Latin original · 37 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 1461:222–1461:258 (392 verses in all)
Because therefore this Spirit teaches both uprightness and simplicity, He had to be shown both in fire and in a dove, so that every heart which is touched by His grace might become both tranquil with the gentleness of meekness, and kindled with the zeal of justice. But at the last it must be sought why upon our very Redeemer, the Mediator of God and men, He appeared through a dove, but in the disciples through fire. Surely the only-begotten Son of God is the Judge of the human race. But who could bear His justice, if, before He had gathered us through meekness, He had willed to examine our faults through the zeal of uprightness? Man therefore, made for men, showed Himself gentle to men. He willed not to strike sinners, but to gather them.
He willed first to correct meekly, that He might have those whom He would afterward save in judgment. In a dove therefore the Spirit had to appear over Him, who was coming not now to strike sins through zeal, but still to tolerate them through meekness. But on the contrary the Holy Spirit had to be demonstrated over the disciples in fire, so that these who were simply men, and therefore sinners, He might kindle as spiritual servants against themselves, and that the sins which God spared through meekness, they themselves might punish in themselves through penance. For not even they themselves could be without sin, who adhered to the heavenly teaching, John attesting, who says:
'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us' (1 John 1:8). In fire therefore He came in men, but in a dove He appeared in the Lord, because our sins, which the Lord tolerates piously through meekness, we ought to behold cautiously through the zeal of uprightness, and always to burn them up with the ardor of penance. Therefore through the dove the Spirit was shown in the Redeemer, but through fire in men, because by as much as the severity of our Judge has been tempered toward us, by so much ought our weakness to be kindled against itself. The reason therefore of the four propositions being completed, let us pass to contemplating the gifts of the same Spirit. Of this Spirit it is written:
'His Spirit has adorned the heavens' (Job 26:13). For the adornments of the heavens are the virtues of preachers. Which adornments Paul enumerates, saying: 'To one 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, to another the grace of healings in the one Spirit, to another the working of powers, to another prophecy, to another the discerning of spirits, to another kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of speeches. But all these one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each as He wills' (1 Corinthians 12:8ff.). As many therefore as are the goods of preachers, so many are the adornments of the heavens. Hence again it is written: 'By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established' (Psalm 33:6).
For the Word of the Lord is the Son of the Father. But that the same heavens, namely the holy apostles, and that the whole holy Trinity together might be shown to have worked, at once it is joined concerning the divinity of the Holy Spirit: 'And by the spirit of His mouth all their power' (ibid.). The power therefore of the heavens was taken from the Spirit, because they would not have presumed to go against the powers of this world, unless the fortitude of the Holy Spirit had made them firm. For we know what sort of teachers of the holy Church they were before the coming of this Spirit, and after His coming we behold of what fortitude they were made.
Surely this very shepherd of the Church, at whose most sacred body we sit, let the maidservant portress being questioned tell of what great weakness and of what great dread he was before the coming of the Spirit. For struck down by the single voice of a woman, while he feared to die, he denied life (John 18:17). And then Peter denied on earth, when the thief confessed on the cross (Luke 23:41-42). But let us hear of what great dread this man was after the coming of the Spirit. An assembly of magistrates and elders is convened; it is announced to the beaten apostles that they must not speak in the name of Jesus: Peter with great authority answered: 'We ought to obey God rather than men' (Acts 5:29).
And again: 'If it be just in the sight of God to hear you rather than God, judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard' (Acts 4:19-20). And they indeed went rejoicing from the sight of the council, because they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus (Acts 5:41). Behold, Peter rejoices in the beatings, who before feared in words. And he who before, questioned by the voice of a maidservant, feared, after the coming of the Holy Spirit, beaten, tramples down the might of princes. It is pleasing to raise the eyes of faith to the power of this Worker, and to consider here and there the Fathers of the New and Old Testament.
Behold, with those same eyes of faith opened, I gaze upon David, Amos, Daniel, Peter, Paul, Matthew, and I wish to consider of what sort a craftsman this holy Spirit is, but in my very consideration I fail. For He fills a boy playing the harp, and makes him a psalmist (1 Samuel 16:18). He fills a herdsman plucking sycamores, and makes him a prophet (Amos 7:14). He fills an abstinent boy, and makes him the judge of elders (Daniel 13:45ff.). He fills a fisherman, and makes him a preacher (Matthew 4:19). He fills a persecutor, and makes him the teacher of the nations (Acts 9:1ff.). He fills a publican, and makes him an evangelist (Luke 5:27-28).
