約伯倫理 第 923 章

The birds of heaven are sometimes taken in a bad sense, sometimes in a good. — For in Holy Scripture birds are sometimes given to be understood in an evil sense, sometimes in a good. By birds indeed the powers of the air are sometimes designated, hostile to the pursuits of the good. Whence it is said by the mouth of Truth: 'Because some seed which fell by the wayside, the birds came and ate it up' (Matt. 13:4; Luke 8:5); for the malignant spirits, besetting human minds, while they thrust in noxious thoughts, tear away the word of life from the memory. Hence again it is said to a certain rich man proudly wise: 'The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head' (Matt. 8:20; Luke 9:58).

Foxes are exceedingly crafty animals, which hide themselves in ditches or caves; and when they appear, they never run by straight paths, but by tortuous windings. But birds, as we know, lift themselves up into the air in high flight. By the name of foxes, therefore, the deceitful and fraudulent demons are designated, and by the name of birds these same proud demons. As if He should say: The fraudulent and lofty demons find their dwelling in your heart, that is, in the thought of pride; but the Son of man has not where to lay His head, that is, my humility finds no rest in your proud mind. For as it were by a certain flight of a bird did that one raise herself up, who through lofty thought said:

'I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of heaven will I exalt my throne, I will sit in 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). Behold how loftily she sought to fly proudly. This flight she also persuaded to the first men. For they too, as it were, went above themselves in flying, when it was said to them that they should taste and be as gods (Gen. 3:5). And when they sought the likeness of divinity, they lost the gifts of immortality (ibid. 3:19). They who would not have gone into the earth by dying, had they been willing to stand humbly upon the earth.

But on the contrary, birds are wont to be set down in a good sense, as in the Gospel, when the Lord was proclaiming the likeness of the heavenly kingdom to a grain of mustard seed, He said: 'To what is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I liken it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his garden; and it grew, and became a great tree, and the birds of the air rested in its branches' (Matt. 13:31; Luke 13:19). For He Himself is the grain of mustard seed, who, planted in the burial of the garden, rose up a great tree. For He was a grain when He died, a tree when He rose again; a grain through the humility of the flesh, a tree through the power of majesty. A grain, because 'we saw Him, and there was no comeliness' (Isa. 53:2);

but a tree, because 'beautiful in form above the sons of men' (Ps. 44:3). The branches of this tree are the holy preachers. And let us see how widely they are stretched out. For what is said of them? 'Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world' (Ps. 18:5). In these branches the birds rest, because holy souls, which by certain wings of virtues raise themselves from earthly thought, in their words and consolations take breath again from the weariness of this life. Therefore in this place, after it has been said of Wisdom, 'It is hidden from the eyes of all living,' it is rightly added:

'It is hidden also from the birds of the air,' because those set in this corruptible flesh, even they who now fly by the merit of holy contemplation, do not by their seeing penetrate the power of His nature. Where it is fitly added: