On Joseph

The life of the saints is the rule of living for everyone else, and therefore we receive the sequence of the Scriptures set out more fully, so that, as we come to know Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the other just men by reading, we may follow with shining footsteps a kind of path of innocence opened for us by their virtue. Since I have often treated of them, today the story of holy Joseph presents itself. Though there were very many kinds of virtue in him, the virtue of chastity shone out in him especially. It is right, then, that, having learned in Abraham the tireless devotion of faith, in Isaac the purity of a sincere mind, in Jacob a singular patience of spirit and in labors, you should turn your mind from that general class of virtues to the particular kinds of discipline. For though the former are more widespread, the latter are more clearly defined, and they penetrate the mind the more easily the more they are circumscribed and determined.

Let holy Joseph, then, be set before us as a mirror of chastity. For in his character and in his actions modesty shines, and a certain brightness of grace, the companion of chastity, gleams. Hence he was also loved by his parents more than the other sons. But this was the occasion of envy, which should not be passed over in silence.

From here, then, the plot of the whole story proceeded, and at the same time we may learn that the perfect man is not moved by the injury of a grievance to avenge it, nor repays evil for evil. Hence David too says: 'If I have repaid those who returned evil to me.' What would there be for which Joseph deserved to be preferred to the others, if he had either injured those who injured him or loved those who loved him? For most people do this. But that is wonderful, if you love your enemy, as the Savior teaches. Rightly, then, is he to be admired who did this before the gospel: when injured he spared, when attacked he forgave, when sold he did not return the injury but repaid insult with kindness — what after the gospel we have all learned and cannot keep.

Let us learn, then, of the envy suffered even by saints, so that we may imitate their patience, and recognize that they were not of a superior nature but of superior observance, and that they did not not know vices but corrected them. But if envy scorched even the saints, how much more must we take care lest it inflame sinners?

We are instructed, then, what the affection of parents ought to be for the sake of their children. To love one's children is sweet, and to love them more intensely is very sweet; but often fatherly love itself, unless it keeps moderation, harms children, if either excessive indulgence makes the loved one slack, or the preference of one turns the others away from brotherly affection. More is gained for a son for whom the love of his brothers is gained. This is the more splendid generosity of fathers, this the richer inheritance of sons. Let equal favor join the children whom equal nature has joined. Piety knows no gain of money in which there is a loss of piety. Why do you wonder if quarrels arise between brothers over a farm or a house, when envy blazed up among the sons of holy Jacob over a tunic?

What then? Is Jacob to be blamed because he preferred one to the others? But neither can we take from parents the freedom to love more those whom they believe deserve more, nor should we cut off in children the eagerness to please more. Indeed Jacob loved more the one in whom he foresaw greater marks of virtue, so that it seems not so much that a father preferred a son as that a prophet preferred a mystery; and rightly he made him a many-colored tunic, to signify that he was to be preferred to his brothers by the garment of various virtues.

Indeed divine grace shone out in him while still a boy, since he dreamed that, when he had bound sheaves with his brothers, as it seemed to him in the vision, his sheaf rose and stood upright, while his brothers' sheaves turned and bowed down to his sheaf. In this the future resurrection of the Lord Jesus was surely revealed. When the eleven disciples saw him in Jerusalem, they worshiped him, and all the saints, when they rise again, will worship him, bringing the fruits of good works, as it is written: 'But coming they will come with exultation, carrying their sheaves.' Hence his brothers, though from envy they disparaged the trustworthiness of the dream, nevertheless expressed its interpretation in their own words and answered him: 'Shall you indeed reign over us, or shall you indeed have dominion over us?' For that vision signified the king to come, whom all the flesh of the human race would worship on bended knee.

He saw another dream and told it to his father and brothers: that the sun and moon and eleven stars bowed down to him. Hence his father rebuked him, saying: 'What then is this vision that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers come and bow down to you upon the earth?' Who is he whom parents and brothers worshiped upon the earth but Christ Jesus, when Joseph and his mother with the disciples worshiped him, confessing true God in that body, of whom alone it is said: 'Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all stars and light'? And what does the father's rebuke signify but the hardness of the people of Israel, from whom is Christ according to the flesh, whom even today they do not believe to be God nor will worship as Lord, because they know he was born from among them? So they hear his answers and do not understand; they read that sun and moon praise him, but they will not believe it was said of Christ. So Jacob is mistaken in a type not his own, but he is not mistaken in his own love. Fatherly love does not go astray in him; rather, the disposition of a people that would go astray is expressed.

So it was not that the patriarch did not believe so great a dream; he prophesied both things together by a twofold oracle, representing both the person of the just and that of the people: that the Son of God would come to earth, who would be both loved by the just and denied by the faithless. He saw, then, the mysteries of the future incarnation, who sent his son to his brothers to see whether the sheep were well. What sheep was God already then seeking in that patriarch's concern but those of whom the Lord Jesus himself said in the gospel: 'I came only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel'? 'And he sent him,' it says, 'to Shechem,' which by interpretation means 'shoulder' or 'back,' that is, to those who would not turn to the Lord but, fleeing from his face, would turn their backs — which is properly the mark of a sinner; for Cain went out from the face of God, and the prophet says: 'You will make them turn their back.' But the just man does not turn away from the Lord but goes to meet him, saying: 'My eyes are ever toward the Lord.' And Isaiah, when the Lord said: 'Whom shall I send?', offered himself of his own accord, saying: 'Here am I.' And Simeon waited to see Christ the Lord, and after he saw him, since he had seen the forgiver of sins and the redeemer of the whole world, as though relieved of sin he asked to be released from the use of this flesh, saying: 'Now dismiss your servant, Lord, for my eyes have seen your salvation.' And Zacchaeus first found the prerogative of his commendation in climbing a tree to see Christ. So Joseph was sent by his father to his brothers — rather, by that Father who did not spare his own Son but delivered him up for us all, by that Father of whom it is written: 'God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.'

'And Joseph wandered,' it says, because he could not find his brothers. Not without reason did he wander, who was seeking the wanderers; for the Lord knows those who are his. Indeed Jesus too, tired from the journey, sat by the well. He was weary, who did not find the people of God he was seeking; for it had gone out from the face of the Lord. For whoever follows guilt goes out from Christ. The sinner goes out; the just man goes in. Indeed Adam, a sinner, hid himself; but the just man says: 'Let my reasoning enter into your sight.'

Joseph found his brothers in Dothan, which means 'failing.' For where is he who deserts God, if not in failing? Nor is it surprising that those failed who did not hear him saying: 'Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.' So Joseph came to Dothan, and they saw him coming from afar, before he drew near to them, and they raged, to kill him. Rightly were they far away who were in failing, and therefore they raged, because Christ had not drawn near to them. For if the type of Christ had drawn near to them, they would surely have loved their brother; but those who were plotting fratricide could not be near. 'Behold,' it says, 'that dreamer is coming. Now come, let us kill him.' Did not those who were plotting the sacrilege of fratricide say these words, as Solomon says of them:

'Let us take away the just man, for he is useless to us'? And they added in Genesis: 'And we shall see what his dreams will be.' This was written of Joseph and fulfilled in Christ, when the Jews said at his passion: 'If he is the King of Israel, let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he wants him.' Were these brothers so impious as to kill their brother? And whence the merits of such great patriarchs, that the law should designate the tribes of the whole people by their names? How do names of piety and marks of crime agree? So these too labored under the type of the people, not through a fault of their own soul. Hence all the envy, hence the plotting of fratricide: envy by way of figure, piety by way of affection.

