Atkinson, The Passions and the Homilies from Leabhar Breac (1887)

¹ “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He will convert even his enemies to peace’ (Prov. 16:7) — that is, when a man’s ways please the Lord, He will bring even his enemies to submission.

² The Holy Spirit — the third Person of the noble Godhead, co-eternal and co-praiseworthy with the Father and the Son — it was that Spirit who revealed these mysteries to Solomon son of David. That Solomon was the wisest of the men of the world, save Christ the Son of God, the Saviour of the whole world, when He took life in human flesh like every faithful mortal man in the world besides. And it was he who offered a thousand offerings to the Lord at one time upon God’s altar in the city of Gibeon, at once after he took the kingship; and the Lord asked him that night in his vision, saying to him: “King, ask the petition that you desire on the day of your sacrifice, and it shall be given you.” And Solomon said: “Give me then abundance of wisdom and knowledge, that I may truly judge this people, and that I may discern between evil and good, and that I may see the rightful honour due to each.” Fitting was that — for he had great need of wisdom and discernment from the Lord: he was but a youth at the time, for he was twelve years old when he took the kingship of the people of Israel. Now that petition which Solomon asked pleased the Lord, and the Lord said to Solomon: “Because it is that petition you have asked,” said the Lord, “I will give you abundance of wisdom and knowledge, so that there was none before you, nor shall be after you, a king wiser and more knowing than you; and not that alone — there shall be given you abundance of wealth and glory, so that there was never born before you nor after you a king richer or more glorious than you.” So it is manifest from this that it is not merely the perfect petition they ask that God grants to the righteous, but He gives them every other good besides for the sake of that petition.

³ When God had revealed to Solomon in that wise the abundance of wisdom and knowledge to judge every creature’s nature completely, he made three books for the instruction of man in the three stages of life — boyhood, youth, and old age; and those books are counted in the order of holy canon: Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs.

⁴ Proverbs — that is the book by which man is instructed from his infancy in his ways, and concerning the pattern he ought to follow and imitate. Ecclesiastes — that is the book in which the vanity and mischief of the world are revealed in its glory and its renown, in its wealth and its treasures, to teach man not to be led astray through coveting it. The Song of Songs — that is the book in which is revealed to every perfect man his own consolation, the delight and the joy which is in the spiritual bride for her bridegroom, and for the bridegroom likewise — that is, for Christ in the Church, and for the Church in Christ.

⁵ In the Proverbs of Solomon, then — in the book of right conduct — is the testimony which is preached here: “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He will convert his enemies to peace.’ The ‘ways’ that are recognised here are the deeds by which the worldly course of human life is pursued; and ‘way’ is a fitting name for the worldly life here, for the true fatherland of the righteous is in heaven, while their life on earth is a pilgrimage. And there is another reason why human life is likened to a way: for the way itself is sometimes straight, sometimes crooked; part of it is high, part low; at one time it is broad, at another narrow. Even so is the way of human life — it is straight in the good men, crooked in the wicked, high in the sight of eternity, lowly in its lamentation, broad in carnal desire. In describing that way it is said in the scripture: broad and wide is the way that leads the impious to ruin and to everlasting perdition; but narrow is the way of human life in the keeping of God’s commandments. In speaking of that it is said in the gospel: narrow and difficult is the way that leads the righteous to the inheritance of life — to the heavenly rewards.

⁶ Now the ways of the righteous man are these good works which are pleasing to God, as the prophet promised when he said: “I have desired, O God, that my ways might be straight to keep Your commandments through Your holy and righteous laws.” To that is fitting the thing Solomon says here — cum placuerint Domino viae hominis. “The ways of man” he said generally, and not the ways of one man in particular; for there is no respect of persons with God — it is all one whoever follows His will, whether king or churl, lord or slave, rich or poor, high-born or low-born, old or young, men or women. Whoever pleases the Lord in any one of those orders, the Lord will make his enemies be at peace with him.

⁷ Now when anyone is dear to the Lord and does His counsel, his friends are made his enemies then, as David son of Jesse said: “My friends and my neighbours,” said David, “came against me when I transgressed God’s commandment; and the company that were truest to me at first, those were the falsest to me afterwards, and greatly did they betray me.”

⁸ Every creature that comes into life and comes not — shall be at peace with him who keeps God’s commandments, save the devil alone; it is he who wars contentiously for ever against the righteous — yet he cannot do them any hurt save as the Lord Himself permits him, after the righteous man’s just judgement. For though the devil has licence to do every evil, yet he has not every power, but only as much as is permitted him by God.

⁹ Therefore, when David had pleased the Lord through keeping His commandment, the Lord made this promise to him, saying to him: “David,” said the Lord, “since you have kept My commandments, there shall ever be heirs from you in the kingship and in the lordship of My people, the people of Israel.” And this is the same thing that was promised in another place, when He said: “From your children and your kindred, David, shall ever be taken the kingship of this holy city, Jerusalem, because you have kept My counsel and My commandment.”

¹⁰ Saul, however, the first king who ruled over God’s people — because he did not keep God’s commandments, the holy prophet Samuel rebuked him, saying to him as he despised him: “Saul, evil is what you have done, that you did not keep the commandments God enjoined you to keep; for had you kept the Lord’s commandments, your lordship over the people of Israel would have been prosperous, and kings would have been over it from you for ever; and since you did not do that, you yourself shall go to nothingness, and kingship over God’s folk shall never be taken from you.”

¹¹ Therefore, when Daniel’s ways pleased the Lord, he was sent into the den of lions, and the three boys were cast into the furnace of fire, and He made their enemies be at peace with them; for neither the beasts nor the fire could harm them, through the power of the Lord who was guarding them. And when the children of Israel kept the Lord’s commandments, the Lord delivered them from every persecution, and one of them used to prevail over a thousand of their enemies. And conversely, when the children of Israel did not keep God’s commandments, they got much evil for that from their enemies — famine and slavery, and every persecution besides; and one of their enemies used to prevail over a thousand of them, because the Lord had cut them off from His protection for transgressing His commandment. And again, the children of Israel used to return to the Lord after those afflictions, and the Lord used to succour them and deliver them from their tribulations, as the prophetic scripture promises, saying: “And the children of Israel used to beseech the Lord when tribulations came upon them, and they made great lamentation to Him, and the Lord delivered them after that.” For when the righteous man orders the ways of his work and his labour to the Lord — in good deeds and in prayers — then his ways please God, and he is delivered from his enemies, as the royal sage promises here, saying: ‘Cum placuerint Domino viae hominis, inimicos eius convertet ad pacem.’

¹² Now though this teaching is fitting for all men — that they should have peace and concord in their deeds — yet it is fitting especially for kings. For when the ways of kings please the Lord, and they keep the law of divine truth in their judgements, then their enemies are made to be at peace with them through the Lord’s power. Righteous kings, moreover, who conduct their government rightly after the Lord’s counsel — they are heirs of that noble king, being counted among the sons of the heavenly King.

¹³ It is right for everyone that they should be subject under them and obey them, as the apostle said: “Men,” said the apostle, “be you obedient to the will of the kings and the rulers who have been ordained over you in kingship and in government by God.” For it is right for everyone to know that every lordship and every power is from God — for it is from God that every lordship comes; it is manifest that it is by Him the kings have been ordained into the nobility and honour in which they are over men. Whoever disputes with the righteous kings here disputes with God who ordained them. But the company who dispute unrighteously with them deserve punishment and torment for the injustice and the unrighteousness they practise. For it was for profit that permission was given to the king to bear the sword and the other weapons, to subdue and to overthrow every injustice committed in his lordship. For the earthly king is a viceroy to the heavenly King, and it is to him that God has entrusted the judging of every injustice and the condemning of every guilty man as his due death.

¹⁴ “Therefore, men,” says the apostle, “it is right for you to obey the kings,” through fear and dread of them; and not only for that, but we know that it is God’s will for everyone to obey them. For who is nobler and whose judgement is higher on earth than the earthly king? If the earthly king governs righteously, there is no other lord over him save the King of heaven alone. Therefore whoever else does wrong is an enemy to the earthly king; but the king, when he does wrong, is an enemy to no other save to the heavenly King alone.

¹⁵ “See then, you temporal king, the commandment of the heavenly King; and as you would have all obey you, even so be you obedient to the heavenly King.” If it is your desire to do God’s will and to heed His counsel, conduct your government and your deed after His likeness and example — with concord and with measure. Let there not be in you anger or turmoil, but concord and gentleness, in governing the charge that was entrusted to you by God to govern. For this is required of the king: that he should take upon himself the defence of the weak and the defence of the fatherless among his subjects as though they were his own sons. And this is required of them: that they should love him as though he were a father to them. For this is required of the king: the binding and the correction of each from the wrong in which he is, through truth, and if he deserves no other amendment, through valour and valiant rigour.

¹⁶ Look you at the nobility of the glory and the honour that has been established for you by God, and then consider that torments and tortures are prepared for you beyond, if you do not carefully guard that nobility here from sins and vices. Kings who conduct their government unrighteously shall be tortured there beyond all others exceeding greatly, and shall be led off unjustly beyond all others, out of the strength and the power that was given them by God here. There shall be a decided vengeance there upon the company who govern wickedly here, as the scripture testifies, saying: he to whom here abundance of wealth and treasures, and strength and power, is given — if he did no good with them, he shall be tormented there decisively beyond all others by God. And again: he to whom the Lord gives abundance of wealth, of treasures and of wisdom — if he did not do God’s will with them, it shall be brought against him bitterly and decisively at the last from God. The greater the honour in which a man is, the greater is his danger, and the more right it is that he should have fear and watchfulness and diligent self-guarding. That is manifest from these examples: the tree that is tallest in the wood is the one that falls oftenest through the storm and tempest of wind; the tower that is highest in the city’s wall is the one that is most often overthrown and falls; the mountains that are highest — those are the ones most dangerously burned by lightnings. Even so is the danger great for the company who are in the nobility of lordship, unless God’s grace is guarding them from present and future evils.

¹⁷ Now if the king would avoid the heavy torments there, let him avoid here every injustice and every wrong, and let him desire to have mercy along with justice. As it is testified in the scripture, these are the two virtues — mercy and justice — which support the righteous kings like columns, and keep their lordship firmly without hurt or mischief upon them. Solomon gives this counsel to kings in another place, saying: “Love justice — that is, give righteous judgements, you kings of the earth.”

¹⁸ For Solomon greatly feared the Lord when he used to judge the people and give judgements upon them; for he was daily in the presence of the noble king — David his father — when that one judged the people, so that he rebuked him for the partialities he had in him, and for the misrule that was in him in the judgement. So that then his father said to him: “Come, my son, to-day into the royal seat, that you may hear and discern the questions and the cases of the people, in order that you may be quicker than I to do it; for you are wiser, and you are keener in understanding and discernment — as it is said in the proverb, ‘keener than every point is youth.’” Then Solomon came into the royal seat at his father’s bidding; and there appeared to him the Hand of the Creator with a two-edged sword over his head, threatening him with a sudden terrible death if he should swerve a little or much from righteous judgement. And when Solomon saw that, he trembled greatly, and his blood curdled to his bone for fear of the one God; and he then besought his father to pray the Lord for him, that He would grant him forgiveness for the error brought upon him through ignorance. And both of them then prayed the Lord to keep them in the truth and never to pass an unrighteous judgement upon anyone for ever; and they acknowledged then that great is the danger for anyone of giving judgement in the presence of the noble King who is ever present at every judgement and every case — Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, the Saviour of the human race.

