Christ's hour, was of His own will. 135 II. 1-4. menta die, He did not yet see it meet to use that power. Just as JoHN we say, brethren, for example, Now is the set hour for us to go out to celebrate the holy rites. If we go out sooner1 sacrathan is necessary, do not we act perversely and absurdly? Seeing then that we do not go out but when it is meet, do we therefore, in these matters, regard fate, when we so express ourselves? What then is the meaning of, Mine hour is not yet come? The hour is not yet come when I know that it is meet that I should suffer, when My Passion will be of use, when it does come, then I will willingly suffer:' that thou mayest preserve both: Mine hour is not yet come; and I have power to lay down My life, and power to take it again. He had come then, having it in His power when to die. But it would surely have been contrary to the fitness of things, if He had died before He had chosen disciples. If He had been a man whose hour was not in His own power, He might have died before He had chosen disciples: and if, peradventure, He had died when His disciples were now chosen and instructed, it would have been something bestowed upon Him, it would not have been His cwn doing. But He, Who had come, having in His power when to go, when to return, how far to advance, and that to Him should be open the regions of death, not only for death, but also for resurrection, He, that He might shew us His Church's hope of immortality, shewed in the Head what it behoved the members to expect. For He who rose again in the Head, will rise again in the other members also. The hour therefore was not yet come; the convenient season was not yet. There were disciples to be called, the kingdom of heaven to be proclaimed, signs to be wrought, the Lord's Divine Nature to be set forth in miracles, His human in the very sympathy which He had with mortality. For He Who hungered because He was Man, fed with five loaves so many thousands because He was God: He Who slept because He was Man, commanded the winds and waves because He was God. these things were first to be set forth, that there might be what the Evangelists should write, what the Church should have preached to her. But when He had done as much as He judged sufficient, then came the hour, not of necessity, but of will; not of condition, but of power. All VIII. 136 Many mysteries in this miracle. HOMIL. 13. What then, brethren? because we have replied to these and these, shall we say nothing of the meaning of the waterpots, of the water turned into wine, of the governor of the feast, of the bridegroom, of the mother of Jesus, mystically considered, of the marriage itself? All must be spoken of, but we must not burthen you. I would fain have preached to you, in the Name of Christ, yesterday also, when a sermon customarily was due to my beloved brethren, but I was prevented by certain necessary hindrances. If you please then, holy brethren, let us defer what pertains to the mystical signification of this miracle till to-morrow, and not burthen your weakness and our own. Perhaps there are many here to-day who have come because of the solemnity of the day, not to hear the sermon. Let those who come to-morrow, come to hear, that so we may neither defraud those who are fond of learning, nor burthen those who are easily tired. HOMILY IX. JOHN ii. 1-11. And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: and both Jesus was called, and His disciples, to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it. And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three measures apiece. Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And He saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was; (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, and saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory; and His disciples believed on Him. WHAT MYSTERY IS CONTAINED IN THE MIRACLE WROUGHT AT THE MARRIAGE AT CANA OF GALILEE. 1. THE Lord our God be present with us, and enable us to make good our promise. For yesterday, if you remember, holy brethren, seeing that we were prevented, by want of IX. 138 Christ, by His Presence at a Marriage, HOMIL. time, from completing the sermon we had begun, we deferred until to-day the exposition of those matters, which in this 1 sacra- fact of the Gospel Lesson are mystically deposited in sacred' mentis. and inner meanings, that with God's help these might be 4, 3. opened to you. We need not now, therefore, spend more time in setting forth the miracle of God. It is, namely, the same God, Who throughout the whole creation daily worketh miracles, which have become cheap in men's eyes, not through their easiness, but through their constancy; whereas those rare and unusual actions, which were done by the same Lord, that is, by the Word, for our sakes become incarnate, excited far greater wonder, not because they were greater than those which He does every day in the creation, but because, as for these which are done every day, it is, as it were, in the natural course of things that they are brought about; while as for those, it is by the efficacy of a power which is as it were immediately present, that they are exhibited in the sight of men's eyes. We said, as ye remember, one dead man rose again, and people were amazed and yet the daily births of those who before were not, excite no wonder. So, at water turned into wine, who does not marvel, though God doth the same in vines every year? But forasmuch as whatsoever things were done by the Lord Jesus, serve not only to stir up our hearts by their marvellous nature, but also to edify those hearts in the doctrine of faith, it behoves us to search diligently what all these things mean, that is, of what they are signs. For the consideration of all these things in this their inner significance we deferred, as ye remember, till to-day. 2. The Lord, in coming to the marriage, to which He had been invited, even setting aside the mystical signification, wished to assure us that He was the Author of marriage. For there were to be those, of whom the Apostle spoke, Tim. forbidding to marry, saying, that marriage was wrong, and that it had the devil for its author: although the same Lord saith in the Gospel, on being asked whether it is lawful for a man to put away his wife for any cause, that it is not Mat. 19, lawful save only for the cause of fornication. In which answer, if you remember, He saith, What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And they who are well 3-6. put honour upon His own institution. 139 instructed in the Catholic faith, know that God was the JOHN Author of marriage, and that as the union of man and wife is II.1-11. from Him, so divorce is from the devil. But in the case of fornication, it is lawful for a man to put away his wife, because the woman herself first chose to be a wife no longer, while she kept not her conjugal fidelity to her husband. Indeed, even those women, who vow virginity to God, although they hold a loftier place of honour and sanctity in the Church, are not without marriage: for they too, together with the whole Church, are concerned in a marriage, a marriage in which Christ is the Bridegroom. For this cause, therefore, did the Lord come to the marriage to which He had been invited, namely, for the confirming of conjugal chastity, and setting forth the sacred' import of sacramarriage: for in that marriage also the bridegroom, to whom mentum it was said, Thou hast kept the good wine until now, shadowed forth the Person of Christ. For the good wine, that is to say, His Gospel, Christ hath kept until now. 14-16. 3. For let us now begin to uncover what is veiled under these sacred signs of a spiritual meaning, so far forth as He2 sacravouchsafes in Whose Name we made you the promise. There menta was Prophecy in ancient times, and of the dispensation of Prophecy were no times left void. But that Prophecy, seeing that Christ was not undersood in it, was water. For in water wine is in a sort latent. The Apostle teacheth what we are to understand by this water. Even to this day, saith 2 Cor.3, he, whilst Moses is read, the same veil is laid upon their heart, because it is not unveiled, that in Christ it is done away. And when, saith he, thou shalt have passed over to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. By the veil, he means, the covering over of prophecy, so that it might not be understood. The veil is taken away when thou hast passed over to the Lord: in like manner the insipidity is taken away 3 insiwhen thou hast passed over to the Lord, and what before pientia was water, now becomes wine to thee. Read all the prophetic books; if thou dost not discern Christ, what wilt thou find to match them for flatness and insipidity? Discern Cum transieris, Aug. here and elsewhere, e. g. Serm. 160, 6. 300, 3. c. Faust. 12, 4. (de Spir. et litt. 27. transierit, but four Mss. transieris.) This reading supposes brav niσтρén |