O of what sort a craftsman is this Spirit! No delay is made in learning anything that He has willed. As soon as He has touched the mind, He teaches, and to have touched alone is to have taught. For He suddenly, as He illuminates, transforms the human soul; He suddenly takes away from it what it was, He suddenly displays what it was not. Let us weigh what sort of holy preachers of ours He found on this present day, and what sort He made them. Surely those who sat in one chamber for fear of the Jews knew each the tongue of his own birth, and yet not even in that same tongue which they knew did they presume to speak Christ openly. The Spirit came, and taught them in the mouth through the diversity of tongues, but in the mind strengthened them by authority (Acts 2:2ff.).
They began to speak Christ even in a foreign tongue, who before feared to speak of Him even in their own tongue. For the inflamed heart despised the torments of the body, which before it feared; it overcame the force of carnal dread through the love of the Creator. And those who before succumbed to their adversaries through dread, now presided over them by authority. He therefore who raised them to the summit of such great loftiness—what else should I say, except that He made the minds of earthly men into heavens? Weigh, most beloved brethren, after the incarnation of the only-begotten Son of God, of what sort is this present solemnity of the coming of the Holy Spirit. For as that is, so also is this honorable.
In the former, God, remaining in Himself, took up man; but in the latter, men, receiving Him as He came down from above, took up God. In the former, God was by nature made man; in the latter, men were made gods by adoption. If therefore we do not wish to remain carnal unto death, let us, dearest brethren, love this life-giving Spirit. But because flesh does not know the Spirit, someone may perhaps say within himself, out of carnal reasoning: 'How can I love Him whom I do not know?' This we too grant, because a mind intent upon visible things does not know how to see the Invisible. For it thinks of nothing but visible things, and even when it is not acting upon them, it draws their images within; and while it lies among bodily images, it cannot rise up to things incorporeal.
Hence it comes to pass that a mind knows its Creator so much the worse, the more familiarly it carries a bodily creature in its thought. But since we cannot see God, we have something we may do, whereby a path may be made by which the eye of our understanding may come to Him. Surely Him whom we can in no way see in Himself, we can already see in His servants. And when we behold them doing wondrous things, it becomes certain to us that God dwells in their minds. In an incorporeal matter, then, let us draw a lesson from corporeal things. For none of us, by gazing into its orb, is able to look upon the sun clearly rising, because eyes strained upon its rays are dazzled back; but we look upon the mountains lit by the sun, and because the sun has now risen we see it.
Since therefore we cannot see the Sun of righteousness in Himself, let us behold the mountains lit by His brightness, namely the holy apostles, who shine with virtues and flash with miracles, whom the brightness of the newborn Sun flooded; and though in Himself He is invisible, through them He offered Himself visible to us, as through lighted mountains. For the power of the Godhead in itself is like the sun in heaven; the power of the Godhead in men is a sun upon the earth. Let us therefore gaze upon the Sun of righteousness on earth, whom we cannot see in heaven, so that while we walk over this earth by Him with the unstumbling foot of good work, we may at length lift up our eyes to heaven to behold Him. But our journey upon earth is made with unstumbling foot, if God and neighbour be loved with an undivided mind.
For neither is God truly loved without the neighbour, nor the neighbour truly loved without God. Hence it is that, as we have already said in another sermon, the same Spirit is read to have been given to the disciples twice: first by the Lord while He dwelt on earth, afterwards by the Lord as He presided in heaven. On earth indeed He is given that the neighbour may be loved; from heaven, that God may be loved. But why first on earth, afterwards from heaven, unless that it may be plainly given to understand that, according to the word of John, 'He who loves not his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he sees not?' (1 John 4:20). Let us therefore love our neighbour, brethren; let us love him who is beside us, that we may be able to attain to the love of Him who is above us.
Let the mind consider in the neighbour what it may render to God, that it may perfectly deserve to rejoice in God together with the neighbour. Then shall we attain to that joy of the heavenly assembly, of which we have now received the pledge in the Holy Spirit. To that end let us strive with all our love, wherein we shall rejoice without end. There is the holy fellowship of the citizens on high; there is sure solemnity; there is secure rest; there is true peace, which is now no longer left to us but given, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen. At that time Jesus spoke this parable to the crowds: 'A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none.'
And he said to the keeper of the vineyard: 'Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down therefore; why does it even take up the ground?' But he answering said to him: 'Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it and put on a basket of dung. And if indeed it bears fruit, well; but if not, in time to come you shall cut it down.' And He was teaching in their synagogue on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bent over, and could not at all look upward. When Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and said to her: 'Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.' And He laid His hands upon her; and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God, and so forth.
Our Lord and Redeemer speaks to us through His Gospel sometimes by words, sometimes by deeds; sometimes one thing by words and another by deeds; but sometimes the same thing by words as by deeds. For you have heard from the Gospel, brethren, two things: the barren fig tree, and the bent woman, and to both was mercy shown. The former He spoke by a parable, the latter He wrought by a real act. But the barren fig tree signifies the same thing as the bent woman, and the fig tree spared the same thing as the woman made straight. The lord of the vineyard came a third time to the fig tree and found no fruit at all, and the woman who was made straight had been bent for eighteen years.
Now by the number of eighteen years is signified this: that the lord of the vineyard is said to have come a third time to the barren fig tree. Since therefore, by way of preface, we have run over the whole in summary, let us now discuss the several parts in the order of the reading. 'A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none.' What does the fig tree designate but human nature? What does the bent woman announce by signifying, but that same nature? It was both well planted like the fig tree, and well set upright like the woman; but fallen by its own choice into fault, it keeps neither the fruit of action nor the state of uprightness. For collapsing into sin:
collapsing by its own will, because it refused to bear the fruit of obedience, it lost the state of uprightness. Made after the likeness of God, since it did not persist in its own dignity, it scorned to keep what it had been planted or created to be. Three times the lord of the vineyard came to the fig tree, because he sought out the nature of the human race before the law, under the law, and under grace, by waiting, admonishing, and visiting. 'And he said to the keeper of the vineyard: Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none.' He came before the law, because by natural understanding it was made known to each one, by the example of himself, how he ought to act toward his neighbour. He came under the law, when by commanding He taught.
He came after the law through grace, because by showing forth the presence of His compassion He made it manifest. Yet He complains that in the three years He found no fruit, because the naturally inspired law does not correct, nor do the precepts instruct, nor do the miracles of His incarnation convert, the minds of certain depraved men. But what is expressed by the keeper of the vineyard, unless the order of prelates? Who, while they preside over the Church, indeed bear the care of the Lord's vineyard. For the first keeper of this vineyard was the apostle Peter. Him we unworthy ones follow, in so far as, for your instruction, we labour by teaching, entreating, and rebuking. But now it must be heard with great fear what is said to the keeper of the vineyard concerning the barren tree: 'Cut it down;'
'why does it even take up the ground?' Each person, according to his own measure, in so far as he holds a place in the present life, if he does not show forth the fruit of good work, like a barren tree takes up the ground, because in that place where he himself is, he denies to others also the occasion of working. But any powerful man in this world, if he has no fruit of good work, even sets an impediment before others, because whoever are under him are pressed, by the example of his wickedness, as by the shadow of his perversity. Above stands the barren tree, and beneath lies the sterile ground.
The shadow of the barren tree is thickened above, and the ray of the sun is by no means allowed to descend to the ground, because while any subjects behold the perverse examples of a perverse patron, they too, remaining barren, are deprived of the light of truth. And pressed by the shadow, they do not receive the sun's warmth, because they remain cold toward God from that very source by which they are ill-sheltered in this world. But of any such perverse and powerful man there is now scarcely any inquiry before God. For after he has ruined himself, the only thing to be asked is why he oppresses others as well. Whence the lord of that vineyard well says: 'Why does it even take up the ground?' For he takes up the ground who burdens the minds of others; he takes up the ground who does not exercise in good works the place he holds.
