Anti-Arian Works 16 part 10/16

Where is the tower of strength from the face of the enemy? The angels have deserted it, and the barbarians, swifter than eagles, have ascended. O God, it says, the nations have come into your inheritance, they have defiled your holy temple (Ps. 79:1). Intercede for us, true vine, for our sins have become bitter; woe to us, that we should seek shade and find nothing but sickles and lances. Going about, the boar out of the forest gnashes, and the solitary wild beast feeds upon it, because the Lion of the tribe of Judah is quiet in his seat, and will not give the voice of light, until the beasts of the night flee from blindness. Therefore we have become a desolation. Do not, Father, hand over the sickle of your moderation to the immoderate alien nations. They do not know how to prune, but only to cut off.

You know well how to cleanse, you who have deigned to make us whiter than snow. Cut in such a way that you preserve us in the root, not that our memory perish from the earth, but that our traces remain in the true vine; and, the blood of slaughter ceasing, may the dry vine grow green again, with its branches restored from captivity: which we suppose concerning all the saints who are brought forth from this vineyard. Do not the saints, now grieving beneath its roots, walking about, clothed, living, weep, and, cast down for the dead, mourn together with them? And when we say, Why does the boar out of the forest lay us waste, perhaps Isaiah the good vintager answers us, Why? Because I waited, he says, that you should make grapes, but you made thorns (Isa. 5:4). Why? Because I waited, he says, that you should do equity:

but you made not justice, but an outcry. But let us again turn to the Father, the good husbandman, whose heart has poured forth a good word (Ps. 45:1). He alone cleanses the branch from his own vine, not with a sharp sickle, but with moderate grace. Angel and archangel dare not cleanse that vine, for they are ministers, not husbandmen. For the Father alone knows the Son, since no one knows the Father except the Son. Let us pray only this, that being not cut off we may not fail, but with our branches cleansed may bring forth very much fruit. SERMON 47. Likewise on the true vine and the branch. This gospel passage, brethren, where the Lord calls himself the vine, and his disciples the branches: according to this he speaks of what is head of the Church,

and us his members, the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5). For the vine and the branches are of one nature: on account of which, since he was God (var. Lord), of whose nature we are not, he became man, that in him human nature might be the vine, of which we men might be able to be the branches. What then is, I am the true vine (John 15:1)? Did he, in adding 'true,' refer this to that vine from which this likeness is derived? For it is called a vine by likeness, not by property, just as he is called sheep, lamb, lion, eagle, rock, corner-stone, and the rest of this kind, which are rather themselves the true things, from which these likenesses, not properties, are named.

But when he says, I am the true vine (Jer. 2:21), he certainly distinguishes himself from that one to which it is said, How are you turned into the bitterness of an alien vine (Isa. 5:4)? For in what manner is that a true vine which was expected to produce a grape, but produced thorns? I am, he says, the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me not bearing fruit, he will take away; and every one that bears fruit, he will cleanse it, that it may bring forth more fruit (John 15:1-2). Are the husbandman and the vine one? According to this, then, Christ is the vine, according to that which he says, The Father is greater than I (John 14:28); but according to that which he says, I and the Father are one (John 10:30), he himself is also the husbandman.

He is not such as those are who, by working from without, furnish a ministry; but he is such that he also gives increase from within. For neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase (1 Cor. 3:7). And certainly Christ is God, because the Word was God: whence he himself and the Father are one; and if the Word became flesh which he was not, yet he remains what he was. Finally, when he had said of the Father, as of the husbandman, that he takes away the unfruitful branches, but cleanses the fruitful that they may bring forth more fruit, straightway he also showed himself to be the cleanser of the branches. Now you, he says, are clean, on account of the word which I have spoken to you (John 15:3).

Behold, he himself is also the cleanser of the branches, which is the office of the husbandman, not of the vine: who has also made the branches his workers. For although they do not give increase, yet they contribute some help; but not of their own, for without me, he says, you can do nothing (ibid. 5). Hear also themselves confessing. What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Ministers through whom you have believed, and to each as the Lord gave. I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. He works not through them but through himself. This exceeds human lowliness, exceeds angelic sublimity, and pertains altogether to none but the husbandman, the Trinity. Now you are clean — clean, that is, and yet to be cleansed.

For unless they were clean, they could not bear fruit; and yet every one that bears fruit, the Husbandman cleanses, that it may bring forth more fruit. For who in this life is so clean that he is not more and more to be cleansed? For (as Augustine says) if we shall say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, who will forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all iniquity (1 John 1:8ff): let him indeed cleanse the clean, that is, the fruitful, that they may be so much the more fruitful as they shall have been the cleaner. Now you are clean on account of the word which I have spoken to you (John 15:3).

Why did he not say, You are clean because of the baptism by which you were washed, but said, because of the word which I have spoken to you, except because he cleanses even in the water by the word? Take away the word, and what is water but water? The word is added to the element, and it becomes a sacrament, itself also as it were a visible word. For of this indeed he had said, when he washed the disciples' feet, He who is washed does not need to wash, but is wholly clean (John 13:10). Whence comes such great power of the water, that it touches the body and washes the heart, except by the acting word: not because it is spoken, but because it is believed? For even in the word itself, one thing is the passing sound, another the abiding power.

This is the word of faith which we preach, says the Apostle, that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart it is believed unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom. 10:8ff). Whence also in the Acts of the Apostles it is read, Cleansing their hearts by faith (Acts 15:9). And in his epistle blessed Peter says, So also baptism now saves you, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the questioning of a good conscience (1 Pet. 3:21). This is the word of faith which we preach: by which without doubt baptism also is consecrated, that it may be able to cleanse.

For Christ indeed with us is the vine, with the Father the husbandman, loved the Church, and gave himself up for it. Read the Apostle, and see what he adds: That he might sanctify it, he says, cleansing it by the washing of water in the word (Eph. 5:26). Cleansing therefore would by no means be attributed to the flowing and perishable element, unless there were added 'in the word.' This word of faith avails so much in the Church of God that through it — through the one believing, offering, blessing, dipping — it cleanses even the least infant: although not yet able to believe with the heart unto justice, and to confess with the mouth unto salvation. All this is done through the word, of which the Lord says, Now you are clean, on account of the word which I have spoken to you. SERMON 48.

On the Ascension of the Lord. With what adornments of joys has the hall of heaven shone forth today! For the angels have received their vows, long hoped for, and have said a hymn at the lifting up of the gates. Light in the heavens, splendour in the gates: for the Bridegroom ascends, proceeding from his chamber, about to sit upon his throne. Whence holy David sets his instrument at the doors of heaven, singing a new song, because he who descended is the very one who ascends above all the heavens (Eph. 4:10). Therefore, touching his instrument with gladder quills, he resounds, and speaks the first offering of the alternating consul, beholding him adorned not with gold and gems, but made white with the ice of the clouds. Who sets a cloud as his ascent, he says, and walks upon the wings of the winds (Ps.

104:3). For now he has walked upon the asp and the basilisk, and has trodden down the lion and the dragon (Ps. 91:13) with the foot of death, with the applause of resurrection, wonderful in our eyes, glorified he flashes forth, by the ascension of his power, sitting upon a light cloud, raining down upon the apostles with the inheritance of peace and the testamentary love. My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you (John 14:27). At this melody of the sounding instruments, invited before the royal hall of heaven, the apostles follow after; about to seek the way of blessing, the sons of the Bridegroom walk with the Lord, about to receive the pledge of the Holy Spirit. And lifting up his hands he blessed them (Luke

24:50), and gave them the precious earnest of the spousal gift, not adorned with gold and gems, but a chain woven of the loops of love, by which, bound, they might follow him to the bride of the Lamb, Jerusalem the everlasting homeland. Lord, they say, why do you forsake us in ascending, you who chose us, going before on the shore? Lord, when shall we receive from afar your words above honey and the honeycomb, and drink in from your lips and mouth the balsam of dropping, dewy grace? Either instruct us whither you ascend, or do not desert us as you ascend. We have remained laid bare in the open, as it were, without the shield of your kindness, like chicks bereft of the feathered covering of an embracing mother. When will you come to us, you who have redeemed us? May your death be our price.

May your ascension be our pledge, lest we be overwhelmed and sunk by excessive grief, we whom you have lifted up from the groanings of the lower regions. The Lord, therefore, ascending, looking down from the lofty cloud upon the sadness of his nurslings, sent forth the consoler of grief, messengers of him departing and heralds of him returning: Men of Galilee, they say, why do you stand looking up to heaven? This Jesus whom you see shall so come as you have seen him going into heaven (Acts 1:11). So shall he come: one will be the carrying up, one the cloud-bearing litter, one the mild appearance, but glorified, and to be feared by sinners. His coming will not terrify you, whom his ascension consoles. So shall he come, showing the unharmed wounds of the nails, and the bloody necklaces of the pierced openings.