Indeed Reuben and Judah, keeping the devoted rights of brotherhood, wished to free him from their hands; and rightly Judah is preferred in his father's blessing, when it is said to him: 'The sons of your father shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion's whelp, and he is the expectation of the nations.' This surely fits Christ alone, for whom it was reserved to be worshiped by his brothers and awaited by the nations, and to wash his robe in wine by the passion of his own body, because he stained his flesh with no blemish of sin. Asher too surely did not believe that this fitted himself: 'Asher, his bread is rich, and he is with princes.' And what of Joseph himself, to whom it was said: 'My son Joseph is to be increased, my son is to be increased, my son envied, my youngest son, return to me' — against whom they took counsel and cursed, in whom the blessing prevailed above the blessings of the abiding mountains and the desires of the everlasting hills — whom did he understand to be signified in himself, except him who, surpassing the merits of all and above the desires of all the saints, holds the summit of immeasurable power, whom no one equals even in wish? The envy of the patriarchs, then, is compensated by grace: they are both excused from guilt and consecrated by the gift of revelation. For it is not so blameworthy to have spoken what belongs to the people as it is blessed to have seen what belongs to Christ. They took on the role of a sinful people, to receive the grace of the Lord the Redeemer. Certainly grace abolished the guilt; guilt did not lessen the grace.

And so that we may recognize that all this is a mystery concerning the people and the Lord Jesus, 'Come,' he says, 'let us sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites.' What interpretation does the name Joseph have, except that it signifies divine grace and the image of the most high God? Who, then, is sold but he who, though he was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave? For we would not have bought him unless his own had sold him. Badly they sold, worse they bought. They sold to traders; the good fragrance was bought from traitors. For Judah sold, the Ishmaelites bought, who by Latin interpretation are signified as 'those hating their God.' Therefore in one place we find Joseph bought for twenty gold pieces, in another for twenty-five, in another for thirty, because Christ is not worth the same price to all — to some less, to others more. The faith of the buyer is the increase of the goods. To the more devout God is more precious; to the sinner the Redeemer is more precious. He is worth more to one who has more grace; but he is also worth more to one to whom much has been forgiven, because the one to whom more has been forgiven loves more, as the Lord himself declared in the gospel about that woman who poured ointment on his feet, washed them with tears, wiped them with her hair, and dried them with kisses, of whom he said to Simon: 'Therefore I tell you, her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much. But he to whom less is forgiven loves less.' Sometimes the differences of price express not only quantity but also number, as you have in the case of the ointment which the Lord said was poured out for his burial, (as) it is written, Judas saying: 'This could have been sold for three hundred denarii,' in which number not quantity but the signification of the cross seems to be expressed. So here too the difference of twenty or thirty gold or silver pieces gives a sign of a double or triple perfection. For twenty-five gold pieces of the jubilee, which is the number of remission, signify a most precious portion. Here too, so that you may notice the figure of the Lord's passion, the patriarch Judah says: 'Let us hand Joseph over to the Ishmaelites, but let our hands not be laid upon him.' And above he had said well: 'But do not lay hands on him,' which the Jews said at the Lord's passion: 'It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death,' so that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, signifying by what death he was to die.

Already then, therefore, the sign of the future cross was figured, and also that he was stripped of his tunic, that is, of the flesh which he took on, stripped of the comely variety of the virtues. So his tunic, that is, the flesh, not the Godhead, was bloodied, and they could take from him the garment of flesh, not the immortality of life. This tunic the beasts of the Jews bloodied, those of whom he says:

'Behold, I send you as lambs among wolves.' As for the cistern being dry, what wonder if the cistern of the Jews has no water, who have forsaken the fountain of living water and made for themselves broken cisterns? And so that you may know that this is truly a mystery, the Lord himself says of himself: 'They put me in the lower pit, in darkness and in the shadow of death.'

Those, then, buy Christ who bring good fragrances, incense, with which they burn the altars of a devout mind — hence David too says in Greek: 'Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight' — and resin, too, by which broken marbles are joined. There is a spiritual resin which can make firm the fracture of your soul, join what is torn apart, and bind what is loosened. For this spiritual resin strengthens and puts together certain shattered members of the soul, so that they are joined without a flaw. Indeed Jeremiah seeks this, to heal Babylon if he can, saying: 'Take resin for her corruption, if perhaps she may be healed. We cared for Babylon, and she was not healed.' The synagogue was not healed, because this resin passed over to the church. Therefore traders came from Gilead, that is, from the possession or dwelling of testimony, bringing their goods to the church, so that this resin might cure the sins of the nations, of whom it is said: 'Be strong, you slack hands and loosened knees.' Sincere faith is resin. Peter applied it when he said to the lame man: 'In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise and walk.' And rightly he rose and walked. He had it when he said to the paralytic: 'Aeneas, the Lord Jesus heals you: rise and make your bed.' And he rose and made his bed. He had it when he said to the dead woman: 'Rise in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.' And the dead woman rose. By the mixing of this resin those stones are bonded together from which God is able to raise up children to Abraham. By the medicine of this resin the lame is raised, the paralytic restored, the dead woman brought back to life.

That they sprinkled his tunic with a kid's blood seems to signify that, attacking him with false testimonies, they brought into odium of sin him who forgives the sins of all. For us he is a lamb, for them a kid. For us the Lamb of God was slain, for whom he took away the sins of the world; for them a kid, whose errors he heaped up and whose offenses he accumulated. Therefore he says: 'Fill up the measure of your fathers.' And rightly Jacob, deploring the losses of his posterity, wept as a father for a lost son, mourned as a prophet the destruction of the Jews. Indeed he also tore his garment, which we read was done at the passion of the Lord Jesus by the high priest, in whom there was not a private person but the function of a public office. And the veil of the temple was torn, so that by such signs it might be shown that the mysteries were profaned, the people stripped of saving garments, and the kingdom divided, to be destroyed, because every kingdom divided will easily be destroyed. And truly divided, when what was Christ's began now to be the devil's. For those could not remain undivided who separated the Son from the Father.

Joseph, then, was sold, taken to Egypt, and bought by the chief of the cooks. Not an idle character, one who would cook raw food so that souls might feast on the sweetness of faith; for no food is sweeter than knowledge and teaching. Before, there was in Egypt a raw faithlessness, which no ardor for divine knowledge and no desire for true knowledge had softened, and which the fiery words of the Lord had not cooked. Joseph was sold in Egypt because Christ was to come to those to whom it was said: 'By your sins you were sold,' and therefore he redeemed with his own blood those whom their own sins had sold. But Christ, sold by taking on our condition, not by guilt, is not held by the price of sin, because he himself did no sin. By the price, then, he incurred our debt, not his own; he took away the bond, removed the moneylender, freed the debtor. One paid what was owed by all. We were not allowed to go out of slavery. He took this on for us, to drive back the slavery of the world, restore the freedom of paradise, and bestow new grace by the honor of fellowship with him. So much for the mystery.

