Chapter XI.

The purpose and healing effects of the Incarnation. The profitableness of faith, whereby we know that Christ bore all infirmities for our sakes,—Christ, Whose Godhead revealed Itself in His Passion; whence we understand that the mission of the Son of God entailed no subservience, which belief we need not fear lest it displease the Father, Who declares Himself to be well pleased in His Son.

89. Let us likewise deal kindly, let us persuade our adversaries of that which is to their profit, “let us worship and lament before the Lord our Maker.”373    Ps. xcv. 6. St. Ambrose follows the LXX. For we would not overthrow, but rather heal; we lay no ambush for them, but warn them as in duty bound. Kindliness often bends those whom neither force nor argument will avail to overcome. Again, our Lord cured with oil and wine the man who, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves; having forborne to treat him with the harsh remedies of the Law or the sternness of Prophecy.

90. To Him, therefore, let all come who would be made whole. Let them receive the medicine which He hath brought down from His Father and made in heaven, preparing it of the juices of those celestial fruits that wither not. This is of no earthly growth, for nature nowhere possesseth this compound. Of wondrous purpose took He our flesh, to the end that He might show that the law of the flesh had been subjected to the law of the mind. He was incarnate, that He, the Teacher of men, might overcome as man.

91. Of what profit would it have been to me, had He, as God, bared the arm of His power, and only displayed His Godhead inviolate? Why should He take human nature upon Him, but to suffer Himself to be tempted under the conditions of my nature and my weakness? It was right that He should be tempted, that He should suffer with me, to the end that I might know how to conquer when tempted, how to escape when hard pressed. He overcame by force of continence, of contempt of riches, of faith; He trampled upon ambition, fled from intemperance, bade wantonness be far from Him.

92. This medicine Peter beheld, and left His nets, that is to say, the instruments and security of gain, renouncing the lust of the flesh as a leaky ship, that receives the bilge, as it were, of multitudinous passions. Truly a mighty remedy, that not only removed the scar of an old wound, but even cut the root and source of passion. O Faith, richer than all treasure-houses; O excellent remedy, healing our wounds and sins!

93. Let us bethink ourselves of the profitableness of right belief. It is profitable to me to know that for my sake Christ bore my infirmities, submitted to the affections of my body, that for me, that is to say, for every man, He was made sin, and a curse,374    2 Cor. v. 21; Gal. iii. 13. that for me and in me was He humbled and made subject, that for me He is the Lamb, the Vine, the Rock,375    S. John i. 29, 36; xv. 1; 1 Cor. x. 4. the Servant, the Son of an handmaid,376    S. Mark x. 45; S. John xiii. 4, 5; Ps. lxxxvi. 16; cxvi. 14; S. Luke i. 38. knowing not the day of judgment, for my sake ignorant of the day and the hour.377    S. Matt. xxiv. 36. On this place Hurter observes: “We must certainly believe that Christ, as man, knew, through His human understanding, the day and the hour of judgment—though not by virtue of the natural power of that human understanding. Accordingly, unless we are without sufficient reason to charge the holy Doctor with erroneous views, these words must be explained as meaning that Christ behaved Himself as though He knew not the day of judgment, and as though He were a servant, though in reality He was not a servant but the Son of God. And truly Christ did ‘for my sake’—i.e. in order to set me an example—conceal many titles and powers which He really possessed: thus, for thirty years He did no miracle.” Cf. Bk. V. § 53. “He feigns ignorance, that He may make the ignorant wise.”

94. For how could He, Who hath made days and times, be ignorant of the day? How could He not know the day, Who hath declared both the season of Judgment to come, and the cause?378    See S. Matt. xxiv. 22, 29; Ps. xcvi. 13; xcviii. 10. A curse, then, He was made not in respect of His Godhead, but of His flesh; for it is written: “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”379    Deut. xxi. 23; Gal. iii. 13. In and after the flesh, therefore, He hung, and for this cause He, Who bore our curses, became a curse.380    This it is that has constituted the “offence of the Cross.”—Gal. v. 11; 1 Cor. i. 22. He wept that thou, man, mightest not weep long. He endured insult, that thou mightest not grieve over the wrong done to thee.381    i.e. the sorrows met with during our passage through the world, by reason of human unkindness. Or perhaps the possessive adjective may be taken as equivalent to a subj. genitive, and we should render by “the wrong that thou hast done.”

