We have been admonished to confess to the Lord, and indeed commanded to do so by the Spirit of God. And we have been told the reason for confessing to the Lord: since he is good. It is said very briefly; it can be thought about very deeply. Confess to the Lord, he says. And as though we asked him Why? the answer comes, since he is good. What more can you ask for, if you ask for anything, than the good? Such is the power of the good, that the good is what is sought even by the bad.

Therefore, if one examines these matters and because of this despises whatever is held in honor among people and longs only for the divine life, knowing that all flesh is grass and all the glory of people is as the flower of grass,^[1] is he likely to think of grass, which exists today and is gone tomorrow, as something worth striving for? The one who has examined well the divine things knows that not only human affairs have no stability but also that the whole world itself has not remained forever unchanged. Therefore, he despises this life as alien and impermanent, since heaven and earth will pass away,^[2] according to the word of the Savior, and all things of necessity undergo a transformation. Therefore, as long as he is in the tent, burdened^[3] by the present life, as the apostle says to illustrate its impermanence, he laments the lengthening of his stay, as the psalmist says in his divine songs. For they truly live in darkness who spend their life in these quarters. Because of this, the prophet groans over the extension of his sojourn here and says: Alas, my stay is lengthened. But he attributes the cause of his dejection to darkness, for in Hebrew darkness is equivalent to qedar, as we learn from the scholars. Is it not true that people overcome by some night blindness are thus dim-sighted in recognizing delusions, not knowing that whatever is considered honorable in this life, or even whatever is assumed to be the opposite, is understood thus only on the assumption of the foolish? Of themselves they are never anything at all.

The injuries and punishments of persecutions are not to be feared, because the Lord is greater in protecting than the devil in assaulting.

John in his epistle approves, saying, Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.^[1] Likewise in Psalm 117 [LXX]: I shall not fear what people do to me; the Lord is my helper. And again: Those are strong in chariots, these in horses, but we, in the name of our God. They with their feet bound have fallen, but we are risen up and stand erect.^[2]

A brother asked an old man, What shall a man do in every temptation that comes on him and in every thought sent by the enemy? He replied, He must weep in the sight of the goodness of God, that he may aid and assist him. For it is written, ‘The Lord is with me to help me, and I shall avenge myself upon my foes.’

Avoid entertaining people of the world, especially those whose honors make them swell with pride. You are the priest of a crucified Lord who was poor and lived on the bread of strangers. It is a disgrace to you if the consul’s lictors or soldiers keep watch before your door and if the governor of the province has a better dinner with you than in his own palace. If you plead as an excuse your wish to intercede for the unhappy and the oppressed, I reply that a secular magistrate will defer more to a pastor who is self-denying than to one who is rich; he will pay more regard to your holiness than to your wealth. Or if he is a man who will only listen to the clergy over a glass, I will readily forego his aid and will appeal to Christ, who can help more effectively than any judge. Truly it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in people. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.

Moreover, he will destroy every dominion and authority through the express manifestation of the kingdom of the Father so that all may know that no ruler and no authority, whether they are heavenly or earthly, have possessed any dominion and authority of themselves but by him from whom are all things, not only in respect of their existing but also in respect of their ordering. For in that appearing^[1] there will remain no hope for anyone in any ruler or in any person. This is said even now by way of prophecy: It is good to hope in the Lord rather than to hope in people; it is good to hope in the Lord rather than to hope in princes. Thus, with this meditation, the soul rises up even now to the kingdom of the Father, neither placing much value in the power of anyone besides him, nor, to its own destruction, flattering itself about its own.

When a thought oppresses you, do not be downhearted but put up with it in courage, saying, They swarmed around me closer and closer, but I drove them back in the name of the Lord. Divine help will arrive at your side immediately, and you will drive them away from you, and courage will compass you round about, and the glory of God will walk with you; and you will be filled to your soul’s desire.^[1] For the ways of God are humility of heart and gentleness. It is said indeed, Whom shall I consider if not the humble and the meek?^[2] If you move ahead in the ways of the Lord, he will watch over you, will give you strength and will fill you with knowledge and wisdom. Your remembrance will remain before him at all times. He will deliver you from the devil, and in your dying day he will grant you his peace.

