Pythagoras, like many philosophers, took his cue from the prophetic saying that "God arranged all things by measure, number and weight.”

The Institutes 2:4.1

Who can hide or flee before the unique divinity of the Trinity? To the Trinity, the entire globe of the earth seems as a raindrop, or a bit of foam or a drop of morning dew that descends from heaven. As it is written, “He sits above the vault of the earth, from where its inhabitants seem like grasshoppers.” And, “He has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and held the whole earth in his palm.” And further, “The heavens are my throne, the earth the footstool for my feet.” Notice that the power of the one divinity is incomprehensible, since the heavens, which he holds in his palm, are also his throne, and the earth, which is enclosed in his fist, is in turn the footstool for his feet. In fact, the whole of the heavens is contained in his palm, and the entire earth is enclosed in his hand. It is also the throne and footstool for his feet, as it is written, “To whom the whole world is like dust on the scales.” And thus he fills all things, containing all things from within and without, since this eternal, undivided Trinity is present everywhere and possesses the invisible fullness of the divinity.

On the Trinity 5

Let us turn and trust in the Lord while we live the season of this life, and let us prepare the viaticum of penance before our judge. Let us not fill our time with futile engagements or say that we are born to sin, but let us live to act well. And even if we fall into sin, since, given the setting of this world, it is unavoidable that we sin, let us come to our senses, desiring to flee the abyss of Gehenna. Therefore let us repent with faith, pray with the heart, weep from our very depths.

On Penance 27

Let us hear what the Lord says to the prophet Jeremiah concerning idolaters: “Go and say, ‘Return, house of Israel, says the Lord. I will not show you an indignant face, because I am compassionate, says the Lord. I will not maintain my anger forever. Rise, acknowledge your guilt. You have been godless and followed strangers under every green tree.’ ” See what God promises to those who return after they fall: to forgive their sins, once they have turned from their apostasy. And the Lord says further by the mouth of Jeremiah, “My pampered children have had to trod bitter paths, pushed along like a flock kidnapped by the enemy. Have courage, children, cry out to God, because he who has tested you will remember you. Just as you thought to separate yourselves from God, return to him, seeking him with ten times the zeal, since the one who afflicted you with so many calamities will also give you, with salvation, everlasting joy.” O the mercy of God! How he calls to those who have fallen, that they might rise again! How he exhorts them so that, after their errors with idols, they would return to him! Like a benevolent Father he promises the eternal joy of salvation to his children if they mend their ways. Among other things, he says further by the same prophet, “I will lead them back to this country. I will firmly reestablish them and will not destroy them. I will plant them, and never again will I uproot them.” In fact, since he had threatened, “The one who sacrifices to the gods will be uprooted,” so that those who had sinned would not despair (as though, having been uprooted for having sacrificed to idols, they could not be replanted), he exhorts them, since if they repent they can be restored to their prior state. If they do not correct their crime, however, the sentence will be carried out. Moreover, it was preached to the Ninevites that their city would be destroyed after three days. Why after three days, if not that they might repent and the sentence be cancelled, or that they might remain in their sin and have even greater reason to perish? This is as he said through the prophet, “I do not desire the death of the one who dies, but that he would return to me and live.” And thus it happened that the Ninevites, destined to die for their sins, were pardoned because of their repentance. And why did the construction of the ark by Noah take a hundred years, if not so that those who saw and heard what was threatened would correct themselves? Indeed, God wants no one to perish. This is why we read in Solomon, “The Lord had mercy on sinners.” And further, “You have compassion on all, because you can do all things. You overlook people’s sins, that they might repent.” It is in this sense that the Lord, deploring the faithlessness of the Jews, says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often have I wanted to gather your children, like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!” Everywhere in the Law, then, the Lord exhorts sinners to conversion, not wanting that his creatures fall into perdition. And the Law that was given had no other purpose than that men and women would turn from error to the truth. Nonetheless, in the New Testament the author of the Law reveals himself as being more merciful, since he wanted to be more generous and rich in mercy at that time when he deigned to manifest the sacrament of his Son our Lord, so that grace would be more abundant through the preaching of the Son than through the preaching of the servants.

Questions from Both Testaments 102

Let us take an example from God. In fact, “he loves everything that exists” equally, “and he hates nothing that he has made: in fact, he created nothing that should be hated.” Nonetheless, this did not mean that he loved Jews and Egyptians in the same way, or Pharaoh as Moses and Aaron. At the same time, he did not love the other children of Israel as he loved Moses and Aaron and Miriam, and further, he did not love Aaron and Miriam as he loved Moses. Although what is said is true, “You have mercy on all, because all is yours, Lord and lover of souls. In fact, a spirit of incorruptibility is in all,” nevertheless the one who arranged all “with measure, number and weight” unquestionably also proportions his love to the measure of each one’s merits. Do we perhaps think that Paul, when he persecuted the church of God, was loved in the same way as when he underwent persecutions and torments for it and when he said that he bore within himself concern for all the churches?

Commentary on the Song of Songs 2:4

The love with which God loves is incomprehensible and must not be thought of as subject to change. He did not begin to love us only when we were reconciled to him through the blood of his Son. Rather, he loved us before the foundation of the world, calling us to be his children together with the Only-Begotten, when we were as yet absolutely nothing. The fact, then, that we “have been reconciled to God through the death of his Son” should not be heard and understood in the sense that he began to love what he had previously hated, as when an enemy reconciles with his enemy and the two become friends and begin to mutually love one another just as they once hated one another. We have been reconciled with one who already loved us, one with whom, due to sin, we had become enemies. The apostle will show whether or not I speak the truth. He says, “God shows his love toward us because, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God felt love for us even when, behaving as his enemies, we committed sin. And yet with all truth it was said of him, “Lord, you detest all who do evil.” Therefore, in a way both wonderful and divine, he loved us even when he hated us. He hated that in us that he did not make, but since our iniquity had not completely destroyed his work, he knew how to hate in each of us what was our own work and at the same time to love what was his work. And this can be applied to everything else, given that this was said to him in all truth, “You despise nothing that you have created.” If in fact he had hated something he would not have willed it, nor could something exist that the Almighty had not called into existence—and he would not have called it if, in the thing he hates, there were not at least something that he could love. Rightly he hates and condemns evil, because it is contrary to the principle of how he does things. Nevertheless, even in what is contaminated by evil, he loves either the love with which he heals it or his judgment with which he condemns it. Therefore God hates nothing that he has created, since as the author of nature, and not of sin, he hates only the evil that he did not create. And he is moreover the author of the good that he draws from evil, whether healing it by his mercy or making it serve his secret plans. Granted therefore that God hates nothing of what he has made, who can speak adequately of the love that he feels for the members of his Only-Begotten? And, above all, who can speak worthily of the love that he bears for his Only-Begotten, in whom all things visible and invisible were made, things that he loves in a way that corresponds perfectly to the place each one occupies in the plan of creation?

Tractates on the Gospel of John 110:6

We must try, with God’s help, to reconcile the truth of this text, “You despise nothing that you have made,” with that other, “I loved Jacob and hated Esau.” If, in fact, God hated Esau, because he was made as a vessel for common use, and the same potter made a vessel for noble use and another for common use, how can it be that “you despise nothing that you have created”? He in fact hates Esau, whom he himself made for common use. This difficulty is resolved bearing in mind that God is the creator of all creatures. Now, every one of God’s creatures is good, and every person is a creature—as a person, not as a sinner. God is therefore the creator of the body and the soul of the person. Neither of these two realities is evil, and God does not hate them, since he hates nothing that he has created. Now the soul is superior to the body. But God, author and creator of both, hates only sin in human beings. A person’s sin is disorder and perversion, that is, separation from the supreme Creator and attachment to inferior creatures. Therefore God does not hate Esau the man but Esau the sinner.

On Various Questions to Simplicianus 1:2.18

The Lord is true and merciful, and he does not delight in the destruction of the living. What is the ruin of the living if not death? But the death of the living who live badly, who will perish in the second death, not that of the living who are righteous, that is, who seek God and are not subject to the second death but only to the first, which is a result of the sin of Adam with which they were born. If then God were the author of death, he should rejoice in the destruction of the living as though it were one of his good works, since it is written, “The Lord will rejoice in his works,” and he made nothing out of hate, but everything that he made was very good, as it is written, “Since you love everything that exists, and you despise nothing that you have created. If you had hated something, you would not have created it.”

Hypomnesticon 1:1

It is written, “Not a messenger or an angel but the Lord himself saved them.” He forgave them, for no other reason than that he loved them. Indeed, it says “forgive,” as with his own children, according to that verse that is referred to in another book, “You have compassion on all things, Lord, lover of souls, because they are yours, nor do you nourish hatred toward the beings you have created.” For their salvation, therefore, the Father, not sparing his own Son, gave him over to death, so that by the death of his own Son, having reduced to powerlessness him who had power over death, that is, the devil, he would free all those who were subject to him through the bonds of slavery. For this reason it is added, “He himself rescued them, he comforted them and raised them up.” He in fact comforts and exalts those who are saved and lifts the redeemed on wings of virtue toward the most sublime heights. He dwells in them and with them, through both instruction and knowledge of the truth, not only for a day or two but for all the days of eternity, communicating life to them “until the end of the world,” because he is the cause of salvation.

On the Holy Spirit 2:46