It is the mark of a cunning and shameless debtor often not to pay his agreed debts, and to put off the most patient creditor with long and artful cavilling. Concerning the departure and the return of the prodigal son, this is our fifth sermon, in which we shall endeavour, as we promised, to raise the historical sense to the mystical and singular understanding of the Godhead. Do you pray that, since I am in so great a debt an insufficient debtor of myself, through God I may prove to you a sufficient discharger of it. 'A certain man,' it says, 'had two sons.' After Christ took up the burden of our flesh, and God assumed human garments, God truly calls himself man;
The Lord truly names himself the father of two sons, because the Godhead mingled with humanity, and tenderness associated with the Godhead, blended man and God, which united the Lord into a father. This man therefore, this father, had two sons by the goodness of the Creator, not by the necessity of a begetter; he had two sons, whom he did not earn to have but commanded to be: for Christ was so man in our eyes that he ever remained God in the secret of his majesty. He had two sons. That is, two peoples, the Jewish and the Gentile; but the wisdom of the Law made the Jewish the elder; the folly of paganism rendered the Gentile the younger. For as wisdom gives grey hairs, so foolishness takes away whatever is manly. This son therefore his character made the younger, not his age;
and it was not the times but his understanding that made that other the elder. 'And the younger of them,' it says, 'said to his father: Father, give me the portion of substance that falleth to me.' This one does not ask the Knower of the heart, but asks with his whole self; for from God our own will brings back things good or evil upon us. In short, this one, being with the father possessor of the whole lot, came to a portion by his own will, saying: 'Give me the portion of substance that falleth to me.' And what is that portion? What is it? Disposition, speech, knowledge, reason, judgement—the things which befall man beyond the other living creatures in his earthly dwelling: this is, according to the Apostle, the law of nature. And so 'he divided unto them his substance,' giving to the younger these five things which we have named, the benefits of nature;
to the elder inscribing by divine gift the five books of the Law: so that the substance, unequal in merit, might be equal in number; that the one might keep the human order, the other might subsist by divine ordinance; yet each law might lead both sons to the knowledge of the father, and preserve them unto reverence of their Author. 'And not many days after,' it says, 'the younger son, gathering all together, took his journey into a far country; and there he wasted his substance, living riotously.' We said that it was not the times but his character that made the younger; and therefore it said: 'Not many days after.' For with the very beginning of the world, the Gentile world hastened to the fatherland of idols;
unto the far country of the devil it journeyed in soul, not in place; through the elements it wandered with vain thoughts, not tossed about the lands by bodily motions: for it was without a father in the presence of the father; and while it was in itself, it was not with itself. Hence it is that the prodigal, through the desire of worldly eloquence, through the brothels of the schools, through the crossroads of the sects, wasted the substance of God the Father in demented disputation. And when he had consumed by conjectures whatever there was of speech, of knowledge, of reason, of judgement, most wretched he endured the utmost want, the great famine of coming to know the truth: for philosophy imposed the labour of seeking the Godhead, but conferred no fruit of finding the truth.
Hence it is that he cleaved to one of the citizens of that country, by whom he was sent into that world, that is, into one estate of many superstitions, that he might feed swine, that is, the demons, who say to the Lord: 'If thou cast us out, send us into the swine' (Matthew 8:31). That he might feed the demons with incense, with victims, with blood, about to bring back as wages for such toil the reward of false responses. The beast was slain, that what living had known nothing might, being slain, divine; and that the dead might speak from its entrails what it had never uttered by its mouth.
But when the Gentile found nothing divine, nothing salutary, nothing profitable in such things, despairing of God, of providence, of judgement, of things to come, he lowered himself from the school to the gluttony of the belly, desiring to be filled with the husks which the swine did eat. This the Epicureans knew, who, having run through the schools of the Platonists and Aristotelians, and finding there no discipline either of the Godhead or of knowledge, gave themselves over to Epicurus, the final author of despair and of pleasure. And they eat husks, that is, they gape after the bodily pleasures that are wickedly sweet, and they feed demons, who are ever fattened with the vices and filth of bodies: for as he who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17), so he who joins himself to the devil is one demon.
But this younger son, however much he desired, yet did not fill his belly from those husks. Wherefore? Because no man gave unto him. The devil indeed wished, through the famine of knowledge, through the difficulty of pleasures, to render the Gentile the greedier for seeking forbidden things, for perpetrating sins; but God the Father therefore permitted the Gentile to hunger, that the occasion of error might become an argument of salvation: for he so left the Jew as not to destroy him; and he suffered the Gentile to endure famine, that he might return. And he returns to the father and cries out: 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee.' That the younger returned to the father's house, and cries out to God the Father, the daily voice of the Church bears witness, which says: 'Our Father, who art in heaven' (Matthew 6:9).
'I have sinned against heaven and before thee.' He sinned against heaven, while in heaven he blasphemes the sun, moon, and stars to be gods, and profanes these same by adoring them. 'And I am no longer worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.' This is to say: I no longer deserve the glory of a son, but let me at least obtain the wages of pardon for a hireling's labour. And he whose honour of sonship perishes, let the substance at least remain in daily bread as sustenance of life. But the father ran to meet him, and ran from afar. 'While we were yet ungodly, Christ died for us' (Romans 5:8-9). The father ran to meet him, ran in the Son, when through him he descended from heaven and came to the earth. 'The Father,' he says, 'who sent me, is with me' (John 8:29). 'He fell upon his neck.'
He fell upon him, when through Christ the whole of our divinity lays itself down and rests in the flesh. 'And he kissed him.' When? When mercy and truth met each other, justice and peace kissed one another (Psalm 84:11). 'He gave the first robe.' That which Adam lost, the everlasting glory of immortality. 'He put a ring on his hand.' The ring of honour, the title of freedom, the noble pledge of the Spirit, the seal of faith, the earnest of the heavenly nuptials: hear the Apostle: 'I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ' (2 Corinthians 11:2). 'And shoes on his feet.' That the feet might be shod in the preaching of the Gospel, that they might be the beautiful feet of them that bring glad tidings of peace (Romans 10:15). 'And he killed for him the fatted calf.'
That of which David sang: 'And it shall please God above a young calf, that bringeth forth horns and hoofs' (Psalm 68:32). The calf is slain at the father's bidding, because Christ, God the Son of God, could not be slain without the Father's will: hear the Apostle, 'He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all' (Romans 8:31). This is the calf which is offered daily and continually for our feast. But the elder brother, the elder son coming from the field, the legal people—'the harvest indeed is great, but the labourers few' (Luke 10:2)—hears in the father's house music, hears dancing, and will not go in (Luke 10). This we behold daily with our own eyes. For the Jew comes to the father's house, that is, to the Church;
he stands outside through envy, hears David's harp resounding, hears from the prophetic concord the music, hears the dances from the varied assembly of peoples, and will not go in, standing outside through envy. While he judges and shudders at his Gentile brother by his former ways, he himself excludes himself from the father's goods, he himself shuts himself out from the father's joys. But as for what he said: 'Behold, so many years do I serve thee, and I never transgressed thy commandment, and thou hast never given me a kid,' we have already said that it should rather be passed over in silence than spoken, because the Jew speaks: and they are the words not of one who does, but of one who swells with pride. The father goes out and says to the son: 'Son, thou art always with me.' How?
Through Abel, through Enoch, through Shem, through Noah, through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, through Moses, through all the saints, through whom the Jewish generation, read in the Gospel, is traced down, when it says: 'Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob' (Matthew 1:2). 'And all that I have is thine.' In what manner? Because thine is the Law, thine the prophecy, thine the temple, thine the priesthood, thine the sacrifices, thine the kingdom, thine the gifts, thine (which is above all) Christ was born. But because through envy thou wilt destroy thy brother, thou art worthy not to have the father's feast, the father's joys. In a scant discourse we have not been able to open, as we wished, matters most vast; but to your knowledge and understanding those things are broad which in our discourse seem narrow.
Let not this simple and hidden exposition be ungrateful, which has compelled us not to narrate nor to declaim, but to open and explain things mystical and lofty. Since, when the younger son returned, the whole household led the dances, sang the heavenly music, it befits us also today to take up the psalm, to sound the timbrel, to set the organ, to touch the harp, and to sound the Davidic melody unto so great a joy of God the Father. 'Sing joyfully to God,' it says, 'all the earth' (Psalm 99:1). What is it that the understanding of this exultation inquires? What is it that, after such and so terrible, so wondrous precepts of the Godhead, the earth is now called upon and invited to jubilation? 'Sing joyfully to God,' it says, 'all the earth.'
What else is it, save that after the terrible God chose the office of the most gentle Shepherd, put on the person of a shepherd, that as the merciful shepherd he might gather into one the wandering peoples, the straying multitudes, the nations dispersed far and wide, like erring sheep; nay rather, that he might lead the wild nations, the prey of death, food of the flesh, drink of blood, thirsting for the fury of beasts, and bring them back to the use of milk, to the food of grass, to the whole gentleness of sheep? To all the earth he commands and enjoins the pastoral discipline, saying: 'All the earth, sing joyfully to God.' As the terrible trumpet leads the soldier forth to war, so the sweetness of jubilation invites the sheep to the pastures.
It befits therefore to soften the roar of war with pastoral gentleness, that so mild a grace might save the nations whom natural savagery had long destroyed. And that the shepherd's return was good, when Christ came to the earth, he himself cried out this day: 'I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep' (John 10:11). Hence it is that the Master himself seeks helpers, that he seeks companions for the care of the whole world, saying: 'Sing joyfully to God, all the earth.' Hence it is that, about to return to heaven, he commends his sheep to Peter in his stead, to feed them. 'Peter,' he says, 'lovest thou me? Feed my sheep.' And that he might not, restored to slender beginnings, compel by power but bear by tenderness, he repeats: 'Peter, lovest thou me?'
'Feed my sheep.' He commends the sheep, he commends the offspring of the sheep, because the foreseeing shepherd knew that the fecundity of his flock was already to come. 'Peter, lovest thou me? Feed my sheep' (John 21:16-17). To these sheep Paul, the colleague of the shepherd Peter, held out with holy pasture breasts full of milk, saying: 'I gave you milk to drink, not meat' (1 Corinthians 3:2). This the blessed King perceived; and therefore instead of bleating he cries: 'The Lord ruleth me, and I shall want nothing: he hath set me in a place of pasture; he hath brought me up on the water of refreshment' (Psalm 22:1-2). After the constant groans of wars, then, after the sad life of blood, to one now returning to the pastures of evangelical peace, the following verse announces the gladness that succeeds servitude.
Man was the slave of sin, was the captive of death, was the chattel of demons, was the home-born servant of idols, was the drudge of vices, was the fettered prisoner of crimes. Thus to such and so many evil masters did man render an evil and wretched servitude. When was man not sorrowful under sin? When not mourning under death? When not pale under the demons? When not trembling under the idols? When not suspect under the vices? When not despairing under his crimes? And therefore man drew his last sighs, when he continually endured such, so cruel masters. The prophet therefore, seeing us freed from such masters and recalled to the obedience of the Creator, to the grace of the Father, to the free service of the one good Lord, rightly cries out: 'Serve the Lord with gladness';
'come in,' it says, 'before his presence with exultation.' Come in, not in place, but in heart. 'Come in before his presence with exultation.' For those whom guilt had cast out, whom conscience had driven forth, grace brings back, innocence admits: 'Come in before his presence with exultation.' He who enters into his presence with exultation is free from guilt, is secure of the reward. Yet what is it that this prophet exhorts? that he strives to persuade? 'Come in before his presence with exultation.' Who is free in the sight of God? who lies in the divine eyes? Who exults before the terror of the majesty above? The archangels tremble, the angels are afraid, the powers dread, the elders fall upon their faces toward heaven;
the elements flee, the rocks are dissolved, the mountains flow down, the earth trembles: and how shall the man of earth enter undaunted? and does he still stand exulting? Whence is it that the prophet thus presumes that we ought to do this? Whence is it? From that which follows: 'Know ye,' he says, 'that the Lord he is God.' Because that Lord is God, who in our flesh was a little one; hence it is that that Lord is God, who in our cradle was contained; sweet in the bosom, gentle in bearing, tender in our fellowship.
And therefore, 'Come in before his presence with exultation.' Because he hid the whole terror of the Godhead, the whole dread of the judge, in our form, and placed it in a provident aspect: so that he who enters may not fear the punishments of the judge, but presume upon the embrace of a parent. And how should he not exult who finds a father in him whom he had feared as a Knower? 'Come in before his presence with exultation: know ye that the Lord he is God, he made us, and not we ourselves.' Vain is the labour of father and mother, unless in the offspring there be present the work and authority of the Creator. 'Thy hands,' it says, 'have made me and fashioned me' (Psalm 118:73). And elsewhere, 'Thou hast formed me, and hast laid thy hand upon me' (Psalm 138:5).
Therefore, that we are born, that we exist, we owe not to ourselves, because we owe the whole to our Author. 'And we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.' It has been proved very often in the proverbs that a shepherd came from heaven who might recall the erring sheep, wounded by deadly grass, with heavenly jubilation to the pastures of life. 'Come in,' it says, 'to his gates in confession.' Confession alone is that which makes us enter through the gate of faith. 'To his courts with hymns: give praise to him, praise his name.' We have said that by us, now placed within the father's house, a spiritual symphony of heavenly songs must be taken up, so that there be for us confession at the entrance, hymns in the courts, praise in the innermost chambers, where the whole fullness of the Godhead dwells.
'Give praise to him, praise his name.' Give praise to him, because he is God, praise his name, through which we are saved: in which the heavenly, earthly, and infernal creation bows the knee and loves the Lord God. 'For the Lord is sweet.' Whence? 'Because his mercy endureth for ever.' Truly he is sweet through the mercy through which alone he deigned to take away the most bitter sentence of the whole world. 'Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who taketh away the sins of the world.' 'And his truth endureth unto generation and generation.' For God, his truth being preserved, has mercy in such a way as, when he grants pardon to sins, to guard justice and reason in that very act of mercy—who is blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen.