Atkinson, The Passions and the Homilies from Leabhar Breac (1887) — Irish text. Rendered into modern English. Atkinson’s inline “Editor omits corresponding Latin passage” notes mark where he omitted the Latin Gospel lection; the page numbers of the printed text are retained, and the manuscript line numbers of the Leabhar Breac are given in brackets.

¹ [The lection, Matthew 4:1–11, is read; the Latin is omitted by the editor.] Jesus was led at that time by the Spirit to be tempted there by the devil; and when he had fasted and abstained there for forty days and forty nights, the sign of hunger came upon him; and when the devil came to Jesus to tempt him, this is what he said to him: “If you are truly the Son of God, say that these stones may become loaves.” This is the answer that Jesus gave the devil: “It stands in the Scripture that man does not live by the bread of the story(?) alone, but by keeping the word of God.”

² Then the devil took that same Jesus with him into the holy city, and set him there on a high pinnacle of the temple, and this is what he said to him: “If you are truly the Son of God, cast yourself down from this high pinnacle of the temple to the ground, and you will not be harmed; for it stands in the Scripture: ‘for the Lord has commanded his angels concerning you, that they should guard you in all your ways, and that they should bear you up on their hands lest your foot strike a stone.’”

³ Jesus said to the devil: “It stands further in the Scripture: ‘you shall not put a test upon your Lord and your God, you righteous man.’” And after that the devil took that same Jesus into a very high mountain, and showed him there all the kingdoms of the world with their glory and their fame; and the devil said to Jesus: “I will give you,” said the devil, “all these good things under your power, if you will bow down to me and worship me.” And Jesus then said to the devil: “Begone behind me, you adversary! for it stands in the Scripture: ‘worship the Lord your God, you righteous man, and let it be to him alone that you minster.’” Then the devil left that same Jesus, for all had failed him; and it is manifest that angels of heaven came to minister and to do service to him.

⁴ Matthew son of Alpheus, the eminent and accomplished sage of the Hebrews, it was he who wrote this lection, which relates the noble and honourable deed that is preached this day — namely, Jesus Christ the Son of the living God, the Saviour of all the seed of Adam, going to the desert of the river Jordan, where he fasted for forty days and forty nights, and where he won a threefold battle against the demon in the end of his fast and his abstinence. Now the unity and kinship of this lection is with the evangelist Matthew alone, when he said above in his gospel, recounting the baptism of the Son of God: “When Jesus the Saviour had been baptised, he went at once up out of the stream to land”; so that it is in accordance with those words, recounting the baptism of the Son of God, that Matthew wrote this lection, which tells of the temptation of Jesus in the desert, saying here: “When Jesus the Saviour had been baptised by John in the river Jordan, the Spirit drove him at once to go into the desert to be tempted there by the devil.”

⁵ Jesus was taken into the desert to be tempted; and not by constraint, nor against his will, but by the desire of his own mind did he go there. It befitted him indeed to go into the desert according to the will and the nature of his body; yet bold and fearless was he according to the will and the counsel of his mind and his law; for he knew what consequence would come of it thereafter — namely, the rebuke of the devil in his persecutions and in his manifold temptations of the church.

⁶ He was taken into the desert: for three reasons, moreover, did Jesus wholly go into the desert. The first reason is this, that it might be in the desert that Jesus would seek for us the good that we had lost in the desert — namely, the dwelling of paradise. The second reason is this, that it might be in the desert that Jesus would vanquish the devil, in the place where the devil had vanquished man. The third reason is this, that as it was in the desert that man had fallen — namely Adam — so it should be in the desert that he should rise again through a man — namely through Christ.

⁷ It was by the Spirit that Jesus was taken into the desert: by the Holy Spirit without doubt, as the evangelist Luke asserts in his gospel, saying: “Jesus, full of the grace of the Holy Spirit, was moved to go into the desert, that he might be tempted by the devil”; for it was fitting that our temptation should be overcome by the temptations of him who came to redeem us through his death from death. For as the church was freed from the death of eternal punishment through his temporal death, so is it freed from the manifold temptations and persecutions of the devil through that temporal stay of Jesus here; for it is here that the devil was bound with bonds that cannot be loosed, so that he cannot persecute the church from that time forth as he desires.

⁸ And when Jesus had fasted there for forty days and forty nights: now the reason why Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights was for fitness with respect to both the Law and the Prophets, as Jesus himself said in the gospel: “I came not to dissolve the Law,” said Jesus, “but to fulfil it.” For Moses, the author of the divine Law, fasted forty days and forty nights on Mount Sinai; so that it was for that that the written Law was received at the hand of the Lord himself. Elijah again, head of the prophets, fasted forty days in like manner when he was in the desert of the brook Cherith. The author himself moreover of the human race, Jesus Christ, when he was among men, fasted for a space of forty days and forty nights in the desert of the river Jordan, as the evangelist Matthew relates here; and he took no food whatever during that time. As for us, then, what is required of us according to those examples is that we should subdue and restrain our body, as far as we can, by fasting and abstinence, for the space of this lenten fast after his example.

⁹ Then the sign of hunger came upon him: now the reason why Jesus allowed the sign of hunger and want to be upon him after the end of his fast and his abstinence was that the devil might the more boldly come to tempt him.

¹⁰ And when the devil came to Jesus to tempt him, this is what he said to him: “If you are the Son of God.” What doubt had he when he said, “if you are the Son of God”? He did indeed suppose that he was merely a man, because of his birth from the woman — that is, from the Virgin Mary; but he supposed also that he was God, for the angels of heaven had honoured him on the night of the Lord’s birth and had sung the song of divine glory to him — and this is what they said to him: “Glory to God in the highest.” Again he thought he was a man when he went into Egypt in flight from Herod; he supposed then that he was God when he saw the Holy Spirit coming upon him in the form of a dove; yet he was fully persuaded that he was only a man when he saw the sign of hunger upon him in the desert. So it was for that reason that he said to him here: “Say that these stones may become loaves.”

¹¹ It was not “make” that the devil said to Jesus here, but “say”; for he knew that it is easy for God to do every deed by his word — as if he were saying: “if you did create all things out of nothing by a word, it is not hard for you now to make loaves of these stones.”

¹² It is bread, over and above every food, that the devil named here, because that satisfaction is most fitting for one who is in hunger; as the prophet testifies when he says: “when the body eats the food of the story(?), it is satisfaction and delight for it”: the mind of man is the more strengthened and the more bolded(?) still.

¹³ This is the answer that Jesus gave the devil: “It is not by the bodily satisfaction alone that man has life, but in the commandment of God and in keeping his doctrine.” Whoever is not sustained by the word of God is not alive; for though the sinner should possess the life of his body, he does not possess the life of his soul — that is, God. For as it is the soul that is life to the body, even so it is God that is life to the soul; and as it is the death of the body that it is sundered from the soul, even so it is the death of the soul that it is sundered from God. For although the sinner is seen to possess life as to the baser part — namely in the part of his body — he possesses it not as to the nobler part — namely in the part of his soul; so that it is more fitting to say of the sinner that he is dead rather than alive, according to the judgement of the holy scripture.

¹⁴ Now the reason why it is in this manner that Jesus gave here a gracious and gentle answer to the devil is that it was by humility and by lowliness that he chose to overcome him, and not by the overmastering of his power by force.

¹⁵ Then the devil took that same Jesus with him into the holy city. It was not for weakness of his strength that Jesus suffered the devil to carry him here and there, but that he might give an example to all of the manner in which they might be overcome — through obedience and through lowliness, through gentleness and through graciousness.

¹⁶ The devil took that same Jesus into the holy city, namely into Jerusalem, as the evangelist Luke said: “and the devil took that same Jesus into Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple.” When he had tempted him by the fault of gluttony, he would tempt him by the fault of vain-glory. For in three manners the devil tempted that same Jesus — by gluttony, by vain-glory, by pride; and it is in those manners that he most often tempts the human race besides. Now nothing was gained for Jesus by any of those manners; and that is fitting, for Jesus did not subject any carnal thought of sin to the original sin.

¹⁷ Now the high pinnacle of the temple spoken of here was a chamber of the teachers in the middle of the outward court of the temple — fifteen cubits above the ground. And the devil said to Jesus: “Show us now, if you are the Son of God: cast yourself down from this high pinnacle of the temple to the ground.” He said to him “cast yourself down” and not “cast yourself or be thrown”(?), for the devil can strongly and boldly and daringly draw the seed of evil upon men, yet he cannot bring compulsion or compulsion-force upon them unless they themselves agree with him according to his will.

¹⁸ To show that drawing, the devil said here: “It stands in the scripture,” said the devil, “that the Lord has commanded his angels concerning you, that they should guard you in all your ways and bear you on their hands, lest your foot strike a stone.”

¹⁹ Now it was not truly of Christ that the prophet sang this, but of every holy man besides; for Christ needs no aid or assistance from angels at all. But the devil mis-interpreted the scripture here — namely, so that the Saviour Jesus should be in need of the help of angels as a helpless man would be.

²⁰ But the devil conceals the verse that is contrary to his own interpretation, like a lying creditor(?); for it was to show that interpretation — which perfect men bring against the devil — that the prophet sang the verse following, saying: “you shall walk, you righteous man,” said the prophet, “upon venomous serpents — that is, upon the asp and upon the basilisk; the lion and the dragon moreover you shall tread down”; which is the same as to say “you shall vanquish and subdue the temptations and the darts of the devil through the grace of the Holy Spirit.”

²¹ Then Jesus said again to the devil: “It stands in the scripture,” said Jesus: “you shall not put a test upon your Lord and your God, you righteous man.” Jesus here casts off from him by the battle-shield of the warring righteousness the chosen darts of the devil out of the scripture; and it is the same as to say: “turn back from the truth of the scripture itself the lying senses of the devil out of the holy scripture: you shall not put a test upon your Lord and your God, you righteous man.”

²² It is a testing of God for anyone to boast of his virtues and his good deeds; it is a testing of God again for anyone to presume upon his holiness and his own righteousness, as though he needed no help or succour from God at all; it is a testing of God again for anyone to give himself into dangers and perils through rashness and improvidence against the will of God. For God often commands in the scripture that a man should avoid the dangers and perils of the world through caution and prudence — as is manifest in the common proverb, “far from danger is every cautious one”; and again it stands in the other proverb, that is, in the other proverb, “devitabis periculum, et devitabit te” — “you shall avoid danger, and it shall avoid you”, which is the same as “avoid battle and it will avoid you”.

²³ And after that the devil took that same Jesus into a very high mountain — namely into Mount Olivet, or into some other chosen mountain besides — for the showing to him moreover of a vision, either by imagination or by dream-picture in his mind and in his thought, as often happens in an ecstasy of mind or in a vision.

²⁴ And what wonder is it, though Jesus permitted the devil to carry him into that high mountain, when he afterwards permitted his crucifixion by the limbs of the devil — namely by the Jews? for it was through the devil’s instigation that Christ was crucified.

²⁵ And there all the kingdoms of the world were shown to him with their glory and their fame: all the treasures of the world, both gold and silver and precious stones and choice garments. And the devil said to Jesus: “I will give you all these under your power, if you will bow down to me and worship me.”

²⁶ By his vain-glory and his wonderful pride the devil spoke this word to Jesus; for it does not belong to any power or any might to ordain men. For we know that many saints and righteous men have been ordained in the world, and that it was by God they were ordained and not by the devil.

²⁷ “If you will bow to me and worship me”: the truth alone here spoke out of the mouth of the devil, for it is true that he will fall into interchange and into eternal downfall — the man who bows down to the devil and worships at his counsel.

²⁸ Then Jesus said to the devil: “Begone behind you, you adversary!” — that is, go into the eternal fire that is prepared for you yourself, you deceiver, and for your evil household; or, “begone behind me, you adversary” is the same as “give me respite until now(?) without tempting me until the time of the passion”; or again, “give the church respite without persecution until the time of Antichrist”; for it is then that his binding of the devil will be remembered, and it is then that he will tempt and persecute the church by manifold temptations and unbearable persecutions.

²⁹ Then the devil left that same Jesus, for all had failed him; and after that angels of heaven came to minister and do service to him. “Praecedit temptatio ut subsequatur victoria” — the temptation goes before that the victory may follow; therefore did Jesus first suffer the devil to tempt him, that his power might be manifest after the wound of his deity(?), and to show the victories and the triumph that he would win thereafter. It was for that, moreover, that the angels of heaven ministered to him, to confirm and to testify to the glory and honour of the conqueror, and to show the victories and the triumph that he had won from the devil.

³⁰ This victory of the Son of God over his enemy was prefigured long ago by the ancients of the Old Testament. For the people of God were beset for a space of forty days by Goliath the Philistine in the valley of Terebinth; and David son of Jesse was sent by his father to visit his brothers who were with Saul in the camp, and he took five stones from the stream of Jordan, and slew Goliath with the fifth stone. From this is understood: the mystic David, Jesus Christ, was sent by the heavenly Father to visit his brothers — namely the Jews who were in the valley of the world — and he took the five books of Moses out of the book of the divine scripture, and it was by the fifth book — namely by Deuteronomy — that he overcame that same devil, and won victory and triumph over him. Such is the manifest interpretation of this lection.

³¹ If according to the mystic interpretation, moreover — Jesus going into the desert: this is what it signifies — the church separating from sins and from vices after her sanctification and her consecration, as the prophet testifies in the person of the church, saying: “I have separated,” she says, “the church from sins and from vices; I have gone into the desert and into the dwelling of deserts.”

³² Jesus being tempted by the devil: this is what it signifies — the manifold temptations and darts of the devil continually against the holy church.

³³ The devil saying to Jesus, “if you are truly the Son of God, and if you are hungry, say by a word alone that these stones may become loaves”: this is what it signifies — the hard barren doctrine of the heretics without any virtue and without any fruit of good works accompanying them.

³⁴ “It is not by bodily satisfaction alone that man has life”: this is what it signifies — that it is not in the literal sense of the scripture alone that the faithful have life, but in keeping it according to allegory and mystery.

³⁵ “And it is manifest that angels of heaven came to minister to him and to serve him”: this is what it signifies — when the lordship of the devil and of evil men is cast out of the church, angels of heaven come to minister to it; and Christ himself aids it also. Such is the mystic interpretation of this lection.

³⁶ Let there be interpreted further another pure mystery from this fortieth season of the lenten fast. For from this Sunday today until the Sunday of the paschal resurrection there are six weeks; it is indeed two and forty days that they make. When six days of them are deducted — namely the Sundays, for it is not fitting to keep fast or abstinence or fasting on a Sunday — there are left therein but six and thirty days. And since the whole year is spent at five days and sixty over three hundred, if we make thirty-six days of them, we give therein to God as it were a tithe of our year. That is fitting, for since we have spent the whole year besides according to our own will, it is right for us now to restrain ourselves by fast and abstinence to the Lord even in the tithe of our year — namely in this lenten fast.

³⁷ “My beloved brethren,” says the wise man, “as we give the tithe of our goods and our substance to the Lord of the elements according to the command of the divine law, so it is right for us to give him a tithe even of our days; for it is from God that every good thing is given us besides.”

³⁸ Let each one then offer his body, as far as he can, in fasting and abstinence in this season of Lent; let him offer his desires into freedom from gluttony and the hard bed of drunkenness and adultery. For the body that rejoices without restraint in fasting and abstinence carries us to the sins and vices of the world to worship them; but the body that is sorrowful after its offering in fasting and abstinence obtains peace and pardon and forgiveness from God.

³⁹ For the author of death and change for men — namely Adam — because he ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree against the will of God, was banished for it from paradise.

⁴⁰ For since it was by the fault of gluttony that we fell from the joys of paradise, it is required of us that we should claim them back again by fast and abstinence.

⁴¹ But let no one take it upon himself that it is enough good for him to do fast and abstinence alone; for the prophet shows in another place, in the person of the Saviour Jesus, saying: “No,” says Jesus, “did you not proclaim to you the fast that I have chosen, and that is more pleasing to me, when I said to you: ‘you righteous man,’ says Jesus, ‘divide your bread with the poor; give kindness and hospitality to those who are in need; if you see anyone without clothing, give him clothing; even if it be your own friends that are seen in poverty, have compassion on them.’” This, then, is the fast that is pleasing to the Lord — the fast that is done with almsgiving, and with the charity of God and of one’s neighbour, and with devout zeal toward God.

⁴² “O man, then, whatever is diminished from you in the time of your fasting, give to the poor as your share of the fast.”

⁴³ “It is good for us to keep a fast, brethren,” says the wise man, “but it is better for us to give alms; whoso can do them both together, that is all the complete goodness. But if anyone cannot do them both, it is better for him to give much alms than the fast without alms alone; for unless one can do fasting or abstinence or watching besides, the alms without the fast is profitable; for great is the profit of the alms in the absence of the fast; but the fast without the alms is of little profit, unless it be for the poverty of one who has no alms to give; or else let good-will make up for it in the man in whom there is no alms.”

⁴⁴ “I entreat you, beloved brethren,” says the wise man, “that none of you take any satisfaction or any food in the world on any day in the time of this lenten fast — except on Sundays only — unless weakness of age or sickness compel anyone to do so. For the fast that a man keeps throughout the whole year around about Lent, that is reckoned to him as a loosing of his sins and his vices, or it is an added reward. But it is a manifest sin for anyone not to keep a fast in this season of the lenten fast, if he is able; yet if anyone is in the weakness of sickness so that he cannot keep a fast, let him not hinder those who can keep a fast; for it is distress enough for anyone who cannot himself keep a fast, without hindering another besides. And let him so eat his meal with sorrow and sadness and mourning, with sickness of heart and mind, since he cannot keep a fast while all the rest are in their fast and in their abstinence before God. And since he cannot keep a fast or abstinence, or put a bridle upon his will and his gluttony, this is what befits him — that he should heal by alms the sins that he does not heal by fasting.”

⁴⁵ Let there be cast out from us in these dreadful days of Lent the hindrance of the causes and contentions of the world; let the pleasures of the songs and the worldly feasts and every carnal delight besides depart from us; but let there be brought in spiritual joy for the praise of God, in psalms and in hymns and in the songs of the divine praise.

⁴⁶ Let the men be in their beds apart, and the women in other beds apart, so that they may have leisure to make prayer for the space of this lenten fast.

⁴⁷ It is right, moreover, to know that it is not in this season at all in truth that we keep the Lent which Jesus kept as his Lent, but it is from the seventh ides of January to the fifteenth of the kalends of March with their reckoning in full. But it was then that it was changed, in the time of Constantine son of Helena, high-king of the world; it was under him that the three hundred and eighteen were gathered at Nicaea, in the city of Bithynia, to condemn and to cast out the heresy of Arius.

⁴⁸ For three reasons, moreover, the synod changed the Lent from the place where Jesus himself kept it, and attached it to Easter. The first reason is this, that we might be in our fasting every year in the season in which Christ himself suffered for our sake; the second reason, that it might be at the end of our fast — namely at midnight of the Easter vigil — that we should go to receive the pure mysteries of Christ’s body and his blood; the third reason, that it should be in our fast that the Lord should come to judge the living and the dead at the last doom — that is, in the last Easter, which is the same as on the day of doom. It is then that the righteous Judge will give his due to every single person according to his deed.

⁴⁹ It is then that the impious will go into the eternal fire — a place where they shall have wailing and gnashing of teeth, and a withering upon their eyes; a place where the fierceness of the demons shall be, tormenting and damning the impious; a place where the unity of the devil and his evil host shall be; a place where the abundance of every sickness and every mourning shall be; a place where there shall be the fulness of every evil and the lack of every good.

⁵⁰ But the righteous — the people of charity and of gentleness and of mercy — shall go into the eternal life: a place where they shall have joy without grief, delight without end, peace without strife; a place where they shall not have need of food or drink, but shall be even as the angels of God in heaven; a place where there shall be the unity of the heavenly and earthly church; a place where there shall be the unity of the Holy Trinity, almighty, noble, honourable — Father and Son and Holy Spirit.

⁵¹ Merciful is the mercy of almighty God; may we all reach that unity, may we merit it, may we dwell therein, in secula seculorum, amen, amen.

The Lord’s Supper (In Cena Domini) #

¹ [The lection, Matthew 26:17–30, is read; the Latin is omitted.] Now on the first day of unleavened bread the apostles came to take counsel with Jesus, and this is what they said to him: “In what place do you wish us to prepare for you the Passover, that you may eat it?” This is the answer that Jesus gave them: “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him: the Master has said, the time is at hand; with you I make the Passover with my disciples.” And the disciples did as Jesus commanded them, and they prepared the Passover. And when evening came, Jesus sat down at table, and his twelve apostles together with him; and while they were at table, Jesus made this prophecy to them, saying: “I tell you in very truth,” says Jesus, “one of you will betray me.” And when great sorrow seized the apostles at that, this is what each of them apart would say to Jesus: “Can it be that it is I, O Lord?” This is the answer that he gave the apostles: “He who puts his hand with me upon the dish, it is he who will betray me. The Son of man goes indeed to the cross and to suffering, as was foretold of him long ago; but woe to the man by whom the Son of man is delivered to the cross and suffering: it would have been much better for that man not to have been born at all.”

² Now Judas the man of the treachery answered, and this is what he said to Jesus: “do you think it is I, Master?” Jesus said to Judas: “You yourself have said it,” said Jesus, “it is you” — as though Jesus were saying, “I do not deny you.”

³ Now while they were at the feast, Jesus took bread in his hand, and blessed and broke it, and then gave it to his apostles; and this is what he said to them as he gave it to them: “Take from me this bread and eat it, for this is my body.” And when he then took a chalice full of wine in his hand, he gave thanks, and then gave it to his apostles; and this is what he said to them: “Drink you all of this chalice; for this is my blood, the blood of the New Testament, which shall be shed for many, for the remission of sins and trespasses. I tell you,” says Jesus, “that I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until I drink the new wine with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

⁴ Matthew son of Alpheus, the accomplished sage of the Hebrews, it is he who wrote this holy lection, which relates the great miracle that is preached this day — namely Jesus Christ the Son of the living God, the Saviour of the seed of Adam, giving the pure mysteries of his own body and his blood, under the form of bread and wine, to his apostles, after the end of the Passover according to the law of Moses.

⁵ The unity and kinship of this lection is with the evangelist Matthew, up to the point where the Saviour Jesus made the prophecy of his own passion to his disciples, saying: “You all know,” says Jesus, “that it is two days hence that the Passover comes, and then the Son of man is delivered to the cross and suffering”; so that it is in accordance with those words and that prophecy that Matthew wrote this lection, saying here: “On the first day of unleavened bread his disciples came to take counsel with Jesus.”

⁶ The first day of unleavened bread spoken of here is the fourteenth day of the first moon, when the paschal lamb was sacrificed by the children of Israel with unleavened bread together with it — that is, at the fulness of the paschal moon.

⁷ Now the custom and the devotion of the unleavened bread is what was first begun from the first Passover that the children of Israel celebrated in Rameses, in the land of Goshen in Egypt, when the Egyptians forced them to leave the land of necessity, so that they had not time to add leaven to mix in the dough, as was their custom to do before; so that it is that custom which they would ever keep in celebrating the Passover.

⁸ This is what the apostles said to Jesus: “In what place do you wish that we should prepare for you to eat the Passover?” — namely the paschal lamb. Jesus said to them: “Go into the city” — that is, assuredly into Jerusalem; as Moses commanded in the Law upon the children of Israel, saying: “let it be there that you shall celebrate your feast, in the city which the Lord has chosen among you” — namely Jerusalem.

⁹ “To a certain man”: it was perchance for brevity that Jesus did not name here by name the particular man; and to show that it is not noble names or renowned pedigrees in the world that sanctify and justify anyone before the Lord, but virtues and good deeds.

¹⁰ “And say to him: the Master has said, the time is at hand.” That is assuredly the time of death; that time is at hand; for it was on the fourteenth that Jesus made this prophecy, and on the fifteenth, the next day, at once he was crucified.

¹¹ “With you I make the Passover with my disciples.” And the disciples did as Jesus commanded them: it is right indeed to know that what is required of ministers is this — to render their obedience without addition and without diminution, but just as it is commanded them.

¹² Now Luke the evangelist names the particular disciples whom Jesus sent here as forerunners for the paschal lamb — namely Peter and John.

¹³ And the apostles prepared the Passover — that is, they made the roasting of the paschal lamb and its accompaniments, as Moses commanded in the Law upon the children of Israel: namely, a male lamb of a year old, without blemish and without spot, to be sacrificed in every household of theirs according to the number of the persons of the family; and its blood to be sprinkled upon the threshold of the house and upon its lintels, for its sanctification and its consecration; and that it should be eaten thus — with their loins girded about them, their belts upon their reins, their staffs and their staves in their hands, in the manner of haste and of journeying. And the reason why they did all this was to betoken and to foreshadow the Saviour — Jesus Christ the Son of the living God — who was prefigured in the paschal lamb.

¹⁴ Now when evening came, Jesus sat down at table with his apostles together — that is, after the end of the fourteenth day and at the beginning of the fifteenth, at the going down of the sun, when their season had come, it was then that they ate the paschal lamb according to the law of Moses.

¹⁵ And while they were at table, Jesus made this prophecy to them, saying: “I tell you in truth,” says Jesus, “it is one of you who will betray me.” “One” indeed by reckoning, yet not one by deserving; one by name and by surname, yet not one by honour or by goodness.

¹⁶ Then the wretched faithless Judas left his apostleship and his bishopric, as the prophet had foretold of him, saying: “Let the days and the duration of that Judas be short,” says the prophet, “and let another quickly be in his apostleship and in his bishopric.”

¹⁷ And a great sorrow seized the apostles. For two reasons, moreover, sorrow and grief seized the apostles here: the first reason, because of the betrayal of the Lord at all; the second reason, because one of themselves was the man of the treachery. This is what each of the apostles apart would say to Jesus: “Can it be that it is I, Lord?”

¹⁸ It would indeed have been certain to the eleven apostles that they had never thought of betraying the Lord; yet since they knew their own weakness and their frailty, the more did they trust their Master — Jesus — than themselves; as the apostle John says: “Much greater,” says John, “is God’s knowledge of the secrets and thoughts of men than what they themselves know.”

¹⁹ This is the answer he gave the apostles: “He who puts his hand with me upon the dish, it is he who will betray me.” Wonderful here is the patience and the forbearance of the Lord! What the Lord said at first was “it is someone among you,” he says, “who will betray me”; but since the man of treachery still lingered in his wickedness, Jesus rebuked something rather more manifestly, yet he did not set down his proper name in evidence, for the sparing of him, and that his own conscience might the more prick him to do penance for the evil he had purposed.

²⁰ Now while the rest of the apostles were in grief and sorrow, and while they had drawn back their hands from the dish for reverence, Judas stretches out his hand upon the dish boldly and presumptuously — so that by that boldness it might be manifest that intimacy and confidence were his toward Jesus above all others. John, however, relates that Jesus gave another sign to reveal his guilt in Judas, saying: “To whomever I give the morsel of bread that is in my hand, after dipping it in the wine, it is he who will betray me.” And when the morsel had been dipped in the wine, he gave it to Judas.

²¹ “The Son of man goes indeed of his own will to the cross and suffering; but woe to the man by whom the Son of man is delivered to the cross and suffering!”

²² Then the faithless Judas was rebuked after the betrayal of the Saviour himself; for it was not “woe to the apostle” that Jesus said, but “woe to the man”; woe to that man who is notorious in evil and in sin.

²³ Now the reason why Jesus here threatened Judas with death and eternal downfall is that he is the source of every evil and every strife today in the New Testament, and the very temple of the devil: it was through him that the impious Jews delivered the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross and suffering.

²⁴ “It would have been much better for that man not to have been born at all!” — that is, it would have been much better for him not to have been begotten at all than to be in the evil in which he is; or, the torment of Judas would have been much less if he had perished in his mother’s womb like every miscarriage, than the everlasting torment that fell to him through betraying the Lord.

²⁵ Now Judas the man of the treachery answered, and this is what he said to Jesus: “Can it be that it is I, Master?”

²⁶ The reason why Judas put this question was so that his wickedness should not be revealed to everyone against him, if he should be in silence apart from the other apostles; for he was certain that it was himself who was in truth in default toward Jesus — as it is said in the proverb, “conscius ipse mali de se putat omnia dici” — “a fearful heart conceives a guilty fear.” “Rabbi,” that is “Master”: that is a token of Judas’s contempt and faithlessness; for “Lord” was what the other apostles called Jesus; but he did not call Jesus “Lord,” but “Master” — to lessen his guilt in his own estimation, as though it were a lesser fault to betray his Master than to betray his Lord.

²⁷ Jesus said to Judas: “you say it first — it is you”; as though what Jesus said to Judas were: “your own mouth proclaims your sin”; for you are at one in speech with the other apostles.

²⁸ Now while they were at the feast, Jesus took bread in his hand and blessed it and broke it, and then gave it to his apostles.

²⁹ When Jesus had fully celebrated the Passover of the Old Testament, he came at once to the Passover of the New Testament — that is, after they had eaten the paschal lamb according to the rule of the law of Moses, he then delivered the pure mysteries of his own body and his blood to his apostles; and this is what Jesus said in giving it to them: “Take from me this bread and eat it, for this is my body.”

³⁰ Now in three manners the holy commentators interpret the body of Christ: the first body — namely humanity — was born of the Virgin Mary without loss of virginity; the second body is the holy church — namely the perfect gathering of all the faithful, whose head is the Saviour Jesus Christ the Son of the living God; the third body is the holy scripture, in which are related the pure mysteries of Christ’s body and his blood.

³¹ It is asked, for what reason did Jesus here give to his apostles the pure mysteries of his own body and his blood under the particular form of bread and wine? This is indeed the reason: because bread is what satisfies and strengthens the body; but wine is what makes abundance of blood in the body; fitting accordingly is the bread for Christ’s body, and fitting is the wine for his blood.

³² And there is another reason: as bread and wine drive from the body, after their fashion, the hunger and the worldly thirst, so the ever-living satisfaction that came from heaven — namely the Lord Jesus Christ — drives the eternal hunger and thirst from the soul of the faithful through the keeping of his commandment and his doctrine.

³³ It is asked again, why is water put together with the wine in the chalice of the offering? That is fitting indeed; for the wine signifies Christ, as he himself says in the gospel: “I am,” says Jesus, “the true vine”; but the water signifies the people of the faithful who are reckoned as a body for Christ, as John testifies there in the Apocalypse, saying: “the many waters which were shown to me,” says John, “are the many peoples of the faithful today in the New Testament”; for it is required that the people of the faithful should be ever united in Christ. For that reason, therefore, water and wine are put at the offering into the chalice of the offering.

³⁴ It is asked again, since it was once that Christ suffered for our sake, why is the sacrifice of Christ’s body and his blood renewed for us every day? This is the reason: because we commit sins and vices every day, we need to be cleansed every day from those sins by the holy sacrifice; and there is a purpose in it — that there should be less forgetfulness in the church, the passion of Christ being commemorated daily in the daily sacrifice.

³⁵ It is asked moreover why it should be after fast and abstinence that the church should go today to receive Christ’s body and his blood, when it was after eating the paschal lamb that Jesus then gave the pure mysteries of his own body and his blood to his apostles? The reason is first, that Jesus then gave the pure mysteries of his own body and his blood to the apostles after eating the paschal lamb, because it was required of him that the Passover of the Old Testament should be celebrated first, and the Passover of the New Testament celebrated at once. But as for us today, it is after fast and earnest penance that it is required of us to go to this great mystery and to the wondrous mystery of the body and blood of the Lord, if we expect full remission of our sins and our trespasses to us from God.

³⁶ “And he then took a chalice full of wine in his hand.” One chalice does Matthew relate here to have been at the sacrifice then; but two does Luke relate — one of them for the Passover of the Old Testament and the other for the Passover of the New Testament; and it is that one only that Matthew recalls here.

³⁷ “Jesus gave thanks” — that is, he gave his thanks to the heavenly Father for his own going without any fault to the cross and suffering for the sins of the seed of Adam.

³⁸ And he then gave it to his apostles, and this is what he said to them: “this is the blood, the blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many.”

³⁹ “For many” does Jesus here say his blood was shed, and not for all men. That is fitting, for it was not for all men that Christ’s passion availed — as it availed not at once even for the faithless Judas.

⁴⁰ “For the remission of sins and trespasses”; it was not indeed for riches, nor for increase of children, nor for length of life, that Jesus said here that his blood would be shed, but for the remission of sins and trespasses to all the faithful.

⁴¹ “Now I tell you,” says Jesus, “that I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until I drink the new wine together with you in my Father’s kingdom.” This is what Jesus promised here to his apostles — that he would not drink wine from the time of this feast onward until he should drink the new wine together with them in God’s kingdom after the resurrection. For the apostle Peter testifies that the Saviour Jesus did eat food and drink together with the apostles after the resurrection, saying: “We ourselves,” says Peter, “were eating food and drink together with Christ after the resurrection.”

⁴² Now John relates what Jesus did after the end of the feast, saying: Jesus arose from the feast and laid aside his garments(?) ; and then he took a linen towel about him and girded himself. He then put water into a basin, and began then to wash and to cleanse his apostles, and to dry their feet with the linen cloth that was about him. He came first to Simon — that is, to Peter; and this is what Peter said to Jesus: “Lord, do you wash me?” — that is, it shall be far from you!

⁴³ As though Peter were saying to Jesus: “you are God, I am man; you are the Lord, I am a slave; you are the fashioner of the human race, I am a man wholly sinful.”

⁴⁴ Now Jesus answered, and this is what he said to Peter: “The thing that I do, you do not know yet, Peter; but you shall know it afterwards.” Peter then said to Jesus: “Though I be ever about it,” says Peter, “yet you shall never wash me through all eternity.” This is the answer Jesus gave Peter: “Unless you let me wash you, you shall have neither peace nor fellowship with me henceforth.” This is the answer that Peter then gave Jesus: “Lord, wash my feet! and not only so, but wash even my head, and wash my hands, if it be your will.”

⁴⁵ So that is an example to every faithful person, that it is a greater sin for him to abide in the wrongful thought that he shall commit than to depart from it when he perceives his transgression.

⁴⁶ Then Jesus gave this answer to Peter: “He who is clean needs only to wash his feet, for he is wholly clean besides; and you are clean — yet not all of you are clean.” For he knew that the man of the treachery was among the apostles; for that reason Jesus said to them: “Not all of you are clean.”

⁴⁷ And when Jesus had finished washing and cleansing his apostles, he put his own garment upon him again; and when he had sat down in his place again, this is what he said to them: “Do you know,” says Jesus, “why I have washed you? Master and Lord do call me; and it is right that you say so, for so I am. If I have washed you, and I am Lord and Master to you, this is what is required of you — that each of you should render obedience to God as far as he can; for it was for this that I did it — that you might take example from me: as I have rendered obedience to you, so let each of you render obedience to one another after this example.” Such is the manifest interpretation of this lection.

⁴⁸ The lection, moreover, admits a spiritual interpretation which is fitting for Christ and for the church.

⁴⁹ “The day of unleavened bread” spoken of here: this is what it signifies allegorically — the time of the New Testament, in which it is required of every faithful person to separate from the leaven of his carnal will; as the apostle commands, saying: “let not our delight be now,” says the apostle, “in the bitterness and the oldness of the carnal desires, but let it be in the truth and purity of virtues and good deeds.”

⁵⁰ “The apostles came to take counsel with Jesus”: this is what it signifies — the faithful putting their counsel to the Lord, and coming into his unity and his fellowship through faith and belief.

⁵¹ “Go into the city” — that is, let Christ be proclaimed to the whole world; as the prophet foretold, saying: “the fame of the apostles has spread over the whole world,” says the prophet.

⁵² “To a certain man” — that is, to the gentile people who were strangers to God hitherto, while they were worshipping idols and phantoms.

⁵³ “With you I make the Passover”; as though Jesus were saying to the gentile people: “it is for you that my passion will be profitable, and it is with you that the pure mystery of my body and my blood shall be offered.”

⁵⁴ “Now when evening came, Jesus sat down at table, and his twelve apostles with him”: this is what it signifies allegorically — that when the prophecy and the foreshadowings of the Old Testament had come to an end, Christ is ever present in the church, ruling it; as he himself promised in the gospel, saying: “I shall ever be,” says Jesus, “aiding and succouring the holy church.”

⁵⁵ “One of you will betray me”: this is what it signifies — the man who betrays the Lord today after the example of Judas; for it is he in truth according to allegory who sells the Lord — the man who loves and desires the transitory goods, and has not the love or the fear of the Lord.

⁵⁶ “He who puts his hand with me upon the dish, it is he who will betray me”: this is what it signifies — the company that eats unworthily the pure mystery of Christ’s body and his blood.

⁵⁷ “But woe to the man by whom the Son of man is delivered to the cross and suffering; id est,” — it is woe up and down for the man who goes with sins and vices to the table of the Lord — that is, to the holy altar.

⁵⁸ “It would have been much better for that man not to have been born at all”: this is what it signifies — that it would have been much better for anyone not to have been born at all into faith and baptism than to receive Christ’s body with sins and vices under the semblance of false devotion.

⁵⁹ “Jesus took bread in his hand and blessed and broke it”: this is what it signifies — that it was Christ’s body of his own free will that went to the cross and suffering, as he himself declared in the gospel, saying: “It is mine,” says Jesus, “to lay down my soul from me when I will, and to take it up to me again.”

⁶⁰ “And when he then took a chalice full of wine in his hand, he gave thanks, and then gave it to his apostles”: this is what it signifies allegorically — the shedding of his blood in the cross and suffering; as he foreshadowed that it was not his body that should then be broken through the breaking of the bread.

⁶¹ This is what Jesus said to his apostles: “drink you all of this chalice”; the reason why Judas is not excluded here from the apostles is that it might be an example that no one today is excommunicated from the church, so that his sin and his offence against God would not be manifest to everyone at first.

⁶² “Now I tell you,” says Jesus, “that I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until I drink the new wine with you in my Father’s kingdom”: this is what it signifies allegorically — that it is not in the offerings of the law that the delight of the Lord consists, but in the offering of the pure mystery of Christ’s body and his blood in the holy church. Such is the allegorical interpretation of this lection.

⁶³ Now it is right to know that there are two kinds of enemies that beset this offering of Christ’s body and his blood — namely, the man who receives it boldly and presumptuously, with sins and vices upon him; and the man who, though without sin, does not receive it at all, through weakness and feebleness of his faith.

⁶⁴ There are likewise two faithful friends at that offering: the man who receives it frequently, for the honour and reverence of the Lord; and the man who does not receive it at all, through his own humility and lowliness in his own eyes.

⁶⁵ For if it is presumptuous for anyone to handle Christ’s body in a cloth or in a clean vessel, how much more bold is it to bring it into a body that is defiled with sins and vices!

⁶⁶ There are three things, moreover, that are certainly manifest in the presence of this sacrifice, as holy Gregory testifies — namely, an angel of heaven assisting at it, worthy men offering it, and Christ himself consecrating it.

⁶⁷ For who is the faithful person that would not doubt at the lifting up of the priest’s voice at the offering, the heavens opening, and a choir of angels coming there, and the heavenly and earthly church being united and joined together?

⁶⁸ Let everyone then examine himself attentively, that it be not presumption or boldness for him to go into the reception of Christ’s body and his blood; as the apostle solemnly declares when he says: “whoever eats the bread of the Lord,” says the apostle, “and drinks his chalice unworthily, is guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.” Let a man therefore diligently prove himself first, and then let him so eat the bread of the Lord and drink his chalice; for whoever eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgement and condemnation to himself.

⁶⁹ That is fitting, for he who does not take his own honour toward the body of the Lord — that is, he for whom it is no more difficult to go into its reception than into the reception of every other common food.

⁷⁰ For unless it be thus that we go into the reception of this great sacrifice of the body and blood of the Lord — with the fear of God, with contrition for sins and trespasses, with purity of heart and mind, with holiness of body and flesh — that sacrifice will make him guilty of Christ’s body and his blood, and will carry him of necessity to the eternal pains and torments of hell.

⁷¹ But if it is thus that we go to the receiving of Christ’s body and his blood — namely with faith and with perfect works, with charity and mercy upon the poor and the helpless of the Lord — that sacrifice will work for us sanctification and separation from every defilement of body and soul while we remain here in the present world, and will carry us at last to the dwelling of the heavenly kingdom in the presence of God through all eternity: in the unity of the saints and holy virgins of the world, in the unity of the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ, in the unity of the divinity and humanity of the Son of the living God, in the unity that is nobler than every unity, in the unity of the noble honourable Holy Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit.

⁷² Merciful is the mercy of almighty God; may we all reach that unity, may we merit it, may we dwell therein, in secula seculorum, amen, amen.

De Die Pentecostes — the Day of Pentecost #

¹ [The lection, Acts 2:1–11, is read; the Latin is omitted.] And when the days of Pentecost were accomplished, all the apostles were assembled together in one house. And on the second day suddenly there came a sound from heaven like the sound of a great wind, and the Holy Spirit filled the whole house in which the apostles were. And there appeared to them parted tongues as of fire, and the Holy Spirit sat upon the head of every single person among the apostles; and they were all filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the apostles would speak in all the tongues of the world, as the Holy Spirit gave them knowledge of speech.

² Now there were in Jerusalem at that time dwellers of the Jews, and devout men, who had come out of every nation that is under heaven. And when this report was heard through the city — that is, through Jerusalem — a great multitude went there; for did not each of them hear the apostles speaking the miracles of the Son of God in their own tongues? They were astonished in their minds and wondered, so that each of them would say to another: “How now, are not all these who speak thus Galileans? And how have we heard from them the tongues in which we were born?”

³ There were assembled in Jerusalem at this feast the men of the East — Parthians and Medes and Persians and the people of Mesopotamia; and there were assembled there the men of the North — the people of Cappadocia and of Pontus and the people of Asia Minor; there were assembled there the men of the South — the Egyptians and Africans who dwell about the city of Cyrene; and there were assembled there the men of the West and of the Setting — the Jews who were in pilgrimage in the lands of the Romans; and there were assembled there the peculiar Jews in Jerusalem round about; and there were assembled there as traders the people of the islands — namely from Crete, from Cyprus(?), from Sicily, from Corsica; and there were assembled there also the neighbours — the people of Arabia eastward by the river Jordan. And this is what all those multitudes would say: “We have heard,” said they, “the wonders of the Lord spoken by the apostles in our own tongues.” They wondered greatly, and this is what each of them would say in discourse with another: “What manner of token is this at all?” said they. But another company would mock them, and this is what they said — that it was with drunkenness from new wine that the apostles were filled.

⁴ Luke the evangelist, the man of this exact narrative, the chief disciple of Paul the apostle, the physician full of perfection of body and soul of every faithful person in the church — it is he who wrote this holy lection, which relates the great miracle that befell at this feast of Pentecost: namely, the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ being in a closed house, and the Holy Spirit coming upon them in the form of fiery tongues; and their being filled with the grace of that Spirit, so that they spoke in all the tongues of the world. So that it is for the commemoration of these great miracles in the churches of Christendom to the end of the world that Luke wrote this holy lection, saying here: “And when the days of Pentecost were accomplished, all the apostles were assembled in one place.”

⁵ The unity and kinship of this lection is with what Luke had said a little before here, in relating the command which Jesus enjoined upon his apostles on the day of his ascension — that they should not go any where from Jerusalem until the grace of the Holy Spirit should come upon them at Pentecost, saying in that commemoration: Jesus commanded his apostles that they should not go from Jerusalem, but that they should pray there until the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them, as he had promised them on the day of his ascension to heaven. So that it is in accordance with those words that Luke says here: “and when the days were accomplished,” etc.

⁶ And when Pentecost had come — that is, when the fiftieth day had come from the Sunday of the resurrection; for it is fifty days that are reckoned between the Passover of Christ’s resurrection and the feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles.

⁷ This feast of Pentecost was a solemn feast with the children of Israel, that they might not suffer to fall into forgetfulness with them the giving of the Law to Moses son of Amram on Mount Sinai — it was on the fiftieth day after the celebration of the first Passover in Rameses, that is in the land of Goshen in Egypt. Then it was that this feast of Pentecost first found its honour in the New Testament, when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles on the fiftieth day after Christ’s resurrection, so that the apostles spoke the miracles of the Son of God in the various tongues of the world, after their filling and their ordaining by the Holy Spirit. It is for that reason that this feast is honoured by the people of the New Testament.

⁸ Now this feast of the New Testament agrees in many ways with the feast of the Old Testament. For as the Law was given there at first in fire, even so the Holy Spirit came today upon the apostles in the form of fiery tongues; and as it was in the upper part of Mount Sinai that the Law was given there to the children of Israel, so did the Holy Spirit reveal today his pure mysteries to the apostles in the high upper room of Mount Sion — namely in the cenacle.

⁹ Now in one house were all the apostles — that is, there was none of the apostles who would be in evidence on the day of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them at Pentecost, as Thomas was in their absence on the day of the Lord’s resurrection at Easter.

¹⁰ “Together” were the apostles: as though it said, one mind and one desire in them all, and one spirit and one counsel to do the will of God, against the opposition of the devil’s will.

¹¹ “In one house” were the apostles — namely in the holy cenacle where Peter and John and the other apostles used to abide. Now the number that was in the cenacle on this Sunday of Pentecost was a hundred and twenty, as Luke the evangelist relates in the Acts of the Apostles.

¹² And there befell suddenly a sound from heaven — that is, swiftly came the sound; for the Holy Spirit does not come with delay or slowly in his works, as men come. “From heaven” the sound came; for it was fitting that the Holy Spirit should come with a sound from the heavens, when he came to teach the apostles about the many tongues. For that reason the Holy Spirit is said to have been given from heaven — to declare to us that we should give to God the love that is in heaven(?); but on earth it was given, to command us to give to our neighbour the abiding of the earth together with us.

¹³ “Like the sound of a great wind”: for since in every gift that God gave to the ancients of the Old Testament there was sight and manifestation, the gift which he gave today to the apostles is great and evident.

¹⁴ “And it filled the whole house” — that is, the Holy Spirit filled the cenacle itself and all who were in it at that time; for rich is the Holy Spirit in giving every good thing to all who faithfully acknowledge him.

¹⁵ “And there appeared to them parted tongues”: today there were revealed to the apostles, for their humility and lowliness, the tongues that were confounded long ago at the Tower through the pride of the children of Adam. For three reasons, moreover, they built that tower: the first reason, to make their name famous after them; the second reason, that it might be a ladder of ascent for them to heaven; the third reason, that it might be a refuge for them from a flood if it should come again; for they did not trust in the sign that God had set in the clouds in token that the flood should not come again — namely the rainbow of heaven.

¹⁶ “As of fire”: it is asked why it should be in fire in particular, beyond every other element, that the Holy Spirit should come upon the apostles. The reason that it was in fire that the Holy Spirit appeared is this — because he casts out of every heart whatever is filled with grace and divinity(?), the dampness and coldness of unbelief, and kindles therein the desire and the love of the heavenly kingdom.

¹⁷ It is asked again why it should be in the day that the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles. This is the reason — because it was fitting that the shining Spirit should come in shining, that is in the day, upon the shining apostles.

¹⁸ And the reason why it came at the third hour of the day is that the third Law came with its beginning. The first law — the law under which were the patriarchs; the second law, the law of the letter under which were the prophets; the third law, the law of spiritual grace of the New Testament; and another reason — because it is the Holy Spirit that is the third person of the Holy Trinity.

¹⁹ “And the Holy Spirit sat upon every single person among the apostles”: what is said here — that the Holy Spirit sat — is a token of his royal power and might, and of the repose that he has in the saints and in the righteous.

²⁰ “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”: the reason why it is said that the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit is that it might be known that no other spirit dwells in them, for full vessels take no increase at all.

²¹ “And the apostles spoke in all the tongues of the world”: now the number of the tongues is seventy-two. So it was for that reason that he chose into his company seventy-two disciples, that the number of the preachers might correspond to the number of the tongues.

²² In two ways is this grace of the many tongues that was given to the apostles interpreted: to teach many folk, that the apostles spoke in every tongue; but others say that it was in the Hebrew tongue alone that they spoke, and that upon them lay the sweetness of their own tongue to everyone; yet it is this that the authors most testify — that it was in every tongue they spoke, as the Holy Spirit gave them knowledge of speech. So that it is in testimony of that that the apostle Paul said: “it is that same Holy Spirit who distributes his own gifts to each as he pleases and as each deserves from him”; and the apostle said in another place: “the Holy Spirit,” says the apostle, “bestows his grace in the place that pleases him, and when it pleases him, and upon the people whom it pleases him to choose.”

²³ Now there were in Jerusalem at that time dwellers of the Jews, and many devout men — that is, the habitual dwellers of Jerusalem, and the people who had come from distant lands to worship the Lord therein. “From every nation that is under heaven” — that is, from every nation in which the Jews were; for since the persecution of the Jews was made under Antiochus, king of the Greeks, the Jews were scattered on every side into the lands and the distant territories of the world.

²⁴ Into those lands they used to come thrice every year to the temple of God to worship the Lord therein, at these three chief festivals — namely at the Passover and at Pentecost and at the feast of Tabernacles.

²⁵ When this report was heard through the city, a great multitude came there at that time, and they wondered in mind at the thing they heard; as though it said: it was a wonder to the people of the many tongues that apostles of one tongue should speak the miracles of the Son of God in their own tongues through the Holy Spirit. But another company would mock them, and this is what they said — that it was with drunkenness from new wine that the apostles were filled.

²⁶ Though they said this in derision, yet what they said is true; for the apostles were full of the wine of spiritual grace; for it is today that new wine was made in the new vessels — that is, today the teaching of the gospel was given to the people of the New Testament with the coming of the Holy Spirit.

²⁷ Now as this feast of the Holy Spirit is honourable and venerable to the households of heaven and earth, even so was it prefigured and foretold long ago in many places of the holy scriptures. The coming of this Holy Spirit upon the apostles was prefigured first in the fire that came from heaven upon the offerings of righteous Abel, as Genesis testifies in the Law, saying: “the fire of God came from heaven upon the offerings of Abel, for they pleased God.”

²⁸ It was prefigured also in the fire that came there upon the bush — a figure of that Holy Spirit who came upon the apostles on this day of Pentecost.

²⁹ It was prefigured also in the fiery pillar that was then, leading the children of Israel out of the Egyptian bondage to make their way to the land of promise — a figure of that Holy Spirit who summoned the apostolic people out of the straitness of the persecution of the Jews in which they were, to teach everyone on every side; and who summons also the people of the New Testament out of the darkness of sins and trespasses into the light of virtues and good deeds.

³⁰ This coming of the Holy Spirit was prefigured also in the seven-branched candlestick that illuminated the tabernacle of Moses — a figure and token of the sevenfold Spirit who illumines the sevenfold church at this sevenfold feast of Pentecost; even as the coming of the Holy Spirit was prefigured in many places in like manner.

³¹ It was promised by prophets: David son of Jesse foretold it, saying: “let the coming of the stream gladden the city of God” — in token of that spiritual grace in which the church rejoices. Joel son of Salathel the prophet promised it, saying: “a time shall come,” says the Lord, “in which I shall pour out the grace of the Holy Spirit upon every single faithful person in the church.” The author of every prophecy and of every true knowledge — Jesus Christ himself after his resurrection — promised this coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, saying to them: “the grace of the Holy Spirit shall come upon you.” Such is the manifest interpretation of this lection.

³² The lection, moreover, admits a special interpretation which is fitting for Christ and for every perfect man in the church. The number “fifty” spoken of here — this is what it signifies, eternal rest; for the number fifty is ever a number of rest, as is manifest in the example of the jubilee of the fiftieth year, in which there is rest for all solemnly among the people of the Law.

³³ For that reason, moreover, the fifty days are honoured from Easter to Pentecost, in joy and gladness without the labour of fasting or abstinence — in figure and token of the rest that shall be for the righteous after the resurrection; for there shall be no labour or mourning then for the church, but rest and gladness for ever.

³⁴ And it is for that reason that the genuflections of the cross-figell(?) at prayer are not made in these days, and that the rules of the orderly fasts are not kept. For that reason it is the honour of Sunday that is due to every day from Easter to Pentecost, for neither fast nor genuflection is made according to the rule of the ancients, in honour of the Lord’s resurrection.

³⁵ But whatever monks or devout clerks desire to keep a fast in these days, they are not to be hindered in it, after the example of Paul and Anthony and the other holy elders, who would not loose their fast on any day save on Sunday only.

³⁶ “All the apostles were in one house” — that is, in the holy church: this is what it signifies allegorically — the unity of the faithful today in the temple of God, praising and magnifying the Lord of the elements therein; for whoever desires to be full of the Holy Spirit, what is required of him is this — that he should frequent the temple of God regularly, to praise and to invoke the Lord therein.

³⁷ “And there appeared to them parted tongues”: this is what it signifies on the side of mystery — the church spread abroad under the four quarters of the world, to make the Lord known in every tongue.

³⁸ “And it sat upon every single person among the apostles”: this is what it signifies — the rest that shall be for the saints and the righteous in heaven.

³⁹ “And the apostles spoke in all the tongues of the world”: the diversity of the tongues — this is what it signifies — the various gifts of the Holy Spirit being given to the church.

⁴⁰ “The many multitudes that assembled in Jerusalem at this feast”: this is what it signifies allegorically — the many multitudes of the faithful in the church of the New Testament.

⁴¹ “The various different lands of Jerusalem from which those multitudes came”: this is what it signifies — all the faithful coming out of every quarter of the world into the church, through the grace of the Holy Spirit who came today upon the apostles.

⁴² How wonderful exceedingly is this wise craftsman — the Holy Spirit! For the Holy Spirit does without delay every good thing that he wills; at once, as soon as the Holy Spirit touches the mind of a man, he instructs him in every good thing.

⁴³ The mere touch of the Holy Spirit is teaching enough for a man; for at once, as soon as the Holy Spirit illuminates the mind of a man, he changes him and alters him from his evil, and fills him with every good thing after casting every evil out of him.

⁴⁴ For the Holy Spirit filled the lad so that he became a harper — David son of Jesse — and made of him a choice psalmist of the Lord; he filled the lad Daniel the prophet, and made of him a discerning judge of the elders; he filled the ignorant fisherman — Peter the apostle — and made of him a wise teacher of the Jewish people; he filled the persecutor of the churches — Paul the apostle — and made of him the most learned teacher of the Gentiles; he filled also the steward and the collector of the worldly taxes — Matthew — and made of him an apostle and an evangelist of the Lord.

⁴⁵ “Beloved brethren,” says the wise man, “see how great is the duty of honouring this feast of the Holy Spirit; for it is at this feast that men were released, and sons of God were made of them through the election of the Holy Spirit. If we desire then, beloved brethren, not to abide in the death of eternal punishment for our carnality, let us love the Holy Spirit, by whom eternal life is given to us. Let each one cast from him the defilements of his sin and his trespass, and purge his heart so that it may be a fitting dwelling for the Holy Spirit; for great is this feast to the hearts in which the Holy Spirit dwells.

⁴⁶ “Let us then invite the Holy Spirit to us through purity of heart and mind, as Jesus commands in the gospel, saying: “blessed are the pure in heart,” for “they shall be beholding the Lord through all eternity.” Let us invite the Holy Spirit through obedience and humility, as Jesus himself commands in another place in the gospel, saying: “whoever humbles himself here before God, shall be exalted there by God.” Let us invite him through endurance of pains and tribulations here, for Jesus promised a great reward to the people of patience when he says: “blessed are the people who suffer tribulation and persecution here for God’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Let us invite him through alms and through offerings, as Christ commands in the gospel, saying: “give alms, you men, and all your sins and vices shall be forgiven you.” Let us invite him through fasting and through abstinence; for fasting reveals the secrets and the thoughts of the future, summons the virtues, casts out the vices.

⁴⁷ “Let us invite him through prayer, for it is greatly praised in the scripture, as the wise man says: “prayer is better than all the treasures of the world.” Let us invite him through the expelling of every vice and through the taking up of every virtue: he who was an adulterer, let him become chaste; he who was gluttonous, let him become temperate; he who was wrathful, let him become gentle; he who was niggardly, let him become generous; he who was inconstant, let him become moderate; he who was unstable, let him become steadfast; he who was proud, let him become humble.

⁴⁸ “Whoever then shuns all these evils and does the good things that are contrary to them, shall be separated by the Holy Spirit from the pain of the thirst(?), from the eternal hunger, from the gnashing of teeth, from the horrible shackles of the demons, from the hideous faces of the devourers(?), from the intolerable stench of the worms, from the fire that is never extinguished, and from every other endless evil besides. And he shall be united by the Holy Spirit into the unity of the patriarchs and prophets, into the unity of the saints and holy virgins of the world, into the unity of the divinity and humanity of the Son of God; in the unity that is nobler than every unity, in the unity of the Holy Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit.

⁴⁹ Merciful is the mercy of God; may we all reach that unity; may we merit it, may we dwell therein, in secula seculorum, amen.

Here ends the homily. The manuscript column (56a) continues: “IMDIBE CRIST, in dara baitsed, incipit” — the heading of the next homily (On the Baptism of Christ).