Chromatius of Aquileia

“Through the resurrection of Christ the way was opened. Therefore with good reason the patriarch Jacob relates that he had seen in that place a ladder whose end reached heaven and that the Lord leaned on it. The ladder fixed to the ground and reaching heaven is the cross of Christ, through which the access to heaven is granted to us, because it actually leads us to heaven. On this ladder different steps of virtue are set, through which we rise toward heaven: faith, justice, chastity, holiness, patience, piety and all the other virtues are the steps of this ladder. If we faithfully climb them, we will undoubtedly reach heaven. And therefore we know well that the ladder is the symbol of the cross of Christ. As, in fact, the steps are set between two uprights, so the cross of Christ is placed between the two Testaments and keeps in itself the steps of the heavenly precepts, through which we climb to heaven.”

“Joseph was rejected by his brothers and was received by the Ishmaelites; in the same manner our Lord and Savior was rejected by the Jews and received by the pagans. The Ishmaelites who received Joseph carried along with them all kinds of perfumes, and this fact showed that the pagans by embracing the faith would spread the different perfumes of justice all over the world.”

“Let us observe a great mystery: for Joseph twenty pieces of gold were given, for the Lord thirty pieces of silver. The servant was sold at a higher price than the Master. To be sure people are wrong in fixing the price of the Lord, because the One who is sold is beyond human evaluation. Let us consider this mystery with more attention. For the Lord the Jews offered thirty pieces of silver; for Joseph the Ishmaelites offered twenty pieces of gold. The Ishmaelites bought the servant at a higher price than that paid by the Jews for the Master. The first worshiped in Joseph the image of Christ; the latter only had contempt for the reality itself that was in Christ. Therefore the Jews offered a lower price for Christ, because they estimated the passion of the Lord to be cheap. But how is it possible to estimate the passion of the Lord to be cheap, when it is the price for the redemption of the entire world? Listen to the apostle, who demonstrates that to us by saying, "You were bought at a high price." And listen to the apostle Peter, who says in a similar manner, "You were ransomed from your futile ways not with perishable things like silver and gold but with the precious blood of the immaculate Son of God." If we were bought back from death with gold or silver, our ransom would have been cheap, because humanity is more precious than gold and silver; but in truth we are ransomed at an invaluable price, because the one who ransomed us through his passion is invaluable.”

“This holy Joseph, about whom your charity has heard in this reading, was beautiful in his body but even more beautiful in his soul, because he was chaste in his body and had a chaste soul. The beauty of his body shone in him, but that of his character even more so. Therefore, even though for many people the beauty of the body is usually an obstacle to salvation, it could do no harm to our saint, because the beauty of his character ruled that of his body. So the soul must subdue the flesh, and not the flesh the soul, because the soul is the master of the flesh, and the flesh is the servant of the soul. Woe to the soul that is dominated by flesh and is changed from master to servant by neglecting the faith in the Lord and by submitting to the slavery of sin. But the soul of the patriarch Joseph securely preserved its power, and the flesh could not dominate it at all.”

“But the holy man considered that prison to be a palace; and Joseph himself was a palace in his prison, because where faith, chastity and modesty are, there the palace of Christ is, the temple of God, the dwelling of the Holy Spirit.… In the church there are three models of chastity that everybody must imitate: Joseph, Susanna and Mary. May men imitate Joseph, women Susanna and the virgin Mary.”

“Elsewhere, the Holy Spirit also speaks of the Virgin about to give birth when he says, "There will come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower will arise from his root." The rod from the root of Jesse signifies the Virgin Mary, who found her origins in the stem of Jesse through David. For, as the Evangelist or apostle reveals, out of the tribe of David came the Virgin Mary, from whom the flower of human flesh arose in Christ. This is the rod which, having been placed in the ark of testimony to be a sign for everlasting memory, has now by a new and wonderful mystery, without moisture from the earth, brought forth the fruit of the almond. It is by this miracle that Aaron's priesthood was confirmed.”

“But Isaiah announced the Lord's future trip to Egypt some time ago when he said, "Behold, the Lord will be seated upon a light cloud and will come to Egypt." By this saying, the mystery of the Lord's incarnation is clearly shown. For because the Lord himself, "dawning from on high," is called "the sun of justice," it is not without merit that he was foretold to be coming "upon a light cloud," that is, in a holy body which no sin was able to weigh down. It was under the veil of this corporeal cloud that he concealed the light of his majesty.”

“To make himself visible, the "sun of justice" assumed a human body like a cloud, according to which it was said, "Behold, the Lord will come upon a light cloud." What is the cloud upon which the Lord, the sun of justice, was predicted to arrive if not the cloud of the human body, through which the appearance of his divine radiance was shielded? But just as the sun is less visible to us when covered by a cloud, even though its nature remains unchanged, so also the Son of God did not cease to retain the glory of his divinity when he covered his radiance with the cloud of a human body. The Gospel said that "his face shone like the sun and his clothing was made as white as snow" to show the power of his divine radiance, through which even his clothing was made white like snow. "And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke with them," it continues. The Lord had already promised the glory of this vision long ago to the same Moses, saying, "You will see my back [posteriora mea]." He used "posterior" here to indicate that he would reveal himself to Moses at a posterior time, after his assumption of the body. "But Peter responded and said to him, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you like, let's pitch three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.' "”

“The grace of this time in which John was exhorting sinners to repentance and baptizing those who confessed their sins in the desert, Isaiah previously witnessed when he said, "The desert will rejoice and blossom like the lily. The desert of the Jordan will bloom and exult. Strengthen the hands of the abandoned and bolster their weak knees. You who are lowly of soul, be encouraged and do not fear."”

“Although these blind men had no bodily eyes, they had the vision of faith and heart with which they were able to see the true and eternal Light, the Son of God, about whom it is written: "He was the true light which illumines everyone, coming into the world." It was he who had predicted through the prophet Isaiah that he would come to give sight to the blind: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. He has sent me to evangelize the poor and to restore sight to the blind." Again Isaiah testified about the same one elsewhere: "Behold, our God will restore justice; he will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will hear." David also bore witness to him, saying through the Holy Spirit: "The Lord raises up the downcast, the Lord frees the imprisoned, the Lord gives sight to the blind."”

“But that these five thousand men are signs of divine power, the Lord himself predicted through the prophet, saying, "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me will be signs in the house of Israel from the Lord of hosts on Mount Zion." The same prophet later revealed the nature of these future signs when he said, "Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear, and the lame will leap like deer." We can recognize the fulfillment of this prophecy in the lame man who had been unable to walk since birth.If we look closely, we can also recognize the sacraments prefigured mystically in him, for the lame man received healing while looking toward Peter and John when he was at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. We too were lame prior to coming to the knowledge of Christ, in the sense that we were limping along the way of righteousness. Our halting strides were not those of the body, however, but those of the interior life. Whoever has gone astray from the way of righteousness or from the way of truth is altogether lame, even if his feet and legs are healthy, since he limps with his mind and soul. For the journey of faith and truth is traveled not with bodily steps but with strides of the interior life.”

“We find in the books of Kings the very holy woman Hannah fulfilling the precepts of this Gospel teaching. For while praying without uttering a sound, in her heart and in the sight of God she poured out her desire in her prayers. She was immediately found worthy to be heard by the Lord. In the same way the Lord granted to Daniel, who always prayed in secret with three servants, to understand the interpretations of his dream and the secrets of revelation. Cornelius too, not yet instructed in the gospel, prayed secretly and faithfully in his room and was found worthy to hear the voice of the angel speaking.”

“Concerning the light Daniel noted, "It reveals the profound and hidden things, knowing those things that are in the darkness and the light is with it," that is, the Son with the Father, for even as the Father is light, so too is the Son light. And David also speaks in the psalm: "In your light shall we see light," for the Father is seen in the Son, as the Lord tells us in the Gospel: "Who sees me, sees the Father." From the true light, indeed, the true light proceeded, and from the invisible the visible.”

