約伯倫理 第 1461 章 第 6/11 段

Therefore let each one of you lead back the eyes of his mind to the consideration of himself; and if he keeps after baptism what he pledged before baptism, let him rejoice, now certain that he is faithful. But behold, if he has by no means kept what he promised—if he has slipped into practising wicked works, into coveting the pomps of the world—let us see whether he now knows how to bewail that he has erred. For before the merciful Judge not even he shall be held false who returns to the truth, even after he has lied, because Almighty God, while he willingly receives our penitence, by his own judgment hides that in which we have erred. There follows: 4. And these signs shall follow them that shall believe.

In my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover. Do you then, my brethren, by no means believe, because you do not perform these signs? But these were necessary in the beginning of the Church. For that faith might grow, it had to be nourished with miracles, just as we too, when we plant shrubs, pour water upon them so long until we see that they have now taken strength in the ground; and if once they have fixed a root, we cease from watering. Hence it is that Paul says: 'Tongues are for a sign, not to believers, but to unbelievers' (1 Corinthians 14:22).

We have concerning these signs and powers things which we ought yet more subtly to consider. For holy Church daily does spiritually what it then did bodily through the apostles. For when her priests, through the grace of exorcism, lay hands upon believers and forbid malignant spirits to dwell in their minds, what else do they do but cast out devils? And whatever faithful now forsake the worldly words of their old life, and instead resound the holy mysteries, and, as far as they prevail, tell the praises and the power of their Creator, what else do they do but speak with new tongues? These, while by their good exhortations they take away malice from the hearts of others, take up serpents.

And while they hear pestilent persuasions, yet are by no means drawn to wicked deeds, it is indeed something deadly that they drink, but it shall not hurt them. And these, as often as they behold their neighbours grown weak in a good work, when they run to them with all their strength and by the example of their own working strengthen the life of those who stagger in their own conduct, what else do they do but lay their hands upon the sick, that they may recover? Which miracles, indeed, are so much the greater as they are spiritual; so much the greater as by these not bodies but souls are raised up. These signs, therefore, dearly beloved brethren, by God's authorship you perform if you will. For from those outward signs, life cannot be obtained by those who work them.

For those bodily miracles sometimes show holiness, but do not make it; but these spiritual ones, which are done in the mind, do not show the virtue of life, but make it. The former even the wicked can have, but of the latter none but the good can enjoy the fruit. Whence the Truth says of certain ones: 'Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many mighty works in thy name? And then will I confess to them, that I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity' (Matthew 7:22-23; Psalm 6:9). Do not, therefore, dearly beloved brethren, love signs which can be held in common with the reprobate;

but love these miracles of charity and piety which we have just now spoken of, which are the safer the more they are also hidden, and concerning which the recompense with the Lord is the greater the less is the glory among men. There follows: 5. And the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God. In the Old Testament we have learned that Elijah was caught up into heaven. But one thing is the aerial heaven, another the ethereal. For the aerial heaven is nearest to the earth; whence we also call them the birds of heaven, because we see them fly in the air.

Into the aerial heaven, then, Elijah was lifted up, that he might be suddenly conveyed into some secret region of the earth, where he might live in great quiet of flesh and spirit until he return at the end of the world, and pay the debt of death. For he deferred death, he did not escape it. But our Redeemer, because he did not defer it, overcame it, and by rising again consumed it, and by ascending declared the glory of his resurrection. It is also to be noted that Elijah is read to have ascended in a chariot, so that, namely, it might be plainly shown that a mere man needed the help of another. For those aids were made and shown through angels, because he could not by himself ascend even into the aerial heaven, whom the infirmity of his nature weighed down.

But our Redeemer is read to have been lifted up neither by a chariot nor by angels, because he who had made all things was, without doubt, borne above all things by his own power. For he was returning thither where he was, and returning from there where he remained, because, while by his humanity he ascended into heaven, by his divinity he alike contained both the earth and heaven. 6. But as Joseph, sold by his brethren, figured the selling of our Redeemer, so Enoch, translated, and Elijah, lifted up to the aerial heaven, designated the Lord's Ascension. His Ascension, therefore, the Lord had as its foreheralds and witnesses—one before the Law, another under the Law—that he might at length come, he who could truly penetrate the heavens.