But as for the moral sense, since the Lord our God wills all to be saved, he gave through Joseph comfort and instruction to those who are in slavery, so that they might learn that even in the lowest condition character can be superior, and that no state is without virtue if each one's soul knows itself: that the flesh is subject to slavery, not the mind, and that many slaves are freer than their masters if, though placed in slavery, they think they must abstain from slavish works. Every sin is slavish; innocence is free. Hence the Lord too says: 'Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.' For how is not every greedy man a slave, who auctions himself for a petty profit of money? He who has amassed what he will not use fears everything, lest he lose what he has amassed; he will keep it at greater risk the more he has gained. How is he not a beggar to whom what he possesses is small? For even if he seems rich to me, to himself he is needy, and he does not comfort his desires with testimonies, since he does not know how to trust what he wants. And how is he too not a slave who is subject to lust? First he burns with his own fires and is consumed by the torches of his own breast. To these the prophet rightly says: 'Walk in the light of your fire and in the flame you have kindled.' He takes on all fears; he lies in wait for the sleep of individuals, so that to possess one by desire he becomes the slave of all. He serves, then, and a wretched slavery indeed, who makes masters for himself, who wishes to have those he must fear; for nothing is so proper to slavery as always to fear. But he is always free in any condition of servitude who is not captured by love, not held by the chains of avarice, not bound by fear of crime, who looks on the present untroubled and whom the future does not terrify. Does not the one seem to you to rule in slavery, the other to serve in freedom? Joseph served, Pharaoh reigned: the slavery of the one was happier than the kingdom of the other. Indeed all Egypt would have collapsed in famine, had he not subjected his kingdom to the counsel of a slave.

Slaves by origin, then, have something to glory in: Joseph too was a slave. Those who have come from freedom into slavery by some necessity have something to console them. They have something to imitate, so that they may learn that they can change their condition but not their character, that there is freedom even among house-born slaves and constancy in slavery. Masters too have something to hope for from good slaves. Abraham found a wife for his son through a house-born slave. 'The Lord blessed the Egyptian's house because of Joseph, and the blessing of the Lord was on all his property, in the house and in the fields.' 'And he turned over,' it says, 'all that he had into Joseph's hands.' We notice that slaves governed what their masters could not govern.

But why should I describe the arrangements of the slave in a private house, when he ruled an empire? Yet it is more that he first ruled himself; and though he was handsome in appearance and very beautiful in face, he did not turn the beauty of his face to the injury of another but kept it for his own grace, thinking himself more beautiful if he were proved more comely not by loss of chastity but by the cultivation of modesty: that that is true beauty which does not capture others' eyes nor wound frail minds, but wins the judgment of all, harmful to none, praiseworthy for himself. If some woman looked at him with wanton eyes, the crime belongs only to her who saw wrongly, not to him who did not wish to be wrongly seen; nor is there guilt in being seen. It was not in the slave's power not to be seen; the husband ought to have guarded his wife's eyes. If he feared nothing regarding his wife, Joseph thought it a testimony to her chastity, not an indulgence of carelessness. Yet let men too learn to beware of the eyes of women; even those who do not wish to be loved are loved. Indeed Joseph was loved, who despised the one who loved him. And Scripture excused him well, saying: 'His master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph,' that is, he did not show himself off nor capture her unawares; she cast her nets and was caught in her own snare, she spread her nooses and stuck in her own bonds.

And she said to him: 'Sleep with me.' The first darts of the adulteress are her eyes, the second her words; but he who is not captured by the eyes can resist a word. Defense is at hand where the affection is still free. Therefore it is written that he refused. First, then, he overcame by the engagement of the mind, repelling her attack as with the shield of the soul; then he brandished his speech like a spear, so that she might call herself back. 'And he said to his master's wife.' Rightly she is called his master's wife, not his mistress, who could not extort what she wanted to obtain. For how was she mistress, who had no effective power of command, who did not keep a mistress's discipline, who offered slaves incitements to lust? He was master, who did not receive the torches of a lover, did not feel the bonds of a seductress, whom no fear of death terrified, who preferred to die free of crime rather than choose a partnership in criminal power. He was free, who thought it base not to return kindness for kindness. Indeed he does not excuse himself as fearful nor beware as one timid of danger, but as one indebted to his master's kindness and to his own innocence he flees the crime of ingratitude and, as a just man, shudders at the stain of sin and the contagion of guilt. The third dart the adulteress brandished was persistence in pleading. 'But Joseph did not listen to her.' You have what to beware of after the first words. Lust is not only slippery but also shameless, importunate, wanton, and the adulteress has nothing to respect. She who did not grieve at the first losses of modesty lies in wait to capture.

Then, when he went in for the sake of his duty and the task entrusted to him, with witnesses and household removed, she seized him, saying: 'Sleep with me.' Joseph is excused by the testimony of Scripture, because he could not abandon the service entrusted to him by his master. For it was not enough that he went into the inner parts of the house secure about himself, as one who could not be caught; the just man ought to have taken care not to give the frenzied woman an opportunity, lest she perish by his sin. But one who saw that his master's wife was against him ought also to have guarded against offending his master by neglecting his duty. At the same time he still thought hers a boldness of words, not of seizing.

He is excused for going in; he is praised for slipping away, and he did not value the garments of the body more than the chastity of the soul. He left behind as not his own what the adulteress held in her hands, and judged as another's what could be grasped by the touch of a shameless woman. A great man indeed, who when sold knew nothing of a slave's character, when loved did not love in return, when asked did not consent, when seized fled; who, when accosted by his master's wife, could be held by his garment but could not be captured in soul; and he judged it a contagion to endure even her words for long, if he stayed longer, lest the incitements of lust pass through the adulteress's hands. So he put off his garment, shook off the crime, and, leaving behind the spoils by which he was held, fled stripped indeed but not naked, because he was better covered by the garment of modesty; for no one is naked except one whom guilt has stripped. Indeed in the earlier passages we have that Adam, after he deserted the commandments of God by transgression and contracted the debt of grave sin, was naked. Hence he too says: 'I heard your voice in paradise and was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid myself.' For he understood that he was naked, who had lost the insignia of divine protection. And therefore he hid, because he did not have the garment of faith, which surely he put off by transgressing. You see a great thing: the one was naked who did not lose his tunic; this one was not naked who put off the garments which he left in the adulteress's hands. The same Scripture declared the one naked and denied it of the other. And therefore this man stripped himself rather than became naked, keeping the incorrupt garments of the virtues, stripping off the old man with his deeds to put on the new, which is renewed in knowledge according to the image of the creator; but the other remained naked, who could not clothe himself again, stripped of the unique spoil of virtue. Hence he received a tunic of skin, because a sinner could not have a spiritual one. So Joseph left his garments and laid bare the shamelessness of the adulteress, which afterward could not be hidden.

