Now let us consider the nature of mustard, and the power of comparison. The mustard seed itself is certainly a cheap and simple thing: if it is ground, it releases its strength. Similarly, faith at first seems simple, but if it is tested by adversity, it reveals the grace of its virtue; so that it also fills others who either hear or read with the fragrance of itself. The mustard seed of our martyrs is Felix, Nabor, and Victor: they had the fragrance of faith, but it was hidden. Persecution came, they laid down their weapons, bowed their necks, and with a broken sword spread the grace of their martyrdom throughout the whole world, so that it may rightly be said: Their sound has gone out into all the earth (Psalm 19:4).
179. But faith is worn in one way, pressured in another, and sown in another. The Lord Himself is the grain of mustard seed. He was blameless from injury, but as the grain of mustard seed which the people had not crushed, he did not know. He preferred to be worn, so that we may say: "For we are the good odor of Christ unto God" (II Cor. II, 15). He preferred to be pressured; hence Peter said: "The crowds press you" (Luke VIII, 45). He preferred to be sown, like the grain which a man took in his hand and sowed in his garden; for in the garden Christ was both captured and buried: in the garden He grew, where He also rose, and He became a tree, as it is written: "As a tree of evil among the trees of the forest: so is my brother among the sons" (Song of Songs II, 3).
So you also sow Christ in your garden. The garden is certainly a place full of various flowers and fruits, in which the grace of your work blossoms and the diverse scent of various virtues exhales. Therefore, let Christ be there where there is fruit. Sow the Lord Jesus. It is a seed when it is grasped, it is a tree when it rises again, a tree overshadowing the world. It is a seed when it is buried in the earth, it is a tree when it is elevated to heaven.
181. Press also with Christ, and sow faith. Faith is pressed when we believe in the crucified Christ. Paul pressed faith when he said: And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified (I Cor. II, 1 and 2). And because he taught to press faith, he also taught to lift, saying: Henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more (II Cor. V, 16). However, we sow faith when we believe in the Lord's passion from the Gospel and the apostolic and prophetic readings. Therefore, we sow faith when we work it as if on soft and tilled ground of the Lord's flesh, so that faith, like vapor and pressure from the sacred body, may scatter itself. For whoever believes that the Son of God became man believes that he died for us, believes that he rose again for us, believes that he ascended for us. Therefore, I sow faith when I bury him/her.
Do you want to know the grain of Christ, and the sown Christ? Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24). Therefore, we have not erred, for we have said what He Himself has said. And indeed, He is both the grain of wheat, for He confirms the heart of man, and the grain of mustard seed, for He ignites the heart of man. And although both apply to everything, the grain of wheat seems to refer to His resurrection: for He is the bread of God that came down from heaven (John 6:33); because the Word of God, and the example of resurrection, nourishes the minds, sharpens hope, and strengthens the emotions. And the grain of mustard seed, because it speaks of the Lord's passion, is bitter for weeping, and sharp for stirring emotions. Therefore, when we hear and read that the Lord fasted (Matt. 4:2), that the Lord was tired (John 4:7), that the Lord wept (John 11:35), that the Lord was beaten, and that He Himself said at the time of His passion: Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation (Matt. 26:41); as if with the juice of a more bitter discourse, we temper the sweeter delights of bodily pleasures. Therefore, whoever sows the seed of mustard, sows the kingdom of heaven.
183. Do not despise this mustard seed: it is indeed the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the vegetables (Matt. XIII, 32) . If the mustard seed is Christ, how is Christ either the smallest or does he grow? Truly not by nature, but by species he grows again. Do you want to know the smallest? We have seen him, and he had neither species nor beauty (Isaiah XIII, 2) . Learn the largest: Beautiful in form among the sons of men (Psalm XLIV, 3) . For indeed, he who did not have appearance or beauty, became more excellent than the angels, beyond all the glory of the prophets, whom weak Israel had consumed like vegetables; for the bread by which hearts are strengthened, he had rejected one, he had not received the other.
184. Christ is the seed, because he is the seed of Abraham: for to Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as if speaking of many, but as of one, 'And to your seed,' which is Christ (Galatians 3:16). Christ is not only the seed, but also the smallest of all seeds; for he did not come in power, nor in riches, nor in the wisdom of this world. But suddenly, like a tree, he poured forth the height of his power, so that we may say, 'I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste' (Song of Solomon 2:3). And frequently together, as I think, it seemed both the tree and the grain. The grain is when it is said: Is not this the son of Joseph the carpenter (Matt. XIII, 55)? But amidst these words, it suddenly grew, with the Jews testifying, because they could not understand the wisdom of this man, like the branches of a wide tree, saying: Where did he get this wisdom (Ibid., 56).
185. Therefore, the grain is a figure, the tree is wisdom: on the branches of which the night heron dwells in its dwelling, the solitary sparrow in its building (Psalms 101:7-8), he is snatched into paradise, to be caught up into the air and the clouds, and now he rests in a safe abode (2 Corinthians 12:4 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16). Even the powers and angels of heaven rest, and all those who have deserved to fly away in their spiritual deeds. St. John also rests, as he reclined on the chest of Jesus; indeed, he himself, like a branch, extends with the sap of the tree. Ramus is Peter, ramus is Paul, forgetting the things that come after and desiring those that come before.
186. In the bosom of these recesses, and in certain retreats of discussion, which we were, perchance, far from, we, namely, gathered out of tribes, whom, standing aloof long time the spirituality of iniquity hath urged, spread our wings, taking hold of the oars of virtues, as if flying: that the shadow of the saints may protect us from the heat of this world, flourishing under the security of a determined position: because our soul, bent down with strong temptations before, like that woman, when caught as a bird in the snare of the hunters, hath escaped upon the branches of the Lord, and hath passed to the mountains. Therefore, now that we are freed by the faith of Christ from vain and empty observances, and from the levity of flying about in unnecessary matters, we intend to devote ourselves to good works and are freed from the bonds of the Sabbath. And in these feasts, we have freedom while excluding excess. We do not want to be slaves to our desires while being free from the Law, for the Law bound itself in order to absolve us from our desires. Grace, which has taken away lesser servitude, has commanded much greater things. All things are lawful for us, but not all things are expedient. (I Cor. X, 22); For it is grave to use power, lest you fall under power. Cease to be under the Law, so that you may be above the Law by virtue.
(Vers. 21.)
(Verse 21.) To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.
187. This comparison about the questions to be asked only adds ambiguity, so that it has various opinions of many people. Therefore, we appropriately compared Christ to a grain of wheat, because the spiritual leaven was hidden in us, and many people think that the leaven elevates Christ, who received power. And just as leaven surpasses its own species in quality: Christ also surpassed the fathers, equal in body but incomparable in divinity. Therefore, may the holy Church, which is symbolized by the type of this evangelical woman, in whose flour we are, hide the Lord Jesus in the innermost part of our mind, until the warmth of heavenly wisdom covers the secret depths of our souls.
188. And because we read in Matthew that the leaven is hidden in three measures (Matt. 16:33), it seemed fitting that we should believe the Son of God to be hidden in the Law, revealed in the Prophets, and fulfilled in the preaching of the Gospel; so that he may acquire for us a perfect faith from all sources, and, formed in us by the comparison of the Scriptures, who are his body, all things and in all things may be fulfilled. For he himself was the Word of God and the mystery that was hidden from ages and generations: than which nothing can more clearly testify to the expression of his eternity (Col. 1:26). For indeed he was hidden from the wicked, but revealed among the holy, predestined before the ages, kept for glory. And this is the glory, brothers, that we may investigate the mystery hidden from the ages in God. Which is in God, certainly and from God; for God cannot possess a nature that is foreign.
Nec sum dubius animi, quod aliqui de hoc mundo dictum putent, donec fermentetur in Lege, Prophetis, Evangelio; ut Dominum omnis lingua fateatur. Itaque discutiamus omnia, et diligentius requiramus. Nemo invenit nisi qui ante quaesierit.Aedificemus turrim, computemus sumptus Scripturarum, conferamus impensas; ne quis etiam de nostrum aliquo dicat: Hic voluit aedificare, et non potuit consummare (Luc. XIV, 30) . Whoever builds a house must lay a good foundation. The good foundation is faith, the good foundation of the apostles and prophets (Ephes. II, 20); for our faith arises from the two Testaments: and no injury is done to him who says that the measure of faith is perfect in both, since the Lord himself says: If you believed Moses, you would believe me also (John V, 46); for the Lord spoke in Moses. Therefore, in both there is a perfect measure, because he is perfect in both; and the faith of both is one, because it is the oracle and response of one virtue and understanding.
Nevertheless, it delights me to follow what the Lord himself taught, that the yeast of the Church is a spiritual teaching; for it is written: 'Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees' (Matthew 16:6); and the Apostle said: 'Not with the yeast of malice and wickedness' (1 Corinthians 5:8), showing that doctrine is yeast. But there is a different yeast for tares and a different yeast for wheat. Therefore, we agree with the good authors, to say that the Church sanctifies the reborn man, who is in body and soul and spirit, with spiritual yeast. For both body and soul are sanctified, and the very grace of the Spirit receives the increase of sanctification. Through the Church, as it were, a kind of fermenting agent, and the doctrine of the Scriptures, which grows and increases as it were by the heavenly comparison of words and the abundance of their meaning, is infused and mixed in with the whole man, so that they become one and the same ferment. This certainly happens when these three things agree with each other as if with an equal balance of desires, and an equal harmony of pleasures.
191. Therefore, this work of the Church is not tumultuous, nor random, but has been brought about by long meditation, so that these three may be one, free from the law of sin. Regarding this matter, we have the Apostle as its proponent, saying: May the Lord himself sanctify you in all things, so that your whole being—spirit, soul, and body—may be preserved blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:23). This does not come about through worldly trials, except by that little bit of leaven, which is compared to the kingdom of heaven, that the woman mentioned in the Gospel hides in three measures of flour until it is all leavened (Matt. 13:33). For indeed, there are three measures, as I have said: of the flesh, of the soul, and of the spirit. But it is the spirit by which we all live in this body of thirst. This is true when the lust of the flesh does not overflow, and the soul is not bent by bodily errors, and the measure of living is preserved blameless in the whole person. But because the equality of measurements persists without the support of the Church and doctrine, therefore that woman, who bears the image of the Church, merges the virtue of spiritual doctrine with them until that whole hidden inner man of the heart is fermented and rises in the grace of heavenly bread. For the doctrine of Christ is rightly called the leaven, because Christ is the bread, and the Apostle says: Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body (I Cor. X, 17).
192. Therefore, there is one ferment when the flesh does not desire against the spirit, nor the spirit against the flesh: but we put to death the works of the flesh, and the soul, conscious of having received the breath of life from God, avoids the earthly contagions of worldly connections. Hence the Apostle instructs us to walk not in the flesh, but in the spirit: so that, sanctified by the washing of regeneration, having put off the old man with his desires, we may be clothed with the new man, who is created according to Christ, and may advance not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit (Colossians 3:9-10); whereby in the time of resurrection there may also remain an incorruptible communion of the body, soul, and spirit for us: and then we may obtain all that we ask for (Romans 6:4). Which, it seems to most people, the Lord also signified when he said: If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven (Matt. XVIII, 19).
Therefore some people receive two things, the soul and the body; others receive the soul and the spirit; so that if on earth, that is, in the body, the soul and the spirit are in agreement with each other, and do not oppose each other with different desires, then it seems that everything can be accomplished through prayers. This happens when both are one, if enmities are removed, or dissolved, and the two are united into one new person, that is, the soul and the spirit: So let us pray with the spirit, let us also pray with the mind (I Cor. XIV, 15). Many people believe that two peoples, from Israel and from the Gentiles, will be gathered together at the time of the resurrection, so that a lasting perfection may be achieved and that which is partial may be destroyed. However, many also believe that a man and a woman, in mutual agreement and with love, should come together.
Therefore, if in this life three measures remain in the same leaven until they are fermented and become one, so that no difference of equality is seen, and we do not appear to be composed of three different things, in the future there will be an incorruptible communion with Christ for those who are diligent: and we will not remain composed, for even now we who are composed will be one, and we will be transformed into one substance. For in the resurrection there will be no one inferior to another, just as now the weakness of the flesh is fragile in us, and the bodily condition of nature is either subject to wounds or injuries, or is unable to raise the burden of itself higher above the earth than the foot can be raised: but we will be shaped into the grace of simple creatures, when what John said is fulfilled: Beloved, we are now children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we will be; but we know that when it is revealed, we will be like him (1 John 3:2). Therefore, since the nature of God is simple (for God is a spirit), we also shall be shaped into the same image (2 Corinthians 3:18), so that as He is heavenly, we too may be heavenly. Therefore, as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us also bear the image of the heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:48-49), which our soul must put on.
195. (Chapter XIV. — Verses 2-14.) And therefore, first of all, the dropsical person is treated, in whom an excessive flow of flesh burdened the functions of the soul and extinguished the ardor of the spirit. Then humility is taught, while in that wedding banquet the desire for a higher place is restrained; yet gently, so that the kindness of persuasion would exclude the harshness of compulsion, reason would lead to the desired effect of persuasion, and correction would amend the affected person. Humanity is linked to this as if to a neighboring border, which is distinguished by the definition of the Lord's sentence, if it is conferred upon the poor and weak; for the affection to be hospitable to those who can repay is a form of greed.
196. (Vers. 18-21.) Finally, to the man who has finished his military service, a reward of contemptible stipends is prescribed; because neither he who, occupied with lower studies, acquires earthly possessions, can attain to the kingdom of heaven, since the Lord says: Sell all your possessions, and follow me (Matthew 19:21); nor he who buys oxen, as Elisha did, and divides them among the people (1 Kings 19:21); and he who takes a wife should consider what is of the world, not what is of God. Not that marriage is to be condemned, but because chastity is called to a higher honor; for the unmarried woman and the widow think about the things of the Lord, so that they may be holy in body and in spirit. But the married woman thinks about the things of the world, how to please her husband (1 Corinthians 7:34).
However, in order to please, just as we mentioned above with widows, now with wives as well, we do not reject the opinion that many follow, that three types of people are considered excluded from participation in that great banquet: the pagans, the Jews, and the heretics.
198. Therefore the Apostle says that greed must be avoided, so that, hindered by pagan customs, iniquity, malice, impurity, greed, we may not be able to reach the kingdom of Christ (Rom. I, 29). For every immoral person or greedy person, which is idolatry, does not have inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God (Ephes. V, 5).
199. But the Jews impose on themselves the yoke of the Law by means of bodily ministry, and therefore according to the Prophet: Let us break their chains and cast away their yoke from us (Psalm II, 3); for we have received Christ, who gently suspends the yoke of his mercy on our necks. However, there are five yokes, or rather, five books of the old Law, about which the Samaritan woman seems to say in the Gospel: For you have had five husbands (John IV, 18).
200. But true heresy, like Eve, tries to weaken faith with a feminine softness, slipping with slippery ease, it affects the allure of false beauty, neglecting the unblemished beauty of truth. Therefore, they excuse themselves, because the kingdom is not closed to anyone, except for those whom the profession of their voice has excluded: but the Lord invites everyone kindly, but we turn away either due to our sloth, or because of error.