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Leo the Great — commentary on Scripture

📅 September 1, 2026

1 John 1:8 — SERMONS 41.1

It is pride to presume that it is easy not to sin, since the presumption itself is sin.

1 John 2:6 — SERMONS 90.2

In Him therefore we find our Model of patience, in Whom we have our Hope of life eternal; for "if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him," since, as the Apostle says, "he that saith he abideth in Christ ought himself also to walk as He walked." Otherwise we make a vain presence and show, if we follow not His steps, Whose name we glory in, and assuredly they would not be irksome to us, but would free us from all dangers, if we loved nothing but what He commanded us to love.

1 John 4:18 — SERMONS 76.5

The apostles had to ensure that no other truth would creep in and that no other doctrine would be taught. To do this, it was necessary to increase the capacity of those who were being taught and to multiply the constancy of that love which drives out all fear, not dreading the rage of persecutors.

1 John 5:8 — LETTERS 28

"This is He that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ: not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that testifieth, because the Spirit is the truth, because there are three that bear witness, the Spirit, the water and the blood, and the three are one." The Spirit, that is, of sanctification, and the blood of redemption, and the water of baptism: because the three are one, and remain undivided, and none of them is separated from this connection; because the catholic Church lives and progresses by this faith, so that in Christ Jesus neither the manhood without the true Godhead nor the Godhead without the true manhood is believed in.

1 Peter 2:9 — SERMONS 4

All who have been born again in Christ are made kings by the sign of the cross and consecrated priests by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

1 Peter 3:22 — SERMONS 69.4

While the strength of the angelic legions that waited on Christ was held in check, he drank the cup of sorrow and death, thereby transforming the entire affliction into triumph. Deceptions were overcome, and the powers of evil were suppressed.

1 Peter 4:8 — SERMON 74.5

Against his plots every believer must keep careful watch that he may crush his foe on the side whence the attack is made. And there is no more powerful weapon, dearly-beloved, against the devil's wiles than kindly mercy and bounteous charity, by which every sin is either escaped or vanquished. But this lofty power is not attained until that which is opposed to it be overthrown. And what so hostile to mercy and works of charity as avarice, from the root of which spring all evils? ... Let us then, dearly-beloved, resist this pestilential evil and "follow after charity," without which no virtue can flourish, that by this path of love whereby Christ came down to us, we too may mount up to Him.

1 Samuel 7:6 — SERMON 39 (RECENSION A) 1.2

At one time the Hebrew people and all the Israelite tribes, because of the offensiveness of their sins, were held under the heavy domination of the Philistines. In order to be able to overcome their enemies, as the sacred history shows, they restored strength of soul and body with a self-imposed fast. They had judged rightly that they deserved that hard and wretched subjection because of neglect of God's commandments and the corruption of their lives, and that in vain did they fight with weapons unless they had first made war on their sins. By abstaining, therefore, from food and drink they imposed the penalty of severe punishment on themselves, and to conquer their enemies, they first conquered the enticement of gluttony in themselves. In this way it happened that the fierce adversaries and harsh masters yielded to those who were fasting whom they had overcome when they had been full. We too, dearly beloved, situated as we are among many struggles and battles, if we wish to overcome our enemies in the same way, we may be healed by the same practice. Indeed, our situation is the same as theirs, seeing that they were attacked by bodily adversaries, we by spiritual enemies. If our spiritual enemies may be overcome by the correction of our lives bestowed on us through the grace of God, even the force of our bodily enemies will also give way to us. They will be weakened by our correction, since not their merits but our own sins made them onerous to us. Therefore, dearly beloved, in order that we may be able to overcome our enemies, let us seek divine help by observing the commands of heaven, knowing that in no other way can we prevail over our foes except by prevailing over ourselves as well.

1 Thessalonians 2:19 — SERMON 1.2

I entreat you, therefore, by the mercies of the Lord, aid with your prayers him whom you have sought out by your solicitations, that both the Spirit of grace may abide in me and that your judgment may not change. May He who inspired you with such unanimity of purpose, vouchsafe to us all in common the blessing of peace: so that all the days of my life being ready for the service of Almighty God, and for my duties towards you, I may with confidence entreat the Lord: "Holy Father, keep in Thy name those whom Thou hast given me:" and while you ever go on unto salvation, may "my soul magnify the Lord," and in the retribution of the judgment to come may the account of my priesthood so be rendered to the just Judge, that through your good deeds you may be my joy and my crown, who by your good will have given an earnest testimony to me in this present life.

1 Thessalonians 5:6 — SERMONS 32.1

Wherefore, let us honor this sacred day, the day on which the author of our salvation appeared. Whom the wise men revered as an infant in his crib, let us worship as all-powerful in heaven. Just as they offered to the Lord mystical kinds of gifts from their treasures, let us bring forth from our hearts things that are worthy of God. Although he himself bestows all good things, he nevertheless asks for the fruit of our effort. For the kingdom of heaven comes not to those who sleep but to those who work and watch according to the Lord's command. If we do not render his gifts ineffective, we may deserve to receive what he promised through the very things which he has given.

1 Timothy 1:15 — SERMON 67.2-3

That which was fore-known in respect of the Jews' malice is far different, indeed quite contrary to what was ordained in respect of Christ's Passion. Their desire to slay Him did not proceed from the same source as His to die: nor were their atrocious crime and the Redeemer's endurance the offspring of One Spirit. The Lord did not incite but permit those madmen's naughty hands: nor in His foreknowledge of what must be accomplished did He compel its accomplishment, even though it was in order to its accomplishment that He had taken flesh. In fact, the case of the Crucified is so different from that of His crucifiers that what Christ undertook could not be reversed, while what they did could be wiped out. For He Who came to save sinners did not refuse mercy even to His murderers, but changed the evil of the wicked into the goodness of the believing.

1 Timothy 3:7 — LETTERS 10.4

At least the wishes of the citizens should have been waited for, and the testimony of the people: the opinion of those held in honour should have been asked, and the choice of the clergy—things which those who know the rules of the fathers are wont to observe in the ordination of priests: that the rule of the Apostle's authority might in all things be kept, which enjoins that one who is to be the priest of a church should be fortified, not only by the attestation of the faithful but also by the testimony of "those who are without," and that no occasion for offence be left, when, in peace and in God-pleasing harmony with the full approval of all, one who will be a teacher of peace is ordained.

1 Timothy 3:16 — SERMON 23.4

And so it was no new counsel, no tardy pity whereby God took thought for men: but from the constitution of the world He ordained one and the same Cause of Salvation for all. For the grace of God, by which the whole body of the saints is ever justified, was augmented, not begun, when Christ was born: and this mystery of God's great love, wherewith the whole world is now filled, was so effectively presignified that those who believed that promise obtained no less than they, who were the actual recipients.

1 Timothy 4:4-5 — SERMONS 81.1

The first cause of sin crept in from the enjoyment of food. What more salutary gift of God does our redeemed liberty use than that the will, which once did not know how to restrain itself from forbidden things, now knows how to restrain itself from lawful things? "Every creature of God is good, and nothing ought to be rejected, which is received with the giving of thanks." We were not created to seek out all the riches of the world with a foul and shameless greed. We can restrain voluntarily from what is lawful.

1 Timothy 5:1 — LETTERS 14.1

Because, although as a rule there exist among careless or slothful brethren things which demand a strong hand in rectifying them; yet the correction ought to be so applied as ever to keep love inviolate. Wherefore also it is that the blessed Apostle Paul, in instructing Timothy upon the ruling of the Church, says: "An elder rebuke not, but intreat him as a father: the young men as brethren: old women as mothers: young women as sisters in all purity." And if this moderation is due by the Apostle's precept to all and any of the lower members, how much more is it to be paid without offence to our brethren and fellow-bishops? in order that although things sometimes happen which have to be reprimanded in the persons of priests, yet kindness may have more effect on those who are to be corrected than severity: exhortation than perturbation: love than power.

1 Timothy 5:22 — LETTERS 12.2

For the peace and order of the Lord's whole household will be shaken, if what is required in the body be not found in the head. Where is that precept of the blessed Apostle Paul uttered through the Spirit of God, whereby in the person of Timothy the whole number of Christ's priests are instructed, and to each one of us is said: "Lay hands hastily on no one, and do not share in other men's sins?" What is to lay on hands hastily but to confer the priestly dignity on unproved men before the proper age, before there has been time to test them, before they have deserved it by their obedience, before they have been tried by discipline? And what is to share in other men's sins but for the ordainer to become such as is he who ought not to have been ordained by him?

1 Timothy 6:18 — SERMONS 9.2

Let those who wish Christ to spare them, have mercy on the poor; let them give freely to feed the wretched, who desire to attain to the society of the blessed. Let no man consider his fellow vile, nor despise in any one that nature which the Creator of the world made His own. For who that labours can deny that Christ claims that labour as done unto Himself? Your fellow-slave is helped thereby, but it is the Lord who will repay. The feeding of the needy is the purchase money of the heavenly kingdom and the free dispenser of things temporal is made the heir of things eternal.

1 Timothy 6:20 — SERMONS 85.3

What is meant by "the deposit"? That which is committed to you, not that which is invented by you. That which you have received, not that which you have devised. A thing not of wit but of learning; not of private assumption but of public tradition; a thing brought to you, not brought forth by you; wherein you must not be an author but a keeper; not a leader but a follower. Keep the deposit.

2 Peter 1:4 — SERMONS 21.3

Christian, acknowledge thy dignity, and becoming a partner in the Divine nature, refuse to return to the old baseness by degenerate conduct. Remember the Head and the Body of which thou art a member. Recollect that thou wert rescued from the power of darkness and brought out into God's light and kingdom. By the mystery of Baptism thou wast made the temple of the Holy Ghost: do not put such a denizen to flight from thee by base acts, and subject thyself once more to the devil's thraldom: because thy purchase money is the blood of Christ, because He shall judge thee in truth Who ransomed thee in mercy.

2 Peter 2:20 — SERMONS 27.3

But in this mercifulness of God, dearly beloved, the greatness of which towards us we cannot explain, Christians must be extremely careful lest they be caught again in the devil's wiles and once more entangled in the errors which they have renounced. For the old enemy does not cease to "transform himself into an angel of light," and spread everywhere the snares of his deceptions, and make every effort to corrupt the faith of believers. He knows whom to ply with the zest of greed, whom to assail with the allurements of the belly, before whom to set the attractions of self-indulgence, in whom to instil the poison of jealousy: he knows whom to overwhelm with grief, whom to cheat with joy, whom to surprise with fear, whom to bewilder with wonderment.

2 Thessalonians 3:2 — Letter 129 To Proterius, Bishop of Alexandria

But because "all men have not faith" and the crafty Tempter never delights so much in wounding the hearts of men as when he can poison their unwary minds with errors that are opposed to Gospel Truth, we must strive by the mighty teaching of the Holy Ghost to prevent Christian knowledge from being perverted by the devil's falsehoods. And against this danger it behoves the rulers of the churches especially to guard and to avert from the minds of simple folk lies which are coloured by a certain show of truth. 2 Timothy 2:4 — Letter 4 To the Bishops Appointed in Campania, Picenum, Etruria, and All the Provinces For he who is to be enrolled on the divine service ought to be exempt from others, that he be not drawn away from the Lord's camp in which his name is entered, by any other bonds of duty.

