For the soul's appetite must be restrained from the pleasure of the eyes, from the pleasure of the ears, from the pleasure of smelling, tasting, and touching. But because this self-restraint is in part practiced before God, that He may be pleased in the inward joy of the conscience, and in part before men only, that human glory may be won, therefore five are called wise and five foolish; yet both are virgins, because both practice continence, although each rejoices in a different kindling. Now the lamps are the works done according to this continence, because they are carried in the hands. And it was said: 'Let your works shine before men' (Matt. 5:16). 'And they all took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.'
We must therefore understand that those spoken of are reckoned under the name of Christ. For those who are not Christians cannot come to meet Christ the bridegroom. But the five foolish, when they had taken their lamps, took no oil with them. For many, although they hope greatly in the goodness of Christ, yet have no joy while they live continently, except in the praises of men. Therefore they have no oil with them. For I judge that this very gladness is signified by oil. For this reason it says: 'God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness' (Ps. 44:8). But he who does not rejoice because he inwardly pleases God has no oil with him.
But the prudent took oil in their vessels with their lamps, that is, they placed the gladness of good works in their heart and conscience, as the Apostle admonishes: 'Let a man prove himself,' he says, 'and then he shall have glory in himself alone, and not in another' (Gal. 6:4). But while the bridegroom delayed, they all slumbered; because from both kinds of continent men—both those who exult before God and those who rest content in the praises of men—they die within this interval of time, until at the coming of the Lord the resurrection of the dead takes place. But at midnight, that is, when no one knows or expects it; since the Lord Himself says: 'But of that day and hour no one knows' (Matt. 24:36);
and the Apostle: 'The day of the Lord will so come as a thief in the night' (1 Thess. 5:2): by which it is signified that He lies wholly hidden when He comes. A cry was made: 'Behold, the bridegroom comes; go out to meet him.' 'In the twinkling of an eye and at the last trumpet we shall all rise again' (1 Cor. 15:52). Therefore all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps, that is, the accounts of their works that must be rendered. For 'we must all be presented before the tribunal of Christ, that there each one may receive what he has done in the body, whether good or evil' (2 Cor. 5:10). And the foolish said to the wise: 'Give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' For those whose deeds are propped up by the praise of others fail when that praise is withdrawn;
and by habit the soul always seeks that from which it is accustomed to take joy. And so they wish to have before God—who is the searcher of the heart—the testimony of men, who do not see the heart. But what did the wise answer? 'Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you.' For each one shall render account for himself, nor is anyone aided by another's testimony before God, to whom the secrets of the heart are manifest; and each one scarcely suffices for himself, so that his own conscience may bear him witness. For 'who shall boast that he has a clean heart?' (Prov. 20:9). Hence it is that the Apostle says: 'But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man's day; but neither do I judge my own self' (1 Cor. 4:3).
Wherefore, since concerning himself each man can either not at all, or scarcely, pass a true sentence, how can he judge concerning another, since 'no one knows what is done within a man, except the spirit of the man' (1 Cor. 2:11)? 'Go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.' They are not to be thought to have given counsel, but to have recalled the fault of the foolish indirectly. For it is flatterers who sell oil, who by praising things either false or unknown send souls into error, and by procuring for them empty joys as though for fools, receive some reward for these—whether of food, or of money, or of honor, or of some temporal advantage—while they do not understand what has been said: 'Those who call you happy send you into error' (Isa. 3:12).
But it is better to be rebuked by a righteous man than to be praised by a sinner. 'The righteous shall correct me in mercy,' it says, 'and shall reprove me; but let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head' (Ps. 140:5). 'Go therefore rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves'; that is, let us now see how they help you, who have been accustomed to sell you praises and to lead you into error, so that you might seek glory not before God but from men. But while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; that is, while they were bending themselves toward the things that are outside and accustomed to seek joy there—because they knew not inward joys—there came He who judges: and those who were ready;
that is, those to whom conscience bore good testimony before God, 'entered in with him to the marriage'; that is, where the soul, made pure, is to be joined to the pure, perfect, and everlasting Word of God to be made fruitful. 'And the door was shut'; that is, after those had been received who are transformed into the angelic life. For 'we shall all rise again,' it says, 'but we shall not all be changed' (1 Cor. 15:51): the entrance to the kingdom of heaven is closed. For after judgment there lies open no place for prayers or merits. 'But last of all the other virgins also come, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us.' It is not said that they bought oil;
and therefore they are to be understood as returning to the imploring of God amid straits and great afflictions, since no joy from the praises of others any longer remained. But great is His severity after judgment, whose ineffable mercy before judgment was bestowed beforehand. And so, answering, He says: 'Amen I say to you, I know you not': namely, according to that rule by which the art of God—that is, the wisdom of God—does not admit into His joy those who were seen to do something according to His precepts not before God, but that they might please men. And thus He concludes: 'Watch therefore, for you know not the day nor the hour.' Not only of that final time when the bridegroom is to come, but each one knows not the day and hour of his own falling asleep.
