Sermons to the People 264.4–264.10

There are many hidden sacraments of the divine Scriptures, whether those we ourselves still have to seek or those which the Lord has already deigned to reveal to our lowliness; but there is not time enough to open them to Your Holiness. For I know that especially in these days the church is filled with people who would rather leave quickly than come, and who find us burdensome if we sometimes speak a little longer; and yet at their dinners, to which they hurry, if they are kept until evening they neither grow weary nor refuse nor ever leave out of shame. Still, so as not to cheat those who come hungry, we shall not keep silent, though briefly, about the sacrament of this fact: that our Lord Jesus Christ ascended with the body in which he rose.

It was indeed because of the weakness of his disciples; for there were not lacking, even in that number, those whom the devil tempted with unbelief, so that a certain disciple of his, in the very form in which he had known him, still did not have more faith in the living members than in the fresh scars. So for their strengthening he deigned after the resurrection to live with them forty whole days, from the very day of his passion to this day, going in and out, eating and drinking, as Scripture says; confirming that what had been taken away through the cross had been given back to their eyes after the resurrection. Yet he did not want them to remain in the flesh, or to hold him longer by carnal love. For they wanted him always to be with them carnally with the same mind with which Peter too feared his suffering. For they saw with them a teacher, strengthener, consoler, and protector, a man, such as they saw themselves to be. If they did not see something of the kind, they believed him absent, though he is everywhere present in majesty. He did indeed protect them, as he himself deigned to say, like a hen her chicks. For a hen, because of the weakness of her chicks, becomes weak herself. For if you recall, there are before our eyes so many birds that have chicks; we see no bird become weak with its chicks except the hen; and that is why the Lord drew the likeness from her: because for our weakness he himself too deigned to become weak by taking flesh. But it was necessary that they be lifted up somewhat and begin now to think of him spiritually, as the Word of the Father, God with God, through whom all things were made; and the flesh which they saw did not allow them. So it profited them to be strengthened in faith by his living with them forty days; but it profited them more that he should withdraw himself from their eyes; and that he who had lived on earth as a brother should help them from heaven as Lord; and that they should learn to think of him according to God. For this is what John the evangelist sounded out, if anyone notices, if anyone understands. For the Lord says: “Let not your heart be troubled. If you loved me,” he says, “you would rejoice, because I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.” And in another place he says: “I and the Father are one.” And he claims so great an equality for himself, not by robbery but by nature, that he said to a certain disciple who said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us,” “Philip, have I been with you so long, and you do not know the Father? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” What is “Whoever has seen me”? If according to the eyes of the flesh, those who crucified him saw him too. What then is “Whoever has seen me,” except whoever has understood, whoever has seen with the eye of the heart? For as there are inner ears, which the Lord was looking for when he said, “He who has ears, let him hear,” though no deaf man stood before him: so there is also the inner sight of the heart, by which, if anyone had seen the Lord, he had seen the Father; because he is equal to the Father.

Hear the Apostle wishing to commend to us his mercy, that for our sake he became weak so as to gather the chicks under his wings, teaching other disciples too that they should themselves suffer with the weakness of the weak, having risen from the common weakness to some firmness, since he had come down from heavenly firmness to our weakness. He says to them: “Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Deign, he says, to imitate the Son of God by compassion with little ones. “Who, though he was in the form of God.” Already by saying “was in the form of God,” he shows him equal to God. For a form is not less than he whose form it is. For if it is less, it is not the form. Yet so that no one should doubt, he added, and set down the very word with which to shut the mouths of the sacrilegious: “Who, though he was in the form of God,” he says, “did not think it robbery to be equal with God.” What is it, dearest brothers, that the Apostle says, “did not think it robbery”? That he is equal by nature. To whom, then, was equality with God robbery? To the first man, to whom it was said, “Taste, and you will be like gods.” He wished to stretch himself toward equality by robbery, and through punishment he lost immortality. For he to whom it was not robbery “did not think it robbery to be equal with God.” If, then, not robbery, nature: whole fellowship and the highest comparison itself. But what did he do? “He emptied himself,” it says, “taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man; he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” It was too little to say death, and he showed the kind of death. Why the kind of death too? Because many are ready for death: for many say, “I am not afraid to die, but I would like to die in my bed, surrounded by children, grandchildren, the tears of my wife.” Such a man does not seem to refuse death, but by choosing the kind of death he is punished by fear. But he chose a kind of death, the worst of all. As men choose for themselves a better kind of death, so he chose the worse, the one that was accursed to all the Jews. For he did not fear to die through false witnesses, by the sentence of a judge, he who will come to judge the living and the dead; he did not fear to die through the ignominy of the cross, so as to free all believers from all ignominy. So “becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross”; yet equal to God by nature; strong in the power of majesty, weak in the compassion of humanity: strong to make all things, weak to remake all things.

Attend, then, to what John says: “If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.” How equal, as the Apostle says? As the Lord himself says: “I and the Father are one.” And in another place: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” How here, “For the Father is greater than I”? This saying, brothers, as far as the Lord inspires us to notice, was in a way a rebuke as well as a consolation. For they were fixed on the man and could not think of God. For they would think of God then if the man were taken from them and from their eyes, so that, the familiarity that had been made with the flesh being cut off, they might learn, even with the flesh absent, to think of the divinity. So he says this to them: “If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I am going to the Father.” Why? So that when I go to the Father you can think of me as equal to the Father. For that is why he is greater than I: while you still see me in the flesh, the Father is still greater than I. See whether you have taken it in: for they knew only how to think of a man. I say this a little more plainly for the sake of our slower brothers; but let those who have understood bear the slowness of the rest and imitate the Lord himself, who, “though he was in the form of God, humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death.” “If you loved me”: what is this? “If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I am going to the Father.” “If you loved me”: what else is it but “you do not love me”? What then do you love? The flesh which you see. For you do not want it to depart from your eyes. But “if you loved me”: what is “me”? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” as John himself says. If, then, you loved me so, as the one through whom all things were made, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father. Why? “For the Father is greater than I.” While you still see me on earth, the Father is greater than I. Let me depart from your eyes; let the mortal flesh, which was taken on because of your mortality, be taken from your sight; begin not to see this garment which I took on in humility: but let it be lifted into heaven, so that you may learn what to hope for. For he did not leave here the very tunic which he willed to put on here. For if he had left it here, all would despair of the resurrection of the flesh. For now he has lifted it into heaven, and there are those who doubt the resurrection of the flesh. If God showed it in himself, will he deny it to man? For God took it by mercy, but man has it by creation. And yet he showed it, strengthened them, and lifted it up. When the carnal sight was withdrawn from their eyes, they no longer saw the man. If there was anything in their hearts drawn from carnal desire, it was as it were saddened in them. Yet they were gathered together and began to pray. And he was going to send the Holy Spirit after this, with ten days between, so that the Holy Spirit might fill them with spiritual love, taking away their carnal desires. He was making them now understand Christ as he was the Word of God, God with God, through whom all things were made. But they could not be filled with such understanding unless carnal affection had departed from their eyes. And that is why he said, “If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.” According to the man he is greater than I, equal according to God: equal according to nature, greater according to the Son’s mercy. For he humbled him not only below himself but also below the angels, as Scripture says. He is not less; even if you see that the Son by taking flesh has somewhat withdrawn from equality with the Father, from which he never withdraws; but by taking flesh (for he took a man) he was not changed. As one who puts on a garment is not turned into the garment, but remains himself a whole man within: and if a senator puts on a slave’s garment, if perhaps he cannot go in with his senatorial garment to comfort someone in chains in prison, he puts on prison dress; a squalid dress is seen, out of humanity; but within the senatorial dignity remains all the more whole, the greater the mercy with which he willed to put on what belonged to humility. So too the Lord, remaining God, remaining the Word, remaining Wisdom, remaining divine Power, remaining in the governance of the heavens, remaining in the administration of the earth, filling the angels, whole everywhere, whole in the world, whole in the patriarchs, whole in the prophets, whole in all the saints, whole in the Virgin’s womb, to put on flesh, to join it to himself as a bride, so that he might come forth from his chamber as a bridegroom, to betroth the Church as a chaste virgin. For this, then, he is less than the Father, because man; but equal to the Father, because God. Remove carnal desires, then. As if he said this to his apostles: “You do not want to let me go (as everyone does not want to let his friend go, saying as it were, Stay with us a while; our soul is refreshed when we see you); but it is better that you do not see this flesh and that you think of the divinity. I take myself from you outwardly, and fill you with myself inwardly.” For does Christ enter the heart according to the flesh and with the flesh? According to the divinity he possesses the heart; according to the flesh he speaks to the heart through the eyes, and admonishes from without; dwelling within, so that we may be turned inward, and be given life from him, and be formed from him; for he is the unmade form of all things.

So if he spent forty days with his disciples, he did not spend forty days without reason. Perhaps twenty would have been enough, thirty would have been enough: forty days is the dispensation of this whole age. We once treated this, on account of the number ten taken four times. I remind you who heard it. For the number ten signifies the whole of wisdom. This wisdom has been dispensed through the four parts of the world, through the whole earth; and times are divided by a fourfold arrangement. For the year has four seasons, and the world has four quarters. So ten taken four times makes the number forty. And that is why the Lord fasted forty days, showing us that the faithful ought to abstain from all corruption as long as they are in this world. Elijah fasted forty days, bearing the person of Prophecy, showing that this is taught in Prophecy too. Moses fasted forty days, who bore the person of the Law, showing that this is taught in the Law too. The people Israel was led forty years in the desert. The ark floated forty days in the flood; and the ark is the Church, made of timbers that do not rot; the timbers that do not rot are the souls of the saints and the righteous; yet having clean and unclean animals, because as long as life is lived in this world and the Church is cleansed by baptism as by the flood, it cannot but have good and bad. That is why that ark held both clean and unclean. But after Noah came out of it, he offered sacrifice to God only from the clean animals. From this we ought to understand that in this ark there are both clean and unclean animals, but after this flood God accepts only those who have cleansed themselves. So take this whole time that is seen, brothers, as forty days. All this time, as long as we are here, is the ark in the flood: as long as Christians are baptized and cleansed by water, the ark seems to float on the waves, the ark which was carried on the water forty days. And the Lord, remaining with his disciples for forty days, deigned to signify that through this time faith in the Incarnation of Christ is necessary for all: it is necessary for the weak. If there were already an eye to see “In the beginning was the Word,” to see it, to hold it, to embrace it, to enjoy it, there would be no need for the Word to become flesh and dwell among us; but because the inner eye for holding and enjoying it had been blinded by the dust of sins, there was no longer a means by which the Word could be understood; so he deigned to become flesh, that the eye might be cleansed by which afterward could be seen what cannot be seen now. Since, then, the dispensation of Christ’s flesh is necessary for the faithful in this life, by which they may reach toward the Lord, but when one has come to that vision of the Word no carnal dispensation will be necessary, therefore his life in the flesh for forty days after the resurrection was necessary, to show that faith in the Incarnation of Christ is necessary as long as in this life the ark is carried floating in the flood. See what I am saying, brothers: believe in Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary, crucified, risen. There is no need for us to ask after this age, because we have already received it in faith: we hold it; it is necessary for our weakness. Think, then, of the love of that hen which protects our weakness; think of it as the beast of that merciful man passing by, on which he lifted the feeble man who had been wounded. For he lifted him: where? Onto his own beast. The Lord’s beast is the flesh. So when this age has passed, what will be said to you? “Because you rightly believed in the flesh of Christ, now enjoy the majesty and divinity of Christ.” The weak one was necessary for the weak; the strong one will be necessary for the strong.

For you too are to lay down this very weakness, as you heard in the Apostle: “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality.” “For flesh and blood,” he says, “will not possess the kingdom of God.” Why will they not possess it? Because the flesh will not rise? Far from it! The flesh will rise; but what happens? It is changed, and becomes itself a heavenly and angelic body. Do angels have flesh? But this is the difference: this flesh will rise, this very flesh which is buried, which dies; this which is seen, which is touched, which needs to eat and drink in order to last; which falls sick, which suffers pains: this very flesh is to rise, for the bad to everlasting punishments, but for the good to be changed. When it has been changed, what will happen? It will then be called a heavenly body, not mortal flesh: for “this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality.” But they marvel that God makes a heavenly body from flesh, he who made all things from nothing. The Lord, set in the flesh, made wine from water: and is it a wonder if he could make a heavenly body from flesh? Do not, then, doubt about God, that he is able to do it. The angels were nothing, before they were; but by his majesty they are what they are. He who could make you when you did not exist, can he not restore what you had been, and can he not give the honor of charity to your faith because of his very incarnation? So when these things have passed, there will come to us what John says: “Dearly beloved, we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be: we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Prepare yourselves for that vision; meanwhile, as long as you are in the flesh, believe in Christ incarnate; and believe in such a way that you do not think you have been seduced by some falsehood. For the Truth never lies: for if it lies, where shall we go for counsel? What shall we do? To whom shall we entrust ourselves? So the Truth, the true Word, true Wisdom, the true Power of God: “The Word became flesh,” true flesh. “Handle and see,” he says, “for a spirit does not have bones and sinews, as you see that I have.” For they were true bones, true sinews, true scars: true whatever was touched, true whatever was understood. The man was touched, God was understood; the flesh was touched, Wisdom was understood; weakness was touched, power was understood. All true. Yet then the flesh went ahead into heaven; that is, the head. The other members will follow. Why? Because these members must receive sleep for a while, and all rise in their time. If the Lord too had willed to rise then, there would be no one in whom we might believe. That is why he willed to offer to God the firstfruits of those who sleep in himself, so that when you saw in him what was given back, you might hope in yourself for what is to be given. The whole people of God will be made equal to the angels and joined with them. Let no one, then, say to you, brothers: “The foolish Christians believe that the flesh will rise. Who rises? Or who has risen? Or who came here from the underworld and told you?” Christ came from there. O wretch! O perverse and backward human heart! If his grandfather rose, he would believe him: the Lord of the world has risen, and he will not believe.

So hold, my brothers, the true, genuine, Catholic faith. The Son is equal to the Father; the gift of God, the Holy Spirit, is equal to the Father; and therefore Father and Son and Holy Spirit are one God, not three gods: not added to one another by degrees but united in majesty, and one God. But yet the Son for our sake, “the Word, became flesh and dwelt among us.” “He did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and was found in appearance as a man.” And so that you may know, brothers, that this Trinity is truly equal, and that “the Father is greater than I” was said only because of the flesh which the Lord took: why was it never said of the Holy Spirit, “He is less,” except because he did not take flesh? See what I have said: search all the Scriptures, turn over all the pages, read all the verses; you will never find that the Holy Spirit is less than God. He, then, was called less who for our sake was made less, so that through him we might be made greater.