24. It may perhaps be said, ‘We find Him giving way to weeping, to hunger and thirst: must we not suppose Him liable to all the other affections of human nature?’ But if we do not understand the mystery of His tears, hunger, and thirst, let us remember that He Who wept also raised the dead to life: that He did not weep for the death of Lazarus, but rejoiced621    St. John xi. 15, ‘Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes, that I was not there, to the intent that ye may believe.’; that He Who thirsted, gave from Himself rivers of living water622    St. John vii. 38.. He could not be parched with thirst, if He was able to give the thirsty drink. Again, He Who hungered could condemn the tree which offered no fruit for His hunger623    St. Matt. xxi. 19 and St. Mark xi. 3.: but how could His nature be overcome by hunger if He could strike the green tree barren by His word? And if, beside the mystery of weeping, hunger and thirst, the flesh He assumed, that is His entire manhood, was exposed to our weaknesses: even then it was not left to suffer from their indignities. His weeping was not for Himself; His thirst needed no water to quench it; His hunger no food to stay it. It is never said that the Lord ate or drank or wept when He was hungry, or thirsty, or sorrowful. He conformed to the habits of the body to prove the reality of His own body, to satisfy the custom of human bodies by doing as our nature does. When He ate and drank, it was a concession, not to His own necessities, but to our habits.

24. Passiones humanae an in Christo.---Sed forte in quo affectio flendi, sitiendi, esuriendique mansit, caeterarum quoque humanarum passionum in eo necesse sit inesse naturam. Qui sacramentum fletus, sitis atque esuritionis ignorat, sciat et vivificare flentem, nec mortem Lazari flere (Joan. II, 15), quam gaudeat, et flumina aquae vivae ex se praebere sitientem (Joan. VII, 38), neque arere siti, qui 339 potens sit potare sitientes, et esurientem eam 0364A quae fructus suos esurienti non praebuerit damnare arborem (Matth. XXI, 19), nec naturam eam vinci inedia, quae naturam viriditatis jussa ariditate demutet (Ibid.). Quod si, praeter fletus et sitis et esuritionis mysterium, assumpta caro, id est, homo totus, passionum est permissa naturis: nec tamen ita, ut passionum conficeretur injuriis; ut flens non sibi fleret, ut sitiens sitim non potaturus depelleret, et esuriens non se cibo escae alicujus expleret. Neque enim tum, cum sitivit aut esurivit aut flevit, bibisse Dominus aut manducasse aut doluisse monstratus est: sed ad demonstrandam corporis veritatem, corporis consuetudo suscepta est, ita ut naturae nostrae consuetudine consuetudini sit corporis satisfactum. Vel cum potum et cibum accepit, 0364B non se necessitati corporis, sed consuetudini tribuit.