¹⁹ This then is the justice which it is right for the king to observe — that he should not judge, through his power, violence or injustice upon anyone in all his lordship, but that his judgement should be common and righteous to all, without respect of persons between acquaintance and stranger, between high-born and low-born, between rich and poor, between lord and slave, between king and churl; and that he should pass his right sentence on each in every judgement, in the likeness of the fear and the dread of the Lord who is present and witness to every judgement.

²⁰ It is required of him then that he should deal truly with the weak, and that he should succour the wretched and the needy and the orphans and the widows. It is right for him also to restrain the wicked in every ill-deed and every ill-doing besides which they have practised; and that he should condemn each of them in his guilt, and that he should stir up and bind them to their penalties — for envy and adultery, for theft and robbery, for plundering and preying. For the lordship is often corrupted through those sins being left in licence to everyone therein.

²¹ This too is fitting for him: that he should honour the holy churches, and that he should exalt and magnify the Church — for she is the queen of the heavenly King. And as it is the will of the earthly king that everyone should honour his queen, even so is it required of him that he should honour the queen of the heavenly King — the Church, in whom is the power of every good thing and of every good intercession for him to his Lord, for the Lord is head and ruler over her.

²² It is required of the king then that he should give alms of food and clothing to the poor for charity and mercy, and that he should render faithfully to the Lord the tithes of his wealth and his treasures.

²³ It is fitting for the king that he should fight bravely against his enemies for his fatherland — that is, for the tribes and kindreds who have been committed to him by God to govern — and that he should be a shield of protection and defence to them against every persecution and affliction. It is right for him also that he should not trust in his own strength, but in the strength of the Lord; and that he should have his creed in memory after the apostle’s teaching, together with prayer to the Lord Himself — that is, the Pater. For it is required of every Christian that he should have those two things in his own memory and in his recollection — his creed and his Pater.

²⁴ It is required of him, moreover, that he should not permit his children or his kindred to do any injustice or wrong in his lordship for the sake of his strength and his power. It is right for him also that he should make fasts and abstinences and fastings habitually, to seek victory and prosperity for himself from God in his kingship; and that he should not eat before his due hour, but should take his meal at the proper time, with joy and with giving thanks for his good things to God. “It is the cause of ruin to tribes and to churches, the kings and rulers who are enslaved to gluttony and to the revelry of the world.” It is right for him that he should hate the wicked who are enslaved to every evil — to theft and robbery and plunder and raiding, to treachery and kin-slaying; and that he should banish them decisively from his lordship, and that they should not leave peace or concord anywhere with them — as the prophet testifies, saying in beseeching the Lord: “O God,” says the prophet, “you will not spare the company who hard-heartedly persist in their misdeeds, and who ever cleave to their evils without repentance and without any turning to the Lord to keep His commandments.”

²⁵ For the king who condemns and overthrows the wicked, and hangs and slays them — if he cannot overthrow them by other means, it is right to bind them — that is, through impoverishing them and taking their goods from them, and through exile and prison and stocks and cell and the cutting off of their members. The king who cannot prevail by those means, and hangs and slays them for the sake of conscience — he is a faithful servitor of the Lord; he is a son of obedience and a helper of gratitude to God for condemning and overthrowing the wicked in that wise.

²⁶ For though the king hangs and slays the Lord’s enemies — his foes for their murders and their manifest evils besides — since he cannot bind them by any other means, that is not reckoned as murder on his part, but as the fulfilment of God’s commandment and law, and as obedience and service to the Lord. For the king who does not condemn and overthrow the wicked by those means is himself an enemy to the Lord for their murders and for every other injustice of theft and robbery. For a blessing rightly from the Lord is not due to the king who withholds his sword from the sinner’s blood; for it is not accounted as bloodthirstiness or valour in the king when he hangs and slays the violent men whom he cannot overthrow by any other means. The king who spares the wicked is a harm to the good; for that indecision does not please God — namely, the sparing and mercy to a single man worthy of death which ruins the multitude. For it is often that the whole people is led astray and ruined through the wrongdoing of one man; therefore it is right to change him at once, lest he be a danger to the multitude, and lest they fall through his occasion.

²⁷ For however skilled the physician, he does not hesitate to cut off the single limb in which the disease is — which cannot be healed except by cutting it off — lest the sickness spread through the other members of the body and there be danger of death to the man, unless that limb in which the disease grew be cut off entirely from the body.

²⁸ The kings, moreover, who do not rule and who do not order their kingdom and their lordship after the rules of the divine law — their lordship is troubled thereby with many tribulations and afflictions. For it is on account of the kings’ transgressing God’s commandment that peace and concord are dissolved among their people, and quarrels and discords are stirred up among them, so that each of them is against another through the injustice of the unrighteous kings. On the misrule of kings it is wrought that the lands and the territories become fruitless and do not yield produce as they used to, and the peoples cannot serve therein as they ought — namely, the men of substance and the poverty that are in the lordship in which they are.

²⁹ Their prosperity and their lordship is often corrupted by manifold plagues and various sicknesses; they are often overpowered by foreign enemies, and their lands and their territories are ravaged in their sight, and they cannot restrain them, for God is not with them. The temperance and moderation of the air is disturbed, so that there is no proper produce or fruit in sea or land, but all is corrupted through the intemperance of the heat and through perverse seasons(?); the fresh fields are often burned by fires and by lightnings, and the blossom and the flower of the vine and of every various fruit that is on earth and on trees wither and fade at once after their appearing and their mere lifting up to men.

³⁰ And not only does the king’s intemperance and injustice ruin his own lordship, but it ruins his sons and his grandsons after him, so that his inheritance does not come to them as it would be fitting for them. For it was for the injustice and unrighteousness of Solomon that God severed the lordship of the good tribe from his sons and his grandsons after him; and it was for the righteousness of the righteous king David that the Lord granted the sceptre of kingship and the noble dominion to his seed in Jerusalem in the kingship of the good tribe. For it is not only for himself that the righteous king’s justice passes over, but it passes to his children and to his kindred for ever.

³¹ Let the king then desire justice for those reasons; let him avoid injustice; let him not make pride or haughtiness, but let him subdue and humble himself, for the transitoriness and wretchedness of the worldly lordship in which he is. Short is our while till the worldly sovereignty perishes; slippery and tormentous is the wealth and riches of this world. Poor and unstable is worldly power; perishing and trifling, transitory and temporal is the lordship and the earthly power. “Take heed to yourself, O king,” said the sage, “as the kings and the emperors, the princes and the rulers who were of old in the nobility and honour of the world before you, have gone swiftly to nothingness. Look you at the fate and the destiny of the transitory life of the wealthy and the noble: they found glory and exaltation in the world, they all withered like a shadow or a mist, and vanished like the vain forms which are shown to men in a dream. And to give heed to it, that is an example enough of wretchedness — that none of the tokens of their glory or their honour endures to-day.” Therefore at lamenting that the devout king David said: “I myself have seen,” said David, “the impious kings being constricted and exalted like the cedars of the mountains of Lebanon, and their going swiftly thereafter to nothingness, and their perishing suddenly, and no token or mark of their honour was found where they had been.”

³² Let the king know that his power is temporal; let the king know that he shall be tormented there with many tortures if he did not conduct his government righteously here; for as the king is above all here in earthly nobility, so shall he be below all there in the pains and the dark tortures. For there will be for unrighteous kings beyond a suffering more unendurable than for all other men — his pain shall be greatly greater than the pain of every man over whom he exercised his government and his dominion unrighteously here.

³³ If however the king keeps God’s commandment, and conducts his kingdom and his government after those rules of God’s teaching, there shall be peace and prosperity in his lordship and in his kingdom, and the dominion of his enemies shall not prevail over him, but they shall be ready to his hand from every quarter, and the tribes and kindreds over whom he is in kingship; and there shall be no plagues or unusual sicknesses in his lordship; sea and land shall be fruitful, plain and wood, pool and rivers; the poor and the wretched shall find their consolation and their help with him, in alms and in offerings; and he shall be at prayer and at interceding with God for them, so that his kingdom and his government may be prosperous and fortunate, his sway and his command over men here in this world. This great honour shall be given him together with those things by the Lord of the elements — that he shall be a spiritual father to everyone, both weak and strong, both layman and clerk, both male and female, both old and young, in church and in laity; and there shall be a countenance of reverence on him, so that he shall be joyous and glad in every place he traverses among men here in the worldly course of the present life, together with the temperance of the air and the weather on sea and land during his season. And after he has spent his life in that wise long in the sovereignty and the nobility of the worldly lordship, he shall be brought at last into the sovereignty and the nobility of the heavenly lordship, and his son and his grandson shall be his heir through his grace and his blessing; his name and his memory shall be beloved of all after him, so that men shall be blessing him for his righteousness and his uprightness.

³⁴ The proud kings, then, who do not conduct their government righteously but tyrannise and oppress their tribes bloodily and violently — they are the heirs of the proud king, the devil. In that testimony it is said in the scripture: it is the devil who is king and lord over all the unrighteous kings and over the proud violent men. To them the heavenly King shall deal doom on the day of judgement, and shall say to them as He drives them from Him: “Depart from Me, you accursed, into the everlasting purgatory that has been prepared for the devil and his wicked household.” There shall be for them then wailing on faces and gnashing of teeth; there shall be for them abundance of every bitterness and distastefulness, and scarcity of every sweetness; there shall be for them abundance of every darkness and affliction, and scarcity of light and prosperity; there shall be for them sighing and groaning, sickness and disease; there shall be for them abundance of lamentation and torment and tribulation and every distress in the world; there shall be for them various kinds of pains and of penalties and of tortures, which are not easy for anyone on earth to relate or to tell; there shall be for them the tortures of the great pains without ceasing; there shall be for them abundance of hunger and thirst and evil and want of every good; there shall be for them then abundance of every cold and nakedness without solace and without pity for them; there shall be for them death without end, without finish, without life being shown again in human flesh; there shall be for them many fiery tears over their faces and their cheeks, because of the greatness of the tortures and the pains and the torments and the other afflictions they shall be enduring. Then too shall the pig-shapes of the demons, dark-gloomy, horrible, be there exulting and rejoicing and scourging the wretched souls, who shall suffer every pain and every torment besides. Then shall there be for them the everlastingness of the various pains when they are condemned for ever; then shall there be for them straining and lamentation and streaming from their eyes, and wailing without soothing, without pity, without mercy; then shall there be for them the oppressiveness of the great hunger without relief, without any intermission at all through the eternal world; then shall there be for them the foul, hideous, hard, sorrowful, wretched, horrible cohabitation of their accursed company and their wicked fellow-damned, who shall not set aside anything of their dues, but shall weigh them down equally from little to great — namely, the demons of hell and their wicked household besides. There shall be for them pain without end, without finish, without ceasing; there shall be for them abundance of hellish darkness without light in any manner or in any quarter; then there is for them no consolation or repose or cooling at all, but a heavy wail and an exceeding great, too-tight dire distress; then no help is implored from heaven or from earth, but increase and growth and addition of every pain and every torment and every affliction and every heavy torture upon one another; then shall a second death be desired by those impious kings for desire and wish of a better life to be left, and they shall not find it; then shall there be for them also the fullness of every evil and of every wrong and every trouble, and the want of every good thing that is between heaven and earth.

