Again miracles come from ancient causes; a firmer substance of things is grasped in all, perceived by its own body, and it follows, and is poured forth with a certain body, nor does a shadow bound a solid figure: yet it itself marks that bodies precede it. We venerate on earth the Church which none may doubt to be proclaimed as ethereal, but truer is that one which, abiding above the stars, is called celestial and lofty. This one, which is seen in the passing of the doubtful world, is given to be the way to life, and in this span it destines those whom it gathers for the eternal one, and from here the journey of the approved is to follow the heights; Peter rules both companies, and from here gives the stars by lot to the troops he has led, as was made plain through the words of God.
"Whatsoever you shall loose," He said, "and whatsoever you bind on earth, so bound or loosed it endures in heaven": this Church which we behold cultivated in the fields would therefore be the figure, while firm is that which the clouds bear. Peter, ruling both, prepares the body there and the shadow here, so that those sick whom he shall release here from vices and harms may be led innocent to that Church which abides among the stars, ready to receive the pious throngs while this one cleanses them. Meanwhile the chiefs of the temple, with biting zeal, grieve that the Church has grown, and, lest the apostles scatter the colonists of the soul, lest they sow what they reap with the heart, they confine them in the prison's seat, that hoes might be wanting to the springing harvest.
The angel, coming, drove back the dark scrolls of night, and suddenly the caverns gleamed with brightness, and the day, bursting forth at an unwonted time, makes the holy men go to the temple; but, with the hinge fixed fast, the guard remains in vain over the sealed sign, and the prison, standing at its own doors with its base walled around, though shut, lays open plain paths to the apostolic steps, and the deceitful gate mocks the watchmen. O faith never neglected! to which is subject that which nature denies, which the Omnipotent does not permit to use its own laws; as often as He Himself in turn bids the unwonted to become possible, nature, marveling, presses on to obey. If anyone still ponders Thomas with a frail breast, let him seek lessons from here, because then, being penetrated, it received.
The closed door received God; it is a marvel if He thus approaches the gate with His body, He whom a virgin bears, whom the mother's intact womb conceives. What cause, I ask, was there for His taking human flesh, save that He might raise us up? Returning thence He displayed His side as witness, and by the example of His own body teaches that the ashes of our body are to be made new, proving His own members by His wounds: now, Didymus, you learn how great a wickedness it would have been to have doubted, had the Author not done that which you see was permitted to us. If the desire steals upon you to resolve in your understanding what Christ said, the appearance is not lacking in meaning—why the holy ones forsook these shades. He spoke, providing rich gifts, that these are the ministers of light, and, like lamps set upon the citadel of the lampstand, they shine in the whole house.
No night holds back those whom the Light, light itself, calls, who merited God as the bearer of gifts and as witness, by what law that place hid in its caverns so many suns in order, from which, that the world might conquer darkness with errors driven out, it merited to know the eternal light. The rights of the ministry, fitted to the sacred altars, they apportioned among seven men, whom, chosen from everywhere, it pleases to call Levites: how splendidly the hand of the Church began to shine! which may mix the cups of life and offer the waters together with the blood of the Lamb. To this number the honor conferred bears with it lofty sacraments, through which the measure of my road now suffers me to go no further, lest, having spoken more, I be found to have said less.
Let it be the care of the ministers to weigh their own office, with what garment of praise it befits this choir to shine, which the mystic order consecrates in its number, and to which heavenly things give form. I will keep the promised measure: the assembly venerable to the world says: It rather befits us all to attend to the Word than to grasp the foods of the table. O rich glory of the apostolic mouth, never to permit the people to feel a famine of virtues; the sum of a talent, when dispersed, is wont to grow; the money committed to the tongue displeased while it was alone; this passage shows that better are the dishes of the harvest for the unschooled people than the feasts poured through the limbs, and that the fatness of the heavenly word should richly nourish the skilled mind. For what do the nourishments of bodily fattening profit, while the soul hungers?
