Chapter 18
[Genesis 18:1] -- The Lord appeared to him in the valley of Mamre as he was sitting at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day, etc. This appearance of the Lord is considered to be more sacred than all the previous ones, in which He was seen so many times by the blessed Abraham. And rightly so, after receiving the sacrament of circumcision, after the name was amplified by which he was to be marked as the father of all nations, he came to know the more secret mysteries of God, of which, notably, not only circumcision but also the uncircumcised were to be participants. Rightly, the appearance in the valley of Mamre is remembered as having taken place. For Mamre, as we read above, was indeed an Amorite by race, but together with his brothers, he was allied with Abraham; hence the valley of Mamre aptly represents our humility, who, having derived fleshly origin from the nations, have Abraham as our father in spirit and faith. To whom the Apostle, drawing from Abraham both the origin of flesh and virtue, says: We announce to you eternal life, which was with the Father and appeared to us; what we have seen and heard, we declare to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us (1 John 1:2). And indeed in this reading, apart from the spiritual understanding, it greatly edifies the readers that Abraham, seeing unknown men, immediately ran to meet them as if to offer the grace of hospitality to strangers; that he approached them humbly, worshipped on the ground, that he asked them to wait and accept his service, and hastily provided what they agreed to; and that he completed this not through servants and maidservants, but by himself and Sarah. It is indeed remarkable if, upon first seeing them, he did not believe they were men, why he would want to bring them water to wash their feet; how he would ask them to rest under a tree as if weary from walking; why he requested to strengthen their bodies with refreshment, as if they were laboring in fasting. If anyone seeks to investigate this reading more deeply, he will find it to be full of spiritual senses. For the fact that the Lord appeared to Abraham sitting at the entrance of his tent greatly suits both Abraham's devotion and that of all the heirs of the same promise, who testify that they are strangers and sojourners in this world but truly citizens of another life, that is, of the heavenly homeland. For we use tents in a journey or in war, but a house in our homeland, in which mystery, Isaac and Jacob are also read to have dwelled in tents. He who remains in the midst of his tent, knowing that he is a stranger and not destined to live forever in this world, and yet is not ashamed to engage himself as much as he can in the affairs and allurements of the world, remains. But Abraham and his followers, who conduct the things of the world out of necessity and not out of pleasure, sit as if at the entrance of their tent, because they are ready to leave the world at any moment, always with a joyful mind stretched towards the future rewards and waiting for the entrance into the following life. And it is well added, in the heat of the day; for the heat of the day, in which Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent, signifies the virtue of love with which he was burning in his mind with respect towards the Sun of righteousness. And such a state of place and time was fitting for him who was to see the Lord and enjoy His conversation, in which both the sojourner of this world would be figuratively represented, and irradiated by the light of true heavenly grace, and zealously enflamed with the love of divine contemplation.
[Genesis 18:2] -- And when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw three men standing near him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the door of the tent, and worshipped upon the ground, and said: Lord, if I have found grace in thy sight, do not pass by thy servant, etc. The fact that three men appeared to him is a mystery of the Holy Trinity; indeed, when he saw three, he worshipped one, and prayed to the Lord, because although there is a Trinity in persons, there is nevertheless one and co-adorable equality in divinity of the Lord, just as in Isaiah when the angelic hosts were singing the glory of the Holy Trinity, saying: Holy, Holy, Holy, they immediately add the unity of dominion and deity, saying: The Lord God Almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory. And it is fittingly said that Abraham lifted up his eyes to see the angels, because indeed it is necessary that one who wishes to see the citizens of heaven, who desires to know the glory and secrets of the Divine Majesty, should raise every gaze of his mind from lowly desires and with diligent intention open up to the light of the true Sun. It is fittingly added that when he saw the angels, he ran to meet them, worshipping, and asked them not to pass him by, because it is necessary that whenever we conceive any taste of internal sweetness in our soul, we should immediately strive with all our prayers and prompt steps of good works, lest the same sweetness should leave us too quickly; but what is tasted for a time should refresh our minds somewhat longer by the memory of supernal sweetness and suspend them in the contemplation of eternal things, abstracted from the delights and cares of this world. It may perhaps move some that in