ACC ~ Luke 7 v24 - 28

GREATNESS IN THE KINGDOM BY FAITH

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: There were certain people who prided themselves upon their performance of what was required by the law, namely, the scribes, Pharisees, and others of their party. He proves that those who believe in him are superior to them and that the glories of the followers of the law are small in comparison with the evangelical way of life. He uses as an example him who was the best of their whole class yet born of woman, the blessed Baptizer. He affirmed that he is a prophet, or rather above the measure of the prophets. Christ also says that among those born of women no one had arisen greater than him in the righteousness that is by the law. He declares that he who is small, who falls short of his measure, and is inferior to him in the righteousness that is by the law, is greater than he. He is not greater in legal righteousness but in the kingdom of God, in faith and the glories which result from faith. Faith crowns those that receive it with glories that surpass the law. …

For this reason, Jesus brings the blessed Baptizer to our attention as one who had attained the foremost place in legal righteousness and to incomparable praise. Still he is ranked as less than one who is least. He says, “The least is greater than he in the kingdom of God.” The kingdom of God signifies, as we affirm, the grace that is by faith, by means of which we are accounted worthy of every blessing and of the possession of the rich gifts which come from above from God. It frees us from all blame and makes us to be the children of God, partakers of the Holy Spirit and heirs of a heavenly inheritance. COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 38. [1]

[1] CGSL 161-62**.

JOHN ESCHEWS THE TRAPPINGS OF THIS WORLD

AMBROSE: “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed shaken with the wind?” When he admonished John’s disciples to believe in the cross of the Lord, as they departed he turned to the crowds and began to call the poor to virtue. He did this for fear that they would be exalted in heart, fickle in mind and weak in foresight, and might prefer the showy to the useful and the fleeting to the eternal. “What did you go out into the desert to see?” The world here seems to be compared with a desert, still uncultivated, barren and infertile, which the Lord said could not yield increase. We think that people, swollen in the physical mind, devoid of inner virtue and boasting with the brittle loftiness of worldly glory are to be imitated as the example and image. Dangerous people, whom an inconstant way of life disquiets with the storms of this world, are rightly to be compared with a reed. [1] We are reeds founded on no root of a more robust nature. … Reeds love rivers and the fleeting. Perishing things of the earth delight us. EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 5.103-4. [2]

[1] Cf. 3 Macc 2:22.

[2] EHG 184-85**.

HOW THE BELIEVER IS LIKE A FLOWING PEN

AMBROSE: If someone plucks this reed from the nursery garden of the earth, divests it of what is unnecessary, strips off the old man with his deeds, [1] and fits it to the hand of a swiftly writing scribe, [2] it begins to be not a reed but a pen. This pen imprints the precepts of Holy Writ in the inner mind and inscribes them on the tables of the heart. [3] … Imitate this pen in the moderation of your flesh. Do not dip your pen, your flesh, in ink but in the Spirit of the living God so that what you write may be eternal. Paul wrote the epistle with such a pen, of which he says, “You are the epistle of Christ, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God.” [4] Dip your flesh in the blood of Christ, as it is written, “that your foot may be dipped in blood.” [5] Moisten the footprint of your spirit and the steps of your mind with the sure confession of the Lord’s cross. You dip your flesh in Christ’s blood as you wash away vices, purge sins and bear the death of Christ in your flesh, as the apostle taught us, saying, “bearing about in our body the dying of Jesus Christ.” [6] EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 5.105-6. [7]

[1] Col 3:9.

[2] Ps 44:1 LXX.

[3] 2 Cor 3:2.

[4] 2 Cor 3:3.

[5] Ps 68:23 (67:24 LXX).

[6] 2 Cor 4:10.

[7] EHG 185-86**.

JOHN THE GREATEST PROPHET BORN OF A WOMAN; JESUS THE GREATEST BORN OF A VIRGIN

AMBROSE: He is even greater than he of whom Moses said, “The Lord our God will stir up a prophet among you,” [1] and “For the time will come that every soul that shall not hear that same prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.” [2] If Christ is a prophet, then how is John greater than all prophets? Surely we do not deny that Christ is a prophet? On the contrary, I maintain both that the Lord is the Prophet of prophets and that John is greater than all, but of those born of a woman, not of a virgin. He was greater than those to whom he could be equal in the condition of birth. Another nature is not to be compared with human generations. There can be no comparison between man and God, for each is preferred to his own. There could be no comparison of John with the Son of God, so that he is thought to be below the angels. [3] EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 5.110. [4]

[1] Deut 18:15, 18.

[2] Acts 3:23.

[3] Cf. Ps 8:5; Heb 2:7, 9.

[4] EHG 188*.

BORN OF WOMAN OR BORN OF GOD

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: “What then did you go out to see?” Perhaps you say, “A prophet.” Yes, I agree. He is a saint and a prophet. He even surpasses the dignity of a prophet. Not only did he announce before that I am coming but pointed me out close at hand, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God that bears the sin of the world.” [1] The prophet’s voice testified of him as the one who was sent before my face to prepare the way before me. [2] I witness that there has not arisen among those born of women one greater than he. He that is least, in the life according to the law, in the kingdom of God is greater than he. How and in what manner is he greater? In that the blessed John, together with as many as preceded him, was born of woman, but they who have received the faith are no longer called the sons of women, but as the wise Evangelist said, “are born of God.” [3] COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 38. [4]

[1] Jn 1:29.

[2] Mal 3:1.

[3] Jn 1:12.

[4] CGSL 163**.

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