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| Preface.
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The choice of Gideon was a figure of our Lord’s
Incarnation, the sacrifice of a kid, of the satisfaction for sins in
the body of Christ; that of the bullock, of the abolition of profane
rites; and in the three hundred soldiers was a type of the future
redemption through the cross. The seeking of various signs by
Gideon was also a mystery, for by the dryness and moistening of the
fleece was signified the falling away of the Jews and the calling of
the Gentiles, by the water received in a basin the washing of the
apostles’ feet. St. Ambrose prays that his own pollution
may be washed away, and praises the loving-kindness of Christ.
The same water sent forth by the Son of God effects marvellous
conversions; it cannot, however, be sent by any other, since it is the
pouring forth of the Holy Spirit, Who is subject to no external
power.
1. When Jerubbaal,
as we read, was beating out wheat783
under an
oak, he received a message from God in order that he might bring the
people of God from the power of strangers into liberty. Nor is it
a matter of wonder if he was chosen for grace, seeing that even then,
being appointed under the shadow of the holy cross and of the adorable
Wisdom in the predestined mystery of the future Incarnation, he was
bringing forth the visible grains of the fruitful corn from their
hiding places, and was [mystically] separating the elect of the saints
from the refuse of the empty chaff. For these elect, as though
trained with the rod of truth, laying aside the superfluities of the
old man together with his deeds, are gathered in the Church as in a
winepress. For the Church is the winepress of the eternal
fountain, since from her wells forth the juice of the heavenly
Vine.
2. And Gideon, moved by that message, when
he heard that, though thousands of the people failed, God would deliver
His own from their enemies by means of one man,784
offered a kid, and according to the word of the Angel, laid its flesh
and the unleavened cakes upon the rock, and poured the broth upon
them. And as soon as the Angel touched them with the end of the
staff which he bore, fire burst forth out of the rock, and so the
sacrifice which he was offering was consumed.785
By which it seems clear that that
rock was a figure of the Body of Christ, for it is written:
“They drank of that rock that followed them, and that rock was
Christ.”786
Which
certainly refers not to His Godhead, but to His Flesh, which watered
the hearts of the thirsting people with the perpetual stream of His
Blood.
3. Even at that time was it declared in a
mystery that the Lord Jesus in His Flesh would, when crucified, do away
the sins of the whole world, and not only the deeds of the body, but
the desires of the soul. For the flesh of the kid refers to sins
of deed, the broth to the enticements of desire as it is written:
“For the people lusted an evil lust, and said, Who shall give us
flesh to eat?”787
That the
Angel then stretched forth his staff, and touched the rock, from which
fire went out,788
shows that
the Flesh of the Lord, being filled with the Divine Spirit, would burn
away all the sins of human frailty. Wherefore, also, the Lord
says: “I am come to send fire upon the
earth.”789
4. Then the man, instructed and foreknowing what
was to be, observes the heavenly mysteries, and therefore, according to
the warning, slew the bullock destined by his father to idols, and
himself offered to God another bullock seven years old.790
By doing which he most plainly showed
that after the coming of the Lord all Gentile sacrifices should be done
away, and that only the sacrifice of the Lord’s passion should be
offered for the redemption of the people. For that bullock was,
in a type, Christ, in Whom, as Esaias said, dwelt the fulness of the
seven gifts of the Spirit.791
This bullock
Abraham also offered when he saw the day of the Lord and was
glad.792
He it is Who was offered at one
time in the type of a kid, at another in that of a sheep, at another in
that of a bullock. Of a kid, because He is a sacrifice for sin;
of a sheep, because He is an unresisting victim; of a bullock, because
He is a victim without blemish.
5. Holy Gideon then saw the mystery
beforehand. Next he chose out three hundred for the battle, so as
to show that the world should be freed from the incursion of worse
enemies, not by the multitude of their number, but by the mystery of
the cross. And yet, though he was brave and faithful, he asked of
the Lord yet fuller proofs of future victory, saying: “If
Thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, O Lord, as Thou hast said, behold I
will put a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor, and if there shall be
dew on the fleece and dryness on all the ground, I shall know that Thou
wilt deliver the people by my hand according to Thy promise. And
it was so.”793
Afterwards
he asked in addition that dew should descend on all the earth and
dryness be on the fleece.