Whose fasting it ever befits to be fed from the mouth of the Word, that we may stretch the table toward that feast with abundant words, to which reclines the guest who shines in the whiteness of his garment, lest, drawn away, he forsake the blessed couches—whoever comes deformed to it with squalid speech; let the food bear salvation, proceeding from the bread of heaven; let the gullet of the heart encircle it, and let the inner man hasten to taste it with the full palate of the soul; and lest the lesser cause should be cheaper, it is nonetheless entrusted to be handled by illustrious ministers, and the precious office held the heavenly number. From hence shines forth Stephen, who first in the contest has the crown, heir of his name, of whom the foretelling voice of the palm sang, which the cause supplied.
The battles, O martyr, destined to have happy deaths, where punishment is glory, and to fall is a rising, and with throats laid open an age is born, embracing the gifts of eternal life [it was the beginning of blessed life without end] thus to have merited to die. O rebellious Judaea, you, maddened, snatch up stones against Stephen, you who by a hard crime will ever be stony; him at last Christ adopts, unto whom the soldier, exulting, called through sacred wounds, made his way by blood, and, as victor seizing into his rewards to hasten by this way, reaping the honor of the snow-white path, advances to the heights of the lofty King, and through so many stones is joined to the one Rock. What new fury is this, second to none in savagery, to refuse to spare the pious one? With quivering arms you hurl stones.
He makes ready his prayers, nor looks whence the wicked hail falls, who, in the time of death, prays as a friend for the sinning people; though you bear all weapons with you, and weigh out heavy flints and burdens, he whom you slay shall live, who, with his end as husbandman, sows an example whence the line of Christ may rise, and festal banquets crown the cup of the Lord. Having the eyes of the heart, he beheld the heavens opened, lest it be hidden what Christ does; for the martyr He rises, whom he then sees standing, though our confession is wont rather to celebrate Him as seated; the flesh joined to the Thunderer favors itself in Stephen; the foreknowing Captain arms those whom He calls to His gifts, lest any here fight in suspense; the Body stood open in the citadel of God as a gift for the witness.
At Saul's feet they laid their garments—"Saul," which the Hebrew says means the underworld; now it stands established for both, that each here feels his own desert, since the martyr seeks the stars, the executioners seek hell; the first lot reveals it, and creates an example, that to one waging such wars this flowed from this fountain, so that for the slayers Tartarus soon follows, and for the dying the stars lie open. Often Peter makes John to be his companion, because the virgin pleases the Church, with whom at last joined, seeking the neighborhood of Samaria, he sealed the sheep washed in the waters of baptism, to whom the kindly Spirit was present, and made various tongues come forth. Washed indeed in the font, but not clean in heart, had this Simon the magician been, whom the punishment that followed betrayed to the world as not having known the faith.
By bargains of gold he wishes to make equal the gifts of God, and to repay with coins what a merchant might buy with a price. Peter, seeing him attempt such things, said: What fury, O lost one, moved you to these things? What the Lord's grace gives, that you should suppose it for sale, is received by this understanding, not by gold; nor is it permitted that corrupt money should seek heaven, money which the searcher of earth loves; no rest henceforth remains for you in this lot, nor will you be able to come to these things, you who, defiled by wiles, swelling with the gall of a bitter heart, seek what belongs to another; for the Spirit enters those halls of the mind which shine with simplicity. From this saying the light of the sacred figure is made manifest. A structure of old presented the image of the Church.
Built in the times of Noah, which alone received every kind, and bearing for those shut within the likeness of baptism, when the wandering throng suffered deadly storms it turned the waters to life: at once it cleansed both the dove and the raven, but no concord of mind made the two alike; the throats full of plunder withdrew the latter from the way, and, desiring to feed upon a corpse, it could follow nothing; the bird friendly to grain returns, and, shipwrecked, succumbs to no waters, fearing to be nourished from death, and by its zeal of toil gives the lessons of a pious creature, with how great love faith devoted to its work is held, and the olive was the pledge of its modest beak: love ever has in its mouth the fruit of peace.
Both fly upon the waves out of one and holy bosom, in the belly of the preserving ark, the sea walling round the purified, yet one is an exile, and, with its return failing, perishes: therefore the washing wave does not suffice for salvation, unless he who is begotten by the waters be a dove without gall. This Simon had touched the wave of baptism, but he was a raven, seeking his own gains, which never merited God, who is wont to drive sellers from the threshold of the temple: let us follow better things! Peter calls to these, who is said by the mouth of God to be the son of the dove, and rightly created by this mother undertakes the work of the Church: from the gift of offspring the parent has her name, whom the kindly Spirit chooses, deigning to be seen in the image of the harmless bird.
The angel addresses Philip, full of power, bidding him to frequent the southern way, by which the eunuch was proceeding with yoked Ethiopian horses, who, faithful in the queen's court, guarded the wealth: he, winged, wishing to seek fixed joys with hastened course, in that very chariot will deserve to cast away the wheels of errors. O how great seeds of good things you will receive! you who come to take such precious gifts of the laver, and store up in a barren body what you may reap with better fruit. Set Philip on board—"the mouth of a lamp," as the Hebrew says—who, his name as witness, proves the honor of his mind; it is good to hear this master, because he rightly teaches the disciple; He Himself will give, of whom the prophet's words resound, and, since once He made all things, in what part now salvation lies: if, believing, you hear, He too will be born for you, and you thence will be reborn for Him.
When the waters were seen in haste, the fruitful faith of the eunuch began to glow, who, plunged in the flood, laid down the burden of the serpent, and ran on in his wagon, happy in the journey he had pondered. No small cause of figure shines beneath the image of the obscure region. The Omnipotent attests that Moses joined to himself an Ethiopian by the covenant of the marriage-torches, whom the Scriptures report afterward to have spoken with the Lord more closely, face to face. What wonder, if the love of the law then began to grow, when it was joined to the Church? for the eternal bride comes rather from this people, nor do the songs conceal it, which call her dark and beautiful; she advances from the South, where the sun scorches the soil of the Ethiopians, to praise in the mouth of Solomon her Peaceable one, by which name was long ago signified that which Christ holds.
Now owed to the world, she sends ahead a keeper of riches, by which pledge she will begin to bring forth her treasures; what treasure in her is more excellent than the honor of the font? what gold is richer than wealthy faith within the heart? how rightly, in fine, is the eunuch a forerunner to this? at whose advance lust is driven out, and the chaste seize the heavenly kingdoms. Saul, raging bitterly, prepares with Jewish savagery to wage wars at Damascus, but the Lamb will be loved against whom the wolf hastens to rage. O happy lot of his ruin, in which guilt falls; he learned, his body fallen, now to stand on the step of the mind; when he closes his eyes, then he opens his heart, and the Author of heaven is recognized as day departs: how much the darkness merited! After losing his eyes he sees greater things; nourishing faith gave a wondrous example to the ages.
Ananias shakes off the fury—O new palm of victory! that one tames the ravening wolf, whom the Hebrew called a sheep; we shall be proclaimed God's to the world by this herald, and Saul, stripped of the shadow of the law, beneath which he was blind, will shine into all lands, glowing with the perpetual Sun. Cease not, O Saul, to celebrate this day; that night, full of the light of many, is given to you, and here you carry your own clouds, that you may cleanse them of the world. Now I will follow lessons more inwardly full of figures, and I will attempt to bring forth the radiance covered in its hiding-places: that Saul spends a three-day span in darkness makes him faithful by the measure of its own example, and the teaching punishment teaches him, at last compelled, no longer to spurn the Lord, who after the third day overcame chaos.
When he himself thus began to restore his own sight, in that from his dark orbs heavy scales also fell—which the serpent's nature is wont to bear—it has force by reason: Judaea ever vomits poison from its mouth, crueler than the deaf asp. The snake of perfidy hisses in the Synagogue's den. The Saviour says to His disciples: You shall trample on serpents, that your deed may be purer for heavenly services. Saul first casts off the viperous wickedness, and the teacher soon wages better battles; who, when he had overcome the wicked, merited to escape ambushes by closed gates. A basket, wont to be woven of rushes and palms in turn, gives coverings to Saul, retaining in honor the figure of the Church, for the rush belongs ever to the waters and the palm to the crowns: the wave of baptism profits the Church, and the blood of martyrdom.
