Homilies on Joshua, Homily 9

After Jesus overthrew Ai, that is, chaos, it was fitting to offer to the Most High God of all some gift worthy of so great a victory. Let us see, then, what it is that he does after the victory: “Jesus built,” it says, “an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal, and made it as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the sons of Israel. And it is written in the law of Moses that an altar is to be made of whole stones on which no iron has been laid.” And after Jesus had made the altar, “he placed burnt offerings on it to the Lord and offered a sacrifice of salvation; and after the sacrifice Jesus wrote Deuteronomy, the law of Moses, on the stones, and wrote it before the sons of Israel; and all the elders of Israel, and the judges, and their scribes went before the ark of the covenant of the Lord on this side and on that.” Let us see, then, what is indicated in all these things, and how the present reading builds us up. All of us who believe in Jesus Christ are said to be living stones, as Scripture declares, saying: “But you are living stones, built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” And just as with these earthly stones we know it is the practice that the stronger and more powerful stones are laid first in the foundations, so that the weight of the whole building can be entrusted to them and set upon them; that the next ones, that is, those a little inferior to them, are arranged next to those in the foundation; that still weaker stones are placed a little higher above the foundations; and then, by comparison, that the weaker stones are placed in the upper parts, near the very top of the roof — so now understand the same thing about the living stones that some are in the foundations of this spiritual building. Who are those placed in the foundations? The apostles and prophets. For so Paul says, teaching this himself: “Built,” he says, “upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus our Lord himself being the chief cornerstone.” And so that you, the hearer, may prepare yourself more readily for the construction of this building, so as to be found a stone nearer to the foundation, learn that Christ himself is the foundation of this building which we have now described. For so the apostle Paul says: “For no one can lay any foundation other than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.” Blessed, then, are those who build devout and holy buildings on so noble a foundation. But in this building of the church there must also be an altar. Hence I think that all those among you, the living stones, who are fit and ready for this, to give themselves to prayers and to offer petitions to God day and night and offer the sacrifices of prayer, are the ones from whom Jesus builds the altar.

But observe what praise is given to these very stones of the altar. “As Moses the lawgiver said,” it says, “the altar is to be built of whole stones on which no iron has been laid.” Who do you think these whole stones are? Each one’s conscience knows who is whole, who is uncorrupted, unpolluted, unstained in flesh and in spirit; who is the one on whom no iron has been laid, that is, who has not received the fiery darts of desire from the evil one but has quenched and repelled them with the shield of faith; or who is the one who has never received the iron of fighting, the iron of war, the iron of quarrels, but has always been peaceable, always quiet and meek, formed by the humility of Christ. These, then, are the living stones from which Jesus our Lord built an altar of whole stones on which no iron has been laid, so that he might offer on them burnt offerings and a sacrifice of salvation. I think that perhaps such whole and undefiled stones may be the holy apostles, all together making one altar because of their unity and harmony. For so it is related that all, praying together with one accord, opened their mouth and said: “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all.” These, then, who were able to pray with one mind, with one voice and one Spirit, are perhaps worthy to build together one altar, on which Jesus may offer sacrifice to the Father. Yet let us too try to take pains that we all say the same thing with one accord, thinking one thing, doing nothing through rivalry or empty pride, but remaining in one mind and the same judgment, if perhaps we too can be made stones fit for the altar. For Jesus our Lord does not desert us; but although, when we give ourselves to prayer, we do not know what to pray for as we ought, yet the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unutterable groanings. And “the Lord is the Spirit.” If, then, the Spirit helps our prayers and offers them to the Father, the God of all, with groanings that we cannot express, it is certain that he also carefully seeks from us the building of the altar.