Hence the very order in the raising up of each of these two men is marked out by certain gradations. For Enoch is recorded to have been translated (Genesis 5:24), while Elijah is said to have been carried up to heaven (2 Kings 2:11), so that He might come afterward who, being neither translated nor carried up, would penetrate the heaven of the sky by His own power. He who, that He might bestow purity of the flesh also upon us who believe in Him, and that under Him the virtue of chastity might grow through the increments of the ages, showed this both in the very translation of those who, as servants, foreshadowed the Lord's Ascension, and in Himself who ascended to heaven as Lord. For Enoch indeed had a wife and sons; but Elijah is read to have had neither wife nor sons.

Consider therefore how the purity of holiness increased through gradations, which is plainly shown both through the translated servants and through the person of the ascending Lord. For Enoch was translated, both begotten through intercourse and begetting through intercourse. Elijah was caught up, begotten through intercourse, but not now begetting through intercourse. But the Lord was taken up, neither begetting through intercourse nor begotten through intercourse. And we must consider what it is that Mark says: 'He sits at the right hand of God' (Mark 16:19); and Stephen says: 'I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God' (Acts 7:56). What is it that Mark testifies he saw Him sitting, but Stephen standing?

But you know, brethren, that to sit belongs to one who judges, while to stand belongs to one who fights or helps. Therefore, because our Redeemer, taken up into heaven, both now judges all things and at the last comes as Judge of all, Mark describes Him sitting after His being taken up, because after the glory of His Ascension He will be seen as Judge at the end. But Stephen, set in the labor of the contest, saw standing Him whom he had as helper, because that this man might overcome on earth the unbelief of his persecutors, His grace fought from heaven on his behalf. There follows: 'But they going forth preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following' (Mark 16:20).

What is to be considered in these things, what to be commended to memory, except that obedience follows the precept, and signs follow obedience? But since, by God's authorship, we have run briefly through the exposition of the Gospel reading, it remains that we say something about the consideration of so great a solemnity itself. This first must be sought by us: what is the reason that, when the Lord was born, angels appeared, and yet they are not read to have appeared in white garments, but when the Lord ascended, the angels sent are read to have appeared in white garments. For thus it is written: 'While they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went, behold, two men stood by them in white garments' (Acts).

(Acts 1:9). Now in white garments joy and solemnity of mind are shown. What then is it that at the Lord's birth the angels appear not in white garments, but at the Lord's ascension in white garments, except that then a great solemnity was made for the angels, when God made man penetrated heaven? Because at the Lord's birth the divinity seemed humbled, but at the Lord's ascension the humanity was exalted. For white garments befit exaltation more than humiliation. In His being taken up, therefore, the angels ought to have been seen in white garments, because He who at His nativity appeared as a humble God, in His Ascension was shown as an exalted man.

But this, most beloved brethren, must be greatly weighed by us in this solemnity: that on this day the handwriting of our condemnation has been blotted out, the sentence of our corruption has been changed. For that nature to which it was said: 'Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou go' (Genesis 3:19), today has gone into heaven. For on account of this very raising up of our flesh, blessed Job by a figure calls the Lord a bird. For because he saw that Judea did not understand the mystery of His Ascension, he pronounced a sentence upon its unbelief, saying: 'The bird hath not known the path' (Job 28:7). For the Lord was rightly called a bird, because He poised His fleshly body into the upper air.

Whoever did not believe that He ascended into heaven was ignorant of the path of this bird. Of this solemnity it is said through the Psalmist: 'Thy magnificence is raised up above the heavens' (Psalm 8:2). Of this again he says: 'God is ascended in jubilation, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet' (Psalm 47:5). Of this again he says: 'Ascending on high, He led captivity captive; He gave gifts to men' (Psalm 68:18). For ascending on high He led captivity captive, because He swallowed up our corruption by the power of His incorruption.

And He gave gifts to men, because, the Spirit being sent from above, He granted to one the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another the grace of powers, to another the grace of healings, to another kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of speeches (1 Corinthians 12:8). He gave, therefore, gifts to men. Of this glory of His Ascension Habakkuk also says: 'The sun was lifted up, and the moon stood in its order' (Habakkuk 3:11, according to the Septuagint). For who is designated by the name of the sun but the Lord, and who by the name of the moon but the Church? For as long as the Lord had not ascended to the heavens, His holy Church in every way dreaded the adversities of the world; but after she was strengthened by His Ascension, she openly preached what she had secretly believed.

