Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He writes to the Bishop of Sardis that he is said to live, but is dead: unless he repents, He threatens that He will come to him as a thief in the night; but if he comes to his senses, and conquers, He promises him white garments, and that He will write him in the book of life. Secondly, verse 7, He persuades the Bishop of Philadelphia, of moderate virtue: Hold what you have, that no one may take your crown. And if he does this, He promises that He will make him a pillar in the temple of God, and will write upon him the name of God and of the new Jerusalem. Thirdly, verse 14, He reproaches the Bishop of Laodicea, that he is neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm, and therefore God is about to vomit him out of His mouth. He persuades him therefore to buy gold tried in the fire, and to put on white garments, and to anoint his eyes with eye-salve; and if he does this, He promises to the conqueror a seat on His throne.
Vulgate Text: Apocalypse 3:1-22
1 And to the angel of the church of Sardis, write: These things saith he, that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars: I know thy works, that thou hast the name of being alive: and thou art dead. 2 Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain, which are ready to die. For I find not thy works full before my God. 3 Have in mind therefore in what manner thou hast received and heard: and observe, and do penance. If then thou shalt not watch, I will come to thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know at what hour I will come to thee. 4 But thou hast a few names in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments: and they shall walk with me in white, because they are worthy. 5 He that shall overcome, shall thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. 6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. 7 And to the angel of the church of Philadelphia, write: These things saith the Holy One and the true one, he that hath the key of David; he that openeth, and no man shutteth; shutteth, and no man openeth: 8 I know thy works. Behold, I have given before thee a door opened, which no man can shut: because thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. 9 Behold, I will bring of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and adore before thy feet. And they shall know that I have loved thee. 10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will also keep thee from the hour of the temptation, which shall come upon the whole world to try them that dwell upon the earth. 11 Behold, I come quickly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. 12 He that shall overcome, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; and he shall go out no more; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and my new name. 13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. 14 And to the angel of the church of Laodicea, write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the creation of God: 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. 16 But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest: I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing: and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold fire tried, that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 19 Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance. 20 Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 To him that shall overcome, I will grant to sit with me in my throne: as I also have overcome, and am set down with my Father in his throne. 22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
Verse 1: And to the Angel of the Church of Sardis Write
1. AND TO THE ANGEL OF THE CHURCH OF SARDIS WRITE. — This is Christ's fifth epistle to a Bishop, namely to the Bishop of Sardis: in which He rebukes all the faithful who have fallen into mortal sin, and stirs them up and urges them, both by threats and by promises, to rise from it through penance. Now Sardis was a great city of Lydia, on the side of Mount Tmolus, very famous, and was the royal seat of Croesus, king of the Lydians. Whence Horace, in book 1, epistle 11:
What of well-built Samos, what of Croesus' royal Sardis?
You will ask: Who was this Angel, that is, Bishop, of Sardis? Aureolus replies, along with Antiochus Bronchus the Sardinian, who has published a commentary on the first three chapters of the Apocalypse, that it was St. Melito. For Baronius, citing Eusebius's Chronicle, teaches that he was Bishop of Sardis a little after these times, and in the year of Christ 172 wrote an apology to the Emperor Antoninus on behalf of the Christians. Eusebius himself, in book IV, chapter xxvi, praises him for his doctrine, chastity and sanctity, and says that he rests at Sardis. Aureolus adds that he was a Martyr, but this Eusebius does not have. But it does not fit Blessed Melito, what John says here: "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." Again, John is writing here to Bishops who are present, not future. But Melito lived seventy years after St. John, namely in the year of Christ 172. So Lyranus, Pererius and Alcazar. It is therefore uncertain who this Bishop was.
Some, with Erasmus, adapt this passage to Lucifer the Sardinian, Bishop of Cagliari (for Erasmus, in his Notes on St. Jerome's dialogue Against the Luciferians, holds that Lucifer was not Bishop of Cagliari but of Smyrna, and the author of the Luciferians — but he errs); who together with Sts. Athanasius and Hilary most generously withstood the Emperor Constantius and the Arians; but at last made a schism from the Church, because she received penitent Arian Bishops, whom he, too rigid, judged ought not to be received. On which account this passage fits him: "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." Indeed, Rufinus reports — and Baronius from him — that he died in this state and in this schism. But that Lucifer came to himself, and returned to the Church, and died in her holy peace, Antiochus Bronchus — himself a Sardinian and a Cagliaritan — strives to prove with many sufficiently forceful reasons, in his commentary on chapter II of the Apocalypse, disputation 11, question II; and especially from the fact that St. Jerome, Nazianzen, Hilary and other Fathers call him blessed and celebrate him with great praises. Again, that the people of Sardinia and of Vercelli publicly venerate and invoke him as a Saint, and have erected in his honor a basilica near Cagliari, which still stands. I say "adapt": for it is certain that John is not literally speaking here of Lucifer; for Lucifer was a Sardinian, that is, Bishop of the city of Cagliari in Sardinia, whereas John is speaking to the Bishop of the city of Sardis which was in Asia. Again, Lucifer lived two hundred years after St. John.
THESE THINGS SAITH HE THAT HATH THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD, AND THE SEVEN STARS. — "Spirits," that is, angels who govern the Church, as I said in chapter 1, verse 4; "stars," that is, Bishops; as if to say: Thou art conversant, O Bishop of Sardis, among holy Angels and Bishops; let it shame thee therefore to be the only one who does not live a holy life; let it shame thee to neglect the Episcopal office, in which others either burn with fervor or are earnestly engaged; let it shame thee to dwell in the death of the soul, who oughtest to give life to others.
Alcazar interprets it differently: for he takes the seven spirits to be the seven virtues necessary for governing, which Christ has, and which He sets forth as to be imitated by His Bishops, namely beneficence, equity, wisdom, patience, fortitude, threatening (admonition), and severity. In each of these the Bishop of Sardis was deficient, in the governance of his flock. Therefore he is here admonished to look upon Christ and these spirits of Christ, and to consider himself in them, how far he falls short of them: and accordingly to correct himself, and to resume those spirits, that is, those virtues. See what was said in chapter 1, verse 4.
I KNOW THY WORKS, THAT THOU HAST A NAME THAT THOU LIVEST, AND ART DEAD. — Therefore this Bishop was in a state of mortal sin; as if to say: I know, and I care not for, I do not esteem thy good works which thou doest; because, though thou hast a name to live, yet truly thou art dead before God: so Alcazar. Secondly and more simply, as if to say: I know thy works, both good and evil; I know thy character, I know thy state — namely, that thou seemest to live and to do many good works, when in reality thou art dead, and thy works are dead, not living. Behold here how the judgments of God differ from the judgments of men.
Note: "thou art dead," that is, thou hast fallen out of the life of grace through sin. For, as St. Augustine says, and from him Isidore, in book I of On the Highest Good: "The life of the body is the soul; the life of the soul is God; and as the body is dead without the soul, so the soul is dead without God."
You will ask: What was the sin of this Bishop? First, Rupert holds that this sin was carnal, of secret lust, and therefore is here passed over in silence by St. John. This is a mere conjecture, not having sufficient foundation in the text.
Secondly, Lyranus holds that it was hypocrisy, by which under the appearance of holiness he covered his secret sins.
Thirdly, and best of all, Primasius, Beda and Alcazar teach that this sin was negligence in the pastoral and Episcopal office: namely, that he was negligent in teaching, admonishing and correcting the people, in confirming the weak, in averting scandals, in repressing heresies, etc. For many there are who are good for themselves but not for others; many are good faithful, but not good Bishops; many are good sheep, but not good Pastors. Again, many seem outwardly kindly, gracious, distinguished, because they take excellent care of the outward face of the Church — the adornment of the altars, splendor of the fabric, large alms-giving, etc.; but they neglect the inner things, namely the vices of their flock, their ignorance, their dangers to salvation, although this is the chief office of a Bishop. And accordingly to men who consider only externals, they seem to be alive, praiseworthy and holy, when before God they are dead. Such was this Bishop of Sardis. That this is so, is plain from the words of the text: for in correcting this fault of his, Christ says: "Be watchful:" he was therefore failing in the watchfulness of pastoral care; "and strengthen the things that remain, which were ready to die:" he was therefore failing in the care of his own people, since through his negligence many were spiritually dead. "If then thou shalt not watch, I will come to thee." Behold, all these things prove that the Bishop's defect was sloth and carelessness in feeding the flock committed to him.
Oh, how great a watchfulness is required in a Bishop, who like an Argus must guard, care for, feed and save not one but so many thousand souls, just as much as his own! Oh, how many Prelates perish, not because they have lived wickedly, but because they have not corrected the wickedness of others entrusted to them!
Pliny to Vespasian: "The life of mortals," he says, "is a watch;" nay rather, "the life of Pastors is a watch, the life of Bishops is a watch." Apollonius of Tyana, when he learned that Vespasian, not yet Emperor, was rising at dawn to transact business, is said to have remarked: ἄξιος βασιλεύειν — "this man is worthy to rule." So Philostratus in his Apollonius. Hence that emblem of Vespasian: "It befits an Emperor to die standing." Hannibal felt the same, of whom Silius writes, book II:
First, when after the day's marches he scarcely allowed his weary troops the whole night for sleep, he himself, ever watchful, granted himself no rest, believing that whatever time sleep stole away was so much taken from his life.
A symbol of this watchfulness is the dolphin, which, on the testimony of Aelian, book XI, chapter 22, is in perpetual motion, even while it sleeps: for then from the surface of the water it descends into the deep, until it touches the bottom of the sea, by the impact of which it is wakened from sleep: thus it never ceases from motion. Another symbol of the same is the lion, which sleeps with open eyes: whence before the gates of temples and palaces lions are commonly sculpted, as it were ever-watchful guards. Another symbol of the same is the sun sculpted upon the tomb of Joshua; for when Joshua, that most watchful and strongest leader, about to pursue his victory against the Canaanites, had stayed the sun by his command, the Hebrews, in memory of so great a man and so great a miracle, placed a statue of the sun upon his tomb. See Father Serarius on Joshua chapter 24. That saying is well known:
Wars stand firm under a watchful master.
There is a memorable saying of John of Avila, whom Spain celebrates for his sanctity and efficacy in preaching: So many, he says, and so great are the obligations of Pastors, that one who in fact fulfilled even a third part of them would be esteemed a saint by men, and yet, content with this alone, would not escape hell. Moreover, St. Chrysostom, writing on the Acts of the Apostles, with great feeling asserts that few Bishops are saved, because it is most difficult to render a good account of so many souls entrusted to them. Other Fathers say similar things, whom I have cited on 1 Timothy chapter III, verse 1.
Wherefore Pope Pius V used to say that the Papacy was not a desirable thing, and that he experienced in it so many troubles and labors that the poverty, discipline, and all the labors he had borne in the Religious life were in no way to be compared with them. Hence, whenever he remembered the Religious life, he would sigh, and assert that he had never and nowhere found rest except in it. He even added that he reckoned the Papacy to be a hindrance to eternal salvation. Whence, as soon as he was made Pope, growing pale and as if filled with dread: "I," said he, "so long as I was a Religious, had good hope of my salvation; when I was made Cardinal I began to fear; now made Pope I almost despair of it." Truly was this Pius, who, if any in this age, was worthy of that rank, and adorned it with prudence, fortitude, sanctity, and miracles, so that the faithful rightly offer prayers and vows at his tomb, and his canonization is being treated of here at Rome.
Following this domestic example, Cardinal Alexandrinus, the nephew of Pius V, when he was about to die: "How," said he, "at this hour would I wish to have spent my whole life in my Religious Order (for he had been a Dominican, like Pius V)! Truly I would now rather have served my whole life as cook of my monastery, than have acted the Cardinal."
Nicholas IV, made Pope from a Franciscan, used to say that he would prefer to be the friars' cook than to be a Cardinal.
Pope Paul III, as he was breathing his last: "I would rather," he said, "have subjected myself to the cook of a Capuchin community, than have borne for the course of sixteen years this dignity, which is next to God's." So P. Jovius reports in his Life.
Many others have said similar things at that hour. For that hour opens a man's eyes, while it shows that all things past have been alike vain and burdensome, and it lays open the imminent journey to judgment. But, while we live and are well, honor and pleasure carry away the mind to themselves, so that we do not think of things to come, even those close at hand.
Macrobius in the Saturnalia is the authority that in the time of the Emperor Trajan there was a certain man at Rome bound by many debts, who nevertheless slept peacefully on both ears. When therefore he had died, and his goods were being sold under the spear (i.e. by public auction), the Emperor commanded that the mattress on which the man used to sleep should be bought for him. When asked why, he replied that it could not be otherwise than that this mattress had great power for taking sleep. Doubtless by this saying he reproached and ridiculed the carelessness of the deceased. How many Pastors today, bound to God and the Church by so many and so great obligations, nevertheless sleep so securely, as if with the Pastorate they had assumed no care, no obligation! On the contrary, holy and wise Bishops weighed and pondered this burden so seriously, that very many of them, shuddering at it, abdicated their Episcopate.
So indeed did St. Gregory Nazianzen, who, leaving the Patriarchate of Constantinople, withdrew to the country and there led the life of a monk, as his Life records. The same did St. Adalbert, Bishop of Prague, who from there became a monk and a martyr. The very same was done by Lucidus of Ficoclae, Bonifus of Auvergne, Gaudentius of Apsarus, Martyrius of Antioch, Justus of Lyons, Peter of Ravenna, Sergius of Damascus, Farnulphus of Citeaux, Hildulphus of Trier, Deodatus likewise of Trier, Gondebertus of Sens, Lambert of Florence — Bishops who were all illustrious for sanctity, and many also for miracles, as Blessed Peter Damian relates more fully in his ninth epistle to Pope Nicholas II, in which he asks the same Pope's leave to do the same thing, namely, to be allowed, after laying down the Cardinalate and the Episcopate of Ostia, to return to a monastery. He added the examples of two illustrious Bishops, which, because they are rare, I shall here append.
The first is Blessed Nonnus, who converted St. Pelagia, formerly a harlot. Of him he speaks thus: "Blessed Nonnus, also called Hippolytus, after he had converted thirty thousand Saracens to the faith of Christ by his most effective preaching; after he had called St. Pelagia from the brothels to the chastity of the Church; after, finally, he had luminously expounded several books of holy commentaries, at last forsook his Bishopric, and from the parts of Antioch, whence he was sprung, made for the borders of Rome. And when Blessed Aurea at the city of Ostia had completed her martyrdom in the waves of the sea with a stone bound to her neck, Blessed Nonnus, out of devotion, gathered her holy body and buried it with all diligence. Then the same persecutor, who was called Ulpius, ordered him to be plunged into a pit full of water beside the bed of the Tiber; whose body afterwards, after his triumphal martyrdom was complete, Christian devotion buried in the city which is called Portus; and forthwith there was heard, for nearly an hour, a voice as of children crying out: Thanks be to God."
Blessed Peter Damian therefore holds that Blessed Nonnus, who converted St. Pelagia, was St. Hippolytus, Bishop and Martyr of Portus, who suffered martyrdom at the hands of the jurisconsult and Prefect Ulpian under Alexander Severus, in the year of the Lord 229; whose memory the Church celebrates yearly on the 21st of August, and to whom a marble statue has been erected on which sixteen Paschal cycles of his are inscribed, and which still stands in the Vatican Library — for he was a most learned man, who wrote much. But this Baronius rightly refutes in his Martyrology, October 8, where he teaches that Pelagia and Nonnus lived under Theodosius the Younger, but Hippolytus much earlier under Numerian and Alexander, when persecution was raging.
The other is St. Arnulph, the father of Pepin and grandfather of Charlemagne. He, having laid down the Duchy of Lorraine, out of fervor of spirit entered a monastery beside the Moselle. Drawn thence, he was made Bishop of Metz; but driven by the goads of his salvation and perfection, he chose for himself a successor in the Episcopate, again sought the desert, and there lived until his happy death.
Striving to imitate their examples, Blessed Peter Damian concludes his epistle thus: "Supported therefore by the authority of these and of other Fathers, I irretractably renounce both my Bishopric and my monasteries into your holy hands; and because, on account of my innumerable sins, I am not worthy to continue in Ecclesiastical dignity, may divine mercy grant me, through your prayers, venerable Father, to remain in the very time of life that is left to me, in mourning and penance. For I confess that, both criminal and vicious, I came to this honor, not without reproach, and in it have lived reprehensibly: and therefore it seemed safer to me that I should rather depose myself willingly, than that before the tribunal of the dread Judge, in the sight of all the angels and of all men, I should undergo the sentence of deposition under eternal damnation."
I pass over the Supreme Pontiff Celestine, who was the founder of the Celestines, and who, having resigned the Papacy by an example unheard of for ages, withdrew to them, and made famous by miracles deserved to be inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints. And Blessed Peter Damian, who, having laid down the Cardinalate and the Episcopate of Ostia, withdrew to his Camaldolese. In our own age, Alfonso Ramirius Vergara, a celebrated Doctor of Spain, near death, used to say that two pledges of eternal salvation had been given him by God: one, that he had not allowed himself to be made a Bishop; the other, that he had given to his soul as master Father Villanova, whom he called his guardian Angel. So Father Sacchinus in the Annals of the Society of Jesus, at the year of the Lord 1557, number 135.
THOU HAST A NAME THAT THOU LIVEST — that is, the name "living one." Hence some think that the name of this Bishop was Zosimus, that is, "alive," as if to say: Falsely art thou called Zosimus, that is, "alive"; for in truth thou art dead. So Naomi says in Ruth 1:20: "Call me not Naomi (that is, beautiful), but call me Mara (that is, bitter), because the Almighty has filled me with much bitterness." But this is my conjecture, and therefore uncertain: this is certain, that this Bishop had a good reputation among the people, and had a good name and fame, as one who lived piously and holily. So Lyranus.
But Alcazar denies this. For how, says he, could one have a reputation for sanctity who was so sluggish and so negligent in his Pastoral office that he was dead before God? I answer: because men consider external and splendid things; the internal things, and those that are of God, and properly belong to Episcopal obligation, they do not penetrate, as I said a little before.
Again Alcazar holds that there is here an allusion to the name of a star, as if to say: I have chosen and called thee a star, and I have set thee as one among the seven illustrious stars of Asia, that thou mightest be a star — that is, a living and ever-shining light. But thou by thy sloth hast extinguished thy star, and hast made it as it were dead, since it sends forth no light of example or of doctrine.
