Sermon 341 augmented.
The sermon of the same about Psalm 21 and how in three ways
Christ is spoken of in the Scriptures, namely according to divinity.
"both according to the assumed man and according to the head"
It is of the Church, and of the three rods of Jacob.
In Psalm 21, Christ is portrayed.
This Psalm, as known to all Christians, since it is written there: They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones; they stare and gloat over me, they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. For it is represented in the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. However, I do not think it is unknown to you how the person of our Lord Jesus Christ is recommended and insinuated into the hearts of the faithful; nevertheless, you are to be reminded, because some are unaware, many have forgotten what they heard, and some wish to be confirmed in what they hold, and there are also those who want to hear from us even what they are firm in because of us. However, this understanding, which, according to the strength the Lord deigns to supply, I try to insinuate to your charity, is useful for understanding many obscure things in the most sacred books, that is, how Christ is spoken of.
The persona of Christ is suggested in three ways in the Scriptures.
For as far as we have been able to observe the holy pages, it is named in three ways: when it is proclaimed either through the law and prophets, or through apostolic letters, or through the faith of the events which we recognize in the Gospel. One way is according to God and that divinity equal and co-eternal with the Father before the assumption of flesh. Another way is when, having assumed flesh, now the same God who is man and the same man who is God, is read and understood according to a certain property of his excellence by which he is not equated with other men, but is the mediator and head of the Church. The third way is when somehow the whole Christ in the fullness of the Church, that is, the head and body, according to the fullness of a certain perfect man, in which perfect man we are members, is preached to the believers and offered as recognizable to the wise. However, we cannot recall or explain all the testimonies of the Scriptures in such a short and narrow time which prove all these three types, but we will not leave them unproven, so that, with certain testimonies being mentioned, you may already be able to observe and find the rest which we are not permitted to mention due to the constraints of time, in the Scriptures yourselves.
The first way. Christ, the only Son of God, according to the testimony of John.
To the first type, therefore, of introducing our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, the only Son of God, through whom all things were made, pertains that which is most noble and illustrious in the Gospel according to John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men; and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. These words are wondrous and astounding before they are understood; once understood, they are to be embraced. However, to understand them is not afforded by human resources but by the inspiration of Him who deemed it worthy to inspire fishermen to speak of these things. For this was said by that fisherman, the son of Zebedee, who left his father and boat and nets and followed God, not abandoning his human father, but choosing God as his father. Certainly, the entire world was accounted as abandoned for him who left his little boat and nets. For our Lord Jesus Christ did not regard what the poor had left behind who followed Him, that is, what they had left behind in their substance, but what they had abandoned in their desires. For everyone who has little desires to have more, and he who abandons the little that he had abandons the greater desire for what he wanted to have. Therefore, when that rich man went away from the Lord in sorrow, he called Him a good teacher to receive advice, and leaving Him as though He were an evil teacher, the disciples, after hearing through God's mercy that even the rich could enter the kingdom of heaven, from whose salvation they had despaired, said, when they heard that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, they said: Behold, we have left all and followed You: what then shall we have? And the Lord said: You will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. He also promised a great reward to those who leave everything and follow Him, and great solace in the promise and joy in the fulfillment, for whoever leaves behind everything they had for His sake in this world shall receive a hundredfold in this world, and in the world to come eternal life. If all these things are explained more diligently, they hold and divert us from our proposed matter. Nevertheless, let your charity now attend to what pertains to our assumed matter, that the first poor left behind all they had and followed God and became apostles, and as much credit is accorded to those leaving little as to those leaving much. And what is truly to be wondered at, is that the rich man, hearing from the mouth of the Lord that all must be left and God followed, went away sorrowful, hearing this from the mouth of the Lord; now, men who have not seen the Lord in the flesh hear this from His Gospel and do what that man did not, and thus is fulfilled in them: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
God chooses the lowly of the world.
Why then did the Lord choose first the lowly, the poor, the unlearned, the uncultured, when he had before his eyes a great crowd, indeed fewer in comparison to many poor but in their kind many rich, noble, learned, wise ones, whom he also later favored—for he did not abandon them; all such kinds came to the faith—the Apostle explains the mystery: He chose the weak of this world to confound the strong; and chose the foolish to confound the wise; and God chose the ignoble of the world and those who are not, that is, are not counted, as if they are, so that those who are might be brought to nothing. For he had come to teach humility, to conquer pride; a humble God had come. He would by no means seek the highborn here, who had come so humbly. First, because he chose to be born of that woman who was betrothed to a craftsman. Therefore, he did not choose high birth, lest nobility boast in this land. He did not even choose a most splendid city to be born in, but was born in Bethlehem of Judea, which is not even deemed worthy of the name city. For even today the inhabitants of that place call it a village: it is so small and insignificant and nearly nothing, unless it was ennobled by Christ's birth. He came, therefore, not as a noble from a future place, but to make the place noble, and that in all other things of our Lord Jesus Christ, which are too long to recount. Therefore, he chose the weak, the poor, the unlearned, the ignoble: not because he deserted the strong, the rich, the wise, the noble, but if he had first chosen them, they would be seen to be chosen by merit of their own dignities, wealth, and birth, and thus, inflated by these things, they would not receive the salvation of humility, without which no one can return to that life from which they had not fallen except by pride. The physician, therefore, cures the disease by opposite means: the cold with warm remedies, the hot with cold, the wet with dry, the cold with warm. Therefore, if we see the art of medicine heal the ill by opposites, it is not surprising if we are healed by the humility of God, who were sick with human pride. Thus the Lord gained the preacher from the fisherman more salubriously than a fisherman from a preacher. For the orator Cyprian was a martyr, but first the apostle was a fisherman. Later Christians became emperors, but first fishermen preached Christ. And to such an extent did God truly confound strong things by choosing weak ones—he confounded them to heal, cast them down to lift them up—that what we have known in our times and cannot be hidden was manifested to us, known with clear faith by the things themselves, that God chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong. For in our times an emperor came to the city of Rome: there is the temple of the emperor, there is the tomb of the fisherman. Therefore, that pious and Christian emperor did not proceed to the proud temple of the emperor to seek health from the Lord, but to the tomb of the fisherman, where he might imitate that humble fisherman, so that he might obtain something from the Lord by his gaze, which a proud emperor could not deserve.
John drew from the breast of Christ the things that he wrote about the Word of God.
Why, therefore, did I say it? Because we recalled that way of insinuating Christ according to his divinity before the taking on of flesh, a certain method that is wondrous and astounding to all who hear, but known to few who understand, when they strike upon it so as to be dazzled as if by a flash of that eternal and ineffable light, saying and recalling: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and so on. We said this so that you would not ask us superfluously the understanding of these words, believing you can understand this by the inspiration of Him, by whose inspiration it occurred that a simple fisherman preached these things. For that fisherman did not know them of himself, nor was he so great in genius or learning to penetrate with the sharpness of mind and transcend all this air and all the ethereal powers, and thence arrive at the luminaries, virtues, powers and natures of angels and all the most eminent spiritual creatures, which had fallen into no sin, but always adhered to the contemplation of immutable truth, indeed to surpass even that and reach what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man. What is the Word of the Father, how is it the Word? Is it a thought? a sound? Certainly not. For if it is a thought, it involves time; if it is a sound, it is transmitted through the beaten air. Not so the Word of God, but the Word remaining, and always the proclaimed Word and not a removed one, or rather not even proclaimed, lest some bodily extension should be understood. And how should it be said, no human mouth can speak this: reverently it is believed that the Word was begotten; only He can express and speak Himself, the Son of God alone; to whom He speaks, he can understand Him, but cannot express Him. Whence did the fisherman see this, unless He Himself wished to reveal it? The fisherman saw it from where he drank; but whence did he drink this? Let us consider the Lord's banquet, if by chance we might find where the fisherman drank this. All the disciples were reclining with the Lord; it is written in the Gospel that John used to recline on the Lord's chest. Why then is it surprising if he drank from His chest what he spoke about His divinity? For the Lord of the banquet and the Lord of those reclining would not allow His disciple to fill his belly from that table and not fill his mind from His chest. So indeed He did: He fed and satiated His disciple from His chest. But he, being satiated, burped, and that burp is the Gospel. Thus you have seen with the eyes of faith in the Gospel the fisherman feasting; listen to him burping: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. You despised it when you heard the word—for words are heard every day—; now despise it no more because the Word was God. "And how shall I understand God and the Word?" Let Him make you drink, who satiated the fisherman. For now, listen to him burping, believe in him burping, so that you too may ascending through the step of faith be satiated with the vivacity of understanding.
We believe not in two but one Word.
"What then?" you will say. "Should I now believe the Word of God to be the Son of God." The only Son of God, not two words, but one Word, although there are two words in Scripture, for example, those two commandments pertaining either to double love, or to recompense. For the Lord says certain things to the righteous placed on the right, and says other things to the wicked placed on the left. He does not say to the righteous what He says to the wicked. As if two words are distributed by the narrator according to our capacity, according to our merits: here they are distributed, but there, something [is distributed], as, if I can present a certain analogy from physical things— nonetheless fitting to the senses of the weak—if I can say, how the brightness of fire or a star or the moon or the sun is one and is in the same way. However, if it is considered by different eyes, by some clear and healthy, by others wounded and sore, to some it appears to be a serene light, to others as if raging and angry. For it reflects off the wounded sight and creates pain, where it was causing joy to the healthy. Behold, it is serene, behold, it is fierce. Is it itself divided, itself dissimilar? No, but according to the merits of the diverse viewers. Pay attention, my brothers, and from small things recognize greater things. Thus the one Word of God, but it distributes what is worthy according to merits, saying to those: "Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," but to those saying: "Depart into everlasting fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels." What is as different as "come into the kingdom," and "go into everlasting fire"? Is it therefore a different word? No. It is one, but the merits of the hearers are different. Listen to the prophet in the Psalms saying the same thing: "God has spoken once: I have heard these two things." A great question: already, if you have understood those things which I have said, do not be disturbed. He has spoken once, and you have heard two things? He has spoken once according to the one Word, so how have you heard two? "For power belongs to you," he says, "and mercy to you, Lord" — therefore power to punish, mercy to deliver. Hear what follows: "For you will reward," he says, "each according to his works."
"Inexpressible Trinity... desires the hearts of lovers."
O only Word, sweet Word, inspire in us Your love; but it inspires through the Holy Spirit. For thus is the Trinity: the Father who begot, the Word that was begotten, and the Spirit by whom love is inspired; who begot and what was begotten and by whom it is inspired. That the most sweet and excellent and ineffable Trinity may be loved, surpassing all the creation which it initiated, perfected, and ordered, utterly surpassing, it desires the hearts of those who love. But "desires" is rightly said, for it makes one desire. For the Spirit is also said to rejoice, because it makes one rejoice. And about God: The Lord your God tests you, that He may know if you love Him. What does it mean "that He may know," if not that He may make you know? Therefore, He sustains the hearts of those who desire, purely love, and love freely, because they find nothing better to love—or if they find something better, let them accept this as their reward; let them seek this, if they do not find better. So if your Creator did not give Himself to you, whom you find nothing better than, you should always lament rather than seek anything else; if your Creator did not give Himself to you, than whom there is nothing better, even if He accepts these words to be said about Himself—He accepts them because we are little ones, He accepts them because if we wanted to say something worthy, we would say nothing at all—if therefore your Creator, as I had begun to say, did not want to give Himself to you, you should always lament rather than anything else. But now He offers Himself, and you seek something else; He somewhat begs to be loved, by whom He is not loved. O you are miserable, not He! He therefore seeks hearts sincerely loving Him, which with pious intention surpass all mutable creation—they surpass, however, if they are humble: high places are not surpassed by high. If you want to surpass all creation and reach what you have heard from the mouth of the full fisherman, be humble, seek piously. For when you have transcended all mutable things, both corporeal and spiritual, you will come to contemplate that Trinity, and you will drink from where he drinks; to whom when you arrive, you will laugh at all calumniators—and when you have laughed at first, afterwards perhaps you will weep for those who, with vain contentions, excite smoke for themselves so that they may not see it.
"Do not think of God corporeally."
This, then, will be enough, brothers, to have suggested to you. But so that you may understand, knock on Him. Let no one say to himself with carnal thought, "How was the Word with God, and how was it in the womb of the virgin, to be born? Did the Word itself descend, so that when it was in the womb of the Virgin Mary, it left the Father? If it did not leave the Father, how could it be here? Or perhaps half remained with the Father, and half was in the womb? Or perhaps a large part remained with the Father, and a little bit or a small piece descended to the Virgin's womb?" Do not divide God into pieces; let the discord of your thoughts unite in Him in some way, He is not divided among them; let Him gather you, do not scatter Him. "And how," you ask, "am I to understand? I do not know, I cannot. He is both with the Father and in the womb of the virgin. Who can understand this?" But you hear about God; you are forming a certain kind of body for yourself out of the habit of carnal thoughts. When you do that, it is necessary to divide. For you do not find the whole thing everywhere. One part of the earth is here, another outside in the street, not the same, because it is earth, because it is a body: one part is large, another small. So too water is divided: one part is near this shore, another near that, and the part that is here is not the same as the part that is there; although the whole seems to be spread out everywhere in its places, it does not have the same part everywhere, but one part here, another elsewhere. So this diffusion of the ether: one air is in this basilica, and another in that, because there is one air throughout, but one part is in this, another part is in that; the part that is there is not the part that is here, nor is the part here the part that is there. So too are the parts of the sky: those we look at when we see the east are different parts from those we look at when we turn to the west. It cannot be that one and the same part is everywhere: even if the whole seems to be everywhere in parts, the whole of it is not everywhere, but one part is elsewhere, another elsewhere. Therefore, do not think of God corporally. Or perhaps you cannot think of anything but such things? I will give an example, perhaps, from where this may come to your understanding for the intention of your love.
The Word of God is illustrated by human examples.
You want to divide the Word of God, and it doesn't seem credible to you that the whole is with the Father, the whole is in the womb of the Virgin Mary. I say further: the whole is wherever you want, but it does not take on the person of man everywhere, with whom it becomes one God and man. I don't want you to divide: take as much as you can. Do you want to divide the Word of God? Listen to the word of man. Certainly, it seemed to you that the Word of God could not be both in Mary and with the Father, except by being divided, as if one part of it were here, another part there. When you hear the word from us, or when you hear words from us—pay attention to what we speak: for you receive a better lesson from this word, which is said to many of you, than from those, though they are of the same nature, which you say to each other. For you deal with fewer, we deal with so many: everyone hears what we say, and everyone hears the whole. If I were to place bodily food for you to eat, you would divide the food among yourselves, and one would take one part, another another part, to eat. Even if you all ate the same and one food, nevertheless you would not all eat the same parts, but you would divide among yourselves in portions what was set down, one taking this part, another that; one food would reach all, but not the whole food to all. Certainly, this would be the case. However, as that food would be placed before your mouth, so now a certain food of voices and words is placed before your ears, and yet the whole reaches everyone. Or perhaps, when I speak, does one person take one syllable for himself, another person another? Or one person one word, another person another word? If so, I would have to say as many words as I see people, for them to reach everyone, even single words. And it's easily done: I say more than there are people here, and everything reaches everyone. Therefore, the word of man is not divided by syllables, so that everyone hears, and the Word of God is chopped up into pieces, so that it might be everywhere? Do we think, brothers, that these sounding and passing words can be in any way compared to the unchanging Word? Or because I have said these things, have I made a comparison? But however, I wanted to explain to you that what God displays in corporeal things may help you believe those things that are yet unseen about spiritual matters. But now, let us move on to better things. For words sound and pass away. Think about spiritual things, think about justice. Thinking about justice being placed in these western parts, thinking about justice being placed in the east, how is it that both think of the whole and see the whole? For he who sees justice, according to which he does something, acts justly. He sees inwardly, acts outwardly. How does he see inwardly, if nothing is present to him seeing? But if it is present, because he is placed in part, will the thought of the other not reach to the same part? But when you, placed here, see the same thing in mind that he sees placed so far away, and it shines wholly to you, wholly to him, see that those things which are divine and incorporeal are wholly everywhere, and believe the Word wholly in the Father, wholly in the womb. For you believe this of the Word of God, who is God with God.
The second way: Our faith is nourished by the sacrament of the incarnation.
[3] . And listen to another suggestion, another way of introducing Christ, which Scripture proclaims. It says this before assuming flesh. But how does Scripture proclaim this? "The Word," it says, "was made flesh, and dwelt among us." For he who said: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made," would proclaim the divinity of the Word to us in vain if he were silent about the humanity of the Word. For in order that I may see that, it is dealt with me from here; in order that I might be purified to contemplate that, he himself aids my weakness. By taking from human nature the very nature of man, he became man. He came with the burden of flesh to him who lay wounded in the way, to instruct and nourish our little faith with the sacrament of his incarnation, and to make our understanding clear to see that which he never lost by that which he assumed. For he began to be man, he did not cease to be God. Therefore, this is the proclamation of our Lord Jesus Christ according to what he is as mediator, according to what he is as the head of the Church, that God is man and man is God, when John says: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."