The chambers having been mentioned above, the prophet adds that the chambers were of six cubits on this side and on that. In this matter a great question arises for us: why above he called the chamber measured by one reed—which reed indeed he declared to hold six cubits and a palm—and yet below he says that the chambers are measured by six cubits only. For if they are measured not by the reed but by six cubits, the palm is lacking, which above was said to be present in the measure of the reed.
But if the chambers are the senses and thoughts of the faithful, in which chaste souls are joined in love to their Creator, and if by the six cubits perfect action, and by the palm the true beginning of contemplation is expressed, we ought to behold the members of the holy universal Church, and we readily find that in her there are chambers measured by one reed, and there are others measured by six cubits only. For certain of the faithful so love the omnipotent God in her that they are both perfect in work and suspended in contemplation. These assuredly have the reed as their measure, because they possess both the six cubits of action and the palm of contemplation.
But certain others indeed love the omnipotent God and are perfectly exercised in good works, yet they do not know how to contemplate his greatness with a more subtle understanding. They love, but they know not how to search out the joys of his brightness. These, then, have the six cubits and do not have the palm, because they are already joined to him through love, but are separated from him in respect of contemplation. These chambers, nevertheless, are said to be on this side and on that after the mention of the one cubit, because indeed in the love of our Author and Redeemer the faithful souls both from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles came together. Hence our same Redeemer also, when, sitting upon an ass's colt, he was making for Jerusalem, as the evangelist testifies, many spread their garments in the way;
but others cut down branches from the trees and strewed them in the way; and those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: 'Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' For our Savior, sitting upon an ass's colt, makes for Jerusalem when, guiding the soul of each one of the faithful—namely his beast of burden—he leads it to the vision of inward peace. He sits upon the beast of burden also when he presides universally over holy Church and kindles her to the desire of supernal peace. And many strew their garments in the way, because they subdue their bodies through abstinence, in order that they may prepare a road to the mind, or offer good examples to those who follow.
But others cut branches or boughs from the trees and strew them in the way, because in the teaching of truth they pluck the words and sentences of the Fathers from their utterances, and, coming to the hearer's mind in the way of God, they set them down with humble preaching. This we too, though unworthy, now do. For when we take up the sentences of the Fathers in a discourse of exhortation, we cut boughs from the trees, that we may strew them in the way of Almighty God. But those who went before and those who followed cried out: 'Hosanna.' For the Jewish people went before, and the Gentile followed.
And because all the elect, both those who could be in Judaea and those who now exist in the Church, have believed and do believe in the Mediator of God and men, those who go before and those who follow cry 'Hosanna.' Now 'Hosanna' in the Latin tongue is rendered 'save us.' For from him both those of former times sought salvation, and those of the present seek it; and they confess him blessed who comes in the name of the Lord, because there is one hope, one faith, of the peoples going before and following. For as they were healed by his passion and resurrection then awaited, so we are saved by his passion now past and his resurrection abiding unto the ages.
For him whom our forebears from the Jewish people believed and loved as one about to come, we believe both to have come and love him, and we are kindled with longing for him, that we may behold him face to face. His chambers, therefore, are on this side and on that, because the hearts of those who love embrace the faith which is in him both from the first age of the world and from the last. There follows: Verse 13.—'And he measured the gate from the roof of the chamber to its roof, the breadth of twenty-five cubits.' We have often already said that the gate can signify faith, and through the same faith the Lord and Redeemer himself, the Mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, because through the faith which is in him the entrance to life lies open.
But we also, not without reason, take Sacred Scripture as the gate, which opens to us this same faith into the understanding of our Redeemer, because when it is known as it ought to be, we enter into the understanding of things invisible. If, therefore, in this place, as we have said before, the gate is taken as Scripture, it must be asked what is signified by the roof of the chamber, and what by the roof of the gate. But the chamber has a roof, because the mind of those who love is covered, and as yet the fervor of love is in hiding. The gate too has a roof, because Scripture is indeed wholly written for us, but is not wholly understood by us. For many things in it are written so plainly that they feed the little ones;
but certain things are veiled with more obscure sentences, that they may exercise the strong, so that, understood with labor, they may be the more pleasing. Some things, moreover, are so closed up in it that, while we do not understand them, recognizing the infirmities of our blindness, we may advance to humility rather than to understanding. For there are certain things which speak of heavenly matters in such a way that they lie open only to those supernal citizens abiding in their own homeland, and are not yet unlocked to us who are pilgrims. For if anyone journeying to an unknown city hears many things about it on the way, some indeed he gathers by reasoning, but some, because he does not yet see, he in no way knows;
but the citizens themselves who are in it both see the things that are kept silent about it, and understand the things that are said about it. We, therefore, are still on the way; we hear many things about that heavenly homeland, some we already understand through the spirit and reason, but certain things, not understood, we venerate. Hence it is written in the same sacred word: 'Stretching out the heaven like a skin, who coverest with waters its higher parts.' For heaven is stretched out like a skin, because through the mouths of mortals Sacred Scripture is unfolded to us in expositions.