But nevertheless it is ours to plead on behalf of such persons. For let us hear what the keeper of the vineyard says: 'Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it.' What is it to dig about the fig tree, but to rebuke barren minds? For every ditch is at the bottom. And without doubt rebuke, while it shows the mind to itself, humbles it. As often therefore as we reprove someone for his sin, we dig, as it were, by a duty of cultivation, about the barren tree. But after the digging, let us hear what is said: 'And I will put on a basket of dung.' What is the basket of dung, but the memory of sins? For the sins of the flesh are called dung. Whence also it is said through the prophet: 'The beasts have rotted in their own dung' (Joel 1:17).
For the beasts to rot in their own dung is for the carnal to end their life in the stench of gluttony. And so, as often as we rebuke a carnal mind for its sins, as often as we bring back to its memory the vices formerly committed, we, as it were, turn a basket of dung upon the barren tree, that it may recall the memory of the evils it has done, and grow fat, as if from the stench, unto the grace of compunction. The basket of dung is therefore put to the root of the tree when the memory of thought is touched by the conscience of its own perversity. And when the mind, through penance, rouses itself to lamentation, and reforms itself unto the grace of good work, then, as if by the touch of dung, the root of the heart returns to fruitfulness of work:
it bewails what it remembers having done, it is displeased with itself for the kind it recalls having been; it turns its intention against itself, and kindles its spirit toward better things. From the stench, therefore, the tree revives unto fruit, because from the consideration of sin the soul rouses itself up to good works. And there are very many who hear rebukes, and yet scorn to return to penance, and, barren toward God, stand green in this world. But let us hear what the keeper of the fig tree adds: 'If indeed it bears fruit; but if not, in time to come you shall cut it down.' For assuredly, whoever will not here grow fat unto fruitfulness through rebuke, shall there fall whence he can no longer rise again through penance;
and in time to come it shall be cut down, although here it seems to stand green without fruit. And He was teaching in their synagogue on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years. A little before we already said that the threefold coming of the lord to the barren fig tree was signified by the number of eighteen years applied to the bent woman. For on the sixth day man was made (Genesis 1:27), and on the same sixth day all the works of the Lord were perfected. But the number six, drawn into a triangle, makes eighteen. Since therefore man, who was made on the sixth day, would not have perfect works, but before the law, under the law, and at the outset of dawning grace was infirm, the woman was bent for eighteen years.
And she was bent over, and could not at all look upward. Every sinner who thinks of earthly things and does not seek heavenly ones cannot look upward, because while he follows lower desires, he is bent away from the uprightness of his own mind, and always sees that which he thinks of without ceasing. Return to your own hearts, dearest brethren; look always at what you turn over in your thoughts every hour. One thinks of honours, another of money, another of the ambition of estates. All these things are in the depths, and when the mind is entangled in such things, it is bent from the uprightness of its state. And because it does not rise up to heavenly desire, like the bent woman it can by no means look upward.
When Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and said to her: 'Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.' And He laid His hand upon her, and immediately she was made straight. He called and He set upright, because He enlightened and He aided. He calls, but does not set upright, when indeed we are enlightened by His grace, but, our merits demanding it, we cannot be aided. For very often we see what ought to be done, but we do not fulfil it in deed. We strive, and we grow weak. The mind's judgement beholds uprightness, but to this the strength of work succumbs, because assuredly it now belongs to the penalty of sin that good may indeed be beheld by gift, but yet it may happen that, by desert, one is driven back from what is beheld.
For habitual fault binds the mind, so that it cannot at all rise to uprightness. It tries, and it slips, because where it long persisted willingly, there, even when it is unwilling, it falls under compulsion. Well is it said of this our bending, in the type of the human race, through the Psalmist: 'I am bent down and humbled utterly' (Psalm 37:7). For having contemplated that man had been created to gaze upon the supernal light, but, cast onto the shores by the demands of his sins, carries the darkness of his mind, does not seek the things above but is intent upon the lowest, in no way desires the heavenly, and ever turns over earthly things in his soul, he cried out in himself that which he grieved for concerning his own race, saying: 'I am bent down and humbled utterly.'
