The wine of the flesh does not cheer the heart of man but overpowers it and produces madness; it is written, in fact, that it is not for kings to drink wine. The apostle, too, writes that it is good not to eat meat and not to drink wine;^[1] yet we are told that wine gladdens the heart of man.^[2] This means, however, spiritual wine, by which, if one drinks, he immediately becomes inebriated.

Let people in distress have wine and those in pain strong drink, which shows that nothing can prove such a good remedy for depression as recourse to this, aside from the fact that in some cases intemperance undermines the benefit coming from it.

Give strong drink unto him who is ready to perish, and wine unto the bitter in soul. Justly so, because it can mitigate asperity and gloominess and drive away clouds from the brow. Wine makes glad the heart of man,^[1] says the psalmist. How then does wine produce drunkenness? For it cannot be that one and the same thing should work opposite effects. Drunkenness then surely does not arise from wine but from intemperance. Wine is bestowed upon us for no other purpose than for bodily health; but this purpose also is thwarted by immoderate use.

Console each other with the following words. It is a good medicine that [Solomon] has for sorrow; for he bids wine be given to the sorrowful. He says this to us, the laborers in the vineyard, Give, therefore, your wine to those that are in sorrow, not that wine which produces drunkenness, plots against the senses and destroys the body, but such as gladdens the heart, the wine which the prophet recommends when he says, Wine makes glad the heart of man.^[1] Pledge each other in that liquor undiluted and with the unstinted goblets of the word, that thus our grief may be turned to joy and gladness, by the grace of the only-begotten Son of God, through whom be glory to God, even the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.

Give strong drink to those who are in gloom and wine to those who are sad so that they may forget their poverty and be reminded no more of their grief. What [Solomon] means is this. To those filled with bitter regret and sadness over their earlier lives give abundantly the joy of spiritual knowledge like a wine which gladdens the heart of a man.^[1] Warm them with the headiness of saving words lest they sink into gloom and deadly despair.

A religious wife is blessed. Let her praise the fear of the Lord: give her of the fruits of her lips, and let her husband be praised in the gates. And again, A virtuous wife is a crown to her husband.^[1] And again, Many wives have built a house.^[2] You have learned what great commendations a prudent and loving wife receives from the Lord God.

I have heard sacred Scripture saying, Who shall find a valiant woman? and also that she is a gift of God, and that a good marriage is arranged by the Lord. Those outside, too, have the same thought—if indeed the saying is theirs: There is no greater boon for a man than a good wife, no worse, than the opposite.^[1] It is impossible to mention anyone who was more fortunate than my father in this respect. For I believe that, if anyone, from the ends of the earth and from all human stocks, had endeavored to arrange the best possible marriage, a better or more harmonious union than this could not be found. For the best in men and women was so united that their marriage was more a union of virtue than of bodies. Although they surpassed all others, they themselves were so evenly matched in virtue that they could not surpass each other.

The divinely inspired Solomon in his instructive wisdom, I mean in his Proverbs, praises the woman who keeps her house and loves her husband. And in contrast to the woman who wanders abroad, who is uncontrolled and dishonorable, who hunts precious souls with wanton ways and words, he praises her who is engaged honorably at home, who performs her womanly duties with fearless courage, her hands constantly holding the spindle as she prepares double cloaks for her husband, who buys a field in season, and carefully provides food for her servants, and receives her friends at a bountiful table, and who exhibits all other qualities for which he extols in song the modest and industrious woman. If I were to praise my sister on such counts, it would be like praising a statue for its shadow. ON HIS SISTER ST.

The catholic church was not only preached after the coming of our Lord and Savior, beloved brethren, but from the beginning of the world, it was designated by many figures and rather hidden mysteries. Indeed, in holy Abel the catholic church existed, in Noah, in Abraham, in Isaac, in Jacob, and in the other saintly people before the advent of our Lord and Savior. Truly, Solomon says of her, Who shall find a worthy wife? What does he mean: Who shall find? Here, we should understand the difficulty, not impossibility, of finding her. That valiant woman is the church.

The heart of her husband is confident about her. He certainly is confident, and he has taught us to be confident too. He commissioned the church, you see, to the ends of the earth, among all nations, from sea to sea. If she was not going to persevere to the end, her husband’s heart would not be confident about her. . . . So she despoils the world, spread throughout it everywhere; on all sides she plunders trophies from the devil. . . .

For she works for her husband’s good and not his harm, all the time. That is why this lady despoils the nations, working for her husband’s good and not his harm. All the time she does good and not harm: not for herself either, but for her husband, that whoever lives may live no longer for himself, but for the one who died and rose again for all.^[1]

The sacred text describes this housewife as a weaver of woolens and linen. But what we want to find out is what wool represents and what linen does. I think wool means something of the flesh, linen something of the spirit. I hazard this conjecture from the order we wear our clothes in; our underclothes or inner garments are linen, our outer garments woolen. Now everything we do in flesh is public, whatever we do in the spirit is private. Now to act in the flesh and not to act in spirit may seem good but is in fact worthless, whereas to act in spirit and not act in the flesh is downright laziness.

The sacred word describes that woman as working in wool and linen. Perhaps you will ask us what the wool and linen are. The wool signifies something carnal; the linen, what is spiritual. This interpretation is given because in the order of clothing inner garments are of linen, outer ones are of wool. Therefore, the wool signifies something carnal, because it is produced from a mingling or union, while the linen is brought forth from the earth without any carnal pleasure and for this reason seems to be an image of chastity. So true is this that by command of the law, priests of the Old Testament used linen bands as an indication of chastity.

