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Conversion: The Way Forward: Gift and Answer
Lectio Divina: Second Sunday of Advent – Year A
Roman Rite
Is 11.1 to 10; Ps 72; Rm 15.4 to 9; Mt 3,1-12
Ambrosian Rite
Is 40,1-11; Ps 71; B 10,5-9a; Mt 21, 1-9
Fourth Sunday of Advent
The entrance of the Messiah
1) The waiting for God and conversion.
On this second Sunday of Advent, the liturgy invites us to the conversion necessary to accommodate the coming Kingdom of heaven[1]: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 3,1). This Kingdom of heaven is Jesus himself, our neighbor is the Son of God made flesh in the womb of a woman who brings salvation to all mankind. The salvation, brought by Christ and expected by us, is righteousness, joy, peace, love, truth, kindness, solidarity, fraternity, honest, and kindness.
Since the coming of God in our lives is imminent, John the Baptist strongly asks us to do penance. Penance cleans the heart, opens us to hope and enables us to encounter Jesus coming into the world.
However, it is important to consider that the call to conversion doing penance, is not just to live – during Advent – with a more sober style of life, more frequent prayer and more generous charity. Converting calls to an inner change, which begins with the recognition and the confession of sins. In fact, conversion indicates change of mind and behavior and demands the recognition that we are not worthy of God coming to live at our house.
It should also be kept in mind that the first conversion consists in faith[2], which is not only adherence to the content of a message, but adherence to a person who asks us to come into our lives and be accepted. Therefore, conversion is a radical and profound change. It implies not only a moral, but a theological change, that is a new way of thinking about God and to live in Him. It is a reorientation of our whole being: mind and heart, thought and action.
On the one hand, this orientation toward the Kingdom of Heaven is in line with the prophets, who intended the concreteness of conversion as the radical departure from anything that, up to this moment, was important. On the other hand, it goes further and shows that conversion is a turn towards the Kingdom of Heaven and to a novelty forthcoming with its needs and perspectives. It is about giving a decisive turn to life, orienting it in a new direction. It is the Kingdom of heaven that establishes and defines conversion, and not a series of human efforts.
For this conversion to occur, let’s make our own the prayer that the priest does at the beginning of today’s Mass: “God of the living, awakens in us the desire for conversion, so that, renewed by your Holy Spirit, we implement in every human relationship the justice, meekness and peace that the incarnation of your Word has made sprout out on the earth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ our Lord (Collect of the Second Sunday of Advent – Year A).” Then the wish of St. Paul will become true: “May the God of peace himself make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it. “(1 Thessalonians 5: 23-24)
2) Conversion from the top and conversion to the top of the stars.
This Sunday we are called to go spiritually in the desert, because the Gospel makes us listen to the “Voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight! And he, John, wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey “(Mt 3: 3-4). St. John the Baptist, the voice proclaiming the Word, is presented as an ascetic of the desert who wears rough robes, has a leather belt around his waist and feeds on insects. If we are not asked to be ascetic and to live John’s life in the desert, we are asked that our conversion be as evangelical as his.
This conversion has at least three characteristics.
The first is radicalism. Conversion is not an exterior or partial change, but a total reorientation of the whole being. It is a real shift from selfishness to love, from keeping everything to self to the gift of self.
The second feature is religiosity. It is not confronting with himself, but referring to God that man discovers the extent and the direction of his own change. The first conversion (in the etymological sense of turning to someone to be with him) is not that of a person towards God, but that of God towards every human being. It is a movement of grace that makes possible the change of man and provides the model for this change. In the night and in the solitude of a cave, the spring of humanity is coming: the Son of God who becomes a pilgrim from the stars above.
The third characteristic of the evangelical conversion is its profound humanity. Conversion means the return home, the recovery of full humanity and the finding of the identity of being a child, as in the parable of the prodigal son.
When on reasons in non-evangelical way, conversion is seen as a loss of what is human: In a wrong way, the people think: “if I do not convert to Crist, I find my humanity”. On the contrary, in fact, with the Cristian conversion, man is not lost, but finds himself, becoming free from the alienations that fascinate but destroy him.
Conversion is a constant journey to Christ to renew our “heavenly behavior” through a new desire for heaven. Let us therefore make different (changed) our hearts with the holy desire of Christ. In this way heaven (Christ) will find in us more space.
If we want life to grow, flourish and reach maturity so to pierce, one day, the veils of transience, the most important thing is that it must put more and deeper roots. If we want the fullness of God to fill us with grace, it is critical that our heart widens more and more to hold more and more.
Christian conduct, therefore fully human, becomes more perfect when it flows from a stronger desire for heaven: “Come, Lord, to visit us in peace, so that there we rejoice in You with a perfect heart” (see Antiphon to the Magnificat, first Vespers of Second Sunday of Advent).
This request: “Come, Lord Jesus” must be made by all Christians. The consecrated virgins, through their total gift of self to Christ, give an example beautiful, great and generous. They are aware that the bridegroom seeks his beloved and that they vigil waiting for him. They make theirs that passage of the Song of Songs: “A voice! My beloved! Here it comes, springing upon the mountains, leaping across the hills. My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag. See! He is standing behind our wall; gazing through the windows, peering through the lattices .”(2,8-9). I was sleeping, but my heart was awake. The sound of my lover knocking! “Open to me, my sister, my friend,my dove, my perfect one! (5.2). “I am my beloved and my beloved belongs to me” (6.3).
With their consecration, these virgin women show how it is possible and a source of joy to welcome Christ a sweetly expected guest and as the groom to whom to devote loyalty forever. They show us with humility that it is possible to always keep the lamps lit, waiting with love the coming of the Savior.
Starting from their example, I wish that, not only in this Advent season, all try to always be attentive to the voice of Christ and to love him above all things.
Patristic Reading
Saint John Chrysostom ( 344/354 –407)
Homily X. Matthew Chapter 3, Verse 1 And Matthew Chapter 3, Verse 2
Mt 3,1-7
“In those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
How “in those days”? For not then, surely, when He was a child, and came to Nazareth, but thirty years after, John cometh; as Luke also testifies. How then is it said, “in those days”? The Scripture is always wont to use this manner of speech, not only when it is mentioning what occurs in the time immediately after, but also of things which are to come to pass many years later. Thus also, for example, when His disciples came unto Him as He sat on the Mount of Olives, and sought to learn about His coming, and the taking of Jerusalem:1 and yet ye know how great is the interval between those several periods. I mean, that having spoken of the subversion of the mother city, and completed His discourse on that subject, and being about to pass to that on the consummation, he inserted, “Then shall these things also come to pass;”2 not bringing together the times by the word then, but indicating that time only in which these things were to happen. And this sort of thing he doth now also, saying, “In those days.” For this is not put to signify the days that come immediately after, but those in which these things were to take place, which he was preparing to relate.
“But why was it after thirty years,” it may be said, “that Jesus came unto His baptism”? After this baptism He was thenceforth to do away with the law: wherefore even until this age, which admits of all sins, He continues fulfilling it all; that no one might say, that because He Himself could not fulfill it, He did it away. For neither do all passions assail us at all times; but while in the first age of life there is much thoughtlessness and timidity, in that which comes after it, pleasure is more vehement, and after this again the desire of wealth. For this cause he awaits the fullness of His adult age, and throughout it all fulfills the law, and so comes to His baptism, adding it as something which follows upon the complete keeping of all the other commandments.
To prove that this was to Him the last good work of those enjoined by the law, hear His own words: “For thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.”3 Now what He saith is like this: “We have performed all the duties of the law, we have not transgressed so much as one commandment. Since therefore this only remains, this too must be added, and so shall we “fulfill all righteousness.” For He here calls by the name of “righteousness” the full performance of all the commandments.
- Now that on this account Christ came to His baptism, is from this evident. But wherefore was this baptism devised for Him For that not of himself did the son of Zacharias proceed to this, but of God who moved him,—this Luke also declares, when he saith, “The word of the Lord came unto him,”4 that is, His commandment. And he himself too saith, “He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said to me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending like a dove, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.”5 Wherefore then was he sent to baptize? The Baptist again makes this also plain to us, saying, “I knew Him not, but that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.”6
And if this was the only cause, how saith Luke, that “he came into the county about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins?”7 And yet it had not remission, but this gift pertained unto the baptism that was given afterwards; for in this “we are buried with Him,”8 and our old man was then crucified with Him, and before the cross there doth not appear remission anywhere; for everywhere this is imputed to His blood. And Paul too saith, “But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified,” not by the baptism of John, but “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God.”9 And elsewhere too he saith, “John verily preached a baptism of repentance,” (he saith not “of remission,”) “that they should believe on Him that should come after him.”10 For when the sacrifice was not yet offered, nether had the spirit yet come down, nor sin was put away, nor the enmity removed, nor the curse destroyed; how was remission to take place?
What means then, “for the remission of sins?”
The Jews were senseless, and had never any feeling of their own sins, but while they were justly accountable for the worst evils, they were justifying themselves in every respect; and this more than anything caused their destruction, and led them away from the faith. This, for example, Paul himself was laying to their charge, when he said, that “they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about11 to establish their own, had not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.”12 And again: “What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained13 to righteousness; but Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained14 unto the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works.”15
Since therefore this was the cause of their evils, John cometh, doing nothing else but bringing them to a sense of their own sins. This, among other things, his very garb declared, being that of repentance and confession. This was indicated also by what he preached, for nothing else did he say, but “bring forth fruits meet for repentance.”16 Forasmuch then as their not condemning their own sins, as Paul also hath explained, made them start off from Christ, while their coming to a sense thereof would set them upon longing to seek after their Redeemer, and to desire remission; this John came to bring about, and to persuade them to repent, not in order that they might be punished, but that having become by repentance more humble, and condemning themselves, they might hasten to receive remission.
But let us see how exactly he hath expressed it; how, having said, that he “came preaching the baptism of repentance in the wilderness of Judaea,” he adds, “for remission,”as though he said, For this end he exhorted them to confess and repent of their sins; not that they should be punished, but that they might more easily receive the subsequent remission. For had they not condemned themselves, they could not have sought after His grace; and not seeking, they could not have obtained remission.
