Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday of Easter

So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.” He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.” (John 21:15–19)

O pastors! Imitate that diligent pastor, the chief of the whole flock, who cared so greatly for His flock. He brought near those who were far away. He brought back the wanderers. He visited the sick. He strengthened the weak. He bound up the broken. He guarded those who were well fed. He gave himself up for the sake of the sheep. He chose and instructed excellent leaders, and committed the sheep into their hands and gave them authority over all his flock. For he said to Simon Cephas, “Feed my sheep and my lambs and my ewes.” So Simon fed His sheep and fulfilled his calling and handed over the flock to you and departed. And so you also must feed and guide them well. For the pastor who cares for his sheep engages in no other pursuit along with that. He does not make a vineyard, or plant gardens, or fall into the troubles of this world. Never have we seen a pastor who left his sheep in the wilderness and became a merchant, or one who left his flock to wander and became a husbandman. But if he deserts his flock and does these things, he thereby hands over his flock to the wolves.

Aphrahat Demonstration 10.4

To the threefold denial there is now appended a threefold confession, that his tongue may not yield a feebler service to love than to fear and imminent death may not appear to have elicited more from the lips than present life. Let it be the office of love to feed the Lord's flock, if it was the signal of fear to deny the Shepherd. Those who have this purpose in feeding the flock of Christ, that they may have them as their own and not as Christ's, are convicted of loving themselves, and not Christ, from the desire either of boasting, or wielding power or acquiring gain, and not from the love of obeying, serving and pleasing God. Against such, therefore, there stands as a wakeful sentinel this thrice-inculcated utterance of Christ, of whom the apostle complains that they seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's. For what else do the words “Do you love me? Feed my sheep” mean than if it were said, If you love Me, do not think of feeding yourself but feed My sheep as Mine and not as your own. Seek My glory in them, and not your own; My dominion, and not yours; My gain, and not yours. Otherwise, you might be found in the fellowship of those who belong to the perilous times, lovers of their own selves, and all else that is joined on to this beginning of evils.… With great propriety, therefore, Peter is asked, “Do you love me?” And he is found replying, “I love you.” And then the command to “Feed my lambs” is applied to Peter, not only once but also a second and a third time, which also demonstrates here that love and liking are one and the same thing. For the Lord, in the last question, did not say “Diligis me,” but, “Amas me?” Let us, then, love not ourselves, but Him. And in feeding His sheep, let us be seeking the things which are His, not the things which are our own. For in some inexplicable way that I cannot understand, everyone who loves himself, and not God, does not love himself. And whoever loves God, and not himself, that is the person who loves himself. For whoever cannot live by himself will certainly die by loving himself. The person, therefore, who loves himself while losing his own life does not really love himself. But when He, who preserves life, is loved, a person who does not love himself ends up loving all the more when he does not love himself for this reason, namely, that he may love Him by whom he lives.

Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John 123.5.

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday of Easter

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:19–31)

After dignifying the holy Apostles with the glorious distinction of the apostleship, and appointing them ministers and priests of the Divine Altar, as I have just said, He at once sanctifies them by entrusting His Spirit unto them, through the outward sign of His Breath, that we might be firmly convinced that the Holy Spirit is not alien to the Son, but Consubstantial with Him, and through Him proceeding from the Father; He shows that the gift of the Spirit necessarily attends those who are ordained by Him to be Apostles of God. And why? Because they could have done nothing pleasing unto God, and could not have triumphed over the snares of sin, if they had not been clothed with power from on high, and been transformed into something other than they were before.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of John 12.1

After His resurrection He bestows equal power upon all the Apostles, and says: “As the Father has sent me, I also send you. Receive the Holy Spirit: if you forgive the sins of anyone, they will be forgiven him; if you retain the sins of anyone, they will be retained,” yet that He might display unity, He established by His authority the origin of the same unity as beginning from one. Surely the rest of the Apostles also were that which Peter was, endowed with an equal partnership of office and of power, but the beginning proceeds from unity, that the Church of Christ may be shown to be one. This one Church, also, the Holy Spirit in the Song of Songs designates in the person of the Lord and says: “One is my dove, my perfect one is but one, she is the only one of her mother, the chosen one of her that bore her.” Does he who does not hold this unity think that he holds the faith? Does he who strives against the Church and resists her think that he is in the Church, when too the blessed Apostle Paul teaches this same thing and sets forth the sacrament of unity saying: “One body and one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God”?

