約伯倫理 第 1462 章 第 3/4 段

Who made a marriage for his son. For then did God the Father make a marriage for God the Son, when he joined him in the womb of the Virgin to human nature, when he willed that he who was God before the ages should become man at the end of the ages. But because this joining is wont to be made from two persons, far be it from our understandings that we should believe the person of God and man, of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, to be united from two persons. For we say that he exists from two and in two natures; but that he was composed and united from two persons, as a wickedness, we shun. More openly therefore and more safely can it be said that in this the Father made a marriage for the King his Son, in that he joined to him the holy Church through the mystery of the incarnation.

But the womb of the Virgin Mother was the bridal chamber of this Bridegroom. Whence also the Psalmist says: In the sun he has set his tabernacle, and he himself, like a bridegroom coming forth from his bridal chamber (Ps. XIX, 5). Like a bridegroom indeed he came forth from his chamber, because, to join the Church to himself, God incarnate came forth from the incorrupt womb of the Virgin. He sent therefore his servants to invite friends to these nuptials. He sent once, he sent again, because he made preachers of the Lord's incarnation, first the prophets, and afterward the apostles. Twice therefore he sent servants to invite, because he foretold the incarnation of the Only-begotten through the prophets as about to be, and announced it through the apostles as having been done.

But because those who were first invited to the banquet of the nuptials would not come, in the second invitation it is now said: Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. What in the oxen and fatlings, dearest brethren, do we take but the fathers of the New and Old Testament? For because I am speaking to the common people, I must needs also explain the very words of the Gospel reading. For we call things 'fatlings' that are fattened; for from that which is 'to nourish' (alere), we call fatlings (altilia) as it were 'nourished ones' (alitilia). But since it was written in the Law: Thou shalt love thy friend, and hate thy enemy (Matt. V, 43; Lev.

XIX, 18), it had then been permitted to the just that they might crush God's adversaries and their own with all the might they could, and slay them by the right of the sword. Which is without doubt restrained in the New Testament, when through his very self the Truth preaches, saying: Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you (Matt. V, 44). Who therefore are signified by the oxen but the fathers of the Old Testament? For while, by the permission of the Law, they had received that they might destroy their adversaries by the requital of hatred, what, so to speak, were they other than oxen, who struck their enemies with the horn of bodily strength?

But what is figured by the fatlings but the fathers of the New Testament, who, while they receive the grace of inner fatness, striving upward from earthly desires, are lifted up on the wings of their contemplation to sublime things? For to set one's thought in the lowest depths, what is it other than a certain greediness of the mind? But those who by the understanding of heavenly things are now fed through holy desires with the food of the innermost delight from things above, grow fat as though with more abundant nourishment. For with this fatness the Prophet had desired to be filled, when he said: Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness (Ps. LXIII, 5). Because therefore the preacher—

The messengers of the Lord's incarnation suffered persecution from unbelievers—first the prophets, and afterward the holy apostles. To those who were invited and yet were unwilling to come, it is said: 'My oxen and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready.' As if it were said more plainly: Behold the deaths of the fathers who went before you, and consider the remedies of your own life. It must be noted, moreover, that in the first invitation nothing is said of oxen and fatlings, but in the second the oxen and fatlings are now said to have been slain; because Almighty God, when we are unwilling to hear His words, adds examples, so that whatever we believe impossible may become the easier for us to hope for, in proportion as we hear that others have already passed through it. There follows:

'But they neglected it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise.' To go to the farm is to be immoderately bent upon earthly toil; to go to the merchandise is to gape after the gains of worldly dealings. For because one man, intent upon earthly labor, and another, given over to the actions of this world, disdains to ponder the mystery of the Lord's incarnation and to live according to it, he refuses to come to the king's wedding, as one hastening to his farm or his business. And very often—what is more grievous—some not only spurn the grace of Him who calls, but even persecute it. Whence it is also added: 'And the rest took his servants, and, having treated them shamefully, put them to death.'

