Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Your testimonies are wonderful.
        On account of this, my soul examined them.
The revelation of your words will give light
        and instruct infants.
I opened my mouth and excited a spirit,
        because I was desiring your commandments.
Look upon me, and have mercy upon me,
        according to the justice of those who love your name.
Make my steps straight according to your word,
        and do not let any lawlessness have dominion over me.
Redeem me from the false accusation of people,
        and I will keep your commandments.
Show forth your face upon your servant,
        and teach me your righteous ordinances.
My eyes were traversed with streams of waters,
        since they did not keep your law.

(Ps 118:129–136 LXX [Ps 119:129–136])

I opened my mouth and drew in breath, because I longed for thy commandments. If you are attracted to a literal interpretation here, it explains the tendency of a speaker. First the mouth is opened, the breath is drawn in, and then the tongue is moved to allow the voice to sound forth. But if you interpret spiritually, as you should, the mouth connotes the entry to the mind which is opened when we hasten to learn something. It draws in breath when by the divine gift it is filled with a spirit of wholesome longing, and begins with constant heart to seek what previously it was known to have sought only through God’s grace. So the weak little ones opened their mouths and drew in breath, in other words, strength for action, which they could not attain of their own accord. So that you may better realize that this first part is addressed to the good of the understanding rather than to the function of speaking, there follows: Because I longed for thy commandments. They first expressed zeal of will, to explain later their longing for the commandments; the sequence could not be logical if they said that they would first speak and then long for what was to their benefit.

Direct my steps according to thy word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. My steps denotes movements of the soul, for just as by our steps we move from place to place, so by those paces of the soul, so to speak, we advance to things better or worse. The blessed troop asked that these steps be directed according to the Lord’s word, so that they should not be seduced by evil vices, and slip into deadly errors. According to thy word means “according to the commands which You lay down for improving the life of the human race.” Next comes: And let not any iniquity have dominion over me. It was essential that if the Lord were to deign to direct their steps according to His word, no iniquity should prevail over them, for it could not be so utterly banished that it could not assault them further. But when it does not prevail, we escape it, whereas slavery to it consigns us down to destruction. The phrase, any iniquity, is not idle, for they know that if it prevails over them at any point, it carries them off, and it is no use keeping the Law in many matters if we are seen to transgress it in any respect. Scripture says: If anyone keeps the whole law but offends in one point, he becomes guilty in all.

Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms 118.131, 133

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from Jerusalem. Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?” He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:

This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.” He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.” (Mark 7:1–13)

For the tradition of those elders, which they pretended to observe according to the Law, was contrary to the Law given by Moses. Wherefore also Isaiah says, Your vintners mingle wine with water: signifying that the Elders mingled with the strict commandment of God a diluted tradition: contriving, that is, a law spurious, and contrary to The Law: as also the Lord made manifest, saying unto them, Why do you transgress the commandment of God, because of your own tradition? Yes, not only did they by perversion make void the Law of God, mingling water with wine; but they even set up in opposition their own law, which even to this day is called Pharisaical. Wherein they take away some things, some they add, others they expound at their own will: and of these their teachers make special use. And being minded to maintain these traditions, they have no mind to submit themselves to God’s Law, training them up for the coming of Christ: but they called the Lord Himself to account for healing on the Sabbath, which however, as we said before, was not forbidden by the Law. (For themselves too in a manner used to do a work of healing, in that they would circumcise a man on the sabbath.) But with themselves they found no fault, when by their tradition and Pharisaical Law (of which I spoke before) they were transgressing the Commandment of God, and not having that which the Law commands, i.e., Love towards God.

But that this is the first and greatest commandment, and the next that towards our neighbor, the Lord taught, when He said that the whole Law and Prophets hang on these commandments. Nor did even He bring down any other commandment greater than this: but this same one He renewed to His Disciples, bidding them love God with all their heart, and all others as themselves. But had He come down from another Father, never would He have adopted His first and chief commandment from the Law: rather surely he would have tried at any rate to bring it down as somewhat greater from the perfect Father, instead of using that which had been given by the God of the Law.

And Paul too says, Love is the fulfilling of the Law: and that when all other things are done away, there abides faith, hope, charity, and that the greatest of these is charity: and that neither knowledge without love towards God avails anything: nor understanding of mysteries, nor faith, nor prophecy, but that all things are void and in vain without love: and that it is love which completes the perfect man, and that he who loves God is perfect, both in this world and in the future. For we never come to an end in our loving of God, but the more we shall have looked upon Him, so much the more we love Him.

Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 4.12.1–2

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

And now, fear the Lord and serve him in uprightness and in righteousness and put away the foreign gods that our fathers served in the region of them beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if it is not pleasing to you to serve the Lord, choose for you yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods of your fathers in the region of them beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites among whom you live upon their land. I and my household will serve the Lord because he is holy.’” And in response, the people said, “May it never happen to us that we should depart from the Lord to serve other gods. The Lord our God, he is God. He brought us up and our fathers from Egypt and protected us on the whole way that we went on it and among all the nations that we passed by. And the Lord drove out the Amorites and all the nations dwelling in the land from our presence, but we also will serve the Lord for he is our God.” (Joshua 24:14–18 LXX)

Therefore, what Joshua said to the people when he settled them in the holy land, the Scripture might also say now to us. The text reads as follows, “Now fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and righteousness.” And it will tell us, if we are being misled to worship idols, what follows, “Destroy the foreign gods which your fathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord.”

Origen, Exhortation to Martyrdom 17

Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”… From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (John 6:60, 66–69)

“To whom shall we go?” Peter asks. In other words, “Who else will instruct us the way you do?” or “To whom shall we go to find anything better?” “You have the words of eternal life”; not hard words, as those other disciples say, but words that will bring us to the loftiest goal, unceasing, endless life removed from all corruption. These words surely make quite obvious to us the necessity for sitting at the feet of Christ, taking Him as our one and only teacher and giving Him our constant and undivided attention. He must be our guide who knows well how to lead us to everlasting life. In this way, we shall ascend to the divine court of heaven, and entering the church of the firstborn, delight in blessings passing all human understanding.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of John 4.4

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Daniele da Volterra. Elijah on Mount Horab

He lay down and slept there under the tree. Look, someone touched him and spoke to him, “Arise and eat!” Elijah looked and behold, by his head a loaf of barley and a flask of water. He arose and ate and drank and returned to sleep. The angel of the Lord returned for a second time and touched him and said to him, “Arise, eat, because the way is difficult for you.” He arose and ate and drank. He went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights until he arrived at Mount Horeb. (1 Kings 19:5–8)

Elijah was sleeping under a tree. Now an angel came to him and woke him up (sleep was weighing him down because of his fatigue, affliction and discouragement) and provided him with strength and comfort through the meal that he prepared for him.… Allegorically, the bread baked in the ashes, which [the angel] offers to Elijah, has two different meanings: on the one side, it immediately shows the toils of penitence which the ashes symbolize perfectly, since they are a figure of mourning and of a contrite heart; the unleavened bread soaked in ashes and the water are also the food of the poor and the miserable. But we can say, with greater accuracy, that they are figures of all the righteous, for whom the providence of the Creator has established a course of life in the paths of privation. Therefore he leads them through much suffering, privation of food and a severe fast in order to purify them completely from all the filth of earthly things. Then he guides them to the mountain, which is the perfection and the accomplishment of the saints.

Ephrem the Syrian, On the First Book of Kings 19.4

And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.… Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” (John 6:35, 47–51)

Now wicked men hunger for bread like this, for weak souls will hunger; but the righteous alone, being prepared, shall be satisfied, saying, “But I will see Your face in righteousness. I will be satisfied with the seeing of Your glory.” For he who partakes of divine bread always hungers with desire; and he who thus hungers has a never-failing gift, as Wisdom promises, saying, “The Lord will not let a righteous soul starve.” He promises too in the Psalms, “I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread.” We may also hear our Savior saying, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Well then do the saints and those who love the life which is in Christ raise themselves to a longing after this food. And one earnestly implores, saying, “Which way the deer yearns after the springs of waters, thus my soul yearns after You, O God. My soul thirsts for the living God. How long will I be present and appear before the face of God?” And another; “O God, my God, to You I rise early. My soul thirsts for You. How often my flesh longs for You in the desolate and inaccessible and waterless earth. Thus I appeared to You in the holy place, to see Your might and Your glory.”

Since these things are so, my brethren, let us mortify our members which are on the earth, and be nourished with living bread, by faith and love to God, knowing that without faith it is impossible to be partakers of such bread as this. For our Savior, when He called all men to him, and said, “If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink,” immediately spoke of the faith without which a man cannot receive such food; “He that believes on Me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

Athanasius, Festal Letter 7.6–7

Jacopo Bassano, The Feeding of the Five Thousand

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which His disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but His disciples had gone away alone—however, other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks—when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. (John 6:22–35)

The Lord had said in the Gospels: “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for that which endures unto life everlasting, which the Son of Man will give you. For upon him the Father, God Himself, has set His seal. They said therefore to Him, ‘What are we to do in order that we may perform the works of God?’ In answer Jesus said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.’” When the Lord explained the mystery of His Incarnation and divinity, He also spoke of the doctrine of our faith and our hope, so that we should labor not for the food that perishes, but for that which remains forever, that we should bear in mind that this eternal food was given to us by the Son of God, that we should know that God the Father had set His seal upon the Son of Man, and that we should recognize this as the work of God: to believe in Him whom He has sent. And who is He whom the Father has sent? It is He upon whom the Father has set His seal. And who is it upon whom the Father has set His seal? It is, of course, the Son of Man, that is, He who offers the food of eternal life. And finally, who are they to whom He offers it? It is they who will labor for the food that does not perish. Thus, the labor for this food is at the same time the work of God, namely, to believe in Him whom He has sent.

Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity 8.42

But how finely the Divine wisdom has arranged the order of the prayer, in making room, after heavenly things—that is, after the name of God, the will of God and the Kingdom of God—for a petition for earthly needs also! For the Lord had also given the command: “Seek first the Kingdom, and then these things also will be added unto you.” And yet we ought rather to understand Give us our daily bread this day in a spiritual sense. For “our bread” is Christ, because Christ is life and the bread of life: “I am,” He says, “the bread of life,” and a little earlier: “bread is the word of the living God, that descends from heaven”; and further, because His body is also deemed to be in the bread: “This is My body.” Therefore in asking daily bread we ask to live perpetually in Christ and undivided from His body.

Tertullian, On Prayer 6