Caesarius of Arles

These wretched men are apt to censure the writings of the Old Testament saying, “How was it just for blessed Elijah to burn two captains with their soldiers by means of fire brought down from heaven?” How justly and mercifully this was done, dearly beloved, we want to indicate briefly to your hearts. In the days of the Old Testament, any crimes or offenses committed among the people were ordered to be physically punished. Thus it is written, “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.” Indeed, some were punished in order that the rest might fear bodily punishment and refrain from sins and offenses. Now, in the time of the prophet, blessed Elijah, all the Jewish people had abandoned God and were sacrificing to idols, not only refusing to honor God’s prophets but even very frequently trying to kill them. For this reason blessed Elijah was aroused with zeal for God and caused some to be punished physically, so that those who had neglected the salvation of their souls might be healed in heart by fearing bodily death. We should consider that not so much blessed Elijah as the Holy Spirit did this. We know that the same thing was done through blessed Peter in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, for through him they incurred the destruction of death themselves in order that an example might be given to the rest. Therefore, as it is written, “Great fear seized all who heard of this.” Examples are given to everyone whenever punishments are inflicted on sinners. Because the Jews thought only of their body and refused to be solicitous for the salvation of their soul, with God as judge they suffered punishment in the very body to which they had devoted so much care.

Let us see what these facts mean, dearly beloved. Elisha, as I have frequently suggested, is the type of our Lord and Savior. That bitter spring seems to signify Adam, from whom the human race has sprung. Before the coming of the true Elisha, that is, our Lord and Savior, the human race remained in barrenness and bitterness through the sin of the first man. Although that new vessel in which salt was thrown represents a type of the apostles, still we can fittingly accept in it the mystery of the Lord’s incarnation. Now salt is put there as wisdom, for we read, “Let all your speech be seasoned with salt.” Moreover, since Christ is not only “the power of God” but also “the wisdom of God,” the body of Christ like a new vessel was filled with the salt of divine wisdom when the Word was made flesh. Furthermore, the new vessel with salt was thrown into the bitter waters by Elisha, and they were changed into sweetness and fruitfulness. Similarly, the new vessel, that is, the incarnate Word, was sent by God the Father to recall the human race like bitter flowing waters to sweetness, to lead it to pure charity from evil habits and sterility of good works and to restore it to the fruitfulness of justice. Truly, brothers, does it not seem to you as though the new vessel full of the salt of divine wisdom was put into the water when Christ the Lord went down into the river to be baptized? Then all the waters were changed into sweetness and were sanctified by that new vessel, that is, the body of Christ. As a result, not only were the waters not sterile, but throughout the world by the grace of baptism they have produced a countless number of Christians like abundant fruit and an exceedingly rich harvest.Although we believe that this truth is fulfilled in things which are seen, still we know that it also takes place spiritually in all people. That the waters signify the people is mentioned in the Apocalypse: “The waters that you saw are peoples and nations.” Moreover, that the vessel with salt that was put in the water represents the apostles is very clearly indicated by our Lord in the Gospel when he says, “You are the salt of the earth.” Therefore, by his grace he made new apostles out of old people and filled them with the salt of his teachings and divine wisdom, sending them to the whole world as to the spring of the entire human race, to remove its barrenness and bitterness. Finally, from the time that the salt of divine wisdom is afforded to human hearts, all bitterness of relations or sterility in good works is known to be removed.
Therefore, dearly beloved, as we mentioned above, understand Christ our Lord in blessed Elisha and the human race in that spring. Recognize clearly the malice of the devil, which served the first man in what was bitter and sterile. In that new vessel that was put in the spring full of salt, devoutly think of Christ’s teaching seasoned with the salt of divine wisdom and through the apostles directed to the human race. We, too, dearly beloved, without any preceding good merits have received such great goods from the Lord through his generous graces and have merited to be changed from bitterness to sweetness, summoned from barrenness to the fruitfulness of good works.