“The one who approaches the Lord with an insincere heart is rejected, while the Lord receives the one who approaches with a sincere heart and a well-disposed mind, according to the thought of Scripture, "Seek the Lord with sincerity of heart." Therefore the one who believed by faith was received by the Lord into the boat, that is, into the church, where the chorus of the apostles is found. The scribe was not worthy to be received by the Lord; rather, he was rejected, since he showed that he had no faith. Blessed is the disciple who deserved to be received by the Lord, though the scribe was rejected!”

“The city from which the inhabitants went out, pleading with the Lord to leave them, represents the synagogue, which did not want to accept the Lord and Savior of the human race, even after it had seen his divine miracles. Therefore he returned to his own city—rejected by the synagogue, he has come to his church; it is this latter that in a true and proper sense merits the name of the city of Christ. Thus one understands why the Gadarenes pleaded with the Lord to leave their town. We must, however, be attentive, that none of us find ourselves in a similar situation; I am alluding to the danger that someone, because of an unbelieving heart, would impel the Lord and Savior of the world to leave his heart, because it is written that "the Holy Spirit, the teacher of discipline, flees from one who is false; he will not dwell in a body enslaved to sin."”

“The Lord demands that there be no difference between our oaths and our ordinary speech. If this were not so, then it could be admitted that there is a sort of deception in our oath. Likewise, there must be no lie whatsoever in our words, because both a deceiving oath and a lie fall under the condemnation of divine judgment. Scripture attests to this: "A lying mouth destroys the soul." To speak the truth is already an oath, given that we read, "The truthful witness does not lie." For this reason Scripture justly asserts that God often utters oaths. God is true, and he cannot lie. Everything he says can be considered an oath, given that everything God says is entirely true. It is true, of course, that sometimes Scripture says that God swears an oath. If he does so, however, it is because human beings are incredulous. He swears, then, because of the devious infidelity of the Jews, who believe that truth is found only in words given with an oath. It is for this reason alone that God at times wanted to swear an oath, so that those who did not believe God when he spoke would at least believe when he gave an oath.”

“There is no doubt that the boat symbolizes the church, bearing in mind what the Holy Spirit says, through Solomon: "She is like a merchant ship, securing her provisions from afar." This can be speaking of nothing other than the church for these reasons: under the guidance of the Lord, with the apostles for its pilots, being blown by the Holy Spirit, this church, by the preaching of the Word, races through the whole world. At the same time, it carries with it a treasure of inestimable value, with which it has purchased the whole human race, and indeed the whole world: the price is the blood of Christ. Solomon also speaks of this price in another passage when he says, "You cannot trace the path of a ship that crosses the sea." What this means to say is that the manner of life of the church is not according to the principles of this world but according to the norms of the heavenly life, as the holy apostle reminds us: "But our homeland is in heaven."”

“Illness of the soul is much more serious than that of the body. Bodily ills cause temporal death, but illness of the spirit brings eternal death. Indeed, when in paradise Adam transgressed the divine commandment, he did not contract an illness of the body but an illness of the soul, by which he would have perished eternally if the grace of Christ had not rescued him from death. Listen to the prophet who proclaims this, when he says, "By his wounds we have all been healed." The wounds and the passion of the Lord were the remedy that healed humanity. In fact, illnesses of the soul are not healed by the medical arts but only by the grace of Christ. The fever of sin and the wounds of guilt are sicknesses of the soul, which do not enter the body from the outside but from within the soul. These wounds of the soul are not healed by human beings but by God—not by the incision of an earthly knife but by the sword of the divine Word that penetrates into the depths of the soul. Listen to the prophet declare that "it was not an herb or an ointment that cured them but your word, O Lord, which heals everyone." And the words of David, "He sent his word to heal them." And rightly the prophet prays to the Lord about the iniquity of the Jewish people in these terms, "Is there no balm in Gilead, no physician there? Why therefore does not the health of your people recover?" The prophet does not speak of just any balm but of a heavenly remedy, nor of a human physician but of a physician who is God.”