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| Epistle LXIII: To the Church at Vercellæ.
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Limenius, Bishop of Vercellæ, having died,
the see remained long vacant owing to domestic factions. St.
Ambrose, therefore, as Exarch, writes to the Christians at
Vercellæ, and commences by reference to the speedy and unanimous
election of Eusebius, a former Bishop, and reminds them of the presence
of Christ as a reason for concord. He refers next to two apostate
monks, Sarmatio and Barbatianus, and inveighs against sensuality, which
degrades men below the beasts. Thence he passes to the virtues
required in a bishop, referring again to Eusebius, and to Dionysius,
Bishop of Milan, comparing the clerical and monastic lives, and ends
with exhortations to Christian virtue. The letter seems to have
been written a.d. 396.
Ambrose, a servant of Christ,
called to be a Bishop, to the Church of Vercellæ, and to those who
call on the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Grace be fulfilled unto you
in the Holy Spirit from God the Father and His only-begotten Son.
1. I am spent with grief that the Church of God
which is among you is still without a bishop, and now alone of all the
regions of Liguria and Æmilia, and of the Venetiæ and other
neighbouring parts of Italy needs that care which other churches were
wont to ask for themselves from it; and what is a greater source of
shame to myself, the tension amongst you which causes the obstacle is
laid to my charge. Now since there are dissensions among you, how
can we decree anything, or you elect, or anyone agree to undertake this
office amongst those who are at variance which he could hardly sustain
amongst those who are at unity.
2. Is this the training of a confessor, are
these the offspring of those righteous fathers who, as soon as they
saw, approved of holy Eusebius, whom they had never known before,
preferring him to their fellow-citizens, and he was no sooner amongst
them than he was approved, and much more when they had observed
him. Justly did he turn out so great a man, whom the whole Church
elected, justly was it believed that he whom all had demanded was
elected by the judgment of God. It is fitting then that you
follow the example of your parents, especially since you who have been
instructed by a holy confessor ought to be so much better than your
fathers, as a better teacher has taught and instructed you, and to
manifest a sign of your moderation and concord by agreeing in your
request3646
| 3646 The people
demanded, requested, or acclaimed some one as bishop
[postulavit], and he was then elected, if they thought well, by
the clergy. St. Ambrose makes this clear [Ep. XV. 12], saying of
Acholius, “Ad summum sacerdotium a Macedonicis obsecratus
populis, electus a sacerdotibus.” | for a
Bishop.
3. For if according to the Lord’s
saying, that which two shall have agreed upon on earth concerning
anything which they shall ask, shall be done for them, as He says, by
My Father, Who is in heaven, for: “Where two or three are
gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of
them,”3647
how much
less, where the full congregation is gathered in the Name of the
Lord. Where the demand of all is unanimous, ought we to doubt
that the Lord Jesus is there as the Author of that desire, and the
Hearer of the petition, the Presider over the ordination, and the Giver
of the grace?
4. Make yourselves then to appear worthy
that Christ should be in your midst. For where peace is, there is
Christ, for Christ is Peace; and where righteousness is, there is
Christ, for Christ is Righteousness. Let Him be in the midst of
you, that you may see Him, lest it be said to you also:
“There standeth One in the midst of you, Whom ye see
not.”3648
The
Jews saw not Him in Whom they believed not; we look upon Him by
devotion, and behold Him by faith.
5. Let Him therefore stand in your midst,
that the heavens, which declare the glory of God,3649
may be opened to you, that you may do
His will, and work His works. He who sees Jesus, to him are the
heavens opened as they were opened to Stephen, when he said:
“Behold I see the heavens opened and Jesus standing at the right
hand of God.”3650
Jesus was
standing as his advocate, He was standing as though anxious, that He
might help His athlete Stephen in his conflict, He was standing as
though ready to crown His martyr.
6. Let Him then be standing for you, that
you may not be afraid of Him sitting; for when sitting He judges, as
Daniel says: “The thrones were placed, and the books were
opened, and the Ancient of days did sit.”3651
But in the eighty-first [second]
Psalm it is written: “God stood in the congregation of
gods, and decideth among the gods.”3652
So then when He sits He judges,
when He stands He decides, and He judges concerning the imperfect, but
decides among the gods. Let Him stand for you as a defender, as a
good shepherd, lest the fierce wolves assault you.
7. And not in vain is my warning turned to
this point; for I hear that Sarmatio and Barbatianus3653
| 3653 There were
two apostate monks, followers apparently of Jovinian, who was condemned
by synods at Rome and Milan a.d.
390. | are come to you, foolish
talkers,
who say that
there is no merit in abstinence, no grace in a frugal life, none in
virginity, that all are valued at one price, that they are mad who
chasten their flesh with fastings, that they may bring it into
subjection to the spirit. But if he had thought it madness, Paul
the Apostle would never himself have acted thus, nor written to
instruct others. For he glories in it, saying: “But I
chasten my body, and bring it into bondage, lest, after preaching to
others, I myself should be found reprobate.”3654
So they who do not chasten their
body, and desire to preach to others, are themselves esteemed
reprobates.
8. For is there anything so reprobate as
that which excites to luxury, to corruption, to wantonness, as the
incentive to lust, the enticer to pleasure, the fuel of incontinence,
the firebrand of desire? What new school has sent out these
Epicureans? Not a school of philosophers, as they themselves say,
but of unlearned men who preach pleasure, persuade to luxury, esteem
chastity to be of no use. They were with us, but they were not of
us,3655
for we are not ashamed to say what the
Evangelist John said. But when settled here they used to fast at
first, they were enclosed within the monastery, there was no place for
luxury, the opportunity of mocking and disputing was cut
off.
9. This these dainty men could not endure.
They went abroad, then when they desired to return they were not
received; for I had heard many things which necessitated my being
cautious; I admonished them, but effected nothing. And so boiling
over they began to disseminate such things as made them the miserable
enticers to all vices. They utterly lost the benefit of having
fasted; they lost the fruits of their temporary continence. And
so now they with Satanic eagerness envy the good works of others, the
fruit of which themselves have failed to keep.
10. What virgin can hear that there is no reward
for her chastity and not groan? Far be it from her to believe
this easily, and still more to lay aside her zeal, or change the
intention of her mind. What widow, when she learnt that there was
no profit in her widowhood, would choose to preserve her marriage faith
and live in sorrow, rather than give herself up to a happier
condition? Who, bound by the marriage-bond, if she hear that
there is no honour in chastity, might not be tempted by careless levity
of body or mind? And for this reason the Church in the holy
lessons, and in the addresses of her priests, proclaims the praise of
chastity and the glory of virginity.
11. In vain, then, does the Apostle
say: “I wrote to you, in an Epistle, not to mingle with
fornicators;”3656
and lest
perchance they should say, We are not speaking of all the fornicators
of the world, but we say that he who has been baptized in Christ ought
not now to be esteemed a fornicator, but his life, whatever it is, is
accepted of God,3657
| 3657 This was one of
the errors of Jovinian. | the Apostle
has added “Not at all [meaning] with the fornicators of this
world,” and farther on, “If any that is named a brother be
a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a reviler, or a drunkard,
or an extortioner, with such an one not even to eat. For what
have I to do with judging them that are without?”3658
And to the Ephesians:
“But fornication, and all uncleanness, and covetousness let it
not even be named among you, as becometh saints.”3659
And immediately he adds:
“For this ye know, that no immodest person, nor unclean, nor
covetous, which is an idolator, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of
Christ and of God.”3660
It is
clear that this is said of the baptized, for they receive the
inheritance, who are baptized into the death of Christ3661
and are buried together with Him, that
they may rise again with Him. Therefore they are heirs of God,
and joint heirs with Christ:3662
heirs of
God, because the grace of Christ is conveyed to them; joint-heirs with
Christ, because they are renewed into His life; heirs also of Christ;
because to them is given by His death as it were the inheritance of the
testator.
12. These then ought to take heed to
themselves who have that which they may lose, rather than they who have
it not. These ought to act with greater care, these ought to
guard against the allurements of vice, or incentives to error, which
arise chiefly from food and drink. For “the people sat down
to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”3663
13. Epicurus3664
himself also, whom these persons think
they should follow rather than the apostles, the advocate of pleasure,
although he denies that pleasure brings in evil, does not deny that
certain things result from it from which evils are generated; and
asserts in fine that the life of the luxurious which is filled with
pleasures does not seem to be reprehensible, unless it be disturbed by
the fear either of pain or of death. But
how far he is from the truth is perceived
even from this, that he asserts that pleasure was originally created in
man by God its author, as Philomarus3665
| 3665 Who this may be is
unknown, and the name, even, owing to various readings, is
uncertain. | his
follower argues in his Epitomæ, asserting that the Stoics are the
authors of this opinion.