³⁵ The righteous devout, well-discerning kings, however — the high King of heaven and earth, the Saviour and Lord of the elements, who is head and lord over them and over every creature besides, shall bring them with Him for their righteousness and uprightness, and for their good deeds and virtues besides, into the eternal joy which He has for His own saints and righteous ones — that is, into the heavenly kingdom; in that place their own Lord shall separate from them every sorrow and every sadness and every grief and every trouble; there shall be for them an adorned life without death, eternal joy without sadness. This is what shall be for the kings in that fort — youth without old age, peace without strife, an ever-enduring lordship without turmoil, boundless joy without end for ever; then shall there be for them the radiant union of the household of heaven and earth; then shall there be for them eternal life without end or waning, together with the sweetness and the delight of paradise; there shall be for them then abundance unendurable and a surpassing full completeness of every good thing, and scarcity and want, extinction and faintness of every evil; then the saints and the righteous shall shine in nobility and in angelic radiance like the sun in the heavenly kingdom; there shall be the peaceful union of the twofold Church, heavenly and earthly; there shall be the union which is nobler than every union — the union of the noble almighty Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit.

³⁶ The mercy of the noble King be implored! May we all reach that union, may we merit it, may we dwell in it — in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

The Sunday of the Triumphal Entry #

¹ And when Jesus drew near to Jerusalem with His apostles, and when they reached Bethphage near the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two of His household from Him, and this is what He said to them: “Go into the village that is before you; and you shall find there at once an donkey tied, and a young foal along with it; loose them from it, and bring them with you to Me; and if anyone makes question with you, say, ’the Lord has need of them,’ and He will let them come to you at once.” Now it was to fulfil this that all this was done — the thing which the prophet prophesied of old, saying: “Say you to the daughter of Sion,” said the prophet, “see, your king comes to you meek and peaceful, riding upon an donkey and upon a young foal.” Now when the apostles went, they did as Jesus had commanded them, and they brought with them the donkey and the young foal; and the apostles put their own garments upon the beasts, and Jesus then sat upon them. The many crowds, moreover, who were along with Jesus, spread their garments on the road before him; and a company of them used to cut down branches of trees and used to strew them on the way; and the crowds that went before Him and behind Him used to cry out with a loud voice, and this is what they used to say: “Save us, son of David! Blessed is He who came to us in the name of the Lord — and save us in the highest!” And when Jesus went into Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up against Him, and this is what it said: “Who is this at all?” said they. Now this is the answer which the crowds gave to the household of Jerusalem: “This is Jesus the prophet,” said they, “from Nazars of Galilee.” He went into the temple, and drove out of it all who were therein buying and bargaining and selling their treasures and their merchandise besides in the temple, and He overturned head over head and back over front the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of the company who were still selling the doves there; and this is what He said to them as He drove them out: “It stands in the scripture,” said Jesus, “that My house shall be called a house of prayer and of intercession for the living and the dead; but you have made of it a den of robbers and merchants.”

² And then there came at once to Jesus in the temple the folk of every sickness and every affliction — the lame and the blind and the crooked and the foot-diseased — and they were all healed by Him at once.

³ Matthew son of Alphaeus, the Hebrew sage, the second of the twelve apostles whom Jesus chose into the order of apostles, the fourth evangelist who wrote the Lord’s gospel — it is he who wrote this holy lection, which tells of the royal progress that Jesus made into Jerusalem this Sunday; and of the cleansing and the purging He wrought upon the temple after reaching it, and of the miracles He wrought in healing the sicknesses of every disease in the temple and outside it. Now the concordance and the close kinship of this lection is with Matthew alone — down to where he says before it, that when Jesus came with the apostles to Jericho, many multitudes came in His train; and two blind men were found by them there on the edge of that road; and when they heard that it was Jesus who was going past them among the crowds, they cried out with a loud voice, and this is what they said: “Miserere nostri, fili David” — which is the same as “have mercy on us, O son of David”. And Jesus stood before the blind men, and called them to Him, saying to them: “What would you, you wretched ones, that I should do for you?” This is the answer the blind men gave Jesus: “Let our eyes be healed,” said they. Now Jesus had mercy on the blind men, and laid His hand upon their eyes, and their eyes were given to them at once; and they then came in His company and were along with Him, proclaiming God’s word and sowing the faith. And it is on the track of those words that Matthew wrote this holy lection, saying: “And when Jesus drew near to Jerusalem with His apostles.”

⁴ When the Saviour Jesus knew that the time of His Passion was drawing near, therefore He wished to draw near to the city in which the Passion would be — Jerusalem — so that it might be manifest to all that it was not by compulsion, but of His own will, that He went to His cross and Passion. And “when they came to Bethphage on the side of the Mount of Olives”: the Bethphage mentioned here is a little town on the side of the Mount of Olives, belonging for ever to priests. It is then that Jesus sent from Him two of His household: fitting is the number — the two — in which Jesus sent His apostles from Him; for mystery and spiritual sense are usual in the scripture in that number, and therefore it is by twos that Jesus chose His apostles in His first choosing; and also it is by twos that He sent them from Him afterwards to preach and teach throughout the land of Judah. And this is what He said to them: “Go into the village before you.” The village that Matthew mentions here is the village of Mary and Martha; for the name is usual in the gospel for it, as John testifies, saying: “Now it happened at that time,” says John, “that a certain man was sick — Lazarus his name; the village of Mary and Martha was his.”

⁵ It was through foreknowledge, then, and through the revealing of the Holy Spirit that the Saviour Jesus knew He would find the donkey there, and that He would find it tied, and that a young foal would be along with it, and that they would be let go to the apostles. *p.165 It was by the divine power, to which no resistance or dispute is possible, that Jesus spoke that word; or it is the particular intimacy He had with the master of the beasts, so that it was his pleasure to release them to Him without dispute. ‘Hoc autem totum factum est, ut adimpleretur quod dictum est per prophetam dicentem: dicite filiae Sion, ecce rex tuus venit tibi mansuetus et sedens super asinam et pullum filium subiugalis’ — “Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: Tell you the daughter of Sion, see your king comes to you meek and sitting upon an donkey and a colt the foal of her that is under the yoke.”

⁶ Now in the book of Zachariah this holy line was written: he is one of the twelve minor prophets. The “daughter of Sion” that Zachariah mentions here is Jerusalem, for it is on the northern side of Mount Sion that it is situated, as the psalmist testifies, saying: “On the north side of Mount Sion,” said the psalmist, “was built the city of the great King” — that is, Jerusalem. ‘Euntes autem discipuli fecerunt sicut praecepit eis Iesus; et adduxerunt asinam et pullum, et imposuerunt super eos vestimenta sua’ — “Now the disciples went and did as Jesus had commanded them; and they brought the donkey and the colt and put their garments upon them.”

⁷ It is manifest to-day the great diligence and the great love of the Lord toward the apostles, for they did not merely do the thing that was commanded them, but they earned through their obedience and their fine devotion, in putting their own garments upon the beasts, so that it might be the more comfortable for Jesus to ride upon them afterwards; and it is for that promise that Matthew says here — ’et eum desuper sedere fecerunt’ — “and they made Him sit thereon.” Now Matthew testifies here that Jesus sat upon both the beasts, not because it was for weariness or for length of journey that they had been brought to Him, but it is to mark the mystery of the two peoples over whom He afterwards ruled as king and lord — the people of the believing Jews and the people of the chosen Gentiles. Now the beasts were brought back at once by the Saviour behind Him to their masters, as is testified in the gospel after the Hebrews.

⁸ It was they who did that diligence — the crowds who had come from the city, from Jericho and Bethany and from the neighbouring cities in Jesus’ train. Now it was they who did this homage — the crowds who had come to meet Jesus from Jerusalem to see Lazarus; for his having been raised by Him from death had been heard throughout all the land. ‘Turbae autem quae praeibant et quae sequebantur clamabant dicentes: Osanna, filio David, benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini’ — “And the crowds that went before, and that followed, cried saying: Hosanna to the son of David; blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.” As though the many crowds and the great multitudes had said to Jesus: “Save us, son of David, in these lands where Your father — David — was once king over us.” Or as though they had said: “As you did formerly heal the folk of every disease and every affliction and every infirmity in the low glens of Galilee, so save us now likewise in the high mountains of the tribe of Judah.” *p.166 Now what king or ruler of the world ever came to his own native city with the glory and honour of this greatness, as Jesus came to Jerusalem this Sunday? And it was that which stirred the whole city against Him, as Matthew testifies, saying: ‘Et cum intrasset Ierusolimam, commota est universa civitas’ — “And when He had entered Jerusalem, the whole city was moved.” The name of the city the evangelist puts here upon the city’s inhabitants themselves — Jerusalem — as though he had said: “the elders and priests of the Jewish people were stirred in envy and malice against Jesus.” And it was not through ignorance of the person who came there, but because it seemed wondrous to them that honour of that greatness should be given to a man who was poor and despised in their own sight. ‘Dicentes: Quis est hic?’ — “Saying: who is this?” — as though they had said: “Is not this the son of Joseph? And what is he but the son of a common man after all?” ‘Populi autem dicebant: Hic est Iesus propheta a Nazars Galilaeae’ — “But the people said: This is Jesus the prophet from Nazars of Galilee.” Fitting is the answer the crowds gave here — to call Jesus a prophet; that is fitting, for it is He who is the prophet in truth, and it is from Him comes the grace of wisdom and prophecy to the creatures of the Old and New Testaments. “Of Galilee” they named Him then, for His rearing and His bringing-up was in Galilee.

⁹ “Jesus then went into the temple” — that is, He went into the precincts that were around the temple. For it was in them that Jesus found on the Sunday the company who used to buy and sell the oxen and the sheep and the doves, and it was out of them He drove them with their bargains and their contracts. Therefore Matthew says here: ’et eiiciebat omnes vendentes et ementes in templo, et mensas nummulariorum et cathedras vendentium columbas evertit’ — “and He cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and the tables of the money-changers and the seats of them that sold doves He overthrew.” Now He wrought this whole miracle that the Jews might understand that He could not be brought by compulsion to the cross and Passion. This is the greatest miracle Jesus wrought here among earthly things — that the one man, and the man who was without honour at that time, drove out with a little scourge the great multitudes and the many crowds who were buying and selling in the temple. A torrent of fire, moreover, burst from His eyes, and the greatness of His divinity shone out over His humanity, so that no one could resist Him or dispute with Him. Thrice, moreover, Jesus wrought this cleansing upon the temple of Jerusalem — on this Sunday, as Matthew relates here; on the Monday thereafter, as Mark relates; and in the third year before His Passion, as John the evangelist relates, saying: “Now it was for this they used to buy the oxen and the sheep and the doves in the temple — that they might be offered there at once to the Lord.” And it was for this the money-changers were there above all, that there might be readier exchange of the money for the company who would buy the offerings. They thought, moreover, that it was lawful for them in the temple to buy the wealth which they would offer there to the Lord. But however, since it was not the Saviour’s will that any worldly buying should be done in the holy temple, therefore He drove out the impious merchants with their treasures and their contracts. “Beloved brethren,” says the sage, “do think what zeal He brought upon them, if it was at strife or at discord, at avarice or at usury, or at any other dishonesty, that they were found by Him in the temple — when He drove out the company who were buying the wealth they would offer there to God?”

