Luke, XVIII, 35-XIX, 10. Entry to Jericho. The blind man, Zacchaeus.

"And it came to pass, as He was approaching Jericho, that a blind man was sitting by the side of the road. In the book according to Matthew (XX, 29), we are shown two: here, only one. There He comes out of Jericho: here, He is coming. But the difference is null: since this unique figure is the Gentile, to whom the mystery of the Lord has made the light of the sight which she had lost, it does not matter whether she has received healing in the person of one or two; for, having its origin in Chain and Japheth, son of Noah, she showed in the two blind the two ancestors of her race. Even Luke seems not to have misunderstood him, since he then speaks of Zacchaeus. Small in size, that is to say not having the high dignity of a noble birth, weak in merits, like Gentility, learning the arrival of the Lord Savior he wanted to see Him who had not been received by his own (Jn, I, 11). But no one can easily see Jesus; no one can see Jesus while on earth. And as he had neither the prophets nor royalty for charm and natural beauty, he ascended a sycamore, in other words trampled on the vanity of the Jews, 43 at the same time correcting the errors of his past life; and so he received Jesus as a guest in his inner dwelling. And it is good that he climbed on a tree, to be a good tree, producing good fruit (Matt., VII, 17), so that, taken on the wild olive tree of his nature and entered against his nature on the good oliver he could bear the fruit of the Law (Rom., XI, 24): because the stock is holy, in spite of the uselessness of the branches, whose Gentility exceeds sterile adornment by faith in the resurrection, which is like a ascent of his body. "And here is a man named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is in the sycamore, blind on the road. The Lord is waiting for one to show mercy to him; He ennobles the other by honoring him with his stay. He questions one to cure him. He invites himself to the other without being invited; for he knew that his guest would be greatly rewarded, and if he had not yet heard the word of invitation, he had yet heard his heart. But do not seem to leave this blind man too quickly, as if the poor bored us, to pass to the rich man; let us wait for him, since the Lord has waited for him; let us question him, since Christ has also questioned him. Let us question him because we do not know; He is he knew. Let's ask him how he was healed; He asked him so that in his only person we are much to learn how to get to see the Lord; for He has interrogated Him to make us believe that we can not be healed without profession of faith. "And on the spot," he said, "he lives; and he followed him, glorifying the Lord. And He was walking in Jericho. He could see only on condition of following Christ, praising the Lord, going beyond the age.

 Let us also enter into favor with the rich: for we do not want to offend the rich, wanting, if it is possible, to cure everyone. Otherwise, clasped by the parable of the camel, left out faster than it is convenient in the person of Zacchaeus, they would have a right subject to be moved and offended. Let them learn that there is no fault of being rich, but of not knowing how to make use of wealth: for wealth, which is a hindrance to the wicked, is among the good resources for virtue. Yes, the rich Zacchaeus was chosen by Christ. But by giving the poor half of his property, even paying back four times what he had fraudulently stolen - because one of them is not enough, and the largesse has no value if the injustice subsists, expected that one does not ask for spoils, but gifts - he has received a reward more abundant than his largesse. And it is well that it is pointed out as the head of the publicans: who in fact could despair of himself, when the same one arrived, who drew his income from the fraud?

"And he was rich," he says: learn by this that the rich are not all greedy. How is it that Scripture did not mention the size of any other than this: "Because it was small? See if by chance he was small by malice, or small as to faith; for he had not yet promised anything when he ascended; he had not yet seen Christ; so it is true that he was still small. John is great because he saw Christ, and the Spirit resting like a dove on Christ, as he himself says: "I saw the Spirit descending like a dove and rest on Him "(Jn, l, 32). As for the crowd, is it not the fray of an ignorant multitude, who could not see the heights of wisdom? So Zacchaeus, while he is in the crowd, does not see Christ; he rose above the crowd, and he saw: in other words, by going beyond popular ignorance, he managed to contemplate the One whom he desired. It was added, "Because the Lord was to come to this place," where was either the sycamore or the future believer: He thus observed the mystery and sowed grace; for He had come to pass from the Jews to the Gentiles. Thus He saw Zacchaeus above, for henceforth the elevation of his faith made him emerge among the fruits of new works as on the summit of a fruitful tree. And since we have moved from the figure to the moral sense, it is nice to relax our soul on Sunday among the wills of so many believers, to share in the celebration. Zacchaeus in the sycamore is the new fruit of the new season; in him also is realized the text: "the fig tree gave its first fruits" (Cant., II, 13); because Christ came so that the trees give birth not to fruits, but to men. We read elsewhere: "When you were under the fig tree, I saw you" (Jn, I, 48). Nathanael is therefore under the tree, that is to say on the root - for it is right, and "the root is holy" (Rom., XI, 16) - but Nathanael is under the tree, because only under the law; Zacchaeus is on the tree, because above the law. One defends the Lord in secret, 44 the other preaches publicly. One still sought Christ in the Law; the other, already higher than the Law, abandoned his property and followed the Lord.

Luke, XIX, 11-27. Parable of the mines.

"Your mine has brought in ten. "

It's ordering things. Before calling the nations and putting to death the Jews who did not want Christ to reign over them, He first proposes this parable, so that we do not say: He did not give to the people Jewish no way to improve; Or why should you ask someone who has not received anything? It is not a small thing that this mine: higher the woman of the Gospel, not finding her, lights her lamp, seeks her with the help of the light, is pleased to have found it (Lc, XV, 8).

Finally, from one mine, one shot ten, the other five. Perhaps these represent the practice, for there are five senses in the body, and those two are the mysteries of the Law and the practice of honesty.

Luke, XIX, 28-38. Twigs.

"And it came to pass, when he came to Bethphage and Bethany from the mount called Olivi, he sent two disciples, saying, Go to the village that is before you; on entering you will find the little one of a donkey, tied up, who has not been assembled. "

It is good that abandoning the Jews to dwell in the hearts of the Gentiles, the Lord ascends to the Temple: such is indeed the true temple, where the Lord is worshiped not according to the letter, but in the spirit (Jn, IV, 24 ); it is the temple of God, resting on the apparatus of faith, not on stone seats. So, therefore, the abandonment of those who hate, the election of those who would love. And if he comes to the Mount of Olives, it is to plant by virtue of above the young olive trees (Ps. 127, 3), whose mother is "Jerusalem from above" (Gal. IV, 26). On this mountain stands the heavenly gardener: so that, all being planted in the house of God (Ps. 91, 14), everyone will be able to say on his behalf: "For me, I am like a fertile olive tree in the house of God. Lord "(Ps 51, 10). And perhaps the mountain itself is Christ: what else indeed will bear such fruits, not olive trees bending beneath the abundance of their bays, but nations that make fertile the fullness of the Spirit? It is through Him that we go up, and to Him as we go up. He is the door, He is the way; He is open, and He opens; one strikes at the entrance, and the perfect adores it. There was therefore in the village a colt, and he was bound with the donkey; he could only be detached by the command of the Lord; the hand of the Apostles detaches it. Here is activity, here is life, here is grace; be this, too, so that you can untie the captives.

 Let us now consider who were those who, their misguidance revealed, were driven from paradise and bound in a fortress. You see how, expelled by death, Life reminded them. So, according to Matthew, we read that there was a donkey and a donkey; in this way, as in both humans, both sexes had been expelled, in both animals, both sexes are recalled. On the one hand, the donkey was Eve, the mother of error; on the other hand, his little one represented the whole people of the Gentiles; so it is the small of the donkey who serves as a mount. And truly "no one has set him up" because no one before Christ had called to the Church the peoples of the nations; so did you read in Mark, "Let no man yet ascend. (Mc, XI, 2). Now he was held captive by the bonds of unbelief, delivered to the evil master to whom his misguidance had enslaved him, but who could not claim this domain, having obtained it not by right of nature, but by a fault. As well, to say "the Master" is to recognize only one - for there are many gods and masters, but in a general sense - one God and one Master. Also, although the Master is not specified, He is designated not by the mention of his person, but by the universal nature of his nature. Mark mentions: "bound before the door" (Mk., Xi. 4): for whoever is not in Christ is outside in the street; but who is in Christ is not outside. "On the way", he adds (Ib.): There no assured property, no manger, no food, no stable. Miserable slavery, whose condition is undecided: we have many masters, for want of one. Others attach to own; This one loosens to retain: the gifts, He knows it well, are stronger than the bonds.

 It is not uninteresting either that two disciples be sent - Peter to Cornelius (Acts, X, 24), Paul to the others ... So we did not specify the people, but indicated the number. If, however, anyone claims persons, he may think of Philip, whom the Spirit sent to Gaza when he baptized the eunuch of Queen Candace, and who from Azot to Caesarea sowed in every city the word of Lord (Acts, VIII, 26 sec.).

Finally let us not forget the promise to return soon, because he was going to send those who would preach the Lord Jesus to the Gentiles.

