“The passage records an ancient episode, when the children of Israel "walked three days in the desert of Shur and did not find water. They arrived" finally "at Marah, but they could not drink the waters of Marah, because they were bitter." But the Lord "pointed out a piece of wood" to Moses, and when he "threw it into the water, it became sweet." According to the account, the power of God was manifested there through his medical science, in the waters made sweet by the wood. And the mystery of this event is obvious. The people grumble, seeing the waters and being unable to drink. Moses throws the wood into the waters, and they become sweet. Understand that the bitter waters represent the letter that kills and the Law. If one throws on this the confession of the cross and adds the mystery of the passion of the Lord, then the bitter water becomes sweet, and the bitterness of the letter is transformed into the sweetness of spiritual knowledge. For this reason it is written, "The Lord established a law and judgments for his people, and he tested them." According to another sense, the bitter waters that become sweet by receiving the wood are an image of the bitterness of the nations over the wood of the cross of Christ, which at a certain point is destined to become sweet.”

“Before all else, I will praise in you the fruitful work of your Christian piety. In fact, the sacred Scripture shows that your behavior is also pleasing to God when it says, "Shed tears over the dead. As one who suffers grievously, begin the lament, and do not neglect his tomb." Our patriarchs are also examples of the performance of this ritual. Abraham, the father of our faith, wept over Sarah, the mother of our vocation, not because he doubted ever seeing her again but out of sorrow for having lost her. How could the father of our faith have had doubts about the resurrection, he who was the first to hear the divine promise? Mindful of her human condition, however, he did not despise care for the body in view of eternal salvation, but after acquiring a field suited for the burial, he interred his dead wife in an honorable grave. In this way he wanted to show what people should do for the dying, since he, immediately after leaving the land of his ancestors at the call of God, and though acquiring no land among the fertile plots of the various countries, nevertheless wanted to buy—he, the pilgrim of every nation—a small fistful of dirt for the burial, that is, a perennial and permanent possession, a field not for profit but for eternal rest. Jacob also honored his beloved and awaited Rachel, not only with a famous mausoleum but also with an epitaph that was a religious comfort in his suffering and at the same time a testimony to posterity. Although he marked that grave with a mournful epitaph about his dead wife, with a prophetic spirit he foresaw that whereas the law was passing away, the gospel was coming into force. In the folds of this mystery, in many places the wife of the patriarch represented the image of the church. Nevertheless, as I believe, she dies as a symbol of the synagogue and in her delivery generates the son of pain, whereas the Virgin, also by childbirth, generates the end of the law: the end of the law is Christ. Tobias also suggests to us a holy and sanctified hope through his care for burial, and in a special way he was justified by the Lord for taking the initiative in this task, and indeed he was praised by the word of the archangel because he preferred the burial of a poor person to his own nourishment. Ignoring his stomach because he was famished in soul, he preferred to die of bodily hunger than of spiritual, so that he would be an example to us to prefer physical fasting at any cost, so as to secure for ourselves the salvation of our souls. See the goodness of care for the dead, see the goodness of the tears of love with which father Abraham desired to bury the mother of the ancient promises. Good also were the pious tears that Joseph the righteous shed for his dead father and the prayerful tears with which David bathed his bed almost every night. But why recall the grief of the holy patriarchs? Jesus mourned his friend, condescending to assume even this passion of our human condition, to the point of shedding tears for the dead and acting like a weak human person toward him whom he was going to raise by divine power. In that single man, however, the merciful and compassionate Lord also grieved over the condition of the human race, and in those tears with which he grieved our sins, he also cleansed them.”

“And what is meant by this potter if not the holy preachers that we have spoken of already? Through various activities they worthily exercise the degrees of their ministry, adapting their doctrine according to the condition of their hearers. The wise, in fact, must be admonished in a way different from the ignorant, the strong different from the weak, the young different from the old and men different from women. With the plow of the gospel they cultivate the field of the Lord. They pasture the sheep and animals of the Lord with the fodder of the Word. They engrave the seals of the new person in human hearts, producing the weapons of the virtues by the ministry of their tongue. They give an example, consoling by their words and behavior those who are fragile and sickly, until they are transformed into honorable vessels, fully fit for God's ministry. This is why this potter works, turning the wheel with his feet, transforming the changeable situations of this life into an example for his disciples through the signs of good works. He watches what he does so that he might persevere in good actions, and by his own actions he invigorates the activity of the sick, giving them an example of humility and meekness and setting his whole heart on the smoothing of all that is bitter in the habits of those under him by the sweetness of his example. In addition, he spends all of his solicitude cooking every action of the disciples in the fire of the furnace of the heart, so as to render them firmer by the flame of love. He does this because all of his work could be damaged by a fall if it is not held together by the bond of charity.”