'But when the king heard of it, he sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.' He destroys the murderers, because He slays the persecutors. He burns their city with fire, because not only the souls of such men, but also the flesh in which they dwelt, is tormented in the eternal flame of Gehenna. And the king is said to have destroyed the murderers by sending his armies, because among men every judgment is executed through the angels. For what are those hosts of angels but the armies of our King? Whence this same King is also called the Lord of Sabaoth—for 'Sabaoth' is interpreted 'of armies.' To destroy His adversaries, therefore, He sends an army, because indeed the Lord executes His vengeance through the angels.

The power of this vengeance our fathers then heard of, but we now behold. For where are those proud persecutors of the martyrs? Where are those who lifted up the neck of their heart against their Creator, and swelled with the deadly glory of this world? Behold, the death of the martyrs now flourishes in those who live by faith, while those who gloried in their own cruelty against the martyrs by no means come to our remembrance, nor are counted even in the number of the dead. By facts, therefore, we come to know what we hear in parables. But He who sees Himself despised by the one He invites will not on that account leave the wedding of His Son's marriage empty. He sends to others, because although the word of God labors among some, yet at some time it is bound to find where it may rest. Whence it is also added: 'Then he said to his servants:'

'The wedding indeed is ready, but they that were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the outlets of the highways, and whomsoever you shall find, call to the wedding.' If in Sacred Scripture we take 'ways' to mean actions, by the 'outlets of the ways' we understand the failings of actions, because those very often come easily to God whom no prosperity in earthly deeds has fostered. There follows: 'And his servants going forth into the ways gathered together all that they found, both bad and good, and the wedding was filled with guests.' Behold, by the very quality of the banqueters it is openly shown that by this royal wedding the present Church is signified, in which both the good and the bad come together.

For it is composed of a diversity of children, since though God begets all unto Himself, yet He does not bring them all through the change of life to the liberty of spiritual grace, their faults requiring it. For as long as we live here, we must needs pass along the way of the present world. But then we are distinguished, when we arrive. For the good alone are nowhere intermingled save in heaven, and the bad alone are nowhere save in hell. But this life, which is set between heaven and hell, as it stands midway, so it receives in common the citizens of both parties; whom nevertheless holy Church now indiscriminately admits, and afterward, at their departure, distinguishes.

If therefore you are good, so long as you abide in this life, bear patiently with the bad. For whoever does not endure the bad, by his very impatience bears witness against himself that he is not good. For he refuses to be Abel whom the malice of Cain does not train. Thus in the threshing of the floor the grains are pressed beneath the chaff; thus flowers spring up among thorns, and the rose that yields fragrance grows together with the thorn that pricks. The first man had two sons; but one of these was chosen, the other was reprobate. Noah's ark contained three sons; but two of these were elect, and one reprobate. Abraham had two sons; but one was chosen, the other reprobate. Isaac had two sons;

but one was chosen, the other reprobate. Jacob had twelve sons; but one of these was sold through innocence, while the others through malice were the sellers of their brother. Twelve apostles were chosen; but one among them was mingled in who would put them to the test, while eleven were those who would be proven. Seven deacons were ordained by the apostles; but while six remained in the right faith, one arose as the author of error. In this Church, therefore, neither can the bad be without the good, nor the good without the bad. Call to mind, then, dearest brethren, the times that are past, and strengthen yourselves to endure the bad.

For if we are the children of the elect, it necessarily remains that we should walk by their examples. For he was not good who refused to bear with the bad. Hence it is that blessed Job affirms concerning himself, saying: 'I was the brother of dragons, and the companion of ostriches.' Hence it is said through Solomon, in the voice of the Bridegroom, to holy Church: 'As the lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters.' Hence the Lord says to Ezekiel: 'Son of man, unbelievers and subverters are with you, and you dwell among scorpions.' Hence Peter glorifies the life of blessed Lot, saying: 'And he delivered just Lot, oppressed by the injustice and lewd conversation of the wicked;'

'for in seeing and hearing he was just, dwelling among those who from day to day vexed the just soul with unrighteous deeds.' Hence Paul both praises and strengthens the life of his disciples, saying: 'In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life.' Hence John bears witness to the Church of Pergamos, saying: 'I know where you dwell, where the seat of Satan is; and you hold fast my name, and have not denied my faith.' Behold, dearest brethren, running through nearly all these examples, we recognize that he was not good whom the wickedness of the bad did not prove.

