Anyone at the Helm?

He who prepares mountains in His strength,
Who is girded with power,
Who troubles the depth of the sea,
The sounds of its waves.
The nations shall be troubled,
And those who inhabit the ends of the earth
Shall be afraid because of Your signs;
You shall gladden the outgoings of morning and evening.
You visited the earth and watered it;
You enriched it abundantly;
The river of God is filled with waters;
You prepared their food, for thus is Your preparation thereof.
Water its furrows; multiply its fruits;
With its raindrops, the earth will be gladdened when it produces fruits.

(Psa 64:7–11 LXX)

Those who disbelieve in the reins of providence and are foolish enough to maintain that the universe, consisting of heavens and earth, for all its ordered arrangement, is without a guiding hand, seem to me to resemble a man sitting in a ship traversing the sea who watches the pilot take the tillers and move the rudders as required, bearing now right and now left, and directing his ship into his ports of call.

Now that man would be a manifest liar, obviously resisting the truth, if he said that there was no helmsman at the poop, that the vessel had no rudders, that it was not directed by the movement of the tillers, but that it was carried along automatically, that it overcame the force of the waves on its own, that it struggled of itself with the impact of the winds, and that it was in no need of help of sailors or of a helmsman to issue orders for the common good to the crew.

Theodoret of Cyrus, On Divine Providence 2.1–2

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday of Easter

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:3–9)

What exactly are the blessings which God has given us in Christ? First, there is hope, not the kind of hope which He gave to Moses, that the people would inherit a promised land in Canaan, for that hope was temporal and corruptible. Rather God gives us a living hope, which has come from the resurrection of Christ. Because of that, He has given all those who believe in Jesus the same resurrection. This is a living hope and an incorruptible inheritance, not stored up here on earth but in heaven, which is much greater.

Oecumenius, Commentary on 1 Peter

Your place in the kingdom of heaven is ready, your room in the Father's house is prepared, your salvation in heaven awaits you. All you have to do, if you want to receive them, is to make yourself ready. But since no one can do this by his own efforts, Peter reminds us that we are kept in the power of God by faith. Nobody can keep doing good works in the strength of his own free will. So we must all ask God to help us, so that we may be brought to perfection by the One who made it possible for us to do good works in the first place.

Bede, On 1 Peter

Patristic Wisdom for Easter

Therefore my heart was glad,
And my tongue rejoiced exceedingly;
My flesh also shall dwell in hope.
For You will not abandon my soul to Hades
Nor allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
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. (Ps 16:9–11 LXX)

See how He himself cries out and gives thanks to the Father because His soul is not in the usual way left abandoned in hell, but is glorified by swift resurrection, and has passed to the kingdom of heaven. This is attested in the gospel in various passages: My soul is sorrowful even unto death, and elsewhere: I have the power of laying down my life and of taking it up again. You must not think that this is to be accepted complacently, because you find in Psalm 29 what seems to be the opposite view: What profit is there in my blood, whilst I go down to corruption? The objection is resolved by this reasoning: in that passage, He says that He goes down to corruption when pierced by the impact of the impressed nails and lance, for transfixion of solid flesh is reasonably accounted corruption. But in the present passage He says justly that the corruption of putrefaction which ravages the generality of human flesh does not take place, for when on the third day it happened that His flesh was given fresh life, it was demonstrated that it could not have suffered corruption.

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 forever. 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 will not be 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 the 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 forever. Even to the end signifies perfection and eternity, for His glory abides in its perfection, and will be limited by no season.

Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms 15.10, 11

Patristic Wisdom for Good Friday

Albrecht Durer

O God, my God, hear me; why have You forsaken me?
The words of my transgressions are far from my salvation.
O my God, I will cry out by day, but You will not hear me;
And by night, but not for a lack of understanding in me.

But You, O Lord, do not remove Your help from me;
Attend to my aid.
Deliver my soul from the sword
And my only-begotten from the hand of the dog;
Save me from the lion’s mouth,
My humiliation from the horns of the unicorns.