Long ago, while the throng was feeding, the foods nourished beneath the tooth began to fill the folds of seven baskets: just so many Churches Scripture indeed sings throughout the world, because the Spirit there is present, thus working, and the power marks the names, although we nonetheless celebrate one Church in all. The figure therefore protects the man, for whom that very Vessel fights, remaining a vessel within a vessel, and with this as guide, safe from the enemy, he goes forth, a teacher who conquers in all arms. Peter, ever-watchful in the watches of the entrusted sheepfold, after, beholding all, he had surveyed the saints in order, bore his steps through the fields of Lydda, where, standing by the walls, he beholds Aeneas living with dead limbs, and, his soul freed from the loosened mass with knots untied, dying with no death.
"Rising, O paralytic," he said, "set in order your bearer, nor be slow to repay the service to one carried so long." By which gift of voice he is bound into solidity, who before had flowed loose in his sinews. Then man, formed anew, and a corpse of long time, raises his extinguished limbs to life, and, lifting himself, leaves behind the monuments of the empty couch, which had been to the wretched man a part of death. The whole people began to stand firm along that way, and ample salvation came upon many through the sickness of one, and, the liquid being touched, soon expelled the contagions of the shut-out disease, washing souls in the font, made firm by another's strength. Hence I will tell what are the secrets of the sacred figure, if He moves my heart, whose voice restores bodies.
That the age of the sickness is reported as eight years, rightly through this time the man failed in his deprived limbs, lying beneath the ancient law, for they always have throat-cutting wounds, by which the infant is made wounded when the eighth day comes; He healed him, heavy from that part, and long mangled by the crisis of the flesh, He made solid in the flowing waters, so that the eighth year might free the sick man from the blows of his extinguished body, on which number, the day coming, Christ, solemnly rising again, now consecrated the work: the custom of the time stands, but returned with a better vow: hence the wounds creep, hence the things taken away rush to ruin; there the rule subjects to punishments, here the medicine cleanses by the waters, and the limbs, long since loosened to death in the former span, are bound fast for salvation.
The paralytic too, with his years marked by number, lay inert, to whom the nearby stirred Siloam—alas!—furnished no waters; the pool, bound by porticoes, was Judaea, for it holds five halls at its enclosures, having attained the measure of the law through the five books of Moses, surrounded by whose circle the feeble man for ever beheld Jesus without His gift, sick among his own books; from there He snatches one, who, coming, bore away sins, which figure the world fittingly bears everywhere, whom, after, loosing the Sabbath, He drove to the font, grace overcame the law. Peter recalls to the Church the lessons of the Master, by whose hand in the world one paralytic leaps up; and, with faith advancing, the world casts off its chains.
You too, mighty in praise, renowned for heavenly signs, O Joppa, we sing in songs, where in her seat Tabitha poured forth riches that would endure, and was ever a mother by her bounty to the needy, who, with the season of her life closed, is laid in the midst, washed the more with tears, upon the bier, destined to live again after her own funeral. Confidence summons Peter; he, bearing the pledge of divine love, that he may never be empty of piety, is present to provide what the prayers require. To him as he sought the mourning house stand the poor and the widowed flocks, and they show their arms laden with their garments, which the hands of Dorcas herself had woven and given to them. O what fomentations does fervent grief implore! they do not carry on the affection of piety with sad murmur, nor ply from the mouth the instruments of prayers.
Whatever good deeds deserve, they wished to speak by their offices, and chose the refusal of their own voice, lest the wounds of the heart lie hidden, which had made a way for tears. To one who groans it is eloquent matter to have said nothing, and a too-resounding cause asks for what the tongue keeps silent, nor does it cease from the ear, with clamorous faith knocking; by which Peter is approached, who is wont to hear minds; he bids all go more swiftly outside, and with bent knee becomes more prostrate to the ground, then lying the more open to the heights. The prayer poured forth to the Thunderer soon flies above the stars, and enters by its own keys. Tell, where are they, O worldly wisdom, your laws? By what power do you deny that corrupt things return into themselves, you who see life come out of death?
When Peter felt the gifts of God to be present, by which she who lies bewailed is to be restored to life, he speaks, turning to her: Arise, Tabitha. Called, she returns, and brought back to the light marveled that she survived herself, whom at once he takes hold of, and offers her, raised up, to the rejoicing city. She merited to touch the right hand of Peter, which had been generous to the poor, by which hand life, returning, lifts the rest of the members, and, about to pass through the whole body, first entered this hand, which was the cause. If we are rightly moved, the renewed day of the soul lies open, fitting for figures, the soul which the shadow of the ancient peril had too much oppressed, turned back at the voice of Peter.
