Latin original · 37 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 1461:38–1461:74 (392 verses in all)
For what does it profit to receive His body and blood with the mouth, and to go against Him by perverse morals? Whence it is well further added, concerning the eating: 'And unleavened bread with wild lettuces' (Exodus 12:8). For he eats bread without leaven who exercises upright works without the corruption of vainglory, who performs the commandments of mercy without any admixture of sin, lest he perversely plunder what he seems to dispense rightly. This leaven of sin also had those men mingled with their good action, to whom the Lord said through the voice of the prophet in rebuke: 'Come to Bethel, and act impiously' (Amos 4:4). And a little after: 'And sacrifice praise from what is leavened' (ibid., 5). For he offers praise from what is leavened who prepares for God a sacrifice from plunder.
But wild lettuces are exceedingly bitter. Therefore the flesh of the Lamb is to be eaten with wild lettuces, so that when we receive the body of the Redeemer, we may afflict ourselves in weeping for our sins, that the very bitterness of penitence may wipe away from the stomach of the mind the moisture of a perverse life. Where it is also added: 'You shall not eat of it anything raw, nor boiled with water' (Exodus 12:9). Behold, the very words of the history now repel us from the historical understanding. Was it, dearest brethren, that the Israelite people established in Egypt were accustomed to eat the lamb raw, so that the Law should say to them: 'You shall not eat of it anything raw'? Where it is also added: 'Nor boiled with water.'
But what does water designate, if not human knowledge, according to that which is said through Solomon under the voice of heretics: 'Stolen waters are sweeter' (Proverbs 9:17)? What does the raw flesh of the Lamb signify, if not His humanity left inconsiderately and without reverence of thought? For everything that we probe subtly we cook, as it were, in the mind. But the flesh of the lamb is neither to be eaten raw nor boiled with water, because our Redeemer is neither to be esteemed as a mere man, nor to be reasoned about, by human wisdom, as to how God could be incarnate. For everyone who believes our Redeemer to be a mere man—what else does such a one do than eat the raw flesh of the lamb, which flesh he refused to cook through understanding of His divinity?
But everyone who tries to examine the mysteries of His incarnation according to human wisdom wishes to boil the flesh of the lamb with water—that is, he wishes to penetrate the mystery of His dispensation through a dissolute knowledge. He, therefore, who desires to celebrate the solemnity of the Paschal joy, let him neither boil the lamb with water nor eat it raw, so that he may neither seek by human wisdom to penetrate the depth of that incarnation, nor believe in Him as in a mere man; but let him eat the flesh roasted with fire, so that he may know that all things are dispensed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Concerning which it is further rightly subjoined: 'You shall devour the head with the feet and entrails' (Exodus 12:9), because our Redeemer is both God, that is, before the ages, and man in the end of the ages.
And as we have already said before, brethren, we have learned by Paul's testimony that 'the head of Christ is God' (1 Corinthians 11:3). To devour the head of the lamb, therefore, is to receive His divinity by faith. But to devour the feet of the lamb is to seek out the footsteps of His humanity by loving and imitating them. And what are the entrails, if not the hidden and mystical commandments of His words? These we then devour when we take up the words of life with eagerness. In this word 'devouring,' what else is reproved but the torpor of our sloth? For we neither seek out His words and mysteries through our own effort, and we hear reluctantly the things spoken by others. 'Nor shall anything of it remain until morning' (Exodus
12:10), because His sayings are to be examined with great diligence, so that before the day of resurrection appears, all His commandments may be penetrated by understanding and doing in this night of the present life. But because it is very difficult that every sacred utterance can be understood, and every mystery of it be penetrated, it is rightly subjoined: 'But if anything is left over, you shall burn it with fire' (ibid.). We burn with fire what remains of the lamb when we humbly reserve to the power of the Holy Spirit that which we cannot understand and penetrate concerning the mystery of His incarnation, so that no one may proudly dare either to despise or to declare what he does not understand, but rather delivers it to the fire when he reserves it to the Holy Spirit.