But the adornment of the altar is not yet complete, even if it is built of whole stones, even if no iron and no darts of the evil one are found laid on them; something is still lacking, and there is still something that Jesus adds to all these. What is that? “Jesus wrote,” it says, “on the stones of the altar Deuteronomy, the law of Moses, and wrote it in the sight of the sons of Israel.” However the son of Nun may then have been able to write the law on the stones of the altar, and to sketch types as far as he could, let us meanwhile see how our Jesus wrote Deuteronomy, which is called, as it were, the second giving of the law, on living and whole stones. If, then, you want to see how, the first law having been weakened, Jesus writes the second law, listen to him saying in the Gospels: “It was said to the people of long ago: You must not kill. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother is a murderer.” And again: “It was said to the people of long ago: You must not commit adultery. But I say to you: If anyone looks at a woman to desire her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” And: “It was said to the people of long ago: You must not swear falsely. But I say to you: Do not swear at all.” You see the Deuteronomy that Jesus wrote on living and whole stones, not on tablets of stone but on fleshly tablets of the heart, not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. And if you want to know more clearly in which hearts Jesus wrote the law and in which he did not, let the authority of the Scriptures reveal this too to you, so that you who have been called from the Gentiles may take comfort and not be afraid of the boasting of those who boast that they received the law of Moses written on tablets and pages. Listen, then, to whose hearts the Lord Jesus wrote the law. Paul says: “For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness.” If, then, you see Gentiles come to Jesus, believe in him, and fulfill the work of the law, which those who had received the law could not fulfill, do not hesitate to say of them that Jesus wrote Deuteronomy on these whole stones.

I am struck by what Scripture adds next: “And Jesus wrote,” it says, “Deuteronomy on the stones before the sons of Israel.” How he could write so large a book while the sons of Israel stood by and stayed there, without leaving until the writing of so many words was finished, or how the stones of the altar could hold the contents of so large a book — let those champions of the letter, the Jews, who do not know the spirit of the law, tell me. How is the truth of the history shown in this? But among them, to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart. For us, however, who have turned to the Lord Jesus, the veil is taken away, because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom of understanding. Our Lord Jesus, then, does not need much time to write Deuteronomy, to fix the second law in the hearts of believers and seal the law of the spirit in the minds of those who are worthy to be chosen for the building of the altar. For as soon as anyone has believed in Jesus Christ, the law of the Gospel is written in his heart, and written in the sight of the sons of Israel. For when the sacrament of faith was handed on to you, there were present the heavenly powers, the ministries of the angels, the church of the firstborn. For if we rightly understand that Israel means “a mind seeing God,” this is most rightly said rather of the ministering angels, according to the Lord’s saying about little children — and you too were a little child in baptism — that “their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” Before these sons of Israel, then, who were present at that time when the sacraments of faith were handed on to you, and who see the face of God, Jesus wrote Deuteronomy in your heart. Do you want us to prove to you still more clearly from the holy Scriptures that Jesus writes the second law before the sons of Israel? The Apostle plainly shows it to the Hebrews, saying: “For you have not come to the sound of a trumpet and a burning mountain, but you have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and a multitude of angels praising God.” You see, then, that before all these, who are rightly called sons of Israel because they always see God, Jesus writes his law in the hearts of believers. And now too, through these things that we are saying, Jesus writes Deuteronomy in the hearts of those who receive what is said with whole faith and whole mind, who hear and keep what is said with whole hearing and a whole heart, and not with a corrupt and unsound understanding of the faith; for Deuteronomy must be written on whole stones.

After this he says: “And all Israel,” it says, “and the elders and judges and scribes went before the ark of the covenant of the Lord on this side and on that.” The ark of the covenant of the Lord is that in which the tablets of the law written by the hand of God are kept. And around this ark of the covenant everyone who is truly Israel walks, and is not far from it. But the Levites and priests even carry it on their shoulders. Those who live with priestly devotion and holiness — not only those who seem to sit in the priestly assembly, but rather those who act as priests, whose portion is the Lord and who have no share on earth — these are truly the priests and Levites of the Lord, who carry the law of God on their shoulders, that is, by acting and fulfilling in deed what is written in the law.

“And also the proselyte,” it says, “and the native together; and half of them were by Mount Gerizim and half by Mount Ebal.” How should we explain these things too? Truly we need the help of God to explain who are the half who walked by Mount Gerizim, and who are the half who, although they too are saved, could not walk by Mount Gerizim but walk by Mount Ebal. Mount Gerizim holds the blessings, but Mount Ebal the curses that threaten sinners. For, as it is written in Deuteronomy, they set six tribes on Mount Gerizim to bless, and these the nobler and more distinguished tribes, namely Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin; and the other six, less noble, to curse: among them Reuben, who went up to his father’s bed and defiled his father’s couch, and Zebulun, who is the last son of Leah.

These things relate the deeds of ancient history; but how should we refer this narrative of history to a mystical understanding, so as to show who those are who walk by Mount Gerizim and who those are who walk by Mount Ebal? I see it in this way: there are two kinds of those who by faith hurry toward salvation. One is of those who, kindled with desire for the heavenly promises, strive with the greatest zeal and diligence that not even one blessedness, the least, should pass them by, desiring not only to receive the blessing and to be made part of the lot of the saints, but also to stand in the sight of God and to be always with the Lord. But there are others who also tend toward salvation, but are not so much inflamed with love and desire for the blessings as they have this rather in view, so that they say: It is enough for me not to go to Gehenna; it is enough for me not to be sent into the eternal fire; it is enough for me not to be cast out into the outer darkness. Since, then, there is such variety of purpose among the faithful, this seems to me to be what is meant here: that the half who walk by Mount Gerizim, which was chosen for the blessings, signify in particular those who come to salvation not from fear of punishment but from desire for the blessings and promises. But the half who walk by Mount Ebal, on which the curses were pronounced, signify those others who come to salvation by fulfilling what is written in the law from fear of evils and dread of punishments. Here it now belongs to God alone to know, out of all of us sons of Israel, who is the one who, kindled with desire for the good itself, does what is good, and who of us tends toward the good from fear of Gehenna and terror of the eternal fire, and is eager and hurries to fulfill what is written. It is certain that those are nobler who do what is good out of desire for the good itself and love for the blessings than those who pursue the good from fear of evil. Jesus alone, then, is the one who can discern minds and spirits of this kind out of the whole people, and set some on Mount Gerizim for the blessings and others on Mount Ebal for the curses — not that they may receive the curses, but that, looking on the curses written beforehand and the punishments appointed for sinners, they may beware of incurring them.

After this it is related that Jesus read all the words of the law, that is, the blessings and the curses, according to all that is written in the book of the law, and there was not one word of all that Moses had commanded which Jesus did not read before the whole assembly of the sons of Israel. The explanation of the history is easy, how the son of Nun read all the words of the law that Moses wrote before the whole assembly of the sons of Israel; but to show how our Lord Jesus does this for his people does not seem pointless to me. And I think that whenever Moses is read to us, and by the grace of the Lord the veil of the letter is removed, and we begin to understand that the law is spiritual — that, for example, when the law says, “You must not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain,” it spoke not of oxen but of the apostles; and again, when it is said in the law that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman, I understand in these two covenants and two peoples — this law, understood in this way (which Paul calls spiritual), the Lord Jesus reads to us, and he is the one who recites these things in the ears of the whole people, commanding us not to follow the letter that kills but to hold to the spirit that gives life. Jesus reads the law to us, then, when he reveals to us the secrets of the law. For we who belong to the catholic church do not despise the law of Moses, but receive it, provided that Jesus reads it to us. For so we will be able to understand the law rightly, if Jesus reads it to us, so that as he reads we may grasp its sense and meaning. Or are we not to think that the one who said this had taken his understanding from there, “But we have the mind of Christ, that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which we also speak,” and those who said, “Did not our heart burn within us while he opened the Scriptures to us on the road?” when, beginning from the law of Moses up to the prophets, he read them all and revealed what was written about himself.

