For he bathes the feet of the Redeemer with tears, but does not wipe them with his hairs, who in some way has compassion on the grief of his neighbors, but yet does not show mercy to them out of the things that overflow to himself. He weeps and does not wipe, who indeed offers words of grief, but by not ministering the things that are lacking does not cut off the force of grief. The woman kisses the feet she wipes. This we also fully do, if we zealously love those whom we sustain out of largess, lest the neighbor's need be grievous to us, lest his very indigence which is being sustained become burdensome to us, and while the hand bestows what is necessary, the soul grow torpid in love. 6. By the feet can also be understood the very mystery of His incarnation, whereby the divinity touched the earth, because it assumed flesh.
For 'the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us' (John I, 14). We kiss therefore the feet of the Redeemer, when we love with our whole heart the mystery of His incarnation. We anoint His feet with ointment, when we proclaim with the good repute of sacred discourse the very power of His humanity. But this the Pharisee sees and envies, because when the Jewish people beholds the Gentile world proclaiming God, it pines away with its own malice. But our Redeemer enumerates the deeds of that same woman as, so to speak, the good things of the Gentile world, that it may recognize in what evil the Jewish people lies. For the Pharisee is so rebuffed that through him, as we have said, that faithless people is displayed.
'I entered into your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has bathed My feet with her tears.' Water indeed is outside us, the moisture of tears within us, because clearly that unbelieving people never bestowed even those things which were outside itself for the Lord; but the converted Gentile world poured out for Him not only substance of goods, but even blood. 'You gave Me no kiss, but she from the time she entered has not ceased to kiss My feet.' A kiss indeed is the sign of love.
And that unbelieving people gave God no kiss, because it would not love out of charity Him whom it served out of fear. But the Gentile world, being called, ceases not to kiss the footprints of its Redeemer, because it continually sighs in His love. Whence also in the voice of the bride it is said of that same her Redeemer in the Song of Songs: 'Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth' (Song of Songs I, 2). Rightly does she desire the kiss of her Maker, who prepares herself to obey Him through love. 'You did not anoint My head with oil.' If by the feet of the Lord we take the mystery of His incarnation, fittingly by His head is designated the divinity itself. Whence it is said through Paul: 'The head of Christ is God' (1 Corinthians XI, 3).
For the Jewish people confessed that it believed in God, and not in Him as in a man. But it is said to the Pharisee: 'You did not anoint My head with oil,' because it neglected to proclaim with worthy praise even that very power of His divinity, in which the Jewish people pledged that it believed. 'But she has anointed My feet with ointment,' because while the Gentile world believed the mystery of His incarnation, it proclaimed even His lowest things with highest praise. But now our Redeemer concludes the good things enumerated, when He adds by way of sentence: 'Wherefore I say to you: Many sins are forgiven her, for she has loved much.' As if He plainly said: Even if that which is being cooked is very hard, yet there abounds the fire of love by which even hard things are consumed. 7.
Amid these things it pleases us to gaze upon the consideration of so great a compassion. With what esteem does the Truth keep within Himself the works of the sinful woman—but of one who repents—which He enumerates to her adversary under so great a distribution. The Lord reclined at the Pharisee's dinner, but with the penitent woman He was delighted by the feast of the mind. With the Pharisee the Truth was fed outwardly, but with the sinful woman—yet a converted one—He was fed inwardly. Whence also holy Church, seeking Him under the likeness of a young hart of the stags, says in the Song of Songs: 'Show me whom my soul loves, where You feed, where You lie down at noon' (Song of Songs I, 7). For the young hart of the stags is the name given to the Lord, the son of the ancient fathers according to the flesh He assumed.
But at noon the more fervent heat blazes, and the young hart seeks a shady place which the heat afflicts not with its fire. In those hearts therefore the Lord rests which the love of the present world does not inflame, which the desires of the flesh do not burn up, which, kindled by their own anxieties amid the concupiscences of this world, do not grow dry. Whence also it is said to Mary: 'The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you' (Luke I, 35). Shady places therefore at noon the young hart seeks for feeding, because the Lord is fed by such minds as, through the regard of grace tempering them, are not burned by bodily desires.
The penitent woman therefore fed Him inwardly more than the Pharisee fed the Lord outwardly, because from the heat of carnal things our Redeemer had fled, as a young hart, to her mind, which after the fire of vices the shade of penitence was tempering. 8. Let us weigh how great was the compassion, not only to admit the sinful woman to Himself, but even to offer her His feet to be touched. Let us consider the grace of the merciful God, and let us condemn the multitude of our guilt. Behold, He sees sinners and bears with them; He tolerates those who resist, and yet daily through the Gospel He clemently calls. He desires our confession out of a pure heart, and He has released all the things in which we offend. The mercy of the Redeemer has tempered for us the strictness of the law. For in it is written:
'If anyone shall have done this or that, let him die the death. If anyone shall have done these things or those, let him be overwhelmed with stones' (Exodus XIX, 12; Leviticus XX and following). Our Maker and Redeemer appeared in the flesh; to the confession of sinners He promises not punishment but life; He receives the woman confessing her wounds, and dismisses her sound. He therefore bent the harshness of the law toward mercy, because those whom the law justly condemns, He mercifully sets free. Whence also it is well written in the law that the hands of Moses were heavy; taking a stone therefore, they put it under him, on which he sat; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands (Exodus XVII, 12). Moses indeed sat upon a stone, when the law came to rest in the Church.
But this same law had heavy hands, because it did not mercifully bear with any who sinned, but struck them with severe strictness. But Aaron is interpreted 'a mountain of fortitude,' and Hur 'fire.' Whom then does that mountain of fortitude signify, but our Redeemer, of whom it is said through the prophet: 'It shall be in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains' (Isaiah II, 2)? Or who is figured by the fire, but the Holy Spirit, of whom the same Redeemer says: 'I came to send fire upon the earth' (Luke XII, 49)?
Aaron therefore and Hur support the heavy hands of Moses, and by supporting them render them lighter, because the Mediator of God and men, coming with the fire of the Holy Spirit, showed the heavy commandments of the law—which, while they were held carnally, could not be borne—to be tolerable to us through spiritual understanding. For, as it were, they rendered the hands of Moses light, who turned the weight of the commandments of the law back to the virtue of confession. This promise of mercy He signifies to us who follow, when He says through the prophet: 'I desire not the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live' (Ezekiel XVIII, 23; XXXIII, 11). Hence again, under the likeness of Judea, it is said to each sinful soul:
'If a man forsake his wife, and she departing take another husband, shall he return to her any more? Shall not that woman be polluted and defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; nevertheless, return to Me, says the Lord' (Jeremiah III, 1). Behold, He gave the parable of the base woman. He showed that after her baseness she cannot be taken back. But this very parable which He brought forth He overcomes through mercy, when He says that the harlot woman can by no means be taken back, and yet He Himself waits to take back the fornicating soul. Weigh, brethren, the weight of so great a compassion. He says what cannot be done, and demonstrates that He Himself can do this very thing even contrary to custom.
Behold, He calls, and those whom He declares defiled, these He even seeks to embrace, by whom He complains that He has been deserted. Let no one therefore waste the time of so great a mercy; let no one cast away the remedies of the divine compassion offered. Behold, the supernal kindness calls us back when we are turned away, and prepares for us who return the bosom of His clemency. Let each one therefore weigh by what debt he is constrained, when God awaits him, and being despised is not exasperated. He who was unwilling to remain, let him return. He who scorned to stand, let him at least rise after his fall. With how great a love our Maker awaits us, He suggests when He says through the prophet: 'I attended and hearkened; no one speaks what is good; there is none who reconsiders in his heart and says, What have I done?' (Jeremiah
VIII, 6). Surely we ought never to have thought evil things. But because we were unwilling to think upon right things, behold, He still bears with us, that we may reconsider. See the bosom of so great a compassion; consider the lap of mercy opened to you; those whom He lost thinking evil, He seeks when they reconsider well. To you therefore, dearest brethren, to you bring back the eyes of the mind, and set before you as an example for imitation the penitent sinful woman; and whatever you remember to have transgressed in adolescence, whatever in youth, bewail it; wipe away the stains of your ways and works with tears. Let us now love the footprints of our Redeemer, which by sinning we despised.