But there are waters in heaven, that is, the higher multitudes, namely the ranks of angels, in whom the higher parts of that same heaven are covered, because those things which in the sacred word are loftier and more obscure lie open only to the angelic spirits, and remain as yet unknown to us. The chamber, therefore, has a roof, because a neighbor does not yet know how much he is loved by his neighbor. The gate too, that is, the sacred word, has a roof, because we cannot yet penetrate by understanding all the things which we hear about heavenly matters. It remains, therefore, that in these things which we do understand, we should walk daily in the advancement of charity.
And although in ourselves our neighbors too do not see how much they are loved by us, and in the sacred word we humbly venerate those things which we do not yet understand, nevertheless in those things which we attain by understanding, we ought to be enlarged through good action. Hence too it is said: 'And he measured the gate from the roof of the chamber to its roof, the breadth of twenty-five cubits.' For we are endowed with five bodily senses, namely sight, taste, smell, hearing, and touch. And this same number five, multiplied by itself, rises to the number twenty-five. But we are not able to work anything outwardly of the heavenly commandments without these five bodily senses.
For over these its offices the judging mind presides inwardly, and it recognizes what it can do outwardly, whether justly or mercifully, as it were by these same offices reporting back and serving it. When, therefore, the soul is filled with fear of the omnipotent Lord, it is necessary that our five senses should serve us in good action as subject offices. Through them, when we have begun to do anything mercifully, that same mercy opens itself more daily, and, as it were, spreads out a certain bosom of good work. The five senses, therefore, are multiplied in themselves, while that which is done through them is daily multiplied in good work by advancement. Hence too the breadth is said to be twenty-five cubits, because fear, tenacity, and sloth are narrowness.
For whoever, therefore, is afraid to give straw to the needy lest it be lacking to himself, is still in the narrowness of fear. Whoever does not hold out a garment to the one who is cold, because he desires to have it for himself alone, is still constrained by the narrowness of his tenacity. Whoever does not do good because he grows slothful through lukewarmness of soul, that very torpor is to him a narrowness. But to look upon the poor, to hearken to the prayer, to bestow alms, to offer protection, and, for the sake of protecting that same poor man, not to fear the enmities of any adversary whatsoever—this is great breadth of mind.
Let there be measured, therefore, between the chamber and the gate the breadth that lies between them, twenty-five cubits, because in the working of the outward senses is proved and made known what largeness of goodness is held within. For what you have already learned of Sacred Scripture, and how much you silently love your neighbor, you show in the breadth of good work. So then, let the breadth between the chamber and the gate lie open at twenty-five cubits, because good work is the witness between charity and knowledge. And if perchance it be lacking, it is assuredly certain that you have neither known God nor loved your neighbor; that is, that you have neither the gate of the sacred word nor the chamber of love. And it is to be noted that it is said to be measured from the roof of the chamber to the roof of the gate.
For through those things which in Sacred Scripture are covered over to us, our humility is approved, because whatever in it we do not understand, we ought not proudly to reprove, but humbly to venerate. Hence too it is written of the Lord: 'His eyelids question the sons of men.' For his eyelids are his judgments, which shut some things from us and open some things. By opening they question us, whether we are not exalted in understanding. By shutting they question us, whether we despise not the things we are unable to understand. But through those things concerning our charity toward our neighbors which we do not speak of, we are more truly approved in the sight of God. For in the mouth of some, charity is feigned, but in the hearts of some it is true.
