Sermon LXXIII. On the Form in which Christ will Come to the Judgment, and according to which, Although Made "a Little Less," he is Still Superior to the Angels

"Return: be like, my Beloved, to a roe, or to a young hart upon the mountains of Bethel."

"Return: be like, my Beloved, to a roe, or to a young hart." What is this? It is only now He departed and dost thou beg Him to return? What unexpected event can have happened in so short a time? Has the Spouse forgotten something? Aye, she has forgotten everything which is not her Bridegroom, forgotten even herself. For though not devoid of reason, she seems to be acting now like one who has lost the use of reason. Even womanly propriety appears to be forgotten in her words, however modest may be her thoughts and feelings. This is all due to the vehemence of her love. For love is a power that conquers and renders captive to itself every sense of shame, every restriction of modesty, every counsel of reason, and induces a total disregard and neglect of all the rules of fittingness and decorum. Therefore you here behold the Spouse calling on her Beloved to come back almost as soon as He has begun to retire. And she prays Him to make haste, yea, to run Hke one of the beasts of the forest remarkable for their fieetness of foot, namely, "like a roe or a young hart." Such, my brethren, is the literal sense, the portion of the Jews.

But as for me, following the counsel of the Lord, I will search for the treasures of spirit and life hidden in the profound depths of these inspired utterances. This is my inheritance, because I am a believer in Christ. Why should I not endeavour to find the wholesome and savoury food of the spirit beneath the unprofitable and unpalatable letter, as the grain amongst the chaff, the meat in the shell, or the marrow in the bone? I will have nothing to do with this letter which when tasted savours of the flesh, and when swallowed brings death. Nevertheless, that which lies concealed in it is of the Holy Ghost, for "by the Spirit (it) speaketh mysteries," as the Apostle bears witness. But Israel is content to hold the veil of the mysteries, instead of the mysteries themselves, which are hidden beneath. Wherefore? For no other reason than that the "veil is still upon his own heart." Hence to him belongs the sound of the word, but the signification thereof is mine. And so whilst the Scripture in the letter ministers death to the Jew, it becomes for me a source of life in the spirit. For "it is the spirit that quickeneth," that is, by giving understanding. Is not understanding life? "Give me understanding that I may live," cries out the Psalmist, speaking to the Lord. Understanding does not remain outside in the letter; it does not stick fast in the surface; it is not satisfied to grope its way by the touch of exterior objects, like a blind man. Rather it explores the profound deeps, whence it is accustomed to extract and to bring up with insatiable avidity the most precious spoils of sacred truth. Hence it can say with the Psalmist, "I will rejoice at Thy words, as one that hath found great spoil." It is thus, my brethren, that the "kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away." But that elder brother who came in from the fields, and who represented the people of the old and earthly dispensation, the people "taught to love the threshing," groaning in misery — yet with hardened forehead — under the heavy yoke of the law, and bearing "the burden of the day and the heat"—that elder brother, I say, because he has not understanding, still stands outside and refuses to enter the banqueting-chamber even at his Father's invitation, thereby defrauding himself, to the present hour, of a participation in the music, and the singing, and the fatted calf. Oh, what folly to be unwilling to learn from the experience "how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity 1" These remarks will suffice to point out the difference between the portion of the Church and the portion of the Synagogue; so that the prudence of the one may be rendered more evident by contrast with blindness of the other, and the happiness of the one from the miserable infatuation of the other.

Let us now weigh attentively the words of the Spouse; and let us endeavour also to express the sentiments of holy love in such a manner that nothing in this inspired discourse shall have the least appearance of being either unreasonable, or indecorous, or inexpedient. Call to mind, therefore, that hour when the Lord Jesus was about to "pass out of this world to the Father." Try to conceive also what were then the feelings of that domestic Church of His, the newlywed Bride, when she saw herself on the point of being 1 abandoned by her only hope and left as a desolate widow on the earth — I am speaking of the Apostles, who had left all things to follow Him, and who continued with Him in His temptations. Think of these things, my brethren, and I believe it wiU no longer appear to you strange or incongruous that a Spouse so devoted and so deserted should show as much solicitude for her Bridegroom's return as grief for His departure. Therefore, in her love and her helplessness she found a twofold motive for urging Him at the least to hasten His return, since He could not be persuaded to remain with her and not to "ascend to where He was before." For by desiring and praying Him to make Himself like to the beasts of the forest, and to those beasts in particular which are most remarkable for agility, by this she manifests the eager longing of her soul which reckons no swiftness swift enough. And does she not daily repeat the same request when she says in the Lord's Prayer. "Thy kingdom come"?

It seems to me, however, that besides fieetness of foot the Spouse also intends to signify weakness, which is expressed by the sex of the roe and by the age of the hart. In my opinion, therefore, although she desires Him to come with power, she yet does not wish that He should appear at the judgment in the form of God, but rather in that form in which He was not only born for us, but was born for us as a little Child, and born of the weaker female sex alone. But wherefore does she ask Him to appear in this form? Because she hopes that His own weakness, and the weakness of the source whence His Human Nature is sprung, shall remind Him to have compassion in the day of His wrath, and even in the judgment itself to exalt mercy over judgment. For if He "will mark iniquities who shall stand it," even of the elect? The very stars are not pure in His sight, and in His angels He found wickedness. Listen to what one of the saints and the elect says to God, "Thou hast forgiven the wickedness of my sin," so speaks the Psalmist, "for this shall every one that is holy pray to Thee in a seasonable time." Hence it is evident that the saints themselves have need to pray for the pardon of their sins and that it is through the divine mercy they are saved, since they place no reliance on their own justice. "For all have sinned and do need the glory — that is to say, the mercy — of God." In order, therefore, that "when He is angry He may remember mercy," the Spouse beseeches Him to appear at the judgment in the habit of mercy, in that habit to which the Apostle is alluding where he says, "And in habit found as a man."¹

And it is very necessary for us, my brethren, that He should thus appear. For if, even with the mellowing influence of His Humanity, so great shall be the rigour of justice at the judgment, so awful the severity of the Judge, so overwhelming His Majesty, so completely transformed the face of physical nature, that the Prophet Malachy asks, "Who shall be able to think of the day of His coming?" — if such is to be His advent even in the fonn of man, what would it be, think you, were that "Consuming Fire" — I mean the Almighty God — to come in the infinite greatness and strength and purity of His Divinity, for the purpose of manifesting His power "against a leaf that is carried away with the wind," and of "pursuing a dry straw "! He will come now in human form, and yet who shall be able to look upon Him? In the words of the Prophet, "Who shall stand to see Him? "How much less could any man endure the unapproachable splendour of His brightness, the inaccessible loftiness of His Majesty, and the incomprehensible greatness of His glory, if He exhibited to our gaze the Divine Nature unclouded by the Human! As it is, however, "when His wrath shall be kindled in a short time," how sweet and benign, for the sake of the sons of grace, will He exhibit Himself in His Manhood, giving security to their faith, strength to their hope, and increase to their confidence! For "the grace of God and His mercy is with His saints, and He hath respect to His chosen." And Christ Himself tells us that God the Father "hath given Him power to do judgment, — not because He is His own Son but — because He is the Son of man." O *' Father of mercies "in deed and in truth! He will have men to be judged by a Man, so that amidst such panic and confusion of evils, their community of nature with the Judge may be for the elect a source of confidence! Holy David announced this of old in prayer and prophecy, saying, "Give to the King Thy judgment, O God, and to the King's Son Thy justice." Nor is this contradicted but rather confirmed by the promise made at the Ascension through the angels, who thus addressed the apostles, "This Jesus Who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come as you have seen Him going into heaven," that is to say, in the same bodily form and substance.

From what has been said it follows clearly that the Spouse is made the confidant of the divine purpose and is perfectly well acquainted with this mystery of heaven's will. Therefore, using the figure of weak and inoffensive animals, she proclaims in the form of a prayer and in the spirit of prophecy, that her Bridegroom will come to the judgment in His weaker, or rather say in His inferior Nature, because weak It no longer is. For He Who rules the heavens and the earth in the might of His strength and Who will come "girded with power" against the wicked, will show Himself to His elect sweet and mild and, as it were, stripped of His terrors. Here it may be added too, that in order to distinguish the just from the reprobate, the Judge shall have need not only of the hart's power of leaping, but also of the eyes of the roe. Otherwise He shall not be able to see and to discriminate on whom He is to leap and whom to skip over in that countless multitude and in the midst of such confusion; and there would be danger that the good should be trampled under foot along with the wicked, when He will "break (the nations) in the day of His wrath." For as regards the impious, it is necessary that the prediction of David, or rather the word of the Lord spoken by David, should be fulfilled, "I shall beat them as small as the dust before the wind; I shall bring them to nought like the dirt in the streets." Another similar prophecy, spoken by the mouth of another prophet, shall likewise be seen in its accomplishment on that day, viz., "I have trampled on them in My indignation, and have trodden them down in My wrath."