Psa 21:2–3, 20–22 LXX (Psa 22:1–2, 19–21)

Christ the Lord who foresees and ordains all things, who sees all future events as present, cries out as though impelled by a passion close at hand: O God, my God. But these words are to be interpreted as coming from His human nature; by nature I mean strength and power of substance. The repetition itself indicates the emotion of compulsive prayer. The Son most dear in a double address invoked Him who He clearly knew would afford Him not safety in this world, but the brightness of eternal majesty. Deos is a Greek word rendered in Latin by timor, fear. This fact inclines me to the view that our forbears decided that God’s name is derived from fear; so one of the pagan poets says: “Fear was the first to create gods in the world.” When He says: Look upon me, He begs that the aid of the resurrection may appear most swiftly for Him. Next comes: Why have You forsaken me? The word why is known to introduce a question; so the Master of consubstantial wisdom, the Spokesman of the Father is so confused by the impending death of His flesh that in apparent ignorance He asks the Father why He has been abandoned by Him. These and similar expressions seek to express His humanity, but we must not believe that divinity was absent to Him even at the passion, since the apostle says: If they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. Though He was impassible, He suffered through the humanity which He assumed, and which could suffer. He was immortal, but He died; He never dies, but He rose again. On this topic, Father Cyril expressed this beautiful thought: “Through the grace of God He tasted death for all, surrendering His body though by nature He was life and the resurrection of the dead.” Similarly blessed Ambrose says: “He both suffered and did not suffer, died and did not die, was buried and was not buried, rose again and did not rise again.” In the same way we say that man too even today suffers, dies and is buried, though his soul is not circumscribed by any end. So He attests that He was forsaken when He was interrogated, though in fact He could not have been consigned to the hands of wicked men if the power of His majesty had not allowed such things to happen. In the gospel-words: You would not have any power against Me unless it was given you from above. He also broadcasts the experiences of the humanity which He assumed, repelling words of blasphemy and impious mouthings, for He says that words begotten by sins are far from Him. The salvation of His sacred soul was not to embrace the speech of sinners, but gladly to endure by the virtue of patience what He suffered through God’s dispensation. As He Himself says in the gospel: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Then He added: Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will. He also speaks of the words of my sins when they belong to His members. He who was without sins called our sins His, just as in another psalm He is to say: O God, You know my foolishness, and my offenses are not hidden from You. So let us hear from the Head’s lips the words of the members, and realize that He has rightly spoken in our name, for He offered Himself as victim for the salvation of all. Hence Paul says: Him who knew no sin, he was made sin for us. For in the law too offerings for sins are called sins.

Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms 21.2

Patristic Wisdom for Maundy Thursday

Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. They shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning, nor shall you break a bone of it; and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. Thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Pascha. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute vengeance: I am the Lord. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. (Exo 12:7–14)

The sacrifice of this lamb was so great that even the shadow of its truth was sufficient for salvation in freeing the Jews from the slavery of Pharaoh, as though already the liberation of the creature from the slavery of corruption was prefigured, the image of Christ's coming passion worked for the advent of salvation. Therefore it was declared by God that in the first month of the year on the fourteenth day of the moon, a year-old lamb without blemish should be sacrificed. With its blood they were to make signs upon the doorposts of their houses, lest they be frightened by the angel of destruction. And on that very night when the lamb was eaten in their homes, which was the celebration of the Passover, they should receive liberation through the figure of slavery. It is not difficult to interpret the spotless lamb of Christ and his sacrifice made to free the slavery of our death. For, marked by the sign of His cross as by the sprinkling of blood, we shall be saved from the angels of destruction even to the consummation of the world.

Martin of Braga, On the Pascha 2

As also the Word of God, when desirous said to his disciples, “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you.” Now that is a wonderful account, for a man might have seen them at that time girded as for a procession or a dance and going out with staves and sandals and unleavened bread. These things, which took place before in shadows, were typical anticipatory symbols. But now the truth has drawn near to us, “the image of the invisible God,” our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Light. Instead of a staff, He is our scepter; instead of unleavened bread, He is the bread which came down from heaven; who instead of sandals has furnished us with the preparation of the gospel. It is He who, to speak briefly, by all these means has guided us to his Father. And if enemies afflict us and persecute us, He again, instead of Moses, will encourage us with better words, saying, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the wicked one.” And if after we have passed over the Red Sea, heat should again vex us or some bitterness of the waters befall us, even then again the Lord will appear to us, imparting to us of His sweetness and His life-giving fountain, saying, “If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink.”

Athanasius, Festal Letters 14.3

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Palm Sunday

The Lord gives Me the tongue of the learned, so as to know when to speak a word at a fitting time; and He causes My ear to listen each morning. The Lord’s instruction opens My ears, and I am not disobedient, nor do I contradict Him. I gave My back to whips, and My cheeks to blows; and I turned not away My face from the shame of spitting. The Lord became My helper; therefore, I was not disgraced. But I made My face like a solid rock and knew I would not be ashamed. For He who pronounces Me righteous draws near. Who is he who judges Me? Let him oppose Me at the same time. Who is he who judges Me? Let him come near Me. Behold, the Lord will help Me. Who will harm Me? (Isa 50:4-9a)

The Jews, separating this chapter from what has been said previously, wish to refer it to the person of Isaiah, in that he would say that he received the word from the Lord and how he put up with a lazy and wandering people and called them back to salvation, and in the manner of small children who are trained early in the morning, Isaiah recited what he heard from the Holy Spirit.... But these verses should be applied to the person of the Lord in which the older book is fulfilled, since according to the dispensation of the flesh that Christ assumed, He was trained and accepted the lash of discipline so that He would know when He ought to speak and when to keep quiet. And He who in His passion was silent, through the apostles and apostolic people speaks throughout the whole world.

To Christ was added through the grace of the ear things that He did not have by nature, that we might understand that we ought to accept with the ears not of our body but of the mind.... The breast that contained God was beaten.... This discipline and training opened His ears that He was able to communicate the knowledge of the Father to us.... We learned more fully in the gospel that the Son, according to the flesh He took on, spoke the mystery that He had heard from the Father.

Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 14.2

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ comes before us, when He would show how to suffer, who when He was struck bore it patiently, being reviled He reviled not again, when He suffered He threatened not, but He gave his back to the smiters and His cheeks to buffetings, and He turned not his face from spitting; and at last, He was willingly led to death, that we might behold in Him the image of all that is virtuous and immortal, and that we, conducting ourselves after these examples, might truly tread on serpents and scorpions and on all the power of the enemy.

Athanasius, Letter 10.7

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifth Sunday in Lent

Again the hand of the Lord came upon me, and brought me by the Spirit of the Lord, and set me in the midst of the plain, which was full of human bones. So He led me round about them, and behold, there was a great multitude of bones on the face of the plain. They were very dry. Then He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord, You know this.” Then He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord to these bones: “Behold, I will bring the Spirit of life upon you. I will put muscles on you and bring flesh upon you. I will cover you with skin and put my Spirit into you. Then you shall live and know that I am the Lord.”’” (Ezek 37:1-6)

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” (John 11:25)

Christ has healed the vices of my soul, and taken on Himself the sicknesses of my body, Man by His mother, God by His Father. He bore the weaknesses of the flesh that are appointed by nature, and evinced the feelings of the human body. He ate and drank, and closed his eyes in sleep, and grew weary with journeying in accord with His human sensibilities. He shed tears over the death of a friend like a man, but then as God raised him from the tomb. As a man He sailed on a ship, and as God He governed the winds; by His strength as God the Man walked over the sea. With His human mind He feared the hour of imminent death, but with His divine mind He knew that the moment of execution was at hand. As man He was nailed to the cross, and as God He terrified the world from the cross. The Man endured death, but death itself endured the true God. The Man hung on the cross, but as God He forgave sins from the cross, and by dying destroyed the life of sin. He who was counted among the guilty, and was assessed as worse than the thief whom the Jews ranked before their devoted Lord, gave the kingdom of heaven to the thief who believed, and while still confined to earth opened the gates of Paradise.

Accordingly, though we share with other breathing creatures the same substance of flesh, we are not at death’s dissolution restored to nothingness as souls excluded because of the death of the flesh. No, when the trumpet sounds every region of earth will restore our bodies from their hidden seeds; our body, mind, soul will be joined in their compact with each other, and we shall be haled before the Lord God in our wholeness. If you are skeptical that ashes can be reassembled into bodies and souls restored to their vessels, Ezekiel will be your witness, for long ago the whole process of resurrection was revealed to him by the Lord. In his pages you will behold the dusty remains of people of old come to life over the entire region, bones scattered far and wide over the broad plain spontaneously hastening to fuse together when bidden, sprouting sinews from the innermost marrow and then drawing the skin over the flesh that had grown on them. Then the limbs are perfectly ordered more quickly than words can tell, and from the ancient dust stand forth people made new.

