“It is right that he began to enumerate the holy fathers, not from Adam, who transgressed the divine commandment and was expelled from paradise, but from Enoch, who walked with God and was taken up into paradise. And in this way the splendor of the saints shines, because from the pains of this world they are taken up to the peace of the heavenly kingdom. It is believed that he will return together with Elijah at the end of the world, to counsel men and women so that they would turn from their sins to repentance. In this way, together with his companion, he will pay the debt of death in the persecution of the antichrist.”

“The inheritance that he was promised symbolizes two things. The comparison with the sand of the sea indicates the Jews, who are sterile. And the comparison with the stars of heaven designates all the people who believe in Christ, who by the light of the resurrection will shine like the stars of heaven. "Every star in fact differs from another in splendor. So also in the resurrection." His descendents will inherit "from one sea to the other, from the river to the ends of the earth," since Christ, born of the descendents of Abraham, rules from one sea to the other and from the river to the ends of the earth, and his church, his very body, fills all the limits of the world. One also notes that Abraham represents in himself three things. In the first place, the Savior, who, leaving his family, came into this world. Second, the Father, when he sacrificed his only Son. Third, by the fact that he had welcomed three men and adored one of them, he symbolized the saints, who joyfully received the coming of Christ in the flesh. This mystery of the incarnation is the work of the entire holy Trinity but was realized only in the Son. "And the Word was made flesh and came to dwell among us."”

“The godless and sinners were not worthy of memory, because if the Scripture says something of them, it does so not to praise them but to blame. In the psalm it is written of them, "The fortresses of the enemy have been pulled down forever, the memory of the city you destroyed has disappeared. Their memory has disappeared with a roar." At the end of the world, in fact, to the devil's joy, those who it has been determined belong to his city will fall, and their memory will perish with a fantastic din when they go to eternal punishment.”

“It is right that he began to enumerate the holy fathers, not from Adam, who transgressed the divine commandment and was expelled from paradise, but from Enoch, who walked with God and was taken up into paradise. And in this way the splendor of the saints shines, because from the pains of this world they are taken up to the peace of the heavenly kingdom. It is believed that he will return together with Elijah at the end of the world, to counsel men and women so that they would turn from their sins to repentance. In this way, together with his companion, he will pay the debt of death in the persecution of the antichrist.”

“The third exercise of the gift of piety is in the abundance of interior compassion. Of this it is said in Ecclesiasticus: "These are men of mercy, whose acts of piety have not failed; with their seed good things endure." Dearest ones! You ought to run through the lives of the holy Fathers, and you will see that these are men of mercy, namely Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joseph, and Samuel. What was the piety of Noah! For a hundred years he did nothing but build the ark, so that he might save the human race. How great was the piety in the most sacred Abraham! God descended to strike the cities in which there were abominations of sin; and Abraham interceded with the Lord for them and wrested from the Lord that if He should find ten just men in the cities, the Lord would spare them. How great was the piety of Joseph! Who, sold by his brothers — indeed his brothers wanted to kill him — yet he guarded his brothers, governed and enriched them and their sons; and he had piety toward preserving the whole world by gathering and storing grain. How great was the piety of Moses! Who loved the people provoking the Lord and prayed to the Lord for them saying: "Hear me, Lord, this people has sinned: either forgive this people this offense, or if you do not, blot me out of your book which you have written." Bernard gives the example of a woman who has her little child and is outside the house. If it were said to her: leave your little child outside the house, and you enter the house; she would not want to enter the house, such that the child would remain outside. So Moses willed that the Lord would forgive the people their sin, or that He would blot him from the book of life. So it was with Samuel, when the people sought a king; afterwards the people recognized that Samuel had governed the people well, and when the people had sinned, they feared that Samuel would not want to pray to the Lord for them. And the people asked him to pray for them, and Samuel said: "Far be it from me that I should cease to pray for you." Of how great piety was David, king of Israel! Saul was seeking to kill him, and David had Saul in his hand: he could have killed him, with God not prohibiting it, because God said to him: "I will deliver him into your hands." He could have killed him, with no man prohibiting it, nor the law prohibiting it; and yet he spared him and his house. These therefore are men of mercy, whose acts of piety did not fail.”