But whoever is ready even up to sleep, that is, up to death which is owed to all, will also be found ready when that voice sounds at midnight, at which all shall be roused to wake. 4. But as to the fact that He said the virgins came to meet the bridegroom, I think it is to be understood thus: that she who is called the bride is composed of these very virgins—just as, if all Christians were said to hasten together into the Church, the children might be said to run together to their mother, since she who is called the mother is composed of these very gathered children. For now the Church is betrothed, and is a virgin to be led to the wedding, that is, when she keeps herself from worldly corruption:
but at that time she will wed, when, with all mortality perishing in her, she shall enjoy an immortal union. 'I have betrothed you,' he says, 'to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ' (2 Cor. 11:2). 'You,' he says, 'a virgin'—concluding from the plural to the singular. Therefore they can be called both virgins and a virgin. But why five are named, has, as it seems to me, been explained. But 'now we see in a riddle, but then face to face; and now in part, but then wholly' (1 Cor. 13:12).
But that we now discern something in Scripture as in a riddle and in part, which nevertheless is according to the catholic faith, comes from that pledge which the virgin Church received at the lowly coming of her bridegroom—she who at His final coming, when He shall come in brightness, is to be wedded, when she shall gaze upon Him face to face. For 'He has given us the pledge, the Holy Spirit,' as the Apostle says (2 Cor. 5:5). And therefore this exposition regards nothing as certain except that it be according to the faith; nor does it prejudge other expositions which might no less have been according to the faith. LX. 'But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son of man, but the Father alone' (Matt. 24:36).
Just as God is said to know even when He makes another to know, as it is written: 'The Lord your God tests you, that He may know whether you love Him' (Deut. 13:3). For this was not said as though God did not know, but that they themselves might know how far they had advanced in the love of the Lord; which, except by the temptations that befall, is not fully recognized by men. And that very word 'tests' is put for 'permits to be tested.' So too, when He is said 'not to know,' it is either said in the sense that He does not approve—that is, in His discipline and doctrine He does not acknowledge, as it was said, 'I know you not' (Matt. 25:12)—or in the sense that He profitably makes men not to know what it is unprofitable to know.
Therefore it is rightly understood that what is said—that the Father alone knows—is said because He makes the Son to know; and what is said—that the Son does not know—is so said because He makes men not to know, that is, He does not reveal to them what they would know unprofitably. LXI. On what is written in the Gospel, that the Lord fed the crowds on the mountain with five loaves. 1. The five barley loaves with which the Lord fed the crowds on the mountain signify the Old Law: either because it was given not yet to spiritual men but still to carnal ones, that is, given to those devoted to the five bodily senses—for the very crowds too were five thousand men (John 6:9-13)—or because the Law itself was given through Moses; for Moses wrote five books.
And that the loaves were of barley well signifies either the Law itself, which was so given that in it the vital nourishment of the soul was covered over by bodily sacraments; for the marrow of barley is covered by a very clinging husk: or it signifies that very people, not yet stripped of carnal desire, which clung to their heart like a husk; that is, not yet circumcised in heart, so that not even by the threshing of tribulations, when they were led through the deserts for forty years, did they lay aside their carnal coverings with the understanding revealed—just as barley is not stripped of that chaffy covering by the threshing of the floor. And so to that people a Law of such a kind was fittingly given. 2.
But the two fishes, which gave a pleasant savor to the bread, seem to signify those two persons by whom that people was to be governed, that through them it might receive the direction of its counsels: namely, the kingly and the priestly, to which also that most sacred anointing pertained; whose office it was never to be broken and corrupted by the storms and waves of the populace, and often to break through the violent contradictions of the crowds as though opposing waves, sometimes to yield to them while keeping their own integrity preserved—wholly after the manner of fishes, to move about in the turbulent administration of the people as though in a stormy sea. Yet these two persons prefigured our Lord.
For He alone sustained both, and fulfilled them alone not figuratively but properly. For our King too is the Lord Jesus Christ, who showed us the example of fighting and conquering; taking upon Himself our sins in mortal flesh, yielding to the temptations of the enemy neither alluring nor terrifying: finally, putting off the flesh, confidently despoiling the principalities and powers, and triumphing over them in Himself (Col. 2:15). And so, with Him as our leader, we are freed from the burdens and labors of this our pilgrimage as though from Egypt, and the sins that pursue us are overwhelmed for us who escape by the sacrament of Baptism:
and as long as we are in the hope of His promise, which we do not yet see, we are led as though through the deserts, the Word of God consoling us in the holy Scriptures, as it consoled them with manna from heaven; and by that same leader we presume that we can be brought into the heavenly Jerusalem as into the land of promise, and be kept there forever, He Himself ruling and guarding. Thus our Lord Jesus Christ is shown to be our King. He is also our Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (Ps. 109:4), who offered Himself as a whole burnt offering for our sins, and commended the likeness of that sacrifice to be celebrated in memory of His passion; so that what Melchizedek offered to God (Gen. 14:18)
we may now see offered throughout the whole world in the Church of Christ. Therefore, since our King took upon Himself our sins in order to show us the example of fighting and conquering, the evangelist Matthew, signifying that taking upon Himself of those sins and the kingly person, takes up His generation which is according to the flesh from Abraham, who is the father of the faithful people, and enumerating the succession of offspring downward, arrives at David, in whom the establishment of the kingdom appears most manifest; and thence, through Solomon, born of her with whom his father had sinned, following the royal line, brings it down to the generation of the Lord (Matt. 1:1-17).
But Luke, the other evangelist, since he too undertook to set forth the generation of the Lord which is according to the flesh, but in the priestly person—to which person pertains the cleansing and abolition of sins—begins to trace the origin of His forebears step by step, not from the beginning of the book, as Matthew does, but from that place where Jesus was baptized, where He prefigured the cleansing of our sins; and not downward, like him who was showing Him as it were descending to the taking on of sins, but upward, like one who was introducing Him as it were ascending after the abolition of sins; nor does he name the same forebears whom the other names (Luke 3:23-38).
For there was another, a priestly, line, which through one of the sons of David—as is customary—taking a wife from among the priestly tribe, had brought it about that Mary drew her kinship from both tribes, that is, from the royal and the priestly. For when Joseph and Mary were enrolled, it is written that they were of the house, that is, of the line of David (Luke 2:4). And Elizabeth, who is nonetheless recorded as a kinswoman of Mary, was of the priestly tribe (Luke 1:36, 5). But just as Matthew, who introduces Christ the King as it were descending to take on our sins, descends from David through Solomon—because Solomon was born of her with whom David had sinned—
so Luke, who introduces Christ the Priest as it were ascending after the abolition of sins, ascends to David through Nathan; because Nathan the prophet had been sent, by whose reproof David obtained the abolition of that very sin by doing penance (2 Sam. 12:1, 13). And so, after Luke has passed the person of David, he does not dissent from Matthew in the names of those begotten. For ascending from David up to Abraham he names those whom the other, descending from Abraham to David, names. For from David that origin was distributed into two families, the royal and the priestly; of which two families, as has been said, Matthew descending followed the royal, and Luke ascending the priestly:
so that our Lord Jesus Christ, our King and Priest, might both draw His kinship from the priestly stock, and yet not be of the priestly tribe, that is, of the tribe of Levi; but be of the tribe of Judah, that is, of the tribe of David, from which tribe no one attends at the altar. Therefore He is especially called the Son of David according to the flesh, because both Luke ascending and Matthew descending met each other in David. For it was fitting that He who was to make void the sacrifices which were performed according to the order of Aaron in the Levitical priesthood should not be of the tribe of Levi;
lest the cleansing of sins, which the Lord fulfilled by the offering of His whole burnt sacrifice—which was foreshadowed in the old priesthood—should seem to pertain to that very tribe and to that very priesthood, which was temporally a shadow of the future: and He gave the image of His whole burnt offering to be celebrated in the Church in memory of His passion, that He might be a priest forever, not according to the order of Aaron, but according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 6:20). The sacrament of this matter can be considered still more diligently. But on account of the two fishes, in which we have said the two persons, the royal and the priestly, were figured, let it suffice that it has thus far been treated here. 5.
But that the crowd reclined upon the grass signifies those who had received the Old Testament; because a temporal kingdom and a temporal Jerusalem was promised to them, they had been placed in a carnal hope. For 'all flesh is grass, and the glory of man as the flower of grass' (Isa. 40:6). But that from the remnants of the fragments twelve baskets of morsels were filled signified that the disciples of the Lord were filled from the opening up and exposition of the very Law which the Jews had left and forsaken; among which disciples the number twelve holds the primacy.
For the Scripture of the New Testament did not yet exist, when the Lord, as it were by breaking and opening what was hard and closed in the Law, filled the disciples, when after the resurrection He opened to them the ancient Scriptures, beginning from Moses and all the Prophets, interpreting to them in all the Scriptures the things that were concerning Himself. For even then two of them recognized Him in the breaking of bread (Luke 24:27-31). 4. And therefore the second feeding of the people, which was done with seven loaves, is rightly understood to pertain to the preaching of the New Testament. For it was not said by any evangelist that these loaves were of barley, as John said of those five.
This feeding, then, from seven loaves, pertains to the grace of the Church, which is known to be refreshed by that most familiar sevenfold working of the Holy Spirit. And therefore two fishes are not here recorded to have been present, as in the old Law, where two alone were anointed, king and priest; but a few fishes, that is, those who first believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and were anointed in His name, and sent to preach the Gospel, and to endure the turbulent sea of this world, that on behalf of that great Fish, that is, on behalf of Christ, they might discharge an embassy, as the apostle Paul says (2 Cor. 5:20).
Nor were there in that crowd five thousand men, as there where those receiving the Law carnally, that is, those given over to the five senses of the flesh, are signified; but rather four thousand, by which number the spiritual are signified, on account of the four virtues of the soul by which one lives spiritually in this life: prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice. Of these the first is the knowledge of things to be sought and shunned; the second, the restraint of desire from those things which delight temporally; the third, the firmness of the soul against those things which are temporally troublesome; the fourth, which is diffused through all the rest, the love of God and neighbor. 5.
Indeed, both there five thousand men and here four thousand are recorded to have been present, besides women and children (Matt. 15:34-38): which seems to me to pertain to this, that we may understand that even in the people of the Old Testament there were some too weak to fulfill the justice which is according to the Law—in which justice the apostle Paul says he had conducted himself without blame (Phil. 3:6)—and that there were likewise others who would easily be seduced into the worship of idols. These two kinds, that is, of weakness and of error, are figured by the names of women and children. For the female sex is weak for actions, and childhood easy for play. But what is so like childish play as to worship idols;
since the Apostle too referred this kind of superstition to this, when he said: 'Neither be servants of idols, as some of them were, as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play' (1 Cor. 10:7)? Therefore like unto women were those who, in the labors of waiting until they should attain to the promises of God, did not persevere manfully and tempted God; and like unto children, those who sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. But not only there, but also in the people of the New Testament, those who do not endure to come unto a perfect man (Eph. 4:13), either through weakness of strength or through levity of mind, are to be compared to women and children.
For to the former it is said: 'If indeed we hold firm unto the end the beginning of His substance' (Heb. 3:14); but to the latter: 'Do not be children in your senses, but in malice be infants, that in your senses you may be perfect' (1 Cor. 14:20). And therefore neither in the Old nor in the New Testament are such admitted to the number; but whether there five thousand, or here four thousand, they are said to have been present besides women and children (Matt. 14:21 and 15:38). 6. But although both there and here it was on account of Christ Himself—who is constantly called a mountain in the Scriptures—that each people might fittingly be fed on the mountain; here, however, they do not recline on grass, but on the ground.
For there the loftiness of Christ is covered over, on account of carnal men and the earthly Jerusalem, with carnal hope and desire; but here, with every carnal desire removed, the firmament of an abiding hope, as it were the solidity of the mountain itself, held together the guests of the New Testament, with no grass interposed. 7. And since the Apostle most rightly says: 'But before faith came, we were kept under the Law' (Gal. 3:23); the Lord also seems to signify this when He says, concerning those whom He was about to feed with five loaves: 'They have no need to go; but you, give them to eat' (Matt. 14:16). But under these words they are, as it were, figuratively detained as though to be kept in custody, when the disciples had advised Him to send them away.
But of this crowd, which pertains to the seven loaves, He said of His own accord that He had compassion, because it was now the third day since they had clung to Him fasting. For in the whole age of the human race there is a third time, in which the grace of the Christian faith has been given. The first is before the Law, the second under the Law, the third under Grace. And since a fourth still remains, in which we are to come to the fullest peace of the heavenly Jerusalem—toward which everyone tends who rightly believes in Christ—therefore the Lord says that He refreshes that crowd, lest they faint on the way.
For this dispensation, by which the Lord deigned to appear to us temporally and visibly in man, and gave us the pledge of the Holy Spirit, by whose sevenfold working we might be quickened—joined, as it were, with the savor of a few fishes by apostolic authority—this dispensation, then, what else does it accomplish, except that we may be able to arrive at the prize of the heavenly calling without failing of strength? For 'we walk by faith, and not by sight' (2 Cor. 5:5, 7). And the apostle Paul himself says that he has not yet laid hold of the kingdom of God, 'But forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth to those that are before, I follow after,' he says, 'according to the intention, to the prize of the heavenly calling. Nevertheless, whereunto we have come, in the same let us walk' (Phil.
3:13-16); because, cleaving to the Lord on the third day and being fed by Him, we shall not faint on the way. 8. Even here, indeed, one could not arrive at the end of eating, but food was left over. For not in vain was it said concerning the future: 'Do you think that when the Son of man comes He shall find faith upon the earth?' (Luke 18:8). And I believe it will be so, on account of the women and children. But nevertheless the remnants of the fragments filled seven baskets, to which pertains the sevenfold Church—which is also described in the Apocalypse (Rev. 1:4)—that is, everyone who shall persevere unto the end. For He who said, 'Do you think that when the Son of man comes He shall find faith upon the earth?'
signified indeed that at the very end of the banquet His food could be left behind and forsaken: but since He Himself likewise said, 'He who shall persevere unto the end, this one shall be saved' (Matt. 24:13); He signified that the Church shall not be lacking, which by the sevenfold number receives those same seven loaves more abundantly, and holds them with a breadth of heart—which seems to signify that very perseverance in the baskets. LXII. On what is written in the Gospel, that 'Jesus baptized more than John; although He Himself did not baptize, but His disciples' (John 4:1, 2). It is asked whether those who were baptized at that time, when it is written that the Lord baptized more than John through His disciples, received the Holy Spirit.
For in another place of the Gospel it is thus said: 'For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified' (John 7:39). And indeed it is very easily answered thus, that the Lord Jesus, who even raised the dead, was able to let none of them die until after His glorification, that is, His resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven, they should receive the Holy Spirit. But there comes to mind that thief to whom it was said: 'Amen I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise'; who had not even received Baptism itself. Although Cornelius, and those who with him from among the Gentiles had believed, received the Holy Spirit even before they were baptized (Acts 10:44, 47):
nevertheless I do not see how that thief either could have said, without the Holy Spirit, 'Remember me, Lord, when You come into Your kingdom' (Luke 23:42). For 'no one says, Lord Jesus,' says the Apostle, 'but in the Holy Spirit' (1 Cor. 12:3). The fruit of whose faith the Lord Himself showed, saying, 'Amen I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise.' As, therefore, by the ineffable power and justice of the ruling God, Baptism too was reckoned to the believing thief, and held as received in his free soul, which could not be received in his crucified body—so also the Holy Spirit was secretly given before the Lord's glorification; but after the manifestation of His divinity it was given more manifestly.