The head, before weighed down in the lap of the obscure law, as if a second one rising while the Church is present, lifts itself, and the Light of works, accompanying faith, repels the darkness—that salvation which had not been promised from the mouth of the law, because to those reborn in the font grace began to give the gifts of everlasting life. In the city of Caesarea was the venerable Cornelius, salvation from a gentile stock, whom a life devoted to pious causes consecrated by the sacred waters, and by his doing he began to believe, who had done whatever faith is wont to provide to those washed in baptism: for an angel sent from the stars, coming to him, said: In the sight of the Most High Lord stand the alms you scatter, the words you pray; lest rewards be wanting to your virtues, receive a sure way, with Peter coming hither.
Thus the messenger, with words flashing, fixed his commands upon the eternal lavers. It was then the ninth hour, by which hour more rightly the threefold faith would now come forth, because the simple third again teaches this thrice-threefold, and the single ones thrice make the sacred figure, and thrice tripled they rejoice. This is the mighty ninth, which gave back eyes to the world; after the darkness, the day returning, when the light born from the rays of the Cross brought forth its rising, and this radiance filled all without end; for it stands established that the world is a place laden with gentiles, for whom, washed in baptism, full lights shone upon the re-purified world.
This denarius is wont to follow her, bestowing all things, which the Arbiter offers to those who keep the ten commandments, nor does he permit that the earlier laborers should outrun the slow in wages — the help of this present time, which the forerunner reached through the sacred font: O that the working of our life might seek it, and that our mortal origin might set this zeal before itself, so that the believer's love might gaze upon the glory of the reality, and he who once gave himself to the waters might furnish an example by his merits! And now Cornelius, made capable of faith, by the token of his prayer bids three men go to Peter. Thus the threefold confession of the regenerating water comes, and through that very number the circle of Europe and Asia and Libya shall be held. Peter goes forth to climb to the lofty upper rooms, now at the midpoint of the day's torrent; the high place instructs him, looking down upon the ground, to follow ever the heavenly things, Peter, not to pursue the earthly.
The circle of the sixth hour likewise discloses the age at which Christ came into the world to bestow the help of the Savior; and the number of days set forth the pattern by which He had formerly founded the world. Coming at last in this age, the Redeemer forbids that man be pressed under sin's dominion: so finally that sixth hour too is said to be enacted, when the Master, wearied from the road, sitting above the mouth of the well, through the vessels of the maiden seeks draughts of water — about to make rest everywhere from the font of His own Church. At the hour when Peter hungers, that loving Master thirsts, ever loving to add to His own gifts; to him whose honor of name He had enlarged, He grants likewise to nourish the faith. The world shall rejoice, sated by this hunger, which, richer than any gift, flows forth in delight and leaves no one empty, destined to bear everlasting feasts.
O Peter, you who know how to loose, strike off the slow fetters of my speech, and from your banquets hold out food to my exhausted tongue! The heavenly key-bearer beheld the opened heaven, using his honor; thence is let down the shape of a vessel, that there might be a vision on earth — that in Peter's body all things can be contained, who, whatever he takes to be eaten, the Church makes to be food. The image is set forth, with the four orders submitting themselves; one is the form of the Church, which towers over the four parts of the world and opens its mouth to as many heralds, holding every kind of birds, of cattle, of beasts, and of creeping things together. These cleave to mortals from their merits and their vices: it is plain therefore that the Author commanded the nations to be poured into the bowels of the Church. "Kill and eat," while He commands;
draw them away from what they are, and make them like yourself; he who is turned is reckoned another — in short, Saul dies because Paul has begun to live. "Far be it," says Peter — how great is the reverence for the holy Law! — and hungering he spurns the food offered. Thrice sounded the Lord's voice, which is uttered as wholesome: this the Begetter, and the Son together, and the Holy Spirit accomplished; against this faith warlike Arius falls, denying that the three Persons are one; and Sabellius, confessing one — but the Father — says that the same is in turn called the Son and the Holy Spirit, yet that He is wholly as the Father Himself. And that which one summit contains in threefold order, the one divides, the other abandons.
