23. (Verse 39) Look at the economy: in the house of the Pharisee, the sinful woman is glorified, in the house of the Law and the Prophets, not the Pharisee, but the Church is justified; for the Pharisee did not believe, he believed these things. Finally, he said: If this man were a prophet, he would surely know who and what kind of woman is touching him. But the house of the Law is Judea, which is not written in stones, but on the tablets of the heart. In this the Church is now justified by a greater Law; for the Law of sins does not know forgiveness; the Law does not have the mystery by which hidden things are cleansed; and therefore what is lacking in the Law is completed in the Gospel.
(Vers. 41.)
(Verse 41.) "Two," he said, "were debtors to a certain moneylender: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.
24. Who are these two debtors, if not two peoples: one from the Jews, the other from the nations, both subject to that heavenly treasurer, the moneylender? One, he says, owed five hundred denarii, the other fifty. This denarius is not insignificant, for on it the image of the king is formed, who bears the trophy of the emperor. We owe this moneylender not material wealth, but the scales of merits, the weight of virtues: the value of which is measured by the gravity of merit, the appearance of justice, and the sound of confession. Woe is me if I do not have what I have received: either because it is difficult for anyone to be able to repay this whole debt to the lender, woe is me if I do not ask: Grant me the debt (Matthew 6:12)! For the Lord did not teach us to pray in such a way that we ask to have our debts forgiven, unless he knew that there would be some suitable debtors who find it difficult.
25. But who is this people which owes more, if not us, to whom more has been entrusted? To them the sayings of God have been entrusted, to us the birth of the Virgin has been entrusted. You have the talent of the Virgin's birth: you have the hundredth fruit of faith. Emmanuel, God, has been entrusted to us; the cross, death, resurrection of the Lord have been entrusted. And if Christ suffered for all, He suffered especially for us because He suffered for the Church. Therefore, there is no doubt that the one who has received more should owe more. And perhaps, in the eyes of people, the one who owes more may offend more. But by the mercy of the Lord, the situation is changed so that the one who owes more may love more, if he attains grace. For both the one who gives grace and the one who receives it have it. And in having it, he pays off what he owes. For both by giving, it is held, and by having, it is repaid.
26. And therefore, since there is nothing that we can offer to God worthily, (for what can we offer for the injury of the assumed flesh? what for the beatings? what for the cross, death, burial?) woe is me if I do not love! I dare to say: Peter did not repay, and therefore he loved more. Did Paul not repay? He did indeed repay death for death, but he did not repay other things; because he owed much. Hear him saying himself that he did not repay: Who has first given to him and will be repaid (Rom. XI, 34)? We give back the cross for the cross, the funeral for the funeral. Do we not also give back what we have through it, and by it, and in it, all things? Therefore, let us give back love for the debt, charity for the gift, grace for the price of blood; for he loves more who is given more.
27. But let us return to that earlier matter, the plan of which the apostles still do not understand, hidden from ages in God: For who has known the mind of the Lord (Ibid.)? Therefore, the disciples complained because a woman poured ointment on his head, and they were saying: Why was this wasted? For it could have been sold for a high price and given to the poor (Matthew 26:8). What displeased Christ in their words, you will not be able to understand unless you perceive the mystery; the aroma of ointment is that of a luxurious man, or rather not a man. Certainly, even those who are lazy tend to anoint themselves, not to pour out. So then, what was displeasing because it was said: This could have been sold for a price, and given to the poor (Matthew 25:40)? Certainly, he himself had said before: Whatever you did to one of the least of these, you did it to me. But he himself offered his own death for the poor.
28. Therefore, it is not a simple matter; and therefore the Word of God responded to them: Why are you bothering this woman? . . . . . You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me (Matthew XXVI, 10 and 11) . Therefore, you always have the poor with you, and therefore do good. Should you then delay helping the poor; because they are always with you, as the Prophet says to you: Do not say to the poor . . . . Tomorrow I will give (Proverbs III, 28) ? But he spoke only of mercy: but here he preferred the faith of mercy, which at that time has merit, if it is accompanied by faith. For she poured this perfume on my body, and did it for my burial. (Matt. XXVI, 12). Therefore the Lord loved not the ointment, but charity; he received not the faith, but humility.
29. And if you desire grace, increase charity: send into the body of Jesus faith in the resurrection, the fragrance of the Church, the ointment of common charity; and thus, progressing, you will give to the poor. That money will benefit you more if you do not give it as if you were rich, but as if you were giving it for the sake of Christ's future: if you give it to the poor, you will bring it to Christ. Therefore, do not only receive ointment poured on your head literally: for the letter kills (2 Corinthians 3:6); but according to the spirit, for the spirit is life.
30. Therefore, what is the ointment of this woman? Who can hear this? Who has such ears, that he can grasp the word spoken by Jesus, which he received from the Father, rather, who himself is the Word, and can comprehend such a great depth of mystery? And the disciples understand in part, even if they do not understand the whole. Hence, some think that the disciples should have bought the faith of the Gentiles with the price of the ointment, which was owed only by the price of the Lord's blood; which seems plausible. Finally, John the Evangelist mentions in his narrative that the ointment of Judas Iscariot was valued at three hundred denarii, as you have: For it could have been sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor (John 12:5). However, the three hundred pieces of silver indicate the emblem of the cross, but the Lord prefers not the superficial knowledge of the mystery, but rather to bury the faith of believers in himself.
