Works (CSEL) 16 part 15/34

Whence here too it is said, that God may remember that we are dust, and pour out the gift of more abundant grace, and not forsake the weak work. The helmsman expends more labor when the ship is tossed than when it glides along with favorable oarage upon the wave, and the blast of the winds speeds it forward, the topsail prevailing. Thy hands, he says, have formed me. He says 'hands' in the plural, not 'hand.' But elsewhere he says: I with my own hand have made firm the heaven, and: My hand made these things. In the constitution of man that did not seem to abound which abounded for the whole world to come into being. One hand made firm the heaven, as it is written, and both hands of God fashioned man, as we read. The heaven not after the likeness, but man after the likeness; for the angels are for ministry, but man for the image.

Granted that the angels too are after the image; yet Scripture has spoken concerning man that he is after the image. For we have something which perhaps the angels have not; for where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. For us Christ was born of a Virgin; for we read: A child is born to us, a son is given to us. For us He took flesh, nay rather, He took us up in that flesh, in that He set the Son of Man on the throne of God. I do not read of angels on the throne of God except standing, except bearing ministry; I do not read of angels, but of men, buried together with Christ and raised up again in Christ.

In fine, the Apostle says that He has quickened us together in Christ — by whose grace ye are saved — and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The Son of Man, therefore, is at the right hand of God, not an angel, not an archangel, nor the Cherubim and Seraphim. These give praise; the Son of Man sits. The Son of Man is praised by the mouth of angels, because He conquered the evil angels, triumphed over the spiritual wickednesses that are in the heavenly places, because He made men like to angels, in whom before were the contagions of the dead. By the Word of the Lord, he says, the heavens were made firm, and by the breath of His mouth all their power. Man also by the Spirit of the Lord received the perfection of life and the consummation of virtue.

God breathed into him the spirit of life, and man was made into a living soul. Our life therefore began from the divine inbreathing; but this life is dissolved by the separation of soul and body, whereas the divine inbreathing is not dissolved. And therefore understand that one thing is what was formed, another what was made or prepared; and deservedly thou hast it written of man in two ways. For first it is written: Let us make man after our image and likeness, and: They shall have dominion, he says, or shall hold the chief place, and: God made man after the image of God. But in the second place it is thus written, that God took dust from the earth and formed man.

Where there is dust, there is the forming; but where there is no dust, there is no earth, no matter, but the incorporeal, the admirable; there is no matter, but the immaterial. For that which is after the image is not in the body nor in matter, but in the rational soul. There it works, there man is shown to be after the likeness and image of God, where righteousness, where wisdom, where every form of virtue is taken up. If thou shouldst understand the Image, thou shalt see what is after the image; for man is not the image of God, but was made after the likeness. Another is the Image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, through whom all things were made. He is not after the image, but the Image; thou art not the image, but after the image.

Thou hast therefore in thy substance something of the image and likeness of God, which is like to the divine image. Therefore the Image comes to him who is after the image, and the Image seeks him who is after His likeness, that He may seal again, that He may conform again, because thou hast lost what thou didst receive. For God had breathed into thee, that by the gift of His inbreathing thou mightest have the grace which thine own fault had taken from thee. Thou hadst been made into a living soul; hear what He says: not into flesh, but into a living soul.

But because the sinner, being placed under the third charge, could not keep the seal — he had not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men — therefore our Lord Jesus Christ came, as thou hast read in the Gospel, and rising from the dead, when He had found the disciples shut in, He entered while the doors remained closed and said: Peace be unto you; as the Father has sent me, even so send I you. When He had said this, He breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit. Dost thou see, then, what hands made man, or what man they made?

Even him, surely, whom we have put on according to Christ, putting off the old man with his deeds, and we have put on the new man, who is renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him who created him, where there is neither bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Therefore we have put on Christ, as also it is elsewhere said: Ye have put on Christ. We have received the Holy Spirit, who not only forgives our sins, but also makes us His priests, to forgive sins to others. Therefore the prophet says: Thou hast fashioned me and laid Thy hand upon me. He fashioned through the clay, He laid on through spiritual grace, although many take this psalm to be spoken in the person of the Savior. Hear that the hand of the Lord is also called the Spirit. Job cries out:

