Works (CSEL) 15 part 11/31

For although it is not permitted me to know in what manner he was born, yet it is not permitted me to be ignorant that he was born. I do not know the order of his generation, but I acknowledge the authority of his generation. We were not present when the Son of God was born of the Father, but we were present when the Son was declared to be of the Father by God. If we do not believe God, whom shall we believe? For all that we believe, we believe either by sight or by hearing. Sight is often deceived; hearing rests upon faith. Or is the person of him who asserts it called into question? If good men were to say it, we would think it impious not to believe; God asserts it, the Son proves it, the fleeing sun confesses it, the trembling earth bears witness. Into this deep of disputation the Church is led by Peter, that she may behold on the one hand the Son of God rising again, and on the other the Holy Spirit flowing forth.

But what are the nets of the apostles which they are bidden to let down, if not the interweavings of words and, as it were, certain folds of discourse and recesses of disputations, which do not let go those whom they have caught? And well are the apostolic instruments for fishing called nets, which do not destroy those caught, but preserve them, and draw them out of the deep to the light, leading the floating ones over from the lowest places to the highest. There is also another apostolic manner of fishing, with which the Lord bids Peter alone to fish, saying: 'Cast a hook, and take up that fish which shall first come up.' It is indeed a great and spiritual lesson, by which Christian men are taught that they ought to be subject to the higher powers, lest anyone should think that the ordinance of an earthly king is to be dissolved.

For if the Son of God paid the tax, who are you, so great, that you think it ought not to be paid? And he paid the tax who possessed nothing; but you, who pursue the world's gain, why do you not acknowledge the world's due? Why do you bear yourself above the world with a certain arrogance of soul, when you are subject to the world by wretched covetousness? The didrachma, therefore, is paid—which was the price of our redemption and of the body, foreshadowed in the Law, paid in full in the Gospel, not idly found in the mouth of the fish; for out of your own mouth shall you be justified. For our confession is to us the price of immortality, since, as it is written, 'with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.'

And perhaps this first fish is the first martyr, having in his mouth the didrachma, that is, the price of the tax. Our didrachma is Christ. That first martyr, then, namely Stephen, had the treasure in his mouth, when he spoke of Christ in his passion. But let us return to the passage proposed and learn apostolic humility. 'Master,' he says, 'we have laboured all the night and have taken nothing; but at thy word I will let down the net.' And I too, Lord, know that it is night to me whenever you do not command. No one has yet given his name; I still have night. I have cast the dart of my voice through Epiphany and as yet have taken nothing; I have cast it through the day. I wait for you to command; at thy word I will let down the net. O empty presumption, O fruitful humility!

They who before had taken nothing enclose a great multitude of fishes at the word of the Lord. This is no work of human eloquence, but the gift of heavenly calling. The disputations of men give way, the multitude believes by the faith of the people. The nets are broken, yet no fish slips away. The companions who were in the other ship are called to help. What is that other ship, if not perhaps Judaea, from which John and James are chosen? For Judaea became his sanctification. These, then, came together from the synagogue to Peter's ship, that is, to the Church, that they might fill both little ships; for all bow the knee in the name of Jesus, whether Jew or Greek; Christ is all and in all. But this heap is suspect to me, lest by their own fullness the ships should almost sink;

for there must also be heresies, that those who are approved may be made manifest. Yet we can also understand the other ship to mean another Church; for from one Church many Churches are derived. Behold another anxiety of Peter, to whom his own catch is now suspect. But the perfect one knows how he may preserve the hidden, who knows how he may take the scattered. Those whom he takes by the word, he renders again by the word; he disowns his own catch, he disowns his own gift. 'Depart from me, O Lord,' he says, 'for I am a sinful man.' For he marvelled at the divine gifts, and the more he had deserved, the less he presumed. Say you also: 'Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinner,' that the Lord may answer you: 'Fear not.'

'Fear not'—do not be afraid to confess your sin to the Lord who pardons; do not be afraid even to offer to the Lord what is your own, for what is his own he has granted to us. He knows not how to envy, knows not how to snatch away, knows not how to take away. You see how good is the Lord, who has bestowed so much upon men that they have the power of giving life. BOOK FIVE. 'And it came to pass, when he was in one of the cities, behold, a man full of leprosy; and he, falling on his face, besought him, saying: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And stretching forth his hand, he touched him, saying: I will; be thou made clean.' Well, where the leper is cleansed, no definite place is expressed, that it may be shown that not one people of some particular city, but the peoples of all were healed.

But well also, according to Luke, this man is healed by the fourth sign from the time the Lord came into Capernaum; for if on the fourth day the sun gave its light and made that day brighter than the rest, when the elements of the world began to shine, we ought to esteem this work also as brighter. And according to Matthew, this man is introduced as the first healed by the Lord after the blessings, so that, because the Lord had said, 'I am not come to destroy the Law but to fulfil it,' he who was excluded by the Law, presuming to be cleansed by the Lord's power, might judge grace to be not from the Law but above the Law, which could wash away the stain of leprosy. But as in the Lord the authority of power, so in him the constancy of faith is declared.

He fell on his face, which belongs to humility and shame, that everyone may blush at the stains of his own life, yet his modesty did not suppress his confession. He showed his wound, he asked for the remedy, and the confession itself is full of religion and faith: 'If thou wilt,' he says, 'thou canst make me clean.' He attributed the power to the Lord's will, but concerning the Lord's will he did not doubt as one unbelieving in his mercy, but as one conscious of his own foulness he did not presume. To him the Lord answered with a certain moral holiness: 'I will; be thou made clean.' And immediately his leprosy departed from him. For there is nothing intermediate between the work of God and his command, since in the command is the work. Finally, 'he spoke, and they were made.'

You see, therefore, that it cannot be doubted that the will of God is power. If, then, his will is power, those who assert that the Trinity is of one will assuredly assert that it is of one power. And so the leprosy departed at once: that you may understand the affection of the healer, he added truth to the work. Finally, according to Mark, the Lord had compassion on him, which is beautifully set down. And the evangelists have set down many such things, who willed to ground us on both, describing the signs of his power for faith, expressing the works of his power for imitation. Whence he both touches, not disdaining, and commands, not distrusting; for this is the mark of power, that as one having the power of healing and the authority of commanding, he did not shrink from the testimony of working.

'I will,' therefore, he says, on account of Photinus; 'he commands,' on account of Arius; 'he touches,' on account of Manichaeus. And not only is the leprosy of one cured, but of all to whom it is said: 'Now you are clean by reason of the word which I have spoken to you.' If, then, the word is the medicine of leprosy, the contempt of the word is assuredly the leprosy of the mind. But lest the leprosy be able to pass into the physician, let everyone, by the example of the Lord's humility, avoid boasting. For why is the command given to tell no one, except to teach that our benefits are not to be spread abroad but kept hidden, so that we abstain not only from a reward of money but even of favour? Or perhaps the cause of the silence enjoined is also this, that he esteemed those better who believed more by spontaneous faith than for benefits hoped for.

He is commanded to present himself to the priest according to the Law, not that he should denounce another, but that he should offer himself to God as a spiritual sacrifice, so that, with the defilement of his past deeds wiped away through the knowledge of faith and the discipline of wisdom, he might be consecrated as a victim pleasing to God; for every victim shall be salted with salt. Whence also Paul says: 'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a sacrifice acceptable, pleasing to God.' At the same time it is marvellous that he healed him by the very manner in which he had been entreated. 'If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.' 'I will,' he says, 'be thou made clean.' You have the will; you have also the effect of his mercy. And stretching forth his hand, he touched him.

The Law forbids lepers to be touched; but he who is the Lord of the Law does not comply with the Law, but makes the Law. He did not therefore touch because without touching he could not cleanse, but in order to prove that he was not subject to the Law, nor did he fear contagion as men do, but because he could not be contaminated who set others free; and at the same time, on the contrary, that the leprosy might be put to flight by the Lord's touch, which was wont to contaminate the one who touched.

He is bidden, moreover, to show himself to the priest and to offer for his cleansing, that, while he offers himself to the priest, the priest might understand that he had been healed not by the order of the Law, but by the grace of God above the Law; and that, while the sacrifice is enjoined according to the precept of Moses, the Lord might show that he did not destroy the Law but fulfil it, who, walking according to the Law, was seen to heal above the Law those whom the remedies of the Law had not healed. And well did he add: 'as Moses commanded'; for the Law is spiritual, and therefore he seems to have enjoined a spiritual sacrifice. Finally he added: 'that it may be unto you for a testimony,' that is:

if you should believe God, if the leprosy of impiety should depart, if the priest should be a discerner of hidden things, if a witness of pure affection—whence can he the more seem to be a priest from whom hidden things are not concealed, to whom it is said: 'Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech'? 'And behold, men carrying upon a bed a man who had been a paralytic, and seeking to bring him in and to lay him before him; and not finding by what way they might bring him in because of the crowd, they went up upon the roof and let him down through the tiles with his bed into the midst before Jesus.' Not idle nor narrow is the healing of this paralytic, since the Lord is reported to have first prayed—not indeed for the sake of intercession, but for the sake of example;

for he gave a pattern for imitation, he did not seek the ambition of obtaining. And while the doctors of the Law came together out of all Galilee and Judaea and Jerusalem, among the remedies of the other infirm the healing of this paralytic is described. First of all, as we said before, every sick man ought to employ intercessors in seeking salvation, through whom the dissolved framework of our life and the lame steps of our deeds may be restored by the remedy of the heavenly word. Let there be, then, some monitors of the mind, who may raise up to higher things the soul of a man, though it be torpid through the weakness of the outer body. By whose support, again, both to lift up and to humble himself, let him be easily placed before Jesus, that he may be deemed worthy to be seen by the Lord's regard;

for the Lord regards humility, since he regarded the humility of his handmaid. 'And when he saw their faith,' he says. Great is the Lord, who at the merit of some forgives others, and while he proves some, remits the errors of others. Why with you, O man, should a colleague avail nothing, when with the Lord a servant has both the merit of intervening and the right of obtaining? Learn, you who judge, to forgive; learn, you who are sick, to obtain. If you despair of pardon for grave sins, employ intercessors, employ the Church, which may pray for you, in regard of whom the Lord pardons what he might deny to you.

And although we ought not to omit the truth of the history, so as to believe that the body of this paralytic was truly healed, yet recognize also the health of the inner man, to whom sins are forgiven. And when the Jews assert that these can be granted by God alone, they assuredly confess him to be God, and by their own judgment they betray their own treachery, so as to build up the work but deny the person. And so from these very men the Son of God received testimony to his work, and does not require the suffrage of their voice; for treachery can confess, but cannot believe. And so testimony is not lacking to his divinity; faith is lacking to their salvation. For what they confess unwillingly is the stronger for faith, and what they deny who are refuted by their own assertions is the more pernicious for guilt.

Great therefore is the madness of the faithless people, that, when they have confessed that it belongs to God alone to forgive sins, they do not believe God forgiving sins. But the Lord, willing to make sinners safe, both shows himself to be God by his knowledge of hidden things, and by his admiration of their deeds adds: 'Which is easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and walk?' In which place he shows the full likeness of resurrection, who, with the wounds of the mind and of the body healed, forgives the sins of souls and excludes the weakness of the flesh; for this is to have the whole man healed.

Although therefore it is a great thing for men to forgive sins—for who can forgive sins but God alone, who also forgives through those to whom he has granted the power of forgiving?—yet it is far more divine to grant resurrection to bodies, since the Lord himself is the resurrection. This bed which is bidden to be taken up, what else is it but that the human body is bidden to be lifted up? It is the very bed which is washed by David every night, as we read: 'I will wash my bed every night; I will water my couch with my tears.' This is the bed of grief, on which our soul lay sick with the grievous torment of conscience. But if anyone has conducted himself according to the precepts of Christ, it is now no longer a bed of grief, but of rest.

For by the mercy of the Lord that which was death began to be rest, who turned for us the sleep of death into the grace of delight. And he is judged not only to lift up his bed, but also to return to his own house, that is, to go back to paradise; for that is the true house which first received man, lost not by right but by fraud. Deservedly therefore is the house restored, since he had come who would abolish the bond of fraud and reform the right. Nor did any delay of healing intervene: the moment of the words and of the remedies is one. The unbelievers behold him rising, they marvel at him departing, and they prefer to fear the miracles of the divine work rather than to believe. For if they had believed, they would assuredly not have feared, but would have loved; for perfect love casteth out fear.

And therefore these men, because they did not love, slandered. But to those slandering he says: 'Why do you think evil in your hearts?' Who says this? The great priest. He saw the leprosy in the hearts of the Jews; he showed them to be worse than the leper. That one, being cleansed, was bidden to present himself to the priest; these the priest rejects, lest their leprosy also contaminate others. There follows the mystical calling of the publican, whom he bids to follow not by the step of the body but by the affection of the mind. And so he who before was greedily turning to his own profit the harsh earnings from the labours and perils of sailors, being called by a word abandons his own possessions, he who was seizing the goods of others. And forsaking that base seat, he advances after the Lord with the whole footstep of his mind.

He also displays the preparation of a great feast; for he who receives Christ in his inward dwelling is fed with the greatest delights of abounding pleasures. And so the Lord gladly enters in and reclines in the affection of him who has believed. But again the envy of the faithless is kindled, and the appearance of the future punishment is prefigured; for while the faithful feast and recline in that kingdom of the heavens, faithlessness shall be tormented with hunger. At the same time it is shown how great a difference there is between the rivals of the Law and of grace: that those who follow the Law suffer the eternal hunger of a fasting mind, while those who have received the word in the inner parts of the soul, refreshed by the abundance of the heavenly food and fountain, cannot hunger and thirst.

And therefore those who were fasting in soul murmured, saying: 'Why does he eat and drink with publicans and sinners?' This is a serpent's voice. For this was the first voice the serpent uttered, saying to Eve: 'Why indeed has God said, Eat not of every tree?' Therefore they spread the poison of their father who say: 'Why indeed does he eat and drink with publicans and sinners?' Whence the Lord, by eating with sinners and even with Gentiles, does not forbid us to enter into a feast, saying: 'They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.' A new physician has brought a new medicine. This did not sprout from the earth; for every creature is ignorant of this compounding.

Come, all you who have run into the various passions of sins, make use of the foreign medicine, by which the serpent's poison is shut out, which has not only removed the scar of the passions, but has also cut away the cause of the dire wound. This medicine does not bring on hunger, but supplies food to the soul; for the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say: 'He has a devil,' and therefore 'our mind is not fasting.' Those fast who lack Christ and are in want of the supplies of good merits; but he indeed whose virtue suffices for his own delight, who receives Christ into his house, displays a great feast, that is, the spiritual feast of good works, of which the rich people is in want, while the poor feasts.

'And therefore,' he says, 'the children of the bridegroom cannot fast as long as the bridegroom is with them. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them.' What are those days in which Christ is taken from us, especially when he himself has said: 'I will be with you even to the consummation of the world,' he himself has said: 'I will not leave you orphans'? For it is certain that if he should leave us, we could not be saved. No one can take Christ from you, unless you take yourself away. Let not your boasting take you away, let not your arrogance take you away, nor presume upon the Law; for he came not to call the just, but sinners.

How then did the Lord love righteousness, and never saw the just David forsaken? Or what equity is this, if the just one is forsaken and the sinner taken in—unless you understand that he calls those just who presume upon the Law and do not seek the grace of the Gospel? But no one is justified by the Law; rather he is redeemed by grace. There is, then, righteousness in the Law, but there is not righteousness through the Law; for the Apostle himself, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, according to the Law a Pharisee, according to the righteousness which is in the Law conversant without blame, who glories in the Law: 'What things,' he says, 'were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ,' that is: he cast away the righteousness and the glory of the Law;

for the righteousness of the Law without Christ is empty, since the fullness of the Law is Christ. And therefore, although there is righteousness in the Law, yet there is not righteousness through the Law. For if righteousness is through the Law, then Christ died in vain; for Christ died that he might fulfil righteousness. Finally, to John saying: 'I ought to be baptized by thee, and comest thou to me?' he answered: 'Suffer it now; for so it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.' Therefore Christ died not in vain, but died for us, that the just might shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. But the Jews are not just, to whom it is said: 'When you shall see the just enter into the kingdom of heaven.' These are the just, who do not strike back the one who strikes, who love the enemy.

If we do not take it so, the contrary is found: 'I came not to call the just,' but he does not call those who call themselves just; for being ignorant of God and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they have not been subject to the righteousness of God. Therefore the usurpers of righteousness are not called to grace; for if grace is from repentance, assuredly he who scorns repentance renounces grace. These shall be the wounded who sanctify themselves, from these the bridegroom is taken away; but from us neither Caiphas nor Pilate took away Christ, nor can we fast, because we have Christ and feast upon the flesh of Christ and his blood. For how does he seem to fast who does not hunger, how does he seem to fast who does not thirst? And how can he thirst who drinks Christ, since he himself has said:

'He who shall drink of the water which I will give him, shall not thirst for ever'? Finally, that it was said of the fasting of the mind, what follows will also declare. For he spoke a parable to them: that 'no one puts a piece of a new garment into an old garment.' He had said that the children of the bridegroom—that is, the children of the word, who through the regeneration of the laver have been taken up into the right of the divine generation—cannot fast as long as the bridegroom is with them. This fasting is assuredly not banished, by which the flesh is subdued and bodily luxury is chastised; for this fasting commends us to God. For how should he forbid the disciples to fast, when the Lord himself fasted, when finally he said that the most wicked spirits are not wont to be overcome except by fastings and prayers?

Finally, in this place also he called fasting the old garment, which the Apostle thought ought to be put off, saying: 'Strip off the old man with his deeds,' that we may put on him who is renewed by the sanctification of baptism. Into the same form, therefore, the series of precepts comes together, that we should not mingle the deeds of the old man and of the new, since the former, the outer and bodily one, works the works of the flesh, while the latter, the inner one who is reborn, ought not to have a parti-coloured appearance of old and new deeds, but, of one colour with Christ, ought to imitate him by the zeal of the mind, to whom he was reborn in the laver. Let there be absent, therefore, the discoloured veils of the mind, which displease the bridegroom; for he displeases him who has not the wedding garment.

And what can please the bridegroom, except peace of soul, purity of heart, love of mind? A good bridegroom is the Lord Jesus; he by a new birth initiated nature, to him she who was betrothed is set free from the corruptions of the flesh. He requires not mortal children—he is not delighted by the pains of Eve—nor a husband liable to guilt, nor the inheritance of a condemned father. For he saw the ulcers of the flesh which she before desired, he perceived that there is no true beauty which has the deformity of vices. And therefore, what have you to do with such a bridegroom, O woman? Search diligently, and in the whole body you will find a scar. Know rather another bridegroom, who is encompassed with light, whose beauty cannot perish.

Take him up into your soul, consecrate him in your temple, take him up in your body, as it is written: 'Take up God in your body.' Enter into his new bridal chambers, behold his foreign comeliness, put him on, behold him at the right hand of the Father, and rejoice that you have such a bridegroom. He will clothe you with a blessing, that no rending of sin may harm you. Let us therefore keep the garment with which the Lord clothed us as we emerged from the sacred font. Quickly is the garment torn if our deeds do not agree with it; quickly is it worn away by the moths of the flesh and stained by the error of the old man. Therefore here we are forbidden to couple the new with the old, but in the Apostle we are also forbidden to put new things over old, but to put off the old, to take up the new, that we may be found stripped, not naked.

For we are stripped in order to take up better things, but we are made naked when a garment is drawn off from us by another's fraud, not put off by our own will. 'And no one puts new wine into old bottles.' The frailty of the human condition is laid open, when our bodies are compared to the cast-off skins of dead animals. And would that we could fulfil the use of good bottles, that we might preserve the sacrament which we have received! Diligence relieves the injury, if new wines be entrusted to renewed bottles. And therefore we ought always to keep these bottles full; for empty ones the moth and rust quickly consume, but grace preserves them when filled. And beautifully do such precepts suit this work; for it is the sixth work, in which Levi is figured by a certain new form.

For on the sixth day man was made; therefore by the sixth work of Christ he is reformed, now no longer the old, but a new creature and a certain foreign form. And therefore, as a new creature, he displays a feast to Christ, in that both Christ was delighted in him, and he himself deserved to have a share of the delight with Christ. To form this man, therefore, the Lord gives precepts; for already he was following, joyful, eager and exulting, saying: 'Now I no longer bear the publican, now I no longer carry Levi. I have put off Levi, after I have put on Christ. I hate my own kind, I flee my own life; I follow you alone, Lord Jesus, who heal my wounds. For who shall separate me from the love of God, which is in you? Tribulation, or distress, or famine?'

I am bound by the keys of faith, and I am entwined with certain good fetters of charity. Every commandment of yours I will hold fast like a branding-iron pressed upon me. Even though the cautery of the commandment burns, yet it sears away the rotten parts of the flesh, lest the infection creep on to what is still alive. Even though the medicine bites, yet it removes the corruption of the ulcer. Take away therefore, Lord Jesus, with your mighty sword the festering rot of my sins. While you hold me bound with the bonds of charity, cut out whatever is diseased. Come quickly, lancing the hidden and lurking sundry passions; open the wound, lest the noxious humour spread. Cleanse away with a pilgrim's washing all that is foul. Hear me, you men of earth, who carry in your sins a drunken train of thoughts. For I too, Levi, was wounded by such passions.

I have found a physician who dwells in heaven and scatters his medicines upon the earth. He alone can heal my wounds, who himself knows no wounds; he alone can take away the grief of the heart, the pallor of the soul, who knows hidden things. Now it came to pass on the second-first sabbath, as he passed through the cornfields, his disciples plucked the ears of corn and ate them, rubbing them with their hands. Not only by the meaning of his words, but also by his very practice and the manner of his deeds, the Lord Jesus begins to strip man of the observance of the old Law and to clothe him in the new garment of grace. And so he leads him through the cornfields on the sabbath; that is, he counsels him to fruitful things. What the sabbath itself means, what the standing corn, what the ears, is no small mystery.