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1. The miracle indeed of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby He made
the water into wine, is not marvellous to those who know that it was
God's doing. For He who made wine on that day at the marriage
feast, in those six water-pots, which He commanded to be filled with
water, the self-same does this every year in vines. For even as that
which the servants put into the water-pots was turned into wine by the
doing of the Lord, so in like manner also is what the clouds pour
forth changed into wine by the doing of the same Lord. But we do not
wonder at the latter, because it happens every year: it has lost its
marvellousness by its constant recurrence. And yet it suggests a
greater consideration than that which was done in the water-pots. For
who is there that considers the works of God, whereby this whole world
is governed and regulated, who is not amazed and overwhelmed with
miracles? If he considers the vigorous power of a single grain of any
seed whatever, it is a mighty thing, it inspires him with awe. But
since men, intent on a different matter, have lost the consideration
of the works of God, by which they should daily praise Him as the
Creator, God has, as it were, reserved to Himself the doing of
certain extraordinary actions, that, by striking them with wonder,
He might rouse men as from sleep to worship Him. A dead man has
risen again; men marvel: so many are born daily, and none marvels.
If we reflect more considerately, it is a matter of greater wonder for
one to be who was not before, than for one who was to come to life
again. Yet the same God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
doeth by His word all these things; and it is He who created that
governs also. The former miracles He did by His Word, God with
Himself; the latter miracles He did by the same Word incarnate, and
for us made man. As we wonder at the things which were done by the man
Jesus, so let us wonder at the things which where done by Jesus
God. By Jesus God were made heaven, and earth, and the sea, all
the garniture of heaven, the abounding riches of the earth, and the
fruitfulness of the sea; all these things which lie within the reach of
our eyes were made by Jesus God. And we look at these things, and
if His own spirit is in us they in such manner please us, that we
praise Him that contrived them; not in such manner that turning
ourselves to the works we turn away from the Maker, and, in a
manner, turning our face to the things made and our backs to Him that
made them.
2. And these things indeed we see; they lie before our eyes. But
what of those we do not see, as angels, virtues, powers,
dominions,and every inhabitant of this fabric which is above the
heavens, and beyond the reach of our eyes? Yet angels, too, when
necessary, often showed themselves to men. Has not God made all
these too by His Word, that is, by His only Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ? What of the human soul itself, which is not seen, and yet
by its works shown in the flesh excites great admiration in those that
duly reflect on them, by whom was it made, unless by God? And
through whom was it made, unless through the Son of God? Not to
speak as yet of the soul of man: the soul of any brute whatever, see
bow it regulates the huge body, puts forth the senses, the eyes to
see, the ears to hear, the nostrils to smell, the taste to discern
flavors the members, in short, to execute their respective functions!
Is it the body, not the soul, namely the inhabitant of the body,
that doeth these things? The soul is not apparent to the eyes,
nevertheless it excites admiration by these its actions. Direct now
thy consideration to the soul of man, on which God has bestowed
understanding to know its Creator to discern and distinguish between
good and evil, that is, between right and wrong: see how many things
it does through the body!
Observe this whole world arranged in the same human commonwealth, with
what administrations, with what orderly degrees of authority, with
what conditions of citizenship, with what laws, manners, arts! The
whole of this is brought about by the soul, and yet this power of the
soul is not visible. When withdrawn from the body, the latter is a
mere carcase: first, it in a manner preserves it from rottenness.
For all flesh is corruptible, and falls off into putridity unless
preserved by the soul as by a kind of seasoning. But the human soul
has this quality in common with the soul of the brute; those qualities
rather are to be admired which I have stated, such as belong to the
mind and intellect, wherein also it is renewed after the image of its
Creator, after whose image man was formed. What will this power of
the soul be when this body shall have put on incorruption, and this
mortal shall have put on immortality? If such is its power, acting
through corruptible flesh, what shall be its power through a spiritual
body, after the resurrection of the dead? Yet this soul, as I have
said, of admirable nature and substance, is a thing invisible,
intellectual; this soul also was made by God Jesus, for He is the
Word of God. " All things were made by Him, and without Him was
nothing made."
