now ready in Judea. Justly was the corn there said to be as it were ripe, when so many thousands of men brought the price of their goods, and, laying them at the apostles' feet, having eased their shoulders of this worldly bsgg^ge, began to follow the Lord Christ. Verily the harvest was ripe. What was made of it? Of that harvest a few grains were thrown out, and sowed the whole world; and another harvest is rising which is to be reaped in the end of the world. Of that harvest it is said, " They that sow in tears shall reap with joy."' But to that harvest not apostles, but angels, shall be sent forth. "The reapers," saith He, "are the angels."" That harvest, then, is growing among tares, and is awaiting to be purged in the end of the world. But that harvest to which the disciples were sent first, where the prophets labored, was already ripe. But yet, brethren, observe what was said: "may rejoice together, both he that soweth and he that reapeth." They had dissimilar labors in time, but the rejoicing tjiey shall enjoy alike equally; they shall receive for their wages together eternal life.
2S. "And many Samaritans of that city believed on Him, because of the saying of the woman, who testified. He told me all that ever I did. And when the Samaritans came to Him, they besought Him that He "would tarry with them; and He tarried there two days. And many more believed because of His word; and said to the woman. Now we believe, not because of thy words; for we have heard Him ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world." This also must be slightly noticed, for the lesson is come to an end. The woman first announced Him, and the Samaritans l)elieved her testimony; and they besought Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days, and many more believed. And when they had believed, they said to the woman, " Now we believe, not because of thy word; but we are come to know Him ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world: '' first by report, then by His presence. So it is to-day with them that are without, and are not yet Christians. Christ is made known to them by Christian friends; and just upon the report of that woman, that is, the Church, they come to Clirist, they believe through this report. He stays with them two days, that is, gives them two precepts of charity; and many more believe, and more firmly believe, on Him, because He is in truth the Saviour of the world.
■ Ps, cxxvi. 5.
3 Matt..\iii. 39.
io8 [Tractate XVI.
TRACTATE XVI.
Chapter IV. 43-54.
1. The Gospel Lesson of to-day follows that of yesterday, and this is the subject of our discourse. In this passage the meaning, indeed, is not difficult of investigation, but worthy of preaching, worthy of admiration and praise. Accordingly, in reciting this passage of the Gospel, we must commend it to your attention, rather than laboriously expound it.
Now Jesus, after His stay of two days in Samaria, "departed into Galilee," where He was brought up. And the evangelist, as he goes on, says, " For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet hath no honor in his own country." It was not because He had no honor in Samaria that Jesus departed thence after two days; for Samaria was not His ov/n country, but Galilee. Whilst, therefore. He left Samaria so quickly, and came to Galilee, where He had been brought up, how does He testify that "a prophet hath no honor in his own country"? Rather does it seem that He might have testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country, had He disdained to go into Galilee, and had stayed in Samaria.
2. Now mark well, beloved, while the Lord suggests and bestows what I may speak, that here is intimated to us no slight mystery. You know the question before us; seek ye out the solution of it. But, to make the solution desirable, let us repeat the theme. The point that troubles us is, why the evangelist said, " For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet hath no honor in his own country." Urged by this, we go back to the preceding words, to discover the evangelist's intention in saying this; and we find him relating, in the preceding words of the narrative, that after two days Jesus departed from Samaria into Galilee. Was it for this, then, thou saidst, O evangelist, that Jesus testified that a prophet hath no honor in his own country, just because He left Samaria after two days, and made haste to come to Galilee? On the contrary, I should have thought it more likely, that if Jesus had no honor in His own country, He should not have hastened to it, and left Samaria. But if I am not mistaken, or rather, because it is true, and I am not mistaken; for the evangelist saw what he was saying better than I can see it, saw the truth better than I do, he who drank it in from the Lord's bosom: for the evangelist is the same John who, among all the disciples, reclined on the Lord's breast, and whom the Lord, owing love to all, yet loved above the rest. Is it he, then, that should be mistaken, and I right in my opinion? Rather, if I am piouslyminded, let me obediently hear what he said, that I may be worthy of thinking as he thought.
3. Hear then, dearly beloved, what I think in this matter, without prejudice to your own judgment, if you have formed a better. For we have all one Master, and we are fellowdisciples in one school. This, then, is my opinion, and see whether my opinion is not true, or near the truth. In Samaria He spent two days, and the Samaritans believed on Him; many were the days He spent in Galilee, and yet the Galileans did not believe on Him. Look back to the passage, or recall in memory the lesson and the discourse of yesterday. He came into Samaria, where at first He had been preached by that woman with whom He had spoken great mysteries at Jacob's well. After they had seen and heard Him, the Samaritans believed on Him because of the woman's word, and believed more firmly because of His own word, even many more believed: thus it is written. After passing two days there (in which number of days is mystically indicated the number of the two precepts on which hang the whole law and the prophets, as you remember we intimated to you yesterday), He goes into Galilee, and comes to the city Cana of Galilee, where He made the water wine. And there, when He turned the water into wine, as John himself writes, His disciples believed on Him; but, of course, the house was full with a crowd of guests. So great a miracle was wrought, and yet only His disciples believed on Him. He has now returned to this city of Galilee. "And, behold, a certain ruler, whose son was sick, came to Him, and began to beseech Him to go down " to that city or house, " and heal his son; for he was at the point of death." Did he who besought not believe? What dost thou expect to hear from me? Ask the Lord what He thought of him. Having been besought, this is what He answered: "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye believe not." He shows us a man lukewarm, or cold in faith, or of no faith at all; but eager to try by the healing of his son what manner of person Christ was, who He Tractate XVI.]
was, what He could do. The words of the sLippUant, indeed, we have heard: we have not seen the heart of the doubter; but He who both heard the words and saw the heart has told us this. In short, the evangelist himself, by the testimony of his narrative, shows us that the man who desired the Lord to come to his house to heal his son, had not yet believed. For after he had been informed that his son was whole, and found that he had been made whole at that hour in which the Lord had said, "Go thy way, thy son liveth;" then he saith, "And himself believed, and all his house." Now, if the reason why he believed, and all his house, was that he was told that his son was whole, and found the hour they told him agreed with the hour of Christ's foretelling it, it follows that when he was making the request he did not yet believe. The Samaritans had waited for no sign, they believed simply His word; but His own fellow-citizens deserved to hear this said to them, " Except ye see signs and wonders, ye believe not;" and even there, notwithstanding so great a miracle was wrought, there did not believe but " himself and his house." At His discourse alone many of the Samaritans believed; at that miracle, in the place where it was wrought, only that house believed. What is it, then, brethren, that the Lord doth show us here? Galilee of Judea was then the Lord's own country, because He was brought up in it. But now that the circumstance portends something, — for it is not without cause that " prodigies " are so called, but because they portend or presage something: for the word "prodigy" is so termed as if it were porrodicium, quod porro dicaf, what betokens something to come, and portends something future,- -now all those circumstances portended something, predicted something; let us just now assume the country of our Lord Jesus Christ after the flesh (for He had no country on earth, except after the flesh which He took on earth); let us, I say, assume the Lord's own country to mean the people of the Jews. Lo, in His own country He hath no honor. Observe at this moment the multitudes of the Jews; observe that nation now scattered over the whole world, and I^Uicked up l)y the roots; observe the broken branches, cut off, scattered, withered, which being broken off, the wild olive has deserved to be grafted in; look at the multitude of the Jews: what do they say to us even now?
" He whom you worship and adore was our brotiier." And we reply, "A projih.et hath no honor in his own country." In short, tiiose Jews saw the Lord as He walked on the earth and worked miracles; ihey saw Him giving sight to the blind, opening the ears of the deaf, loosing the tongues of the dumb, bracing up the limbs of the paralytics, walking on the sea, commanding the winds and waves, raising the dead: they saw Him working such great signs, and after all that scarcely a fevv^ believed. I am speaking to God's people; so many of us have believed, what signs have we seen? It is tlius, therefore, that what occurred at that time betokened what is now going on. The Jews were, or rather are, like the Galileans; we, like those Samaritans. We have heard the gospel, have given it our consent, have believed on Christ through the gospel; we have seen no signs, none do we demand.
4. For, though one of the chosen and holy twelve, yet he was an Israelite, of the Lord's nation, that Thomas who desired to put his fingers into the places of the wounds. The Lord censured him just as He did this ruler. To the ruler He said, " Except ye see signs and wonders, ye believe not; " and to Thomas He said, " Because thou hast seen, thou hast believed." He had come to the Galileans after the Samaritans, who had believed His word, before whom He wrought no miracles, whom He without anxiety quickly left, strong in faith, because by the presence of His divinity He had not left them. Now, then, when the Lord said to Thomas, "Come, reach hither thy hand, and be not faithless, but believing;" and he, having touched the places of the wounds, exclaimed, and said, "My Lord, and my God;" he is chided, and has it said to him, " Because thou hast seen, thou hast believed." Why, but " because a prophet has no honor in his own country? " But since this Prophet has honor among strangers, what follows? "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."' We are the persons here foretold; and that which the Lord by anticipation praised, He has deigned to fulfill even in us. They saw Him, who crucified Him, and touched Him with their hands, and thus a few believed; we have not seen nor handled Him, we have heard and believed. May it be our lot, that the blessed- .ness which He has promised may be made good in us: both here, because we have been preferred to His own country; and in the world to come, because we have been grafted in instead of the branches that were broken off!
5. For He showed that He would break off these branches, and ingraft this wild olive, when moved l)y the faith of the centurion, who said to Him, " I am not worthy that thou ' John XX. 29.
1 lO [Tractate XVI.
shouldest come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my child shall be healed: for I also am a man put under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to one. Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he Cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it, Jesus turned to those who followed Him, and said, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith in Israel." Why not found so great faith in Israel? "Because a prophet has no honor in his own country." Could not the Lord have said to that centurion, what He said to this ruler, "Go, thy child liveth?'' See the distinction: this ruler desired the Lord to come down to his house; that centurion declared himself to be unworthy. To the one it was said, " I will come and heal him;" to the other, "Go, thy son liveth." To the one He promised His presence; the other He healed by His word. The ruler sought His presence by force; the centurion declared himself unworthy of His presence. Here is a ceding to loftiness; there, a conceding to humility. As if He said to the ruler, ''Go, thy son liveth; " do not weary me. " E.xeept ye see signs and wonders, ye believe not;'^ thou desirest my presence in thy house, I am able to command by a word; do not wish to believe in virtue of signs: the centurion, an alien, believed me able to work by a word, and believed before I did it; you, " except ye see signs and wonders, believe not.'" Therefore, if it be so, let them be broken off as proud branches, and let the humble wild olive be grafted; nevertheless, let the root remain, while those are cut off, and these received in their place. Where does the root remain? In the patriarchs. For the people Israel is Christ's own country, since it is of them that He came according to the flesh; but the root of this tree is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the holy patriarchs. And where are they? In rest with God, in great honor; so that it was into Abraham's bosom that the poor man, on being promoted, was raised after his departure from the body, and in Abraham's bosom was he seen from afar off by the proud rich man. Wherefore the root remains, the root is praised; but theproud branches deserved to be cut off, and to wither away; and by their cutting off, the humble wild olive has found a place.
6. Hear now how the natural branches are cut off, how the wild olive is grafted in, by means of the centurion himself, whom I have thought proper to mention for the sake of comparison with this ruler. "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith in Israel; therefore I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and from the west." How widely the wild olive took possession of the earth! This world was a bitter forest; but because of the humility, because of this " I am not worthy — many shall come from the east and from the west." And grant that they come, what shall become of them? For if they come, they are cut off from the forest; where are they to be ingrafted, that they may not wither? " And shall sit down," saith He, "with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob." At what banquet, in case thou dost not invite to ever living, but to much drinking.'' Where, ' ' shall sit down? In the kingdom of heaven. ' ' And how will it be with them who came of the stock of Abraham? What will become of the branches with which the tree was full? What but to be cut off, that these may be grafted in? Show us that they shall be cut off: " But the children of the kingdom shall go into outer darkness." ' 7. Therefore let the Prophet have honor among us, because He had no honor in His own country. He had no honor in His country, wherein He was formed; let Him have honor in the country which He has formed. For in that country was He, the Maker of all, made as to the form of a servant. For that city in which He was made, that Zion, that nation of the Jews He Himself made when He was with the Father as the Word of God: for " all things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made." Of that man we have to-day heard it said: " One Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus." ^ The Psalms also foretold, saying, " My mother is Sion, shall a man say." A certain man, the Mediator man between God and men, says, " My mother Sion.'' Why says, " My mother is Sion''? Because from it He took flesh, from it was the Virgin Mary, of whose womb He took upon Him the form of a servant; in which He deigned to appear most humble. ' ' My mother is Sion," saith a man; and/this man, who says, " My mother is Sion," was made in her, became man in her. For He was God before her, and became man in her. He who was made man in her, " Himself did found her; the Most High 3 was made man in her most low." Because "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." "He Himself, the Most High, founded her." Now, because He founded this country, here let Him have honor. The country in which He was born rejected Him; let that country receive Him which He regenerated.
3 Ps. Ixxxiv. 7.
Tractate X\'II.]
Chapter V. 1-18.
I. It ought not to be a matter of wonder that a miracle was wrought by God; the wonder would be if man had wrought it. Rather ought we to rejoice than wonder that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was made man, than that He performed divine works among men. It is of greater importance to our salvation wliat He was made for men, than what He did among men: it is more important that He healed the faults of souls, than that He healed the weaknesses of mortai bodies. But as the soul knew not Him by whom it was to be healed, and had eyes in the flesh whereby to see corporeal deeds, but had not yet sound eyes in the heart with which to recognise Him as God concealed m the flesh, He wrought what the soul was able to see, in order to heal that by which it was not able to see.
He entered a place where lay a great multitude of sick folk — of blind, lame, withered; and being the physician both of souls and bodies, and having come to heal all the souls of them that should believe, of those sick folk He chose one for healing, thereby to signify unity. If in doing this we regard Him with a commonplace mind, with the mere human understanding and wit, as regards power it was not a great matter that He performed; and also as regards goodness He performed too little. There lay so many there, and yet only one was healed, whilst He could by a word have raised them all up. What, then, must we understand but that the power and the goodness was doing what soilils might, by His deeds, understand for their everlasting salvation, than what bodies might gain for temporal health? For that which is the real health of bodies, and which is looked for from the Lord, will be at the end, in the resurrection of the dead. What shall live then shall no more die; what shall be healed shall no more be sick; what shnll be satisfied shall no more hunger and thirst; what shall be made new shall not grow old. But at this time, however, the eyes of the blind, that were opened by those acts of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, were again closed in death; and limbs of the paralytics that received strength were loosened again in death; and whatever was for a time n\ade whole in mortal limbs came to nought in the cm\: but the soul that believed jiasscd to eternal life.
Accordingly, to the soul that should believe, ' whose sins He had come to forgive, to the ' healing of whose ailments He had humbled ; Himself, He gave a significant proof by the ' healing of this impotent man. Of the profound mystery of this thing and this proof, so far as the Lord deigns to grant us, while you are attentive and aiding our weakness by prayer, I will speak as I shall have ability. And whatever I am not able to do, that will be supplied to you by Him by whose help I do what I can.
2. Of this pool, which was surrounded with five porches, in which lay a great multitude of sick folk, I remember that I have very often treated; and most of you will with me recolj lect what I am about to say, rather than gain the knowledge of it for the first time. But it is by no means unprofitable to go back upon: matters already known, that both they who know not may be instructed, and they who do know may be confirmed. Therefore, as being already known, these things must be touched upon briefly, not leisurely inculcated. That pool and that water seem to me to have signified the Jewish people. For that peoples are signified under the name of waters the { Apocalypse of John clearly indicates to us, I where, after he had been shown many \yaters, and he had asked what they were, was answered that they were peoples.' That water, then — namely, that people- -was shut in by the five books of Moses, as by five porches. But those books brought forth the sick, not healed them. For the law convicted, not acquitted sinners. Accordingly the letter, without grace, made men guilty, whom on confessing grace delivered. For this is what the apostle saith: "For if a law had been given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." Why, then, was the law given? He goes on to say, " P)Ut the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." -What more evident > Have not these words expounded to us both the five porches, and also the multitude of sick folk? The five porches are the law. Why did not the five porches heal the sick folk? Because, "if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have ' Rev. xvii. 15.
2 Gal.
111. 21, 23.
I 12 [Tractate XVII.
been by the law." Why, then, did the porches contain those whom they did not heal? Because " the Scripture hath conchided all under sin, that tne promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe."
3. What was done^ then, that they who could not be healed in the porches might be healed in that water after being troubled? For on a sudden the water was seen troubled, and that by which it was troubled was not seen. Thou mayest believe that this was wont to be done by angelic virtue, yet not without some mystery being implied. After the water was troubled, the one who was able cast himself in, and he alone was healed: whoever went in after that one, did so in vain. What, then, is meant by this, unless it be that there, came one, even Christ, to the Jewish people; and by doing great things, by teaching profitable things, troubled sinners, troubled the water by His presence, and roused it towards His own death? But He was hidden that troubled. For had they known Him, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.' Wherefore, to go down into the troubled water means to believe in the Lord's death. There only one was healed, signifying unity: whoever came thereafter was not healed, because whoever shall be outside unity cannot be healed.
4. Now let us see what He intended to signify in the case of that one whom He Himself, keeping the mystery of unity, as I said before, deigned to heal out of so many sick folk. He found in the number of this man's years the number, so to speak, of infirmity: " He was thirty and eight years in infirmity." How this number refers more to weakness than to health must be somewhat more carefully expounded. I wish you to be attentive; the Lord will aid us, so that I may fitly speak, and that you may sufficiently hear. The number forty is commended to our attention as one consecrated by a kind of perfection. This, T suppose, is well known to you, beloved. The Holy Scriptures very often testify to the fact. Fasting was consecrated by this number, as you are well aware. For Moses fasted forty days, and Elias as many; and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ did Himself fulfill this number of fasting. By Moses is signified the- law; by Elias, the prophets; by the Lord, the gospel. It was for this reason that these three appeared on that mountain, where He showed Himself to His disciples in the brightness of His countenance and vesture. For He appeared in the middle, between Moses and Elias, as the I I Cor. ii. 8.
gospel had witness from the law and the prophets.^ Whether, therefore, in the law, or in the prophets, or in the gospel, the number forty is commended to our attention in the case of fasting. Now fasting, in its large and general sense, is to abstain from the iniquities and unlawful pleasures of the world, which is perfect fasting: " That, denying ungodhness and worldly lusts, we may live temperately, and righteously, and godly in this present world." What reward does the apostle join to this fast? He goes on to say: " Looking for that blessed hope, and the appearing of the glory of the blessed God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ. "3 In this world, then, we celebrate, as it were, the forty days' abstinence, when we live aright, and abstain from iniquities and from unlawful pleasures. But because this abstinence shall not be without reward, we look for " that blessed hope, and the revelation of the glory of the great God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ.'" In that hope, when the reality of the hope shall have come to pass, we shall receive our wages, a petmy {denarius). For the same is the wages given to the workers laboring in the vineyard," as I presume you remember; for we are not to repeat everything, as if to persons wholly ignorant and inexperienced. A denarius^ then, which takes its name from the number ten, is given, and this joined with the forty makes up fifty; whence it is that before Easter we keep the Qi/adragesinia with labor, but after Easter we keep the Quinquagesima with joy, as having received our wages. Now to this, as if to the wholesome labor of a good work, which belongs to the number forty, there is added the denarius of rest and happiness, that it may be made the number fifty.