Luke, X, 1-24. Mission of the seventy-two disciples

"Behold, I send you like lambs among the wolves." He says this to the seventy disciples whom He has appointed and sent two by two before Him. Why did He send them two by two? that the animals were introduced two by two into the ark, that is to say, the male with the female: filthy by number, 10 but purified by the mystery of the Church; which had its complement in the oracle that St. Peter heard, when the Holy Spirit said to him, "What God has purified, do not call him unclean" (Acts x. 5); and he remarks that they were the Gentiles, more attached to heredity and filiation according to the flesh than to the grace of the Spirit; the Lord has purified them and made heirs of his Passion. So sending the disciples to his harvest, which had been sown by the Word of God, but asking to be worked, cultivated, and cared for by the worker, so that the birds of heaven do not plunder the spilled seed, says, "Behold, I send you like lambs among the wolves." These are enemy animals, some devouring each other; but the good Shepherd can not fear the wolves for his skin-hole: then these disciples are sent not to be a prey, but to spread grace; for the solicitude of the good Shepherd means that the wolves can not do anything against the lambs. He therefore sends the lambs among the wolves, so that this word can be realized: "Then wolves and lambs will be together on pasture" (Is., LXV, 27). And since we have just treated the fox in a way that has not displeased, if I have obtained the claim of your judgment as to the symbol of this little animal, I hope I can, supported by your interest, discover the deep mysteries that veil the image of the wolves. The emblem of foxes, as we have said above, means heretics, who by their name11 promise to follow Christ, but deny him by their taste for deception. The Lord does not welcome them, but pushes them aside and pushes away from his nest. We must consider what the wolves can mean. They are beasts who attack the sheepfolds, prowl near the huts of the herdsmen, dare not enter the inhabited places, watch for the sleep of the dogs, the absence or the negligence of the shepherd, jump at the throat of the sheep to strangle them net. Wild and rapacious, their bodies are stiff by nature, so that they can not easily turn around; their impetus carries them away, so they are often foiled. Moreover, if they are the first to see the man, they are said to have the power by nature to take away his voice12; if the man on the contrary sees them first, it is said that he puts them to flight. Then I have to be careful: if in today's lecture the grace of celestial mysteries can not cast off, we will believe that the wolves saw me first and took away the usual resource of the speech. Must we not compare to these wolves the heretics who watch for the sheep of Christ, who roar around the parks at night rather than by day? For it is always dark for the perfidious who, by the clouds of a mistaken interpretation, strive to conceal the light of Christ, and, as far as it is in them, to obscure it. They roam about the parks, but dare not enter the caravanserais of Christ. That is why they do not heal: Christ does not want to introduce them into his caravanserai, where was healed the one who, coming down from Jerusalem, met thieves, the one whom the Samaritan, having dressed his wounds, having poured on they put oil and wine, placed them on his horse, drove to the inn, and confided to the innkeeper to cure him.                  

Or does not receive the remedy when one does not seek the doctor: if they sought him, they would not diminish him. They watch for the pastor's absence: so they try to put to death or send exiles to the pastors of the churches, because, pastors present, they can not attack the sheep of Christ. These looters therefore try to ravage the flock of the Lord; and their hard and rigid mind - like a rigid body - never turns away from their distraction. This is why the Apostle says: "After a warning, avoid the heretic" (Tit., III, 10), knowing that this kind of men is lost. Christ, true interpreter of Scripture, foils them, so that they spend their vain impulses in the void and can not harm. If they anticipate and circumvent someone by their astute discussions, they make him dumb: for it is to be dumb not to proclaim the glory of the Word of God as he possesses it. Take care that the heretic does not take your word if you do not find out first. He slips, as long as his bad faith is hidden; but if you recognize the inventions of his ungodliness, you can not be afraid of losing the word of God. Take care, then, of the venom of the astute discussion: they are angry with the soul, they jump at their throats, they cling to the vital parts. The bites of heretics are cruel: more cruel and more rapacious than wild animals, their greed and impiety know no bounds. And do not be surprised if they seem to present a human appearance: externally no doubt we see a man, within growls the beast. There is no doubt that they are wolves, according to the divine word of the Lord Jesus, who said: "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you under sheep's skins, but beyond in them are devouring wolves: you will recognize them by their fruits "(Matt., VII, 15 ssq.). So if we are impressed by the appearance, we check the fruit. You hear such a priest called, you know his rapine: he has the skin of a sheep, his acts are of a plunderer; sheep outside, inside is a wolf; his rapines are without measure; he has limbs stiffened by the frost of a night in Scythia, he flies here and there, his mouth bleeding, seeking to devour (I Peter, V, 8). Do not you think he's a wolf? He gorges himself without being satisfied to kill humans; he would like to appease his rage by the death of the faithful people. He screams, he does not speak, he who denies the Author of the word and interweaves his sacrilegious remarks with a grunt of a beast, he who does not pay homage to the Lord Jesus, the guide to eternal life. We heard her screams when the sword was dropped on the world; he showed his ferocious teeth, his swollen lips, and thought he had taken the floor away from all, when he alone had lost it.