6. Some one perhaps will enquire whether he does
not seem to have been wanting in faith, seeing that after being
instructed by many signs he asked still more. But how can he seem
to have asked as if doubting or wanting in faith, who was speaking in
mysteries? He was not then doubtful, but careful that we should
not doubt. For how could he be doubtful whose prayer was
effectual? And how could he have begun the battle without fear,
unless he had understood the message of God? for the dew on the fleece
signified the faith among the Jews, because the words of God come down
like the dew.
7. So when the whole world was parched with
the drought of Gentile superstition, then came that dew of the heavenly
visits on the fleece. But after that the lost sheep of the house
of Israel794
(whom I think
that the figure of the Jewish fleece shadowed forth), after that those
sheep, I say,795
“had refused
the fountain of living water,” the dew of moistening faith dried
up in the breasts of the Jews, and that divine Fountain turned away its
course to the hearts of the Gentiles. Whence it has come to pass
that now the whole world is moistened with the dew of faith, but the
Jews have lost their prophets and counsellors.
8. Nor is it strange that they should suffer
the drought of unbelief, whom the Lord deprived of the fertilising of
the shower of prophecy, saying: “I will command My clouds
that they rain not upon that vineyard.”796
For there is a health-giving shower
of salutary grace, as David also said: “He came down like
rain upon a fleece, and like drops that drop upon the
earth.”797
The divine
Scriptures promised us this rain upon the whole earth, to water the
world with the dew of the Divine Spirit at the coming of the
Saviour. The Lord, then, has now come, and the rain has come; the
Lord has come bringing the heavenly drops with Him, and so now we
drink, who before were thirsty, and with an interior draught drink in
that Divine Spirit.
9. Holy Gideon, then, foresaw this, that the
nations of the Gentiles also would drink by the reception of faith, and
therefore he enquired more diligently, for the caution of the saints is
necessary. Insomuch that also Joshua the son of Nun, when he saw
the captain of the heavenly host, enquired: “Art thou for
us, or for our adversaries?”798
lest,
perchance, he might be deceived by some stratagem of the
adversary.
10. Nor was it without a reason that he put
the fleece neither in a field nor in a meadow, but in a
threshing-floor, where is the harvest of the wheat: “For
the harvest is plenteous, but the labourers are few;”799
because that, through faith in the Lord,
there was about to be a harvest fruitful in virtues.
11. Nor, again, was it without a reason that he
dried the fleece of the Jews, and put the dew from it into a basin, so
that it was filled with water, yet he did not himself wash his feet in
that dew. The prerogative of so great a mystery was to be given
to another. He was being waited for Who alone could wash away the
filth of all. Gideon was not great enough to claim this mystery
for himself, but “the Son of Man
came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister.”800
Let us, then,
recognize in Whom these mysteries are seen to be accomplished.
Not in holy Gideon, for they were still at their commencement.
Therefore the Gentiles were surpassed, for dryness was still upon the
Gentiles, and therefore did Israel surpass them, for then did the dew
remain on the fleece.
12. Let us come now to the Gospel of
God. I find the Lord stripping Himself of His garments, and
girding Himself with a towel, pouring water into a basin, and washing
the disciples’ feet.801
That heavenly
dew was this water, this was foretold, namely, that the Lord Jesus
Christ would wash the feet of His disciples in that heavenly dew.
And now let the feet of our minds be stretched out. The Lord
Jesus wills also to wash our feet, for He says, not to Peter alone, but
to each of the faithful: “If I wash not thy feet thou wilt
have no part with Me.”802
13. Come, then, Lord Jesus, put off Thy
garments, which Thou didst put on for my sake; be Thou stripped that
Thou mayest clothe us with Thy mercy. Gird Thyself for our sakes
with a towel, that Thou mayest gird us with Thy gift of
immortality. Pour water into the basin, wash not only our feet
but also the head, and not only of the body, but also the footsteps of
the soul. I wish to put off all the filth of our frailty, so that
I also may say: “By night I have put off my coat, how shall
I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile
them?”803
14. How great is that excellence! As a
servant, Thou dost wash the feet of Thy disciples; as God, Thou sendest
dew from heaven. Nor dost Thou wash the feet only, but also
invitest us to sit down with Thee, and by the example of Thy dignity
dost exhort us, saying: “Ye call Me Master and Lord, and ye
do well, for so I am. If, then, I the Lord and Master have washed
your feet, ye ought also to wash one another’s
feet.”804
15. I, then, wish also myself to wash the
feet of my brethren, I wish to fulfil the commandment of my Lord, I
will not be ashamed in myself, nor disdain what He Himself did
first. Good is the mystery of humility, because while washing the
pollutions of others I wash away my own. But all were not able to
exhaust this mystery. Abraham was, indeed, willing to wash
feet,805
but because of a feeling of
hospitality. Gideon, too, was willing to wash the feet of the
Angel of the Lord who appeared to him,806
| 806 Whence this statement
is derived cannot be ascertained. Possibly it is merely an
assumption of St. Ambrose founded on his estimate of Gideon’s
character. |
but his willingness was confined to one; he was willing as one who
would do a service, not as one who would confer fellowship with
himself. This is a great mystery which no one knew. Lastly,
the Lord said to Peter: “What I do thou knowest not now,
but shalt know hereafter.”807
This,
I say, is a divine mystery which even they who wash will enquire
into. It is not, then, the simple water of the heavenly mystery
whereby we attain to be found worthy of having part with
Christ.
16. There is also a certain water which we
put into the basin of our soul, water from the fleece and from the Book
of Judges; water, too, from the Book of Psalms.808
It is the water of the message
from heaven. Let, then, this water, O Lord Jesus, come into my
soul, into my flesh, that through the moisture of this rain809
the valleys of our minds and the fields of
our hearts may grow green. May the drops from Thee come upon me,
shedding forth grace and immortality. Wash the steps of my mind
that I may not sin again. Wash the heel810
| 810 “Alia
est iniquitas nostra, alia calcanei nostri, in quo Adam dente serpentis
est vulneratus et obnoxiam hereditatem successionis humanæ suo
vulnere dereliquit, ut omnes illo vulnere claudicemus.”
St. Aug. Exp. Psal. xlviii. 6, and St. Ambrose, Enar. in
Ps. xlviii. 9: “Unde reor uniquitatem calcanei magis
lubricum deliquendi quam reatum aliquem nostri esse
delicti.” This lubricum delinquendi, the wound
of Adam’s heel, seems to have been understood of concupiscence,
which has the nature of sin, and is called sin by St. Paul. | of
my soul, that I may be able to efface the curse, that I feel not the
serpent’s bite811
on the foot of my
soul, but, as Thou Thyself hast bidden those who follow Thee, may tread
on serpents and scorpions812
with uninjured
foot. Thou hast redeemed the world, redeem the soul of a single
sinner.
17. This is the special excellence of Thy
loving-kindness, wherewith Thou hast redeemed the whole world one by
one. Elijah was sent to one widow;813
Elisha cleansed one;814
Thou, O Lord
Jesus, hast at this day cleansed a thousand. How many in the city
of Rome, how many at Alexandria, how many at Antioch, how many also at
Constantinople! For even Constantinople has received the word of
God, and has received evident proofs of Thy judgment. For so long
as she cherished the Arians’ poison in her bosom, disquieted by
neighbouring wars, she echoed with hostile arms around. But so
soon as she rejected those who were
alien from the faith she received as a
suppliant the enemy himself, the judge of kings, whom she had always
been wont to fear, she buried him when dead, and retains him
entombed.815
| 815 Athanaricus,
king or judex of the West Goths in Dacia, defeated in 369 by the
Emperor Valens. Subsequently, in 380, being defeated by the Huns
and some Gothic chiefs, he was forced to take refuge in Constantinople,
when he was received with all the honour due to his rank. He died
the next year. | How many,
then, hast Thou cleansed at Constantinople, how many, lastly, at this
day in the whole world!
18. Damasus cleansed not, Peter cleansed
not, Ambrose cleansed not, Gregory cleansed not;816
| 816 Damasus of Rome,
Peter of Alexandria, Gregory of Constantinople, and St. Ambrose
himself. Peter had died by this time, but the fact was probably
not yet known at Milan. | for ours is the ministry, but the
sacraments are Thine. For it is not in man’s power to
confer what is divine, but it is, O Lord, Thy gift and that of the
Father, as Thou hast spoken by the prophets, saying: “I
will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, and their sons and their
daughters shall prophesy.”817
This
is that typical dew from heaven, this is that gracious rain, as we
read: “A gracious rain, dividing for His
inheritance.”818
For the
Holy Spirit is not subject to any foreign power or law, but is the
Arbiter of His own freedom, dividing all things according to the
decision of His own will, to each, as we read, severally as He
wills.819
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