This man is not a Jew, nor of those under the law, but he had already anticipated our manner of life. Observe, thus far, two persons, both of high rank, receiving the faith, the eunuch at Gaza and this man; and the pains taken on behalf of these men. But do not imagine that this was because of their high rank: God forbid! It was because of their piety. The Scripture mentions their dignified stations to show the greatness of their piety, since it is more wonderful when a person in a position of wealth and power is such as these were.

For it is often said, He deserved to believe, because he was a good man even before he believed. This may be said of Cornelius since his alms were accepted and his prayers heard before he had believed on Christ; and yet without some faith he neither gave alms nor prayed. For how did he call on him on whom he had not believed? But if he could have been saved without the faith of Christ, the apostle Peter would not have been sent as an architect to build him up. For, Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it.^[1] And we are told, faith is of ourselves; other things that pertain to works of righteousness are of the Lord; as if faith did not belong to the building—as if, I say, the foundation did not belong to the building. But if the foundation primarily and especially belongs to the building, he labors in vain who seeks to build up the faith by preaching, unless the Lord in his mercy builds it up from within. Whatever, therefore, of good works Cornelius performed, whether before he believed in Christ or when he believed or after he had believed, all to be ascribed to God. Otherwise, it might be assumed that human initiative is being lifted up.

But here again is a high commendation of alms, just as was there given by means of Tabitha. A devout man, it says, and one that feared God with all his house. Let us hear this, lest we neglect those of our own house. This man was also concerned for his soldiers. And who gave alms, it says, to all the people. Both his doctrines and his life were right.

One does not attain faith by virtues, but rather one attains virtues by faith, as the blessed Pope Gregory explains.^[1] Cornelius, he says, whose almsdeeds before his baptism were praised by an angelic witness, did not come to faith by works but came to works by faith. For if he had not believed in the true God even before his baptism, to whom was he praying? Or how had almighty God heard this man, if it was not that he had been asking to be perfected in the good by this very God? Therefore he knew God as the creator of all things, but he did not know that the all-powerful Son had become flesh. He had faith, this man whose prayers and alms were able to please [God], and by his good deeds he earned the right to know God perfectly and to believe in the mystery of the incarnation of his only begotten, so that he might approach the sacrament of baptism. Therefore, through faith he came to works, yet through works he was strengthened in faith.

It is fitting that it was at the ninth hour that [Cornelius] received the divine message concerning the baptism he was to ask for, since he was to be baptized in the death of the one who sent forth his spirit at the ninth hour.^[1]

See how great the virtue of alms, both in the former discourse and here! There, it delivered from temporal death; here, from eternal death, and opened the gates of heaven. Such are the pains taken for the bringing of Cornelius to the faith, that both an angel is sent, and the Spirit works, and the chief of the apostles is fetched to him, and such a vision is shown, and, in short, nothing is left undone. How many centurions were there besides, and tribunes and kings, and yet none of them obtained what this man did! Hear, all you that are in military commands, all you that stand beside kings. A just man, it says, fearing God; devout; and what is more than all, with all his house. Not as we who do everything that our servants may be afraid of us, do everything, but not that they may be devout. . . . Not so this man; but he was one that feared God with all his house, for he was as the common father of those with him and of all the others [under his command.] But observe what [the soldier] says himself. . . . He adds this also, well reported of by all the nation. So what if he was uncircumcised? No, the alms give him a good report. There is nothing like alms. Great is the virtue of this practice, when the almsgiving is poured forth from pure stores; for it is like a fountain discharging mud when it issues from unjust stores, but when from just gains, it is as a limpid and pure stream in a paradise, sweet to the sight, sweet to the touch, both light and cool, when given in the noonday heat. Such is alms.

Cornelius, born of Gentile stock, was highly respected in the city of Caesarea; his life, given over to godly works, sanctified him for the waters, and he, who did whatever faith was inclined to perform in those washed by baptism, . . . began to believe through his actions. For an angel, sent from the stars, drawing near to [Cornelius] said, The wealth that you distribute, the words that you pray, stand [pleasing] in the sight of the highest Lord. Rewards for your virtue will not be lacking. Accept the certain Way when Peter comes here. Thus the glistening messenger implanted with his word the commands for eternal washings.

Are there even now some who work from the first hour and others from the eleventh, and who are they? Perhaps [the answer to this] is most evident to anyone from the events recounted in the divinely inspired Scripture that while there are many, in the words of the apostle, who have learned the holy Scriptures from childhood,^[1] many still, such as Cornelius, although making good use of natural movements, are slow in coming to perfection of knowledge because of a lack of teachers. For how, he says, do they believe, if they do not hear?^[2] If, therefore, it happens that some, like Cornelius, are engaged in nothing evil but rather are desirous of perfection and genuinely demonstrate the good that they can and that comes to their knowledge, to these God gives the same blessings as he did to Cornelius by not holding them culpable for the period of idleness, since it was not their fault, as I said, and he is content with their desire that was previously made manifest through their eager actions and what has been more diligently set right in relation to perfection.

Did you see what assurance came from prayers and almsgiving to this man, whose whole life was spent in the cloak and belt of the soldier? Let them hear this who have enlisted in the army and let them learn that military service presents no hindrance to virtue for the one who is willing to be sober. Let them learn that one can take great care of virtue, even though he wears the soldier’s cloak and belt, even though he has a wife, the care of children, the management of a household, and even though he has undertaken a public duty. Look at this admirable man, who wore the soldier’s cloak and belt, who commanded troops, for he was a centurion! Of what care did heaven deem him worthy because of his good will, his sobriety and his vigilance?

And that you may know clearly that grace wings its way down to us from on high only after we have first done our fair share, hear the story itself. After Cornelius had taken the first step by his frequent and generous almsgiving, he was devoting himself earnestly to prayer. About the ninth hour, the Scripture says, an angel stood beside him as he prayed and said, Cornelius, your prayers and your alms have gone up and been remembered in the sight of God.

Let us not simply pass these words by, but let us carefully consider the virtue of the man. Then let us learn how loving and kind the Master is and how he overlooks no one. But where he sees a soul that is sober, there he lavishes his grace upon him. Here is a soldier who has had benefit of no instruction, who was tangled up in the affairs of this life, who has each day a thousand things to distract and bother him. Yet he did not waste his life in banquets and drinking and gluttony but spent his time in prayer and almsgiving. He showed such eagerness on his own initiative, he attended so constantly to prayer, he was so generous in his almsgiving, that he showed himself deserving of such a vision.

It must be noted that whoever, with pure conscience, earnestly prays to God and gives alms, does not remain in the same condition, but God makes known, through the vision of an angel or through a pious person, the true faith through which we are saved. In the case where one does not know whether this or that action is pleasing to God, it is best earnestly to pray to God so that the truth may be revealed. This is essential especially if one is at a loss concerning the faith, what it is necessary to think or in whom one must believe. For this reason there are many heresies among those who seem to be Christians.

We seek those virtues that are most salutary for our salvation and for our neighbor. Such is almsgiving and such is prayer, or rather the latter becomes efficacious and capable of flight as a result of the former. Your prayers, the text says, and your alms have ascended for a memorial before God. This is true not only of prayer, but fasting has its strength from this as well. If you fast without giving alms, your fasting is not considered to be valid. Rather, such a person is worse than a glutton and a drunkard, and so much worse as cruelty is harder to bear than luxury. And why do I speak about fasting? Even though you are chaste, even though you observe virginity, if you do not cultivate charity you are out of the bridal chamber.

Let us beware of such dangerous temptations of pride, and let us rather consider the fact that the apostle Paul himself, although stricken down and admonished by the voice of God from heaven, was yet sent to a man to receive the sacraments and be admitted into the church. Cornelius the centurion, although an angel announced to him that his prayers were heard and that his alms were remembered, was yet handed over to Peter for instruction, and not only received the sacraments from the apostle’s hands but was also instructed by him as to the proper objects of faith, hope and love. And without doubt it was possible to have done everything through the instrumentality of angels, but the condition of our race would have been much more degraded if God had not chosen to make use of people as the ministers of his word to [other people]. For how could that be true which is written, The temple of God is holy, and that temple you are,^[1] if God gave forth no oracles from his human temple but communicated everything that he wished to be taught to people by voices from heaven or through the ministration of angels? Moreover, love itself, which binds people together in the bond of unity, would have no means of pouring soul into soul, and, as it were, mingling them one with another, if people never learned anything from [others].

Cornelius sent three people to Peter because the Gentile world, which was to come to believe in the faith of the apostles, had subjugated Europe, Asia and Africa, which were to be taken over partly by militant zeal (that is, by urgent preaching) and partly by domestic business dealings. Note also that one soldier and two domestic servants were sent, for among the members of the church, the greater their strength, the fewer you will find. There are more who know how to hear the word than those who know how to speak it.

And when the angel that spoke to Cornelius had left, he called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually; and when he had declared all these things to them, he sent them to Joppa. Do you see that it is not without purpose that the writer says this? [It shows] that those also who waited on him continually were such as he. And when he had declared the whole matter to them, observe the unassuming character of the man: for he does not say, Call Peter to me, but in order also to induce him to come, he declared the whole matter. This was so ordered by Providence, for he did not choose to use the authority of his rank to fetch Peter to him; therefore he declared the matter; such was the moderation of the man. And yet no great notion was to be formed of one lodging with a tanner.

I do not hesitate for a moment to place the Catholic catechumen, who is burning with love for God, before the baptized heretic; nor do we dishonor the sacrament of baptism that the latter has already received, the former not as yet; nor do we consider that the sacrament of the catechumen is preferable to the sacrament of baptism, even when we acknowledge that some catechumens are better and more faithful than some baptized persons. . . . For Cornelius, even before his baptism, was filled with the Holy Spirit [Acts 10:44]; Simon, even after baptism, was puffed up with an unclean spirit.

This signifies that when the church has left behind earthly desires, it will have its way of life in heaven.

But the apostle Peter, when he was in Joppa and wanted to pray, ascended into the upper part^[1] [of the house]. Immediately, I take these words to be not in vain, that he did not pray in lower places but ascended to the higher. For the reason that so great an apostle chose to pray in a higher place is not superfluous, but rather, I believe, to show that Peter, because he had died with Christ, was seeking the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God and not the things upon the earth.^[2] He ascended there, to that roof, to those heights about which the Lord also says, Let the one who is on the roof not go down to remove anything from the house.^[3] Then, so that you may know that we do not say these things suspiciously about Peter because he ascends to the higher, you will confirm it from the following. It says, He went up to the higher place to pray, and he saw the heavens open. Does it not yet appear to you that Peter had gone up to the higher, not only in the body but also in mind and spirit? . . .

It is appropriate that Peter stays at the house of a tanner, that one, perhaps, about whom Job says, you clothed me with skin and flesh.^[4]

At the sixth hour, in the midst of his prayer, Peter became hungry—hungry indeed for the salvation of the world, which in the sixth age the Lord had come to seek and to save.^[1] Christ himself also wished to indicate this when, at the same hour of the day, he became thirsty at the Samaritan well.^[2]

Peter proceeds to go to the high upper story as it is now the blazing middle of the day: the high place looking down upon the earth teaches Peter always to follow heavenly, not earthly things; the circuit of the sixth hour also discloses the [number of the] age in which Christ came into the world to dispense the wealth of him who saves. The number, with respect to days, manifests the pattern by which he earlier established the world which the Redeemer, coming in this very age, forbids to be crushed under the sway of sin. Finally it is said that these things also took place at the sixth [hour]; when the Master, weary from his journey [and] sitting at the mouth of the well, asks for a cup of water by means of the maid’s vessel, he is about to provide his church’s rest everywhere from the font.^[1] In the [same] hour that Peter was hungry, his godly Master thirsted, always loving to add to his gifts. He who increased the honor of [Peter’s] name enabled him at the same time to nourish faith. The earth will rejoice, filled by this hunger [of Peter’s] which, richer than any gift, flows deliciously and, as it brings eternal feasts, leaves no one empty.

Observe how the Spirit connects the times: no sooner than this, and no later, he causes this to take place: Peter about the sixth hour went up upon the housetop to pray; that is, privately and quietly, as in an upper chamber. And he became very hungry and would have eaten; but while they made ready, there fell upon him a trance. What does this expression, trance, mean? There was presented to him in the ecstatic vision a kind of spiritual view; the soul, so to speak, was caused to be out of the body.

And what is the purpose of Scripture in teaching us that Peter fasted and that the mystery regarding the baptism of the Gentiles was revealed to him when he was fasting and praying if not to show that the saints themselves, when they fast, become more illustrious? Moses received the law when he was fasting,^[1] and so Peter, when he was fasting, was taught the grace of the New Testament. Daniel, too, by virtue of his fasting, stopped the jaws of the lions and saw the events of future times.^[2] Or what salvation can we have unless by fasting we wipe out our sins, since Scripture says fasting and almsgiving purge away sin!^[3]