14. But Holy Scripture refutes this, for it
teaches us that pleasure was suggested to Adam and Eve by the craft and
enticements of the serpent. Since, indeed, the serpent itself is
pleasure, and therefore the passions of pleasure are various and
slippery, and as it were infected with the poison of corruptions, it is
certain then that Adam, being deceived by the desire of pleasure, fell
away from the commandment of God and from the enjoyment of grace.
How then can pleasure recall us to paradise, seeing that it alone
deprived us of it?
15. Wherefore also the Lord Jesus, wishing
to make us more strong against the temptations of the devil, fasted
when about to contend with him, that we might know that we can in no
other way overcome the enticements of evil. Further, the devil
himself hurled the first dart of his temptations from the quiver of
pleasure, saying: “If Thou be the Son of God, command that
these stones become bread.”3666
After which the Lord said: “Man doth not live by bread
alone, but by every word of God;”3667
and would not do it, although He
could, in order to teach us by a salutary precept to attend rather to
the pursuit of reading than to pleasure. And since they say that
we ought not to fast, let them prove for what cause Christ fasted,
unless it were that His fast might be an example to us. Lastly,
in His later words He taught us that evil cannot be easily overcome
except by our fasting, saying: “This kind of devils is not
cast out but by prayer and fasting.”3668
16. And what is the intention of the
Scripture which teaches us that Peter fasted, and that the revelation
concerning the baptism of Gentiles was made to him when fasting and
praying,3669
except to show
that the Saints themselves advance when they fast. Finally, Moses
received the Law when he was fasting;3670
and so Peter when fasting was taught the
grace of the New Testament. Daniel too by virtue of his fast
stopped the mouths of the lions and saw the events of future
times.3671
And what
safety can there be for us unless we wash away our sins by fasting,
since Scripture says that fasting and alms do away sin?3672
17. Who then are these new teachers who
reject the merit of fasting? Is it not the voice of heathen who
say, “Let us eat and drink?” whom the Apostle well
ridicules, when he says: “If after the manner of men I have
fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me if the dead rise
not? Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.”3673
That is to say, What profited
me my contention even unto death, except that I might redeem my
body? And it is redeemed in vain if there is no hope of the
resurrection. And, consequently, if all hope of the resurrection
is lost, let us eat and drink, let us not lose the enjoyment of things
present, who have none of things to come. It is then for them to
indulge in meats and drinks who hope for nothing after
death.
18. Rightly then does the Apostle, arguing
against these men, warn us that we be not shaken by such opinions,
saying: “Be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good
manners. Be ye righteously sober and sin not, for some have no
knowledge of God.”3674
Sobriety, then, is good, for drunkenness is sin.
19. But as to that Epicurus himself, the
defender of pleasure, of whom, therefore, we have made frequent mention
in order to prove that these men are either disciples of the heathen
and followers of the Epicurean sect or himself, whom the very
philosophers exclude from their company as the patron of luxury, what
if we prove him to be more tolerable than these men? He declares,
as Demarchus3675
| 3675 Demarchus is
mentioned by no writer besides St. Ambrose. The Benedictine
editors suggest that Hermachus is meant, who succeeded Epicurus as
leader of his school. | asserts, that
neither drinking, nor banquets, nor offspring, nor embraces of women,
nor abundance of fish, and other such like things which are prepared
for the service of a sumptuous banquet, make life sweet, but sober
discussion. Lastly, he added that those who do not use the
banquets of society in excess, use them with moderation. He who
willingly makes use of the juices of plants alone together with bread
and water, despises feasts on delicacies, for many inconveniences arise
from them. In another place they also say: It is not
excessive banquets, nor drinking which give rise to the enjoyment of
pleasure, but a life of temperance.
20. Since, then, philosophy has disowned those
men, is the Church not to exclude them? Seeing, too, that they,
because they
have a bad cause,
frequently fall foul of themselves by their own assertions. For,
although their chief opinion is that there is no enjoyment of pleasure
except such as is derived from eating and drinking, yet understanding
that they cannot, without the greatest shame, cling to so disgraceful a
definition, and that they are forsaken by all, they have tried to
colour it with a sort of stain of specious arguments; so that one of
them has said: Whilst we are aiming at pleasure by means of
banquets and songs, we have lost that which is infused into us by the
reception of the Word, whereby alone we can be saved.
21. Do not they by these various arguments
show themselves to us as differing and disagreeing one with the
other? And Scripture too condemns them, not passing over those
whom the Apostle refuted, as Luke, who wrote the book as a history,
tells us in the Acts of the Apostles, “And certain also of the
Epicurean and Stoic philosophers disputed with him. And some
said, What does this babbler mean? And others said, He seemeth to
be a setter forth of new gods.”3676
22. Yet from this hand too the Apostle did not go
forth without success, since even Dionysius the Areopagite together
with his wife Damaris and many others believed. And so that
company of most learned and eloquent men showed themselves overcome in
a simple discussion by the example of those who believed. What
then do those men mean, who endeavour to prevent those whom the Apostle
has gained, and whom Christ has redeemed with His own blood? asserting
that the baptized ought not to give themselves to the discipline of the
virtues, that revellings injure them not, nor abundance of pleasures;
that they are foolish who go without them, that virgins ought to marry,
bear children, and likewise widows to repeat that converse with man
which they have once experienced with ill results; and that even if
they can contain, they are in error who will not again enter the
marriage bond.
23. What then? Would you have us put off the
man in order to put on the beast, and stripping ourselves of Christ,
clothe ourselves or be superclothed with the garments of the
devil? But since the very teachers of the heathen did not think
that honour and pleasure could be joined together, because they would
seem thus to class beasts with men, shall we as it were infuse the
habits of beasts into the human breast, and inscribe on the reasonable
mind the unreasoning ways of wild beasts?
24. And yet there are many kinds of animals,
which, when they have lost their fellow, will not mate again, and spend
their time as it were in solitary life; many too live on simple herbs,
and will not quench their thirst except at a pure stream; one can also
often see dogs refrain from food forbidden them, so that they close
their famishing mouths if restraint is bidden them. Must men then
be warned against that wherein brutes have learned not to
transgress?
26. But what is more admirable than abstinence,
which makes even the years of youth to ripen, so that there is an old
age of character? For as by excess of food and by drunkenness
even mature age is excited, so the wildness of youth is lessened by
scanty feasts and by the running stream. An external fire is
extinguished by pouring on water, it is then no wonder if the inward
heat of the body is cooled by draughts from the stream, for the flame
is fed or fails according to the fuel. As hay, straw, wood, oil,
and such like things are the nourishment which feeds fire, if you take
them away, or do not supply them, the fire is extinguished. In
like manner then the heat of the body is supported or lessened by food,
it is excited by food and lessened by food. Luxury then is the
mother of lust.
27. And is not temperance agreeable to
nature, and to that divine law, which in the very beginning of all
created things gave the springs for drink and the fruits of the trees
for food? After the Flood the just man found wine a source of
temptation to him.3677
Let us
then use the natural drink of temperance, and would that we all were
able to do so. But because all are not strong the Apostle
said: “Use a little wine because of thy frequent
infirmities.”3678
We
must drink it then not for the sake of pleasure, but because of
infirmity, and therefore sparingly as a remedy, not in excess as a
gratification.
28. Lastly, Elijah, whom the Lord was
training to the perfection of virtue, found at his head a cake and a
cruse of water; and then fasted in the strength of that food forty days
and forty nights.3679
Our
fathers, when they passed across the sea on foot,3680
drank water not wine. Daniel and
the Hebrew children, fed with their peculiar food,3681
and with water to drink, overcame, the
former the fury of the lions;3682
the latter
saw the
burning fire
play around their limbs with harmless touch.3683
29. And why should I speak of men?
Judith, in no way moved by the luxurious banquet of Holophernes,
carried off the triumph of which men’s arms despaired, solely in
right of her temperance; delivered her country from occupation and slew
the leader of the expedition with her own hands.3684
A clear proof both that his
luxury had enervated that warrior, terrible to the nations, and that
temperance made this woman stronger than men. In this case it was
not in her sex that nature was surpassed, but she overcame by her
diet. Esther by her fasts moved a proud king.3685
Anna, who for eighty-four years
in her widowhood had served God with fasts and prayers day and night in
the temple,3686
recognized
Christ, Whom John, the master of abstinence, and as it were a new angel
on earth, announced.
30. O foolish Elisha, for feeding the
prophets with wild and bitter gourds!3687
O Ezra forgetful of Scripture,
though he did restore the Scriptures from memory!3688
foolish Paul, who glories in
fastings,3689
if fastings
profit nothing.
31. But how should that not be profitable by
which our sins are purged? And if you offer this with humility
and with mercy, your bones, as Isaiah said, shall be fat, and you shall
be like a well-watered garden.3690
So, then,
your soul shall grow fat and its virtues also by the spiritual richness
of fasting, and your fruits shall be multiplied by the fertility of
your mind, so that there may be in you the inebriation of soberness,
like that cup of which the Prophet says: “Thy cup which
inebriates, how excellent it is!”3691
32. But not only is that temperance worthy
of praise which moderates food, but also that which moderates
lust. Since it is written: “Go not after thy lusts,
and deny thy appetite. If thou givest her desires to thy soul,
thou wilt be a joy to thine enemies;”3692
and farther on; “Wine and women
make even wise men to fall away.”3693
So that Paul teaches temperance
even in marriage itself; for he who is incontinent in marriage is a
kind of adulterer, and violates the law of the Apostle.
33. And why should I tell how great is the
grace of virginity, which was found worthy to be chosen by Christ, that
it might be even the bodily temple of God, in which as we read the
fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily.3694
A
Virgin conceived the Salvation of the world, a Virgin brought forth the
life of all. Virginity then ought not to be left to itself,
seeing that it benefited all in Christ. A Virgin bore Him Whom
this world cannot contain or support. And when He was born from
His mother’s womb, He yet preserved the fence of her chastity and
the inviolate seal of her virginity. And so Christ found in the
Virgin that which He willed to make His own, that which the Lord of all
might take to Himself. Further, our flesh was cast out of
Paradise by a man and woman and was joined to God through a
Virgin.
34. What shall I say concerning the other
Mary,3695
| 3695 i.e.
Miriam, the Hebrew form of the name. | the sister of Moses, who as leader of
the women passed on foot the straits of the sea?3696
By the same gift Thecla also was
reverenced by the lions, so that the unfed beasts stretched at the feet
of their prey prolonged a holy fast, and harmed the virgin neither with
wanton look nor claw, since virginity is injured even by a
look.
35. Again, with what reverence for virginity
has the holy Apostle spoken: “Concerning virgins I have no
commandment of the Lord, but I give my counsel, as having obtained
mercy of the Lord.”3697
He has
received no commandment, but a counsel, for that which beyond the law
is not commanded, but is rather advised by way of counsel.
Authority is not assumed but grace is shown, and this is not shown by
anyone, but by him who obtained mercy from the Lord. Are then the
counsels of these men better than those of the apostles? The
Apostle says, “I give my counsel,” but they think it right
to dissuade any from cultivating virginity.
36. And we ought to recognize what
commendation of it the prophet, or rather Christ in the prophet, has
uttered in a short verse; “A garden enclosed,” says He,
“is My sister, My spouse, a garden enclosed, a sealed
fountain.”3698
Christ
says this to the Church, which he desires to be a virgin, without spot,
without a wrinkle. A fertile garden is virginity, which can bear
many fruits of good odour. A garden enclosed, because it is
everywhere shut in by the wall of chastity. A sealed fountain,
because virginity is the source and origin of modesty, having to keep
inviolate the seal of purity, in which source the image of God is
reflected, since the purity of simplicity agrees also with chastity of
the body.
37. And
no one can doubt that the Church is a virgin, who also in the Epistle
to the Corinthians is espoused and presented as a chaste virgin to
Christ.3699
So in
the first Epistle he gives his counsel, and esteems the gift of
virginity as good, since it is not disturbed by any troubles of the
present time, nor polluted by any of its defilements, nor shaken by any
storms; in the later Epistle he brings a spouse to Christ, because he
is able to certify the virginity of the Church in the purity of that
people.
38. Answer me now, O Paul, in what way thou
givest counsel for the present distress.3700
“Because he that is without a
wife is careful,” he says, “for the things of the Lord, how
he may please God.” And he adds, “The unmarried woman
and the virgin think of the things of the Lord, that they may be holy
in body and spirit.”3701
She has
then her wall against the tempests of this world, and so fortified by
the defence of divine protection she is disturbed by none of the blasts
of this world. Good then is counsel, because there is advantage
in counsel, but there is a bond in a commandment. Counsel
attracts the willing, commandment binds the unwilling. If then
anyone has followed counsel, and not repented, she has gained an
advantage; but if she has repented, she has no ground for blaming the
Apostle, for she ought herself to have judged of her own weakness; and
so she is responsible for her own will, inasmuch as she bound herself
by a bond and knot beyond her power to bear.
39. And so like a good physician, desiring
to preserve the stability of virtue in the strong, and to give health
to the weak, he gives counsel to the one, and points out the remedy to
the others: “He that is weak eateth herbs,”3702
let him take a wife; he that has more
power let him seek the stronger meat of virtue. And rightly he
added: “For he who being steadfast hath settled in his own
heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath
determined this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin, doeth
well. So then both he who giveth his own virgin in marriage,
doeth well; and he that giveth her not in marriage, doeth better.
A woman is bound by the law, for so long a time as her husband
liveth. But if her husband have fallen asleep, she is freed, let
her marry whom she will, only in the Lord. But she will be more
happy if she abide as she is, after my counsel, for I think that I also
have the Spirit of the Lord.”3703
This is to have the counsel of God, to search diligently into all
things, and to advise things that are best, and to point out those that
are safest.
40. A careful guide points out many paths, that
each may walk along the one which he prefers and considers suitable to
himself, so long as he comes upon one by which he can reach the
camp. The path of virginity is good, but being high and steep
requires the stronger wayfarers. Good also is that of widowhood,
not so difficult as the former, but being rocky and rough, it requires
more cautious travellers. Good too is that of marriage; being
smooth and even it reaches the camp of the saints by a longer
circuit. This way is taken by most. There are then the
rewards of virginity, there are the merits of widowhood, there is also
a place for conjugal modesty. There are steps and advances in
each and every virtue.
41. Stand therefore firm in your hearts,
that no one overthrow you, that no one be able to make you fall.
The Apostle has taught us what it is “to stand,” that is
what was said to Moses: “The place whereon thou standest is
holy ground;”3704
for no one
stands unless he stand by faith, unless he stands fixed in the
determination of his own heart. In another place also we
read: “But do thou stand here with Me.”3705
Each sentence was spoken by the
Lord to Moses, both “Where thou standest is holy ground,”
and “Stand here with Me,” that is, thou standest with Me,
if thou stand firm in the Church. For the very place is holy, the
very ground is fruitful with sanctity and fertile with harvests of
virtues.
42. Stand then in the Church, stand where I
appeared to thee, where I am with thee. Where the Church is,
there is the most solid resting place for thy mind, there the support
of thy soul, where I appeared to thee in the bush. Thou art the
bush, I am the fire; the fire in the bush, I in the flesh.
Therefore am I the fire, that I may give light to thee, that I may
consume thy thorns, that is, thy sins, and show thee My grace.
43. Standing firm then in your hearts, drive
away from the Church the wolves which seek to carry off prey. Let
there be no sloth in you, let not your mouth be evil nor your tongue
bitter. Do not sit in the council of vanity; for it is written,
“I have not sat in the council of vanity.”3706
Do not listen to those who speak
against their neighbours,
lest whilst you listen to others, you be
stirred up yourselves to speak against your neighbours, and it be said
to each of you: “Thou satest and spakest against thy
brother.”3707
44. Men sit when speaking against others,
they stand when they praise the Lord, to whom it is said:
“Behold now, praise the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, ye
that stand in the house of the Lord.”3708
He who sits, to speak of the
bodily habit, is as it were loosened by ease, and relaxes the energy of
his mind. But the careful watchman, the active searcher, the
watchful guardian, who keeps the outposts of the camp, stands.
The zealous warrior, too, who desires to anticipate the designs of the
enemy, stands in array before he is expected.
45. “Let him that standeth take heed
lest he fall.”3709
He who
stands does not give way to detraction, for it is the tales of those at
ease in which detraction is spread abroad, and malignity
betrayed. So that the prophet says: “I have hated the
congregation of the malignant, and will not sit with the
ungodly.”3710
And in the
thirty-sixth Psalm, which he has filled with moral precepts, he has put
at the very beginning: “Be not malignant amongst the
malignant, neither be envious of those who do iniquity.”3711
Malignancy is more harmful than
malice, because malignancy has neither pure simplicity nor open malice,
but a hidden ill-will. And it is more difficult to guard against
what is hidden than against what is known. For which reason too
our Saviour warns us to beware of malignant spirits, because they would
catch us by the appearance of sweet pleasures and a show of other
things, when they hold forth honour to entice us to ambition, riches to
avarice, power to pride.
46. And so both in every action, and
especially in the demand for a bishop, by whom [as a pattern] the life
of all is formed; malignity ought to be absent; so that the man who is
to be elected out of all, and to heal all, may be preferred to all by a
calm and peaceful decision. For “the meek man is the
physician of the heart.”3712
And the
Lord in the Gospel called Himself this, when He said: “They
that be whole need not a physician, but they that are
sick.”3713
47. He is the good Physician, Who has taken
upon Him our infirmities, has healed our sicknesses, and yet He, as it
is written, honoured not Himself to be made a High Priest, but He Who
spake to Him. The Father said: “Thou art My Son, this
day have I begotten Thee.”3714
As
He said in another place: “Thou art a Priest for ever after
the order of Melchisedech.” Who, since He was the type of
all future priests, took our flesh upon Him, that “in the days of
His flesh He might offer prayers and supplications with a loud voice
and tears; and by those things which He suffered, though He was the Son
of God, might seem to learn obedience, which He taught us, that He
might be made to us the Author of Salvation.”3715
And at last when His sufferings
were completed, as though completed and made perfect Himself, He gave
health to all, He bore the sin of all.
48. And so He Himself also chose Aaron as
priest, that not the will of man but the grace of God should have the
chief part in the election of the priest;3716
not the voluntary offering of himself,
nor the taking it upon himself, but the vocation from heaven, that he
should offer gifts for sins who could be touched for those who sinned,
for He Himself, it is said, bears our weakness.3717
No one ought to take this honour
upon himself but they are called of God, as was Aaron,3718
and so Christ did not demand but
received the priesthood.
49. Lastly, when the succession derived
through family descent from Aaron, contained rather heirs of the family
than sharers in his righteousness, there came, after the likeness of
that Melchisedech, of whom we read in the Old Testament, the true
Melchisedech, the true King of peace, the true King of righteousness,
for this is the interpretation of the Name, “without father,
without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor
end of life,”3719
which also
refers to the Son of God, Who in His Divine Generation had no mother,
was in His Birth of the Virgin Mary without a father; begotten before
the ages of the Father alone, born in this age of the Virgin alone, and
certainly could have no beginning of days seeing He “was in the
beginning.”3720
And how
could He have any end of life, Who is the Author of life to all?
He is “the Beginning and the Ending.”3721
But this also is referred to Him
as an example, that a priest ought to be without father and without
mother, since in him it is not nobility of family, but
holiness of character and
pre-eminence in virtue which is elected.
50. Let there be in him faith and ripeness
of character, not one without the other, but let both meet together in
one with good works and deeds. For which reason the Apostle Paul
wishes that we should be imitators of them, who, as he says, “by
faith and patience”3722
possess the
promises made to Abraham, who by patience was found worthy to receive
and to possess the grace of the blessing promised to him. David
the prophet warns us that we should be imitators of holy Aaron, and has
set him amongst the Saints of God to be imitated by us, saying:
“Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those that
call upon His Name.”3723
51. A man clearly worthy to be proposed that
all should follow him was he, for when a terrible death on account of
the rebels was spreading over the people, he offered himself between
the dead and the living, that he might arrest death, and that no more
should perish.3724
A man
truly of priestly mind and soul, who as a good shepherd with pious
affection offered himself for the Lord’s flock. And so he
broke the sting of death, restrained its violence, refused it further
course. Affection aided his deserts, for he offered himself for
those who were resisting him.
52. Let those then who dissent learn to fear
to rouse up the Lord, and to appease His priests. What! did not
the earthquake swallow up Dathan, Abiron, and Korah because of their
dissension?3725
For when
Korah, Dathan, and Abiron had stirred up two hundred and fifty men
against Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from them, they rose up
against them and said: “Let it suffice you that all the
congregation are holy, every one, and the Lord is amongst
them.”3726
53. Whereupon the Lord was angry and spoke
to the whole congregation. The Lord considered and knew those
that were His, and drew His saints to Himself; and those whom He chose
not, He did not draw to Himself. And the Lord commanded that
Korah and all those who had risen up with him against Moses and Aaron
the priests of the Lord should take to themselves censers, and put on
incense,3727
that he who
was chosen of the Lord might be established as holy among the Levites
of the Lord.
54. And Moses said to Korah:
“Hear me, ye sons of Levi: Is this a small thing unto you,
that God hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, and
brought you near to Himself, to minister the service of the Tabernacle
of the Lord.”3728
And
farther on, “Seek ye the priesthood also, so that thou and all
thy congregation are gathered against the Lord. And what is Aaron
that ye murmur about him?”3729
55. Considering, then, what causes of offence
existed, that unworthy persons desired to discharge the offices of the
priesthood, and therefore were causing dissensions; and were murmuring
in censure of the judgment of God in the choice of His priest, the
whole people were seized with a great fear, and dread of punishment
came upon them all. But when all implore that all perish not for
the insolence of few, those guilty of the wickedness are marked out;
and two hundred and fifty men with their leaders are separated from the
whole body of the people; and then the earth with a groan cleaves
asunder in the midst of the people, a deep gulf opens, the offenders
are swallowed up, and are so removed from all the elements of this
world, as neither to pollute the air by breathing it, nor the heavens
by beholding them, nor the sea by their touch, nor the earth by their
sepulchres.
56. The punishment ceased, but the wickedness
ceased not; for from this very thing a murmuring rose among them that
the people had perished through the priests. In His wrath at
this, the Lord would have destroyed them all, had He not been moved
first by the prayers of Moses and Aaron, and afterwards also at the
intervention of His priest Aaron (the humiliation of their forgiveness
being thereby greater), He willed to give their lives to those whose
privilege they had repudiated.
57. Miriam the prophetess herself, who with
her brothers had crossed the straits of the sea on foot, because, being
still ignorant of the mystery of the Ethiopian woman, she had murmured
against her brother Moses, broke out with leprous spots,3730
so that she would scarcely have been
freed from so great a plague, unless Moses had prayed for her.
Although this murmuring refers to the type of the Synagogue, which is
ignorant of the mystery of that Ethiopian woman, that is the Church
gathered out of the nations, and murmurs with daily reproaches, and
envies that people through whose faith itself also shall be
delivered
from the
leprosy of its unbelief, according to what we read that:
“blindness in part has happened unto Israel, until the fulness of
the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be
saved.”3731
58. And that we may observe that divine grace
rather than human works in priests, of the many rods which Moses had
received according to the Tribes, and had laid up, that of Aaron alone
blossomed. And so the people saw that the gift of the Divine
vocation is to be looked for in a priest, and ceased from claiming
equal grace for a human choice though they had before thought that a
similar prerogative belonged to themselves. But what else does
that rod show, but that priestly grace never decays, and in the deepest
lowliness has in its office the flower of the power committed to it, or
that this also is refered to in mystery? Nor do we think that it
was without a purpose that this took place near the end of the life of
Aaron the priest. It seems to be shown that the ancient people,
full of decay through the oldness of the long-continued unfaithfulness
of the priests, being fashioned again in the last times to zeal in
faith and devotion by the example of the Church, will again send forth
with revived grace its flowers dead through so many ages.
59. But what does this signify, that after Aaron
was dead, the Lord commanded, not the whole people, but Moses alone,
who is amongst the priests, to clothe Aaron’s son Eleazar with
the priest’s garments, except that we should understand that
priest must consecrate priest, and himself clothe him with the
vestments, that is, with priestly virtues; and then, if he has seen
that nothing is wanting to him of the priestly garments, and that all
things are perfect, should admit him to the sacred altars. For he
who is to supplicate for the people ought to be chosen of God and
approved by the priests, lest there be anything which might give
serious offence in him whose office it is to intercede for the offences
of others. For the virtue of a priest must be of no ordinary
kind, since he has to guard not only from nearness to greater faults,
but even the very least. He must also be prompt to have pity, not
recall a promise, restore the fallen, have sympathy with pain, preserve
meekness, love piety, repel or keep down anger, must be as it were a
trumpet to excite the people to devotion, or to soothe them to
tranquillity.
60. It is an old saying: Accustom
yourself to be consistent, that your life may set forth as it were a
picture, always preserving the same representation which it has
received. How can he be consistent who at one time is inflamed by
anger, at another blazes up with fierce indignation, whose face now
burns, and now again is changed to paleness, varying and changing
colour every moment? But let it be so, let it be natural for one
to be angry, or that there is generally a cause, it is a man’s
duty to restrain anger, and not to be carried away like a lion by fury,
so as not to know to be quieted, not to spread tales, nor to embitter
family quarrels; for it is written: “A wrathful man diggeth
up sin.”3732
He
will not be consistent who is double-minded; he cannot be consistent
who cannot restrain himself when angry, as to which David well
says: “Be ye angry and sin not.”3733
He does not govern his anger,
but indulges his natural disposition, which a man cannot indeed prevent
but may moderate. Therefore even though we are angry, let our
passion admit only such emotion as is according to nature, not sin
contrary to nature. For who would endure that he should not be
able to govern himself, who has undertaken to govern others?
61. And so the Apostle has given a pattern,
saying that a bishop must be blameless,3734
and in another place: “A
bishop must be without offence, as a steward of God, not proud, not
soon angry, not given to wine, not a striker, not greedy of filthy
lucre.”3735
For how
can the compassion of a dispenser of alms and the avarice of a covetous
man agree together?
62. I have set down these things which I
have been told are to be avoided, but the Apostle is the Master of
virtues, and he teaches that gainsayers are to be convicted with
patience,3736
who lays
down that one should be the husband of a single wife,3737
not in order to exclude him from the
right of marriage (for this is beyond the force of the precept), but
that by conjugal chastity he may preserve the grace of his baptismal
washing; nor again that he may be induced by the Apostle’s
authority to beget children in the priesthood; for he speaks of having
children, not of begetting them, or marrying again.
63. And I have thought it well not to pass by this
point, because many contend that having one wife is said of the time
after Baptism; so that the fault whereby any
obstacle would ensue would be washed away
in baptism. And indeed all faults and sins are washed away; so
that if anyone have polluted his body with very many whom he has bound
to himself by no law of marriage, all the sins are forgiven him, but if
any one have contracted a second marriage it is not done away; for sin
not law is loosed by the laver, and as to baptism there is no sin but
law. That then which has to do with law is not remitted as though
it were sin, but is retained. And the Apostle has established a
law, saying: “If any man be without reproach the husband of
one wife.”3738
So
then he who is without blame the husband of one wife comes within the
rule for undertaking the priestly office; he, however, who has married
again has no guilt of pollution, but is disqualified for the priestly
prerogative.
64. We have stated what is according to the
law, let us state in addition what is according to reason. But
first we must notice that not only has the Apostle laid down this rule
concerning a bishop or priest, but that the Fathers in the Nicene
Council3739
| 3739 In concilio
Nicœni tractatus—“the Council of the Nicene
tractate or creed,” possibly. The reference is plain,
though there are various readings, and tractatus may not mean
the creed. The real difficulty is that in the 20 extant Canons of
Nicæa, there is no reference of the kind, and there is no evidence
that any are missing. Perhaps St. Ambrose is quoting from memory,
or some faulty collection, and so other canons are wrongly spoken of as
Nicene. On the subject comp. St. Ambr. de Off. I. 257, and
Dict. Chr. Ant. art. “Digamy.” | added that
no one who has contracted a second marriage ought to be admitted
amongst the clergy at all. For how can he comfort or honour a
widow, or exhort her to preserve her widowhood, and the faith pledged
to her husband, which he himself has not kept in regard to his former
marriage? Or what difference would there be between people and
priest, if they were bound by the same laws? The life of a priest
ought to excel that of others as does his grace, for he who binds
others by his precepts ought himself to keep the precepts of the
law.
65. How I resisted my ordination, and
lastly, when I was compelled, endeavoured that it might at least be
deferred, but the prescribed rule did not prevail against the popular
eagerness. Yet the Western Bishops approved of my ordination by
their decision, the Eastern by an example of the same kind.3740
| 3740 Nectarius,
unbaptized and holding a civil office, was appointed to the see of
Constantinople, on the resignation of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, during
the sitting of the second œcumenical council at
Constantinople. | And yet the ordination of a
neophyte is forbidden, lest he should be lifted up by pride.3741
If the ordination was not
postponed it was because of constraint, and if humility suitable to the
priestly office be not wanting, where there is no reason blame will not
be imputed to him.
66. But if so much consideration is needed in
other churches for the ordination of a bishop, how much care is
required in the Church of Vercellæ, where two things seem to be
equally required of the bishop, monastic rule and church
discipline? For Eusebius of holy memory was the first in Western
lands to bring together these differing matters, both while living in
the city observing the rules of the monks, and ruling the Church with
fasting and temperance. For the grace of the priesthood is much
increased if the bishop constrain young men to the practice of
abstinence, and to the rule of purity; and forbid them though living in
the city, the manners and mode of life of the city.
67. From such a rule sprang those great men,
Elijah, Elisha, John the son of Elizabeth, who clothed in sheepskins,
poor and needy, and afflicted with pain, wandered in deserts,3742
in hollows and thickets of mountains,
amongst pathless rocks, rough caves, pitfalls and marshes, of whom the
world was not worthy. From the same, Daniel, Ananias, Azarias,
and Misael,3743
who were
brought up in the royal palace, were fed meagrely as though in the
desert, with coarse food, and ordinary drink. Rightly did those
royal slaves prevail over kingdoms, despise captivity, shaking off its
yoke, subdue powers, conquer the elements, quench the nature of fire,
dull the flames, blunt the edge of the sword, stop the mouths of
lions;3744
they were
found most strong when esteemed to be most weak, and did not shrink
from the mockings of men, because they looked for heavenly rewards;
they did not dread the darkness of the prison, on whom was shining the
beauty of eternal light.
68. Following these, holy Eusebius went
forth out of his country, and from his own relatives, and preferred a
foreign wandering to ease at home. For the faith also he
preferred and chose the hardships of exile, in conjunction with
Dionysius3745
| 3745 The two
Bishops, Eusebius of Vercellæ and Dionysius of Milan, were
banished by Valens, because in a council at Milan a.d. 355. | of holy
memory, who esteemed a voluntary exile above an Emperor’s
friendship. And so these illustrious men, surrounded with arms,
closed in by soldiers, when torn away from the larger
Church, triumphed over the
imperial power, because by earthly shame they purchased fortitude of
soul, and kingly power; they from whom the band of soldiers and the din
of arms could not tear away the faith subdued the raging of the brutal
mind, which was unable to hurt the saints. For, as you read in
Proverbs, “the king’s wrath is as the wrath of a
lion.”3746
69. He confessed that he was overcome when
he asked them to change their determination, but they thought their pen
stronger than swords of iron. Then it was unbelief which was
wounded so that it fell, not the faith of the saints; they did not
desire a tomb in their own country, for whom was reserved a home in the
heavens. They wandered over the whole earth, “having
nothing and yet possessing all things.”3747
Wherever they were sent, they
esteemed it a place full of delights, for nothing was wanting to them
in whom the riches of faith abounded. Lastly, they enriched
others, being themselves poor as to earthly means, rich in grace.
They were tried but not killed, in fasting, in labours, in watchings,
in vigils. Out of weakness they came forth strong. They did
not wait for the enticements of pleasure who were satiated by fasting;
the burning summer did not parch those whom the hope of eternal grace
refreshed, nor did the cold of icy regions break them down, whose
devotion was ever budding afresh with glowing devotion; they feared not
the chains of men whom Jesus had set free; they desired not to be
rescued from death, who expected to be raised again by
Christ.
