Suspended, then, and fastened to his cross Christ cried out to God the Father in a loud voice and willingly laid down his life. In that same hour there was an earthquake, and the veil of the temple that separated the two tabernacles was cut in two, and the sun was suddenly withdrawn, and from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness.^[1] The prophet Amos bears witness to this. And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, that the sun shall go down at midday, and the day shall be darkened of light. And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation.

Let us keep [the Feast of Annunciation] with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. From ancient times Israel kept their festival, but then it was with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, of which the prophet says, I will turn their feasts into afflictions and lamentation and their joy into shame. But our afflictions our Lord has assured us he will turn into joy by the fruits of repentance.^[1]

The unreliability of excessive wealth may edify even to the point of eliciting contempt of corporal riches. Wealth is unstable. It is like a wave accustomed to change back and forth due to the violence of the wind. One might suppose that the people of Israel are rich, since they have the adoption of sons and divine worship, the promises and the patriarchs. However, they have become poor because of their sin against the Lord. But they that seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good.^[1] They have lacked nourishment in a certain way and have suffered hunger. For when they had put to death the bread of life, a hunger for the bread came upon them. A chastisement for the thirst was imposed on them, but the hunger was not for sensible bread or the thirst for water, but a hunger to hear the Word of God. Therefore they have wanted and have suffered hunger.

We harm both soul and body if we are guilty of lack of moderation to them both by fattening one beyond need or by causing them to waste away from starvation. . . . The Lord of all once admonished the Jewish people . . . by way of extreme indignation in the words, I will deal you not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord, to teach us that while one famine can torture the body, the other famine affects the soul. This very thing that the Lord threatened to inflict on them by way of punishment we now of our own volition secure for ourselves despite God’s show of care for us and his provision for us, through the advice of mentors, as well as the reading of Scriptures.

When Joseph was about thirty years old^[1] he was released from his chains and interpreted Pharaoh’s dream. He was made the governor of Egypt. During the time of plenty, he gathered in the wheat, so that during the time of famine he would have some to distribute. I think that Joseph’s age of thirty came before as a type of the Savior’s thirty years. For this second Joseph did not gather in the kind of wheat that first Joseph did in Egypt. He, Jesus, gathers in true and heavenly wheat, so that in the time of abundance he might gather in the wheat that he will give out when famine is sent upon Egypt, not hunger for bread or thirst for water, but hunger to hear the word of the Lord.

It is prophesied, Their young men will die by the sword, and their sons and daughters will perish in famine.^[1] Those who hindered Jesus from teaching have not simply perished by the sword. But now, after the advent of the Lord, a more profound famine has come upon them. It is not a famine of bread or thirst of water, but a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord. For the Lord almighty no longer speaks with them. This famine portends that prophecy would cease. And why do I say prophecy? The Lord ceased teaching them. Even if they bear the title sage a thousand times with them, the Word of the Lord is still not among them, since the verse has been fulfilled: The Lord took away from Judea and Jerusalem the strong man and strong woman, the giant and the strong man, and the soldier and judge and prophet and diviner and elder and captain of fifty and the admirable adviser and master builder and intelligent pupil.^[2] For he is no longer able to say, Like a master builder I laid a foundation.^[3] The builders have passed over, have come to the church, have laid the foundation, Jesus Christ.^[4] Those who came after them have also built on him.