Now according to the letter, dearly beloved, we are to believe, as we mentioned above, that blessed Elisha was aroused with God’s zeal to correct the people, rather than moved by unwholesome anger, when he permitted the Jewish children to be torn to pieces. His purpose was not revenge but their amendment, and in this fact, too, the passion of our Lord and Savior was plainly prefigured. Just as those undisciplined children shouted to blessed Elisha, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead,” so at the time of the passion the insane Jews with impious words shouted to Christ the true Elisha, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” What does “Go up, you baldhead” mean except: Ascend the cross on the site of Calvary? Notice further, brothers, that just as under Elisha forty-two boys were killed, so forty-two years after the passion of our Lord two bears came, Vespasian and Titus, and besieged Jerusalem. Also consider, brothers, that the siege of Jerusalem took place on the Paschal solemnity. Thus, by the just judgment of God the Jews who had assembled from all the provinces suffered the punishment they deserved, on the very days on which they had hung the true Elisha, our Lord and Savior, on the cross. Indeed, at that time, that is, in the forty-second year after the passion of our Lord, the Jews as if driven by the hand of God assembled in Jerusalem according to their custom to celebrate the Passover. We read in history that three million Jews were then gathered in Jerusalem; eleven hundred thousand of them are read to have been destroyed by the sword of hunger, and one hundred thousand young men were led to Rome in triumph. For two years that city was besieged, and so great was the number of the dead who were cast out of the city that their bodies equaled the height of the walls. This destruction was prefigured by those two bears that are said to have torn to pieces forty-two boys for deriding blessed Elisha. Then was fulfilled what the prophet had said, “The boar from the forest lays it waste, and the beasts of the field feed on it,” for as was indicated, after forty-two years that wicked nation received what it deserved from the two bears, Vespasian and Titus.

Just as we said concerning blessed Elijah that he typified our Lord and Savior, dearly beloved, so we assert with confidence and assurance that holy Elisha was an image of our Savior. As you heard in the sacred lesson, a certain widow cried to blessed Elisha, beseeching him with tearful voice, “My husband is dead, and behold, the creditors are come and want to take away my sons.” Then he asked her what she had in the house. The woman replied, “As the Lord lives, I have nothing but a little oil to anoint me.” Then Elisha said, “Borrow vessels of your neighbors, and pour out of that oil into all the vessels, and when the vessels are full, sell, and pay your creditors.” This widow typified the church, beloved brothers, just like the one who merited to receive blessed Elijah. This widow, that is, the church, had contracted a heavy debt of sins, not of material substance. She had a debt, and she endured a most cruel creditor, because she had made herself subject to the devil by many sins. Thus, indeed, the prophet foretold, “It was for your sins that you were sold, for your crimes that your mother was dismissed.” For this reason the widow was held captive for such a heavy debt. She was a captive because the Redeemer had not yet come, but after Christ our Lord the true Redeemer visited the widow, he freed her from all debts. Now let us see how that widow was freed—how, except by an increase of oil? In the oil we understand mercy. Notice, brothers: the oil failed, and the debt increased; the oil was increased, and the debt disappeared. Avarice had grown, and charity was lost; charity returned, and iniquity perished. Thus, at the coming of the true Elisha, Christ our Lord, the widow or the church was freed from the debt of sin by an increase of oil, that is, by the gift of grace and mercy or the richness of charity.

Notice, dearly beloved: as long as that widow had oil in her own vessel, it was not enough for her, and she could not pay her debt. It is true, brothers. If a person loves only himself, he does not suffice for himself, and he does not pay the debt of his sins; but when he begins to pour out the oil of charity on all his friends and neighbors and in fact on all people, then he is able to suffice for himself and can free himself from all debts. Truly brothers, such is the nature of holy love and true charity that it increases by being spent, and the more it is paid out to others, the more abundantly it is accumulated in oneself. If you want to give bodily food to the needy, at present you cannot keep what you have given him; but if you offer the bread of charity to one hundred people, it still remains whole. Even if you give it to a thousand, it stays undiminished for you. In fact, if you want to lavish it on the whole world, you will still lose nothing of it; or rather, not only does it not increase, but also the gain of all those on whom you bestowed it increases manifold for you. For example, you had a single loaf of charity; if you had given it to no one you would have it alone, but if you gave it to a thousand you would have acquired a thousand loaves. So great is the possession of charity that it remains entire for each individual and still can be undiminished for them all. Therefore, if you have given to others, you have lost nothing at all; or rather, not only did you not lose anything but also, as I already said, whatever you have conferred on others you have acquired a hundredfold. For this reason, beloved brothers, realize that the widow was freed from her creditors by nothing else than oil; know also that the Catholic church has been freed from its offenses by no other means than the oil of God’s mercy.

After the death of her son, that woman went out and prostrated herself at the feet of holy Elisha, but the blessed man gave his staff to his servant and said to him, “Go, and lay my staff on the face of the child. If anyone salutes you, do not return the greeting.” At this point, brothers, see to it that no wicked thought overtake anyone by saying that blessed Elisha wanted to practice fortune telling and that for this reason he commanded the boy not to return the greeting if anyone should salute him on the way. We read this frequently in Scripture, but it is said for the sake of speed and is not a command of something superfluous or a wicked practice. It means, in effect: Walk so quickly that you may not presume to busy yourself on the way or slow yourself with gossip. Therefore, the servant departed and laid the staff on the face of the child, but the boy did not rise at all. That servant typified blessed Moses, whom God sent into Egypt with a staff; without Christ, Moses could scourge the people with the staff, but he could not free or revive them from original or actual sin. As the apostle says, “For the law brought nothing to perfection.” It was necessary that he who had sent the staff should himself come down. The staff without Elisha availed nothing, because the cross without Christ had no power.

Thus, blessed Elisha came and went up to the chamber, because Christ was to come and ascend the gibbet of the cross. Elisha bent down to revive the child; Christ humbled himself to lift up the world that lay in sin. Elisha further put his eyes on [the child’s] eyes, his mouth on his mouth and his hands on his hands. Consider, brothers, how much that man of full age drew himself together, so that he might fit the little child who lay dead; for what Elisha prefigured in the case of the boy, Christ fulfilled in the entire human race. Listen to the apostle say, “He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death.” Because we were little children, he made himself small; since we lay dead, the kind physician bent down, for, truly, brothers, no one can lift up one who is lying down if he refuses to bend. In the fact that the boy gasped seven times is shown the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit that was bestowed on the human race at Christ’s advent in order to restore it to life. Concerning the Spirit the apostle says, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” Our Lord gave the same Spirit to his disciples when he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Truly, in a way he put his mouth on their mouths when he breathed on them and gave them the Spirit.

Let us further see what blessed Elisha commanded Naaman the Syrian. “Go,” he says, “and wash seven times in the Jordan.” When Naaman heard that he was to wash seven times in the Jordan, he was indignant and did not want to comply, but accepting the advice of his friends, he consented to be washed and was cleansed. This signified that before Christ was crucified, the Gentiles did not believe in Christ when he spoke in his own person, but afterwards they devoutly came to the sacrament of baptism after the preaching of the apostles. For this reason Elisha told Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan. See, brothers: Elisha sent Naaman to the river Jordan because Christ was to send the Gentiles to baptism. Moreover, the fact that Elisha did not touch Naaman himself or baptize him showed that Christ did not come to the Gentiles himself but through his apostles to whom he said, “Go, and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Notice further that Naaman, who prefigured the Gentiles, recovered his health in the same river that later Christ consecrated by his baptism. However, when Naaman heard that he was to wash seven times in the Jordan, he became angry and said, “Are not the waters of my region better, the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharphar, that I may wash in them and be made clean?” When he had said this, his servants advised him to agree to the counsel of the prophet. Carefully notice what this means, brothers.Holy Elisha, as we said, typified our Lord and Savior, while Naaman prefigured the Gentiles. The fact that Naaman believed he would recover his health as the result of his own rivers indicates that the human race presumed on its free will and its own merits; but without the grace of Christ their own merits cannot possess health, although they can have leprosy. For this reason if the human race had not followed the example of Naaman and listened to the advice of Elisha, with humility receiving the gift of baptism through the grace of Christ, they could not be freed from the leprosy of the original and actual sins. “Wash seven times,” he said, because of the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, which reposed in Christ our Lord. Moreover, when our Lord was baptized in this river, the Holy Spirit came on him in the form of a dove. When Naaman descended into the river as a figure of baptism, “his flesh became like the flesh of a little child.” Notice, beloved brothers, that this likeness was perfected in the Christian people, for you know that all who are baptized are still called infants, whether they are old or young. Those who are born old through Adam and Eve are reborn as young people to death, the second one to life. The former produces children of wrath; the latter generates them again as vessels of mercy. The apostle says, “In Adam all die; in Christ all will be made to live.” Therefore, just as Naaman, although he was an old man, became like a boy by washing seven times, so the Gentiles, although old by reason of their former sins and covered with the many spots of iniquity as with leprosy, are renewed by the grace of baptism in such a way that no leprosy of either original or actual sin remains in them. Thus, following the example of Naaman, they are renewed like little children by salutary baptism, although they have always been bent down under the weight of sins.

When the divine lesson was read now, dearly beloved, we heard that as blessed Elisha was going to the river Jordan with the sons of the prophets to cut some wood, an ax fell into the water, and the man from whose hand it slipped cried out to blessed Elisha, “Alas, my lord, for this was borrowed.” After this blessed Elisha threw a piece of wood into the place where the ax had fallen, and the iron swam. Elisha typified our Lord and Savior, dearly beloved, as we have frequently mentioned to your charity. Moreover, in the boy who was from the sons of the prophets and from whose hand the ax slipped, we not unfittingly understand Christ our Lord. That ax that fell seems to signify Adam or the whole human race. Therefore, the son of the prophets held the ax in his hand, because our Lord and Savior had in the hand of his power the human race, which he had created. Just as the ax fell out of the prophet’s hand into the water, so the human race through pride shook off itself free from the hand of almighty God, fell and plunged itself into the river of dissipation and the waters of every sin. So the ax lay in the water, because the human race had fallen into the abyss of all vices in miserable ruin. As it is written: “I am sunk in the abysmal swamp,” and again: “I have reached the watery depths; the flood overwhelms me.” That river where the ax fell signifies the pleasure or dissipation of this world, which is passing, fleeting and descending into the abyss. A river derives its name from the idea of flowing; since all sinners are said to flow along clinging to transitory pleasures, for this reason that ax lay sunk in the river and mud.At his coming Elisha threw in a piece of wood, and the iron swam. What does it mean to cast the piece of wood and bring the iron to light, except to ascend the gibbet of the cross, to lift up the human race from the depth of hell and to free it from the mud of all sins by the mystery of the cross? After the iron floated, the prophet put in his hand to recover it, and it returned to the useful service of its master. Thus it also happened to us, dearly beloved brothers. We who had fallen from the Lord’s hand through pride merited to return again to his hand and power through the wood of the cross. Therefore, with his help, let us strive as much as we can not to fall again from his hand through pride. Without any preceding good merits of ours we have been brought from darkness to light, recalled from death to life and brought back to the right path from many errors. For this reason let us run while we still possess the light of life and not neglect the passing times of salvation. Let not the unwholesomely sweet and exceedingly dangerous joy of this world delight us, lest we again fall away from good works and the path of justice as from the hand of the Lord and hasten to the wicked river of this world. Let us not be submerged again in the mud of all sins in unhappy destruction, but let us listen to the apostle say, “If you have risen with Christ, mind the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Seek the things that are above.” Why does he say “if you have risen,” unless because we had fallen? Elsewhere the same apostle says, “Awake, sleeper, and arise from among the dead, and Christ will enlighten you.” Does it not seem to you as though he is shouting to the ax, which is lying in the mud? Awake, he says, you who sleep in the deep waters, and Christ will enlighten you through the mystery of the cross. All these truths have already been fulfilled in us, beloved brothers, through the sacrament of baptism.

Notice, brothers, that no place in the land of the Jews was found worthy for the altar of the Lord to be built; but in the land of the Gentiles a place is chosen where the angel is seen and the altar of the Lord is built, and thus the wrath of the almighty Lord is appeased. Then already was prefigured the fact that in the hearts of the Jews no worthy place could be found to offer spiritual victims; the land of the Gentiles, that is, the conscience of Christians, is chosen as the place for the Lord’s temple. This the apostle clearly indicates when he rebukes the Jews and says, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first, but since you have judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we now turn to the Gentiles.” This means [that] because you have rejected Christ and have not prepared a worthy place on which to set the Lord’s altar, we will put it in the land of the Gentiles, that is, in the hearts of all the people. For this reason the same apostle exclaims to us, “Holy is the temple of God, and you are this temple.” Now notice, dearly beloved, that the land of the Gentile king was chosen at the time when the Jewish people were struck by God’s plague. This we see fulfilled in the Lord’s passion; for when the Jewish people rejected the Lord and crucified him, then his altar was consecrated on the threshing floor of the Gentiles, that is, on every land. That is why the angel of the Lord stood on the threshing floor of the Gentile king; the true angel, Christ, visited the people of the Gentiles.

Therefore, the king himself offered blessed David the threshing floor and oxen for a burnt offering, but King David refused to accept them without first paying a price. This, too, was fulfilled at the coming of our Lord and Savior, for he refused to take the hearts of the Gentiles for himself without first giving his precious blood for them. What, then, did he give? “Fifty shekels of silver,” it says. In the number fifty the grace of the Holy Spirit is understood and the remission of sins is designated. Indeed, on the fiftieth day the Holy Spirit was sent to the apostles, and in the Old Testament the fiftieth year was dedicated to forgiveness and pardon. That David, to be sure, gave silver; our David, whose type the other prefigured, shed his precious blood. Thus, in order to buy the pagan king’s threshing floor David offered fifty shekels; in order to build an altar to himself on the threshing floor of the Gentiles Christ, the true David, gave the grace of the Holy Spirit and forgiveness of sins on the fiftieth day. Therefore, brothers, since he has deigned to make a temple for himself in us and out of us, let him not suffer any insult in his home. If he does suffer injury because of our sins, he quickly withdraws, and woe to the unhappy soul from which he departs. Doubtless, if one is deserted by the light he will be seized by darkness. For this reason let us with his aid endeavor so to live that we may merit to have the good Lord not only as our guest but as a perpetual inhabitant: with the help of our same Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory together with the Father and the Holy Spirit world without end. Amen.