Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:22–30)

Let us listen therefore to the Savior’s words, which He addressed unto those who wanted to learn, whether they be few who are saved: and to whom the Savior answered, “Strive to enter in by the strait door.” Now this reply may seem perhaps, to wander from the scope of the question. For the man wanted to learn, whether they be few who are saved: but He described unto him the way whereby he might be saved himself, saying, “Strive to enter in by the strait door.” What reply then do we make to this objection? We answer as follows; that it was the custom of our common Savior Christ to meet His questioners, not of course according to what might seem good to them, but as having regard to what was useful and necessary for His hearers. And this He especially did when any one wanted to learn what was superfluous and unedifying. For what good was there in wishing to learn, whether there be many or few that be saved? What benefit resulted from it to the hearers? On the contrary it was a necessary and valuable thing to know in what way a man may attain to salvation. He is purposely silent therefore with respect to the useless question which had been asked Him, but proceeds to speak of what was essential, namely, of the knowledge necessary for the performance of those duties by which men can enter in at the strait and narrow door. For this He has also taught us in another place, saying; “Enter in at the strait door: for wide is the door, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are they that go in thereby. For strait is the door, and narrow is the way that leads unto life, and few are they that find it.”

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke 99

I must, however, on my side, dispel one fond conceit by another, and contend with even leaven is suitable for the kingdom of the Creator, because after it comes the oven, or, if you please, the furnace of hell. How often has He already displayed Himself as a Judge, and in the Judge the Creator? How often, indeed, has He repelled, and in the repulse condemned? In the present passage, for instance, He says, “When once the master of the house is risen up;” but in what sense except that in which Isaiah said, “When He arises to shake terribly the earth?” “And hath shut to the door,” thereby shutting out the wicked, of course; and when these knock, He will answer, “I know you not whence ye are;” and when they recount how “they have eaten and drunk in His presence,” He will further say to them, “Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” But where? Outside, no doubt, when they shall have been excluded with the door shut on them by Him. There will therefore be punishment inflicted by Him who excludes for punishment, when they shall behold the righteous entering the kingdom of God, but themselves detained without. By whom detained outside? If by the Creator, who shall be within receiving the righteous into the kingdom? The good God.

Tertullian, Against Marcion IV.30

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?” (Luke 12:49–56)

Spiritual understanding is at work in every passage of the Gospels. In the present case, fearing that the rigidity of a simple explanation may offend someone, the sequence of the sense is to be qualified by spiritual depth.… We will believe that the Lord took care to advise reverence for the Godhead at the same time as the grace of piety. He said, “You will love the Lord your God, and you will love your neighbor.” Is the present so changed as to erase the names of close kin and set affections at variance? Are we to believe that He has commanded discord within families? How is He our peace, who has made both one? How does He himself say, “My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you,” if He has come to separate fathers from sons and sons from fathers by the division of households? How is he cursed who dishonors his father and devout who forsakes him? If we observe that the first is because of religion and the second through piety, we shall think this question is simple. It is necessary that we should esteem the human less than the divine. If honor is to be paid to parents, how much more to your parents’ Creator, to whom you owe gratitude for your parents! If they by no means recognize their Father, how do you recognize them? He does not say children should reject a father but that God is to be set before all. Then you have in another book, “He that loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” You are not forbidden to love your parents, but you are forbidden to prefer them to God. Natural children are true blessings from the Lord, and no one must love the blessing that he has received more than God by whom the blessing, once received, is preserved.

Ambrose, Exposition of the Gospel of Luke 7.134–36

People focus their attention on things of this kind. From long observation and practice they tell beforehand when rain will fall or violent winds will blow. One especially sees that sailors are very skillful in this matter. He says that it would be suitable for those who can calculate things of this sort and may foretell storms that are about to happen to focus the penetrating eyes of the mind also on important matters. What are these? The law showed beforehand the mystery of Christ, that He would shine out in the last ages of the world on the inhabitants of the earth and submit to be a sacrifice for the salvation of all. It even commanded a lamb to be sacrificed as a type of him who died towards evening and at lighting of lamps. We might now understand that when, like the day, this world was declining to its close, the great, precious and truly saving passion would be fulfilled. The door of salvation would be thrown wide open to those who believe in him, and abundant happiness be their share. In the Song of Songs, we also find Christ calling to the bride described there. The bride personally represents the church, in these words, “Arise, come, my neighbor, my beautiful dove. Look, the winter is past, and the rain is gone. It has passed away. The flowers appear on the ground. The time of the pruning has come.” As I said, a certain springlike calm was about to arise for those who believe in Him.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke Homily 95

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? “And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Luke 12:22–34)

Who would be unwilling that we should distress ourselves about sustenance for our life, or clothing for our body, but He who has provided these things already for man; and who, therefore, while distributing them to us, prohibits all anxiety respecting them as an outrage against his liberality?—who has adapted the nature of “life” itself to a condition “better than meat,” and has fashioned the material of “the body,” so as to make it “more than raiment;” whose “ravens, too, neither sow nor reap, nor gather into storehouses, and are yet fed” by Himself; whose “lilies and grass also toil not, nor spin, and yet are clothed” by Him; whose “Solomon, moreover, was transcendent in glory, and yet was not arrayed like” the humble flower. Besides, nothing can be more abrupt than that one God should be distributing His bounty, while the other should bid us take no thought about (so kindly a) distribution—and that, too, with the intention of derogating (from his liberality). Whether, indeed, it is as depreciating the Creator that he does not wish such trifles to be thought of, concerning which neither the crows nor the lilies labor, because, forsooth, they come spontaneously to hand by reason of their very worthlessness, will appear a little further on. Meanwhile, how is it that He chides them as being “of little faith?” What faith? Does He mean that faith which they were as yet unable to manifest perfectly in a god who has hardly yet revealed, and whom they were in process of learning as well as they could; or that faith which they for this express reason owed to the Creator, because they believed that He was of His own will supplying these wants of the human race, and therefore took no thought about them? Now, when He adds, “For all these things do the nations of the world seek after,” even by their not believing in God as the Creator and Giver of all things, since He was unwilling that they should be like these nations, He therefore upbraided them as being defective of faith in the same God, in whom He remarked that the Gentiles were quite wanting in faith. When He further adds, “But your Father knows that you have need of these things,” I would first ask, what Father Christ would have to be here understood? If He points to their own Creator, He also affirms Him to be good, who knows what His children have need of; but if He refers to that other god, how does he know that food and raiment are necessary to man, seeing that he has made no such provision for him? For if he had known the want, he would have made the provision. If, however, he knows what things man has need of, and yet has failed to supply them, he is in the failure guilty of either malignity or weakness. But when he confessed that these things are necessary to man, he really affirmed that they are good. For nothing that is evil is necessary. So that he will not be any longer a depreciator of the works and the indulgences of the Creator, that I may here complete the answer which I deferred giving above. Again, if it is another god who has foreseen man’s wants, and is supplying them, how is it that Marcion’s Christ himself promises them? Is he liberal with another’s property? “Seek,” says He, “the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you”—by himself, of course. But if by Himself, what sort of being is he, who shall bestow the things of another? If by the Creator, whose all things are, then who is he that promises what belongs to another? If these things are “additions” to the kingdom, they must be placed in the second rank; and the second rank belongs to Him to whom the first also does; His are the food and raiment, whose is the kingdom.

Tertullian, Against Marcion 4.29

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

“Vanity of vanities,” said the ecclesiast,
    “Vanity of vanities. Everything is vanity.”
I, Ecclesiast, became
    king over Israel in Jerusalem.

And I set my heart to seek out
    and to survey with wisdom concerning all things
    that happen under the sky,
because an evil distraction
    God gave to the sons of men
    to be troubled within himself.
I saw the actions all together
    that are done under the sun,
    and look, they are all vanity and the preference of the wind.

And I hated my whole labor
    that I toiled at under the sun,
    for I must leave it to the person who comes after me.
And who knows whether he will be wise or foolish?
    And whether he will have authority over all my labor
    that I labored and I gained wisdom under the sun?
And this too was vanity.
And I turned to set my heart
    in all my labor at which I labored under the sun;
for there is a person that his labor
    is in wisdom and in knowledge and in virtue.
And the person, to one who has not labored at it,
    will give his portion to him.
And this too is vanity and great wickedness.
For it happens in the person in all his labor
    and in the preference of his heart
    with which he labors under the sun.
For all his days
    are of suffering, and his distraction is anger,
    and at night too his heart does not sleep.
And this too is vanity.
There is no good thing for a person
    that he shall eat and that he shall drink and that he shall show his soul
    good in his labor.
And this too I saw, that it was from God’s hand.
    For who shall eat and who shall drink without him?
For to the good person
    before him he gave wisdom
    and knowledge and merriment.
And to the sinner he gave distraction,
    to increase and to gather,
    to give the good before God.
    For even this too is vanity and the preference of the wind.

(Eccl 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-26 LXX)

I think that the true Ecclesiastes next teaches about the great mystery of salvation when God manifested Himself in the flesh. “I applied my heart to seek out and examine by wisdom all things done under heaven.” The reason for our Lord’s dwelling with men is to give His heart over in wisdom to consider his actions done under the sun. For man is not allowed to consider what lies above heaven just as healthy persons do not require doctors. Evil belongs to the earth. A snake is a reptile which crawls on its belly, eats earth instead of food from heaven, crawls on anything trampled down and is always on the prowl. It watches for man’s heel and injects poison in those who have lost the power to tread on serpents. For this reason Ecclesiastes gives his heart over to careful consideration of every activity done under heaven. As for what lies above the heavens, the prophet gazes at the divine magnificence and says “His magnificence is exalted above the heavens.” Since evil oppresses the realm lying under heaven, the psalm says that sin has brought men low. Ecclesiastes considers how things made under heaven which had no prior existence became subject to vanity and how that which lacked existence took over and became dominant. Evil cannot exist because it is non-existent, and non-existence has no nature belonging to itself; nevertheless, vanity dominates those things which resemble it.

Ecclesiastes has come to search through his own wisdom those actions done under the sun, their confusion, why things are subject to nonexistence and how that which is insubstantial prevails against being. He knew that “God has given to the sons of men an evil trouble to be vexed with.” This is not a pious deed we can readily understand because God has given an evil to the sons of men in order to trouble them; and so one may attribute the cause of evil to God. He who is good by nature indeed bestows goodness because every good tree bears good fruit; a grape cluster does not spring up from thorns nor do thorns come from a vine. Therefore he who is good by nature does not offer evil from his own storehouse; a good man does not speak evil from the abundance of his heart but utters words in accord with his nature. How, then, is the fountain of grace not a source of evil? A more pious understanding suggests that God bestows upon man the gift of free will which he abused and then became an instrument for sin. This free will is good and subject to no one, while anything subject to necessity should not be counted as good. But any impulse coming from the mind is free; it distracts the soul to choose evil and pulls it down to passion from the lofty honors it had received. Such is the meaning of “He has given”; not that God has given evil to men, but that men have used God's benefits to commit thoughtless evil. Holy scripture expresses this by proclaiming “God has handed them over to the disgrace of passion,” “The Lord has hardened Pharaoh's heart,” “Why, Lord, have you caused us to err from Your way and have hardened our hearts not to fear You,” “He caused them to wander in a desert and not in the way,” “You have deceived me, and was deceived” and other such remarks. An accurate understanding of these verses does not mean that human nature lacks anything unbecoming from God; rather, they censure our power of free choice which in itself is good and a gift bestowed by God to human nature. But as a result of indiscretion, free will inclines towards the opposite way. Ecclesiastes thus sees all things done under the sun and calls them vanity. “There is not one who understands or seeks after God” since all have turned aside and have become worthless: “Behold, all is vanity.” He does not attribute this cause to God but to human free choice which he calls the wind. He condemns this wind although it was good at the beginning; there would be no need for such condemnation, but it turned aside by conforming to the world.