95. A glorious remedy—to have consolation of Christ! For He bore these things with surpassing patience for our sakes—and we forsooth cannot bear them with common patience for the glory of His Name! Who may not learn to forgive, when assailed, seeing that Christ, even on the Cross, prayed,—yea, for them that persecuted Him? See you not that those weaknesses, as you please to call them, of Christ’s are your strength?382    2 Cor. xii. 9; xiii. 4; 1 Pet. ii. 24; iv. 13. Why question Him in the matter of remedies for us? His tears wash us, His weeping cleanses us,—and there is strength in this doubt, at least, that if you begin to doubt, you will despair. The greater the insult, the greater is the gratitude due.

96. Even in the very hour of mockery and insult, acknowledge His Godhead. He hung upon the Cross, and all the elements did Him homage.383    S. Matt. xxvii. 51. The sun withdrew his rays, the daylight vanished, darkness came down and covered the land, the earth trembled; yet He Who hung there trembled not. What was it that these signs betokened, but reverence for the Creator? That He hangs upon the Cross—this, thou Arian, thou regardest; that He gives the kingdom of God—this, thou regardest not. That He tasted of death, thou readest, but that He also invited the robber into paradise,384    S. Luke xxiii. 43. to this thou givest no heed. Thou dost gaze at the women weeping by the tomb, but not upon the angels keeping watch by it.385    S. John xx. 11, 12. What He said, thou readest: what He did, thou dost not read. Thou sayest that the Lord said to the Canaanitish woman: “I am not sent, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,”386    S. Matt. xv. 24. thou dost not say that He did what He was besought by her to do.

97. Thou shouldst hereby understand that His being “sent” means not that He was compelled, at the command of another, but that He acted, of free will, according to His own judgment, otherwise thou dost accuse Him of despising His Father. For if, according to thine expounding, Christ had come into Jewry, as one executing the Father’s commands, to relieve the inhabitants of Jewry, and none besides, and yet before that was accomplished, set free the Canaanitish woman’s daughter from her complaint, surely He was not only the executor of another’s instruction, but was free to exercise His own judgment. But where there is freedom to act as one will, there can be no transgressing the terms of one’s mission.

98. Fear not that the Son’s act displeased the Father, seeing that the Son Himself saith: “Whatsoever things are His good pleasure, I do always,” and “The works that I do, He Himself doeth.”387    S. John viii. 29; xiv. 12. How, then, could the Father be displeased with that which He Himself did through the Son? For it is One God, Who, as it is written, “hath justified circumcision in consequence of faith, and uncircumcision through faith.”388    Rom. iii. 30.

99. Read all the Scriptures, mark all diligently, you will then find that Christ so manifested Himself that God might be discerned in man. Misunderstand not maliciously the Son’s exultation in the Father, when you hear the Father declaring His pleasure in the Son.

CAPUT XI.

Proponit cum Arianis humaniter agere Christi exemplo vulnera vino et oleo curantis: ad quod coeleste medicamentum omnes invitans, quo consilio is carnem 0579Binduerit, et qua utilitate, tradit. Hinc aperit quantum prosit fidem habere, qua Christum propter nos omnem infirmitatem suscepisse cognoscimus, cujus divinitas in passione erumpebat. Ex quibus intelligere est Dei Filium sine subjectione ulla missum fuisse: nec metuendum ne fides haec displiceat Patri; quippe qui in filio sibi complacere significet.

89. Agamus et nos moraliter, persuadeamus illis quod sibi prosit, obsecremus et ploremus ante Dominum qui fecit nos (Psal. XCIV, 6). Non enim 488 vincere volumus, sed sanare: non insidiose agimus, sed religiose monemus. Saepe flectit humanitas, quos nec virtus potuerit superare, nec ratio. Denique Dominus illum hominem qui ex Hiericho descendens, 0579C incidit in latrones, quem non asperioribus Legis medicamentis, non prophetico rigore curaverat, oleo curavit et vino (Luc. X, 30 et seq.).

90. Veniant ergo ad hunc omnes qui sanari volunt; accipiant medicamentum, quod et a Patre detulit, et praeparavit in coelo, ex illis confectum immortalibus succis. Hoc ex terra non pullulat; expers enim est omnis natura hujus confectionis. Divino enim consilio suscepit hanc carnem, ut ostenderet legem carnis legi esse subditam mentis. Suscepit carnem, ut quasi homo vinceret, qui homines erudiret.

91. Quid mihi prodesset, si quasi Deus exerta potestate divinitatem suam tantummodo inviolabilem demonstrasset? Aut cur susciperet carnem, nisi ut tentari se naturae atque infirmitatis meae conditione 0579D pateretur? Tentari debuit, compati mihi debuit; ut scirem quemadmodum tentatus vincerem, compassus evaderem. Vicit per continentiam, vicit per contemptum divitiarum, vicit per fidem: calcavit ambitionem, fugavit intemperantiam, lasciviam relegavit.

92. Hoc medicamentum Petrus vidit, et retia sua, instrumenta videlicet quaestus et subsidia dereliquit, renuntians carnis concupiscentiae tamquam corruptae navi, in quam quasi sentina quaedam multarum ingreditur passionum. Magnum ergo medicamentum, 0580A quod non solum cicatricem vetusti vulneris amputavit, sed etiam causam passionis incidit. O fides thesauris omnibus opulentior! o vulnerum nostrorum, peccatorumque medicina praestantior!

93. Consideremus quia nobis prodest bene credere. Mihi enim prodest scire quia propter me Christus suscepit meas infirmitates, mei corporis subiit passiones (Esai. LIII, 4): pro me peccatum, hoc est, pro omni homine, pro me maledictum factus est, pro me atque in me subditus atque subjectus, pro me agnus, pro me vitis, pro me lapis, pro me servus, pro me filius ancillae, pro me diem judicii ignorans, pro nobis nesciens diem aut horam.

94. Nam quomodo posset diem nescire, qui dies fecit et tempora? Quomodo posset diem ignorare 0580B judicii, qui et horam futuri judicii expressit et causam? Factus ergo maledictum non secundum divinitatem, sed secundum carnem; scriptum est enim: Maledictus omnis qui pendet in ligno (Deut. XXI, 23). Secundum carnem utique pependit; et ideo maledictum, qui nostra maledicta suscepit. Ille flevit, ne tu homo diu fleres: ille injurias passus est, ne tu injuriam tuam doleres.

95. Grande remedium, solatium habere de Christo. Ille enim pro nobis haec patientius tulit, et sumus qui patienter haec pro illius nomine ferre nequeamus! Quis appetitus non discat ignoscere, quando et pro persecutoribus 489 suis Christus etiam crucifixus orabat? Videsne illas quas tu putas Christi infirmitates, tuas esse virtutes? Cur de remediis nostris ei 0580C quaestionem movemus? Lacrymae illae nos lavant, fletus illi nos abluunt, ac dubitatio illa nos firmat; ne tu si coeperis dubitare, desperes. Quanto major est injuria, tanto uberior debetur gratia.

96. Sed in ipsis injuriis cognosce divinitatem. In cruce pendebat, et elementa ei omnia serviebant. Sol refugit, dies occidit, offusae et circumfusae tenebrae, terra tremuit: non tremuit qui pependit (Matth. XXVII, 51). Quid aliud haec, quam Auctoris reverentiam signant? Quia in cruce est, vides: quia regnum Dei donat, non vides. Quia mortem gustavit, legis: quia latronem quoque ad paradisum invitavit (Luc. XXIII, 43), non legis. Mulieres flentes intueris ad tumulum, non intueris angelos excubantes (Joan. XX, 12). Quid dixerit legis, quid gesserit non legis. Dicis 0580D Chananaeae mulieri dixisse Dominum: Non sum missus nisi ad oves quae perierunt domus Israel (Matth. XV, 24): non dicis, quoniam id quod ab ea rogatus est, fecit.

97. Unde intelligere te convenit, quia missus non id significat, quod alieno sit coactus imperio, sed quod voluntario functus sit arbitratu: alioquin contemptum ostendis Patris. Si enim, ut tu interpretaris, paternorum famulus praeceptorum Christus venerat in Judaeam, ut solis ejus incolis mederetur, et Chananaeae prius filiam, ut legimus, liberavit; non 0581A utique alieni fuit exsecutor imperii, sed voluntarii liber arbitrii. Ubi autem libertas voluntatis, ibi nulla praevaricatio missionis.

98. Nec vereare ne displiceat Patri, quod fecit Filius; cum ipse dicat. Quaecumque placita sunt ei, facio semper (Joan. VIII, 29); et alibi: Opera quae ego facio, ipse facit (Joan. XIV, 12). Quomodo ergo Patri potuit displicere, quod ipse fecit per Filium? Unus enim Deus, sicut scriptum est, qui justificavit circumcisionem ex fide, et praeputium per fidem (Rom. III, 30).

99. Omnia lege, omnia diligenter adverte; invenies sic demonstrasse se Christum, ut Deus in homine cerneretur: nec malitiose accipias de Patre Filium gloriantem, cum audias Patrem in Filio complacentem (Matth. XVII, 5).