Gregory the Dialogist

Now when such great fish were caught, Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land. I believe your charity now perceives what it means that Peter draws the net to land. To him indeed the holy Church was entrusted, to him specifically it is said: "Simon son of John, do you love me? Feed my sheep." What therefore is later revealed in words is now signified in action. Because therefore the preacher of the Church separates us from the waves of this world, it is surely necessary that Peter bring the net full of fish to land. For he himself draws the fish to the firmness of the shore, because by the voice of holy preaching he shows the faithful the stability of the eternal homeland. This he did by words, this by epistles, this he does daily by signs of miracles. As often as through him we are converted to the love of eternal rest, as often as we are separated from the tumults of earthly things, what else but fish cast into the net of faith are we drawn to the shore?

But when the net is said to be full of great fish, it is also added how many, namely one hundred fifty-three. The number is not without great mystery, but the depth of so great a mystery awaits your attention. For the evangelist would not have carefully expressed the sum of the quantity unless he had judged it to be full of sacred meaning. For you know that in the Old Testament all action is commanded through the precepts of the Decalogue, but in the New Testament the power of that same action is given through the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit as the faithful are multiplied. Announcing this, the prophet says: "The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and piety, and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him." But he receives action in this Spirit who acknowledges the faith of the Trinity, so that he believes the Father and the Son and the same Holy Spirit to be of one power and confesses them to be of one substance. Because therefore the seven things we mentioned above were given more broadly through the New Testament, but the ten precepts through the Old, all our virtue and action can be fully comprehended through ten and seven. Let us therefore multiply ten and seven by the triangular number, and they come to fifty-one. This number indeed is not without great mystery, because in the Old Testament we read that the fiftieth year was commanded to be called the jubilee, in which of course all the people would rest from all work. But true rest is in unity. For one cannot be divided; where there is a tear of division, there is no true rest. Let us therefore multiply fifty-one by the triangular number, so that they become one hundred fifty-three. Because therefore all our action exhibited in faith of the Trinity tends toward rest, we multiply ten and seven by three, so that we should arrive at fifty-one. And our true rest is then, when we now acknowledge that very brightness of the Trinity, which we hold certain to exist in the unity of divinity. We multiply fifty-one by three, and we hold the sum of the elect in the heavenly homeland as the number of one hundred fifty-three fish. After the resurrection of the Lord, therefore, it was fitting that the cast net should catch so many fish as would designate only the elect citizens of the heavenly homeland.

This does not differ from this reading either, for he ate fish and bread. For he who could be roasted like a fish from his humanity, refreshes us with bread from his divinity, who says: "I am the living bread who came down from heaven." Therefore he ate roasted fish and bread, so that by his own food he might show us that he both endured suffering from our humanity, and provided our refreshment from his divinity. If we consider this carefully, we see how it is also fitting for us to imitate. For thus the Redeemer shows his own things, that he might prepare the way of imitation for us who follow. Behold, in his food our Lord wished to join a honeycomb to the roasted fish, because clearly he receives into his body for eternal rest those who, while they feel tribulations here for the Lord, do not depart from the love of inner sweetness. The honeycomb is taken with the roasted fish, because those who here accept affliction for the truth are satisfied there with true sweetness.

It should also be noted that the Lord is described as having his last banquet with seven disciples; for Peter and Thomas, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples are mentioned as having been present. Why does he celebrate the last banquet with seven disciples, unless because he announces that only those who are full of the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit will be with him in eternal refreshment? All this present time also unfolds in seven days, and often perfection is designated by the number seven. Therefore those feast at the last banquet on the presence of truth who now transcend earthly things by the pursuit of perfection, whom the love of this world does not bind, for whom even if it somehow clamors through temptations, it still does not blunt their begun desires. Of this final banquet it is said elsewhere through John: "Blessed are those who are called to the wedding supper of the Lamb." For this reason he relates that they are called not to a lunch but to a supper, because surely a banquet at the end of the day is a supper. Therefore those who, when the time of the present life is finished, come to the refreshment of heavenly contemplation, are called not to the lunch but to the supper of the Lamb. This supper is expressed by this last banquet, at which seven disciples are mentioned as being present, because, as we said, inner refreshment then restores those who are now full of sevenfold grace and pant in the love of the Spirit.