Behold, as we have said, the bosom of supernal compassion is opened to receive us, nor is the stained life within us despised. Through this, that we shudder in horror at our own defilement, we already agree with inward purity. The Lord clemently embraces us when we return, because the life of sinners can no longer be unworthy of Him, which is washed with tears in Christ Jesus our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father, God in the unity of the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen. At that time, publicans and sinners were drawing near to Jesus, to hear Him. And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying: 'This man receives sinners, and eats with them.' And He spoke to them this parable, saying:
'What man among you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does he not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after that which was lost, until he find it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing; and coming home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them: Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance, more than over ninety-nine just persons who need no penance. Or what woman, having ten drachmas, if she lose one drachma, does she not light a lamp, and turn the house upside down, and seek diligently until she find it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends.'
...and her neighbors, saying: 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost. Even so, I say to you, there shall be joy before the angels of God over one sinner doing penance.' The summer season, which is greatly contrary to my body, has kept me, through the intervention of a long delay, from speaking on the exposition of the Gospel. But because the tongue was silent, did charity therefore cease to burn? This indeed I say, which each one of you recognizes within himself. For very often charity, hindered by certain occupations, glows whole within the heart, and yet is not displayed in work; just as the sun, when it is covered by a cloud, is not seen upon the earth, and yet burns in heaven.
Thus, thus is charity wont to be occupied: it exerts inwardly the force of its ardor, yet does not show outwardly the flames of work. But because now the time for speaking has returned, your zeal kindles me, so that it may please me to speak the more gladly the more your minds await this with longing. You have heard in the Gospel lesson, my brethren, that sinners and tax collectors drew near to our Redeemer; and they were received not only to converse but even to dine with him. Seeing this, the Pharisees disdained him. From this fact gather that true justice has compassion, false justice has disdain, although the just are wont rightly to be indignant with sinners.
But one thing is what is done through the pride of arrogance, another what is done through zeal for discipline. For they disdain, yet without disdaining; they despair, yet without despairing; they stir up persecution, yet lovingly, because although outwardly they heap up rebukes through discipline, inwardly they nevertheless keep sweetness through charity. In their mind they very often set above themselves those very ones whom they correct, and they esteem better even those whom they judge. Doing this, they both guard their subjects through discipline and keep themselves through humility. But on the contrary, those who are wont to be proud of a false justice despise all others, and condescend with no mercy to the infirm; and the less they believe themselves to be sinners, the worse sinners they become.
Of whose number indeed the Pharisees had shown themselves to be, who, judging the Lord because he received sinners, with a parched heart reproached the very fountain of mercy. But because they were so sick that they did not know they were sick, that they might recognize what they were, the heavenly Physician cures them with gentle poultices, sets before them a kindly parable, and lances the swelling of the wound in their heart. For he says: 'What man of you that has a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after that which was lost?' Behold, by a wondrous dispensation of mercy the Truth gave a similitude which man might both recognize in himself, and which yet pertained specially to the very Author of men.
For because a hundred is a perfect number, he himself had a hundred sheep when he created the substance of angels and of men. But one sheep then perished when man, by sinning, forsook the pastures of life. He left, however, the ninety-nine sheep in the desert, because he left in heaven those highest choirs of angels. But why is heaven called a desert, unless because 'desert' means forsaken? Now man forsook heaven when he sinned.
But the ninety-nine sheep remained in the desert while the Lord sought the one on earth, because the number of the rational creation—of angels, that is, and of men—which had been created to behold God, was diminished by the perishing of man; and that the perfect sum of the sheep might be made whole in heaven, the lost man was sought on earth. For what this evangelist calls 'in the desert,' another calls 'in the mountains,' that he might signify 'in the heights' (Matt. 18:12), because doubtless the sheep which had not perished were standing in the sublime places. 'And when he has found the sheep, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing.' He laid the sheep upon his shoulders, because, taking up human nature, he himself bore our sins. 'And coming home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them:'
'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.' Having found the sheep, he returns home, because our Shepherd, having restored man, returned to the heavenly kingdom. There he finds friends and neighbors, namely those choirs of angels who are his friends, because they continually keep his will in their own steadfastness. They are also his neighbors, because by their constancy they fully enjoy the brightness of his vision. And it is to be noted that he does not say 'Rejoice with the found sheep,' but 'with me,' because indeed his joy is our life, and when we are brought back to heaven, we fulfill the solemnity of his gladness.