The sun therefore was lifted up, and the moon stood in its order, because when the Lord entered heaven, His holy Church grew in the authority of preaching. Hence it is said in the voice of that same Church through Solomon: 'Behold, He cometh leaping upon the mountains, and skipping over the hills' (Song of Songs 2:8). For she considered the summits of such great works, and said: 'Behold, He cometh leaping upon the mountains.' For in coming to our redemption, He gave, so to speak, certain leaps. Do you wish, most beloved brethren, to recognize these His leaps? From heaven He came into the womb, from the womb He came into the manger, from the manger He came onto the cross, from the cross He came into the sepulcher, from the sepulcher He returned into heaven.

Behold, that He might make us run after Him, the Truth manifested through the flesh gave certain leaps for us, because 'He rejoiced as a giant to run His course' (Psalm 19:5), so that we might say to Him from the heart: 'Draw us after Thee; we will run in the odor of Thy ointments' (Song of Songs 1:3). Wherefore, most beloved brethren, it behooves us to follow with the heart thither where we believe He has ascended with the body. Let us flee earthly desires; let nothing now delight us in things below, we who have a Father in heaven. And this must be greatly weighed by us, that He who ascended gently will return terribly; and whatever He has commanded us with meekness, He will exact from us with strictness.

Let no one therefore make light of the times granted for penance, let no one neglect to take care of himself while he is able, because our Redeemer will then come the more strict in judgment, the greater the patience He has extended to us before judgment. These things therefore, brethren, do among yourselves, revolve these in the mind with diligent thought. Although the soul still tosses amid the disturbances of things, yet already fix the anchor of your hope in the eternal fatherland, and make firm the intention of the mind in the true light. Behold, we have heard that the Lord ascended into heaven. Let us therefore keep in meditation what we believe. And if we are still held here by weakness of body, let us nevertheless follow Him with the steps of love.

But He who gave the desire does not desert our desire, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen. At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him. He who loves Me not keeps not My words. And the word which you have heard is not Mine, but His who sent Me, the Father's. These things have I spoken to you, abiding with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your mind whatsoever I shall have said to you' (John 14:23-26).

'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it fear. You have heard that I said to you, I go and I come to you. If you loved Me, you would indeed rejoice, because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it shall have come to pass, you may believe. I will not now speak many things with you. For the prince of this world comes, and in Me he has nothing. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave commandment to Me, so I do' (John 14:27-31). It is pleasing, most beloved brethren, to run briefly through the Gospel words of the reading, that afterward it may be permitted to dwell longer in the contemplation of so great a solemnity.

For today the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples with a sudden sound (Acts 2:2ff.), and changed the minds of carnal men into His own love, and, with tongues of fire appearing outwardly, their hearts within were made flaming, because while they received God in the vision of Him, they burned sweetly through love. For the Holy Spirit Himself is love. Hence John also says: 'God is charity' (1 John 4:8, 16). He therefore who with a whole mind desires God, assuredly already has Him whom he loves. For no one could love God if he did not have Him whom he loves. But behold, if each of you is asked whether he loves God, with all confidence and secure mind he answers: 'I love.'

But at the very beginning of the reading you have heard what the Truth says: 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word.' The proof therefore of love is the showing of the work. Hence in his Epistle the same John says: 'He who says, I love God, and keeps not His commandments, is a liar' (1 John 2:4). For we truly love God if we restrain ourselves from our pleasures according to His commandments. For he who still flows apart through unlawful desires assuredly does not love God, because he contradicts Him in his own will. 'And My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.' Weigh, most beloved brethren, how great is this solemnity: to have the coming of God in the lodging of the heart.

Surely if some rich and very powerful friend were to enter your house, the whole house would be cleaned with all haste, lest perchance there be anything that might offend the eyes of the entering friend. Let him therefore wipe away the filth of evil work who prepares the house of the mind for God. But see what the Truth says: 'We will come, and make Our abode with him.' For into the hearts of some He comes, and does not make His abode, because through compunction indeed they receive the regard of God, but at the time of temptation they forget this very thing for which they had been pricked; and thus they return to committing sins, as if they had not at all bewailed these.

