SERMO 4
Of Esau and Jacob
A reading that sounds carnal must be received spiritually.
We remember that we owe the discourse of yesterday's reading. But just as we owe the discourse, so you owe the attentiveness. And indeed that reading sounds in a carnal manner. However, he who has received the Spirit of God comprehends spiritually. For the Apostle said: "To set the mind on the flesh is death." And for this, the Lord promised the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth. Therefore, just as He promised and sent, so that everyone who has now received that Spirit may not be a slave to temporal pleasures but become the master of the body and a servant of the Creator, let him direct himself in the way of God's commandments. Let neither his footsteps waver, nor his eyes flinch, but let him advance with the intent of faith, so that he may come to that which now neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man. That which is believed before it is seen, so that when it comes, the one who believed is not put to shame. Therefore, let him walk in hope, hoping for what he does not yet hold, believing what he does not yet see, loving to whom he has not yet adhered. The exercise of the soul in faith, hope, and charity makes it fit to grasp what is to come.
All the martyrs filled with the confidence of the Spirit.
While Peter was still thinking carnally, disturbed by the maid's question, he denied the Lord three times. For the physician had foretold to the sick man what was going to happen to him. The sick man, unaware of his own sickness, had presumed too much about himself, but the true physician saw. For he had said he would die with the Lord and for the Lord. But he could not yet, because he was weak. However, when the Holy Spirit was later sent from heaven and strengthened those upon whom He came, he was filled with spiritual confidence and then was truly prepared to die for Him whom he had previously denied. Filled with this confidence, all the martyrs, holding the true faith, did not die nor suffer for a false faith, for an empty phantom, for vain hope, for something uncertain, but for the promise of truth, having certain knowledge that He who promised is powerful to deliver, they despised all present things and burned with desire for future things, which, when present, will not be past.
"Those who live according to the flesh pertain to Esau."
Remember therefore, those who were present yesterday, the two sons of Isaac, Esau and Jacob; how the younger is preferred over the elder, that you may belong to Jacob and not love Esau. Now Esau is one who wishes to live carnally or to hope for carnal things in the future age. Whether therefore living carnally and rejoicing in such things at this time, and hoping from God for such things as the wicked have, and placing all his happiness in the very thing that the wicked rejoice in, or certainly despising the present life and hoping for such in the future, is carnal, having a carnal faith, a carnal hope, a carnal love. But spiritual faith is: to believe that your Lord is your protector temporally, so that you may come to that which will not be temporal, and to hope to have the life of the angels, not in the corruptions of the flesh, not in pleasures and allurements, not in fornications and drunkenness and the joy of carnal feasts, not in the pride of the possession of earthly dominion, but only in the way the angels live.
The joy of the angels is the vision of the Creator.
But the angels live in joy, not of the creature, but of the Creator. For the joy of the creature is whatever is seen. The joy of the Creator is what is not seen by the eyes of the body, but by the purified gaze of the mind. Blessed are the pure in heart. To what vision are they blessed? Because they shall see God. Do not think, brothers, that the angels rejoice because they see the earth or the heaven or whatever is in them. They do not rejoice because they see the heaven and the earth but because they see Him who made the heaven and the earth.
God inhabits unapproachable light.
But He who made heaven and earth is neither heaven nor earth, nor can anything earthly be imagined, nor anything heavenly, nor can you imagine anything corporeal or spiritual. This is not God. Do not make for yourself a grand and beautiful man. God is not circumscribed by human form. He is not contained in a place, nor held in space. Do not make for yourself a golden God. This is not God. For the gold from which you wish to make a god, God Himself made, and it is weak because it is in the earth. Do not propose to yourself that God is something like what you see in the heavens, neither the moon nor the sun nor the stars nor anything that shines and glitters in the sky. This is not God. But neither should God seem to you to be like the sun, for the sun is like a certain wheel, not an immense space of light; and you may say to yourself, "Therefore God is of infinite and immense light," so that, as it were, you extend the sun itself and make it not have an end, neither here nor there, neither upward nor downward, and yet set before yourself an immense light as God. This is not God either. For God indeed inhabits in inaccessible light. But such a light is not a wheel, nor can it be known to the eyes of the flesh.
True light is God.