There are two main types of compunction, however. The penitent thirsting for God feels the compunction of fear at first; later on, he experiences the compunction of love. When he considers his sins, he is overcome with weeping because he fears eternal punishment. Then when this fear subsides through prolonged sorrow and penance, a feeling of security emerges from an assurance of forgiveness, and the soul begins to burn with a love for heavenly joys. Now the same person, who wept out of fear of punishment, sheds abundant tears because his entrance to the kingdom of heaven is being delayed. Once we envision the choirs of angels and fix our gaze on the company of the saints and the majesty of an endless vision of God, the thought of having no part in these joys makes us weep more bitterly than the fear of hell and the prospect of eternal misery did before. Thus the compunction of fear, when perfect, leads the soul to the compunction of love.This is beautifully symbolized in one of the historical books of the Bible. There we read that Achsah, the daughter of Caleb, sighed as she sat upon her beast of burden. “And Caleb asked her. ‘What is troubling you?’ She answered, ‘Give me an additional gift! Since you have assigned to me land in the Negeb, give me also pools of water.’ So he gave her the upper and the lower pools.”
We say that Achsah sat on an ass because her soul presided over the irrational movements of her flesh. Just as she begged her father with a sigh for pools of water, so must we with deep groans obtain from our Creator the grace of tears. There are some who have received the gift of speaking out openly for justice, of defending the oppressed, of sharing their possessions with the needy, of professing their faith ardently, who still do not have the grace of tears. These we may say received “land in the Negeb,” that is, “southern and dry land,” but are completely lacking in “pools of water.” It is of utmost importance, however, that those who are zealous for good works and devote much time to performing them should also weep over their past sins, either through fear of eternal punishment or through longing for God’s kingdom.
Caleb gave Achsah the upper and lower pools. These correspond to the two kinds of compunction. The soul receives the upper pools when it weeps because of its longing for heaven; it receives the lower pools when the fear of hell causes it to break forth in tears. Actually, the lower pools are given first; then, only, the upper. Yet, since the compunction of love is greater in dignity, the upper pools were necessarily mentioned first and then the lower.

For “the stars of this night” are “overshadowed with darkness,” when even they that already shine with great virtues still bear something of the dimness of sin, while they struggle against it, so that they even shine with great luster of life and yet still draw along unwillingly some remains of the night. Which as we have said is done with this view, that the mind in advancing to the eminence of its righteousness, may through weakness be better strengthened and may in a more genuine manner shine in goodness by the same cause by which, to its humbling, little defects overcloud it even against its will. Hence, when the land of promise now won was to be divided to the people of Israel, the Gentile people of Canaan are not said to be slain but to be made subject to the tribe of Ephraim, as it is written: “The Canaanites dwelt in the midst of Ephraim under taxation.” For what does the Canaanite, a Gentile people, denote, if not a fault? And oftentimes we enter the land of promise with great virtues because we are strengthened by the inward hope of eternity. But while, amid sublime deeds, we retain certain small faults, we as it were permit the Canaanite to dwell in our land. Yet he is taxed in that this same fault, which we cannot make subject, we force back by humility to our own well-being, so that the mind may think poorly of itself even in its highest virtues, as it fails to master by its own strength even the small things to which it aspires.

