De creatione hominis sermo alter

Homily 2 on the Human Being. The wise Solomon, instructed not by persuasive words of wisdom but by the teachings of the Holy Spirit, in the passages just read to us, exalting the human being, cried out saying: Great is a human being, and precious is a merciful man. But I was vainly considering within myself both what I held in my own mind and what I had been taught from Scripture concerning the human being. For I myself reasoned: how is a human being great, this mortal creature subject to countless passions, this creature that from birth to old age drains a swarm of countless evils, concerning which it is said: Lord, what is a human being, that you have made yourself known to him? And while the Psalmist despises the creature as worthless, the proverb exalts the human being as something great. But this perplexity of mine was resolved by the history of the origin of the human being as it was read. For we heard just now that God took dust from the earth and fashioned the human being. From this statement I found both: that a human being is nothing and that a human being is great. If you look only at nature, it is nothing and worth nothing; but if you look at the honor with which it was honored, a human being is great. What honor?

God said, “Let there be light,” and light came to be. Compare the generation of a human being and the generation of light. There He said, “Let there be a firmament.” The great heaven stretched above us came to be by the word of God; stars and sun and moon and all things that we see with the eye and all magnitudes that we apprehend with the mind received their existence by a word. Sea and earth and the order within them, all kinds of animals, various diversities of plants—all these came to be by the word. But the human being—how? It was not said, “Let there be a human being,” as “Let there be a firmament.” Rather, you see something more in the human being: beyond light, beyond heaven, beyond the luminaries, beyond all things is the generation of the human being. The Lord God took; He deigns to fashion our body with His own hand. He did not command an angel; the earth did not spontaneously cast us forth as it does cicadas; He did not say to do this or that to ministering powers, but with His own hand He works as a craftsman. He took earth. When you look at what was taken, “What is a human being?” When you consider the one who fashioned, “Great is a human being”—both nothing because of the matter and great because of the honor. And God took. But how is it that there, in the passages below, it says, “And God made the human being,” while here it says, “the generation of the human being” above? As if we have been taught nothing about the human being, the account says, “And God took dust from the earth and God formed the human being.” Some have already said that “formed” is said of the body, while “made” is said of the soul. Perhaps this account is not far from the truth; for where it is said, “And God made the human being,” He made him according to the image of God; the word “made” is used.

Where the narrative concerns our bodily constitution, it says "He formed." The psalmist taught the difference between making and forming when he said, "Your hands made me and formed me." He made the inner human, he formed the outer. For forming is proper to clay, making to that which is "in the image"; so the flesh was formed, the soul was made. Having spoken above about the subsistence of the soul, he now discusses with us the shaping of the body. And consider this argument as well. What is the other? That some things are stated summarily, while others are handed down to us according to the manner in which they came to be. So above, that he made; here, how he made. For if he had simply said that he made, you would have thought that he made as he made cattle, as he made wild beasts, as he made plants, as he made grass. So in order that you might escape kinship with the wilder things, the account handed down the special craftsmanship of God concerning you. "God took dust from the earth." There it said that he made; here, how he made: he took dust from the earth and formed it with his own hands. Consider how you were formed; reckon the workshop of nature: it is the hand of God that kneaded you. Let what was formed by God not be defiled by wickedness, not be altered by sin; do not fall from the hand of God. You are a vessel formed by God, made by God; glorify the maker. For you came to be for no other reason than to be a suitable instrument for the glory of God.

And this whole world is for you, like a written book dictating the glory of God, the hidden and invisible, proclaiming to you through itself the greatness of God, who have a mind for the comprehension of truth. Therefore, remember all that has been said. And God blessed them and said, "Increase and multiply and fill the earth." There is a twofold increase: one of the body, the other of the soul. But the increase of the soul is the addition of learning towards perfection; the increase of the body is the restoration from smallness to the proper measure. "Increase," then, is said to the irrational animals according to the perfection of the body, according to the completion of nature; but to us, "Increase" is said according to the inner human, according to the progress that is towards God. Such was Paul, stretching forward to what is ahead, forgetting what is behind. This is the increase of contemplations, the taking up of piety, the extension towards the greater, our always striving for better things, always leaving what has gone before behind oneself, and seeking what is lacking in piety as deficient. Such was Isaac, about whom that testimony is recorded: "As he advanced, he was raised up until he became great." For he did not stop or remain after a small increase, but always advanced, crossing with great steps to the works of virtue: he crossed with a great step to temperance, he mounted to justice, from there he ascended to courage. Thus crossing, the righteous man is crowned at the peak of the height of the good. "Increase," then, in the increase according to God, in the perfection according to the inner human. "Multiply": the blessing of the Church.

