John II. 1-11
1. May the Lord our God be present, that He may grant us to render you
what we promised. For yesterday, if you remember, holy brethren, when the
shortness of the time prevented us from completing the sermon we had begun,
we put off until to-day the unfolding, by God's assistance, of those things
which are mystically put in hidden meanings in this fact of the Gospel
lesson. We need not, therefore, now stay any longer to commend the miracle
of God. For He is the same God who, throughout the whole creation, worketh
miracles every day, which become lightly esteemed by men, not because of
the ease with which they are wrought, but by reason of their constant recurrence.
Those uncommon works, however, which were done by the same Lord-that is,
by the Word for us made flesh-occasioned greater astonishment to men, not
because they are greater than those which He daily performs in the creation,
but because these which happen every day are accomplished as it were in
the course of nature; but the others appear exhibited to the eyes of men,
wrought by the: efficacy of a power, as it were, immediately present. We
said, as you remember, one dead man rose again, people were amazed, whilst
no man wonders at the birth every day of those who were not in being. In
like manner, who does not wonder at water turned into wine, although God
is doing this every year in vines? But since all the works which the Lord
Jesus did, serve not only to rouse our hearts by their miraculous character,
but also to edify our hearts in the doctrine of faith, it behoves us thoroughly
to examine into the meaning and significance of those works. For the consideration
of the meaning of all these things we deferred, as you remember, till today.
2. The Lord, in that He came to the marriage to which He was invited,
wished, apart from the mystical signification, to assure us that marriage
was His own institution. For there were to be those of whom the apostle
spoke, "forbidding to marry," and asserting that marriage was an evil,
and of the devil's institution: notwithstanding the same Lord declares
in the Gospel, on being asked whether it be lawful for a man to put away
his wife for any cause, that it is not lawful save for the cause of fornication.
In His answer, if you remember, He said, "What God hath joined together
let not man put asunder." And they that are well instructed in the catholic
faith know that God instituted marriage; and as the union of man and wife
is from God, so divorce is from the devil. But in the case of fornication
it is lawful for a man to put away his wife, because she first chose to
be no longer wife in not preserving conjugal fidelity to her husband. Nor
are those women who vow virginity to God, although they hold a higher place
of honor and sanctity in the Church, without marriage. For they too, together
with the whole Church, attain to a marriage, a marriage in which Christ
is the Bridegroom. And for this cause, therefore, did the Lord, on being
invited, come to the marriage, to confirm conjugal chastity, and to show
forth the sacrament of marriage. For the bridegroom in that marriage, to
whom it was said, "Thou hast kept the good wine until now," represented
the person of the Lord. For the good wine-namely, the gospel-Christ has
kept until now.
3. For now let us begin to uncover the hidden meanings of the mysteries,
so far as He in whose name we made you the promise may enable us. In the
ancient times there was prophecy, and no times were left without the dispensation
of prophecy. But the prophecy, since Christ was not understood therein,
was water. For in water wine is in some manner latent. The apostle tells
us what we are to understand by this water: "Even unto this day," saith
he, "whilst Moses is read, that same veil is upon their heart; that it
is not unveiled because it is done away in Christ. And when thou shalt
have passed over," saith he, "to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away."
By the veil he means the covering over of prophecy, so that it was not
understood. When thou hast passed over to the Lord, the veil is taken away;
so likewise is tastelessness taken away when thou hast passed over to the
Lord; and what was water now becomes wine to thee. Read all the prophetic
books; and if Christ be not understood therein, what canst thou find so
insipid and silly? Understand Christ in them, and what thou readest not
only has a taste, but even inebriates thee; transporting the mind from
the body, so that forgetting the things that are past, thou reachest forth
to the things that are before.
4. Wherefore, prophecy from ancient times, even from the time when the
series of human births began to run onwards, was not silent concerning
Christ; but the import of the prophecy was concealed therein, for as yet
it was water. Whence do we prove that in all former times, until the age
in which the Lord came, prophecy did not fail concerning Him? From the
Lord's own saying. For when He had risen from the dead, He found His disciples
doubting concerning Himself whom they had followed. For they saw that He
was dead, and they had no hope that He would rise again; all their hope
was gone. On what ground was the thief, after receiving praise, deemed
worthy to be that same day in Paradise? Because when bound on the cross
he confessed Christ, while the disciples doubted concerning Him. Well,
He found them wavering, and in a manner reproving themselves because they
had looked for redemption in Him. Yet they sorrowed for Him as cut off
without fault, for they knew Him to be innocent. And this is what the disciples
themselves said, after His resurrection, when He had found certain of them
in the way, sorrowful, "Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast
not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And He
said unto them, What things? And they said, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth,
who was a prophet mighty in deeds and words before God and all the people:
how our priests and rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and
bound Him to the cross. But we trusted that it was He who should have redeemed
Israel; and to-day is now the third day since these things were done."
