It belongs to the superior to invite the inferior to conversation, to give confidence to speak, to inquire not only about themselves but also about their parents. They answered him: 'Your servant our father is well.' He called him 'aged' to honour him; they named him 'servant' to render the homage of humility, because old age is of honoured dignity, while childhood seems subject and nearer to modesty than to pride. And looking up with his eyes he saw Benjamin his brother by the same mother. It is a moral lesson, that those whom we love we should see before the rest, and that those whom the intention of our mind holds dear, the gaze of our eyes should first meet, since for the most part, distracted by the occupation of our mind upon other things, we do not see those whom we have before our eyes.
Thus our gaze is directed by the mind as its guide. Holy Joseph therefore saw Benjamin his brother, whom he held in his mind, whom he sought with his eyes, in whose absence he had almost not seen his brothers, because to see was of no profit. And not content merely to have seen him, as though he did not know, he asked: 'Is this your younger brother?' It is the custom and grace of charity, that we should hold those dear to us not only with our eyes but also with our speech. Joseph had recognized his beloved, but he asked for this reason: that the voice might sound forth the one whom his mind held. Indeed he did not wait for an answer, but immediately blessed him, and was troubled by the fruit of his own longing. And his inward parts were wrung, because the freedom of embracing the one he had longed for was deferred.
In short, having gone into the storeroom he wept and washed his face and restrained himself. The stings of great love quickly prick the heart, unless the reins of longing be loosened. Joseph was overcome by affection, restrained by counsel: reason contended with love. He wept, that he might temper the heat of pious love with tears. So far morally; but mystically, the Lord Jesus saw Paul—for 'the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous'—and said: 'Is this your younger brother?' He is called still younger who did not yet bear the mature age of hoary faith, who had not yet grown into the perfect man, into that, as he himself says, 'measure of the age of the fullness of Christ.' In short, he is read as a young man only there, where he kept the garments of those stoning Stephen.
And therefore he desired Philemon to be like, not his own youth, but his old age, as he wrote: 'I rather beseech you, since you are such a one as Paul the aged.' Therefore he preaches that the younger widows are to be avoided, not on account of age, but on account of a certain wantonness of budding faults and the immaturity of virtue. Otherwise, the praise of chastity is greater in a young man than in an old one. But I think it would not be foreign to the truth, if we should understand this: that since Paul had this and shrank back in alarm—namely that blindness had befallen him—he nevertheless began to draw near, saying, 'Lord, what would you have me do?' Therefore he was called the younger by Christ, so that he who was being called to grace might be excused from blame, because it had been of a slippery age.
In short, Christ saw him, when the light shone round about him; and because young men are recalled from vice more by fear than by reason, he applied a goad and, taking pity, admonished him not to kick against the goad. And he was troubled, just as you have it in the Gospel that 'he troubled himself in spirit' when he was about to raise Lazarus, and there he wept, that he might first wash away with his tears the offences of the dead. But within he wept and washed his face. The blindness of Paul is the weeping of Christ; he washes his face, where the lost light is restored to him. Christ washed his face, where Paul was baptized, through whom the Lord Jesus might be seen by many.
And therefore at the banquet his portion was made fivefold greater, because he had to be preferred to those above him not only by prudence of mind, but also by warfare of body and the grace of chastity. 'And they drank and were made drunk together with him.' From the beginning of faith a greater prerogative is granted to Paul, of whom it was said to Ananias: 'Go, for he is a vessel of election to me, to bear my name before the gentiles.' From the beginning he is made drunk with drunkenness, but a sober one, so that he too might say with the saints: 'And your cup that makes drunk, how excellent it is!' And the silver cup is put into his sack alone. Benjamin did not know this; Paul was deceived, but he was being called. One is sent after him in the morning;
for the night of blindness had advanced, the day of faith was drawing near. In order, the sacks of each are first inspected. The divine Scripture teaches you a moral lesson. In order they had reclined beforehand at the banquet opposite him, the firstborn according to age. You see that that place is to be yielded to the elder. In order again the sacks of each are searched, that you may know that Paul was chosen by heavenly judgment. He examined the rest, and preferred this one. In no other's sack was the silver cup found except in his. What does it mean that it was put into his sack? Joseph indeed made them drunk that he might deceive, he sent the cup that by a pious deceit he might recall the brother whom he loved—but the divine mysteries shine forth.