Let not theology be confined to one place, but let the gospel of salvation be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. Multiply yourselves. Who? Those who have come into being according to the gospel. And fill the earth. Fill the flesh given to you for service with good works: let the eye be full of seeing what is needful; let the hand be full of good works; let the feet be for visiting the sick, being able to go where it is fitting. Let every state of our limbs be full of the works that accord with the commandments. This is what "Fill the earth" means. Thus the words are common even to the irrational, but they become particular when we use that which we were honored with, the "according to the image." For the former increase bodily, but we increase spiritually; and the former fill the earth with their multitude, but we fill the earth joined to us—that is, the bodily service—with good works. Behold, I have given you every tree that has fruit in itself; it shall be for you to eat. Let the church pass over nothing; all things are lawful. He did not say: I have given you the fish to eat, I have given you the cattle, the reptiles, the quadrupeds. For it was not for the sake of these that he created, he says, but the first legislation permitted the enjoyment of fruits; for we were still considered worthy of paradise. And what is the mystery lying hidden in what is concealed? The fruits, he says, are for you and for the beasts and the birds, and the grass and the hay are for you to eat and for the birds of the sky and for all the beasts of the earth. And yet we see many beasts not nourished by fruit; by what fruit does a leopard consent to be fed?

What fruit can nourish a lion? Yet these things, subject to the law of nature, were nourished by fruits. But when man changed his way of life and overstepped the boundaries given to him, after the flood the Lord, seeing men’s lack of restraint, permitted enjoyment of all things. “Eat all these as vegetables of the field.” By this permission, the other animals also received license to eat. From that time onward, the lion is a raw-meat eater; from that time, vultures await carrion. For surely vultures did not, at the moment of their birth as animals, scan the earth—for nothing had yet died of what was signified or created by God, that vultures might be fed. Neither did nature separate them, for it was in its prime; nor did hunters consume them, for there was as yet no human practice; nor did beasts tear them apart, for there were as yet no raw-meat eaters. But it is customary for a vulture to live from corpses. So there were as yet no corpses, no stench, no such food for vultures; rather, all lived as swans do, and all grazed in meadows. And just as we see dogs, for the sake of service, often grazing on couch grass (not because this food is natural to them, but because by some untaught teaching of nature irrational animals come to what is beneficial), so consider that the raw-meat-eating animals then were like that, devising grass as food for themselves, not plotting against one another. But as the restoration will be after these things, so was the first generation.

Man returns to his former state, having cast off wickedness, that life of many cares, that servitude of the soul concerning worldly things; laying all these aside, he turns back to that life in paradise, that life unenslaved to the passions of the flesh, that free life, that life conversing with God, that life sharing the same table with angels. Now these things have been said by us, not because we wish to exclude the use of foods given to us by God, but so that we may bless the time that has passed: what life was like, how it lacked nothing, how men needed few things for the conduct of life, how the variety of our diet brought in the cause of sin. For since we fell from the true luxury of paradise, we devised counterfeit luxuries for ourselves; and since we no longer see the tree of life nor take pride in that beauty, cooks and bakers and varieties of pastries and incense and such things were given to us for enjoyment, consoling us for our fall from there. Just as the sick, when they are laid low by severe illness, unable to partake of customary enjoyment, receive from physicians greetings with scents and such things; for since they have fallen from stronger enjoyments, those who flatter their senses devise things commensurate with their weakness.

Nevertheless, even now, wishing to lead ourselves in imitation of the life in paradise, fleeing this material enjoyment of foods, let us lead ourselves to that life as far as possible, using fruits, seeds, and the products of trees for sustenance, and let us dismiss the excess of these as unnecessary. For they are neither abominable because of the Creator, nor are they choiceworthy because of the flesh's pleasure. And God rested from all his works on the seventh day. Let the arithmeticians and those who have busied themselves with such matters and who have set forth their wisdom about these things as something great, then, speak: how the number six is akin to the creation of the world, because it is prolific, generating many forms of numbers from itself, and is perfect in its own parts, and all that the arithmeticians recount about the hexad in their school discourses—if anyone has leisure, let him select for himself. Let them also speak about the heptad, that there is a kind of barrenness in the seventh: for the number seven neither generates from itself nor is born from another. And so that I may not drag my discourse down into materiality, passing over the discussion with you, I will proceed to more reasonable matters. But if anyone has some experience in these things, let him know that the treasury of these things also lies with us; so that if arithmetic is great, the seeds of arithmetic are here. But we do not think that these things, having stolen small things here from the wisdom of the world, are themselves great in their treatises.