 In detaching the colt, did these envoys speak of their own movement? By no means did they say what Jesus had said to them, to make you understand that it was not by their speeches, but by the word of God, neither in their own name but in the name of Christ, that they spread the word of God. faith among the peoples of Gentility; and that the enemy powers, who claimed for themselves the homage of the nations, surrendered themselves to the divine orders. So did the Apostles lay out their own garments under Christ's footsteps, either because they had to raise the splendor of the event by preaching the gospel? for often in the divine Scriptures are clothing virtues? and these were to soften the harshness of the Gentiles somewhat by their own efficiency, so that by their eager zeal they would procure the good office of an easy and smooth ride. For the Master of the world has not put his pleasure in having his visible body carried on the back of a donkey; but He wanted, by a mysterious secret, to seal the intimacy of our soul, to settle in the depths of our hearts, to sit down there, mystic horseman, to take place there as corporeally by his divinity, regulating the steps of the soul, bridling the jolts of the flesh, and accustoming the people of the Gentiles to this loving direction in order to discipline their feelings. Happy are those who have received such a knight on the backs of their souls! Happy indeed are those whose mouth, so as not to spread in gossip, has been restrained by the bridle of the heavenly Word! What is this bridle, my brothers? Who will teach me how it tightens or loosens the lips of men? He showed me that bridle, the one who said, "That the word may be given unto me to open my lips" (Ephesians 6: 19). The word is therefore bridle, speech is spur; also "it is unfortunate for you to kick against the sting" (Acts IX, 5, XXVI, 14). He taught us to open our heart, to endure the sting, to wear the yoke; that another teaches us still to bear the brake of the tongue; for the virtue of silence is more rare than that of speech. Yes, let him teach us, he who, as a dumb man, did not open his mouth against the imposture, ready for the whips (Ps. 37, 14) and not refusing the blows, to be a docile mount to God. Learn from a familiar of God to bear Christ, since He bore you first, when, pastor, He brought back the lost sheep (Lk, XV, 6); learn to gracefully lend the back of your soul; learn to be under Christ, so that you can be above the world. It is not the first-comer who easily carries Christ, but the one who can say: "I bent and lowered to the extreme; I roared under the complaint of my heart "(Ps 37, 9).

 And if you wish not to stumble, put on the garments of the saints your not purified; be careful indeed to advance the muddy feet. Beware of taking the crossroads, abandoning the path strewn for you, the ways of the Prophets: for to give the nations who come a more assured march, those who preceded Jesus covered the path of their own clothes, to the temple of God. In order to make you advance smoothly, the disciples of the Lord, stripping the garment of their bodies, have, through their martyrdom, paved the way for you through hostile crowds. If anyone wants to hear it that way, we do not deny that the donkey was also walking on the clothes of the Jews. But what do these broken branches mean? Surely, they usually embarrass the steps that tread them. I would be very perplexed, if above the good gardener of the whole world had taught me that "already the ax is put at the roots of the trees" (Lc, III, 9): at the coming of the Lord Savior she will cut the waste, and shall strew the ground of the vain adornment of the fruitless nations, which the footsteps of the faithful shall tread, that, renewed in their soul and spirit, the peoples may, like the shoots of new plants, spring up on the old stumps.

So do not despise this donkey: just as the skin of the sheep can cover rapacious wolves (Matt. VII, 15), so too can a human heart hide under the outside of a beast; for under the garment of the body, which is common to us with animals, lives the soul which God fills. That there is a figure of men there, Saint John put it in full clarity, when he adds that they took in hand the flower of palm trees (Jn, XII, 13); for "the righteous will blossom like the palm tree" (Ps 91: 13). Thus, at the approach of Christ, stood, beyond the shoulders of men, the standards of justice and the emblems of triumphs. Why is the crowd astonished at the mystery that is being accomplished? Although she is ignorant of what astonishes her, she admires, however, that on this young donkey Wisdom has taken place, virtue is seated, justice has been established. Do not despise this donkey either: once she saw the angel of God, whom a man could not see (Num. XXII 23 ssq.). She saw, she sided, she spoke, to teach you that in the times that would follow, at the advent of the Great Angel (Is., IX, 6) of God, the Gentiles, donkeys until then, talk. With good reason Luke makes us read that the crowds who praised God came to meet him at the foot of the mountain, to mark that the worker of the spiritual mystery had arrived from heaven. The crowd therefore recognizes God, acclaims him king, recalls the prophecy: "Hosanna to the Son of David," in other words declares that the expected Redeemer of the house of David has come, and that he is also the son of David by the flesh: yes, this same crowd which in a moment will crucify it. Really memorable brand of divine action! In spite of themselves, she wrings from them a testimony against themselves, since they deny in their hearts that which their voices proclaim. Hence the word of the Lord: "If they were silent, the stones would cry"; and it would be no wonder that, against their nature, the rocks make the praises of the Lord resound when, harder than the rocks, his murderers proclaim him; or again, that, the Jews being silent after the Passion of the Lord, the living stones of which Peter speaks should cry out (I Peter, II, 5). So the crowd, though with contradictory feelings, escorts God to his temple with praise.

Luke, XIX, 45-46. The hunted sellers of the Temple.

But God does not want his temple to be a rendezvous for the merchants, but a place of holiness; He inculcates that the ministry of priests must be accomplished not by selling the services of religion, but by gratuitous devotion. So consider what pattern of life you are tracing the Lord's actions.

"And he drove out all who sold and bought in the temple; and He knocked down the tables of the money changers and the seats of the sellers of doves. "

He therefore taught above that in general secular dealings must be absent from the temple of God, and in particular He expelled the money changers. What are these money changers, if not those who seek to enrich themselves with the treasure of the Lord, and do not distinguish between good and evil? The money of the Lord is the divine Scripture: for at the moment of His departure He has distributed the miseries to the servants and has shared their talents with them (Matt., XXV, 14, Lc, XIX, 13); and for the treatment of the wounded He left two rooms for the innkeeper (Lc, X, 35): for it is by the two Testaments that our wounds are healed. But you, as a good changer, cash in the "words of the Lord, chaste words, money tested in the fire" (Psalm 11: 7), purified by the Spirit to the seven gifts. Do not accept for an impious change a false effigy of the King: for "even Satan is transfigured into an angel of light" (II Cor., XI, 14). Do not mix with your treasure an image of your prince belittled by cunning and bad Arian faith. Do not tempt the believers' ears with the sound of money, so that the tingling of money prevents religiously listening to the Scriptures, or the desire to appear slips into religious hearts. It is not, therefore, all money changers who must be proscribed, for there are good ones; as well, "you should have given my money to the money-changers, and on my return I would have taken it back with interest" (Matt. 25:27) If there is a scripture currency, there are also the interests of the scriptures. As to the seats of the vendors of doves, I do not understand, in the literal sense, why He overthrew them; for the bird merchants could not claim the distinction of a seat of honor at the market; what privilege of dignity do doves have? However the ordinance of the baptism of the Lord - when the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove - warns us that with the example of these tradesmen driven from the temple, those could not have place in the Church of God who traffic of the grace of the Holy Spirit. "You have received free, it is said, give freely" (Matt., X, 8). Simon, who thought that the gift of sanctification could be conferred on him for money, received from Peter this answer: "May your money perish with you, since you believe that the grace of God can be obtained for money. There is no place for you anywhere, no society with this faith "(Act. VIII, 20ff.). The sellers of sheep and oxen are, I think, the infamous traffickers who are on the lookout and exploit the work or simplicity of others. Or, since the sheep and oxen are driven out, and he has the doves taken away, it is, it seems, the exclusion of the Jewish people - for "Ephraim is a dove" (Os., VII 11) - because the Lord hates their inheritances and their works. The coin is scattered so that grace may be collected; the table of the money changers reversed, so that the Lord's replace it; the stake burned down, so that the altars are erected. And all this He did without any armed escort or riches; but with a whip of ropes He struck the crowd (Jn, II, 15), and no one dared resist. Sometimes He uses the rod, sometimes the whip - for "it is a right rod that the rod of your kingship" (Ps. 44, 7) -: of the rod, to straighten; whip, to persuade. The first teaching is rigid, this one human and flexible, whipping the sinner's conscience as suddenly attenuated. Another thing is the terrifying way of the Prophets, other the persuasion of the Apostles; on both sides, however, it is education by the same word. And if he made a whip with ropes, it is because the cords, it is said, gave me a good part; yes, my share of inheritance is splendid "(Ps. 15, 6): these are the cords with which the surveyors determine the limits of the fields to be measured. Thus, like a good surveyor, he fixed the borders of the Synagogue, and made the profaners of the Church leave the temple; for a new appraiser of the fertility of souls had arrived, to evaluate the quality of the fields, not their surfaces. It is, moreover, quite right that the strings are not stretched to enclose a certain extent of domain, do not set limits to the faith as to a delimited object; but the free whip extends the confines of the Church to infinity, and expels the Jews to an exile not limited, but without end, so that there is no place for the Synagogue in the world.