Introduction.

The Three Persons of the Godhead were not unknown to the judges of old nor to Moses, for the equality of the Son with the Father, as well as of the Three Persons amongst Themselves, is laid down both elsewhere and by him. Samson also enjoyed the assistance of the Holy Spirit, his history is touched upon and shown to be in some points typical of the Church and her mysteries. When the Holy Spirit left Samson he fell into various calamities, and St. Ambrose explains the spiritual significance of his shorn locks.

1. Even in reading the first book of the ancient history it is made clear both that the sevenfold grace of the Spirit shone forth in the judges themselves of the Jews, and that the mysteries of the heavenly sacraments were made known by the Spirit, of Whose eternity Moses was not ignorant. Then, too, at the very beginning of the world, and indeed before its beginning, he conjoined Him with God, Whom he knew to be eternal before the beginning of the world. For if any one takes good heed he will recognize in the beginning both the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. For of the Father it is written: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”224    Ps. cxix. [cxviii.] 91.    Gen. i. 1. Of the Spirit it is said: “The Spirit was borne upon the waters.”225    1 Cor. ii. 10.    Gen. i. 4. And well in the beginning of creation is there set forth the figure of baptism whereby the creature had to be purified. And of the Son we read that He it is Who divided light from darkness, for there is one God the Father Who speaks, and one God the Son Who acts.

2. But, again, that you may not think that there was assumption in the bidding of Him Who spoke, or inferiority on the part of Him Who carried out the bidding, the Father acknowledges the Son as equal to Himself in the execution of the work, saying: “Let Us make man after Our image and likeness.”226    S. John xv. 26.    Gen. i. 26. For the common image and the working and the likeness can signify nothing but the oneness of the same Majesty.

3. But that we may more fully recognize the equality of the Father and the Son, as the Father spoke, the Son made, so, too, the Father works and the Son speaks. The Father works, as it is written: “My Father worketh hitherto.”227    S. John v. 17. You find it said to the Son: “Say the word and he shall be healed.”228    S. Matt. viii. 8. And the Son says to the Father: “I will that where I am, they too shall be with Me.”229    S. John xvii. 24. The Father did what the Son said.

4. But neither was Abraham ignorant of the Holy Spirit; he saw Three and worshipped One, for there is one God, one Lord, and one Spirit. And so there is a oneness of honour, because there is a oneness of power.

5. And why should I speak of all one by one? Samson, born by the divine promise, had the Spirit accompanying him, for we read: “The Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to be with him in the camp.”230    Judg. xiii. 25. And so foreshadowing the future mystery, he demanded a wife of the aliens, which, as it is written, his father and mother knew not of, because it was from the Lord. And rightly was he esteemed stronger than others, because the Spirit of the Lord guided him, under Whose guidance he alone put to flight the people of the aliens, and at another time inaccessible to the bite of the lion, he, unconquerable in his strength, tore him asunder with his hands. Would that he had been as careful to preserve grace, as strong to overcome the beast!

6. And perhaps this was not only a prodigy of valour, but also a mystery of wisdom, an utterance of prophecy. For it does not seem to have been without a purpose that, as he was going to his marriage, a roaring lion met him, which he tore asunder with his hands, in whose body, when about to enjoy the wished-for wedlock, he found a swarm of bees, and took honey from its mouth, which he gave to his father and mother to eat. The people of the Gentiles which believed had honey, the people which was before savage is now the people of Christ.

7. Nor is the riddle without mystery, which he set forth to his companions: “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.”231    Judg. xiv. 14. And there was a mystery up to the point of the three days in which its answer was sought in vain, which could not be made known except by the faith of the Church, on the seventh day, the time of the Law being completed, after the Passion of the Lord. For thus you find that the apostles did not understand, “because Jesus was not yet glorified.”232    S. John vii. 39.

8. “What,” answer they, “is sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a lion?” To which he replied: “If ye had not farmed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle.”233    Judg. xiv. 18. O divine mystery! O manifest sacrament! we have escaped from the slayer, we have overcome the strong one. The food of life is now there, where before was the hunger of a miserable death. Dangers are changed into safety, bitterness into sweetness. Grace came forth from the offence, power from weakness, and life from death.

9. There are, however, who think on the other hand that the wedlock could not have been established unless the lion of the tribe of Judah had been slain; and so in His body, that is, the Church, bees were found who store up the honey of wisdom, because after the Passion of the Lord the apostles believed more fully. This lion, then, Samson as a Jew slew, but in it he found honey, as in the figure of the heritage which was to be redeemed, that the remnant might be saved according to the election of grace.234    Rom. xi. 5.

10. “And the Spirit of the Lord,” it is said, “came upon him, and he went down to Ascalon, and smote thirty men of them.”235    Judg. xiv. 19. For he could not fail to carry off the victory who saw the mysteries. And so in the garments they receive the reward of wisdom, the badge of intercourse, who resolve and answer the riddle.

11. Here, again, other mysteries come up, in that his wife is taken away, and for this foxes set fire to the sheaves of the aliens. For their own cunning often deceives those who contend against divine mysteries. Wherefore it is said again in the Song of Songs: “Take us the little foxes which destroy the vineyards, that our vineyards may flourish.”236    Cant. ii. 15. He said well “little,” because the larger could not destroy the vineyards, though to the strong even the devil is weak.

12. So, then, he (to sum up the story briefly, for the consideration of the whole passage is reserved for its own season) was unconquered so long as he kept the grace of the Spirit, as was the people of God chosen by the Lord, that Nazarite under the Law. Samson, then, was unconquered, and so invincible as to be able to smite a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass;237    Judg. xv. 15. so full of heavenly grace that when thirsty he found even water in the jawbone of an ass, whether you consider this as a miracle, or turn it to a mystery, because in the humility of the people of the Gentiles there would be both rest and triumph according to that which is written: “He that smiteth thee on the cheek, turn to him also the other.”238    S. Matt. v. 39. For by this endurance of injuries, which the sacrament of baptism teaches, we triumph over the stings of anger, that having passed through death we may attain to the rest of the resurrection.

13. Is that, then, Samson who broke ropes twisted with thongs, and new cords like weak threads? Is that Samson who did not feel the bonds of his hair fastened to the beam, so long as he had the grace of the Spirit? He, I say, after the Spirit of God departed from him, was greatly changed from that Samson Who returned clothed in the spoils of the aliens, but fallen from his greatness on the knees of a woman, caressed and deceived, is shorn of his hair.239    Judg. xvi. 7, 11, 19.

14. Was, then, the hair of his head of such importance that, so long as it remained, his strength should endure unconquered, but when his head was shorn the man should suddenly lose all his strength? It is not so, nor may we think that the hair of his head has such power. There is the hair of religion and faith; the hair of the Nazarite perfect in the Law, consecrated in sparingness and abstinence, with which she (a type of the Church), who poured ointment on the feet of the Lord, wiped the feet of the heavenly Word, for then she knew Christ also after the flesh. That hair it is of which it is said: “Thy hair is as flocks of goats,”240    Cant. iv. 1. growing on that head of which it is said: “The head of the man is Christ,”241    1 Cor. xi. 3. and in another place: “His head is as fine gold, and his locks like black pine-trees.”242    Cant. v. 11.

15. And so, also, in the Gospel our Lord, pointing out that some hairs are seen and known, says: “But even the hairs of your head are all numbered,”243    S. Matt. x. 30. implying, indeed, acts of spiritual virtues, for God does not take care for our hair. Though, indeed, it is not absurd to believe that literally, seeing that according to His divine Majesty nothing can be hidden from Him.

16. But what does it profit me, if God Himself knows all my hairs? That rather abounds and profits me, if the watchful witness of good works reward me with the gift of eternal life. And, in fine, Samson himself, declaring that these hairs are not mystical, says: “If I be shorn my strength will depart from me.”244    Judg. xvi. 17. So much concerning the mystery, let us now consider the order of the passage.

PROLOGUS.

0741D

Tres divinas personas ut priscis judicibus ita et Moysi non fuisse ignotas: declaratam etiam cum alibi tum apud illum Filii cum Patre, non secus 0742Dac trium inter se aequalitatem. Spiritum sanctum adfuisse Samsoni, cujus deinceps percurritur mira historia et variis Ecclesiae mysteriis aptatur. Eodem autem Spiritu recedente, ipsum in multiplices 0743Aincidisse calamitates, quod resecatis capillis ne tribuatur, spiritales illorum significationes proponit Ambrosius.

