De sigillis sermo

A discourse on the seals of the books, and on what the son offers to the father, and the father to the son, and on the economy of the savior. Great provision for the soul's salvation is the sacred learning. For iron sharpens iron, and divine word whets the soul; and while the body is nourished by bread, the soul is sustained by divine word; as the blessed Moses, setting forth the nourishment of divine teaching, says: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds through the mouth of God. Therefore, the word of God is food for the soul. For what could be more fitting for that which was made in the image of the world-maker, honored with reason, and deemed worthy of rational freedom, than a word that nourishes and educates it and quickly restores it to its proper dignity? By word, brothers, we mean not that which is adorned with sophistic cleverness for persuasiveness, but that which is attested by simplicity of faith for truth. For every virtue of life and speech must be considered spurious which has not received its firstfruits from the divine teacher; inasmuch as the supposed wisdom of the world is as far removed from the true wisdom of God as a shadow is from a body and a dream from truth. Hence the blessed Paul, the vessel of election, who once went out evilly for the hunt of the saints, but was well hunted for the salvation of men, explicitly said, introducing the true and pious word in contrast to the spurious: We speak wisdom among the perfect, wisdom not of this world, but the wisdom of God in mystery.

Wisdom, then, for us is the prophetic tongue, and the apostolic teaching, and the gospel of the kingdom, the summit of rational authority. And when we hear "gospel," brothers, let us take up a meaning worthy of the name. For many, having often practiced the habit of the names, have been ignorant of the power of the things themselves. Now "gospel" is an interpretation of the matter: for it announces to us the much-hymned economy of the savior, that God became among men through love for humanity, not laying aside his pre-eternal dignity, but putting on the saving economy; the gospel announces to us that a physician visited those who are suffering, healing not with drugs but with a nod of love for humanity; it announces to us that a way was shown to those who were wandering, light shone for those in darkness, salvation for those in despair. For since, though educated by the law, we did not turn back, and though guided by prophecies, we were not recalled to the knowledge of the truth, and everything was in danger of being destroyed and human affairs dissolved by our ingratitude, when the love of God for humanity saw us both despairing of the education of the law and faltering at the guidance of the prophets, it overcame ingratitude with great and boundless goodness, and the gospel of the kingdom, like some royal gift set before the whole world, granted everything to the unworthy through love for humanity.

The saving grace came forth, then, benefitting all in various ways: freeing slaves, enriching the poor, recalling exiles, ransoming captives. It became everything to everyone, not because of our worth, but because of the goodness befitting the benefactor himself, who, being simple in nature, undivided, and without form—himself God from God, image of the invisible, radiance of the glory, and character of the substance—puts on different appellations, not those suited to his nature, but those befitting his benefaction. For since all human affairs had collapsed, he takes everything into himself by appropriation, receiving the appellations from the grace that renews all things. There was a great famine, a famine of divine word, a famine which God threatened against the congregation, saying: "I will send them not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord." Since, then, he knew the inhabited world was hungry and perishing from famine—for what lack of nourishment is to the body, that lack of instruction is to the soul—the fountain of good things cries out through the Gospels: "I am the bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world." For the perceptible bread comes from the earth, according to what is said: "To bring forth bread from the earth." But the heavenly bread springs from heaven: "For I am the bread that came down from heaven." The earth was a desert, thirsting and deprived of the divine word, and not having the enjoyment of spiritual irrigation. What then? The same grace again cries out, pouring forth the benefaction: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

For since the prophets cried out in various ways and the whole chorus of the saints thirsted for his coming, saying: "O God, my God, I rise early to you; my soul thirsted for the living God," wishing to show that he is the one for whom the prophets thirsted, he cries out through the Gospels: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. If anyone is like the one who says, 'My soul thirsted for you,' let him come to me." Again, he saw the inhabited world naked, not naked in body but stripped of virtue; he saw the creature he had formed, and the one who made it took pity, and he gives a garment to the naked—himself—just as we already said earlier: "All of you who were baptized into Christ, you put on Christ." The earth had gone astray, seeking a path and not finding it; for every soul has within itself the seed of theology, and having it, it did not know how to hunt down the object of its desire. Since, then, those who had gone astray were not finding a path, he says: "I am the way." "But are you dead? I am the resurrection." "But are you weak, needing a guide? I am the staff from the root of Jesse, supporting the weak, about which the prophet said: 'Your rod and your staff have comforted me.'" Why a rod, why a staff? Because it suits every age: it guides the young, supports the old. "But, O Lord, you fed me when I was hungry, you gave me drink when I was thirsty, you clothed me when I was naked, you led me when I was astray, you gave me a staff when I was weak; having reached the path, I have come upon the tracks of piety; I seek the door of truth; who will show it? I am the door; through me everyone enters to the Father." Through you, why?

For I am a gate of salvation opened wide, which the blessed David sought, having conceived of many, but found one. For at first he says: 'Open to me the gates of righteousness; entering through them I will make confession to the Lord.' But when he obtained his request and found what he had not expected, not many, but one, recalling his own voice, he says: 'This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous will enter through it.' Then, with prophetic vision and the longing of his soul, having passed within, and as if having come inside the royal palace, he says: 'I will make confession to you that you have heard me.' Tell me, O prophet and theologian, do you make confession and give thanks to God? What did you find worthy of your expectation? For those who desire to enter a royal palace wait to feast their eyes on what appears: much gold, gleaming marbles, the varied flowers of wealth, the retinue around the king, the royal throne, the gifts of kings. Each one, expecting to see these things, thirsts for the palace and hastens toward his desire. But you, what do you long for among the things you found upon entering within the gate? For what do you give thanks? What great thing have you grasped, what have you found worthy of your desire? Interpret your longing, so that Jewish shamelessness may never slander the truth. What did you find? What do you proclaim? What do you marvel at? 'Christ,' he says, 'I found. I saw the economy of Christ, the new grace, the strange beneficence, the glorious passion, the ineffable mystagogy. These I see, these I marvel at, for these I give thanks, saying: I will make confession to you, that you have heard me, and you have become for me salvation.'

I do not conceal the benefaction, I do not hoard salvation, but I proclaim the economy. The stone which the builders rejected became the head of the corner. Do you see how the thanksgiving has laid bare the history? I will confess to you that you heard me and became for me salvation. The stone which the builders rejected became the head of the corner. Do you see how the whole expectation of the prophets looked toward this economy, and longed for Christ, who was despised in the synagogue but glorified among the nations? Therefore, to return to our subject, even if you seek the gate, you will find Christ. And yes, he says, a gate through philanthropy. But since it is necessary for the one entering into a kingdom and temple of God to have someone guiding him toward the desire—for no one dares to stand by himself at the altar without having the one who officiates. When you come inside the gate, do you find him as a priest presenting you? For you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. But the priest also needs a victim and a sacrifice to propitiate God. The same one becomes this for you again: Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Have you heard all these things for your sake? Hear those for his sake. Do not fix your contemplation on the order of the priest; do not see him as a priest standing by, but look at him as sitting together with the Father by reason of his own dignity. But let no one be an enemy of the truth, snatching some things and hiding others. I know that often some heretical enemy of the truth has stood up saying: Do you see that it is not possible to approach the Father without the Son?

For he says he holds the position of mediator and servant, bringing those who are saved to the father. For he says that new wisdom renews the truth, since human nature could not by itself approach God; the son becomes a boundary between the created and the uncreated nature, bringing the world to him. O the new madness! O the new drama! The excess of the father's goodness is endangered among the heretics; it dulls the dignity of the divinity. But heretical madness grows bold, while the power of the savior is not dulled, the glory is not extinguished, the grace is not diminished. If we deny him, he says, he remains faithful; for he cannot deny himself. He sits because of his own dignity, but stands as a priest because of the philanthropy befitting him. And see the wonder, brother. Since they interpret the saying in the position and form of a servant ministering—that no one comes to the father except through me—it is necessary to direct the refutation of impiety against the heretics. If the son's bringing to the father diminishes the dignity of the one who brings, if you see the father bringing to the son, do you extend the impiety there? Indeed, by being impious toward the son, you blaspheme the father. Therefore, brothers, let us both silence the wickedness in the word of piety and truth and make known the pious opinion. For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. He calls it a two-edged sword because he uses the word in two ways, one supporting and the other overthrowing.

purifying the enemies, while strengthening those who belong to the faith. Listen to the Lord himself saying: No one can come to me unless my heavenly father draws him. It is necessary, brothers, to say what is fitting to the heretics, and to fully inform the sons of the faith about this concept. Why did the only-begotten word of God divide the approach, saying on the one hand that he is brought to the father by him, and on the other hand that he is brought to him by the father? For the things of the divine nature are not confused, but the word of truth is clear and well-defined, having nothing crooked, nothing tangled: For all the ways of the Lord are straight. Consider, brothers, does the father sometimes, holding the royal presidency, receive those who are brought, and sometimes, with the son seated beforehand in royal form, give the due and, standing in the order of a servant, bring them to the son? May it not be so. For concerning God, it is not possible, when one says "seat," to conceive anything human, nor, when one hears "standing," is it possible to think of anything like our own. If you hear concerning God that he stands, understand the unwavering and upright nature of the divine essence; and if again you read or hear that he sits, take it as the steadfast and unshakable nature of the blessed nature. He himself says that he stands and sits. He says to Moses: Stand here with me. And the place where the God of Israel stood was like a sapphire stone. Pay close attention: Moses says he stands, and God, as if standing, says to Moses: Stand with me.

What then are we doing, when Jeremiah says, "You sit for eternity, and we perish for eternity"? "Sitting" and "standing" are human words, but divine concepts. Because of the unstable and hither-and-thither wandering human life, God is said to stand, and because of the unsteady and everywhere turning condition of our affairs, he is said to sit, on account of steadfastness. Flee from what the wording suggests and understand what is seen through faith. How then does the Son bring someone to the Father? How does the Father bring someone to the Son? For we must not leave the matter unexamined. The Father brings certain manifest and acknowledged persons to the Son; the Son in turn brings certain manifest and acknowledged persons to the Father. Do not, by anticipating, seize the word for slander, but wait for the end and judge what is said. Do not be a hostile judge, but a benevolent fellow combatant. In Israel, God the Father was known, but the Son was unknown. Among the Gentiles, both the Father and the Son were unknown. For the Gentiles were enslaved by polytheistic error. Where then the Father is known but the Son is not known, the Father becomes the interpreter of the unknown Son. I will take up the argument again, to fix the meaning: where the Father is known and the Son is doubted, the known one becomes the interpreter of the unknown one. Where the Father is unknown, the Son becomes the herald of the unknown one. Therefore, that you may obtain an accurate examination of what has been said, I provide the Gospel as your guarantor. The Savior says concerning the Gentiles: "I revealed your name to the world." Rather, because I revealed your name to the world that was ignorant. What name did he reveal? That he is God.

But knowledge had already taken the name beforehand. For even those who wander astray call him God, and those who are cut off from piety do not deny the appellation. What name, then, did he make known? That he is called Father. I revealed your name to the world. Do you see that where the Father is unknown, the Son becomes interpreter, clarifying the truth by the evangelical proclamation? But where the Father was thought to be known, and the Son not known, he himself becomes interpreter of the one who is unknown. For example, to show the truth by the facts themselves: Paul knew God, he did not know the Son. He knew God, but he did not know that God is Father of Christ, and he was a zealot for piety, fighting for the law. God looked upon his zeal, filled with ignorance, but full of desire. And what does he do? He makes known to the one who is ignorant the one who is unknown. Who clarifies these things for us? He himself who once was ignorant and later came to know; he himself who once persecuted and later proclaimed the gospel. For what does he say? And I was a zealot for the ancestral law, persecuting the church of God to an extreme. But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me through his grace, deigned to reveal his Son in me, and so on. For the testimony is to show what is sought, not the contemplation of the meaning. Again the Savior asks the apostles: What do men say I am, the Son of Man? He asks not in order to learn, but in order to banish suspicion and establish the truth. What do men say I am? The apostles first set forth the suspicions of the many.

For some say, they say, that he is Elijah, others that he is Jeremiah or one of the prophets. What then does the Savior do? He makes no answer to the false opinions, judging the false suspicions unworthy of a response. "But you, what do you say I am? I am not concerned with the many who have gone astray, but with you who proclaim. For you are the ones who are about to announce the lamp of truth, to carry the proclamation of piety throughout the whole world under heaven. In you human affairs are shaken; in you the things of truth are at risk. And just as your knowledge is a common benefit for humanity, so your ignorance is a common loss for the whole world. Therefore: 'What do you say I am?'" Then Peter answered and said: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." This is the definition of faith, this is the word of truth, this is the confession of right opinion. But since it was possible for this utterance also to be understood in other ways, he deemed the others unworthy of a response, but to this one he gives his verdict. And what does he say? Lest this word also be thought to come from human suspicion, sealing it and placing upon it the stamp of truth, he says: "Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah." Here recall that the Father reveals the unknown one to the one who knows him. "Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father in heaven." Do you see that to the whole world, which is ignorant of the Father, the Son becomes the interpreter of the unknown one? But to the synagogue and the Jews, who suppose they know God but do not recognize the Word of God, the Son of God, the Father himself becomes the interpreter of the one who is disputed.

Do not, then, set your extraordinary love for humanity as a provision for impiety; do not diminish the dignity because of the economy. Do not busy yourself with an immeasurable nature; do not investigate an incomprehensible essence. Let Isaiah persuade you not to search into such things, nor to describe such things in detail. Who will recount his generation? O the shameless audacity of those who easily think and dare to say everything, and the lawless one is not afraid as he investigates the nature of God and dares to speak the unspeakable and publicize the holy things. And rightly so. For since he is ignorant of the truth, he proclaims what is unknown, in order to conceal what is proclaimed. He did not hear the holy Scripture advising: "Consider those things which were commanded to you. For you have no need of hidden things." The blessed God, the sole master of wonders, wishing once to astonish Job, who shone from his endurance, with the account of creation, says to him: "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? When the sea was made? To be brief, when the mountains were formed? Did you observe the births of goat-stags? Tell me," he says, "the formation of the world, the travail of the beasts and the nourishment of the cattle, the condition of all things in the world, the variety." He said these things to him, however, while teaching him that even the things visible in creation itself are incomprehensible to men. Then the blessed one, astonished, says: "Lord, I have spoken once; I will not add a second time." Then the inquiry into visible things overcame Job. But has not the ineffable generation of the Only-begotten overcome your audacity? But since you proclaim what you do not know, I demand an account of what we all know.

Tell me, how was the earth established upon the waters? Tell me, how was Adam formed from earth? Tell me, how was manna supplied, how was the sea divided, and the rest of the wonders? To be brief, tell me, how did angels eat the calf set before them by Abraham? They had no stomach; there were no receptacles for food in the nature of angels. For He who makes His angels spirits and His ministers blazing fire. How was it consumed? Immediately the heretic says: And why do you seek the impossible? It was made to vanish by the power of the angels. And do you believe in the power of angels and not examine it, yet busy yourself with the generation of God? How did God make the heaven and the earth? He answers: As He knows, as He willed. Then, is the power of God not subjected to reasoning, but entrusted to faith, while divine generation is hemmed in by the necessities of reasoning? Have you not heard David saying: Everything the Lord willed, He did? Do you not busy yourself with the will, and yet pry into the nature? And what, brothers? The things God made by willing are visible; but the one He begot from His own essence is invisible. For the visible creations are an image of the invisible God. Now, does the invisible generation in the mind serve the thoughts? What He made by willing is not scrutinized. Do you pry into what He brought forth according to the divine and immaculate nature? O novel audacity! O strange undertaking! O honored will and insulted nature! Well did the blessed David say: Sons of men, how long will you be heavy-hearted? Why do you love vanity and seek falsehood? For everything alien to the teaching of Christ is both false and vain.

For if he speaks truly, saying, "I am the truth," then everything outside the teaching of Christ leads to falsehood. Lift your soul from questions that lie on the ground and from vain speculations to the height of theology, and abandon the poor investigation of thoughts. Take the treasure of truth. The kingdom of heaven is like a hidden treasure. Why is the Savior called a treasure? Pay close attention here. Just as a treasure is not constituted at the time it is found, but is old in its placement and new in its discovery, so too the saving word is old in its worth and the beginning of all things, since "In the beginning was the word," but the proclamation is new because of the economy of the flesh. So then, brother, take heed, that you may learn that like a treasure it shines forth for those who desire it, and those who find it run to it as to a discovered treasure. Andrew, proclaiming the discovery to Peter, says, "Him whom Moses wrote of in the law and the prophets, we have found—the Christ." For Moses and the prophets deposited the proclamation in the holy books as in treasuries. But just as those who store a hidden treasure themselves see what they lay down, but conceal it from sight so that it may not be easily plundered by strangers, so too the prophets, having proclaimed Christ, hid the treasure by the obscurity of their words. Why? For if they had spoken clearly, it would not have been prophecy, but proclamation, and the untimeliness of the expression would have anticipated the opportune moment of the proclamation. What then do they do? They both interpret and conceal. Who says this? Isaiah: "And this book will be like a sealed book.

If it is given to a man who knows letters, he will say, "I cannot read it, for it is sealed." And if it is given to one who does not know letters, he will say, "I cannot read it, for I have not learned letters." What then does this riddle mean? The prophecy concerning Christ, it says, was unknown both to Jews and to Greeks: to Jews, who knew letters, law, and prophets, because it was sealed. The Jews knew letters and were educated. For this reason God says to them, "Those carried from the womb and educated until old age." They were educated, but they did not know, because it was hidden by obscurity. To the Greeks it was unknown, not because of obscurity, but because they did not know letters at all. For this reason Paul says to Timothy, who was nurtured in the law, "From infancy you know the sacred letters, which are able to make you wise for salvation." So the prophecy was treasured up and concealed in the holy books. For one must not depart from what is hidden. Not only Isaiah shows the prophecies sealed, but also Daniel. For the angel says to him after revealing to him the revelation of future things, "And you, Daniel, seal this book of the vision, for its disclosure is far off." For this reason the blessed David, reading the law and reading the prophets in the person of the people—for the prophet himself did not lack knowledge—wishing to show that he receives some impression of Christ's economy, but cannot understand it because of the obscurity of the words, experienced something similar to those who see a sealed purse.

What then does he do, seeing the letters and not comprehending their meanings? He says: "Uncover my eyes, and I will contemplate the wonders from your law." And again the same one: "Blessed are you, Lord; teach me your ordinances." Have you not read from the law? Did not Moses instruct you in the Decalogue? But I wish to learn your things and those from you, the lawgiver; I wish to learn the truth of the law from the source of the law. Yet he sought to learn, but grace was being stored up for those who were about to receive the benefit. For this reason the Savior said to the disciples: "Many kings and righteous ones desired to see what you see and did not see, and to hear what you hear and did not hear; but blessed are your eyes, because you see." But we seek when the seal was entirely unsealed, when the bond of ignorance was loosed, when the closed things were opened. The hearer demands of me: "You have indicated to me the manner of the sealing, but do you not tell me the time of the unsealing of the sealed things? You have shown the gates closed; will you not point them out opened?" What then? Having pushed aside many things with one word, I will set forth the matter in question. What then? After the resurrection of the Savior, when the divine grace was unknown to many, some of the disciples, it is said, went out two by two to a village and, as friends on a journey, exchanged words with each other about the economy. The Savior, having changed his form and his utterance—for what a face is to those who see, that a voice is to those who do not see the face—conceals both his voice and his appearance and says to them, he who knows all things:

What are these words that you exchange with one another? He who learns everything from him who knows everything says to him: "Do you alone dwell in Jerusalem and not know what has happened in it?" He says: "What things?" This god who knows everything and asks is the son of that one who says to Cain: "Where is Abel, your brother?" They say: "The things concerning Jesus the Nazorean, who became a man powerful in word and deed." "Still a man?" After so many wonders, a man? After so many energies, after so great a demonstration of divine power? "But we," he says—lest the word examining everything become lengthy—"we were hoping that he is the one who redeems Israel." See how faith was almost extinguished in them and the hope of the economy was already destroyed. "We were expecting." He does not say "we expect," but "we were expecting." He knew then that their faith was weakening and their mind was inclining. And he who supports the fallen and straightens all who are broken arrived. And what does the benefactor say to them? "O foolish and slow of heart, do you not understand the scriptures? Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory?" And beginning from the law and the prophets, he opened the scriptures to them. Do you see that until Christ departed, the gate of truth was not opened, nor was the bond of ignorance loosed? He opened the scriptures like some closed doors. What doors? Those about which Paul says: "So that God might open a door for the Gentiles." And again concerning Cornelius: "Has God indeed opened a door of repentance for the Gentiles?" And see what the fountain of good things arranges.

For when he arrived at the village of Emmaus, just as the travelers had their course, still unrecognized by them, he appeared to the one who was in doubt. For as he reclined with them, at first being treated as a stranger with courtesy—"Stay with us," he says, "for the day has declined"—so that ignorance might not entirely conceal his worth, he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened and they recognized him. Why did he first give the bread and then their eyes were opened? Because the food of Adam opened eyes wrongly, now a food was introduced that works a strange restoration of sight. May the children of the heretics also regain their sight, and see the light of truth, see the God who is in the beginning, being God and existing as the Word of God; may they hear the "was" many times, and cease saying "was not." In the beginning was the Word. This was not proclaimed immediately. For the world could not contain it. There are indeed four evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; when they began their proclamation, they did not immediately speak what befits his dignity, but what suited the hearers. Matthew, beginning the Gospels, says: "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham." Why not son of God? Why do you conceal his dignity with a humble expression? Why do you hide the divine things from men? "Among Jews," he says, "I preach, to those who do not even believe that Christ is a righteous man. They have not yet accepted him as son of Abraham, and will they endure him being proclaimed son of God? And how could that be? For they did not even acknowledge him as of Abraham's lineage. Did you not hear how often they blasphemed him, saying:

Are you a Samaritan and do you have a demon?" Those who were casting him out of the race of the saints were grasping the divine dignity. What then does he say? "A book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham." First he leads them with the familiar names, those united by kinship, so that, having been caught by those, they might little by little find the truth, the impassible birth, the undefiled one, the one proclaimed by the God-befitting word and handed over to all. Again, the blessed Mark, lowering himself into the Gospel and taking courage from those previously trained, says "son of God," but immediately he contracted the word and truncated the meaning, in order to soften the hearer. He then immediately adds the matters concerning the Baptist, saying: "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; as it is written in the prophet Isaiah: 'Behold, I send my angel before your face, who will also prepare your way before you.'" He showed the lamp of truth and immediately hid it. And he first brings forward the servant, so that the hearer, having been surrounded by the voice, might then soundly receive the complete word of the knowledge of God. Luke follows third and proceeds in the middle with these, and he touches upon the divine word, but does not interpret and unfold it according to its dignity, but says: "Since many have attempted to compose a narrative about the things that have been fulfilled among us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things from the beginning, to write, just as those who were from the beginning eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed down to us." But he said "word," but he did not say that the word was also God. What then does he himself do?

Having touched upon his existence and realized that he was sounding into dead ears, he conceals his dignity and brings forth the economy. "There was a priest Zacharias," and the rest of the gospel. So all gave way to the economy of the flesh and somehow gently made known the dignity through the miracles. The majesty of the divine Word was proclaimed, but the arrows against the heretics were hidden, and the bulwark of right belief had not yet been raised by the proclamation of piety. John, then, the son of thunder, came last to theology after those three heralds, and fittingly one followed while the others anticipated, flashing small things for the time being. For just as lightning precedes thunder, so that it does not burst from the clouds all at once and strike the hearer, so, since John was about to thunder, the three evangelists, like flashes of lightning, flashed the economy, while he thunders theology—and thunder, brothers, comes with rain, thunder is a terror to the wicked. And as if using thunder as a trumpet, the sky summons the rain, but first it calls forth the shower with lightning—for God made lightning for rain—then with thunder it stirs the clouds. What then? Since so many flashes of the word have preceded, the rest follows, as I said earlier, the thunder of theology, striking many with the excess of theology, but bringing the showers of blessing. And for us it becomes thunder of theology, while for the heretics it is thunder driving away the evil beasts with the excess of its loud voice.

From rebuke they will flee, from the sound of your mortal voice they will cower. Let us then run back to the God who is in the beginning; let us run back to the eternal light; let us run back to the Word who became man for your sake. When I say "became," I do not mean a change of nature, but the divine dignity taking up our things. For "the Word became flesh" does not indicate a change of nature, but the assumption of our weakness. If you think that "became" implies a change, when you hear Paul saying, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us," you would understand the word "curse" as a nature and a transformation of curse. Just as "having become a curse" signifies nothing other than that he took upon himself the curse against us, so also "the Word became flesh" and dwelt among us presents nothing other than the assumption of flesh. You have an image within yourself. Your own word will instruct you concerning the Word of God, not bearing complete likeness, but as a trace and reflection of the divine dignity the word. Here pay close attention to my thought, so that the words may not be spoken in vain and the divine meanings be obscured. The word of humans—the image is faint, not presenting the whole dignity, but teaching from our things the things above us—our word is incorporeal, invisible, intangible, delivered only to hearing. No one knows the word by sight; no one has grasped it with the hand, but it is invisible, intangible, held by one sense, that of hearing, and this invisibly.

For hearing does not hold by stretching out hands, but the word itself, having entered, is grasped. The word itself is an offspring of the mind; it is generated, however, not by passion, not by sight, not by division; it is not divided from the mind that generated it, not separated, not cut off. Lend me your hearing here, heretic; first understand your own things, and then imagine those beyond you. The mind generates, the word proceeds, it proceeds from that which generated it, and fills all who hear, and does not depart from that which generated it. A word proceeds, being divided among all and nowhere split. For each person receives the entire word, and it is in each one; and though divided among so many, it is poured in whole. Our word, then, shows in itself the mind that generated it. For the thought is apprehended from the word. And consider this as well. With this word of ours, prefiguring the economy of the divine Word, a certain marvelous image has been taken up beforehand, adorned with earthly flowers, yet fitting for the precontemplation of the Word. What then? Our word, being invisible and having no body and unable to be grasped, God, by some other wisdom, has reshaped and made visible and graspable. For what does he do? Since it was not seen by sight, he clothes it with a body, the letter, and like some flesh he has put around it the appearance of letters. And what once you heard but did not see, you now see when reading; what you could not encounter, you carry through the book. But the word is embodied through the letter, yet is not confined by the letter, but is present with the speaker and with the reader.

If someone, brothers, takes a book and tears it, he has torn the body of the word, but he has not cut the word. And so that you may learn that the word is not consumed together with the letter, God says to Jeremiah: Sit down, write all the words on a book, and give it to King Jehoiakim. Now the word was full of reproach. Since, then, the powerful do not bear reproaches—for rank does not easily submit to what is just, but dulls the truth—stung by the reproaches, he tears the book and, cutting it with the scribe's knife, he took it, it says, to the hearth of the fire. What then does God say to Jeremiah? Sit down, write the same words and give them to the king, so that he may learn that he cut the letter but did not cut the word. Do you see the image? Now raise your mind to the height. The Word of God himself, the only-begotten, puts on a body, so that the one who is not seen may appear. He puts on flesh, so that the one who is not grasped may be grasped. For this reason John, finding that desirable thing, at one time grasped by hearing, later held by sight, says: That which was from the beginning, which we have seen and heard, and our hands have touched. So he wore the flesh as a garment of dignity, a seemly garment; for the Lord reigned, he put on seemliness. The Jews fight against what is seen, ignorant of what is not seen, and they crucify the flesh but do not destroy the divinity. For if my word is not annihilated together with the letter, which is the garment of the word, did the Word of God, the source of life, die together with the flesh? The passion concerns the body, but the impassibility concerns the dignity. Why then does Paul say:

For if they had known, would they not have crucified the Lord of glory? Because the one who put on the flesh appropriates the suffering of the flesh. If you insult a royal garment, do you not insult the one who is clothed? Do you not know that if someone insults an image of the king, he brings the insult to the original of the dignity? Do you not know that if someone defaces an image made of wood or a bronze statue, he is not judged as having dared against inanimate matter, but is destroyed as one who has stretched out his hands against the king? Inanimate matter bearing the image of the king refers its own insult to the king. But a living form, which the Word of God put on, when insulted, did it not refer the insult to the one who put it on? Understand then the dignity and do not insult the economy. But these things are sufficient. And the things lacking for the contemplation of the Word of God, having stored them away for another discourse, let us honor the symmetry of order and send up glory to God, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.