Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday after Pentecost

You made known to me the ways of life;
You will fill me with gladness in Your presence;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)

The person of the Lord Savior is introduced throughout the psalm. In the first theme, in accord with His acceptance of human form, He addresses the Father to ask to be saved, because He has always put His hope in Him. By this He does not in any sense lessen His divinity, but reflects the nature of His humanity (by nature I means the source and strength of the substance of anything). He further adds how His saints are chosen not through desires of the flesh but by spiritual virtues, and claims that all His sufferings have been directed towards the glory of His inheritance. In His second theme He gives thanks to the Father, who by appearing at His right hand has by the power of His omnipotence overcome the wickedness of this world. He maintains that because of this His soul has been freed from hell, and He recounts that after the glory of the resurrection He has been set among the delights at His right hand.

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When He had completed all He had to say on the sanctity of His body, this verse, which is appropriate also to the just who choose to obey His commands, introduces the conclusion. You have made known to me the ways of life, in other words, “Through Me You have brought the human race to a knowledge of the path of life, so that by walking humbly in Your commandments they might avoid the poison of deadly pride.” You shall fill me to the brim, that is, quite full. Filling to the brim is adding to fullness, and he who does so pours into a vessel already full. That joy fills in such a way that it is all preserved for ever. The verse also shows that all just men in that blessed state will be filled with the joy of the Lord’s presence, and He attests that He can be filled among them because He is the Lord. But let us examine a little more carefully why He says here that He will be filled with delights at the right hand of the Father, whereas earlier He said: For he is at my right hand, that I be not moved. The fact is that in this world, in which He suffered scourgings in the flesh which He assumed, was struck with slaps, and was spattered with spittle yet defeated by none of its hardships, it was fitting to say that the Lord was always seen at His right hand. He overcame the opposition of the world because He moved not an inch from contemplation of the Father. There He has now laid aside the hardships of this world; and His humanity is filled with the glorification of His whole majesty and rules united to the Word with the Father and the holy Spirit for ever. Even to the end signifies perfection and eternity, for His glory abides in its perfection, and will be limited by no season.

Let us meditate on the immensity of the gift of salvation which this psalm offers for our instruction. It gives us confidence in sufferings and promises eternal glory in hope, so that through this teaching of our future happiness we do not fear the hardships of the present. This is heavenly schooling, learning for life, the lecture-hall of truth, and most indubitably a unique discipline which occupies its pupils with thoughts that bear fruit, not with the flattery of empty words. It is appropriate also to examine the significance of the number fifteen; in our opinion it denotes the fifteen steps by which one mounted the wonderful dimensions of the temple at Jerusalem, thus demonstrating that when we overcome the five bodily senses through the grace of the Trinity, we attain by this blessed gift the basilica of holy Church. This gift will be granted also by this psalm, if with the Lord’s protection we hug close His most salutary preaching.

Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms 16.1, 11

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday after Pentecost

But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Gal 3:23–29)

Since he has said something great and remarkable, he also explains how one is made a son. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Why didn't he say, “All you who were baptized into Christ have been born of God,” since that is the inference from showing that they were sons? Because what he says is more awe-inspiring. For if Christ is the Son of God and you put him on, having the Son inside yourself and being made like him, you have been made one in kind and form.

Do you see how insatiable his soul is? For having said that we have become sons of God through faith, he does not stop here but seeks out something more to say, which can make still more plain our closer unity with Christ. And having said, “You have put him on,” he is not content with this, but interpreting it he speaks of something more intimate than this association and says, “You are all one in Christ”—that is, you have one form, one character, that of Christ. What words could inspire more awe than these? The former Jew or slave is clothed in the form not of an angel or archangel but of the Lord himself and in himself displays Christ.

John Chrysostom, Homily on Galatians 3

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Holy Trinity Sunday

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. (Acts 2:29–33)

Again [Peter] takes refuge with the Father, and yet it had been enough to say what precedes: but he knows what a great point this is. Here he has hinted at the Ascension also, and that Christ is in heaven: but neither does he say this openly. “And having received,” says he, “the promise of the Holy Spirit.” Observe how, in the beginning of his discourse, he does not say that Jesus Himself had sent It, but the Father: now, however, that he has mentioned His signs and the things done to Him by the Jews, and has spoken of His resurrection, he boldly introduces what he has to say about these matters, again adducing themselves as witnesses by both senses. And of the resurrection he has made continual mention, but of their outrageous deed he has spoken once for all. “And having received the promise of the Holy Ghost.” This again is great. “The promise,” he says before His Passion. Observe how he now makes it all His, covertly making a great point. For if it was He that poured it forth, it is of Him that the Prophet has spoken above, “In the last days I will pour forth My Spirit on My servants, and on My handmaids, and I will do wonders in the heaven above. Observe what he secretly puts into it! But then, because it was a great thing, he again veils it with the expression of “His having received of the Father.” He has spoken of the good things fulfilled, of the signs that He is king, the point that touched them. He has said, that it is He that gives the Spirit. Just as John: “The same,” says he, “shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Matt.3:11) And it shows that the Cross not only did not make Him less, but rendered Him even more illustrious, seeing that of old God promised it to Him, but now has given it—or “the promise” which He promised to us. He so foreknew it about to be, and has given it to us greater after the resurrection. And, “has poured it out,” he says; not requiring worthiness: and not simply gave, but with abundance.

John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles VI

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Pentecost

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 2:14–21)

Nowhere as yet the name of Christ, nor His promises but the promise is that of the Father. Observe the wisdom: observe the considerate forbearance. He did not pass on to speak at once of the things relating to Christ; that He had promised this after His Crucifixion; truly that would have been to upset all. And yet, you will say, here was sufficient to prove His divinity. True, it was, if believed (and the very point was that it should be believed); but if not believed, it would have caused them to be stoned. And I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh. He offers even to them excellent hopes, if they would have them.… Then he goes on with the prophecy, which has in it also something terrible. And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs. In these words he speaks both of the judgment to come, and of the taking of Jerusalem. Blood and fire, and vapor of smoke. Observe how he describes the capture. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. This results from the internal affection of the sufferers. It is said, indeed, that many such phenomena actually did occur in the sky, as Josephus attests. At the same time the Apostle strikes fear into them, by reminding them of the darkness which had lately occurred, and leading them to expect things to come. Before that great and notable day of the Lord come. For be not confident, he means to say, because at present you sin with impunity. For these things are the prelude of a certain great and dreadful day. Do you see how he made their souls to quake and melt within them, and turned their laughter into pleading for acquittal? For if these things are the prelude of that day, it follows that the extreme of danger is impending. But what next? He again lets them take breath, adding, And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. This is said concerning Christ, as Paul affirms, but Peter does not venture as yet to reveal this.

John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 5