Luke XIII, 6-9. The sterile fig tree.

"Someone had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. "

Where does it come from, that in his gospel the Lord frequently brings back the parable of the fig tree? You find in another place that the Lord's order has dried up all the green foliage of this tree (Matt., XXI, 19); by which you recognize the Creator of all things, who can command the species to wither or revive instantly. Elsewhere He reminds us that the tender shoots and leaves of this tree serve to anticipate the coming of summer (Matt. Xxiv. 32). These two passages represent the vain glory of which the Jewish people boasted, and which fell, like the flower, at the coming of the Lord, because he remained sterile in works, and on the day of judgment, as the coming of the where the ripe fruits of all the earth are gathered, to be calculated from the fullness of the Church, in which the Jews themselves will believe.

 Let's look here again for the mystery of a deeper meaning. The fig tree is in the vineyard: but "there was a vineyard of the God of hosts, which he delivered to the plunder of the nations" (Is., V, 7). Thus the One who has ravaged his vineyard is also the One who gives the order to cut down the fig tree. Now the comparison of this tree applies well to the Synagogue. In the same way that this tree, with the exuberance of its abundant foliage, deceived the hope of its owner who waited in vain for the expected harvest, likewise in the Synagogue, whose doctors, sterile in works, take pride in themselves from their words as exuberant foliage, the vain shading of the Law flourishes, but the hope and expectation of a chimerical harvest deceives the wishes of the believing people. There is enough in the nature of this tree to convince you more than this comparison of the portrait of the Synagogue. Because, if you look closely, you will find that the laws of this species deviate from those of other trees. The others carry their flower before their fruit, and announce the fruits to come by the promise of the flower; only this one produces from the beginning fruits in place of flowers. In others the flower falls and fruits are born; in this one the fruits fall to give place to the fruits. Thus, these first trials of fruits grow as flowers; and to have, in their early birth, misunderstood the order of nature, they can not preserve the benefit of nature. Indeed, it is at the point where usually the bud grows from the middle of the bark that the small fruits of this species come to dawn. It is from them that we read, in the Song of Songs, "the fig tree grows its first fruits" (II, 13). Thus, when the other trees are white in early spring, the only fig tree can not bleach by its flowers, perhaps because there is no maturity to expect from these kinds of fruits. For others arise, and these, as degenerates, are rejected; their weak stem dries up, and they give way to those for whom the sap will be more useful. There are, however, some, very rare, that do not fall, having had the good fortune to emerge on a short stem, between two palmettes: thus doubly covered and protected, as in mother nature, a more abundant sap fed them and developed them. These, helped by the clemency of the air and the temperature, having had more leisure to form, become, once stripped the natural wild of their primitive juice, preferable to the others by their beauty and the approval of their maturity. Now consider the manners and dispositions of the Jews: they are like the first fruits of the little fertile Synagogue; as the first fig falls, they have fallen, to make room for the fruits of our race that will remain forever. For the first people of the synagogue, weakly rooted in parched works, failed to draw the rich sap of natural wisdom: so it fell, like a useless fruit, so that on the same branches of the tree the fruit of ancient religion produced the new people of the Church. Thus he who was ceased to be, so that he who was not begin. Yet the best of Israel, those who wore a more vigorously conformed branch, in the shadow of the Law and the Cross, and within them, were stained with a double sap, and, as the first fig came to mature, these beautiful fruits outweigh all others. It is to them that it is said: "You shall sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt., XIX, 28).

And here is no stranger to the subject. Adam and Eve, the first authors of our race and our misguidance, who covered themselves with the leaves of this tree, deserved to be exiled from paradise, when, becoming aware of their transgression, they fled the presence of the Lord who was walked. They thus announced that at the end of time the people of the Jews, at the arrival of the Lord and Savior who came to call him, realizing that the temptations of the devil had stripped him of all virtue, and appalled by the In the nakedness of the turpitude of his conscience, having deviated from religion, blushing from his prevarication, he would deviate from the Lord, seeking to cover by the abundance of words, as with a veil of foliage, the ignominy of his conduct. So those who gathered on the fig tree the leaves, and not the fruits, were excluded from the Kingdom of God; they were "living soul". The second Adam came, and he sought no more leaves, but fruits; for He was "life-giving spirit" (I Cor. XV, 45). It is through the mind that the fruit of virtue is obtained, that the Lord is worshiped.

 The Lord sought, not that he did not know that the fig tree was fruitless, but to show by this figure that it was time for the Synagogue to have fruit. As a result, we learn that he did not come before the time, He who came for three years. You read indeed: "It is three years since I came to seek fruit on this fig tree, and I can not find any. Shoot him down: why is he still occupying ground? ". He came to Abraham, come to Moses, come to Mary; in other words, He came under the sign (see Rom., IV, 11), come into the Law, come into His body. His coming, we recognize in his benefits: sometimes He purifies, sometimes He sanctifies, sometimes He justifies. Circumcision has purified, the law sanctified, grace justified: It is in all this, and all this is one. For no one can be cleansed unless he fears the Lord; no one deserves to receive the Law unless he is cleansed of his faults; no one goes to grace if he does not know the law. So the Jewish people could not be purified, because it had the circumcision not of the soul, but of the body - neither sanctified, for he ignored the value of the Law by attaching himself to the carnal rather only to the spiritual: "But the Law is spiritual" (Rom., VII, 14) - nor justified, because it did not do penance of its faults, and consequently ignored the grace.

 It is therefore very true that there was no fruit in the Synagogue, and that is why order is given to slaughter it. But the good gardener? the one perhaps in whom is the foundation of the Church? The presentiment that another would be sent to the Gentiles, and himself to those of circumcision, intervenes affectionately so that it is not cut off, his vocation being his guarantor that even the Jewish people can be saved by the Church. So he says, "Leave it again this year, the time I'm cropping around her and putting a basket of manure on it. ". As he quickly recognized that the hardness of the Jews and their pride were the cause of their sterility! He knows how to treat vices as he knows how to discover them. He promises to break down the hardness of their hearts by the apostolic pickaxe, so that "the two-edged word" (Hebr., IV, 12) returns the soil of their souls encumbered by long abandonment, and, tearing their hearts, revives their sense finally enlivened by the breath of the air, so that the root of wisdom is not stifled and buried under the mass of the earth. It will be necessary to put also, he says, a basket of manure. Great is certainly the efficiency of the manure: so great that by it the infertility becomes fruitful, the green aridity, the fruitful sterility. On him Job was sitting at his temptation, and he could not be defeated; and Paul considers himself a manure to win Christ (Phil., III, 8). Finally Job, who had begun by losing a lot, once seated on his manure had nothing that the devil could take away. So good is the land that we dig, good manure that we put it. As well, "the Lord raises up the needy from the earth and raises the poor from his dunghill" (Psalm 112: 7).

Thus, through the application of spiritual intelligence and humble feelings, the good gardener believes that the Jews themselves can bear fruit for the gospel of Christ. He remembered what the Lord said by Haggai: the twenty-fourth of the ninth month from the day when the temple of Almighty God was founded, "From that day," he says, "I will bless the vine and fig and pomegranate trees and olive trees that have not had fruit "(Haggai, II, 19 ssq.). This reveals to us that towards the end of the year, that is to say the decline of the aging world, will be founded the holy temple of God, which is the Church, thanks to which, sanctified by baptism, the peoples Jewish and kind will be able to bear the fruit of their merits.

So the nature of this tree indicates the character of the Synagogue, fruitful in its second growth? because we are of the race of the patriarchs? and the Jews are rightly compared to the decrepit fruits, because their rude hearts and hard heads have not allowed them to attain a durable state. If they die and fall, so to speak, from this world to be reborn to the inner man by the grace of baptism, then they will be fruitful. But the bad faith of these stubborn persons rendered the Synagogue useless; also, being sterile, order is given to cut it off.

What has been said of all the Jews, we must take great care for ourselves, for fear of occupying the fruitful soil of the Church without merit, we who, blessed as the grenadiers (Haggai II, 19 ff.), Must bear inner fruits, fruits of modesty, fruits of union, fruits of mutual charity and love, being enclosed in the same bosom of the Church our Mother, 30 for not be spoiled by the air, nor slaughtered by the hail, nor burnt with the ardor of lust, nor detached by moisture and rain.

Many, however, think that in this allegory the fig tree is not the Synagogue, but the wickedness and the wickedness. The difference is that they envision gender instead of species. What strikes them, they say, is that the Lord said to the fig tree, "May never fruit be born on you, for eternity! But we know that many Jews believe and believe. But whoever believes is no longer fruit of the Synagogue, but of the Church: he is not born of the Synagogue, since he is reborn in the Church. Just as there are some who "came out of us, but were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us "(I Jn, II, 19), so we say Jews who believe: if they had been from the Synagogue, they would have remained in the Synagogue; if they came out of the Synagogue, it must be believed that they were not from the Synagogue. Moreover, in the other interpretation it is for wickedness that there is intercession and offers to cultivate it to make it bear fruit, while the Lord has come to destroy to the seed of the evil.

Luke, XIII, 10-17. The woman bent.

"And He taught in their synagogue the days of the Sabbath. And here is a woman whom for eighteen years a spirit was crippling, and she was bent. "

As He quickly showed that he spoke of the Synagogue! He shows that it is the tree to which He has come, since He preaches. Moreover, in this infirm woman, it is like the figure of the Church which presents itself: when it has fulfilled the measure of the Law31 and of the resurrection, in this endless rest, raised to the summit of greatness, she will no longer be able to experience the curvature of our infirmity. And this woman could be healed only by means of the Law and grace: the Law by its precepts, in baptism the grace by which, dead to the world, we are resurrected for Christ; for in the ten words is the completion of the Law, in the number eight the fullness of the resurrection. So this work of a Sabbath signifies what will happen: whoever has fulfilled the Law and grace will be rid of the miseries of this crippled body through the mercy of Christ. This is why sanctification was first given in the figure by Moses, because the practice of future sanctification and spiritual observance was to abstain from works of the century. Even God rested from the works of the world: not of (all) works, since his activity is perpetual and continual, as the Son says: "My Father is still working now, and I too are acting" (Jn, V, 17)? so that the example of God will cease for us the works of the world, not those of religion. It is for lack of understanding that the head of the Synagogue did not want anyone to be healed on the Sabbath, while the Sabbath is the image of future recreation? so it is not the good works, but the bad ones, which are idle? and that for this reason we are required to carry no burden? errors ? and not being fasting? good works? to celebrate the sabbaths that will take place after death. So the Lord seems to respond in a spiritual sense when He says, "Hypocrites, shall any of you on the Sabbath not untie his ox or his donkey to lead him to the waterer? ". Why did he not mention any other animal? Is it not to show that in spite of the leaders of the Synagogue the Jewish and kind people will come to quench the thirst for their body and the heat of this world to the abundance of the fountain of the Lord? for "the ox has recognized his possessor, and the donkey the manger of his master" (Is., I, 3). Thus the people, who at first had as pasture a miserable hay desiccated before it was collected (Ps. 128: 6), received the bread from heaven (Jn, vi, 33). He therefore says that by the vocation of the two peoples the Church will be saved, saluting, when the Law will have had its day and at the time of the resurrection of the Lord, the hour of its deliverance. May the Lord be merciful! how good it is, anyway, whether he has pity or chastisement! He orders to cut down the tree, a figure of the Synagogue; He heals the woman, the figure of the Church. As the parable is kind, and volunteer the liberation! He compares a link to a link, to refute the accusation of the Jews by their own conduct: then indeed on the Sabbath they detach the bonds of animals, they take back the Lord who delivered men from the bonds of sins.

Luke, XIII, 18-19. The mustard seed.

"What does the Kingdom of God look like? what will I think he looks like? It looks like the mustard seed: it was taken, put in its garden, and grew, and became a tree, and the birds of the sky rested on its branches. "

This reading tells us that we must consider the nature of comparisons, not their appearance. Let us see why the very high kingdom of heaven is compared to the mustard seed; for he remembers me having also met the mustard seed in another passage where it is compared to faith, when the Lord says, "If you have faith like a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain: throw you into the sea "(Matt. XVII, 19). This is not a petty faith, but a great one, to be able to command a mountain to move; and indeed it is not a mediocre faith that the Lord requires of his Apostles, knowing that they have to fight the height and exaltation of the spirit of evil. You want to learn that you need great faith? Read in the Apostle: "And if I had every faith, so as to carry the mountains" (I Cor., XIII, 2). If, then, the kingdom of heaven is like the grain of mustard seed, and faith like the grain of mustard seed, faith is assuredly the kingdom of heaven, and the kingdom of heaven is faith. So to have faith is to have the kingdom of heaven. In the same way the Kingdom is in us, and faith is in us; we read in fact: "The Kingdom of God is within you" (Mk, xii, 22), and elsewhere: "Have faith in yourself" (Matt. XVI, 19). Peter, who had all faith, received the keys of the kingdom of heaven to open it to others as well.

 Now, according to the nature of the mustard, what is the significance of the comparison? His grain is certainly common and simple; do we come to grind it, it spreads its vigor. In the same way, faith seems simple at first sight; but, overcome by adversity, it diffuses the benefit of its virtue, so as to penetrate also those who hear or who read. Grain of mustard, our martyrs Felix, Nabor and Victor32. They had the perfume of faith, but they were ignored. The persecution came: they laid down their arms, stretched out their necks, and, slaughtered by the sword, spread the beauty of their martyrdom through all the borders of the world, so much so that it is right to say: "Their echo was spread on all the earth "(Ps. 18,5). But faith is otherwise trampled, otherwise hurried, otherwise sown. The Lord himself is a mustard seed. He had not suffered damage, but, as with the mustard seed, for lack of contact with Him, the people did not know him. He preferred to be trampled on, so that we would say, "We are the good odor of Christ before God" (II Cor., II, 15); He preferred to be in a hurry, so much so that Peter said, "The crowds urge you" (Lk 8:45); He preferred to be sown, like the grain that someone takes to put in his garden. For it is in a garden that Christ was arrested, and buried; He grew up in the garden, He even rose there. And He became a tree, as it is written, "As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my brother among the young men" (Cant., II, 3). So you too, sow in your garden the Christ? a garden is a place filled with flowers and varied fruits? so that the beauty of your works may flourish and the many fragrances of the various virtues perfume it. May Christ be where the fruit is. Sow the Lord Jesus: It is grain when it is stopped, tree when II resurrects, tree shading the world. It is grain when it is buried in the earth, tree when it rises to heaven. Press again, with Christ, and sow faith. Faith is in a hurry when we believe the crucified Christ. Paul pressed the faith when he said: "And when I came to you, brethren, I came not to preach to you with a language or a wisdom raised the mystery of God; for I did not judge fit to know among you anything but Christ Jesus, and crucified "(I Cor., II, 1 ssq.). And as he had learned to press the faith, he learned again to raise it, saying: For now "we know no more" the crucified Christ (II Cor., V, 16). Now we sow faith when, according to the Gospel and the readings of the Apostles and Prophets, we believe in the Passion of the Lord; we therefore sow faith, when we cover it in some way with the ground loosened and moved by the flesh of the Lord, so that, heated and pressed by its sacred body, faith spreads itself. Whoever has believed that the Son of God became man, believes that he died for us, believes that he is risen for us. I therefore sow faith, when I plant in the middle of it's burial. You want to know that Christ is grain and that Christ is sown? "As long as the grain of wheat does not fall to the ground to die, it remains alone; but when he is dead, he brings back a lot of fruit "(Jn, XII, 24). So we did not err in saying what he himself had already said. Now He is at the same time a grain of wheat, because he strengthens the heart of man (Ps 103, 15), and mustard seed, because it warms the heart of man. And although one and the other frame of any point, It seems however grain of wheat when it is question of its resurrection? because He is the bread of God who came down from heaven (Jn, VI, 33)? because the word of God and the fact of resurrection feeds souls, sharpens hope, strengthens love; mustard seed, because there is more bitterness and austerity to talk about the Passion of the Lord: no more bitterness to cry, more austerity to shake. So when we hear and read that the Lord has fasted, that the Lord was thirsty, that the Lord cried, that the Lord was scourged, that the Lord said, at the moment of his Passion, "Watch and pray, for not to fall into temptation "(Matt. XXVI, 41), seized, so to speak, by the harsh taste of this discourse, we correct by him the too pleasant sweetness of the pleasures of the body.

 So sowing the mustard seed is sowing the kingdom of heaven. Do not despise this mustard seed: "It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all plants. If Christ is a mustard seed, how is Christ the least, or does He grow? But it is not in his nature, but according to his appearance, that he becomes great again. You want to know that he is the least? "We saw it, and it had neither appearance nor beauty" (Is., LIII, 2). Learn that He is the greatest: "He shines with beauty more than the children of men" (Ps.44, 3). Indeed, He who had neither appearance nor beauty became superior to the angels (Hebr., I, 4), exceeding all the glory of the Prophets whom Israel, in his weakness, had eaten like grasses34: for the bread that strengthens hearts, as had refused, such had not been received. Christ is seed, because He is the seed of Abraham: "For the promises were made to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say: to the seed, as speaking of the multitude, but as of one: and to your seed, which is Christ "(Gal., III, 16). And not only is Christ seed, but He is the least of all seeds, because He did not come with royalty, nor with the riches, nor with the wisdom of this world. Suddenly He has blossomed, like a tree, the high peak of His power, so that we say, "Under his desired shadow I sat down. (Cant., II, 3). Often, in my opinion, He seemed both tree and seed. It is seed, when one says, "Is not this the son of Joseph the craftsman" (Matt., XIII, 55, Lc, IV, 22)? But even in the course of these words He suddenly grew up, to the testimony of the Jews, because they could not catch the branches of this blooming tree: "From where did they come," said they, this wisdom "(Matt. XIII, 54)? He is therefore seed in appearance, tree by wisdom. In the foliage of its branches the night bird in his dwelling, the solitary sparrow on the roof (Ps. 101, 7), the one who was taken away in paradise (II Cor., XII, 4), the one who will be removed in the airs and the clouds (I Thess., IV, 16), have from now on a assured stay where to rest. There are also the powers and angels of heaven, and all those whose spiritual actions have permitted their flight. St. John rested there, when he was leaning on the breast of Jesus: much better, he is himself like a branch sprouting from the sap of this tree. It is a branch that Peter, a Paul branch, "forgetting the past and tending forward" (Phil., III, 13): in the folds and retreats of their sermons we who were far away, we, I say gathered from the bosom of the nations, long wavered in the emptiness of the world by the storm and the whirlwind of the spirit of evil, unfolding the wings of the virtues we direct our flight, so that the shadow of the saints shelters us from the heat of this world ; We are already living again in the tranquility of an assured stay, from the moment that our soul, previously bent like this woman under the weight of sins, "torn off, like the sparrow, from the net of hunters" (Ps. 123, 7), has been transported to the branches and mountains (see Psalm 10: 1) of the Lord. So far we were vain of our superfluous observances, fluttering in the lightness of our emptiness; now, hands untied by the faith of Christ and freed from the shackles of Sabbaths, we apply ourselves to good works, and in the feasts we keep our freedom, we avoid intemperance, lest, freed from the Law, we not let us be slaves of lusts. Because the Law attached to her, to release covetousness; grace, by suppressing a lesser slavery, has prescribed us much heavier: "All things are permitted unto us, but all things are not acceptable to us" (I Cor. VI, 12); for it is heavy to use power to return under a power. So stop being under the law to be, by virtue, above the law.

Luke, XIII, 20-21. Leaven.

"How shall I judge the kingdom of God to be like? It is like the leaven that a woman takes and makes disappear in the flour, so that the whole thing rises. "

This comparison, by the questions it raises, presents such an ambiguity that opinions are numerous and varied. It was, therefore, fitting to say, above, that Christ is a grain of wheat, because the spiritual leaven awaited us. Many think that leaven is Christ, because he raises the virtue from which He seizes. And since the leaven, taken from the flour, outweighs its species by energy, not by appearance, Christ too, equal in body to his ancestors, was incomparably superior to them by his divinity. So that the Holy Church, represented by the emblem of this woman of the Gospel, and of which we are the flour, hides the Lord Jesus in the innermost part of our spirit, until the coloring of the heavenly wisdom reaches the more secret depths of our soul. And since we read in Matthew that the leaven is buried in three measures of flour, it seemed appropriate to believe that the Son of God was hidden in the Law, veiled in the Prophets, fulfilled in the teachings of the Gospels, in order to to acquire by all these means the perfect faith, and, formed by the reconciliation of the Scriptures in us who are his body, to be fully all and in all. For it was He who was the Word of God and "the mystery hidden for centuries and generations" (Col., I, 26): we can not say anything that expresses and testifies more to his eternity. He was indeed: for He was in such a way that, hidden from sacrilege, manifested in the saints, predestined before the ages, He was reserved for glory. Now the glory consists, my brethren, in that we can deepen the mystery hidden since the centuries in God. What is in God is assuredly of God: for God can not welcome a foreign nature.

I know for sure that, in the minds of some, it is about this world, until it rises by the Law, the Prophets, the Gospel, so that any language pays tribute to the Lord. Thus let us examine the whole thing, seek with more care; no one can find if he did not first seek. Let's build a tower, guess the expense of the Scriptures, let's make a charge, lest someone say a day about us too: "He wanted to build and could not finish" (Lk, XIV, 28). When you build, you have to put a good foundation. The good foundation is faith; the good foundation is that of the Apostles and Prophets (Ephesians II, 10): for it is upon the two Testaments that our faith stands, and there is no lack of justice in saying that in the one and the other equal is the measure of perfect faith, since the Lord himself said, "If you had faith in Moses, you would have faith in me" (Jn, V, 46), because in Moses even is the Lord who spoke. It is therefore true that in both the measure is perfect, since it is completed in one and the other, and that both have the same faith, because oracle and counterpart have the same reach and the same meaning. I prefer, however, to stick to the teaching of the Lord Himself: leaven is the spiritual doctrine of the Church. For as long as it is written, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees" (Matt. Xvi. 6), and the Apostle said, "Not with the leaven of evil and evil" (I Cor. V, 8), this shows that the doctrine is leaven. But other is the leaven of the tares, other the leaven of the wheat: so we agree with the good authors to say that the Church sanctifies by the spiritual leaven the man, which is made of body, of soul and spirit. For the body and the soul are sanctified, and spiritual grace itself receives an increase of sanctification, when, by the ministry of the Church so to speak in fermentation, and by the teaching of the Scriptures, which swells in some so by the brewing and the abundance of heavenly words, their commerce, spread throughout the whole man, mingled with him, will have permeated him so that all is but one leaven. This is what happens when these three elements are understood as the equal balance of desires and are animated by the common accord of the wills. This work of the Church is not improvised nor delivered by chance, but realized by a long elaboration, so that the three elements are one, without being vitiated by the law of sin. We find the justification of this thought in the Apostle, when he says, "May the Lord Himself sanctify you completely, so that without blemish spirit, soul, and body be kept without reproach in the day of Our Lord Jesus Christ." (1Thess., V, 23): what can not be fulfilled, among the temptations of the age, if the woman of the Gospel does not bury this leaven, to which the kingdom of heaven is compared, in the three measures of flour to lift the whole thing. For there are three measures, as I said, those of the flesh, the soul, and the spirit, but of that spirit of which we all live while we are in this body. This is especially true when the license of the flesh does not take over, when the soul does not bow to the errors of the body, and when the measure in life is observed without fault by the whole man. But as the equality of measures is difficult to maintain without the help of the Church and of doctrine, this woman who is a figure of the Church mixes with them the virtue of spiritual doctrine, until the whole man inside, the man of the heart, the invisible man, ferments and rises to the dignity of heavenly bread. It is indeed fitting to call the doctrine of Christ leaven, because Christ is bread, and the Apostle said, "Our multitude is but a bread, a body" (I Cor., X , 17). There is then only one leaven, when the flesh does not covet the spirit, nor the spirit against the flesh (Gal., V, 17), but we kill the activities of the flesh ( Rom., VIII, 13), and that the soul, conscious of having received from the breath of God the spirit of life, avoids the contagion of the earth, of relations with the world. So the Apostle has commanded us to lead us not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, so that, sanctified by the bath that regenerates (Rom., VIII, 4), stripped of the old man and his desires, clothed with the new which is created according to Christ (Col., III, 9 ssq.), we walked not in the dilapidation of the letter, but in the novelty of the spirit (Rom., VII, 6): so that even in the time of the resurrection we can keep society without corruption of the body, the soul, and the spirit, and obtain what we ask now. Many believe that this is what the Lord has marked, when He says, "If two of you agree on earth, whatever you ask for, you will get it from my Father who is in heaven" (Matt. , XVIII, 19). Thus some see in these two the soul and the body; others, the soul and the spirit, in that, when on earth, that is, in the body, the soul, and the spirit, do not come together and clash with each other. Opposite lusts, all their demands, it seems, can be realized. It is so when the two are one, when, the enmities suppressed or resolved, the two form a single new man? I mean the soul and the spirit? in order to pray in the spirit, to pray by the soul (I Cor., XIV, 15). It is true that many think of the two peoples, of Israel and of Gentility, who will be grouped in one at the time of the resurrection, to realize the end which will last forever, and to destroy that which is incomplete; but many here see the man and the woman agree in the zeal of charity. So if in this life the three measures remain under the same leaven until they rise and become one, so that there is equality without difference and we do not appear composed of three elements In the future, for those who love Christ, there will be incorruptible union, and we will not remain composed; for we, who are now composed, will be one, and transformed into a single substance. At the resurrection, in fact, one will not be inferior to the other, as today where the weakness of the flesh is frail in us, where by its natural complexion the body is accessible to blows, subject to damage, or, bound to the ground by the weight of its mass, can not raise higher and raise its steps; but we will have the appearance and the charm of a simple creature, when the word of John will be realized: "My dear ones, at present we are children of God, but what we will be is not yet discovered; but we know that when it is discovered, we will be like Him "(I Jn, III, 2). So, since the nature of God is simple? because God is spirit (Jn, IV, 24)? we will take even appearance and image, so that "as the heavenly, such are the heavenly. In the same way that we have borne the likeness of that of the earth, let us also bear the likeness of the One from heaven "(I Cor., XV, 48 ssq.), Which our soul must assume.