The divine Spirit that made me. These, then, are the hands that prepared man — Christ and the Spirit. Therefore the Lord Jesus is also the Author of our body, who first made man after the image and afterward fashioned him from clay, and willed to preserve what He had made, to save what He had fashioned, that He might save the whole man, as He Himself said in the Gospel: Are you angry with me because I made a whole man whole on the sabbath? This the Church especially teaches, that not only the soul but also our flesh is preserved — the soul through the knowledge of God, the flesh through the resurrection; the one of which He taught by the authority of the divine word, the other by the example of His own resurrection. Thus, then, man is of a twofold substance;

for one is the substance of that which was made, another of that which was formed; the former from the Spirit of God, the latter from the mire. Therefore Job says: He shall raise up my skin, because that which is of the mire is raised up — for earth returns into earth — but that which was made, that it might have dominion over the other living creatures, this thou understandest to be more excellent; for thou understandest that we have a fellowship common even with the beasts. And therefore a special prerogative has been given to man, that is, the soul by which he commands the other living creatures; but in order to be able to command, he ought to be subject to God. He is taught therefore to serve, that he may deserve to attain to the kingdom; for he who serves Christ pleases God.

He who serves Christ surely pleases the Truth, and ought to know no lie; he who serves righteousness ought to repel iniquity; he who serves the spotless One ought to keep the discipline of chastity; he who serves the Light ought to hate the darkness of sins. Therefore, because the body is weak, let us beseech the Lord's visitation, whence the prophet says: What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that Thou visitest him? And now in the remaining portion of the verse he says: Give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments. Knowing therefore that he is spiritual, the prophet asks for the grace of the Holy Spirit.

For indeed thou hast learned in the apostolic lesson that understanding is given by the Lord and is set in the first place among the gifts of grace, because to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for profit; and in the prophet the grace of wisdom and of spiritual understanding is asked in the first place. It is sought therefore as a gift of God. Then mark the order: Give me, he says, understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments. Understanding is set first, that knowledge may follow; for unless a man understand, he will not be able to be taught. Understanding therefore produces teaching, not memory; for it profits nothing to have read many things, unless thou thyself understand what thou hast read.

And in the Apostle thou hast read that after the manifestation of the Spirit the word of knowledge is set down afterward, that thou mayest know understanding is to be preferred to memory, and that he can have knowledge upon whom understanding has first shone. Consider at the same time his humility. If the prophet asks that understanding be given to him, who is so arrogant as to profess that intelligence is in his own power? He asks for understanding, that he may know himself and be able to know the reason of his own nature. But those who dispute about the nature of things scrutinize the regions of heaven; who cannot know themselves, yet think that intelligence can be granted without the gift of God.

Whence we too ought to take up humility, lest we be lifted up, if perhaps we have come to know some one parable from the Scriptures, or, because sometimes we read things plain according to the letter, if perhaps we have understood something according to the letter, we should arrogate to ourselves the knowledge of doctrine. That prophet, who received the Holy Spirit after he was anointed unto the kingdom and anointed as a prophet, writing the hundred and eighteenth psalm, asks that understanding be given him, that he may understand the commandments of God, and he knows that, unless he receive grace from the Lord, he cannot understand His commandments. In the Gospel also I read that the Lord Jesus set forth parables and the apostles did not understand; in fine, they asked the explanation of the parable set forth.

The Lord Jesus Himself, when He said — as thou hast read written in the book of the Gospel according to Matthew — Blessed are the poor in spirit, added in what follows: Everyone who shall hear these my words and do them shall be like a wise man. Therefore not he who only hears shall be like him, but he who does what he has heard. Therefore neither deed without hearing nor hearing without deed can be of a wise man, but he who hears and does. Let us hear, then, that we may understand; let us do, that we may prove that we have understood what we heard. There follows the second verse: They that fear Thee shall see me and shall be glad, because I have hoped above measure in Thy words. Perhaps to some this may seem contrary, that the just man says: They that fear Thee shall see me and shall be glad;

for to many the just man is grievous when he is seen. In fine, in the Gospel very many could not bear to see the Lord Jesus, as the Gerasenes begged Him to depart from their borders, and others denied Him passage, when, however, He was not unwilling to pass through them. Whence I think that, just as there the form of Jewish impiety is expressed, so here the grace of the Church is revealed. For he prophesies that the whole world is to be filled with the divine fear, and therefore he says that those, as it were fearing God, rejoice in the knowledge of the saints; for he who sees the just man and rejoices, himself also wishes to be just. For it is a beautiful thing to be delighted in others by that which one wishes to keep in oneself, if one can.