Paulinus of Nola, Poem 31.115–134, 303–322

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday in Lent

I held My peace, and I will not always be silent and restrain Myself. Now I will be steadfast, like a woman in labor. I shall amaze and dry up together. I will make the rivers into coastlands and dry up marsh-meadows. I will bring the blind by a way they did not know and will cause them to tread paths they have not known. I will turn darkness into light for them, and make crooked places straight. These things I will do for them and not forsake them. But they turned back. You be greatly ashamed who trust in carved images, who say to the molded images, “You are our gods.” (Isa 42:14-17 LXX)

The prophetic words are describing the glorious advent of the Savior, of which the Apostle Paul also speaks, “In accordance with the illumination of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” He compares him to a very mighty man who will wage war against his adversaries and stir up jealousy... And the meaning is,

For a long time I carried you as you transgressed often, but I who had previously held my peace will no longer keep silent. And just as a woman in labor brings forth an infant into the light and brings into the open what was previously being held confined within, so I will now bring forth my grief and dissimulation that I always had because of your evil deeds, and I will destroy your plans. At one time I will swallow up every nation and all the pride of the mountains and the swelling up of your hills, and I will reduce to a desert the grass, of which it was said above, “Truly the people is grass,” that is, both the princes and the ignoble common people.

And when I will have dried you up and destroyed you from head to foot, at that time I will cause rivers of my teaching to flow to the islands of the Gentiles, and will reduce to dryness your standing pools, or “marshes.” Accordingly, the knowledge of the Scriptures will be among the Gentiles, and the dryness of doctrine among you. And I will lead the blind by the way which they did not know before. We also read about this above, “I have given you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, that you may open the eyes of the blind” (Isa 42:6). They will be led by the way of which Christ speaks: “I am the way”; or I will make them walk on the way of the knowledge of God and in the paths of the prophets.

At that time their darkness will be turned to light, and crooked things will be turned to straight so that they understand what they read, and view with the eyes of their hearts the bright light of Christ in the Old Testament.

And at the same time he adds, These things have I done, or “will I do,” to them. I am not promising additional things to come, but delivering on what I had previously promised. But while I am saying these things, the Jewish people have been turned back, so that they did not believe the one who made the promises, and they were confounded by their own errors, and they neglected God’s promise, the people who had previously believed in idols.

Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday in Lent

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:1–8)

How we may have access to grace through our Lord Jesus Christ the Savior himself states, “I am the door, and no one comes to the Father except through me.” We have access to grace through him, then, because he is the door. But let us see what sort of door he is in order that we might understand what sort of people they ought to be who would enter through it and have access to grace. The door is truth, and through the door of truth liars cannot enter. Again, the door is also righteousness, and through the door of righteousness the unrighteous do not pass. The door says, “Learn from me because I am gentle and humble in heart.” Through the door of humility and gentleness, then, neither the wrathful nor the arrogant may enter. Consequently, if there is someone who, in accordance with the Apostle’s word, wants to have access through our Lord Jesus Christ to the grace of the Lord in which Paul and those who are like him claim to stand, he must be purged from all these things we have recorded above. Otherwise, this door will not allow those who are doing things alien to it to enter through it. Instead, it closes at once and does not allow those who are dissimilar to it to pass through.

Since he had said above that “Christ, at the set time, died for those who were still ungodly,” now he wants to show from this the greatness of God’s love for men. For if it was so great for the ungodly and sinners that he gave his only Son for their salvation, how much more bountiful and widespread shall it be toward those who have been converted and atoned and, as he himself says, redeemed by His own blood?

In my opinion, for Paul this variety of words is not superfluous, that sometimes he calls those for whom Christ died “the weak,” sometimes “the ungodly,” and sometimes “sinners.” And even though he confesses that he is unskilled in speech, nevertheless I do not believe that he has alternated in this through any lack of skill, but rather through profound knowledge. For in these three terms every class of sin is collected. A person, being ignorant of God, is led into every evil and is called “ungodly.” Another, while knowing God and wanting to keep the commandment, is conquered by the frailty of the flesh and becomes ensnared by the allurements of the present life and is called “weak.” Or a person may knowingly and willingly despise the commandment and hate the correction of God and cast his words behind him and is named “sinner.” And so Paul, who, as we have said, confesses that he is untrained in speech, has comprehended by this threefold diversity of expressions all those for whom Christ is being proclaimed to have died.

Origen, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans 8.5, 11.1–2

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday in Lent

What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. (Rom 4:1–8)

Faith relies on the grace of the justifier. Works rely on the justice of the rewarder. When I consider the greatness of Paul's speech, by which he says that the worker receives what is due to him, I can hardly persuade myself that there is any deed which could claim a reward from God as its due.… Faith, which believes in the justifier, is the beginning of justification before God. And this faith, when it is justified, is like a root in the soil of the soul, which the rain has watered, so that as it begins to grow by the law of God, branches appear, which bring forth fruit. The root of righteousness does not spring from works; rather, the fruit of works grows from the root of righteousness, viz., by that root of righteousness by which God brings righteousness to the one whom he has accepted apart from works.

Origen, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans