Introduction.
The Three Persons of the Godhead were not unknown to the
judges of old nor to Moses, for the equality of the Son with the
Father, as well as of the Three Persons amongst Themselves, is laid
down both elsewhere and by him. Samson also enjoyed the
assistance of the Holy Spirit, his history is touched upon and shown to
be in some points typical of the Church and her mysteries. When
the Holy Spirit left Samson he fell into various calamities, and St.
Ambrose explains the spiritual significance of his shorn locks.
1. Even in reading
the first book of the ancient history it is made clear both that the
sevenfold grace of the Spirit shone forth in the judges themselves of
the Jews, and that the mysteries of the heavenly sacraments were made
known by the Spirit, of Whose eternity Moses was not ignorant.
Then, too, at the very beginning of the world, and indeed before its
beginning, he conjoined Him with God, Whom he knew to be eternal before
the beginning of the world. For if any one takes good heed he
will recognize in the beginning both the Father, the Son, and the
Spirit. For of the Father it is written: “In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”1006
Of the Spirit it is said:
“The Spirit was borne upon the waters.”1007
And well in the beginning of creation
is there set forth the figure of baptism whereby the creature had to be
purified. And of the Son we read that He it is Who divided light
from darkness, for there is one God the Father Who speaks, and one God
the Son Who acts.
2. But, again, that you may not think that
there was assumption in the bidding of Him Who spoke, or inferiority on
the part of Him Who carried out the bidding, the Father acknowledges
the Son as equal to Himself in the execution of the work, saying:
“Let Us make man after Our image and likeness.”1008
For the common image and the working
and the likeness can signify nothing but the oneness of the same
Majesty.
3. But that we may more fully recognize the
equality of the Father and the Son, as the Father spoke, the Son made,
so, too, the Father works and the Son speaks. The Father works,
as it is written: “My Father worketh
hitherto.”1009
You find it
said to the Son: “Say the word and he shall be
healed.”1010
And the Son
says to the Father: “I will that where I am, they too shall
be with Me.”1011
The Father did
what the Son said.
4. But neither was Abraham ignorant of the Holy
Spirit; he saw Three and worshipped One, for there is one God, one
Lord, and one Spirit. And so there is a oneness of honour,
because there is a oneness of power.
5. And why should I speak of all one by
one? Samson, born by the divine promise, had the Spirit
accompanying him, for we read: “The Lord blessed him, and
the Spirit of the Lord began to be with him in the
camp.”1012
And so
foreshadowing the future mystery, he demanded a wife of the aliens,
which, as it is written, his father and mother knew not of, because it
was from the Lord. And rightly was he esteemed stronger than
others, because the Spirit of the Lord guided him, under Whose guidance
he alone put to flight the people of the aliens, and at another time
inaccessible to the bite of the lion, he, unconquerable in his
strength, tore him asunder with his hands. Would that he had been
as careful to preserve grace, as strong to overcome the
beast!
6. And perhaps
this was not only a prodigy of valour, but also a mystery of wisdom, an
utterance of prophecy. For it does not seem to have been without
a purpose that, as he was going to his marriage, a roaring lion met
him, which he tore asunder with his hands, in whose body, when about to
enjoy the wished-for wedlock, he found a swarm of bees, and took honey
from its mouth, which he gave to his father and mother to eat.
The people of the Gentiles which believed had honey, the people which
was before savage is now the people of Christ.
7. Nor is the riddle without mystery, which
he set forth to his companions: “Out of the eater came
forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.”1013
And there was a mystery up to the
point of the three days in which its answer was sought in vain, which
could not be made known except by the faith of the Church, on the
seventh day, the time of the Law being completed, after the Passion of
the Lord. For thus you find that the apostles did not understand,
“because Jesus was not yet glorified.”1014
8. “What,” answer they,
“is sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a
lion?” To which he replied: “If ye had not
farmed with my heifer, you would not have found out my
riddle.”1015
O divine
mystery! O manifest sacrament! we have escaped from the slayer,
we have overcome the strong one. The food of life is now there,
where before was the hunger of a miserable death. Dangers are
changed into safety, bitterness into sweetness. Grace came forth
from the offence, power from weakness, and life from death.
9. There are, however, who think on the
other hand that the wedlock could not have been established unless the
lion of the tribe of Judah had been slain; and so in His body, that is,
the Church, bees were found who store up the honey of wisdom, because
after the Passion of the Lord the apostles believed more fully.
This lion, then, Samson as a Jew slew, but in it he found honey, as in
the figure of the heritage which was to be redeemed, that the remnant
might be saved according to the election of grace.1016
10. “And the Spirit of the
Lord,” it is said, “came upon him, and he went down to
Ascalon, and smote thirty men of them.”1017
For he could not fail to carry off
the victory who saw the mysteries. And so in the garments they
receive the reward of wisdom, the badge of intercourse, who resolve and
answer the riddle.
11. Here, again, other mysteries come up, in
that his wife is taken away, and for this foxes set fire to the sheaves
of the aliens. For their own cunning often deceives those who
contend against divine mysteries. Wherefore it is said again in
the Song of Songs: “Take us the little foxes which destroy
the vineyards, that our vineyards may flourish.”1018
He said well “little,”
because the larger could not destroy the vineyards, though to the
strong even the devil is weak.
12. So, then, he (to sum up the story
briefly, for the consideration of the whole passage is reserved for its
own season) was unconquered so long as he kept the grace of the Spirit,
as was the people of God chosen by the Lord, that Nazarite under the
Law. Samson, then, was unconquered, and so invincible as to be able to
smite a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass;1019
so full of heavenly grace that when thirsty
he found even water in the jawbone of an ass, whether you consider this
as a miracle, or turn it to a mystery, because in the humility of the
people of the Gentiles there would be both rest and triumph according
to that which is written: “He that smiteth thee on the
cheek, turn to him also the other.”1020
For by this endurance of injuries,
which the sacrament of baptism teaches, we triumph over the stings of
anger, that having passed through death we may attain to the rest of
the resurrection.
13. Is that, then, Samson who broke ropes
twisted with thongs, and new cords like weak threads? Is that
Samson who did not feel the bonds of his hair fastened to the beam, so
long as he had the grace of the Spirit? He, I say, after the
Spirit of God departed from him, was greatly changed from that Samson
Who returned clothed in the spoils of the aliens, but fallen from his
greatness on the knees of a woman, caressed and deceived, is shorn of
his hair.1021
| 1021 Judg. xvi. 7, 11, 19. |
14. Was, then, the hair of his head of such
importance that, so long as it remained, his strength should endure
unconquered, but when his head was shorn the man should suddenly lose
all his strength? It is not so, nor may we think that the hair of
his head has such power. There is the hair of religion and faith;
the hair of the Nazarite
perfect in the Law, consecrated in
sparingness and abstinence, with which she (a type of the Church), who
poured ointment on the feet of the Lord, wiped the feet of the heavenly
Word, for then she knew Christ also after the flesh. That hair it
is of which it is said: “Thy hair is as flocks of
goats,”1022
growing on that
head of which it is said: “The head of the man is
Christ,”1023
and in another
place: “His head is as fine gold, and his locks like black
pine-trees.”1024
15. And so, also, in the Gospel our Lord,
pointing out that some hairs are seen and known, says: “But
even the hairs of your head are all numbered,”1025
implying, indeed, acts of spiritual virtues,
for God does not take care for our hair. Though, indeed, it is
not absurd to believe that literally, seeing that according to His
divine Majesty nothing can be hidden from Him.
16. But what does it profit me, if God
Himself knows all my hairs? That rather abounds and profits me,
if the watchful witness of good works reward me with the gift of
eternal life. And, in fine, Samson himself, declaring that these
hairs are not mystical, says: “If I be shorn my strength
will depart from me.”1026
So much
concerning the mystery, let us now consider the order of the
passage.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