To you, the sons of the Bridegroom, he will show the cross as the crown of the heavenly empire; he will not change the wounds, since the sign of the Son of man shall shine in heaven (Matt. 24:30). Therefore the apostles, having received the command of him ascending, with the precious pledge of the Holy Spirit about to come from above, were in the temple with one accord praising the Lord together, that one fiery crown of delightful graces might find them united. In the temple, therefore, brethren, let us always abide with one accord, and walking in the house of the Lord with the concord of his peace let us hope for his coming, and in his temple let us all speak his glory. And just as fiery grace may settle upon us, a crown kindled not by fire, but bedewed.

It delights to behold Christ the Lord ascending, borne by the clouds, when, rising from the dead, he began to return to heaven, whence he had come to save the human race. Who are they that await him ascending? They who saw him rising, fled from him hanging, and follow with their eyes him ascending. Fear at the cross, love in the cloud, a delightful sight in the air. O sweet affection of him descending! O delightful aspect of him flying up! He bids farewell, and blesses in peace. They commend themselves, and he leaves the grace of his blessing. He blesses them with hands outstretched, and, being placed upon the clouds prepared to meet him, he finishes his speech, and now seeks heaven again. For a bright cloud suddenly appeared, a conveyance prepared from heaven.

For a cloud appeared, and he entered into it who brings forth the clouds from the ends of the earth (Ps. 135:7), that the pleasantness of the cloud might delight their eyes, and the sweetness of him ascending from heaven might bedew them: lest the empty anxiety of those desiring should remain alone. Behold, in the shield of the Acts of the Apostles the painted lights of the fishermen live as they gaze upward. The Consoler is present, because the Saviour ascends. He straightway sends two heavenly praetors, that he might render his nurslings secure who feared, and turn to joy those who wept. For it was fitting that heavenly consolers be sent, lest the fishermen should remain trembling.

For even when the emperor passes from city to city, and his coming is announced, none but the household praetors and palace officials are sent, that they may announce to the provincials when is the king's coming or return. So also, as the Lord drew near, the throng of heavenly praetors (var. protectors) shone resplendent, singing, that the angel might, as it were, cause the hearts of the shepherds among the provincials to breathe again from fear. When too he suffers and rises again, household angels are appointed, and in the city and praetorium of the tomb they announced that the Lord of heaven had risen.

And now when he ascends, from the choir of the advancing Powers, and from the multitude singing in the air of the camp, two palace officials of the heavenly empire are dispatched, that the mournful eyes of the fishermen might find rest. The fishermen recite the heavenly hymn. Men of Galilee, why do you gaze at Jesus going into heaven? So shall he come as you have seen him going into heaven (Acts 1:11). Desirable, he has departed: he will not come to you terrible. A cloud at his meeting, a cloud at his return. He bore the wounds, the same again he will bring back. He carried back the cross with triumph, the sign of the Son of man shall appear in heaven. So shall he come in that same body, in that same cloud, in that same truth, to you in love, to the impious in trembling. Blessed are those to whom it is truly said:

'So shall He come in the same manner as you have seen Him going into heaven.' But how shall He so come to the eyes of sinners? It will be the same Truth, but not the same security. It will be the day of dread judgment, the descent of angels, the resurrection of the dead. The angels shall approach, and with the finger, as it were, of the sounding trumpet they shall touch the graves of the trembling earth, that they may restore the pledges to the fiery throne of the Judge. The angels shall approach the graves of the prophets and of the apostles themselves and of all the saints, and they shall say: 'Behold, this is He who returns just as He again ascended. Did we not tell you that He would so come as you saw Him going into heaven? You who conducted Him as He went, receive Him as He returns.'

This address is not of the seventy tongues, but chariot-clouds of rain are made ready, that they may meet Him in the dew and in refreshing pleasantness—those whose conscience does not fear the inquiry. Let us therefore ask of the Lord our God that, as today we celebrate the day of the Ascension, so we may be worthy to receive at His return the mercy of the morning, that we may say to Him at daybreak: 'In the morning I will worship, O Lord; in the morning I will stand before Thee, and I will contemplate Thee' (Ps. v, 5). SERMON L. On the holy day of Pentecost. Dearest brethren, on this day is celebrated the yearly solemnity of the day on which our Lord Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit, whom He had before promised to His disciples. For He had said, 'He cannot come unless I go away' (John xvi, 7).

And so on the fortieth day after His resurrection, whose solemnity we kept ten days ago, He ascended into heaven; and not unmindful of His promise, He sent the Holy Spirit today, with whom the hundred and twenty who had been gathered together were first filled—those who were faithfully awaiting that same promise of the Lord. It is written (Acts ii, 2) that suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing violent wind; and there appeared to them, as it were, divided tongues like fire, which also settled upon each one of them; and they began to speak in all tongues, according as the Spirit gave them utterance. That wind cleansed their hearts of the carnal chaff; that fire consumed the hay of the old concupiscence.

For it thus pleased God at that time to signify the presence of His Holy Spirit, that those who had received Him should speak in all tongues. First, then, let us briefly consider why God, when He promised Him, said, 'He Himself cannot come unless I go away.' For neither is the Holy Spirit separable, nor was He powerless to come while He was present with Him from whom He cannot depart. But because the Lord was still showing to His yet weak disciples the form of a servant, in which the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us—and even the carnal could behold the flesh of the Lord—yet the form of God, in which He thought it not robbery to be equal with God (Philippians),

(ii, 6)—cannot be conceived except by the spiritual. Therefore He said, 'He cannot come unless I go away,' as if He were saying, 'As long as your carnal affection is occupied about My flesh, so long does your spiritual gaze not receive My divinity.' For by the gift of the Holy Spirit He had promised that they would be led into all truth, as it is written: 'Purifying their hearts by faith' (Acts xv, 9). 'And blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' (Matt. vi, 8). And so the bodily form of the Lord departed from their bodily eyes, that through the Holy Spirit the divinity of the Lord might be instilled into their hearts.

Now let us next consider why at that time this was the sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit—that those who had received Him should speak in all tongues. For even now the Holy Spirit is still given, and yet those who receive Him do not speak in all tongues; by which manifest miracle He showed Himself at that time. It is to be understood, dearest brethren, that this is the Holy Spirit by whom the love of God is poured forth in our hearts. And because charity was to gather together the Church of God throughout the whole world—which at that time even a single man could do, that receiving the Holy Spirit he should speak in all tongues—now the very unity of the Church, gathered together by the Holy Spirit, speaks in all tongues.

Accordingly, if anyone should say to one of us, 'You have received the Holy Spirit; why do you not speak in all tongues?' he ought to answer, 'I do indeed speak in all tongues, because I am in that Body of Christ, that is, in the Church, which speaks in all tongues.' For what else did God then signify but that His Church, by the presence of the Holy Spirit, would speak in all tongues? And so was fulfilled what the Lord had promised: 'No one puts new wine into old wineskins; but they put new wine into new skins, and both are preserved' (Matt. ix, 17). Rightly then, when they were heard speaking in all tongues, some said, 'These are full of new wine' (Acts ii, 12).

For they had already become new wineskins, renewed by the grace of holiness, so that, filled with new wine—that is, with the Holy Spirit—they might glow with fervor in speaking all tongues, and by that most manifest miracle prefigure the Catholic Church that was to be through the tongues of all nations. This day therefore, most beloved, celebrate as the day of the unity of the Body of Christ. For you do not celebrate in vain, if you are that which you celebrate: cleaving to that Church which the Lord, filling it with the Holy Spirit, acknowledges as His own, growing throughout the whole world, and is acknowledged by His own. Like a bridegroom His bride, He has not lost His own, because no one substitutes a stranger for Him.

For to you, established among all nations—that is, to the Church of Christ, the members of the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ—the Apostle says: 'Bearing with one another in love, being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace' (Eph. iv, 2, 3). See that where he commanded that we bear with one another, there he set love; there he named the Spirit of unity; there he pointed to the bond of peace. This is the house of God, built of living stones, in which such a Father of the household delights to dwell, whose eyes the ruin of division ought not to offend. SERMON LI. On the same subject. A day has dawned pleasing to us, brethren, on which the holy solemnity shines before the eyes of the faithful and glows in their hearts.