“He travels, not according to His divine nature, but according to the dispensation of the flesh which He took upon Him. For He who says to His disciples, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, (Mat. 28:20.) is the Only-Begotten God, who is not circumscribed by bodily form. By saying this, we do not disunite Jesus, but attribute its proper qualities to each constituent substance. We may also explain thus, that the Lord travels in a far country with all those who walk by faith and not by sight. And when we are absent from the body with the Lord, then will He also be with us. Observe that the turn of expression is not thus, I am like, or The Son of Man is like, a man travelling into a far country, because He is represented in the parable as travelling, not as the Son of God, but as man.”

“Whenever you see of those who have received from Christ a dispensation of the oracles of God that some have more and some less; that some have not in comparison of the better sort half an understanding of things; that others have still less; you will perceive the difference of those who have all of them received from Christ oracles of God. They to whom five talents were given, and they to whom two, and they to whom one, have divers degrees of capacity, and one could not hold the measure of another; he who received but one having received no mean endowment, for one talent of such a master is a great thing. His proper servants are three, as there are three sorts of those that bear fruit. He that received five talents, is he that is able to raise all the meanings of the Scriptures to their more divine significations; he that has two is he that has been taught carnal doctrine, (for two seems to be a carnal number,) and to the less strong the Master of the household has given one talent.”

“Or, They that have their senses exercised by healthy conversation, both raising themselves to higher knowledge and zealous in teaching others, these have gained other five; because no one can easily have increase of any virtues that are not his own, and without he teaches others what he himself knows, and no more.”

“And note here that the servants do not come to the Lord to be judged, but the Lord shall come to them when the time shall be accomplished. After a long time, that is, when He has sent forth such as are fitted to bring about the salvation of souls, and perhaps for this reason it is not easy to find one who is quite fit to pass forthwith out of this life, as is manifest from this, that even the Apostles lived to old age; for example, it was said to Peter, When thou shalt be old, thou shall stretch forth thy hand; (John 21:18.) and Paul says to Philemon, Now as Paul the aged.”

“That He says of both these servants that they came, we must understand of their passing out of this world to Him. And observe that the same was said to them both; he that had less capacity, but that which he had, he exercised after such manner as he ought, shall have no whit less with God than he who has a greater capacity; for all that is required is that whatever a man has from God, he should use it all to the glory of God.”

“This servant seems to me to have been one of those who believe, but do not act honestly, concealing their faith, and doing every thing that they may not be known to be Christians. They who are such seem to me to have a fear of God, and to regard Him as austere and implacable. We indeed understand how the Lord reaps where He sowed not, because the righteous man sows in the Spirit, whereof he shall reap life eternal. Also He reaps where He sowed not, and gathers where he scattered not, because He counts as bestowed upon Himself all that is sown among the poor.”

“Into outer darkness, where is no light, perhaps not even physical light; and where God is not seen, but those who are condemned thereto are condemned as unworthy the contemplation of God. We have also read some one before us expounding this of the darkness of that abyss which is outside the world, as though unworthy of the world, they were cast out into that abyss, where is darkness with none to lighten it.”

“Or, the servant to whom two talents were committed is the people of the Gentiles justified by the faith and confession of the Son and of the Father, confessing our Lord Jesus Christ, to be both God and Man, both Spirit and Flesh. These are the two talents committed to this servant. But as the Jewish people doubled by its belief in the Gospel every Sacrament which it had learned in the Law, (i. e. its five talents,) so this people by its use of its two talents merited understanding and working.”

“Or, This servant who has received one talent and hid it in the earth is the people that continue in the Law, who through jealousy of the salvation of the Gentiles hide the talent they have received in the earth. For to hide a talent in the earth is to hide the glory of the new preaching through offence at the Passion of His Body. His coming to reckon with them is the assize of the day of judgment.”

“Or, By this servant is understood the Jewish people which continues in the Law, and says I was afraid of thee, as through fear of the old commandments abstaining from the exercise of evangelical liberty; and it says, Lo, there is that is thine, as though it had continued in those things which the Lord commanded, when yet it knew that the fruits of righteousness should be reaped there, where the Law had not been sown, and that there should be gathered from among the Gentiles some who were not scattered of the seed of Abraham.”