31. However, we understand from the words of the other apostles that Judas is condemned for his greed, who preferred money to the Lord's burial, who, although he felt remorse for his betrayal, went astray with such a costly sale: he wanted to be valued cheaply, like Christ, so that he could be purchased by everyone and not deter any poor person. 'Freely you have received, freely give' (Matthew 10:8). He does not seek money for the sake of wealth, but for the sake of grace. He redeemed us with his precious blood, he did not sell us. About which we would speak more fully, if we did not recall elsewhere the treatise by ourselves (Book 3, On the Holy Spirit, chapter 18).
Therefore, according to the words of the Lord, in whom the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden (Col. II, 3), which no one could foresee, I must work for his burial; so that his flesh, having rested, is believed to have seen no corruption: and let the death of his body fill our home with the scent of himself, so that we may believe that he entrusted his spirit into the hands of the Father, and that divinity, separated from death, did not undergo the participation of bodily passions.
33. Understand how the body of the Son is anointed with ointment. That body is what has been taken off, not what has been lost. The Scriptures are the traditions of that body. The Church is the body of that body. We are the fragrance of his body; and therefore it is fitting that we adorn the death of his body. Although he does not require our adornment, the poor require it. I will adorn his body if I become a preacher of his words and am able to open the mystery of the cross to the Gentiles. He adorned the one who said: Because we preach Christ crucified, to Jews indeed a scandal, and to Gentiles foolishness: but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God (I Cor. I, 23 and 24). The cross is adorned, when that which is considered foolish through ignorance is esteemed wiser through the Gospel; so that we can teach how the opposing power is destroyed through the Lord's cross. I sent ointment into the Lord's body, which was thought to be dead, and it begins to breathe.
34. Therefore, let each person worship by buying with their own labor, and by the effort of virtues, a jar of ointment, not some cheap and common one, but a precious ointment of a jar, and a pounded ointment. For if someone gathers flowers of faith and preaches Jesus Christ crucified to the whole Church, which is the body of Christ, dead to the world and resting in God, they pour out the ointment of their faith. The whole house of the Lord begins to smell of passion: it begins to smell of death: it begins to smell of resurrection; so that each person may say from this number of the sacred people: But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14). The Spirit is breathing, the ointment is fragrant on the body, if anyone can (and I wish I could) speak confidently: But to me the world has been crucified (Ibid.). Not loving riches, not loving the honors of the world, not loving what is one's own, but what is of Jesus Christ: not loving what is seen, but what is not seen: not desiring life, but desiring to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, the world has been crucified. For this is to take up the cross and follow Christ; so that we may die and be buried with Him; so that we may be able to smell the ointment that this woman sent into His burial. This ointment is not mediocre, by which the name of Christ is spread far and wide. Hence it is also prophesied: Your name is like an outpoured ointment (Song of Songs 1:2). Therefore, it is outpoured so that it may emit a greater fragrance of faith.
35. Therefore, from this woman, we understand what the Apostle meant: Sin abounded, so that grace might also abound (Rom. V, 20). For if sin did not abound in this woman, grace would not abound either; for she recognized sin and brought forth grace. And therefore, the Law is necessary; for through the Law, I recognized sin. If there had been no Law, sin would have been concealed. By recognizing sin, I seek forgiveness. Therefore, through the Law, I acknowledge the different kinds of sins and also the crime of transgression, I run to repentance, and obtain grace. Law therefore is the author of good, which directs towards grace.
(Chap. VIII. — Vers. 21.)
(Chapter 8, Verse 21) My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.
36. The moral teacher who offers himself as an example to others, is both the teacher and the executor of his own precepts. For, in order to prescribe to others that one must not leave his father and mother, unless he wishes to be unworthy of the Son of God, he himself first submits to this judgment: not because he rejects the duties of maternal piety (for it is commanded in Exodus XX, 'Whoever does not honor his father or mother, let him die the death'), but because he recognizes that he owes more to paternal mysteries than to maternal affections. However, parents are not rejected unjustly, but they are taught that the bond of the mind is more sacred than the bond of the body.
Therefore, those who were seeking to see Christ should not have been standing outside: for the word is near you, and in your heart (Rom. X, 8). Therefore, the word is inside, the light is inside. Hence, he also says: Approach the Lord, and be illuminated (Psal. XXXIII, 6). For if those standing outside do not recognize their own parents, and perhaps do not recognize the example for our sake: then how will we be recognized if we stand outside?
And let no one think that there is any offense to piety when the commandment of the Law is fulfilled: for if a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh, correctly, this sacrament is celebrated in Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:31-32). And therefore, parents could not be preferred to one's own body. Therefore, here the mother is not denied (as some heretics baselessly assert) who is also recognized from the cross (John 19:26), but is preferred to the bodily relationship according to the prescribed form of celestial matters. It is also worth understanding, because it demonstrates through the example of the parents to the Jews, from whom Christ came in the flesh, that the Church which believed is to be preferred.
39. Therefore, the one who understood himself to have come to the earth on account of the divine mystery, and to have joined the assembly of the Church, ascended the ship and left his parents. For no one can navigate this world without Christ, since even those whom the Lord accompanies are often disturbed by the storm of worldly temptations. And the economy is preserved in the apostles, so that you may understand that no one can depart from this course of life without temptation, for temptation is the exercise of faith.
Therefore, we are subject to the storms of spiritual evil: but like vigilant sailors, we rouse the helmsman. However, they themselves are also in danger. Therefore, who should we seek as a helmsman? Certainly, one who does not serve, but commands the winds, about whom it is written:
(Vers. 24.)
(Verse 24) But he, rising up, rebuked the wind.
What is rising? For it was at rest: but it was at rest with the sleep of the body, while it engaged in the mystery of divinity; for where there is wisdom, where there is word, nothing is done without word, nothing without prudence.