Yet a wonderful figure of speech is shown in what is written, when it says: “There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Jesus did not read in the ears of the whole church of Israel.” And first let us see what it signifies that he read it in their ears. I fear that perhaps our sermon may offend some of the hearers; but still it must be said that not all of us who hear the law belong to the church of the sons of Israel; yet it does not follow, if there is some difference between the hearers of the law and the church of the sons of Israel, that the hearer is excluded from salvation. Pay attention, then, more carefully to the words of Scripture, which says: “There was not one word of all that Moses commanded which Jesus did not read in the ears of the whole church of the sons of Israel.” And it adds: also to the women and infants and proselytes. For our Lord Jesus knows that there are other ears besides these fleshly ones, and these he requires for hearing his words and for hearing the law. Hence in the Gospel too, after he had taught each thing that was needed, he adds and says: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” If he had said this of fleshly ears, it would seem superfluous. For no one without ears had come together to hear his words. But since he knew that what was said had to be received in the ears of the inner man, that is, in the understanding of the heart (for what good is it to hear a sermon if it is not remembered and kept in the heart?), he therefore asked his hearers for ears. This, then, we say now too, following the authority of Scripture, whether when the Scriptures are read in the church or when a sermon of explanation is delivered to the people: see that the words of the law are indeed read by Jesus, but are not read to very many; for Jesus reads the law to those who have ears to hear. And as to his adding women, infants, and proselytes to the church of the Lord: if we understand the women, infants, and proselytes separately and regard them as a kind of following of the church — since in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay — we say that strong food is given to strong men, namely to those of whom the Apostle says, “But solid food is for the perfect,” and from whom he prepares for himself a church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but those whom he sets apart under the name of women or infants or proselytes, let us understand to be those who still need milk, or who, like the weak (as women are), eat vegetables. But if the whole church is taken together, the men are understood to be those who, perfect in all things, know how to stand armed against the tricks of the devil; the women, those who do not yet do what is useful of themselves, but by imitating the men and following their examples; hence they are also said to have a head: “For the head of the woman is the man.” The infants will be those who, having recently received the faith, are nourished with the milk of the Gospel. And the proselytes will be the catechumens, or those who are now eager to be joined to the faithful. John too, thinking similar things about each of these, writes in his epistle and assigns to each age its own deeds. But as Jesus recites the law to you and reveals the spiritual understanding to your hearts, do not remain proselytes, that is, catechumens, any longer, but hurry to receive the grace of God, so that you too may be numbered in the church of the sons of Israel. And you, infants, do not be children in understanding, but be infants in malice, and in understanding be mature, as the Apostle also says to the Hebrews: “Leaving the word of the beginnings of Christ, let us go on to perfection.” And you too who, under the name of women, are weak and slack and listless, take this warning: lift up the drooping hands and the weak knees, that is, to rouse negligent and sluggish minds, and to take up manly constancy in fulfilling the commands of the law and the Gospel, and to hurry toward the perfection of strong men. For divine Scripture does not know how to separate men and women according to sex. For indeed with God there is no distinction of sex, but one is called man or woman according to the difference of soul. How many of the female sex are numbered among the strong men before God? And how many men are counted among the slack and listless women? Does not that man seem to you to be counted among the women who says: I cannot keep what is written; I cannot sell what I have and give to the poor; I cannot offer the other cheek to one who strikes me; I cannot bless one who curses me; I cannot pray for one who blasphemes me; I cannot suffer and endure persecution? He who says he cannot fulfill the other similar commandments, what else does he seem to you than one to be numbered among the women, who can do nothing manly?

But let us see what is written after this: “And all the kings of the Amorites heard,” it says, “those beyond the Jordan, and those in the hill country and in the plain and along all the coast of the great sea, and those in Anti-Lebanon, and the Hittites and Amorites and Canaanites and Perizzites and Hivites and Girgashites and Jebusites, and they came together as one to fight against Jesus and Israel together.” The history of the events is plain and needs no explanation, since it was evidently fulfilled; yet from these visible deeds let us contemplate the wars and triumphs which our Lord Jesus the Savior waged, although we also see these things visibly fulfilled in him. For the kings of the earth came together, the Senate and people and princes of Rome, to fight against the name of Jesus and Israel together. For they decreed by their laws that there should be no Christians. Every city, every class attacks the name of Christians. But as then all those kings, coming together against Jesus, could do nothing, so now neither the princes nor these hostile powers will be able to prevent the race of Christians from spreading more widely and abundantly. For it is written that “the more they humbled them, the more they multiplied and grew very strong.” And we are confident that not only will our visible enemies and adversaries be unable to prevail over us, but also, as our Lord Jesus conquers, Satan will quickly be crushed under the feet of his servants. For under his leadership his soldiers always conquer, so that we too may say, as is written in Ezra: “From you, Lord, is the victory, and I am your servant; blessed are you, God of truth.” Let us too always call on him, that he may give us victory in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.