1. Etsi in libro primo veteris historiae lectione patefactum sit; et in ipsis judicibus veterum Judaeorum septiformis gratiam Spiritus refulsisse, et per Spiritum sanctum coelestium sacramentorum revelata mysteria, quem Moyses non ignoravit aeternum. Denique statim in principio mundi, immo ante principium, cum Deo junxit, quem ante mundi principium sempiternum esse cognovit. Namque si quis diligenter 634 advertat, et Patrem in principio et Filium cognoscet et Spiritum. De Patre enim scriptum est: In principio fecit Deus coelum et terram (Gen. I, 1, 2). De Spiritu dictum est: Spiritus 0743Bsuperferebatur super aquas (Ibid., 4). Et bene in exordio creaturae baptismi figura signatur, per quod habuit creatura mundari. Lectum etiam de Filio quod ipse est, qui discrevit inter medium lucis et tenebrarum; unus est enim Deus Pater qui dicit, et unus Dominus Jesus qui facit.

2. Sed ne rursus aut arrogans putes dicentis imperium, aut vile facientis obsequium; aequalem sibi Pater Filium confitetur operis unitate dicens: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram (Ibid., 26). Imago enim et operatio et similitudo communis quid aliud nisi majestatis ejusdem significat unitatem?

3. Tamen ut aequalitatem plenius Patris Filiique cognoscas, sicut dixit Pater et Filius fecit; ita et 0743C Pater operatur, et Filius dicit. Pater operatur, sicut scriptum est: Pater meus usque modo operatur (Joan. V, 17). 635 Habes dictum ad Filium: Dic verbo et sanabitur (Matth. VIII, 8). Et Filius dicit Patri: Volo ut ubi ego sum, et isti sint mecum (Joan. XVII, 24). Fecit Pater quod Filius dixit.

4. Sed nec Abraham ignoravit Spiritum sanctum: denique tres vidit, et unum adoravit (Gen. XVIII, 2, 3,); quia unus Deus, unus Dominus, et unus Spiritus. Et ideo unitas honoris; quia unitas potestatis.

5. Et quid de singulis loquar? Samson divina promissione generatus, Spiritum comitantem habebat; sic enim legimus: Quia benedixit ei Dominus, et coepit Spiritus Domini comitari cum eo in castra (Judic. XIII, 0744A 25). Et ideo futurum praevidens sacramentum, ex alienigenis poscebat uxorem (Judic. XIV, 1 et seq.): quod Pater ejus ac mater, ut scriptum est, ignorabant, quoniam a Domino est. Meritoque fortior caeteris habebatur, quia eum Spiritus Domini dirigebat, quo duce, solus nunc alienigenarum fugabat populos, nunc leonem morsu inviolabilis, fortitudine insuperabilis, discerptum manibus dividebat (Ibid. 5 et seq.). Utinam tam cautus ad servandam gratiam, quam fortis ad superandam bestiam!

6. Et fortasse hoc non solum virtutis miraculum, sed etiam sapientiae mysterium, prophetiae oraculum fuit. Neque enim otiosum videtur quod cum tenderet ad mysterium nuptiarum, leo rugiens occurrit ei, quem manibus ille discerpsit, in cujus corpore, 0744B connubio potiturus optato, congregationem apum reperit, et mel sustulit de ore ejus, quod Patri edendum matrique tribuit (Ibid., 8 et seq.). Habebat gentium populus mella, qui credidit: qui populus feritatis erat ante, nunc Christi est.

7. Nec ipsa quaestio vacat sacramentis, quam proposuit sodalibus suis, dicens: De edente exivit esca, etde potente exivit dulce (Ibid., 14). Denique eo usque mystica, ut tribus diebus ejus revelatio quaereretur, quae non potuit nisi per fidem Ecclesiae. die septima, completo Legis tempore, post passionem Domini revelari. Sic enim habes, quia et apostoli ideo non intelligebant, quia Jesus nondum fuerat honorificatus (Joan. VII, 39).

8. Quid, inquiunt, dulcius melle, et quid fortius 0744Cleone? Ad quae ille respondit: Si non domuissetis vitulam meam, non invenissetis quaestionem meam (Judic. XIV, 18). O divinum mysterium! O evidens sacramentum! Evasimus interemptorem, potentem vicimus. Ibi nunc cibus vitae est, ubi erat ante miserae fames mortis. In salutem pericula, in suavitatem amaritudo convertitur. Gratia ex offensione processit, potentia ex infirmitate, vita de morte.

9. Sunt tamen qui e contrario putent fundari 636 non potuisse conjugium, nisi occiso leone de tribu Juda: et ideo in corpore ejus, hoc est, Ecclesiae, apes repertas, quae condunt mella sapientiae; quia post Domini passionem magis apostoli crediderunt. Hunc igitur leonem Samson quasi Judaeus occidit, sed in eo mel quasi in figura redimendae haereditatis 0745A invenit; ut reliquiae salvae fierent secundum electionem gratiae (Rom. XI, 27).