This silver Christ finds in us, which he himself has given. We have the silver of nature, we have also that of grace. Nature is the work of the Creator, grace is the gift of the Redeemer. Even though we cannot see the gifts of Christ, he nevertheless gives and works secretly, and gives to all, but to preserve them and not lose them belongs to few. Yet he does not give all things to all. Wheat is given to many, the cup to one, who is endowed with the prophetic and priestly gift. For not everyone, but the prophet says: 'I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.' In the body of Paul, therefore, the discourse of heavenly doctrine already shone, since he was learned in the law.
But because he was not yet subject to the righteousness of God, the cup was within the sack, the doctrine within the law, the lamp within the bushel. Yet Ananias was sent, to give the blessing, lay on his hand, loosen the sack. The sack being loosened, the silver shone again, and as the scales fell off like certain bonds of the sack, he immediately saw. His bond was unbelief, his loosing was made faith. And therefore, as it were with the sack loosened—that is, the veil of the law being laid aside, which lies over the heart of the Jews—turned to the Lord, free from the bond, having obtained the grace of liberty, he says: 'We all therefore, with unveiled face beholding the glory of God, are transformed into the same image.' For with the sandal of the law loosed, with bare foot he preached the gospel of free speech.
The Jews held him and wished to hinder him, but when the silver shone in his sack, they tore their garments and turned back. For the free preaching of Paul for Christ stripped bare the people of the Jews and rescinded all their grace, and therefore they went back, they who before could not see. They go back who lose Christ. In short, in the Gospel also, when they seized the Lord Jesus unto death, going back they fell to the ground. Rightly did they turn back, who from that heavenly grace fell again into earthly ruin. Therefore they were unwilling, morally, to return without their brother, mystically without Paul—on whose being lost they declared that the old age of the people's parent must be led into mourning.
And therefore Judah desired to remain with Joseph, lest he should see the evils that found his father—that is, he already foresaw and desired to guard against the evils that were to come upon the people of the Jews. But since this free preaching of the leaders of the Jewish people was not yet in that type, Joseph wept—that is, in him Jesus wept. And he commanded all to withdraw, that he might be recognized by his brothers; for he had not come, as he himself says, except to the sheep that were lost of the house of Israel. And uttering his voice with weeping, 'I am Joseph,' he says; 'does my father still live?' That is: he stretched out his hands to a people unbelieving and gainsaying, seeking neither a legate nor a messenger, but he himself the Lord, willing to save his own people.
'I myself who spoke am here,' he says, and 'being made manifest I appear to those who did not seek me, to those who did not inquire after me.' What else, then, did he cry out at that time but: 'I am Jesus'?—when, being questioned by the leaders of the Jews, 'Are you the Son of God?' he would answer: 'You say that I am'; when he would say to Pilate: 'You say that I am a king; for this I was born'; when to the high priest saying, 'I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Christ the Son of God,' he would reply: 'You have said it. Amen I say to you, henceforth you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.' This, then, is what he says: 'I am Joseph, I am of divine power. Does my father still live?' That is:
'I do not deny my father, I acknowledge my brothers, if either you should acknowledge me as brother or the father acknowledge me as son. Does my people, then, still live, from whose family I have chosen for myself a brother? Draw near to me, for I have drawn near to you, even to the point of making myself, by the assumption of flesh, a partaker of your nature. Do not flee even as a partaker of your fellowship, if you do not acknowledge the author of salvation.' 'And they drew near to him,' it says, 'and he said: I am Joseph your brother, whom you handed over into Egypt. Now therefore do not be grieved, nor let it seem hard to you that you sold me here; for God sent me before you unto life.'
How great the brotherly affection, how sweet the kinship, that he should even excuse the parricidal deed they had committed, saying it was of divine providence, not of human impiety, since he was not offered to death by men, but sent by the Lord unto life! What else does that intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ contain—who surpassed all brothers in love—when, placed on the cross, he pleaded for the people, saying: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do'? What else does that salutation of holiness in the midst of the disciples, saying: 'Peace be to you; it is I, fear not'? And when, troubled and terrified, they supposed that they saw a spirit, he again said to them: 'Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?'