For we celebrate that day on which the Lord Jesus Christ, glorified by His resurrection and ascension, sent the Holy Spirit. For as it is written in the Gospel, when He said: 'If anyone thirsts, let him come and drink; rivers of living water shall flow from his belly'—the evangelist explains the saying and says, 'But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given to them, because Jesus was not yet glorified' (John vii, 37, 38, 39). It remained, then, that when Jesus was glorified, having risen from the dead and ascended into the heavens, the Holy Spirit should now be given, sent by Him from whom He was promised, just as it also came to pass.

For the Lord, after His resurrection, having conversed with His disciples for forty days, ascended into heaven; and on the fiftieth day, which we celebrate today, He sent the Holy Spirit, as it is written (Acts ii, 2 ff.): that suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing violent wind, and there appeared to them divided tongues, like fire, which settled upon each one of them; and they began to speak in all tongues, according as the Spirit gave them utterance. That wind cleansed their hearts of the carnal chaff. That fire consumed the hay of the old concupiscence. Those tongues with which they spoke, being filled by the Holy Spirit, prefigured the Church that was to be through the tongues of all nations.

For as after the flood the proud impiety of men built a lofty tower against the Lord (Gen. xi, 7), when the human race deserved to be divided through diverse tongues, so that each nation should speak its own language and not be understood by others—so the humble piety of the faithful brought that diversity of dear tongues to the unity of the Church: and what discord had scattered, charity might gather, and the dispersed members of the human race, as of one body, might be brought back, joined together to one Head, Christ, and be fused into the unity of the holy body by the fire of love. From this gift of the Holy Spirit, then, they are wholly estranged who hate the grace of peace, who do not keep the fellowship of unity.

Even though such men themselves also gather solemnly today, even though they hear these readings by which the Holy Spirit is promised and sent, they hear them unto judgment, not unto reward. For what does it profit them to receive with their ears what they reject with their hearts, and to celebrate the day of Him whose light they hate? But you, brethren, members of the Body of Christ, offshoots of unity, sons of peace, keep this day with gladness, celebrate it in security. For that is fulfilled in you which in those days, when the Holy Spirit came, was prefigured.

For as then he who received the Holy Spirit, even a single man, spoke in all tongues, so also now, throughout all nations, that same unity speaks in all tongues, in which unity, being established, you possess the Holy Spirit, since, while the Church of Christ speaks in all tongues, you are divided by no schism. SERMON LII. Again concerning Pentecost. In this most solemn assembly we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit descending from heaven, we who have already commemorated the ascent of the Mediator returning to the heavens. For the only-begotten Son of the Father had promised, while He bore manhood on earth, to the blessed apostles who clung to Him, saying: 'Unless I go away, the Paraclete will not come to you' (John xvi, 7).

'Paraclete' in the Greek tongue is called 'Consoler' in Latin. Christ consoled the fainthearted, dwelling with men as God in man, by the teaching of the meekness He had assumed, granting to the weak the kindly aid of His strength. He promises the Holy Spirit as Consoler, lest the disciples should remain sorrowful after His ascension—the Spirit who abides with them forever. O unity of undivided operation! O power of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, coequal and coeternal with the almighty Father! That God the Father is the God of consolation the Apostle Paul proclaims, instructing the Church of the Corinthians:

'Blessed,' he says, 'be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the Father of all consolation, who consoles us in all our tribulation.' And of the Son in the following passage he added, saying: 'As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also through Christ our consolation abounds' (2 Cor. i, 3, 5). Behold, the Father consoles; behold, likewise the Son consoles; behold, the Holy Spirit consoles, who is named the Paraclete. How, then, is the unity of the Trinity torn asunder by certain men—the Trinity which both possesses an inseparable power in dominion, and in the gift of consolation shows a common charity to the adopted?

Proceeding therefore chiefly in power from the Father, yet not withdrawing from the Son, the Holy Spirit descended today upon the apostles and the rest of the hundred and twenty gathered in one dwelling. Holding fast the most true promise, they rejoiced in sure hope, they pressed on in continual prayer. With unbending patience they most firmly endured; being about to receive the graces of a higher dignity, they abode in the upper rooms; they believed Him faithful who promised, and with hearts cleansed by preparation they were counted worthy to receive Him as He came. There came, then, a sound from heaven, as we have now heard it read, as of a mighty spirit approaching, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting, and there appeared to them, distributed,