Homilies on Luke 17–20

On the text: “His father and mother were marvelling at what was said about him,” and again up to the place where Anna is written of. Chapter 2. Luke, who wrote, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the holy one who is born will be called the Son of God,” and who plainly handed down to us that Jesus is the son of a virgin and was not conceived of human seed, is the same who testified that Joseph was his father, saying: “His father and mother were marvelling at what was said about him.” What reason, then, was there for him to call one who was not his father his father? One who is content with a simple explanation says: the Holy Spirit honoured him with the name of father because he had brought up the Saviour. But one who inquires into something deeper can say that, since the order of generation is traced from David down to Joseph (Matt 1:1–16), Joseph was called the Lord’s father so that he, who was not the Saviour’s father, might not seem to be named for nothing, and so that the order of generation might stand (Luke 3:23). His father and mother, then, marvelled at what was said about him by the angel, by the multitude of the heavenly host, and by the shepherds. For hearing all these things they marvelled exceedingly. Next the Scripture says: “Simeon blessed him and said to Mary his mother: Behold, this one is set for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against. And a sword will pierce through your own soul too, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” We must consider how the Saviour came for the fall and the rising of many. One who explains it simply can say that he came for the fall of unbelievers and the rising of believers. But a careful interpreter says that no one falls who did not stand before. Show me, then, who it was that stood and for whose fall the Saviour came, and also who it is that rises. For surely he rises who had fallen before. We must certainly consider whether perhaps the Saviour came not for the fall of some and the rising of others among the many, but for the fall and the rising of the same people. “For judgment,” he says, “I came, that those who did not see may see, and those who saw may become blind” (John 9:39). For there is in us something that saw before and afterwards ceased to see, and something else that did not see and afterwards began to see. For example, I want to see with those eyes with which I did not see before and which were opened to me later; for after their disobedience the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened, as we discussed in the previous sermon. Now we must interpret what is meant by this saying: “Behold, this one is set for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel.” I must first fall, and when I have fallen, afterwards rise well; so that the Saviour is not the cause of an evil fall, but has made me fall precisely so that I may rise, and the fall will have been far more useful to me than the time when I seemed to stand. For I stood in sin at the time when I lived for sin; and because I stood in sin, the first benefit for me was that I should fall and die to sin. The holy prophets too, when they contemplated something more august, fell on their faces; and they fell so that their sins might be more fully purged by the fall. The Saviour grants you this very thing first, that you should fall. You were a pagan: let the pagan in you fall. You loved a harlot: first let the harlot in you perish. You were a sinner: let the sinner in you fall, so that you may then rise again and say: “If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; and if we are conformed to his death, we shall be also to his resurrection” (Rom 6:5, 8). This one, then, is set for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, that is, in those who can see with full sight and reason. “And for a sign that will be spoken against.” Everything that the history narrates of the Saviour is spoken against. The virgin is a mother: this is spoken against. The Marcionites speak against this sign and say that he was not born of a woman at all. The Ebionites speak against the sign, saying that he was born of a man and a woman just as we are born. He had a human body, and this is a sign that is spoken against. For some say that he came from heaven; others, that he had a body such as ours, so that through the likeness of his body he might also redeem our bodies from sins and give us hope of resurrection. He rose from the dead, and this is a sign that is spoken against: how he rose, and whether he rose himself, such as he was when he died, or rather rose in a body of better substance. There is endless contention: some say he showed Thomas the marks of the nails in his hands (John 20:27); others counter: if he had the same body, how did he enter and stand there when the doors were shut? You see, then, how a question is raised by various arguments even about his resurrection, and it becomes a sign that is spoken against. I think that this too, that he was foretold by the mouth of the prophets, is a sign that is spoken against. For there are many heretics who assert that he was not foretold by the prophets at all. Why need I go on at length? Everything the history narrates of him is a sign that is spoken against: not that those who believe in him speak against it, for we know that everything written is true; but because among unbelievers everything written of him is a sign that is spoken against. Then Simeon says: “And a sword will pierce through your own soul too.” What is this sword that pierces not only the hearts of others but even Mary’s? It is plainly written that at the time of the passion all the apostles were made to stumble, as the Lord himself said: “You will all be made to stumble this night” (Matt 26:31). So they were all made to stumble, so much so that Peter too, the chief of the apostles, denied him three times. What? Do we think that, when the apostles were made to stumble, the Mother of the Lord was immune from stumbling? If she did not suffer stumbling at the Lord’s passion, then Jesus did not die for her sins. But if all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified by his grace and redeemed (Rom 3:23–24), then surely Mary too was made to stumble at that time. And this is what Simeon now prophesies, saying: Through your own soul too, you who know that as a virgin you gave birth without a man, you who heard from Gabriel, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you,” the sword of unbelief will pass, and you will be struck by the point of doubt, and your thoughts will tear you this way and that, when you see him whom you had heard to be the Son of God, and knew to have been begotten without the seed of a man, crucified and dying and subjected to human punishments, and at the last lamenting with tears and saying, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matt 26:39). “And a sword will pierce through your own soul too, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” There were evil thoughts in people, which were revealed so that, brought into the open, they might be destroyed, and, once put to death, might cease to be, and he who died for us might kill them; for as long as the thoughts were hidden and not brought into the open, it was impossible for them to be wholly put to death. Hence we too, if we have sinned, ought to say: “I have made my sin known to you, and I have not hidden my iniquity. I said, I will declare my injustice against myself to the Lord” (Ps 32:5). For if we do this, and reveal our sins not only to God but also to those who can heal our wounds and sins, our sins will be blotted out by him who says: “Behold, I will blot out your iniquities like a cloud, and your sins like darkness” (Isa 44:22). After Simeon’s prophecy, because women too had to be saved, there comes a prophetess, of whom it is written: “And there was Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.” What a fine order! The woman does not come before the man; first comes Simeon, who took the infant and held him in his arms, then the woman, whose words are not set down, but it is said in general that she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Israel. And rightly the holy woman deserved to receive the spirit of prophecy, because by long chastity and long fasting she had climbed to this summit. Look, women, at the testimony of Anna, and imitate it, if it ever befalls you to lose your husbands. Consider what is written of her: “She lived seven years with her husband from her virginity,” and the rest; that is why she was a prophetess. For the Holy Spirit did not dwell in her at random or by chance. It is good, and the first thing, if a woman can possess the grace of virginity. But if she cannot, and it befalls her to lose her husband, let her remain a widow. And this she ought to have in mind not only after her husband’s death but even while he lives, so that, even if her resolve is never put to the test, she may be crowned by the Lord, and may say: This I vow and promise: if something human that I do not wish for should befall me, I will do nothing else but remain undefiled and a widow. But as it is, second and third and fourth marriages are found, not to speak of more, and we are not unaware that such a marriage will cast us out of the kingdom of God. For just as not only sexual immorality but also marriages exclude from the dignities of the church (for neither a bishop nor a presbyter nor a deacon nor a widow can be twice married), so perhaps the twice married will also be cast out of the assembly of the firstborn and of the spotless of the church, which has neither spot nor wrinkle: not that he is sent into eternal fire, but that he has no part in the kingdom of God. I remember that when I was interpreting what is written to the Corinthians, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, with all who call upon him,” I said that there is a difference between the church and those who call upon the name of the Lord. For I think that the once married, the virgin, and the one who persists in chastity belong to the church of God; but the twice married, even if he has a good life and excels in the other virtues, does not belong to the church and to that number who have no wrinkle or spot or anything of the kind, but belongs to the second rank, to those who call upon the name of the Lord, and who are indeed saved in the name of Jesus Christ, yet are by no means crowned by him; to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “And the child grew and became strong,” up to the place where he says, “Did you not know that I must be in the things that are my Father’s?” Chapter 2. My Lord Jesus was born, and his parents went up to Jerusalem to fulfil what had been commanded in the law and to offer for him a pair of turtledoves and two young pigeons. Simeon held him in his arms, as was read a little while ago, and prophesied of him what the history narrates; and after everything had been completed according to custom, the