The strength, the fortitude, of Christ’s martyrs, men and women alike, is Christ. If men alone, you see, stood out as being brave and strong in suffering, their courage would be attributed to their being the stronger sex. The reason the weaker sex, too, had been able to suffer bravely is that God was able to make it possible in people of all sorts. Accordingly, whether they are men or women, in their tribulations they all ought to say, The Lord is my strength, and I will love you, Lord, my might.^[1] Love is itself might, or courage; I mean, if you really know how to love, you can endure anything and everything for what you love. And if the lewd kind of love has persuaded lovers to suffer many things bravely for the sake of their frivolities and delinquencies, and if those who set traps for someone else’s chastity do not take any danger into consideration, how much braver in the charity of God ought those to be who love him, since neither alive nor dead can they be separated from him! The unchaste lover obviously loses what he loves, if he is killed for the sake of his beloved; but the brave and just lover of God not only does not lose what he has loved because he dies, but in fact by dying he finds what he has loved. Finally, the lover of delinquency is afraid to confess it; the lover of God is afraid to deny him.

And there are some who suppose that God is fashioned after a bodily manner, when they read of his hand or finger, and they do not observe that these things are written not because of any fashion of a body, since in the godhead there are neither members nor parts, but they are expressions of the oneness of the godhead, that we may believe that it is impossible for either the Son or the Holy Spirit to be separated from God the Father; since the fullness of the godhead dwells as it were bodily in the substance of the Trinity. For this reason, then, is the Son also called the right hand of the Father, as we read: The right hand of the Lord has done mighty things, the right hand of the Lord has exalted me.

Thus it is that sinners, and all those who are aliens from the catholic church, heretics and schismatics, since they are excluded from glorifying [God] with the saints, cannot properly even continue to be observers of the feasts. But the righteous person, although he appears dying to the world, uses boldness of speech, saying, I shall not die but live and narrate all your marvelous deeds.^[1] For even God is not ashamed to be called the God of those who truly mortify their members that are on the earth but live in Christ; for he is the God of the living, not of the dead. And he by his living Word quickens all people and gives him to be food and life to the saints; as the Lord declares, I am the bread of life.^[2]

I am disposed, after careful examination, to doubt whether the expression so often used by the Lord, the kingdom of heaven, can be found in these books [Old Testament]. It is said, indeed, Love wisdom, that you may reign forever.^[1] And if eternal life had not been clearly made known in the Old Testament, the Lord would not have said, as he did even to the unbelieving Jews, Search the Scriptures, for in them you think that you have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me.^[2] And to the same effect are the words of the psalmist: I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. And again: Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.^[3] Again, we read, The souls of the right-eous are in the hand of the Lord, and pain shall not touch them; and immediately following, They are in peace; and if they have suffered torture from people, their hope is full of immortality; and after a few troubles, they shall enjoy many rewards.^[4] Again, in another place: The righteous shall live forever, and their reward is with the Lord, and their concern with the Highest; therefore shall they receive from the hand of the Lord a kingdom of glory and a crown of beauty.^[5] These and many similar declarations of eternal life, in more or less explicit terms, are found in these writings. Even the resurrection of the body is spoken of by the prophets. The Pharisees, accordingly, were fierce opponents of the Sadducees, who disbelieved the resurrection. This we learn not only from the canonical Acts of the Apostles, which the Manichaeans^[6] reject, because it tells of the advent of the Paraclete promised by the Lord, but also from the Gospel, when the Sadducees question the Lord about the woman who married seven brothers, one dying after the other, whose wife she would be in heaven.^[7] As regards, then, eternal life and the resurrection of the dead, numerous testimonies are to be found in these Scriptures. But I do not find there the expression the kingdom of heaven. This expression belongs properly to the revelation of the New Testament, because in the resurrection our earthly bodies shall, by that change that Paul fully describes, become spiritual bodies, and so heavenly, that thus we may possess the kingdom of heaven. And this expression was reserved for him whose advent as king to govern and priest to sanctify his believing people was ushered in by all the symbolism of the old covenant, in its genealogies, its typical acts and words, its sacrifices and ceremonies and feasts and in all its prophetic utterances and events and figures. He came full of grace and truth, in his grace helping us to obey the precepts and in his truth securing the accomplishment of the promises. He came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it.