After one of the two whom He found in the way going to a neighboring village
had spoken these and other words, Jesus answered and said, "O irrational,
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not
Christ to have suffered all these things. and to enter into His glory?
And beginning from Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in
all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." And likewise, in another
place, when He would even have His disciples touch Him with their hands,
that they might believe that He had risen in the body, He saith, "These
are the words which I have spoken unto you, while I was yet with you, that
all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and
in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened He their
understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto
them, Thus it is written, that Christ should suffer, and rise again from
the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."
5. When these words of the Gospel are understood, and they are certainly
clear, all the mysteries which are latent in this miracle of the Lord will
be laid open. Observe what He says, that it behoved the things to be fulfilled
in Christ that were written of Him. Where were they written? "In the law,"
saith He, "and in the prophets, and in the Psalms." He omitted no part
of the Old Scriptures. These were water; and hence the disciples were called
irrational by the Lord, because as yet they tasted to them as water, not
as wine. And how did He make of the water wine? When He opened their understanding,
and expounded to them the Scriptures, beginning from Moses, through all
the prophets; with which being now inebriated, they said, "Did not our
hearts burn within us in the way, when He opened to us the Scriptures?"
For they understood Christ in those books in which they knew Him not before.
Thus our Lord Jesus Christ changed the water into wine, and that has now
taste which before had not, that now inebriates which before did not. For
if He had commanded the water to be poured out of the water-pots, and so
Himself had put in the wine from the secret repositories of the creature,
whence He made bread when He satisfied so many thousands; for five loaves
were not in themselves sufficient to satisfy five thousand men, nor even
to fill twelve baskets, but the omnipotence of the Lord was, as it were,
a fountain of bread; so likewise He might, on the water being poured out,
have poured in wine: but had He done this, He would appear to have rejected
the Old Scriptures. When, however, He turns the water itself into wine,
He shows us that the Old Scripture also is from Himself, for at His own
command were the water-pots filled. It is from the Lord, indeed, that the
Old Scripture also is; but it has no taste unless Christ is understood
therein.
6. But observe what Himself saith, "The things which were written in
the law, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me." And we
know that the law extends from the time of which we have record, that is,
from the beginning of the world: "In the beginning God made the heaven
and the earth." Thence down to the time in which we are now living are
six ages, this being the sixth, as you have often heard and know. The first
age is reckoned from Adam to Noah; the second, from Noah to Abraham; and,
as Matthew the evangelist duly follows and distinguishes, the third, from
Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the carrying away into Babylon;
the fifth, from the carrying away into Babylon to John the Baptist; the
sixth, from John the Baptist to the end of the world. Moreover, God made
man after His own image on the sixth day, because in this sixth age is
manifested the renewing of our mind through the gospel, after the image
of Him who created us; and the water is turned into wine, that we may taste
of Christ, now manifested in the law and the prophets, Hence "there were
there six water-pots," which He bade be filled with water. Now the six
water-pots signify the six ages, which were not without prophecy. And those
six periods, divided and separated as it were by joints, would be as empty
vessels unless they were filled by Christ. Why did I say, the periods which
would run fruitlessly on, unless the Lord Jesus were preached in them?
Prophecies are fulfilled, the water-pots are full; but that the water may
be turned into wine, Christ must be understood in that whole prophecy.
7. But what means this: "They contained two or three metretae apiece"?
This phrase certainly conveys to us a mysterious meaning. For by "metretae"
he means certain measures, as if he should say jars, flasks, or something
of that sort. Metreta is the name of a measure, and takes its name from
the word "measure." For metron is the Greek word for measure, whence the
word "metretae" is derived. "They contained," then, "two or three metretae
apiece." What are we to say, brethren? If He had simply said "three apiece,"
our mind would at once have run to the mystery of the Trinity. And, perhaps,
we ought not at once to reject this application of the meaning, because
He said, "two or three apiece;" for when the Father and Son are named,
the Holy Spirit must necessarily be understood. For the Holy Spirit is
not that of the Father only, nor of the Son only, but the Spirit of the
Father and of the Son. For it is written," If any man love the world, the
Spirit of the Father is not in him." And again, "Whoso hath not the Spirit
of Christ is none of His." The same, then, is the Spirit of the Father
and of the Son. Therefore, the Father and the Son being named, the Holy
Spirit also is understood, because He is the Spirit of the Father and of
the Son. And when there is mention of the Father and Son, "two metretae,"
as it were, are mentioned; but since the Holy Spirit is understood in them,
"three metretae." That is the reason why it is not said, "Some containing
two metretae apiece, others three apiece;" but the same six water-pots
contained "two or three metretae apiece." It is as if he had said, When
I say two apiece, I would have the Spirit of the Father and of the Son
to be understood together with them; and when I say three apiece, I declare
the same Trinity more plainly.
8. Wherefore, whoso names the Father and the Son ought thereby to understand
the mutual love of the Father and Son, which is the Holy Spirit. And perhaps
the Scriptures on being examined (r do not say that I am able to show you
this to-day, or as if another proof cannot be found),-nevertheless, the
Scriptures, perhaps, on being searched, do show us that the Holy Spirit
is charity. And do not count charity a thing cheap. How, indeed, can it
be cheap, when all things that are said to be not cheap are called dear
(chara)? Therefore, if what is not cheap is dear, what is dearer than dearness
itself (charitas)? The apostle so commends charity to us that he says,
"I show unto you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass,
or a tinkling cymbal. And though I know all mysteries and all knowledge,
and have prophecy and all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and
have not charity, I am nothing. And though I distribute all my goods to
the poor, and give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth
me nothing." How great, then, is charity, which, if wanting, in vain have
we all things else; if present, rightly have we all things! Yet the Apostle
Paul, setting forth the praise of charity with copiousness and fullness,
has said less of it than did the Apostle John in brief, whose Gospel this
is. For he has not hesitated to say, "God is love." It is also written,
"Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit
which is given us." Who, then, can name the Father and the Son without
thereby understanding the love of the Father and Son? Which when one begins
to have, he will have the Holy Spirit; which if one has not, he will not
have the Holy Spirit. And just as thy body, if it be without spirit, namely
thy soul, is dead so likewise thy soul, if it be without the Holy Spirit,
that is, without charity, will be reckoned dead. Therefore "The water-pots
contained two Metretae apiece," because the Father and the Son are proclaimed
in the prophecy of all the periods; but the Holy Spirit is there also,
and therefore it is added, "or three apiece." "I and the Father," saith
He, "are one." But far be it from us to suppose that where we are told,
"I and the Father are one," the Holy Spirit is not there. Yet since he
named the Father and the Son, let the water-pots contain "two metretae
apiece;" but attend to this, "or three apiece." "Go, baptize the nations
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." So,
therefore, when it says "two apiece," the Trinity is not expressed but
understood; but when it says, "or three," the Trinity is expressed also.
9. But there is also another meaning that must not be passed over, and
which I will declare: let every man choose which he likes best. We keep
not back what is suggested to us. For it is the Lord's table, and the minister
ought not to defraud the guests, especially when they hunger as you now
do, so that your longing is manifest. Prophecy, which is dispensed from
the ancient times, has for its object the salvation of all nations. True,
Moses was sent to the people of Israel alone, and to that people alone
was the law given by him; and the prophets, too, were of that people, and
the very distribution of times was marked out according to the same people;
whence also the water-pots are said to be "according to the purification
of the Jews:" nevertheless, that the prophecy was proclaimed to all other
nations also is manifest, forasmuch as Christ was concealed in him in whom
all nations are blessed, as it was promised to Abraham by the Lord, saying,
"In thy seed shall all nations be blessed. But this was not as yet understood,
for as yet the water was not turned into wine. The prophecy therefore was
dispensed to all nations. But that this may appear more agreeably, let
us, so far as our time permits, mention certain facts respecting the several
ages, as represented respectively by the water-pots.
10. In the very beginning, Adam and Eve were the parents of all nations,
not of the Jews only; and whatever was represented in Adam concerning Christ,
undoubtedly concerned all nations, whose salvation is in Christ. What better
can I say of the water of the first water-pot than what the apostle says
of Adam and Eve? For no man will say that I misunderstand the meaning when
I produce, not my own, but the apostle's. How great a mystery, then, concerning
Christ does that of which the apostle makes mention contain, when he says,
"And the two shall be in one flesh: this is a great mystery!" And lest
any man should understand that greatness of mystery to exist in the case
of the individual men that have wives, he says, "But I speak concerning
Christ and the Church." What great mystery is this, "the two shall be one
flesh?" While Scripture, in the Book of Genesis, was speaking of Adam and
Eve, it came to these words, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and
mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they two shall be one flesh."
Now, if Christ cleave to the Church, so that the two should be one flesh,
in what manner did He leave His Father and His mother? He left His Father
in this sense, that when He was in the form of God, He thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking to Him the form of a
servant. In this sense He left His Father, not that He forsook or departed
from His Father, but that He did not appear unto men in that form in which
He was equal with the Father. But how did He leave His mother? By leaving
the synagogue of the Jews, of which, after the flesh, He was born, and
by cleaving to the Church which He has gathered out of all nations. Thus
the first water-pot then held a prophecy of Christ; but so long as these
things of which I speak were not preached among the peoples, the prophecy
was water, it was not vet changed into wine. And since the Lord his enlightened
us through the apostle, to show us what we were in search of, by this one
sentence, "The two shall be one flesh; a great mystery concerning Christ
and the Church;" we are now permitted to seek Christ everywhere, and to
drink wine from all the water-pots. Adam sleeps, that Eve may be formed;
Christ dies, that the Church may be formed. When Adam sleeps, Eve is formed
from his side; when Christ is dead, the spear pierces His side, that the
mysteries may flow forth whereby the Church is formed. Is it not evident
to every man that in those things then done, things to come were foreshadowed,
since the apostle says that Adam himself was the figure of Him that was
to come? "Who is," saith he, "the figure of Him that was to come." All
was mystically prefigured. For, in reality, God could have taken the rib
from Adam when he was awake, and formed the woman. Or was it, haply, necessary
for him to sleep lest he should feel pain in his side when the rib was
taken away? Who is there that sleeps so soundly that his bones may be torn
from him without his awaking? Or was it because it was God that tore it
out, that the man did not feel it? Well, He who could take it from him
without pain when he was asleep, could do it also when he was awake. But,
without doubt, the first water-pot was being filled, there was a dispensation
of the prophecy of that time concerning this which was to be.
11. Christ was represented also in Noah and in that ark of the whole
world. For why were all kinds of animals shut in, in the ark but to signify
all nations? For God could again create every kind of animals. When as
yet they were not, did He not say, "Let the earth bring forth," and the
earth brought forth? From the same source He could make anew, whence He
then made; by a word He made, by a word He could make again: were it not
that He was setting before us a mystery, and filling up the second water-pot
of prophetical dispensation, that the world might by the wood be delivered
in a figure; because the life of the world was to be nailed on wood.
12. Now, in the third water-pot, to Abraham, as I have mentioned before,
it was said, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed." And who does not
see whose figure Abraham's only son was, he who bore the wood for the sacrifice
of himself, to that place whither he was being led to be offered up? For
the Lord bore his own cross, as the Gospel tells us. This will be enough
to say concerning the third water-pot.
13. But as to David, why do I say that his prophecy extends to all nations,
when we have just heard the psalm (and it is difficult to mention a psalm
in which the same is not sounded forth)? But certainly, as I have said.
we have been just singing, "Arise, O God, judge the earth; for Thou shalt
inherit among all nations." And this is why the Donatists are as men cast
forth from the marriage: just as the man who had not a wedding garment
was invited, and came, but was cast forth from the number of the guests
because he had not the garment to the glory of the bridegroom; for he who
seeks his own glory, not Christ's, has not the wedding garment: for they
refuse to agree with him who was the friend of the Bridegroom, and says,
"This is He that baptizeth." And deservedly was that which he was not made,
by way of rebuke, an objection to him who had not the wedding garment,
"Friend, how art thou come hither? " And just as he was speechless, so
also are these. For what can tongue-clatter avail when the heart is mute?
For they know that inwardly, and with their own selves, they have not anything
to say. Within, they are mute; without, they make a din. But whether they
will or no, they hear this sung even among themselves, "Arise, O God, judge
the earth; for Thou shalt inherit among the nations "and by not communicating
with all nations, what do they but acknowledge themselves to be disinherited?
14. Now what I said, brethren, that prophecy extends to all nations
(for I wish to show you another meaning in the expression, "Containing
two or three metretae apiece "),-that prophecy, I say, extends to all nations,
is pointed out, as we have just now reminded you, in Adam, "who is the
figure of Him that was to come." Who does not know that from him all nations
are sprung; and that in the four letters of his name the four quarters
of the globe, by their Greek appellations, are indicated? For if the east,
west, north, and south are expressed in Greek even as Holy Scripture mentions
them in various places, the initial letters of the words, thou wilt find,
make the word Adam: for in Greek the four quarters of the world are called
Anatole, Dysis, Arktos, Mesembria. If thou write these four words, one
under the other, like four verses, the capital letters form the word Adam.
