Sententia Ad Hebraeos

To the Hebrews. I. You are my son, I have begotten you today. II. You have diminished him a little less than the angels. III. For where there is a testament, the death of the testator must intervene. IV. Abraham offered Isaac in faith, when he was being tested. V. They were stoned, they were cut. (From the book on the Divinity of Christ.) You are my son, I have begotten you today (Ps. ). Here today is eternity, etc., as in the letter (col. 246, a) up to the name of his son, if you know. II. (From the books against the Arians.) You have diminished him a little less than the angels (Ps. VIII, G). Which the Apostle expounds as said about Christ, since in the nature of his divinity he is greater than the angels, which no one doubts. Concerning which the Apostle says, writing to Titus, that renouncing impiety and worldly desires, we may live prudently, justly, and piously in this age, awaiting the blessed hope and the advent of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us (Tit. II, 12). Concerning which our Scripture says in another place: Who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty (Apoc. xi, 17). If he is almighty, whence is he lesser? For that "almighty" also says, after his resurrection according to Matthew, All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth (Matt. XVIII, 28). But if anyone thinks the receiver is lesser than the giver, let him read also that it is said by the Apostle about Christ: When he has delivered the kingdom to God the Father (II Cor.

XV, 24); since a father cannot exist without the kingdom which the son is said to be about to hand over to him, just as the son cannot exist without all the power which he says was given to him in heaven and on earth. Concerning this, St. Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, forbidding us to believe according to human tradition, according to the elements of this world, and not according to Christ, says: "For in him dwells all the fullness of divinity bodily" (Colossians 2:9). III. (From a sermon on the birthday of the chalice.) Our Redeemer, about to fulfill the sacrament of the flesh he had assumed, as an eternal and most loving father, opening to the sons created and redeemed by him the hope of granted adoption, and assigning to us a celestial substance before the day of his death, made a testament by which he instituted us as heirs of what he was bestowing, by human comparison indeed, but not from human necessity, not about to lose what he was assigning to his sons, but rather about to have sons together with the inheritance he had written. This testament we call the New Testament. In it, all others are disinherited, and the Christian people alone are instituted as heir. But this inheritance is not divided according to earthly custom, nor is it weakened by being dispersed among many through a corruptible distribution. It receives all, it invites all; nor is anything taken away from the portion of those who hold it when it is assigned to others who are born. Let the desire of sons eager to be reborn grow and multiply as much as it will, the inheritance keeps itself undefiled for all.

But this new testament, with the old one completed, proceeds in its proper order and is celebrated with the mysteries of full validity. That our ineffable redeemer himself, having summoned his disciples as very suitable witnesses, wrote it down when betrayed, sealed it when he suffered, and opened it when he rose again. And because everything was duly accomplished, the apostle Paul rightly says: "No one makes a man's confirmed testament void, or supersedes it" (Gal. 3:15), that is, changes it. Let us now faithfully recognize the sum of the inheritance obtained. That is, namely, what he consecrated as the order of the eternal banquet while the apostles were dining. And so we see that he diminished nothing for us from the fullness of substance, who, what he assumed for us, he left entirely to us. Others give their own things to their heirs; he gives himself, that is, the flesh or blood of his body. IV. (From a sermon on Easter Day.) Therefore, bear all that you receive. What I placed on the table, I sent into the world: the cup which you rejoice to have tasted belongs to all. He employed few witnesses for the new and eternal testament, but many heirs. Yet no condition of lot admits an outsider. Heavenly knowledge receives each certain one: the people are indeed adoption, but the only one.

(From a sermon on King Hezekiah.) That once-greatest father of the patriarchs (Gen. 22), who, ordered to offer up his son for sacrifice, boldly presumed, neither that a man could resist the majesty, nor that a command of parricide was fitting for piety. And yet, though ignorant of the outcome of the mystery, he placed his son upon the altar as if about to slaughter him, holding one thing most certain: if God had held an irrevocable sentence pleasing this offering, what obedience had committed would have been not homicide, but sacrifice. VI. (From a sermon on Rogation Days.) These prophets instruct us more, and console our weakness, as it were, under the words of their own impatience. Moreover, their patience is attested by manifold virtues in weakness. So that we may bring forth even a very few, on account of this one who grieves that the just man is devoured by the impious, for the sake of example: a more glorious freedom in captivity proves this of Jeremiah, nor was the license of his speech bound by the bond of his body. Isaiah proves it, whom, for his proclamation of truth, with a spreading saw of blunted teeth and acute pains, a raging civic fury twisted, as much as it tormented him mortally to the point of punishment, so much it killed him vitally to the point of glory. And when the victor, having died, grieved that the conquered survived, through his lacerated flesh the mind could not be torn, so that, when he counted many parts of the limbs which the saw had separated, he could find no more than one faith.

(From an old codex.) From the various sayings of the Catholic Fathers. These Florus of Lyons collected into one.