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| Chapter X. Being about to prove that the will, the calling, and the commandment of the Trinity is one, St. Ambrose shows that the Spirit called the Church exactly as the Father and the Son did, and proves this by the selection of SS. Paul and Barnabas, and especially by the mission of St. Peter to Cornelius. And by the way he points out how in the Apostle's vision the calling of the Gentiles was shadowed forth, who having been before like wild beasts, now by the operation of the Spirit lay aside that wildness. Then having quoted other passages in support of this view, he shows that in the case of Jeremiah cast into a pit by Jews, and rescued by Abdemelech, is a type of the slighting of the Holy Spirit by the Jews, and of His being honoured by the Gentiles.
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Chapter X.
Being about to prove that the will, the calling, and the
commandment of the Trinity is one, St. Ambrose shows that the Spirit
called the Church exactly as the Father and the Son did, and proves
this by the selection of SS. Paul and Barnabas, and especially by the
mission of St. Peter to Cornelius. And by the way he points out
how in the Apostle’s vision the calling of the Gentiles was
shadowed forth, who having been before like wild beasts, now by the
operation of the Spirit lay aside that wildness. Then having
quoted other passages in support of this view, he shows that in the
case of Jeremiah cast into a pit by Jews, and rescued by Abdemelech, is
a type of the slighting of the Holy Spirit by the Jews, and of His
being honoured by the Gentiles.
101. And not only
is the operation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit everywhere one but
also there is one and the same will, calling, and giving of commands,
which one may see in the great and saving mystery of the Church.
For as the Father called the Gentiles to the Church, saying:
“I will call her My people which was not My people, and her
beloved who was not beloved;”1153
and
elsewhere: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for
all nations,”1154
so, too, the Lord
Jesus said that Paul was chosen by Him to call forth and gather
together the Church, as you find it said by the Lord Jesus to
Ananias: “Go, for he is a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My
name before all nations.”1155
102. As, then, God the Father called the
Church, so, too, Christ called it, and so, too, the Spirit called it,
saying: “Separate Me Paul and Barnabas for the work to
which I have called them.” “So,” it is added,
“having fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them and sent them
forth. And they, being sent forth by the Holy Spirit, went down
to Seleucia.”1156
So Paul
received the apostleship by
the will not only of Christ, but also of the Holy Spirit, and hastened
to gather together the Gentiles.
103. And not only Paul, but also, as we read
in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter. For when he had seen in his
prayer heaven opened and a certain vessel tied at the four corners, as
it were a sheet in which were all kinds of four-footed beasts and wild
beasts and fowls of the air, “a voice came to him saying, Arise,
Peter, kill and eat. And Peter said, Be it far from me, Lord, I
have never eaten anything common or unclean. And again a voice
came to him, saying, What God hath cleansed call not thou common.
And this was done three times, and the vessel was received back into
heaven.”1157
And so when
Peter was silently thinking over this with himself, and the servants of
Cornelius appointed by the Angel had come to him, the Spirit said to
him, “Lo, men are seeking thee, rise therefore, and go down and
go with them; doubt not, for I have sent thee.”1158
104. How clearly did the Holy Spirit express His
own power! First of all in that He inspired him who was praying,
and was present to him who was entreating; then when Peter, being
called, answered, “Lord,” and so was found worthy of a
second message, because he acknowledged the Lord. But the
Scripture declares Who that Lord was, for He Whom he had answered spoke
to him when he answered. And the following words show the Spirit
clearly revealed, for He Who formed the mystery made known the
mystery.
105. Notice, also, that the appearance of
the mystery three times repeated expressed the operation of the
Trinity. And so in the mysteries1159
the threefold question is put, and the threefold answer made, and no
one can be cleansed but by a threefold confession. For which
reason, also, Peter in the Gospel is asked three times whether he loves
the Lord, that by the threefold answer the bonds of the guilt he had
contracted by denying the Lord might be loosed.
106. Then, again, because the Angel is sent
to Cornelius, the Holy Spirit speaks to Peter: “For the
eyes of the Lord are over the faithful of the earth.”1160
Nor is it without a purpose that when
He had said before, “What God hath cleansed call not thou
common,”1161
the Holy Spirit
came upon the Gentiles to purify them, when it is manifest that the
operation of the Spirit is a divine operation. But Peter, when
sent by the Spirit, did not wait for the command of God the Father, but
acknowledged that that message was from the Spirit Himself, and the
grace that of the Spirit Himself, when he said: “If, then,
God has granted them the same grace as to us, who was I that I should
resist God?”
107. It is, then, the Holy Spirit Who has
delivered us from that Gentile impurity. For in those kinds of
four-footed creatures and wild beasts and birds there was a figure of
the condition of man, which appears clothed with the bestial ferocity
of wild beasts unless it grows gentle by the sanctification of the
Spirit. Excellent, then, is that grace which changes the rage of
beasts into the simplicity of the Spirit: “For we also were
aforetime foolish, unbelieving, erring, serving divers lusts and
pleasures. But now by the renewing of the Spirit we begin to be
heirs of Christ, and joint-heirs with the Angels.”1162
108. Therefore the holy prophet David,
seeing in the Spirit that we should from wild beasts become like the
dwellers in heaven, says, “Rebuke the wild beasts of the
wood,”1163
evidently
signifying, not the wood disturbed by the running of wild beasts, and
shaken with the roaring of animals, but that wood of which it is
written: “We found it in the fields of the
wood.”1164
In which,
as the prophet said: “The righteous shall flourish as the
palm-tree, and shall be multiplied as the cedar which is in
Libanus.”1165
That wood
which, shaken in the tops of the trees spoken of in prophecy, shed
forth the nourishment of the heavenly Word. That wood into which
Paul entered indeed as a ravening wolf, but went forth as a shepherd,
for “their sound is gone out into all the earth.”1166
109. We then were wild beasts, and therefore
the Lord said: “Beware of false prophets, which come in
sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening
wolves.”1167
But now,
through the Holy Spirit, the rage of lions, the spots of leopards, the
craft of foxes, the rapacity of wolves, have passed away from our
feelings; great, then, is the grace which has changed earth to heaven,
that the conversation of us, who once were wandering as wild beasts in
the woods, might be in heaven.1168
110. And
not only in this place, but also elsewhere in the same book, the
Apostle Peter declared that the Church was built by the Holy
Spirit. For you read that he said: “God, Which
knoweth the hearts of men, bare witness, giving them the Holy Spirit,
even as also to us; and He made no distinction between us and them,
purifying their hearts by faith.”1169
In which is to be considered, that
as Christ is the Cornerstone, Who joined together both peoples into
one, so, too, the Holy Spirit made no distinction between the hearts of
each people, but united them.
111. Do not, then, like a Jew, despise the
Son, Whom the prophets foretold; for you would despise also the Holy
Spirit, you would despise Isaiah, you would despise Jeremiah, whom he
who was chosen of the Lord raised with rags and cords from the pit of
that Jewish abode.1170
For the
people of the Jews, despising the word of prophecy, had cast him into
the pit. Nor was there found any one of the Jews to draw the
prophet out, but one Ethiopian Abdemelech, as the Scripture
testifies.
112. In which account is a very beautiful
figure, that is to say, that we, sinners of the Gentiles, black
beforehand through our transgressions, and aforetime fruitless, raised
from the depth the word of prophecy which the Jews had thrust down, as
it were, into the mire of their mind and carnality. And therefore
it is written: “Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto
God.”1171
In which is
signified the appearance of holy Church, who says in the Song of
Songs: “I am black and comely, O daughters of
Jerusalem;”1172
black through
sin, comely through grace; black by natural condition, comely through
redemption, or certainly, black with the dust of her labours. So
she is black while fighting, is comely when she is crowned with the
ornaments of victory.
113. And fittingly is the prophet raised by
cords, for the faithful writer said: “The lines are fallen
unto me in pleasant places.”1173
And
fittingly with rags; for the Lord Himself, when those who had been
first invited to the marriage made excuse, sent to the partings of the
highways, that as many as were found, both bad and good, should be
invited to the marriage. With these rags, then, He lifted the
word of prophecy from the mire.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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