'I say to you that there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance, more than over ninety-nine just persons who need no penance.' We must consider, my brethren, why the Lord declares that there is greater joy in heaven over converted sinners than over the just who stand firm; unless it be this, which we ourselves know from daily experience of observation: that very often those who know themselves oppressed by no weights of sins do indeed stand in the way of justice and commit nothing unlawful, yet they do not anxiously pant after the heavenly homeland, and they allow themselves the use of lawful things all the more freely the more they remember having committed nothing unlawful.
And very often they remain slothful in performing the more excellent goods, because they are quite secure in that they have committed no graver evils. But on the contrary, sometimes those who remember having done certain unlawful things, pricked by their very own grief, kindle into the love of God, and exercise themselves in great virtues; they seek out all the hardships of the holy contest, forsake all worldly things, flee honors, rejoice in the insults they receive, burn with desire, pant after the heavenly homeland; and because they consider that they have strayed from God, they recompense their preceding losses with the gains that follow.
Therefore greater joy is made in heaven over a converted sinner than over a just man who stands firm, because even a commander in battle loves more that soldier who, having returned after flight, presses the enemy bravely, than the one who never turned his back but also never did anything bravely. So the farmer loves more that land which after thorns brings forth abundant crops, than the one which never had thorns and never produces a fruitful harvest. But amid these things it must be known that there are very many just persons in whose life there is so great an integrity that no penance whatever of sinners can in any way be preferred to them. For many are conscious to themselves of no evils, and yet exert themselves in such affliction of great ardor as if they were pressed by all sins.
They reject even all lawful things, they gird themselves loftily to the contempt of the world, they grieve that anything whatever is permitted to them, they cut off from themselves even goods that are granted, they despise things visible, they are kindled toward things invisible, they rejoice in lamentations, they humble themselves in all things; and just as some bewail the sins of deeds, so these bewail the sins of thoughts. What then shall I call these, but both just and penitent, who both humble themselves in penitence for the sin of thought, and always persevere upright in work? From this therefore it is to be gathered how great a joy the just man gives to God when he humbly laments, if the unjust man causes joy in heaven when through penitence he condemns what he did evilly. It follows:
'Or what woman having ten drachmas, if she lose one drachma, does she not light a lamp and overturn the house, and seek diligently until she find the drachma which she had lost?' He who is signified by the shepherd is also signified by the woman. For he himself is God, he himself is also the Wisdom of God. And because an image is imprinted on a drachma, the woman lost a drachma when man, who had been created to the image of God, by sinning departed from the likeness of his Creator. But the woman lights a lamp, because the Wisdom of God appeared in humanity. For a lamp is a light in an earthen vessel; but a light in an earthen vessel is divinity in the flesh. Concerning which earthen vessel of his body, Wisdom itself says: 'My strength is dried up like a potsherd' (Ps. 21:16).
For because an earthen vessel is hardened in fire, his strength was dried up like a potsherd, because he strengthened the assumed flesh from the tribulation of the passion unto the glory of the resurrection. And having lighted the lamp she overturns the house, because as soon as his divinity shone forth through the flesh, our whole conscience was shaken. For the house is overturned when the human conscience is disturbed by the consideration of its own guilt. And this word 'overturns' does not disagree with what is read in other manuscripts, 'cleanses,' because doubtless a depraved mind, if it is not first overturned through fear, is not cleansed from its accustomed vices. Therefore, the house being overturned, the drachma is found, because while the conscience of man is disturbed, the likeness of the Creator is restored in man.