...cts of the earth, and such things as are not the cause of the passions. But in order to show them that what they consider so important is contemptible to us, let us pass over in silence the discussion of these matters; and at the same time, the contemplation of these things is not easily grasped by the whole people. The Church is present, not expecting to hear paradoxical discourses, but seeking solutions to doctrines that build up. Now, the seventh day, the Sabbath, is honored. The number seven is honored among the Jews, on which occur the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Trumpets, and the Day of Atonement. The seventh year is honored among them, called the year of release. For it was permitted to them to work the land for six years, and in the seventh year to be content with what grew spontaneously, when they held the land of promise. The Hebrew served for six years and in the seventh was released from servitude. In the seventieth year, their captivity was ended. Moreover, consider our own matters: "Seven times," it says, "the righteous man will fall and rise again." Thus we appropriate the hebdomad. The seventh from birth did not see death—a mystery of the Church. The seventh from Abraham, Moses, received the law—a change of life, a dissolution of lawlessness, an entrance of righteousness, a visitation of God, a good order of the world, a legislation of what is to be done. In the seventy-seventh generation from Adam, Christ appeared. Peter knows the mystery of the hebdomad: "How many times will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" He knows little; he has not yet learned the mystery, for he is still a disciple. "Up to seven times?" The teacher did not depart from the number seven. He spoke as the disciple knew, but the master surpassed him in wealth. "How many times will he sin and I forgive?" Why did he not say, "Up to six times?" "Up to eight times?" But...

Up to seven times? Why did the Lord not say, up to a hundred times a hundred, but multiplied the number seven? Neither did Peter ask another, nor did the Lord depart from the rule of the hebdomad. Peter observed that there is an ancient rule of tradition, that the hebdomad has an implication of some remission of sins, of complete rest, of which the Sabbath is a sign, the seventh day from creation. Peter: seven times; the Lord: up to seventy times seven. The sins are avenged seven times? Not so: everyone who killed Cain will annul seven avengings. And there it is not eight but seven. Why? Wait a little and you will find the mystery. The first sin is avenged seven times; the second murder, that of Lamech, seventy times seven. Because from Cain it is avenged seven times, but from Lamech seventy times seven. And if there forgiveness from Peter corresponds seven times to the avenging of Cain, remission from the Lord is seventy times seven, as the condemnation of Lamech is seventy times seven. As great as the transgression, so great is the grace; where the sin is small, the forgiveness is small; for to whom he granted little, he loves little; but where sin abounded, grace superabounded. What then is the mystery? The seventh day is called the age of judgment, in which the sinner will be avenged seven times, the one who exceeds seventy times seven; the just man will be honored seven times, the one who exceeds justice seventy times seven. The philanthropy of God now reveals the future to us through enigmas, but then at the Parousia the truth will be clear and manifest. For it will show who is worthy of what.

The sevenfold repayment, then, which is owed to us, the Lord will grant here to sinners, having been appeased by us through confession and repentance. So, knowing that terrible day, the repayment stored up for those who have sinned, the counter-measure proportionate to the offenses committed, let us anticipate and dissolve the sins through repentance, so that there we may escape the painful multiplication of the repayment. This seventh day, then, is a type of that seventh day of the consummation of the age. And God rested from all works. No longer are there works of the world on that day, no longer marriages, no longer transactions of commerce, no longer agriculture, but the whole earth is agitated, the whole creation is in anguish, sweat without consolation, and the righteous are in anguish, wondering what verdict will ever be pronounced about them. And Abraham will be anxious then, not that he might be condemned to Gehenna, but in what rank of the righteous he will be placed: first or second or third. The Lord from the heavens, and the heavens are rent, a power is revealed, the whole creation is trembling. Who is without fear? Not even angels. They too stand to give an account to God. Yet the glorious epiphany instills terror in all. Do you not hear Isaiah saying, "If you open the heaven, trembling will seize the mountains from you"? He speaks of that day on which the mountains cower, on which the sea is fixed, on which creation will cease, nature is deadened, every method of argument is idle before the visitation from the heavens.