For it is implanted in the good, that the chaste man loves the pure, the wise loves the prudent with a pious affection, the merciful loves the liberal, and loves his own virtues in others. For to most the sight of the just man is an admonition of correction, but to the more perfect it is a joy. How beautiful, then, that thou shouldst be seen and do good! A just man, therefore, is a good. For this reason, in fine, the Apostle Paul went up to Jerusalem, that he might see the just, and abode with Peter fifteen days, that he might profit somewhat from his fellowship. For this reason Paul himself and Barnabas, when they entered Jerusalem, were magnificently received by the Church, by the apostles, and by the elders. And when they wished to depart, they were entreated not to leave, and, as we afterward read of Paul, he was escorted with tears.

For if there is such power in natural things, that an animal, when seen, profits those who have the jaundice — so that even the horn of that dead animal is said to be of profit, if it be shown to those who have fallen into a disease of this kind — can we doubt that the sight of the just man heals? Therefore a cheap, irrational animal has such virtue that it can heal a man in the brief moment in which it is seen: shall the just man, if indeed he be looked upon with faith by one who desires to receive benefit from him, confer nothing? Do not even the very rays of the eyes seem to pour forth a certain virtue into those who faithfully desire to see him?

But just as the just man gladdens the heart of the innocent when he is seen, so the wicked are tormented by the knowledge of the just, because they are reproved even by the silent conduct of the saints. Chastity torments incontinence, liberality torments avarice, faith torments impiety. Of this too let us take a like example from a cheap animal. For just as we said the dumb animal profits when seen, so we perceive that the wolf harms, if it has caught sight of someone first; for those whom the wolf has first seen are said to lose their voice. The basilisk also, that is, the noxious serpent, if it sees any animal first, is said to kill it, and it is reported that one who could be seen first by such a serpent is straightway slain. The serpent itself too is said to die, if it has been forestalled by the sight of a man.

Therefore if there is such virtue either in the eyes of a serpent or in the eyes of a man, that, if the one has seen the other first, it can kill, is there no virtue in the eyes of the just man, who is filled with the grace of virtue, especially since faith works so greatly that even she who touched the fringe of the Lord was healed, and he upon whom the Lord Jesus fixed His gaze straightway drew the grace of health from His eyes? But he who sees the just man ought to know what he sees. He sees him not in the body, not in the garment, not in the patrimony, not in the countenance, but he sees within. He does not, I say, see him unless he has seen his mind, unless he has attended to his speech, unless he has been able to comprehend his thought, and to take up wisdom from his discourse.

Then therefore he shall be glad, when he has perceived these things, when he has come to know these things. So therefore let us too, wherever we hear of a just man, hasten to see him, like that woman who heard that the Lord Jesus reclined at table in the house of the Pharisee, and entered, and bathed His feet with ointment. Let us be imitators of her; for who doubts that the Church is figured in that woman? Wherever, then, a just man sits, wherever he reclines, let us hasten to see him. It is precious to see a just man, that thou mayest see according to the image of God. What is outward profits nothing; what is inward heals. Yet even in him who is outward we frequently behold Him who is within, so that, if we see a poor man, we may honor in the poor man Him after whose likeness he was made, of whom He says:

Ye gave me to eat, because what ye gave to one of these ye gave to me. For he who crowns the image of the emperor surely honors him whose image he has crowned, and he who has despised the statue of the emperor is surely seen to have done injury to the emperor whose statue he has spat upon. The Gentiles adore wood, because they think it the image of God; but the image of the invisible God is not in that which is seen, but surely in that which is not seen. Thou seest, therefore, that we walk among many images of Christ. Let us beware lest we seem to pluck off the crown from the image, which Christ has set upon each one. Let us beware lest we take anything away from those to whom we ought to add.

But, what is worse, not only do we not honor the poor, but we even dishonor, destroy, and persecute them, and we are ignorant that we are heaping these injuries upon the image of God, when we think that those made after the image of God are to be wronged; for he who mocks the poor provokes Him who made him. But He will be present who shall say: I was hungry and ye gave me not to eat, I was thirsty and ye gave me not to drink, I was sick and ye visited me not. And how much lighter are these things than if He should say: 'Ye did me injuries, ye stripped me, ye scourged me'! Whom if anyone should ask: 'When did we do thee injuries, when did we despoil thee, when also did we scourge thee?', He will say: As long as ye did it unto one of these least, ye did it unto me.

