the divine sacramental fact that he was pontiff, which is to say, the high priest. It may, however, be a question in what way he is called the high priest of that year, seeing that God appointed one person to be high priest, who was to be succeeded only at his death by another. But we are to understand that ambitious schemes and contentions among the Jews led to the appointment afterwards of more than one, and to their annual turn of service. For it is said also of Zacharias: "And it came to pass that, while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. "^ From which it is evident that there were more than one, and that each had his turn: for it was lawful for the high priest alone to place the incense on the altar. "♦ And perhaps also there were several in actual service in the same year, who were succeeded next year by several others, and that it fell by lot to one of them to burn incense. What was it, then, that Caiaphas prophesied? "That Jesus should die for the nation; and not for the nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." This is added l)y the evangelist; for Caiaphas prophesied only of the Jewish nation, in which there were sheep of whom the Lord Himself had said, " I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." ^ But the evangelist knew that there were other sheep, which were not of this fold, but which had also to be brought, that there might be one fold and one shepherd.^ But this was said in the way of predestination; for those who were still unbelieving were as yet neither His sheep nor the children of God.
28. " Then, from that day forth, they took counsel together for to put Him to death. Jesus therefore walked no mor^ openly among the Jews; but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with His disciples." Not that there was any failure in His power, by which, had He only wished, He might have continued His intercourse with the Jews, and received no injury at their hands; but in His human weakness He furnished His disciples with an example of living, by which He might make it manifest that it was no sin in His believing ones, who are His members, to withdraw from the presence of their persecutors, and escape the fury of the wicked by concealment, rather than inflame it by showing themselves openly.
I Matt. xvi.
19.
2 Matt. viii. 12.
Tractate L.]
2 79 TRACTATE L.
Chapter XI. 55-57; XII. i-ii.
1. Yesterday's lesson in the holy Gospel, on which we spake as the Lord enabled us, is followed by to-day's, on which we purpose to speak in the same spirit of dependence. Some passages in the Scriptures are so clear as to require a hearer rather than an expounder: over such we need not tarry, that we may have sufficient time for those which necessarily demand a fuller consideration.
2. "And the Jews' passover was nigh at hand." The Jews wished to have that feastday crimsoned with the blood of the Lord. On it that Lamb was slain, who hath consecrated it as a feast-day for us by His own blood. There was a plot among the Jews about slaying Jesus: and He, who had come from heaven to suffer, wished to draw near to the place of His suffering, because the hour of His passion was at hand. Therefore " many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the passover, to sanctify themselves." The Jews did so in accordance with the command of the Lord delivered by holy Moses in the law, that on the feast-da}'^ of the passover all should assemble from every part of the land, and be sanctified in celebrating the services of the day. But that celebration was a shadow of the future. And why a shadow? It was a prophetic intimation of the Christ to come, a prophecy of Him who on that day was to suffer for us: that so the shadow might vanish and the light come; that the sign might pass away, and the truth be retained. The Jews therefore held the passover in a shadowy form, but we in the light. For what need was there that the Lord should command them to slay a sheep on the very day of the feast, save only because of Him it was prophesied, " He is led as a sheep to the slaughter"?' The door-posts of the Jews were sealed with the blood of the slaughtered animal: with the blood of Christ are our forehe:ids sealed. And that sealing — for it had a real significance — was saitl to keep away the destroyer from the houses that were sealed: = Christ's seal drives away the destroyer from us, if we receive the Saviour into our hearts. But why have I said this? Because many have their door-posts sealed while there is no inmate abiding within: they find it easy to have Christ's seal in the forehead, and yet at ■ Isa.
iiii. 7.
Ex.
Xll. -T, 33.
heart refuse admission to His word. Therefore, brethren, I have said, and I repeat it, Christ's seal driveth from us the destroyer, if only we have Christ as an inmate of our hearts. I have stated these things, lest any one's thoughts should be turning on the meaning of these festivals of the Jews. The Lord therefore came as it were to the victim's place, that the true passover might be ours, when we celebrated His passion as the real offering of the lamb.
3. "Then sought they for Jesus: " but with evil intent. For happy are they who seek for Jesus in a way that is good. They sought for Him, with the intent that neither they nor we should have Him more: but in departing from them. He has been received by us. Some who seek Him are blamed, others who do so are commended; for it is the spirit animating the seeker that finds either praise or condemnation. Thence you have it also in the psalms, " Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: " ^ such are those who sought with evil purpose. But in another place he says, " Refuge hath failed me, and there is no one that seeketh after my soul."'' Those who sought, and those who did not, are blamed alike. Therefore let us seek for Christ, that He may be ours, that we may keep Him, and not that we may slay Him; for these men sought to get hold of Him, l)ut only for the purpose of speedily getting quit of Him for ever. "Therefore they sought for Him, and spake among themselves: What think ye, that He will not come to the feast?"
4. " Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that, if any man knew where He were, he should show it, that they might take Him." Let us for our parts show the Jews where Christ is. AVould, indeed, that all the seed of those wlio had given commandment to have it shown them where Christ was, would but hear and appreheiul! Let them come to the church and hear wliere Christ is,:ind take Him. They may hear it from us, they may hear it from the gospel. He was slain l)y their forefathers. He was buried. He rose again, He was recognized by the disciples. He ascended before their eyes into heaven, and there sitteth at 3 Ps. xl. 14.
4 Ps. cxlii. 4, iiiarg.
28o [Tractate L.
the right hand of the Father; and He who was judged is yet to come as Judge of all: let them hear, and hold fast. Do they reply, How shall I take hold of the absent? how shall I stretch up my hand into heaven, and take hold of one who is sitting there? Stretch up thy faith, and thou hast got hold. Thy forefathers held by the flesh, hold thou with the heart; for the absent Christ is also present. But for His presence, we ourselves were unable to hold Him. But since His word is true, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world," ' He is away, and He is here; He has returned, and will not forsake us; for He has carried His body into heaven, but His majesty He has never withdrawn from the world.
5. " Then Jesus, six days before the passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom Jesus raised from the dead. And there they made Him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that reclined at the table." To prevent people thinking that the man had become a phantom, because he had risen from the dead, he was one of those who reclined at table; he was living, speaking, feasting: the truth was made manifest, and the unbelief of the Jews was confounded. The Lord, therefore, reclined at table with Lazarus and the others; and they were waited on by Martha, one of the sisters of Lazarus.
6. But " Mary," the other sister of Lazarus, "took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment." Such was the incident, let us look into the mystery it imported. Whatever soul of you wishes to be truly faithful, anoint like Mary the feet of the Lord with precious ointment. That ointment was righteousness, and therefore it was [exactly] a pound weight: but it was ointment of pure nard \_nardi pistici\ very precious. From his calling it ' ' pistici, ' ' -we ought to infer that there was some locality from which it derived its preciousness: but this does not exhaust its meaning, and it harmonizes well with a sacramental symbol. The root of the word [" pure "] in the Greek is by us called " faith." Thou wert seeking to work righteousness: the just shall live by faith. 3 Anoint the feet of Jesus: follow by a good life the Lord's footsteps. Wipe them with thy hair: what thou hast of superfluity, 2 The full expression is nitrdi pistici prctiosi: Gr. 'Vapfiou TTitrTtK^ i7oAv7ifi.ou: " TTierTtKos from ttkttis, t?-iistzvort/t}\ hence, genuine^ pure; — though Aug. seems to indicate that it may also have had a geographical reference. — Tr.
3 Rom. i. 17.
give to the poor, and thou hast wiped the feet of the Lord; for the hair seems to be the superfluous part of the body. Thou hast something to spare of thy abundance: it is superfluous to thee, but necessary for the feet of the Lord. Perhaps on this earth the Lord's feet are still in need. For of whom but of His members is He yet to say in the end, " Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of mine, ye did it unto me "?■* Ye spent what was superfluous for yourselves, but ye have done what was grateful to my feet.
7. "And the house was filled with the odor." The world is filled with the fame of a good character: for a good character is as a pleasant odor. Those who live wickedly and bear the name of Christians, do injur)'^ to Christ: of such it is said, that through them " the name of the Lord is blasphemed." s If through such God's name, is blasphemed, through the good the name of the Lord is honored. Listen to the apostle, when he says, "We are a sweet savor of Christ in every place." As it is said also in the Song of Songs, " Thy name is as ointment poured forth."* Attend again to the apostle: " We are a sweet savor," he says, "of Christ in every place, both in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the savor of life unto life, to the other the savor of death unto death: and who is sufficient for these things? " ^ The lesson of the holy Gospel before us affords us the opportunity of so speaking of that savor, that we on our part may give worthy utterance, and you diligent heed, to what is thus expressed by the apostle himself, "And who is sufficient for these things? " But have we any reason to infer from these words that we are qualified to attempt speaking on such a subject, or you to hear? We, indeed, are not so; but He is sufficient, who is pleased to speak by us what it may be for your profit to hepi'r. The ap(5stle, you see, is, as he calls himself, "a sweet savor: " but that sweet savor is "to some the savor of life unto life, and to others the savor of death unto death;" and yet all the while "a sweet savor" in itself. For he does not say, does he, To some we are a sweet savor unto life, to others an evil savor unto death?