This is a sufficiently apt allusion, but not the genuine sense. For He would rather have said: Thou hast the name of a shining star, but art an extinguished star. For the name of light and of darkness fits a star better than the name of life and death. The word "name" therefore signifies fame, as I said.
Verse 2: Be Watchful
2. BE WATCHFUL, — unto the knowledge of thy own defects and those of thy flock. He alludes to the name of a star which is always shining, and at night, as it were, always watchful and on guard; and to the name of Bishop, for in Greek "episkopos" is the same as "inspector." Therefore his proper office is to be unceasingly watchful, and to inspect and survey his whole Church, that he may provide for it in all things, restore what has fallen, perfect and adorn what is standing. Whence St. Paul, in 2 Timothy chapter IV, 5: "But thou," he says, "be watchful." Now to be watchful, for a Bishop, is the same as to take care of his flock, and to provide for it in all things, says Primasius and Beda. For the drowsiness of the Shepherd, like the sleep of the dog, manifestly exposes the flock to the danger of wolves and of death. It is therefore the part of Shepherds and of princes to keep watch and to be vigilant. Excellently said Parmenio, when the Greeks took it ill that Philip, king of the Macedonians, used to rest a little during the day, and so they were not admitted to his audience, excusing him, said: "Do not be surprised if Philip is now sleeping: for while you are sleeping, he is awake." So Plutarch in his Apophthegms.
He touches here on two duties of a Bishop, which were lacking in this Bishop, namely to be watchful and to strengthen, concerning which He adds: "Strengthen the things that remain, which were ready to die"; that is, do not omit the good works which had been begun, but pursue them until they are finished. For if they are omitted, undoubtedly they will die, will cease and vanish, both the works and the merits of the works. So St. Gregory, in the third part of his Pastoral, admonition 35, and Andreas of Caesarea. The Royal Greek favors them, which has it thus: ἃ ἤμελλες ἀποκάνειν, that is, "which it was about to come to pass that thou shouldest lose" — namely, works and merits. But our Vulgate Interpreter reads: ἃ μέλλει ἀποθανεῖν, that is, "which were ready to die."
Hear St. Gregory: "If what seems to be done is not increased by an anxious intention, even what had been well done decreases. For in this world the human soul is as it were a ship, struggling against the force of a river, which is in no way permitted to stay in one place: because it slips back to the depths unless it strives toward the heights. Hence it is what is said by Solomon: He who is slack and dissolute in his work is the brother of him that destroys his own works. Namely, because he who does not strictly carry through his good beginnings imitates by the dissolution of negligence the hand of the destroyer. Hence it is said to the angel of the Church of Sardis: Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, which were ready to die: I find not thy works full before my God. Because therefore his works had not been found full before God, He foretold that the remaining things which had been done were also about to die. For if what is dead in us is not kindled into life, that also is extinguished which is held to be as yet alive." This is mystical, but true.
Secondly, Ambrose: Even the best works, he says, are about to die, unless they have been made alive and strengthened by charity. Rupert notes that by "strengthen the things that remain" He hints that not all things in this Bishop were dead, but some were alive. For there lived in him, though languidly, Pastoral care, the preaching of the word of God, the administration of the Sacraments. There lived likewise the reverence and obedience of the people toward him. But these too were ready to die, that is, to be taken away from him, if, he himself not doing penance, God should make his sin public and so demonstrate him unworthy of the Bishopric.
Thirdly, Haymo explains it in two ways. First, "strengthen the things that remain, which were ready to die," as if to say: If thou wilt live, beware of seeking the praise of thy works from men, "lest the elation of favor corrupt the intention of the work." Secondly, if thou willest that the good works which thou didst while in sin should live, do penance: for through penance the good works done in sin are brought to life. But here is an error. For those works were and are dead, and therefore cannot be brought to life through penance.
Pererius better proves from this passage that good works that have been mortified by a subsequent sin come to life again through penance. For this Bishop was dead through sin. Whence his preceding good works had been mortified by his subsequent sin, and were plainly about to die, unless he himself by penance should give them life and strengthen them.
Fourthly, most excellently and quite genuinely Primasius, Beda, Lyranus, Pererius and Alcazar refer these things not to the works of the Bishop, but to his flock and subjects. "The things that remain," therefore, that is, "the rest of them." Yet He says "the rest" in the neuter gender, both because, writing in Greek, He has in view πρόβατα, that is, sheep, which in Greek is neuter; and because Scripture commonly uses the neuter gender to signify the totality both of persons and of things, that is, all. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Many of thy subjects, on account of thy drowsiness and carelessness, are spiritually dead; the rest will likewise die, unless thou keep watch over them, and confirm them in faith and virtue.
This is what Christ commanded Peter, and in him all Pastors: "Strengthen thy brethren," Luke xxii, 32. Now, strengthening follows from watchfulness. For when a Bishop is watchful, his subjects are strengthened through the Bishop's inspection, exhortation, providence, etc. Hence God rebukes careless Pastors through Ezekiel, saying in chapter xxxiv, verse 4: "What was weak you did not strengthen." Whence, opposing Himself to them as it were as the good Shepherd, He says in verse 16: "What was weak I will strengthen." Note: He does not say, "Which are about to die," but "Which were about to die," to signify that He hopes and is fully confident that the Bishop, by this admonition of Christ, will rise from his sin through penance, and will both himself live and strengthen and quicken his subjects.
Moreover, this passage furnishes a moral lesson on the perfection of works. Patience is full and perfect, "which makes one insensible to injury like a stone," as St. Anthony predicted, in the Lives of the Fathers, book VII, chapter 9, would happen to Abbot Ammon by God's grace. He is perfectly patient who says with David in adversities as well as in prosperities: "I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall be ever in my mouth." And with St. Job: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord." And like St. Servulus, who, oppressed by poverty and disease, continually sang psalms to God by night as well as by day, of whom St. Gregory writes, book IV of the Dialogues, chapter 14.
Humility is not full when one does not seek honor but cannot bear to be despised; when one wishes to be heard called vile and abject, but not small-brained, imprudent, unlearned, or proud. Humility is full, says Abbot Motois in the Lives of the Fathers, book VII, chapter 13, "which neither becomes angry nor permits others to become angry." Again, "which forgives before being asked." Furthermore, "which is imperturbable." Finally, "which blesses those who do it harm;" and which submits itself not only to the superior and the equal, but to any inferior whatsoever, as Christ did to John the Baptist when He was baptized by him, saying: "Thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness."
Obedience is not full when one wishes to obey this Prelate but not that one; when one gladly embraces the orders that are pleasing and agreeable, but not the disagreeable and displeasing; when one submits one's will to the Superior, but not one's judgment. Obedience is full which, regarding all things commanded or permitted by God, says with the Psalmist: "I have become as one deaf, who does not hear, and as one dumb, who does not open his mouth;" which discerns nothing, judges nothing among the things commanded to it, says Cassian, book IV of the Institutes, chapter 12, which says and feels: "I have become as a beast of burden before You."
Charity is not full which loves this one and not that; a friend and not an enemy; a fellow-citizen and not a foreigner. Charity is full which bears the burdens of any neighbor as its own, indeed which prefers any neighbor to itself; which completes the neighbor's work and leaves its own unfinished, as Sancius did in the Lives of the Fathers, book V, chapter 16. Finally, which willingly undertakes and embraces all hardships for the glory of God and for the salvation of one's neighbors, which loves in deed, not in word; which moves more by example than by word. St. Jerome admirably teaches the priest Nepotian: "Let not your works," he says, "contradict your speech, lest, when you speak in church, anyone silently respond: Why then do you not yourself do these things which you say? He is a delicate master who, with a full belly, debates about fasting. Even a robber can denounce greed. You are a priest of Christ; let your mind and hands be in agreement."
I DO NOT FIND YOUR WORKS FULL BEFORE MY GOD. — "Full," that is, perfect; and this, first, because, like a tree in flower but bearing no fruit, you have the appearance of piety, not its fruits and works; secondly, as Andreas says, because it is not constant nor persevering in doing good; thirdly, Ambrose says: His works "were not full," but empty, because they were not filled with charity; fourthly, Haymo: His works, though good in themselves, "were not full," because they were not done by him with good intention, but from an appetite for vain praise and glory, says Joachim. Again, because they were mixed and contaminated with other evil works; fifthly, Dionysius the Carthusian: "They were not full," because they were tepid and slack; sixthly, "not full," because for a Prelate it is not enough to be good for himself, but he must be good also for others, in order to instruct and perfect them. So Bede. Again, "not full," because his works do not extend, as charity demands, to all, even to enemies.
Properly therefore the works of this Bishop were not full, but empty and vain, first, because they lacked charity, in which the fullness of works consists. For he himself was dead through sin: therefore these works of his were not full, but empty of charity, and consequently of merit; secondly, because this Bishop was a hypocrite: therefore his works were outwardly showy and puffed up with the wind of glory, but inwardly empty of piety, spirit, and merit; thirdly and most genuinely, "they were not full," because, slumbering in the care of his flock, he was not watchful, nor was he strengthening the things that were dying, as he said a little before; and so he did not fulfill the things that were of his charge and office. This is what Paul commands Timothy: "Fulfill your ministry," 2 Timothy 4:5. To this point relates the saying of d'Avila, which I cited at verse 1, past the middle, and that saying of St. Jerome to Paulinus: "I am not content that anything in you should be mediocre: I desire the whole to be of the highest, the whole to be perfect." Wherefore some Scholastics wrongly understand by works not full those works that are slack and less intense than the habit itself, and from this argue that they do not merit an increase of their habit. For this is too subtle, and beside the point here; for this Bishop was dead, and consequently lacked the habit of grace and charity, which is the foundation of all merit. He was therefore outside the state of meriting. So Gabriel Vasquez, I-II, treatise On Merit.
Morally, works of patience are not full when one is willing to suffer this insult and not that; from this person and not from that one; this disease and calamity but not that one; this cross but not another. For perfect patience has a perfect work, and embraces crosses, illnesses, and insults indifferently, and will bring it about that they should not be punished, by whomsoever they are inflicted.
Verse 3: If Thou Shalt Not Watch, I Will Come as a Thief
3. THEREFORE KEEP IN MIND HOW YOU HAVE RECEIVED, AND HEARD. — "You have received," that is, you have been instructed and trained. For the Hebrew לקח lecach, that is, acceptance, signifies a teaching received from a teacher. For "qualiter" (in what manner), the Greek is πως, that is, how; but πως is put for ποια, that is, what kind of things. St. John imitates the Septuagint, who often translate the Hebrew אשר ascer in this way, as if it were כאשר caascer. So Terence says: "Such is the deed," for "such is it." Pliny, book VIII, chapter 48: "Among the ancients," he says, "the bed was of straw, just as (that is, like) the gausape (rough cloth) even in camps then."
IF YOU DO NOT WATCH, I WILL COME UPON YOU LIKE A THIEF. — The slothful and those who sleep in their vices are accustomed to propose and promise themselves penance at the end of life. Christ threatens these that He will come upon them unexpectedly, like a thief, and will overwhelm them with death, both present and eternal. For this is a fitting punishment, this is the just judgment of God, that those who, when they could repent, were unwilling to do so, should not be able to repent when they wish; that the time of repentance be denied to those who neglected the time given by God; that the sleep of sinners be punished with the sleep of death and hell; and so let those sleep eternally in the fires of Gehenna who slumbered here on the couches of sloth. Christ threatens the same in Matthew 24:43; Apocalypse 16:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:2. St. Hilary admirably, canon 26 on Matthew, at the end: "It is fitting," he says, "that we be ready, because ignorance of the day stirs up the intent solicitude of suspended expectation." Wherefore the Egyptians, says Horus Apollo, book II, hieroglyphic 24, wishing to signify death, used to paint the night-raven. For just as it suddenly attacks the chicks of crows by night, so also death invades and overwhelms men who do not expect it.
Verse 4: Thou Hast a Few Names in Sardis
4. BUT YOU HAVE A FEW NAMES, — that is, a few truly faithful Christians, a few persons enumerated by name. Thus ὀνόματα (names) are ἄνθρωποι (men) in Seneca, book V On Benefits, chapter 22, and in others. Hence that line of Tibullus in his Elegy: "Nor is woman's name faithful." And Horace: "O Father, a name left to a daughter." So God's name itself is called "named God," as in Deuteronomy 18:5: "The Lord your God Himself chose him, that he should stand and minister to the name of the Lord;" Psalm 5:12: "All who love Your name shall glory in You;" Jeremiah 25:26: "I have sworn by My great name, says the Lord." By "names," Ambrose says, He meant men named and famous for outstanding virtue, such as it is among the wicked to be good, and to preserve baptismal innocence, and that by their own zeal without the care of a pastor, indeed in his great negligence. So in Exodus 33, God said to Moses, a most perfect man: "I know you by name." Whence John, explaining, adds: "Those who have not soiled their garments."
Therefore He calls "a few names" the few faithful and saints, whose names are known to God, that is, whom He knows and loves, and whose names He has written in the book of life. So Bede, Ambrose, Haymo, Alcazar and others.
He alludes to soldiers, who give their name to the military service; for their names are inscribed by the commander in the catalog of soldiers. Again, He alludes to Pastors and Bishops, who inscribe the names of the faithful, when they are baptized, in the catalog of Christians. Finally, He alludes to the book of life, in which God has inscribed them inchoately through grace, and will inscribe them perfectly through glory, if they persevere in grace to the end of life. Alcazar adds that Christians are rightly called "names," because in baptism, by giving their name to Christ, they have testified and professed themselves to be debtors of the imitation of Christ. For "names" among the Greeks and Latins often signify debts and debtors. This is more subtle than solid.
WHO HAVE NOT SOILED THEIR GARMENTS, — that is, who have not soiled their bodies, which are as it were the garments of the soul, with the filth of luxury, says Aretas.
Secondly, Alcazar takes "garment" to mean conscience. For this is cleansed and soiled. Thirdly and more aptly, He calls "garment" the purity and innocence which they had received with the white robe in baptism and have preserved, or certainly which, when soiled by sin, they have restored through penance. So Ambrose, Haymo, Bede, and Ribera. For innocence and purity is, as it were, the garment and stole of the soul, covering its nakedness and adorning it wonderfully; whence, on account of it, He promises them the splendid garments of heavenly glory: "He who overcomes," He says, "shall be clothed in white garments." He alludes to the white garment which they received in baptism by a certain rite and formula, by which they were admonished to preserve it, that they might present it unsullied to Christ coming in judgment, of which I spoke at Romans 6:3-4. To this point relates Ecclesiastes 9:8: "At all times let your garments be white." Hence in many monasteries, when a monk is being clothed, a white garment is given to him, and he is admonished not to soil it, but to keep it white. Wherefore St. Paulinus aptly comforts, in "On the Boy Celsus," the poor and abject with the hope of future glory in these words:
And now, with the burdens of the needy laid down, / Loose your feet from chains; / That you may be clothed with abundant light, / Be naked to the world.
But why does He recall the memory of these white-clad ones to the Bishop? Alcazar replies that He does so to signify that on account of the merits and prayers of those few, He does not cast off the Bishop, but takes care of him, and therefore exhorts him to repentance. Again, He sets before the Bishop a shining example of his subjects, that he may blush to be surpassed by them in holiness, and may strive to amend his evil ways.
AND THEY SHALL WALK WITH ME IN WHITE, — that is, in most pure and most splendid felicity, in the stole of immortality, of brightness, and of glory. For thus He says of the Blessed, as if clothed in white and glorious, in chapter 7, verse 9: "Clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands." Otherwise Alcazar: Christ, he says, promises them white garments, that is, the greatest delight of a good conscience, which the just enjoy in this life.
Verse 5: He That Shall Overcome Shall Be Clothed in White
5. HE WHO OVERCOMES (sin and the state of sin in which he is: for in this state this Bishop was living, dead to God. This state is black, because it is sad, miserable, and deadly: whence, if he overcomes it and rises from sin through penance, He promises him that) HE SHALL BE CLOTHED IN WHITE, — namely with the stole of glory already mentioned. "There is no glorious victory unless there have been laborious struggles," says St. Ambrose in the De Officiis.
AND I WILL NOT BLOT OUT HIS NAME FROM THE BOOK OF LIFE, — that is, I will give him the gift of perseverance, that is: I will not permit him to fall into mortal sin, by which he would lose his righteousness. So Pererius.
Secondly, Ambrose and others say: The book of life is immutable, and he who has once been written in it cannot be blotted out: yet some are blotted out, not in reality, but according to the estimation of men, who thought they were saints and written in the book of life, when in truth they were not, as if He said: "I will not blot him out," that is, I will declare that he has not been blotted out from the book of life. So also Augustine on Psalm 68:29: "Let them be blotted out from the book of the living." Let them be blotted out, he says, not in reality, but according to their own opinion and hope. For when, beyond their hope, they shall see themselves to be among the number of the damned, they will appear as it were blotted out from the book of life. St. Thomas objects to this exposition, Part I, Question 24, article 3, that not being blotted out from the book of life is here promised to the Saints as a reward from God; but this reward is not located in the opinion of men. Pererius replies that it is meiosis: for through negation an affirmation is signified, as if He said: I will make it manifest that he is of the number of the Saints, I will canonize him. For this is an immense reward, the praise and glory of the Saints.
Thirdly, Ribera: "I will not blot out," that is, he says, I will not condemn him, but I will make him live in perpetual glory. It is a metonymy; for the object is put for the potency or act, namely the book for the glory, to which one is enrolled in the book. For properly no one can be blotted out from the book of life.
Fourthly and best of all, St. Thomas, Part I, Question 24, article 3: The Saints, he says, are written in the book of life in two ways: First, inchoately as to present righteousness, in which way all Christians are written in the book of life at baptism. Whence Paul says to them, Ephesians 2:19: "You are fellow citizens of the Saints, and of the household of God." Secondly, completely as to perseverance and glory. The first can be blotted out; whence in Psalm 68 it is said: "Let them be blotted out from the book of the living." See canon 43 on St. Paul. Of such ones Christ here treats, as if to say: He who overcomes and persists and perseveres in this victory, I will not blot out, but I will continue to write him in the book of life, as I inscribed him in it from the beginning of victory, so that if he continues to conquer to the end, he may in fact attain the glory to which he was inscribed. For it is meiosis, as Pererius rightly noted. See on the book of life what I said at Philippians chapter 4, verse 2.
AND I WILL CONFESS HIS NAME BEFORE MY FATHER, AND BEFORE HIS ANGELS, — I will acknowledge him as My servant, and so I will bring it about that he shall not blush on account of past sins, because he has wiped them out through penance; but rather, since he is repentant and amending his ways and fervent in correction, I will make him glorious, and will celebrate his name before God and the angels.
Verse 7: And to the Angel of the Church of Philadelphia Write
7. AND TO THE ANGEL OF THE CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA WRITE. — This is the sixth epistle of Christ to the Bishop of Philadelphia, in which the faithful are instructed and admonished by Christ, those zealous for piety and the worship of God, who are still of slight virtue, but protected by God and increased by happy events: such are novices both in the faith and in the Religious life, says Alcazar. Wherefore this epistle to the Philadelphian, as also that to the Smyrnean, contains no rebuke. First, therefore, this Bishop is praised. Secondly, the grace and efficacy of preaching is promised to him, by which he may even convert his adversaries. Thirdly, Christ pledges to him protection in tribulation: whence He stirs him up to constancy and perseverance.
You may ask: Who was this Bishop? Aureolus and Lyranus answer (who says this is the common opinion of the Interpreters) that he was St. Quadratus, who was a learned and celebrated Martyr under the Emperor Hadrian, to whom he also offered a book, or apology, for the Christians, by which he also bent the mind of Hadrian to halt and prohibit the persecution begun against the Christians, as Eusebius testifies, Book IV of History, chapter 3. The reckoning of time favors this. For St. Quadratus flourished about the year of Christ 125, that is, 28 years after the writing of the Apocalypse. But it is opposed by the fact that St. Jerome and others hand down that St. Quadratus was Bishop of Athens, not of Philadelphia. Whence Pererius, Alcazar, and others deny that this Bishop was St. Quadratus, and assert that it is uncertain who this Bishop was.
THUS SAYS THE HOLY ONE (that is, the author and lover of holiness) AND THE TRUE ONE, — that is, truthful and faithful (for this is in Hebrew נאמן neeman, or amen) in fulfilling the promises which He has made to those who fight and conquer for truth and holiness. So Ribera.
Secondly, Alcazar: "True," he says, that is, perfect: so that the Philadelphian may see in Christ that he is not yet true, that is, perfect, and may consider in Him how far he is from perfection. Hence in Greek it is ὁ ἅγιος, ὁ ἀληθής, that is, that holy one, that true one, namely by antonomasia, by excellence and pre-eminence. Alcazar adds that this is not two epithets but only one, namely, "the True Holy One," that is, He who has true holiness, true, that is, perfect. For thus in Scripture, "true" is often opposed not to "false" but to "imperfect," as when Christ says of Nathanael, John 1:47: "Behold a true Israelite;" and of Himself: "I am the true vine," John 15:1. Thus He calls the Eucharist "the true bread from heaven," John 6:32; and chapter 4, verse 23: "true worshipers." And 1 Timothy 6:19: "That they may lay hold on true life." This sense is more fitting, because it is tighter and binds more. For Christ sets before the Philadelphian, who was of slight virtue, His own perfect sanctity as a kind of mirror and goal, that he may aspire to it and strive after it.
WHO HAS THE KEY OF DAVID: WHO OPENS, AND NO ONE SHUTS: SHUTS, AND NO ONE OPENS. — First, Rupert, Ambrose, Anselm, Richard, Lyranus, Joachim, Thomas, Pannonius, and Viegas: The key of David, they say, is the unlocking and understanding of Sacred Scripture and of all the Prophets, among whom David shone forth in lineage, deeds, kingship, and prophecy, and vividly expressed the mysteries of Christ; so that he who understands David can easily understand the other Prophets. For thus, Luke 11:52, Christ says to the Scribes: "You have taken away the key of knowledge."
Secondly, Primasius takes it as the royal power of Christ. For this is called the key of David, because Christ was born of the lineage of David, and because David the king was a type of Christ the King. For as David the king reigned over carnal Israel, so Christ reigns over the spiritual, that is, the faithful.
Thirdly, Ansbert: This key is Christ; whence He does not say "which" (qua), but "who" (qui), namely Christ, "opens." Christ therefore is the door, John 10: "I am the door;" and He is the key, and He is the key-bearer Himself who opens. So Christ opens the intellect to believe, the will to love; He opens heaven to the pious, shuts it to the impious.
Fourthly, the key which opens paradise is the cross, says Hugh and Albert. St. Chrysostom, homily 4 On the Cross, and Alcazar: The cross of Christ, he says, is as it were the key by which He Himself opened heaven, and as it were the instrument of Christ's omnipotence, which is a royal key by which all things can be shut and opened.
Fifthly, this key of heaven is penance, says the same Hugh.
Sixthly, St. Thomas, Part III, Question 17, article 1, ad 2, understands this place of the key and the closure by which Christ, rising again, closed the limbo of the fathers, lest anyone should descend there any longer, and by which He opened to us by His death the heaven that was closed by the sin of Adam. Again, in the response to objection 3: The key of hell, he says, by which it itself is opened and shut, is the power of conferring grace, by which hell is opened to a man, namely so that he may go forth from sin, which is the gate of hell. Hell is closed by preserving man, lest he relapse further into sin.
Seventhly and best: this key is of the temple of David and Solomon, that is, it is the key of the Church, of which the ancient temple of the Jews was a type. This key therefore signifies that Christ has supreme power in the Church, so that He may open it to those whom He calls to Himself through His grace; but shuts, that is, excludes from it those whom He does not wish to have, namely the unbelievers, who resist the faith and grace of Christ. He speaks of the Church as of one house, namely a temple, whose keys Christ has. Whence follows: "Behold I have given before you an open door," that is, that by your preaching many may come to the faith through My grace, and may enter the Church, whom neither Domitian, nor threats, nor punishments could prevent; for an open door signifies the occasion, the opportunity, the capacity as well as the abundance of the conversion of men to the Church. For Christ as man (for here He is being spoken of) is the supreme minister of God in the Church, Pontiff and King, indeed King of kings, and Lord of lords. Wherefore this key of Christ for opening and shutting the kingdom of heaven, without doubt includes the power of excellence for remitting not only the punishments but also the guilt; the participation of which He communicated to the Apostles, says Francisco Suarez, treatise On Penitence, disputation 16, section 2; whence he rightly infers: Therefore Peter and the Apostles have the power of absolving from sins, and so of opening; and of retaining them, and so of shutting heaven. Thus in the life of St. John Chrysostom we read that St. Peter appeared to him and gave him two keys, saying: "I am he who confessed the Son of God; have the power of remitting sins: let these keys be the sign of your jurisdiction." Again, by this key is signified the power and dominion of Christ over death and hell, of which He said in chapter 1: "I have the keys of death and hell." For He alludes to the persecutions threatening the Church, as if to say: Grave vexations are at hand for the Churches; but I will keep you, O Philadelphian, who are of slight virtue, immune and unharmed from them: for I have the keys both of the Church and of death and hell, I am the supreme Lord of all. So Alcazar. Thus Christ, Matthew 16:19, promises Peter, as the Prince of the Church, the keys of the kingdom of heaven; for to princes are given the keys of cities, that they may open and shut them to whomever they wish. So in chapter 9, verse 1: "I saw," he says, "a star, and the key of the well of the abyss was given to it, and he opened the well." And in chapter 20, verse 1, John saw an angel having the key of the abyss. He alludes to Isaiah 22:22, where concerning Eliakim son of Hilkiah, whom God substituted in the old high priesthood after removing Shebna, saying: "I will give the key of the house of David upon his shoulder: and he shall open, and there shall be none to shut; and he shall shut, and there shall be none to open." Where the supreme power in the royal house and court is promised to Eliakim, that he may be first after the king; or rather, as Jerome and the Hebrews say, the supreme and pontifical power in the temple; for this is called the house of David, because David delineated and prepared for Solomon the entire design and fabric of the temple. The meaning of Isaiah therefore is, as if to say: I will give to Eliakim the high priesthood, that he may be president of the temple, and may shut and open it at his pleasure. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, Haymo, St. Thomas, Lyranus, Dionysius in the same place, and Ticonius, Primasius, Andreas, Arethas, Bede, Anselm, Ribera, Pererius, Alcazar here.
Verse 8: Behold I Have Given Before Thee an Open Door
8. BEHOLD I HAVE GIVEN BEFORE YOU A DOOR (of preaching of the conversion of the Gentiles) AN OPEN DOOR, BECAUSE YOU HAVE A LITTLE STRENGTH. — In Greek δύναμιν, that is, power, as if to say: Because of yourself you are weak and feeble, therefore I have given you an open door, namely so that not by your own strength but by Mine, and as I open it, you may bring in and lead into the Church not only the Gentiles, but also the Jews. For this is what He adds: "Behold I will give some of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not: behold I will make them come and worship before your feet."
Joachim the Abbot understands this prophecy of the Angel of Philadelphia of a certain new Order to come in the Church, which, he says, Jesus designates, who shall be more illustrious and amiable than many others, and in the latest time shall be multiplied and enlarged. Many have suspected that He designated our Society, as Viegas reports here at length, section 3, since in it is Philadelphia, that is, fraternal love. Secondly, because the "Holy and True One" speaks these things to him, verse 8, just as to the Smyrnean, who was of approved and select virtue. Here that saying of the Apostle is true, 2 Corinthians 12:9: "The power of God is made perfect in our weakness." See what was said there. He says therefore: "You have little strength," because for the conversion of the Jews great forces of spirit, preaching, and zeal were required. For although knowledge, eloquence, and miracles greatly help this conversion, yet nothing so promotes and perfects it as robust holiness and the efficacious zeal of the preacher and Bishop. For this not only firmly endures all the hardships, labors, persecutions, and difficulties occurring in this matter, but also overcomes and breaks through them. And this was lacking in the Philadelphian Bishop. Whence Christ, supplying it, says: "I will keep you from the hour of temptation that is to come upon the whole world." Wherefore admonishing him to procure it for himself by firmly cooperating with the grace of God, and to overcome his weakness, He stimulates him by setting before him the appropriate reward of a solid column: "He who overcomes," He says, "I will make him a column in the temple of My God." So Rupert, Andreas, Arethas, and Alcazar.
BECAUSE YOU HAVE LITTLE STRENGTH. — First, Joachim, Lyranus, and Dionysius expound, as if to say: You have not received the great gift, that is, of working miracles. Whence Ticonius also expounds, as if to say: Small is your faith. For a great faith is required for miracles, according to that saying: "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed."
Secondly, Ambrose and Victorinus, as if to say: You have not received great knowledge and understanding of Sacred Scripture.
Thirdly, Richard, as if to say: You are weak in body and have small strength. Others combine these three, as if to say: Small is your health, small your holiness, small your wisdom. See therefore how small you are, and how modestly you ought to think of yourself.
Fourthly, Ribera, as if to say: You are strong in little secular grace and power; you have few powerful friends to defend you from the injuries of enemies (whence Andreas notes that the city of Philadelphia was small, both in extent and in the number of citizens); yet you have great strength of patience and of virtues, because, as follows, "you have kept My word, and have not denied My name."
Fifthly, Primasius, Haymo, Bede, and Thomas: "Little," that is, humble and modest, as if to say: You acknowledge that you can do little, that you have small strength; because you place your hope not in those, but in God.
Sixthly, Albert: "You have little strength," relatively, namely with respect to the door closed to Evangelical preaching, which must be opened by you; or, as Thomas says, "little," with respect to the great powers which you will have in heaven.
Seventhly and best, as if to say: You have small strength for the conversion of unbelievers, especially the Jews; whence I Myself will supply and increase it, and will bring it about that you may overcome and convert them. For this is what He said a little before: "Behold I have given before you an open door." Whence He also adds: "Behold I will give some of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie: Behold I will make them come and worship before your feet." For God often uses weak, unlearned, unlettered men for great things, such as the conversion of souls, as the Apostle witnesses, 1 Corinthians 1, that He may show that this work is not theirs but His. Whence Alcazar rightly concludes that less holy preachers often convert more than do those who are holier; as St. James, while living and preaching in Spain, converted very few. Thus Christ here promises to the Philadelphian the conversion of the Jews, which He denied in chapter 2.
AND YOU HAVE KEPT MY WORD (namely the faith and doctrine of the Gospel. Whence in explanation He adds), AND HAVE NOT DENIED MY NAME, — as if to say: Although you are of slight virtue, yet you have rightly used it, you have rightly employed it, with Me, that is, protecting and strengthening it: wherefore though you have not undergone a strong and hard contest of martyrdom, nor are you yet able to undergo it because of your weakness of strength, nevertheless you have not denied nor blushed at My name, but have confessed and professed it. Wherefore I, advancing you and your strength, will use them for great things, and will bring it about that you convert the Jews. Whence follows:
Verse 9: Behold I Will Give of the Synagogue of Satan
9. BEHOLD I WILL GIVE OF THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN, WHO SAY THEY ARE JEWS, etc. — as if to say: I will convert the Jews and Judaizers, who have their synagogue, not of God but of Satan, which conspires against Christ and the Christians: the Jews, I say, I will convert, and I will give them to you as subjects, that, converted to Christ, they may adore, that is, fall down before your feet, and as suppliants subject themselves wholly to you as to their Bishop.
THEY SHALL ADORE BEFORE YOUR FEET. — The supreme devotion, reverence, and submission of the faithful toward the Church and her Prelates is signified. For this adoration proceeds from the apprehension of the Prelates' excellence, more than human and less than divine. Thus Nebuchadnezzar, although a Gentile, adored Daniel when he had related and expounded his dream by divine spirit, Daniel 2:46. Thus the sons of the Prophets, hearing that the spirit of Elijah had rested upon Elisha, adored him bowed down to the earth, 2 Kings 2:15. In like manner Obadiah, the steward of King Ahab, adored the prophet Elijah, 1 Kings 18:7. Thus "a multitude of Gentiles now adores most blessed Peter the fisherman with knees bent," says St. Augustine, sermon 1 On Sts. Peter and Paul. So in olden times they used to entreat the holy Confessors, saying: "We beseech you by your footprints," like Magdalene, who, prostrate at the feet of Christ, prayed for forgiveness of sins, Luke 7:38. Hear St. Chrysostom, homily 11 on the Acts of the Apostles: The first faithful, he says, used to lay the prices of things at the feet of the Apostles, not at their hands, thereby declaring the faith, piety, and reverence which they had toward the Apostles; and that they considered it of greater value to be received by them than to receive gifts from them. The same, in homily 59 to the People of Antioch, admonishes that one should approach the monks and entreat them by kissing their feet. "Approach," he says, "touch the feet of the saints. For it is far more honorable to touch their feet than the heads of others. For tell me, if some men touch the feet of statues, because they have only the figure of a king: will you not hold by the feet Him who has Christ Himself in him, and shall you not be saved? The feet of the saints are holy, though they be vile: but of the unclean even the head is not to be venerated. For the feet of the saints have been able to do great things; for which reason they also avenge, when they shake off the dust from their feet." Isaiah foretold the same thing, chapter 49, verse 22: "Kings shall be your nursing-fathers, and queens your nursing-mothers. With faces bent to the earth they shall adore you, and shall lick the dust of your feet." See what was said there.
Verse 10: I Will Keep Thee from the Hour of Temptation
10. BECAUSE YOU HAVE KEPT THE WORD OF MY PATIENCE. — "Word," that is, example, say Haymo and Bede. Secondly and properly, "word," that is, the precept and promise of My patience. For thus St. John in the Gospel often uses this phrase, "to keep the word," for keeping the law. By patience He understands both the endurance of injuries and persecutions, and rather the long-suffering perseverance and persistence in it. For this is what the Greek ὑπομονή signifies. The word "because" must be referred to what follows, not to what precedes, as if to say: Because you have kept My commandment, by which I commanded you to bear all persecutions patiently, with long-suffering and perseverance, in hope of My help and deliverance, and on account of the promise of the eternal crown, for this reason I will give you the reward which I add, namely:
I WILL KEEP YOU FROM THE HOUR OF TEMPTATION WHICH IS TO COME UPON THE WHOLE WORLD. — "From the hour," that is, from the time. For the time of temptation in this life, because it is brief and like a passing storm, is here called an "hour." He seems to speak of the time and persecution of Trajan, which was vigorous and universal, and blazed up like a fire, but soon ceased and passed by like a whirlwind. About which Eusebius, Book III of History, chapter 32. So Ribera and Alcazar.
Alcazar adds that "hour" among the Greeks has a wider sense, and absolutely signifies time. Hence they call the four seasons of the year the summer hour, the autumn hour, the winter hour, the spring hour. Thus they call the time of youth the hour of youth. He also alludes to and plays on the word "word," as if to say: Because you have kept My word with faithful execution, I in turn, who am the Word of God, will preserve you with faithful protection, so that, when you cannot sustain the weight of the coming persecution because of the small strength you have, I may remove it from you, lest it engulf you with the others. So Alcazar. Less correctly Thomas Anglicus expounds, as if to say: I will keep you, not so that you may not be tempted, but that you may not be conquered by the temptation. For thus He should have said: "I will keep you in the hour." But now He says: "I will keep you from the hour."
Verse 11: Hold Fast That Which Thou Hast
11. BEHOLD, I COME QUICKLY, — to help you and to crown you: whence Rupert and Richard think it is here signified that this Bishop will die soon. Therefore He stirs him to perseverance, setting before him: first, the brevity of life; secondly, heavenly protection and aid; thirdly, the eternal crown.
HOLD FAST WHAT YOU HAVE, THAT NO ONE TAKE YOUR CROWN. — The Arabic: Hold what you have, and beware lest anyone take your crown. "Hold," that is, continue to hold, retain constantly. For "hold" signifies an act not begun, but continued. For although this Bishop, by God's protection, was to be immune from that great and universal temptation, yet other lesser ones were not lacking to him, such as daily occur in the life of man, and especially befell Christians at the beginning of the Church: "for temptation (in Greek πειρατήριον, that is, place of temptation, the stadium and the contest) is the life of man upon the earth," says St. Job, chapter vii, verse 1, according to the Septuagint. "Hold fast therefore what you have," that is, retain faith and patience in every occurring temptation and affliction, lest someone receive the crown of your faith and patience that has been promised and prepared, not absolutely, but under condition (namely, if you persevere and remain steadfast), since you are not standing fast but falling.
Beautifully Rupert says: "Hold fast what you have," as if to say: Stand firm in humility with steadfast foot, lest with shifting foot you collapse, and by collapsing lose the crown prepared for you, and another succeeding you receive it. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Now strongly and happily, by running and contending in the stadium of evangelical life and doctrine, you almost hold the crown as victor; it is now as it were yours, because it is in your hands, in your power. See therefore that you retain it constantly, and do not let it be snatched from you by another. In a similar manner St. Paul says, I Cor. ix, 24: "So run that you may obtain." For he alludes to the custom of the athletes, who would seize as quickly as possible with their hands the crown hung from some lofty place, in a swiftly driven course, as Peter Faber learnedly proves in book II, chapter xxvii of his Agonistica. To this St. Chrysostom looked in homily 7 on the epistle to the Hebrews: "The prize still hangs." And Chrysologus, sermon 153 On the infants slain for Christ: "They confess while silent, they fight without knowing, they conquer unaware, they take palms in ignorance, they snatch crowns without knowing." Finally Cassiodorus, book XI of Variae, chapter xxxv: "If the driver of an Olympic chariot snatches the prizes after his labors,"
From this it is clear, first, that just and holy men, even those praised by God, can fall away from grace and virtue, and that no one is certain of his own perseverance and salvation. Secondly, that even the predestined can absolutely fall away from grace, because they can neglect the grace of predestination, and consequently not be elected to glory nor crowned; although in the composite sense they cannot fall away, because complete predestination includes the foreknowledge of perseverance, and consequently of salvation and glory. So St. Thomas, Part I, Question XXIII. Thirdly, "hold what you have" suggests to this Bishop that his virtue was modest, as He said in verse 8, so that there was danger to him of falling. Hence concerning this He admonishes him here, that he may fortify and strengthen himself against it through constancy. So Alcazar. Fourthly, it is signified here that God is wont, when one falls, to substitute another in his place and reward. Thus He substituted men for angels, Christian peoples for the Jews, Matthias for Judas. Indeed, Primasius, Beda, Ansbertus, and St. Augustine, in his book On Reproof and Grace, chapter xiii, gather from this that the number of the predestined is certain and definite, which can neither be augmented nor diminished; and this not only formally, but materially, that is, not only that so many are to be saved, but also that these and those by name, not others, says the divine Thomas, Part I, Question XXIII, article 7. Understand this of complete predestination, which includes the foreknowledge of the future perseverance of the saints and the elect. Otherwise, if you speak of incipient predestination, abstracting from the foreknowledge of perseverance, the number of the elect is neither formally nor materially certain and definite, as is clear from this passage: "Hold what you have." For the meaning is, as if to say: You can fall away through your own choice, see that you do not fall away. Yet Primasius, Beda, Ansbertus, and St. Augustine in the cited passage seem to hold the contrary, namely, that at least formally before the foreknowledge the number of the elect is certain, e.g., that so many crowns precisely have been decreed, such that if one is taken from one person, it is given to another. For this seems to be said here. For a good, the more common it is, the more divine it is, says Alcazar. Therefore, he himself says, God, as it were a most wise architect, before all things defined and designated in His mind the fabric of the heavenly Church, namely, that in it should be precisely the saints and elect, as living stones, neither more nor fewer; and in this is seen His most exact and most wise arrangement, and the fit proportion of the thing destined. Therefore, just as in a material building the number of stones is prior in the architect's mind to the choice of this or that particular stone; and the rejection of this or that stone is conjoined with the substitution of another in its place, when, while being cut or polished, it was found useless: so in the spiritual building of the heavenly city, the number of the elect is prior in intention to the salvation of this or that particular man; and the reprobation of him who was called and justified is always conjoined with the substitution of another. So he says.
But I reply that this does not always happen, but only sometimes, namely, when someone succeeds another in an office: as here, when one Bishop fell away, another succeeded him in office, and consequently in his crown, if the other had fallen away from it. Otherwise, God, who has called all to these crowns, has prepared each one's own crown. For God did not prepare and adorn men for crowns, but crowns for men; for the crown is for the man, not the man for the crown. It is otherwise in a house: for there the stone is for the house, not the house for the stone. Add that the architect first designs the parts of the house in general, not in particular, e.g., that in it should be so many precisely stones, not more: for this is impossible. God does likewise: namely, He destined from eternity that in the heavenly Jerusalem there should be so many orders of Angels and Saints in general, e.g., that in it there should be a choir of Prophets, a choir of Apostles, a choir of Martyrs, Bishops, Confessors, Virgins, etc. He did not, however, destine that in it there should be precisely so many Prophets, not more; so many Virgins and Martyrs, not more. For this is too narrow and minute to befit that supreme majesty, and His liberality and common providence. For what beauty would be lacking to the order of Prophets, if there were one more or less in number than, as they hold, was preordained by God? What of Virgins, Confessors, Monks, Martyrs would be added to the choir, if in it there were precisely a hundred millions of virgins? What would be lost if in this number one or another were lacking? Christ proposes to all these choirs and their prizes, He invites all to them, He displays here for all their crowns. He wills therefore not only that all be saved, but that each one, with no one excluded, strive for these noble crowns with great virtue and his own victory. Therefore He has fitted and predestined not the contestants for the crowns, but the crowns for the contestants and victors. Therefore He did not predestine precisely so many crowns, e.g., a hundred millions; but He predestined in general and in common, that there should be as many crowns as there would be victors in their contest and struggle.
In a similar way a king and prince about to found a new city first describes the general plan of the city, e.g., that in such a place there should be a forum, in such a place a temple, in such a place a civic house; that there should be so many streets, such an extent of walls, etc. He does not, however, describe each house in particular. Again, he describes the various offices and crafts necessary in the city, but not the individual citizens. Finally, if any official or craftsman necessary to the city should fail, he would take care that another be substituted. So God did also in His predestination, in which He described the first plan of the Church, both militant and triumphant. Hence if any Bishop (as was this Philadelphian), Pastor, or other person necessary or very useful to the Church should fail, He soon takes care that another be substituted for him, especially if the faithful, or the Church, ask and pray for this very thing.
Thus when of the forty Martyrs, cast into a frozen pond for the faith of Christ, one not bearing the force of the cold gave way and leapt out of the pond, He soon substituted in his place the keeper of the Martyrs, because the Martyrs themselves had besought this very thing. For one was the prayer of all, says St. Basil, homily 20: "Forty have entered the stadium, may forty likewise, O Lord, be granted the crown, let not even one be lacking from this number. This number is in honor, which You have adorned with a fast of forty days, as also Moses and Elijah." Therefore God, hearing them, raised up the doorkeeper, who, beholding them praying, surrounded by light, the ice melted, and certain angels descending from heaven as if sent by a king, who were distributing crowns to the 39 soldiers, spoke thus to himself: "These are forty, where is the fortieth crown?" And while he was thinking this, he saw one, whose courage had failed for bearing the cold, go out to the nearby bath, which the tyrant had ordered to be prepared for those who failed. Therefore he himself, having stripped off his garments and professed himself a Christian, leapt into the cold water, and being made a Martyr, received the crown which the fortieth had lost.
Thus St. Francis at the beginning of his Order, when they were few and some were falling away, so that Francis feared lest the Order should fail, or be greatly diminished, and grow too slowly, and therefore was greatly afflicting himself and beseeching the Lord to avert this, heard from Him: "Why are you troubled, Francis, or why are you anxious, when one of your brethren either deserts the Order or stirs up scandal in the Order? Do you perhaps think that you have been so constituted ruler of this flock that you do not understand Me to be its higher ruler? Who planted it, if not I? Or who besides Me calls men to repentance, or supplies to the called the strength of perseverance? I led them in, I will keep and preserve them; I, when they fall, will raise up and substitute others, and if one returns to his vomit, I will rouse up another in his place, who shall receive his crown; and if he is not yet born, I will cause him to be born. But if only three remain in it, I Myself will never desert them, but this shall always be My family." Thus relates St. Bonaventure; namely, this God granted both to the prayers of St. Francis, and to the Order itself instituted by Him, and to His Church, to which this Order, as also the others, is very useful. Wherefore we behold God's marvelous providence in preserving the religious Orders through so many ages, and ever in propagating them, and when one is failing, in substituting another.
Thus, when in martyrdom some weak, timid, and inconstant ones were failing, God, that He might guard the honor of the faith, and of glory, and of His Church, soon substituted others, who offered themselves to martyrdom in place of those failing, and received their crown. An illustrious example is in the Life of St. Nicephorus the Martyr, February 9. For he offered himself in martyrdom in place of Sapricius who was failing, and received his crown. For when Sapricius, a presbyter of Antioch, after many torments bravely endured, had been condemned to death for the cause of the faith under the emperor Valerian, and was now about to receive the stroke of the sword, Nicephorus met him, with whom he had been having quarrels; and although Nicephorus repeatedly asked him to forgive him, and to return to friendship with him, he obstinately refused, and would not pardon him the offense. Wherefore God withdrew His grace from him: by which it came about that, denying the faith and Christ, he was let go free. Beholding this, Nicephorus, groaning, generously offered himself to the torturers for the faith of Christ, and being condemned by the Governor, obtained the laurel of martyrdom by the merit of his humility and charity, which Sapricius had lost through his pride and unkindness by the just judgment of God.
Finally, thus God substituted David for the falling Saul, Cyprian for Tertullian, Cyril for Origen, Jerome for Rufinus, Augustine for Pelagius. Therefore let each one rouse himself with this sharp goad to the struggle of virtue, and let him say to himself continually: "Hold what you have, lest another receive your crown." Thus St. Alexander roused himself saying: "Woe to you, Alexander! How great will be your confusion, when the others are crowned." Again: "Under the fathers there flourished nakedness and humility; but in us, avarice and pride. Alas for me, sons, because we have destroyed the truly angelic way of life." Likewise, to one saying and excusing himself: "Father, we are weak," he would reply: "Believe, son, we are Olympians in body and robust; but our soul is feeble." So relates Sophronius, or rather Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter CLXVIII.
Furthermore this sentence: "Hold what you have," favors that opinion of the Theologians which asserts that God absolutely chooses no one to heavenly glory except after foreseen merits. Whence also Christ in all these epistles of His promises this glory to no one except him who conquers. Wherefore Gabriel Vazquez, Part I, Question XXIII, disputation 89, chapter x: "If the election," he says, "to glory had been made before foreseen merits, in vain would it be said to the elect: Hold what you have, lest another receive your crown. For if no one held it in his own hand in such a way that he could lose it, he would rightly answer that it has been deposited in the hand of God, from which neither could anyone else snatch it, nor could the elect himself lose it. For if God has the key, and so closes that no one can open; and opens, so that no one can close: rightly so to the elect the gate of hell will be closed, and that of the kingdom of heaven open, so that it is not in their hand to close what is open to them, and to open what is closed: wherefore it will not be free for them, with the gates closed, to enter into hell; on the contrary, when the door of the kingdom of heaven has been opened to them, no one will hinder them, if they wish to enter, by whatever manner they have lived in this life." For the prior decree of God is inviolable and ineluctable, and must necessarily be fulfilled, whatever you do. Wherefore he who has been elected to glory absolutely before foreseen merits does not seem to remain free, so that he could lose it and bring upon himself Gehenna; but he will necessarily be saved by the efficacious decree of God, and it will be impossible for him to be damned, whatever he does. For he cannot shake off from himself the decree of God, even though he himself is unaware of it. For just as a sick man impotent for walking is truly neither powerful nor free for walking, even if he himself is unaware of his impotence and thinks himself capable. Again, just as one from whom God withdraws His concurrence is not free nor able to act, even if he is unaware of it and thinks himself capable and free: so also this elect one, by the efficacious and absolute decree of God to beatify him, efficaciously destined and bound to beatitude, does not seem to be able nor free to shake it off, and to cast himself into Gehenna, even when he himself, unaware of God's decree concerning him, is unaware of his own impotence, and thinks himself capable and free. But these things are to be disputed elsewhere.
Verse 12: He That Shall Overcome, I Will Make Him a Pillar
12. HE WHO CONQUERS, I WILL MAKE HIM A COLUMN IN THE TEMPLE OF MY GOD, — as if to say: I will make it that he who has stood firm in virtue and conquered all temptations be great and glorious both in the Church and in heaven. He alludes to the two columns of the temple, Boaz and Jachin, of which in III Kings vii, as Viegas here treats fully in section 8, and Alcazar, note 1, where he contends that these two columns of Solomon were as it were trophies erected for the victories of David, in imitation of the two columns which Hercules (who preceded Solomon by two hundred years) set up in Gades, with this title: Plus ultra; and that they prefigured that wisdom would be joined to sanctity (for these are the two columns of the Church) in the Church of Christ. For Boaz in Hebrew is the same as "in strength"; Jachin is the same as "He will prepare." Boaz therefore signifies the instrument, Jachin signifies the efficacy. In Evangelical preaching, who does not see that wisdom is as it were the instrument, and sanctity is that which gives efficacy to the word?
Thus columns were erected on the tombs of the Maccabees, as trophies of victories, I Maccabees chapter xiii, verse 29. Thus at Rome we see the columns of Trajan and Antoninus, as trophies, on which are sculpted all their deeds and victories. And Trajan's column indeed is 120 feet high, so thick that six men with their arms outstretched in a circle can scarcely embrace it; and on the inside one ascends by a spiral staircase from the bottom to the top, as if it were a tower.
Whence Richard of St. Victor first thus expounds, as if to say: I will bring it about that he who has conquered persecutions and temptations "may be a column, that is, may be in himself firm through faith, upright through equity, erect through intention, sublime through contemplation, supporting others by the word of consolation, by the help of prayer, by the example of action."
And Primasius: "A column," he says, "suits buildings both for fortification and for adornment. So also the conquerors of the world stand out in the Church by the office of dignity, and bear up others by the duty of charity." Thus Ribera explains this column as referring to the Church Triumphant; but Ticonius, Haymo, Beda, Andreas, Aretas, Anselm, and Alcazar refer it to the Church Militant — the latter proves it with many arguments.
Secondly, Ambrose: "I will make him," he says, "a column, that is, a preacher in the Church, in the manner that Paul, Galatians ii, 9, called Peter, James, and John columns." But because Origen, Tertullian, and others, who were as it were columns, fell, better, says Ambrose: "I will make him a column," that is, I will make him exalted in heaven, whence he will go forth no more.
Thirdly, Abbot Joachim: "I will make him a column," that is, a Prelate: for he, first, with his body touches the earth, with his mind touches heaven; secondly, through the active life he clings to inferior things, and yet through the contemplative life he looks upward; thirdly, he is polished by many tribulations; fourthly, Prelates amid the stormy whirlwinds of temptations bear up untiringly the structure placed upon their care; fifthly, they are tranquil and immovable.
Pererius notes: In a column eight things are observed and praised, namely rectitude, altitude, thickness, firmness, roundness, smoothness, color, and material: which it is easy to apply to a Preacher, a Prelate, and any outstanding Saint in the Church, and especially in heaven, where these Saints, as columns subject to no change, will stand for eternity exalted and glorious.
Finally, fittingly to this Bishop, who was of modest virtue, the solidity of a column is promised, if by progressing he strives, aspires, and endeavors toward it, and labors with all his might to attain it, invoking the grace of God and strenuously cooperating with it. Such a column was Jeremiah made by God, chapter i, verse 18, when he heard from Him: "I have given you for a fortified city, and for an iron column." See what is said there.
AND HE SHALL GO OUT NO MORE. — "OUT," namely outside the Church, because by the gift of constancy and perseverance which I will give him, he will firmly persevere; as if to say: I will so confirm him in virtue and make him solid, that no force can drive him, as a column, or dislodge him from his place and rank, or move him aside. Secondly and rather, as if to say: I will establish him in heavenly glory and beatitude, that "outside," that is outside it, he will go no more for all eternity. For the word amplius does not signify that someone has gone out of the Church or heaven, but that thereafter he will never go out of it, although previously he could have gone out, namely before he was made a column. So it is taken by the Septuagint in Acts xiii, 34, when it is said that Christ will not return any more to corruption, although Christ was never corrupted, but could have been corrupted, if you consider the fragility of the body and its natural course.
Otherwise Alcazar: By the temple, he says, is signified the worship and service of God. The streets and the "outside" signify the occupations of the exterior man; as if to say: I will give him strength and constancy of virtue, and that firmness of devotion, that he may consecrate himself wholly to God, and dedicate all his actions to the service of God, so that he wishes not only never to bestow any time and any action on any other matter, but never even to turn his thought away from God and divine things. Such was St. Anna, who, as Luke says, ii, 37, "did not depart from the temple, serving with fasting and prayers night and day." For many there are, even pious and religious, who scarcely give a third part of the day to God, and think it lawful for themselves in the remaining hours to go out of the temple, and to be idle without crime, or to do business at their pleasure. But he whom the virtue of Christ and the ardor of devotion has made a column, not only henceforth does not wish to go out of the temple (that is, to give himself at his pleasure to any matter except God or for God's sake), but also seems unable to attend to any matter, or to think of anything other than the service of God and his neighbors. This sense is pious, but moral rather than literal.
Such a conqueror, such a column was St. Vincent the Martyr, who, when he was torn to pieces in his whole body by Dacian the governor, smiled and said: "This is what I myself with my whole soul desired; therefore no one was ever more desirable to me than you yourself, nor did my soul ever confer a greater service: for although you do this with hostile mind, yet you confer the highest benefit upon me. Behold how I ascend to sublime things: behold how I attain heavenly things: behold how I despise your Emperors. Unless you desist from your cruelty, you will bring me a more abundant victory, the more great are the torments I endure to overcome you; rage therefore against me, lest you diminish my glory: by whatever torments you think to vex me, by them you yourself shall be more bitterly vexed." He spoke and made good, for rebuking his torturers: "Why," he said, "are you slower, and in torturing me have you become weaker? Come, equal the cruelty of your prince, that in everything he may make himself ridiculous as quickly as possible." As they raged and inflicted every kind of punishment on him, he exulted as if at a banquet, so that the torturers themselves were stricken. In him Christ shows how powerful is His grace, which is the victrix and triumphant conqueror over all torments, terrors, and equally over flatteries; and how He makes men resolute, and offering themselves for God to all that is hard, invincible and immovable as columns.
Illustrious therefore in victory was St. Vincent both in name and in reality, of whom St. Augustine, sermon 12 On the Saints: "What do we wonder, dearest brethren, if in him Vincent conquered, by whom the world was conquered? In this world, He says, you shall have tribulation, that, if it presses, it may not overwhelm; if it attacks, it may not vanquish. The world produces a double battle line against the soldiers of Christ. It flatters that it may deceive, it terrifies that it may break. Let our own will not hold us, let the cruelty of others not terrify us, and the world is conquered. So great a cruelty raged in the body of the Martyr, and so great a tranquility was displayed in his voice, and so great a harshness of pains raged in his members, that in a marvelous way we would have thought, while Vincent was suffering, that another was speaking, and being tormented. The flesh therefore was suffering, and the spirit was speaking. But now, brethren, all those things have passed away, both the wrath of Dacian and the pain of Vincent. But now the punishment remains for Dacian, and the crown for Vincent."
And sermon 43: "By a draught of which (the Spirit and the chalice of Christ in the Eucharist; for Vincent was His Deacon and dispenser) happily inebriated in mind, he undauntedly approached the madness of the rabid enemy raging against Christ, modestly endured it, securely mocked it. Therefore neither the heated plates of the frying pan, nor the rack, nor the iron claws and hands, nor the dreadful strength of those striking, nor the pain of his torn members, nor the crackling of the fire, and the throwing of salt crackling in the bowels of the sufferer — none of these things were able in any way to subdue him to Dacian's command. But from where the conqueror seemed to appear, from there the conquered was compelled to blush, because the more harshly the Martyr of God was pressed by punishment, the more abundantly he exulted in the constancy of his confession. Seeing himself therefore despised, he raged, nor did he find anyone on whom now to inflict vengeance. For he saw that the hands of the raging executioners found in him more wounds than body, and that only his immense spirit reproached him with his folly, because it provoked the rule of truth."
Hear also Prudentius, Peristephanon, hymn 5 On St. Vincent, thus rehearsing his words to Dacian:
Torments, prison, the iron claws, / And the plate hissing in the flames, / And even death itself, the last of pains, / Is but a sport to Christians.
And while he was being most grievously tortured:
This soldier of God laughed, / Moving his bloodied hands, / Because the nail, though fixed, / Did not penetrate his limbs more deeply.
And below:
O most unconquered soldier, / Stronger than the strongest, / Now the savage and harsh torments themselves / Tremble before you the victor. / Christ God, the spectator of these things, / Recompenses you with endless ages, / And His own bountiful right hand / Crowns the companion of His cross.
Among the Confessors, illustrious in deed and name was St. Victor, of whom St. Bernard says in his second sermon on him: "O illustrious Victor, who hast most gloriously triumphed both over the earth and over heaven, nobly and proudly despising the glory of the latter, and piously and violently plundering the kingdoms of the former; look down from heaven upon those bound on earth, that this may be the consummation of your triumphs, if we too may at last feel that you have conquered. For if your name is from the deed, the perfect truth of the name will be reckoned from our liberation; and surely the interpretation falls short, so long as we who are yours are not at all set free. How pious, how sweet, how delightful, O Victor, in this place of affliction and in this body of death, to sing to you, to worship you, to pray to you! May your name and memorial be a vessel distilling on the lips of captives, honey and milk under the tongue of those who delight in your memory. Come therefore, mighty athlete, sweet patron, faithful advocate, rise up to help us, that we too may rejoice in our deliverance, and you may glory in your full victory. Almighty Father, we have sinned against Thee, having become alien sons, but we have drawn near in the Victor, who, while he conquered his own desire, may conquer Thy wrath also, and powerfully restore us to grace. O Victor Jesus, we praise Thee in our Victor, because we know that Thou hast conquered in him. Grant him, most loving Jesus, so to glory in his victory in Thee that he may not forget us. Son of God, send him to be ever mindful of us in Thy sight, to take up and plead our cause in Thy dread judgment."
AND I WILL WRITE UPON HIM. — He persists in the metaphor of the column (whence from the Greek it can be translated, upon it): for upon columns are wont to be inscribed the titles and names of victors, or of those to whom they are erected and dedicated, as we see here in Rome on the column of Trajan, and on the arch of Titus, Severus, and Constantine.
THE NAME OF MY GOD, AND THE NAME OF THE CITY OF MY GOD, THE NEW JERUSALEM, etc., AND MY NEW NAME. — This name, says Ambrose, is to be eternal, or to be a participant in eternity and in the eternal vision of God, which Jerusalem signifies.
Secondly, to be in the society of the Angels and the Blessed, who are called the heavenly Jerusalem. So also Andreas of Caesarea.
Thirdly, Rupert: The name of God is the name of the father; the name of Jerusalem is the name of the mother, of whom the Apostle says, Galatians 4:26: "That Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother," as if to say: Whoever, obeying God's will, shall be victor over the world, the flesh, and the devil, him I will honor with the distinction of the title of father and mother, as if he were My father and My mother, according to that saying of Christ: "Whosoever shall do the will of My Father who is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother," Matthew chapter 12, verse 50. To this Joachim adds: I will cause, he says, that he be called father by his own, just as Religious call their rulers Abbots, and the laity call priests Popes, that is, fathers; that they may be like Abraham, to whom it was said: "I have made you a father of many nations." Thus St. Anthony, Hilarion, Benedict have the name "Abbas," that is, father. In like manner I will cause him to be called mother, like Paul, who says in Galatians 4: "My little children, of whom I am in labor again."
Fourthly and best, He alludes to columns, on which the princes who erected them took care to have their names inscribed, by which they signified that these columns were dear, precious, and glorious to them, as if to say: I will enroll him among My sons and elect in heaven, that he may be a dweller of heaven and a citizen of the angels: so that it is a hypallage, like this one: "The name of the Lord is invoked over us," that is, we are called servants and sons of the Lord. So here it is said: "I will write upon him the name of God, and of the new Jerusalem," in place of saying: "I will write his name in the book of God, and of the new Jerusalem," that is, I will write him in the book of life in heaven, that he may be a citizen of the Saints, and of the household of God. Or rather plainly and simply, as if to say: I will make this man, so solid and illustrious in virtue, a column, that he may be of great honor and glory both to God, and to the Church, and to Christ, so that he himself may be as a trophy, an ornament to God the Victor and to the Church, erected by Christ. For as many as look upon him and his such holy ways will say that he is a column of God, of the Church and of Christ; so that he seems to bear written on his forehead: This is a column, nay rather a trophy, of God, of Christ, and of the Church; because in him has shone forth, and to all is set forth as if to be read, the greatness of the grace and virtue of God. It is a catachresis: for that is said to be written which becomes so conspicuous and illustrious as if it were written on the forehead. So Alcazar, whose meanings, learned and pious but more diffuse than that they could be read by many, here and elsewhere, for the readers' sake, I have summarized in a few words.
Note: Christ here three times repeats the "of My God," to signify His immense reverence and the delights of His love toward the Father on account of so many benefits, both bestowed upon Him as man, and upon His faithful through Him. For Christ's Heart was full of remembrance, thanksgiving, and love of God His Father, so that He could think of nothing else; inasmuch as He alone was honored and loved by the Father as His natural Son, while the rest, both men and angels, are His adopted ones; and reciprocally He alone the Father, as Father natural, loved as His Only-begotten. Again, by this Christ excites the hope of the Church and of the faithful, that through Him they will easily obtain from the Father all that they seek. For the Father supremely loves the Son, as also the Son the Father.
Note: The Church, both militant on earth and triumphant in heaven, is called "Jerusalem," that is, the city of God (or vision of peace); "new," with respect to men, to whom it was unknown in former ages, namely under the law of Moses as well as that of nature. The same is said to descend from heaven, both because literally, in her very origin she is heavenly. For she arose in the heavens and was produced by God; hence she herself appears to descend from the heavens to earthly men, when she makes them heavenly and blessed, of which more in chapter 21, verse 1. Both because mystically, she with Christ ever descends through humility, against proud Lucifer, who, swollen with pride, said: "I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of God I will exalt my throne," says Joachim. Differently Maldonatus in his short Notes written by his own hand, which we have in the Roman College: The new Jerusalem, he says, is said to descend from heaven, that is, to be founded, to have foundations so high that they descend from heaven down to earth, or because she appears from heaven as if descending, or because she draws near and comes, chapter 21, verse 2.
AND MY NEW NAME. — The new name of Christ is Jesus; for this new name was given to Him at circumcision, says St. Thomas, III part, Question 37, article 2, as if to say: On the victors, as on columns, the name of Jesus shall be inscribed, to signify that they were erected by Jesus, that they obtained all grace and victory through Jesus, and therefore by excellence they shall be called Jesuans, or Jesuits, that is, sons and clients of Jesus. So Pererius, Ribera, Viegas, indeed Hugo, who was the first from the Order of Preachers to be elected to the College of Cardinals, and after him Landulphus the Carthusian 260 years ago, part I De Vita Christi, chapter 10: "In heavenly glory," he says, "we shall be called Jesuits by Him," that is, saved by the Savior. This new name, then, is the name of Jesus Christ, the sanctifier on earth, the beatifier in heaven, which Christ obtained both before His Passion, in it, and most of all after it, when from heaven He sent the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the faithful, that He might sanctify them and through them the whole world in this life, and glorify them in the future. Moreover, this new name pertains both to the glory of the faithful and rather to the glory of Christ; for in these faithful, as in columns erected by Christ, there shines forth Christ's grace, strength, and triumph, which founded and strengthened these columns, that they might overcome all whirlwinds and tempests; so that in them, as it were, Christ's name and title appears inscribed, indeed engraved. So the Apostle says of Christ, Philippians 2:9: "Wherefore God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above every name;" a name, I say, both of Redeemer and Savior, and of Lord and Monarch of the world. Whence follows: "That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth." See what is said there.
Verse 14: And to the Angel of the Church of Laodicea Write
14. AND TO THE ANGEL OF LAODICEA WRITE. — This is the seventh and last of Christ's epistles to the Bishop of Laodicea, and under his person to any prelates and lukewarm faithful. "Most renowned," says Pliny, book V, chapter 29, "is the city of Laodicea: it is set on the river Lycus, with the Asopus and Capros washing its sides, called first Diospolis, then Rhoas." It was founded by Antiochus, son of Stratonice, and in honor of his wife Laodice was called Laodicea, as it were λαῶν δίκη, that is, the judgment of peoples, that is, judge, namely the prince of peoples, to whom he would speak right, and to whom he would give laws. Hence, in verse 17, she boasts that she is rich, and in need of nothing. It was therefore the greatest city of Phrygia, near Colossae; whence St. Paul, Colossians chapter 4, verse 16, says: "When this epistle has been read among you, see that it be also read in the Church of the Laodiceans, and that you read that which is from the Laodiceans."
You will ask: Who was this Bishop? Aureolus thinks it was St. Sagaris the Bishop, who underwent a noble martyrdom at Laodicea about the year of Christ 172, whom Eusebius praises, book V Hist., chapter 24: "Why," he says, "need it be said of Sagaris the Bishop and Martyr, who fell asleep at Laodicea?" But it stands against this that Eusebius and the ancients commend St. Sagaris for his sanctity and zeal. Yet this Angel is reprehended by Christ in many matters, and in none is he praised. For he hears: "Thou art lukewarm: and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." So Lyranus, Pererius, and Alcazar: unless someone say that Sagaris was at first such, but admonished by Christ, came to his senses, as did the Angel of Ephesus, of whom I spoke at chapter 2, verse 1.
THESE THINGS SAITH AMEN. — In Greek ὁ ἀμήν, that is, He who is Amen, that is, stable, true, constant, faithful, and stability, truth, and faithfulness itself. "Amen" therefore here is not an adverb, as Primasius and Ambrose would have it, but a name, or epithet of Christ, as also in Isaiah 65:16, where He is called "God Amen," that is, the true God; and 2 Corinthians 1:18-19. See what is said there. Moreover, Christ here is called "Amen," not only as God, as if to say: These things saith Christ, who is God, whose epithet is Amen, that is, true, or truth itself; but rather as man, because as man He was truthful and faithful, both in His doctrine and testimony, which He bore to the truth, and in His promises. He is therefore called "Amen," because He is "faithful and true witness," as is added by way of explanation.
But why does Christ here alone call Himself "Amen," and faithful witness, but not in the other epistles to other Bishops? Some answer that this Bishop doubted Christ's promises, and so had fallen into lukewarmness, which here Christ rebukes, and recalls him to fervor with repeated promises, and therefore sets forth and inculcates above all His own faithfulness. But whether this Bishop doubted Christ's promises, is uncertain; it is more certain that he did not value these promises of Christ enough, did not consider them, did not weigh them as much as was fitting; for if he had weighed them as he ought, he would not have grown lukewarm. For all lukewarmness in God's service arises from this, that a man does not sufficiently consider and value who God is, what and how great are His promises as well as His threats.
Alcazar gives another probable reason. Christ premises, he says, the assertion of His own faithfulness and truthfulness, because He is about to say to this Bishop certain things which seem less likely, such as, that it is better to be cold than lukewarm, that this Bishop was wretched and miserable, and that He promises such great things to such a one, namely, that He would dine with him, and would seat him on His own throne.
WHO IS THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GOD. — as if to say: He, namely Christ, is the efficient and exemplary cause of created things (from which, that is, all created things take their beginning), and especially of restored things, namely men redeemed through His death. Hence in Isaiah 9:6, He is called "Father of the world to come." And the Apostle, Galatians 6:15, Ephesians 6:10, Colossians 3:10, calls the faithful a new creature, that is, of Christ. For so he says to the Ephesians: "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them." For the faithful in baptism, or penance, are as it were regenerated by Christ, and become new men, and receive as it were a new divine being, so that they are called and truly are a new creature of God, namely by worshiping and glorifying God; in Christ therefore is our true life, and "without Christ all that we live is vain," says St. Jerome to Heliodorus. So Ribera, Rupert, and Alcazar, who also adds that here there is an allusion to that of chapter 1, Beginning and end; but the "end" is omitted, because this Bishop had attained not the end, that is, the perfection, of this new creature, as he himself thought, but only the beginning, indeed scarcely the beginning, on account of his lukewarmness. Secondly, for "beginning" in Greek there is ἀρχή, which signifies both principate and beginning; as if to say: He, namely Christ, holds principate over all creatures. So Pererius from Andreas of Caesarea. Wrongly therefore did the Arians interpret Christ, as He is the Word and Son of God, to be the beginning, that is, to be the first creature, both in duration and in dignity. For this is contrary to Holy Scripture, which teaches elsewhere that the Son is not a creature, but the Word coeternal and consubstantial with the Father, and that He Himself is God Amen, as Isaiah asserts in the passage already cited.
Verse 15: Would That Thou Wert Cold or Hot
15. WOULD THAT THOU WERT COLD, OR HOT (ζεστός, that is, fervent); BUT BECAUSE THOU ART LUKEWARM, AND NEITHER COLD, NOR HOT, I WILL BEGIN TO VOMIT THEE OUT OF MY MOUTH. — The Arabic translates: Would that thou wert cold water, or wert hot! because thou art thus lukewarm water, and art not hot water, and art not cold water. For lukewarm water is vomited up, and provokes the vomiting of foods. To this therefore is this Bishop compared.
You will ask: Who are here called hot, cold, lukewarm, or rather compared to hot, cold, lukewarm water?
First, Richard, Bede, Aretas, Ambrose, sermon 2 on Psalm 118: The cold, he says, are the unfaithful, who sin through ignorance; worse than these are the lukewarm, that is, the faithful sinners, because sin, e.g., lust, is graver in the faithful than in the infidel.
Secondly, Victorinus thinks the cold are heretics; the hot, Catholics; the lukewarm, politicians, who for their own conveniences feign themselves now heretics, now Catholics.
Thirdly, Primasius: The cold, he says, are those who have no resources to give to the poor; the hot, those who have and give; the lukewarm, those who have, and do not give. So also Ticonius and Andreas, who says that this Bishop was beset with the thorns of riches.
Fourthly, the Commentary inscribed under the name of St. Ambrose thinks the lukewarm are the faithful who neglect to do good works, and from faith or knowledge alone hope for salvation. So also the true St. Ambrose on Psalm 118. Salvian, book IV De Providentia, and St. Bernard, sermon 3 De Ascensione, which is inscribed De Intellectu et affectu. Again, St. Gregory, part III Pastoralis, chapter 35, and Thomas Anglicus, interpret the lukewarm as the one who does not finish what he has well begun, and, as Origen says, homily 1 on Psalm 38, who after a good beginning has grown sluggish.
Fifthly, St. Gregory, Moralia 34, 2, says: The hot is he who has charity; the cold, he who lives in mortal sin but acknowledges his fault; the lukewarm is he who is in sin, but does not acknowledge it, and through hypocrisy feigns himself upright.
Sixthly, Haymo and Ansbertus: The cold, they say, are seculars; the hot, fervent monks; the lukewarm are those who have the habit of a monk, but a worldly mind and manners. See Haymo and Cassian, Collation IV, chapter 19. Whence some thus explain, as if to say: Would that the Religious were either seculars, or zealous for the Religious life which they have professed! For in the secular life sins would be less grave, which in a Religious are graver.
Seventhly, Joachim: The hot is he who, joyful and eager, rejoices in the Lord through His mercy; the cold, he who is sad in himself for his sins; the lukewarm, he who is neither sad through penance, nor joyful at God's service. So also St. Bernard, sermon 3 De Assumptione B. M. Virg.: The hot, he says, are those who burn with charity for good works; the cold are fragile and sinners, but sad, humble, and penitent. Or the hot are those whom the love of God restrains from sins; the cold, those whom the fear of punishments restrains; the lukewarm, those who have neither of these, who neither love nor fear God.