The same is represented in Noah, by reason of the ark, in which were all
animals, significant of all nations: the same in Abraham, to whom it was
said more clearly, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed:" the same
in David, from whose psalms, to omit other expressions, we have just been
singing, "Arise, O God, judge the earth; for Thou shalt inherit among all
nations." Now to what God is it said "Arise," but to Him who slept? "Arise,
O God, judge the earth." As if it were said, Thou hast been asleep, having
been judged by the earth; arise, to judge the earth. And whither does that
prophecy extend, "For Thou shalt inherit among all nations"?
15. Moreover, in the fifth age, in the fifth water-pot as it were, Daniel
saw a stone that had been cut from a mountain without hands, and had broken
all the kingdoms of the earth; and he saw the stone grow and become a great
mountain, so as to fill the whole face of the earth. What can be plainer,
my brethren? The stone is cut from a mountain: the same is the stone which
the builders rejected, and is become the head of the corner. From what
mountain is it cut, if not from the kingdom of the Jews, of which our Lord
Jesus Christ was born according to the flesh? And it is cut without hands,
without human exertion; because Christ sprung from a virgin, without a
husband's embrace. The mountain from which it was cut had not filled the
whole face of the earth; for the kingdom of the Jews did not possess all
nations. But, on the other hand, the kingdom of Christ we see occupying
the whole world.
16. To the sixth age belongs John the Baptist, than whom none greater
has arisen among those born of women; of whom it was said, that he was
"greater than a prophet." And how did John show that Christ was sent to
all nations? When the Jews came to him to be baptized, that they might
not pride themselves on the name of Abraham, he said to them, "O generation
of vipers, who has proclaimed to you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring
forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance;" that is, be humble; for he
was speaking to proud people. But whereof were they proud? Of their descent
according to the flesh, not of the fruit of imitating their father Abraham.
What said he to them? "Say not, We have Abraham for our father: for God
is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham." Meaning by stones
all nations, not on account of their durable strength, as in the case of
that stone which the builders rejected, but on account of their stupidity
and their foolish insensibility, because they had become like the things
which they were accustomed to worship: for they worshipped senseless images,
themselves equally senseless. "They that make them are like them, and so
are all they that trust in them." Accordingly, when men begin to worship
God, what do they hear said to them? "That ye may be the children of your
Father who is in heaven; who maketh His sun to rise on the good and on
the evil, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Wherefore, if
a man becomes like that which he worships, what is meant by "God is able
of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham"? Let us ask ourselves
and we shall see that it is a fact. For of those nations are we come, but
we should not have come of them had not God of the stones raised up children
unto Abraham. We are made children of Abraham by imitating his faith, not
by being born of his flesh. For just as they by their degeneracy have been
disinherited, so have we by imitating been adopted. Therefore, brethren,
this prophecy also of the sixth water-pot extended to all nations; and
hence it was said concerning all, "containing two or three metretae apiece."
17. But how do we show that all nations belong to the "two or three
metretae apiece"? It was a matter of reckoning, in some measure, that he
should say the same water-pots contained "two apiece," which he had said
contained "three apiece;" evidently in order to intimate to us a mystery
therein. How are there "two metretae apiece"? Circumcision and uncircumcision.
Scripture mentions these two classes of people, and leaves out no kind
of men, when it says, "Circumcision and uncircumcision;" in these two appellations
thou hast all nations: they are the two metretae apiece. In these two walls,
meeting from different quarters, "Christ became the corner-stone, in order
to make peace in Himself." Let us show also the "three metretae; apiece"
in the case of these same all nations. Noah had three sons, through whom
the human race was restored. Hence the Lord says, "The kingdom of heaven
is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till
the whole was leavened." What is this woman, but the flesh of the Lord?
What is the leaven, but the gospel? What the three measures, but all nations,
on account of the three sons of Noah? Therefore the "six water-pots containing
two or three metretae apiece" are six periods of time, containing the prophecy
relating to all nations, whether as represented in two sorts of men, namely,
Jews and Greeks, as the apostle often mentions them; or in three sorts,
on account of the three sons of Noah. For the prophecy was represented
as reaching unto all nations. And because of that reaching it is called
a measure, even as the apostle says, "We have received a measure for reaching
unto you." For in preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, he says, "A measure
for reaching unto you."
