Sermo 10
The Bride's Breasts and the Call to Compassion
The preacher, relying on Paul's teaching, introduces the bride's two breasts as symbols of compassion and congratulation, and warns that those who lack these affections are unfit for pastoral care.
I'm not a person of deep understanding, and I don't have such a penetrating mind that I can discover anything new on my own; but Paul's mouth is a great, unfailing spring, and it lies open for us. It's from him that I drink for myself even now, as the bride's breasts are revealed, just as I often do. Rejoice, he says, with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.✦ These maternal affections are briefly expressed, because little ones can't grieve or thrive without the one who bore them: on both sides it's necessary that she be shaped by her own deepest feelings. So then, following Paul's teaching, I'll assign those two affections to the bride's two breasts: compassion to one, and congratulation to the other. Otherwise she's still small and not yet of marriageable age — if she hasn't yet put forth breasts, that is, if she doesn't feel ready for rejoicing with others or inclined toward grieving with them. If someone like this is taken on for guiding souls or the work of preaching, she's no help to others — but she does herself the greatest harm. Besides, to push yourself forward — what shamelessness is that?
The Milk of Exhortation and Consolation
The spiritual mother nurses her children with the milk of exhortation and compassion, adapting her care to each person's needs.
But let's return to the bride's breasts, and given the difference between them, let's set out the different kinds of milk each one offers. For the milk of congratulation flows from the breast of exhortation, but the milk of compassion flows from the breast of consolation. Furthermore, the spiritual mother feels each kind being poured abundantly from heaven into her devout heart as often as she receives a kiss. You'll soon see her hovering over her little ones with full breasts to nurse them — from the one offering consolation, but from the other more fully dispensing exhortation, as she sees is fitting for each person.1 For the sake of the Word: if she notices that someone she bore in the Gospel has been shaken by some severe temptation, and as a result become troubled and downcast, fainthearted, no longer able to endure the force of the temptation — how will she grieve with them, how will she soothe them? How she mourns, how she consoles! How many arguments for godliness she quickly finds by which to raise up the one who is desolate! On the other hand, if she recognizes someone as ready, eager, and making good progress — she rejoices, approaches them with wholesome admonitions, stirs them up all the more, instructs them in whatever ways she can, and urges them on so that they may persevere and always advance toward what is better. She accommodates herself to everyone, takes on the feelings of all in herself, and in the end proves herself a mother no less to those who are failing than to those who are making progress.
A Lament for Unpastoral Shepherds
The preacher denounces those who govern souls yet exploit Christ's sufferings for profit, contrasting them with the true mother who has breasts of compassion and consolation.
How many people today show themselves so warped in their affections? I'm talking about those who have taken on the charge of governing souls. Because it must be said with nothing short of wretched lamentation: the reproaches of Christ, the spit, the whips, the nails, the spear, the cross, and death — all of this they melt down in the furnace of greed, and they squander it to gain shameful profit, and they rush to lock up the price of the whole universe in their own money-bags. Their one real difference from Judas Iscariot is this: he balanced out the whole return of these things at the count of a few denarii, while they, with a greedier gullet for gain, demand endless sums of money.✦ They gape after these things with an insatiable longing; they're afraid of losing them, and when they do lose them they grieve. They rest in the love of these things — as much as they're free from the anxiety of keeping or increasing them. The ruin of souls is not reckoned, nor their salvation. Truly these are not mothers; for although they've grown excessively fat, bloated, and swollen on the inheritance of the Crucified, they have no compassion for the crushing of Joseph. A true mother doesn't hide it: she has breasts, and they're not empty. She knows how to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, and she never stops pouring milk from her breast — from one, the milk of congratulation and encouragement; from the other, the milk of compassion and consolation.✦
Transition to the Ointments of the Bride
A brief transitional sentence concluding the teaching on the bride's breasts and introducing the topic of ointments.
And let this much be said about the bride's breasts, or about the milk of the breast.
The Three Ointments of the Bride
The preacher introduces three ointments of the bride—contrition, devotion, and piety—each with a distinct spiritual effect, and prepares to discuss them individually.
Now I will show what kinds of ointments those same breasts too may give off — if, however, your prayers have helped me — so that what has been given me to perceive from there may also be given to speak worthily, for the profit of the hearers. Some ointments belong to the bridegroom, and others to the bride, just as each has their own breasts. But about the bridegroom — which place should be treated — has been set down above. Now let us attend to the ointments of the bride, and that more carefully, since these are things Scripture commended in no ordinary way: it proclaimed them not simply good, but the best. And I set down various kinds of ointments, so that from among many we may choose those especially that are suited to the breasts of the bride. There is the ointment of contrition, and there is the ointment of devotion, and there is also that of piety. The first is piercing, producing pain; the second is soothing, easing pain; the third is healing, even driving out disease. Now let us discuss each one more fully.
The Ointment of Contrition
The ointment of contrition is prepared through painful self-examination and repentance, and God does not despise a broken and humbled heart.
There is, then, an ointment that a soul trapped in many sins prepares for itself: when it begins to reflect on its own ways, it gathers them together, heaps them up, and grinds them down in the little mortar of conscience, cooking everything together in the pot of its burning heart with a certain fire of repentance and grief, so that it can say with the Prophet, 'My heart has grown warm within me, and in my meditation fire will blaze up.' This is the one ointment with which a sinful soul ought to season the first stirrings of its conversion and apply it to its fresh wounds.✦✦ For the first sacrifice to God is a broken spirit.✦ So as long as the soul, poor and destitute as it is, lacks the means to prepare for itself a finer and more precious ointment, let it not neglect to prepare this one in the meantime, even though from common ingredients — because God will not despise a broken and humbled heart. Indeed, the cheaper it has seemed to itself in the memory of its own sins, the less cheap it will appear in the eyes of God.✦
The Fragrance of Repentance Fills the Church
The ointment of contrition is prefigured by the Sinful Woman's anointing, and its fragrance of repentance fills the Church and brings joy to the angels.
Yet if, by the visible ointment with which the bodily feet of God are visibly anointed by the Sinful Woman in the Gospel, we say that this invisible and spiritual ointment was prefigured, we won't be able to regard it as entirely cheap.✦ For what is read about that ointment? The house, it says, was filled from the odor of the ointment, as it was being dripped from the hands of the Sinful Woman, and poured out over the outermost members of the body, that is, the feet; and yet it was not to such a degree cheap or contemptible that the power of the spices and the sweetness of the fragrance would not fill the whole house.✦ But if we consider how great a fragrance is sprinkled upon the Church in the conversion of a single sinner, and how great an odor of life leading to life is made for anyone who repents — if someone repents publicly and completely — then on this point too we will declare with equal confidence, because the house is filled from the odor of the ointment.✦ In fact, the odor of penitence reaches even the upper dwellings of the blessed, so that — with Truth herself as witness — there is great joy among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.✦ Rejoice, you who repent; take courage, you who are faint-hearted. I say to you who recently turned from the world and, withdrawing from your crooked ways, were soon met by bitterness and confusion of heart in your repentance — and, as it were, the still-excessive pain of wounds that are yet fresh torments and disturbs you. Let your confident hands drip the bitterness of myrrh into this healing anointing, because God will not despise a broken and humbled heart.✦ This kind of anointing isn't to be despised or dismissed as cheap, for its fragrance moves not only people to repentance but even angels to joy.
The Ointment of Devotion
The ointment of devotion is composed of divine benefits received, and when prepared through meditation, desire, and joy, it becomes a sacrifice of praise that honors God.
But this ointment is that much more precious than the other, since it's made from finer ingredients. Now the ingredients for this one shouldn't be sought far away: we find them among ourselves and without difficulty, and from our own small gardens we can easily grow a supply of such things, whenever necessity demands. For who doesn't have enough of his own wrongs and sins at hand, whenever he wants, if he doesn't hide them? Moreover, these are the ingredients of the first ointment, as you recognize, the one we've already described. But as for the spices of this second ointment, our land by no means produces them; rather, we acquire them from afar, from the farthest shores. Assuredly, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights.✦ For this ointment is made from divine benefits bestowed on the human race. Blessed is the one who zealously gathers these things for himself, and takes care to bring worthy things before the eyes of his own mind, with a heart of thanksgiving. Surely, once everything has been crushed and ground in the vessel of the heart with the pestle of frequent meditation, then boiled at the same time with the fire of holy desire, and finally enriched with the oil of joy, the anointing will be far more precious and more excellent than the former. The testimony of the one who says, 'Sacrifice of praise will honor me,' is enough to prove it. And there's no doubt that the remembrance of benefits received stirs us up to praise.
Praise Fits the Head of Christ
Unlike the first ointment applied to the feet, this ointment of praise is applied to the head, which signifies Christ's divinity, and is honored by God as a sacrifice of praise.
Furthermore, although Scripture testifies only this much about that other anointing — that it is by no means despised — it's clear that the one which even honors God is all the more to be commended. In the end, that oil is applied to the feet, this one to the head. For if in Christ the head must be referred to the divinity, as Paul says, 'The head of Christ is God,' then without doubt it is the head that anoints who gives thanks, since it is God he touches, not a man. Not that the one who is God is not also man — since God and man are one in Christ — but because every good comes from God, not from man, even that which is administered through a human being. Assuredly, it is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. Therefore, cursed is the one who places his hope in man; for even though our whole hope rightly depends on the man who is God, it is not because he is a man, but because he is God. Therefore that anointing is offered to the feet, this one to the head; for the humiliation of a contrite heart is suited to the humility of the flesh, and glorification is fitting for majesty. See what kind of anointing I have set before you, by which that head — tremendous to the principalities — surely allows itself to be touched; it does not consider it unworthy, but rather judges it a badge of honor, saying, 'A sacrifice of praise will honor me.'
The Poor in Spirit Cannot Yet Offer Praise
A soul weighed down by domestic cares or spiritual weakness cannot yet offer the ointment of praise, being absorbed in its own concerns rather than divine benefits.
And so it's not for a soul that is poor and needy, or small of heart, to prepare this kind of anointing—one whose spices and outward show confidence alone supplies, yet which must come down from the freedom of the spirit and the purity of the heart. For a mind that is fainthearted and of little faith is hemmed in by the narrowness of its own domestic concerns, and because of its poverty it can't rest to give itself to divine praises, or to the benefits that produce those praises when they're contemplated. And if it does at times try to rise up, it's immediately called back to its own affairs by the pressing cares of domestic necessities, and it's forced to collapse in on itself by its own want. But if the cause of this misery is being sought from me, I'll say what you yourselves will recognize in yourselves, unless I'm mistaken: either that it is, or that it has been.2 It seems to me that this kind of spiritual sickness and diffidence tends to arise from two causes: either from the newness of one's conversion, to be sure, or else from a lukewarmness in one's way of life, even if one has spent a long time in conversion. Both of these indeed humble and cast down the conscience, and make it restless, since whether because of the time or because of lukewarmness, it feels the old passions of the mind not yet dead within itself: and so, needing to apply itself to pruning away the thorns of iniquities and the nettles of desires from the garden of the heart, it's not allowed to wander farther from itself. What then? The person who labors in his own groaning—will he be able at the same time to exult in the praises of God?
Thanksgiving Follows the Benefit
Thanksgiving follows the reception of a benefit and is not possible for a soul still in sadness, since one cannot rejoice in a benefit not yet received.
How can the words of Isaiah — giving thanks and the voice of praise — sound the same from the mouth of someone groaning and weeping? For as we receive from the Wise One: Music in mourning is an unwelcome story. And so giving thanks follows a benefit; it doesn't come before it. A soul that is still in sadness, however, doesn't rejoice in a benefit — it needs it. So it has reason to offer prayers, but not to give thanks. For how can someone recall a benefit they never received? Rightly then I said that it's not for a poor soul to make this ointment, which ought to be composed from recalling divine benefits; since it can't see the light until it has looked upon the darkness. Surely it is in bitterness, and the sad recollection of sins occupies the memory; nor does it please the soul to admit anything joyful at the same time. For this reason the prophetic Spirit announces to such as you, saying: It is vain for you to rise before the light; that is: You rise in vain to gaze upon the benefits that delight, unless you have first received the light of consolation concerning the charges that disturb you. This ointment, then, is not for the poor in spirit.
The Apostles' Abundance of Spiritual Riches
The apostles, rich in the Spirit and in love, abounded in spiritual ointments, and the preacher longs to offer similar thanks for the community's growth in grace.
But look at who it is that doesn't unjustly boast of its abundance. The apostles went out from the council rejoicing, because they had been counted worthy to suffer insult for the name of Jesus.✦ They had certainly taken in much of the Spirit's richness, and their gentleness didn't yield to words—or even to blows.3 For they were rich in love, which is never exhausted by any expenditure, and from that love it was enough to offer whole burnt offerings rich to the marrow.4 They poured out their sweating hearts everywhere, shedding the holy liquid with which they were more fully imbued as they spoke the mighty works of God in various tongues, just as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance.✦ There's no doubt that they too abounded in those same ointments about which the Apostle bore witness, saying: "I give thanks to my God always for you, in the grace of God that is given you in Christ Jesus; because you have been made rich in him in all things, in every word and in every knowledge, just as the testimony of Christ has been confirmed in you, so that you lack nothing in any grace."✦ If only I could offer these same thanks for you too, so that I might see you rich in virtues, eager in the praises of God, overflowing all the more abundantly in this spiritual richness in Christ Jesus our Lord.5
Read the original Latin
Non sum ego profundi sensus, neque adeo perspicacis ingenii, ut novi quidpiam ex me adinvenire possim; sed est fons magnus et indeficiens os Pauli, quod patet ad nos. De ipso haurio mihi etiam nunc in ostensione uberum sponsae, sicut et frequenter soleo. Gaudere, inquit, cum gaudentibus, flere cum flentibus. Materni breviter exprimuntur affectus, quia nec dolere parvuli, nec valere queunt absque illa quae genuit: utrobique necesse est suis eam conformari visceribus. Igitur, iuxta Pauli sententiam, duas illas affectiones duobus sponsae uberibus assignabo; compassionem uni, et congratulationem alteri. Alioquin parvula est, et nondum nubilis, si nondum ubera misit, si se videlicet neque ad congaudendum sentiat promptam, neque pronam ad condolendum. Talis si forte ad regimen animarum, seu ad officium praedicationis assumitur, aliis quidem non prodest, sibi vero obest plurimum. Porro sese ingerere, quantae impudentiae est?
Sed redeamus ad ubera sponsae, ac pro diversitate uberum, diversas et lactis species proponamus. Nam congratulatio quidem exhortationis, compassio vero consolationis lac fundit. Porro utramque speciem ubertim coelitus irrorari pio pectori suo spiritualis mater toties sentit, quoties osculum sumit. Videas eam mox plenis uberibus parvulis incubare lactandis; et ex uno quidem consolatoria, ex altero vero exhortatoria uberius ministrare, prout singulis convenire videbit. Verbi causa, si quem forte ex his quos genuit in Evangelio, deprehenderit forti aliqua tentatione concussum, et inde turbatum ac tristem, pusillanimemque factum, non posse iam ferre vim tentationis; quomodo condolet, quomodo mulcet? quomodo plangit, quomodo consolatur? quot argumenta pietatis mox reperit, quibus erigat desolatum? Econtra si promptum, si alacrem, si bene proficientem cognoverit; exsultat, aggreditur salutaribus monitis, accendit amplius, instruit de quibus potest ut perseveret, utque in melius semper proficiat exhortatur.