'And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost.' Who are these friends or neighbors, if not those heavenly powers already spoken of above? They are so near to the supernal Wisdom in proportion as they draw near to it through the grace of continual vision. But amid these things we ought by no means to leave off negligently why this woman, by whom the Wisdom of God is figured, is said to have had ten drachmas, of which she lost one, which she found when she sought it. For the Lord created the nature of angels and of men to know himself; and since he willed it to endure unto eternity, he doubtless created it to his own likeness.
But the woman had ten drachmas, because there are nine orders of angels. But that the number of the elect might be completed, man was created as the tenth, who did not perish even after his fault, because the eternal Wisdom, gleaming with miracles through the flesh, restored him from the light of the earthen vessel. Now we have said nine orders of angels, because indeed, as the sacred oracle testifies, we know there to be angels, archangels, virtues, powers, principalities, dominions, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim. For that there are angels and archangels nearly all the pages of sacred Scripture testify. And the cherubim and seraphim, as is well known, the books of the prophets often speak of.
The names of four orders also the apostle Paul enumerates to the Ephesians, saying: 'Above every principality, and power, and virtue, and dominion' (Eph. 1:21). And again, writing to the Colossians, he says: 'Whether thrones, or powers, or principalities, or dominions' (Col. 1:16). Now dominions and principalities and powers he had already described when speaking to the Ephesians; but being about to name these also to the Colossians, he prefaced them with thrones, of which he had as yet said nothing to the Ephesians. Therefore, when to those four which he mentioned to the Ephesians—that is, principalities, powers, virtues, and dominions—thrones are joined, there are five orders which are specially named.
To which, when angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim, are added, there are found without doubt nine orders of angels. Whence also to that angel who was first created it is said through the prophet: 'You were the seal of likeness, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty; you were in the delights of the paradise of God' (Ezek. 28:12). Here it is to be noted that he is not said to have been made to the likeness of God, but the 'seal of likeness,' so that, the more subtle his nature is, the more the image of God might be intimated as expressed in him more closely. In which place it is at once added: 'Every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, the topaz, and the jasper, the chrysolite, the onyx, and the beryl, the sapphire, the carbuncle, and the emerald' (Ezek. 28:13).
Behold, he named nine kinds of stones, because indeed there are nine orders of angels. With which orders that first angel was so adorned and covered, because, being set above all the ranks of angels, he was the more brilliant by comparison with them. But why have we run through by enumeration these choirs of persevering angels, if we do not also subtly set forth their ministries? For in the Greek tongue angels are called 'messengers,' but archangels 'chief messengers.' It should also be known that the word 'angel' is the name of an office, not of a nature. For those holy spirits of the heavenly homeland are indeed always spirits, but they cannot always be called angels, because they are angels only then, when through them certain things are announced;
whence also it is said through the Psalmist: 'Who makes his angels spirits' (Ps. 103:4). As if he plainly said: Those whom he always has as spirits, he makes angels also when he wills. But those who announce lesser things are called angels; those who announce the highest things are called archangels. Hence it is that to the Virgin Mary not just any angel, but Gabriel the archangel, is sent (Luke 1:26). For to this ministry it was fitting that the highest angel should come, who announced the highest of all things. They are for this reason also designated by proper names, so that through their names it might be signified what they avail even in operation.
For not in that holy City, which the full knowledge of the vision of Almighty God perfects, do they receive proper names for this reason, that their persons could not be known without names; but when they come to minister something to us, they draw among us their names also from their ministries. For Michael means 'Who is like God?'; Gabriel means 'The strength of God'; Raphael is called 'The medicine of God.' And whenever something of marvelous power is done, Michael is said to be sent, so that from the very act and from the name it might be understood that no one can do what God prevails to do. Whence also that ancient enemy, who desired through pride to be like God, saying:
'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven, I will sit on the mount of the covenant, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High' (Isa. 14:13-14)—when at the end of the world he shall be left in his own strength to await the final punishment, he is said to be about to do battle with Michael the archangel, as it is said through John: 'There was a battle with Michael the archangel' (Rev. 12:7); so that he who had proudly exalted himself to the likeness of God, being destroyed through Michael, might learn that no one rises up to the likeness of God through pride. To Mary also is sent Gabriel (Luke 1:26), who is named 'The strength of God.'