Then she went out of doors and herself published the attempts of her adultery, raising her voice, because the Hebrew had fled, leaving his garments. So she herself betrayed what she ought to have concealed, so as to injure an innocent man by a fabricated crime. But the just man did not know how to accuse, and therefore the shameless woman did this with impunity. I would say that she was truly the one stripped, even while she kept another's garments, she who had lost all the coverings of chastity; and that he was well enough adorned, well enough defended, whose voice was not heard but whose innocence spoke. So later Susanna, while she was silent at the trial, spoke better by an oracle, and therefore deserved the prophet's defense, she who did not seek the help of her own voice. I would call him happier, then, when he was sent to prison, because he was undergoing martyrdom for chastity. For modesty is a good gift, but of less merit when it involves no danger; but where it is defended even at the risk of one's life, there it is crowned more fully. With the case unheard and the truth unexamined, Joseph is sent to prison as though guilty of the crime; but the Lord did not desert him even in prison. Let the innocent not be troubled when they are attacked with false charges, when justice is crushed and they are thrust into prison.

God visits his own even in prison, and therefore there is more help where there is more danger. But what wonder if Christ visits those placed in prison, who said that he himself was shut up in prison in his own, as you have it written: 'I was in prison, and you did not come to me'? Where does the divine mercy not penetrate? Joseph found such grace that he who had been shut up in prison himself rather kept the bars of the prison: the keeper of the keys gave up his office to him and entrusted all the prisoners to his authority. So not only did Joseph not feel the prison, but he even relieved others of the hardship of prison.

The authors of this injury, then, were a woman and eunuchs. But the woman is of the Egyptian women, who are accustomed to mix wanton talk with men, to provoke the modest, to pursue those who flee, to press hard on the bashful. Since she could not defend her own vices, she accused the innocent, adding treachery to treachery, holding what was another's, herself condemning others, setting no limit to her fury. For what was the cause of her cruelty but that she saw her desires opposed and her longings cheated by refused consent? Behold why the prison is opened to receive the innocent, why chains are loosed from the guilty to be put on the faithful, why the adulterers of truth are let go so that he may be shut up who refused the adultery of faith.

And what shall I say of those eunuchs? They ought to be an example to other eunuchs, because their state is fragile and slight, and all their hope lies in the king's will; a slight offense is the greatest danger to them, and their prosperity a mean service. One boasted that he was in charge of the wine, the other of the bakers. Both gave offense and were sent to prison, and were entrusted to holy Joseph by the keeper of the prison himself; and when they had been there many days, they saw a dream. And when Joseph visited them again, he found them sad and troubled in mind, because they were troubled by a dream for which they found no interpreter. 'Is not the interpretation of a dream through God?' he said. 'Tell it to me, then.' And the one in charge of the wine told his dream: 'There was a vine before me, and on the vine three roots, and it was flowering, putting forth shoots, ripe clusters of grapes, and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand. And I took it and pressed it into the cup and gave the cup into Pharaoh's hands.' And Joseph said to him: 'The three roots are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will remember your office and will restore you to your former office, and you will give the cup into Pharaoh's hands. But remember me yourself when it is well with you, and show me mercy, and remember me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this prison; for I was stolen by theft from the land of the Hebrews, and here I have done nothing evil, but they cast me into the pit of this prison.'

I do not care to speak of the other's dream. You certainly remember my words, that even then I avoided its interpretation in that man, whose end I avoid, whose death I shudder at. Let us speak first of this one, who thought himself happy because he was in charge of the wine and believed it the highest summit of all power that he gave the king his cup. This was his glory, this his magnificence in this world: deprived of it he grieved, restored to it he rejoiced. But this is a dream, and all the power of the world is a dream, not truth. Indeed he saw in a dream his office restored to him. And Isaiah says that such are the men who delight in prosperity in this world: just as one who eats and drinks in his sleep seems to himself to be filled with food or drink while he sleeps, but when he wakes begins to be hungrier — then he understands how empty the dreamer's food and drink were — so one who sleeps in this world and does not open his eyes to the divine mysteries thinks, as long as he is weighed down by the sleep of the body, that this worldly power is of some moment, seeing it as in a dream; when he wakes, he discovers how empty the pleasure of this world is.

Consider now that true Hebrew, the interpreter not of a dream but of truth and of a glorious vision, who from that fullness of divinity and freedom of heavenly grace came into this bodily prison; whom the enticement of this world could not change nor any corruption of worldly pleasure overthrow; who when tempted did not fall, when desired did not desire; and finally, seized by the garment of the body by a kind of adulterous hand of the synagogue, he put off the flesh and ascended free of death. The harlot slandered him when she could not hold him, whom prison did not terrify, whom hell did not hold. Indeed, from the place to which he had descended as though to be punished, he freed others:

where the bonds of death were being tightened on him, there he loosened the bonds of the dead. Consider, then, this Hebrew saying to that chief of the eunuchs who had incurred the king's displeasure, whom he had restored to his office: 'Remember me yourself when it is well with you, and show me mercy, and remember me.' He repeated it a second time because he knew that the man would not remember what injury he had escaped once he had regained his power. He admonished him a second time because he had freed him a second time, so that if the memory of the first kindness did not hold him, at least that of the later one might occur to him, and he would not despise the author of his safety nor violate him by faithless betrayal. But what is worse, forgetfulness of a kindness quickly creeps in with prosperity. Restored to his office, he did not remember the interpreter but forgot him. But even if he forgot, Christ did not forget, but spoke to him, and spoke through the slave, saying to him: 'Remember yourself,' that is, at least in consideration of your office, recall what you have heard. But even if you have forgotten now, you will remember me, so that you may escape danger, you who have forgotten the kindness. Yet, elated by power, he did not remember. And how great is this power, where the service is of wine? Behold the source of all boasting: that he was chief of the eunuchs who served wine in the royal cups.

'And it came to pass,' it says, 'after two years.' The time agrees with our eunuch, even to the day, or I am lying, since after two years he recovered his office and did not remember, but was reminded. For he who did not believe his own dream learned that even a kingdom in this world is a dream. He learned also that the … of kings are dreams and that their powers are not everlasting. But let grief pass this place quickly, lest it grow raw again by the very mention; nor does it please me to remember even my own speech, which at that time either grief poured out or an insult to the church extorted.

Reminded, then, by the king's dream, he says: 'I remember my sin.' Late indeed is this confession, but would that it were true! After the sin you confess what you ought to have guarded against before the sin. How quickly you had forgotten 'Remember me'! You know surely that this was the saying at that time, but you had ears dulled by the pride of power, and drunk with wine you did not hear the words of sobriety. At least now remember me, you who confess your sin late. You who ask the slave, why do you deny the master? Be drunk now not with wine but with the Holy Spirit. Remember what happened to the one with whom you slept your sleep and dreamed your dream. He too was a chief, and chief of the king's food that belonged to the baker's work. He thought himself exalted because he had the king's bread in his power; he did not know that this power has many twists. He threatened others, though he himself was soon to be handed over to the ultimate punishment; nor did he listen to him who, though a slave, still spoke the oracle of the Lord: that by the order of that very king in whom he so greatly flattered himself he would lose his head and be left as food for the birds. At least this example ought to have called you back, so that you would not trust faithlessness.

There are other examples too of the pride and fragility of royal ministers, which the history of later times has. Doeg too was a chief, chief of the king's animals for the training of the mules, that is, eunuch animals. He too denounced the priest of the Lord and by fraud stirred up the king to the priest's danger, and he too was a Syrian. Am I lying, when both country and deeds agree? Haman too, the king's chamberlain and himself a chief, while he strove with wicked boldness to invade the churches of the Lord and to despoil and persecute the faithful people, paid for his sacrileges with grave punishments.