However, if anyone thinks that the leaping and skipping should be so understood that our Divine Hart is to skip over the sinners and to leap on the just, I make no objection, so long as it is granted me that the leaping and skipping are designed to distinguish the elect from the reprobate. Nay, if my memory serves me right, I proposed this very interpretation myself in a previous sermon, for we met these words, "like a roe or a young hart," on a former occasion also, where they occur in an earlier verse of this Canticle, and I then discussed them fully. But in that preceding passage the Young Hart was said to leap upon or to skip over souls, according to the dispensation of grace, which in this life is granted to some and denied to others, by the just yet mysterious judgment of God; whereas here there is question of the ultimate and various retribution according to the variety of merits or demerits. And perhaps this exposition may derive some support from the words with which our present text concludes, and which, in truth, I had well-nigh forgotten. For the Spouse tells her Bridegroom, "Be hke, my Beloved, to a roe or a young hart, viz., leap like a roe or a young hart, upon the mountains of Bethel." "Bethel" means "the house of God," and surely there can be no evil mountains in the house of God. Wherefore the Young Hart will not trample but rather rejoice these mountains of Bethel by His leaping upon them, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled, wherein we read, "The mountains and the hills shall sing praise before God." The Gospel, indeed, makes mention of mountains which faith, likened to the mustard seed, shall remove. But they are not the mountains of Bethel; because faith cultivates instead of removing all the mountains of Bethel.

But if we choose to regard the mountains of Bethel as designating the powers and principalities, with all the other orders of blessed spirits and heavenly virtues, so that of them may be understood what the Psalmist says, "The foundations thereof, that is, of the city of God, are in the holy mountains": in this case, not contemptible surely or of Httle worth is that Young Hart to be considered Who appears to stand above such excellent mountains; "being made so much better than the angels, as He hath inherited a more excellent name than they." We read in the psalms, it is true, that He is "made a little less than the angels." But what of that? He does not cease to be "better" by becoming "a little less." Nor are we to suppose that the statements of the Prophet and the Apostle are contradictory of each other, since the two spoke by the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit. For if He was made "a little less than the angels," not by necessity but through condescension, that, instead of detracting from, only adds to His perfection. Now the Psalmist does not say that He is less than the angels, but is made less, thus defending His Majesty whilst extolling His grace. For His Divine Nature excludes anything like inferiority, although the cause for which He acted excused the condescension. He was made less "because it was His own will." Yes, my brethren, it was His own will and our necessity that "made Him a little less than the angels." To be made less in this manner is but an exercise of mercy. And how can there be any loss or waste here since piety gains whatever may appear to be taken from Majesty? Nor has the Apostle passed over in silence this "great mystery of godliness"; for he says, "But we see Jesus Who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour."

These remarks, my brethren, have been suggested to me by the name and the image of the hart, because I wished to show you how, after the example of the Spouse, we may apply them to the Bridegroom without the least prejudice to His Majesty. But why do I say "without prejudice to His Majesty," when the comparison has not left even His weakness without honour? He is a Hart; He is a Little One; and He is also declared to resemble the roe, as having been "made of a woman." Nevertheless He is said to abide "on the mountains of Bethel," and to be "made higher than the heavens." Notice how the Apostle does not speak of Him as being or existing higher than the heavens, but says, "made higher than the heavens," and that deliberately, lest it should be thought that the Bridegroom was proclaimed higher than the heavens only in His Divine Nature, according to Which He said, ** I^am Who am." And even where He is preferred to the angels. He is described not as being better or natitroMy better, but as having been made better than they. Such considerations clearly prove that not only in right of what He is from eternity, but also by reason of what He has been made in time. He claims for Himself all pre-eminence, pre-eminence over every principality and every power, pre-eminence over all creatures, as being "the First-born of every creature." Thus "the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." These are the words of St. Paul. But it seems to me that he might have said with equal truth that the same divine foolishness and the same divine weakness were wiser than the wisdom and stronger than the strength of the angels. In this way, then, the words of our present text can be considered as belonging to the universal Church.

But now, as regards each particular soul — for the individual soul is also the Spouse of God, provided she loves Him with tenderness, with prudence, and with constancy: every spiritual person can ascertain for himself what has been his own experience in this matter. As for me, my brethren, I shall feel no shame in telling you all openly what it has been given me to enjoy of such graces. For although it may appear of little value and contemptible when described, even so I shall not be concerned; because he who is spiritual will not despise me for that, and he who is not spiritual shall not be able to understand me at all. However, I will reserve the recital for another discourse. And perchance there are some who may be edified by the heavenly inspirations which your prayers shall obtain for me in the interval from Him Who is the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ Our Lord, Who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.

Footnotes

1. This is also the interpretation of St. Gregory the Great, who writes, "A nobis tunc Dilectus corporaliter abiit quando in coelis post resurrectionem ascendit; tunc autem revertetur quando in fine mundi, resuscitatis omnibus hominum corporibus, in judicio manifestabitur. Hanc manifestationem hie petunt aniraae sanctae. Tunc Christus vere simiUs capreae et hinnulo cervorum apparebit super montes Bethel, quia in eadem humanitatis forma ad judicium veniet, quam ab Ecclesia — quae per capream designatur — sumpsit quando in hoc mundo ex patrum progenie, quasi hinnulus cervorum humilis natus fuit." —. Translator.) ↩