Consider the carefulness and the wisdom and the power of this Educator [Christ]: He shall not judge according to appearance or reprove according to gossip, but he shall render judgment with humility and shall reprove the sinners of the earth.^[1] And through the lips of David, he says, The Lord chastising has chastised me, but he has not delivered me over to death. Indeed, the very act of being chastised, and being educated by the Lord as a child, means deliverance from death. Again, he says through the same psalmist: You shall rule them with a rod of iron.^[2] Similarly, the apostle exclaimed when he was aroused by the Corinthians: What is your wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and in the spirit of meekness?^[3] By another psalmist, the Lord says again: The Lord will send forth the rod of power out of Zion.^[4]

When we are judged by the Lord, says the apostle, it is for our education, so that we may not be condemned along with the world.^[1] Earlier the prophet said, The Lord has given me a stern lesson but not handed me over to death. Scripture says, It is to teach you his righteousness that he taught you a lesson, tested you and exposed you to hunger and thirst in a desolate land, for you to know in your heart all his statutes and judgments that I am laying on you today. The Lord your God will educate you just as a human will educate his son.^[2] Scripture again emphasizes the lesson taught by a good example: It is a great education when a malefactor sees a criminal punished,^[3] for the fear of the Lord breeds wisdom.^[4]

Rejoice because God has visited you. Keep saying the famous text: The Lord has chastened and corrected me, but he has not given me over to death. . . . A messenger from Satan is given to you to be a thorn in your flesh.^[1] Lift up your heart, for you see that you have received a gift like that of St. Paul. If you suffer from fever and cold, remember the text of Scripture, We went through fire and water, and then, you brought us out to a place of rest.^[2] . . . Threefold suffering like this will make you perfect. He also said, You set me at liberty when I was in trouble.^[3] Thus, let us test our souls by this kind of self-discipline, for we have our enemy before our eyes.

When the devil does not use the goads of poverty to tempt, he uses wealth for the purpose. When he cannot win by scorn and mockery, he tries praise and flattery. If he cannot win by providing health, he tries illness; if he cannot win by comfort, he tries to ruin the soul by vexations that lead a person to act against the monastic vow. He inflicts severe sicknesses on people whom he wants to tempt, and so makes them weak and thereby shakes the love that they feel toward God. But although the body is shattered and running high temperatures and thirsting unbearably—yet you who endure all this are a sinner, and remember the punishments of the next world, and the everlasting fire and the torments of the judgment. So you will not fail in the sufferings of this present time; indeed you should rejoice because God has visited you. Keep saying the famous text: The Lord has chastened and corrected me, but he has not given me over to death. Iron is cleaned of rust by fire. If you are righteous and suffer, you grow to a yet higher sanctity. Gold is tested by fire. A messenger from Satan is given to you to be a thorn in your flesh. Lift up your heart, for you see that you have received a gift like that of Paul. If you suffer from fever and cold, remember the text of Scripture, We went through fire and water—and then you brought us out into a place of rest.^[1] If you have endured the suffering, you may expect the place of rest, provided you are following what is good. Cry aloud the prophet’s words, I am poor and destitute and in misery—for the threefold suffering shall make you perfect.