But let us return to this chief of the wine, who, as though drunk with much wine, long forgot the author of his kindness; yet at length, to provide the king with an interpreter, not as one grateful but as one shrewd, he made known the sequence of events. When the king learned it, he ordered Joseph to be summoned, and, when he had been brought out of prison, asked him if he could interpret his dream. Delighted with his explanation, he removed the injury and conferred honor. So see whether these things do not fit the present too. The injury was inflicted before he was known to the king; favor was returned when he became known to the king. So the king is free of guilt, because both the injury the holy man received was foreign to him, and the favor he received belongs to the king.

The dream and its interpretation are these: 'Whatever God does,' he says, 'he has shown to Pharaoh. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years; Pharaoh's dream is one. And the seven lean cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven lean ears blasted by the wind are seven years; there will be seven years of famine. As for the word I spoke, whatever God does he has shown to Pharaoh: behold, seven years of great plenty are coming throughout all the land of Egypt; but seven years of famine will come after these, and they will forget the plenty in all Egypt. And the famine will consume all the land, and the plenty of the land will not be known because of the famine that will come after this; for it will be very severe. And that the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice is because the word from God will be true, and God will hasten to do it.'

An old dream, recent events. The earlier things were consumed by the later, and where before there was abundance of plenty, there arose a want of all things. But if anyone had given the king such advice, to keep something of the former plenty for the later age of his rule, the remaining time too would have overflowed with a lavish abundance for giving. But the immoderate squandering of the former age left the later times destitute as well, and men plundering everything were unwilling to employ any Joseph. Even if I am not Joseph — for who would claim that? — still I cried out that those fat cows signified not only wantonness but also neglect of reverence for God — for it is said of the faithless: 'Fat bulls have beset me,' and of the people of the Jews it is written: 'He grew fat and thick and broad, and forsook God who made him' — and that therefore that dream of worldly abundance could not be everlasting: there would come a time when harsh famine would follow on these things.

Yet I do not think this dream was shown to one or two, but set before all: that the seven fat years of this world, rich with worldly plenty, are swallowed up by the ages to come, in which there will be everlasting rest and the spiritual observance of the law, which that tribe of the fathers, Ephraim, fruitful to God, may keep — a good cow, not swollen with a bodily udder but abounding in spiritual milk and grace, on the beauty of whose neck God says that he sits, as it is written: 'Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves victory, but I passed over the beauty of her neck.' Let not the oil of the sinner, then, anoint our head, nor should false fruits delight us, lest it be said of us too: 'You have sown ungodliness and harvested its iniquities; you have eaten false fruit, because you trusted in your chariots.' Nor does it trouble me that it has lean ears blasted by the wind, because David too was better then, when he wasted away like a spider, and 'a troubled spirit is a sacrifice to God,' and those come out more excellent whom the evil spirit has exercised in this world with grave injuries.

Hence I think Joseph deserved more mystical rewards, because he spoke of mystical things. For what does the ring put on his finger mean but that we should understand that the high priesthood of faith was conferred on him, so that he himself might seal others? What does the robe, the garment of wisdom, mean but that the primacy of prudence was granted him by that heavenly king? The golden necklace seems to express good understanding; the chariot too signifies the lofty summit of merits. And who is it who took a wife from the gentiles but he who gathered a church for himself from the nations and received from her a son, Manasseh, through whom he forgot all the sorrows he had over the sacrileges of the Jews? He received another son too, Ephraim, through whose progress it became clear that the humility taken on in the flesh did not humble the divinity but heaped up glory.

Then whoever suffered famine was sent to Joseph. Who are these but those of whom it is said: 'They will return at evening and suffer hunger like dogs'? And the famine was not of one place but of the whole earth, because there was none who did good. Therefore the Lord Jesus, pitying the world's fasts, opened his granaries and laid open the hidden treasures of knowledge and wisdom of the heavenly mysteries, so that no one should lack nourishment. For Wisdom has said: 'Come, eat my bread,' and therefore it is said by him alone who is filled by Christ: 'The Lord feeds me, and I shall lack nothing.' Christ, then, opened his granaries and sold, seeking not the bronze of money but the price of faith and the wage of devotion. And he sold not to a few in Judea, but to all, so that he might be believed by all nations.

'And all countries came to Egypt to Joseph to buy; for the famine had prevailed.' For all hunger whom Christ has not fed. Let us buy, then, food with which we can drive away hunger. Let no one be held back by consideration of his poverty, let no one who has no silver be afraid. Christ does not seek silver but faith, which is more precious than silver. Indeed Peter, who had no silver, bought him. 'Silver and gold,' he says, 'I have not, but what I have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ rise and walk.' And the prophet Isaiah says: 'You who thirst, go to the water, and whoever has no silver, go, buy and drink and eat without silver and without price of wine.' For he who paid the price of his blood for us did not seek a price from us, because he redeemed us not with gold and silver but with precious blood. So you owe the price with which you were bought. Even if he does not always exact it, still you owe it. Buy Christ for yourself, then, not with what few have, but with what all have by nature and few offer through fear. What Christ asks back from you is his own. He gave life to all; he offered his death for all. Pay for the author what you will pay by law. This is no small contract, and not all easily see it. Indeed those virgins in the gospel whom the bridegroom shut out when he came were left outside because they did not buy the oil for sale. Hence it is said to them: 'Go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves.' And the merchant is rightly praised who sold all he had and bought the pearl.

'And Jacob said to his sons: Why are you idle? Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy food for us.' Jacob did not say this once; daily he says to all his sons who come late to the grace of Christ: 'Why are you idle? Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt.' Of this grain is the seed that rises again.

Whoever endures famine, then, must ascribe it to his own sluggishness. 'Behold,' he says, 'I have heard that there is grain in Egypt.' Young men usually hear something sooner than old men, since many of them go about outside. But the old man hears of this trade first — but that old man in whom there is the long gray hair of faith; the old man understands first, the old man in whom old age is venerable and the age of old age is a spotless life. Nor do all undertake this trade, but only the sons of Jacob, and they of more advanced age. So ten go; the youngest does not go. His father did not send him, 'lest,' he says, 'weakness befall him.' Benjamin the youngest was still liable to weakness. We read of the patriarch Benjamin, but Paul, of the tribe of Benjamin, was being prefigured. Rightly Jacob had doubts about his weakness. Indeed he was made weak in order to be healed: he suffered blindness, but this weakness was for salvation. Indeed that blindness brought light. We have taken the story; let us recognize the mystery.

The patriarchs first went without Benjamin, the apostles without Paul. Neither came first, but, summoned by the first, each by his coming made the merchandise of the earlier ones richer. 'There is grain,' he says, 'in Egypt,' that is, where the famine is greater, there the plenty is greater. Great is the grain in Egypt. Indeed God the Father too says: 'Out of Egypt I called my Son.' From that grain comes that fruitfulness; for there could have been no harvest unless the Egyptians had first sown the grain. There is, then, grain which no one before believed to exist; in this grain the patriarchs trade. And they indeed had brought silver, but good Joseph gave grain and returned the silver; for Christ is not bought with money but with grace. Your price is faith; by it the divine mysteries are bought. And that ass carries this grain, unclean before in the law, but now clean in grace.

Yet young Benjamin was held back and still clung to his father's affection. The bonds of the law held him, the ancestral custom. The famine grew worse, because he came late. Two intercede for him, Reuben and Judah, that is, humility and confession. He uses these as sureties with his father; to these he is entrusted, of whom one is the firstborn, the other the raised one. The law belongs to the firstborn, the gospel to the raised one. By these young Benjamin is brought down, and he comes accompanied by good fragrances, bringing with him resin, by which marble stones are joined, because he too would join living stones by his preaching as by a spiritual resin; bringing also honey, by which the harmful parts of a wound are eaten away from within without any bitterness of cutting. For such was Paul's preaching, so as to abolish a rotten disposition and drain corrupt humor by the sting of his argument, wishing rather to cauterize the sick inward parts of the mind than to cut. The prophet David taught us that incense is a sign of prayer, and cassia and the drop of myrrh are signs of burial, saying: 'Myrrh and the drop and cassia from your garments.' For Paul came to preach the cross of the Lord, an ever-green oak, and nuts, whose shell is harder and fruit tenderer — and rightly the priestly rod of Aaron was of walnut and Jeremiah's staff of the same kind — and double silver too. Who would doubt that these were not idle gifts, since both the life of the patriarch and the word of the apostle are always green in the hearts of individuals, and the speech of the saints, like silver tried in fire, shines with the brightness of saving precept? Nor without reason do they bring double silver, in whom the coming of Paul was prefigured, who gave double honor to presbyters who labor in the word and teaching.

'And Joseph saw them and his brother Benjamin, son of the same mother.' Now the Hebrews are seen, and seen by Christ, who is the true Joseph, when they come with the type of Paul; and he speaks gentle and mild things to them, so that they may take food together. But earlier, because they came without Benjamin, he recognized them but turned away from them, as it is written: 'And he spoke harsh things to them,' because they did not recognize him by whom they were recognized. By the merit of Paul, then, they made progress, whom the Lord Jesus loved more than the other brothers as a younger brother born of the same mother. Let the Jews take note of the Lord they denied. Even though crucified by their synagogue, he still loves them more as born of the same parent, if even late they recognize the author of their salvation. But conscious of their own offenses, they do not believe that Christ's mercy is so great as to forgive sin and remit injury. And therefore it was prefigured in the patriarchs what they would be like. They were invited to grace, they were called to the banquet of the saving table, and they suspected that a false charge was being prepared and a trap laid for them.

'And they began to plead their case with the man who was over the house, at the door of the house.' They still hesitate to go in, and they prefer to be justified by their works, wishing to establish their case rather than receive grace; and therefore they are refuted in the gates. But he who awaits the fruit of the virgin's womb and the inheritance of the Lord, who trades in the merchandise of the Son, is not put to shame in the gate, but at the exit of this life drives back the enemy, so that he, conscious of graver guilt, may not oppose one hastening to higher things.

Hence, mystically, the steward of the house answered them. Understand who he is when you read that Moses was faithful in all his house. For the stewards of the house are Moses, Peter, Paul, and the other saints; but Christ alone is Lord. It is written that Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of the things to be spoken, but Christ as a son in his own house, which house we are, if we hold fast the freedom and glory of hope.

This steward of the house, then, answered them: 'Peace to you, do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your fathers gave you treasures in your sacks; your good silver I have received.' For they had said: 'We found each man's silver in our sacks; we have brought back our silver by weight.' O great mysteries, and plainly expressed! It is as if to say: Why are you puffed up? Do you often claim that you have your own silver in your sacks? For what do you have that you did not receive? But if you received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it? Already you are filled, already you have become rich. You who believe you have silver — but the God of your fathers gave you the silver. He is your God, he is the God of your fathers, whom you denied. But he pardons, he forgives, he receives you back, if you return. He it is who does not seek your silver, but gives his own. He has given you silver in your sacks. Now your sacks, which held clay, have silver; and therefore he is yours who says: 'You have torn my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.' Christ is the gift of gladness. He is your silver, he is your price. The Lord Jesus does not demand from you the price of his grain; he does not seek the weight of your silver.

Your silver is reprobate; the silver of the sack is not good. 'Your good silver I have received,' that is: not that material silver, but your spiritual silver, which is good, which you have brought with faithful devotion as sons of Jacob, which is given without loss and counted out without any expense, since by such a price the loss of death is shut out and the gain of life is acquired. 'And they prepared the gifts until Joseph came in at noon.'

Paul's faith hastened the noon. Before he was blind; afterward he began to see the light of righteousness, since whoever reveals his way to the Lord and hopes in him, the Lord too will bring forth his righteousness as the light and his judgment as the noon. And when God appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mamre, it was noon, and eternal light shone on him from the presence of the Lord. It is noon when the true Joseph enters his house to dine. For the day shines more then, when we celebrate the sacraments.

'And they brought him the gifts,' it says. We bring gifts; he provides the banquet. He says: 'Set out the bread,' which only the Hebrews take, which the Egyptians cannot eat. But before the banquet, how great a condescension! What a moral lesson in his practice of attentiveness and graciousness! The brothers were still suspicious about the false charge they thought Joseph was preparing against them. He invited them to dinner: their feeling wavered, his grace persevered. He is the first to address them, the first to ask: 'How are you?'

And again he says: 'Is your father, the old man, well?' It belongs to the superior to invite the inferior to conversation, to give him confidence in speaking, to ask not only about them but also about their parents.

They answer: 'Your servant, our father, is well.' He said 'the old man,' to honor him; they named him 'servant' (puer), to offer the deference of humility, since old age is of honored dignity, while servanthood seems subject and nearer to modesty than to pride.

'And looking up with his eyes he saw Benjamin his brother, son of the same mother.' The moral is that we see those we love before others, and those whom the attention of the mind holds the gaze of the eyes meets first, since often, occupied with other things in the mind, we do not see those we have before our eyes. So our sight is directed with the mind as guide. Holy Joseph, then, saw Benjamin his brother, whom he held in his mind, whom he sought with his eyes, without whom he had scarcely seen his brothers, because seeing them was of no profit. Nor was he content only to have seen him, but as though he did not know him he asked: 'Is this your youngest brother?' It is the custom and grace of love that we hold those dear to us not only with our eyes but also with speech. Joseph had recognized his beloved, but he asked so that his voice might sound the name of the one his mind held.

Indeed he did not wait for an answer, but at once blessed him and was troubled at the fruit of his longing. For his inward parts were tormented, because the freedom to embrace the one he had longed for was delayed. Then, going into his chamber, he wept, washed his face, and restrained himself. The stings of great love quickly pierce the heart unless the reins of desire are loosened. Joseph was being overcome by feeling and held back by counsel; reason contended with love. He wept, so as to temper with tears the surge of devoted love.

So much in the moral sense. In the mystical sense, the Lord Jesus saw Paul — for the eyes of the Lord are on the just — and said: 'Is this your youngest brother?' He is still called the youngest, who did not yet bear the mature age of gray-haired faith and had not yet grown into the perfect man, into that measure of the age of the fullness of Christ, as he himself says. Indeed he is called a young man only in the place where he kept the garments of those stoning Stephen. And therefore he wished Philemon to be like not his youth but his old age, as he wrote: 'I rather beseech you, since you are such a one as Paul, an old man.' Therefore he teaches that younger widows are to be avoided, not because of their age, but because of a certain wantonness of budding offenses and immaturity in virtue. Yet the praise of chastity is greater in a young man than in an old one. I think, however, that it is not far from the truth if we understand it thus: that when Paul was seized and terrified because blindness had befallen him, he nevertheless began to draw near, saying: 'Lord, what do you want me to do?' Therefore he was called the youngest by Christ, so that he who was called to grace might be excused from guilt, as belonging to a slippery age. Indeed Christ saw him when the light shone around him; and since young men are called back from vice by fear rather than by reason, he applied the goad and in pity warned him not to kick against the goad.

He was troubled, as you have in the gospel that he troubled himself in spirit when he raised Lazarus, and there he wept, so as first to wash away the dead man's offenses with his tears. But he wept within and washed his face. Paul's blindness is Christ's weeping: he washes his face when lost light is restored to him. Christ washed his face when Paul was baptized, through whom the Lord Jesus would be seen by many. And therefore at the banquet his portion was made five times greater, because he was to be preferred to those before him not only in prudence of mind but also in the service of the body and the grace of chastity.

'And they drank and were drunk together with him.' From the beginning of faith a greater prerogative was conferred on Paul, of whom it was said to Ananias: 'Go, for he is a chosen vessel to me, to bear my name before the nations.' From the beginning he was made drunk with a drunkenness, but a sober one, so that he too might say with the saints: 'And how glorious is your inebriating cup!'

And the silver cup is put into his sack alone. Benjamin did not know this: Paul was deceived, but he was being called. They are sent after him in the morning; for the night of blindness had passed, the day of faith was at hand.

The sacks of each are searched in order first. Divine Scripture teaches you a moral. In order they had earlier reclined at the banquet before him, the firstborn according to his age. You see that the first place is to be given to the elder. In order again the sacks of each are searched, so that you may know that Paul was chosen by heavenly judgment. He examined the others; this one he preferred. In no one else's sack was the silver cup found but in his. What does it mean that it was put into his sack? Joseph indeed made them drunk in order to deceive them, and put in the cup in order to call back by a loving deceit the brother he loved; but the divine mysteries shine through.

This silver Christ found in us, which he himself had given. We have the silver of nature, and we have that of grace. Nature is the work of the creator, grace the gift of the redeemer. Even if we cannot see the gifts of Christ, he still gives and works in secret, and gives to all; but to keep and not lose belongs to few. Yet he does not give all things to all. Wheat is given to many, the cup to one, who is given the prophetic and priestly gift. For not everyone but the prophet says: 'I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.'

In Paul's body, then, the voice of heavenly teaching was already shining, since he was learned in the law. But because he was not yet subject to the righteousness of God, the cup was inside the sack, teaching inside the law, the lamp under the bushel. Yet Ananias was sent to give a blessing, lay on his hand, and untie the sack. When the sack was untied, the silver shone out, and as the scales fell, like the ties of a sack, at once he saw. Faithlessness was his bond; faith became his release. And therefore, as though the sack were untied, that is, the veil of the law laid aside that is placed over the heart of the Jews, turned to the Lord, free from the bond and having gained the grace of freedom, he says: 'And so we all, beholding the glory of God with unveiled face, are transformed into the same image.' For with the sandal of the law loosed, he preached the gospel with the bare foot of free speech. The Jews held him and wished to hinder him; but when the silver shone in his sack, they tore their garments and turned back. For Paul's free preaching for Christ stripped the people of the Jews and cut away all their grace,

and therefore they turned back, who could not see before them. Those who lose Christ go back. Indeed in the gospel too, when they seized the Lord Jesus for death, they went back and fell to the ground. Rightly they turned back, who were falling from that heavenly grace into earthly ruin. They were unwilling, then, morally to return without their brother, mystically to go back without Paul, without whom they declared that the old age of the parent people would be brought down in sorrow.

And therefore Judah wished to remain with Joseph, so as not to see the evils that would befall his father; that is, he already foresaw and wished to guard against the evils that were to come upon the people of the Jews. But since that free preaching was not yet in that figure of the leaders of the Jewish people, Joseph wept, that is, in him Jesus wept.

And he ordered everyone to withdraw, so that he might make himself known to his brothers; for, as he himself says, he had come only to the sheep that were lost of the house of Israel. And raising his voice with weeping he said: 'I am Joseph; is my father still alive?' That is: he spread out his hands to an unbelieving and contradicting people, seeking no envoy or messenger, but the Lord himself wishing to save his people. 'I who spoke am here,' he says, 'and I was made manifest to those who did not seek me, I appeared to those who did not ask for me.' What else did he cry out then but: 'I am Jesus,' when, < tested > by the leaders of the Jews asking: 'Are you the Son of God?', he answered: 'You say that I am'; when he said to Pilate: 'You say that I am a king; for this I was born'; when to the high priest, who said: 'I adjure you by the living God to tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God,' he replied: 'You have said so. Truly I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.' This, then, is what he says: 'I am Joseph,' I am of divine power. 'Is my father still alive?' That is: I do not deny my father, I acknowledge my brothers, if either you recognize your brother or the father his son. Does my people still live, then, from whose family I chose a brother for myself?

'Come near to me,' because I have come near to you, even so far as to make myself a sharer in your nature by taking on flesh. Do not flee even the partner of your fellowship, if you do not recognize the author of salvation.

'And they came near to him,' it says, 'and he said: I am Joseph your brother, whom you handed over into Egypt. Now, then, do not be sad, nor let it seem hard to you that you sold me here; for God sent me before you for life.' What brotherly love, what sweet kinship, that he even excused the fratricidal deed, saying that it was of divine providence, not of human ungodliness, since he was not offered to death by men but sent by the Lord for life! What else does that intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ have, who surpassed all brothers in love, as he hung on the cross, saying for the people: 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do'? What else that address of holiness in the midst of his disciples, saying: 'Peace to you; it is I, do not be afraid'? And when, troubled and terrified, they thought they saw a spirit, he said to them again: 'Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your heart? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.' These mysteries, then, which were to come in later times, were revealed already then.

Indeed they are expressed in the very words, so that we may understand that it is he himself who spoke first in Joseph and afterward in his own body, since he did not even change the words. For he said then: 'Do not be sad,' and further on: 'Go up to my father and say to him: Thus says your son Joseph: God has made me lord of all the land of Egypt.' And in the gospel he says: 'Do not be afraid; go, tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.' And further on he says: 'All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth,' that is to say: this was of divine disposition, that I should receive power, not of human harshness. He who enumerates the reward does not reproach the crime.

And what it has in Genesis, 'For God sent me before you for life,' he renders in the gospel, saying: 'Teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit'; for this is the reward and life of the saints, that they have redeemed others too.

Notice also that it is not idly written in Genesis: 'And you shall be near me, you and your sons and your sons' sons'; for this is what he said in the gospel: 'Behold, I am with you all days until the end of the age.'

How evident too is that mystery, that, as though every command had been fulfilled, Joseph embraces his brother Benjamin and fell on his neck, as, when the gospel was fulfilled, Christ embraces Paul with the arms, as it were, of his mercy, so as to raise him, bowed down by inner conviction, from the neck, as it were, to heaven. Hence, raised up by Christ, he says: 'But our citizenship is in heaven.'

'And Pharaoh rejoiced that Joseph had recognized his brothers.' Hence the news was spread in Pharaoh's house, and he urged holy Joseph to invite his brothers to come with their father, and he orders their packs to be filled with wheat and wagons to be given them. Where did a barbarian get this kindness, unless a great mystery was being shown: that the church no longer envies when the Jews are redeemed, and the Christian people rejoices at this joining and helps with whatever support it can, and sends those who preach the kingdom of God, so that they may be called out the sooner? To them two robes are given.

And he sends Paul as his envoy when he sets forth his words, on whom three hundred gold pieces and five robes of various colors are conferred by Christ. He has three hundred gold pieces who preaches the cross of Christ, and therefore he says: 'For I decided to know nothing among you except Christ Jesus and him crucified.' And rightly he receives gold pieces, because he preached not in persuasive words of wisdom but in the demonstration of the Spirit. And he receives five robes, either the disciplines of manifold wisdom, or because, captured by no enticements of the bodily senses, he held victory where others had danger; he overcame all the pleasures of the flesh with singular continence and virtue; no weakness of the body dulled his talent and zeal; while he was in the body he did not know he had a body. Indeed, caught up into paradise, not knowing whether in the body or out of the body, he heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to speak; and finally he smelled of nothing earthly on earth, as he himself teaches, saying: 'For we are the good fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved.'

Paul, then, excels, and his portion overflows; yet the other preachers too have their grace. They receive two robes each. Which? Surely those about which you ought not to doubt, since you have read it said of Wisdom: 'She made double garments for her husband.' One is mystical, the other moral. But not all are apostles, not all prophets, not all pastors, not all workers of miracles; not all have the grace of healings, not all speak in tongues. Where there are different rewards, there are different merits.

And gifts are sent ahead to the father too. The son honors the father; Christ invites his people with promises, invites them with gifts. These gifts are carried by those asses, useless and toiling before, now useful; in the type of Christ they carry gifts, being about to carry the giver of gifts in the gospel.

'And he sent his brothers away, and they departed. And Joseph said to them: Do not be angry on the way.' How well he teaches that we must guard against anger, because it can separate even brothers who love one another, and that discord must be avoided especially on the way, where the very companionship of travel ought to have the fellowship of inviolable grace. And what else did our Lord Jesus say when about to depart from this body, when he sent away his disciples, but that they should not be angry on the way, saying: 'Peace I leave you, my peace I give you'? For where there is peace, anger has no place, discord is banished, dissension put to flight. This, then, is what he says: 'My peace I give you,' that is, do not be angry on the way. And see whether he does not mean 'on this way,' that is, in this course of the whole of life, indignation must be avoided, because anger often leads even the innocent into crime, since, while we are angry beyond what is just and wish to restrain another's sin, we commit graver sins. Therefore the apostle says: 'Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to wrath,' that is, let us avoid it, lest it seize us. Hence the Lord Jesus too, sending his disciples to preach the gospel, sent them without gold, without silver, without money, without a staff, that is, so as to take away both the incitements to strife and the instruments of revenge.

'And they went up out of Egypt,' it says, 'and came into the land of Canaan to Jacob their father, and told him, saying that Joseph your son is alive, and he is ruler of all the land of Egypt.' What is the land of Canaan? One that wavered. What, then, is so evident as that the times of the apostles are designated, when they went into the wavering synagogues of the Jews and preached the power of the Lord Jesus, as we have in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter saying: 'This Jesus, then, God raised up, of whom we are witnesses. Being exalted, then, by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this gift which you see'? We certainly notice how he says both that he lives and that he is ruler of all the earth, who, opening the granaries of spiritual grace, gives abundance to all. This the apostles said, but the Jews did not believe; rather they laid hands on them and thrust the preachers of salvation into custody.

Hence it is written of Jacob too: 'He was stunned in mind, for he did not believe them.' He was stunned with the disposition of an unbelieving people; but after he learned the deeds of Christ, softened by such great kindnesses and works, he revived in spirit, saying: 'It is a great thing to me if my son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.' The first and greatest foundation of faith is to believe in the resurrection of Christ. For whoever has believed that he was raised seeks him eagerly, approaches devoutly, and venerates God with inmost mind; for he believes that he himself does not die, if he believes in the author of the resurrection. 'And Israel set out and came to the well of the oath and offered a sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac.'

Rightly he is lifted up who hastens to Christ. Faith precedes devotion. First he lifted himself up, then he sacrificed; for he sacrifices well who has searched out the knowledge of the divinity.

'And God said to Israel in a vision by night, saying: Jacob, Jacob. And he said: What is it? Saying: I am the God of your fathers; do not be afraid, go down into Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there. I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will lead you forever.' How they do not understand what they themselves read, and deny Moses whom they praise, when they will not believe his writings! What is more evident than that in this place they are invited to pass over to the church of God, and that those who were before confined within the narrow borders of Judea should migrate to the people of God, which, gathered from the whole world, from all nations and peoples, has become a great nation? Indeed their sound went out into all the earth. Jacob, then, is called by his sons, that is, the people of the Jews is invited to grace by Peter, John, and Paul.

Our God himself also encourages him by his own oracle and promises him the progress of faith, the fruit of his gift, saying to him: 'Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.' Surely the holy patriarch was not anxious about who would close his eyes, though even by a simple understanding a moral affection is expressed. For if we desire often to embrace those we love, how much more, when about to depart from this body, do we delight in the last touch of our dear children and are soothed by this provision for the journey. Yet mystically we may understand that the people of the Jews would afterward come to know God. For this is the mystery: that the true Joseph will put his hands on its eyes, so that one who before did not see may now see. Come to the gospel, read how that blind man was healed on whom Jesus laid his hand and took away his blindness. For Christ lays his hand not on those about to die but on those who are to live; or if on those about to die, rightly so, because we first die in order to live again; for we cannot live to God unless we first die to sin.

Seventy-five souls, then, go down into Egypt, as it is written, and this mystically in the number of remission, because after such hardness, after so many sins, they would be held unworthy unless the remission of sins were granted them. Judah meets him, that is, the confession of error. This the people of the Jews, when it is to come, sends as its forerunner. Therefore the true Joseph too, that is, the judge and interpreter of the divinity, meets them, because confession now goes before those whom faithlessness formerly possessed. For Christ is the interpreter of the divinity, because no one has ever seen God except the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; he has made him known. He will receive the people of the Jews, already of old age and weary, in the last times, not according to its merits but according to the election of his grace, and will lay his hand on its eyes to take away its blindness. He has postponed its healing so that it might believe last, which before did not think it should believe, and lose the prerogative of its earlier election. Hence the apostle too says that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the gentiles should come in, and so all Israel would be saved.

The deeds of the patriarchs, then, are mysteries of things to come. Indeed Jacob himself speaks thus to his sons: 'Gather together, that I may tell you what will befall you in the last days. Gather together and hear Israel your father.'