Works (CSEL) 15 part 12/31

For the field is all this world; the standing corn of the field is the abundant fruitfulness of the saints in the sowing of the human race; the ears are the fruit of the field, the fruit of the Church, which the apostles, shaking it out by their labours, fed upon, nourishing themselves by our advancement. There stood, then, the corn already fruitful in virtues, with its ears sprouting forth, by which the fruits of our merit are likened; for likewise they either wither in the rain, or are scorched by the sun, or are sodden by showers, or are battered by storms, or are gathered by the reapers into the storehouses of blessed barns. The earth had therefore now received the word of God, and the kindly field, sown with the heavenly seed, had poured forth a rich harvest.

The disciples hungered for the salvation of men, and as it were from the husks of bodies they drew out the fruit of minds toward the light of faith by the splendid miracles of their works. But the Jews thought this was not lawful on the sabbath; Christ, however, by the gift of new grace, marked out the leisure of the Law as the work of grace. Nor is it without mystery that, in Matthew and Mark, I think the sabbath is set down in the plural, because the sabbaths are the perpetual festivals of eternal resurrection. Either therefore in this present age, keeping holiday and being free from the superstitions of the Jews, or in the age to come celebrating that festival ourselves with perpetual solemnity, we shall eat the good things of the earth, according to what is written: 'They shall eat, but you shall hunger.'

Yet wondrously, according to Luke, he called it the second-first, not the first-second sabbath — for it is written δευτερόπρωτον — for that which excels ought to be preferred. It is called 'second' because the first preceded long ago under the Law, in which also a penalty was prescribed if anyone should work; but 'first' because that sabbath was abolished by the Law, the one which was first, and this was made first, which was established second. For since it is now lawful to work on the sabbath and there is no penalty for one who works, surely the sabbath of the Law, whose force has been abolished, retained not even its name; yet nevertheless it was first in order, this first in gift, and this is no less, though it is second. For Adam too was first, yet not to be compared with the second Adam.

For the first Adam was made into a living soul, the last Adam into a life-giving spirit; and: the first man was of the earth, earthy, the second man from heaven, heavenly. The second is surely set above the first; for that one is the cause of death, this one of life. So also it is called the second-first sabbath: second according to number, first according to the grace of its working; for better is the sabbath in which impunity is granted than that in which a penalty is prescribed. The Law is first, the Gospel second; yet fear is inferior to grace. Or perhaps it is first here in the predestination of the counsel, and second in the sanction of the decree.

Now the Lord well shows in this passage also a type of what was to come in the Law, and convicts the defenders of the Law of not knowing what belongs to the Law, bringing forward the example that David, when he himself with his companions was hungry, entered into the house of God and took the loaves of the presence and ate, and gave to those who were with him. A great and truly prophetic example, by which first it is disclosed that we are to follow not the empty things of the Law, but the solid things of usefulness; then, because David, fleeing with his companions from the face of King Saul, here prefigured in the Law, is Christ, who lay hidden with his apostles from the prince of the world.

But how is it that he, an observer and defender of the Law, both himself ate the loaves and gave to those who were with him — which were not lawful to eat except for the priests alone — unless to demonstrate through that figure that the priestly food was to pass over into the use of the peoples; either because we all ought to imitate the priestly life, or because all the sons of the Church are priests? For we are anointed unto a holy priesthood, offering ourselves to God as spiritual victims. For the Law, therefore, the teaching of Christ now goes beyond it, yet he does not abolish the Law, but fulfils it, since he did not abolish the sabbath either.

For if the sabbath was made for man, but the benefit of man demanded that the hungry man — who had long been deprived of the fruits of the earth — should avoid the fasts of an old hunger, then surely the Law is not abolished, but fulfilled. How then is it charged against the Lord as a crime, what in the servant is not held a crime? And what could be more evident than this figure, which runs through the whole history? David entered into the house of Abimelech the priest; yet not even when the danger of death was set before him does the holy priest's spirit refuse his guest or turn away the exile. So great is the grace of hospitality, that we gladly take upon ourselves the dangers of others.

But this in the history is moral, in the mystery prophetic: namely, that even with the certain destruction of future death foreseen, the religious priests would not have shut out that true David from the lodging of their mind. Nor is Christ taught to find lodging only in the house of any prophet, but also, through the figure, that he was to take the spoils and arms of spiritual wickedness; for whoever receives Christ as a guest despoils that intelligible Goliath of his weapons. And what is more evident than that in the house of Abimelech David asked for five loaves and received one, the type showing that food was now prepared for the faithful not from the five books, but from the body of Christ — so that Christ took on a body, lest any of the faithful should hunger?

