In mediam pentecosten

On the Mid-Pentecost. Wherever the Master is present bodily as a source of life, he pours forth many and various streams of philanthropy. He went up onto a mountain with his disciples, and set before his hearers the streams of the Beatitudes. He came down from there, and poured channels of healings upon those afflicted with various diseases. He stood at the Sheep Pool, and gave strength to the paralytic. He entered the house of Peter, and cooled his mother-in-law, burning with fever. He arrived at Bethany, and gave the cup of life to the four-day-dead Lazarus. He met the leper, and wiped away the scales of the affliction with the sponge of philanthropy. He stood in the synagogue, and moistened the withered shoot of the hand, making it active for movement. He attended the wedding, and mixed the wine of wonder-working for those invited. And countless other things, which it is difficult to enumerate. He went up today also into the Temple, and set before his hearers the rivers of teaching. For you heard the Gospel reading, which the Evangelist, standing on a high bema, fittingly proclaimed to us also on the middle of the feast, using the voice of the Levite as if it were a trumpet. “Already,” he says, “the feast being at its midpoint, Jesus went up into the Temple and taught.” The passage itself is full of philanthropy. For he did not say, “persecutions being imminent,” or “grief being present,” or “despondency holding the disciples,” or some other such narrative, about which the Acts of the Apostles often speaks. But what does he say? “Already the feast being at its midpoint.” What is the feast being at its midpoint, tell me, John?

Did Herod lay hands on him? Did the wicked council of the Jews convene? Did Judas again turn to betrayal? No, he says. But what? Jesus went up into the temple and taught. You have set before Christ what is fitting for Christ, you have presented the action that befits him. For it is the work of speech to speak, and of a teacher to teach, and of Christ to pour forth words of benefit to his hearers. Jesus went up into the temple and taught. O the unsurpassable philanthropy! Where he was being stoned little by little, there he enriched the stoners with the teachings of his words. Jesus went up into the temple and taught. Where the laws of Moses were read, there he set forth the teachings of grace, not abolishing the law, but becoming the fulfiller of the law. For he himself cried out in the Gospels, "I did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it"; and Paul, having the Master speaking through his mouth, says, "For the end of the law is Christ for righteousness." And now, at the midpoint of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught, instructing all as to the place of prayer, making his catechetical discourse there as the Word, where the wicked council was also assembled. The priest according to the order of Melchizedek went up into the temple and taught, with many listening, but none of the Jews learning.

For concerning them the one who foretold cried out, "They have eyes, and do not see; they have ears, and do not hear." Jesus went up into the temple and taught, exposing the folly of the God-fighters; he went up into the temple so that, having spread the nets of heavenly teaching, he might make a rational catch of men; Jesus went up into the temple, he ascended; but the Jews descended from faith. Already, when the feast was at its midpoint, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. The Jews then marveled, saying, "How does this man know letters, not having learned?" They marveled, but they did not believe; they were struck by the excess of wisdom, but they did not change their minds, filled as they were with the terrible nature of their wickedness. They beheld the physician setting forth the remedies, and, though sick, they did not accept the treatment; they saw the one who was rescuing them, and they loved their captivity; having in their midst the meadow of good things, they gathered thorns; with the harbor present, the wretches were shipwrecked; with wisdom pouring forth divine teachings, they did not wish to wash away the stench of their murders; with Christ spreading the wings of his philanthropy, the offspring of vipers would not suffer themselves to be sheltered. For how many times, he says, in the Gospels, did I wish to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks, and you did not wish it? The Jews then marveled, saying, "How does this man know letters, not having learned?" O the things that happen! Do you not know the Law, O Jew, and do you not know the teachings of the Law? You say, "How does this man know letters, not having learned?

Tell me, O enemy of truth, how did Adam, not having learned letters, impose fitting names upon the beasts? You do not question the servant, yet you interrogate the Master, saying, "How does this one know letters?" Jesus answered and said, "My teaching is not mine, but belongs to the Father who sent me." And when is God sent by way of a change of place? And when does He who fills all things come where He is already present? The word is directed to the Jews, the statement not to those who know how to learn piously. "My teaching is not mine, but belongs to the Father who sent me," who also set forth for me the testimony from heaven before all of you, saying, "This is my beloved Son." Concerning me, John also cried out, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." For truly Christ is the Lamb, who today went up into the temple, and John set forth the voice of truth concerning him. For being a voice, he fittingly praised the Word; being a lamp, he made known the rays of the sun; as a forerunner, he announced the one coming; as the dawn, he proclaimed the morning; as a soldier, he published the name of the king.

Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world: a lamb whom a ewe, a virgin, conceived without seed and bore without corruption; the manger, as though it were a grass-bearer, received him as a child; the Jordan washed him, John baptized him, Judas sold him to the Jews, Pilate slaughtered him, the tomb set him forth, and we purchased him, and with his fleece he clothed all who were naked from the transgression of Adam. Glory to him for the ages of ages. Amen.