 So that we may dodge these wolves, the Lord teaches us what we must observe: "Do not take," he says, "neither bag nor shoes. What does it mean to say: do not wear a mess, He has clearly explained it elsewhere; for Matthew wrote that the Lord said to the disciples, "Have no gold or silver" (Matt. x. 9). If you are forbidden to possess gold, what will it be to take it, to steal it? If you are required to give what you have, how do you pack up what you do not have? "Preaching that you must not steal, you steal! saying that you must not commit adultery, you do it! you hate the idols and you make the sacrilege! you are proud of the Law, and by breaking the Law you dishonor God! for the name of God is blasphemed by your doing "(Rom., II, 21-23)! Such was not the Apostle Peter: the first to follow the divine advice, and wishing to show that the Lord's commandments were not given in vain, as a poor man asked him to give him some money,

"Money and gold," he says, "I do not have any" (Act III, 6). He prides himself on having no money or gold: for you it is a shame not to have everything you want. There is glorious poverty, because there is also blessed poverty, as it is written, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matt., V, 3). However, what Peter glorifies is not so much to have neither money nor gold as to observe the commandment of the Lord, who prescribed: "Do not possess gold" (Matt., X, 9) . That is to say: you see that I am a disciple of Christ and you ask me for gold? We are given something else, much more precious than gold: to operate in His name. So I do not have what he did not give; but what he gave, I have it: "In the name of the Lord Jesus, rise up and walk. ". In the same way, therefore, whoever wants to build granaries to pile up the wheat is taken back, by virtue of the Lord's sentence (Lk 12: 16ff), likewise whoever wants to prepare a sack for squeezing gold, incurs defilement and reproach.

"No bag nor shoes. The two things are ordinarily fashioned from the leather of a dead animal: but the Lord Jesus wants nothing in us mortal. For the rest He said to Moses, "Take off the shoe from your feet: for the place where you are is holy ground" (Ex., III, 5). It is therefore prescribed for him to detach a deadly and earthly shoe, at the moment when he was sent to deliver the people: for the minister of such a function must fear nothing, and not be arrested in the mission received by the risk. of death. In fact this same Moses, when he had spontaneously charged himself to defend his brethren, that is to say the Jews, was diverted from his enterprise by the fear of being denounced, and fled from Egypt. So the Lord, who recognized his dispositions but saw his state of weakness, he judged that the steps of his soul and his mind were to be freed from mortal attachments. If anyone is sorry for the reason why in Egypt it is prescribed to be shod to eat the lamb, while the Apostles are sent without shoes to preach the gospel, he must consider that being in Egypt we must still beware of snake bites - for there are many poisons in Egypt - and by celebrating the figurative Passover we may be exposed to an injury, while the servant of truth neutralizes the poisons, does not fear them not. Paul was bitten by a viper on the island of Malta (Act. XXVIII, 3ff.), And the inhabitants of the place, seeing the viper suspended in his hand, thought that he was about to die; but when they saw him remain unharmed, they said he was God, since venom could not harm him. And to let you know it's the truth, the Lord says Himself, "Behold, I have given you power to tread on snakes and scorpions, and on all the strength of the enemy, and they will not will do no harm "(Lc, X, 19).

