Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the First Sunday in Advent

For what thanks can we render to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sake before our God, night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith? Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. (1 Thessalonians 3:9–13)

Paul says that there is nothing so valuable that it can be enough to compensate for the salvation which the Gentiles have obtained. Since they had advanced by the perseverance of their faith and the practice of a better life, he wanted to see them all the more in order to be able to teach them what they needed to go on to perfection, the sacraments, as it were, of spiritual things which cannot easily be proclaimed, so that they might discover who and how great was the judge whom they were waiting for. It is one thing to accept the faith and another to accept its exposition. The debate about the nature of the Father and the Son is different from that about their persons. The Father is unbegotten but the Son is begotten. The persons appear to be different but the nature is one and indivisible. The unity is not in person but in substance. The Holy Spirit is not to be regarded as inferior merely because He is placed third. Whatever is clear about the second person applies to the third as well.

Paul prays that his journey will be properly organized, by God the Father first of all, because all things come from Him. He wants the power and foresight of the Father and the Son to protect his coming, so that he will be accepted by those who hear him, and the hindrances of the devil may be removed so that he can make his way to them.

In order that the joy with which he rejoices in them may be increased, Paul prays that they may grow in all good things, so that when he comes to them he may find in them even more praiseworthy things than what he had heard from Timothy. He wants them to be found blameless with the saints in the love of God the Father and at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the cross-examination starts and tests each one before His judgment seat. Paul calls Him God because of the terror of his majesty, but Father because of the kindness by which he has been pleased to adopt those who believe in Him as His children, something which will be made clear when the Lord returns.

Ambrosiaster, Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 3

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Last Sunday of the Church Year

Listen to me, listen to me, my people, and you kings, give ear to me, because the law will go forth from me, and my judgment as a light to the nations. My righteousness approaches quickly, and even my salvation will go forth as a light, and nations will hope in my strength. Islands will wait for me and will hope in my strength. Lift your eyes up to the sky and look at the earth below, for the sky will become solid like smoke, and the earth will grow old like a garment, and those who inhabit it will die just like these things, but my salvation will endure forever, and my righteousness surely shall not cease. (Isaiah 51:4–6 LXX)

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then He will send His angels, and gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven. Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning—lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!” (Mark 13:24–37)

From the sky and the earth, from the things on high and those below, learn of My power. I produced these elements with great ease and, conversely, I can make them disappear. “But My salvation shall be for eternity, and My righteousness shall not fail.” This is what the Lord has likewise said in the holy Gospels: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”

Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on Isaiah 16.51.6

How well, indeed, you philosophers teach us, and how usefully you advise us, that after death rewards and punishments fall with lighter weight! Whereas, if any judgment awaits souls at all, it ought rather to be supposed that it will be heavier at the conclusion of life than in the conduct thereof, since nothing is more complete than that which comes at the very last—nothing, moreover, is more complete than that which is especially divine. Accordingly, God’s judgment will be more full and complete, because it will be pronounced at the very last, in an eternal irrevocable sentence, both of punishment and of consolation. Then souls are not to transmigrate into beasts, but are to return into their own proper bodies. And all this once for all, and on “that day, too, of which the Father only knows” in order that by her trembling expectation faith may make full trial of her anxious sincerity, keeping her gaze ever fixed on that day, in her perpetual ignorance of it, daily trembling that for which she yet daily hopes.

Tertullian, On the Soul 33

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Les Disciples Admirent les Constructions du Temple by James Tissot

Then as He went out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked Him privately, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?” And Jesus, answering them, began to say: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and will deceive many. But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows. “But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues. You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations. But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. (Mark 13:1–13)

There is no discrepancy in the Gospels as to facts, although one tells one detail which another passes over or describes differently; rather, they supplement each other when compared, and thus give direction to the mind of the reader. But it would take too long to discuss them all now. To their questions the Lord replied by telling what was to happen from that time on, whether of the destruction of Jerusalem, which had given rise to their inquiry, or of His coming in the Church in which He does not cease to come until the end—for He is recognized when He comes to His own, while His members are daily born, and of this coming He said: “Hereafter you shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds,” of which clouds the Prophet said: “I will command my clouds not to rain upon it”—or, finally, of the end itself at which He will appear “to judge the living and the dead.”

Augustine of Hippo, Letter 199, To Hesychius 25

Everything tends to its end, not in order that it may not be, but that it may remain in that toward which it tends. Everything is for the sake of its end; furthermore, the end does not concern itself with anything else. But, since the end is everything, it remains completely for itself. And since it does not reach out beyond itself and since it brings gain for itself rather than for any other time or thing, the object of all its hope is ever directed toward the end itself. For this reason the Lord thus exhorts us to a steadfastness in the devout faith that continues to the end: “Blessed is he who shall persevere to the end,” and certainly not as if dissolution were a blessing and non-existence a gain, and as if the reward of faith were to be found in the destruction of everyone, because the end is the unequaled measure of the blessedness that has been offered to us, and thus they are blessed who persevere to the end of the perfect happiness, since the expectation of faithful hope does not extend beyond this.

Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity 11.28

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Then He said to them in His teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.” Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.” (Mark 12:38–44)

But now, what it is necessary for me to say on the subject of him inner and the outer man, may be expressed in the words of the Savior to those who swallow a camel, and wear the outward garb of the hypocrite, begirt with blandishments and flatteries. It is to them that Jesus addresses Himself when He says: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of uncleanness. Or know you not, that He that made that which is without, made that which is within also?” Now why did He speak of the cup and of the platter? Was He who uttered these words a glass-worker, or a potter who made vessels of clay? Did He not speak most manifestly of the body and the soul? For the Pharisees truly looked to the “tithing of anise and cumin, and left undone the weightier matters of the law;” and while devoting great care to the things which were external, they overlooked those which bore upon the salvation of the soul. For they also had respect to “greetings in the market-place,” and “to the uppermost seats at feasts:” and to them the Lord Jesus, knowing their perdition, made this declaration, that they attended to those things only which were without, and despised as strange things those which were within, and understood not that He who made the body made also the soul.

I perceive that Jesus also looks on willingly at the gifts of the rich men, when they are put into the treasury. All too little, at the same time, is it if gifts are cast into the treasury by the rich alone; and so there are the two mites of the poor widow which are also received with gladness; and in that offering verily something is exhibited that goes beyond what Moses prescribed on the subject of the receipt of moneys. For he received gifts from those who had; but Jesus receives them even from those who have not.

Hegemonius, The Disputation with Manes 21, 42

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to All Saints' Sunday

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1 John 3:1–3)

Paul also says, For you have died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God, died, namely, by snuffing out your former life which was in sins, and having a new life in Christ through faith, whose depth has not yet visibly appeared to us. And Paul also explains this in other words, saying, When Christ, your life, appears, they you also will appear with him in glory. We shall be like him, he says, because when we shall enjoy with attentive regard his unchangeable and eternal divinity, we also shall be immortal and like him indeed, because we shall be happy. And yet, we shall not be like our Creator, because we are creatures. For, Who among the children of God shall be like God? Although this can also seem to be said about the immortality of the body and in this we shall indeed be like God, but only like the Son who alone among the persons of the Trinity received a body, in which he died, rose and brought it to the heavenly heights.

Many say that they have hope of the heavenly life in Christ but they make this confession ineffective by living carelessly. He who is eager to strive vigorously to perform good actions gives clear evidence in his case of his hope from on high, being convinced that no one will arrive at the likeness of God in the future except by making himself holy with the holiness of God in the present, that is, unless he imitate by rejecting wickedness and worldly desires, however, and by living soberly and righteously and faithfully. For thus are we ordered to imitate the purity of divine holiness in accord with the capacity of our nature, as we are admonished to hope for the glory of the divine likeness in accord with our own, that is, created, measure.… But he who has hope in the Lord makes himself holy, as far as he can, by striving himself and in everything requiring the grace of Him who says, Without me you can do nothing, and by saying to him, Be my helper, do not forsake me.

Venerable Bede, Commentary on 1 John 3.2–3

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Reformation Sunday

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:31–36)

Oh, pitiable slavery! Very often when men are afflicted with wicked masters, they request to have themselves put up for sale, not seeking to not have a master, but simply to change. But the slave of sin, what can he do? To whom can he appeal? Before whom can he appeal? Before whom can he request to have himself put up for sale? Then too, the slave of a man sometimes, when exhausted by his master’s harsh orders, finds rest in flight. Where does the slave of sin flee? He drags himself with himself wherever he flees.… Let us all flee to Christ. Against sin let us appeal to God, the giver of freedom. Let us request to have ourselves put up for sale that we may be redeemed by his blood. For the Lord says, “You were sold for nothing, and without money you shall be redeemed.” Without payment, without your payment, because by mine. The Lord says this; for He gave the payment himself, not silver, but His own blood. For we had remained both slaves and in need.

The Lord alone, then, sets free from this slavery; He, who did not have it, Himself sets free from it. Indeed, He alone came in this flesh without sin. For little children whom you see being carried in their mothers’ hands do not yet walk and they have already been shackled; for they have contracted from Adam what is to be broken by Christ. This grace which the Lord promises also pertains to them when they are baptized; for He alone can set free from sin, who came without sin and became a sacrifice for sin.

Augustine of Hippo, Tractates on the Gospel of John 4–5

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.” Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.” So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Mark 10:23–31)

The wealthy and legally correct man, not understanding these things figuratively, nor how the same man can be both poor and rich, and have wealth and not have it, and use the world and not use it, went away sad and downcast, leaving the state of life, which he was able merely to desire but not to attain, making for himself the difficult impossible. For it was difficult for the soul not to be seduced and ruined by the luxuries and flowery enchantments that beset remarkable wealth; but it was not impossible, even surrounded with it, for one to lay hold of salvation, provided he withdrew himself from material wealth,—to that which is grasped by the mind and taught by God, and learned to use things indifferent rightly and properly, and so as to strive after eternal life. And the disciples even themselves were at first alarmed and amazed. Why were they so on hearing this? Was it that they themselves possessed much wealth? Nay, they had long ago left their very nets, and hooks, and rowing boats, which were their sole possessions. Why then do they say in consternation, “Who can be saved?” They had heard well and like disciples what was spoken in parable and obscurely by the Lord, and perceived the depth of the words. For they were sanguine of salvation on the ground of their want of wealth. But when they became conscious of not having yet wholly renounced the passions (for they were neophytes and recently selected by the Savior), they were excessively astonished, and despaired of themselves no less than that rich man who clung so terribly to the wealth which he preferred to eternal life. It was therefore a fit subject for all fear on the disciples’ part; if both he that possesses wealth and he that is teeming with passions were the rich, and these alike shall be expelled from the heavens. For salvation is the privilege of pure and passionless souls.

But the Lord replies, “Because what is impossible with men is possible with God.” This again is full of great wisdom. For a man by himself working and toiling at freedom from passion achieves nothing. But if he plainly shows himself very desirous and earnest about this, he attains it by the addition of the power of God. For God conspires with willing souls.

Clement of Alexandria, Salvation of the Rich Man 20–21

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.” Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Mark 10:17–22)

There is no other second goodness existing in the Son, save that which is in the Father. And therefore also the Savior Himself rightly says in the Gospel, “There is none good save one only, God the Father,” that by such an expression it may be understood that the Son is not of a different goodness, but of that only which exists in the Father, of whom He is rightly termed the image, because He proceeds from no other source but from that primal goodness, lest there might appear to be in the Son a different goodness from that which is in the Father. Nor is there any dissimilarity or difference of goodness in the Son. And therefore it is not to be imagined that there is a kind of blasphemy, as it were, in the words, “There is none good save one only, God the Father,” as if thereby it may be supposed to be denied that either Christ or the Holy Spirit was good. But, as we have already said, the primal goodness is to be understood as residing in God the Father, from whom both the Son is born and the Holy Spirit proceeds, retaining within them, without any doubt, the nature of that goodness which is in the source whence they are derived. And if there be any other things which in Scripture are called good, whether angel, or man, or servant, or treasure, or a good heart, or a good tree, all these are so termed inexactly, having in them an accidental, not an essential goodness.

Origen, On First Principles 1.2.13

When the Gospel was read, dearest brethren, we heard the Lord say: “If you will enter into life, keep the commandments.” Who is there, brethren, who does not want life? And yet who is there who wishes to keep the commandments? If you are unwilling to keep the commandments, why do you seek life? If you are slothful in the work, why do you hasten to the reward? That rich young man said that he had kept the commandments, and he heard still greater commands: “If you will be perfect, one thing is lacking to you: sell all that you have, and give to the poor.” You will not lose it, but “You shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” For how does it profit you to do this and not follow me? What that man heard, most beloved, we, too, have heard; the Gospel of Christ is in heaven, but it does not cease to speak on earth. Let us not be dead to it, for He thunders; let us not be deaf, for He shouts. But if you are unwilling to do the greater things, do the lesser ones. These are the greater ones: “Sell all that you have, and give to the poor; and come, follow me.” The lesser ones are these: “You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not seek false witness, you shall not steal, honor your father and mother, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Caesarius of Arles, Sermons 153.1

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them. (Mark 10:13–16)

But, in turn, if, in the case of the greatest sinners and those sinning much against God, when afterward they believe, the remission of their sins is granted and no one is prevented from baptism and grace, how much more should an infant not be prohibited, who, recently born, has not sinned at all, except that, born carnally according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of the first death from the first nativity. He approaches more easily from this very fact to receive the remission of sins because those which are remitted are not his own sins, but the sins of another.

And, therefore, dearly beloved Brother, this was our decision in the council that no one ought to be cut off by us from baptism and from the grace of God, who is merciful and kind and loving to all. Since this must be observed and maintained towards all, we think it ought to be even more observed regarding infants themselves and the newly born who deserve more, for this very reason, from our help and from the divine mercy because immediately at the very beginning of their birth, wailing and weeping, they can do nothing but plead.

Cyprian of Carthage, Letters 64.5

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—where

“Their worm does not die
And the fire is not quenched.”

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—where

“Their worm does not die
And the fire is not quenched.”

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire—where

“Their worm does not die
And the fire is not quenched.”

For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another. (Mark 9:38–50)

If today a man is thrown out of the assembly of this church because of some wicked deed, in how much grief and tribulation will his soul be? If it causes unbearable pain to be thrown out of this church, where the one who is rejected can eat and drink and speak with men and has the hope of deserving to be called back again to the church, how much pain do we think there will be if, because of his sins, a man is separated from that Church which is in heaven, segregated from the assembly of the angels and the company of all the saints? For such a man it will not be enough punishment for him to be cast outside, but in addition he will be shut out into the night, to be consumed by an eternal fire. The man who has merited to be shut out of that heavenly Jerusalem will not only have for punishment the fact that he will not be able to eat or drink, but he will also suffer the flames of hell, “where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” There will be the wailing of lamentation and repentance without any remedy, that worm too which does not die, and the fire which is not extinguished; there death is sought as an end to torment, and it is not found. Why is death sought and not found in hell? Because those who are unwilling to accept life in this world when it is offered to them will seek death in hell and will not be able to find it. There will be night without the light of day, bitterness without pleasure, darkness without light. There neither riches nor parents nor spouses nor children nor neighbors will be able to help a man.

Caesarius of Arles, On the Feast of a Church [Sermon 227.4]