parents return to where Jesus was then living; and he grew and became strong in wisdom and grace. He had not yet completed the forty days of purification, he had not yet come to Nazareth, and already he was taking in all wisdom. Scripture could have said, “he grew and became strong and received the spirit”; but he who had emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil 2:7), as soon as the sacrifice for his purification had been offered, filled up again what he had emptied: not that his body at once became larger, but that something more sacred was being shown, as the Scripture reports: “And the child grew and became strong, and was filled with wisdom.” Let us look whether it is written anywhere else of a child, “he grew and became strong,” so that by comparing many passages we may understand what more is said of our Lord. Of John: “And the child grew and became strong”; and yet “and was filled with wisdom” is not added, but “became strong in spirit.” But here, of the Lord: “He grew,” it says, “and became strong, and was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40). All these things were said of a child who had not yet completed twelve years. But when he was twelve years old, he stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents, not knowing it, seek him anxiously and do not find him. They seek him among their relatives, they seek him in the company, they seek him among acquaintances, and among all these they do not find him. Jesus, then, is sought by his parents, together with his father, who had been his nurturer and companion when he went down to Egypt; and yet he is not found as soon as he is sought. For Jesus is not found among kinsfolk and relatives according to the flesh, not among those joined to him bodily. My Jesus cannot be found in the company of the many. Learn where those who seek him find him, so that you too, seeking with Joseph and Mary, may find him. “And seeking,” it says, “they found him in the temple.” Not anywhere else, but in the temple; and not simply in the temple, but in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. You too, then, seek Jesus in the temple of God; seek him in the church; seek him among the teachers who are in the temple and do not go out of it. If you seek in this way, you will find him. But if someone says he is a teacher and does not have Jesus, he is a teacher in name only, and therefore Jesus, the Word and Wisdom of God, cannot be found with him. He was found, it says, “in the midst of the teachers.” Understand “in the midst of the teachers” now as it is written of the prophets in another place: “If,” it says, “a revelation is made to another sitting by, let the first be silent” (1 Cor 14:30). They find him sitting in the midst of the teachers, and not only sitting but questioning and listening to them. Now too Jesus is present; he questions us and listens to us speaking. “And all,” it says, “were amazed.” At what were they amazed? Not at his questions, though these too were wonderful, but at his answers. For to ask is one thing, to answer another. He questioned the teachers, and because they could not answer, he himself answered the questions he had asked. That “answer” means not an exchange of conversation but teaching in the holy Scriptures, let the divine law teach you: Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice. That answer concerned the things in which the Lord instructed Moses, who did not know them. Sometimes Jesus asks, sometimes he answers, as we said above. Though his questioning is wonderful, his answer is much more wonderful still. That we too, then, may hear him, and that he may put to us questions which he himself resolves, let us beseech him and seek him with great labour and sorrow, and then we shall be able to find him whom we seek. For it is not written in vain: “Your father and I have been seeking you in sorrow.” One who seeks Jesus must seek not negligently, not carelessly, not in passing, as some seek and therefore cannot find. But let us say: “We seek you in sorrow.” And when we have said this, he will answer our soul as it labours and seeks with sorrow, and will say: “Did you not know that I must be in the things that are my Father’s?” Where are the impious and mad heretics who assert that the law and the prophets do not belong to the Father of Jesus Christ? Surely Jesus was in the temple built by Solomon, and he confesses that that temple belongs to his Father, whom he revealed to us and whose Son he said he was. Let them answer how one God is good and another just. Since, then, the Saviour is the Son of the Creator, let us praise together the Father and the Son, whose is the law and whose is the temple; to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “And the child grew and became strong,” up to the place where he says, “He questions the elders in the temple.” Chapter 2. Since some who seem to believe the holy Scripture deny the divinity of the Saviour, as if for the glory of almighty God, it seems right to me that they be taught by the authority of the Scriptures themselves that something divine came into a human body, and not only into a human body but also into a human soul. Indeed, if we attend carefully to the meaning of the Scriptures, that soul had something more than the other souls of human beings. For every human soul, before it comes to the virtues, is soiled with vices; but the soul of Jesus was never stained with the filth of sin. For before he reached his twelfth year, the Holy Spirit writes of him in Luke’s Gospel: “And the child grew and became strong, and was filled with wisdom.” Human nature does not admit of being filled with wisdom before twelve years. To have a share of wisdom is one thing, to be filled with wisdom another. We do not doubt, then, that something divine appeared in the flesh of Jesus, and not only above man but above every rational creature as well. “And he grew,” it says. For he had humbled himself, taking the form of a servant, and by the same power by which he had humbled himself, he grows. He had appeared weak, because he had taken a weak body, and so he is strengthened again. The Son of God had emptied himself (Phil 2:7), and therefore he is filled again with wisdom, “and the grace of God was upon him.” Not when he came to youth, not when he was teaching openly, but while he was still a little child, he had the grace of God; and as everything in him was wonderful, so his childhood too was wonderful, so that he was filled with the wisdom of God. “His parents went to Jerusalem, according to custom, for the feast day of the Passover. And when he had become twelve years old.” Observe carefully that before he was twelve years old he was filled with the wisdom of God and with the other things written of him. When, then, as we said, he was twelve years old, and the days of the feast had been completed according to custom, and the parents were returning with the child Jesus, the boy stayed behind in Jerusalem, and his parents did not know it. Here too understand something more sublime than human nature allows. For he did not simply stay behind, with his parents not knowing where he was; but as it is written in John’s Gospel that the Jews were plotting against him and he slipped out of their midst and did not appear, so too now I think the boy stayed behind in Jerusalem and his parents did not know where he had stayed. Nor should we wonder that they are called parents, since the one for giving birth, the other for his service, deserved the names of father and mother. It follows: “We have been seeking you,” it says, “in sorrow.” I do not think they sorrowed because they thought the boy had gone astray or perished; nor could it happen that Mary, who knew that she had conceived by the Holy Spirit, who had heard the angel speaking, the shepherds running, and Simeon prophesying, should fear losing the boy because he had wandered off. Put this opinion away especially regarding Joseph, who had been commanded by an angel to take the child and go to Egypt, and who had heard, “Do not fear to take Mary your wife, for what is born in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Matt 1:20; 2:13). It could never happen that he feared the loss of a child whom he knew to be divine. The sorrow and searching of the parents signify something other than the simple reader understands. Just as you, when you read the Scriptures, seek their meaning with a kind of sorrow and torment, not because you think the Scriptures have erred or contain something wrong, but because they hold within them the word and reason of truth and you cannot find what is true: so they too were seeking him, lest perhaps he had withdrawn from them, lest, leaving them, he had passed over to other places, and, what I think more likely, lest he had returned to heaven, to come down again when it pleased him. So they sought the Son of God in sorrow. And when they sought him, they did not find him among their kinsfolk; for human kinship could not contain the Son of God. They did not find him among their kinsfolk, because divine things were greater than mortal knowledge and understanding. Where, then, do they find him? In the temple; for there the Son of God is found. If you too ever seek the Son of God, seek him first in the temple; hasten there; there you will find Christ, the Word and Wisdom, that is, the Son of God. Since he was a little child, he is found in the midst of the teachers, sanctifying and instructing them. Because he was a little child, he is found in their midst not teaching them but questioning them, and this as befitted his age, to teach us what becomes children, however wise and learned they may be: that they should listen to their teachers rather than desire to teach, and should not boast with vain display. He questioned the teachers, I say, not to learn something, but to instruct them by questioning. For from one fountain of teaching flow both questioning and answering wisely; and it belongs to the same knowledge to know what to ask and what to answer. It was fitting that the Saviour should first become the teacher of learned questioning, so that afterwards he might answer questions according to the reason and word of God; to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “Why were you seeking me?” up to the place where he says, “Mary kept all these words in her heart.” Chapter 2. Mary and Joseph sought Jesus among their relatives and did not find him; in the company, and could not find him. They sought him in the temple, and found him with the teachers, in the midst of the instructors. Wherever there are teachers, Jesus is found in the midst of the teachers, provided the teacher sits in the temple and never goes out of it. Jesus benefited his teachers: those whom he seemed to question he taught, speaking in their midst, and in a sense he roused them to seek what, up to that point, they could not tell whether they knew or did not know. Jesus is found in the midst of the teachers, and when found he says to those who sought him: “Why were you seeking me? Did you not know that I must be in the things that are my Father’s?” First, taking it in the simple sense, let us arm ourselves against the impious heretics who say that the Creator is not the Father of Christ Jesus, nor the God of the law, nor of the prophets. Behold, the God of the temple is declared his Father. Let the Valentinians blush, hearing Jesus say, “I must be in the things that are my Father’s.” Let all the heretics blush who receive the Gospel according to Luke and despise what is written in it. Let these things, as I said, be understood in the simpler sense. But since it is added, “But they did not understand the saying,” let us examine the meaning of Scripture more carefully. Were they so foolish and witless as not to know what he meant, namely that “I must be in the things that are my Father’s” meant “in the temple”? Or does it signify something higher, which edifies the hearers more? Each of us, if he is good and perfect, is a possession of God the Father and has Jesus in his midst. Let us believe him when he says, “I must be in the things that are my Father’s.” I suspect that this is a more rational, living, and true temple of God than the one built as a figure by earthly work. Hence, as he was in that temple as a figure, so he left it as a figure. For he went out of the earthly temple saying, “Behold, your house will be left to you desolate” (Matt 23:38); and leaving that house he came to the possession of God the Father, to the churches spread through the whole world, and says: “I must be among those who are my Father’s.” At that time, then, they did not understand the word that he spoke to them. Notice at the same time this too: as long as he was in his Father’s possession, he was above; and because Joseph and Mary did not yet have full faith, they could not remain above with him; so it is said that he went down with them. Jesus often goes down with his disciples; he does not always stay on the mountain, nor does he hold to the heights without end. He is on the mountain with Peter, with James, with John, and again in another place with the other disciples (Matt 17:1). And because those who were labouring with various sicknesses could not climb the mountain, he went down and came to those who were below. Now too it is written, “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.” Let us learn, children, to be subject to our parents: the greater is subject to the lesser. For because he saw that Joseph was greater in age, he honoured him with a parent’s honour, giving an example to all sons to be subject to their parents. And if they have no fathers, let them be subject to those who are of an age to be their fathers. Why do I speak of parents and children? If Jesus, the Son of God, is subject to Joseph and Mary, shall I not be subject to the bishop, who has been ordained by God as a father to me? Shall I not be subject to the presbyter, who has been set over me by the Lord’s favour? I think that Joseph understood that Jesus, though subject to him, was greater than he, and, knowing that one greater was subject to him, he exercised his authority with trembling. Let each one see, then, that often an inferior is set over better men, and that sometimes it happens that he who is subject is better than he who seems to himself to be set over him. When one higher in rank understands this, he will not be lifted up with pride because he is greater, but will know that a better man is subject to him, just as Jesus too was subject to Joseph. Then it follows: “But Mary kept all these words in her heart.” She suspects something more than of a mere man, and so she kept all his words in her heart, not as those of a boy of twelve years, but as of him who had been conceived by the Holy Spirit, whom she saw advancing in wisdom and grace before God and men. Jesus advanced in wisdom; he was seen to be wiser at each stage of life. Was he not wise, that he should become wiser? Or, since he had emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, was he taking back what he had laid aside, and being filled with the virtues which, a little earlier, when he took a body, he had seemed to leave behind? He advanced, then, not only in wisdom but in age. There is an advance in age. Two ages are spoken of in the Scriptures: one of the body, which is not in our power but under the law of nature; the other of the soul, which properly lies with us, and by which, if we will, we grow daily and come to the summit, so that we are no longer children tossed about and carried around by every wind of doctrine, but, ceasing to be children, begin to be men and say: “When I became a man, I put away the things of a child” (1 Cor 13:11). The advance of this age, as I said, which brings increase to the soul, is in our power. And if this testimony is not enough, let us take this example too from Paul: “Until we all attain,” he says, “to the perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fulness of the body of Christ” (Eph 4:13). It lies with us, then, to attain to the measure of the age of the body of Christ; and if it lies with us, let us strive with all labour to put off the child and destroy him and to attain to the further ages, so that we too may hear: “But you shall go to your fathers in peace, nourished in a good old age,” a spiritual old age, surely, which is truly a good old age, white-haired and reaching to the end, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and honour and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.