this reading both Abraham and in the following Lot, having seen the angels, received them as guests as if they were men, and refreshed them with human food as if they were mortals, while yet they spoke with them as with God, and received their words no otherwise than as heavenly oracles. "But it is credible," as Saint Augustine says, "that both Abraham in the three men and Lot in the two men recognized the Lord; to whom they spoke with singular number, even when they considered them to be men. For they received them in no other way than as mortal men and ministered to them with human refreshment as if they were in need; but surely there was something by which they so excelled, though as men, that in them the Lord was present as He is wont to be in prophets, so that those who offered them hospitality could not doubt; and therefore sometimes they called them in the plural, and at other times the Lord in the singular in them. Scripture testifies that they were angels, not only in this book of Genesis where these events are narrated, but also in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where, when hospitality was praised, it says: By this some, being unaware, entertained angels (Heb. XIII, 2)." However, in this reception one can appropriately sense that it was divinely arranged so that the patriarchs, seeing angels, would receive them as men indeed but venerate them as God, so that through the distinction of such service and devotion it would be prefigured that in the future the Lord Himself, appearing in the flesh, would be satisfied with carnal foods and received in human hospitality. In which hospitality, however, He would more be devoted to preaching the gospel and healing the sick than to eating and drinking, as the gospel history often testifies. Finally, the interpreters of the sacred scriptures have understood this place as accomplishing what the Lord said to the Jews: Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad (John VIII, 56). He saw indeed the day of the Lord, when seeing the three angels, he worshipped one, and addressed the Lord, because in the distinction of the three persons, he recognized the essence of one majesty.
[Genesis 18:5] -- He refreshed them with the feasts that were prepared because he understood that from his seed would be born the one who, although he is God before the ages, consubstantial with the Father, appearing at the end of the ages as a true man, would truly dwell among men; the food with which he refreshed them is also full of spiritual sacraments, of which it is thus remembered:
[Genesis 18:6] -- Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said to her: "Hurry, mix three measures of fine meal, and make cakes upon the hearth." And he himself ran to the herd, and took a tender and good calf and gave it to the servant, who hastened and cooked it. Where it is firstly to be noted that everything is done quickly, as if in the service of divine reception; Abraham hastens, he orders Sarah to hurry, the servant quickly completes the assigned task, so that it becomes clearly evident that blessed Abraham truly, according to the voice of the Lord, rejoiced to see his day, and he saw it and was glad (John 8:56). But also all who are touched in soul by the regard of divine grace immediately leap with joyful steps of good works and thoughts into the service of the heavenly will, and with diligent exhortation provoke themselves and those who hear them to the speedy observance of the commandments of heaven.
[Genesis 18:6] -- The flour that Sarah mixed to refresh the angels is the internal sweetness of God's word, which the prophet promises to the heavenly Jerusalem, that is, the holy Church, saying of the Lord: "He makes peace your borders, and fills you with the finest of the wheat" (Psalm 147:14). And immediately, explaining more clearly what the finest wheat is, he added: "He sends out his command to the earth." Now there are three measures of this same flour because in the sacred Scripture there is a threefold sense of understanding, namely the historical, the allegorical, and the anagogical; for example: "Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house" (Psalm 26:8); according to history, he desired the beauty of the house which Solomon made for the Lord to remain inviolate, being praised by his people in it. According to allegory, he desired the beauty of the holy Church to shine throughout the whole world, to whom the Apostle says: "For you are the temple of God" (2 Corinthians 6:16). According to anagogy, that is, the sense leading to higher things, he desired to see the beauty of the heavenly homeland, that is, the house not made with hands but eternal in the heavens. The Lord also mentions this threefold measure in the gospel parable, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened." For the evangelical leaven the woman hid in the three measures of flour to leaven the whole, when the holy Church, which Sarah signifies in this place, either preaches history in the Scriptures, reveals allegory, or lifts up the eye of its exposition to contemplate higher things. It always instills the power of either the Lord's or fraternal charity in its words. And no one should think they have rightly understood Scripture in which they have not found the institution of charity. A "measure" was a type of measurement among the Palestinians, holding one and a half bushels.
[Genesis 18:6] -- But the fact that Sarah makes bread under the ashes is very relevant. Bread baked under the ashes, while being baked, is indeed cooked with fire and lies hidden in the darkness, but only the ash that accumulates on top is visible to the eyes of onlookers. However, when they are baked, the ash is removed, and the clean bread is presented before the faces of those who will eat, because the words of the Lord have been tested by fire, namely the Holy Spirit, through whom the scripture itself was made. Sometimes, however, the style's baseness and simplicity contain so much knowledge in themselves that the spiritual fervor and celestial nourishment within them are not easily apparent; but when the veil of the letter is removed through the preacher's ministry and the sweetness of the spiritual sense is revealed to the hearts of the listeners, just like shaking off the ash, the sweetest bread is offered to refresh the faithful.
[Genesis 18:7] -- The tender and excellent calf that Abraham took from the herd signifies the Mediator between God and humans, whom the most merciful Father killed for his returning younger son, that is, the Gentile people, according to the parable of the Gospel. He is the tender and excellent calf taken singularly to be slain and cooked for the citizens of heaven because he alone from the entire human race was specially chosen, whose blood would redeem the world, and through whom all things on earth and in heaven are restored in him, as the Apostle says. This calf is rightly called tender and excellent. For what is as tender and excellent as He who humbled Himself for our elevation: Becoming obedient to the Father unto death, even death on the cross?
[Genesis 18:8] -- He also took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had cooked, and set it before them. By the milk, the beginnings and as it were the elements of the Mosaic law; by the butter, the perfection of evangelical doctrine; by the milk, the simplicity of the letter in the Scriptures, by the butter, the virtue of the mystical sense which is usually generated from the letter, is expressed. Or certainly, the milk indicates the beginning of faith, the butter indicates the perfection of the work which is created from faith. All of which Abraham placed before the men whom he had received, to signify that the sons of promise would always offer spiritual feasts to the Lord, namely the breads of holy readings, the calf of the Lord's Incarnation, the milk of faith or historical perfection, the butter of good senses or good works, where it is well added:
[Genesis 18:8] -- But he himself stood by them under the tree, because certainly we should so feed the Lord with the feasts of faith and virtues by good living, that is, delight Him, so that we always remember to stand in His presence, according to the saying of Blessed Elijah: "The Lord lives, in whose sight I stand" (3 Kings 17:1). And as the Psalmist says: "In the sight, I will sing to you among the angels" (Psalm 138:1). And this under the tree of the Lord's passion, saying with the Apostle: "But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14).
[Genesis 18:9] -- And when they had eaten, they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” He answered, “Behold, she is in the tent.” Then he said, “I will return to you at this time next year, if life be with us, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” Both indeed the lords of the house, and evidently Abraham and Sarah, prepared with the utmost haste a meal; but as if in a well-ordered house, Abraham, with the meals prepared, more boldly approached the Lord; Sarah, with womanly fear and modesty, restrained herself in the tent, in fact behind the tent door, and no longer dared to approach, but listened from within to what her husband spoke with the Lord. Therefore, since she was both devoted to God and well subjected to her husband, she heard the joy of childbirth which she greatly desired; not indeed any childbirth, but that in which both she in the future and all nations would receive a blessing. And well, after the angels had eaten, they promised a son to their hosts, because when the Lord has accepted the meals of our good work and faith, he rewards us with the grace of his blessing. But the angels ate, or rather seemed to have eaten, as holy Raphael explained to Tobias, to signify the mystery of the Lord’s Incarnation, in which he, the Angel of Great Counsel, was to eat as a man, not only visibly appearing, but even sitting at the table of men and eating; but they, as the same Raphael said, used invisible food, that is, which cannot be seen by men living in the flesh, namely the joy of contemplation; of which also the Lord in the Gospel: “For their angels,” he says, “always see the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10); for they always see, that is, even when they come outside to us to minister something; it is credible, moreover, that the food which they ate, as soon as it touched their spiritual or ethereal body, was consumed like water thrown into a burning flame, and not like water poured into dry land to refresh their bodies, as happens to us when we eat.
[Genesis 18:11] -- They were both old and advanced in years, and it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. To highlight the growth of heavenly power, he says that both were old, and moreover that Sarah, having been barren, was now also deprived of her menstrual blood, because of which she could no longer conceive, even if she had not been barren. Further, if a woman is of such an advanced age that the usual flow of women still occurs to her, she can conceive from a young man, but not from an old man; although the old man can still beget from a young woman, as Abraham, after Sarah's death, was able to beget from Keturah, because he found her age to be vigorous; this therefore is what the Apostle clearly commends when he says: "He believed against hope in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to what was said to him: Thus shall your offspring be; and not weakening in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, being about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; in the promise of God he did not doubt" (Romans 4:18). For this reason he says that Abraham's body was already dead, because he could still beget from any woman who still had some final period of time left for bearing children at that age: we must understand the body as dead for some purposes, not for all; for if for all, then it is not the old age of the living, but the corpse of the dead.
[Genesis 18:12] -- Who laughed secretly, saying: After I have grown old and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure? The Apostle Peter recalls this sentence when, admonishing women to obey their husbands, he added: "As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord." It seems, however, similar to this passage what is read about Abraham above, for when he heard about Sarah's childbirth, he fell on his face and laughed in his heart, saying: Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? And he added, speaking to God: Oh that Ishmael might live before you! But since the Apostle says that Abraham did not waver in unbelief, but Sarah did hesitate, the following word of the Lord clarifies, saying to Abraham:
[Genesis 18:12] -- Why did Sarah laugh, saying: "Shall I indeed bear a child, old as I am?" It remains to be understood that when she heard that Sarah would bear a son, Abraham had previously laughed in wonder with joy, and Sarah herself subsequently doubted in joy; whose doubt, nevertheless, was immediately removed when the reason for divine power was given, as the angel said to him:
[Genesis 18:14] -- "Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son." With this statement heard, all doubt was so removed, and her faith so confirmed, that the Apostle rightly says of her: "By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive." But when he says "I will return to you," and added "with life as a companion," he speaks in a human manner, as if he were to say: "If life is a companion." But it should be understood more deeply that the angels always converse with life as a companion either in heaven or descend to earth, certainly with that life that says: "For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself;" by whose vision and enlightenment the angels and holy men are perpetually blessed. Indeed, this place seems comparable by contrast with the deeds of the first man; for after his transgression, he did not see the Lord God but is said to have heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden; here, the future blessing's faith, hope, and love inflamed he saw the Lord standing, because surely with this he was to remain, the contemplation of divine clarity having departed from him. Hearing the voice of the Lord God, trembling he hid himself because he truly blushed at his error. Here, having seen the Lord, he immediately joyfully ran, believing that by the merit of obedience he had pleased Him. He on the cool of the day, this one at the very heat of the day; because this one burned with the fire of divine love, the other by sinning had driven away the light of divine protection and love from himself. This one receives and entertains the Lord as a guest, to show with the carnal feast provided that he would foster Him with spiritual feasts in his heart by living devoutly, according to what the Lord Himself promised about His lovers: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3:20). The other, that is, the first man, who ate what was forbidden, lost those delights which he could have had perpetually in the presence of the Lord and His angels, also being visibly excluded from the tree of life so that it might be openly shown that he had lost the incorruptible fruit of wisdom, which he used to enjoy invisibly. And because the blessed Abraham by the merit of pious devotion had already tasted the fruit of wisdom and life, which is Christ, rightly he is said to have seen and received the Lord standing under a tree. There Eve, having abandoned the fear of God, having neglected her husband's counsel, rashly approached the serpent, in which the devil was speaking, by whom she was deceived into eating what was forbidden, and also made her husband complicit in her transgression; for which reason, receiving the sentence of just condemnation with her husband, she heard among other things: "In pain you shall bring forth children" (Genesis 3:16); and first she bore Cain, the cursed son and fratricide. Here Sarah, submitted to the fear of God, following likewise the religious faith and deeds of her husband, awaited at home the Lord's appearance until her husband came and learned what should be done; but also with the dishes prepared for the Lord's reception, she nevertheless modestly remained at home and rejoiced in having her husband go ahead with them to the Lord and offer the gifts of her devotion and his own. Therefore both received the reward of their kindness with a promised offspring; and not just any offspring, but indeed the one in whom all nations would be blessed. And rightly so, for there the guilt of transgression was punished with due retribution in the first Adam; here the time of redemption through the second Adam was both foreshadowed and prepared. It follows:
