Text: Psalm 84*
The Father: Saint Augustine of Hippo
The Issue: A meditation on virtue as the fruit of grace. (Hey, it's the beginning of a new calendar year!)
The Text: “He shall give blessing,” saith he, “who gave the law.”… Grace shall come after the law, grace itself is the blessing. And what has that grace and blessing given unto us? “They shall go from virtue to virtue.” For here by grace many virtues are given. “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith, to another the gift of healing, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues, to another prophecy.” Many virtues, but necessary for this life; and from these virtues we go on to “a virtue.” To what “virtue”? To “Christ the Virtue of God and the Wisdom of God.” He giveth different virtues in this place, who for all the virtues which are necessary and useful in this valley of weeping shall give one virtue, Himself. For in Scripture and in many writers four virtues are described useful for life: prudence, by which we discern between good and evil; justice, by which we give each person his due, “owing no man anything,” but loving all men: temperance, by which we restrain lusts; fortitude, by which we bear all troubles. These virtues are now by the grace of God given unto us in the valley of weeping: from these virtues we mount unto that other virtue. And what will that be, but the virtue of the contemplation of God alone?… It follows in that place: “They shall go from virtue to virtue.” What virtue? That of contemplation. What is contemplation? “The God of Gods shall appear in Sion.” The God of Gods, Christ of the Christians.…When all is finished, that mortality makes necessary, He shall appear to the pure in heart, as He is, “God with God,” The Word with the Father, “by which all things were made.”
- Commentary on Psalms, 84.11
An additional treat, simply because I couldn't resist including it: Ambrose in his Exposition of the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke in the context of today's gospel reading elaborates on the two generations in Christ: "There are two Generations in Christ; one is Paternal, the other Maternal: The Paternal, the Divine; the Maternal, which descends to our labour and usage." Ambrose then goes on to explain what children owe to their parents:
"Learn what ye owe to your parents when ye read that the Son does not differ from the Father by will, by work, or by time. Although in two Persons, They are One in power , and surely the Heavenly Father experienced no labour of Generation; but ye are in debt to your mother for violation of her chastity, long-lasting nausea, long-lasting dangers, she for whom in her misery, there was a greater peril in the very fruits of her prayers; and when she was brought forth what she desired, she is delivered of her offspring, not of her fear. . . . Surely, it is needful that obedience at least be recompensed for these?"
- Expositio in Lucam, II.66
Ambrose, a feminist?! ;)
Check back for a bit more on the Trinity at Mamre, a subject that's preoccupied me quite a bit in non-bloggish ways over the past week, tomorrow.
* I'm very fond of Jeremiah and made a spirited effort to find a commentary on the Jeremiah readings for the day, but a.) not a whole lot of Fathers commented on the book in any systematic fashion -- Theodoret being one notable exception -- and b.) the works of some who did are no longer extant (... cf., for example, the largely un-preserved state of Jerome's commentary on Jeremiah).
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