And often what is not present is displayed concerning charity, and what is present is not demonstrated. Our love toward our neighbor, therefore, good work speaks more than the tongue, so that in the good work itself our neighbor may see himself to be loved. And when we cannot work as much as we will, let our love, not hidden from the Almighty, suffice. From the roof of the chamber, therefore, to the roof of the gate let there be great breadth, so that from the hidden depths of our charity, for our neighbor's sake even to the humility of knowledge, and for God's sake, as far as we understand and are able, we may always do good works. The gate can also be understood as the very entrance of the heavenly kingdom.
Now the chamber has a roof, and the gate too has a roof, because both how great our charity is toward God and neighbor is not known, and when we may be brought in from this world to the rest of eternal life is unknown. For our Creator willed the day of our death to be unknown to us, so that, while it is ever unknown, it may ever be believed to be near; and that each one may be the more fervent in action the more he is uncertain of his calling. Hence too the breadth of twenty-five cubits is drawn from the chamber to the gate, because through the charity which we have once conceived toward God and neighbor, even to the entrance of the kingdom we ought to work all that we can, in manifold and unceasing fashion.
From the roof of the chamber, therefore, to the roof of the gate is a great breadth, because from the grace by which we begin to love God, even to that very love which opens to us the entrance of the heavenly kingdom, we ought to enlarge ourselves in a great activity of good works: to endure adversities patiently, to bestow good things willingly, to love even those whom we suffer, to give away what we have, not to covet what we do not have, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to reckon their good things as our own, to bewail their evils as our own. In such a mind, therefore, there is great breadth, in which there is no narrowness of hatreds. This breadth, assuredly, we have conceived from the love of God and neighbor, and have come to know through the sacred commandments.
For we also not inappropriately understand those very twenty-five cubits of breadth, if we choose to examine them according to the sacred word. For he had said that the chambers were measured by six cubits, and on the sixth day man was created; on that same day also the Lord is described to have completed his works. Hence too the number six is wont to be set down for perfection. And because we recognize every good action through the four books of the holy Gospel, if we multiply six by four, we arrive at twenty-four. To this the monad is added, because there is one through whom all rightly work.
This breadth, therefore, had to be set forth as twenty-five cubits, because every good action is recognized, as we have said, through the four books of the holy Gospel, and is completed in the knowledge and confession of the one God. There follows: Verse 13.—'And door against door.' In this place 'against' is not set down for adversity but for straightness. For there is door against door when by a straight path one comes from the outer to the inner entrance. But in the knowledge of the omnipotent God our first door is faith, and the second the vision of him, to which we come by walking through faith. For in this life we enter into this door that we may afterward be led through to that one.
Door is against door, therefore, because through the entrance of faith is opened the entrance of the vision of God. But if anyone should wish to take both these doors in this life, neither does this shrink from a wholesome interpretation. For often we wish to consider the invisible nature of the omnipotent God, but we are in no way able; and amid those very difficulties the soul returns wearied to itself, and makes for itself, out of itself, steps of ascent, so that it may first consider itself, if it can, and then investigate, as far as it is able, that nature which is above it. But if our mind has been scattered among carnal images, it is in no way able to consider either itself or the nature of the soul, because it is led through so many thoughts as though blinded by so many obstacles.
The first step, therefore, is that it gather itself to itself; the second, that it see of what sort it is when gathered; the third, that it rise above itself, and, by intently applying itself to the contemplation of the invisible Author, subject itself to him. But it in no way gathers itself to itself unless it has first learned to restrain from the eyes of the mind the phantasms of earthly and heavenly images—to spit out and trample down whatever of sight, whatever of hearing, whatever of smell, whatever of bodily touch and taste has met its thought—so that it may seek itself within to be such as it is without these things. For when it thinks upon this, it turns over within, as it were, certain shadows of bodies.
All things, therefore, must be driven away by the hand of discernment from the eyes of the mind, so that the soul may consider itself to be such as it was created under God and above the body, so that, being made alive from what is above, it may make alive that which it administers below. And it has been so infused into the body that it is not divided part from part according to the parts of the members. For if in any place a part of the body is struck, the whole grieves. But in a wondrous manner, presiding over the members by one and the same act of vivifying, since it is itself not diverse by nature, it nevertheless acts diversely through the body. For it is this same soul which sees through the eyes, hears through the ears, smells through the nostrils, tastes through the mouth, and touches through all the members, and by touching discerns the smooth from the rough.