But if you can see what truth is, what wisdom is, what justice is, how it is said: Approach him and be enlightened, how it is that true light of which John says: There was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world, how John the Baptist himself was not the true light. For John the Evangelist says: He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. Not only was John the Baptist not the true light, but neither was Paul the true light, nor Peter the true light, nor any of the Apostles the true light. For indeed the true light is what enlightens every man coming into this world. They, however, were lights, because they were enlightened. For even the eyes of our flesh are called lights, and everyone swears: "By my lights." What are these lights? If the sun is absent, if the moon or lamp is absent, surely they remain in darkness. Where are the lights? Let them see before themselves, let them give guidance to the feet, if they are lights. And yet they are lights. Why are they lights? Because they can receive the light. For indeed, when the light has been brought in, the light itself is not felt by your forehead, nor by your ear, nor by your sense of smell, nor by your hand, nor by your foot. Only the members in you which are called eyes alone feel the brought-in light. In the absence of light, they are darkened, but with the light brought in, they alone are enlightened, that is, because they alone feel the light. Indeed all your other members are enlightened, but so that they can be seen, not so that they can see. For the light which rises or is brought in suffuses all your members: the eyes to see, the others to be seen. Thus all the saints are enlightened so that they may see, and that what they see they may proclaim. Therefore it was said to them: You are the light of the world. But light, not true light. Why? Because the true light was what enlightens every man. He said every man. If he were speaking of this sun, he would not say: Every man, because this sun is not only seen by men. Cattle and the smallest animals see this sun. And flies see this sun. But that light which is God no one sees, except those of whom it is said: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
The light of virtues is present to all.
Try to think, brothers, of the light of truth, the light of wisdom, how it is present everywhere to all. Try to think of the light of justice: for it is present in every thinking person. For what is it that thinks? He who wishes to live unjustly sins, abandons justice. Is it diminished? He turns to justice. What? Is it increased? He abandons it, leaves it intact. He turns to it, finds it intact. What then is the light of justice? Does it rise from the East and go to the West? Or is there another place from where it rises or to which it goes? Is it not present everywhere? Indeed, a man who is in the West, if he wishes to live justly, that is, according to justice, is he lacking what he should look at and see according to justice itself? Again, if he is in the East and wants to live justly, that is, according to the same justice, is it lacking for him? For justice is there; it is present to one living justly. According to its rule, they see how they should live justly as well. Just as the righteous see it by living well, so the unrighteous do not see it by living badly. For the one lives justly when he sees it, and he sees it to direct his actions according to it, because unless he directs his actions according to the rule of justice, he is thrust into the error of iniquity. Because therefore it could be present to him standing there, it is in no place and is everywhere. Thus justice, thus wisdom, thus truth, thus chastity. Therefore try to see such a light. But you cannot. The eye of the mind falters, let it be purified to see. But in order to be purified and see, let it believe so that it may deserve to be purified. Therefore, what you cannot see, defer it, so that you may be healed and can see it.
The spiritual rest of the future age.
Do not, however, imagine anything in the future age like what you see now. Because if you imagine and love such a thing, you want to go beyond the world with the world itself, you want to take the world with you. Those things will not be there. There will be a certain light from which something now drips, which we now understand and rejoice in. But if we have a blessing from the dew of heaven, we have abundance from the fertility of the earth: for thus Jacob is blessed. Let us belong to him and not live carnally. For anyone who begins to live carnally is therefore called Esau the greater. Two Testaments are mentioned in the Law, one Old, the other New. The Old had temporal promises, but spiritual significations. Let your Charity attend. If the "land of promise" is promised to the Jews, it spiritually signifies something by the land of promise. If the city of peace, Jerusalem, is promised to the Jews, the name of the city Jerusalem spiritually signifies something. If circumcision of the flesh is given to the Jews, it signifies a certain spiritual circumcision. If the Jews are commanded to observe one Sabbath day out of seven days, it signifies a spiritual rest, which has no evening. For in those seven days, in Genesis it is said in all the days: There was evening; on the seventh day it does not say: "There was evening." The seventh day, which does not have an evening, signifies for us eternal rest, where there is no setting. If carnal sacrifices are given to the Jews, through the victims of animals all signify spiritual sacrifices. Therefore, those who have understood in this way as if something present was given to them for greatness and sought nothing for the future, nor were able to understand spiritually the things that were done carnally, belong to the elder son, belong to the Old Testament.
The Old Testament is a figure of the New.
For the Old Testament is a figurative promise. The New Testament is a promise understood spiritually. For while the Jerusalem which was on the earth pertains to the Old Testament, it has an image toward the Jerusalem which is in heaven, and pertains to the New Testament. Bodily circumcision pertains to the Old Testament; heart circumcision pertains to the New Testament. The people are liberated from Egypt according to the Old Testament; the people are liberated from the devil according to the New Testament. The Egyptian persecutors and Pharaoh pursue the Jews leaving Egypt; their sins and the devil, the prince of sins, pursue the Christian people. But just as the Egyptians pursue the Jews up to the sea, so sins pursue Christians up to baptism. Pay attention, brothers, and see, the Jews are liberated through the sea, the Egyptians are submerged in the sea; Christians are liberated in the forgiveness of sins, their sins are erased through baptism. They exit after the Red Sea and walk through the desert; likewise, Christians after baptism are not yet in the land of promise, but are in hope. However, this age is a desert, and truly for a Christian it is a desert after baptism, if he understands what he has received. If not only bodily signs happen in him, but also a spiritual effect in the heart, he understands that this world is a desert for him, he understands that he lives in pilgrimage, desires his homeland. As long as he desires, he is in hope. For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what one sees, why does he hope for? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. This patience in the desert makes one hope. If he already thinks he is in his homeland, he does not reach the homeland. If he already thinks he is in his homeland, he remains on the way. But so he does not remain on the way, let him hope for the homeland, desire the homeland lest he should stray. For temptations occur. And just as in the desert temptations occur, so after baptism they occur. For just as the Egyptians were not the only enemies of the Jews who pursued them from Egypt (they were past enemies, just as each one's past life and past sins with their prince the devil pursue him), but there arose also in the desert those who wanted to impede the way, and they fought with them, and were defeated. So after baptism, when the Christian begins to walk the path of his heart in hope of God's promises, let him not stray. For temptations occur suggesting something else (the delights of this world, another kind of life) to twist each one from the way and lead him away from his purpose. But if you overcome these desires, these suggestions, the enemies on the way are defeated, and the people are brought to the homeland.
Hear the Apostle, for these things were our examples: For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that all our fathers were under the cloud. If they were under the cloud, they were under gloom. What does it mean, they were under gloom? It means they did not understand spiritually the things that were happening to them physically. And all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses, and all ate the same spiritual food. For manna was given to them in the desert, as the sweetness of the Scriptures is given to us so that we endure in this wilderness of human life. And Christians know what kind of manna they receive, to whom the psalm itself says: Taste and see how sweet the Lord is. And all, he says, ate the same spiritual food. What does same mean? Signifying the same. And all drank the same spiritual drink. And notice how he explained one thing and kept silence about the others: For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them; the rock, however, was Christ. These things were our examples. They were shown to them, but they were our examples, because they were shown to them physically, but they were signified to us spiritually. Therefore, those who physically held them belonged to the Old Testament.
In Isaac two peoples are in his sons.
Now see that Isaac had grown old. Whose role did Isaac represent when he wished to bless his elder son? He had already grown old. Where there is old age, there is antiquity. For by old age, I understand antiquity, and by antiquity, I understand the Old Testament. Therefore, this Old Testament, because they did not understand it who were under the cloud, is said to have caused the eyes of Isaac to be dim. The dimness of Isaac's bodily eyes signifies the obscurity of the minds of the Jews. The old age of Isaac signifies the antiquity of the Old Testament.
What then, brothers? He still wished to bless his elder son Esau. The mother loved the younger, and the father loved the elder as if he were the firstborn. For justice is equal towards both, but there was greater affection towards the firstborn. He wished to bless the elder because the Old Testament promised first to the people. It speaks the promises only to the Jews. It seems to promise to them, it seems to promise everything to them. They are called out of Egypt, delivered from enemies, led through the sea, fed with manna, receive the Testament, receive the Law, receive the promises, receive the very land of promise. It is no wonder that he wished to bless the first son.
But under the figure of the elder, the younger is blessed. For the mother bears the type of the Church. Understand the Church, brothers, not only in those who began to be saints after the advent and birth of the Lord, but all the saints who were before pertain to the same Church. For it is not that Father Abraham does not pertain to us, because he was before Christ was born of the Virgin, and we, so much later, that is, after the passion of Christ, became Christians; when the Apostle says that we are sons of Abraham by imitating the faith of Abraham. Therefore, we are admitted to the Church by imitating him, and shall we exclude him from the Church?