He therefore who truly loves God, who keeps His commandments, in his heart the Lord both comes and makes His abode, because the love of divinity so penetrates him that at the time of temptation he does not withdraw from this love. He therefore truly loves, whose mind wicked delight does not overcome by consent. For each one is disjoined from the love above by as much as he is delighted below. Hence it is further added: 'He who loves Me not keeps not My words.' Return therefore within yourselves, most beloved brethren; if you truly love God, examine it; nor yet let anyone believe himself in whatever his mind may answer him without the attestation of the work. Concerning the love of the Creator, let the tongue, the mind, and the life be examined. Never is the love of God idle.

For it works great things, if it exists; but if it refuses to work, it is not love. 'And the word which you have heard is not Mine, but His who sent Me, the Father's.' You know, most beloved brethren, that He who speaks, the only-begotten Son, is the Word of the Father, and therefore the word which the Son speaks is not the Son's but the Father's, because the Son Himself is the Word of the Father. 'These things have I spoken to you, abiding with you.' When was He not abiding with them, He who, about to ascend to heaven, promises, saying: 'Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world' (Matthew 28:20)? But the incarnate Word both abides and withdraws: He withdraws in the body, He abides in the divinity.

He therefore declares that He then abode with them, because He who by invisible power was always present, was now withdrawing by bodily vision. 'But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your mind whatsoever I shall have said to you.' You know, most of you, my brethren, that in Greek speech 'Paraclete' is in Latin called 'advocate,' or 'consoler.' He is called advocate for this reason, because He intervenes with the justice of the Father for the error of those who sin. He, of one substance with the Father and the Son, is said to entreat for sinners, because He makes those whom He fills to entreat. Hence Paul also says: 'For the Spirit Himself asks for us with unspeakable groanings' (Romans 8:26).

But he who asks is less than he who is asked; how then is the Spirit said to ask, who is not less? But the Spirit Himself asks, because He inflames to asking those whom He has filled. And the same Spirit is called Consoler, because, while He prepares the hope of pardon for those grieving over the commission of sin, He lifts the mind from the affliction of sadness. Of Him it is rightly promised: 'He shall teach you all things.' Because unless the same Spirit is present to the heart of the hearer, the discourse of the teacher is idle. Let no one therefore attribute to the man teaching what he understands from the mouth of the teacher, because unless He who teaches is within, the tongue of the teacher labors outwardly in vain.

Behold, you all alike hear the one voice of the one speaking, and yet you do not alike perceive the sense of the voice heard. When therefore the voice is not different, why is the understanding of the voice different in your hearts, except that, through what the voice commonly admonishes, there is an interior Master who specially teaches certain ones about the understanding of the voice? Of this anointing of the Spirit it is said again through John: 'As His anointing teaches you concerning all things' (1 John 2:27). By the voice therefore one is not instructed, when the mind is not anointed by the Spirit. But why do we say these things about the teaching of men, when even the Creator Himself does not speak to the instruction of man, if He does not speak to that same man through the anointing of the Spirit?

Surely Cain, before he perpetrated fratricide in deed, heard: 'Thou hast sinned; be still' (Genesis 4:7, according to the Septuagint). But because, as his own faults demanded, he was admonished by the voice, not by the anointing of the Spirit, he could hear the words of God, but scorned to keep them. But it must be inquired by us why of the same Spirit it is said: 'He shall suggest to you all things,' since to suggest is wont to belong to a lesser one. But because we sometimes call 'to suggest' to supply, the invisible Spirit is said to suggest, not that He introduces knowledge to us from below, but from the hidden. 'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.' Here I leave, there I give. To those who follow I leave, to those who arrive I give.