Gregory of Nyssa, Homilies on Ecclesiastes 2

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. (Colossians 2:6–15)

In other words, since under pressure they embraced the life of the Law, he brings out once again the difference in circumcision: it is not of the flesh (he is saying) but of the Spirit, not done by human hand but Divine, not a removal of a fragment of flesh but freedom from all corruption. It is not the Law that is responsible for this but Christ the Lord, the giver of the Law; he says, note, in Him also you were circumcised, and again, through the circumcision of Christ. By putting off the body of the sins of the flesh he referred to saving baptism: in it we put off the soiled garment of sin. In the life to come, on the other hand, the body, rendered incorruptible and immortal, can no longer be affected by the stain of sin. Now, to the fact that this refers to baptism the sequel also testifies. Since he called saving baptism a type of death (implying this in buried), he gives the good news of resurrection. And since we still have a mortal nature, he went on: believing in the power of God we await the resurrection, having having the resurrection of Christ the Lord as a pledge.

Sin destroyed us all, imposing on us the sentence of death. But the God of all made us sharers in the life of Christ the Lord, and bestowed on us forgiveness of sins.

Theodoret of Cyrus, Interpretation of the Letter to the Colossians 2

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38–42)

This should be our principal effort, then; this should be constantly pursued as the fixed goal of our heart, so that our mind may always be attached to divine things and to God. Whatever is different from this, however great it may be, is nevertheless to be judged as secondary or even as base, and indeed as harmful.

Martha and Mary are very beautifully portrayed in the Gospel as examples of this attitude and manner of behavior. For although Martha was indeed devoting herself to a holy service, ministering as she was to the Lord himself and to his disciples, while Mary was intent only on spiritual teaching and was clinging to Jesus’ feet, which she was kissing and anointing with the ointment of a good confession, yet it was she whom the Lord preferred, because she chose the better part, and one which could not be taken from her. For as Martha was toiling with devout concern and was distracted with her work, she saw that she could not accomplish so large a task by herself, and she asked the Lord for her sister’s help: “Does it not concern You that my sister has left me to serve by myself? Tell her to help me, then.” She was calling her not to a disreputable task, to be sure, but to a praiseworthy service. Yet what did she hear from the Lord? “Martha, Martha, you are concerned and troubled about many things, but few things are necessary, or even one. Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

You see, then, that the Lord considered the chief good to reside in theoria alone—that is, in divine contemplation. Hence we take the view that the other virtues, although we consider them necessary and useful and good, are to be accounted secondary because they are all practiced for the purpose of obtaining this one thing. For when the Lord said: “You are concerned and troubled about many things, but few things are necessary, or even one,” he placed the highest good not in carrying out some work, however praiseworthy, but in the truly simple and unified contemplation of Him, declaring that “few things” are necessary for perfect blessedness—namely, that theoria which is first established by reflecting on a few holy persons. Ascending from the contemplation of these persons, someone who is still advancing will arrive with his help at that which is also called “one”—namely, the vision of God alone, so that, when he has gone beyond even the acts of holy persons and their wonderful works, he may be fed on the beauty and knowledge of God alone. So it is that “Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her.” This too should be looked at more closely. For when He says: “Mary has chosen the good part,” although He says nothing about Martha and certainly does not seem to reprimand her, nonetheless in praising the former He asserts that the latter occupies a lower position. Again, when He says: “Which shall not be taken from her,” He indicates that the latter’s position could be taken from her (for a person cannot uninterruptedly practice a ministry in the body), but He teaches that the zeal of the former can surely not come to an end in any age.

John Cassian, The Conferences 1.8

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25–37)

Then the robbers, who had stripped and wounded him, do not help the naked man, but they strike him again with blows and leave him. Hence, Scripture says, “They robbed him and inflicted wounds on him; and they went away and left him”—not dead, but “half-dead.” But it happened that first a priest, and then a Levite, were going down on the same road. Perhaps they had done some good to other men, but not to this man, who had gone down “from Jerusalem to Jericho.” For, the priest saw him—I think this means the Law. And the Levite saw him—that is, in my view, the prophetic word. When they had seen him, they passed by and left him. Providence was saving the half-dead man for him who was stronger than the Law and the prophets, namely for the Samaritan. The name means “guardian.” He is the one who “neither grows drowsy nor sleeps as he guards Israel.” On account of the half-dead man, this Samaritan set out not “from Jerusalem into Jericho,” like the priest and the Levite who went down. Or, if he did go down, he went down to rescue and care for the dying man. The Jews had said to him, “You are a Samaritan and you have a demon.” Though he denied having a demon, he was unwilling to deny that he was a Samaritan, for he knew that he was a guardian.

So, when he had come to the half-dead man and seen him rolling about in his own blood, he had pity on him. He drew near to him, in order to become his neighbor. “He bound his wounds, poured in oil mixed with wine,” and did not say what the prophet records: “There is no poultice to put on, neither oil nor bandages.” The Samaritan is that man whose care and help all who are badly off need. The man who was going down from Jerusalem and fell among thieves, who was wounded and left by them half-alive, needed the help of this Samaritan most of all. You should know that, according to God’s providence, this Samaritan was going down to care for the man who had fallen among thieves. You learn that clearly from the fact that he had bandages, oil, and wine with him. I do not think that the Samaritan carried these things with him only on behalf of that one, half-dead man, but also on behalf of others who, for various reasons, had been wounded and needed bandages, oil, and wine.

He had oil. Scripture says of it, “to gladden one’s face with oil”—without doubt, it means the face of him who was healed. He cleans the wounds with oil, to reduce the swelling of the wounds, but also with wine, adding in something that stings. And the man who had been wounded “he placed on his own beast,” that is, on his own body, since he deigned to assume a man. This Samaritan “bears our sins” and grieves for us. He carries the half-dead man, and brings him to the pandochium—that is, the Church, which accepts everyone and denies its help to no one. Jesus calls everyone to the Church when He says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I shall refresh you.”

After he has brought him in, he does not depart immediately. He remains for a day at the inn with the half-dead man. He cares for his wounds not only during the day, but also at night. He devotes all his attention and activity to him. And, when he wants to set out in the morning, “he takes two denarii” from his tested silver, from his tested money, and pays the inn-keeper. Without a doubt the inn-keeper was the angel of the Church, whom the Samaritan bade to care for the man diligently and bring him back to health. For a short time he himself cared for the man. “Two denarii” appear to me to be knowledge of the Father and the Son, and understanding of how the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father. An angel is given this knowledge as if it were a payment. He is to care diligently for the man entrusted to him. The promise is made to him that whatever of his own money he spends on healing the half-dead man will be repaid directly to him.

The Samaritan, “who took pity on the man who had fallen among thieves,” is truly a “guardian,” and a closer neighbor than the Law and the prophets. He showed that he was the man’s neighbor more by deed than by word. According to the passage that says, “Be imitators of me, as I too am of Christ,” it is possible for us to imitate Christ and to pity those who “have fallen among thieves.” We can go to them, bind their wounds, pour in oil and wine, put them on our own beasts, and bear their burdens. The Son of God encourages us to do things like this. He is speaking not so much to the teacher of the Law as to us and to all men when he says, “Go and do likewise.” If we do, we shall obtain eternal life in Christ Jesus, to whom is glory and power for ages of ages. Amen.

Origen, Homilies on Luke 34.5–9

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road. But whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.’ But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:1–20)

Consider the great authority he gave the holy apostles, how he declared them praiseworthy, and how he decorated them with the highest honors.… “He that hears you,” He says, “hears Me, and he that rejects you, rejects Me; and he that rejects Me, rejects Him that sent Me.” O what great honor! What incomparable dignities! O what a gift worthy of God! Although men, the children of earth, He clothes them with a godlike glory. He entrusts His words to them that they who resist anything or venture to reject them may be condemned. When they are rejected, He assures them that He suffers this. Then again, He shows that the guilt of this wickedness, as being committed against Him, rises up to God the Father. See with the eyes of the mind how vast a height He raises the sin committed by men in rejecting the saints! What a wall He builds around them! How great security He contrives for them! He makes them such as must be feared and in every way plainly provides for their being uninjured.… Christ gives those who love instruction the assurance that whatever is said concerning Him by the holy apostles or evangelists is to be received necessarily without any doubt and to be crowned with the words of truth. He who hears them, hears Christ. For the blessed Paul also said, “You desire proof that Christ is speaking in me.” Christ Himself somewhere also said to the holy disciples, “For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you.” Christ speaks in them by the consubstantial Spirit. If it is true, and plainly it is, that they speak by Christ, how can they err? He affirms that he who does not hear them, does not hear Christ, and that he who rejects them rejects Christ, and with him the Father.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke Homily 63

“I was looking at Satan, who fell like lightning from the heavens.” It was not that he was actually in the heavens. He was not in them when he said, “I will place my throne above the stars,” but he fell from his greatness and his dominion. “I was looking at Satan, who fell like lightning from the heavens.” He did not fall from heaven, because lightning does not fall from heaven, since the clouds create it. Why then did he say “from the heavens”? This was because it was as though it was from the heavens, as if lightning which comes suddenly. In one second, Satan fell beneath the victory of the cross. Ordinary people were anointed and sent out by reason of their mission and were highly successful in a second, through miracles of healing those in pain, sickness and evil spirits. It was affirmed that Satan suddenly fell from his dominion, like lightning from the clouds. Just as lightning goes out and does not return to its place, so too did Satan fall and did not again have control over his dominion. “Behold, I am giving you dominion.”

Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron 10.13

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday after Pentecost

He entered there into the cave and lodged there. Behold, the word of the Lord came to him and said, “Why are you here, Elijah?” Elijah said, “Being zealous, I am zealous for the Lord Almighty because the children of Israel have rejected you; they have broken down your altars; they have killed your prophets with a sword; and I alone remain. And they seek my life to take it.” He said, “Go out tomorrow and stand before the Lord on the mountain. Look, the Lord will pass by.” A very mighty wind broke up the mountains and crushed rocks before the Lord with the wind of the Lord. After the wind was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire was a sound of a small breeze. It happened when Elijah heard, he covered his face with his own goatskin, and he went out and stood at the cave. Behold, a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah said, “Being zealous, I am zealous for the Lord Almighty because the children of Israel have rejected you; your covenant and your altar they have broken down, and they have killed your prophets with a sword. I alone remain, and they seek my life to take it.” The Lord said to him, “Go! Return on your way. You will come on the way of the desert of Damascus, and you shall be present, and you shall anoint Hazael as king of Aram. You shall anoint the son, Eiou son of Nimshi as king over Israel, and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah a prophet in place of you. It will be that the one who is saved from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and the one who is saved from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. You will leave in Israel seven thousand men, all the knees who have not bent a knee to Baal and every mouth that has not worshiped him.” He departed from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat He was plowing with bulls, twelve yokes before him. He was with the twelve. He came upon him and cast his goatskin on him. Elisha left the bulls and went down after Elijah. He said, “Let me kiss my father, and I will follow after you.” Elijah said, “Return, for what have I done to you?” He turned behind him and took the yokes of the bulls and he slaughtered them. He boiled them with the equipment of the bulls and gave them to the people. They ate, and he arose and went after Elijah and served him. (1 Kings 19:9–21 LXX)

“Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.” Now, after the wind, the earthquake came, and after the earthquake the fire, [Elijah] noticed that the Lord was not in the earthquake or in the fire. This was the purpose of such a revelation: the Lord wanted to instruct the prophet through various figures in order to correct his excessive zeal and to lead him to imitate, according to righteousness, the providence of the most High who regulates the judgments of his justice through the abundant mercy of his grace. From the allegorical point of view this is the meaning of the frightening signs that precede the coming of the Lord: the earthquake and the fire kindled by the strong winds prefigure the type of the dreadful signs that will precede the final day of judgment.

Ephrem the Syrian, On the First book of Kings 19.11

“When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant.’” He stayed at the entrance of the cave because he did not dare approach the Lord who was coming to him. He wrapped his face, saying, “The creature is not worthy of seeing his Creator.” But he did not move from his first thought, even though he saw the image of the benevolence of his Lord in the symbol that was presented to him, and in addition he experienced his admirable mercy and ineffable love for human beings. Who would not have been astonished by the word of the divine majesty who asked him with love, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” But Elijah did not change his mind or shut his mouth. Instead he rose against the sinners once again and complained about the sons of his people before the Lord who asked him the reason for his flight.

Ephrem the Syrian, On the First book of Kings 19.13

After receiving the garment from the prophetical hand, at the same time you have received the privilege, when you were transformed from worker into a prophet through the radiance of the Spirit that was glorified. Since you foreknew, O Christ, the inclination to goodness Of the heart of Elisha, he has understood with no doubt The glorious call that you had established and followed it.

John the Monk [John of Damascus], Canon 6, On Elisha the Prophet Ode 1

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday after Pentecost

Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!” For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness. Jesus asked him, saying, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him. And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss. Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted them. Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned. When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was healed. Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. And He got into the boat and returned. Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. (Luke 8:26–39)

Did not the devils know the real nature of this name? It is fitting that the heretics should be found guilty, not by the teachings of the apostles but by the mouth of demons. The latter often exclaim, “What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” The truth drew out this reluctant confession, and being forced to obey, their grief testifies to the strength of this nature. This power overcomes them, since they abandon bodies that they have possessed for a long time. They pay their tribute of honor when they acknowledge the nature of Christ. In the meantime, Christ testifies that he is the Son by his miracles as well as by his name. O heretic, where do you find the name of a creature or the favor of an adoption among those words by which the demons admit who he is?

Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity 6.49

Christ asked him and commanded him to tell what his name was. He said, “Legion,” because many devils had entered him. Did Christ ask this because he did not know it, and like one of us, wished to learn something that had escaped him? Is it not perfectly absurd for us to say or imagine any thing like this? Being God, he knows all things and searches the hearts and inner parts. He asked for the plan of salvation's sake, that we might learn that a great crowd of devils shared the one soul of the man, giving birth a wretched and impure madness in him. He was their work. They certainly are wise to do evil, as the Scripture says, but they have no knowledge to do good.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke Homily 44

It says, “The herdsmen saw this and fled.” Neither professors of philosophy nor leaders of the synagogue can offer any cure when people perish. Christ alone takes away the sins of the people, provided they do not refuse to submit to healing. He does not want to cure the unwilling and soon abandon the weak for whom it seems that his presence is a burden, like the peoples of the Gerasenes. They went out from that country, which appears to be an image of the synagogue, and begged him to depart from them, because they were very afraid.… Why does Christ not accept the healed man but advise him to return home? Perhaps this occurs to avoid a cause of boasting and give an example to unbelievers, although that home may be an inn by nature. Since he received the healing of his mind, Christ commanded him to depart from the tombs and the graves and to return to that spiritual home. He who had in him the grave of the mind became a temple of God.

Ambrose, Exposition of the Gospel of Luke 6.50, 53

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Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Holy Trinity Sunday

Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. For David says concerning Him:

I foresaw the Lord always before my face,
For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad;
Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.
For You will not leave my soul in Hades,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of joy in Your presence.

Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:

‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. (Acts 2:22–36)

Who then was exalted? The lowly or the most high? And what is the lowly if it be not the human? And what is the most high save the divine? But God being most high needs no exaltation, and so the apostle says that the human is exalted, exalted that is in being “made both Lord and Christ.” Therefore the apostle does not mean by this term “he made” the everlasting existence of the Lord but the change of the lowly to the exalted that took place on the right hand of God. By this word he declares the mystery of religion, for when he says “by the right hand of God exalted” he plainly reveals the ineffable economy of the mystery that the right hand of God, which created all things, which is the Lord by whom all things were made and without whom nothing consists of things that were made, through the union lifted up to its own exaltation the manhood united to it.

Theodoret of Cyrus, Dialogue 2

We, learning this from him, say that the whole context of the passage tends one way—the cross itself, the human name, the indicative turn of the phrase. For the word of the Scripture says that in regard to one person two things were wrought—by the Jews, the passion, and by God, honor. It is not as though one person had suffered and another had been honored by exaltation. He further explains this yet more clearly by his words in what follows, “being exalted by the right hand of God.” Who then was “exalted”? He that was lowly, or he that was the highest? and what else is the lowly but the humanity? what else is the highest but the divinity? Surely, God needs not to be exalted, seeing that he is the highest. It follows, then, that the apostle's meaning is that the humanity was exalted: and its exaltation was effected by its becoming Lord and Christ. And this took place after the passion. It is not therefore the pretemporal existence of the Lord that the apostle indicates by the word made but that change of the lowly to the lofty that was effected “by the right hand of God.”

Gregory of Nyssa: Against Eunomius 5.3

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Pentecost Sunday

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?” Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.” But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved. (Acts 2:1–21)

To prevent the magnitude of the surpassing gift from being unknown, a sort of heavenly trumpet sounded. For “suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a violent wind coming”; signifying the advent of Him who grants the grace to men to bear away with violence the kingdom of heaven, to see with their eyes the fiery tongues, to hear with their ears the sound. “And it filled the whole house where they were sitting.” The house became the receptacle of the spiritual water. The disciples were within and the whole house was filled. Therefore they were completely baptized, according to the promise. They were clothed in body and soul with a divine and saving vesture. “And there appeared to them parted tongues as of fire, which settled upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” They partook not of burning but of saving fire, which consumes the thorns of sins but renders the soul radiant. This fire will come to you too, to strip away and destroy your thorn-like sins, and to make the precious possession of your souls shine yet more brightly; and He will give you grace, for He gave it then to the Apostles. He sat upon them in the form of fiery tongues, to crown them with new and spiritual diadems (by the fiery tongues on their heads). A flaming sword of old barred the gates of Paradise; a fiery tongue, bringing salvation, restored the grace.

Cyril of Jerusalem Catechetical Lectures 17.15

“Like as of fire.” For when the Spirit was to be made known to John, then it came upon the head of Christ as in the form of a dove: but now, when a whole multitude was to be converted, it is “like as of fire. And it sat upon each of them.” This means, that it remained and rested upon them.” For the sitting is significant of settledness and continuance. Was it upon the twelve that it came? Not so; but upon the hundred and twenty. For Peter would not have quoted to no purpose the testimony of the prophet, saying, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord God, I will pour out of My spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”

John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 4

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Seventh Sunday of Easter

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever. Then he said to me, “These words are faithful and true.” And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place. … “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie. “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.” And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:1–6, 12–20)

The good laborer receives the bread of his labor with confidence; the lazy and careless one does not look his employer in the face. We must, therefore, be zealous in doing good; for all things are from Him. He warns us: Behold the Lord comes, and his reward is before his face, to pay each man according to his work. He therefore urges us who believe in Him with all our heart not to be lazy or careless in any good work. Let our glorying and our confidence be in Him; let us be subject to His will. Let us consider the whole multitude of angels, how they stand and minister to His will. For the Scripture says: Ten thousand times ten thousand stood by him, and thousands of thousands ministered to him, and they cried, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of hosts the whole creation is full of His glory.”  We, therefore, gathering together in concord in our conscience, also should cry out earnestly as with one voice to Him, that we may become participants in His great and glorious promises. For He says: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what great things the Lord has prepared for those who wait for him.

Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 34

He says, I am the root and the offspring of David, but it would seem to have been more appropriate to say, “I am the branch which has sprung up from the root of David.” But, on the contrary, He has now called Himself the root of David, and not only the root but also the offspring, as was said earlier. A root is also the origin of everything, including David, so that He is, and is considered to be, God; but He is also the offspring of David, sprung from Him according to the flesh, insofar as He is, and is considered to be, a human being. This is who He is. “To say the same things more than once is not irksome to me, but is safe” for those who read, as the divine apostle says somewhere of his words. So therefore He is “Emmanuel” in His divinity and in His humanity, each of the two natures being complete according to their respective qualities, without confusion, without change, immutable, unimaginable. We believe that after the inexpressible union there is one person, one hypostasis, and one activity, “even if the difference of the natures, from which we say that the ineffable union has been effected, may not be overlooked,” as well as the peculiar quality of each nature, according to the words of our blessed father Cyril [of Alexandria]. …

He says, The Spirit, that is, the prophetic spirit, and the bride—the whole church in every place—say, “Come!” We are enjoined to seek the second coming of the Lord, but also to put it into prayer. For the one who says, “Your kingdom come,” to God is asking for the kingdom of Christ, which is also the kingdom of the Father and of the Spirit. He says, And let him who hears say, “Come”: He means, “let everyone who hears the present words, including you, John, utter a prayer for the kingdom of the coming of Christ.” In saying this He is urging everyone to follow the works and practice of righteousness. For no one who is not himself conversant with righteousness could pray for the coming of Christ, since he will then be required to give an account of what he has done in his life.