Since, therefore, we have learned in what manner the Passover is to be eaten, let us now recognize by what sort of persons it ought to be eaten. There follows: 'And thus you shall eat it: You shall gird your loins' (ibid., 11). What is understood by the loins if not the delight of the flesh? Whence also the Psalmist entreats, saying: 'Burn my loins' (Psalm 26:2). For if he did not know that the pleasure of lust was in the loins, he would by no means have asked that they be burned. Whence, because the power of the devil prevailed most of all in the human race through luxury, it is said of him by the Lord's voice: 'His power is in his loins' (Job 40:16).
He, therefore, who eats the Passover ought to have his loins girded, so that he who keeps the solemnity of resurrection and incorruption may now no longer lie subject to corruption through vices, may subdue his pleasures, and restrain his flesh from luxury. For he has not known what the solemnity of incorruption is who still lies subject to corruption through incontinence. These things are hard to some, but 'narrow is the gate that leads to life' (Matthew 7:13-14). And we already have many examples of the continent. Whence it is also well subjoined: 'You shall have shoes on your feet' (Exodus 12:11). For what are our feet, if not our works? And what are the shoes, if not the skins of dead animals? Now shoes protect the feet.
But what are the dead animals from whose skins our feet are protected, if not the ancient fathers, who have gone before us to the eternal fatherland? While we behold their examples, we protect the feet of our own work. To have shoes on the feet, therefore, is to behold the life of the dead, and to guard our own footsteps from the wound of sin. 'Holding staves in your hands' (ibid.). What does the Law designate by the staff, if not pastoral watchfulness? And it is to be noted that first we are commanded to gird our loins, afterward to hold the staves, because they ought to undertake pastoral care who already know how to subdue in their own body the fluid tides of luxury, so that while they preach strong things to others, they themselves may not weakly succumb to soft desires. And it is well subjoined:
'And you shall eat in haste' (ibid.). Note, dearest brethren, note what is said: 'in haste.' Learn the commandments of God, the mysteries of the Redeemer, the joys of the heavenly fatherland, with haste, and take care to fulfill the precepts of life with haste. For although we know that we may do well today, whether it will be permitted tomorrow we do not know. Eat the Passover in haste, therefore—that is, pant after the solemnity of the heavenly fatherland. Let no one be sluggish on the journey of this life, lest he lose his place in the fatherland. Let no one weave delays into the pursuit of good endeavors, but let him complete what he has begun, lest it be by no means permitted to accomplish what he starts.
If we are not slothful toward the love of God, He whom we love helps us, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, throughout all ages of ages. Amen. At that time, two of the disciples of Jesus were going that same day to a village which was at a distance of sixty stadia from Jerusalem, named Emmaus, and they were talking with one another about all these things that had happened. And it came to pass that, while they conversed and questioned together, Jesus Himself, drawing near, went with them. But their eyes were held, that they should not recognize Him. And He said to them: 'What are these words that you exchange with one another as you walk, and are sad?' And one, whose name was Cleophas, answering, said to Him:
'Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem, and do you not know the things that have been done there in these days?' He said to them: 'What things?' And they said: 'Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in work and word before God and all the people; and how our chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to the condemnation of death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who would redeem Israel. And now, besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done. But also certain women from among us terrified us, who were at the tomb before light, and not finding His body, came saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who say that He lives.'
'And some of us went to the tomb, and found it just as the women had said, but Him they did not find.' And He said to them: 'O foolish and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things, and enter into His glory?' And beginning from Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things that were about Himself. And they drew near to the village to which they were going. And He made as though He would go farther. And they constrained Him, saying: 'Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent.' And He went in with them. And it came to pass, while He reclined with them, He took bread, and blessed and broke it, and held it out to them.
And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, and He vanished from their eyes. And they said to one another: 'Was not our heart burning within us while He spoke on the way and opened to us the Scriptures?' And rising up that same hour, they returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, saying: 'The Lord is truly risen, and has appeared to Simon.' And they themselves recounted the things that had been done on the way, and how they had recognized Him in the breaking of bread. To you who labor in daily solemnity, few things are to be spoken; and perhaps these will profit more usefully, because often the foods which suffice less are taken more avidly.