Therefore let us beware more diligently, lest we inflict insult upon even the least, lest we ourselves should seem to have been insulting toward the Lord Himself in those least ones. And by what reasoning he said: They that fear Thee shall see me and shall be glad, he himself explained, saying: because I have hoped above measure in Thy words. This is to say: They have seen me within, they have touched me within, they have beheld me within, where I took up hope from Thy words, where I received Thy words. Blessed therefore are they who both see the just man and rejoice, because they hope in the words of God. But how many are there who hate the just, because those who are just search out the words of God, and when the impious hear certain learned men, they are accustomed to shun them on account of their teaching! There follows the third verse:

I have known, O Lord, that Thy judgments are righteousness, and in Thy truth Thou hast humbled me. He who can understand the things of the divine providence uses that language which the holy prophet David used, because all things are done by the judgment of God — that one should have a sick body, another a sound one, that one be rich, another poor, that one die young or old. If anyone attends to the divine Scriptures, he understands that these things are done by the judgment of God; for nothing is apart from the knowledge of God. Do we seek an example? It is not hidden, since indeed Job would never have lost his own goods, had he not been delivered up to the adversary power. For the Lord gave the devil power over his goods, that he might be tempted, what disposition he would have on the loss of his patrimony;

He gave power over his sons, He gave power over his body, that it might be proved that the soul did not flag from constancy of mind, either through grief for his dead children or through the torment of the body. The Lord indeed knew him to be strong, but in him He willed to teach and to examine us, whether we could be his imitators. In fine, He tempted Abraham also, when He asked of him that the old man's only son be sacrificed to Him. He knew, surely, the mind of Abraham, but the Lord tempts even while knowing, as thou hast read in the Gospel, that, when the Lord Jesus had asked the disciples how many loaves they had, and they had answered that they had only five loaves, He Himself said: What shall we do, He says, among so many men? But this He said tempting them; for He knew what He was about to do.

He therefore who is just believes, by the examination of his own righteousness, that the judgments of God are just, or, according to the Greek, that the judgments of God are righteousness itself. But that he might come to know this, the foregoing prayer accomplished it, since he asked that understanding be given him, that he might learn the commandments of God. Therefore the grace of understanding and of knowledge was received, and he came to know that the judgments of God are just. But to come to know belongs to the perfect. In fine, it is one thing to believe, another to know: faith belongs to him who fears, knowledge to him who is wise. For he who fears does not seek the reason, but the wise man investigates also the knowledge of whatever he desires to perceive. I believed, he says, for which cause I have spoken; but the man of understanding knew what he spoke. Wherein, then, are the judgments of God just?

Because it is through labors and tribulations and afflictions that one arrives at the heavenly reward. For just as a crown is conferred upon contending athletes by the just judgment of men, so to Christians lawfully contending the palm is awarded by the divine judgment. To him that overcomes, He says, I will give to sit with me on my throne. Our life therefore is tried by fire as the brightness of silver, that virtue may be proved by contests. We have passed, he says, through fire and water, and Thou hast brought us into refreshment. Through these things, therefore, I have come to know that Thy judgments are true. For I have been humbled, that I might see these things, because those who are exalted in heart cannot open their eyes to the truth; but when we are humbled, we come to know our sins and by that very humility purge our offenses.

I was humbled, he says, and He saved me. In truth therefore he was humbled who was humbled unto salvation, nor did he endure suffering in vain, who followed the salvation of the truth. There is therefore a difference between knowing and fearing, to return to that point. In fine, the reading of the Gospel ought to teach us; for the Lord says to those who believed in Him from among the Jews: If ye abide in my word, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. If ye abide, He says, ye shall know. Thou seest that whoever, fearing God, heard His word could not from the beginning come to know. But not only are fear and knowledge not the same; nay, faith and knowledge also are not the same, since the Apostle too taught that the gifts of graces are diverse.

