Hexameron 6.69–6.76

Next follows the throat, through which vital commerce and the passage of this breath are poured into the whole body. Then come the arms and the strong muscles of the upper arms, the hands strong for working and, with longer fingers, handy for holding. From these comes a fitter practice of working, from these the elegance of writing and that pen of the swiftly writing scribe, by which the oracles of the divine voice are expressed. It is the hand that serves food to the mouth, the hand that stands out in illustrious deeds, which, as reconciler of divine grace, is brought to the holy altars, through which we offer and receive the heavenly sacraments; it is the hand that both performs and dispenses the divine mysteries, by whose name the Son of God did not disdain to declare himself, as David says: “The right hand of the Lord has wrought strength, the right hand of the Lord has exalted me.” It is the hand that made all things, as almighty God said: “Has not my hand made all these things?” The hand is the bulwark of the whole body, the defender of the head. Though it is lower in place, it adorns the whole head and beautifies it with honourable ornament.

Who could worthily explain the framework of the chest and the softness of the belly? For otherwise the softer inner organs could not be cherished, and the folds of the intestines would without doubt be harmed by hard bones. What so healthful as that the lung should be joined to the heart by a neighbouring boundary, so that, when the heart has blazed with anger and indignation, it may be quickly tempered by the blood and moisture of the lung? And so the lung is soft, because it is always moist, at the same time so as to soften the stiffness of indignation. We run through these things briefly, so that we may seem, as untrained men, to touch on what lies at hand, not, as physicians, to search out more fully and pursue what is hidden in the recesses of nature.

The spleen too has a fruitful neighbourhood with the liver: while it takes what it feeds on, it wipes off whatever dirt it finds, so that the fine and subtle remains of foods can pass through the smaller fibres of the liver, to be turned into blood and serve the strength, not be expelled with the dirt of dung. And the encircling coils of the intestines, linked to one another though without any knot, what else do they show but the divine foresight of the creator, so that food does not pass through quickly and at once run down from the stomach? If that happened, constant hunger and continual lust for devouring would be produced in men. For when the inner organs were emptied and drained, being emptied by momentary outpouring, an insatiable and unquenchable desire for food and drink would necessarily arise, which early death would without doubt follow. So, providently, food is first worked up in the upper belly, then cooked in the liver, and, digested by its heat, its juice is poured into the remaining parts of the body, and by that substance human limbs are nourished, which the young receive for growth, the old for endurance; the rest, as superfluous, is drawn through the intestines and passed out through that door set crosswise.

Indeed, in Genesis too Noah's ark is ordered after the structure of the human body, of which God said: “Make yourself an ark of squared timbers; and you shall make nests in it, and you shall pitch it inside and outside with pitch. And so you shall make the ark,” and: “You shall make the door crosswise; and the lower parts of the ark you shall make with two and three storeys.” This, then, is what the Lord signifies: that the door is in the back part, through which the superfluities of foods are expelled. For our creator, with decency, turned the channels of the remains away from man's face, lest, when we bend, we should defile our sight. Consider at the same time that the things full of shame have been placed where, covered by clothes, they cannot be unseemly.

The pulse of the veins is the messenger either of weakness or of health. Though these are spread through the whole body, they are neither bare and uncovered, and they are covered with light flesh, so that there is opportunity for examining and speed in feeling, since there is no thickness of flesh that can cover the pulse. All the bones too are covered with thin flesh and bound with sinews, but especially those of the head are covered with a light skin and, so that they may have some defence against rains and cold, are clothed with thicker hair. What shall I say of the genitals, which, by veins drawn from the region of the neck through the kidneys and loins, receive the generative seed for the function and grace of procreating?

What of the service of the feet, which bear the whole body without any injury of burden? The knee is flexible, by which above all the Lord's offence is softened, anger soothed, grace called forth. For this is the gift of the supreme Father toward the Son: that in the name of the Lord every knee should bow, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father. For there are two things that above all soothe God, humility and faith. The foot, then, expresses the affection of humility and the obedience of diligent service; faith makes the Son equal to the Father and confesses the same glory of both. And rightly man has not more but two feet; for wild beasts and monsters have four feet, birds two; and so man is as it were one of the winged creatures, who seeks the heights with his sight and flies with a kind of oarage by the keenness of his lofty senses. And so it is said of him: “Your youth shall be renewed like the eagle's,” because he is nearer to heavenly things and higher than eagles, he who can say: “But our citizenship is in heaven.”

But now let there be an end to our discourse, since the sixth day is completed and the sum of the world's work is concluded, that is, with man made perfect, in whom is the rule over all animals and a kind of summing up of the universe and the grace of every worldly creature. Certainly let us offer silence, since God rested from all the works of the world. And he rested in the inner recess of man, he rested in his mind and purpose; for he had made man capable of reason, an imitator of himself, an emulator of virtues, eager for heavenly graces. In these God rests, who says: “Or upon whom shall I rest but upon the humble and quiet and the one who trembles at my words?”

I give thanks to the Lord our God, who made a work of such a kind that he might rest in it. He made heaven; I do not read that he rested. He made the earth; I do not read that he rested. He made the sun and moon and stars; there too I do not read that he rested. But I read that he made man and then rested, having one whose sins he might forgive. Or perhaps already then the mystery of the Lord's future passion went before, by which it was revealed that Christ would rest in man, who was predestining for himself rest in the body for man's redemption, according to what he himself said: “I slept and rested and rose, because the Lord upheld me.” For he himself rested who made. To him be honour, glory, and perpetuity from the ages, and now and always, and for all ages of ages. Amen.