And although it works such diverse things through the senses, it disposes these diverse things not as diverse, but by that one reason in which it was created. When, therefore, the soul thinks upon itself without the images of the body, it has already entered the first door. But from this door it presses on to another, that it may contemplate something of the nature of the omnipotent God. The soul, then, is the life of the flesh in the body; but God, who gives life to all things, is the life of souls. If, therefore, life that has been made alive is of such greatness that it cannot be comprehended, who by understanding could comprehend of how great a majesty is the life that gives life?
But this very thing—to consider and to discern it—is already in some measure to enter, because from its own estimation the soul gathers what it should feel about the uncircumscribed Spirit, who incomprehensibly rules those things which he incomprehensibly created. For our Creator, incomparably far beyond, presides over his creature, and works certain things that they may be, yet not live; certain things indeed that they may be and live, yet not be able to discern anything of life; certain things, moreover, that they may be, live, and discern. And 'one works all things, but is not divided in all.' For he is truly the Highest, and never unlike himself. But the soul, even though it is not diverse from itself in nature, is nevertheless diverse through thought.
For in that very moment and instant in which it thinks of sight, it forgets to think of hearing; and in that moment and instant in which it thinks of hearing or taste, it is not able to think of smell or touch, because through intention and forgetfulness it becomes ever unlike itself, so that it holds now this, now that in thought. But Almighty God, because he is not unlike himself, sees by that same power by which he hears all things, creates by that same power by which he judges things created. To him, therefore, both to see all things at once is to administer, and to administer is to behold. Nor does he help the just by one thought and condemn the unjust by another, but by one and the same power of his singular nature, ever unlike to himself, he disposes unlike things.
But why should we marvel at this concerning the power of the Creator, we who behold the traces of his power even in created things? For the nature of clay and of wax is diverse. But the ray of the sun is not diverse, and yet, though it is not diverse, it works diverse things in the clay and the wax, because by one and the same heat of its fire it hardens the clay and melts the wax. But perhaps this is in the nature of the clay or the wax, not in the very substance of the sun, which seems to work diverse things in diverse natures. But Almighty God has it in himself to dispose changeable things without change, to do diverse things without diversity of himself, to form unlike things without any alternation of thoughts.
Far differently, therefore, does God, who is never unlike himself, work unlike things—God who both is everywhere and everywhere is whole. For he says: 'Heaven is my seat, but the earth is the footstool of my feet.' And of him it is written: 'Who measures the heaven with a palm, and encloses the earth in his fist.' From which matter it is necessary to consider that he who presides over heaven as over a seat is both above and within it. And he who encloses heaven with his palm and earth with his fist is both outside, above, and below. So that Almighty God might show himself to be inward and above all things, he declared heaven itself to be his seat. But that he might show himself to surround all things, he asserts that he measures heaven with a palm and encloses the earth in his fist.
He himself, therefore, is inward and outward, he himself lower and higher: higher by ruling, lower by upholding; inward by filling, outward by surrounding. And so he is within, that he is without; so he surrounds, that he penetrates; so he presides, that he upholds; so he upholds, that he presides. When, therefore, the soul, raised up to itself, understands its own measure, and recognizes that it transcends all bodily things, and from the understanding of itself stretches toward the understanding of its Author, what else does it now behold but the door which is against the door? Hence too the Prophet says to the Author of all: 'Wonderful is thy knowledge made from me,' because however much it may strain, the soul is not able perfectly to penetrate itself.
How much more the greatness of him who was able to create even the soul? And when it labored with understanding in the knowledge of God, growing weary and failing, it added: 'It is too strong, and I shall not be able to reach it.' But when, striving and stretching, we desire to behold something now of the invisible nature, we are wearied, beaten back, repelled; and if we cannot penetrate the inner things, nevertheless from the outer door we already see the inner door. For the very labor of consideration is a door, because it shows something of that which is within, even though there is not yet the power of entering. There follows: Verse 14.—'And he made the fronts of sixty cubits, and to the front the court of the gate all around in a circuit.'