For, that I may so speak, the iron of our soul is by no means brought to the fineness of its edge, unless the file of another's wickedness has worn it down. It ought not, however, to terrify you that in the Church there are many bad and few good, because the ark amid the waves of the flood, which bore the type of this Church, was both broad in its lower parts and narrow in its upper, and at its very summit even rose to the measure of a single cubit. For it is to be believed that below it had the quadrupeds and reptiles, but above the birds and men. There it was broad, where it held the beasts;

there narrow, where it preserved the men; because indeed holy Church is broad in carnal men, narrow in the spiritual. For where it tolerates the bestial manners of men, there it opens its bosom more widely. But where it has those who are upheld by spiritual reason, there indeed it is led up to the summit, yet, because they are few, it is narrowed. For broad is the way that leads to perdition, and many there are who go in by it; and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there are who find it. And the ark is narrowed in its upper parts even until it is brought to the measure of a single cubit, because in holy Church the holier any are, the fewer they are.

And at the summit it is brought to Him who alone among men was born holy, without comparison with any other; who, according to the voice of the Psalmist, 'became as a solitary sparrow upon the housetop.' The bad, therefore, are so much the more to be tolerated, the more abundantly they abound, because even in the threshing of the floor few are the grains that are kept for the barns, while great are the heaps of chaff that are consumed by fire. But since now, by the Lord's bounty, you have entered the house of the wedding, that is, holy Church, look carefully, brethren, lest the entering King find something to reprove in the habit of your mind. For with great fear of heart must that be pondered which is straightway subjoined:

'And the king went in to see the guests, and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment.' What, dearest brethren, do we think is expressed by the wedding garment? For if we say that the wedding garment is baptism or faith, who without baptism and faith has entered this wedding? For by this very fact he is outside, because he has not yet believed. What then ought we to understand by the wedding garment, but charity? For he enters to the wedding, but comes not with the wedding garment, who, standing in holy Church, has faith, but has not charity. And rightly is charity called the wedding garment, because our Creator had this within Himself when He came to the wedding to unite the Church to Himself.

For it was by the love of God alone that His Only-begotten united to Himself the minds of the elect. Whence John also says: 'For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only-begotten Son for us.' He therefore who came to men through charity made known that this same charity is the wedding garment. Every one of you, then, who, being placed in the Church, has believed in God, has already entered to the wedding; but he comes not with the wedding garment, if he keeps not the grace of charity. And surely, brethren, if anyone were invited to a carnal wedding, he would change his garment, and would show by the very comeliness of his attire that he rejoices with the bridegroom and the bride, and would blush to appear in despised garments among those rejoicing and celebrating the feast.

We come to the wedding of God, and we neglect to change the garment of our heart. The angels rejoice together when the elect are taken up to heaven. With what mind, then, do we behold these spiritual festivities, we who have not the wedding garment, that is, charity, which alone makes us comely? It is to be known, moreover, that just as a garment is woven upon two beams, the upper namely and the lower, so charity is held in two precepts, that is, in the love of God and of neighbor. For it is written: 'You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength; and your neighbor as yourself.'

In which matter it is to be noted that in the love of neighbor a measure of love is set, when it is said: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'; but the love of God is bound by no measure, when it is said: 'You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength.' For no one is commanded how much he should love, but from how much, when it is said: 'With your whole'—because he truly loves God who leaves nothing of himself to himself. These two precepts of charity, therefore, whoever cares to have the wedding garment at the wedding must needs keep. Hence it is that in Ezekiel the prophet, the vestibule of the gates of that city, set upon a mountain, is measured by two cubits.

