61. Then let us consider the nature of the words themselves: 'My soul is sorrowful,' he says, (Matt. XXVI, 38). And elsewhere: 'Now my soul is troubled greatly,' (Psalm VI, 4). Therefore, not receiving, but the one received is troubled; for the soul is subject to passions, divinity is free. Finally, the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, (Matt. XXVI, 41). But it is not the Spirit that is sorrowful, nor wisdom, nor divine substance, but the soul. He took my body; he did not deceive me, so that it would be one thing, and appear to be another. He seemed sad, and he was sad, not for his own suffering, but for our dispersion. Finally, he said: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered (Matthew 26:31). He was sad because he was leaving us as little ones. Moreover, Scripture declares how steadfastly he offered himself to death (John 18:4); for when they were seeking him, he presented himself to them, he confirmed the troubled, he provoked the fearful, he welcomed the betrayer with the dignity of a kiss.
62. And it is not far from the truth, if he was sad for his persecutors, whom he knew would suffer terrible punishment for their sacrilege. And for this reason he said: Remove this cup from me (Luke 22:42); not because the Son of God feared death, but because he did not want even the wicked to perish. Finally, he said: Lord, do not hold this sin against them (Luke 23:34), so that his passion would be salvific for all.
(Vers. 48.)
(Verse 48.) Juda, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?
63. The great significance of divine power, the great discipline of virtue. And the plan of betrayal is revealed, and yet patience is not denied. You have shown, Lord, who would betray, while you reveal hidden things. You have also shown whom he would deliver, while you say: Son of man; because flesh, not divinity, can be understood. However, the fact that he handed him over contradicts even more the ungrateful, that he, although being the Son of God, yet wanted to be the Son of man for our sake. As if to say: Because of my kindness, ungrateful one, you betray me. Behold the hypocrisy. Therefore, I think it should be pronounced as a question, as if a loving person rebukes a traitor: Judas, do you hand over the Son of Man with a kiss? This means, you inflict a wound as a pledge of love, and you shed blood in the duty of charity, and you inflict death with an instrument of peace? The servant betrays the master, the disciple betrays the teacher, the chosen one betrays the author? This is that which is said: The wounds of a friend are more valuable than the kisses of an enemy (Prov. XXVII, 6). What does this traitor say? Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth (Song of Solomon, 1:1).
64. And he kissed him, he said (Matthew 26:49). Not that he teaches us to pretend, but so that he does not seem to avoid betrayal and to affect the traitor more, to whom he would not deny acts of love; for it is written: I was peaceful with those who hated peace (Psalm 119:7).
65. And when the sign was given, he said, 'Those who came with swords arrested him' (Matt. 26:50); but they did not seize the mysteries of the Lord, only weapons. Finally, he spoke and they fell backward (John 18:6). Where are the legions of angels to me, where is the heavenly army? The voice of the Lord alone terrifies more. He chose it as a sign to demonstrate divine majesty, who reclined in the heart of Christ. Therefore, the crowd lays hands on the one who is willing, and chains are bound. Oh, you madmen! Oh, you traitors! Wisdom is not understood in this way, justice is not upheld in this way.
66. (Vers. 49-51.) And the disciples did not lack zeal. Finally, Peter, knowledgeable in the Law and filled with emotion, struck the servant of the ruler, knowing that Phineas was considered righteous for killing the sacrilegious (Psalm 105:31). But the Lord healed the wounds and revealed divine mysteries; so that the servant of the ruler of the world, not by the condition of nature but by the fault of sin, the servant of worldly powers, could receive the wound in his ear; because he had not heard the words of wisdom: Truly, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin (John 8:34). You have been sold because of your sins (Isaiah 50:1). The sale is due to our sins; but the redemption of sinners is due to the goodness of God. And if Peter, willing (24, question 1, chapter If Peter), struck the ear, he taught that they should not have an ear in appearance that they did not have in mystery. But the good Lord Himself restores their hearing, as shown by the prophetic words (Isaiah 35:10), and demonstrates that they can be healed if they repent, those who were wounded in the passion of the Lord; because every sin is washed away by the mysteries of faith.
67. Therefore, Peter raises his ear. Why, Peter? Because he himself is the one who received the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:19): he condemns and absolves; for he has obtained the power to bind and to loose. But he raises the ear of one who hears poorly: he raises the inner ear of one who understands badly with a spiritual sword.
68. Let us beware that no one takes away the ear. The Passion of the Lord is read: if we attribute the weakness of bodily suffering to His divinity, the ear is cut off, and it is cut off by Peter, who did not allow Christ to be considered merely a prophet: but by faithful confession, he taught that He is the Son of God. Therefore, when we read that Jesus was taken captive, let us beware that we do not hear from anyone and think that He was taken captive according to His divinity, taken captive against His will, taken captive as if He were weak. Indeed, he is bound according to the truth of the body, as John said (John XVIII, 12): but woe to those who bind the Word! For those who think only of Christ as a man bind him: those who do not think he is prescient, who do not confess he is omnipotent, bind him. The evil bonds of the Jews do not bind Christ, but bind themselves. And he is bound not in the house of any pious and just person, but in the house of Caiaphas (John XI, 50), that is, in an impious house; where he is also prophesied to die for all. How crazy, therefore, are those who confess divine blessings and pursue the author of blessings!
69. They lose their ear because they have lost the power of hearing. Many do not have the power of hearing, who think they have it. In the Church, all have it; outside the Church, they do not have it. Or perhaps the ear was taken away so that those who could not keep what they heard would not sin further by listening. And sometimes God confused the languages of those building the tower, so that they could not hear each other and increase the work of their impiety (Gen. XI, 7).
70. Understand, if you can, how the pain of a healthy right hand escaping touch flees, and wounds are healed not by ointment but by touch. The clay recognizes its potter, and the flesh follows the hand of its Master; for as he wills, the Creator restores his work. Thus elsewhere does sight return to the blind man, when mud spread over his eyes as if it had returned to nature, is reformed (John 9:6). He could have commanded, but he preferred to work; so that we may know that it is he who from the clay of the earth fashioned the various organs of our body with different functions, and infused them with the vigor of the mind.
So they came and arrested him, who were about to perish with a more severe loss of their pursuit: neither did they understand the unhappy mystery, nor did they worship such a compassionate affection of piety, which even allowed their enemies not to be wounded. They were inflicting death justly: he was healing the wounds of his persecutors.
(Vers. 54, 55.)
(Vers. 54, 55.) Peter, however, followed from afar.
72. And he followed from a distance, about to deny it; for he could not have denied it if he had joined Christ closely. But perhaps in this we should greatly admire him, that he did not leave the Lord, even when he was afraid. Fear is natural, concern is piety. He fears what is foreign: he does not flee what is his own. What he follows is devotion: what he denies is deception. What is shared is what slips away: what is of faith is what he regrets. Now a fire was burning in the high priest's courtyard: Peter approached to warm himself; because with the Lord locked away, the heat of his mind had also cooled in him.
73. (Verse 56.) What does it mean that the first witness proclaims him, when men could certainly recognize him more; unless it seemed that this sex had sinned unto the death of the Lord, so that this sex might be redeemed through the passion of the Lord? And therefore, the woman receives the first mystery of the resurrection (John 20:17), and she keeps the commandments; in order to abolish the ancient error of transgression.
74. (Verse 57.) Therefore, Peter, betrayed, denies; let us suppose that Peter denies, because the Lord said: Thrice you will deny me (Matthew 26:34)? And I would rather have Peter deny than the Lord be deceived. What did he deny? What he promised rashly. He considered devotion, not the condition. He was punished because he said he would lay down his life (John 13:37): which is not a weakness of humanity but a power of divinity. When he paid such a heavy penalty for his imprudent words, how great is the punishment for his betrayal!
75. Where, however, did Peter deny? Not on the mountain, not in the temple, not in his own house: but in the praetorium of the Jews, in the house of the high priest. There he denies, where the truth is not: there he denies, where Christ is captured, where Jesus is bound. What, if not he who was led in by the doorkeeper, questioned by the doorkeeper (John 18:17), and by the doorkeeper of the Jews? Eve led Adam astray, and the woman led Peter astray. But he falls in paradise, where there is no venial sin: here in the praetorium of the Jews, where innocence is difficult. That mistake was forbidden, this error was predicted. That was entrusted to this, this one resolved it.
76. Let us also consider in what state he denied. 'It was cold,' he says (cf. John 18). If we consider the temperature, it could not have been cold: but it was cold where Jesus was not recognized, where there was no one to see the light, where the consuming fire was denied. Therefore, it was cold of the mind, not of the body. In the end, Peter was standing by the coals, because he was chilled by emotion (cf. Mark 14). The Jewish flame is wicked: it burns, not warms. It is an evil hearth, which sprinkles a certain soot of error even on the minds of the saints, by which Peter's inner eyes were also darkened. Those eyes were not of flesh and blood, but eyes of the mind, with which he saw Christ.
Someone will say: Do you also condemn the elements of the Jews? I do not condemn the elements, because they are not Jewish, but Christ's: but there is one thing I condemn, the flame of perfidy. This flame I condemn in the Jews, following the divine oracles; for the Lord says: Your silver is worthless (Jerem. 6:30). If the silver of the Jews is worthless, then the fire of the Jews is also worthless. Finally, the head of the calf formed from the fire and gold of the Jews represents sacrilegious leadership (Exod. 32:24).
78. But let us see the sense of denial, which I see to be different among the evangelists. Thus it was that Peter could sin, such that his sin could not be understood by the evangelists. Therefore, when Peter was accused by the servant girl of being one of those who were with Jesus of Galilee, Matthew recorded that he answered first: 'I do not know what you are talking about' (Matt. 26:70). Mark also recorded this (Mark 14:68), as he followed Peter and could therefore know the truth more accurately. The first voice of denial is Peter's; by which, however, he does not deny the Lord, but seems to have separated himself from the betrayal of the woman.
79. However, consider why he denies. Certainly, he denies himself to be one of those who were with Jesus of Galilee, or, as Mark put it, with Jesus of Nazareth. Did he deny that he was with God as His Son? This is to say: I do not know Galilee, I do not know Nazareth, whom I know as the Son of God. Let people have the names of places, the homeland of the Son of God cannot be named, as no place can contain His majesty. And so that you may know this to be true, it is also proven by example; for elsewhere, when the Lord asked his disciples: Whom do men say that the Son of Man is? Some said Eliam, others said Hieremiam, or one of the prophets (Matt. XVI, 13). But Peter said: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God (Ibid., 16). Did he deny it there, because he preferred to confess Christ not as the Son of man, but as the Son of God? Surely what ambiguity do we think exists here, which even Christ approved?
80. And take another thing. For when Peter was questioned: And you are one of those who were with Jesus of Galilee (Matthew 26:69)? He shied away from the word of eternity; for those who began to exist were not, that is to say: He alone was, who was in the beginning (John 1:1). Finally, he said: I am not; for the existence belongs to him who always is. Hence Moses also said: He who is, has sent me (Exodus 3:14).
Again, when he was accused of being one of them, according to Mark, he denied it (Mark 14:70); so that you may know that the evangelist gave more to the truth than to grace: but he denied being one of them, he did not deny Christ. He denied the company of men, not the grace of God. He may have denied being one of those who were with Galilee, but he did not deny being with the Son of God.