1440:32
Sæpejamdiximus (Hom. 2,lib. II, n. 7, seq.) senarionumeroperfectionembonioperisdesignari, nonilludsequentesquodconatisunthujussæculisapientesastruere, dicentesidcircosenariumnumerumesseperfectum, quiasuoordinenumeratusperficilur, utcumunus, duo, tresdicuntur, senariusnumerusimpleatur; velquiaintribuspartihusdividitur, idestsexta, tertiaetdimidia, videlicetinuno, duobuscttribus; sedidcircosenariumnumerumdicimusesseperfectum, quia, sicutpauloantedictumest, sextodicperfecitDeusomniaoperasua (Genes. I, 21; II, ł).
We have already often said that by the number six is designated the perfection of good work—not following that which the wise men of this world have attempted to affirm, saying that the number six is therefore perfect because when reckoned in its own order it is brought to completion, so that when one, two, three are named, the number six is filled up; or because it is divided into three parts, that is, a sixth, a third, and a half, namely into one, two, and three; but we say that the number six is perfect for this reason: because, as was said a little before, on the sixth day God completed all his works.
But because he gave to sinful man a law which is written in ten precepts, and six times ten rise to sixty, rightly by sixty cubits is designated the perfection of good works. Which the Lord also plainly designates in the Gospel, who, when he expounded the parable of the sower, said: 'Another fell into good ground, and gave fruit springing up and increasing, and bore, one thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred.' For the fruit of the good earth bears thirty, when the mind has conceived the perfection of faith, which is in the Trinity. It bears sixty, when it has brought forth the perfect works of a good life.
But it bears a hundred, when it has advanced to the contemplation of eternal life. For our left hand is the present life, but the right is the life to come. And rightly by the number one hundred is designated the contemplation of eternal life, because when, after thirty and sixty, we arrive by reckoning at the number one hundred, that same number one hundred passes over to the right hand. Faith and action are still on the left, because we, still placed here, both believe what we do not see, and work that we may see. But when the soul has already suspended itself in the contemplation of eternal life, the reckoning has come, as it were, to the right hand. And so he made the fronts of sixty cubits.
For since perfection is signified by the number sixty, what is designated by the fronts of the building except those very works which are seen outwardly? For to bestow the word of preaching, to give food to the hungry and clothing to the shivering, and for the sake of good work patiently to endure adversities — what are these but the fronts of the heavenly building? For the beauty of outward works adorns that dwelling-place of God which still lies hidden within. But these fronts have a court on every side round about, because in these things the works are great, if the breadth of charity enlarges them within the mind. For concerning charity it is written: 'Thy commandment is exceeding broad' (Psalm 118:96). And of this the Psalmist again says: 'Thou hast set my feet in a spacious place' (Psalm 30:9).
13. But behold, even as I speak, there occurs to my mind how charity is broad. If it is through charity that one attains to God, and Truth itself says: 'Enter ye in at the narrow gate' (Matthew 7:13); and again I hear the Psalmist saying: 'For the words of thy lips I have kept hard ways' (Psalm 16:4); and in the Gospel the Lord says: 'For my yoke is sweet and my burden light' (Matthew 11:30) — how then is charity broad, if the gate is narrow? or how is the yoke sweet and the burden light, if in the precepts of God the ways that are kept are hard? But charity itself quickly resolves this question for us, because the way of God is narrow to those beginning, but broad to those already living in perfection.
And hard indeed are the things which, against habit, we spiritually set before our mind; and yet the burden of God is light after we have begun to bear it, so that for the love of Him even persecution becomes pleasing, and every affliction endured for His sake comes with sweetness of mind — just as the holy apostles too rejoiced when for the Lord they endured scourgings (Acts 5:41). That narrow gate, therefore, becomes broad to those who love; those hard ways become soft and level to those who run spiritually; for when the soul knows that in exchange for temporal pains it receives eternal joys, it begins to love the very thing by which it is afflicted. The court, then, before its fronts is the breadth of love in the perfection of work. 14.
And it is to be noted that it is said 'on every side round about,' namely so that a man, through everything he does, may always enlarge himself in the breadth of charity, lest either fear or hatred narrow him. If, therefore, anyone speaks of the word of God, and does not keep in his mind the charity which he preaches, he has the front of the building, but he has no court before the front. If anyone bestows alms upon the needy, and by this is perhaps lifted up in his heart, and does not out of charity relieve his neighbor in his need, but exalts himself with silent pride, he indeed displays a front in the building, but beside the front he has made no court.