Nor is the figure of Doeg empty, who was the keeper of mules, in that no one else but the keeper of an unfruitful flock could fulfil the type of Judas the traitor. Now the fact that, after the welcome given by David, Saul persecuted the whole house of Abimelech except Abiathar, then the chief of the priests of that time, shows us by prophecy that no one can harm the true chief of priests, who alone is Christ. From here the Lord Jesus proceeds to other things. For he who had purposed to make the whole man whole was running through each of the members, that he might truly say: 'Are you angry with me, who have made the whole man whole on the sabbath?'

And so in this passage he watered with the saving juices of good deeds that hand which Adam had stretched out and plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree, so that what had withered through crime might be healed by good works. In this Christ refuted the Jews, who by evil interpretations violated the precepts of the Law, supposing that on the sabbath one must rest even from good works — whereas the Law has prefigured in present things the form of things to come, in which surely there will be a rest from evils, not from goods. For although secular works come to rest, yet the act of a good work is not idle: to rest in the praise of God. You have heard, then, the words of the Lord saying: 'Stretch out your hand.' This is a common and general medicine.

And you who think you have a sound hand, beware lest it be drawn back by avarice, beware lest it be drawn back by sacrilege. Stretch it out the more often; stretch it out to that poor man who entreats you, stretch it out to help your neighbour, to bring aid to the widow, to rescue from injury him whom you see lying under unjust insult; stretch it out to God for your sins. Thus the hand is stretched out, thus it is healed. Thus Jeroboam drew back his hand when he was sacrificing to idols, and stretched it out when he prayed to God. Now it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

Not everyone who prays ascends the mountain — for there is a prayer that commits sin — but he who prays well ascends, advancing from earthly things to higher things, climbing the summit of sublime concern. But that man does not ascend the mountain who is anxious about the riches of the world or about honour; he does not ascend the mountain who covets the right to another's estate. He ascends who seeks God; he ascends who demands the Lord's aids for his course. All who are great, all who are sublime, ascend the mountain; for it is not to anyone whatever that the prophet says: 'Ascend the high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Sion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem.' Not by bodily footsteps, but by loftier deeds may you ascend this mountain. Follow Christ, that you yourself may become a mountain.

For 'the mountains are round about it.' Search in the Gospel: you will find that the disciples alone ascended the mountain with the Lord. The Lord prays, then, not to beseech for himself, but to obtain for me; for although the Father has placed all things in the power of the Son, yet the Son, that he might fulfil the form of man, thinks the Father must be entreated on our behalf, since he is our advocate. Do not open treacherous ears, so as to think that the Son asks as though he were weak, asks in order to obtain what he, the author of power, cannot accomplish. The master of obedience forms us by his own example toward the precepts of virtue. 'We have,' he says, 'an advocate with the Father.' If he is an advocate, he ought to intervene for my sins. Not therefore as one weak, but as one loving, does he entreat.

Do you wish to know how he can do all that he wills? He is both advocate and judge. In the one is the office of love, in the other the mark of power. 'And he continued,' it says, 'all night in prayer to God.' A model is given to you, a form is prescribed which you ought to imitate. For what ought you to do for your own salvation, when Christ for your sake passes the night in prayer? What is fitting for you to do, when you wish to undertake some office of piety, when Christ, about to send forth the apostles, prayed first and prayed alone? Nor anywhere else, if I am not mistaken, is he found to have prayed with the apostles: everywhere he entreats alone; for human prayers do not grasp the counsel of God, nor can anyone be a sharer of inner things with Christ. Do you wish to know that he prayed for me, not for himself?

'He called,' it says, 'his disciples, and chose twelve from among them,' to appoint as sowers of faith who would propagate the help of human salvation throughout the world. At the same time observe the heavenly counsel: he chose not some wise men, not the rich, not the noble, but fishermen and tax-collectors to direct, lest he should seem to have won over any to his grace by prudence, or redeemed them by riches, or drawn them by the authority of power and nobility — so that the reason of truth, not the favour of disputation, might prevail. Judas too is chosen, not through imprudence, but through providence. How great is the truth, which not even an adversary minister weakens! How great the morality of the Lord, who preferred that his judgment rather than his affection should be put at risk among us!

For he had taken on the frailty of man, and therefore did not refuse even these portions of human weakness. He willed to be forsaken, he willed to be betrayed. He willed to be handed over by his own apostle, so that you, forsaken by a companion, betrayed by a companion, might bear with moderation that your judgment had erred and your kindness had perished. 'And he came down,' it says, 'with them and stood on a level place.' Observe all things carefully: how he both ascends with the apostles and descends to the crowds; for how could the crowd see Christ except in the lowly place? It does not follow him to the heights, it does not ascend to the sublime. Finally, where he descends, he finds the weak; for in the heights the weak cannot be. So Matthew too teaches that the infirm were healed in the lower places.

For each one is first healed, that little by little, as his virtues advance, he may be able to ascend the mountain. And therefore he heals each one in the lower places — that is, he recalls him from lust, turns away the wrong of blindness, descends to our wounds — that by a certain familiarity and abundance of himself he may make us, by nature, partakers of the heavenly. And he healed these indeed, but left them in the lower places. But seeing the crowds, as you have read, he ascended the mountain. And when he had sat down, his disciples came to him. For about to evangelize and to bring forth oracles of blessings from the treasury of divinity, he begins to be loftier. Yet here, although he stood in the lowly place, he nonetheless lifted up his eyes.

For so also, when he raised Lazarus, he groaned in the spirit; so too he lifted up his head when he forgave the adulterous woman her sins. For what is it to lift up the eyes but to open the inner light? Finally, holy Matthew says he 'opened his mouth' — namely, the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God — and, the inner sanctuaries of his temple being unlocked, he opened his lips. Therefore you also, open your mouth; but first implore that it may be opened. For if Paul implores aid for the opening of his mouth, much more does it befit you to implore. He shows you too the key of knowledge, by which you ought to open your mouth, the prophet saying: 'Open your mouth with the word of God.' The word of God is the key of your mouth.

The key of knowledge is the key of your mouth, by which, the chains of silence being loosed, the bars of ignorance are unlocked. 'Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who now hunger and thirst, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who now weep, for you shall laugh. Blessed shall you be when men hate you.' Holy Luke set down only four of the Lord's beatitudes, but holy Matthew eight. Yet in those eight are these four, and in these four are those eight. For here he has embraced four as the cardinal virtues, while there he unlocked in those eight a mystical number. For many psalms are written 'for the eighth,' and you receive a command perhaps to give a portion to those eight blessings.

For as the eighth is the perfection of our hope, so the eighth is the sum of the virtues. But first let us look at the ampler ones. 'Blessed,' he says, 'are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' This first blessing both Evangelists set down; for in order it is the first and as it were the parent and generation of the virtues, since he who despises worldly things will himself merit the eternal; nor can anyone attain the merit of the heavenly kingdom who, possessed by desire of the world, has no means of emerging. The second blessing: 'Blessed,' he says, 'are the meek.' The third: 'Blessed are they that mourn.' The fourth: 'Blessed are they that hunger.' The fifth: 'Blessed are the merciful.' The sixth: 'Blessed are the pure in heart.' The seventh: 'Blessed are the peacemakers.'

And well is it the seventh, since on that day God rested from all the works of the world; for it is the day of rest and peace. The eighth: 'Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteousness' sake.' Come, Lord Jesus, teach us the order of your beatitudes; for not without order did you say first 'Blessed are the poor in spirit,' second 'Blessed are the meek,' and third 'Blessed are they that mourn.' Even if I know something, yet I know in part. For if Paul knew in part, how much can I know, who am as much inferior to Paul in word as in life? For life requires and acquires the word, but speech without life is not the word of God. How much wiser than I is Paul! He glories in dangers, I glory in successes.

He glories that he is not exalted by revelations; I, if any revelations should come to me, would glory in them. But nevertheless God is able to raise up men from stones and to bring forth a word from things closed, to draw a voice from the dumb. And if he opened the eyes of the ass, that it might see the angel, he is able to open our eyes also, that we may be able to see the mystery of God. 'Blessed,' he says, 'are the poor.' Not all the poor are blessed; for poverty is a thing in the middle. The poor can be both good and bad — unless perhaps that poor man is to be understood as blessed whom the prophet described, saying that 'better is the just poor man than the rich liar.'

Blessed is the poor man who cried out, and the Lord heard him: poor from crime, poor from vices, poor in whom the prince of the world finds nothing, poor in imitation of that Poor One who, though he was rich, for our sakes became poor. Hence Matthew fully disclosed it, saying: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit'; for the poor in spirit is not puffed up, is not exalted in the mind of his flesh. This therefore is the first blessing: when I have laid aside all sin and stripped off all malice and been content with simplicity, destitute of evils. It remains that I temper my conduct. For what does it profit me to lack worldly things, unless I am meek and gentle? For he who follows the right way — follows surely him who said: 'Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.'

Lay aside therefore the things that are wicked, want for vices according to good poverty, soften your temper, that you may not be angry, or at least, being angry, may not sin, according to what is written: 'Be angry, and sin not.' For it is excellent to temper one's emotion by counsel, and it is reckoned no lesser virtue to restrain wrath and check indignation than not to be angry at all, since often the former is judged the more sluggish, the latter the stronger. When you have done this, remember that you are a sinner, and mourn your sins, mourn your faults. And well is the third blessing that of one weeping for sins, since it is the Trinity that pardons sins. Wash yourself therefore with your tears, bathe in weeping. If you yourself have wept for yourself, another will not weep for you.

For if Saul had wept for his sins, Samuel would not have wept for him. Each one has his dead to mourn. We are dead when we sin, when we are filled with the bones of the dead. The evil word that goes out of the mouth is dead; for it comes out of an evil tomb, since 'their throat is an open sepulchre.' Therefore the Apostle says: 'Be imitators of me.' He wishes us to remember our faults. Paul had nothing to mourn from the time he believed in Christ, and yet he wept for his former deeds, saying that 'I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.' He therefore was a sinner before faith; but we still sin after faith. Let him who is a sinner weep for himself and accuse himself, that he may become just.

For the just man is the accuser of himself. Let us therefore pursue the order, since it is written: 'Set in order charity within me.' I have laid aside sin, I have tempered my conduct, I have wept for my faults; I begin to hunger, and to hunger for righteousness. For a sick man, when he is in grave illness, does not hunger, because the pain of sickness shuts out hunger. But what is this hunger for righteousness? What are these loaves which the just man hungers for? Are they perhaps those loaves of which it was said: 'I have been young, and now am old, and I have not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread'? Whoever hungers surely seeks an increase of wine. But what greater increase of virtue than the standard of righteousness? After these, 'Blessed,' he says, 'are the merciful'; for mercy follows righteousness. Whence it was said:

'He has dispersed, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.' But even he who bestows mercy loses his reward, unless he shows mercy with a pure heart; for if he seeks vainglory, there is no fruit. Cleanse therefore the inner parts of your mind, and if you have diligently cleansed the secret places of your breast, have compassion on those who are assailed, and understand how many men, how many of your brothers, seek your help. But unless you first empty your inner self of every stain of sin, lest dissensions and contentions proceed from your disposition, you cannot bring medicine to others. Begin peace therefore from yourself, so that, when you yourself are peaceable, you may bring peace to others. For how can you cleanse the hearts of others, unless you have first cleansed your own?

You have therefore profited others, you have brought aid to many: hasten, strive toward the end. Although there were many ways out of life, one alone befitted the Lord; for that which had been born according to the flesh had also to die according to the flesh. He chose suffering, that he might die for us; and you too, say concerning all the things he has rendered to you: 'I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord' — that is, his passion. Hence also to those who desired to sit at his right hand or his left, he said: 'Can you drink the cup which I am about to drink?' He leads you to the end, he accompanies you even to martyrdom, and he establishes the palm of the beatitudes. See therefore the order. You must become poor in spirit; for the humility of the spirit is the riches of the virtues.

Unless the mind is poor, you cannot be meek. He who is meek can mourn present things; he who mourns lower things can desire better; he who seeks higher things avoids the lower, that he himself may be aided by the higher; he who is merciful cleanses his heart. For what is it to cleanse the soul but to abolish the filth of death? For almsgiving frees from death, and patience is the perfection of charity. But he who suffers persecution, set in the final contest, is proved by adversities, that, when he has contended lawfully, he may be crowned. These some wish to be the steps of the virtues, by which we may ascend from the lowest to the highest. Finally, as there are increases of virtues, so also there are increases of rewards.

For it is more to be a son of God than to possess the earth and to merit consolation; but since both the first reward is the kingdom of heaven and the last reward is the kingdom of heaven, is the reward equal for beginners and for the perfect? Perhaps we are mystically taught that there is a first kingdom of heaven, that apostolic one: 'to be dissolved and to be with Christ'? You have the first kingdom when the saints are caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air; for many of those who sleep shall rise, these to eternal life, those to reproach. The first kingdom of heaven, therefore, is set before the saints in the release of the body; the second kingdom of heaven is, after the resurrection, to be with Christ. When you have been in the kingdom of heaven, then there is the progression of the dwellings.

Even if it is one kingdom, yet there are diverse merits in the kingdom of heaven. After the resurrection you will begin to possess your earth, released from death. For he to whom it is said: 'You are earth, and into earth you shall go' does not possess his earth; for he cannot be a possessor who does not gather fruit. Released therefore through the Lord's cross — if, however, you are found within the yoke of the Lord — you will find consolation in that very possession. Consolation is followed by delight, delight by the divine mercy. But whom the Lord pities, he also calls. He who is called sees the one who calls; he who has seen God is taken up into the right of divine generation. Then at last, as a son of God, he delights in the riches of the heavenly kingdom. The one therefore begins, the other is filled.

For even within this present age many are in the Roman empire, but those who are nearer the emperor obtain the greater favour of the empire. Now let us say in what manner holy Luke, in four blessings, has embraced eight blessings. And indeed we know there are four cardinal virtues: temperance, justice, prudence, fortitude. He who is poor in spirit is not greedy; he who weeps is not proud, but is meek and peaceable; he who mourns is humbled; he who is just does not deny what he knows to have been given for the common use of all; he who is merciful gives generously of his own; he who gives his own does not seek another's, nor contrive deceit against his neighbour.

The virtues are therefore connected and chained together, so that he who has one is seen to have many; and to the saints one virtue belongs, but the reward is more abundant of that which has been the more plentiful. How great was the hospitality in Abraham, how great the humility, how great the holiness, that he saved his brother's son from the enemy, and how great the abstinence, that he sought nothing of the spoil! But because he excelled in faith, he merited above the rest the primacy of faith. Therefore to each one many rewards, since there are many incentives of the virtues; but what is more copious in any merit is also more redundant in the reward. Blessed therefore are the poor in spirit. You have temperance, which abstains from sin, treads down the world, does not seek alluring things. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst.

For he who hungers has compassion on the hungry; by compassion he gives generously; by giving he becomes just, since his righteousness endures forever. Whence in Matthew we understand thirst and hunger spiritually, by which the food or drink of righteousness is desired, since virtue is as it were a certain material of the virtues, so that the just man may render himself equal to those beneath him, may exclude deceit, may seek the truth. Blessed are you who now weep, for you shall laugh. You have prudence, whose part it is to weep for things that pass away and to seek those that are eternal, to mourn worldly things which war against themselves, to seek the God of peace, who 'has chosen the foolish things of the world, that he may confound the wise,' and who 'destroys the things that are not, that he may obtain those that are.' Blessed shall you be when men hate you.

You have fortitude — but that which earns not hatred from crime, but suffers persecution from faith; for thus one arrives at the crown of suffering, if you neglect the favour of men and follow the divine. Finally, that you may know that suffering is the consummation of fortitude, 'according to these things,' he says, 'did their fathers to the prophets,' since the Jews persecuted the prophets even to the death of the body. It belongs also to fortitude to conquer wrath and to restrain indignation, and through this fortitude strengthens the soul as well as the body, and does not allow it to be disturbed by any fear or grief, by which, as by depraved interpreters, we are for the most part overthrown.

Therefore temperance has purity of heart and of mind, justice has mercy, prudence has peace, fortitude has gentleness. 'Woe to you rich, who have your consolation!' Although in monetary wealth there are many enticements to faults, yet very many things are also incentives to virtues. Although virtue does not require supports, and the contribution of the poor is more commendable than the liberality of the rich, yet it is not those who have riches, but those who know not how to use them, that he condemns by the authority of the heavenly sentence.

For as that poor man is more praiseworthy who gives generously with a ready disposition and is not held back by the bars of impending want, and does not reckon himself destitute who has what is sufficient for nature, so this rich man is more guilty, who ought to have rendered thanks to God even for what he received, and not to hide away without use the wealth given for the common use, and to brood over treasures buried and sunk in the earth. It is not therefore the wealth, but the disposition, that is in the crime.

And although throughout his whole lifetime the greedy mind of a wretched watch keeps anxious vigils — than which no punishment is heavier — to preserve with anxious fear, for the profit of his successors, the things that will benefit them, yet since the pursuits of avarice and the desires of heaping up are fed by a certain empty pleasure, those who have had the consolation of the present life have lost the recompense of the eternal. Yet here we can also understand the rich man as the people of the Jews, or the heretics, or indeed the philosophers of the world, who, delighted by the abundance of words and by a certain patrimony of ambitious eloquence, and having transgressed beyond the simplicity of true faith, have stored up useless treasures.