Of which mystery it had long before been said through the prophet: 'And his government shall be,' it says, 'upon his shoulder' (Isaiah 9:6). For then Christ had the government upon his shoulders, when he carried his cross with wondrous humility. Not incongruously does the cross of Christ signify his government. For by it the devil is conquered, and the whole world is called back to the knowledge and grace of Christ. Indeed so too the Apostle said, when he was speaking of the Passion of the Lord: 'He became,' he says, 'obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; for which cause God also exalted him, and gave him a name which is above every name' (Philippians 2:8-9).
This we say, brethren, that your Charity may recognize that the government of Christ, of which it is written, 'And the government shall be upon his shoulder,' is none other than his cross. And therefore that very reading is read at Easter, when the true Isaac, whose type the son of Abraham bore, is fastened for the human race upon the gibbet of the cross. 4. In the servants of Abraham is a figure of the Jews. It is read in that very lesson, that blessed Abraham, coming with his son, saw the place afar off, and said to his servants: 'Sit here with the ass; I and the boy will go on, and when we have worshipped, we will return to you.' Why is it said to the servants, who held the figure of the Jews, 'Sit here with the ass'? Could that ass sit, dearly beloved?
But it is said, 'Sit with the ass,' because the Jewish people, who were not to believe in Christ, could not stand, but like one feeble and like a languishing sinner, who had despised the staff of the cross, was about to fall to the ground. Blessed Abraham said, therefore, 'Sit here with the ass; I and the boy will go on, and when we have worshipped, we will return to you.' What is this you say, blessed Abraham? You go to immolate your son, and you say that you will return with your son? If you offer him as a burnt offering, surely he will not be able to return with you. Blessed Abraham could answer: 'I speak the truth, and I offer my son, and with my son I will return to you.'
For so great is my faith, that I believe that he who deigned to give him to me from a barren mother's womb, is able even to raise him up when dead; and therefore I speak truly, that when we have worshipped, we will return to you. 5. Adam buried in the place of Calvary. But that the ram was slain, and Isaac was not slain, this was done because Isaac was a figure and not the reality. For in him was designated what was afterward fulfilled in Christ. See God contending with men in great tenderness: Abraham offered to God a mortal son who was not to die, and God delivered to death an immortal Son for men.
Yet it can also be understood thus concerning blessed Isaac and that ram, that in blessed Isaac was signified the divinity, in the ram the humanity of Christ. And because in the Passion not the divinity but the humanity is believed to have been crucified, therefore not Isaac but the ram is immolated. For the Son of God, the only-begotten, is offered, and the firstborn of a virgin is immolated. Hear yet another sacred mystery. Blessed Jerome the presbyter wrote, that he had learned most certainly from the ancients and elders of the Jews, that Isaac was offered there where afterward the Lord Christ was crucified. In short, from that place whence blessed Abraham was bidden to set out, one arrives on the third day at the place where Christ was crucified for you.
[This too is related by the tradition of the ancients, that Adam the first man was once buried in that very place where the cross was fixed; and that therefore it was called the place of Calvary, because the head of the human race is said to be buried there. And truly, brethren, it is not incongruously believed that the physician was raised up there where the sick man lay. And it was fitting, that where human pride had fallen, there divine mercy should bow itself down:
and that precious blood, while it deigned by trickling down to touch even bodily the dust of the ancient sinner, may be believed to have redeemed it.] These things, dearly beloved brethren, according to what we were able, we have gathered from the diverse volumes of the Scriptures, for the profit of our soul, and have set forth from the contemplation of charity. But you, with the Lord's help, while you the more frequently reread the divine Scriptures, if you attend diligently, I believe that you may find even a better exposition. [6. The sacrament of Baptism is not to be sought negligently or too late. I beg you, brethren, that whoever desires his son or his household servant to be baptized, let him not now delay to offer him to the Church:
because it is not just, that a thing which is believed to be so great, so illustrious, should be sought negligently or later than is expedient. For I fear lest some women offer their little ones later for this reason, because they neglect to come with them to the Vigils. For we most certainly believe, that those who, as soon as Lent begins, shall be willing to offer those who are to be baptized, and shall happily come with them to the Vigils, both their children shall receive the sacrament of Baptism in lawful order, and they themselves shall acquire the pardon of sins, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.] SERMON VII. On the offering of Isaac, II. 1. It is a new kind of precept, to give a man a law of crime;
and to be counted religious, if one is willing to perpetrate an impious deed. If Abraham commits parricide, he is just; if he does not commit it, he is undevout. What then is this, that we never appease God except by piety? He desires vows to be offered to him, not to be worshipped cruelly. Behold, between the piety of the father and the devotion owed to God, it is indeed a crime to slay the son; but it is more criminal not to hearken to God. Perfect justice is set in a strait place. You are bidden to commit parricide, being about to bereave yourself with your own hands. What is this? He commands parricide, who forbids homicide? He is bidden, it says, to make a victim of his son, the solace of a father's old age, and the sole hope of posterity, who the later he came, the sweeter he is; who, being alone or only-begotten, is the dearer and the more beloved.
In both, the despair of begetting offspring in old age held them fast; inasmuch as, after the time which nature had defrauded, age in the aged father, sterility in the aged mother. For Sarah had already lost the function of her womb, and the force of begetting had wearied the aged father; because he had no fruit of one barren. Behold, suddenly the mother's cold womb grew warm, not by the incitement of lust, but by the kindling of virtue, and the revived flower of youth succeeded. The limbs of the now-mourning body grew green again, the withered members, pale with the decay of aged years, grew green with the ruddiness of boyhood, and the now-aging body, growing old, was quickened not as by intercourse but by the promise. The now-toga'd head was white with grey hair, and the womb stretched out its wrinkles upon the belly.
The womb of the pregnant woman swelled, her step trembled at the knee. She bore a burdened womb, she who could no longer govern her bent body. In her final years the woman conceived and grew weary, she who in her youth had not known how to conceive learns in old age to give suck. Learn, you married, to await the effect of the seed where the gift of its Author has not been present, since He Himself declares: 'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you' (Jer. 1:5). 'Take,' He says, 'your son, your only one, and offer him to Me upon one of the mountains which I shall show you' (Gen. 22:2). An aged father and the mother of an only child, new parents and old begetters, are not moved to any bitter refusal at this harsh command.
Cheerful he girded himself, he who neither dreaded the horror of the deed nor, though degenerate his spirit might seem, hesitated to fulfil what he was commanded. That future hope of so many nations is bidden to be slain by a father's own hand. The devoted father took up this parricide with the same vow with which he had received the son: nor does it matter whether he spends or loses him, provided that in some manner he render back what he had received. O most merciful Lord, why do You command to be offered up as a victim the one whom You know beloved to his father? Only lately did You make fertile an aged and barren man; and so quickly do You reclaim what You had granted? Where is that which You promised to the aged? Can You then, when angered, injure, just as when favourable You command bereavement? Far be from us such unbelief. God commanded His own Son to be slain for us, not our sons for Himself.
Therefore he is bidden to slay his son, so that there might be made manifest to the world what was already known to God. For how should He desire the blood of an innocent, who condemns the guilty on account of blood? He willed to display his devotion to all men, He who commanded that the parricide should take place. At once he obeys the command, he complies with the precepts, the slayer sets out prepared; nay rather, the son journeys with the father, going to die: and would that he were only going to die, and not moreover to perish by his father's sword. They came then to the place which God had named; both priests together build the altar; he lays the wood upon the altar, he binds his son, and with sword drawn the angel cried out: 'Do not strike the boy: look with your eyes, and behold the ram in the thicket.'
Behold, brethren, Abraham strong in patience, steadfast in devotion; not wrestling with any wild beast, but striving against nature itself. Devotion said, 'Strike'; piety cried out, 'Spare.' The one recalled him; the other urged him on. The son lay there, then about to die: he raises his right hand to strike, and takes aim at the spot where he willingly meant to smite. 'Spare him,' He says, 'Abraham.' He who had commanded him to strike now cries aloud that he should spare. For He knew that the proven father, fervent in devotion, would both stay his sword and not slay his son; nay, nor even burn him. 'Spare him,' He says, 'devout father; parricide without crime, spare him. Your sacrifice which you had prepared I have looked upon, I have accepted what I had commanded you to offer; in your will I have approved what in the deed I refused.'
'I have accepted your vow, nor have I rejected the sacrifice; I praise your faith, nor do I reprove your piety, nor do I suffer bereavement to be brought upon you. All things are perfected, and all is preserved. The innocent victim is bound, lest the devotion of the one offering should think itself to have exhibited something less, if through impatience of grief the victim were to kick out against it. Behold, by a spiritual foreshadowing you have anticipated My counsel. For what I prepared for the whole world, you have already resolved in your son. What I ordained in My Only-begotten, you have accomplished in your only one: whence in you all nations shall be blessed.' Amen. SERMON VIII. On the servant of Abraham, who was sent to Rebecca. The oath by the thigh of Abraham.
A little while ago, when the divine reading was being read, we heard that blessed Abraham called his servant and said to him: 'Put your hand under my thigh, that I may adjure you by the God of heaven and earth, that you take not a wife for my son from the daughters of this region' (Gen. 24:2, etc.); and that the servant, obeying, placed his hand under the thigh, and swore to him. For all these things, brethren, which are recited in the Old Testament, if we are willing to receive them only according to the letter, we shall gain little or no profit for the soul.
For what does it profit us, who faithfully assemble at the church to hear the word of God, if it is told us that Abraham sent his servant to bring a wife for his son from a far country, when we frequently see this same thing done even in these regions of ours? But we, brethren, following the blessed Apostle Paul, let us believe that all things which were written happened to the Jews in figure, but for us have been fulfilled in truth (1 Cor. 10:11). Abraham then said to his servant, 'Put your hand under my thigh, and swear by the God of heaven and earth.' What is this, brethren? Thus said blessed Abraham, 'Put your hand under my thigh': as though he said, 'Put your hand upon the altar.'
Or as if he said, 'Put your hand upon the ark of the Testament': or, 'Stretch out your hand to the temple of God: and swear to me.' He touched the thigh, and swore by the God of heaven and earth. For blessed Abraham did not err when he commanded this to be done: but because, filled with the spirit of prophecy, he knew that from his seed Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth, was to be born. Therefore when his servant touched his thigh, he offered his oath not by a carnal member, but by the living and true God. For Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah: from whose seed Christ the Lord was born (Matt. 1:2-16).
Rebecca met the servant of Abraham, whom, with the consent of her parents and her brother and of herself, he takes to Isaac his lord as a wife.—And he stood beside the spring, and said in his heart: 'Lord God of my master, if You have shown mercy to my master, behold I am at the well, and the maiden who shall come to draw water, if I say to her, Give me to drink, and she answers me, Drink you also, and I will draw water for your camels also; she it is whom You have prepared for my master Isaac.' The servant had not yet finished the words in his heart, and behold Rebecca appeared, having a water-jar upon her shoulder. And the servant said to her: 'Give me to drink.' And she quickly let down her jar, and said: 'Drink also, my lord, and I will draw water for your camels too.'
And when he had asked whose daughter she was, she answered him that she was the daughter of Bethuel, and the sister of Laban. And the man bowed himself down, and worshipped God, because he had recognized that these were the kindred of his lord Abraham, and he brought forth earrings to adorn her face, and placed bracelets upon her hands. But she, going off, told her parents, who going out blessed God, and with joy and honour received the servant of Abraham. And he spoke to them concerning Rebecca, that they should give her to his lord Isaac. But they said: 'Let us call the girl, and inquire her will.' And when she had been called, they said to her: 'Will you go with this man?' And she answering said: 'I will go.'
Abraham and his servant, of whom they are figures. Rebecca betrothed to Isaac is a figure of the Church. Now, dearest brethren, as far as we can, let us see briefly what these things signify. Blessed Abraham, in that he sent his servant to take a wife for his son, bore the type of God the Father; just as, when he offered him up in holocaust, he figured the image of God the Father: but his servant designated the prophetic word. Abraham therefore sent his servant into a far country, that from there he might take a wife for his son:
because God the Father had sent the prophetic word throughout the whole earth, that it might seek out the Catholic Church as a bride for His Only-begotten. And just as through the servant of Abraham a bride is brought to blessed Isaac, so through the prophetic word the Church of the Gentiles is invited from far-off regions to the true Bridegroom, Christ. Where, however, is that bride found who was to be joined to Christ? Where, but at the water? It is true, dearest ones: unless the Church had come to the water of Baptism, she would not have been joined to Christ. Rebecca, then, found the servant of Abraham at the well, and the Church found Christ at the sacrament of Baptism. What, however, was done after this? The servant brought forth golden earrings, and golden bracelets, and gave them to Rebecca.
In those golden earrings the divine words were signified: in those golden bracelets, holy works; for by hands works are designated. Let us see how Christ gave these to the Church. The servant, then, offered golden earrings to adorn the face of Rebecca, and Christ gave to the Church the divine words, more precious than all pearls: he placed bracelets upon the hands of Rebecca, and Christ gave holy works into the hands of the Church. Consider, dearest brethren, and rejoice, and give thanks to God, because what was there prefigured has, by Christ's gift, been fulfilled in us: and just as Rebecca could neither have earrings nor bracelets upon her hands, unless Isaac sent them through his servant;
so too the Church could have had neither the divine words in her ears nor holy works in her hands, unless Christ had conferred these upon her through His grace and through His Apostles. But that the girl, when asked by her parents whether she wished to go with the servant, answered, 'I will go'; this we see plainly fulfilled in the Church. There the will of Rebecca is asked, here the will of the Church is sought. To Rebecca it is said, 'Will you go with this man?' and she answers, 'I will go.' To the Church it is said, 'Do you believe in Christ?' and she answers, 'I believe.' Rebecca would not be led to Isaac unless she said, 'I am willing': nor would the Church be joined to Christ, unless she said, 'I believe.' Isaac coming into the field, a figure of Christ about to come into the world.
The servant, then, received Rebecca, and presented her to Isaac. Let us see, however, where he found him. He found him at the well of the Oath. Behold, brethren, the servant found Rebecca for Isaac at the well, and again Rebecca found Isaac himself at the well. It is true: neither did Christ find the Church, nor the Church Christ, except at the sacrament of Baptism. Blessed Isaac, as Scripture says, had gone out at evening into the field to meditate. That field bore the figure of the world. Isaac had gone out into the field, because Christ was to come into the world: Isaac at evening of the day, Christ at the end of the world. Isaac, then, went forth into the field to meditate:
because Christ came into the world to do battle against the devil, that He might conquer him justly, while we were being slain by him unjustly; that by dying He might destroy death, and by rising again might grant life to those who believe. And just as Isaac was bodily joined to Rebecca, so the Church was spiritually joined to Christ, receiving in the present the precious pledge of the blood of her Bridegroom, and destined to receive hereafter the dowry of His kingdom. This matter the blessed apostle Peter clearly declares, saying: 'For you were not redeemed,' he says, 'with gold or silver, but with the precious blood, as of a lamb unspotted' (1 Pet. 1:18, 19). The Synagogue foreshadowed by Sarah, the Church by Rebecca.—Isaac, then, received Rebecca, and brought her into the tent of his mother:
Christ received the Church, and established her in the place of the Synagogue. For through unbelief the Synagogue was separated from God and put to death, and through faith the Church was joined to Christ and made alive. Isaac, then, received Rebecca, and loved her so greatly that he tempered the grief which had befallen him from his mother's death. For the death of Sarah signifies the unbelief of the Synagogue. Sarah therefore dies, and in her place Rebecca is led home: the Synagogue is repudiated, that the Church may be brought in. Isaac, then, received Rebecca, and loved her so greatly that he tempered the sorrow which had come from his mother's death: Christ received the Church, and loved her so greatly that He assuaged, by love of the Church, the grief which had come from the perdition of His mother the Synagogue.
For just as the unbelief of the Synagogue caused grief to Christ, so the faith of the Church begot Him gladness: and just as through the malice of the Synagogue He lost one nation of the Jews—and not even that whole nation—so the whole world Christ the Lord acquired through the faith of the Church. And because from among us, dearest brethren, Christ the Lord prepared for Himself a spiritual bride, whom also, as I have said, He redeemed with His precious blood:
so, with His help, let each one not only guard the benefits bestowed upon him by the divine gift, but also strive to increase them, that nothing may appear in him either filthy through luxury, or swollen through pride, or inflamed through wrath, or darkened through avarice, or struck as with the viper's venom through envy. For it is just that that Bridegroom, beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, should find nothing in us of the aforesaid sins, which might offend the eyes of His majesty: to whom is honour and dominion, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON IX. On holy Rebecca. Those are rebuked who rarely come to church or neglect to hear the word of God.
'Isaac,' says Scripture, 'grew and was strengthened' (Gen. 21:8): that is, the joy of Abraham increased, as he looked not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are not seen. For Abraham did not rejoice over things present, nor over the riches of the world and the doings of the age. But do you wish to know, Abraham, from what he rejoiced? Hear the Lord saying to the Jews: 'Abraham your father,' He says, 'desired to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad' (John 8:56). By this, then, Isaac grew, by that vision of Abraham whereby he beheld the day of Christ, and by the hope which was in him, which heaped up his joys. And would that you too might become Isaacs, and be the joy of your mother the Church.
But I fear lest the Church still bring forth her sons in sorrow and groaning. Is it not sorrow and groaning to her, when you do not assemble to hear the word of God, and scarcely on feast days proceed to the church; and this not so much from desire of the word of God, as from zeal for the solemnity, and, so to speak, under the pretext of a public holiday of relaxation? What then shall I do, to whom the dispensation of the word has been entrusted? Who, although I am an unprofitable servant, have yet received from the Lord a measure of wheat to distribute to the Lord's household? But see what He adds: 'to distribute,' He says, 'the measure of wheat in due season.' What then shall I do? Where, or when, shall I find your season? Most of it—nay, almost the whole—you wear away in worldly occupations:
one thing you consume in the marketplace, another in trade; one man devotes himself to his fields, another to lawsuits: to hear the word of God, none, or very few, have leisure. But why do I blame you for your occupations? Why do I complain about the absent? Even the present, and those placed within the church, are not attentive; but you wear away the time in common and habitual tales, and turn your backs upon the word of God and the divine readings. I fear lest that also be said to you by the Lord which was spoken through the prophet: 'They have turned to Me their backs, and not their faces' (Jer. 32:33). What then shall I do, to whom the ministry of the word has been entrusted? The things that are read are mystical, they must be expounded in allegorical sacraments.
Can I press the pearls of the word of God upon deaf and averted ears? Not thus did the Apostle act; see, indeed, what he says: 'You who have read the Law,' he says, 'have you not heard the Law? For Abraham had two sons,' and so on, to which he adds, 'Which things are allegorical' (Gal. 4:21-24). Did he open the sacraments of the Law to those who neither read nor understand? But to those reading the Law he said, 'Have you not heard the Law?' How, then, shall I be able to open and disclose the mysteries of the Law, and the allegories which I have been taught by the Apostle, to those to whom both the hearing and the reading of the Law is unknown? Exhortation to prayer. Perhaps I seem too harsh to you; but I cannot smear over a wall that is slipping. For I fear that which is written:
'My people, they who call you blessed lead you astray, and disturb the paths of your feet' (Isa. 3:12). As my dearest sons I admonish you. I wonder if the way of Christ has not yet become known to you, if you have not even heard this, that the way which leads to life is not broad and spacious, but narrow and strait (Matt. 7:14). Enter you also, then, through the narrow gate, leave breadth to those who perish. 'The night has passed, but the day has drawn near' (Rom. 13:12), says the Apostle: 'Walk as children of light' (Eph. 5:8): 'The time is short; it remains that both they who have, be as though not having; and they who use this world, as though not using it' (1 Cor. 7:29, 31).
The Apostle commands that we should pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). You who do not assemble for prayers, how do you fulfil without ceasing that which you always omit? But Christ also commanded, 'Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation' (Matt. 26:41). But if they, watching and praying, and always cleaving to the Word of God, nevertheless by no means escaped temptation; what do these do, who come to church only on solemn days? 'If the righteous man is scarcely saved, where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear?' (1 Pet. 4:18). Spiritual betrothal. It grieves me to say anything of the things that have been read. For the Apostle also says of these discourses, that they are hard to be explained;
'because you,' he says, 'have become weak in hearing' (Heb. 5:11). Let us, nevertheless, look at this which has been recited to us. 'Rebecca,' says Scripture, 'used to come with the daughters of the city to draw water from the well' (Gen. 24:15-16). Rebecca came daily to the wells, daily she drew water: and because daily she gave her leisure to the wells, therefore she could be found by the servant of Abraham, and be joined in marriage to Isaac. Do you think these are fables, and that the Holy Spirit narrates mere histories in the Scriptures? This is an instruction of souls, and a spiritual teaching, which teaches you to come daily to the wells of the Scriptures, to the waters of the Holy Spirit, and always to draw, and to carry home a full vessel:
just as holy Rebecca also did, who could not otherwise have been joined to so great a patriarch, Isaac, who was born of the promise, except by drawing water: and by drawing so abundantly that she could give drink not only to those who were at home, but also to the servant of Abraham: and not only to the servant, but that she so overflowed with the waters which she drew from the wells, that she could water the camels also, 'until,' it says, 'they ceased drinking' (ibid., 19). All things that are written are mysteries. Christ wishes also to betroth you to Himself: for He speaks to you through the prophet, saying, 'I will betroth you to Myself for ever, and I will betroth you to Myself in faith and in mercy, that you may know the Lord' (Hos. 2:19-20).