He called himself a sweet savor, not an evil; and represented himself as the same sweet savor, to some unto life, to others unto death. Happy they who find life in this sweet savor! but what misery can be greater than theirs, to whom the sweet savor is the messenger of death?
8. And who is it, says some one, that is 4 Matt. XXV. 40. 6 Song of Sol. i. 3.
Tractate L.]
thus slain by the sweet savor? It is to this the apostle alludes in the words, "And who is sufficient for these things? " In what wonderful ways God brings it about that the good savor is fraught both with life to the good, and with death to the wicked; how it is so, so far as the Lord is pleased to inspire my thoughts (for it may still conceal a deeper meaning beyond my power to penetrate), — yet so far, I say, as my power of penetration has reached, you ought not to have the information withheld. The integrity of the Apostle Paul's life and conduct, his preaching of righteousness in word and exhibition of it in works, his wondrous power as a teacher and his fidelity as a steward, were everywhere noised abroad: he was loved by some, and envied by others. For he himself tells us in a certain place of some, that they preached^ Christ not sincerely, but of envy; " thinking," he says, "to add affliction to my bonds." But what does he add? " Whether in pretence or in truth, let Christ be preached."' They preach who love me, they preach who hate me; in that good savor the former live, in it the others die: and yet by the preaching of both let the name of Christ be proclaimed, with this excellent savor let the world be filled. Hast thou been loving one whose conduct evidenced his goodness? then in this good savor thou hast lived. Hast thou been envying such a one? then in this same savor thou hast died. But hast thou, pray, in thus choosing to die, converted this savor into an evil one? Turn from thine envious feelings, and the good savor will cease to slay thee.
9. And now, lastly, listen to what we have here, how this ointment was to some a -sweet savor unto life, and to others a sweet savor unto death. When the pious Mary had rendered this grateful service to the Lord, #...straightway one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was yet to betray Him, said, " Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred given to pence, and thee, wretched m:ui the poor? ' the sweet ' Alas for savor hath slain thee. For the cause that led him so to speak is disclosed by the holy evangelist. But we, too, might have supposed, had not the real state of his mind been revealed in the Gospel, that the care of the poor might have induced him so to speak. Not so. What then? Hearken to a true witness: " This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the money bag, and bare^what was put therein." Did I Phil. i. 16, 18.
- " e^daraiev," as used by John, may sijinify here, carried, bore, in a K"<'d sense; or carried off as a thief: for the latter sense, see chap. xx. 15.— Tr.
he bear it about, or bear it away? For the common service he bore it, as a thief he bore it away.
10. Look now, and learn that this Judas did not become perverted only at the time when he yielded to the bribery of the Jews and betrayed his Lord. For not a few, inattentive to the Gospel, suppose that Judas only perished when he accepted money from the Jews to betray the Lord. It was not then that he perished, but he was already a thief, and a reprobate, when following the Lord; for it was with his body and not with his heart that he followed. He made up the apostolic number of twelve, but had no part in the apostolic blessedness: he had been made the twelftii in semblance, and on his departure, and the succession of another, the apostolic reality was completed, and the entireness of the number conserved.^ What lesson then, my brethren, did our Lord Jesus Christ wish to impress on His Church, when it pleased Him to have one castaway among the twelve, but this, that we should bear with the wicked, and refrain from dividing the body of Christ? Here you have Judas among the saints, — that Judas, mark you! who was a thief, yea — do not overlook it — not a thief of any ordinary type, but a thief and a sacrilegist: a robber of money bags, but of such as were the Lord's; of money bags, but of such as were sacred. If there is a distinction made in the public courts between such crimes as ordinary theft and peculation, — for by peculation we mean the theft of public property; and private theft is not visited with the same sentence as public,— how much more severe ought to be the sentence on the sacrilegious thief, who has dared to steal, not from places of any ordinary kind, but to steal from the Church? He who thieves from tiie Church, stands side by side with the castaway Judas. Such was this man Judas, and yet he went in and out with the eleven holy disciples. With them he came even to the table of the Lord: he was permitted to have intercourse with them, but he could not contaminate them. Of one bread did both Peter and Judas partake, and yet what communion had the believer with the infidel? Peter's partaking was unto life, but that of Judas unto death. For that good bread was just like the sweet savor. For as the sweet savor, so also does the good bread give life to the good, and bring death to the wicked. " For he that uiteth unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself:"'' "judgment to himself," not to thee. If, then, it is judgment to himself, not to thee, bear as one that 3 Acts i. 26.
