8. Understand then, my Brethren, our language and theirs, and look which ye would choose. This is what we say; "Be we holy, God knoweth it; be we unrighteous, this again He knoweth better; place not your hope in us, whatsoever we be. If we be good, do as is written, Be ye imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.' [3879] But if we be bad, not even thus are ye abandoned, not even thus have ye remained without counsel: give ear to Him, saying, Do what they say; but do not what they do.'" [3880] Whereas they on the contrary say, "If we were not good, ye were lost." Lo, here is "another that shall come in his own name." Shall my life then depend on thee, and my salvation be tied up in thee? Have I so forgotten my foundation? Was not Christ the Rock? [3881] Is it not that he that buildeth upon the rock, neither the wind nor the floods overthrow him? [3882] Come then, if thou wilt, with me upon the Rock, and do not wish to be to me for the rock.
9. Let the Church then say those last words also, "If ye had believed Moses, ye would believe me also; for he wrote of me;" [3883] for that I am His body of whom he wrote. And of the Church did Moses write. For I have quoted the words of Moses "In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed." [3884] Moses wrote this in the first book. If ye believed Moses, ye would also believe Christ. Because ye despise Moses' words, it must needs be that ye despise the words of Christ. "They have" there, saith He, "Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them. Nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead," him they will hear. "And He said, If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead." [3885] This was said of the Jews: was it therefore not said of heretics? He had risen from the dead, who said, "It behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day." This I believe. I believe it, he says. Dost thou believe? Wherefore believest thou not what follows? In that thou believest, "It behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day;" this was spoken of the Head; believe also that which follows concerning the Church, "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached throughout all nations." [3886] Wherefore dost thou believe as touching the Head, and believest not as touching the Body? What hath the Church done to thee, that thou wouldest so to say behead her? Thou wouldest take away the Church's Head, and believe the Head, leave the Body as it were a lifeless trunk. It is all to no purpose that thou dost caress the Head, like any devoted servant. He that would take off the head, doth his best to kill both the head and the body. They are ashamed to deny Christ, yet are they not ashamed to deny Christ's words. Christ neither we nor ye have seen with our eyes. The Jews saw, and slew Him. We have not seen Him, and believe; His words are with us. Compare yourselves with the Jews: they despised Him hanging upon the Tree, ye despise Him sitting in heaven; at their suggestion Christ's title was set [3887] up, by your setting [3888] yourselves up, Christ's Baptism is effaced. But what remains, Brethren, but that we pray even for the proud, that we pray even for the puffed up, who so extol themselves? Let us say to God on their behalf, "Let them know that the Lord is Thy Name; and" not "that" men, but "Thou Only art the Most High over all the earth." [3889] Let us turn to the Lord, etc.
[3852] John v. 39.
[3853] John v. 43.
[3854] John v. 44.
[3855] John v. 45-47.
[3856] Divinitus.
[3857] Matt. xxviii. 20.
[3858] Matt. xvi. 6.
[3859] Rom. x. 2.
[3860] Rom. x. 3.
[3861] Matt. vii. 21; Luke vi. 46.
[3862] Absit.
[3863] Sacramentum.
[3864] Eph. v. 31, 32.
[3865] John vii. 36.
[3866] Gal. iii. 16.
[3867] Gen. xxii. 16, etc.
[3868] Ps. lvii. 11.
[3869] Ps. xxi. 17-19, Sept. (xxii. 16-18, English version).
[3870] Ps. xxi. 28, 29, Sept. (xxii. 27, 28, English version).
[3871] Ps. xix. 5.
[3872] Ps. xix. 4.
[3873] Luke xxiv. 45-47.
[3874] Rom. x. 2, 3.
[3875] John v. 43.
[3876] 1 John ii. 18.
[3877] Gal. i. 9.
[3878] John i. 33.
[3879] 1 Cor. iv. 16, xi. 1.
[3880] Matt. xxiii. 3.
[3881] 1 Cor. x. 4.
[3882] Matt. vii. 25.
[3883] John v. 46.
[3884] Gen. xxii. 18.
[3885] Luke xvi. 29-31.
[3886] Luke xxiv. 46, etc.
[3887] Stetit.
[3888] Stantibus.
[3889] Ps. lxxxii. 19, Sept. (lxxxiii. 18, English version).
Sermon LXXX.
[CXXX. Ben.]
On the words of the Gospel, John vi. 9, where the miracle of the five loaves and the two fishes is related.
1. It was a great miracle that was wrought, dearly beloved, for five thousand men to be filled with five loaves and two fishes, and the remnants of the fragments to fill twelve baskets. A great miracle: but we shall not wonder much at what was done, if we give heed to Him That did it. He multiplied the five loaves in the hands of them that brake them, who multiplieth the seeds that grow in the earth, so as that a few grains are sown, and whole barns are filled. But, because he doth this every year, no one marvels. Not the inconsiderableness [3890] of what is done, but its constancy takes away admiration of it. But when the Lord did these things, He spake to them that had understanding, not by words only, but even by the miracles themselves. The five loaves signified the five books of Moses' Law. The old Law is barley compared to the Gospel wheat. In those books are great mysteries concerning Christ contained. Whence He saith Himself, "If ye had believed Moses, ye would believe Me also; for he wrote of Me." [3891] But as in barley the marrow is hid under the chaff, so in the veil of the mysteries of the Law is Christ hidden. As those mysteries of the Law are developed and unfolded; so too those loaves increased when they were broken. And in this that I have explained to you, I have broken bread unto you. The five thousand men signify the people ordered under the five books of the Law. The twelve baskets are the twelve Apostles, who themselves too were filled with the fragments of the Law. The two fishes are either the two precepts of the love of God and our neighbour, or the two people of the circumcision and uncircumcision, or those two sacred personages of the king and the priest. As these things are explained, they are broken; when they are understood, they are eaten.
2. Let us turn to Him who did these things. He is Himself "The Bread which came down from heaven;" [3892] but Bread which refresheth the failing, and doth not fail; Bread which can be tasted, [3893] cannot be wasted. This Bread did the manna also figure. Wherefore it is said, "He gave them the Bread of heaven, man ate Angels' Bread." [3894] Who is the Bread of heaven, but Christ? But in order that man might eat Angels' Bread, the Lord of Angels was made Man. For if He had not been made Man, we should not have His Flesh; if we had not His Flesh, we should not eat the Bread of the Altar. Let us hasten to the inheritance, seeing we have hereby received a great earnest of it. My brethren, let us long for the life of Christ, seeing we hold as an earnest the Death of Christ. How shall He not give us His good things, who hath suffered our evil things? In this our earth, in this evil world, what abounds, but to be born, to labour, and to die? Examine thoroughly man's estate, convict me if I lie: consider all men whether they are in this world for any other end than to be born, to labour, and to die? This is the merchandize of our country: these things here abound. To such merchandize did that Merchantman descend. And forasmuch as every merchant gives and receives; gives what he has, and receives what he has not; when he procures anything, he gives money, and receives what he buys: so Christ too in this His traffic gave and received. But what received He? That which aboundeth here, to be born, to labour, and to die. And what did He give? To be born again, to rise again, and to reign for ever. O Good Merchant, buy us. Why should I say buy us, when we ought to give Thee thanks that Thou hast bought us? Thou dost deal out our Price to us, we drink Thy Blood; so dost thou deal out to us our Price. And we read the Gospel, our title [3895] deed. We are Thy servants, we are Thy creatures: Thou hast made us, Thou hast redeemed us. Any one can buy his servant, create him he cannot; but the Lord hath both created and redeemed His servants; created them, that they might be; redeemed them, that they might not be captives ever. For we fell into the hands of the prince of this world, who seduced Adam, and made him his servant, and began to possess us as his slaves. But the Redeemer came, and the seducer was overcome. And what did our Redeemer to him who held us captive? For our ransom he held out His Cross as a trap; he placed in It as a bait His Blood. He indeed had power to shed His Blood, he did not attain [3896] to drink it. And in that he shed the Blood of Him who was no debtor, he was commanded to render up the debtors; he shed the Blood of the Innocent, he was commanded to withdraw from the guilty. He verily shed His Blood to this end, that He might wipe out our sins. That then whereby he held us fast was effaced by the Redeemer's Blood. For he only held us fast by the bonds of our own sins. They were the captive's chains. He came, He bound the strong one with the bonds of His Passion; He entered into his house [3897] into the hearts, that is, of those where he did dwell, and took away his vessels. We are his vessels. He had filled them with his own bitterness. This bitterness too he pledged to our Redeemer in the gall. He had filled us then as his vessels; but our Lord spoiling his vessels, and making them His Own, poured out the bitterness, filled them with sweetness.
3. Let us then love Him, for He is sweet. "Taste and see that the Lord is sweet." [3898] He is to be feared, but to be loved still more. He is Man and God; the One Christ is Man and God; as one man is soul and body: but God and Man are not two Persons. In Christ indeed there are two substances, God and Man; but one Person, that the Trinity may remain, and that there be not a quaternity introduced by the addition of the human [3899] nature. How then can it be that God should not have mercy upon us, for whose sake God was made Man? Much is that which He hath done already; more wonderful is that which He hath done, than what He hath promised; and by that which He hath done, ought we to believe what He hath promised. For that which He hath done, we should scarcely believe, unless we also saw it. Where do we see it? In the peoples that believe, in the multitude that has been brought unto Him. For that hath been fulfilled which was promised to Abraham; [3900] and from these things which we see, we believe what we do not see. Abraham was one single man, and to him was it said, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed." If he had looked to himself, when would he have believed? He was one single man, and was now old; and he had a barren wife, and one who was so far advanced in age, that she could not conceive, even though she had not been barren. There was nothing at all from which any hope could be drawn. But he looked to Him That gave the promise, and believed what he did not see. Lo, what he believed, we see. Therefore from these things which we see, we ought to believe what we see not. He begat Isaac, we saw it not; and Isaac begat Jacob, and this we did not see; and Jacob begat twelve sons, and them we saw not; and his twelve sons begat the people of Israel; this great people we see. I have now begun to mention those things which we do see. Of the people of Israel was born the Virgin Mary, and she gave birth to Christ; and, lo, in Christ all nations are blessed. What more true? more certain? more plain? Together with me, long after the world to come, ye who have been gathered together out of the nations. In this world hath God fulfilled His promise concerning the seed of Abraham. How shall He not give us His eternal promises, whom He hath made to be Abraham's seed? For this the Apostle saith: "But if ye be Christ's" (they are the Apostle's words), "then are ye Abraham's seed." [3901]