I have therefore determined to discuss the sense of the Gospel reading summarily, not word by word, lest a more prolix sermon of exposition should be able to burden your love. Behold, you have heard, dearest brethren, that as the two disciples walked on the way—not indeed believing, but yet speaking of Him—the Lord appeared, but did not show them the appearance which they would recognize. This, therefore, the Lord did outwardly in the eyes of the body which was being done among them inwardly in the eyes of the heart. For they themselves within their own selves both loved and doubted, while the Lord was outwardly present with them, and did not show who He was. To them, therefore, speaking of Him, He exhibited His presence, but from them, doubting of Him, He hid the appearance of His recognition.
He indeed exchanged words, rebuked the hardness of their understanding, opened the mysteries of Sacred Scripture that were about Himself, and yet, because He was still as a stranger to faith in their hearts, He made as though He would go farther. For 'to feign' we call 'to compose'; whence we also call composers of clay 'potters.' Therefore Truth, which is wholly simple, did nothing by duplicity, but showed Himself to them in body such as He was among them in mind. And they were to be tested, whether those who loved Him—even if not yet as God—could at least love Him as a stranger. But because they could not be estranged from charity, these with whom Truth was walking, they call Him as a stranger to their lodging.
But why do we say 'they call,' when it is written there: 'And they constrained Him'? From which example it is surely gathered that strangers are not only to be invited to lodging, but even to be drawn in. They set the table, offer food, and God, whom they had not recognized in the exposition of Sacred Scripture, they recognize in the breaking of bread. By hearing the precepts of God, therefore, they were not enlightened; by doing them they were enlightened, because it is written: 'Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified' (Romans 2:13). Whoever, therefore, wishes to understand what he has heard, let him hasten to fulfill in deed what he has already been able to understand. Behold, the Lord was not recognized while He spoke, and He deigned to be recognized while He was fed.
Love hospitality, therefore, dearest brethren; love the works of charity. For hence it is said through Paul: 'Let brotherly love remain in you, and do not forget hospitality; for by this some have pleased God, having received angels to their hospitality' (Hebrews 13:1-2). Hence Peter says: 'Be hospitable to one another without murmuring' (1 Peter 4:9). Hence Truth itself says: 'I was a guest, and you received Me' (Matthew 25:35). It is a much-renowned matter, handed down to us by the account of our elders. A certain householder with his whole house served with great zeal of hospitality; and while daily he received strangers at his table, on a certain day a certain stranger came among the others, and was led to the table.
And while the householder, according to his custom of humility, wished to pour water over his hands, having turned to take the pitcher, he suddenly did not find the one over whose hands he had wished to pour water. And while he wondered to himself at this happening, that same night the Lord said to him through a vision: 'On the other days you received Me in My members, but yesterday you received Me in My own self.' Behold, coming in judgment, He will say: 'What you did to one of the least of Mine, you did to Me' (Matthew 25:40). Behold, before the judgment, when He is received through His members, He also seeks out His receivers through His own self; and yet we are slothful toward the grace of hospitality. Consider, brethren, how great is the virtue of hospitality.
Receive Christ at your tables, that you may be worthy to be received by Him at the eternal banquets. Now offer hospitality to Christ the stranger, that in judgment He may not ignore you as strangers, but may receive you as His own into the kingdom—He Himself helping, who lives and reigns God unto ages of ages. Amen. At that time, Jesus manifested Himself again to His disciples at the sea of Tiberias. And He manifested Himself thus. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas who is called Didymus, and Nathanael, who was from Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples. Simon Peter says to them: 'I am going to fish.' They say to him: 'We also are coming with you.' And they went out, and got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing.
But when morning had come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not recognize that it was Jesus. Jesus therefore says to them: 'Children, have you anything to eat?' They answered Him: 'No.' And He said to them: 'Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find.' They cast it therefore, and now they were not able to draw it in for the multitude of fish. That disciple, therefore, whom Jesus loved says to Peter: 'It is the Lord.' Simon Peter, therefore, when he heard that it was the Lord, girded his tunic about him (for he was naked), and cast himself into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat (for they were not far from land, but about two hundred cubits away), dragging the net of fish. When they had come to land, therefore, they saw coals laid, and a fish laid upon them, and bread.
Jesus says to them: 'Bring some of the fish that you have now caught.' Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of great fishes, one hundred and fifty-three. And though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus says to them: 'Come, dine.' And no one of those reclining dared to ask Him: 'Who are You?'—knowing that it was the Lord. And Jesus came, and took bread, and gave it to them, and the fish likewise. This was now the third time that Jesus manifested Himself to His disciples, after He had risen from the dead. The reading of the holy Gospel which has just been read in your ears, my brethren, strikes the mind with a question, but by its striking it indicates a force of discernment.