Behold, most beloved brethren, we have briefly discussed the words of the sacred reading; now let us transfer our mind to the contemplation of so great a festivity. But since together with the Gospel reading the reading also of the Acts of the Apostles has been recited to you (Acts 2), from it therefore let us draw something for the use of our contemplation. For you have heard that the Holy Spirit appeared upon the disciples in fiery tongues, and gave the knowledge of all tongues. What was He signifying by this miracle, except that the holy Church, filled with the same Spirit, was to speak with the voice of all nations? Those who tried to build a tower against God lost the communion of the one tongue (Genesis 11:8),

but in these who humbly feared God all tongues were united. Here therefore humility merited power, there pride merited confusion. But it must be sought by us why the Holy Spirit, coeternal with the Father and the Son, appeared in fire, why in fire and tongues together, why sometimes in a dove, but sometimes in fire He is shown, why over the only-begotten Son He appeared in the form of a dove, and over the disciples in fire (Acts 2:2ff.); so that neither would He come over the Lord in fire, nor be shown over the disciples in a dove. Through these four things therefore which we have proposed let us return by resolving them.

The Spirit coeternal with the Father and the Son is fire, because incorporeal, ineffable, and invisible fire is God, Paul attesting: 'Our God is a consuming fire' (Hebrews 12:29). For God is called fire, because through Him the rust of sins is consumed. Of this fire the Truth says: 'I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I but that it burn?' (Luke 12:49). For earthly hearts are called earth, which, while they always heap up base thoughts within themselves, are trodden down by malignant spirits. But the Lord sends fire on the earth when by the breath of the Holy Spirit He kindles the hearts of carnal men.

And the earth burns when the carnal heart, cold in its own wicked pleasures, relinquishes the concupiscences of the present world, and is kindled to the love of God. Well therefore did the Spirit appear in fire, because from every heart which He fills He shakes out the torpor of coldness, and kindles it into the desire of His own eternity. But He was shown in fiery tongues, because the same Spirit is coeternal with the Son, and the tongue has the greatest kinship with the word. For the Word of the Father is the Son. And because the substance of the Spirit and of the Word is one, the same Spirit had to be shown in a tongue.

Or certainly because through the tongue the word proceeds, the Spirit appeared in tongues, because whoever is touched by the Holy Spirit confesses the Word of God, that is, the only-begotten Son; and he is not able to deny the Word of God, because he already has the tongue of the Holy Spirit. Or certainly in fiery tongues the Spirit appeared, because He makes all whom He fills alike burning and speaking. Teachers have fiery tongues, because, while they preach that God is to be loved, they inflame the hearts of the hearers. For even the discourse of the teacher is idle, if it is not able to furnish the fire of love. This fire of teaching they had conceived from the very mouth of the Truth, who said: 'Was not our heart burning within us while He spoke on the way and opened to us the Scriptures?' (Luke 24:32).

For from the discourse heard the soul is inflamed, the cold of torpor withdraws, the mind becomes anxious in heavenly desire, estranged from earthly concupiscences. True love which has filled it torments it in weeping; but while it is tormented with such ardor, it is fed by its very torments. It pleases it to hear the heavenly precepts; and by as many commandments as it is instructed, by so many torches as it were it is inflamed; and what before was torpid through desires, afterward burns through the words. Hence well it is said through Moses: 'In His right hand is a fiery law' (Deuteronomy 33:2). For the reprobate are the left hand, who are also to be placed at the left; but the elect are called the right hand of God.

In the right hand of God therefore is a fiery law, because the elect by no means hear the heavenly commandments with a cold heart, but burn toward them with the torches of inmost love. The word is brought to the ear, and their mind, angry with itself, is consumed by the flame of interior sweetness. But in a dove and in fire the Holy Spirit was shown, because He makes all whom He fills simple and burning: simple in purity, burning in zeal. For neither simplicity without zeal nor zeal without simplicity can please God. Hence the Truth Himself says: 'Be prudent as serpents, and simple as doves' (Matthew 10:16).

In which matter it is to be noted that the Lord willed to admonish His disciples neither of the dove without the serpent, nor of the serpent without the dove, so that the astuteness of the serpent might kindle the simplicity of the dove, and the simplicity of the dove might temper the astuteness of the serpent. Hence Paul says: 'Do not become children in senses' (1 Corinthians 14:20). Behold, we have heard the prudence of the serpent; now let us be admonished of the simplicity of the dove: 'But in malice be children' (ibid.). Hence of blessed Job it is said: 'He was a man simple and upright' (Job 1:1). For what is uprightness without simplicity, or what is simplicity without uprightness?