For, losing the contemplation of heavenly things, if man thought only of what is necessary for the flesh, he would be bent down and humbled, but yet not utterly. Whom therefore not only necessity casts down from supernal thoughts, but even unlawful pleasure lays low, he is not only bent, but utterly bent. Hence another prophet says of unclean spirits: 'Who said to your soul, Bow down, that we may pass over' (Isaiah 51:23). For the soul stands upright when it desires the things above, and is in no way bent to the lowest. But when the malignant spirits behold it standing in its own uprightness, they cannot pass over it. For to pass over is theirs, namely to scatter their unclean desires upon it.
They say therefore, 'Bow down, that we may pass over,' because if the soul does not cast itself down to desire the lowest things, their perversity in no way prevails against it; and they cannot pass over it, whom they greatly dread standing rigid against them in supernal intention. We therefore, dearest brethren, let us not give a way to the malignant spirits within us, when we covet earthly things, when we are bent down to desire temporal things. Let us therefore be ashamed to covet earthly things, and to offer the backs of our minds to the adversaries who mount upon them. He who is bent always gazes at the earth, and he who seeks the lowest does not remember with what price he was redeemed. Hence also it is said through Moses that whoever is oppressed by a hump should by no means be advanced to the priesthood (Leviticus 21:20).
And as many of us as have been redeemed by the blood of Christ are made members of that same high priest. Whence it is also said to us through Peter: 'But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood' (1 Peter 2:9). But he who bears a hump always gazes at the lowest things. He is therefore repelled from the priesthood, because whoever is intent only upon earthly things is himself a witness to himself that he is not a member of the high priest. Hence again the fish that have no fins are forbidden to be eaten by the faithful people (Leviticus 11:10). For the fish that have the fins of scales are wont even to give leaps above the waters. What then are figured by the finned fish, but chosen souls?
These indeed alone pass over into the body of the heavenly Church, which, supported now by the fins of virtues, know how to give leaps through heavenly desire, so as to reach for the things above by contemplation, although in themselves they again fall back from mortal flesh. If therefore we have now recognized the good things of the heavenly homeland, let it displease us, dearest brethren, that we are bent. Let the bent woman and the barren tree be set before our eyes. Let us remember the evils we have done; let us cast to the root of the heart the basket of dung, that then, in the fruit of recompense, that may grow fat which here reeked for us through penance. And if we cannot work the sum of virtues, God Himself rejoices in our lamentation.
For from the very beginning of righteousness we shall please Him, we who punish the unjust things we have done. Nor shall there be delay in weeping, because abiding joys quickly wipe away the passing tears. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen. At that time Jesus said to His disciples: 'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever will save his soul shall lose it; and whoever will lose his soul for my sake shall save it. For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but loses himself, and suffers the loss of himself?'
'For whoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when He comes in His majesty, and that of the Father, and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.' Because our Lord and Redeemer came into the world as a new man, He gave new precepts to the world. For to our old life, nourished in vices, He set in opposition the contrariety of His newness. For what did the old, the carnal man know, but to keep his own, to seize another's if he could, to covet if he could not? But the heavenly physician applies to each several vice its counteracting medicine.
For just as in the art of medicine hot things are cured by cold, cold by hot, so our Lord set contrary counsels against sins, so that He might enjoin continence on the wanton, largesse on the grasping, meekness on the wrathful, humility on the proud. Certainly, when He set new commands before those who follow Him, He said: 'Unless a man renounces all that he possesses, he cannot be my disciple' (Luke 14:33). As if He plainly said: You who, by the old manner, covet what is another's, by the zeal of a new conversion give away even what is your own. But let us hear what He says in this reading: 'Whoever will come after me, let him deny himself.' There it is said that we deny our own things; here it is said that we deny ourselves.
And perhaps it is not laborious for a man to leave his own things, but it is very laborious to leave himself. For it is a lesser thing to deny what one has, but it is a very great thing to deny what one is. Now to us who come to Him the Lord enjoined that we renounce our own possessions, because whoever we are who come to the contest of faith, we take up a wrestling against the malignant spirits. But the malignant spirits possess nothing of their own in this world. Naked, therefore, we ought to wrestle with the naked. For if anyone clothed wrestles with a naked man, he is more quickly thrown to the ground, because he has something by which he may be gripped. For what are all earthly things but certain garments of the body? Whoever, then, hastens to the combat against the devil, let him cast off his garments, lest he be overcome.