Oecumenius, Commentary on the Apocalypse 22.15-19

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Sixth Sunday of Easter

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. … The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. (Revelation 21:9-14, 21-27)

What is the need of a temple when God is present with the saints and in a way sharing His life with them, and is seen by them face to face, insofar as He may be approached? For the divine apostle has called the knowledge of God in the present life as being “in a mirror” and “dimly,” but that in the future it will be “face to face.” One might reasonably ask, “Why did he mention God the sovereign Lord, and the Father, the Lord, and the Lamb, the Son of God, without making mention of the Holy Spirit?” To such a questioner one must reply, “My good man, by saying the Lord and God he has named the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—for this is God—and by saying further, the Lord God, the sovereign of all, he indicated the Holy Trinity by the three titles.” But one might go on to ask: “Why, therefore, after mentioning the venerable Trinity in the words The Lord God, the sovereign of all, is its temple, does he separately specify for us the Lamb, who is Christ, so that we no longer think of the Trinity?” “This is nonsense,” I would tell him. This is not what we are being taught. By mentioning both the Holy Trinity and the Lamb, the account indicates both that the incarnate Son is one person of the Holy Trinity, and that the Son completes the Holy Trinity in his humanity and is not now apart from his humanity in heaven. He indicated, somewhat obscurely, the incarnate Son by the word God, who is the Son, and by the Lamb he again meant the same Christ, incarnate and of the same essence as we are, animated by a rational soul, in the flesh with which the Word is hypostatically united.

Oecumenius, Commentary on the Apocalypse 21.15–22

What an image there is in these words, that the city, which has no need of a temple, has no need of the brightness of the heavenly luminaries! And what is the reason for this? Because the glory of God gives it light. The glory of God, that is, the presence of His majesty, about which it is said: “We shall see him as he is.” Therefore, why would those who shall see God have need of sun or moon? – By the light, the Lamb is clearly shown to be the city’s lamp, and the kings and the nations will walk in his light. The prophet knew this and said: “In your light we shall see light.” The apostle also spoke concerning this light: “The night is far gone, the day is at hand.” The Evangelist also writes in a similar way: “The life was the light of people, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” This is to say, what the nature of our weakness had concealed and what the shadow of our humanity had rendered dark was made clear by the assumption of the Lord’s body. And while God, who is light, inhabits the lot of our flesh, He enlightens the whole by the greatness of His glory. For this reason the honor and the glory of the kings and the nations are given to Him, because all have been made glorious through Him, and the darkness of night shall not overcome His faithful, whom the presence of the Lamb and the Word of the ineffable, unbegotten Father illuminate.

Apringius of Beja, Commentary on the Apocalypse 21:24–26

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. (Revelation 21:1–7)

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. The heavenly Jerusalem is the multitude of the saints who will come with the Lord, even as Zechariah said: “Behold, my Lord God will come, and all his saints with him.” These are being prepared for God as a fine dwelling, namely, those who will live with him. “As a bride adorned for her husband.” Adorned with holiness and righteousness, they go to be united with their Lord and shall remain with him forever.

Apringius of Beja, Commentary on the Apocalypse 21.2

The words are true since they are accomplished by the Truth Himself and no longer through symbols, but they are known through these things themselves. Christ is the Beginning and the End, since He is first on account of divinity and last on account of humanity and extends His own providential care from the first creation of the bodiless ones until the last of humans.

To him who “thirsts for righteousness” He promises to give the grace of the Life-giving Spirit, which in the Gospels He was promising to those who believe in him. Freely because “the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared to the future glory to be revealed” to the saints, or freely because this is not acquired by money but acquired by good deeds and the love for humankind of the One who will give it.

Andrew of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse 21.5–6

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday of Easter

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,
Be to our God forever and ever.
Amen.”

Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:9–17)

By the sign of the sacred number he signifies the multitude of the elect, “whom God foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” For those who come from the nations are made to be Israel and so by right are called sons of Abraham, not by flesh but by faith in that seed which is Christ, the cornerstone, of whom the apostle said, “He is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in the place of two, and so make peace, and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross.”

Primasius of Hadrumetum, Commentary on the Apocalypse 7.9.

Those are the ones of whom David says, “If I should count them they will be more in number than the sand,” both those who had formerly struggled as martyrs for Christ and those who contested as of late with the greatest bravery from every tribe and tongue who, by the pouring out of their own blood for Christ, made the garments white by their own deeds, and those destined to make them white; and who hold in their hands the victory-designating branches of the useful and upright and white-hearted palm trees and dance around the divine throne of the divinely derived repose, and as grateful servants properly ascribe the victory against the demons to the Provider.

Andrew of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse 7.9-10.

He says, And they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Yet it should follow that robes dipped in blood would turn out to be scarlet rather than white. So how did they become white? Because baptism enacted into the death of the Lord, as Paul in his great wisdom said, purges all filth resulting from sin and renders those who are baptized in it white and pure. But participation in the life-giving blood of Christ also bestows this favor. For the Lord says concerning His own blood that it is being poured out “for many” and “on behalf of many, for the forgiveness of sins.” Thus these serve God for ever, and God dwells among them. Indeed, the dwelling-place of God, said one of God’s saints, is where the souls of His saints continually remember Him; therefore God naturally dwells with those who serve Him day and night.

Oecumenius, Commentary on the Apocalypse 5.7–8

“Everlasting joy,” says Isaiah, “shall be upon their heads.” Well, there is nothing eternal until after the resurrection. “And sorrow and sighing,” he continues, “shall flee away.” The angel echoes the same to John: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes”; from the same eyes indeed that had formerly wept and that might weep again, if the lovingkindness of God did not dry up every fountain of tears. And again: “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,” and therefore no more corruption, it being chased away by incorruption, even as death is by immortality. If sorrow, and mourning, and sighing, and death itself assail us from the afflictions both of soul and body, how shall they be removed, except by the cessation of their causes, that is to say, the afflictions of flesh and soul? Where will you find adversities in the presence of God? Where, incursions of an enemy in the bosom of Christ? Where attacks of the devil in the face of the Holy Spirit, now that the devil himself and his angels are “cast into the lake of fire.”

Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 58.

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday of Easter

And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.”

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:

“Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”

Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever. (Revelation 5:1–14)

When it says that no one in heaven was found worthy, it indicates that [opening the scroll] exceeded the capacities of the angels. This was not because they were ignorant of the future mystery of the Lord's incarnation and work but because this was not to be completed through an angelic creature. For the Son of God, who through the assumption of true humanity was going to redeem humanity, wishes to fulfill all things through Himself. Therefore Isaiah said, “Neither an angel nor a messenger but the Lord Himself saved them.” When it says that no one on the earth was worthy, it means that no one of the just remains perfect in this life, for in order to be re-created man requires the assistance of him who alone is Creator. And that no one could be found under the earth means that no one among the saints who had died was found worthy to open the scroll or even to see it. Here “to see” means “to comprehend,” and therefore Paul says that he preaches the unsearchable riches of Christ to the Gentiles of which the Lord spoke, that is, the glory of the New Testament that was hidden in the law and that Christ reserved for his own presence. And so, no one was able to see this with an adequate sight, so that he might be able to effect it, since Christ had the power to fulfill it by His own dispensation. For it could only be foreseen by them, but it could not be effected.

Primasius of Hadrumetum, Commentary on the Apocalypse 5.3

He shows that the living creatures and the elders are the church when they say: You have redeemed us by Your blood. He shows in which heaven these living creatures and elders are, when they say: You have made us a kingdom and priests for our God, and we shall reign upon the earth. Moreover, he shows the reason why the church receives the book in Christ, when, having been redeemed from every people and tribe and nation and tongue, they do not say: “You are worthy and you have received” but: You are worthy to receive. For this “authority in heaven and on earth,” which Christ received when He rose again, [the church] herself receives up to the end, rising again through baptism and always staying attached to Christ. In her the Lord completes what He began. Therefore, in her He receives what He gave, and He is crowned in her whom He crowns. For there is nothing that He does or has without his body.

Tyconius of Carthage, Exposition of the Apocalypse 2.5.9–10

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday of Easter

Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:24–29)

The Apostle, also, writing to the Ephesians, says that God hath purposed in Himself, in the dispensation of the fullness of time, to draw back all things in Christ to the head—that is, to the beginning—that are in Heaven and on earth in Him. In this same way the Lord applied to Himself two Greek letters, the first and the last, as figures of the beginning and the end which are united in himself. For just as Alpha continues on until it reaches Omega and Omega completes the cycle back again to Alpha, so He meant to show us that in Him is found the course of all things from the beginning to the end and from the end back to the beginning, so that every divine dispensation should end in Him through whom it first began, that is, in the Word of God made flesh. Accordingly, it should also end in the selfsame manner in which it first began.

Tertullian, On Monogamy 5

You have heard the Lord praise those who do not see and yet believe, more than those who see and believe, and were even able to touch. The apostle Thomas, you remember, wasn’t there when the Lord showed Himself to the disciples; and when he heard from them that Christ had risen, he said, Unless I put my hand in his side, I will not believe. So, what if the Lord had risen without His scars? Could he not, after all, have raised up His flesh in such a way that no traces of His wounds remained in it? Yes, He could have done that; but unless He kept the scars in His body, He wouldn’t heal the wounds in our hearts. He was touched, and recognized. It was little enough for the man to see with his eyes, he wanted to believe with his fingers. Come, he said, put your fingers here; I didn’t remove all traces, I left something to help you believe; and see my side, and do not be incredulous, but believe.

But when He showed him that about which he had had his doubts, he exclaimed, My Lord and my God. He touched His flesh, he proclaimed His divinity. What did he touch? The body of Christ. Was the body of Christ the divinity of Christ? The divinity of Christ was the Word; the humanity of Christ was soul and flesh. Thomas couldn’t touch the soul, but he could perceive it, because the body which had been dead was moving about alive. But that Word is subject neither to change nor to contact, it neither regresses nor progresses, neither fails nor flourishes, because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That is what Thomas proclaimed; he touched the flesh, he invoked the Word, because the Word became flesh, and dwelt amongst us.

Augustine of Hippo, Sermons 145A

Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” … Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” (Revelation 1:7–8, 12–18)

If neither Moses, therefore, nor Elijah, nor Ezekiel, all of whom saw many things of the heavenly regions, saw God, but saw the likeness of God’s glory and the prophecies of the future things, it is evident that the Father is invisible. Of Him the Lord, too, said, No one has ever seen God. But his Word, just as He willed and for the benefit of those who saw, revealed the Father’s glory and unfolded the economies. This, too, the Lord said, The Only-begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made him known. … John, too, the Lord’s disciple, saw, in the Apocalypse, the priestly and glorious coming of his reign. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me,…. Now, among these things he points out first the glory from the Father, as the head, and the priestly feature, as the long robes;—for this reason Moses vested the high priest according to this type—second, the end as the bronze refined in the fire, which denotes the firmness of faith and perseverance in prayers on account of the refining fire that will come at the end of time. … Thus the Word of God always possessed something resembling sketches of things to be done by Himself, and He showed to men something resembling a form of the Father’s economies, teaching us about the things of God.

Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 4.20.11