3. When we see, therefore, such deeds wrought by Jesus God, why
should we wonder at water being turned into wine by the man Jesus?
For He was not made man in such manner that He lost His being God.
Man was added to Him, God not lost to Him. This miracle was
wrought by the same who made all those things Let us not therefore
wonder that God did it, but love Him because He did it in our
midst, and for the purpose of our restoration. For He gives us
certain intimations by the very circumstances of the case. I suppose
that it was not without cause He came to the marriage. The miracle
apart, there lies something mysterious and sacramental in the very
fact. Let us knock, that He may open to us, and fill us with the
invisible wine: for we were water, and He made us wine, made us
wise; for He gave us the wisdom of His faith, whilst before we were
foolish. And it appertains, it may be, to this wisdom, together
with the honor of God, and with the praise of His majesty, and with
the charity of His most powerful mercy, to understand what was done in
this miracle.
4. The Lord, on being invited, came to the marriage. What wonder
if He came to that house to a marriage, having come into this world to
a marriage? For, indeed, if He came not to a marriage, He has not
here a bride. But what says the apostle? "I have espoused you to
one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ." Why does he
fear lest the virginity of Christ's bride should be corrupted by the
subtilty of the devil? "I fear," saith he, "lest as the serpent
beguiled Eve by his subtilty, so also your minds should be corrupted
from the simplicity and chastity which is in Christ." Thus has He
here a bride whom He has redeemed by His blood, and to whom He has
given the Holy Spirit as a pledge. He has freed her from the bondage
of the devil: He died for her sins, and is risen again for her
justification. Who will make such offerings to his bride? Men may
offer to a bride every sort of earthly ornament, gold, silver,
precious stones, houses, slaves, estates, farms, but will any give
his own blood? For if one should give his own blood to his bride, he
would not live to take her for his wife. But the Lord, dying without
fear, gave His own blood for her, whom rising again He was to have,
whom He had already united to Himself in the Virgin's womb. For
the Word was the Bridegroom, and human flesh the bride; and both
one, the Son of God, the same also being Son of man. The womb of
the Virgin Mary, in which He became head of the Church, was His
bridal chamber: thence He came forth, as a bridegroom from his
chamber, as the Scripture foretold, "And rejoiced as a giant to run
his way." From His chamber He came forth as a bridegroom; and
being invited, came to the marriage.
5. It is because of an indubitable mystery that He appears not to
acknowledge His mother. from whom as the Bridegroom He came forth,
when He says to her, "Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine
hour is not yet come." What is this? Did He come to the marriage
for the purpose of teaching men to treat their mothers with contempt?
Surely he to whose marriage He had come was taking a wife with the
view of having children, and surely he wished to be honored by those
children he would beget: had Jesus then come to the marriage in order
to dishonor His mother, when marriages are celebrated and wives
married with the view of having children, whom God commands to honor
their parents? Beyond all doubt, brethren, there is some mystery
lurking here. It is really a matter of such importance that some, of
whom the apostle, as we have mentioned before, has forewarned us to be
on our guard, saying, " I fear, lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve
by his subtilty, so also your minds should be corrupted from the
simplicity and chastity which is in Christ," taking away from the
credibility of the gospel, and asserting that Jesus was not born of
the Virgin Mary, used to endeavor to draw from this place an argument
in support of their error, so far as to say, How could she be His
mother, to whom He said, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?"
Wherefore we must answer them, and show them why the Lord said this,
test in their insanity they appear to themselves to have discovered
something contrary to wholesome belief, whereby the chastity of the
virgin bride may be corrupted, that is, whereby the faith of the
Church may be injured. For in very deed, brethren, their faith is
corrupted who prefer a lie to the truth. For these men, who appear to
honor Christ in such wise as to deny that He had flesh, do nothing
short of proclaiming Him a liar. Now they who build up a lie in men,
what do they but drive the truth out of them? They let in the devil,
they drive Christ out; they let in an adulterer, shut out the
bridegroom, being evidently paranymphs, or rather, the panderers of
the serpent. For it is for this object they speak, that the serpent
may possess, and Christ be shut out. How doth the serpent possess?
When a lie possesses. When falsehood possesses, then the serpent
possesses; when truth possesses, then Christ possesses. For
Himself has said, "I am the truth;" but of that other He said,
"He stood not in the truth, because the truth is not him." And
Christ is the truth in such wise that thou shouldst receive the whole
to be true in Him. The true Word, God equal with the Father,
true soul, true flesh, true man, true God, true nativity, true
passion, true death, true resurrection. If thou say that any of
these is false, rottenness enters, the worms of falsehood are bred of
the poison of the serpent, and nothing sound will remain.
6. What, then, is this, saith one, which the Lord saith,
"Woman, what have I to do with thee?" Perhaps the Lord shows us
in the sequel why He said this: "Mine hour," saith He, "is not
yet come." For thus is how He saith, "Woman, what have I to do
with thee? mine hour is not yet come." And we must seek to know why
this was said. But first let us therefrom withstand the heretics.
What says the old serpent, of old the hissing instiller of poison?
What saith he? That Jesus had not a woman for His mother. Whence
provest thou that? From this, saith he, because Jesus said,
"Woman, what have I to do with thee?" Who has related this, that
we should believe that Jesus said it? Who has related it? None
other than John the evangelist. But the same John the evangelist
said, "And the mother of Jesus was there." For this is how he has
told us: "The next day. there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there. And having been invited to the
marriage, Jesus had come thither with His disciples." We have here
two sayings uttered by the evangelist. "The mother of Jesus was
there," said the evangelist; and it is the same evangelist that has
told us what Jesus said to His mother. And see, brethren, how he
has told us that Jesus answered His mother, having said first,
"His mother said unto Him," in order that you may keep the
virginity of your heart secure against the tongue of the serpent. Here
we are told in the same Gospel, the record of the same evangelist,
"The mother of Jesus was there," and "His mother said unto
Him." Who related this? John the evangelist. And what said
Jesus in answer to His mother? "Woman, what have I to do with
thee? Who relates this? The very same Evangelist John. O most
faithful and truthspeaking evangelist, thou tellest me that Jesus
said, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" why hast thou added
His mother, whom He does not acknowledge? For thou hast said that
"the mother of Jesus was there," and that "His mother said unto
Him;" why didst thou not rather say, Mary was there, and Mary
said unto Him. Thou tellest as these two facts, "His mother said
unto Him," and "Jesus answered her, Woman, why have I to do
with thee?" Why doest thou this, if it be not because both are
true? Now, those men are willing to believe the evangelist in the one
case, when he tells us that Jesus said to His mother, "Woman,
what have I to do with thee?" and yet they will not believe him in
the other, when he says, "The mother of Jesus was there," and "
His mother said unto Him." But who is he that resisteth the serpent
and holds fast the truth, whose virginity of heart is not corrupted by
the subtilty of the devil? He who believes both to be true, namely,
that the mother of Jesus was there, and that Jesus made that answer
to His mother. But if he does not as yet understand in what manner
Jesus said, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" let him
meanwhile believe that He said it, and said it, moreover, to His
mother. Let him first have the piety to believe, and he will then
have fruit in understanding.
7. I ask you, O faithful Christians, Was the mother of Jesus
there? Answer ye, She was. Whence know you? Answer, The
Gospel says it. What answer made Jesus to His mother? Answer ye,
"Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come."
And whence know you this? Answer, The Gospel says it. Let no man
corrupt this your faith, if you desire to preserve a chaste virginity
for the Bridegroom. But if it be asked of you, why He made this
answer to His mother, let him declare who understands; but he who
does not as yet understand, let him most firmly believe that Jesus
made this answer, and made it moreover to His mother. By this piety
he will learn to understand also why Jesus answered thus, if by
praying he knock at the door of truth, and do not approach it with
wrangling. Only this much, while he fancies himself to know, or is
ashamed because he does not know, why Jesus answered thus, let him
beware lest he be constrained to believe either that the evangelist lied
when he said, "The mother of Jesus was there," or that Jesus
Himself suffered for our sins by a counterfeit death and for our
justification showed counterfeit scars; and that He spoke falsely in
saying, "If ye continue in my word, ye are my disciples indeed; and
ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. For if
He had a false mother, false flesh, false death, false wounds in
His death, false scars in His, resurrection, then it will not be
the truth, but rather falsehood, that shall make free those that
believe on Him. Nay, on the contrary, let falsehood yield to
truth, and let all be confounded who would have themselves be accounted
truthspeaking, because they endeavor to prove Christ a deceiver, and
will not have it said to them, We do not believe you because you lie,
when they affirm that truth itself has lied. Nevertheless, if we ask
them, Whence know you that Christ said, "Woman, what have I to
do with thee?" they answer that they believe the Gospel. Then why
do they not believe the Gospel when it says, "The mother of Jesus
was there," and, "His mother said unto Him"? Or if the Gospel
lies here, how are we to believe it there, that Jesus said this,
"Woman, what have I to do with thee?" Why do not those miserable
men rather faithfully believe that the Lord did so answer, not to a
stranger, but to His mother; and also piously seek to know why He
did so answer? There is a great difference between him who says, I
would know why Christ made this answer to His mother, and him who
says, I know that it was not to His mother that Christ made this
answer. It is one thing to be willing to understand what is shut up,
another thing to be unwilling to believe what is open. He who says,
I would know why Christ thus made answer to His mother, wishes the
Gospel, in which he believes, opened up to him; but he who says, I
know that it was not to His mother that Christ made this answer,
accuses of falsehood the very Gospel, wherein he believed that Christ
did so answer.
8. Now then, if it seem good, brethren, those men being repulsed,
and ever wandering in their own blindness, unless in humility they be
healed, let us inquire why our Lord answered His mother in such a
manner. He was in an extraordinary manner begotten of the Father
without a mother, born of a mother without a father; without a mother
He was God, without a father He was man; without a mother before
all time, without a father in the end of times. What He said was
said in answer to His mother, for "the mother of Jesus was there,"
and " His mother said unto Him." All this the Gospel says. It
is there we learn that "the mother of Jesus was there," just where
we learn that He said unto her, "Woman, what have I to do with
thee? mine hour is not yet come." Let us believe the whole; and
what we do not yet understand, let us search out. And first take
care, lest perhaps, as the Manichaeeans found occasion for their
falsehood, because the Lord said, "Woman, what have I to do with
thee?" the astrologers in like manner may find occasion for their
deception, in that He said, " Mine hour is not yet come." If it
was in the sense of the astrologers He said this, we have committed a
sacrilege in burning their books. But if we have acted rightly, as
was done in the times of the apostles, it was not according to their
notion that the Lord said, "Mine hour is not yet come." For, say
those vain-talkers and deceived seducers, thou seest that Christ was
under fate, as He says, "Mine hour is not yet come." To whom
then must we make answer first to the heretics or to the astrologers?
For both come of the serpent, and desire to corrupt the Church's
virginity of heart, which she holds in undefiled faith. Let us first
reply to those whom we proposed, to whom, indeed, we have already
replied in great measure. But lest they should think that we have not
what to say of the words which the Lord uttered in answer to His
mother, we prepare you further against them; for I suppose what has
already been said is sufficient for their refutation.
9. Why, then, said the Son to the mother, "Woman, what have I
to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come?" Our Lord Jesus
Christ was both God and man. According as He was God, He had not
a mother; according as He was man, He had. She was the mother,
then, of His flesh, of His humanity, of the weakness which for our
sakes He took upon Him. But the miracle which He was about to do,
He was about to do according to His divine nature, not according to
His weakness; according to that wherein He was God not according to
that wherein He was born weak. But the weakness of God is stronger
than men. His mother then demanded a miracle of Him; but He, about
to perform divine works, so far did not recognize a human womb; saying
in effect, "That in me which works a miracle was not born of thee,
thou gavest not birth to my divine nature; but because my weakness was
born of thee, I will recognize thee at the time when that same
weakness shall hang upon the cross." This, indeed, is the meaning
of "Mine hour is not yet come." For then it was that He
recognized, who, in truth, always did know. He knew His mother in
predestination, even before He was born of her; even before, as
God, He created her of whom, as man, He was to be created, He
knew her as His mother: but at a certain hour in a mystery He did not
recognize her; and at a certain hour which had not yet come, again in
a mystery, He does recognize her. For then did He recognize her,
when that to which she gave birth was a-dying. That by which Mary
was made did not die, but that which was made of Mary; not the
eternity of the divine nature, but the weakness of the flesh, was
dying. He made that answer therefore, making a distinction in the
faith of believers, between the who; and the how, He came.
For while He was God and the Lord of heaven and earth, He came by
a mother who was a woman. In that He was Lord of the world, Lord
of heaven and earth, He was, of course, the Lord of Mary also;
but in that wherein it is said, "Made of a woman, made under the
law," He was Mary's son. The same both the Lord of Mary and the
son of Mary; the same both the Creator of Mary and created from
Mary. Marvel not that He was both son and Lord. For just as He
is called the son of Mary, so likewise is He called the son of
David; and son of David because son of Mary. Hear the apostle
openly declaring, "Who was made of the seed of David according to
the flesh." Hear Him also declared the Lord of David; let David
himself declare this: "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit Thou on my
right hand." And this passage Jesus Himself brought forward to the
Jews, and refuted them from it. How then was He both David's son
and David's Lord? David's son according to the flesh, David's
Lord according to His divinity; so also Mary's son after the
flesh, and Mary's Lord after His majesty. Now as she was not the
mother of His divine nature, whilst it was by His divinity the
miracle she asked for would be wrought, therefore He answered her,
"Woman, what have I to do with thee?" But think not that I deny
thee to be my mother: "Mine hour is not yet come;" for in that hour
I will acknowledge thee, when the weakness of which thou art the
mother comes to hang on the cross. Let us prove the truth of this.
When the Lord suffered, the same evangelist tells us, who knew the
mother of the Lord, and who has given us to know about her in this
marriage feast, the same, I say, tells us, "There was there near
the cross the mother of Jesus; and Jesus saith to His mother,
Woman, behold thy son! and to the disciple, Behold thy mother!"
He commends His mother to the care of the disciple; commends His
mother, as about to die before her, and to rise again before her
death. The man commends her a human being to man's care. This
humanity had Mary given birth to. That hour had now come, the hour
of which He had then said, "Mine hour is not yet come."
10. In my opinion, brethren, we have answered the heretics. Let
us now answer the astrologers. And how do they attempt to prove that
Jesus was under fate? Because, say they, Himself said, "Mine
hour is not vet come." Therefore we believe Him; and if He had
said, "I have no hour," He would have excluded the astrologers:
but behold, say they, He said, "Mine hour is not yet come." If
then He had said, "I have no hour," the astrologers would have
been shut out, and would have no ground for their slander; but now
that He said, "Mine hour is not yet come," how can we contradict
His own words?
'Tis wonderful that the astrologers, by believing Christ's words,
endeavor to convince Christians that Christ lived under an hour of
fate. Well, let them believe Christ when He saith, "I have power
to lay down my life and to take it up again: no man taketh it from me,
but I lay it down of myself, and I take it again." Is this power
then under fate? Let them show us a man who has it in his power when
to die, how long to live: this they can never do. Let them,
therefore, believe God when He says, "I have power to lay down my
life, and to take it up again;" and let them inquire why it was
said, "Mine hour is not yet come;" and let them not because of
these words, be imposing fate on the Maker of heaven, the Creator
and Ruler of the stars. For even if fate were from the stars, the
Maker of the stars could not be subject to their destiny. Moreover,
not only Christ had not what thou callest fate, but not even hast
thou, or I, or he there, or any human being whatsoever.
11. Nevertheless, being deceived, they deceive others, and
propound fallacies to men. They lay snares to catch men, and that,
too. in the open streets. They who spread nets to catch wild beasts
even do it in woods and desert places: how miserably vain are men, for
catching whom the net is spread in the forum! When men sell themselves
to men, they receive money; but these give money in order to sell
themselves to vanities. For they go in to an astrologer to buy
themselves masters, such as the astrologer is pleased to give them: be
it Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, or any other named profanity. The
man went in free, that having given his money he might come out a
slave. Nay, rather, had he been free he would not have gone in; but
he entered whither his master Error and his mistress Avarice dragged
him. Whence also the truth says, " Every one that doeth sin is the
slave of sin."
12. Why then did He say, "Mine hour is not yet come?" Rather
because, having it in His power when to die, He did not yet see it
fit to use that power. Just as we, brethren, say, for example,
"Now is the appointed hour for us to go out to celebrate the
sacraments." If we go out before it is necessary, do we not act
perversely and absurdly? And because we act only at the proper time,
do we therefore in this action regard fate when we so express
ourselves? What means then, "Mine hour is not yet come?" When I
know that it is the fitting time for me to suffer, when my suffering
will be profitable, then I will willingly suffer. That hour is not
yet: that thou mayest preserve both, this, "Mine hour is not yet
come;" and that, "I have power to lay down my life, and power to
take it again." He had come, then, having it in His power when to
die. And surely it would not have been right were He to die before
He had chosen disciples. Had he been a man who had not his hour in
his own power, he might have died before he had chosen disciples; and
if haply he had died when his disciples were now chosen and instructed,
it would be something conferred on him, not his own doing. But, on
the contrary, He who had come having in His power when to go, when
to return, how far to advance, and for whom the regions of the grave
were open, not only when dying but when rising again; He, I say,
in order to show us His Church's hope of immortality, showed in the
head what it behoved the members to expect. For He who has risen
again in the head will also rise again in all His members. The hour
then had not yet come, the fit time was not yet. Disciples had to be
called, the kingdom of heaven to be proclaimed, the Lord's divinity
to be shown forth in miracles, and His humanity in His very sympathy
with mortal men. For He who hungered because He was man, fed so
many thousands with five loaves because He was God; He who slept
because He was man, commanded the winds and the waves because He was
God. All these things had first to be set forth, that the
evangelists might have whereof to write, that there might be what
should be preached to the Church. But when He had done as much as
He judged to be sufficient, then His hour came, not of necessity,
but of will, not of condition, but of power.
13. What then, brethren? Because we have replied to these and
those, shall we say nothing as to what the water-pots signify? what
the water turned into wine? what the master of the feast? what the
bridegroom? what in mystery the mother of Jesus? what the marriage
itself? We must speak of all these, but we must not burden you. I
would have preached to you in Christ's name yesterday also, when the
usual sermon was due to you, my beloved, but I was hindered by
certain necessities. If you please then, holy brethren, let us defer
until tomorrow what pertains to the hidden meaning of this translation,
and not burden both your and our own weakness. There are many of you,
perhaps, who have today come together on account of the solemnity of
the day, not to hear the sermon. Let those who come tomorrow come to
hear, so that we may not defraud those who are eager to learn, nor
burden those who are fastidious.
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