Cor. xi. 29.
[Tractate L.
is good with him that is evil, that thou mayest attain unto the rewards of the good, and be not hurled into the punishment of the wicked.
11. Lay to heart our Lord's example while living with man upon earth. Why had He a money bag, who was ministered unto by angels, save to intimate that His Church was destined thereafter to have her repository for money? Why gave He admission to a thief, save to teach His Church patiently to bear with thieves? But he who had formed the habit of abstracting money from the bag, did not hesitate for money received to sell the Lord Himself. But let us see what answer our Lord gave to such words. See, brethren: He does not say to him. Thou speakest so on account of thy thievishness. He knew him to be a thief, yet did not betray him, but rather endured him, and showed us an example of patience in tolerating the wicked in the! Church. "Then said Jesus to him: Let her keep it against the day of my burial." ' He announced that His own death was at hand.
12. But what follows? "For the poor ye have always with you, but me ye will not have always." We can certainly understand, "the poor ye have always;" what He has thus said is true. When were the poor wanting in the Church? " But me ye will not have always;" what does He mean by this? How are we to understand, " Me ye will not have always "? Don't be alarmed: it was addressed to Judas. Why, then, did He not say, thou wilt have, '• but, ye will have? Because Judas is not here j a unit. One wicked man represents the whole; body of the wicked; in the same way as Peter, j the whole body of the good, yea, the body of the Church, but in respect to the good. For j if in Peter's case there were no sacramental ■ symbol of the Church, the Lord would not have said to him, " I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. "= If this was said only to Peter, it gives no ground of action to the Church. But if such is the case also in the Church, that what is bound on earth is bound in heaven, and what is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven, — for when the Church excommunicates, the excommunicated person is bound in heaven; when one is re- ' AuRustin's words, sitiite i/iam, ut in diem sepultttrce inece servct iliiici, as rendered above, differ considerably from those of onr English version, and are more dilTicnlt to understand; but they agree with by far the larger number of Creek Mss., which read, 'A(t>e? avTr]v u-a et? Trjf r)fx€pav rot) ei'Tatfyiaa^jLOv fiov rrjp-qarf avTo. Our English version, "let her aione; against the day of my burying hath she kept this," is taken from MSS. which orait Iva, and have Terrjpjjicfi' instead of TTjpijori/. — Tr.
2 Matt. xvi. 19.
2 Matt. xvi. 19.
conciled by the Church, the person so reconciled is loosed in heaven: — if such, then, is the case in the Church, Peter, in receiving the keys, represented the holy Church. If, then, in the person of Peter were represented the good in the Church, and in Judas' person were represented the bad in the Church, then to these latter was it said, "But me ye will not have always." But what means the " not always;" and what, the "always"? If thou art good, if thou belongest to the body represented by Peter, thou hast Christ both now and hereafter: ^070 by faith, by sign, by the sacrament of baptism, by the bread and wine of the altar. Thou hast Christ now, but thou wilt have Him always; for when thou hast gone hence, thou wilt come to Him who said to the robber, " To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise. "3 But if thou livest wickedly, thou mayest seem to have Christ now, because thou enterest the Church, signest thyself with the sign of Christ, art baptized with the baptism of Christ, minglest thyself with the members of Christ, and approachest His altar: now thou hast Christ, but by living wickedly thou wilt not have Him always.
13. It may be also understood in this way: " The poor ye will have always with you, but me ye will not have always." The good may take it also as addressed to themselves, but not so as to be any source of anxiety; for He was speaking of His bodily presence. For in respect of His majesty, His providence. His ineffable and invisible grace, His own words are fulfilled, " Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world."'* But in respect of the flesh He assumed as the Word, in respect of that which He was as the son of the Virgin, of that wherein He was seized by the Jews, nailed to the tree, let down from the cross, enveloped in a shroud, laid in the sepulchre, and manifested in His resurrection, "ye will not have Him always./ And why? Because in respect of His bodily presence He associated for forty days with His disciples, and then, having brought them forth for the purpose of beholding and not of following Him, He ascended into heaven, s and is no longer here. He is there, indeed, sitting at the right hand of the Father; and He is here also, having never withdrawn the presence of His glory. In other words, in respect of His divine presence we always have Christ; in respect of His presence in the flesh it was rightly said to the disciples, " Me ye will not have always." In this respect the Church enjoyed His presence only for a few days: now it possesses Him by faith, without 3 Luke xxiii. 43.