Let us therefore root this out quickly,^[1] and let us fall down before the Master and entreat him with tears, that he may show himself propitious and be reconciled to us and may restore us to the seemly and pure conduct that belongs to our love of the brothers. For this is a gate of righteousness opened to life, as it is written: Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter in thereby and praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter in thereby. Seeing then that many gates are opened, this is that gate that is in righteousness, even that which is in Christ, whereby all are blessed who have entered in and direct their path in holiness and righteousness, performing all things without confusion. Let a person be faithful, let him be able to expound a deep saying, let him be wise in the discernment of words, let him be strenuous in deeds, let him be pure; for so much the more ought he to be lowly in mind, in proportion as he seems to be the greater; and he ought to seek the common advantage of all, and not his own. 1

In this place,^[1] then, the gates of hades are spoken of; but in the Psalms the prophet gives thanks saying, He who lifts me up from the gates of death that I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion.^[2] And from this we learn that it is never possible for anyone to be fit to declare the praises of God, unless he has been lifted up from the gates of death and has come to the gates of Zion. Now the gates of Zion may be conceived as opposed to the gates of death, so that there is one gate of death, dissoluteness, but a gate of Zion, self-control; and so a gate of death, unrighteousness, but a gate of Zion, righteousness, which the prophet shows forth saying, This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter into it. And again there is cowardice, a gate of death, but courage, a gate of Zion; and want of prudence, a gate of death, but its opposite, prudence, a gate of Zion. But to all the gates of the knowledge that is falsely so called one gate is opposed, the gate of knowledge which is free from falsehood. But consider if, because of the saying, our wrestling is not against flesh and blood,^[3] etc., you can say that each power and world ruler of this darkness and each one of the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places^[4] is a gate of hades and a gate of death. Let, then, the principalities and powers with which our wrestling is, be called gates of hades, but the ministering spirits^[5] gates of righteousness. But as in the case of the better things many gates are first spoken of, and after the gates, one, in the passage, Open to me the gates of righteousness, I will enter into them and will make full confession to the Lord, and this is the gate of the Lord, by it the righteous shall enter; so also in the case of those gates that are opposed, many are the gates of hades and death, each a power; but over all these the wicked one himself.

And it is not incredible that the gates that are said to open spontaneously are referred obscurely by some to the words Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may go into them and praise the Lord; this gate of the Lord, into it the righteous shall enter; and again, to what is said in the ninth psalm, You that lift me up from the gates of death, that I may show forth all your praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion.^[1] The Scripture further gives the name of gates of death to those sins that lead to destruction, as it calls, on the contrary, good actions the gates of Zion. So also the gates of righteousness, which is an equivalent expression to the gates of virtue. These are ready to be opened to one who follows after virtuous pursuits.

Our father Jacob too prayed at Bethel and saw the gate of heaven opened, with a ladder going up on high.^[1] This is a symbol of our Savior that Jacob saw: the gate of heaven is Christ, in accordance with what he said: I am the gate of life; every one who enters by me shall live forever.^[2] David too said, This is the gate of the Lord, by which the righteous enter. Again, the ladder that Jacob saw is a symbol of our Savior, in that by means of him the just ascend from the lower to the upper realm. The ladder is also a symbol of our Savior’s cross, which was raised up like a ladder, with the Lord standing above it; for above Christ is the Lord of all, just as the blessed apostle said: The head of Christ is God.^[3] Now Jacob called that place Bethel;^[4] and Jacob raised up there a pillar of stone as a testimony, and he poured oil over it. Our father Jacob did this too in symbol, anticipating that stones would receive anointing—for the peoples who have believed in Christ are the stones that are anointed; just as John says of them: From these stones God is able to raise up children for Abraham.^[5] For in Jacob’s prayer the calling of the nations was symbolized.

Thus we find from this passage also, that Christ possessed a body of flesh, such as was able to endure the cross. When, therefore, he came and preached peace to them that were near and to them which were afar off, we both obtained access to the Father, being now no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God (even of him from whom, as we have shown above, we were aliens and placed far off), built on the foundation of the apostles^[1]—[the apostle added] and the prophets; these words, however, the heretic erased,^[2] forgetting that the Lord had set in his church not only apostles but prophets also. He feared, no doubt, that our building was to stand in Christ on the foundation of the ancient prophets, since the apostle himself never fails to build us up everywhere with [the words of ] the prophets. For whence did he learn to call Christ the chief cornerstone^[3] but from the figure given him in the psalm: The stone that the builders rejected is become the head [stone] of the corner?

A stone was placed at the entrance to the tomb.^[1] Thus, one stone [was placed] against another stone, so that [this] stone might be keeping guard over the stone that the builders rejected.^[2] This [stone], lifted up by [human] hands, had to keep guard over that which was detached, without [human] hands;^[3] this [stone], on which the angel was sitting,^[4] [had to keep guard] over that which Jacob had placed under his head;^[5] this [stone] with its seal [had to keep guard] over that which, through its seal, watches over the faithful. Thus did the gate of life go forth from the gate of death. For this is the gate of our Lord, through which the just enter. When it was closed, it delivered those closed in. Through its death the dead lived. Through its voice the silent cried out. Through its resurrection, there was an earthquake.^[6] Its emergence forth from the tomb introduced the Gentiles into the church.^[7]

But I must proceed to my former statement that Christ is called the stone in the prophets. For in ancient times David said concerning him, The stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the building. And how did the builders reject this stone that is Christ? How else than that they so rejected him before Pilate and said, This man shall not be king over us.^[1] And again in that parable that our Lord spoke that a certain nobleman went to receive kingly power and to return and rule over them; and they sent after him envoys saying, This man shall not be king over us.^[2] By these things they rejected the stone that is Christ. And how did it become the head of the building? How else than that it was set up over the building of the Gentiles and on it is reared up all their building. And who are the builders? Who but the priests and Pharisees who did not build a sure building but were overthrowing everything that he was building, as is written in Ezekiel the prophet: He was building a wall of partition, but they were shaking it, that it might fall.^[3] And again it is written, I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land, that I might not destroy it, but I did not find one.^[4] And furthermore Isaiah also prophesied beforehand with regard to this stone. For he said, Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a chosen stone in the precious corner, the heart of the wall of the foundation.’^[5] And he said again there, Every one who believes on it shall not fear. And whosoever falls on that stone shall be broken, and every one on whom it shall fall, it will crush.^[6] For the people of the house of Israel fell on him, and he became their destruction forever. And again it shall fall on the image and crush it.^[7] And the Gentiles believed on it and do not fear.

So there were sheep from among the Jews, and many sheep. But not the only ones. The Lord had others from among the Gentiles. These two peoples coming as it were from different directions are also represented by two walls. The church of the Jews comes from the circumcision; the church of the Gentiles comes from the uncircumcision. Coming from different directions, they are joined together in the Lord. That is why the Lord is called the cornerstone. Thus the psalm says, The stone that the builders rejected, this very one has become the head of the corner. And the apostle says, Christ Jesus being himself the chief cornerstone.^[1] Where there is a corner, two walls connect; two walls do not meet in a corner unless they come from different directions; if they only come from one direction, they do not make a corner. So then, the two goats are the two peoples, so are the two sheepfolds, so are the two walls, so are the two blind men who sat by the road,^[2] so are the two boats into which the fish were hauled.^[3] There are many places in Scripture where the two peoples are to be understood—but they are one thing in Jacob.

A symbolic statement: The stone that the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner.^[1] If we understand stone in the proper sense, what stone did the builders reject, and it became the head of the corner? If we take corner in the proper sense, of what corner did this stone become the head? If we admit it is said symbolically, and you take it symbolically, the cornerstone is Christ, head of the corner, head of the church. Why is the corner the church? Because he called the Jews from this side, the Gentiles from that; and like two walls coming from different directions and coming together in him, he tied them together by the grace of his peace. For he is our peace, who made of both one.^[2]

For Jesus tells them [the disciples] that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected, before his coming,^[1] at which his kingdom will be really revealed. In this statement he shows that it was his own kingdom that his answer to them had contemplated and that was now awaiting his own sufferings and rejection. But having to be rejected and afterwards to be acknowledged and taken up and glorified, he borrowed the very word rejected from the passage where, under the figure of a stone, his twofold manifestation was celebrated by David—the first in rejection, the second in honor. The stone, he says, that the builders rejected is become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing. Now it would be idle, if we believed that God had predicted the humiliation, or even the glory, of any Christ at all, that he could have designed his prophecy for any but him whom he had foretold under the figure of a stone and a rock and a mountain.^[2]

[Christ] ordained that the former law should stand till he came, and he was revealed as the originator of the second law of the new covenant preached to all nations, as being responsible for the law and influence of the two religions, I mean Judaism and Christianity. And it is wonderful that divine prophecy should accord: Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, choice, a cornerstone; precious, and he that believes on him shall not be ashamed.^[1]

Who could be the cornerstone but he, the living and precious stone who supports by his teaching two buildings and makes them one? For he set up the Mosaic building, which was to last till his day, and then fitted on to one side of it our building of the gospel. Hence he [Christ] is called the cornerstone. And it is said in the Psalms:

This oracle too indubitably indicates the Jewish conspiracy against the subject of the prophecy, how he has been set at naught by the builders of the old wall, meaning the scribes and Pharisees, the high priests and all the rulers of the Jews. And it prophesied that though he should be despised and cast out he would become the head of the corner, regarding him as the originator of a new covenant, according to the preceding proofs.

Likewise at the setting of the sun and at the end of the day necessarily there must again be prayer. For since Christ is the true Sun and the true Day, as the sun and the day of the world recede, when we pray and petition that the light come on us again, we pray for the coming of Christ to provide us with the grace of eternal light. Moreover, the Holy Spirit in the Psalms declares that Christ is called the Day. He says, The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us exalt and rejoice therein.^[1] Malachi the prophet also testifies that he is called the Sun when he says, But to you who fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise with healing in his wings.^[2] But if in holy Scripture Christ is the true Sun and the true Day, no hour is appointed for Christians, by whom God should be adored frequently and always, so that we who are in Christ, that is, in the true Sun and in the true Day, should be insistent throughout the whole day in our petitions and should pray. When, by the law of nature, the revolving night, recurring in its alternating cycle, follows the day, there can be no harm from the darkness for those who pray, because to the sons of light even in the night there is day. For when is he without light who has light in his heart? Or when does he not have sun and day, to whom Christ is Sun and Day?

We must keep the law regarding Easter in such a way that we do not observe the fourteenth as the day of the resurrection; that day or one very close to it is the day of the passion, because the feast of the resurrection is kept on the Lord’s day.^[1] Moreover, we cannot fast on the Lord’s day; fasting on this day is what we criticize in the Manichaeans.^[2] One shows disbelief in the resurrection of Christ if he proposes a law that we fast on the day of the resurrection, since the law says that the Passover should be eaten with bitterness, that is, with sorrow because the author of our salvation was slain by humanity’s great sacrilege. On the Lord’s day the prophet bids us rejoice, saying, This is the day that the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice at it.

We have just been singing to God, This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us talk about it, seeing that the Lord has presented us with it. This obviously prophetic Scripture wanted us to understand something, some day not of the common sort, not visible to eyes of flesh; not the kind of day that has a sunrise and sunset but a day that could know a dawn but never know a setting. Let us see what the same psalm had said just before: The stone that the builders rejected, this has been made into the head of the corner. It was made by the Lord; this is wonderful in our eyes.^[1] And it continues, This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us take the cornerstone as introducing us to this day.

And he summoned the twelve,^[1] the text says. After the long centuries of dreadful night, the eternal day, our Christ, shone forth. The world had long awaited the splendor of his dawning. In the case of his twelve apostles he desired to signify the twelve hours of this day. The blessed psalmist saw this day in spirit when he sang, This is the day that the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it. Consequently, the apostle, too, calls the believers children of light and of faith: You are children of the light and children of the day.^[2]