10. Et decidit, inquit, super eum Spiritus Domini, et descendit in Ascalonem, et percussit indetriginta viros (Judic. XIV, 19, 20). Neque enim potuerat victoriam non tenere, qui sacramenta cernebat. Accipiunt itaque in stolis praemium sapientiae, conversationis insigne, qui absolvunt et renuntiant quaestionem.

11. Rursus hic alia oboriuntur mysteria, quod uxor ejus aufertur; et ideo vulpes incendunt manipulos alienigenarum (Judic. XV, 1 et seq.). Eos enim qui adversus divina sacramenta contendunt, decipere sua consuevit astutia. Unde iterum dicit in Canticis canticorum: Prendite nobis vulpes pusillas exterminantes vineas, ut vineae nostrae floreant (Cant. II, 0745B 15). Bene pusillas dixit; quia majores vineas exterminare non poterant, licet fortibus et diabolus sit pusillus.

12. Ergo ille (ut compendium faciamus historiae; suo enim tempori totius lectionis digestio reservanda est) invictus erat, quamdiu habuit gratiam spiritalem, sicut Dei populus ille electus a Domino, ille Nazaraeus in Lege. Invictus ergo Samson, atque ita insuperabilis, ut in maxilla asini viros mille percuteret: ita plenus gratiae coelestis, ut etiam aquam in maxilla asini sitiens reperiret (Judic. XV, 15 et seq.); sive hoc ad miraculum conferas, sive ad mysterium vertas, quod in populi foret humilitate gentilis et requies et triumphus. Juxta quod scriptum est: Qui te percusserit in maxillam, praebe ei et alteram (Matth. V, 39). 0745C Per hanc enim injuriarum patientiam, quam erudiunt sacramenta baptismatis, de quibusdam stimulis iracundiae triumphamus; ut morte obita, resurrectionis requiem consequamur.

13. Illene ergo Samson, qui funes intextos nervis, qui novas restes sicut mollia fila dissolvit? Illene Samson qui crinium suorum palo constricta defixo vincla non sensit, quamdiu habuit gratiam spiritalem? Is, inquam, posteaquam Spiritus Dei discessit ab eo, longe mutatus ab illo Samsone, qui rediit Allophylorum indutus exuvias, in muliebribus genibus virtutis suae degener, palpatus et captus sacro crine tondetur (Judic. XVI, 9 et seq.)?

0746A 14. Tantumne ergo momenti crines habuere capitis, ut manentibus his, virtus invicta duraret: tonso autem capite, fortitudo omnis viri 637 subito solveretur? Non ita est, ut tantam vim corporalium capillorum putemus. Sunt quidam crines religionis et fidei: crines Nazaraei in Lege perfecti, in parcimonia et abstinentia consecrati, quibus illa in typo Ecclesia, quae Domini pedes oleo perfuderat, Verbi coelestis vestigia detergebat (Joan. XII, 3); tunc enim et secundum carnem noverat Christum. Isti videlicet crines, de quibus dicitur: Capillatura tua ut greges caprarum (Cantic. IV, 1); ex illo capite pullulantes, de quo dictum est: Caput viri, Christus (I Cor. XI, 3); et alibi: Caput ejus aurum cephas, et crines ejus abietes nigrae (Cant. V, 11). Et bonae ex 0746B abiete naves Tharsis, quae fluctibus supernatent mundi, et tutum remigium salutis exhibeant.

15. Unde et in Evangelio Dominus noster visibiles capitis et intelligibiles capillos quosdam esse significans, ait: Sed et capilli capitis vestri omnes numerati sunt (Matth. X, 31), spiritalium videlicet significans facta virtutum; neque enim de capillis nostris cura est Deo. Quamquam et illud non absurdum sit aestimare, quia pro majestate divina eum latere nihil possit.

16. Sed quid mihi prodest, si Deus ipse omnes meos novit capillos? Illud mihi redundat et proficit, si bonorum operum pervigil testis, remunerationem gloriae donet aeternae. Denique et ipse Samson non corporales, sed intelligibiles hos capillos esse declarans 0746C ait: Et si tonsus fuero, discedet a me virtus mea (Judic. XVI, 17). Hoc de mysterio: nunc lectionis seriem consideremus.