[Genesis 18:16] -- When the men got up from there, they directed their eyes toward Sodom, and Abraham was walking with them to see them on their way. When it is said that the men got up from there, it is shown that while they were sitting, Abraham was standing and ministering to them, although he had initially seen them standing. They directed their eyes toward Sodom so that just as they rewarded the faith of blessed Abraham with joyful promises, they would destroy the faithlessness of the impious city with avenging flames, according to what the Psalmist said, who after proclaiming the Lord's mercy toward the holy: "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are attentive to their cries" (Psalm 34:16), immediately added His severity in the punishment of the wicked: "But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to blot out their name from the earth" (v. 17). But that Abraham walked with the angels to see them on their way, he is believed to have done from the custom of devoted hospitality; but blessed were those steps by which a man was deemed worthy to walk with angels on earth, and to lead them who had come to visit him back to heaven; now blessed are those lives that follow the angelic way of life on earth, by living soberly, righteously, piously, and chastely, and by always, as much as mortal is possible, devoting themselves to divine praises. Truly, blessed Abraham, because he so joyfully received the Lord coming, that he cared to see them off as if they were household members, deserved to know higher secrets of divine works; who, understanding himself the strictness of the forthcoming divine retribution on the world, as he had previously shown himself devoted to God in receiving guests, so afterward he showed himself solicitous for his neighbors by interceding for them.
[Genesis 18:20] -- The Lord therefore said: "The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah has been multiplied, and their sin has become very grave." He calls the outcry of Sodom the reputation or rather the infamy of their crimes, from which the Apostle, admonishing us, says: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and blasphemy, be put away from you, with all malice" (Ephesians 4:31). To this clamor indeed is opposed the clamor of the elect, who confidently supplicating their Creator, individually say: "Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you" (Psalm 102:2). Indeed, great is their clamor, a sublime merit and the intention of faith seeking heavenly things alone, where Christ sits at the right hand of God; since they do not desire earthly riches, nor vain and perishable glory, nor the fleeting joys of the flesh, but only heavenly goods, everything they do is surely lofty and, as it were, resonates with a clamor. But with the multiplied outcry of sins, that is, their enormous crime, let us see what follows.
[Genesis 18:21] -- "I will go down," he says, "and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry which has come to me; and if not, I will know." Therefore, when the Lord said that he would go down to see whether the same outcry was true, he did not show his ignorance, who possesses the knowledge of all things, but instructs our rashness, lest we presume to blame the deeds of others before we learn perfectly; which He also teaches us in the construction of the tower, where it is written that the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of Adam had built; for what would He not see from heaven to earth, of whom it is written that "Hell is naked before Him, and there is no covering for perdition"?
[Genesis 18:23] -- And they turned themselves from there and went towards Sodom; but Abraham still stood before the Lord, and approaching he said: Will you indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked? If fifty righteous are in the city, will they perish along with the rest, until he said: If ten are found there; and the Lord said: I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten. It is read further that two angels came to Sodom and were received by Lot; hence it seems likely that at this place two angels departed from Abraham, and he spoke with the one who remained with him, interceding for the perishing city. In which intercession, the humility of the blessed Abraham is especially to be considered, who, although he was esteemed so highly by God that he received Him as a familiar guest and interceded with Him as if with a friend of one mind for others, nevertheless in his own estimation he remained vile and despicable; hence in his second prayer he says to Him:
[Genesis 18:27] -- Since I have begun, I will speak to my Lord, though I am but dust and ashes. By this word he clearly rebukes our pride, we who are far distant from the height of his merits, far removed from divine conversation due to our slowness and inertia, nevertheless inflated with the pride of arrogance, do not recall that we are destined to be dust and ashes; for blessed Abraham, the closer he approached the purity of the divine vision, the more certainly he dispersed and cast away the weaknesses of his own frailty. But we, who are excluded from the gaze of inner clarity by the cloud of our own depravity, the less we lament the darkness of misery inherent in us, the more we are accustomed to see nothing but these.