Let everyone who comes to you in the name of the Lord^[1] be received; but, after testing him, you will know him, for you know right and wrong. If the one who comes to you is a traveler, help him as much as you can; but he shall remain with you no more than two or three days, unless there is need. But, if he wishes to settle among you and is a craftsman, let him work and eat. But, if he has no trade, provide according to your conscience, so that no Christian shall live among you idle. But, if he does not agree to do this, he is trading on the name of Christ; beware of such people.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. In the name of the Lord signifies in the name of God the Father, just as [our Lord] himself said elsewhere to the unbelieving Jews, I have come in the name of my Father, and you do not receive me; another will come in his own name, him you will receive.^[1] Christ came in the name of God the Father, because in everything that he did and said he was concerned with glorifying his Father and with proclaiming to human beings that he is to be glorified. The antichrist will come in his own name, and although he may be the most wicked person of all and a convivial companion of the devil, he will see fit to call himself the Son of God while being opposed to and raised above everything that is said to be God and is worshiped.^[2] The crowd took this verse of praise from Psalm 117 [LXX], and there is no one who doubts that it is sung about the Lord. Hence it is appropriate that there is previously sung of him in the same psalm, The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. For Christ, whom the Jews rejected as they were building the decrees of their own traditions, became a memorial for believers from among both peoples, namely, the Jews and the Gentiles. For as to the fact that Christ is called the cornerstone in this psalm, this is what was being chanted in high praise in the gospel by the voice of those who followed and those who went ahead.

As for us, brothers, understanding these things, let us keep each to his own measure, the one who is considered a shepherd of souls as well as the one who is considered a sheep. Yet let us all pray to be sheep, for no one is the shepherd save he who said, I am the good Shepherd.^[1] But when he appeared, as David had foretold and signified, God is the Lord, and he has appeared to us, God the Word appearing in human form saved us, bestowing on us knowledge of the faith. And before going up into heaven, he established the apostles as his successors, saying to Peter, Feed my lambs^[2] and Look after my sheep.^[3] For this reason there is need now too for people who, generation after generation, feed the souls in the Lord, who says, I am with you.^[4] For we know that after the apostles it is the bishops who are the fathers. But all those who listen to Christ who is in them are also their children, although they do not belong to the clergy and have no ecclesiastical rank.

But if the Gentiles are honoring the same God who gave the law to Moses and made the promise to Abraham and whose word the Jews dishonored—why are they [the Jews] ignorant of, or rather why do they choose to ignore, that what the Lord foretold in the Scriptures has been revealed in the world and appeared to it in bodily form, as the Scripture said: The Lord God has shined on us; and again: He sent his Word and healed them;^[1] and again: Not a messenger, not an angel but the Lord himself saved them?^[2] Their state may be compared to that of one out of his right mind, who sees the earth illumined by the sun but denies the sun that illumines it.

Let us commend ourselves to God, my brothers, by works of mercy. O praise the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endures forever. Give praise, for God is merciful, and he wishes to forgive the sins of those who give praise. In addition, offer sacrifice to him. O man, be merciful to your fellow mortals, and God will show mercy to you. You are a mortal; the other person is a mortal also; you are both in need of mercy. On the other hand, God is not in need of mercy, but he is merciful. If, however, the person who is in need of mercy does not show mercy to another who is in need of mercy, how does he expect mercy from One who will never be in need of mercy? Think over what I am saying, brothers. For example, whoever is pitiless in regard to a shipwrecked person remains pitiless until he himself suffers shipwreck. But if he has been shipwrecked, whenever he sees a shipwrecked person he recalls his former experience and he experiences a sympathetic feeling of mercy. Hence, a personal experience of misfortune softens the one whom the common bond of human nature was not able to incline to mercy. How readily he who has been in service in the past has compassion on a servant! How readily he who was once a hired laborer feels sorry for a laborer deprived of his pay! The person who has once suffered a similar loss sympathizes most sincerely with a parent lamenting the loss of a child. Therefore, a similarity of suffering softens any degree of hardness in a human heart. If, then, you who either have been in need of mercy or who fear that you may be in such need (for, as long as you are on this earth, you ought to fear what you have not been, to remember what you have been and to consider what you may be)—if, then, encompassed with the memory of your former need of mercy, with the fear of future needs and with the suffering of present miseries, you do not have mercy on a person who is in trouble and in need of your help, do you expect him whom misery has never afflicted to have mercy on you? And do you fail to give of the abundance that you have received from God and then wish God to give to you from that which he has not received from you?