70. And at last holy Dionysius requested in his
prayers, that he might end his life in exile, for fear that he might,
if he returned home, find the minds of the people or the clergy
disturbed through the teaching or practice of the unbelievers, and he
obtained this favour, so that he bore with him the peace of the Lord
with a quiet mind. Thus as holy Eusebius first raised the
standard of confessorship, so blessed Dionysius in his exile gave up
his life with honour higher even than martyrs.
71. Now this patience in holy Eusebius grew
strong by the discipline of the monastery, and from the custom of hard
endurance he derived the power of enduring hardships. For who
doubts that in stricter Christian devotion these two things are the
most excellent, the offices of the clergy and the rule of the
monks? The former is a discipline which accustoms to
courteousness and good morals, the latter to abstinence and patience;
the former as it were on an open stage, the latter in secret; the one
is visible, the other hidden. And so he who was a good athlete
said: “We are made a spectacle to this world and to
Angels.”3748
Worthy indeed was he to be gazed upon by Angels, when he was striving
to attain the prize of Christ, when he was striving to lead on earth
the life of Angels, and overcome the wickedness of spirits in heaven,
for he wrestled with spiritual wickedness.3749
Rightly did the world gaze upon
him, that it might imitate him.
72. The one life, then, is on the open
arena, the other hidden as in a cave; the one is opposed to the
confusion of the world, the other to the desires of the flesh; the one
subdues, the other shuns the pleasures of the body; the one was more
agreeable, the other more safe; the one ruling, the other restraining
itself, in order to be wholly Christ’s, for to the perfect it is
said: “He who will come after Me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross and follow Me.”3750
Now he follows Christ who is able
to say: “It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in
me.”3751
73. Paul denied himself, when, knowing that
chains and tribulations awaited him in Jerusalem, he willingly offered
himself to danger, saying: “Nor do I count my life dear to
myself, if only I can accomplish my course, and the ministry of the
Word, which I have received of the Lord Jesus.”3752
And at last, though many were
standing round, weeping and beseeching him, he did not change his mind,
so stern a censor of itself is ready faith.
74. The one then contends, the other
retires; the one overcomes incitements, the other flees from them; by
the one the world is triumphed over, the other rejoices over it; to the
one the world is crucified, or itself is crucified to the
world,3753
to the other
it is unknown; the one endures more frequent temptations, and so has
the greater victory, the other falls less often, and keeps guard more
easily.
75. Elijah himself too, that the word spoken
by his mouth might be confirmed, was sent by the Lord to hide himself
by the brook Cherith.3754
Ahab
threatened, Jezebel threatened, Elijah was afraid and rose up, and then
“went in the strength of that spiritual meat forty days and forty
nights
unto Horeb the
mount of God;”3755
and entered
into a cave and rested there; and afterwards was sent to anoint
kings. He was then inured to patience by dwelling in solitude,
and, as though fed to the fatness of virtue by the homely food, went on
more strong.
76. John, too, grew up in the desert, and baptized
the Lord, and there first practised constancy, that afterwards he might
rebuke kings.
77. And since in speaking of holy
Elijah’s dwelling in the desert, we have passed by without notice
the names of places which were not given without a purpose, it seems
well to go back to what they signify. Elijah was sent to the
brook Cherith, and there the ravens nourished him, bringing him bread
in the morning, for it “strengthens man’s
heart.”3756
For how
should the prophet be nourished except by mystical food? At
evening flesh was supplied. Understand what you read, for Cherith
means “understanding,” Horeb signifies “heart”
or “as a heart,” Beersheba also is interpreted “the
well of the seventh,” or “of the oath.”
78. Elijah went first to Beersheba, to the
mysteries and sacraments of the divine and holy Law, next he is sent to
the brook, to the stream of the river which makes glad the City of
God.3757
You perceive the two Testaments
of the One Author; the old Scripture as a well deep and obscure, whence
you can only draw with labour; it is not full, for He Who was to fill
it was not yet come, Who afterwards said: “I am come not to
destroy but to fulfil the Law.”3758
And so the Saint is bidden of
the Lord to pass over to the stream, for he who has drunk of the New
Testament, not only is a river, but also “from his belly shall
flow rivers of living water,”3759
rivers of
understanding, rivers of meditation, spiritual rivers, which, however,
dried up in the times of unbelief, lest the sacrilegious and
unbelieving should drink.
79. At that place the ravens recognized the
Prophet of the Lord, whom the Jews did not recognize. The ravens
fed him, whom that royal and noble race were persecuting. What is
Jezebel, who persecuted him but the Synagogue, vainly fluent, vainly
abounding in the Scriptures, which it neither keeps nor
understands? What ravens fed him but those whose young call upon
Him, to whose cattle He gives food as we read; “to the young
ravens that call upon Him.”3760
Those ravens knew whom they were feeding, who were close upon
understanding, and brought food to that stream of sacred
knowledge.
80. He feeds the prophet, who understands and
keeps the things that are written. Our faith gives him
sustenance, our progress gives him nourishment; he feeds upon our minds
and senses, his discourse is nourished by our understanding. In
the morning we give him bread, who, being placed in the light of the
Gospel, bestow on him the settled strength of our hearts. By
these things he is nourished, by these he is strong, with these he
fills the mouths of those who fast, to whom the unbelief of the Jews
supplied no food of faith. To them every prophetic utterance is
but fasting diet, the interior richness of which they do not see; empty
and thin, such as cannot fatten their jaws.
81. Perhaps they brought him flesh in the
evening, as it were stronger food, such as the Corinthians, whose minds
were weak, could not take, and were therefore fed by the Apostle with
milk.3761
So, stronger meat was brought in
the evening of the world, in the morning bread. And so, because
the Lord commanded this food to be supplied, that word of prophecy may
be suitably addressed to Him in this place: “Thou wilt give
joy in the outgoings of morning and evening;”3762
and, farther on: “Thou
hast prepared their food, for so is its preparation.”3763
82. But I think that enough has been said of the
Master, let us now go on to the lives of the disciples, who have given
themselves to His praise and celebrate it with hymns day and
night. For this is the service of the Angels, to be always
occupied in the praises of God, to propitiate and entreat the Lord with
frequent prayers. They attend to reading, or occupy their minds
with continual labours, and separated from the companionship of women,
afford safe protection to each other. What a life is this, in
which is nothing to fear, much to imitate! The pain of fasting is
compensated by tranquillity of mind, is lightened by practice, aided by
leisure, or beguiled by occupation; is not burdened with worldly cares,
nor occupied with uncongenial troubles, nor weighed down with the
distractions of the city.
83. You perceive what kind of teacher must be
found for the preservation or teaching of this gift, and we can find
him, if you assist by unanimity, if you forgive one
another should any one think himself
injured by another. For it is not the only kind of justice, not
to injure him who has not injured us, but also to forgive him who has
most injured us. We are often injured by the fraud of another, by
the guile of a neighbour; do we consider it a mark of virtue, to avenge
guile by guile, or to repay fraud by fraud? For if justice is a
virtue it should be free from offence, and should not repel wickedness
by wickedness. For what virtue is it that the same thing should
be done by you which you yourself punish in another? That is the
spreading of wickedness not its punishment, for it makes no difference
whom one injures, whether a just man or an unjust, seeing one ought not
to injure anyone. Nor does it make any difference in what way one
bears ill will, whether from a desire of revenging oneself, or from a
wish to injure, since in neither case is ill will free from
blame. For to bear ill will is the same thing as to be unjust,
and so it is said to thee: “Bear not ill will amongst those
that bear ill will, and emulate not those that do
unrighteousness;”3764
and above;
“I have hated the congregation of them that bear ill
will.”3765
He
clearly comprehends all and makes no exception, he lays hold of ill
will and asks not the cause.
84. But what better pattern can there be
than that of Divine justice? For the Son of God says:
“Love your enemies;”3766
and
again: “Pray for those that persecute you and speak against
you.”3767
So far
does He remove the desire of vengeance from the perfect that He
commands charity towards those who injure them. And since He had
said in the Old Testament: “Vengeance is Mine, I will
repay.”3768
He
says in the Gospel, that we are to pray for those who have injured us,
that He Who has said that He will avenge, may not do so; for it is His
will to pardon at your desire with which according to His promise He
agrees. But if you seek for you know that the unjust is more
severely punished by his own convictions than by judicial
severity.
85. And since no one can be without some
adversities, let us take care that they do not happen to us through our
own fault. For no one is more severely condemned by the judgment
of others, than a foolish man, who is the cause of his misfortunes, is
condemned by his own. For which reason we should decline matters
which are full of trouble and contention, which have no advantage, but
cause hindrances. Although we ought to take care not to have to
repent our decisions or acts. For it is the part of a prudent man
to look forward, so as not often to have to repent, for never to repent
belongs to God alone. But what is the fruit of righteousness, but
tranquillity of mind? Or what is to live righteously but to live
with tranquility? Such as is the pattern of the master, such is
the condition of the whole house. But if these things are
requisite in a house, how much more in the Church, “where we,
both rich and poor, bond and free, Greek and Scythian, noble and
common, are all one in Christ Jesus.”3769
86. Let no man suppose that because he is
rich, more deference is to be paid him. In the Church he is rich
who is rich in faith, for the faithful has a whole world of
riches. What wonder is it if the faithful possesses the world,
who possesses the inheritance of Christ, which is of more value than
the world? “Ye were redeemed with the Precious
Blood,”3770
was certainly
said to all, not to the rich only. But if you will be rich, obey
him who says: “Be ye holy in all your
conversation.”3771
He is
speaking not to the rich only but to all; for He judges without respect
of persons, as the Apostle His faithful witness says. And
therefore says he: “Spend the time of your sojourning
here,”3772
not in
luxury, or fastidiousness, nor haughtiness of heart, but in fear.
On this earth you have time not eternity, do you use the time as those
who must pass hence.
87. Do not trust in riches; for all such
things are left here, faith alone will accompany you. And
righteousness indeed will go with you if faith has led the way.
Why do riches entice you? “Ye were not redeemed with gold
and silver,” with possessions, or silk garments, “from your
vain conversation, but with the precious Blood of
Christ.”3773
He
then is rich who is an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ.
Despise not the poor man, he has made you rich. “This poor
man cried, and the Lord heard him.”3774
Do not reject a poor man,
Christ when He was rich became poor, and became poor because of you,
that by His poverty He might make you rich.3775
Do not then as though rich exalt
yourself, He sent forth His apostles without money.
88. And the first of them said:
“Silver and gold have I none.”3776
He glories in
poverty as though shunning
contamination. “Silver and gold,” he says, “I
have none,”—not gold and silver. He knows not their
order in value who knows not the use of them. “Silver and
gold have I none,” but I have faith. I am rich enough in
the Name of Jesus, “which is above every name.”3777
I have no silver, neither do I
require any; I have no gold, neither do I desire it, but I have what
you rich men have not, I have what even you would consider to be of
more value, and I give it to the poor, namely that I say in the Name of
Jesus: “Be strengthened, ye weak hands, and ye feeble
knees.”3778
89. But if you will be rich, you must be
poor. Then shall you in all things be rich, if you are poor in
spirit. It is not property which makes rich, but the spirit.
90. There are those who humble themselves in
abundance of riches, and they act rightly and prudently, for the law of
nature is sufficiently rich for all, according to which one may soon
find what is more than enough; but for lust any abundance of riches is
still penury. Again, no one is born poor but becomes so.
Poverty then is not in nature but in our own feelings, and so to find
oneself rich is easy for nature, but hard for lust. For the more
a man has gained the more he thirsts for gain, and burns as it were
with a kind of intoxication from his lusts.
91. Why do you seek for a heap of riches as though
it were necessary? Nothing is so necessary as to know that this
is not necessary. Why do you throw the blame on the flesh?
It is not the belly in the body but avarice in the mind which makes a
man insatiable. Does the flesh take away the hope of the
future? Does the flesh destroy the sweetness of spiritual
grace? Does the flesh hinder faith? Is it the flesh which
attributes any weight to vain opinions as it were to insane
masters? The flesh prefers frugal moderation, by which it is
freed from burdens, is clothed with health, because it has laid aside
its care and has obtained tranquillity.
92. But riches themselves are not
blameable. For “the ransom of a man’s life are his
riches,”3779
since he
that gives to the poor redeems his soul.3780
So that even in these material
riches there is place for virtue. You are like steersmen in the
vast sea. If a man steers his course well, he quickly passes over
the sea so as to attain to the port, but one who knows not how to
direct his property is drowned together with his freight. And so
it is written: “The wealth of rich men is a most strong
city.”3781
93. And what is that city but Jerusalem
which is in heaven, in which is the kingdom of God? This is a
good possession which brings eternal fruit. A good possession
which is not left here, but is possessed there. He who possesses
this says: “The Lord is my portion.”3782
He says not, My portion
stretches and extends from this boundary to that. Nor does he
say, My portion is amongst such and such neighbours, except perchance
amongst the apostles, amongst the prophets, amongst the saints of the
Lord, for this is the righteous man’s portion. He does not
say, My portion is in the meadows, or in the woods, or the plains,
except perchance those wooded plains in which the Church is found, of
which it is written: “We found it in the wooded
plains.”3783
He
does not say, My portion consists of herds of horses, for “a
horse is a vain thing for safety.”3784
He does not say, My portion
consists of herds of oxen, asses, or sheep; except perchance he reckons
himself amongst those which know their Owner, and wishes to company
with the ass which does not shun the crib3785
of Christ; and that Sheep is his
portion which was led to the slaughter, and that Lamb which was dumb
before the shearer, and opened not His mouth,3786
in Whose humiliation judgment has
been exalted. Well does he say “before the shearer,”
for He laid aside what was additional, not His own essence, on the
cross, when He laid aside His Body, but lost not His
Divinity.
94. It is not then everyone who can say,
“The Lord is my portion.” The covetous man cannot,
for covetousness draws near and says: Thou art my portion, I have
thee in subjection, thou hast served me, thou hast sold thyself to me
with that gold, by that possession thou hast adjudged thyself to
me. The luxurious man says not: Christ is my portion, for
luxury comes and says: Thou art my portion, I made thee mine in
that banquet, I caught thee in the net of that feast, I hold thee by
the bond of thy gluttony. Dost thou not know that thy table was
more valued by thee than thy life? I refute thee by thine own
judgment, deny if thou canst, but thou canst not. And in fine
thou hast reserved nothing for thy life, thou hast spent it all for thy
table. The adulterer cannot say: “The Lord is my
portion;” for lust comes and says: I am
thy portion, thou didst bind thyself to me in
the love of that maiden, by a night with that harlot thou hast come
under my laws and into my power. The traitor cannot say:
“Christ is my portion,” for at once the wickedness of his
sin rushes on him and says: He is deceiving Thee, Lord Jesus, he
is mine.
95. We have an example of this, for when Judas had
received the bread from Christ the devil entered into his heart, as
though claiming his own property, as though retaining his right to his
own portion, as though saying: He is not Thine but mine; clearly
he is my servant, Thy betrayer, plainly he is mine. He sits at
table with Thee, and serves me; with Thee he feasts, but is fed by me;
from Thee he receives bread, from me money; with Thee he drinks, and
has sold Thy Blood to me. And he proved how truly he spoke.
Then Christ departed from him, Judas also himself left Jesus and
followed the devil.
96. How many masters has he who has forsaken
the One! But let us not forsake Him. Who would forsake Him
Whom they follow bound with chains indeed, but chains of love, which
set free and do not bind, those chains in which they who are bound
boast, saying: “Paul the bondservant of Jesus Christ, and
Timothy.”3787
It
is more glorious for us to be bound by Him, than to be set free and
loosed from others. Who then would flee from peace? Who
would flee from salvation? Who would flee from mercy? Who
would flee from redemption?
97. You see, my sons, what has been the end
of those who followed these things, how being dead they yet work.
Let us study to gain the diligence of those the glory of whose virtues
we admire, and what we praise in others, let us silently recognize in
ourselves. Nothing effeminate, nothing feeble attains to
praise. “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the
violent take it by force.”3788
The fathers ate the lamb in
haste. Faith hastens, devotion is quick, hope is active, it loves
not objections of the mind, but to pass from fruitless ease to the
fruits of toil. Why do you put off till tomorrow? You can
gain to-day; and must guard against not attaining the one and losing
the other. The loss even of one hour is no slight one, one hour
is a portion of our whole life.
98. There are young persons who desire quickly to
attain to old age, so as no longer to be subject to the will of their
elders; and there are also old men who would wish if they could to
return again to youth. And I approve of neither desire, for the
young, disdainful of things present, as it were ungratefully desire a
change in their way of living, the old wish for its lengthening,
whereas youth can grow old in character, and old age grow green with
action. For it is discipline as much as age which brings
amendment of character. How much the more then ought we to raise
our hopes to the kingdom of God, where will be newness of life, and
where will be a change of grace not of age!
99. Reward is not obtained by ease or by
sleep. The sleeper does no work, ease brings no profit, but
rather loss. Esau by taking his ease lost the blessing of the
first-born, for he preferred to have food given to him rather than to
seek it. Industrious Jacob found favour with each parent.
100. And yet although Jacob was superior in
virtue and favour, he yielded to his brother’s anger, who grieved
that his younger brother was preferred to him. And so it is
written: “Give place to wrath,”3789
lest the wrath of another draw you
also into sin, when you wish to resist, and to avenge yourself.
You can put away sin both from him and from yourself, if you think well
to yield. Imitate the patriarch who by his mother’s counsel
went far away. And who was the mother? Rebecca, that is,
Patience. For who but Patience could have given this
counsel? The mother loved her son, but preferred that he should
be cut off from herself rather than from God. And so because the
mother was good, she benefited both her sons, but to the youngest she
gave a blessing which he could keep; yet she preferred not one son to
the other as sons; but the active to the easy-going, the faithful to
the unbelieving.
101. And so since he was separated from his
parents through piety not on account of impiety, he talked with God, he
increased in riches, in children, and in favour. Nor was he
elated by these things when he met his brother; but humbly bowed down
to him, not indeed considering him the pitiless, the furious, the
degenerate, but Him Whom he reverenced in him. And so he bowed
down seven times, which is the number of remission, for he was not
bowing down to man, but to Him Whom he foresaw in the Spirit, as
hereafter to come in human flesh to take away the sins of the
world.3790
And this
mystery is unfolded to you in the answer
given to Peter, when he said:
“If my brother trespass against me how often shall I forgive
him? Until seven times?”3791
You
see that remission of sins is a type of that great Sabbath, of that
rest of everlasting grace, and therefore is given by
contemplation.
102. But what is the meaning of his having
arranged his wives and children and all his servants, and ordered that
they should bow down to the earth? It was certainly not to the
element of earth, which is often filled with blood, in which is the
workshop of all crimes, which often is rough with huge rocks, or broken
cliffs, or barren and hungry soil, but as to that Flesh which is to be
for our salvation. And perchance this is that mystery which the
Lord taught, when He said: “Not only seven times, but even
seventy times seven.”3792
103. Do you then forgive injuries done to
you that you may be children of Jacob. Be not provoked as was
Esau. Imitate holy David, who as a good master left us what we
should follow, saying: “Instead of loving me they spake
against me, but I prayed,”3793
and
when he was reviled, he prayed. Prayer is a good shield,
wherewith contumely is kept away, cursing is repelled and often is
turned back on those who utter it, so that they are wounded by their
own weapons. “Let them curse,” he says, “but
bless Thou.”3794
The
curse of man is to be sought for, which procures the blessing of the
Lord.
104. And for the rest, most dear brethren,
consider that Jesus suffered without the gate, and do you go forth out
of this earthly city, for your city is Jerusalem which is above.
Let your conversation be there, that you may say: “But our
conversation is in heaven.”3795
Therefore did Jesus go forth out of the city, that you going out of
this world may be above the world. Moses alone, who saw God, had
his tabernacle without the camp when he talked with God;3796
and the blood indeed of the victims
which were offered for sin, was brought to the altar, but the bodies
were burnt without the camp;3797
for no one
placed amidst the evil of this world can lay aside sin, nor is his
blood accepted of God, except he go forth from the defilement of this
body.
105. Love hospitality, whereby holy Abraham found
favour, and received Christ as his guest, and Sarah already worn with
age gained a son; Lot also escaped the fire of the destruction of
Sodom. You too can receive Angels if you offer hospitality to
strangers. What shall I say of Rahab who by this means found
safety?
106. Compassionate those who are bound with
chains, as though bound with them. Comfort those in sorrow; for,
“It is better to go into the house of mourning than into the
house of rejoicing.”3798
From
the one is gained the merit of a good work, from the other a lapse into
sin. Lastly, in the one case you still hope for the reward, in
the other you have already received it. Feel with those who are
afflicted as if also afflicted with them.
107. Let a wife show deference, not be a slave to
her husband; let her show herself ready to be ruled not coerced.
She is not worthy of wedlock who deserves chiding. Let a husband
also guide his wife like a steersman, honour her as the partner of his
life, share with her as a joint heir of grace.
108. Mothers, wean your children, love them, but
pray for them that they may long live above this earth, not on the
earth but above it, for there is nothing long-lived on this earth, and
that which lasts long is but short and very frail. Warn them
rather to take up the Cross of the Lord than to love this life.
109. Mary, the mother of the Lord stood by
her Son’s Cross; no one has taught me this but the holy
Evangelist St. John.3799
Others
have related how the earth was shaken at the Lord’s passion, the
sky was covered with darkness, the sun withdrew itself;3800
that the thief was after a faithful
confession received into paradise.3801
John
tells us what the others have not told, how the Lord fixed on the Cross
called to His mother, esteeming it of more worth that, victorious over
His sufferings, He rendered her the offices of piety, than that He gave
her a heavenly kingdom. For if it be according to religion to
grant pardon to the thief, it is a mark of much greater piety that a
mother is honoured with such affection by her Son.
“Behold,” He says, “thy
Son”.…“Behold thy mother.”3802
Christ testified from the Cross,
and divided the offices of piety between the mother and the
disciple. The Lord made not only a public but also a private
testament, and John signed this testament of His, a witness worthy of
so great a Testator. A good testament not of money but of eternal
life, which was written not with ink but with
the Spirit of the living God, Who
says: “My tongue is the pen of a quickly writing
scribe.”3803
110. Nor was Mary below what was becoming
the mother of Christ. When the apostles fled, she stood at the
Cross, and with pious eyes beheld her Son’s wounds, for she did
not look for the death of her Offspring, but the salvation of the
world. Or perchance, because that “royal
hall”3804
| 3804 The
expression “Aula regalisi” applied to the Blessed
Virgin is also used by St. Ambrose, de Inst. Virg. XII. 79, and
in the Hymn for the Nativity of our Lord—“Veni Redemptor
gentium,” verse 4—“Procedit e thalamo Suo,
Pudoris aula Regia.” The force is lost in the
translation adopted in Hymns Ancient and Modern, No. 57, but is
preserved in Dr. Neale’s version, “Proceeding from His
chamber free, The royal hall of chastity.”—Hymnal
Noted, No. 31. | knew that the
redemption of the world would be through the death of her Son, she
thought that by her death also she might add something to the public
weal. But Jesus did not need a helper for the redemption of all,
Who saved all without a helper. Wherefore also He says:
“I am become like a man without help, free among the
dead.”3805
He
received indeed the affection of His mother, but sought not
another’s help.
111. Imitate her, holy mothers, who in her only
dearly beloved Son set forth so great an example of maternal virtue;
for neither have you sweeter children, nor did the Virgin seek the
consolation of being able to bear another son.
112. Masters, command your servants not as
being below you in rank, but as remembering that they are sharers of
the same nature as yourselves.3806
Servants, serve your masters with good will, for each ought patiently
to support that to which he is born, and be obedient not only to good
but also to froward masters. For what thanks has your service if
you zealously serve good masters? But if you thus serve the
froward also you gain merit; for the free also have no reward, if when
they transgress they are punished by the judges, but this is their
merit to suffer without transgressing. And so you, if
contemplating the Lord Jesus you serve even difficult masters with
patience, will have your reward. Since the Lord Himself suffered,
the just at the hand of the unjust, and by His wonderful patience
nailed our sins to His Cross, that he who shall imitate Him may wash
away his sins in His Blood.
113. In fine, turn all to the Lord Jesus.
Let your enjoyment of this life be with a good conscience, your
endurance of death with the hope of immortality, your assurance of the
resurrection through the grace of Christ; let truth be with simplicity,
faith with confidence, abstinence with holiness, industry with
soberness, conversation with modesty, learning without vanity; let
there be soberness of doctrine, faith without the intoxication of
heresy. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Amen.
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