Cyprian, The Unity of the Church 4

Patristic Wisdom for Easter

I will bless the Lord, the one who causes me to understand.
Moreover, during the night my mind trained me.
I saw the Lord in front, before me through everything,
because he is from my right side, that I would not be shaken.
On account of this, my heart was cheerful,
and my tongue rejoiced exceedingly.
Moreover, my flesh will dwell in hope,
because you will not abandon my soul in Hades,
nor will you give your holy one to see destruction.
You made known to me ways of life.
You will make me full of cheer with your face.
There are delights at your right side completely. (Ps 15:7–11 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, while 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.

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 scourging 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.

Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms 15.10–11

Patristic Wisdom for Good Friday

He bears our sins
And suffers for us,
Yet we considered Him to be in pain,
Suffering, and ill-treatment.
But he was wounded because of our lawlessness,
And became sick because of our sins.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him,
And by his bruise we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray.
Man has gone astray in his way,
And the Lord delivered him over for our sins.

(Isaiah 53:4–6 LXX)

This is the one who comes from heaven onto the earth for the suffering one,
and wraps himself in the suffering one through a virgin womb,
and comes as a man.
He accepted the suffering of the suffering one,
through suffering in a body which could suffer,
and set free the flesh from suffering.
Through the spirit which cannot die
he slew the manslayer death.
He is the one led like a lamb
and slaughtered like a sheep;
he ransomed us from the worship of the world
as from the land of Egypt,
and he set us free from the slavery of the devil
as from the hand of Pharaoh,
and sealed our souls with his own spirit,
and the members of our body with his blood.
This is the one who clad death in shame and, as Moses did to Pharaoh,
made the devil grieve.
This is the one who struck down lawlessness
and made injustice childless,
as Moses did to Egypt.
This is the one who delivered us from slavery to freedom,
from darkness into light,
from death into life,
from tyranny into an eternal Kingdom,
and made us a new priesthood,
and a people everlasting for himself.

Melito of Sardis, On Pascha 66–68

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Palm Sunday

Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Him, for they feared the people. Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them. And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. So he promised and sought opportunity to betray Him to them in the absence of the multitude. (Luke 22:1–6)

But let us see the course of the devil’s malice, and what was the result of his crafty designs against Him. He had then implanted in the chiefs of the synagogue of the Jews envy against Christ, which proceeded even to murder. For always, so to speak, this malady tends to the guilt of murder. Such, at least, is the natural course of this vice: so it was with Cain and Abel; so plainly it was in the case of Joseph and his brethren; and therefore the divine Paul also very clearly makes these sins neighbors, so to speak, of one another, and akin: for he spoke of some as “full of envy, murder.” They sought therefore to slay Jesus, at the instigation of Satan, who had implanted this wickedness in them, and who also was their captain in their wicked enterprises.... And what was the contrivance of this many-headed serpent? “He entered, it says, into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve.”... And Satan, being crafty in working evil, whenever he would gain possession of any man’s soul, does not attack him by means of vice generally, but searches out rather that particular passion which has power over him, and by its means makes him his prey. As he knew therefore that he was covetous, he leads him to the Pharisees and captains; and to them he promised that he would betray his teacher. And they purchase the treachery, or rather their own destruction, with sacred money. Oh! what tears could suffice, either for him who betrayed Jesus for hire, or for those who hired him, and purchased with consecrated money a guilty murder! What darkness had come upon the soul of him who received the bribe! For a little silver, he lost heaven.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke 140

Being Gobsmacked

One might think that after 40+ years of serious Bible reading and studying that a guy would have seen all the internal connections; yet they still come, and I’m like—

Here are two that I learned of in the last couple of weeks (and I am embarrassed to admit that I cannot remember the sources).

Spying out the land

Many are familiar with the occasion wherein the people of Israel had sent 12 men to spy out Canaan in order to assess the land and ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of the cities and encampments. When the men returned, they recounted the findings.

We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan. (Num 13:27–29)

However, the group gave a mixed conclusion from their observations:

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”

But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (Num 13:30–33)

Caleb (and Joshua, as noted in chapter 14) calls for the nation to claim what the Lord promised; however, ten decide are fearful and see only doom if an invasion is attempted, comparing the relative size differential between the average Israelite and Canaanite. What was the truth of the matter? What was the average Canaanite thinking at that time? Can we know?

After Israel eventually crosses the Jordan River and prepares to take Jericho, two spies are sent into the city and are hidden by Rahab who offers some insight of the city-dwellers’ attitude toward Israel.

Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. (Joshua 2:8–11)

Notice in the italicized phrases the fear of Israel, which began when they first heard of the Red Sea crossing 40 years prior. The recent defeat of the Amorite kings simply added to the dread they felt. The ten spies had been completely mistaken in their bad report, not realizing that though the Canaanites were large, they were living in fear of Israel and their God.

Losing out

The other item to mention is found in the gospel of Mark. Jesus was relating the parable of the sower and four types of soil to the crowd, but later explained to the Twelve the purpose of parables in general and the meaning of this particular one in private. Jesus then admonishes them with the following:

Also He said to them, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” Then He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” (Mark 4:21–25)

We can follow the beginning of this teaching: Jesus wants us to shine the light that is placed in us through God’s Word. The puzzling part comes in the last sentence. We can understand giving more to someone who has, but how do you take away from someone who doesn’t have? The key is the measure that Jesus mentions. As much as we take in Scripture and abide in it—the Holy Spirit doing His work—the Lord adds as much in abundance, even to overflowing. In contradistinction, as little as we take it in, whether by apathy or rebellion, what we have and understand will be removed, presumably with the result of being given over to personal desires and delusions.

Remember that Jesus said this to His disciples without distinction. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifth Sunday in Lent

Then He began to tell the people this parable: “A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time. Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent another servant; and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent a third; and they wounded him also and cast him out. “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him.’ But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others.” (Luke 20:9–16)

But the lord of the vineyard considers with himself, saying, “What shall I do?” And we must carefully examine in what sense he says this. Does then the householder use these words because he had no more servants? Certainly not: for there were not wanting to Him other ministers of His holy will. But just as if a physician were to say of a sick man, What shall I do? we should understand him to mean, that every resource of medical skill had been tried, but without avail. So we affirm that the lord also of the vineyard, having practised all gentleness and care with his farm, but without in any respect benefiting it, says, What shall I do? And what is the result? He advances to still greater purposes; for “I will send, He says, My Son, the beloved one. Perhaps they will reverence Him.” Observe in this, that after the servants the Son is sent, as One not numbered among the servants, but as a true Son, and therefore the Lord. For even though He put on the form of a servant for the dispensation’s sake, yet even so He was God, and very Son of God the Father, and possessed of natural dominion. Did they then honor Him Who was sent as Son and Lord, and as One Who possesses by inheritance whatsoever belongs to God the Father? By no means. For they slew Him outside the vineyard, having plotted among themselves a purpose foolish and ignorant and full of all wickedness. For they say, “Let us kill Him, that the inheritance may be ours.” But tell me, How did you imagine this? For are you also son of God the Father? Does the inheritance descend by right of nature to you? If you remove the heir out of the way, how will you become lord of what you covet? But further, How is not your supposition ridiculous? For the Lord indeed, as being Son, and Heir by right of His substance of the authority of God the Father, having become man, called those who believed in Him unto communion and participation of His kingdom, but these men wanted to take possession of the kingdom solely for themselves, without admitting even Him to any participation at all therein, usurping for themselves alone the lordly inheritance. But this was an impossible purpose and full of ignorance, therefore the blessed David says of them in the Psalms, “The One that dwells in the heavens shall laugh at them, and the Lord will mock them.”

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke 134

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1–2)

Tell me therefore, O Pharisee, why do you grumble, because Christ did not scorn to be with publicans and sinners, but purposely provided for them this means of salvation? To save men He yielded Himself to emptiness, and became in fashion like unto us, and clothed Himself in human poverty. And do you then blame the dispensation of the Only-begotten in the flesh? Do you find fault with His humbling Himself from above in heaven, Who transcends all? Nay, do you not leave the very Incarnation without censure? And yet the holy prophets wondered at the beautiful skill of the mystery. For the prophet David in the Psalms declares, “Sing with understanding: God has set a King over all the nations.” And the prophet Habakkuk says, “That he heard His hearing, and was afraid: and that he considered also His doings, and was astonished.” How therefore are you not ashamed of blaming those things which you ought to have admired? Would you have the Lord of all stern and inexorable, or good rather and kind to men? The family upon earth had gone astray: it had wandered from the hand of the chief shepherd: and therefore He Who feeds the flocks above in heaven, became like unto us, that He might make us also dwell in His folds:—that He might unite us to those who had never gone astray, and drive from us the beast of prey, and ward off like some impious band of robbers those impure demons, who had led astray all beneath the sky.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke 106

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday in Lent

He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ” (Luke 13:6–9)

If you look closely, you will find that the laws of this species deviate from those of other trees. The others carry their flower before their fruit, and announce the fruits to come by the promise of the flower; only this one produces from the beginning fruits in place of flowers. In others the flower falls and fruits are born; in this one the fruits fall to give place to the fruits. Thus, these first trials of fruits grow as flowers; and to have, in their early birth, misunderstood the order of nature, they can not preserve the benefit of nature. Indeed, it is at the point where usually the bud grows from the middle of the bark that the small fruits of this species come to dawn. It is from them that we read, in the Song of Songs, "the fig tree grows its first fruits" (2:13). Thus, when the other trees are white in early spring, the only fig tree can not bleach by its flowers, perhaps because there is no maturity to expect from these kinds of fruits. For others arise, and these, as degenerates, are rejected; their weak stem dries up, and they give way to those for whom the sap will be more useful. There are, however, some, very rare, that do not fall, having had the good fortune to emerge on a short stem, between two palmettes: thus doubly covered and protected, as in mother nature, a more abundant sap fed them and developed them. These, helped by the clemency of the air and the temperature, having had more leisure to form, become, once stripped the natural wild of their primitive juice, preferable to the others by their beauty and the approval of their maturity. Now consider the manners and dispositions of the Jews: they are like the first fruits of the little fertile Synagogue; as the first fig falls, they have fallen, to make room for the fruits of our race that will remain forever. For the first people of the synagogue, weakly rooted in parched works, failed to draw the rich sap of natural wisdom: so it fell, like a useless fruit, so that on the same branches of the tree the fruit of ancient religion produced the new people of the Church. Thus he who was ceased to be, so that he who was not begin. Yet the best of Israel, those who wore a more vigorously conformed branch, in the shadow of the Law and the Cross, and within them, were stained with a double sap, and, as the first fig came to mature, these beautiful fruits outweigh all others. It is to them that it is said: "You shall sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt 19:28).

Ambrose Commentary on Luke 13

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday in Lent

On that very day some Pharisees came, saying to Him, “Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You.” And He said to them, “Go, tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.’ Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ” (Luke 13:31–35)

But He shows that Jerusalem is guilty of the blood of many saints, declaring, “that it is not possible for a prophet to perish out of her.” And what follows from this? That they were about to fall from being members of God’s spiritual family; that they were about to be rejected from the hope of the saints, and entirely deprived of the inheritance of those blessings which are in store for them who have been saved by faith. For that they were forgetful of God’s gifts, and intractable, and slothful unto everything that might have profited them, He showed, saying; “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones them that are sent unto her, how often would I have gathered your sons, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not: behold your house is abandoned unto you.” For He taught them by the most wise Moses, and ordained for them the law to direct them in their conduct, and be their ruler and guide in the life worthy of admiration, and which though it was but as yet in shadows, nevertheless possessed, the type of the true worship: He admonished them by the holy prophets: He would have had them under His wings, under the protection, that is, of His power: but they lost blessings thus valuable by being evil-disposed, ungrateful, and scornful.

“But,” He says, “you shall not see Me until you say, Blessed is he that comes in the Name of the Lord.” And what again is this? The Lord withdrew from Jerusalem, and left as unworthy of His presence those who said, “Depart and go hence.” And afterwards having traversed Judea, and saved many, and performed miracles which no words can adequately describe, He returned again to Jerusalem. And then it was, even then, that He sat upon a foal and an ass, while vast multitudes and young children, holding up branches of palm trees, went before Him, praising Him, and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He That comes in the Name of the Lord.” Having left them therefore as being unworthy, He says that He will then barely be seen by them when the time of His passion has arrived. For then again He went up to Jerusalem, and entered amid praises, and at that very time endured His saving passion in our behalf, that by suffering He might save, and renew unto incorruption the inhabitants of the earth. For God the Father has saved us by Christ.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke 100