'See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have.' These mysteries, therefore, even then revealed, were to be fulfilled in later times. In short, they are expressed in the very same words, that we may understand that it is the same one who spoke before in Joseph and afterward in his own body, since he did not even change the words. For he said then: 'Do not be grieved,' and below: 'Go up to my father and say to him: This says your son Joseph: God has made me lord of all the land of Egypt.' And in the Gospel he says: 'Do not fear. Go, announce to my brothers that they should go into Galilee, and there they shall see me.' And below he says:
'All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth'—this is to say: 'This was of divine disposition, that I should receive authority, not of human harshness.' He does not cast up the crime who enumerates the reward. But what he has in Genesis, 'For God sent me before you unto life,' he renders in the Gospel, saying: 'Teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit'; for this is the reward and life of the saints, that they have redeemed others also. Note this too, not idly written in Genesis: 'And you shall be near me, you and your sons and the sons of your sons'; for this is what he said in the Gospel: 'Behold, I am with you all the days, even to the consummation of the age.'
How evident also is that mystery: that, as though every commandment were fulfilled, Joseph embraces his brother Benjamin and 'fell upon his neck,' just as, the Gospel being fulfilled, Christ embraces Paul with certain arms of his mercy, that he might lift up one bent down by inward opinion, as it were from the neck, into heaven. Whence that one too, lifted up by Christ, says: 'But our citizenship is in heaven.' And Pharaoh rejoiced that Joseph had recognized his brothers. Whence the report went out in the house of Pharaoh, and he exhorted holy Joseph to invite his brothers, that they should come with their father, and he commands their sacks to be filled with wheat and to be put into wagons.
Whence this humanity in a barbarian, unless that great mystery were shown: that now the Church does not envy when the Jews are redeemed, and the Christian people rejoices in this joining, and helps with what aids it can, and sends out those who evangelize the kingdom of God, that they may be summoned the sooner? To whom double robes are given. And he alleges Paul, when he brings forth his sayings, to whom three hundred gold pieces and five robes of diverse colour are conferred by Christ. He has three hundred gold pieces who preaches the cross of Christ, and therefore he says: 'For I judged not that I knew anything among you except Christ Jesus, and him crucified.' And rightly he receives gold pieces, because he preached not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit.
And he receives five robes, either the disciplines of manifold wisdom, or because, caught by no allurements of the bodily senses, where for others there was peril, there he held the victory—he who surpassed all pleasures of the flesh by singular continence and virtue, whose talent and zeal no weakness of body could blunt, who, though he was in the body, did not know that he had a body. In short, caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body he knew not—he heard ineffable words, which it is not lawful for a man to speak; who, finally, smelled of nothing earthly on earth, as he himself teaches, saying: 'For we are the good odour of Christ to God among those who are saved.'
Paul therefore excels, and his portion abounds, yet the other preachers too have their grace. They receive double robes. Which? Those certainly about which you ought not to doubt, since you have read it said of Wisdom: 'She made double garments for her husband.' One is mystical, the other moral. But not all are apostles, not all prophets, not all pastors, not all powers; not all have the grace of healings, not all speak with tongues. Where the rewards are diverse, the merits are diverse. And gifts are sent ahead to the father also. The son honours the father; Christ invites his people with promises, invites them with gifts.
These gifts are carried by those asses, useless and toilsome before, now useful, carrying in the type of Christ the gifts that were to carry in the Gospel the bestower of gifts. And he dismissed his brothers and they departed. And Joseph said to them: 'Do not be angry on the way.' How well he teaches that anger is to be guarded against, since it can separate even brothers who love one another, and that discord is especially to be fled on the way, where the very company of travellers ought to have the fellowship of inviolable grace. But what else does our Lord Jesus say, about to depart from this body, when he was dismissing his disciples, but that they should not be angry on the way, saying: 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you'?
For where there is peace, anger has no place, discord is banished, dissension is put to flight. This, then, is what he says: 'My peace I give to you,' that is, 'Do not be angry on the way.' And see lest he be speaking of this way—that is, in this course of all life indignation is to be guarded against, because anger often brings even the innocent into crime, since, while we are angry more than is just and wish to coerce another's sin, we commit graver sins. Therefore the apostle says: 'Not avenging yourselves, beloved, but give place to wrath'—that is, let us turn aside from it, lest it seize upon us.
Whence also the Lord Jesus, when dismissing his disciples to evangelize, sent them without gold, without silver, without money, without a staff—that is, that he might take away both the incitements to strife and the instruments of vengeance. 'And they went up,' it says, 'from Egypt and came into the land of Canaan to Jacob their father, and announced to him, saying that Joseph your son lives, and he himself is prince of all the land of Egypt.' What is the land of Canaan? That which wavered. What, then, is so evident as that the times of the apostles are designated, in which, having entered the synagogues of the Jews, they preached to the wavering the power of the Lord Jesus, as we have in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter saying: 'This one, therefore, God raised up, of whom we are witnesses'?
'Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this gift, which you see.' We certainly note how he says both that he lives and that he is prince of all the land—he who, opening his storehouses of spiritual grace, gives abundance to all. These things the apostles said, but the Jews did not believe, but laid hands on them and thrust the preachers of salvation into prison. Whence it is also written of Jacob: 'He was terrified in mind, for he did not believe them.' He was terrified at the disposition of the unbelieving people, but after he came to know the deeds of Christ, soothed by such great benefits and works, he resumed his spirit, saying: 'It is great for me, if my son Joseph still lives. I will go and see him before I die.'
The first and greatest foundation of faith is to believe in the resurrection of Christ. For whoever has believed in the raised one seeks him in haste, draws near devoutly, and venerates God with the inmost mind; for he believes that he himself will not die, if he believes in the author of resurrection. 'And Israel, lifting himself up, came to the well of the oath and offered a sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac.' Rightly is he lifted up who hastens to Christ. Faith precedes devotion. First he lifted himself up, afterward he offered sacrifice; for that man sacrifices well who has searched out the knowledge of divinity. 'And God said to Israel in a vision by night, saying: Jacob, Jacob.' He said: 'What is it?' Saying: 'I am the God of your fathers; fear not, go down into Egypt.'
'For there I will make of you a great nation; I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will bring you up again forever.' How is it that those who themselves read these words do not understand them, and that they deny the very Moses whom they praise, since they refuse to believe his writings! What could be plainer than that in this passage they are invited to pass over to the Church of God, and that those who once were confined within the narrow bounds of Judaea should migrate to the people of God, which, gathered out of the whole world, out of all nations and peoples, has been made into a great nation? For indeed, 'their sound went out into all the earth.' And so the people of the Jews is summoned by its own sons, that is, Jacob is invited by Peter, John, and Paul to grace.
Our God Himself also exhorts him by His own oracle, and promises him the progress of faith, the fruit of His gift, saying to him: 'Joseph shall put his hand upon your eyes.' Surely the holy patriarch was not anxious about who would close his eyes, although even in a plain sense a moral affection is here expressed. For if we long often to embrace those whom we love, how much more, when about to depart from this body, are we delighted by the final touch of our dear ones and soothed by this provision for the journey. Yet we may understand it mystically: that the people of the Jews will afterward come to know God. For this is the mystery, that the true Joseph shall lay His hands upon his eyes, so that he who before did not see may now see.
Come to the Gospel, and read how that blind man was healed, on whom Jesus laid His hand and took away his blindness. For Christ does not lay His hand upon those who are to die, but upon those who are to live; or if upon those who are to die, then rightly, because we first die in order to live again; for we cannot live to God unless we first die to sin. So seventy-five souls go down into Egypt, as it is written, and this by the mystical number of remission, because after such great hardness, after such great sins, they would have been held unworthy, unless remission of sins were granted to them. Judah meets him, that is, the confession of error. The people of the Jews, who are to come, send this man before them as their herald.
For this reason also the true Joseph, that is, the judge and interpreter of the Godhead, meets him, because confession already goes before those whom unbelief formerly possessed. For Christ is the interpreter of the Godhead, since 'no one has ever seen God, except the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; He has declared Him.' He, now of advanced age, will in the last times receive the weary people of the Jews, not according to their merits, but according to the election of His grace, and will lay His hand upon his eyes to take away his blindness. For this cause He has deferred his healing, that he who before did not think there was need to believe should believe last, and should lose the prerogative of the earlier election. Whence also the Apostle says:
that 'blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in, and so all Israel should be saved.' Therefore the deeds of the patriarchs are mysteries of things to come. In the end Jacob himself thus speaks to his sons: 'Gather yourselves together, that I may announce to you the things that shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together and hear Israel your father.'