For to one, he says, is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit. If therefore to one is given faith, to another knowledge, thou seest that where there is faith, knowledge is not at once present; but where there is knowledge, there is both faith and prudence, nor can we separate diligence from it. The holy David, then, had knowledge, inasmuch as he was a perfect prophet, since indeed he so perfectly came to know, that he was humbled in the very truth. Whether therefore, placed in adversities, he came to know, by the grace of probation, that things laborious and adverse are to be borne, and that the judgment of God is just, and that therefore those who contend well are never forsaken or abandoned, and that a crown can be conferred upon them after their labors;

Or again, the man set amid second and prosperous things has learned that riches and varied successes are wont to be at hand for the sake of temptation, so that he who employs them is tempted by his very prosperity. In this, therefore, the prophet David is to be praised: that, while he recognized these things, he humbled himself, so that by his humility he might either shut out the temptations of prosperity or undergo with steadfast equanimity the endurance of adversities. The prophet, then, would not be greatly praiseworthy if he praised the judgments of God while enjoying an abundance of prosperous things. For what great thing do we do, if, when we are amid prosperity, we praise God; when we are amid riches; when we are vexed by no injuries?

This is the magnificent thing: if, when subjected to insults, you praise the judgment of God; if, when afflicted with sickness, you proclaim the judgments of God; if poverty does not call you back from praising the justice of God. Therefore the judgments of God are ever to be praised, as it is written: 'The daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments.' And who are the daughters of Judah but devout souls, the souls of the Church which confess Jesus Christ as Lord, which, seeing the reason of thy judgments, ever rejoice? For he who puts on gladness not from some increase of prosperity but from the knowledge of reason is established in nothing other than perpetual exultation. There follows the fourth verse: 'Let now thy mercy be upon me, that it may comfort me according to thy word to thy servant.'

Some have in this place: 'let it comfort me.' But also in the Apostle we read exhortation put for consolation, and consolation for exhortation. Great therefore is the mercy of God, which not only grants the remission of sins but also applies to those who strive the spurs of exhortation, lest they abandon the sufferings of the contest they have undertaken through unwarlike dread. He does not, then, seek mercy as one who, conquered, gives way, or as a sinner imploring pardon, but that, girded with the compassion of God and supported by so great a gift, he may accomplish things greater than his own strength. Consider the prophet's outstanding and singular virtue.

For another man, humbled by hardships, would ask that the temptations around him might cease and that the Lord would deign to allay his adversities, lest the storm of tribulations rage against him. But this man, like a strong and patient athlete, who knew that his soul was to be exercised and anointed by tribulations, does not desire to remove what is grievous, nor to decline what assails him, nor does he beg that all that which brings weariness and toil should cease; rather, in the time of his greater labor against the storms of temptations, he begs that a word of consolation be given him, that he may be able to bear with a brave mind whatever assails him, lest he be wearied by any disturbance of sadness. In this, therefore, he beseeches the mercy of God, lest, deprived of help, he abandon the warfare he has begun before completing it.

Finally, he teaches by clear testimony that mercy belongs to divine exhortation. For God says to Moses: 'I will have mercy on whom I have had mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I have shown mercy.' Therefore it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. Perhaps you may say: Then ought we not to will, nor to run? And yet God is wont to forsake the negligent. He does not, then, say this; but let us consider what he does say. Perseverance is not of the man who wills nor of the man who runs; it is not in man's power, but it is of God who shows mercy, that you may be able to complete what you have begun. Finally, again God says to Moses: 'For this very purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show forth my power in thee.' It is gathered, therefore, that this is to be reckoned to the exhortation of divine mercy.

Whence it follows: 'Therefore on whom he wills he has mercy, and whom he wills he hardens.' On this one, having had mercy, he exhorts; that one, having execrated, he does not call back. And truly the warfare of our sufferings is the mercy of God, through which our sins are diminished for us. Finally, Lazarus the poor man, because in this life he endured very many evils, found the rest of consolation in the bosom of Abraham; but that rich man, who had his consolation in this world, after the courses of this life lost the fruit of rest; whom, had God had mercy on him, he would rather have chastised in this world, that afterward he might not be scourged.

Finally Job, although gravely scourged—and indeed by very many scourges: by poverty, by the loss of his children, by the pains of the body, by the reproaches of his friends—nonetheless enjoys eternal consolation. Therefore, the greater the tribulations have been, the more abundant the consolation that is reserved. And yet, lest you fall and succumb, the greater the temptations you see, the more entreat the word of God, that it may bring you exhortation, just as Paul also entreated, who says: 'Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who exhorts us in all our affliction, that we ourselves may be able to console those who are in any tribulation, through the exhortation by which we ourselves are summoned by God.'