Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the First Sunday in Lent

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:12–19)

He wants also to show that life is much stronger than death, and righteousness than sin, and by this means to teach that if sin and death were able to exercise dominion in this way in men, having received a beginning from the disobedience of the one man, how much more powerfully and deservedly will life reign through righteousness, receiving its beginning through the obedience of the one, namely Christ; Christ, I say, who came to this task not from the compulsion of his nature but moved by compassion alone. For He was “in the form of God”; and when He sees that death is exercising dominion through the people by the transgression of the one man, He is not oblivious to His own creation, nor does He “regard equality with God as something to be held fast to,” that is, He does not consider it a matter of any great importance to Himself that He is indeed equal to God and is one with the Father, but rather that death is laying waste to His own work, having gained entrance through one man’s transgression. Therefore “He empties Himself” from the equality and form of God and takes “the form of a slave” and becomes man. He who was exercising his dominion over everyone even dared to tempt Him, but he could not enter Him. Yet He accepts that common death, since He would not receive the death of sin which was ruling over everyone, in order that, just as “death came through a man, so also the resurrection of the dead might come through a man”; and just as “many died by the transgression of the one, much more surely might the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound to very many.”

Origen, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans 5.2.5

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Transfiguration

Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. (Matthew 17:1–8)

Do you wish to see the transfiguration of Jesus? Behold with me the Jesus of the Gospels. Let Him be simply apprehended. There He is beheld both “according to the flesh” and at the same time in His true divinity. He is beheld in the form of God according to our capacity for knowledge. This is how He was beheld by those who went up upon the lofty mountain to be apart with Him. Meanwhile those who do not go up the mountain can still behold His works and hear His words, which are uplifting. It is before those who go up that Jesus is transfigured, and not to those below. When He is transfigured, His face shines as the sun, that He may be manifested to the children of light, who have put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. They are no longer the children of darkness or night but have become the children of day. They walk honestly as in the day. Being manifested, He will shine to them not simply as the sun but as He is demonstrated to be, the Sun of Righteousness.

Origen, Commentary on Matthew 12.37

A voice from the cloud said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him. I am manifested through His preaching. I am glorified through His humility. So listen to Him without hesitation. He is the truth and the life. He is my strength and wisdom. “Listen to Him” whom the mysteries of the law foreshadowed, of whom the mouths of the prophets sang. “Listen to Him” who by His blood redeemed the world, who binds the devil and seizes His vessels, who breaks the debt of sin and the bondage of iniquity. “Listen to Him” who opens the way to heaven and by the pain of the cross prepares for you the steps of ascent into His kingdom.

Leo the Great, Sermon 38.7

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

See, I set before you today life and death, good and evil. If you hear the commandments of the Lord your God I command you today, to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His ordinances and judgments, then you shall live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you go to inherit. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but go astray and worship different gods and serve them, I announce to you today, you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land the Lord your God is giving you, into which you are crossing over the Jordan to inherit. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you: I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live and love the Lord your God, obey His voice, and cling to Him. For this is your life and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them. (Deut 30:15–20 LXX)

When the Gospel was read, beloved brethren, you heard the Lord mention two paths: the one terrible and to be feared, the other very desirable and to be followed. By the one, the just are lifted up into heaven after short labor, while on the other, lovers of the world after brief pleasure are dragged into hell. ‘Enter by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who enter that way. How close the gate and narrow the way that leads to life! And few there are who find it.’ Behold, beloved brethren, God has placed in the sight of the whole human race what we should seek and what we should avoid, what we should desire and what flee, what to fear and what to love with our whole heart. As He Himself said earlier through the prophet: ‘Before man are life and death, whichever he chooses shall be given him.’ and again: ‘Behold before you are fire and water, death and life; choose life, that you may live.’ Everything that we mentioned above, that is, good and evil, is contained in these two. For heaven and hell, Christ and the devil, height and depth are proposed to us in them. Through His grace God has put it into the power of each one to choose and to stretch out his hand to whatever he wishes.

Christ presides over the straight and narrow way, while the devil commands the wide and broad way. The former invites man to heaven, the latter moves him toward hell; the one raises him on high, the other presses him down into the depths. The devil shows a false sweetness, in order that he may attract man to true bitterness; Christ invites him to brief difficulty, in order to lead him to long blessedness. If we open only our bodily eyes, the wide and broad way deceives us, but if we listen with the eyes of our heart, the rough and difficult way makes us safe.

Therefore, let us admonish each other, dearly beloved, and continually encourage each other with true charity that we ought rather to choose the short and narrow way by which we may merit to arrive at the celestial expanse of paradise. However, with God’s help, we ought to reject and despise as much as we can that way which, after a short expanse, is wont to plunge its lovers into the depths of hell. If, then, we contemn the path on the left whose end brings us into hell and follow the one on the right which leads to eternal life, we will merit to reach Him who is ‘The way, and the truth, and the life.’ And it is no wonder if we happily come to Him through whom we faithfully walk, for since He Himself is the way, we run through Him, and since He is our true country, we will reach Him when we have finished our course. Although He is rest and the land of the angels in accord with His Divine Nature, He became the way of pilgrims through His human nature. What is the true country and the repose of the angels or of all the faithful? ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was God.’ What is the way of pilgrims? ‘The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.’

Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 149.1–

The Blessing of Scripture Study

How different is the man who devotes himself
To the study of the law of the Most High.
He will seek out the wisdom of all the ancients
And be occupied with their prophecies.
He will preserve the discourse of notable men
And penetrate the subtleties of parables.
He will seek out the hidden meanings of proverbs
And be engaged in the riddles of parables.
He will serve in the midst of great men
And will appear before rulers.
He will travel through the land of foreign nations
And test the good and evil among men.
He will give his heart to rising early
Before the Lord who created him,
And will make supplication to the Most High;
And he will open his mouth in prayer
And make supplication for his sins.
If the great Lord wills,
He will be filled with the Spirit of understanding.
He will pour forth words of His wisdom,
And in prayer he will give thanks to the Lord.
He will direct his counsel and knowledge aright,
And he will reflect on His hidden things.
He will reveal instruction in his teaching
And boast in the law of the Lord’s covenant.
Many will praise his understanding,
And it will never be blotted out.
His memory will not disappear,
And his name will live through all generations.
Nations will proclaim his wisdom,
And the assembly will proclaim his praise.
If he lives long, he will leave a name greater than a thousand,
And if he goes to his rest, his work is completed.

Wisdom of Sirach 39:1–11

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

“‘Why have we fasted, but You did not see it? Why have we humbled our souls, but You did not know it?’ Because in the days of your fasts, you seek your own wills, and mistreat those under your authority. If you fast for condemnations and quarrels, and strike a humble man with your fists, why do you fast to Me as you do today, so your voice may be heard in crying? I did not choose this fast, and such a day for a man to humble his soul; nor if you should bow your neck like a ring and spread sackcloth and ashes under yourself, could you thus call such a fast acceptable. I did not choose such a fast,” says the Lord; “rather, loose every bond of wrongdoing; untie the knots of violent dealings; cancel the debts of the oppressed; and tear apart every unjust contract. Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house. If you see a naked man, clothe him, nor shall you disregard your offspring in your own household. Then your light shall break forth as the morning, and your healing shall spring forth quickly. Your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of God shall cover you. Then you shall cry out, and God will hear you. While you are still speaking, He will say, ‘Behold, I am here.’” (Isaiah 58:3–9a LXX)

After he has taught what sort of fasting he disapproves of, he shows what sort he gladly welcomes. He says, Loose the bands of impiety, undo the little bundles that oppress, or, as the Septuagint has translated more clearly, “the knots of hard securities,” which our own people, deceived by the ambiguity of the word, that is, συναλλαγματων, translated as “exchanges” instead of “handwritten documents.” But it means little bundles of papers in which are contained the false charges of moneylenders, and by which the poor are oppressed by debt. … The prophet is not instructing, therefore, that no one demand back what is owed, especially what he has given justly and demanded back justly; otherwise he would be proclaiming rebellion against the tribune. But when there is an unjust “security,” when a poor man is oppressed by a malicious charge, there the little bundles of “securities” and all the bonds of “iniquity” must be shattered.

Or at any rate, one should say this: that the discourse is about fasting, and fasting brings affliction and humiliation to the soul, but affliction of body is a prayer for pardon of one’s sins. Holy Scripture teaches that we should forgive our debtors, so that the heavenly Father may also forgive us our debts. Ancient history narrates that in the seventh, or fiftieth year of remission, which is the true jubilee, all property reverts to the owners, and the original liberty is given back to slaves, and all accounts, which they commonly call “securities,” become null and void. But if this is commanded under the law, how much more under the gospel, when all things that are good are doubled, and we are commanded not to gouge out an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth, but to offer our cheek to the one who slaps. And what is more, in order that we may know that what we have said above, “You extort from all your debtors,” is written about creditors, and it is joined more clearly concerning debtors, Let those who are broken go free, that is: those who are broken by poverty, whom want has afflicted, leave them free to beg, and break asunder every burden by which they are oppressed.

But someone could possibly say, “I have no debtors. What should I do in order that my fasting is accepted?” It follows, Break your bread with the hungry. Not many loaves of bread, lest you should plead your poverty as an excuse, but one loaf of bread. Not even the whole thing, but a piece of bread that you would have eaten if you were not fasting, so that your fast does not fatten his wallet but satisfies his soul. And he has nicely added your, lest you should give your alms by stealing from others. “For the redemption of the soul is a man’s own wealth”; and in another place, “Honor the Lord out of your just labors.” Of course, if you do not have bread, and there is a very large number of hungry people, give from that which you will suffer no harm, in which there are no expenses.

St. Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 58.18