After saying, Being farsighted she has bought a field, as though you were to say, What did she buy it with? it adds, With the fruit of her hands she has planted a property. . . . The property it means, you see, lies in the future; that was suggested by the word farsighted.

[The text] speaks of the church as a virtuous soul possessing the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. [The church possesses] knowledge as the law, and life as the Word. For she herself [is the church] who came out of the rib of Christ and was found by her bridegroom to be a woman of sound mind and strength, guarding the faith of her bridegroom as she awaits his [return] again from heaven.

Valiantly girding her loins, she has braced her arms. Valiant she is indeed. Now we see if she is not also a maidservant. With what devotion she serves, and how readily! To prevent the flapping folds of carnal desires from getting in the way of her work she girds her loins, and so avoids treading on overlong skirts as she hurries about her work. There lies the chastity of this lady, tightly bound by the girdle of the commandment and always ready for good work.

She has also braced her arms on the spindle. About this spindle let me say what the Lord permits me to. After all, this business of spinning wool is not completely foreign to men. Listen to what it means to say, She has braced her arms on the spindle. It could have said on the distaff. It said spindle, not without reason, perhaps. Though you could, of course, take it, and it wouldn’t be at all absurd, that the spindle seems to signify spinning, and spinning signifies the good works of a chaste woman and a busy and careful housewife. All the same I, dearly beloved, will not keep from you what I understand by this spindle. . . .

Look at these two instruments for spinning wool, the distaff and the spindle. The wool is wrapped round the distaff and has to be drawn and spun in a thread and so pass onto the spindle. What’s wrapped on the distaff is the future; what’s collected by the spindle is already past. So your good work is on the spindle, not on the distaff. On the distaff is what you are going to do; on the spindle is what you have done. So see if you have anything on the spindle, that’s where your arms should be braced.

Brethren, let us not be ashamed to practice holy works of wool. If anyone has a full storeroom or granary, all those things are on the distaff; let them pass over to the spindle. They are on the left side as long as you do not give to the poor, but as soon as you begin to practice almsgiving, they are transferred to the right side and become a work from which a garment may result.

The beauty of a good thing pleases the more, if it be shown under various aspects. For those are good things, whereof the texture of the priestly robe was the token, that is to say, either the Law or the church, which latter has made two garments for her spouse, as it is written^[1]—the one of action, the other of spirit, weaving together the threads of faith and works.

There is mercy on [Jesus’] tongue, and so he teaches the Law mercifully, as was said about wisdom: But she carries on her tongue the Law and mercy. Do not fear that you cannot fulfill the Law; flee to mercy.

She has opened her mouth with care, and imposed order on her tongue, praising creatures as creatures, the creator as creator, angels as angels, heavenly things as heavenly, earthly things as earthly, men as men, animals as animals. Nothing mixed up, nothing out of order. Not taking the name of the Lord her God in vain, not attributing the nature of a creature to the creator, speaking about everything so methodically that she doesn’t put lesser things above the more important or subordinate the more important to the lesser.

Why should we dwell upon the amount of evil there is in idleness, when the apostle clearly prescribes that he who does not work should not eat?^[1] As daily sustenance is necessary for everyone, so labor in proportion to one’s strength is also essential. Not vainly has Solomon written in praise: and she has not eaten her bread idle.

Many daughters have done mightily, but you have surpassed and outdone them all. You, he says, have surpassed them all, you have outdone them all. So who are these other daughters who have done mightily, whom this one has surpassed, and whom this one has outdone? And again, how have they done mightily, and in what way has this one surpassed them? There are, you see, bad daughters, namely, heresies. Why are they daughters? Because they too were born of this woman. But bad daughters, daughters not in the family likeness of their behavior but in the likeness of their sacraments. They too have our sacraments, they have our Scriptures, they have our Amen and Alleluia, most of them have our creed, many of them have our baptism. That’s why they are daughters.

But would you like to know what is said to this lady somewhere else, in the Song of Songs? Like a lily in the midst of thorns, so is my darling in the midst of the daughters.^[1]

Many women have gathered together riches; you have excelled them all. . . .

Heresies are generated from Christian seed; they are thorns because they have been nourished outside of God’s paradise, that is, outside of the catholic church. This is proved not by any conjecture of my own making but by the authority of divine Scripture, when Solomon said, As a lily among thorns, so is my beloved among women.^[1]

And what occupation will she have from then on, her labors being ended? And her husband will be praised in the gates. That will be the haven of our labors, to see God and praise God. There they will not say, Get up, work, clothe the servants, clothe yourself too, put on your best purple, give food to the maids, see that the lamp does not go out, be thorough, get up at night, open your hand to the poor, draw the thread from the distaff to the spindle. There will not be any works of necessity, because there will not be any necessity. There will not be any works of mercy, because there will not be any misery. You will not break your bread to the poor, because no one will be begging. You will not take in the stranger, because everyone will be living in their own home country. You will not visit the sick, because everyone will be in good health for all eternity. You will not clothe the naked, because everyone will be clothed in eternal light. You will not bury the dead, because everyone will be living life without end.

You will not, however, be doing nothing, just because you are not doing any of this. For you will see the One you have desired, and you will praise him without weariness or fatigue. That is the fruit you will receive. Then will come to pass that one thing you have asked for: One thing I have asked from the Lord, this will I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. And what will you do there? To contemplate the delight of the Lord.^[1] And her husband will be praised in the gates. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, they will praise you forever and ever.^[2]