Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

⁵ But whence arose an occasion, so to say, to the Lord, to speak of this supper? One of them that sat at meat with Him (for He was at a feast, whither He had been invited), had said, “Blessed are they who eat bread in the kingdom of God.” He sighed as though after distant things, and the Bread Himself was sitting down before him. Who is the Bread of the kingdom of God, but He who says, “I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven”? Do not get your mouth ready, but your heart. On this occasion it was that the parable of this supper was set forth. Lo, we believe in Christ, we receive Him with faith. In receiving Him we know what to think of. We receive but little, and we are nourished in heart. It is not then what is seen, but what is believed, that feeds us. Therefore we too have not sought for that outward sense; nor have we said, “Let them believe who have seen with their eyes, and handled with their hands the Lord Himself after His resurrection, if what is said be true; we do not touch Him, why should we believe?” If we were to entertain such thoughts, we should be kept back from the supper by those “five pairs of oxen.” That ye may know, Brethren, that not the gratification of these five senses, which softens and ministers pleasure, but a kind of curiosity was denoted, He did not say, “'I have bought five pairs of oxen,' and I go to feed them;” but, “I go to prove them.” He who wishes to “prove” by “the pairs of oxen,” does not wish to be in doubt, just as St. Thomas by these “pairs” did not wish to be in doubt. “Let me see, let me touch, let me put in my fingers.” “'Behold,' says the Lord, 'put in your fingers along My Side, and be not unbelieving.' For your sake have I been slain; at the place which you wish to touch, have I shed My Blood, that I might redeem you; and do you still doubt of Me, unless you touch Me? Behold, this too I grant; behold, this too I show you; touch, and believe; find out the place of My wound, heal the wound of your doubting.”

6. “The third said, I have married a wife.” This is the pleasure of the flesh, which is a hindrance to many: and I would that it were so only without, and not within! There are men who say, “There is no happiness for a man, if he have not the pleasures of the flesh.” These are they whom the Apostle censures, saying, “'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die.' Who has risen to this life from the other? Who has ever told us what goes on there? We take away with us, what in the time present makes our happiness.” He that speaks thus, “has married a wife,” attaches himself to the flesh, places his delight in the pleasures of the flesh, excuses himself from the supper; let him look well to it that he die not by an inward famine. Attend to John, the holy Apostle and Evangelist; “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” O you who come to the Supper of the Lord, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” He did not say, “Have not;” but, “Love not.” You have had, possessed, loved. The love of earthly things, is the bird-lime of the spirit's wings. Lo, you have desired, you have stuck fast. “Who will give you wings as of a dove?” When will you fly, whither you may in deed, seeing you have perversely wished to rest here, where you have to your hurt stuck fast? “Love not the world,” is the divine trumpet. By the voice of this trumpet unceasingly is it proclaimed to the compass of the earth, and to the whole world, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Whosoever loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the ambition of life.” He begins at the last with which the Gospel ends. He begins at that, at which the Gospel made an end. “The lust of the flesh, I have married a wife. The lust of the eyes, I have bought five pairs of oxen. The ambition of life, I have bought a farm.”