Ambrose Why they who come forth from the laver of baptism are anointed on the head; why, too, after baptism, their feet are washed, and what sins are remitted in each case. 29. After this, you went up to the priest, consider what followed. Was it not that of which David speaks: Like the ointment upon the head, which went down to the beard, even Aarons beard? This is the ointment of which Solomon, too, says: Your Name is ointment poured out, therefore have the maidens loved You and drawn You. Song of Songs 1:2 How many souls regenerated this day have loved You, Lord Jesus, and have said: Draw us after You, we are running after the odour of Your garments, Song of Songs 1:3 that they might drink in the odour of Your resurrection. 30. Consider now why this is done, for the eyes of a wise man are in his head;Ecclesiastes 2:14 therefore the ointment flows down to the beard, that is to say, to the beauty of youth; and therefore, Aarons beard, that we, too, may become a chosen race, priestly and precious, for we are all anointed with spiritual grace for a share in the kingdom of God and in the priesthood. 31. You went up from the font; remember the Gospel lesson. For our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel washed the feet of His disciples. When He came to Simon Peter, Peter said: You shall never wash my feet.John 13:8 He did not perceive the mystery, and therefore he refused the service, for he thought that the humility of the servant would be injured, if he patiently allowed the Lord to minister to him. And the Lord answered him: If I wash not your feet, you will have no part with Me. Peter, hearing this, replies: Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. The Lord answered: He that is washed needs not save to wash his feet but is clean every whit. John 13:9-10 32. Peter was clean, but he must wash his feet, for he had sin by succession from the first man, when the serpent overthrew him and persuaded him to sin. His feet were therefore washed, that hereditary sins might be done away, for our own sins are remitted through baptism. 33. Observe at the same time that the mystery consists in the very office of humility, for Christ says: If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; how much more ought you to wash one anothers feet. For, since the Author of Salvation Himself redeemed us through His obedience, how much more ought we His servants to offer the service of our humility and obedience. Chapter 7 The washing away of sins is indicated by the white robes of the catechumens, whence the Church speaks of herself as black and comely. Angels marvel at her brightness as at that of the flesh of the Lord. Moreover, Christ Himself commended His beauty to His Spouse under many figures. The mutual affection of the one for the other is described. 34. After this white robes were given to you as a sign that you were putting off the covering of sins, and putting on the chaste veil of innocence, of which the prophet said: You shall sprinkle me with hyssop and I shall be cleansed, You shall wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow. For he who is baptized is seen to be purified both according to the Law and according to the Gospel: according to the Law, because Moses sprinkled the blood of the lamb with a bunch of hyssop;Exodus 12:22 according to the Gospel, because Christs garments were white as snow, when in the Gospel He showed forth the glory of His Resurrection. He, then, whose guilt is remitted is made whiter than snow. So that God said by Isaiah: Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow. Isaiah 1:18 35. The Church, having put on these garments through the laver of regeneration, says in the Song of Songs: I am black and comely, O daughters of Jerusalem. Song of Songs 1:4 Black through the frailty of her human condition, comely through the sacrament of faith. And the daughters of Jerusalem beholding these garments say in amazement: Who is this that comes up made white? Song of Songs 8:5 She was black, how is she now suddenly made white? 36. The angels, too, were in doubt when Christ arose; the powers of heaven were in doubt when they saw that flesh was ascending into heaven. Then they said: Who is this King of glory? And while some said Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. In Isaiah, too, we find that the powers of heaven doubted and said: Who is this that comes up from Edom, the redness of His garments is from Bosor, He who is glorious in white apparel? Isaiah 63:1 37. But Christ, beholding His Church, for whom He Himself, as you find in the book of the prophet Zechariah, had put on filthy garments, now clothed in white raiment, seeing, that is, a soul pure and washed in the laver of regeneration, says: Behold, you are fair, My love, behold you are fair, your eyes are like a doves,Song of Songs 4:1 in the likeness of which the Holy Spirit descended from heaven. The eyes are beautiful like those of a dove, because in the likeness of a dove the Holy Spirit descended from heaven. 38. And farther on: Your teeth are like a flock of sheep that are shorn, which have come up from the pool, which all bear twins, and none is barren among them, your lips are as a cord of scarlet.Song of Songs 4:2-3 This is no slight praise. First by the pleasing comparison to those that are shorn; for we know that goats both feed in high places without risk, and securely find their food in rugged places, and then when shorn are freed from what is superfluous. The Church is likened to a flock of these, having in itself the many virtues of those souls which through the laver lay aside the superfluity of sins, and offer to Christ the mystic faith and the grace of good living, which speak of the cross of the Lord Jesus. 39. The Church is beautiful in them. So that God the Word says to her: You are all fair, My love, and there is no blemish in you, for guilt has been washed away. Come hither from Lebanon, My spouse, come hither from Lebanon, from the beginning of faith will you pass through and pass on, Song of Songs 4:7-8 because, renouncing the world, she passed through things temporal and passed on to Christ. And again, God the Word says to her: How beautiful and sweet are you made, O love, in your delights! Your stature has become like that of a palm-tree, and your breasts like bunches of grapes. Song of Songs 7:6-7 40. And the Church answers Him, Who will give You to me, my Brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother? If I find You without, I will kiss You, and indeed they will not despise me. I will take You, and bring You into the house of my mother; and into the secret chamber of her that conceived me. You shall teach me. Song of Songs 8:1-2 You see how, delighted with the gifts of grace, she longs to attain to the innermost mysteries, and to consecrate all her affections to Christ. She still seeks, she still stirs up His love, and asks of the daughters of Jerusalem to stir it up for her, and desires that by their beauty, which is that of faithful souls, her spouse may be incited to ever richer love for her. 41. So that the Lord Jesus Himself, invited by such eager love and by the beauty of comeliness and grace, since now no offenses pollute the baptized, says to the Church: Place Me as a seal upon your heart, as a signet upon your arm;Song of Songs 8:6 that is, you are comely, My beloved, you are all fair, nothing is wanting to you. Place Me as a seal upon your heart, that your faith may shine forth in the fullness of the sacrament. Let your works also shine and set forth the image of God in the Whose image you were made. Let no persecution lessen your love, which many waters cannot quench, nor many rivers drown. 42. And then remember that you received the seal of the Spirit; the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, and the spirit of holy fear,Isaiah 11:2 and preserved what you received. God the Father sealed you, Christ the Lord strengthened you, and gave the earnest of the Spirit in your heart, 2 Corinthians 5:5 as you have learned in the lesson from the Apostle.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Jan 2014 22:02:42 +0000
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