Homilies on the Hexaemeron 9.1–9.6

How did the morning table of words seem to you? It occurred to me to compare my own offering to the hospitality of some poor host who, eager to be thought a man of refinement, wearies his guests for lack of costlier fare by setting his meager provision lavishly on the table, so that his ambition turns into a reproach of bad taste. Ours is something of that kind, unless you say otherwise. But whatever it may be, you must not despise it. For the people of that time did not decline Elisha as a poor host, even though he feasted his friends on wild vegetables. I know the laws of allegory, though I did not find them out myself but came upon them in the labors of others. Those who do not accept the common meanings of what is written say that water is not water but some other nature; they interpret plant and fish as they please, and explain the creation of creeping things and wild beasts by twisting them to their own notions, like interpreters of dreams, who explain what appeared in visions in sleep to suit their own purpose. But I, when I hear "grass," understand grass; and plant, fish, wild beast, and cattle: all of them I take as they are said. For I am not ashamed of the gospel. Nor, because those who have written about the world have argued much about the shape of the earth, whether it is a sphere or a cylinder, or resembles a disc and is rounded equally on all sides, or is shaped like a winnowing basket and hollow in the middle (for those who wrote about the world have been carried to all these suppositions, each overturning the others), will I on that account be led to call our account of creation less honorable, because Moses, the servant of God, said nothing about shapes, nor said that the circumference of the earth is 180,000 stades, nor measured how far into the air its shadow reaches when the sun moves under the earth, nor how this shadow, falling on the moon, causes eclipses. Since he passed over in silence, as useless to us, the things that are nothing to us, shall I on this account consider the oracles of the Spirit less honorable than the wisdom that has been made foolish? Or shall I rather glorify him who did not occupy our mind with vain things, but arranged that everything should be written for the building up and perfecting of our souls? This is what some seem to me not to have understood, who have tried, by certain distortions and figurative interpretations, to attach to what is written a dignity of their own devising. But this is the part of one who makes himself wiser than the oracles of the Spirit, and under pretense of interpretation brings in his own ideas. Let it be understood, then, as it is written.

"Let the earth bring forth a living soul of cattle and wild beasts and creeping things." Consider the word of God running through creation, beginning then, active until now, and going on to the end, until the world is completed. For as a ball, when someone pushes it and it then meets a slope, is carried downhill by its own shape and the fitness of the ground, and does not stop until some level ground receives it, so the nature of things, set in motion by one command, passes evenly through the creation subject to coming-to-be and perishing, preserving the succession of the kinds through likeness, until it reaches the end itself. It makes a horse the successor of a horse, a lion of a lion, an eagle of an eagle; and it sends each of the animals on, preserved by successive generations, until the consummation of the universe. No length of time corrupts or effaces the peculiarities of the animals; nature, as if newly established, runs along with time, always fresh. "Let the earth bring forth a living soul." This command has remained in the earth, and it does not cease serving the Creator. For some things are produced by the succession of those already existing, while others are shown even now being brought to life from the earth itself. For it not only sends up cicadas in rainy seasons, and countless other kinds of winged things carried about in the air, most of which have no name because of their smallness; it even produces mice and frogs from itself. Around Thebes in Egypt, when it rains heavily in the hot season, the land is at once filled with field mice. And eels we see formed in no other way than from mud: neither an egg nor any other means produces their succession; their origin is from the earth. "Let the earth bring forth a soul." The cattle are earthy and bent toward the earth; but man, the heavenly plant, differs from them as much in the dignity of his soul as in the shape of his bodily form. What is the shape of four-footed animals? Their head is bent toward the earth; it looks to the belly and pursues the belly's pleasure by every means. Your head stands erect toward heaven; your eyes look upward. So if you ever dishonor yourself with the passions of the flesh, serving the belly and what is below the belly, "you are compared to the senseless cattle and have become like them." Another care befits you: to seek the things above, where Christ is, and to be above earthly things in your mind. As you were shaped, so order your life. Have your citizenship in heaven. Your true homeland is the Jerusalem above; your fellow citizens and fellow tribesmen are the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven.

"Let the earth bring forth a living soul." The soul of the irrational animals, then, did not appear as something stored up in the earth, but came into existence together with the command. The soul of the irrational animals is one, for one thing marks it out: the lack of reason. But each of the animals is distinguished by different peculiarities. The ox is steady, the donkey sluggish, the horse hot in desire for the female, the wolf untamable, the fox crafty, the deer timid, the ant industrious, the dog grateful and mindful of friendship. For each was created and at the same time brought with it the peculiarity of its nature. Spiritedness was born together with the lion, its solitary manner of life, its unsociability toward its own kind. For, like a tyrant among the irrational animals, it will not accept equality with the many, because of its natural arrogance. It will not even take yesterday's food, nor go back to the remains of its own prey; and nature has given it such great organs of voice that often many animals that surpass it in speed are caught by its roar alone. The leopard is impetuous and quick in its rushes; it has been given a body suited to it, supple and light, following the movements of its soul. The nature of the bear is sluggish, its character peculiar, sly, deeply hidden; and it is clothed with a body to match, heavy, compact, without distinct joints, truly fitted for a cold den. If we go through in our discourse how much untaught and natural care for their own life these irrational animals possess, we shall be moved to guard ourselves and to take thought for the salvation of our souls, or else we shall be condemned the more, when we are found falling short even of imitating the irrational animals. A bear, often wounded by very deep blows, heals itself, by every means stuffing its wounds with mullein, a plant that is dry by nature. You may also see the fox healing itself with the tear of the pine. The tortoise, when it has gorged itself on viper's flesh, escapes the harm from the venomous creature by the counteracting power of marjoram. And the snake heals the harm in its eyes by feeding on fennel. And their foreknowledge of changes in the air: what rational understanding does it not throw into the shade? The sheep, as winter approaches, eats greedily, as though stocking itself up against the coming scarcity; and oxen, shut up for a long time in the winter season, when spring is at last approaching, perceive the change by natural sense and look out from their stalls toward the doors, all changing their posture at one signal. Some diligent observers have also noticed that the land hedgehog contrives two breathing holes for its burrow, and when the north wind is going to blow, blocks the northern one, and when the south wind takes its place, moves over to the northern one. What is shown to us men by these things? Not only that the care of our Creator reaches through all things, but also that there is among the irrational animals some perception of the future, so that we too may not cling to the present life but give all our zeal to the age to come. Will you not take pains for yourself, O man? Will you not lay up in the present age the rest of the age to come, looking at the example of the ant? It stores up its winter food in summer, and does not let the time pass in idleness because the hardships of winter are not yet present, but strains itself at its work with unremitting zeal until it has stored enough food in its storehouses. And not carelessly either: it contrives by a wise device to make the food last as long as possible. For it cuts through the very middle of the grains with its pincers, so that they may not sprout and become useless to it for food. And it dries them when it perceives that they are soaked; and it does not put them out at any time, but when it foresees that the air is keeping a fair-weather state. Indeed you would never see rain pouring from the clouds while the ants have their grain put out. What word could reach it? What hearing will contain it? What time will suffice to tell and describe all the wonders of the Craftsman? Let us too say with the prophet: "How great are your works, O Lord! You have made all things in wisdom." So it is not enough for our defense that we have not been taught what is beneficial by letters, since we have received the choice of what is profitable by the untaught law of nature. Do you know what good you should do to your neighbor? What you want done to yourself by another. Do you know what evil is? What you would not choose to suffer from another. No art of herb-cutting, no botanical experience discovered for the irrational animals the knowledge of useful things; each of the animals is by nature able to provide for its own safety, and has an unspoken affinity for what accords with its nature.

There are also in us virtues according to nature, toward which the soul has an affinity that comes not from human teaching but from nature itself. For as no argument teaches us to hate sickness, but we have a spontaneous aversion to what pains us, so the soul too has an untaught turning away from evil. Every evil is a sickness of the soul, and virtue holds the place of health. For some have rightly defined health as the steady working of the natural functions; and one who says the same of the soul's good condition will not miss what is fitting. Hence the soul, untaught, desires what is proper and natural to it. That is why self-control is praised by all, justice welcomed, courage admired, and prudence eagerly sought; and these are more proper to the soul than health is to the body. "Children, love your fathers. Parents, do not provoke your children to anger." Does nature not say these things too? Paul urges nothing new; he tightens the bonds of nature. If the lioness loves her young, and the wolf fights for its cubs, what will a man say who both disobeys the commandment and counterfeits nature, when a son dishonors his father's old age, or a father, through a second marriage, forgets the children of his first? Among the irrational animals the affection of offspring and parents for each other is extraordinary, because God who made them compensated for their lack of reason by the abundance of their senses. How is it that among countless sheep a lamb leaping out of the fold knows the very color and voice of its mother, hastens to her, and seeks its own fountains of milk? And even if it finds its mother's teats poor, it is content with them, passing by many udders heavy with milk. And how does the mother recognize her own among countless lambs? One voice, the same color, a smell alike in all, as far as our sense of smell can tell; yet they have a perception keener than our apprehension, by which each can tell its own. The puppy does not yet have teeth, and yet it defends itself with its mouth against whoever hurts it. The calf does not yet have horns, and it knows where its weapons will grow. These things prove that the natures of all are untaught, that nothing among existing things is disorderly or undefined, but that all bear traces of the Maker's wisdom, showing in themselves that they were brought forth equipped to preserve their own safety. The dog has no share in reason, yet it has a sense equivalent to reason. For what the wise men of the world, who sat in great leisure all their lives, barely discovered, I mean the intricacies of syllogisms, the dog shows that it has learned from nature. For when it is tracking a beast and finds the trail divided many ways, it goes over the turnings leading in each direction and all but utters the syllogistic statement through its actions: "Either the beast turned this way," it says, "or that way, or toward this part; but it went neither this way nor that; it remains that it rushed this way." And so, by eliminating the false, it finds the true. What more do they do who sit solemnly over their diagrams and scratch in the dust, eliminating two of three premises and finding the truth in the one that remains? And the dog's memory of kindness: which of those who are ungrateful to their benefactors does it not put to shame? Many dogs are remembered to have died beside masters murdered in lonely places. Some, while the deed was still fresh, have even become guides to those seeking the murderers and have brought the criminals to justice. What will those say who not only do not love the Lord who made and feeds them, but even keep as friends those who speak unrighteousness against God, share the same table with them, and at the very meal put up with blasphemies against the one who feeds them?

But let us return to the contemplation of creation. The animals more easily caught are more prolific. That is why hares bear many young, and wild goats and wild sheep bear twins, so that their kind may not fail, consumed by the flesh-eaters. But those that destroy others bear few. Hence the lioness barely becomes the mother of one lion; for, they say, the cub comes out by tearing the womb with the points of its claws; and vipers come out by eating through the womb. So nothing among existing things lacks providence, or is without a share in the care that befits it. And if you study the very members of the animals, you will find that the Creator neither added anything superfluous nor took away anything necessary. To carnivorous animals he fitted sharp teeth, for such were needed for their kind of food. Those that are armed with teeth by halves he provided with many and various storehouses for their food. For since their food is not ground fine enough the first time, he gave them the means to bring up again what they have swallowed, so that, made smooth by chewing the cud, it may be assimilated by the animal it feeds. Paunches, honeycomb bags, reticula, and abomasums do not lie idle in the animals that have them; each fulfills a necessary use. The camel's neck is long, so that it may match its legs and reach the grass on which it lives. The neck of the bear is short and sunk into the shoulders, as also those of the lion, the tiger, and the others of this kind, because their food does not come from the grass, and they have no need to stoop to the ground, being carnivores that live by hunting animals. What is the purpose of the elephant's trunk? Since the animal is great, the greatest of land animals, brought forth to astonish those who meet it, its body had to be very fleshy and massive. If a great neck in proportion to its legs had been given it, it would have been unwieldy, always weighed down by the excessive weight. As it is, the head is joined to the spine by a few vertebrae of the neck, and it has the trunk, which fulfills the use of a neck, by which it brings its food to itself and draws up its drink. And its legs have no joints, but, like columns joined together, support the weight. For if loose and supple limbs had been put under it, its joints would continually have been dislocated, since they would not have been strong enough to lift the weight as it knelt down and rose up. As it is, a short ankle lies under the elephant's foot, and it is articulated neither into a bend nor into a knee. For slippery joints would not have borne the animal's great mass of flesh, poured round it and quivering. Hence the need for that trunk let down to the feet. Do you not see in wars how they lead the phalanx like living towers, or like hills of flesh with an irresistible charge, breaking through the enemy's locked shields? If their lower parts had not been in proportion, the animal would not have lasted any time. As it is, some report that the elephant lives three hundred years and more; that is why its limbs are compact and without joints. Its food, as we said, the trunk carries from the ground up to the height, being serpent-like and quite supple in nature. So true is the saying that nothing superfluous or lacking can be found in created things. Yet God has made this animal, so great in size, subject to us, so that it understands when taught and accepts being beaten, clearly teaching us that he subjected all things to us because we were made according to the image of the Creator. Not only in the great animals may one see the unsearchable wisdom; in the tiniest one may gather no less wonder. For as I do not marvel more at the great mountain peaks, which, being near the clouds, keep their wintry cold through the continual blowing of the winds, than at the hollow of the ravines, which not only escapes the stormy winds of the heights but also keeps the air always warm, so too in the structures of the animals I do not admire the elephant for its size more than the mouse, because it is feared by the elephant, or the very fine sting of the scorpion, how the Craftsman hollowed it like a pipe so that through it the venom is injected into those it wounds. And let no one on this account accuse the Maker of having brought in venomous animals, destructive and hostile to our life; or in that case one might as well accuse a tutor who brings the frivolity of youth to order and corrects their license with blows and whips.

Wild beasts are a proof of faith. Do you trust in the Lord? "You will tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and you will trample the lion and the dragon." And you have authority through faith to tread upon serpents and scorpions. Or do you not see that the viper that fastened on Paul as he gathered sticks did him no harm, because the saint was found full of faith? But if you are faithless, fear not the beast so much as your own faithlessness, through which you have made yourself an easy prey to every destruction. But I perceive that I have long been asked about the creation of man, and I seem almost to hear my hearers crying out in their hearts, "We are being taught what the nature of our possessions is, but we do not know ourselves." I must speak, then, pushing aside the hesitation that holds me back. For truly it seems hardest of all to know oneself. For not only does the eye, which sees outward things, not use its sight on itself, but our very mind, quick to see another's sin, is slow to recognize its own failings. That is why now too my discourse, having gone quickly through the things of others, is sluggish and full of hesitation in examining our own. And yet one who examines himself with understanding can come to know God from his own constitution no less than from heaven and earth, as the prophet says: "Your knowledge has become wonderful from me," that is, by studying myself I was taught the surpassing greatness of your wisdom. "And God said, Let us make man." Where is the Jew for me, who earlier, when the light of theology was shining through as through windows, and a second person was being indicated mystically, though not yet clearly revealed, fought against the truth, saying that God spoke to himself? For he himself spoke, they say, and he himself made: "Let there be light, and there was light." The absurdity of what they said was obvious even then. For what smith, carpenter, or shoemaker, sitting alone at the tools of his craft with no one working with him, says to himself, "Let us make the sword," or "Let us fit together the plough," or "Let us finish the shoe"? Does he not rather carry out the work in hand in silence? It would truly be dreadful nonsense for someone to sit as his own ruler and overseer, urging himself on lordly and vehemently. But those who did not hesitate to slander the Lord himself, what would they not say, having tongues trained for falsehood? Yet the present word stops their mouths entirely: "And God said, Let us make man." Is the person single here too, tell me? For it is not written, "Let man come to be," but, "Let us make man." As long as the one being taught had not yet appeared, the proclamation of theology was hidden in the depth; now that the creation of man is awaited, faith is uncovered, and the doctrine of the truth is shown more plainly. "Let us make man." You hear, enemy of Christ, that he is speaking to the partner in creation, "through whom he also made the ages," who "upholds all things by the word of his power." But they do not quietly accept the word of piety; like the most man-hating of wild beasts, which, when shut up in cages, roar around the bars, showing the bitterness and savagery of their nature but unable to satisfy their fury, so the Jews, a race hostile to the truth, when hard pressed, say: "There are many persons to whom the word of God was addressed; he says to the angels who stand by him, Let us make man." A Jewish fiction, a myth of their usual frivolity! So as not to accept the one, they bring in countless; and rejecting the Son, they attach the dignity of counsel to servants and make our fellow servants lords of our creation. Man, when perfected, is raised to the dignity of the angels; but what creature can be equal to the Creator? Consider also what follows: "According to our image." What do you say to this? Is the image of God and of the angels one? Of Son and Father the form must necessarily be the same, the form being understood in a way befitting God, not in bodily shape but in the property of the Godhead. Hear this, you too of the new concision, who champion Judaism under a pretense of Christianity. To whom does he say, "According to our image"? To whom else but to "the radiance of his glory and the express image of his hypostasis," who is "the image of the invisible God"? To his own living image, then, who said, "I and the Father are one," and, "He who has seen me has seen the Father": to him he says, "Let us make man according to our image." Where the image is one, where is the unlikeness? "And God made man." Not, "They made." Here he avoided a plurality of persons. By those words he instructs the Jew, by these he shuts out paganism, and returns safely to the unity, so that you may understand the Son with the Father and escape the danger of polytheism. "In the image of God he made him." Again he brought in the person of the fellow worker; for he did not say, "In his own image," but, "In the image of God." In what man has what is according to the image of God, and how he shares in the likeness, will be said in what follows, God granting; but for now let this much be said: if the image is one, how did it come into your head to be so impious as to call the Son unlike the Father? What ingratitude! The likeness you received, you do not grant to your benefactor? And you think that what was granted to you by grace remains yours, but you do not allow the Son to have by nature likeness to the one who begot him? But the evening, which long ago escorted the sun to its setting, now commands us to be silent. Here, then, let us too put our discourse to rest, content with what has been said. For now we have touched on the matter enough to rouse your zeal; the more complete examination of the questions before us we will give in what follows, with the help of the Spirit. Go away rejoicing, Christ-loving congregation, and instead of costly dishes and varied sauces, adorn your dignified tables with the memory of what has been said. Let the Anomoean be put to shame, let the Jew be abashed, let the pious man rejoice in the doctrines of the truth, let the Lord be glorified, to whom be glory and might to the ages of ages. Amen.