For it may be asked why Peter, who was a fisherman before his conversion, returned after his conversion to fishing; and, when Truth says: 'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God' (Luke 9:62), why did he take up again what he had abandoned? But if the virtue of discernment is examined, it is more readily seen that assuredly the occupation which existed before conversion without sin—to take this up again even after conversion was no fault. For we know that Peter was a fisherman, but Matthew a tax-collector; and after his conversion Peter returned to fishing, but Matthew did not settle back into the business of the tax-office (On Penance, dist. 5, chap.
7), because it is one thing to seek a livelihood through fishing, another to increase money by the gains of the tax-office. For there are very many occupations which either scarcely or not at all can be carried on without sins. Those, therefore, which entangle a man in sin—to these it is necessary that the soul should not run back after conversion. It may also be asked why, while the disciples labored on the sea, the Lord stood on the shore after His resurrection, who before His resurrection walked on the waves of the sea in the presence of the disciples (Matthew 14:25). The reason for this matter is quickly recognized, if the very cause which was then present is weighed. For what does the sea signify but the present world, which dashes itself against the tumults of causes and the waves of a corruptible life?
What is figured by the solidity of the shore, if not that perpetuity of eternal rest? Because, therefore, the disciples were still amid the waves of mortal life, they labored on the sea. But because our Redeemer had already passed beyond the corruption of the flesh, after His resurrection He stood on the shore. As if, by the very mystery of His resurrection, He were speaking to the disciples about these matters, saying: 'I no longer appear to you on the sea, because I am not with you in the waves of disturbance.' Hence it is that in another place, after His resurrection, He says to those same disciples: 'These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you' (Luke 24:44).
For it was not that He was not with those to whom He appeared present in bodily form; but yet He now affirms that He is with them, from whose mortal body He was distant by the immortality of His flesh. What He there, placed with them, confesses—that He is not with them—this He also here indicates by the position of His body, when, while they are still sailing, He shows that He is already on the shore. But a great difficulty of the catch was made for the disciples, so that, when the Master came, a great sublimity of wonder might come to pass. He straightway said: 'Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find.' Twice in the holy Gospel it is read that the Lord commanded that the nets be cast for fishing—before the passion, namely, and after the resurrection.
But before our Redeemer suffered and rose again, He indeed commands the net to be cast for fishing, but whether it should be cast on the right or on the left, He does not command; whereas after the resurrection, appearing to the disciples, He commands the net to be cast on the right. In that catch so many were taken that the nets were torn; but in this one both many were taken, and the nets were not torn. But who does not know that the good are figured by the right, and the wicked by the left? That catch, therefore, in which it is not specially commanded on which side the net should be cast, designates the present Church, which gathers both good and wicked together, and does not choose whom it draws, because it is ignorant even of those whom it might choose.
But this catch, made after the Lord's resurrection, was cast on the right side only, because only the Church of the elect attains to seeing the glory of His brightness, which will have nothing of the work of the left. In that catch, on account of the multitude of fish, the net is torn, because now even the reprobate together with the elect enter in such numbers to the confession of the faith that they rend the very Church with heresies. But in this catch both many and great fish are taken, and the net is not torn, because the holy Church of the elect, resting in the continual peace of its Author, is now torn apart by no dissensions. But when such great fish had been taken, 'Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land.'
Now I believe that your love perceives what it is that Peter draws the net to land. To him, indeed, the holy Church is committed; to him it is specially said: 'Simon, son of John, do you love Me? Feed My sheep' (John 21:15-16). What, therefore, is afterward disclosed in word, this is now signified in deed. Because, therefore, the preacher of the Church separates us from the waves of this world, it is surely necessary that Peter should lead the net full of fish to land. For he draws the fish to the solidity of the shore, because by the voice of holy preaching he shows to the faithful the stability of the eternal fatherland. This he did by words, this by Epistles, this he does daily by the signs of miracles.
As often as through him we are turned to the love of eternal rest, as often as we are separated from the tumults of earthly things, what else are we than fish, cast within the net of faith, drawn to the shore? But when the net is said to be full of great fish, it is added also how many, namely one hundred and fifty-three. From a great mystery the number is not free; but the depth of so great a mystery awaits you who are attentive. For the evangelist would not skillfully express the sum of the quantity, unless he had judged it to be full of a sacred meaning. For you know that in the Old Testament every operation is enjoined through the commandments of the Decalogue, but in the New the power of that same operation is given through the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit to the multiplied faithful.
Which the prophet, declaring, says: 'The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety; and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him' (Isaiah 11:2). But he receives the operation in this Spirit who acknowledges the faith of the Trinity, so that he may believe both the Father and the Son and the same Holy Spirit to be of one power, and may confess them to be of one substance. Because, therefore, the seven which we mentioned above are given more amply through the New Testament, but the ten precepts through the Old, all our virtue and operation can be fully comprehended by ten and seven. Let us therefore multiply ten and seven by the triangle, and they come to fifty-one.
Which number is certainly not free from a great mystery, because in the Old Testament we read that the fiftieth year was commanded to be called the jubilee (Leviticus 25:11), in which, namely, the whole people should rest from all labor. But true rest is in unity. For the envious cannot be one; for where there is the rending of division, there is not true rest. Let us therefore multiply fifty and one by the triangle, that they may become one hundred and fifty-three. Because, therefore, all our operation, offered in the faith of the Trinity, tends toward rest, we multiply ten and seven three times, that we may arrive at fifty and one.
And our true rest is then, when we already acknowledge that very brightness of the Trinity, which we hold for certain to be in the unity of the Godhead. We multiply fifty and one three times, and we hold the sum of the elect in the heavenly fatherland as, it were, the number of one hundred and fifty-three fishes. After the Lord's resurrection, therefore, the net cast was worthy to catch as many fish as should designate only the elect citizens of the heavenly fatherland. But amid these things, both yesterday's reading of the holy Gospel and today's admonishes us that we ought vigilantly to consider why our Lord and Redeemer, after His resurrection, is read to have eaten roasted fish. For it is not free from mystery that which is repeated in the deed.
For in this reading He ate bread and roasted fish, but in that one which was read yesterday (Luke 24:13ff.), together with the roasted fish He ate also a honeycomb. What do we believe the roasted fish to signify, if not the very Mediator of God and men, who suffered? For He deigned to lie hidden in the waters of the human race, He willed to be caught in the snare of our death, and, as it were, was roasted by tribulation in the time of His passion. But He who deigned to become a roasted fish in the passion became for us a honeycomb in the resurrection. Or does He who wished to figure the tribulation of His passion in the roasted fish wish to express the twofold nature of His person in the honeycomb? For a honeycomb is honey in wax; and honey in wax is divinity in humanity.
This does not disagree with that reading either, for He ate fish and bread. He who could be roasted like a fish by reason of His humanity feeds us by His divinity, He who says: 'I am the living bread which came down from heaven' (John 6:41,51). He therefore ate roasted fish and bread, so that by His very food He might show us that He both endured suffering from our humanity and provided for our refreshment from His divinity. And if we look at this attentively, we see how it fits us too for imitation. For thus the Redeemer reveals His own deeds, so as to pave the way of imitation for us who follow.
Behold, in His food our Lord willed to join a honeycomb to the roasted fish, because plainly He receives into His body unto eternal rest those who, while they here feel tribulations for the Lord, do not withdraw from the love of inward sweetness. With the roasted fish the honeycomb is taken, because those who here endure affliction for the truth are there satisfied with true sweetness. 6. It is also to be noted that the Lord is described as having held His last banquet with seven disciples; for Peter and Thomas, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples are recorded to have been present at it.
Why does He celebrate the last banquet with seven disciples, unless He declares that only those who are full of the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit will be with Him in the eternal refreshment? In seven days too this whole present age unfolds, and perfection is often signified by the number seven. In the last banquet, therefore, they feast on the presence of the Truth who now, by zeal for perfection, transcend earthly things—those whom the love of this world does not bind, and whose begun desires, though it in some way clamours against them through temptations, it nevertheless does not blunt. Concerning this final banquet it is said elsewhere through John: 'Blessed are they who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb' (Rev. 19:9).