Tractate LI.]
2^3 seeing Him vvitli the eyes. In whichever way, chen, it was said, " But me ye will not have always," it can no longer, I suppose, after this twofold solution, remain as a subject of doubt.
14. Let us listen to the other few points that remain: " Much people of the Jews therefore knew that He was there: and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead." They were drawn by curiosity, not by charity: they came and saw. Hearken to the strange scheming of human vanity. Having seen Lazarus as one raised from the dead, — for the fame of such a miracle of the Lord's had been accompanied everywhere with so much evidence of its genuineness, and it had been so openly performed, that they could neither conceal nor deny what had been done, — only think of the plan they hit upon. " But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus." O foolish consultation and blinded rage! Could not Christ the Lord, who was able to raise the dead, raise also the slain? When you were preparing a violent death for Lazarus, were you at the same time denuding the Lord of His power? If you think a dead man one thing, a murdered man another, look you only to this, that the Lord made both, and raised Lazarus to life when dead, and Himself when slain.
TRACTATE LL TRACTATE LL Chapter XII. 12-26.
1. After our Lord's raising of one to life, who had been four days dead, to the utter amazement of the Jews, some of whom believed on seeing it, and others perished in their envy, because of that sweet savor which is unto life to some, and to others unto death;' after He had sat down to meat with Lazarus — the one who had been dead and raised to life — reclining also at table, and after the pouring on His feet of the ointment which had filled the house with its odor; and after the Jews also had shown their own spiritual abandonment in conceiving the useless cruelty and the monstrously foolish and insane guilt of slaying Lazarus; — of all which we have spoken as we could, by the grace of the Lord, in previous discourses: let your Charity now notice how abundant before our Lord s passion was the fruit that appeared of His preaching, and how large was the flock of lost sheep of the house of Israel which had heard the Shepherd's voice.
2. For the Gospel, the reading of which you have just been listening to, says: ''On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesns was coming to Jerusalem, took l)ranches of palm trees and went forth to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna: blessed is He that cometh in tiie name of the Lord as the King of Israel." The branches of palm trees are laudatory em- ' 2 Cor. ii. 15.
' 2 Cor. ii. 15.
blems, significant of victory, because the Lord was about to overcome death by dying, and by the trophy of His cross to triumph over the devil, the prince of death. The exclamation used by the worshipping" people is Hosanna, indicating, as some who know the Hebrew language affirm, rather a state of mind than having any positive significance;^ just as in our own tongue* we have what are called interjections, as when in our grief we say, Alas! or in our joy. Ha! or in our admiration, O how fine! where O! expresses only the feeling of the admirer. Of the same class must we believe this word to be, as it has failed to find an interpretation both in Greek and Latin, like that other, " Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca." = For tiiis also is allowed to be an interjection, expressive of angry feelings.
3. But when it is saitl, " Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, [as] the - ObsecrantiSy literally siifipliant, which is scarcely suitable to the context.
i The "some" here referred to by AuiLjiistin could sc.ircely have had a very extensive knowledge of the Hebrew Ian);ua){e, as the word /losanna, thoii>;h left untranslated, as a well-known exclamation of the Jews in their religious services, is part of the sjime quotation from i'salni cxviii. (see vers. 25, 26) with the words that follow in the text. The s;icred writers fjave the nearest ciiuivaNnt in f'.reek letters ('uMravfa, Hosanna) of the Hebrew Xi rii'T'n Save now!— Tk.
* In text, in lingua latina.
'It -.
an insulting epithet of cimiinon use from an early ^lerlixl anions: the Habylonians, and in our Ix)rd's day an»)nK the mhabitantsof Syria and Palestine. It exactly answers to our iiiiot^ or iniiiiskiill^ and Is of frequent oicurrence afterwards in the same sense in rabbinical writings. -Ti;.
[I'RACrATE LI.
King of Israel/' by "in the name of tlie Lord" we are rather to understand "in the name of God the Father," although it might also be understood as in His own name, inasmuch as He is also Himself the Lord. As we find Scripture also saying in another place, " The Lord rained [upon Sodom fire] from the Lord."' But His own words are a better guide to our understanding, when He saith, " I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: another will come in his own name, and him ye will receive."- For the true teacher of humility is Christ, who humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. ^ But He does not lose His divinity in teaching us humility; in the one He is the Father's equal, in the other He is assimilated to us. By that which made Him the equal of the Father, He called us into existence; and by that in which He is like unto us, He redeemed us from ruin.