Thus that baptism led the way for this; wherefor also he said, that “they should believe on Him which should come after him;”17 together with that which hath been mentioned setting forth this other cause of His baptism. For neither would it have been as much for him to have gone about to their houses, and to have led Christ around, taking Him by the hand, and to have said, “Believe in This Man;” as for that blessed voice to be uttered, and all those other things performed in the presence and sight of all.
On account of this He cometh to the baptism. Since in fact both the credit of him that was baptizing, and the purport of the thing itself,18 was attracting the whole city, and calling it unto Jordan; and it became a great spectacle.19
Therefore he humbles them also when they are come, and persuades them to have no high fancies about themselves; showing them liable to the utmost evils, unless they would repent, and leaving their forefathers, and all vaunting in them, would receive Him that was coming.
Because in fact the things concerning Christ had been up to that time veiled, and many thought He was dead, owing to the massacre which took place at Bethlehem. For though at twelve years old He discovered Himself, yet did He also quickly veil Himself again. And for this cause there was need of that splendid exordium and of a loftier beginning. Wherefore also then for the first time he with clear voice proclaims things which the Jews had never heard, neither from prophets, nor from any besides; making mention of Heaven, and of the kingdom there, and no longer saying anything touching the earth.
But by the kingdom in this place he means His former and His last advent.
- “But what is this to the Jews?” one may say, “for they know not even what thou sayest.” “Why, for this cause,” saith he, “do I so speak, in order that being roused by the obscurity of my words, they may proceed to seek Him, whom I preach.” In point of fact, he so excited them with good hopes when they came near, that even many publicans and soldiers inquired whet they should do, and how they should direct their own life; which was a sign of being thenceforth set free from all worldly things, and of looking to other greater objects, and of forebodings things to come. Yea, for all, both the sights and the words of that time, led them unto lofty thoughts.
Conceive, for example, how great a thing it was to see a man after thirty years coming down from the wilderness, being the son of a chief priest, who had never known the common wants of men, and was on every account venerable, and had Isaiah with him. For he too was present proclaiming him, and saying, “This is he who I said should come crying, and preaching throughout the whole wilderness with a clear voice.” For so great was the earnestness of the prophets touching these things, that not their own Lord only, but him also who was to minister unto Him, they proclaimed a long time beforehand, and they not only mentioned him, but the place too in which he was to abide, and the manner of the doctrine which he had to teach when he came, and the good effect that was produced by him.
1. In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
2. And saying, Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
3. For this is he that was spoken of by the Prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.
PSEUDO-CHRYS.The Sun as he approaches the horizon, and before he is yet visible, sends out his rays and makes the eastern sky to glow with light, that Aurora going before may herald the coming day. Thus the Lord at His birth in this earth, and before He shows Himself, enlightens John by the rays of His Spirit's teaching, that he might go before and announce the Savior that was to come. Therefore after having related the birth of Christ, before proceeding to His teaching and baptism (wherein he received such testimony) he first premises somewhat of the Baptist and forerunner of the Lord. In those days, &c.
REMIG. In these words we have not only time, place, and person, respecting St. John, but also his office and employment. First the time, generally: In those days.
AUG. Luke describes the time by the reigning sovereigns. But Matthew must be understood to speak of a wider space of time by the phrase 'those days,' than the fifteenth year of Tiberius. Having related Christ's return from Egypt, which must be placed in early boyhood or even infancy, to make it agree with what Luke has told of His being in the temple at twelve years old, he adds directly, In those days, not intending thereby only the days of His childhood, but all the days from His birth to the preaching of John.
REMIG. The man is mentioned in the words came John, that is, showed himself having abode so long in obscurity.
CHRYS. But why must John thus go before Christ with a witness of deeds preaching Him? First, that we might hence learn Christ's dignity, that he also, as the Father has, has prophets, in the words of Zacharias And you, Child, shall be called the Prophet of the Highest (Luke 1:76). Secondly, that the Jews might have no cause for offense; as he declared, John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a devil. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a gluttonous man (Luke 7:33). It needs moreover that the things concerning Christ should be told by some other first, and not by Himself; or what would the Jews have said, who after the witness of John made complaint, You bear witness of yourself; your witness is not true (John 8:13).
REMIG. His office: the Baptist; in this he prepared the way of the Lord, for had not men been used to being baptized, they would have shunned Christ's baptism. His employment: Preaching;
RABAN. For because Christ was to preach, as soon as it seemed the fit time, that is, about thirty years of age, he began by his preaching to make ready the way for the Lord.
REM. The place: the desert of Judea.
MAXIMUS; Where neither a noisy mob would interrupt his preaching, and where no unbelieving hearer would retire; but those only would hear, who sought to his preaching from motives of divine worship.
JEROME; Consider how the salvation of God, and the glory of the Lord, is preached not in Jerusalem, but in the solitude of the Church, in the wilderness to multitudes.
HILARY; Or, he came to Judea, desert by the absence of God, not of population, that the place of preaching might witness the few to whom the preaching was sent.
GLOSS. The desert typically means a life removed from the temptations of the world, such as befits the penitent.
AUG. Unless one repent him of his former life, he cannot begin a new life.
HILARY; He therefore preaches repentance when the Kingdom of Heaven approaches, by which we return from error, we escape from sin, and after shame for our faults, we make profession of forsaking them.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. In the very commencement he shows himself the messenger of a merciful Prince; he comes not with threats to the offender, but with offers of mercy. It is a custom with kings to proclaim a general pardon on the birth of a son, but first they send throughout their kingdom officers to exact severe fines. But God willing at the birth of His Son to give pardon of sins, first sends His officer proclaiming, Repent you. O exaction which leaves none poor, but makes many rich! For even when we pay our just debt of righteousness we do God no service, but only gain our own salvation. Repentance cleanses the heart, enlightens the sense, and prepares the human soul for the reception of Christ, as he immediately adds, For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
JEROME; John Baptist is the first to preach the Kingdom of Heaven, that the forerunner of the Lord may have this honorable privilege.
CHRYS. And he preaches what the Jews had never heard, not even from the Prophets: Heaven, namely, and the Kingdom that is there, and of the kingdoms of the earth he says nothing. Thus by the novelty of those things of which he speaks, he gains their attention to Him whom he preaches.
REMIG. The Kingdom of Heaven has a fourfold meaning. It is said, of Christ, as The Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). Of Holy Scripture, as, The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall he given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof (Mat 21:43). Of the Holy Church, as, The Kingdom of Heaven is like to ten virgins (Mat 25). Of the abode above, as, Many shall come from the East and the West, and shall sit down in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mat 8:11). And all these significations may be here understood.
GLOSS.The Kingdom of Heaven shall come nigh you; for if it approached not, none would be able to gain it; for weak and blind they had not the way, which was Christ.
AUG. The other Evangelists omit these words of John. What follows, This is He, &c. it is not clear whether the Evangelist speaks them in his own person, or whether they are part of John's preaching, and the whole from Repent, to Esaias the Prophet, is to be assigned to John. It is of no importance that he says, This is he, and not, I am he; for Matthew speaking of himself says, He found a man sitting at the toll-office (Mat 9:9); not He found me. Though when asked what he said of himself, he answered, as is related by John the Evangelist, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
GREG. It is well known that the Only-begotten Son is called the Word of the Father; as in John, in the beginning was the Word (John 1:1). But it is by our own speech that we are known; the voice sounds that the words may be heard. Thus John the forerunner of the Lord's coming is called, The voice, because by his ministry the voice of the Father is heard by men.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. The voice is a confused sound, discovering no secret of the heart, only signifying that he who utters it desires to say somewhat; it is the word that is the speech that opens the mystery of the heart. Voice is common to men and other animals, word peculiar to man. John then is called the voice and not the word, because God did not discover His counsels through him, but only signified that he was about to do something among men; but afterwards by His Son He fully opened the mystery of His will.
RABANUS. He is rightly called, The voice of one crying, on account of the loud sound of his preaching. Three things cause a man to speak loud: when the person he speaks to is at a distance, or is deaf, or if the speaker be angry; and all these three were then found in the human race.
GLOSS. John then is, as it were, the voice of the word crying. The word is heard by the voice, that is, Christ by John.
BEDE. In like manner has He cried from the beginning through the voice of all who have spoken by inspiration. And yet is John only called, The voice; because that Word which others showed afar off, he declares as nigh.
GREG. Crying in the desert, because he shows to deserted and forlorn Judea the approaching consolation of her Redeemer.
REMIG. Though as far as historical fact is concerned, he chose the desert, to be removed from the crowds of people. What the purport of his cry was is insinuated when he adds, Make ready the way of the Lord.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. As a great King going on a progress is preceded by couriers to cleanse what is foul, repair what is broken down, so John preceded the Lord to cleanse the human heart from the filth of sin, by the bosom of repentance, and to gather by an ordinance of spiritual precepts those things which had been scattered abroad.
GREG. Everyone who preaches right faith and good works, prepares the Lord's way to the hearts of the hearers, and makes His paths straight, in cleansing the thoughts by the word of good preaching.
GLOSS. Or, faith is the way by which the word reaches the heart; when the life is amended the paths are made straight.
4. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leather girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. Having said that he is the voice of one crying in the desert, the Evangelist well adds, John had his clothing of camel's hair; thus showing what his life was; for he indeed testified of Christ, but his life testified of himself. No one is fit to be another's witness till he has first been his own.
HILARY.For the preaching of John no place more suitable, no clothing more useful, no food more fitted.
JEROME; His raiment of camel's hair, not of wool - the one the mark of austerity in dress, the other of a delicate luxury.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. It becomes the servants of God to use a dress not for elegant appearance, or for cherishing of the body, but for a covering of the nakedness. Thus John wears a garment not soft and delicate, but hairy, heavy, rough, rather wounding the skin than cherishing it, that even the very clothing of his body told of the virtue of his mind. It was the custom of the Jews to wear girdles of wool; so he desiring something less indulgent wore one of skin.
JEROME; Food moreover suited to a dweller in the desert, no choice viands, but such as satisfied the necessities of the body.
RABANUS.Content with poor fare: to wit, small insects and honey gathered from the trunks of trees. In the sayings of Arnulphus, Bishop of Gaul, we find that there was a very small kind of locust in the deserts of Judea, with bodies about the thickness of a finger and short; they are easily taken among the grass, and when cooked in oil form a poor kind of food. He also relates that in the same desert there is a kind of tree, with a large round leaf, of the color of milk and taste of honey, so friable as to rub to powder in the hand, and this is what is intended by wild honey.
REMIG. In this clothing and this poor food, he shows that he sorrows for the sins of the whole human race.
RABANUS.His dress and diet express the quality of his inward conversation. His garment was of an austere quality, because he rebuked the sinner's life.
JEROME; His girdle of skin, which Elias also bare, is the mark of mortification.
RABAN. He ate locusts and honey, because his preaching was sweet to the multitude, but was of short continuance; and honey has sweetness, locusts a swift fight but soon fall to the ground.
REMIG. In John (which name is interpreted 'the grace of God') is figured Christ who brought grace into the world - in his clothing, the Gentile Church.
HILARY; The preacher of Christ is clad in the skins of unclean beasts, to which the Gentiles are compared, and so by the Prophets' dress is sanctified whatever in them was useless or unclean. The girdle is a thing of much efficacy to every good work, that we may he girt for every ministry of Christ. For his food are chosen locusts, which fly the face of man, and escape from every approach, signifying ourselves who were borne away from every word or speech of good by a spontaneous motion of the body, weak in will, barren in works, fretful in speech, foreign in abode, are now become the food of the Saints, chosen to fill the Prophets' desire, furnishing our most sweet food not from the hives of the law, but from the trunks of wild trees.
5. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan,
6. And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. Having described the preaching of John, he goes on to say, There went out to him, for his severe life preached yet more loudly in the desert than the voice of his crying.
CHRYS. For it was wonderful to see such fortitude in a human body; this it was that chiefly attracted the Jews, seeing in him the great Elias. It also contributed to fill them with wonder that the grace of Prophecy had long failed among them, and now seemed to have at length revived. Also the manner of his preaching being other than that of the old prophets had much effect; for now they heard not such things as they were wont to hear, such as wars, and conquests of the king of Babylon, or of Persia; but of Heaven and the Kingdom there, and the punishment of hell.
GLOSS. This baptism was only a fore-running of that to come, and did not forgive sins.
REMIG. The baptism of John bare a figure of the catechumens. As children are only catechized that they may become meet for the sacrament of Baptism; so John baptized that they who were thus baptized might afterwards by a holy life become worthy of coming to Christ's baptism. He baptized in Jordan, that the door of the Kingdom of Heaven might be there opened, where an entrance had been given to time children of Israel into the earthly kingdom of promise.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. Compared with the holiness of John, who is there that can think himself righteous? As a white garment if placed near snow would seem foul by the contrast; so compared with John every man would seem impure; therefore they confessed their sins. Confession of sin is the testimony of a conscience fearing God. And perfect fear takes away all shame. But there is seen the shame of confession where there is no fear of the judgment to come. But as shame itself is a heavy punishment, God therefore bids us confess our sins that we may suffer this shame as punishment; for that itself is a part of the judgment.
RABANUS; Rightly are they who are to be baptized said to go out to the Prophet; for unless one depart from sin, and renounce the pomp of the Devil, and the temptations of the world, he cannot receive a healing baptism. Rightly also in Jordan, which means their descent, because they descended from the pride of life to the humility of an honest confession. Thus early was an example given to them that are to be baptized of confessing their sins and professing amendment.
7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance;
9. And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for I say to you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
10. And now also the ax is laid to the root of the trees; therefore every tree which brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
GREG. The words of the teachers should be fitted to the quality of the hearers, that in each particular it should agree, with itself and yet never depart from the fortress of general edification.
GLOSS. It was necessary that after the teaching which he used to the common people, the Evangelist should give an example of the doctrine he delivered to the more advanced; therefore he says, Seeing many of the Pharisees, &c.
ISID. The Pharisees and Sadducees opposed to one another; Pharisee in the Hebrew signifies 'divided,' because choosing the justification of traditions and observances they were 'divided' or 'separated' from the people by this righteousness. Sadducee in the Hebrew means 'just'; for these laid clam to be what they were not, denied the resurrection of the body, and taught that the soul perished with the body; they only received the Pentateuch, and rejected the Prophets.
GLOSS. When John saw those who seemed to be of great consideration among the Jews come to his baptism, he said to them, O generation of vipers, &c.
REMIG. The manner of Scripture is to give names from the imitation of deeds, according to that of Ezekiel, Your father was an Amorite (Ezek 16:3); so these from following vipers are called generation of vipers.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. As a skillful physician from the color of the skin infers the sick man's disease, so John understood the evil thoughts of the Pharisees who came to him. They thought perhaps, We go, and confess our sins; he imposes no burden on us, we will be baptized, and get indulgence for sin. Fools! if you have eaten of impurity, must you not needs take physic? So after confession and baptism, a man needs much diligence to heal the wound of sin; therefore he Says, Generation of vipers. It is the nature of the viper as soon as it has bitten a man to fly to the water, which, if it cannot find, it straightway dies; so this progeny of vipers, after having committed deadly sin, ran to baptism, that, like vipers, they might escape death by means of water. Moreover it is the nature of vipers to burst the insides of their mothers, and so to be born. The Jews then are therefore called progeny of vipers, because by continual persecution of the prophets they had corrupted their mother the Synagogue. Also vipers have a beautiful and speckled outside, but are filled with poison within. So these men's countenances wore a holy appearance.
REMIG. When then he asks, who will show you to flee from the wrath to come, - 'except God' must be understood.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. Or who has shown you? Was it Esaias? Surely no; had he taught you, you would not put your trust in water only, but also in good works; he thus speaks, Wash you, and be clean; put your wickedness away from in your souls, learn to do well. Was it then David? who says, You shall wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow; surely not, for he adds immediately, The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit. If then you had been the disciples of David, you would have come to baptism with mournings.
REMIG. But if we read, shall show, in the future, this is the meaning, 'What teacher, what preacher, shall be able to give you such counsel, as that you may escape the wrath of everlasting damnation?'
AUG. God is described in Scripture, from some likeness of effects, not from being subject to such weakness, not as being angry, and yet is He never moved by any passion. The word 'wrath' is applied to the effects of his vengeance, not that God suffers any disturbing affection.
GLOSS. If then you would escape this wrath, Bring forth fruits meet for repentance.
GREG. Observe, he says not merely fruits of repentance, but fruits meet for repentance. For he who has never fallen into things unlawful, is of right allowed the use of all things lawful; but if any have fallen into sin, he ought so far to put away from him even things lawful, as far as he is conscious of having used unlawful things. It is left then to such man's conscience to seek so much the greater gains of good works by repentance, the greater loss he has brought on himself by sin. The Jews who gloried in their race, would not own themselves sinners because they were Abraham's seed. Say not among yourselves we are Abraham's seed.
CHRYS. He does not forbid them to say they are his, but to trust in that, neglecting virtues of the soul.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. What avails noble birth to him whose life is disgraceful? Or, on the other hand, what hurt is a low origin to him who has the luster of virtue? It is fitter that the parents of such a son should rejoice over him, than he over his parents. So do not you pride yourselves on having Abraham for your father, rather blush that you inherit his blood, but not his holiness. He who has no resemblance to his father is possibly the offspring of adultery. These words then only exclude boasting on account of birth.
RABANUS. Because as a preacher of truth he wished to stir them up, to bring forth fruit meet for repentance, he invites them to humility, without which no one can repent.
REMIG. There is a tradition, that John preached at that place of the Jordan, where the twelve stones taken from the bed of the river had been set up by command of God. He might then be pointing to these, when he said, Of these stones.
JEROME. He intimates God's great power, who, as He made all things out of nothing, can make men out of the hardest stone.
GLOSS. It is faith's first lesson to believe that God is able to do whatever He will.
CHRYSOST. That men should be made out of stones, is like Isaac coming from Sarah's womb; Look into the rock, says Isaiah, whence you were hewn. Reminding them thus of this prophecy, he shows that it is possible that the like might even now happen.
RABANUS;Otherwise, the Gentiles may be meant who worshipped stones.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. Stone is hard to work, but when wrought to some shape, it loses it not; so the Gentiles were hardly brought to the faith, but once brought they abide in it forever.
JEROME. These stones signify the Gentiles because of their hardness of heart. See Ezekiel, I will take away from you the heart of stone, and give you the heart of flesh. Stone is emblematic of hardness, flesh of softness.
RABAN. Of stones there were sons raised up to Abraham; forasmuch as the Gentiles by believing in Christ, who is Abraham's seed, became his sons to whose seed they were united.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. The ax is that most sharp fury of the consummation of all things, that is to hew down the whole world. But if it be already laid, how has it not yet cut down? Because these trees have reason and free power to do good, or leave undone; so that when they see the ax laid to their root, they may fear and bring forth fruit. This denunciation of wrath then, which is meant by the having of the ax to the root, though it have no effect on the bad, yet will sever the good from the bad.
JEROME. Or, the preaching of the Gospel is meant, as the Prophet Jeremiah also compares the Word of the Lord to an ax cleaving the rock.
GREG. Or, the ax signifies the Redeemer, who as an ax of haft and blade, so consisting of the Divine and human nature, is held by His human, but cuts by His Divine nature. And though this ax be laid at the root of the tree waiting in patience, it is yet seen what it will do; for each obstinate sinner who here neglects the fruit of good works, finds the fire of hell ready for him. Observe, the ax is laid to the root, not to the branches; for that when the children of wickedness are removed, the branches only of the unfruitful tree are cut away. But when the whole offspring with their parent is carried off, the unfruitful tree is cut down by the root, that there remain not whence the evil shoots should spring up again.
CHRYS. By saying Every, he cuts off all privilege of nobility, as much as to say, Though you be the son of Abraham, if you abide fruitless you shall suffer the punishment.
RABANUS. There are four sorts of trees: the first totally withered, to which the Pagans may be likened; the second green but unfruitful, as the hypocrites; the third, green and fruitful, but poisonous, such are heretics; the fourth, green and bringing forth good fruit, to which are like the good Catholics.
GREG. Therefore every tree that brings not forth good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire, because he who here neglects to bring forth the fruit of good works finds a fire in hell prepared for him.
11. I indeed baptize you with water to repentance; but He that comes after me is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire;
12. Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
GLOSS. As in the preceding words John had explained more at length what he had shortly preached in the words, Repent you, so now fellows a more full enlargement of the words, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
GREG. John baptizes not with the Spirit but with water, because he had no power to forgive sins; he washes the body with water, but not at time same time the soul with pardon of sin.
CHRYSOST. For while as yet the sacrifice had not been offered, nor remission of sin sent, nor the Spirit had descended on the water, how could sin be forgiven? But since the Jews never perceived their own sin, and this was the cause of all their evils, John came to bring them to a sense of them by calling them to repentance.
GREG. Why then does he baptize who could not remit sin, but that he may preserve in all things the office of forerunner? As his birth had preceded Christ's birth, so his baptism should precede the Lord's baptism.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. Or, John was sent to baptize, that to such as came to his baptism he might announce the presence among them of the Lord in the flesh, as he testifies in another place, That He might be manifested to Israel, therefore am I come to baptize with water (John 1:31).
AUG. Or, he baptizes, because it was fitting Christ to be baptized. But if indeed John was sent only to baptize Christ, why was not He alone baptized by John? Because had the Lord alone been baptized by John, there would not have lacked who should insist that John's baptism was greater than Christ's, inasmuch as Christ alone had the merit to be baptized by it.
RABANUS;Or, by this sign of baptism he separates the penitent from the impenitent, and directs them to the baptism of Christ.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. Because then he baptized on account of Christ, therefore to them who came to him for baptism he preached that Christ should come, signifying the eminence of His power in the words, He who comes after me is mightier than I.
REMIG. There are five points in which Christ comes after John: His birth, preaching, baptism, death, and descent into hell. A beautiful expression is that, mightier than I, because he is mere man, the other is God and man.
RABAN. As though he had said, I indeed am mighty to invite to repentance, He to forgive sins; I to preach the kingdom of heaven, He to bestow it; I to baptize with water, He with the Spirit.
CHRYS.When you hear for He is mightier than I, do not Suppose this to be said by way of comparison, for I am not worthy to be numbered among his servants, that I might undertake the lowest office.
HILARY. Leaving to the Apostles the glory of bearing about the Gospel, to whose beautiful feet was due the carrying the tidings of God's peace.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. Or, by the feet of Christ we may understand Christians, especially the Apostles, and other preachers, among whom was John Baptist; and the shoes are the infirmities with which he loads the preachers. These shoes all Christ's preachers wear; and John also wore them, but declares himself unworthy, that he might show the grace of Christ, and be greater than his deserts.
JEROME; In the other Gospels it is, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to loose. Here his humility, there his ministry is intended; Christ is the Bridegroom, and John is not worthy to loose the Bridegroom's shoe, that his house be not called according to the Law of Moses and the example of Ruth, The house of him that has his shoe loosed (Deut 25:10).
PSEUDO-CHRYS. But since no one can give a benefit more worthy than he himself is, nor to make another what himself is not, he adds, He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. John who is carnal cannot give spiritual baptism; he baptizes with water, which is matter; so that he baptizes matter with matter. Christ is Spirit, because He is God; the Holy Ghost is Spirit, the soul is spirit; so that Spirit with Spirit baptizes our spirit. The baptism of the Spirit profits as the Spirit enters and embraces the mind, and surrounds it as it were with an impregnable wall, not suffering fleshly lusts to prevail against it. It does not indeed prevail that the flesh should not lust, but holds the will that it should not consent with it. And as Christ is Judge, He baptizes in fire, i.e. temptation; mere man cannot baptize in fire; he alone is free to tempt, who is strong to reward. This baptism of tribulation burns up the flesh that it does not generate lust, for the flesh does not fear spiritual punishment, but only such as is carnal. The Lord therefore sends carnal tribulation on his servants, that the flesh fearing its own pains, may not lust after evil. See then how the Spirit drives away lust, and suffers it not to prevail, and the fire burns up its very roots.
JEROME; Either the Holy Ghost Himself is a fire, as we learn from the Acts, when there sat as it were fire on the tongues of the believers; and thus the word of the Lord was fulfilled who said, I am come to send fire on the earth, I will that it burn (Luke 12:49). Or, we are baptized now with the Spirit, hereafter with fire; as the Apostle speaks, Fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is.
CHRYS. He does not say, shall give you the Holy Ghost, but shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost, showing in metaphor the abundance of the grace. This further shows, that even under the faith there is need of the will alone for justification, not of labors and toilings; and even as easy a thing as it is to be baptized, even so easy a thing it is to be changed and made better. By fire he signifies the strength of grace which cannot be overcome, and that it may be understood that he makes His own people at once like to the great and old prophets, most of the prophetic visions were by fire.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. It is plain then that the baptisms of Christ does not undo the baptism of John, but includes it in itself; he who is baptized in Christ's name has both baptisms, that of water and that of the Spirit. For Christ is Spirit, and has taken to Him the body that He might give both bodily and spiritual baptism. John's baptism does not include in it the baptism of Christ, because the less cannot include the greater. Thus the Apostle having found certain Ephesians baptized with John's baptism, baptized them again in the name of Christ, because they had not been baptized in the Spirit; thus Christ baptized a second time those who bad been baptized by John, as John himself declared he should, I baptize you with water; but He shall baptize you with the Spirit. And yet they were not baptized twice but once; for as the baptism of Christ was more than that of John, it was a new one given, not the same repeated.
HILARY; He marks the time of our salvation and judgment in the Lord; those who are baptized in the Holy Ghost it remains that they be consummated by the fire of judgment.
RABANUS; By the fan is signified the separation of a just trial; that it is in the Lord's hand means, 'in His power,' as it is written, the Father has committed all judgment to the Son.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. The floor is the Church; the barn, is the kingdom of heaven, the field, is the world. The Lord sends forth His Apostles and other teachers, as reapers to reap all nations of the earth, and gather them into the floor of the Church. Here we must be threshed and winnowed, for all men are delighted in carnal things as grain delights in the husk. But whoever is faithful and has the marrow of a good heart, as soon as he has a light tribulation, neglecting carnal things runs to the Lord; but if his faith be feeble, hardly with heavy sorrow; and he who is altogether void of faith, however he may be troubled, passes not over to God. The wheat when first thrashed lies in one heap with chaff and straw, and is after winnowed to separate it; so the faithful are mixed up in one Church with the unfaithful; butt persecution comes as a wind, that, tossed by Christ's fan, they whose hearts were separate before, may be also now separated in place. He shall not merely cleanse, but thoroughly cleanse; therefore the Church must needs be tried in many ways till this be accomplished. And first the Jews winnowed it, then the Gentiles, now the heretics, and after a time shall Antichrist thoroughly winnow it. For as when the blast is gentle, only the lighter chaff is carried off; but the heavier remains; so a slight wind of temptation carries off the worst characters only; but should a greater storm arise, even those who seem steadfast will depart. There is need then of heavier persecution that the Church should be cleansed.
REMIG. This His floor, to wit, the Church, the Lord cleanses in this life, both when by the sentence of the Priests the bad are put out of the Church, and when they are cut off by death.
RABAN. The cleansing of the floor will then be finally accomplished, when the Son of Man shall send His Angels, and shall gather all offenses out of His kingdom.
GREG. After the threshing is finished in this life, in which the grain now groans under the burden of the chaff, the fan of the last judgment shall so separate between them, that neither shall any chaff pass into the granary, nor shall the grain fall into the fire which consumes the chaff.
HILARY; The wheat, i.e the full and perfect fruit of the believer, he declares, shall be laid up in heavenly barns; by the chaff he means the emptiness of the unfruitful.
RABAN. There is this difference between the chaff and the tares, that the chaff is produced of the same seed as the wheat, but the tares from one of another kind. The chaff therefore are those who enjoy the sacraments of the faith, but are not solid; the tares are those who in profession as well as in works are separated from the lot of the good.
REMIG. The unquenchable fire is the punishment of eternal damnation, either because it never totally destroys or consumes those it has once seized on, but torments them eternally, or to distinguish it from purgatorial fire which is kindled for a time and again extinguished.
AUG. If any asks which were the actual words spoken by John, whether those reported by Matthew, or by Luke, or by Mark, it may be shown, that there is no difficulty here to him who rightly understands that the sense is essential to our knowledge of the truth, but the words indifferent. And it is clear we ought not to deem any testimony false, because the same fact is related by several persons who were present in different words and different ways. Whoever thinks that the Evangelists might have been so inspired by the Holy Ghost that they should have differed among themselves neither in the choice, nor the number, nor the order of their words, he does not see that by how much the authority of the Evangelists is preeminent, so much the more is to be by them established the veracity of other men in the same circumstances. But the discrepancy may seem to be in the thing, and not only in words, between, I am not worthy to bear His shoes, and, to loose His shoe-latchet. Which of these two expressions did John use? He who has reported the very words will seem to have spoken truth; he who has given other words, though he has not hid, or been forgetful, yet has he said one thing for another. But the Evangelists should be clear of every kind of falseness, not only that of lying, but also that of forgetfulness. If then this discrepancy be important, we may suppose John to have used both expressions, either at different times, or both at the same time. But if he only meant to express the Lord's greatness and his own humility, whether he used one or the other the sense is preserved, though any one should in his own words repeat the same profession of humility using the figure of the shoes; their will and intention does not differ. This then is a useful rule and one to be remembered, that it is no lie, when one fairly represents his meaning whose speech one is recounting, though one uses other words; if only one shows our meaning to be the same with his. Thus understood it is a wholesome direction, that we are to inquire only after the meaning of the speaker.
Catena Aurea Matthew 3
Jesse Tree ~ Joseph
For us another has been built upon it, the Jerusalem of Christians, God's kingdom on earth, the holy Church. This city still stands; it is the one which the divine King will enter at Christmas. Now we understand why we will hear so mach about Jerusalem during the coming week. We should now clean and adorn our city, improving its streets and avenues through which the Savior will make His entrance. As a motto we should take the words of the precursor, St. John the Baptist: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths; let every valley be filled, every hill be leveled." Holy Mother Church's message today is that the Savior is coming to the Jerusalem of the Christians, to the Church.