Both lie conquered; for the threefold command of Him who admonishes indicates one number in the virtues of the Persons, by which authority He calls the nations. This it is lawful to believe, if we wish to fulfill the faith. You do all things, O Christ; cleanse with Your own blood — You who from the wound of Your side made discordant water joined to it; the spotted serpent wanders about, and groans that its poison has been extinguished by the waters. Being summoned, Peter learns what his vision is — he who has his name from merit, for "Peter" sounds, recognizing it, in the Hebrew tongue; as a gift Christ granted him so to be called, by whose knowing it is made plain. He goes down to see those whom He had sent thither; he who was a seeker of the waters, Peter, is said to go down, coming to the people and the new-born nation which had not yet known the water.
A part has surely been submerged, lacking the sacred font, whose way leads the travelers to the help of a better fatherland — by which, if one ceases to press on, he does not enter where life calls. With these same men accompanying him, Peter hastens to Cornelius, about to give the heavenly kingdoms, to sanctify the house; whom, on bended knee, he does not allow to fall prostrate at his feet: accustomed to give gifts freely, he wards off the deed of honor. "From hence you raise your head, O new-born world, you who had been struck by the tooth of the ancient parent, and the font has restored your birth; brought forth anew, do not press your neck upon your own faults — free from another's." As soon as Peter began to utter the sublime doctrines and to unfold the mysteries of the eternal Christ, the great-souled men were astonished, and following the voice they found the way. What does undoubting faith not offer to those who believe?
For it, gifts never come late, nor do divine things make delay: soon the nourishing Spirit, lavishing varied tongues with a rich gift, filled the house without precedent; Peter performs the baptism, that he might cleanse in the waters those already washed by the flames. This place is without parallel, where the nourishing Spirit forestalled the very waters which it had hallowed; that Spirit which is ever wont to add such gifts, and to hasten them, laid on by the hand, only upon those reborn from the font; it does these things in turn, lest anyone should think it his own and to come by merits — for what it varies, it of its own accord prepares; for the nourishing Spirit bears rewards that know no measure, and ministering more than the hoper had, grace outruns the prayer. He arrives; departing thence, Peter into the sublime city which holds the standards of the cross —
the whole assembly inquires whence salvation comes to the nations; to whom the teacher opens all things, and joining word to word he admonishes that it is never lawful to deny the things which come by the goodness of God; a saying worthy of the devout voice, to show openly the love of the guardian, that he wishes the heavenly kingdoms to lie open to all, he who holds these doors without end. Why, O crowd, do you wear away our joys with complaints? These are no new gifts to Peter, marked out before by so many turns, when Christ grants him to enjoy the praise of the gracious name, whom the laws appointed to bear the affairs of His Church — when, seeing two boats stand by the shore, ministering His precepts, He wills to teach in Peter's stern. The Synagogue surely remained dry upon the ground.
After the Master's teaching gave the Church to follow the heights, the faithless one stands fast on the land — faith now coursing over the sea — for its own figure clung to each boat. Joseph called Him "son" whom Judaea bore; to whom Peter says: "You, O Christ, are proved to be the Son of God." That part is fixed in the fields which fell pursuing the earthly; that part advanced into the deep which grew speaking divine things. Without any fish the catch was made in the darkness, for in the time of light — because the Light, which is Christ, is present — He despoils the salt shallows of the dragon, that the sacred nets of the font may drive all to the shore, and they be snatched from the jaws of the dark-blue deep. For the sea was the world, from whose flood Peter —
drawing the wet lines, by the fishing of the word, filled the keels with a greater haul, because a throng was to come from two peoples; and then, with the sea serving, it lifted up the nations, and in the full stern he professes the Church, in whose peaceful anchorage he stores up what he catches by the Lord's word — He who had said before that there were other sheep which He was seeking; these surely He was preparing, whom now He duly calls, through whom the clemency of Peter gathers the human flocks into heavenly folds. Its fame shall not be wanting to the place. Peter was born in the city of Bethsaida, which in the Hebrew name is called "house of hunters," because the true hunter of the Church is present from that place, who, ranging over all things, has encircled them, and gathered the nations into the nets of faith.