 The Apostles are commanded not to have a staff in their hands: for this is what Matthew has thought fit to write (Matt. X. 10). What is the staff, if not the badge that translates power, and the instrument that avenges pain? So what does the Lord humble? because in humiliation his judgment was raised (Is., LIII, 8)? what, I say, the humble Lord has prescribed, his disciples accomplish by the practice of humility. For He sent them to sow faith not by compulsion, but by teaching, not by displaying the vigor of their power, but by exalting the doctrine of humility. In this place He saw fit to join patience with humility; For he, too, at Peter's testimony, "when he spoke badly to him, did not answer in a bad way, when he was beaten, he did not return the blows" (I Peter, II, 23). It is like saying: be my imitators; Let the taste of vengeance fall, answer the blows of arrogance not by doing the wrong thing, but by magnanimous patience. Nobody must imitate for himself what he takes back in others; Mansuetude bears harsher blows on the insolent. Such a blow, the Lord has returned to him who strikes, when He says: "To him who knocks you on the cheek, hold out the other" (Matt., V, 39). For it happens that one condemns oneself by one's own judgment, and that one's heart is stung with a goad, when one notices attentions in response to the wrong done. However, he also has Apostles whom he sent with the staff, as Paul testifies when he says, "What do you want? Shall I come to you with the staff, or with charity and the spirit of meekness "(I Cor., IV, 21)? This staff, he again gave to Timothy: "Take back, he says, begs, rebukes" (II Tim., IV, 2). Perhaps, too, before the Passion of the Lord, which strengthened the faltering hearts of the people, meekness alone was necessary, after the Passion reprimands it. Yes, may the Lord soothe, may Paul rebuke; that he persuades, He who can soften even hard hearts; let him take back, he who can not persuade everything. The staff Paul had borrowed from the teaching of the Law; for he had read: "The housekeeper does not love his son" (Prov., XIII, 24). He had read also that to eat the lamb, it was prescribed by a prophetic command to have the staff in his hand (Exod. XII, 11). So the Lord says, in the Old Testament, "I will visit with their staff their iniquities" (Ps 88,33); in the New, on the other hand, He has offered Himself, in order to spare everyone: "If it be I," said He, "you seek to let them go" (Jn, XVIII, 8 ); and you find elsewhere, when the Apostles wanted to implore the fire of heaven to consume the Samaritans who had refused to receive the Lord Jesus in their city, that he turned to reprimand them: "You do not know, says II, what spirit do you belong to? the Son of man did not come to destroy human lives, but to save them "(Lk. IX, 54ff.). So the most perfect are sent without stick, the weakest eat with a stick. But Paul himself, if he threatens the staff, visits the sinners in a spirit of leniency; so that, to make you see that he is a gentle doctor, he consults the will of those he repeats: "What do you want? he says: let me come to you with the staff, or in charity and in the spirit of meekness "(I Cor., IV, 21)? He only once spoke of the staff, he twice added more amiable things, joining gentleness with charity. No doubt he first threatened; but he used mildness, for in the second letter which he writes to the Corinthians, he says, "I take God to witness on my soul, that to spare you I did not come to Corinth" (II Cor. I, 23); listen to why he thought he should spare: "To avoid returning to you," he says, in sadness "(Ib., II, 2). He threw the stick and made a charity provision. "And do not greet anyone on the way. Perhaps some will find here stiffness and pride, not conforming to the precept of a sweet and humble Lord; He has prescribed even to give way to table (Lk 14: 7ff), and here he orders the disciples, "Greet no one on the way," while it is a general purpose, and that the inferiors are in the habit of gaining the favor of the great, that the Gentiles themselves have in common with the Christians these exchanges of civility. How, then, does the Lord extinguish this use of savoir-vivre? . But consider that there is not only: "Do not greet anyone"; it is not in vain that there is the addition: "on the way. Elisha, when he sent his servant to put his staff on the body of the little dead man, also ordered him not to greet anyone on the road (II Kings, IV, 29): he ordered him to hurry, to hasten to his office and proceed to the resurrection, so that no interview with any passerby would delay the mission he had received. So here, either, it is not a question of dismissing the eagerness to salute, but of removing the obstacle which would hinder the service; in the presence of divine orders, the human must be for a time set aside. It is beautiful to salute; but the accomplishment of divine works is so much the more beautiful that he is more prompt, and his delay often incurs discontent. That is why the very politices are forbidden, lest the consecrated civilization delay and hinder the accomplishment of the duty, that it is fault to postpone. Here is another virtue: not to pass from one house to another by a vagabond mood; to preserve constancy in the affections of hospitality itself, and not to break willingly the bonds of friendship once knotted; to bring before us an announcement of peace, so that our very first entry may be solemnized by a blessing of peace; to be satisfied with the food and drink offered to us; not to lower the flag of faith, and to preach the good news of the kingdom of heaven; to shake the dust off our feet, if we do not judge it appropriate to grant us hospitality in a city. He still teaches that one will be punished by a more severe punishment if one does not want to follow the Gospel, than if one thinks he can violate the Law, since Tire and Sidon, if they had seen such wonders and celestial works, would not have scorned the remedy of repentance; on the other hand, that prosperity or splendor of the age can not be compared to the heavenly gift, but also is not abandoned without remedy, since everyone has the resource to repent.

Finally He discovers the heavenly mystery: God was pleased to reveal his grace to the little ones rather than to the sages of this world (Matt., XI, 25). This is what the Apostle Paul explained in more detail: "God," he says, "has not he made the wisdom of this world mad? For this world, not having known God by wisdom in God's wisdom, it pleased God to save believers by the folly of preaching "(I Cor., I, 20ff.). So by "small" we mean the one who does not know how to exalt himself or to make the flash of words make use of the resources of his wisdom - which many philosophers do. It was a little one who said, "Lord, I have not exalted my heart, and my eyes have not lifted up; I have not penetrated the greatness and the wonders that are beyond me "(Psalm 130: 1). And to make you see that he is a little not by age, not by reason, but by his humility and a kind of distance from the boasting, he added: "But I raised my soul. Do you see how small this child was, on what high points of virtue was he raised? It is small of this kind that the Apostle wants us when he says: "If any of you seem wise in this world, let him be foolish, to be wise: for the wisdom of this world is madness in the eyes of God "(I Cor., III, 18 ssq.).

Following a very beautiful passage on the faith, where He says that all was given to him by his Father. When you read: "All," you recognize that He is almighty, that He is no other color, other than the Father; when you read "delivered," you confess that he is a Son, that everything is proper to him by nature, by the right of unity of substance, and not accorded as a gift and grace. He adds: "No one knows who the Son is, if not! the father ; and who is the Father, but the Son, and to whom the Son will reveal him. ". He remembers me not to have omitted this passage from the books I have written about faith. But to show you that, if the Son reveals the Father to whom He wills, so does the Father reveal the Son to whom He wills, listen to what the Lord Jesus himself says, when He praises Peter for having acknowledged him. from God: "You are happy, Simon Bar-Jona, for it is not flesh or blood that has revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Matt. XVI, 17).

 Following is the text in which those who believe themselves to be experts in the Law, who retain the words of the Law, are unaware of the scope of the Law. By the very first chapter of the Law He shows that they are ignorant of the Law; He proves that from the beginning the Law preached the Father and the Son, and even announced the mystery of the incarnation of the Lord in these words: "You will love the Lord your God," and, "You will love your neighbor as you - even ". Thereupon the Lord said to the Doctor of the Law, "Do this, and you will live. But he, who did not know his neighbor because he did not believe in Christ, returned:

"Who is my neighbor? So to ignore Christ is also to ignore the Law. How can one know the Fa when one ignores the truth, since the Law announces the truth?

Luke, X, 30-37. The Good Samaritan.

"A man was coming down from Jerusalem to Jericho."

In order to be able to explain more easily the text that is proposed to us, let us go back to the ancient history of the city of Jericho. We remember that Jericho - as we read in the book Joshua son of Navé - was a great city surrounded by walls and ramparts, not to be accessible to the iron, nor forced by the ram. There lived a prostitute, Rahab, who gave hospitality to the scouts sent by Joshua, helped them with his counsels, answered the questions of his fellow citizens that they had left, hid them on his roof, and, to come to she and her family, at the destruction of the city, tied scarlet to her window. As for the impregnable walls of the city, to the sound of the seven trumpets of the priests, accompanied by the shouts and joyful howling of the people, they collapsed. See how each one plays his own part: the scout vigilance, the prostitute the secret, the conqueror the fidelity, the priest the religion: the first, for glory, do not fear danger; she, even in danger, does not betray those whom she has received; the latter, more anxious to keep fidelity than to conquer, prescribes life saved for the prostitute before the ruin of the city; as for the instruments of religion, they are the arms of the priest. And now, how can one not find perfectly marvelous that in all this city no one has been saved except the one that the prostitute has liberated?

This is the simple historical truth. Considered more thoroughly, it reveals admirable mysteries. Jericho is indeed the figure of this world, where, driven from paradise, that is to say from the heavenly Jerusalem, Adam descended by the decay of his prevarication, passing from life to hell: it is the change not of place, but of manners, which exiled his nature. Much changed from the Adam who enjoyed a happiness without trouble, as soon as he was lowered to the faults of the world, he met thieves; he would not have met them if he had not exposed himself by deviating from the heavenly command. What are these thieves, if not the angels of night and darkness, who sometimes disguise themselves as angels of light (II Cor, XI, 14), but can not stick to them? They first strip us of the garments of spiritual grace that we have received, and that is how they usually inflict wounds: for if we keep intact the clothes we have taken, we can not feel the blows. thieves. Take care therefore to be stripped first, as Adam was first laid bare, without the protection of the heavenly command and stripped of the garment of faith: thus he received the mortal wound at which would have succumbed to all mankind if the Samaritan had not come down to heal his cruel wounds. This Samaritan was not the first to come: he whom the priest, the Levite, had scorned, He did not despise him in his turn. Do not despise, either, because of this name of sect, that by interpreting this name you will admire: for the name of Samaritan means guardian: such is its translation. Who is this guardian? Is He not the One of whom it is said, "The Lord keepeth the little ones" (Psalm 114: 6)? In the same way that there is a Jew according to the letter, another according to the spirit, there is also a Samaritan from outside, another hidden. So this Samaritan who came down - "who came down from heaven, except He who ascended into heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven" (Jn, III, 13)? - seeing this man half dead, whom no one hitherto had been able to cure (like the one who had a flow of blood and had spent all his fortune on doctors), approached him, that is, to say by accepting to suffer with us became our neighbor and, by showing us mercy, our neighbor. "And he dressed his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. This doctor has many remedies by which he is accustomed to cure. His word is a remedy: one of his speeches binds wounds, another foments them with oil, another pours wine into them; He binds the wounds by such a more austere precept, He warms up by restoring sin, He stings as with wine by announcing the judgment. "And he placed it," he said, on his horse. Listen to how He places you there: "He bears our sins and suffers for us" (Is., LIII, 4). The Pastor also placed the tired sheep on his shoulders (Lc, XV, 5). For "the man became like a mount" (Ps 48, 13): so He put us on his mount, so that we are not like the horse and the mule (Ps 31, 9), to suppress the infirmities of our flesh by taking our body. Finally he led us to the stable, we who were mounts: the stable is the place where like to retire those who are tired of a long course. So the Lord led to the stable, He who raises the needy from the ground and takes the poor man from the dung (Ps 112, 7).

"And he took care of him," lest he should be able to observe the precepts he had received.

But this Samaritan did not have the leisure to remain long on earth: He had to return to the place from which He had descended. Also "the next day" - what is this other day? Is it not that of the resurrection of the Lord, of whom it is said, "This is the day the Lord has made" (Psalm 117: 24)?

"He took two pennies and gave them to the innkeeper, and he said, take care of him. What are these two moneys? Perhaps the two Testaments, bearing on them the effigy of the eternal Father, and at the price of which our wounds are healed. For we have been redeemed at the price of blood (I Peter, I, 19), in order to escape the ulcers of the final death. So these two pennies - even though it is not out of place to think also of the coins of these four books14 - the hotelier received them. Which ? Perhaps the one who said, "I hold that for junk, to acquire Christ" (Phil., III, 8) - to care for the wounded man. The hotelkeeper, then, is the one who said: "Christ sent me to preach the gospel" (I Cor., I, 17). The innkeepers are those to whom it is said, "Go into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature"; and "whosoever shall believe and receive baptism shall be saved" (Mk. xv. 16): yes, saved from death, saved from the wound of thieves. Happy hotelier who can heal the wounds of others! Blessed is he to whom Jesus says: "What you have spent in surplus, I will return to you on my return! The good dispenser, who spends even more! Good dispenser Paul, whose speeches and epistles are as in surplus on the account he had received! He executed the Lord's appointed mandate with an almost immoderate work of soul and body, to relieve many people of their grave illnesses by dispensing His word. It was therefore the good innkeeper of this stable in which the donkey has recognized the manger of his master (Is., I, 3), and in which one encloses the herds of the lambs, lest the rapacious wolves who growl near parks have easy access to the sheepfold. He promises to give back the reward. When will you come back, Lord, except in the day of judgment? For although you are constantly everywhere, standing in the midst of us without being seen by us, there will be a moment, however, when all flesh will see you return. You will return what you owe. Happy are those who have God as debtors! May we, us, be creditworthy debtors! May we be able to pay for what we have received, without the function of the priesthood or the ministry15 exalting us! How will you go, Lord Jesus? You have promised well that in heaven the good ones will have an abundant reward; yet you will give again, when you say, "That's good, good servant; since you have been faithful to little things, I will confide much to you; enter into the joy of your Lord "(Matt., XXV, 21). Then, then, that no one is our neighbor any more than the One who has healed our wounds, let us love Him as Lord, let us also love him as close: for nothing is so close as the head for the members. Let us love him who imitates Christ; let us love him who sympathizes with the neediness of others by the unity of the body. It is not kinship that makes one close, but mercy; for mercy is in conformity with nature: there is nothing so natural as to help the one who participates in our nature.

Luke, X, 38-42. Mary and Martha.

So there was talk of mercy. But there is not just one way to be virtuous. It is then shown, by the example of Martha and Mary, in the works of one, active devotion, in the other the religious attention of the soul to the word of God; if it conforms to faith, it passes before the works themselves, as it is written: "Mary has chosen the best part, which will not be taken from her. Let us study, then, too, in possessing what no one can take away from us, by listening not to distracted, but attentive: for it happens at the very grain of the heavenly word to be stolen, if it is sown. along the road (Lc, VIII, 5, 12). Be, like Mary, animated by the desire for wisdom: this is a greater, more perfect work. May the care of the ministry not prevent the knowledge of the heavenly word. Do not rebuke and do not judge idle those whom you will see occupied with wisdom: for Solomon the pacific sought to have him in his place (Sag., IX, 10, Prov., VIII, 12). Yet no one reproaches Marthe for her good offices; but Mary has the preference, for having chosen a better part. For Jesus has many riches and makes many gifts: so the wisest chose what she acknowledged to be the main thing. Moreover, the Apostles did not consider it best to abandon the word of God and to serve at the tables (Acts VI, 2); but the two things are a work of wisdom, for Stephen also was full of wisdom and was chosen as a servant. So that the one who serves obey the doctor, and that the doctor exhorts and animates the one who serves. For the body of the Church is one, if the members are diverse; they need each other; "The eye can not say to the hand, I do not desire your services, nor even from head to foot" (I Cor., XII, 12 ff.), And the ear can not deny that it is from the body. For if there are any, the others are necessary. Wisdom lies in the head, activity in the hands; for "the eyes of the wise man are in his head" (Eccl., II, 14), since the true sage is the one whose spirit is in Christ, and whose inner eye is raised to the heights; also the eyes of the wise man are in his head, those of the madman in his heel.