2 Timothy 2:12 — SERMONS 90.2

2 Timothy 2:17 — SERMONS 16.3

And as for the deception of primitive man he used the services of a serpent, so to mislead the minds of the upright he has armed these men's tongues with the poison of his falsehoods. But these treacherous designs, dearly beloved, with a shepherd's care, and so far as the Lord vouchsafes His aid, we will defeat. And taking heed lest any of the holy flock should perish, we admonish you with fatherly warnings to keep aloof from the "lying lips" and the "deceitful tongue" from which the prophet asks that his soul should be delivered; because "their words," as says the blessed Apostle, "do creep as doth a gangrene." They creep in humbly, they arrest softly, they bind gently, they slay secretly. 2 Timothy 3:12 — Letter 167 To Rusticus, Bishop of Gallia Narbonensis, with the Replies to His Questions on Various Points But I am surprised, beloved, that you are so disturbed by opposition in consequence of offences, from whatever cause arising, as to say you would rather be relieved of the labours of your bishopric, and live in quietness and ease than continue in the office committed to you. But since the Lord says, "blessed is he who shall persevere unto the end," whence shall come this blessed perseverance, except from the strength of patience? For as the Apostle proclaims, "All who would live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution." And it is not only to be reckoned persecution, when sword or fire or other active means are used against the Christian religion; for the direst persecution is often inflicted by nonconformity of practice and persistent disobedience and the barbs of ill-natured tongues.

Acts 2:1 — SERMON 75

To the Hebrew people, now freed from Egypt, the law was given on Mount Sinai fifty days after the immolation of the paschal lamb. Similarly, after the passion of Christ in which the true Lamb of God was killed, just fifty days after his resurrection, the Holy Spirit fell upon the apostles and the whole group of believers. Thus the earnest Christian may easily perceive that the beginnings of the Old Covenant were at the service of the beginnings of the gospel and that the same Spirit who instituted the first established the Second Covenant.

Acts 2:4 — SERMON 75.2

O how swift is the speech of wisdom! Where God is the teacher, how quickly is that learned which is being taught! No interpretation is used in order to understand, no practice is needed in order to use it. No time is needed to study, but, with the "Spirit" of truth "blowing wherever he pleases," the particular voices of each distinct people become familiar in the mouth of the church.From this day the trumpet of the gospel teaching resounds. From this day showers of graces and streams of benedictions water all the desert and every wasteland, to "renew the face of the earth," "God's Spirit hovered over the water." To take away the old darkness, beams of new light flash out, when by the splendor of those glowing tongues, the Word of the Lord becomes "clear" and "speech takes fire." Both the force of giving light and the power of burning were present for this reason, to create knowledge and to destroy sin. Acts 3:6 — Sermon XCV. A Homily on the Beatitudes, St. Matt. V. 1-9. Hence the blessed Apostle Peter, when he was going up into the temple, and was asked for alms by the lame man, said, "Silver and gold is not mine, but what I have that I give thee: in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk." What more sublime than this humility? what richer than this poverty? He hath not stores of money, but he hath gifts of nature. He whom his mother had brought forth lame from the womb, is made whole by Peter with a word; and he who gave not Caesar's image in a coin, restored Christ's image on the man. And by the riches of this treasure not he only was aided whose power of walking was restored, but 5,000 men also, who then believed at the Apostle's exhortation on account of the wonder of this cure. And that poor man who had not what to give to the asker, bestowed so great a bounty of Divine Grace, that, as he had set one man straight on his feet, so he healed these many thousands of believers in their hearts, and made them "leap as an hart" in Christ whom he had found limping in Jewish unbelief.

Acts 3:7 — Unknown work

The one whom he encouraged by word he strengthed by his right hand, because the discourse of a teacher is less efficacious in the hearts of his hearers if it is not also recommended by the example of his own action.

Acts 3:14 — Unknown work

And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas to them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.

Acts 3:23 — Unknown work

Peter teaches briefly but clearly by the testimony of the prophets and the law that the Lord is to be listened to by the nations, and that he will surely condemn the unbelieving, but he will grant an eternal blessing to the faithful.

Acts 3:24 — Unknown work

Although the patriarchs and saints of earlier times prophesied many things about Christ by their words and deeds, who wrote properly speaking the time of the prophets had its beginning from Samuel, under whom the period of the kings began in Israel, and i lasted up to the deliverance from the Babylonian captivity.

Acts 4:28 — Sermon LXVII. (on the Passion, XVI.: Delivered on the Sunday.)

Did then the wickedness of Christ's persecutors spring from God's plan, and was that unsurpassable crime prefaced and set in motion by the hand of God? Clearly we must not think this of the highest Justice: that which was fore-known in respect of the Jews' malice is far different, indeed quite contrary to what was ordained in respect of Christ's Passion. Their desire to slay Him did not proceed from the same source as His to die: nor were their atrocious crime and the Redeemer's endurance the offspring of One Spirit. The Lord did not incite but permit those madmen's naughty hands: nor in His foreknowledge of what must be accomplished did He compel its accomplishment, even though it was in order to its accomplishment that He had taken flesh. Acts 4:32 — Sermon XCV. A Homily on the Beatitudes, St. Matt. V. 1-9. Of this high-souled humility the Apostles first, after the Lord, have given us example, who, leaving all that they had without difference at the voice of the heavenly Master, were turned by a ready change from the catching of fish to be fishers of men, and made many like themselves through the imitation of their faith, when with those first-begotten sons of the Church, "the heart of all was one, and the spirit one, of those that believed": for they, putting away the whole of their things and possessions, enriched themselves with eternal goods, through the most devoted poverty, and in accordance with the Apostles' preaching rejoiced to have nothing of the world and possess all things with Christ.

Colossians 1:13 — Unknown work

"Snatched from the powers of darkness" at such a great "price," and by so great a "mystery," and loosed from the chains of the ancient captivity, make sure, dearly beloved, that the devil does not destroy the integrity of your souls with any stratagem. Whatever is forced on you contrary to the Christian faith, whatever is presented to you contrary to the commandments of God, it comes from the deceptions of the one who tries with many wiles to divert you from eternal life, and, by seizing certain occasions of human weakness, leads careless and negligent souls again into his snares of death. Let all those reborn through water and the Holy Spirit consider the one whom they have renounced. -. Colossians 1:15 — Sermon XXVI. On the Feast of the Nativity, VI. They then who "are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God," must offer to the Father the unanimity of peace-loving sons, and all the members of adoption must meet in the First-begotten of the new creation, Who came to do not His own Will but His that sent Him; inasmuch as the Father in His gracious favour has adopted as His heirs not those that are discordant nor those that are unlike Him, but those that are in feeling and affection one. They that are re-modelled after one pattern must have a spirit like the model. The birthday of the Lord is the birthday of peace: for thus says the Apostle, "He is our peace, who made both one;" since whether we be Jew or Gentile, "through Him we have access in one Spirit to the Father."

Colossians 2:9 — Unknown work

Embracing then, dearly beloved, the sole pledge of the Christian hope, let us not be torn from our faithful bonding to the body of Christ, in whom, as the apostle says, "dwells the fullness of divinity in bodily manner, and you have been filled out in him." Since the substance of God is incorporeal, how does it dwell in bodily manner in Christ unless the flesh of our race has been made the flesh of the divinity? We filled out in that God in whom we have been crucified, in whom we have been buried, in whom we have been even raised up.

Colossians 2:15 — Sermon LIX. (on the Passion, VIII.: on Wednesday in Holy Week.)

And so the Lord was handed over to their savage wishes, and in mockery of His kingly state, ordered to be the bearer of His own instrument of death, that what Isaiah the prophet foresaw might be fulfilled, saying, "Behold a Child is born, and a Son is given to us whose government is upon His shoulders." When, therefore, the Lord carried the wood of the cross which should turn for Him into the sceptre of power, it was indeed in the eyes of the wicked a mighty mockery, but to the faithful a mighty mystery was set forth, seeing that He, the glorious vanquisher of the Devil, and the strong defeater of the powers that were against Him, was carrying in noble sort the trophy of His triumph, and on the shoulders of His unconquered patience bore into all realms the adorable sign of salvation: as if even then to confirm all His followers by this mere symbol of His work, and say, "He that taketh not his cross and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me."

Ephesians 4:8-9 — Letter 15, Section 18

Furthermore in the matter which you placed last in your confidential letter, I am surprised that any intelligent Christian should be in difficulty as to whether when Christ descended to the realms below, his flesh rested in the tomb: for as it truly died and was buried, so it was truly raised the third day.

Exodus 29:14 — SERMON 59.5

Indeed consequently, "Christ our Passover has been sacrificed," as the apostle says. Offering himself to the Father as a new and real sacrifice of reconciliation, he was crucified—not in the temple whose due worship is now completed, nor within the enclosure of the city which was to be destroyed because of its crime, but "outside and beyond the camp." That way, as the mystery of the ancient sacrifices was ceasing, a new victim would be put on a new altar, and the cross of Christ would be the altar not of the temple but of the world.

Ezekiel 3:17 — LETTER 4

Just as the well-being of the churches causes us gratification, so we are deeply saddened whenever we learn of any liberties taken with, or acts committed against, canon law and ecclesiastical discipline. We cannot excuse ourselves to him who wished us to be on the watch if we do not repress such practices with the vigilance we should. We cannot excuse ourselves if we permit the unsullied body of the church (which we are bound to keep clean from all dirt) to be defiled by contact with those who pursue evil ends. For the very union of the members gets inharmonious elements in it through carelessness.

Ezekiel 33:11 — SERMON 22:1, 2

As a result, dearly beloved, it was necessary (by the designs of a secret plan) for the unchangeable God (whose will cannot be separated from his goodness) to complete by a deeper mystery the first intentions of his love. It was necessary that human beings, tricked into sin by the devil's wickedness, should not perish in opposition to God's plan.

Galatians 4:4 — LETTER 28, TO FLAVIAN 4

He is God in that "all things were made through him and nothing was made without him." He is human in that he was "made from a woman, made under the law." The nativity of his flesh shows his human nature. The virgin birth is an indicator of his divine nature.

Habakkuk 2:4 — SERMON 10:4

And hence Tobias also, while instructing his son in the precepts of godliness, says, "Give alms of your substance, and turn not your face from any poor man. So shall it come to pass that the face of God shall not be turned from you." This virtue makes all virtues profitable, for by its precepts it gives life to that very faith by which "the just lives" and which is said to be "dead without works." As the reason for works consists in faith, so the strength of faith consists in works.

Hebrews 4:15 — SERMON 63

What has been instilled in our hearts, if not that we should be "renewed" through them all "after the image" of that one who, remaining "in the form of God," condescended to become "the form of sinful flesh"? He assumed all those weaknesses of ours that come as a result of sin, though "without" any part in "sin." Consequently, he lacked none of the afflictions due to hunger and thirst, sleep and weariness, sadness and tears. He endured grievous sorrows even to the point of death. No one could be released from the fetters of mortality unless he, in whom alone the nature of all people was innocent, should allow himself to be killed by the hands of wicked persons.Our Savior, the Son of God, gave both a mystery and an example to all who believe in him, so that they might attain to the one by being reborn and arrive at the other by imitation. Blessed Peter the apostle teaches this, saying, "Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness."

Hebrews 4:15 — SERMON 77

By the saving cooperation of the indivisible divinity, whatever the Father, whatever the Son, whatever the Holy Spirit accomplishes in a particular way is the plan of our redemption. It is the order of our salvation. For if human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, had remained in the honor of their own nature and, undeceived by the devil's lies, had not deviated from the law placed over them for their lusts, the Creator of the world would not have become a creature. The eternal would not have undergone temporality, and God the Son, equal to God the Father, would not have assumed the "form of a servant" and the "likeness of sinful flesh."19Since, however, "through the devil's envy death entered the world" and because captive humanity could only be freed in one way, namely, if that one would undertake our cause who, without the loss of his majesty, would become true man, and who alone had no contagion of sin, the mercy of the Trinity divided for itself the work of our restoration so that the Father was appeased, the Son was the appeaser, and the Holy Spirit enkindled the process. It was right that those to be saved should do something for themselves, and, when their hearts were turned to the Redeemer, that they should cut themselves off from the domination of the enemy. In regard to this, the apostle says, "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, 'Abba! Father!' " "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit."

Hebrews 5:9 — SERMON 23.3-4

Our origin, corrupted right after its start, needed to be reborn with new beginnings. A victim had to be offered for reconciliation, a victim that was at one and the same time both related to our race and foreign to our defilement. In this way alone could the plan of God—wherein it pleased him that the sin of the world should be wiped away through the birth and passion of Jesus Christ—in this way alone could the plan of God be of any avail for the times of every generation. Nor would the mysteries—as they pass through various developments in time—disturb us. Instead, they would reassure us, since the faith by which we live would not have differed at any stage.Let them stop complaining, those who speak up against the divine arrangements with a disloyal murmuring and object to the lateness of our Lord's nativity—as if that which was done in the last age of the world was not applied to previous eras as well. For the incarnation of the Word accomplished by being about to take place the very same thing that it did by having taken place—as the mystery of human salvation never ceased to be active in any earlier age. What the apostles preached, the prophets had also announced. Nor was it too late in being fulfilled, since it has always been believed. But the wisdom and "kindness of God"—by this delay in his salvific work—has made us better disposed to accept his calling. That way, what had been foretold through so many ages by numerous signs, numerous words and numerous mysteries would not be open to doubt in these days of the gospel. That way, the birth of the Savior—which was to exceed all wonders and the whole measure of human intelligence—would engender in us a faith all the more steadfast, the more often and the earlier it had been proclaimed beforehand. No, indeed, it is not that God has just recently come up with a plan for attending to human affairs, nor that it has taken him this long to show compassion. Rather, he laid down from the very "foundation of the world" one and the same "cause of salvation" for all. For the grace of God—by which the entire assembly of saints has always been justified—was not initiated at the time when Christ was born, but augmented. This "mystery of great compassion," with which the whole world has now been filled, was so powerful even in its prefigurations that those who believed it when promised attained to it no less than those who received it when actually given.

Hebrews 7:1 — SERMON 5.3

We therefore confess, dearly beloved, not rashly but with faith, that the Lord Jesus Christ is present in the midst of believers. Although he "sits at the right hand" of God the Father "until he makes of his enemies a footstool," the high priest has not left the assembly of his priests.Fittingly does this chant rise up to him from the mouth of the whole church and from that of all priests, "The Lord has sworn, and he will not change his mind, 'You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.' " He himself is the true and eternal bishop whose ministry can neither change nor end. He is the one prefigured by the high priest Melchizedek. Attached to oaths among human beings are certain conditions that have been made irrevocable by permanent guarantees. Surety for the divine oath can therefore be found in promises that have been fixed by immutable decrees. Since regret implies a change of will, God does not regret what, according to his eternal good pleasure, he cannot want to be otherwise than how he has wanted it.

Hebrews 7:11-12 — SERMON 3.1

When I compare the impoverishment of my insufficiency with the greatness of the gift I have received, I too should cry out in those words of the prophet, "Lord, I have heard your word and was afraid; I have considered your works and trembled." What indeed could instill as much anxiety and fear as labor for the frail, elevation for the lowly, dignity for the undeserving? Yet we do not despair or give up, since we do not depend on ourselves but on the one "who works in us." … So we have chanted with one voice the psalm of David, dearly beloved, not for our own exaltation but for the glory of Christ the Lord.He it is of whom it was said in prophetic manner, "You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek," that is to say, "not according to the order of Aaron," whose priesthood passed down through the descent of his offspring and was a temporary ministry that ceased with the law of the Old Testament, but "after the order of Melchizedek," in whom the office of eternal high priest was prefigured. Since there is no mention of the parents he came from, he must be understood as standing for the one "whose genealogy cannot be told." Finally, since the mystery of this divine priesthood also extends to its implementation by people, it does not pass down through the course of generations. It is not what flesh and blood have created that is chosen. Rather, the privileges of paternity give way, and the social positions of families are disregarded, as the church accepts for its rulers those whom the Holy Spirit has prepared. Among the people of God's adoption, which is priestly and kingly when taken as a whole, the prerogative of earthly lineage does not obtain the anointing.

Hebrews 8:8-9 — SERMON 95.1

[The Lord] ascended into the retirement of a neighboring mountain and called his apostles to him there. From the height of that mystical seat he could instruct them in the loftier doctrines, signifying from the very nature of the place and act that it was he who had once honored Moses by speaking to him. He spoke with Moses then, indeed, with a more terrifying justice, but now with a holier mercy in order that what had been promised might be fulfilled when the prophet Jeremiah says, "Behold, the days are coming when I will complete a new covenant for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah. After those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their minds, and in their heart will I write them." He therefore who had spoken to Moses, spoke also to the apostles, and the swift hand of the Word wrote and deposited the secrets of the new covenant in the disciples' hearts. There were no thick clouds surrounding him as of old, nor were the people frightened off from approaching the mountain by frightful sounds and lightning. Rather, quietly and freely his discourse reached the ears of those who stood by. In this way the harshness of the law might give way before the gentleness of grace, and "the spirit of adoption" might dispel the terrors of bondage.

Hebrews 11:1 — SERMON 69.2

Rejoice that whatever the shadows of the Old Testament used to veil beneath the testimonies of prophets has been brought out into the open through the mystery of the Lord's passion. As a result, the various kinds of sacrifices and the different means of purification have come to a halt. Thus, the precept of circumcision, the distinction between foods, the sabbath rest, and the killing of the paschal lamb have ceased, since "the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."Figures came first so that their fulfillment could follow. When the reality which had been announced finally arrived, there was no longer any need for the services of heralds. Reconciliation of the human race was conducted in such a way that the salvation which comes in Christ should have been available to all generations under the same justification. Delaying this salvation was a calculated move. It had the advantage of causing those things which were believed long before they actually took place to be honored without interruption. When the strength of faith has been established in those things that do not lie open to our vision, heavenly doctrine treats us more leniently.… To help us understand more easily, we benefit from many more prophets and witnesses than former ages.

Hebrews 11:5-6 — SERMON 25.6

A sound faith is a mighty bulwark, a true faith to which nothing has to be added or taken away. Unless it is one, it is no faith, as the apostle says, "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all." Cling to this unity, dearly beloved, with minds unshaken, and "follow after" all "holiness" in faith. Carry out the Lord's commands in faith because "without faith it is impossible to please God." Without faith nothing is holy, nothing is pure, nothing alive: "for the just lives by faith." The one who, by the devil's deception, loses it is dead even though he is living because, as righteousness is gained by faith, so too by a true faith eternal life is gained. This is exactly what our Lord and Savior says, "And this is life eternal, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." May he make you to advance and persevere to the end, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.

Hebrews 13:11-12 — SERMON 59.5

"Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed," as the apostle says. Offering himself to the Father as a new and real sacrifice of reconciliation, he was crucified—not in the temple whose due worship is now completed, nor within the enclosure of the city which was to be destroyed because of its crime, but "outside the camp." That way, as the mystery of the ancient sacrifices was ceasing, a new victim would be put on a new altar, and the cross of Christ would be the altar not of the temple, but of the world.

Isaiah 1:13 — SERMON 92:2

When, from the teaching of ancient doctrine, dearly beloved, we undertake the fast of September to purify our souls and bodies, we are not subjecting ourselves to legal burdens. We are embracing the good use of self-restraint that serves the gospel of Christ. In this too, Christian virtue can "exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees," not by making void the law but by rejecting worldly wisdom.

Isaiah 9:2 — SERMON 25:3

Although he filled all things with his invisible majesty, [Christ] came, nevertheless, to those who had not known him, as if from a very remote and deep seclusion. At that time, he took away the blindness of ignorance, as it has been written: "For those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, a light has risen."

Isaiah 9:6 — LETTER 28

[Eutyches] might have read the words of the same prophet: "A child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulders: and they shall call his name, angel of the Great Counsel, God the Mighty, the Prince of peace, Father of the world to come." And he would not speak nonsense, saying that the Word was made flesh in such a way that Christ, born from the Virgin's womb, had a man's form yet did not have the reality of his mother's body.

Isaiah 33:6 — SERMON 92:3

But, since there are many kinds of treasures and different grounds for joy, each one's treasure corresponds to the movement of their desire. If it is an appetite for earthly things, it makes those who share in it not happy but wretched. Those who "savor the things above, not what is on earth," and are not eager for what perishes but for what is eternal, have hidden, incorruptible resources, in that about which the prophet says, "In your treasure is our salvation. There wisdom and knowledge and holiness are from the Lord. These are the treasures of his justice."Through them, with God's grace helping us, even earthly goods are transformed into heavenly, as long as many use their wealth, either left them by law or otherwise acquired, as instruments of goodness. When they distribute, from what they can count as overabundance, to the support of the poor, they collect for themselves riches that cannot be lost, so that what they have withdrawn for alms cannot be credited to expense, and they properly keep their heart where they have "their treasure." It is most blessed to use wealth of this kind that it may grow, and not fear lest it be destroyed.

Isaiah 35:5 — SERMON 54:4

"God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself," and the Creator himself was wearing the creature which was to be restored to the image of its Creator. And after the divinely miraculous works had been performed, the performance of which the spirit of prophecy had once predicted, "then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall speak plainly."

Isaiah 42:16 — SERMON 12:1

The apostle John teaches how this is fulfilled: "We know that the Son of God came and gave understanding to us, that we might know the truth and be in his true Son." And again, "Let us love, therefore, since God first loved us." By loving us, God restores us to be his image, so that he might find the form of his own goodness in us. He grants that we ourselves might work what he works, indeed setting light to our minds and causing us to burn with the fire of his love, in order that we love not only him but also the things that he loves.

Isaiah 53:8 — SERMON 30:1

The birth of our Lord and Savior, whether that of his divinity from the Father or that of his flesh from his mother, surpasses the power of human eloquence. As a result, the saying ("Who will recount his generation?") may rightly be referred to either.

Isaiah 64:4 — SERMON 95:8

The brightness of the true light will not be able to be seen by the unclean sight, and that which will be happiness to minds that are bright and clean will be a punishment to those that are stained. Therefore, let the mists of earth's vanities be shunned, and let your inward eyes be purged from all the filth of wickedness, that the sight may be free to feed on this great manifestation of God. For to the attainment of this we understand what follows to lead.

Isaiah 65:2 — SERMON 12:1

If, dearly beloved, we comprehend faithfully and wisely the beginning of our creation, we shall find that humankind was made in God's image, to the end that he might imitate the Creator and that our race attains its highest natural dignity, by the form of the divine goodness being reflected in us, as in a mirror. And assuredly to this form the Savior's grace is daily restoring us, so long as that which in the first Adam fell, is raised up again in the second. And the cause of our restoration is nothing else but the mercy of God, whom we would not have loved unless he had first loved us and dispelled the darkness of our ignorance by the light of his truth.

James 2:16 — SERMONS 11.1

Since mercy will be exalted over condemnation and the gifts of clemency will surpass any just compensation, all the lives led by mortals and all different kinds of actions will be appraised under the aspect of a single rule. No charges will be brought up where works of compassion have been found in acknowledgment of the Creator.

James 2:17 — Sermon 10 On the Collections, 5

This virtue makes all virtues profitable; for by its presence it gives life to that very faith, by which "the just lives," and which is said to be "dead without works:" because as the reason for works consists in faith, so the strength of faith consists in works.

Jeremiah 1:5 — LETTER 15:10

Through the Holy Spirit we are reborn the children of promise, not in the mother's womb but in the power of baptism. For this reason David, who certainly was a son of promise, says to God, "Your hands have made and fashioned me." And to Jeremiah the Lord says, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you."

Jeremiah 23:5-6 — SERMON 28:3

There was only one remedy in the secret of the divine plan that could help the fallen living in the general ruin of the entire human race. This remedy was that one of the sons of Adam should be born free and innocent of original transgression, to prevail for the rest by his example and by his merits. This was not permitted by natural generation. There could be no clean offspring from our faulty stock by this seed. The Scripture says, "Who can make a clean thing conceived of an unclean seed? Isn't it you alone?" David's Lord was made David's Son, and from the fruit of the promised branch sprang. He is one without fault, the twofold nature coming together into one person. By this one and the same conception and birth sprung our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom was present both true Godhead for the performance of mighty works and true manhood for the endurance of sufferings.

Jeremiah 33:15 — SERMON 28:3

But the majesty of the Son of God, in which he is equal with the Father in its garb of a slave's humility, feared no diminution, required no augmentation. And the very effect of his mercy, which he expended on the restitution of humanity, he was able to bring about solely by the power of his Godhead, thus rescuing the creature that was made in the image of God from the yoke of his cruel oppressor. But because the devil had not shown himself so violent in his attack on the first man as to bring him over to his side without the consent of his free will, the voluntary sin and hostile desires of humanity had to be destroyed in such a way that the standard of justice should not stand in the way of the gift of grace. And therefore in the general ruin of the entire human race there was but one remedy in the secret of the divine plan which could help the fallen, and that was that one of the sons of Adam should be born free and innocent of original transgression, to prevail for the rest both by his example and his merits. Still further, because this was not permitted by natural generation, and because there could be no offspring from our faulty stock without seed, of which the Scripture says, "Who can make a clean thing conceived of an unclean seed? Is it not you who are alone?" David's Lord was made David's Son, and sprang from the fruit of the promised branch—One without fault, the twofold nature coming together into one Person, that by one and the same conception and birth might spring our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom was present both true Godhead for the performance of mighty works and true humanity for the endurance of sufferings.

John 3:5 — SERMON 22.5.1

Whoever of you, therefore, takes pride (with devotion and faith) in the name of Christian, ponder, by an accurate judgment, the grace of this reconciliation. To you once "cast aside," to you driven out from the thrones of "paradise," to you dying from long exiles, to you scattered into "dust" and ashes, who had no longer any hope of living—to you has "power" been given through the incarnation of the Word. With it, you can "return from far away" to your Maker, can recognize your Father, can become free from slavery and can be made again a child rather than an outsider. With this power, you who were born of flesh that is subject to decay can be "born again from the Spirit" of God and can obtain through grace what you do not have through nature.

John 13:1 — SERMON 72.6

The very feast that by us is named Pascha among the Hebrews is called Phase, that is, Passover, as the Evangelist attests, saying, "Before the feast of Pascha, Jesus, knowing that his hour was come when he should pass out of this world unto the Father." But what kind of nature was it that he passed out of unless it was ours, since the Father was in the Son and the Son in the Father inseparably? But because the Word and the Flesh is one person, the assumed is not separated from the assuming nature, and the honor of being promoted is spoken of as accruing to him that promotes. This is what the apostle says in a passage we have already quoted, "Wherefore also God exalted him and gave him a name that is above every name." Here, the exaltation of his assumed manhood is no doubt spoken of so that he (in whose sufferings the Godhead remains indivisible) is similarly coeternal in the glory of the Godhead. And to share in this unspeakable gift, the Lord himself was preparing a blessed "passing over" for his faithful ones, when on the very threshold of his passion he interceded not only for his apostles and disciples but also for the whole church, saying, "But not for these only I pray, but for those also who shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as you also, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us."

John 14:6 — SERMON 72.1

The cross of Christ, which was set up for the salvation of mortals, is both a sacrament and an example: a sacrament whereby the divine power takes effect, an example whereby one's devotion is excited. For to those who are rescued from the prisoner's yoke, redemption further procures the power of following the way of the cross by imitation. For if the world's wisdom so prides itself in its error that everyone follows the opinions and habits and whole manner of life of him whom he has chosen as his leader, how shall we share in the name of Christ except by being inseparably united to him who is, as he himself asserted, "the way, the truth and the life"—the way, that is, of holy living, the truth of divine doctrine and the life of eternal happiness.

John 14:16 — LETTER 16.4

For the Only Begotten of God himself desired no difference to be felt between himself and the Holy Spirit in the faith of believers and in the efficacy of his works because there is no diversity in their nature.

John 14:25 — SERMON 74.2.2

He withdrew his bodily presence for a time, for he is to abide at the right hand of the Father until the times that have been divinely decreed for the multiplication of the children of the church are accomplished. And then in the same body in which he ascended he will come again to judge the living and the dead. And so what was visible in Christ is now veiled in mystery. And, so that faith might be more perfect and more steadfast, vision was succeeded by revealed truth whose authority the hearts of the faithful, illumined by light from above, would now begin to follow.

John 17:12 — SERMON 67.4

But O ungodliest of people, "seed of Canaan and not of Judah," and no longer "a vessel of election" but "a son of perdition" and death! You thought the devil's instigations would profit you better so that, inflamed with the torch of greed, you were ablaze to gain thirty pieces of silver without seeing the riches you would lose. For even if you did not think the Lord's promises were to be believed, what reason was there for preferring so small a sum of money to what you had already received? You were allowed to command the evil spirits, to heal the sick, to receive honor with the rest of the apostles. And that you might satisfy your thirst for gain, you had the opportunity to steal from the box that was in your charge. But your mind, which lusted after forbidden things, was more strongly stimulated by what was less allowed. It was not the amount of the price that pleased you so much as the enormity of the sin. And so your wicked bargain is not so detestable merely because you valued the Lord so cheaply but because you sold him who was the redeemer, yes, even yours, and yet you asked for no pity for yourself. And justly was your punishment put into your own hands because none could be found more cruelly bent on your destruction than yourself.

John 18:11 — SERMON 58.4

It is not to be thought that the Lord Jesus wished to escape the passion and the death, the sacraments of which he had already committed to his disciples' keeping. This is obvious, seeing that he himself forbids Peter, when he was burning with devoted faith and love, to use the sword. He says, "The cup that the Father has given me, shall I not drink it?" The Lord also most certainly says, according to John's Gospel, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life." Similarly, the apostle Paul says, "Christ loved us and gave himself for us, a victim to God for a sweet-smelling savor." For the saving of all through the cross of Christ was the common will and the common plan of the Father and the Son. Nor could that by any means be disturbed that before eternal ages had been mercifully determined and unchangeably foreordained. Therefore in assuming true and entire manhood Jesus took the true sensations of the body and the true feelings of the mind. And it does not follow because everything in him was full of sacraments, full of miracles, that therefore he either shed false tears or took food from pretended hunger or feigned slumber. It was in our humility that he was despised, with our grief that he was saddened, with our pain that he was racked on the cross. For his compassion underwent the sufferings of our mortality with the purpose of healing them, and his power encountered them with the purpose of conquering them. And this Isaiah has most plainly prophesied, saying, "He carries our sins and is pained for us, and we thought him to be in pain and in stripes and in affliction. But he was wounded for our sins and was stricken for our offenses, and with his stripes we are healed."

John 19:17 — SERMON 8.4

When our Lord was handed over to the will of his cruel foes, they ordered him, in mockery of his royal dignity, to carry the instrument of his own torture. This was done to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah: "A child is born for us, a son is given to us; sovereignty is laid on his shoulders." To the wicked, the sight of the Lord carrying his own cross was indeed an object of derision. But to the faithful a great mystery was revealed, for the cross was destined to become the scepter of his power. Here was the majestic spectacle of a glorious conqueror mightily overthrowing the hostile forces of the devil and nobly bearing the trophy of his victory. On the shoulders of his invincible patience he carried the sign of salvation for all the kingdoms of the earth to worship, as if on that day he would strengthen all his future disciples by the symbol of his work and say to them, "Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me."

John 19:30 — SERMON 55.4

Having now tasted the vinegar, the produce of that vineyard that had degenerated in spite of its divine planter and had turned to the sourness of a foreign vine, the Lord says, "It is finished," that is, the Scriptures are fulfilled. There is nothing more to endure from these raging people. I have endured all that I foretold I should suffer. The mysteries of weakness are completed. Let the proofs of power be produced. And so he bowed the head and yielded up his spirit and gave that body that would be raised again on the third day the rest of peaceful slumber.

John 20:17 — SERMON 74.4

The Son of man and Son of God, therefore, dearly beloved, then attained a more excellent and holier fame when he returned to the glory of the Father's majesty. In an incomprehensible way, he began to be nearer to the Father in respect of his Godhead after having become distanced in respect of his manhood. A better instructed faith then began to draw closer to a conception of the Son's equality with the Father without the necessity of handling the corporeal substance in Christ. As a result of this [substance], he is less than the Father, since, while the nature of the glorified body still remained, the faith of believers was called on to touch not with the hand of flesh but with the spiritual understanding the Only Begotten, who was equal with the Father. And this is why the Lord said to Mary Magdalene (who represents the church), when she hurriedly approached and touched him, "Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father," that is, I would not have you come to me as to a human body or recognize me by fleshly perceptions. I want you to wait for higher things. I prepare greater things for you. When I have ascended to my Father, then you shall handle me more perfectly and truly, for you shall grasp what you cannot touch and believe what you cannot see.

John 20:20 — LETTER 28.5

He showed the wound in his side, the marks of the nails and all the signs of his quite recent suffering, saying, "See my hands and feet, that it is I. Handle me and see that a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see me have," in order that the properties of his divine and human nature might be acknowledged to remain still inseparable. He also did this so that we might know the Word was not different from the flesh so that we can also confess that the one Son of God is both the Word and flesh.

John 20:20 — SERMON 73.3

He offers to the doubters' eyes the marks of the cross that remained in his hands and feet and invites them to handle him with careful scrutiny. He does this because the traces of the nails and spear had been retained to heal the wounds of unbelieving hearts, so that not with wavering faith but with the most certain conviction they might comprehend that the nature that had been lain in the sepulcher was to sit on God the Father's throne.

John 20:29 — SERMON 74.1

It is the strength of great minds and the light of firmly faithful souls unhesitatingly to believe what is not seen with the bodily sight and to focus your affections where you cannot direct your gaze. And from where should this godliness spring up in our hearts or how should someone be justified by faith, if our salvation rested on those things only that lie beneath our eyes? And so, our Lord said to Thomas, who seemed to doubt Christ's resurrection until he had tested by sight and touched the traces of his passion in his very flesh, "because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Joel 2:16 — SERMON 88:1

Devout fasting has a very great value for gaining the mercy of God and for strengthening human frailty. We know this from the teaching of holy prophets, dearly beloved. They insist that the arousal of divine justice—which the people of Israel frequently brought upon themselves in punishment for their wickedness—could not be placated except by fasting. Joel the prophet warns us in saying, "The Lord God says these things: 'Turn to me with all your heart, in fasting, in weeping and in mourning. Rend your hearts, and not your garments. Be converted to the Lord your God, because he is merciful and patient and magnanimous and rich in mercy.' " At another point, the same prophet says, "Make a holy fast, preach healing, call together the people, make holy the assembly." This exhortation, dearly beloved, is what we must embrace in our times also. We must of necessity preach the remedy of this healing, so that Christian devotion in the observance of that ancient means for sanctification might acquire what the Jewish transgression lost.

Leviticus 11:44 — SERMON 94.2

He himself says, "Be holy, for I am holy," that is to say, choose me and keep away from what displeases me. Do what I love; love what I do. If what I order seems difficult, come back to me who ordered it, so that from where the command was given help might be offered. I who furnished the desire will not refuse support. Fast from contradiction, abstain from opposition. Let me be your food and drink. None desire in vain what is mine, for those who stretch out toward me seek me because I first sought them.

Luke 1:34-35 — SERMON 30.4.2

But the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ exceeds all understanding and goes beyond any precedent.

Luke 1:34 — Sermon 24, Section III

In this nativity also, Isaiah's saying is fulfilled, "let the earth produce and bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together." [Isaiah 45:8] For the earth of human flesh, which in the first transgressor, was cursed, in this Offspring of the Blessed Virgin only produced a seed that was blessed and free from the fault of its stock. And each one is a partaker of this spiritual origin in regeneration; and to every one when he is re-born, the water of baptism is like the Virgin's womb; for the same Holy Spirit fills the font, Who filled the Virgin, that the sin, which that sacred conception overthrew, may be taken away by this mystical washing.

Luke 1:34-35 — SERMON 24.3

Each one is a partaker of this spiritual origin in regeneration. To every one, when he is reborn, the water of baptism is like the Virgin's womb, for the same Holy Spirit fills the font, who filled the Virgin, that the sin, which that sacred conception overthrew, may be taken away by this mystical washing.

Luke 12:19-20 — SERMON 90.4.1

The devil, even in the midst of our efforts, does not relax his schemes. At certain periods of time, we must take care of the reenergizing of our strength. The mind, concerned with the goods of the present, can rejoice in the temperate weather and the fertile fields. When the fruits are gathered into great barns, it can say to its soul, "You have many good things; eat." It may receive a kind of rebuke from the divine voice and may hear it saying, "Fool, this very night they demand your soul from you. The things you have prepared, whose will they be?"This should be the careful consideration of wise people, that since the days of this life are short and the time uncertain, death should never be unexpected for those who are to die. Those who know that they are mortal should not come to an unprepared end.

Luke 21:2-4 — SERMON 20.3.1

Although the spite of some people does not grow gentle with any kindness, nevertheless the works of mercy are not fruitless, and kindness never loses what is offered to the ungrateful. May no one, dearly beloved, make themselves strangers to good works. Let no one claim that his poverty scarcely sufficed for himself and could not help another. What is offered from a little is great, and in the scale of divine justice, the quantity of gifts is not measured but the steadfastness of souls. The "widow" in the Gospel put two coins into the "treasury," and this surpassed the gifts of all the rich. No mercy is worthless before God. No compassion is fruitless. He has given different resources to human beings, but he does not ask different affections.

Luke 22:61 — SERMON 54.5.1

Then "the Lord looked at Peter." Christ stood in the middle of the priests' insults, the witnesses' lies, and the injuries of those that struck him and spat on him. He met the troubled disciple with his eyes, the same eyes that had foreseen that Peter would undergo a struggle. In so doing, the gaze of truth entered Peter, directed toward the place where the amendment of his heart would be grounded. It was as if the Lord's voice were echoing within Peter, saying, "What are you thinking, Peter? Why do you withdraw into yourself? Turn to me, trust in me", and "follow me." This is the time for my passion. The hour of your suffering has not yet come. Why do you fear what you yourself will also overcome? Do not let the weakness that I have accepted disturb you. I was anxious for you, but you should not worry about me."

Luke 23:34 — SERMON 55.1

The very appearance of the gallows showed the criterion that he would apply when he comes to judge everyone. The believing thief's faith prefigured those who would be saved, while the blasphemer's wickedness foreshadowed those who would be condemned. Christ's passion, therefore, contains the mystery of our salvation.

Luke 23:43 — SERMON 53.1.2

Until now, one [thief] was the equal in all things of his companion. He was a robber on the roads and always a danger to the safety of people. Deserving the cross, he suddenly becomes a confessor of Christ.… "Remember me, Lord, when you enter into your kingdom." …Then came the gift in which faith itself received a response. Jesus said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise." This promise surpasses the human condition, because it did not come so much from the wood of a cross as from a throne of power. From that height, he gives a reward to faith. There he abolishes the debt of human transgression, because the "form of God" did not separate itself from the "form of a servant." Even in the middle of this punishment, both the inviolable divinity and the suffering human nature preserved its own character and its own oneness.

Luke 23:43 — SERMON 55.3

This cross of Christ holds the mystery of its true and prophesied altar. There, through the saving victim, a sacrifice of human nature is celebrated. There the blood of a spotless lamb dissolved the pact of that ancient transgression. There the whole perversity of the devil's mastery was abolished, while humility triumphed as conqueror over boasting pride. The effect of faith was so swift that one of the two thieves crucified with Christ who believed in the Son of God entered paradise justified.Who could explain the mystery of such a great gift? Who could describe the power of such a marvelous transformation? In a brief moment of time, the guilt of a longstanding wickedness was abolished. In the middle of the harsh torments of a struggling soul, fastened to the gallows, that thief passes over to Christ, and the grace of Christ gives a crown to him, someone who incurred punishment for his own wickedness.

Luke 24:11 — SERMON 73.1.2.444

The Spirit of truth would by no means have permitted this hesitation, wavering in human weakness, to enter the hearts of his preachers, if their trembling anxiety and questioning delay were not to have established the foundations of our faith. Consequently it was our doubts and our danger that was being considered in the apostles. We, in the guise of the apostles, were being instructed against the slanders of the wicked and the proofs of earthly wisdom. Their "seeing" instructed us, their "hearing" informed us, their "touching" strengthened us. Let us give thanks for the divine plan and the necessary "slowness" of the holy fathers. They "doubted" so that we need not doubt.

Luke 24:39-43 — TOME 5

The resurrection of the Lord was truly the resurrection of a real body, because no other person was raised than he who had been crucified and died. What else was accomplished during that interval of forty days than to make our faith entire and clear of all darkness? For a while, he spoke with his disciples and remained with them, ate with them and allowed himself to be felt with careful and inquisitive touch by those who were under the influence of doubt. This was his purpose in going in to them when the doors were shut. He gave them the Holy Ghost by his breath. After giving them the light of intelligence, he opened the secrets of holy Scripture. In his same person, he showed them the wound in the side, the prints of the nails and all the fresh tokens of the passion. He said, "See my hands and feet. It is I myself. Handle me and see. A spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have." He did all this so that we might acknowledge that the properties of the divine and the human nature remain in him without causing a division. We now may know that the Word is not what the flesh is. We may now confess that the one Son of God is Word and flesh.

Luke 24:50-53 — SERMON 73.3-4

Dearly beloved, through all this time between the resurrection of the Lord and his ascension, the providence of God thought of this, taught this and penetrated their eyes and heart. He wanted them to recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as truly risen, who was truly born, truly suffered and truly died. The manifest truth strengthened the blessed apostles and all the disciples who were frightened by his death on the cross and were doubtful of his resurrection. The result was they were not only afflicted with sadness but also were filled with "great joy" when the Lord went into the heights of heaven.It was certainly a great and indescribable source of joy when, in the sight of the heavenly multitudes, the nature of our human race ascended over the dignity of all heavenly creatures. It passed the angelic orders and was raised beyond the heights of archangels. In its ascension, our human race did not stop at any other height until this same nature was received at the seat of the eternal Father. Our human nature, united with the divinity of the Son, was on the throne of his glory. The ascension of Christ is our elevation. Hope for the body is also invited where the glory of the Head preceded us. Let us exult, dearly beloved, with worthy joy and be glad with a holy thanksgiving. Today we not only are established as possessors of paradise, but we have even penetrated the heights of the heavens in Christ. The indescribable grace of Christ, which we lost through the "ill will of the devil," prepared us more fully for that glory. Incorporated within himself, the Son of God placed those whom the violent enemy threw down from the happiness of our first dwelling at the right hand of the Father. The Son of God lives and reigns with God the Father almighty and with the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Matthew 1:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Epist. 59. ad Const. Id. Ep. 83. ad Palest.) We do not speak of Christ as man in such a sort as to allow that any thing was wanting to Him, which it is certain pertains to human nature, whether soul, or rational mind, or flesh, and flesh such as was taken of the Woman, not gained by a change or conversion of the Word into flesh. These three several errors, that thrice false heresy of the Apollinarists has brought forward. Eutyches also chose out this third dogma of Apollinaris, which denying the verity of the human body and soul, maintained that our Lord Jesus Christ was wholly and entirely of one nature, as though the Divine Word had changed itself into flesh and soul, and as though the conception, birth, growth, and such like, had been undergone by that Divine Essence, which was incapable of any such changes with the very and true flesh; for such as is the nature of the Only-begotten, such is the nature of the Father, and such is the nature of the Holy Ghost, both impassible and eternal. But if to avoid being driven to the conclusion that the Godhead could feel suffering and death, he departs from the corruption of Apollinaris, and should still dare to affirm the nature of the incarnate Word, that is of the Word and the flesh, to be the same, he clearly falls into the insane notions of Manichæus and Marcion, and believes that the Lord Jesus Christ did all His actions with a false appearance, that His body was not a human body, but a phantasm, which imposed on the eyes of the beholders. (Ep. 35. ad Julian.) But what Eutyches ventured to pronounce as an episcopal decision, that in Christ before His incarnation were two natures, but after His incarnation only one, it behoved that he should have been urgently pressed to give the reason of this his belief. I suppose that in using such language he supposed the soul which the Saviour took, to have had its abode in heaven before it was born of the Virgin Marye. This Catholic hearts and ears endure not, for that the Lord when He came down from heaven showed nothing of the condition of human nature, nor did He take on Him any soul that had existed before, nor any flesh that was not taken of the flesh of His mother. Thus what was justly condemned in Origenf, must needs be rebuked in Eutyches, to wit, that our souls before they were placed in our bodies had actions not only wonderful but various.

Matthew 1:22-23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. xxiii. 1.) The conception was by the Holy Spirit within the womb of the Virgin; who, as she conceived in perfect chastity, in like manner brought forth her Son.

Matthew 1:25 — Sermon 22:2

And by a new nativity He was begotten, conceived by a Virgin, born of a Virgin, without paternal desire, without injury to the mother's chastity... for a Virgin conceived, a Virgin bare, and a Virgin she remained.