Eighthly, Rupert and Pererius: The lukewarm here are the proud, who please themselves and trust in themselves, and persuade themselves that they are good, and live securely, as if needing nothing, fearing nothing. Whence follows: "Thou sayest that I am rich and wealthy, and have need of nothing; and thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable." These are worse than the cold, that is, manifest sinners. Whence Rupert, applying these things to a proud virgin, thus explains, as if to say: "Would that thou wert rather corrupted and humble!" Hence St. Augustine, sermon 53 De Verbis Domini: "I dare," he says, "to say, it is expedient for the proud continent to fall." And book 14 De Civit. Dei, chapter 13: "I dare," he says, "to say, it is useful for the proud to fall into some open and manifest sin, that they may be displeased with themselves who had fallen by being already pleased with themselves." He adds examples: "For more wholesomely did Peter displease himself when he wept, than he pleased himself when he presumed. This the holy Psalmist also says, Psalm 82: 'Fill their faces with shame, and they shall seek Thy name, O Lord,' that is, that Thou mayest please those seeking Thy name, who pleased themselves seeking their own." The Wise Man also says this, Proverbs 16:18: "Pride goeth before destruction, and before a fall the spirit is exalted." The same Augustine, book 1 De Civit. Dei, chapter 28, teaches that God permitted Christian virgins to be violated by the Barbarians ravaging Rome and other cities, either because they themselves were proud, or because there was danger lest they should grow proud on account of their chastity, etc. "It met," he says, "the swelling of the latter as already present, and the swelling of the former as imminent."
Ninth, the lukewarm is he who fluctuates between virtues and vices, and who would indeed wish to live by virtue and to avoid sins, but flees the contest with vices and the labor of virtue. So Haymo, Anselm, Lyranus, and Cassian, Collation IV, chapters 12 and 19. Following these, Alcazar: The lukewarm, he says, is he who does not dare knowingly and willingly to offend God mortally, and therefore thinks himself just, but neglects the pursuit of a purer and more perfect life; whence he easily yields to his own concupiscences, and devours whatever sins seem to him to be only venial. He, although he may be in the state of grace, if namely no grave temptation of concupiscence befalls him, nevertheless easily, when it does befall, falls into mortal sin; whence he is in great peril of sin and of salvation, and often among so many occasions, with which this life is full, he in fact slips into mortal sin, as this Bishop had slipped. This Laodicene therefore differs from the Sardian, namely the lukewarm from the cold, in that the Sardian through wickedness, namely through voluntary negligence in his office and pastoral care, knowingly and willingly had sinned mortally; but this Laodicene, enticed by his own concupiscence, through lukewarmness did not advert that he was offending God, and yet had fallen from His grace: whence he is called blind. For although he knew himself to be lukewarm, yet he did not see the magnitude of his danger on account of this lukewarmness; and he does not acknowledge his fall from it and the misery of his condition. This explanation seems genuine, and to it the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth expositions can easily be adapted, since they can be reconciled with it. For the first three expositions seem little apt and irrelevant.
Whence note: Although in itself it is worse to be cold and to live in coldness, than as one lukewarm to tend toward coldness; just as it is worse to sin knowingly out of freedom, than ignorantly out of lukewarmness and concupiscence (for this is to be lukewarm, the other to be cold); nevertheless lukewarmness is here condemned in preference to coldness, and it is said to be more desirable that the Bishop of Laodicea be cold than lukewarm, because lukewarmness, first, is more dangerous than coldness, both on account of the greater forgetfulness and indolence by which one does not notice one's danger, but secure rests and falls asleep in it; and on account of the danger of being abandoned by God. For God, who is a consuming fire, and who wills to be served by the Seraphim, hates this lukewarmness, and from the lukewarm withdraws His grace, and lets him sleep deeply, and so slip and fall into the abyss. The sin of the lukewarm therefore is in itself indeed lighter, but more dangerous; and so Christ here says to him: "Would that thou wert cold, or hot!" which Thomas Anglicus, explaining, says: "The discourse is about the cold, not as to coldness and fault, but as to the greater facility of disposition," because the cold is more apt and disposed to amendment than the lukewarm, who through his lukewarmness will easily fall into the depth of sin and of hell. And the Gloss: "He does not," he says, "wish him cold simply, but such as gives greater hope." For, as Cassian eminently says, Collation IV, chapter 19: "We have frequently seen the cold and the carnal, that is, seculars and Pagans, attain to spiritual fervor; of the lukewarm and animal we have not seen this at all." Christ therefore here shows to the Bishop of Laodicea, and to all prelates and faithful, especially Religious, how great is the danger in lukewarmness, and in what a perilous state, prone and inclined to fall and ruin, the lukewarm find themselves, who flee the study of discipline and of a more perfect life, and in it languish and as it were grow nauseated. Lukewarmness therefore is here condemned, not only because it is contrary to the stomach, and like lukewarm water as it were provokes vomiting in God, as Pererius would have it; but also because it is something diminished, imperfect, torpid, and languid: for it is neither heat, nor cold, but a participation of both, indeed as it were a refraction, diminution, and dulling of both. And so the lukewarm are as it were amphibious animals, which are neither terrestrial nor aquatic, and, as is commonly said, neither fish nor flesh. What can you do with such? Where can you place them? They are irresolute, they hang, they fluctuate, now incline this way, now that. Is it not better to be cold, but resolute? Secondly, this lukewarmness is per accidens worse than coldness, because it is joined with and is wont to arise from great self-confidence, pride, presumption, and contempt of God and divine things, as I said above from Rupert. For this is what He adds: "Because thou sayest, I am rich."
Whence note secondly, that this Bishop of Laodicea through this lukewarmness had fallen from charity, and in fact had incurred mortal sin, and had tended toward full coldness, that is, toward voluntary license and malice in sinning, and consequently to the loss of faith. That this is so is plain, both because he is called poor, naked, blind, wretched, and pitiable; and because he is counselled to buy gold tried in fire, that is, charity. So teach Richard, Bede, Arethas, Alcazar, Ribera, St. Gregory, Ambrose, in the passages already cited, and many others. Note thirdly, not unfittingly however is this passage applied to one tepid in charity; indeed Lyranus seems to understand it of him. For, as St. Gregory teaches in the third part of the Pastoral, admonition 33, there is greater danger in the lukewarm than in the cold: "Because," he says, "coldness before lukewarmness is under hope, but lukewarmness after coldness is under despair: that is, he who is still in sins does not lose the confidence of conversion; but he who has grown lukewarm after conversion has at the same time withdrawn the hope which there was concerning a sinner." You will say: How can it be said of him: "Would that you were hot or cold?" I reply: This desire seems to be good, as also a permission, whereby someone wishes or permits that one who is sluggish, obstinate in sluggishness, and near to ruin, should fall into some graver and manifest sins, so that from these he may recognize his lapses, and be seriously and plainly corrected and saved, as St. Augustine teaches, book 14 De Civitate, chapter 13, in the words cited a little above, concerning the proud man who trusts in himself and is therefore torpid. For unless this happens, he will remain sluggish, and will fall into hidden mortal sins, and will neglect them, and so will incur the danger of damnation. Such a one therefore is in greater danger than one who is in manifest mortal sin. Which he himself recognizes. Whence it is more advantageous and more to be desired that such a one fall into a manifest mortal sin, from which he may soon rebound more fervent, than to cleave to his own sluggishness so dangerous and ruinous, inasmuch as from it he will fall into far graver things, and by an insensible and irrevocable fall will plunge more deeply into hell, as above I have shown concerning the lukewarm man who has fallen into mortal sin.
Morally, learn how great an evil lukewarmness and acedia (sloth) are. "Acedia (says Climacus) is a relaxing of the soul and a dissolution of the mind, pusillanimity in exercise, hatred of one's profession, beatifier of worldly things, detractor of God as one without compassion and without kindness, stunned in psalmody, weak in prayer, iron-hard in ministry, lazy in handiwork, dishonest in obedience." So he himself in the chapter on acedia. "The root of despair is sloth, and not only the root, but it is its nurse and mother. For just as a garment breeds and nourishes the moth, so sloth not only begets despair from itself, but feeds and fosters it," says St. Chrysostom in the book On the Lapse. "Through lukewarmness, strength and talent flow away," says Isidore in book II of the Soliloquies. "Idleness must be fled, the mother of trifles, the stepmother of virtues," says St. Bernard in book II On Consideration. "Just as in every work constancy is found to be the mother, so of all learning and discipline negligence is the stepmother," says Boethius, in the book On Scholastic Discipline.
Do you want the maxims and thoughts of the Gentiles? Plato, in the book On the Republic: "Sloth," he says, "is a pestilence to mortals." Seneca in Proverbs: "Deliberate long," he says, "but act quickly. To care about nothing is to be mad; to be able to do nothing is to live as if dead." The same author, in the book On Benefits: "No benefit ought to be given to a negligent person." And Letter 30: "Labor nourishes generous minds." Eusebius the Philosopher: "Sloth wastes the body, sluggishness wastes the soul; but exercise raises the soul to a likeness most resembling God." Seneca in Medea: Fortune fears the brave and crushes the slothful. Valerius Maximus, book II, chapter vii: "Virtue is wont to hate enervated minds." Aristotle, in book III of the Ethics, chapter vii: "Every coward despairs and distrusts, because he fears everything; the brave man does the contrary. For it belongs to a confident mind to dare." The same in book X On Animals: "No natural being," he says, "is born to be idle." See how swift the heavens are, how active the elements, how busy the animals. Sallust in Catiline: "The aid of the gods is not procured by vows or womanish supplications; but by watching, acting, taking good counsel — all things turn out prosperously. Where you have surrendered yourself to sluggishness and sloth, in vain will you implore the gods." It was the saying of Cato: "By doing nothing, a man learns thoroughly to do evil." The Terentian Mitio asks about the young man whether he believed that the gods would arrange the hoped-for nuptials for him while he slept? Democritus, when asked how the industrious differ from the slothful, replied: "As the impious differ from the pious — namely, by good hope." For he who toils hopes for the reward of his industry; the slothful man despairs.
Do you want examples? Cyrus judged that slothful soldiers ought to be cashiered, as Xenophon reports in book II of the Cyropaedia. Lycurgus held that a citizen ought to be punished who had manifestly neglected the means by which he might become most excellent: for that commonwealths are betrayed by the slothful, Xenophon is witness in On the Republic of the Lacedaemonians. Themistocles called "sloth" "the burial of a living man;" when at the completion of one hundred and seven years he saw himself dying, he is said to have stated that he grieved most because he was departing from life when he had begun to be wise. So Plutarch in his Life. There is in the Fables of Aesop, that a herdsman driving a cart loaded with wood, when it was stuck in mud, while standing idly by implored the aid of Hercules; to whom Hercules, appearing: "Apply your hands to the wheels, O herdsman, and set the goad to the oxen, and then ask the aid of the gods; lest, if you yourself slacken, the gods be invoked in vain." Hence the proverb: "Putting your hand to it, invoke the divine powers." Seneca, Letter 33: "I would rather," he says, "have ill befall me than soft pleasures; if you are soft, the mind is gradually effeminated, and is dissolved into the likeness of its own idleness and laziness in which it lies: I sleep very little, and use the briefest sleep: it is enough for me to have ceased waking: sometimes I know that I have slept, sometimes I only suspect it." The same, Letter 8: "No day passes for me in idleness: I claim part of the nights for my studies. I do not have leisure for sleep, but I recline, and I detain my eyes, fatigued by vigil and falling, upon my work." And Letter 67: "Demetrius calls a life secure and without any incursions of fortune a Dead Sea; to lie in unshaken idleness is not tranquility but stagnation. The Stoic Attalus used to say: I prefer fortune to keep me in the camp than in delights." Lysander, when the Lacedaemonians were sluggishly attacking the walls of the Corinthians, on seeing a hare leaping out of a ditch, said: "Are these the enemies you fear, by whose sluggishness hares sleep in the walls?" Plutarch is witness in the Apophthegmata. The Spartans expelled the poet Archilochus from the city, although he was a Spartan, because he had written a verse that it was better in battle to lose one's arms than one's life. For this seemed to rouse the citizens to sloth and to timidity. We read that it was kept among the Nabataeans, that one who was negligent, remiss, and idle, who by sloth had diminished his paternal wealth, should be punished by penalty. So Alexander ab Alexandro, book III, chapter xiii. A Sardinian law was established against the idle, which inflicted penalties of sluggishness, and compelled each one to render an account of his labor, his sustenance, and the whole reason of his life, as Aelian witnesses, book IV. A similar one existed among the Argives, as Alexander ab Alexandro witnesses, book III, chapter III. So even now the Belgians do not tolerate the slothful or the able-bodied beggars. Furthermore, the signs of the fervent and the lukewarm, from St. Bernard, I have reviewed at Romans 12:11.
Verse 16: I Will Begin to Vomit Thee Out of My Mouth
16. BUT BECAUSE THOU ART LUKEWARM, I WILL BEGIN TO VOMIT THEE OUT OF MY MOUTH.
It is a metaphor from foods, which, if they are cold or hot, are retained in the stomach; but if lukewarm, they provoke vomiting. For, as Ribera rightly deduces, the stomach, in order to retain and cook foods well, must be closed and constricted. Cold things bite the stomach and exasperate it by contracting it; hot things dry it out and prick it: and therefore at the touch of either, the parts of the stomach contract, so as to compress, embrace, and thoroughly cook each. For this reason the ancients in their banquets used to set out not only cold but also hot drink, as Lipsius notes, book I Electa, chapter 4. The Japanese, however, drink hot drink continually, and by this method escape and are ignorant of colic, indigestion, phlegm, gout, and other diseases of the Europeans, which arise from cold drink, as our eyewitness Trigautius reports, book I of the History of the Chinese. But at the bland and gentle touch of lukewarm things, the stomach is relaxed, dissolved, becomes flaccid and stretched; relaxed, it lets the food go, and the food, once let go, weighs upon it like a burden and afflicts it with annoyance: and therefore, with nature rising up against what is troublesome and laboring to expel it, the food is vomited out. Hence physicians, to provoke vomiting, are accustomed to give lukewarm water. Franciscus Valesius explains this, Sacred Philosophy, chapter 20, by a twofold example: First, of animals having a shell; for these, as soon as they are pricked or hurt, draw themselves together; but if they are bathed with lukewarm water, or moderately warmed by the sun, they extend themselves. Second, of relaxed hands, which are overturned by the same weight that they would firmly retain and sustain when tightly clenched.
God therefore signifies that the lukewarm, by their lukewarmness, present themselves to Him as it were lukewarm water, by which He is compelled to vomit them out, that is, to drive them away from Himself and His familiarity. Secondly, He consequently signifies that the lukewarm are as it were raw food, undigested for lack of warmth, that is, of charity; whereas on the contrary the fervent, as it were cooked through by the warmth of charity, are made members of Christ. Thirdly, this vomiting signifies that God execrates the lukewarm, as we execrate that which the mouth vomits up. Fourthly, that this is done with great violence, as a vomit is: for it is as it were against God's will that He should vomit them out. Fifthly, He does not say: From the stomach, but, From the mouth, because the lukewarm so displease God that He does not admit them into His stomach, but as soon as He has felt them in His mouth, He vomits and spits them out, and at length casts them down into eternal punishment, says Andreas of Caesarea.
Hear also Alcazar: "I assert," he says, "first, that the metaphor of vomiting is not to be referred (properly and chiefly) to eternal damnation. For this is threatened by God not against the lukewarm only, but against all sinners; rather it refers to that which precedes it, namely to dereliction by God. Secondly, I assert that by the metaphor of vomiting an irreconcilable detestation is represented. Thirdly, I assert that the lukewarm is then most aptly said to be vomited out by Christ, when he is hardened in sin, and in some way is cast out beyond the care of divine providence. The particular content of this threat (which deserves to be feared even on account of venial lukewarmness) is to be deprived of those aids which are not granted to all the just, but only to those whom God pursues with greater favor. How great a danger of falling into deadly sins and at length into true obduracy thence threatens, I leave to the consideration of spiritual men. Fourthly, I assert that this threat is so explained with respect to lukewarmness, and through it the faithful are taught that lukewarmness is the very way to obduracy in sin. Than this opinion nothing more apt could be proposed to the lukewarm, inasmuch as they think themselves to be very far removed from this obduracy, and to detest it greatly." There is a similar proverb: "To play the beet," and "half-cooked beet;" for this stirs nausea, and is said of languid, torpid, and effeminate men: which the Septuagint uses, Isaiah 51:20. See what is said there. So Diogenes used to say that he did not carp at the morals of young men, because "a dog," he said, "does not feed on beets," signifying that the young men were insipid and so unworthy of his bite, nor would he deign to bark at them.
I WILL BEGIN TO VOMIT THEE OUT. — In place of "I will begin" the Greek has μέλλω, which properly means "I am about to" or "I am going to"; the Syriac translates, "I am ready." In Scripture, however, it not infrequently signifies "I begin," "I set about," as in John 4:47: "He was beginning," Greek ἔμελλε, "namely, to die;" Acts 3:3: "When he had seen Peter and John beginning," Greek μέλλοντας, "to enter into the temple." Ribera adduces more on this. And this signification is here more apt and effective, as if to say: I will not defer it to the future, but will straightway begin to vomit thee out; see therefore that thou cleave not to thy lukewarmness, but at once shake it off and put on fervor. To embrace the whole matter in a word, although the cold man is worse than the lukewarm, nevertheless the state or condition of the lukewarm is worse than that of the cold, because the lukewarm is in greater danger of falling without hope of rising again than the cold. The Arabic version renders: Unless that (unless thou wert as lukewarm water), I would have distinguished thee with My sight, or with My eye, as if to say: Thou wouldst have pleased Me, thou wouldst have found grace in My eyes, thou wouldst have been beloved and elect by Me.
Verse 17: Because Thou Sayest, I Am Rich
17. BECAUSE THOU SAYEST: I AM RICH, — namely with gold and temporal wealth: from this indeed he became poor and lukewarm in spiritual things. So Andreas, Aretas, and Baronius, as I shall presently say more fully. For wealth is held in price by all, and often more than virtue, according to that of Ovid:
Price is now held in price; income gives honors, / Income gives friendships: the poor man lies prostrate everywhere.
And that of Horace, book I, ode 28:
O citizens, citizens, money is to be sought first, / Virtue after coins.
Secondly and better, "I am rich," namely in virtues. So Ambrose and Gregory, Morals 30, 2, where he beautifully teaches that the elect seek heavenly riches, but the reprobate earthly ones.
Note: The "because" is the same as "although," as if to say: although thou thinkest and sayest that thou art rich, in truth thou art poor. So Alcazar. Secondly and properly, the "because" gives the cause of the lukewarmness, as if to say: Because thou trustest in thyself and thine own powers and virtues, hence thou hast grown lukewarm in their exercise. For lukewarm persons are wont, seeing themselves avoid the graver sins into which worldly and wicked men rush, to glory in their own innocence and holiness, and thereby to grow lukewarm.
AND THOU KNOWEST NOT THAT THOU ART WRETCHED AND MISERABLE. — He gives three causes why he is wretched and miserable, namely because he was first "poor," that is, lacking charity; secondly, "blind," because imprudent in things to be done; thirdly, "naked," because lacking good works, since he did his own works through presumption and hypocrisy. For these three, namely poverty, blindness, and nakedness, if they meet in the same person, make him wretched and miserable; just as on the contrary, riches, health, and respectable clothing make a man esteemed blessed by men. Wherefore He opposes to these three calamities a threefold happiness, and exhorts him toward it: namely, to poverty He opposes gold, saying: "I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be made rich." To nakedness He opposes garments, saying: "With white garments," that is, pure and holy works, "that thou mayest be clothed." To blindness He gives a remedy of sight, saying: "And anoint thine eyes with collyrium, that thou mayest see." So Beda, Ansbertus, Rupert, and Hugo.
Beautifully St. Gregory, book 34 Moralia, chapter 11, explains these words of the Apocalypse thus: "He asserts himself as if rich, who is exalted by arrogance of holiness, but is convicted of being poor and blind and naked. Poor indeed, because he does not have the riches of virtues; blind, because he does not see even the poverty he suffers; naked, because he has lost his first robe; but worse, because he does not even know that he has lost it. Therefore, since the want of the reprobate is the defrauding of merits, it is rightly said of Leviathan: Want shall go before his face." Golden is the saying of St. Augustine, no. 27: "No one," he says, "is so erudite, no one so learned, that he does not need supernal illumination. For to no one will the increases of divine goods so suffice that there does not always remain something which the rational mind desires both to understand and to perform."
Verse 18: I Counsel Thee to Buy of Me Gold Fire-Tried
18. I COUNSEL THEE TO BUY OF ME GOLD FIRED AND TRIED, — that is, tested and purged by fire; for instead of "fired tried," the Greek has πεπυρωμένον ἐκ πυρός, that is, fired from fire, that is, drawn out of the fire as fired, and consequently fully purged and tested; for πεπυρωμένον corresponds to the Hebrew צרוף tsaruph, that is, examined and tested by fire. Perhaps too, instead of πεπυρωμένον, some read πεπειραμένον, that is, tried, and our Interpreter joins both.
Alcazar interprets otherwise: for he refers "from the fire" not to "fired" but to "buy," as if to say: Approach the furnace in which gold burns, and from that very furnace buy pure gold, that is, approach the inflamed charity of God and Christ through devout meditation, and as if offering it as a price, ask that He bestow upon thee some little particle of that fired gold.
Note: Christ says "I counsel," not "I command." For, as St. Chrysostom says, homily 56 on Matthew: "Just as he who uses force generally turns men away, so he who allows his hearers to be free, attracts them much more. For mild speech is more powerful than violent." Hence Seneca, book I On Clemency, says that human minds are like generous horses, which easily allow themselves to be guided by the bit: "He who commands more gently," he says, "is better obeyed." Hence the Wise Man says of God, chapter 12, verse 18: "But Thou, master of power, judgest with tranquillity, and orderest us with great reverence."
Note first: By "gold" many understand wisdom, not that of Philosophers but of Saints: both because it rests as a desirable treasure in the mouth of the wise, as is said in Proverbs 21; and because, just as we buy temporal things with gold, so through wisdom we obtain and merit eternal things, says St. Gregory, book IV of the Morals, chapter 35.
It is called "fired" because wisdom kindles, in the mind of those in whom it dwells, the love of God and neighbor, says Ambrose; so too Andreas of Caesarea, and Primasius, and Rupert: "Buy of Me," he says, "the gold of wisdom fired with charity, tried by faith working through charity;" whence in Psalm 118 is said: "Thy word is exceedingly fired," and Deuteronomy 33: "In His right hand a fiery law."
Secondly, Haymo by "gold fired" understands Christ inflamed with the fire of His Passion, as if to say: if thou wouldst be enriched in virtues, imitate in tribulation the patience, meekness, patience, and charity of Christ, that thou mayest say with the Psalmist, Psalm 65: "Thou hast tried us, O God, Thou hast examined us by fire, as silver is examined;" and: "We passed through fire and water."
Thirdly and best, Richardus, Beda, Ansbertus, Hugo, and others understand by this gold charity, which is fired and tested, that is, pure and purged of hypocrisy and the dross of cupidity, burning and fervent.
Furthermore charity is called fire: first, because of its purity; secondly, because of its subtlety, by which it pervades all things; thirdly, because it tends upward; fourthly, because of its efficacy, since it converts all things into itself; fifthly, because just as fire fails without matter, so charity dies without works; sixthly, because fire renders all things fiery, and the more it communicates itself, the more it grows without losing anything: so too charity; seventhly, because it is most luminous: so St. Dionysius, chapter 15 of the Celestial Hierarchy. Finally charity is called gold because it is most excellent and precious; and because, just as the touchstone and fire test and perfect gold, so patience and passion test and perfect charity. See more analogies of gold and charity in Alcazar, chapter I, page 223.
Note secondly, that this gold is to be bought, that is, obtained (for this is what the Hebrew קנה kana means, to which John here alludes; thus in Isaiah 55:1 is said: "Come, buy without silver wine and milk"), by prayer, tears, penance, and good works. This gold, says Rupert, "buy at the price of pious confession, and constant memory of frailty, always considering what thou art of thyself, and what thou hast received from God: for thus shalt thou be made rich in grace and heavenly goods."
St. Ambrose adds, in his book On Joseph the Patriarch, chapter 7, that this gold is bought with silver, not our own (for the sinner cannot merit first grace by any work or merit), but Christ's, namely with His precious Blood: "Buy," he says, "without silver; for He who paid for us the price of His Blood did not seek a price from us."
Thirdly, Nazianzen, in his Oration on Holy Baptism, replies that God, on account of His vast goodness by which He desires our salvation, esteems our desire of grace and salvation as a price. "O wondrous," says Nazianzen, "swiftness of beneficence! O easy method of contracting! This good is set before thee to be bought at the sole price of will; God reckons the very desire as of vast price: He thirsts to be thirsted after, He freely offers drink to those who freely desire; when a benefit is sought from God, He thinks Himself benefited by the favor: His nature is ready, munificent and lavish: He gives more joyfully than others receive." And Clement of Alexandria in his Exhortation to the Gentiles: "All ye that thirst, come to the waters: He exhorts," he says, "to the laver, to salvation, to illumination, openly crying out and saying: I give thee, O son, earth, sea, heaven; only, O son, thirst for the Father, and God shall be shown to thee freely."
Fourthly, Abbot Joachim: God gives, he says, grace for grace, John 1; let us therefore traffic with the lesser grace of God, that we may buy and obtain a greater. And Thomas Anglicus: Buying, he says, is a disposition of free will. Therefore the word "to buy" signifies that a man must do many things and contribute much, in order that he be fit to receive these gifts from God. Thus then this buying sharpens the industry of our will. So Proverbs 23 says: "Buy the truth," that is, with great labor and study, and at the expense of temporal things obtain wisdom; do whatsoever, suffer whatsoever, that thou mayest attain it.
So Pererius; and Dionysius the Carthusian: Buy, he says, at a price not condign but congruous: for the acts of faith, hope, penance, and others are the prices, that is, the dispositions, by which with great labor this grace is bought, that is, obtained.
AND WITH WHITE GARMENTS THOU MAYEST BE CLOTHED, — namely with innocence, purity of life, holy and pure works of virtue, of which the Apostle says, Colossians 3:12: "Put ye on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience," etc. The Greek has: Ἱμάτια λευκά, ἵνα περιβάλῃ, that is, white garments, supply, I counsel thee to buy, that thou mayest be clothed.
Baronius notes from Tacitus, Strabo, and others, at the end of the year of Christ 62, that Laodicea had been a most opulent city, so that the citizens, when the city had collapsed in an earthquake, restored it again to wholeness in a short time: and therefore its Bishop was speaking not so much in his own name, as in the citizens' name, when he said: "I am rich," and that this was the cause of the lukewarmness both of him and of the citizens, namely riches, and thence luxury. These riches, indeed, were placed both in other merchandise and in wool, of which Strabo writes, book 12: "The regions," he says, "that are around Laodicea nourish excellent sheep, not only for the softness of their wool, in which they surpass even the Milesians, but also for a color rivaling the blackness of ravens; whence they also have ample revenues."
Christ alluding to this here, teaches them that other riches must be sought, and ones different from those which the Laodiceans possessed in precious fleeces, namely the fired gold of charity, and the white garments of chastity and purity of life: so Baronius from Strabo.
AND ANOINT THINE EYES WITH COLLYRIUM, THAT THOU MAYEST SEE. — "Collyrium" is a medicine for the eyes, especially for inflammation: for it represses the phlegm and noxious humor which, flowing to the eyes, impeded sight. Furthermore collyrium is made from sugar and rose-water, and tutia, which is the blackish foam of silver, and is found in silver mines. Hence it has little veins of silver, and is friable, so that it becomes like blackish sand. From it the collyrium is blackish, and biting and stinging like silver of sand. Whence Horace, book I of Satires, satire 5:
Here, being bleary-eyed, I would smear black collyrium on my eyes.
Now by this collyrium, first, Victorinus, Primasius, Beda, and St. Gregory in part I of the Pastoral, chapter 11, understand the consideration and observance of the commandments of God. "With collyrium," says Gregory, "we anoint the eyes that we may see, when, in order to know the brightness of the true light, we purge the keenness of our intellect with the medicine of good action."
Secondly, the collyrium is the memory of Christ's Passion, through which we obtain wisdom and grace. So Viegas.
Thirdly, others: The collyrium is any tribulation whatever, which through bitterness purges the spiritual senses, for the discerning of spiritual things.
Fourthly, the collyrium (says Haymo and Alcazar) is the mortification of passions, or purity of heart, or imitation of Christ, or assiduous and pious meditation on the divine law, or finally the captivity of the intellect in obedience to faith.
Fifthly, Andreas of Caesarea and Aretas: The collyrium is the contempt of earthly gifts and goods. For just as these blind the eyes of the prudent, so contempt of them opens and illumines those same eyes.
Sixthly and best, this collyrium is, first, humility, as Rupert says: Purify thy heart with true humility, that thou mayest see thy poverty and acknowledge the riches of God's goodness. For this Bishop of Laodicea was laboring under a most pernicious ignorance of himself and presumption. Then this collyrium is the consideration of the last things, as if to say: By the consideration of future goods and evils purge the eye of the mind that is fixed on earth, and through it blinded and darkened. So Primasius, Anselm, Richard, Hugo, and Ribera. For attentive meditation on divine things, and especially on the last things, opens the eyes of the soul, that they may discern the true life of virtue and salvation, and represses the inordinate affections and passions which obscure and darken the soul's sight. And finally this collyrium is penance and compunction of heart, which, like a collyrium, at first stings and disturbs the eye, then through tears draws out from it noxious humors, and so purifies and clarifies the eye of the mind rather than of the body. So Ambrose and Thomas Anglicus.
Hence it is clear that the effective remedy of lukewarmness is: first, fervent love of God; secondly, zeal for good works. For, as Cassian says in book X of the Institutes of Monks, chapter 25: "It has been proved by experience that the attack of acedia is not to be fled by avoiding it (as one flees lust), but is to be overcome by resisting it." Thirdly, meditation, especially on death, hell, judgment, and heavenly glory, which at first sting the mind, that they may purge it; but once purged, they make it serene and joyful. For true is that joy which a pure and holy conscience produces.
Furthermore, whom would the immense and eternal weight of glory promised by God to the fervent not rouse to fervor? Whom, though most lukewarm, would the flaming fires of hell and eternal burnings not strike, and shake from the sleep of sloth and concupiscence, if they were inspected, penetrated, and almost felt by serious meditation? "For torpor arises from an imperfect will: as soon as thou hast begun to will the good, there will be ardor and impulse, which, just as it is most evil for vice, so it is best for virtue," says Petrarch; and the Wise Man, Proverbs 13:4: "The slothful man wills and wills not: but the soul of them that work shall be made fat." And chapter 21:25: "Desires kill the slothful: for he hath not been willing to do anything." Just as goads, then, shake torpor from oxen in their gait, so these goads of hell and of heavenly glory are most sharp, that they may shake the slack and torpid will, and make it resolute and effective for every good.
Excellently the Wise Man, Proverbs 6:6: "Go," he says, "to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways, and learn wisdom; for she, though she has no leader, nor master, nor prince, prepares in summer food for herself, and gathers in the harvest what she may eat": so do thou also prepare for thyself the food of good works, from which thou mayest live for all eternity.
Barlaam declares the same thing by a beautiful apologue to King Josaphat, in Damascene's History of them, chapter 14: There was, he says, a certain great city, in which the citizens were wont to create as king every year a foreign and unknown man. He, for the whole year, had full power to do whatsoever he willed. But when the year had ended, the citizens unexpectedly rushed upon him, and expelled him from kingdom and city, and even relegated him to an island destitute of all things, and soon created another foreign king, and did similarly to him at the year's end. It happened that a certain wise man was created king by them, who, having been forewarned by a certain counselor about this custom of the citizens, sent his royal wealth ahead into the island, into which he knew he was to be relegated after a year: wherefore having been relegated, he found there his wealth, on which he lived sumptuously, while the others perished of hunger. This city is the world: the citizens are both worldlings and demons: each one of us is the king, who after a year, that is, after the brief space of life, is relegated into the land of the shadow of death. Therefore whoever is wise, let him send good works thither beforehand (for these are the wealth of the future region), that he may thence live forever; but if he do not, with many others improvident and unwise, he shall be consumed with eternal hunger, wasting, and death. Would that this most wise admonition of the Wise Man might continually sound in our ears: "Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly; for neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening," Ecclesiastes 9:10.
Indeed with God all the years, all the days, all the hours, nay all the moments of our life are numbered. God has defined for each one the limits of life and death; and therefore He foreknows on what day each one is to be born, how many years he is to live, on what day, in what moment he is to die. Hence to God's foreknowledge and decree we can add neither day, nor hour, nor moment. O if we knew how few days and hours remain to us! O if we knew how great gains of glory and of goods in heaven we can obtain in each hour through acts of humility, patience, charity, and prayer! O if we thought that after this time we shall have no instant for doing good, how should we live? how should we accumulate works upon works, merits upon merits, gains upon gains, like merchants gaping after wealth? We read in the life of St. Mechtildis that one day she heard by revelation: If mortals knew how much they can merit on any given day, and how much they can increase their crown; if they knew how precious, and at the same time how brief, the time of this life is, they would exult and rejoice in spirit in the morning when they wake, and would render immense thanks to God that by His grace that day had dawned for them, in which they can obtain such treasures for themselves, to remain for all eternity.
Let the lukewarm and sluggish hear the trumpet-call of Boethius, book IV of the Consolation of Philosophy, meter 7:
Go now, ye brave, whither the high path of great example leads; / Why do ye, slothful, bare your backs in flight? / Earth, when overcome, bestows the stars.
Let them hear also the trumpet-call of the Apostle: "Our momentary and light tribulation worketh for us an eternal weight of glory." This trumpet was perpetually striking his ears, this was sharpening his mind to all labors and contests. This eternal weight of glory, ever before his eyes, was spurring him on to all things hard and arduous, so that he felt and said that saying of St. Francis: "So great is the glory which I await, that every punishment delights me." Send forth, O Lord Jesus, into our bowels the fire which Thou broughtest down from heaven to the earth, that all our lukewarmness may become heat, all fear may become love, all sadness may become splendor, all torpor may become fervor. Amen.
Verse 19: Those Whom I Love, I Rebuke and Chastise
19. THOSE WHOM I LOVE, I REBUKE AND CHASTISE. — For "rebuke" the Greek has ἐλέγχω, that is, I argue, convict; for "chastise" it is παιδεύω, that is, I instruct, form, chastise, correct childish manners. The sense is, as if to say, says Rupert: "O Bishop of Laodicea, those things which I speak to thee, rebuking and chastising thee, receive as the grace and benevolence of one who loves." Thus a father, says Haymo, instructs and chastises the Son whom he destines as heir; the others he neglects and permits to themselves. Moreover, just as it was here needful for Christ to use sharp rebuke, that this Bishop might shake off his lukewarmness and recognize his misery: so equally it was fitting that He show him the bowels of His love, both to soften the rebuke, and to lead him to love in return: for some lukewarm persons are stirred more by love than by terror.
Note: Christ chastises His own, first, to increase their merits. Thus St. Job, innocent and without merit, or rather without demerit, sustained so many and such great things, that he was perfected in grace and glory, and was set up for all future ages of those placed in tribulation as a living example of patience, as is said in Tobias 2:12. Secondly, that He may preserve them in humility, as Paul, 2 Corinthians 12:9. Thirdly, that He may expiate their sins, as the paralytic, John 5. Fourthly, for the greater manifestation of God's glory, as Lazarus, John 11, and the blind man, John 9. So Hugo. "While in secret (says St. Bernard, in his sermon on that text, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord) the spouse of truth suggests what is lacking to us, He repels pride, negligence, ingratitude: with which threefold vice almost all Religious labor, because they perceive with too inattentive an ear what He speaks within, who flatters no one, the spirit of truth."
Excellently Tertullian, in his book On Patience, chapter 11: "If," he says, "we believe that some things are inflicted by the Lord, to whom should we render patience more than to the Lord? Nay, He even teaches us to give thanks and to rejoice at the favor of divine chastisement: Those whom I love, He says, I chastise, Apocalypse 3:19. O that blessed servant, whose amendment the Lord urges, with whom He deigns to be angry, whom He has not deceived by dissembling His admonition!" As a type of this matter, Jacob when about to die "adored the Lord, turned to the head of his bed," Genesis 47:31; or, as the Apostle Paul transcribed: "He adored the top of his rod," Hebrews chapter 11, verse 21. For when he mystically recognized in that rod of Joseph the divine power for scourging, he submitted himself to it in the name of his posterity to be smitten, that he might show that whatsoever sufferings are inflicted by God, are to be embraced with a willing mind. Nor is it without mystery that what is called "bed" in Genesis is named "rod" by St. Paul: because upright and just men rest no less among divine rods than among soft beds. Which seems to me to be expressed in Esther, who then most happily reigned, and earned the king's favor, when Ahasuerus "extended toward her the golden rod which he held in his hand, and she approaching kissed the top of his rod," Esther 5:2. For those escape from divine punishments more easily and happily who embrace the divine punishments more humbly and willingly. So our Mendoza on 1 Kings 3:48.
BE ZEALOUS, — ζήλωσον, be zealous, take up zeal for thy salvation and others'. Again, as Rupert says: "I love thee; do thou emulate My love." And, as Alcazar: "Be zealous, that is, recognize thy misery as well as My love toward thee, and the flame of My love being conceived, put on the zeal of vengeance against thy lukewarmness, and do penance." For this zeal He opposes to what He had said: "Thou art neither hot nor cold."
Verse 20: Behold I Stand at the Door and Knock
20. BEHOLD I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK; IF ANY MAN OPEN TO ME, etc. — Here is signified, first, that God by His immense clemency and grace prevents us, and knocks at the door of our heart and mind, that He may stir us from the sleep of sloth or of sin. Secondly, that our heart through sloth and sin is closed. Thirdly, that it is in man's free will to open to God, that is, to admit or refuse His inspiration and grace by which He knocks at the mind; to consent to grace and cooperate, or to dissent and refuse to cooperate. So the Council of Trent, session 6, chapters 5 and 6. Fourthly, the reward of him who opens is, "I will come in to him," as to My guest (just as Christ came into the house of Zacchaeus), namely through justifying and sanctifying grace. Hence the theologians divide grace into exciting and assisting, or into operating and cooperating, or into prevenient and subsequent (for all these are the same); and they teach that exciting grace is required as a knock to rouse the torpid and as it were sleeping will to will the good; while cooperating grace is required to support it and cooperate with it while it wills the good. So St. Augustine, in the book On Grace and Free Will, chapter 17: "He Himself (God) by beginning, works that we should will; who, when we are willing, cooperates with us in perfecting." And in the book On Nature and Grace, chapter 31: "He goes before us," he says, "that we may be healed, and follows after that, being healed, we may be invigorated: He goes before that we may be called, and follows after that we may be glorified: He goes before that we may live piously, and follows after that we may live with Him forever." Where, however, St. Augustine by "subsequent grace" understands not so much cooperating grace as that which is given after justification for perseverance. And St. Bernard, in the book On Grace and Free Will: "Our efforts," he says, "are vain if they are not assisted; and they are nothing if they are not roused." This is what the Church prays: "Our actions, we beseech Thee, O Lord, by inspiring prevent, and by assisting follow up."
Christ here alludes to Canticles 5:2: "The voice of My Beloved knocking: Open to Me, My sister, My love; for My head is full of dew, and My locks of the drops of the nights." For with these words He stimulates the spouse of Christ to cast off lukewarmness and at length to open her heart to the embraces of love and fervor for Christ, who knocks the whole night. So Joachim.
Note: God knocks first, by enlightening the intellect and impelling the will, by sending into him the terrors of hell, the hope and desire of heavenly joys; secondly, through Sacred Scripture and other pious books; thirdly, through preachers and other admonishers; fourthly, through examples. Nothing rouses more, nothing is more useful, than to read the lives and examples of the Saints. So St. Augustine, hearing of the life of St. Anthony, was converted, as also the courtiers of the Emperor of whom he himself writes in book 8 of the Confessions, chapter 6. So St. Thomas Aquinas used to read daily the Conferences of Cassian and the Fathers. So our Holy Father Ignatius, reading the heroic deeds of the Saints, was incited to their imitation and changed his life and state. Fifthly, by setting forth His judgments exercised upon these or those; sixthly, through His benefits conferred on us; seventhly, through adverse things and tribulations; eighthly, through miracles. So Pererius.
AND I WILL SUP WITH HIM, AND HE WITH ME. — As if to say: I will be a familiar to him, a guest and friend; I will deal familiarly with him, in a friendly and pleasant way, as a host with a guest and a guest with a host. Note how greatly God values our cooperation with His grace, namely our compunction, pious desires, prayers, tears; for these are as it were delights and most sweet feasts, by which He Himself, as at a sumptuous supper, is fed and refreshed. "I will sup with you," says Rupert, "that is, I will delight in the goods of your conscience; afterwards you also shall sup with Me, that is, after death you shall enjoy in heaven My eternal goods and delights." Properly, however, by "I will come in" justification is signified; by "I will sup," a special pleasantness and sweetness, both of God and of the now justified conscience, which is the beginning of the heavenly supper and of eternal delights. He alludes to Canticles 5:1, where the bride, inviting the Bridegroom, says: "Let My Beloved come into His garden, and eat the fruit of His apple-trees;" and Canticles 8:2: "I will give You a cup of spiced wine, and the must of My pomegranates."
Furthermore Alcazar expounds "and I will sup with him" of the Eucharist, as if to say: If you shake off lukewarmness and embrace fervor of spirit, I promise you grace from the Holy Synaxis (Communion) for the fruit of solid virtues, by which you may feed and refresh the same Christ; while "and he with Me" he takes of the after-feast (repotia), that is, of the second supper in the house of Christ the Bridegroom (for so the bridegroom, celebrating the nuptials in the house of the bride, holds an after-feast for her and her friends, inviting them to a banquet in his own house), in which Christ will receive at His banquet him by whom He had been invited, according to that of the Bride in Canticles 2:4: "The King has brought me into the wine-cellar." Furthermore these after-feasts of Christ are, he says, great delight from the knowledge of heavenly things, not dry but savory, which wonderfully refreshes and inebriates the soul, especially in Holy Communion: the soul, I say, not of just anyone, but of the fervent and of one wholly devoting himself to God's service. For him alone does He bring into His wine-cellar. This exposition is acute and apt.
Verse 21: To Him That Shall Overcome, I Will Give to Sit With Me
21. TO HIM THAT SHALL OVERCOME, I WILL GIVE TO SIT WITH ME IN MY THRONE. — As if to say: I will make him a partaker of My heavenly kingdom, in which there is for the Blessed eternal light, perfect rest, ineffable joy, and everlasting glory. So Andreas of Caesarea; thus in the last chapter of Isaiah it is said: "Heaven is My throne." In this universal throne and kingdom, however, there are various seats and heights according to merits.
Secondly, St. Gregory, book 26 Moralia, 26: "Because," he says, "we receive the principality of judgment from the virtue of Christ, hence we sit as it were on His throne." So also Haymo: "To sit on the throne," he says, "is to be a participant of judiciary power." Thirdly, Alcazar: To the throne, he says, of Christ perfect men are exalted, not in the future life, but in this one, while they are seated in the seat of the highest peace, and while they sit and enjoy that peace, God subjects to them the motions of temptations, just as God subjects His enemies to Christ as He sits and reigns. For nothing more apt could have been promised to him who shakes off lukewarmness than that spiritual one, which is shared from Christ by those who resolve to serve Him perfectly, namely that throne which they enjoy, and the dominion over their own affections. This sense is pious, but tropological and mystical, not literal. The first sense therefore is the literal and genuine one. For to this Bishop, as to the rest, is promised the reward and prize of the heavenly kingdom: for Christ holds out this crown to each, though under different names and titles, that He may stir them on to the pursuit of virtue and piety. To this lukewarm man therefore He promises it under the name of a sitting, because the lukewarm man flees labor and the race; hence if he embrace this exhortation, He promises him eternal rest and a royal sitting in the heavens. He alludes to Psalm 109:1: "Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool."
Note: In these seven Epistles of Christ, throughout He promises the prize "to him that overcomes," and not to another: "to him that overcomes," I say, himself, his own desires, fears, torpor, and other passions; because this victory over self, as it is at once difficult and necessary, so is it noble and glorious. The Gentiles saw this from afar and through a shadow. "Since the soul is free and mistress of the passions, to conquer oneself is the first and best of all victories: but to be conquered by oneself is both the most shameful and the worst," says Plato in the Laws. Alexander considered it more kingly to conquer himself than his enemies, says Plutarch in the Alexander. To overcome oneself is much more laborious than to overcome the enemy, "neither to flee adversity by hasty haste, nor to seize prosperity with effusive joy," says Valerius Maximus, book 4, chapter 1; and the Poet:
More widely shall you reign by subduing your greedy / Spirit, than if you should join Libya to far-off / Gades, and both Carthaginian peoples / Should serve a single master.
And another:
It is a hard thing to have conquered others, but a greater victory / Is to have composed the swellings of one's own mind; / To have subjected fears, and to have fought down the swellings of pride; / To have placed joys and hope under a heavy yoke.
And another:
He is a king, who, by the reins of right reason / Curbing the harmful desires of his mind, governs them: / At whose command alluring pleasure flees, / And grief, and hope and fear in swift flight.
And another:
Whoever, exulting, has driven joy and harsh / Sorrows from his quiet mind; / Has conquered panting hopes and timid / Fear in the heart: / He alone has merited the crown of laurel; / He alone, calmly triumphing, the purple: / To whom true pleasure gives the seat / Next to the Blessed.
Verse 22: He That Hath an Ear, Let Him Hear
HE THAT HATH AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAITH TO THE CHURCHES. — These are words rousing attention, as if to say: Prick up your ears, Pamphilus, here is treated your business and your salvation: receive with attentive ears, eyes, and heart the admonitions of the Holy Spirit. Thus here at Rome in the church of St. Pancras, on the lofty pulpit from which by ancient custom the Gospel is read at the sacrifice of the Mass, we read inscribed in ancient letters of gold: "Let him who reads attend to what the sacred reading aims at."
As a coping-stone of these three chapters, note that in each of the Epistles to the seven Bishops of Asia, Christ alludes to the contests, victories, and crowns of athletes, especially of the Olympic victors, which were celebrated in Asia and Greece, and that He thereby stirs and rouses the Bishops and any of the faithful to similar heroic struggles, crowns, and triumphs, as I shall show more fully a little further on.
For in the Olympic contests of old, victory was esteemed so highly, and to conquer was so esteemed, that the ὀλυμπιονίκης, that is, the victor in the Olympics, seemed to be raised to the gods, and the Olympic crowns were so prized that not a few preferred this honor to life itself, as the term of all human felicity: wherefore the struggle and contention of those competing to obtain them was extreme. Nero, says Suetonius in his Life, chapter 25: "When he was being conveyed into Rome in that chariot in which Augustus had once triumphed, in a purple garment and a cloak adorned with golden stars, he wore on his head the Olympic crown, in his right hand the Pythian;" though he had merited neither. Certainly when he was contesting at Olympia in his chariot, having been thrown from it, nonetheless he obtained the crown, says Xiphilinus in his Nero; for which favor he distributed twenty-five myriads to the judges, which Galba afterwards reclaimed from them. Moreover the proclamation by which Nero was announced as victor was such: "Nero Caesar wins the contest, and crowns the Roman people, and his own empire." Diagoras, says Gellius, book III, chapter 15, "when he had seen three sons conquer and be crowned on the same day at Olympia, and the three youths embracing him, having placed their crowns on the father's head, kissed him; and when the congratulating people threw flowers everywhere upon him, there in the stadium, in the eyes and hands of his sons, he breathed forth his soul." The same Pliny mentions concerning Chilo, book 7, chapter 32: "Whose funeral, when he had expired at Olympia with his son a victor, all Greece followed with rejoicing." Of such a spirit was Acetes, of whom Statius, book V of the Sylvae:
Acetes the spectator: / He, while he is more often overwhelming his eyes with draughts of dust, / Vows to expire with the crown grasped in his hand.
Pindar in the Pythians, ode 10, calls this crown the greatest of rewards, which falls to no one except by daring and acting bravely. The same, ode 1: "But he who conquers," he says, "has for the rest of his life a honeyed tranquility, on account of the rewards of victory." Hence those who were to be athletes were first ascetics, that is, exercisers. For they exercised themselves assiduously in running, wrestling, jumping, or in that kind of wrestling in which they were going to compete. And not only the athletes themselves, but also of his fatherland such an honor was being prepared, a city which together with its victor exulted and celebrated.
It is indeed remarkable what Pliny writes, in book 7, chapter 47: "Enthymius," he says, "a pycta (that is, a boxer) always victor at Olympia, and only once defeated, as though having departed the mortal summit, was consecrated alive, and while still feeling;" namely, much more was bestowed on this boxer than was ever given through sought-after flattery to the Roman Emperors, to whom "honor as to a god was not granted before they had ceased to walk among men," as Tacitus says at the end of book 15 of the Annals. What of this? That the statue of the athlete Polydamas was said at Olympia to give aid to those troubled by fever, as Lucian recounts in the Banquet of the Gods. Wherefore Plato, in book V of the Republic, compares the felicity of his divine commonwealth with that of Olympic victors: "All of these," he says, "once freed from these difficulties, will lead a life happier even than that famous Olympionic life." Finally, the Gentiles considered the Olympic victor almost a god, equal to the gods. Solon gives the cause in Lucian, De Gymn.: "For there," he says, "one may behold the strength of men and the beauty of bodies, the vigor of limbs, and many splendid feats, and unconquerable, daring, and ambitious contention. If you saw these things, you would surely make no end of praising and applauding." Hence Cicero for Flaccus: "Acinas," he says, "a boxer and Olympic victor — this is, among the Greeks, almost greater and more glorious than to have triumphed at Rome." Wherefore Clement of Alexandria asserts that those who wish to conquer their desires must be Olympic athletes, sharper and more vehement than wasps themselves — as if to say, no force or virtue can be compared with that of an Olympic victor, and the same is required in one who would conquer pleasure. These things and more from Carolus Paschalius, book VI On Crowns, chapters 6 and 7.
If glass is so prized, how much more the pearl? If the Olympic victory and the title of Olympic victor were so great, how much greater ought the Christian victory to be — and how great the struggle and contention required for it? Inasmuch as in it the victor — who despises all earthly things as petty and childish, who firmly governs his own desires as well as his passions, and who generously endures and overcomes whatever adversities and hardships out of love of God — is made not merely a διαπαθείᾳ (one impassible), but a διαμενίως (one ever-enduring), that is, the conqueror of Olympus and heaven, the master of himself and the world; nay rather, the true Israel, that is, one ruling with God. The Apostle puts it splendidly in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 25: "Everyone," he says, "who strives in the contest abstains from all things; and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one." Wherefore Christ here repeatedly sets forth and presents this crown to each individual Bishop, and by it stirs up and inflames him and His faithful to the arduous contests and combats of faith: namely to the Ephesian, chapter 2, verse 7: "To him who conquers," He says, "I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of My God." To the Smyrnean, verse 11: "He who conquers," He says, "shall not be hurt by the second death." To the Pergamene, verse 17: "To him who conquers I will give the hidden manna, and I will give him a white pebble: and on the pebble a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it." To the Thyatiran, verse 26: "He who conquers, and keeps My works to the end, I will give him power over the Nations, etc., and I will give him the morning star." To the Sardian, chapter 3, verse 5: "He who conquers shall thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels;" where He alludes to the proclamation made of the Olympic victor, by which through the public voice of the herald, before the whole people, the victor was declared, named, and praised at the Olympic games — such as that of Nero, which I recounted a little above. So Virgil, in Aeneid V:
Then the son of Anchises (Aeneas), having summoned all according to custom, / Declares Cloanthus the victor with the great voice of the herald, / And veils his temples with green laurel.
Carolus Paschalius shows the same thing more amply from Philostratus, Maximus, Demosthenes, Plutarch, and Cicero, in book VI On Crowns, chapter 11; and Petrus Faber in his Agonisticon, book II, chapter 11.
To the Philadelphian, verse 12: "He who conquers," He says, "I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, etc., and My new name."
To the Laodicean, verse 21: "He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with Me on My throne, just as I also conquered, and sat with My Father on His throne." Christ therefore, the first Olympic Victor, sets before His followers — the Olympic victors, and indeed each of them individually — the crown of heavenly glory to be gazed upon, and by it invites them to the contest. He gives it various titles and names: for now He calls it the tree of life, now hidden manna, now a white pebble, now a new name, now white garments, now the morning star, now a pillar, now the throne of God, etc. Come then, O athlete of Christ; manfully fight the good fight, lay hold on eternal life; let no labor seem long to you, no pain hard, to whom heaven, eternity, and the divine crown are promised. Weave it there, and embellish it with the continual deeds of heroic virtues. "For this perfected virtue, complete in every measure, bestows on those who conquer a crown and a reward of the immortality which we ought to seek," says Lactantius, book IV On True Wisdom, chapter 16. "That day will come, will come at last," says Jerome, tome II, epistle 6, "on which you shall return as victor to your homeland, on which through the heavenly Jerusalem you shall march, a strong man, crowned." Imitate the Martyrs, to whom St. Cyprian writes, book II, epistle 6: "You endured," he says, "the harshest examination unto the consummation of glory, nor did you yield to torments, but rather the torments yielded to you. The crowns gave an end to your pains, which the torments could not give;" and shortly afterward: "They stood, racked, stronger than those who racked them; and the pounding and tearing iron-claws were conquered by the limbs they pounded and tore. The savage blow, long repeated, could not overcome an unconquerable faith, although, with the framework of their entrails broken, no longer were limbs being tortured in the servants of God, but wounds. Precious is this death, which bought immortality at the price of its own blood, which received a crown from the consummation of virtue." Finally, hear St. Gregory, homily 37 on the Gospels: "Let the magnitude of the rewards delight the mind," he says, "but let not the contest of labors deter it. For no one shall be crowned, unless he has lawfully striven." For the heavenly Jerusalem is the house of the strong, as St. Vigilantius says in the Life of St. Asio; whence its type was the house of David's strong men — to wit, his 37 mightiest soldiers, who are enumerated in 2 Kings (Samuel) chapter 23, verse 8, and who were heroes.