Then the righteous are snatched up, then clouds are the chariot of the righteous, then angels are the escorts of the righteous, then the righteous are taken up from earth to heaven like stars; but the sinners, bound, shackled by the very weight of their sins, will fall downward, burdened by a guilty conscience. That seventh day, then, is prefigured by this seventh day. And God rested from all his works. The affairs of this life no longer exist on that day. Youthful desires have fallen asleep; there is no longer any intention of marriage, no desire for childbearing, no concern for gold. You, the lover of money, have forgotten your purse; you, the possessor of many possessions, have forgotten your land; you, the madman for glory, have forgotten glory; all those things have flown from your mind. The soul is near to what terrifies it, near to the expectation of the impending horrors. For fear drives out every passionate thought that dwells in our souls. Where there is fear of God, all the stains of passion are expelled from our mind. This seventh day is a type of that seventh day. So God took dust from the earth and God formed the human being. The creation of the world was not completed, the sequence was not interrupted, in order that our account might be inserted, but it was said: "God made the human being," and: "He rested from all his works"; and since he brought about a pause, he teaches us how he made it: "God took dust from the earth." When you hear "dust," discipline yourself to be fearless of human beings; do not put on a proud face; do not think highly of yourself. When thoughts come to you, swelling the heart and producing inflammation, let the reminder of your creation enter you, how you were created.

God took dust from the earth, and God formed the human. When can you forget yourself? Forget yourself when you depart from the earth. But if you never separate from the earth, but are grown together with the earth, you walk upon the earth, you rest upon the earth, you judge upon the earth, everything you do, whether great or small, is upon the earth, you have near at hand the reminder of your own lowliness. Have you been insulted and are you prone to anger? Whence comes your anger? From dishonor. Did you not deign to be called low-born? Did anger immediately boil up in you? Do you strive to say something worse than what you heard? Look down, and the anger ceases. See the earth and reflect: He called me low-born, me who came from earth? He said less than what I am; for he did not say from the earth but from a human. How much more honorable is a living human than trodden earth. But I look to the ancient mother, the earth, so that it is not an insult to be born from a slave, but an honor to be born animate. And the one who thought he was insulting me unwittingly honored me more by what he insulted; for I have understanding of my own nature; I know who I am and whence I am. Thus remembering that we were born from earth never allows anger to keep watch. Let the earth, always present and reminding, be an ally to reason. When you rush after desires, reflect how you will depart. If you reflect that you will be dissolved into earth, the madness of desire ceases. You are earth and you will go to earth. Remember that after a little while these now throbbing limbs or this now present desire of the flesh will after a little while not exist, the limbs being dissolved and resolved into earth.

Remember your nature, and every impulse toward evil is dissolved. Let this reminder be our safeguard against every sin. God formed the human, taking dust from the earth. Humility is good; the reminder is innate. If he had said that God formed the human by taking from heaven, when would we look upon that, so as to be reminded of our nature? The reminder of our nothingness is at hand from what is readily available, from what we tread upon. Look down upon the earth and understand that you were shaped from the kindred element of the earth, from the rejected part of what is in you. What is more contemptible than us? What is more worthy of our holding ourselves in low esteem? Have you seen someone proud, clad in a flowered garment, with a ring gleaming on his hand, wearing a costly necklace and taking pride in it, dressed in silken threads, with servants having flowing hair, blond and swaggering with affectation, wearing golden collars, sitting on a silver chair, walking grandly, thinking grandly, speaking grandly because of the multitude of servants, the flatterers he drags along, the lavish table, the greetings that everyone offers him in the marketplace, those rising from their seats, those coming to meet him, those escorting him, the lictors? When you see these rulers who are heralded with a loud voice, when you see them frightening one person and flattering another, confiscating another’s property and condemning him to death, do not be afraid of what is seen, do not be terrified by what has happened, do not be astonished by the spectacle.

Consider that God formed the human, taking dust from the earth. If it is something else, fear; if it is dust from the earth, despise it. And God formed the human. Does not the word "formed" immediately indicate to us some technical activity of God concerning the human? God formed. Did he form as those who mold clay, as those who smelt bronze? But the molding of a statue and the shaping of plaster have imitation only on the surface. Have you seen how a statue stands with some character? Either the statue of a soldier displays anger, or bronze, when shaped into a woman, displays a feminine disposition, or other things that art can introduce through imitation by means of character in the form. But God's forming is not like that; rather, he formed the human, and his creative activity organized everything, penetrating into the depth within. If I had enough leisure to show you the construction of the human, and you learned from yourself the wisdom of God concerning you, that truly the human is a microcosm, and those who dignified him with this name did well. How many treatises have been spent on this matter: the physiologies of physicians, the observations of trainers, concerning proportion or the symmetry of limbs to each other or concerning the abundance of fleshiness. All these enter into the shaping of the human. And from where would I have such discourse as to be able to speak with precision all that is contained in the single word "formed"? But even if I do not speak of the obvious things, you know them. God formed the human upright.