Matthew 2:1-2 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. xxxiii. 2.) Christ Himself, the expectation of the nations, that innumerable posterity once promised to the most blessed patriarch Abraham, but to be born not after the flesh, but by the Spirit; therefore likened to the stars for multitude, that from the father of all nations, not an earthly but an heavenly progeny might be looked for. Thus the heirs of that promised posterity, marked out in the stars, are roused to the faith by the rise of a new star, and where the heavens had been at first called in to witness, the aid of Heaven is continued. (Serm. xxxiv. 3.) Besides that star thus seen with the bodily eye, a yet brighter ray of truth pierced their hearts; they were enlightened by the illumination of the true faith. (ubi sup.) What they knew and believed might have been sufficient for themselves, that they needed not to seek to see with the bodily eye, what they saw so clearly with the spiritual. But their earnestness and perseverance to see the Babe was for our profit. It profited us that Thomas, after the Lord's resurrection, touched and felt the marks of his wounds, and so for our profit the Magians' eyes looked on the Lord in His cradle.

Matthew 2:3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(ubi sup.) Thou art troubled, Herod, without cause. Thy nature cannot contain Christ, nor is the Lord of the world content with the narrow bounds of thy dominion. He, whom thou wouldest not should reign in Judæa, reigns every where.

Matthew 2:5-6 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. xxxi. 2.) The Magi, judging as men, sought in the royal city for Him, whom they had been told was born a King. But He who took the form of a servant, and came not to judge but to be judged, chose Bethlehem for His birth, Jerusalem for His death.

Matthew 2:10-11 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. in Epiph. s. 4. 3.) Though in stature a babe, needing the aid of others, unable to speak, and different in nothing from other infants, yet such faithful witnesses, showing the unseen Divine Majesty which was in Him, ought to have proved most certainly that that was the Eternal Essence of the Son of God that had taken upon Him the true human nature.

Matthew 4:3-4 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 39. 3.) hence he opposed the adversary rather by testimonies out of the Law, than by miraculous powers; thus at the same time giving more honour to man, and more disgrace to the adversary, when the enemy of the human race thus seemed to be overcome by man rather than by God.

Matthew 6:16 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. in Epiph. iv. 5.) But that fasting is not pure, that comes not of reasons of continence, but of the arts of deceit.

Matthew 6:17-18 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. in Quadr. vi. 2.) Fasting ought to be fulfilled not in abstinence of food only, but much more in cutting off vices. For when we submit ourselves to that discipline in order to withdraw that which is the nurse of carnal desires, there is no sort of good conscience more to be sought than that we should keep ourselves sober from unjust will, and abstinent from dishonourable action. This is an act of religion from which the sick are not excluded, seeing integrity of heart may be found in an infirm body.

Matthew 17:4 — SERMON 38.5

Excited therefore by these revelations of secret realities, the apostle Peter, spurning the mundane and loathing earthly things, was seized by a certain excess of passion toward a yearning for eternal things. Filled up with the joy of the whole vision, he wished to dwell there with Jesus where he was delighting in Christ's manifested glory. Thus Peter said, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." But the Lord did not reply to this suggestion, for it was not wicked but inappropriate, since the world could not be saved except by Christ's death. And in the Lord's warning the faith of those who believe is called to account. Among the temptations of this life we should understand that we are to ask for endurance before glory. Good fortune in ruling cannot come before a time of enduring.

Matthew 17:5 — SERMON 38.7

A voice from the cloud said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him. I am manifested through his preaching. I am glorified through his humility. So listen to him without hesitation. He is the truth and the life. He is my strength and wisdom. "Listen to him" whom the mysteries of the law foreshadowed, of whom the mouths of the prophets sang. "Listen to him" who by his blood redeemed the world, who binds the devil and seizes his vessels, who breaks the debt of sin and the bondage of iniquity. "Listen to him" who opens the way to heaven and by the pain of the cross prepares for you the steps of ascent into his kingdom.

Matthew 26:3-5 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 58, 1.) We recognise here a providential arrangement whereby the chief men of the Jews, who had often sought occasion of effecting their cruel purposes against Christ, could never yet succeed till the days of the paschal celebration. For it behoved that the things which had long been promised in symbol and mystery should be accomplished in manifest reality, that the typical lamb should be displaced by the true, and one sacrifice embrace the whole catalogue of the varied victims. That shadows should give way to substance, and copies to the presence of the original; victim is commuted for victim, blood is abolished by blood, and the festival of the Law is at once fulfilled and changed.

Matthew 26:5 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 58, 2.) This precaution of the Chief Priests arose not from reverence for the festival, but from care for the success of their plot; they feared an insurrection at that season, not because of the guilt the populace might thereby incur, but because they might rescue Christ.

Matthew 26:15 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 60.4.) He did not out of any fear forsake Christ, but through lust of money cast Him off; for in comparison of the love of money all our affections are feeble; the soul athirst for gain fears not to die for a very little; there is no trace of righteousness in that heart in which covetousness has once taken up its abode. The traitor Judas, intoxicated with this bane, in his thirst for lucre was so foolishly hardened, as to sell his Lord and Master.

Matthew 26:21-25 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 58.3.) He shows that the conscience of His betrayer was known to Him, not meeting his wickedness with a harsh and open rebuke, that penitence might find a readier way to one who had not been disgraced by public dismissal.

Matthew 26:26 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 58, 3.) Not excluding the traitor even from this mystery, that it might be made manifest that Judas was provoked by no wrong, but that he had been foreknown in voluntary impiety.

Matthew 26:39 — SERMON 43.2.26

The disciples were admonished, and the Lord beseeches the Father that they might confront the force of the present temptation with watchful prayer: "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as you will." The first petition arises from weakness, the second from strength: He desired the former based on our nature and chose the latter based on his own. Equal to the Father, the Son knew that all things were possible to God; rather, he descended into this world to take up the cross against his will so that he might suffer through this conflict of emotions with a disquieted mind. But in order to show the distinction between the receiving nature and the received nature, what was proper of humanity desired divine intervention and what was proper of God looked upon the human situation. The lower will yielded to the higher will, and this demonstrated what the fearful person may pray for and what the divine healer should not grant. "For we do not know how to pray as we ought," and it is good for us that what we want, for the most part, is not granted. God, who is good and just, shows mercy toward us by denying us those things we ask for which are harmful.

Matthew 26:42 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 58, 5.) This speech of the Head is the health of the whole body, this saying is instruction to the faithful, animates the confessor, crowns the martyr. For who could vanquish the hatred of the world, or the whirlwind of temptations, or the terrors of the persecutors, if Christ did not in all and for all say to the Father, Thy will be done. Let all the sons of the Church then utter this prayer, that when the pressure of some mighty temptation lies upon them, they may embrace endurance of the suffering, disregarding its terrors.

Matthew 26:52-54 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 22.) The Lord of the zealous Apostle will not suffer his pious feeling to proceed further, Then saith Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place. For it was contrary to the sacrament of our redemption that He, who had come to die for all, should refuse to be apprehended. He gives therefore licence to their fury against Him, lest by putting off the triumph of His glorious Cross, the dominion of the Devil should be made longer, and the captivity of men more enduring.

Matthew 26:65 — SERMON 44.2.32

To emphasize his alarm over the words he had just heard, Caiaphas "tore his garments." Unaware of his own madness, he deprived himself of priestly honor. Caiaphas, where does reason reside in your mind?… You are oblivious to the command you read concerning high priests: "Do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, and do not rend your clothes." But you, who have now forfeited your dignity, are the very object of disgrace. And in token of the end of the old regulation, the same rending that rips your priestly attire will soon also tear apart the veil of the temple.

Matthew 26:69-75 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 60, 4.) For this reason it should seem he was permitted to waver, that the remedy of penitence might be exhibited in the head of the Church, and that none should dare to trust in his own strength, when even the blessed Peter could not escape the danger of frailty.

Matthew 26:75 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 60. 4.) Blessed tears, O holy Apostle, which had the virtue of holy Baptism in washing off the sin of thy denial. The right hand of the Lord Jesus Christ was with thee to hold thee up before thou wast quite thrown down, and in the midst of thy perilous fall, thou receivedst strength to stand. The Rock quickly returned to its stability, recovering so great fortitude, that he who in Christ's passion had quailed, should endure his own subsequent suffering with fearlessness and constancy.

Matthew 27:1-2 — SERMON 41.5.2

O religious leaders [of the Jews], this morning was far from your time of ascendency, as it might have seemed to you. Your sun was in fact beginning to set. The dawn you expected did not come. A night of blackest darkness was brooding over your spiteful hearts. Out of this morning would come the overthrow of the temple and its altars, the surpassing of the law and the prophets, the undoing of the kingship and priesthood, turning youth to continual lament. For you set out that morning on a mad and bloody course. You offered up to die the Author of life, the Lord of glory. Pilate—that terror-stricken judge—was overcome by your shouts, so that he chose a man for pardon who was a murderer and demanded the crucifixion of the Savior of the world.

Matthew 27:4 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 52, 5.) When he says, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood, he persists in his wicked treachery, seeing that amid the last struggles of death he believed not Jesus to be the Son of God, but merely man of our rank; for had he not thus denied His omnipotence, he would have obtained His mercy.

Matthew 27:24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. lix. 2.) The impiety of the Jews then exceeded the fault of Pilate; but he was not guiltless, seeing he resigned his own jurisdiction, and acquiesced in the injustice of others.

Matthew 27:24 — SERMON 44.3

By what law is it, my Jewish friends, that what is unlawful to do is lawful to desire? By what standard is it that what defiles the body does not taint the heart? You fear to be contaminated by the shedding of his blood that you would take upon yourselves and your children. Since your wickedness will not commit so great a crime, allow the procurator to pass judgment. But, prevailing upon him impetuously, you do not allow him to swerve from that goal you deceitfully abstain from.Pilate sinned by doing what he did not want to do. He acquiesced in your judgment, doing whatever your rage wrought by force. Such was your observance of the law that you eschewed placing into the treasury the money which the seller of Christ returned to you, wary lest the blood money pollute the sacred coffers. Whose heart is guilty of this pretense? The conscience of the priests accepts what the money box does not receive. Thus with untold shades of deceit you cover yourselves, and a deal is made with the traitor.

Matthew 27:32 — SERMON 46.5

But as the multitudes went with Jesus to the place of punishment, a certain Simon of Cyrene was found on whom to lay the wood of the cross, instead of the Lord. Even this act signified that faith would come to the Gentiles, to whom the cross of Christ was not to be shame but glory. It was not accidental therefore but symbolic and mystical, that while the Jewish rulers were raging against Christ, a foreigner was found to share his sufferings. Thus the apostle would say, "If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him."Note that it was not a Hebrew or an Israelite but a foreigner who was drawn into service for the Savior in his most holy humiliation. By this transference the propitiation of the spotless Lamb and the fulfillment of all mysteries passed from the circumcision to the uncircumcision, from the sons according to the flesh to the sons according to the spirit. Hence the apostle would say, "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." He offered himself to the Father as a new and true sacrifice of reconciliation. He was slain not in the temple, whose worship was now at an end, and not within the confines of the city which for its sin was doomed to be destroyed, but beyond the walls of the city, "outside the gate." Thus with the cessation of the old symbolic victims, a new victim was being placed on a new altar. The cross of Christ was to become the altar not of the temple but of the world.

Matthew 27:38 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 55, 1.) Two thieves were crucified with him, one on the right hand and one on the left, that in the figure of His cross might be represented that separation of all mankind which shall be made in His judgment. The Passion then of Christ contains a sacrament of our salvation, and of that instrument which the wickedness of the Jews provided for His punishment, the power of the Redeemer made a step to glory.

Matthew 27:40-42 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 55. 2.) From what source of error, O Jews, have ye sucked in the poison of such blasphemies? What teacher delivered it to you? What learning moved you to think that the true King of Israel, that the veritable Son of God, would be He who would not suffer Himself to be crucified, and would set free His body from the fastenings of the nails? Not the hidden meaning of the Law, not the mouths of the Prophets. Had ye indeed ever read, I hid not my face from the shame of spitting; (Is. 50:6.) or that again, They pierced my hands and my feet, they told all my bones. (Ps. 22:16.) Where have ye ever read that the Lord came down from the cross? But ye have read, The Lord hath reigned from the tree.e

Matthew 27:51-52 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

('Leo, in Serm. de Pass.' non occ.) The sudden commotion in the elements is a sufficient sign in witness of His venerable Passion, The earth quaked, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened.

Matthew 27:54 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 66. 3.) From this example then of the Centurion let the substance of the earth tremble in the punishment of its Redeemer, let the rocks of unbelieving minds be rent, and those who were pent up in these sepulchres of mortality leap forth, bursting the bonds that would detain them; and let them show themselves in the Holy City, i. e. the Church of God, as signs of the Resurrection to come; and thus let that take place in the heart, which we must believe takes place in the body.

Matthew 28:20 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 72. 3.) For by ascending into heaven He does not desert His adopted; but from above strengthens to endurance, those whom He invites upwards to glory. Of which glory may Christ make us partakers, Who is the King of glory, God blessed for ever, AMEN.

Micah 5:4 — SERMON 34:2

Evidently [the Hebrew leaders] understood [the prophecy] in a carnal manner, just as Herod did, and reckoned that Christ's kingdom would be like the powers in this world. They hoped for a temporal leader, while Herod feared an earthly rival. "Herod, you are trapped in a useless fear. In vain do you attempt to rage against the child you suspect. Your realm does not encompass Christ, nor does the Lord of the world care about the meager limits within which you wield the rod of your power. He whom you do not wish to see reign in Judea reigns everywhere. You yourself would reign more happily if you would submit to his rule. Why not turn into honest service that which you resolve to do in falsehood and guile? Go with the wise men and worship the true king in humble adoration. But more inclined as you are toward the Jewish blindness, you do not imitate the faith of these Gentiles. You turn your perverse heart to cruel wiles. Yet you are not going to kill the one you fear, nor will you harm those whom you eliminate."

Mark 14:63-64 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)

(Serm. 5. de Pass.) But Caiaphas, to increase the odiousness of what they had heard rent his clothes, and without knowing what his frantic action meant, by his madness, deprived himself of the honour of the priesthood, forgetting that command, by which it is said of the High Priest, He shall not uncover his head or rend his clothes. For there follows: Then the High Priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye?

Mark 16:19 — SERMON 74.1-2

And so while at Easter it was the Lord's resurrection which was the cause of our joy, our present rejoicing is due to his ascension into heaven. With all due solemnity we are commemorating that day on which our poor human nature was carried up in Christ above all the hosts of heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond those heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father. It is upon this ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly established, so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvelous when, in spite of the withdrawal from our sight of everything that is rightly felt to command our reverence, faith does not fail, hope is not shaken, charity does not grow cold.… It was in order that we might be capable of such blessedness that on the fortieth day after his resurrection, after he had made careful provision for everything concerning the preaching of the gospel and the mysteries of the new covenant, our Lord Jesus Christ was taken up to heaven before the eyes of his disciples, and so his bodily presence among them came to an end. From that time onward he was to remain at the Father's right hand until the completion of the period ordained by God for the church's children to increase and multiply, after which, in the same body with which he ascended, he will come again to judge the living and the dead. And so our redeemer's visible presence has passed into the sacraments. Our faith is nobler and stronger because empirical sight has been replaced by a reliable teaching whose authority is accepted by believing hearts, enlightened from on high.

Numbers 24:17 — SERMON 34.2

Although it was a gift of divine favor that the birth of the Savior should become recognizable to the nations, nevertheless, to understand the wonder of the sign, the wise men were also able to be reminded through the ancient pronouncements of Balaam, for they knew that it had at one time been spread abroad in a famous and memorable prediction: "A star will appear out of Jacob, and a man will rise up from Israel. He will rule over the nations." So the three men, stirred by God through the shining of this unusual star, follow the course of its gleaming light ahead of them, thinking that they would find the indicated child in the royal city of Jerusalem.When this conjecture had failed them, however, they learned from scribes and teachers of the Jews what the sacred Scriptures had told about the birth of Christ. Encouraged by the double evidence, they sought him out with an even more ardent faith, the one to whom both the brightness of the star and the authority of prophets pointed.

Philippians 2:7 — EPISTLE 28 TO FLAVIAN 3

He "assumed the form of a slave" without the stain of sin, enhancing the human without diminishing the divine. That emptying by which the invisible One offered himself to be seen and the Creator and Lord of all things elected to be one among mortals was a sovereign act of stooping in majestic pity, not a defect of power.

Proverbs 9:1 — SERMON 30:3.1

We are his flesh, the flesh that had been taken up from the Virgin's womb. If this flesh had not been from ours, that is, had it not been truly human, the Word made flesh would not have dwelt among us. "He did" in fact "dwell among us," however, for he made the nature of our body his own. "Wisdom built itself a house," not from just any material but from the substance that is properly ours. The fact that he had taken it on has been made clear from when it was said, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

Proverbs 9:1 — TOME 2

It was the Holy Ghost that gave fecundity to the Virgin, but it was from a body that a real body was derived. And when "Wisdom was building herself a house," "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," that is, in that flesh which he assumed from a human being and which he animated with the spirit of rational life.

Proverbs 10:12 — SERMON 7:1

This remedy has been granted by God to human weakness: If someone contracts any guilt while living on this earth, almsgiving wipes it away. Almsgiving is a work of love, and we know that "love covers a multitude of sins."

Proverbs 11:17 — SERMON 16:2

Prayer rises up quickly to the ears of God when lifted up by the recommendation of [alms and fasting]. Since, as it has been written, "the merciful man benefits his own soul," nothing belongs to each individual more than what has been spent on one's neighbor. Part of those physical resources which are used to help the poor become transformed into eternal riches. Born from this generosity are funds which will not be able to be diminished through use nor damaged through decay. "Blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them." He who constitutes the very exemplar of this precept will also be the sum of their reward.

Psalms 2:8 — SERMON 29:3

Therefore, let us rejoice in the day of our salvation, dearly beloved. We have been taken up through the new covenant into participation with him who was told by the Father through a prophet, "You are my Son; this day I have begotten you. Ask it of me, and I will give you the of the earth for your possession." Let us glory, therefore, in the mercy of the one adopting us.

Psalms 6:6 — SERMON 35:4

In hell there is no amendment. No means of satisfaction can be given where no act of the will remains any longer, as David says in prophecy: "Since in death there is no one who remembers you, who will give you thanks in hell?" Let us flee harmful pleasures, dangerous joys and desires that perish right away. What fruit is there, what use is there, in wanting these things incessantly, things that we must abandon even if they do not abandon us? Let the love of ephemeral things be transferred to incorruptible ones. Let hearts called to lofty things find their enjoyment in heavenly delights.

Psalms 9:18 — SERMON 89:6. 1

Let Christian kindness overflow in you, dearly beloved. As you desire the recurring seasons of the year to be filled with fruit, so let your hearts be generous in feeding the poor. Assuredly, God … could produce the necessary materials for them, since all things are his. He could distribute so much goods to them that they would need nothing from your generosity. Much of the matter of virtue would be lacking to them and to you, if their want did not drive them to the crown of patience or your abundance lead you to the glory of compassion. Divine Providence has wonderfully arranged it that there should be in the church both holy poor and good rich people, who in turn benefit each other from their very diversity. In order for the eternal and incorruptible rewards to be gained, those receiving give thanks to God, and those distributing give thanks to God, for as it is written, … "the patience of the poor will not perish forever," and "God loves a cheerful giver."

Psalms 15:5 — SERMON 17:3-4

The evil of usury must be shunned, and the profit that lacks all human kindness must be avoided. The means for unjust and grievous gain is increased, but the essence of the soul is worn down, since usury in money is the ruin of the soul. The holy prophet David showed what God thinks about the people of this kind when he says, "Lord, who will dwell in your tent, or who will rest on your holy mountain?" Those are taught by the reply of the divine voice, and those know that they have a part in eternal rest if, among the other rules of a holy life, "they do not give their own money at usury." They are shown to be strangers to the "tent" of God and foreign to his "holy mountain" if they seize a deceitful profit for their money by usury, and, while they want to be rich through another's loss, they are worthy to be punished by eternal penury. But you, dearly beloved, who have believed the promises of the Lord with your whole heart, flee the foul leprosy of avarice and make a holy and wise use of God's gifts. Since you enjoy his generosity, take care that you may be able to have companions of your joy. The things that are supplied to you are lacking to many, and in their need the material has been given to you for imitating the divine goodness, so that through you the divine goodness might pass over to others. As you give out your temporal goods well, you are acquiring eternal.

Psalms 17:8 — SERMON 90:4.1

This should be the careful consideration of wise people, that since the days of this life are short and the time uncertain, death should never be unexpected for those who are to die. Those who know that they are mortal should not come to an unprepared end. Therefore this, which has been proclaimed by the voice of the prophet, should be taken up in the hearts of those praying, so that it may be said, not with the lips only but also with the heart.… For we are always in need of divine help. This is the unconquerable courage of human devotion, that we always have a protector without whom we are not able to be brave.

Psalms 19:1 — SERMON 19:2

All nature serves the Word of God for our instruction. Through all the turning points of the year, as if through the four Gospels, we learn from the unceasing trumpet both what we should preach and what we should do.… What is there through which the truth does not speak to us? Its voice is heard in the day, it is heard in the night, and the beauty of all things, established by the work of one God, does not cease to put into the ears of our hearts a ruling order, to let us see the "invisible things of God through those which have been made intelligible to us," and it is subject not to the creatures but to the Creator of all things.

Psalms 19:12 — SERMON 44:1

Although in any time there are many who lead an innocent life, and very many commend themselves to God by their habitual performance of good deeds, we should not however trust in the integrity of our conscience to such a point that we think that human weakness, living among scandals and temptations, can meet nothing that will harm it. The chief of prophets says, "Who will boast that they have pure hearts or that they are cleansed from sin?" [Here in this psalm] he says, "From my hidden faults cleanse me, O Lord, and from dangerous ones spare your servant."

Psalms 27:1 — SERMON 26:4.2

In rendering service to the grace of God, we are not only made subject to our King through obedience but are even joined to him through the will. If we are of one mind with him (willing what he wills, disapproving of what he disapproves), he himself will bring us victory in all our battles. He who has given the "will" will bestow also the ability. In this way can we "cooperate" with his works, speaking that prophetic utterance in the exultation of faith: "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?"

Psalms 34:8 — SERMON 50:2

God's people have spiritual feasts and pure delicacies that it is healthy for them to look for and laudable for them to desire, for the prophet says in praise of them, "Taste and see that the Lord is sweet." Whoever have touched with the taste of their hearts the sweetness of the justice and mercy of God, by which all his ordinances are carried out, and have drunk from the experiences of supernal joys never to be diminished by any pride, they will despise the corruptible and temporal good in their admiration of the eternal, and they will glow in that fire that the love of God kindles. As when cold is changed to warmth and night is changed to daylight, the Holy Spirit by one stroke in the hearts of the faithful takes away darkness and destroys sin.

Psalms 41:1 — SERMON 6:2

You should "recognize" Christ "in the needy" to the extent that your resources "allow." Christ our Lord gives testimony to the fact that he is the one whom we clothe, support and feed in them. That is how strongly he has recommended the poor to us.

Psalms 43:3 — SERMON 25:3.2-4:1

The beam that emanates from light does not come after the light. True light never lacks a beam, having it as part of its substance to shine, just as it always has it as part of its substance to exist. But the manifestation of this beam has been called a "sending," by which Christ appeared to the world. Although he filled all things with his invisible majesty, he came, nevertheless, to those who had not known him, as if from a very remote and deep seclusion. At that time, he took away the blindness of ignorance, as it has been written: "For those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, a light has risen." Of course the light of truth has been sent out in prior ages to enlighten the holy fathers and prophets, as when David said, "Send out your light and your truth." Of course the divinity of the Son has made clear the works of his presence "in various ways and by many signs." Yet all these prefigurations and all these miracles bore testimony about that "sending" of which the apostle speaks: "When the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, made from a woman, made under the Law."

Psalms 55:22 — SERMON 43:1

May human obedience never withdraw itself from the grace of God, nor may it fall from that good without which it cannot be good. If it feels anything impossible for itself or arduous in the performance of the commandments, let it not abide in itself but return to the one who commanded it, for he gives an order to excite desire and afford help, as the prophet says: "Cast your care on the Lord, and he himself will support you." Are there any so immoderately proud that they assume themselves to be so perfectly untouched and unstained that they need no renewal? Such an opinion is thoroughly mistaken, and they grow old in excessive vanity if, among the temptations of this life, they believe themselves immune from every wound. Everything is full of danger, everything full of pitfalls. Desires drive us, enticements lure us, money attracts us, loss hinders us, and the tongues of slanderers are bitter. The mouths of those who praise us are not always trustworthy; here hate rages, there a lying service deceives, so that it is easier to avoid discord than to escape falsehood.

Psalms 69:21 — SERMON 55:2

You have truly and in very many places read something that pertains to the detestable wickedness of your crime and to the voluntary suffering of the Lord. He himself speaks through Isaiah: "I gave my back to the scourges, my cheeks to striking hands; my face I did not shield from the insult of spittle." He says through David, "They put gall in my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." On yet another occasion, he says through David, "Many dogs surround me, a pack of evildoers closes in on me. They have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones. They watched me carefully and examined me. They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothes." Lest only the kind of your crime might seem to be predicted and the power of the crucified one not foretold, you certainly did not read that the Lord descended from the cross. You did, however, read, "The Lord has reigned from the cross."

Psalms 69:30 — SERMON 44:1

Always indeed, dearly beloved, "the earth is full of the Lord's kindness," and the nature of things itself is the teacher to each one of the faithful in the worship of God, while "heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them" proclaim the goodness and power of their Creator. The wonderful beauty of the elements that serve him demands a due thanksgiving from the understanding creature.

Psalms 73:2-3 — SERMON 43:2

Although the hearts of all the faithful do not doubt that divine providence is never absent in any part of the world or at any time or that success in temporal affairs does not rest on the power of the stars (which is no power) but it acknowledges that all things are disposed according to the most just and most kind decision of the King on High, as it is written: "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth." Still, since some things do not happen according to our desires, and since the cause of the wicked is often favored over that of the righteous in the mistakes of human justice, it is a fact very near to us and well known that these things trouble even great souls and drive them to some complaint of an unlawful matter. Even David, most renowned of prophets, confessed himself distressed by these diversities to the point of danger and said, "My feet were almost stumbling, my steps were all but slipping, because I was envious of the arrogant, seeing the prosperity of the sinners."

Psalms 77:10 — SERMON 27:2.2

What mind can understand this mystery, what tongue has the capability of explaining this grace? Iniquity turns back into innocence, oldness into newness. Strangers come into adoption, and foreigners enter on an inheritance. Godless people have started to be just, the covetous to be beneficent, the incontinent to be chaste, the "earthly" to be "heavenly." What has effected "this change" but the "right hand of the Most High"? For "the Son of God came to undo the devil's works." He grafted himself into us and us into himself in such a way that God's descent to human affairs became the elevation of human beings to those divine.

Psalms 116:15 — SERMON 82:6

Your blessed co-apostle, Paul, "vessel of election" and special teacher of the nations, coming to this city, was your associate at that time when all innocence, all honor, all liberty was suffering under the will of Nero. Nero's rage, inflamed by an excess of all vices, in this time drove him up to such a flood of insanity that he was the first to bring on the honor of a general persecution for the name of Christian. He seemed to think that the grace of God might be cut off through the slaughter of God's holy ones. Nero did not know that the religion founded on the mystery of the cross cannot be extinguished by any kind of cruelty, since "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." This does not diminish, but it increases, the church. As if the grace of God could be blotted out by the slaughter of his holy ones, for whom it was the greatest profit that the contempt of this failing life brought the knowledge of eternal happiness. Therefore this failing life brought the knowledge of eternal happiness. Therefore "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."

Psalms 116:15 — SERMON 84B.2

Renounce pleasure, turn away from uncleanness, dispel luxury, flee unrighteousness, resist falsehood. When you see that you are waging a battle on many fronts, then you must also, in imitation of the martyrs, pursue a many-sided victory. Every time we die to sins, the sins die in us, and this "death of his holy ones is precious in the sight of the Lord," because a "human being" dies "to the world" not by the destruction of senses but by the death of vices.

Psalms 130:7 — LETTER 108

But satisfaction must not be ruled out or absolution denied to those who in time of necessity or in the moment of pressing danger beg for the protection of penance followed by absolution. For we cannot put limitations on the mercy of God or fix limits to times. With him there is no delaying of pardon when the conversion is genuine, as the Spirit of God says through the prophet: "If being converted you lament, you will be saved"; and elsewhere: "Tell me your sins first in order that you may be justified";7 and again: "Because with the Lord there is mercy; and with him plentiful redemption." Consequently, we must not be stingy in dispensing the gifts of God or disregard the tears and groans of those accusing themselves, since, in our opinion, the very desire for penance was conceived through the inspiration of God, as the apostle says: "Lest by chance God give them repentance … so that they may recover themselves from the snare of the devil, at whose pleasure they are held captive."

Psalms 144:5 — TESTIMONIA 19

The psalmist is a witness of this matter when he says, "All have gone astray together; they have become worthless." And Christ's prophets, praying for help, said, "Lord, bow down your heavens and descend"; not that he might change the places in which all things are now located but that he might take on the flesh of human weakness for our salvation. Paul says the same thing: "How, being rich, he became poor for our sakes, that by his poverty we might become rich." And he came to the earth and proceeded as a man from the virgin's womb, which he sanctified. Confirming by this process the interpretation of his name, Emmanuel, that is, "God with us," he began in a marvelous way to be what we are and did not cease to be what he was. He assumed our nature in such a way as not to lose what he himself was.

Psalms 145:14 — SERMON 36:4.2

Whoever finds the healing of correction to be difficult should flee to the mercy of God for help and beg that the chains of evil habit be broken away from them, for "the Lord lifts up all who collapse and raises up all who have been broken down." No, the prayer of a believer will not be empty, since our merciful God "will accomplish the intentions of those who fear him." He will give what has been asked for, since he provided the inspiration to ask it. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, living and reigning with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Psalms 146:7-8 — SERMON 34:5.2

We not only do not hold back, but even encourage, compassion, wisely and divinely set up by the church, that even for such people you should pray to the Lord with us. We also, with tears of sorrow, have pity on the downfall of misled souls. Following the example of the apostle's compassion, "we are made weak with the weak," and "we weep with those who weep." We hope that the mercy of God may be gained with many tears and requisite satisfaction on the part of those who have lapsed. While we live in this body, no one's rehabilitation is to be despaired of. We should desire the amendment of all, with the Lord helping us, who "raises up those who have been broken down, sets captives free, gives sight to the blind," to whom is honor and glory "with the Father and with the Holy Spirit" forever and ever. Amen.

Romans 8:34 — LETTER 80

If the true high priest does not atone for us, using the nature proper to us, and the true blood of the spotless Lamb does not cleanse us, then a true priesthood and true sacrifices do not exist in any other way in God's church, which is the body of Christ. Although he is seated at the right hand of the Father, he performs the sacrament of the atonement in the same flesh which he assumed from the Virgin Mary.

Romans 12:5 — LETTER 14

The bond of our unity cannot be firm unless the bond of charity has tied us together in indivisible solidarity.… It is the connection of the entire body which makes for one health, one beauty. And this connection requires the unanimity of the entire body, but especially it demands harmony among the bishops.

Titus 1:16 — Sermon 36 On the Feast of the Epiphany, 6

Our state of peace, therefore, dearly-beloved, has its dangers, and it is vain for those who do not withstand vicious desires to feel secure of the liberty which is the privilege of their Faith. Men's hearts are shown by the character of their works, and the fashion of their minds is betrayed by the nature of their actions. For there are some, as the Apostle says, "who profess that they know God, but deny Him by their deeds." For the charge of denial is truly incurred when the good which is heard in the sound of the voice is not present in the conscience. Indeed, the frailty of man's nature easily glides into faults.

Titus 2:11 — SERMONS 23.5

Wherefore since the loving-kindness is manifest, dearly beloved, wherewith all the riches of Divine goodness are showered on us, whose call to eternal life has been assisted not only by the profitable examples of those who went before, but also by the visible and bodily appearing of the Truth Itself, we are bound to keep the day of the Lord's Nativity with no slothful nor carnal joy. And we shall each keep it worthily and thoroughly, if we remember of what Body we are members, and to what a Head we are joined, lest any one as an ill-fitting joint cohere not with the rest of the sacred building.

Titus 3:4 — SERMONS 23.4

Accordingly let those men cease their complaints who with disloyal murmurs speak against the dispensations of God, and babble about the lateness of the Lord's Nativity as if that, which was fulfilled in the last age of the world, had no bearing upon the times that are past. For the Incarnation of the Word did but contribute to the doing of that which was done: and the mystery of man's salvation was never in the remotest age at a standstill. What the apostles foretold, that the prophets announced: nor was that fulfilled too late which has always been believed. But the Wisdom and Goodness of God made us more receptive of His call by thus delaying the work which brought salvation: so that what through so many ages had been foretold by many signs, many utterances, and many mysteries, might not be doubtful in these days of the Gospel: and that the Saviour's nativity, which was to exceed all wonders and all the measure of human knowledge, might engender in us a Faith so much the firmer, as the foretelling of it had been ancient and oft-repeated.

WIS 9:15 — SERMONS 95:5

Next the Lord says: "blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth by inheritance." To the meek and gentle, to the humble and modest, and to those who are prepared to endure all injuries, the earth is promised for their possession. And this is not to be reckoned a small or cheap inheritance, as if it were distinct from our heavenly dwelling, since it is no other than these who are understood to enter the kingdom of heaven. The earth, then, which is promised to the meek, and is to be given to the gentle in possession, is the flesh of the saints, which in reward for their humility will be changed in a happy resurrection, and clothed with the glory of immortality, in nothing now to act contrary to the spirit, and to be in complete unity and agreement with the will of the soul. For then the outer man will be the peaceful and unblemished possession of the inner man: then the mind, engrossed in beholding God, will be hampered by no obstacles of human weakness nor will it any more have to be said "The body which is corrupted, weigheth upon the soul, and its earthly house presseth down the sense which thinketh many things:" for the earth will not struggle against its tenant, and will not venture on any insubordination against the rule of its governor. For the meek shall possess it in perpetual peace, and nothing shall be taken from their rights, "when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality:" that their danger may turn into reward, and what was a burden become an honour.