¹⁰ When Jesus saw the marketing of this kind being done in His Father’s house — God’s temple — anger and spiritual jealousy seized Him, as the prophet prophesied of great old, saying: “Zeal for Your house has seized me, O God”; and He made a scourge of little cords and drove out by it the great crowds and the many multitudes who were buying and selling in the temple. ‘Et dicit eis: Scriptum est, quia domus mea domus orationis vocabitur; vos autem fecistis eam speluncam latronum’ — “And He says to them: It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves” — that is, as though Jesus had said: “You robbers and you savages, though you profaned the temple of God hitherto, you shall not make of it for yourselves, from henceforth, a market of bargaining or of merchandise.” It was for this Jesus gave sight to the blind here and walking to the lame — to show the thing that ought to be done in God’s temple.

¹¹ Now this progress of the Saviour Jesus was prefigured of great old in the elders of the Old Testament — as it was prefigured in the mounted host that came with Zerubbabel son of Salathiel and Jesus son of Josedech, after their first coming from Cyrus son of Darius, to renew and to build Jerusalem. It was also prefigured in the mounted host that came with Ezra and Nehemiah afterwards with many companies to renew the same city, Jerusalem. As it was prefigured in this progress of the Son of God in the patriarchs who were prophesied of by the prophets — as the prophet Zachariah prophesied, as Matthew recounts here, saying: ‘Ecce rex tuus venit tibi mansuetus et sedens super asinam et pullum filium subiugalis’ — “See your King comes to you meek, and sitting upon an donkey and a colt the foal of her that is under the yoke.”

¹² Haec est historia huius lectionis — This is the literal narrative of this lection.

¹³ Haec lectio habet et spiritualem sensum, ad Christum et ad ecclesiam pertinentem — This lection has also a spiritual sense, pertaining to Christ and to the Church.

¹⁴ The “Bethphage” mentioned here, whose interpretation after the turning of the word is ‘domus maxillarum’ — “the house of the cheeks”: that is what it signifies allegorically — the Church, in which the pure mysteries of the holy scriptures are expounded to the faithful. The two disciples whom Jesus sent from Him: what they signify is the two laws which the Lord sent into the world — the Old Testament and the New Testament. The village to which they were sent: what that signifies is the world. Now when Jesus had ordained the Church, and had bound to Himself the peace and the fellowship, He sent to it for its teaching the two laws we have mentioned — the Old Testament and the New Testament; and that is what the two disciples signify, to whom Jesus said: “Go into the village” — that is, “go into the world.” “The two donkeys in bonds”: what that signifies is the people of the Jews, who were bound to the service of the letter of the law alone. “The young foal”: what that signifies is the people of the Gentiles, who had been bound to vanity and to the dishonesty of the Gentile worship. “And if anyone makes question with the teachers of the New Testament” — they could not.

¹⁵ Now when the disciples came, they did the thing Jesus had commanded them — that is, they brought with them the donkey and the young foal: that is, when the two laws we have mentioned came into the world, they loosed the two peoples they found there awaiting them — the people of the Jews from the service of the letter of the law, and the people of the Gentiles from the service of idols and phantoms — and they brought them then to knowledge of the Lord through baptism and faith. ‘Plurimae autem turbae straverunt vestimenta sua in via’ — “And very many crowds strewed their garments in the way”: what that signifies is the people of the Gentiles coming out of the wretched state in which they were, into the company of the Saviour Jesus Christ. ‘Alii autem caedebant ramos de arboribus’ — “And others cut branches from the trees”: what that signifies is the people of the Jews taking example from the prophets and the patriarchs for the doing of good. The crowds that were before Christ: what they signify in the spiritual sense is the faithful people who served the Lord before the coming of the gospel. The crowds that were behind Him: what they signify is the people of the faithful to-day in the New Testament after the teaching of the gospel. Then both those peoples cried out to the Lord, asking their salvation and their help from Him.

¹⁶ “And Jesus went into the temple” — that is, He came to-day into the Church in His New Testament. The company who were selling the offerings: what they signify allegorically is the Jews who sold the Lord of the elements, Jesus Christ the Son of the living God, and denied Him afterwards. The company who were buying the offerings there: what they signify is the Gentiles who are buying to-day, in the New Testament, the forms of idols and phantoms. The money-changers who were in the temple: what they signify is the heretics who preach to-day for profit and for worldly gain — those who were selling the doves: what they signify is the unrighteous who violate the peace and the concord of the holy Church. When Jesus said to them, “My house shall be called a house of prayer” — as though Jesus had said: “O Jews, O Gentiles, O heretics, O unrighteous, O chosen brethren, you profaned the Church up to now and to-day — from henceforth its profanation shall not be permitted you.” “And the blind came to Jesus in the temple”: what that signifies is the Gentile people who did not see the truth of the gospel’s teaching, and who cleave to the Gentile error. “The lame who came to Jesus”: what they signify is the people who used to cleave to the letter of the law alone, and did not walk after the spiritual understanding. Then the two peoples came — the Jewish and the Gentile people — to Jesus in the Church of the New Testament, and were healed by Him through baptism and through faith. That is the allegorical interpretation of this lection.

¹⁷ This lection also admits a moral interpretation. “Bethphage” as said here, which is interpreted after another rendering, ’the house of the jaw of the glens’(?): what that signifies morally is the man who humbles himself, that the Saviour may come to him for his help and his succour. The two disciples whom Jesus sent from Him: what they signify is the two special virtues which it is right for every faithful man to have in himself — that is, the love of God and of one’s neighbour. The village to which they were sent: what that signifies is the man whose name among the philosophers is “the little world” — man the microcosm. Now when Jesus sees the humble man fulfilling His commandment and His teaching, He sends to him the four special virtues — prudence and temperance, fortitude and justice. “The donkey that was in bonds”: what that signifies is the flesh, which abandoned itself to its carnal desires and disputes with the spirit for its lawful soul. “The young foal”: what that signifies morally is the soul, which is often wearied from running the warfare against it in its flesh. ‘Et si quis vobis aliquid dixerit’ — “And if anyone shall say anything to you”: that is, though the vices make dispute with the virtues, it is the virtues that shall prevail through the help of the Holy Spirit. ‘Euntes autem discipuli’ — “And the disciples going”: that is, when the aforementioned virtues come to the man, they loose his body and his soul from the eight chief sins.

¹⁸ “The many crowds who spread their garments on the way”: what that signifies is the man who lets go from him the oldness of his carnal will, so that he then comes into the peace and fellowship of Jesus. “The company who used to cut the branches of the trees”: what that signifies is the man who has recognised through faith the Saviour, and who then gathers for himself the special virtues that are there. “The crowds that were before Jesus”: what that signifies is the outer man — and the outer man is the warring soul that consecrates itself to its carnal pleasures. “The crowds that were behind Him”: what that signifies is the inner man — and the inner man is the soul that unites itself to its own law and to the counsels of the divine law. “Those two men cried out to Jesus, asking their healing and their cure of Him”: what that signifies is — “Jesus going into the temple”: what that signifies is the righteous man, who is reckoned in the scripture as a temple to God. ‘Et eiecit mensas nummulariorum’ — “And He cast out the tables of the money-changers”: that is, when the Lord comes to us for our virtues, He casts out from us every falsehood and every wrong that was with us before. ‘Et cathedras vendentium columbas’ — “and the seats of them that sold doves”: morally that is the selling of the dove — the giving of grades in the Church for money and for wealth, to the company for whom it is not right by virtues or by fine conduct. Now they who sell the doves are the company who take those grades in order that they may obtain power and worldly honour through them. They who sell the oxen are the company who preach the gospel — and not for the love of the Lord, but for profit and for worldly gain. They who sell the sheep are the company who make devotion and virtues in order that they may be praised here by men.

¹⁹ Now it is thus that the Lord has ever ordered the Church here, until He comes to judge it at the second coming — on the day of doom — after driving out of it Jews and Gentiles, heretics and unrighteous, men of evil orders and evil teachers, and every evil besides. ‘Et dicit eis: Domus mea domus orationis vocabitur’ — “And He says to them: My house shall be called the house of prayer” — as though Jesus were saying, in rebuking them all: “You have corrupted the Church up to now; from henceforth it shall not be in your power.” ‘Et accesserunt ad eum caeci et claudi’ — “And there came to Him the blind and the lame”: morally then, when Jesus shows to men the good that is fitting for them to do and enjoins them to fulfil it, He gives sight to the blind and walking to the lame. That is the moral interpretation of this lection.

²⁰ Now the Sunday on which the Saviour Jesus wrought the great miracles that Matthew relates here — it is honoured and revered by the household of heaven and earth, and it is from the royal progress which Jesus made into Jerusalem that it got its naming. For who but a man brutish and hard of heart would not be kindled to the doing of good by these miracles — save him who is cast utterly out of human life? For what is the likeness of human life but a mist that rises for a little while and vanishes at once? Therefore the sage said in despising the world: “Wretched are you, O human life; many have you blinded, many have you brought to ruin! you are sweet to the savage, but bitter to the wise.” The company who loved you — it is certain they did not see you; the company who did not love you — it is they who put your own true nature upon you.

²¹ “Beloved brethren,” says the sage, “let each one of you look with piercing gaze, that he be not blind and lame in his ways while he is here in this world.” For he who is blind and lame here — that is, who does not look carefully at the way of the virtues and does not walk after it — shall be cast after this life into the outer darknesses, the place where his hands and his feet shall be bound, where he shall be cut off from the human ease of every good thing. But he who is not blind and who is not lame here — that is, who beholds fully and with piercing gaze the way and the path of the virtues, and afterwards pursues it with devotion — that man shall go from strength to strength, that is, from the strength of his virtues here into the strength of his glorious reward and his eternal life there; and he shall see the Lord of the elements face to face in the heavenly Sion, in the glory and the majesty in which He is there before angels and archangels and the great household of heaven besides. That is the beholding of the noble revered almighty Trinity — Father and Son and Holy Spirit — which is promised as a glorious eternal everlasting reward to the saints and to the righteous after doom.

²² [I beseech the mercy of almighty God that we may all reach that beholding, that we may merit it, that we may dwell in it thereafter — in saecula saeculorum. Amen.]

Here follows the homily “Cedán in Braith”.*