for if He should suffer injury from our sins, He quickly departs; and woe to the wretched soul from which He departs! For without doubt he who is forsaken by the light is seized by the darkness. So therefore let us strive to act with His help, that we may deserve to receive so gracious a Lord not only as a guest, but also to have Him as a perpetual dweller: by the bounty of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns world without end. Amen. SERMON 39. Concerning the judgment of Solomon between the two harlots: against the Arian heresy. 1. The Catholic Church and the Arian heresy in the two harlots. The equality of the Son is demonstrated from the omnipotence and goodness of the Father.
Concerning the two harlots, most beloved brethren, who came to the judgment of Solomon, from which the lesson is to be read to us at eventide; of whom one, who was not only lustful but also cruel and impious, cried out to the king that the infant should be ordered to be divided: now, if you willingly receive it, we desire to intimate to the ears of your Charity what our holy Fathers have expounded concerning them. For she who cried out that the child should be kept whole bore the type of the Catholic Church: that other, cruel and impious, who cried out that the child should be divided, designated the Arian heresy. For the Catholic Church, as a most pious mother, cried out to all heretics:
'Do not make Christ less than the Father, do not divide the unity, do not, by dividing the one God into diverse degrees, fashion in your hearts idols as of the Gentiles, but possess the whole together with us: if you wish to have peace, do not rend the unity. For not if you hold the whole does nothing remain for us. So great is His omnipotence, that all may possess the whole, and each one the whole.' But the impious and cruel heresy cries: 'No, but let it be divided.' What is 'Let it be divided,' but 'Let the Son not be equal to the Father'? For while it withdraws equality from the Son, it has also denied that the Father is good and omnipotent. For God the Father, if He could beget a Son like Himself, and would not, is not good: if He would, and could not,
He is not omnipotent. Be assured, my brethren, that to this argument none of the Arians will ever be able to reply; but as often as they are hemmed in by most true reasoning, like a slippery snake they flee to any other cunning and tortuous questions whatsoever. 2. The inheritance left by the testament of Christ. Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, I bring forth the testament, I recite the words of the testator. If it has anything to be divided, there I find it: if it has nothing to be divided, from that very testament I resist them. O unhappy heretic, what does the testament have? Hear: 'My peace I give unto you, my peace I leave with you' (John 14:27). This is the inheritance of Christians. And who is the testator himself? Read the testament, and thou findest.
When the prophet spoke concerning the Lord, he said: 'He shall be magnified even to the ends of the earth, and this One shall be peace' (Mic. 5:4-5). 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will' (Luke 2:14): not to the dividers of holy unity, but to men of good will. He Himself is the inheritance, He Himself the testator; and dost thou seek to divide Him? Why dost thou partition anything? If thou dividest the One, thou hast nothing whole. 3. The dividing of God. O cruel and impious Arian heresy, blush for shame! When Solomon gave judgment, the harlot, lest her living one—no matter whence conceived, even though born—should be brought forth, did not allow her son to be divided; and dost thou divide thy God? She, though a harlot, yet was pious, because a mother: thou, heresy, art impious, because not a mother.
What thou bearest, thou smotherest; what thou dost not bring forth, thou hoardest. Thy bowels have grown hard; hers trembled. What does she say, who bore the type of the Catholic mother? 'Give her the child, and do not divide it' (1 Kings 3). 'He is my son: but better let the child pass, born, alive, to her; let him pass wholly; yet let my maternal affection remain with me. Give her the child, let not my vows be taken away, let not the wholeness of his members be divided, lest my tenderness be taken from me.' What she says, 'Give her the child, and do not divide it'; behold I too say, 'Possess the whole, and do not divide God.' 'No,' it says; 'but if thou wilt have peace, divide the inheritance.' I speak without prejudice. And how am I to divide? Hear:
'The Father is greater than I, the Son is lesser, the Spirit is a creature.' O what a partitioning! O what justice! O what fairness! I make a part, because I divide the equal. For if peace be broken, it is peace no longer. But how can peace be unbroken with you, when your faith is not whole? Since, then, you wish to possess along with me, yet wish to divide the peace, why do you not wish to divide the inheritance? 4. Unity is to be preserved in the Lord. Finally, if after your own manner you are zealous not for peace but for perfidy, go, make your appeal, call Christ as judge, and let us see what He will say to you. Say to Him what was said in the Gospel: 'Lord, tell my brother that he divide the inheritance with me.' Without doubt He will answer you: 'Friend, who has appointed me a judge or a divider' (Luke XII, 13, 14)?
You wish to divide peace, and you seek to have peace as your judge; but I refuse to be your judge. I am Peace: I sit beside those who agree, I flee from those who quarrel. For if I grant to all my Christians one heart through a single will, how could I divide unity between myself and the Father, I who bestow upon all my faithful one heart and one charity? What does the Lord say to Philip? 'So long a time have I been with you, and you have not known me? Philip, I came to join myself to my Father; do not you seek to separate me. Why do you seek as it were another besides me? He that sees me, sees the Father also' (John XIV, 9). So great is the likeness in us, so great the unity, so great the charity, that I am in the Father and the Father in me.
Through which unity may the Lord deign to join you to Himself and to preserve you: our same Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON XL. On Elijah. 1. Elijah a type of the Saviour. The Gentiles figured in the ravens. The Church black and comely. In the lessons which are read to us these days, dearly beloved brethren, I have frequently admonished that we should not follow the letter that kills, and forsake the Spirit that gives life. For thus the Apostle: 'For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life' (II Cor. III, 6). For if we wish to understand only what the letter sounds forth, we shall gather little or almost no edification from the divine lessons.
For all those things that are read were a type and image of things to come. Prefigured under the Judge, they are fulfilled in us by the gift of God's grace. For blessed Elijah held the type of the Lord and Saviour. For as Elijah suffered persecution from the Jews, so also the true Elijah, our Lord, was rejected and despised by those same Jews. Elijah left his own nation; and Christ forsook the Synagogue. Elijah went out into the desert; and Christ came into the world. Elijah in the desert was fed, ministered to by ravens; and Christ in the desert of this world is refreshed by the faith of the Gentiles. For those ravens which ministered to blessed Elijah at the Lord's command figured the people of the Gentiles. Therefore also of the Church of the Gentiles it is said:
'I am black but comely, O daughter of Jerusalem' (Cant. I, 4). Whence is the Church black and comely? Black by nature, comely by grace. Whence black? 'Behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in delights did my mother bring me forth.' Whence comely? 'You shall sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed; you shall wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow' (Psalm L, 7, 9). Whence black? The Apostle says: 'I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and leading me captive under the law of sin.' Whence comely? 'Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord' (Rom. VII, 23-25).
Truly the Church of the Gentiles was like the ravens, when it despised the living Lord, and before it received grace, ministered to idols as though to dead carcasses. 2. God speaks to everyone who works good. The widow who received Elijah, a figure of the Church. After these things Elijah is commanded to set out to Sarepta of the Sidonians, that he might there be fed by a widow. For thus the Lord said to him: 'Go to Sarepta of Sidon; I have commanded a widow there to feed you.' In what way and by whom did God command the widow, since at that time there was almost no other prophet with whom God spoke more manifestly than blessed Elijah? For although at that time there were some of the sons of the Prophets, yet they so feared the persecution of Jezebel that they could scarcely escape even by hiding.
'I,' says the Lord, 'have commanded the widow.' How does the Lord command, except by inspiring what is good within the soul through His grace? And so, to every man who works any good, God speaks within. Therefore let no one glory in himself, but in the Lord. Were there not then in Judea many widows? And what was the reason that no widow of the Jews deserved to minister food to blessed Elijah, but he is sent to a Gentile widow, that he might be fed by her? For this widow, to whom the Prophet is sent, bore the type of the Church; just as those ravens which had ministered to Elijah held the figure of the Gentiles. Elijah therefore came to the widow, because Christ was to come to the Church. 3. Spiritual death necessary for the believer.
But let us see, most beloved brethren, where blessed Elijah found that widow. For she had gone out to wash herself with water, and to gather wood. Let us see what the water and what the wood signify. For we recognize these two things to be both dear and necessary to the Church, namely, wood and water. Finally, thus it is written: 'And he shall be like a tree which is planted beside the running waters' (Psalm I, 3). For in the wood is shown the mystery of the cross, and in the water the sacrament of Baptism. She had gone out, then, to gather two pieces of wood. For thus she answered blessed Elijah when he asked food of her. For she said: 'As the Lord lives, I have nothing but a handful of meal and a little oil in a vessel:'
and behold, I am going out to gather two pieces of wood, that I may make food for myself and my son; and we shall eat, and die' (III Kings XVII). As I said above, then, that widow held the type of the Church, and the widow's son bore the figure of the Christian people. So when Elijah came, the widow went out to gather two pieces of wood. See, brethren, that she said not three, nor four, nor one piece of wood only; but she wished to gather two pieces of wood. For this reason she was gathering two pieces of wood, because in the type of Elijah she was receiving Christ. She wished to gather two pieces of wood, because she desired to recognize the mystery of the cross. For the cross of the Lord and Saviour was fashioned from two pieces of wood. Therefore that widow was gathering two pieces of wood, because the Church was to believe in Him who hung upon two pieces of wood.
That widow therefore said: 'I gather two pieces of wood, that I may make food for myself and my son; and we shall eat, and die.' It is true, most beloved brethren: no one will deserve to believe in Christ crucified, unless he dies to this world. For whoever wishes to eat the body of Christ worthily, must needs die to things past, and live to things to come. 4. A figure of the raising of the Gentiles. This is done by the whole Trinity. That widow, then, as we have said, figured the Church; the widow's son bore the type of the Gentile people. The widow's son lay dead; because the son of the Church also, that is, the people of the Gentiles, was dead in many sins and crimes. When Elijah prayed, the widow's son was raised:
when Christ came, the son of the Church, that is, the Christian people, is led back from the prison of death. Elijah bows down in prayer, and the widow's son is made alive; and Christ falls prostrate in His Passion, and the Christian people is raised. But that blessed Elijah stretched himself down three times to raise the boy—even before I say it, I believe the understanding of your Charity anticipates it. For in that he bows down three times, the mystery of the Trinity is shown. For the widow's son, that is, the people of the Gentiles, neither the Father alone without the Son, nor the Father and the Son without the Holy Spirit, but the whole Trinity raised up.
Finally, this too is shown in the sacrament of Baptism, when the old man is immersed a third time, that the new man may deserve to rise. 5. A figure of the graces to be conferred through the coming of Christ. Christ preached three years and six months. After this blessed Elijah showed himself to the king, and went up onto Mount Carmel, and put his head between his knees, and prayed that the Lord would give rain upon the earth. And he said to his servant: 'Look toward the sea.' And the servant reported that he had seen absolutely nothing. And he said to him: 'Go, and look seven times.' But the seventh time he reported and said: 'I see a little cloud, like the footprint of a man, rising up out of the sea' (III Kings XVIII).
And suddenly the heavens were darkened, and there came a great rain. Elijah therefore, as we have said, held the figure of the Lord and Saviour. Elijah prayed, and offered sacrifice; and Christ, for the whole world, delivered up Himself as an unspotted sacrifice. Elijah prayed on Mount Carmel; and Christ on the Mount of Olives. Elijah prayed that rain might come upon the earth; and Christ, that the divine grace might descend into human hearts. But that Elijah said to his servant, 'Go, and look seven times,' designated the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, which was to be given to the Church. And because he said that he had seen a little cloud rising up out of the sea, it figured the flesh of Christ, which was to be born in the sea of this world.
Wherefore, lest perchance anyone should doubt that that cloud had the footprint of a man, he said: of that man, surely, who said, 'Whom do men say that the Son of Man is?' (Matth. XVI, 13). As therefore, when Elijah prayed, after three years and six months rain came down from heaven; so also in the coming of the Saviour, in the three years and six months in which He deigned to preach, the rain of the word of God happily watered the whole world. And as then, at the coming of Elijah, all the priests of the idols were slain and destroyed; so at the coming of the true Elijah, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrilegious observance of the Pagans was destroyed. 6. Recapitulation.
Intimating these things briefly to the senses of your Charity, we set before the eyes of your faith, as it were a few chapters, certain little tokens, whereby your holy desires may be wholesomely stirred up to the searching out of the divine mysteries: and that by wholesome counsel we may provide spiritual food to be continually ruminated by your holy souls, lest perchance it slip from memory, let us, if you bid it, make a recapitulation of the things that have been said. As therefore we said above, understand that holy Elijah held the type of the Lord and Saviour. Finally, just as the Lord, after He had performed many mighty works, after He had suffered, rose again and ascended into heaven:
so also Elijah, after the wonders which God wrought through him, was lifted up to heaven in a chariot of fire. That Elijah forsook Judea signified that Christ would leave the Synagogue. The ravens that ministered to Elijah, as has already been said, showed the figure of the Gentile people. That widow who received him in Sarepta bore the type of the Church. The two pieces of wood which she gathered figured the mystery of the cross. If therefore, dearly beloved brethren, you receive these things with sincere kindness, as we believe you do, and, like clean animals, ruminate them in your hearts by constant meditation, there shall be fulfilled in you that which is written: 'A treasure to be desired rests in the mouth of the wise' (Prov. XXI, 20):
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regnanteipsoDeonostroJesuChristo, cuicathonoretimperiumcumPatrcetSpiritusancioii, sæculasæculorum. Amen. SEKMOXLI (a). DeElisæo, I (b). i. ManichœiVetusTestamentumundeblasphemant. ProphetœElisæiævocontempti. Parvulorumpercussiomisericordiæmagisquamcrudelitatisfuit. SeveritatishujusexemplumdeNonoTestamento. Cumdivinatecliolegeretur, audivimusquodprætereuntebeatoElisæopueriirridentesclamaverunt, Ascende, catve. Obquamrcm, oranteElisæo, egressisuntduoursidesaltu, etlaceraveruntquadragintaduospueros ( IVReg. II, 23).
our God Jesus Christ Himself reigning, to whom be honour and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON XLI. On Elisha, I. 1. Whence the Manichaeans blaspheme the Old Testament. The prophets despised in Elisha's age. The striking of the children was more of mercy than of cruelty. An example of this severity from the New Testament. When the divine lesson was read, we heard that as blessed Elisha was passing by, children mocking cried out, 'Go up, bald head.' For which cause, when Elisha prayed, two bears came out of the wood, and tore forty-two children (IV Kings II, 23).
The enemies of God and foes of their own souls, the most unclean Manichaeans, who not only refuse to receive the Scripture of the Old Testament, but even presume to blaspheme it with rabid mouth, are wont to say: What great cruelty was there in Elisha, that on account of the jesting words of infants he should have forty-two children torn to pieces? And therefore, in what manner their madness ought to be answered, we shall briefly suggest to your Charity. At that time when blessed Elisha was in Judea, both he and the rest of the Prophets were, for the most part, not only not honoured by the people, but were even held in derision and reproach, and believed to be as it were madmen and demoniacs:
to such a degree that, at the time when blessed Elisha sent one of the sons of the Prophets to anoint Jehu as king, the princes who were sitting with Jehu said: 'Why did this madman come to you?' (Ibid. IX, 11). They saw the Prophets of the Lord, and blasphemed them as demoniacs. For at that time the holy Prophets were held in such great contempt and reproach that even to blessed Elisha, who worked such great miracles, as we have said above, unruly children cried out, 'Go up, bald head; go up, bald head.' Which thing they are to be believed to have done at the instigation of their own parents. Plainly those children would not have cried out, if this had displeased their parents.
Blessed Elisha, therefore, grieving over the ruin of the people—nay rather the Holy Spirit through blessed Elisha, wishing to restrain the pride of the Jews—made two bears come, and they tore forty-two children: that, the little ones being struck, the elder ones might receive discipline, and the death of the children might become discipline for the parents; and that they might learn at least to fear the Prophet, working miracles, whom they were unwilling to love. But the Jews so persevered in their evils that they made wounds for themselves out of remedies; and gained death from that whence they could have obtained salvation. For they turned light into darkness for themselves, and changed sweetness into bitterness.
Finally, there was fulfilled in them that which is written: 'I have struck your children, and you have not received discipline' (Jerem. II, 30). Let no one, then, presume to detract from blessed Elisha with viperous mouth: because that which was done concerning those children is to be believed to have been done not so much by his own power, as by the Holy Spirit through him. But this, as I have said, was done out of great piety and unspeakable mercy; that, since the Jews were unwilling to believe the Prophets humbly preaching to them from God, they might at least fear Him inflicting punishment with severity, and, fearing the death of their bodies, might at least so seek the salvation of their souls.
Which thing we read to have been fulfilled not only in the Old Testament, but also in the New, through the blessed apostle Peter, in Ananias and Sapphira: whom the sentence of Peter therefore condemned, so that no one might presume to lie to the Holy Spirit in his offerings or gifts. 2. The madness of the Jews in the Passion of the Lord. Their punishment through Titus and Vespasian, prefigured as to come. How many Jews then slain, how many taken captive. And indeed, dearly beloved brethren, according to the letter it is thus to be believed, as we suggested above, that blessed Elisha, not moved by the disease of anger, but kindled with zeal for God, permitted those little ones to be torn for the correction of the Jewish people; not that he might take vengeance, but rather that he might correct them:
yet in this deed it is clearly shown that the Passion of the Lord and Saviour was also prefigured. For as those unruly children cried out to blessed Elisha, 'Go up, bald head; go up, bald head'; so also the senseless people of the Jews, at the time of the Passion, cried out with sacrilegious voice to the true Elisha, Christ, 'Crucify, crucify' (Luke XXIII, 21). What is, 'Go up, bald head; go up, bald head,' except, 'Go up the cross in the place of Calvary'? And attend to this, brethren, that as under Elisha forty-two children were torn; so also after forty-two years from the Lord's Passion, there came two bears, Vespasian and Titus. And consider this, brethren, that the siege of the Jews took place at the Paschal solemnity:
that, by the just judgment of God, the Jews gathered together out of all provinces might in those very days endure the punishment due to them, in which they had hung upon the cross the true Elisha, the Lord and Saviour. For in that same, that is, the forty-second year from the day of the Passion of our Lord, the Jews, as though by the divine hand, had assembled at Jerusalem, as was their custom, to celebrate the Passover. In the histories we read that at that time thirty hundred thousand men of the Jews were gathered at Jerusalem: of whom eleven hundred thousand are recorded to have been consumed by sword and famine, and a hundred thousand young men were led to Rome in triumph.
For that city was besieged for two years, and so great a multitude of the dead was cast out of the city, that the very corpses were made level with the walls. That devastation, then, those two bears figured, which are said to have torn forty-two children on account of the mockery of blessed Elisha: and there was fulfilled what the Psalm had said, 'The boar out of the wood has laid it waste, and a singular wild beast has devoured it' (Psalm LXXIX, 14). Because, as I said, after forty-two years, from the two bears, Vespasian and Titus, that sacrilegious nation received what it deserved. 3. Warned by the unhappiness of the Jews, let us labour to serve the Lord, holding right faith and preserving whole charity.
And because the unhappy Jews, on account of their pride, deserved to be repudiated, despised, and scattered throughout the whole world; we, upon whom the divine goodness has bestowed such great benefits, holding right faith with all humility, and—that pride may find no place in us—preserving whole charity with all men, let us labour to serve the Lord even unto the end of our life, with pure heart and chaste body: that after the labour of good works, we may deserve to hear that desirable voice, 'Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord' (Matth. XXV, 21): because you have well administered the temporal life, receive the eternal; because you have kept the price of my blood, take a share of my kingdom.
To which kingdom may the divine goodness deign to bring you, who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON XLII. On Elisha, II. 1. In Elisha, Christ is set forth. In the poor widow, the Church. She freed from debts by oil, the latter from sins by charity. As we said of blessed Elijah, dearly beloved brethren, that he held the type of the Lord and Saviour: so also we confidently and securely affirm that holy Elisha displayed the image of our Saviour. For a certain widow cried out to blessed Elisha, as you heard in the divine lesson, and with tearful voice besought him, saying: 'My husband is dead, and behold, the creditors come, and wish to take away my sons.'
But he asked her what she had in her house. The woman answered and said: 'As the Lord lives, I have nothing but a little oil, wherewith I may anoint myself.' And Elisha said: 'Ask vessels from your neighbours, and having shut the door, pour of that oil into all the vessels; and when they are full, sell, and pay your creditors.' This widow, dearly beloved brethren, bore the type of the Church; just as she also who deserved to receive blessed Elijah. This widow, then, that is, the Church, had contracted a grievous debt, not of coins, but of sins. She had a debt, and endured a most cruel creditor: because she had made herself, by many sins, liable to the devil. For thus also the prophet foretold:
'You are sold in your sins, and in your crimes I have put away your mother' (Isaiah L, 1). That widow, then, on account of so great a debt, was in a manner held captive. She was captive, because the redeemer had not yet come. But after the true Redeemer, Christ the Lord, visited that widow, He made her free from all debts. Let us see, then, whence that widow was freed. Whence, except from the increase of oil? By oil, mercy is understood. Therefore the debt had grown for that widow, because by sinning she had lost the oil of mercy. Consider, brethren: the oil failed, and the debt grew; the oil grew, and the debt perished: cupidity had grown, and charity perished: charity returns, and iniquity perishes.
But when Elisha, Christ the Lord, came, the widow, that is, the Church, through the increase of oil, that is, the gift of grace and mercy, or the richness of charity, is freed from the debt of sins. 2. The empty vessels, the Gentiles. Yet let us see what blessed Elisha said to her. 'Ask many vessels from your neighbours and those near you, and having shut the door, pour into the little vessels of the neighbours.' Who were these neighbours, except the peoples of the Gentiles? And although that widow held the type of the Church, yet she was a widow; and therefore those neighbours from whom the vessels were asked figured the people of the Gentiles. Which vessels, however, were presented empty, that they might deserve to receive the oil of mercy:
because all the Gentiles, before they attain the gift of grace, are proved to be empty of faith and charity and good works. Finally, all who are offered to the Church for the attaining of saving Baptism, receive also chrism and the oil of blessing; that now they may deserve to be, not empty vessels, but full of God, and a temple of God. 3. Self-love is destitute and needy. Charity is rich, and abounding in all things. It grows by giving out. Consider, then, most dearly beloved brethren, as long as that widow had the oil in her own vessel, she neither sufficed for herself, nor could pay her debt. It is true, most beloved, he who loves himself alone neither suffices for himself, nor pays the debt of his sins: