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1. THE Lord being now crucified, and the parting of His garments
having also been completed by the casting of the lot, let us look at
what the evangelist John thereafter relates. "And these things,"
he says, "the soldiers did. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus
His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary [the wife] of
Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His
mother, and the disciple standing by whom He loved, He saith unto
His mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith He to the
disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour the disciple took
her unto his own home." This, without a doubt, was the hour whereof
Jesus, when about to turn the water into wine, had said to His
mother, "Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet
come." This hour, therefore, He had foretold, which at that time
had not yet arrived, when it should be His to acknowledge her at the
point of death, and with reference to which He had been born as a
mortal man. At that time, therefore, when about to engage in divine
acts, He repelled, as one unknown, her who was the mother, not of
His divinity, but of His [human] infirmity; but now, when in the
midst of human sufferings, He commended with human affection [the
mother] by whom He had become man. For then, He who had created
Mary became known in His power; but now, that which Mary had
brought forth was hanging on the cross.
2. A passage, therefore, of a moral character is here inserted.
The good Teacher does what He thereby reminds us ought to be done,
and by His own example instructed His disciples that care for their
parents ought to be a matter of concern to pious children: as if that
tree to which the members of the dying One were affixed were the very
chair of office from which the Master was imparting instruction. From
this wholesome doctrine it was that the Apostle Paul had learned what
he taught in turn, when he said, "But if any provide not for his
own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the
faith, and is worse than an infidel." And what are so much home
concerns to any one, as parents to children, or children to parents?
Of this most wholesome precept, therefore, the very Master of the
saints set the example from Himself, when, not as God for the
hand-maid whom He had created and governed, but as a man for the
mother, of whom He had been created, and whom He was now leaving
behind, He provided in some measure another son in place of Himself.
And why He did so, He indicates in the words that follow: for the
evangelist says, "And from that hour the disciple took her unto his
own," speaking of himself. In this way, indeed, he usually refers
to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved: who certainly loved them
all, but him beyond the others, and with a closer familiarity, so
that He even made him lean upon His bosom at supper; in order, I
believe, in this way to commend the more highly the divine excellence
of this very gospel, which He was thereafter to preach through his
instrumentality.
3. But what was this "his own," unto which John took the mother
of the Lord? For he was not outside the circle of those who said unto
Him, "Lo, we have left all, and followed Thee." No, but on
that same occasion he had also heard the words, Every one that hath
forsaken these things for my sake, shall receive an hundred times as
much in this world. That disciple, therefore, had an hundredfold
more than he had cast away, whereunto to receive the mother of Him who
had graciously bestowed it all. But it was in that society that the
blessed John had received an hundredfold, where no one called anything
his own, but they had all things in common; even as it is recorded in
the Acts of the Apostles. For the apostles were as if having
nothing, and yet possessing all things How was it, then, that the
disciple and servant received unto his own the mother of his Lord and
Master, where no one called anything his own? Or, seeing we read a
little further on in the same book, "For as many as were possessors
of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of them, and laid
them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every
man according as he had need," are we not to understand that such
distribution was made to this disciple of what was needful, that there
was also added to it the portion of the blessed Mary, as if she were
his mother; and ought we not the rather so to take the words, "From
that hour the disciple took her unto his own," that everything
necessary for her was entrusted to his care? He received her,
therefore, not unto his own lands, for he had none of his own; but to
his own dutiful services, the discharge of which, by a special
dispensation, was entrusted to himself.
4. He then adds: "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were
now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I
thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a
sponge with vinegar, and fixed it upon hyssop, and put it to His
mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It
is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost." Who
has the power of so adjusting what he does, as this Man had of
arranging all that He suffered? But this Man was the Mediator
between God and men; the Man of whom we read in prophecy, He is man
also, and who shall acknowledge Him? for the men who did such things
acknowledged not this Man as God. For He who was manifest as man,
was hid as God: He who was manifest suffered all these things, and
He Himself also, who was hid, arranged them all. He saw,
therefore, that all was accomplished that required to be done before
He received the vinegar, and gave up the ghost; and that this also
might be accomplished which the scripture had foretold, "And in my
thirst they gave me vinegar to drink," He said, "I thirst:" as
if it were, One thing still you have failed to do, give me what you
Are. For the Jews were themselves the vinegar, degenerated as they
were from the wine of the patriarchs and prophets; and filled like a
full vessel with the wickedness of this world, with hearts like a
sponge, deceitful in the formation of its cavernous and tortuous
recesses. But the hyssop, whereon they placed the sponge filled with
vinegar, being a lowly herb, and purging the heart, we fitly take for
the humility of Christ Himself; which they thus enclosed, and
imagined they had completely ensnared. Hence we have it said in the
psalm, "Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be
cleansed." For it is by Christ's humility that we are cleansed;
because, had He not humbled Himself, and became obedient unto the
death of the cross, His blood certainly would not have been shed for
the remission of sins, or, in other words, for our cleansing.
5. Nor need we be disturbed with the question, how the sponge could
be applied to His mouth when He was lifted up from the earth on the
cross. For as we read in the other evangelists, what is omitted by
this one, it was fixed on a reed, so that such drink as was contained
in the sponge might be raised to the highest part of the cross. By the
reed, however, the scripture was signified, which was fulfilled by
this very act. For as a tongue is called either Greek or Latin, or
any other, significant of the sound, which is uttered by the tongue;
so the reed may give its name to the letter which is written with a
reed. We most usually, however, call those tongues that express the
sounds of the human voice: while in calling scripture a reed, the very
rareness of the thing only enhances the mystical nature of that which it
symbolizes. A wicked people did such things, a compassionate Christ
suffered them. They who did them, knew not what they did; but He
who suffered, not only knew what was done, and why it was so, but
also wrought what was good through those who were doing what was evil.
6. "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It
is finished." What, but all that prophecy had foretold so long
before? And then, because nothing now remained that still required to
be done before He died, as if He, who had power to lay down His
life and to take it up again, had at length completed all for whose
completion He was waiting, "He bowed His head, and gave up the
ghost." Who can thus sleep when he pleases, as Jesus died when He
pleased? Who is there that thus puts off his garment when he pleases,
as He put off His flesh at His pleasure? Who is there that thus
departs when he pleases, as He departed this life at His pleasure?
How great the power, to be hoped for or dreaded, that must be His as
judge, if such was the power He exhibited as a dying man!
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