Sermons 16

In today's reading the attentive hearer has learned why the Lord of heaven, the Restorer of all things, entered earthly and servile dwellings. But it is no wonder if he condescendingly drew near to all things, who mercifully deigned to succor all. 'When Jesus,' it says, 'had come into the house of Peter, he saw his mother-in-law lying and in a fever' (Matt. 8:14). You see what thing invited Christ to the house of Peter: surely not the pleasure of reclining at table, but the infirmity of the one lying sick; not the necessity of dining, but the occasion of healing; the work of divine power, not the pomp of a human banquet. In the house of Peter not wine, but tears were being poured out: there it was not the care of the banquet, but the care of the ailing that troubled the household: there it was a fever, not gluttony, that was blazing.

Whence Christ entered there not to partake of feasts, but to restore life. God seeks men, not human things: he desires to give heavenly things, he does not covet to find earthly things: Christ therefore came to receive us, not to seek our possessions. 'When he had come,' it says, 'into the house of Peter, he saw his mother-in-law lying and in a fever.' Having entered into the house of Peter, Christ saw that for which he had come: he did not regard the quality of the house, nor the crowds of those meeting him, nor the pomp of those greeting him, nor the concourse of the household; certainly not the very ornament of preparation, but he beheld the groaning of the ailing one, he attended to the burning of the fever-stricken.

He saw the peril of the despaired-of woman, and straightway he stretched out his hand to the work of his own deity: nor did Christ recline at the human table before the woman who was lying sick rose up to divine things. 'He touched,' it says, 'her hand, and the fever left her.' You see how the fever departs from her whom Christ has touched: there sickness does not stand, where the Author of health is present; there no death has access, where the entrance of the Life-giver has come. 'He touched,' it says, 'her hand.' What need was there of touching, where there was the right of commanding? But Christ touched the woman's hand unto life, because Adam had received death from the woman's hand. He touched her hand: that what the hand of the presumptuous woman had lost, the hand of the Author might repair. He touched her hand.

That the hand might receive pardon, which had plucked the sentence of death. 'And she arose,' it says, 'and ministered to him.' Did Christ then need the service of a woman—and of a woman advanced in years, of extreme old age, weighed down with sons? So in the house of Peter was there no home-born slave, no servant, no member of the family, no kinsman, certainly no wife, who might anticipate the mother's service? And, to sum up, did Peter himself not see the grounds for his own shame, that his mother-in-law, an old woman, a disciple, should do for the Master what he owed? Brethren, Christ did not demand human service from her upon whom he had bestowed the ministry of his divinity: but he permitted her to minister as a sign of the health restored. Christ thus puts diseases to flight, that he soon restores the former strength:

where art heals, there the weariness of infirmity remains; where power heals, there languor leaves no trace. But in this choice, if we wish to know what of spiritual understanding lies hidden, let us not seek the little flowers of words: he who seeks the fruit of satiety despises the pleasant things of the fields: violets, roses, lilies, the narcissus are pleasing flowers, but bread is more pleasing. What fragrance is to the nostrils, that is the ornament of speech to the ears; what the bread of life gives, that knowledge gives to salvation. The pleasure of eloquence therefore must be set aside, when the strength of knowledge is demanded. 'When Jesus,' it says, 'had come into the house of Peter.' Christ came to the house of Peter, that the house of Peter might come to Christ.

Then Christ came to the house of Peter, when he entered the dwellings of our flesh. 'When Jesus had come into the house of Peter' (Matt. 8). What is the house of Peter? That house of which the Lord says: 'And you, Bethlehem, house of Judah, are not the least among the princes of Judah; for out of you shall come forth a leader who shall rule my people Israel' (Mic. 5). Whence also the Apostle: 'Of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God blessed forever' (Rom. 9). 'When he had come into the house of Peter, he saw his mother-in-law lying and fever-stricken.' He saw the synagogue lying in the darkness of her own faithlessness, sinking under the burden of her sins, feverish with vices even unto frenzy:

and therefore he touched her hand, because not by word only, but also by hands does he work the salvation of the Jewish nation. Hear the prophet: 'But our God, our King before the ages, has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.' He touched her hand: that by the blood of the prophets his hand might be cleansed, before it should receive the sacrament of ecclesiastical ministry. 'And she arose and ministered.' Hence it is that she who lay is raised up, and ministers to Christ, while now she sanctifies her hands in good works, which before she defiled with evil works. 'When evening was come,' it says, 'they brought to him many that had demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word.'

How can this be understood after a human manner, that, the day being scorned, in the evening those eager for salvation should carry to the remedies of salvation many, and those grievously wounded? But it is evening, when the day of the age is ended, when the world declines from the light of the times. Late did the Restorer of light come, that to us Gentiles, who came in the night of the ages, he might render an eternal day. 'And when evening was come, they brought to him many that had demons.' In the evening, that is, in the latest time, the pious and solemn devotion of the apostles offers us, the Gentiles, to God: and the demons are driven from us, who used to command us to the worship of idols. Hear the prophet: 'All the gods of the nations are demons' (Ps. 95:5). For, being ignorant of the one God, we served innumerable gods in sacrilegious and most sordid servitude.

'And he cast out the spirits with a word' (Matt. 8:16). Because Christ came to us not in flesh, he came in word: where therefore faith came by hearing, and hearing by the word, it made us free from the demoniac servitude, and rendered the demons captives out of their impious dominion. Hence it is that the demons are tormented under our hands as we command them—they who used to subject us to wood, to cast us down before stones, and daily to vex us with empty figures in vain fear. Now, brethren, let not unfaithfulness recall us to their servitude: let us not be ensnared by auguries, nor deceived by divination, nor caught by lots, nor

be led astray by omens, nor be seduced by deaths, nor be taken captive by pestilences that pant after us; but let us commend ourselves and our deeds to the Lord, let us entrust them to the Father, let us believe God; because he orders the time of men as God, and therefore directs the deeds of his sons as a Father, and as the Lord does not forsake the care of his household.