Those^[1] heretics who introduce [different] natures [into the argument that some are evil by nature] claim that those people who are called, because of their depravity, dogs and pigs, are unable to have a share of salvation, and that it is to these that the Savior forbade the giving of what is holy, the divine pearls. They also say that these people, who are called ravenous wolves and foxes along with the names of all the other brute animals, are evil by nature. Their claim is to be refuted from the vision in this passage that none of them is evil by nature but by his intentions. For when God wanted to teach Peter that no one must be rejected as impure and polluting, he sent down from heaven to earth by its four corners a certain vessel similar to a linen cloth, in which were all the species of brute animals, from which Peter was ordered to sacrifice and eat. And, since he still observed the Jewish laws and thought that what he was seeing was physical, he refused to eat, saying that he had never eaten anything impure and unclean. When he had spoken these words, he heard the divine oracle: What God has purified do not call unclean. Drawing from this the conclusion that these things were said about the character of people, he said that God had shown him that no one is unclean by his nature. He therefore went without objection to the house of Cornelius, who desired to receive the fruit of the gospel teaching together with all his family. Thus it has been shown that four-footed animals, reptiles and birds, in reference to the different characters of human beings, are acceptable to God. And therefore, not because of an opposing nature has it been forbidden to throw pearls or what is holy to dogs and pigs, but because of the extremely evil character that can be left behind until no dog or pig exists anymore. Thus the Syrophoenician woman^[2] was made from a dog into a human being, so that Jesus also granted her the bread of the children.

He fell into a trance, Scripture says, and saw the heavens opened. Those who love to be the disciples of delirious women—those from Phrygia^[3]—claiming to be prophets, inspired by the Holy Spirit, do not understand their own utterances at the moment of prophecy. They believe they have proof for their error from this passage of Scripture that Peter fell into a trance. But let the foolish and truly insane know that this word^[4] means many different things. For it indicates both the awe at something wondrous, and the action of going out of the tangible world to the spiritual, as well as the delirium of senses, which cannot be applied to Peter or the prophets, but the other meanings of this word can be. For without a doubt, Peter, in a trance, followed along so as to proclaim what he saw and heard and what the signs, which he received, revealed. And you can certainly say the same about all the prophets who followed along with and saw the things that they reported to have seen. Indeed they were wise and learned from the same mouth what they proffered, for the Lord openly commanded them, after his resurrection, to instruct all the nations in his doctrine. So why did the apostles in Jerusalem, after hearing what had been done at the house of Cornelius, argue with Peter?

Clearly Peter, the all-holy leader of the apostles, needed the divine revelation concerning the nations. He did not know that there is no distinction between circumcised and uncircumcised with respect to the faith. Furthermore, he did not clearly know that the Lord called for the nations to be made into disciples apart from the visible worship according to the law until he revealed the mystery of God’s unspoken will and revelation. And through the figure shown by the linen cloth and through the granting of the grace of the Holy Spirit in like manner to the nations according to faith, he made the case that in Christ there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile.

I also know that the blessed Peter was both hungry and at the same time drunk in such a type of drunkenness as this.^[1] Before his bodily meal was brought to him, when he became hungry and wanted to take food, while his own were preparing the table for him, there came upon him a divine and sober drunkenness. Through this drunkenness he stood outside himself and saw the gospel linen sent down from above by four corners and holding the whole human race within itself in the myriad forms of birds and quadripeds and creeping things and beasts formed according to the cults, whose beastly and irrational form the Word commanded Peter to sacrifice, in order that by being cleansed what was left would become edible. This cleansing is clear from the word of piety not being handed over naked, for the divine voice says not once that what God has made clean is not unclean, but this proclamation happens thrice, so that we may learn from the first voice that God the Father purifies and from the second that in the same way the God purifying is the only-begotten God and from the third that equally the God purifying all that is unclean is the Holy Spirit.

What is this? It is a symbol of the whole world. The man was uncircumcised. He had nothing in common with the Jews—they would all accuse him as a transgressor: You went into the house of uncircumcised men, and ate with them;^[1] this was a thing altogether offensive to them. Observe then what is providentially managed. [Peter] himself also says, I have never eaten, not being himself afraid—far be the thought from us—but it is so ordered by the Spirit, in order that he may have it to say in answer to those accusing him, that he did object: for it was altogether necessary for them to observe the law. He was in the act of being sent to the Gentiles: therefore that these also may not accuse him, see how many things are shaped [by the providence of God]. For, that it may not seem to be a mere fancy, this was done three times. He said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclean. And the voice came to him, ‘What God has cleansed, you must not call common.’^[2] It seems indeed to be spoken to him, but the entire message is meant for the Jews. For if the teacher is rebuked, much more these also. This is what the linen sheet denotes. The earth, then, and the wild beasts in it, are the Gentiles. The command, Kill and eat, denotes that he must go to them also; and that this is done three times denotes triune baptism.

This vessel signifies the church, endowed with an incorruptible faith, for a moth, which corrupts other cloth, does not consume linen. Therefore, whoever wishes to be part of the mystery of the Catholic church should root out from his heart the corruption of evil thoughts, and in this way he may be incorruptibly strengthened in faith, so that he will not be consumed by perverse thoughts, like moths, in his mind.^[1] Alternatively, the moth is a heretic, wishing to corrupt the Lord’s robe but unable to do so because the Lord does not permit it. This is also prefigured by the Lord’s tunic, which the soldiers did not presume to tear.^[2]

The four corners by which the linen sheet hangs down designate the four regions of the world to which the church extends,^[1] for it is the city of our God on his holy mountain,^[2] spreading sounds of joy to every land. [That the sheet] is lowered from heaven indicates that [the church] will be preserved as well as increased only by the grace of the Holy Spirit coming upon it. Hence John says in the Apocalypse, I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.^[3] Also, the four corners may be figures of the Evangelists, through whom the church is nourished and exalted with heavenly gifts.

Enjoying his office, the celestial keeper of the keys sees heaven opened. From there an image of a vessel is let down, so that there might be a vision on earth that all things can be taken by the body of Peter, who makes into food for the church whatever he takes to be eaten. The vision is brought before him, let down by its four sides: it is one image of the church, which rises from the four parts of the world and spreads the eloquence of the same number of heralds [evangelists], keeping together every kind of bird and domestic beast, of wild animal and reptile: these [animals] are connected to humans on account of their merits and vices. It is therefore clear that the Creator bids the Gentiles to be poured into the bowels of the church, as he instructs [Peter], Kill and eat, take away what they are and make them like yourself. He who is turned about is considered changed. Saul perished at length because Paul began to live.

So, by the grace of the blessed Trinity, the whole earth from its four corners is called to the faith. According to this reckoning, when four is taken three times, the apostolic number, twelve, is consecrated as symbolizing the salvation of the whole world from its four corners in the grace of the Trinity. This number was also indicated by the vessel full of all kinds of animals, as it were of all nations, shown to Peter. For this vessel, let down from the heavens by the four corners, was lowered and taken up three different times, so that the four became twelve. On that account, perhaps, when twelve days had elapsed after the birth of Christ, the magi, the firstfruits of the Gentiles, came to see and to adore Christ and thus merited, not only to insure their own salvation, but also to prefigure that of all Gentiles.

These animals are all the nations, unclean in their error but cleansed by a threefold lowering, that is, by the mystery of the holy Trinity in baptism. Leaving behind the form of humans, they take on the shapes of beasts and serpents. Hence, because of his treacherous and wicked character, it is said of Herod, Go and say to that fox;^[1] and the Pharisees are referred to as a brood of vipers.^[2] Of the lustful it is said, Horses made mad for their mares;^[3] of the shameless, Do not give what is holy to dogs,^[4] and of the voluptuous, Do not cast your pearls before swine.^[5] Of those who are proud and at the same time treacherous it is said, The foxes have dens and the birds of the air have nests.^[6] And of all people in general it is said, And man, when he was held in esteem (that is, made in the image of God), did not understand; he was like foolish cattle.^[7] Solomon, however, shows man [humankind] as he truly is, that is, uncorrupted, when he says, Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is all there is to man.^[8]

It [the voice that Peter heard] told him: Arise to make ready to preach the gospel. Kill in the Gentiles what they had been, and make [them] what you are; for whoever eats food lying outside of himself turns it into his own body. Therefore it [the voice] taught that the nations, which had formerly lain outside through their lack of belief, would, once their former life had been put to death, be incorporated within the society of the church. This Peter indicates, just as the apostle Paul had said of himself, Through the law I have died to the law that I may live to God in Christ.^[1] And again, It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.^[2] Indeed, those who are taken in by heretics are as though devoured by death while they are still alive.

The law is spiritual and does not provide an explanation that stops at physical meanings. For while the holy Peter still desired to follow the customs of the Jews, and since he was trying to advance towards better things, yet because he was terribly overcome by his reverence for these figures, God sent down from heaven the linen filled with animals, which . . . were condemned figuratively by the decrees of the law as impure. He then ordered Peter to kill and, if he should choose, to eat. But the disciple was reluctant and spoke as a Jew: Absolutely not, Lord, because I have never eaten anything that is common and unclean, and no impure meat has entered my mouth. So the voice of the Lord came down, not only because God was rebuking him but also he was saying clearly, What God has cleansed, you must not call common. Then [Peter] immediately understood that the time had come when the shadows had to be transformed into truth. And so the passage of the figures into truth fulfilled them and should not show, as some people think, that they were placed there without a reason. Doubtless, the lawgiver does not consider a pig, or the other animals, now clean, now unclean. No, for he knows that they are well-made, for it is written, And God saw all that he had made, and behold all was very good, and he blessed it.^[1] For to the extent that each thing of creation has come to be and to the extent that it has been made, it will only have, so I suppose, in itself what is good. So even though the pig cannot chew the cud, it is not unclean, but rather is perfectly edible, and what is proper to something’s nature does not pollute it. As I have said, the law was figures and shadows that remained until the time of correction.^[2]

At that time Peter saw a vision in which a heavenly voice answered him, What God has cleansed, you must not call common. For the God who had distinguished through the law the pure food from the impure, that same God had cleansed the nations through the blood of his Son, and that is the God whom Cornelius worshiped.

For the mystery of the holy Trinity was to be preached throughout the four regions of the world by the twelve apostles.^[1] It is for this reason that four linen cords were let down from heaven three times. Or, as it is interpreted by the blessed Ambrose,^[2] The third repetition of the figure expressed the operation of the Trinity. And so in the mysteries a threefold question is put and a threefold confirmation is proclaimed. Nor can anyone be purified except by a threefold confession. Hence in the gospel Peter himself was asked three times whether he loved the Lord,^[3] so that his threefold response might loose the bonds with which he had bound himself by denying the Lord. These things shown to Peter were very appropriate to the situation, since the Gentile Cornelius appealed to him to show him that he should not hesitate to entrust the Christian faith to the uncircumcised. For he was from among those living things that were manifested in the evangelical vessel. Hence it was confirmed by the Holy Spirit that he should act in the same way.

After the threefold lowering the vessel was taken up to heaven, since after the affairs of this world, through which the church travels as a pilgrim who has been cleansed by faith and baptism, there then follows a happy and everlasting heavenly dwelling.

Three times the voice of the Lord resounds. This is repeated for [our] salvation: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit do this together. Arius, contentious against this faith, fell by denying that the One is in three Persons; Sabellius admitted the One, but [it is] the Father, he said, who then in turn is called Son and Holy Spirit, being the same, but so that the whole is the Father himself; and what the One greatest contains in its threefold order the former divides and the latter abandons. Both lie vanquished; for the threefold command of the [Lord’s] bidding indicates a single number in [three] Persons, with their own qualities, [and] by this command he calls the Gentiles: to believe this is right, if we wish to believe perfectly.

For the things made clean are made clean not by a single invocation nor by a second, but unless a third invocation is pronounced, no one is cleansed. For unless you were cleansed in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, you could not be clean.

At the right time, the men come who resolve his confusion. When Christ allowed Joseph to be thrown into confusion, then too, he sent an archangel to him.^[1] Here Peter’s soul, having been confused, calmly accepts the resolution . . . when they inquire whether he is staying there.

While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said to him, Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down, and accompany them without hesitation; for I have sent them. And this again is a plea for Peter not to doubt in response to the visitors. He was instructed to doubt nothing. For I, he says, have sent them. Great is the authority of the Spirit! What God does is what the Spirit is said to do. Not so the angel, but having first said, Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God, to show that he is sent from God. Then the angel adds, And now send men, etc.; the Spirit, however, says, For I have sent them.

He was ordered to descend from the roof and to go to preach in order to show that the church should not only watch for the Lord by climbing to the heights, but, returning to the active life as if rising from its bed, it should preach this same Lord to all the lowliest and to those still situated outside, as it were, but [who are] nevertheless knocking at the door of Simon, that is, at the door of obedience.^[1] As the Lord said, You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.^[2] It is well that it is mentioned that Peter’s house was situated by the seashore,^[3] for the sea designates the wave-tossed tumults and frenzies of the world, where greedy people pursue and devour each other like voracious fish. The saints’ way of life is in heaven,^[4] and although the earthly house in which they dwell may be destroyed, they have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven not made by human hands.^[5]

The Spirit told the soldiers to visit [Peter], and concerning the cause of their coming he [the Spirit] was silent, because in order to preserve the humility of the human mind, at times the spirit of prophecy partly touches the soul and partly does not.^[1]