Because indeed access to the heavenly city is not opened to us, if in this Church—which, for the reason that it is still without, is called a vestibule—the love both of God and of neighbor is not held. Hence it is that in the curtains of the tabernacle scarlet twice-dyed is commanded to be interwoven. You are, brethren, you are the curtains of the tabernacle, who by faith veil the heavenly secrets in your hearts. But in the curtains of the tabernacle scarlet twice-dyed ought to be present. For scarlet has the appearance of fire. And what is charity, but fire? But this charity ought to be twice-dyed, so that it may be dyed both by the love of God and by the love of neighbor.

For he who so loves God that through the contemplation of Him he neglects his neighbor, is indeed scarlet, but not twice-dyed. Again, he who so loves his neighbor that through love of him he abandons the contemplation of God, is scarlet, but not twice-dyed. That your charity, therefore, may be able to be twice-dyed scarlet, let it kindle itself both to the love of God and to the love of neighbor; so that it neither abandons the contemplation of God out of compassion for the neighbor, nor, clinging to the contemplation of God more than it ought, casts off compassion for the neighbor. Let every man, therefore, living among men, so pant after Him whom he desires, that yet he does not forsake the one with whom he was running; and so bring aid to this one, that he in no way grows sluggish toward Him to whom he was hastening.

It is also to be known that this same love of neighbor is subdivided into two precepts, as a certain wise man says: 'All that you hate to be done to you, see that you do not yourself do to another.' And through Himself Truth proclaims, saying: 'What you wish that men should do to you, do you also the same to them.' For if we both impart to others that which we rightly wish to be bestowed on us, and ourselves avoid doing to others that which we do not wish to be done to us, we keep the laws of charity unimpaired. But let no one, when he loves someone, straightway think that he has charity, unless he has first proved the very quality of his love. For if anyone loves someone, but loves him not for God's sake, he has not charity, but thinks that he has.

But charity is true when the friend is loved in God, and the enemy is loved for God's sake. For he loves for God's sake those whom he loves, who knows now to love even those by whom he is not loved. For charity is wont to be proved only by the adversity of hatred. Whence through Himself the Lord says: 'Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.' He therefore loves securely, who for God's sake loves him by whom he understands himself not to be loved. Great are these things, high are these things, and to many difficult to fulfill; but nevertheless this is the wedding garment. And whoever, reclining at the wedding, has not this, let him now anxiously fear, when the King enters, lest he be cast out. For behold, it is said:

'The king went in to the wedding to see the guests, and he saw there a man not clothed with a wedding garment.' We are they, dearest brethren, who recline at the wedding of the Word, who already have faith in the Church, who are fed at the banquet of Sacred Scripture, who rejoice that the Church is joined to God. Consider, I pray, whether you have come to this wedding with a wedding garment; examine your thoughts with anxious inquiry. Weigh your hearts in single matters: whether you now hold hatred against no one, whether you are kindled by no torch of envy against another's prosperity, whether through hidden malice you hasten to harm no one.

Behold, the king enters to the wedding, and contemplates the habit of our heart, and to him whom He finds not clothed with charity He straightway says in anger: 'Friend, how did you come in here, not having a wedding garment?' It is greatly to be wondered at, dearest brethren, that He both calls him friend and reprobates him, as if He said to him more plainly: 'Friend, and not friend'—friend by faith, but not friend by works. But he was silent, because—what cannot be said without groaning—in that severe rebuke of the last reproach every argument of excuse ceases, since indeed He rebukes from without who as a witness of conscience within accuses the soul.

But amid these things it is to be known that whoever has this garment of virtue, yet still has it not perfectly, ought not to despair of pardon at the entrance of the merciful King, because He Himself also, granting us hope, says through the Psalmist: 'Your eyes have seen my imperfect being, and in your book all shall be written.' But since we have said these few things for the consolation of him who has it and is infirm, let us now turn our words to him who does not have it at all. There follows: 'Then the king said to his ministers: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

The feet and hands are then bound by the severity of the sentence of those who now refused to be bound from wicked works by the amendment of life. Or certainly the penalty then binds those whom fault now bound from good works. For the feet that neglect to visit the sick, the hands that bestow nothing on the needy, are already bound by their own will from good work. Whoever, therefore, now willingly binds himself in vice, is then bound unwillingly in punishment. And well is it said that he is cast into the exterior darkness. For we call the interior darkness the blindness of the heart, but the exterior darkness the eternal night of damnation.

Then, therefore, every condemned man is cast not into the interior but into the exterior darkness, because he who here willingly fell into the blindness of heart is there unwillingly cast into the night of damnation. Where also weeping and gnashing of teeth are declared to be, so that there the teeth may gnash which here rejoiced in gluttony; there the eyes may weep which here were busied with unlawful desires; so that each several member may lie subject to torment which here served, subject to each several vice. But when one is rejected—in whom, namely, the whole body of the wicked is expressed—a general sentence is straightway subjoined, in which it is said: 'For many are called, but few are chosen.'

Greatly to be dreaded, dearest brethren, is that which we have heard. Behold, we all, now called through faith, have come to the wedding of the heavenly kingdom; we both believe and confess the mystery of His incarnation, we partake of the banquet of the divine Word; but on the future day of judgment the King is about to enter. That we are called, we know; whether we are chosen, we know not. So much the more necessary is it, therefore, that each one of us abase himself in humility, the more he is ignorant whether he is chosen. For some do not even begin good things, but others persist not at all in the good things they have begun. One is seen to lead almost his whole life in wickedness, but toward the end of his life is recalled from his wickedness by the laments of strict penance;

another is seen to lead a chosen life, and yet it befalls him near the end of his life to decline into the wickedness of error. Another begins a good thing well, and consummates it better; another casts himself down in evil deeds from his earliest age, and in those same works is ever consummated worse than himself. So much the more anxiously, therefore, let each one fear for himself, the more he is ignorant of what remains, because—what must often be said, and retained without forgetting—'Many are called, but few are chosen.' But since sometimes the minds of hearers are converted more by the examples of the faithful than by the words of teachers, I wish to tell you something about one near at hand, which your hearts may hear the more fearfully, the more it sounds of what is close by.

For we do not speak of things done long ago, but we recall those things concerning which there are witnesses, and who report that they themselves were present at them. My father had three sisters, who were all three consecrated virgins: of whom one was called Tarsilla, another Gordiana, another Aemiliana. All were converted with one ardor, consecrated at one and the same time, and, living under strict rule, led a common life in their own house. And when they had long been in the same manner of life, Tarsilla and Aemiliana began by daily increases to grow up into the love of their Creator, and, though here they were in body alone, daily to pass over in mind to eternal things.

But on the contrary, the mind of Gordiana began to grow lukewarm from the warmth of inward love by the daily losses, and little by little to return to the love of this world. And often Tarsilla was wont to say to her sister Aemiliana with a great groan: 'I see that our sister Gordiana is not of our lot; for I perceive that she flows away outwardly, and does not guard the heart to that which she proposed.' Whom they took care to correct daily with gentle rebuke, and to reform from levity of manners to the gravity of their own habit. And she indeed would suddenly resume the countenance of gravity amid the words of correction, but when the hour of that correction had passed, the assumed gravity of honesty also straightway passed, and soon she would return to frivolous words.

She delighted in the society of lay maidens, and to her any person who was not given over to this world was very burdensome. But on a certain night, to this Tarsilla, my aunt—who among her sisters had grown up in the virtue of continual prayer, in zealous affliction, in singular abstinence, and, venerable for gravity of life, unto the honor and summit of sanctity—as she herself related, in a vision my forefather Felix, bishop of this Roman Church, appeared, and showed her a dwelling of perpetual brightness, saying: 'Come, for I receive you into this dwelling of light.' And she, soon after seized by a fever, came to her last day.

And just as, when noble men and women are dying, many gather who console their kinsfolk, so at the same hour of her departure many men and women stood around her bed, among whom my mother also was present; when suddenly, looking upward, she saw Jesus coming, and with great vehemence began to cry out to the bystanders, saying: 'Withdraw, withdraw, Jesus is coming.' And while she fixed her gaze on Him whom she beheld, that holy soul was loosed from the flesh; and so great a fragrance of wondrous odor was suddenly diffused, that this very sweetness showed to all that the Author of sweetness had come there.