This special formation He gave to you, beyond the other animals. Why? Because He was also going to give you a special activity. For the others are grazing beasts, and their construction is suited to what they are by nature. The sheep was made to graze; it has its head low, inclined to look at its belly and what is beneath the belly, since for them the end of happiness is the filling of the belly and the enjoyment of pleasure. But man no longer looks to the belly, but to the things above. His head is high, so that he may look to his kinship above, his eyes not inclining to the earth. Do not, therefore, make yourself contrary to nature; do not gaze around at earthly things, but at the heavenly, where Christ is. For, it says, "If you have risen with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is." Thus you were formed. The very formation is a lesson of the end for which you came to be. You came to be so that you might see God, not so that your life might be dragged on the earth, not so that you might have bestial enjoyment, but so that you might fulfill the heavenly citizenship. For this reason

The eyes of the wise are in his head," says the wise Ecclesiastes. But whose eyes are not in their head? Yet it means in the head, that is, so that they may look upon high things. But he who does not look upon high things but upon earthly ones has his eyes dragged down to the ground. Eyes, then, are seated, round, with the head placed upon the shoulders. The head itself is not sunk down, so that it may not be lowly, but rests upon a worthy support, the neck. The head is above, and the eyes are twin beams. Was one not enough, tell me? But there are two eyes, successors to each other, so that the dissolution of one may have the consolation of the other. Moreover, the visual power proceeding from one is weaker, but when the stream is combined from two sources, it becomes more vigorous; for the vision, as it advances, both rests upon the partition of the nose and, as it projects, becomes united. For just as some channel proceeds from each of the two visions—this visual power from here and that from there—they become united at a distance by their convergence, and when united, they become stronger. What is the proof that they become united? Do you not see that old people do not see things close up? For since the visual power is weak, when it is divided, it does not see what is near, but where the convergence of vision occurs, as if by some flood in the sight, the perception of objects becomes more vigorous. And how many protections there are around the eye! A tunic within, and this is not enough. For one could not be thick. If it were thick, it would be a covering for the sight. But it needed to be transparent and light. Therefore, one is transparent, one is thin: one is crystalline, the other is horn-like.

The one that is covered is stronger, the one within is more rarefied, so that it may not hinder penetration. The third is crystalline, so that it may have both reflection and transparency in itself. The eyelid is a projection; it is a covering and a shelter, and like a dwelling and a guardian. The hand could have provided covering. But before the hand could come, the eye would have been darkened. Now, however, the eyelid lies close at hand, placed above. As soon as it perceives harm, it projects the covering. For this reason, the pupil, seated under a curtain, is not always easily assailed. The eye wishes this alone of our members to be untouched, being covered by the curtain of the eyelid. The lashes are surrounded by hairs. Why? So that the interweaving of the upper and lower eyelids may be more precise. For the hairs are like bonds intertwined with each other. Then, they also keep away fine creatures from a distance and do not allow dusty particles to approach the pupil, which can be dimmed from all sides. There is a certain natural guard placed around us through the hairs, at once granting comeliness to the outline and providing benefit. The eyebrow is placed above as a natural barrier, to direct the visual power. What is the proof? When you wish to look at a distance and, hollowing your hand, you extend it above the eyebrows, why does this happen?

so that the vision diffused upward may not be scattered in vain, being directed by the projection of the hand and thrust forward, it makes the correction of the visual faculty more precise and vigorous. The passage of the visual is guided by the projection along the hand. For this reason, the eyebrows both direct the eye and do not allow sweat from labors to flow down and become an obstacle to vision; for this reason, the eyebrows form a barrier. What vine-dresser can so well train the vine and surround it with an eyebrow that it becomes difficult to assail, that the place is not easily overrun by adjacent ravines, as the Lord has made the enclosure of the eyebrows? He has circumscribed them for us in a crescent shape, dividing them from a single junction at the nose to each side, so that sweat flowing here and there may cause no distraction to the farmer, nor may wiping away the sweat take the hand away from the vine, but rather the sweat flows through its own channels (the creator having long ago channeled it to useless parts), while the eye

it might accomplish its function. If we should attempt to describe only the things among us that have been made skillfully by God, the entire day would fail us. But from this one thing, take the understanding of all. And as we hasten on some necessary journey, send us forth with your prayers, so that, having returned safely to you quickly, we may also discharge the debt of what remains, by the grace of the Lord who has ordered everything concerning us, who created us by his own grace, because to him belongs the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.