Omnibus se conformat, omnium in se transfert affectus, matrem se denique probat non minus deficientium quam proficientium.
Quanti hodie secus affectos se ostendunt? de his dico, qui animas regere susceperunt. Quod enim sine miserabili gemitu dicendum non est, Christi opprobria, sputa, flagella, clavos, lanceam, crucem et mortem, haec omnia in fornace avaritiae conflant, et profligant in acquisitionem turpis quaestus, et pretium universitatis suis marsupiis includere festinant: hoc solo sane a Iuda Iscariotis differentes, quod ille horum omne emolumentum paucorum denariorum numero compensavit; isti voraciori ingluvie lucrorum infinitas exigunt pecunias. His insatiabili desiderio inhiant, pro his ne amittant, timent; et cum amittunt, dolent; harum in amore quiescunt, quantum duntaxat liberum eis est a servandi, vel augmentandi cura. Animarum nec casus reputatur, nec salus. Non sunt profecto matres, qui cum sint de Crucifixi patrimonio nimium incrassati, impinguati, dilatati, non compatiuntur super contritione Ioseph. Quae mater est, non dissimulat: habet ubera, et non vacua. Gaudere cum gaudentibus, flere cum flentibus novit, nec cessat exprimere de ubere quidem congratulationis lac exhortationis; de ubere vero compassionis lac consolationis.
Et de sponsae uberibus vel uberum lacte ista sufficiant.
Iam qualibus etiam unguentis eadem ubera redoleant, indicabo, si tamen vestris orationibus iuver, ut quod inde mihi sentire datum est, detur et eloqui digne ad audientium utilitatem. Alia sponsi, atque alia sponsae unguenta sunt, quemadmodum et sua cuique ubera. Sed de sponsi quo in loco tractandum sit, superius praefixum est: nunc sponsae unguentis intendamus, idque attentius, tanquam his quae Scriptura non mediocriter commendavit, ita ut ea pronuntiaverit non simpliciter bona, sed optima. Et pono diversas species unguentorum, quo ex pluribus ea, quae potissimum sponsae uberibus congruant, eligamus. Est unguentum contritionis, et est unguentum devotionis, est et pietatis. Primum pungitivum, dolorem faciens; secundum temperativum, dolorem leniens; tertium sanativum, etiam morbum expellens. Nunc de singulis latius disseramus.
Est ergo unguentum, quod sibi conficit anima multis irretita criminibus, si, cum incipit cogitare vias suas, colligat, congerat, conteratque in mortariolo conscientiae multas ac varias species peccatorum suorum, et intra aestuantis pectoris ollam simul omnia coquat igne quodam poenitentiae et doloris, ut possit dicere cum Propheta: Concaluit cor meum intra me, et in meditatione mea exardescet ignis Ecce hoc est unum unguentum, quo anima peccatrix suae conversionis primordia condire debet, plagisque suis recentibus adhibere. Primum namque sacrificium Deo, spiritus contribulatus. Quandiu ergo non habet, tanquam pauper et inops, unde sibi melius ac pretiosius componat unguentum; non negligat parare interim istud, licet de vilibus speciebus; quia cor contritum et humiliatum Deus non despiciet Tanto autem minus vile divinis apparebit conspectibus, quanto plus sibi illa viluerit in recordatione peccatorum suorum.
Tamen si illo visibili, quo visibiliter uncti a Peccatrice corporei pedes Dei referuntur in Evangelio, invisibile hoc et spirituale fuisse dicimus figuratum, non omnino vile reputare poterimus. Quid enim de illo legitur? Et domus, inquit, impleta est ex odore unguenti Peccatricis manibus distillabatur, et extremis membris corporis, id est pedibus, fundebatur: et tamen non usque adeo contemptibile aut vile fuit, quin totam domum vis aromatum et suavitas repleret odoris. Quod si attendamus quanta in unius peccatoris conversione fragrantia respergatur Ecclesia, et quantis fiat odor vitae ad vitam quivis poenitens, si publice perfecteque poeniteat, profecto et de hoc aeque indubitanter pronuntiabimus, quia domus impleta est ex odore unguenti. Denique et supernas beatorum mansiones attingit poenitentiae odor, ita ut, teste ipsa Veritate, magnum gaudium sit inter angelos Dei super uno peccatore poenitentiam agente. Gaudete, poenitentes; pusillanimes, confortamini. Vobis dico, quos nuper conversos de saeculo, et a viis vestris pravis recedentes, excepit mox amaritudo et confusio animi poenitentis, ac velut recentium adhuc vulnerum dolor nimius excruciat et perturbat. Securae manus vestrae distillent myrrhae amaritudinem in salubrem hanc unctionem; quia cor contritum et humiliatum Deus non despiciet.
Non est omnino spernenda, nec vilis aestimanda huiuscemodi unctio, cuius odor non solum homines provocat ad correctionem, sed et angelos ad exsultationem invitat.
Sed est unguentum tanto isto profecto pretiosius, quanto de melioribus compositum speciebus. Huius siquidem species ne longe quaerantur, penes nos et absque difficultate reperimus, ac de nostris hortulis talium perfacile copiam tollimus, quotiescunque necessitas poscit. Quis enim non satis de proprio, cum vult, ad manum habet iniquitates et peccata, si non dissimulat? Hae autem sunt, sicut recognoscitis, species unguenti primi, quod iam descripsimus. At vero secundi huius aromata terra nostra nequaquam profert, sed procul et de ultimis finibus ea nobis conquirimus. Nempe omne datum optimum, et omne donum perfectum desursum est, descendens a Patre luminum. Fit enim unguentum istud de divinis collatis humano generi beneficiis. Felix qui ipsa sibi studiose colligere, et ante mentis suae oculos digna cum gratiarum actione reducere curat.
Profecto cum fuerint in vasculo pectoris pistillo crebrae meditationis contusa atque contrita, deinde igne sancti desiderii simul decocta omnia, et demum impinguata oleo laetitiae, erit unctio longe pretiosior excellentiorque priore. Sufficit ad probandum eius testimonium qui ait: Sacrificium laudis honorificabit me. Nec dubium quin excitet ad laudandum beneficiorum recordatio.
Porro cum Scriptura hoc solum testetur de illo alio, quia nequaquam despicitur, liquet amplius esse commendatum, quod et honorificat. Denique illud pedibus apponitur, hoc capiti. Si enim in Christo caput ad divinitatem referendum est, dicente Paulo: Caput Christi Deus; procul dubio caput ungit, qui gratias agit, quoniam Deum tangit, non hominem. Non quia non sit homo qui Deus est, siquidem Deus et homo unus est Christus; sed quia omne bonum a Deo, non ab homine est, etiam ipsum quod per hominem ministratur. Profecto enim spiritus est qui vivificat, caro non prodest quidquam. Propterea et maledictus qui spem suam ponit in homine; quoniam etsi spes nostra tota merito pendet ex homine Deo, non tamen quia homo, sed quia Deus est. Itaque illud pedibus, hoc capiti exhibetur; quoniam et humiliatio contriti cordis humilitati congruit carnis, et maiestatem decet glorificatio. En quale unguentum proposui vobis, quo se nimirum tangi caput illud tremendum principatibus non ducit indignum, imo et honoris insigne iudicat, dicens: Sacrificium laudis honorificabit me.
Quamobrem non est pauperis et inopis, seu pusilli cordis animae, conficere istiusmodi unctionem, nempe cuius aromata et species sola confidentia possidet, quae tamen de libertate spiritus et cordis puritate descendat. Quae enim pusillanimis est et modicae fidei mens, rei suae familiaris tenuitate constringitur, nec valet prae inopia otiari ad vacandum divinis laudibus, seu his, quae laudes pariunt, intuendis beneficiis. Et si quando certe conatur assurgere, confestim domesticarum necessitatum curis urgentibus revocatur ad sua, et in se comprimi propria egestate compellitur. Quod si huius miseriae quaeritur a mo causa, dicam quod ipsi in vobis, nisi fallor, aut esse, aut fuisse recognoscetis. Duabus de causis videtur mihi huiuscemodi animi aegritudo et diffidentia solere contingere, aut de novitate videlicet conversionis, aut certe de conversationis tepore, etiamsi in conversione longum tempus habuerit. Utrumque profecto humiliat et deiicit conscientiam, et inquietam facit, dum sive pro tempore, sive pro tepore antiquas animi passiones necdum in se emortuas sentit: et necesse proinde habens resecandis intendere de cordis hortulo spinis iniquitatum et urticis cupiditatum, longius a semetipsa evagari non sinitur. Quid enim? qui laborat in gemitu suo, poteritne simul et in Dei laudibus exsultare?
Quonam modo in ore gementis et plangentis sonabit pariter illud Isaiae, gratiarum scilicet actio, et vox laudis? Nam sicut a Sapiente accipimus: Musica in luctu, importuna narratio est. Denique gratiarum actio beneficium sequitur, non praecedit. Quae autem adhuc in tristitia est anima, beneficio non gaudet, sed indiget. Habet ergo unde preces offerat, non autem unde referat grates. Quomodo enim recolet beneficium, quod non accepit? Merito proinde dixi, non esse animae pauperis conficere hoc unguentum, quod de recolendis divinis beneficiis componi debet; quoniam non potest videre lucem, donec tenebras intuetur. Nempe in amaritudine est, occupatque memoriam tristis recordatio peccatorum, nec libet laetum quidpiam simul admittere.
Idcirco talibus denuntiat spiritus propheticus, dicens: Vanum est vobis ante lucem surgere; quod est: Frustra surgitis ad intuenda beneficia quae delectant, nisi prius recepto lumine consolationis de reatibus qui conturbant. Non est ergo pauperum hoc unguentum.
Sed videte quinam de eius copia non immerito glorientur. Ibant gaudentes apostoli a conspectu concilii, quoniam digni habiti sunt pro nomine Iesu contumeliam pati. Multum sibi profecto instillaverant de pinguedine spiritus, quorum lenitas non dico verbis, sed nec verberibus cessit. Erant enim divites in charitate, quae nullis exhauritur expensis, et de ipsa facile holocausta medullata offerre sufficiebant. Fundebant passim sudantia pectora liquorem sanctum, quo imbuta plenius erant, quando loquebantur variis linguis magnalia Dei, prout Spiritus sanctus dabat eloqui illis. Nec dubium quin et illi abundarent iisdem unguentis, quibus Apostolus testimonium perhibebat, dicens: Gratias ago Deo meo semper pro vobis in gratia Dei, quae data est vobis in Christo Iesu; quia in omnibus divites facti estis in illo, in omni verbo et in omni scientia, sicut testimonium Christi confirmatum est in vobis, ita ut nihil vobis desit in ulla gratia. Utinam et pro vobis ego has ipsas gratias referre possim, ut videam vos divites in virtutibus, alacres in laudibus Dei, spirituali hac pinguedine abundantius redundantes in Christo Iesu Domino nostro.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rom.12.15 — Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
- ↩Matt.26.15;Zech.11.12-Zech.11.13 — and he said, 'What are you willing to give me, and I will hand him over to you?' And they weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver. Zech.11.12 — And I said to them, "If it is good in your eyes, give me my wages; but if not, let it go." So they weighed out my wages — thirty pieces of silver. Zech.11.13 — And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter — the magnificent price at which I was valued by them." So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.
- ↩Rom.12.15 — Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
- ↩Ps.38.4 — There is no soundness in my flesh because of your wrath; there is no peace in my bones because of my sin.
- ↩Ps.39.4 — My heart grew hot within me; as I mused, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue.
- ↩Ps.50.19 — You send your mouth toward evil, and your tongue frames deceit.
- ↩Ps.50.19 — You send your mouth toward evil, and your tongue frames deceit.
- ↩Luke.7.36-Luke.7.50 — Now one of the Pharisees kept asking him to eat with him, and when Jesus entered the Pharisee's house, he reclined at table. Luke.7.37 — And behold, a woman who was in the city, a sinner, having learned that he was reclining in the house of the Pharisee, brought an alabaster flask of ointment Luke.7.38 — and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Luke.7.39 — Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is: that she is a sinner.' Luke.7.40 — And Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." And he said, "Teacher, speak." Luke.7.41 — There were two debtors to a certain lender; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Luke.7.42 — Since neither of them had the means to repay him, he graciously canceled the debt for both. Which of them, therefore, will love him more? Luke.7.43 — Simon answered and said, 'I suppose the one to whom the more was forgiven.' And he said to him, 'You have judged correctly.' Luke.7.44 — Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. Luke.7.45 — You gave me no kiss, but she has not stopped kissing my feet since I arrived. Luke.7.46 — You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment. Luke.7.47 — Therefore I tell you, her many sins are forgiven, as her great love shows. But the one who is forgiven little loves little. Luke.7.48 — And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." Luke.7.49 — And those who were reclining with him began to say among themselves, 'Who is this who even forgives sins?' Luke.7.50 — But he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
- ↩John.12.3;Luke.7.37-Luke.7.38 — Then Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Luke.7.37 — And behold, a woman who was in the city, a sinner, having learned that he was reclining in the house of the Pharisee, brought an alabaster flask of ointment Luke.7.38 — and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
- ↩John.12.3;Luke.7.37-Luke.7.38 — Then Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Luke.7.37 — And behold, a woman who was in the city, a sinner, having learned that he was reclining in the house of the Pharisee, brought an alabaster flask of ointment Luke.7.38 — and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
- ↩Luke.15.10 — In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
- ↩Ps.51.19 — The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and crushed heart, O God, You will not despise.
- ↩Jas.1.17 — Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
- ↩Acts.5.41 — So they went away from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name.
- ↩Acts.2.4;Acts.2.11 — And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts.2.11 — Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the mighty deeds of God.
- ↩1Cor.1.4-1Cor.1.7 — I always thank my God for you, because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus. 1Cor.1.5 — because in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge, 1Cor.1.6 — just as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, 1Cor.1.7 — so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ
Notes
- 1 ↩Treated as a proper name (possibly a Vulgate name form); if it is the verb 'videas' (you will see) the sense is the same.
- 2 ↩The source reading 'a mo' is uncertain; the gloss notes it may be a truncation or error for 'me' (from me). The translation follows the most plausible intended sense: the speaker is asked for the cause.
- 3 ↩pinguedine spiritus: literally 'fatness/richness of the Spirit'; rendered as 'the Spirit's richness' to convey the image of abundant, overflowing anointing without the literal fatness metaphor unfamiliar to modern readers.
- 4 ↩holocausta medullata: 'whole burnt offerings rich to the marrow' preserves the sacrificial image of offerings so fat the marrow is exposed, symbolizing total and inwardly rich self-giving.
- 5 ↩spirituali hac pinguedine: 'this spiritual richness' renders the repeated pinguedo/fatness image; the devotional sense of inward abundance from the Spirit's anointing is preserved.
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