Almighty God shows wonderful providence in distributing his blessings. Frequently, by denying lesser gifts to those whom he has favored with great virtues, he offers their souls an opportunity for self-reproach. When they find themselves unable to reach the perfection they aspire to and see themselves struggling in vain for a mastery of virtues not granted them, they are not likely to pride themselves on the gifts they have received. For, when they see that of their own power they are incapable of overcoming small faults and slight imperfections, they begin to realize that their great virtues were not self-acquired. For a similar reason the Lord destroyed the powerful enemies who beset his chosen people on their way to the promised land, but [he] allowed the Philistines and Canaanites to survive, so that, as it is written, “he might try Israel by them.” Sometimes, as I have said, those who have received exceptional graces are the very ones God allows to retain small imperfections so that they may always have obstacles with which to contend. As a result they do not foster pride in their hearts even though they are victorious over powerful enemies, for they realize that the weakest of adversaries still causes them great weariness. It is quite remarkable how one and the same person can be vigorous in virtue and weak with infirmity, and while strongly fortified on one side see himself laid waste on the other. The good, therefore, for which he is striving without success, makes him cherish humbly the gifts God has given him.Why should we be surprised that this is true of people? Heaven itself witnessed the same occurrence, for some of its citizens were lost and some stood firm. Seeing one part fall through pride, the other, the chosen angels, kept their stand more humbly and therefore also more firmly. This loss, then, was beneficial for those citizens of heaven whom it helped to establish more firmly in their eternal condition. The same is true of us individually. A slight loss that safeguards humility can at times be of immense profit to a soul.

“But I say to you that whoever looks on a woman lustfully has committed adultery with her already in his heart.” “The pus is wiped off,” therefore, when sin is not only severed from the deed but also from the thought. It is hence that Jerubbaal saw the angel when he was winnowing corn from the chaff, at whose request he immediately prepared a kid and set it upon a rock and poured over it the broth of the flesh, which the angel touched with a rod and fire came out of the rock and consumed it. For what else is it to beat corn with a rod, but to separate the grains of virtues from the chaff of vices with an upright judgment? But to those that are thus employed the angel presents himself, in that the Lord is more ready to communicate interior truth to the extent that people are more earnest in ridding themselves of external things. And he orders a kid to be killed, that is, every appetite of the flesh to be sacrificed, and the flesh to be set upon a rock and its broth to be poured upon it. Whom else does the rock represent except him of whom it is said by Paul, “And that rock was Christ”? We “set flesh upon the rock,” then, when in imitation of Christ we crucify our body. He too pours the broth of the flesh over it who, in following the conduct of Christ, empties himself even of the mere thoughts of the flesh themselves. For the “broth” of the dissolved flesh is in a manner “poured upon the rock” when the mind is emptied of the flow of carnal thoughts too. Yet the angel directly touches it with a rod, in that the might of God’s assistance never deserts our striving. And fire issues from the rock and consumes the broth and the flesh, in that the Spirit, breathed upon us by the Redeemer, lights up the heart with so fierce a flame of remorse that it consumes everything in it that is unlawful either in deed or in thought.

And they were brought to the river to drink the waters; and whoever drank the waters with bended knees were removed from the struggle of war. For by the waters is designated the doctrine of wisdom, but by the unbended knee righteous conduct. Therefore those who are reported to have bent their knees while drinking the water retired from the strife of battles, having been forbidden because Christ proceeds to battle against the enemies of the faith with those who, when they drink the streams of doctrine, do not distort the uprightness of their actions. For all are said at that time to have drunk the water, but not all [are said] to have stood with unbended knee. And those who bent their knees while they were drinking the waters were rejected because, as the apostle witnesses, “It is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.” For since weakness of conduct is, as we have said, signified by this very bending of the knees, it is rightly said again by Paul: “Lift up the hands that droop and the feeble knees and make straight steps with your feet.” Therefore those who proceed under Christ as their leader to battle, are those who exhibit in their conduct that which they profess with their mouth, who drink spiritually the streams of doctrine and yet are not carnally distorted by wicked works.

I think it will not be amiss if we consider at greater length this war of the Midianites, which was intentionally introduced by the prophet in comparison with the coming of the Lord. For in the book of Judges Gideon is described as having fought against the Midianites.… Why then is it that such a battle is brought forward by the prophet, and why is victory in that battle compared with the coming of our Redeemer? Did the prophet intend to point out to us that that victorious battle under the command of Gideon was a type of the coming of our Redeemer? Such deeds were doubtless there wrought, which, the more they exceed the usual mode of fighting, are the less removed from the mystery of prophecy. For whoever went forth to battle with pitchers and lamps? Who, when going against arms, ever abandoned his arms? These things would have been truly absurd to us, had they not been terrible to the enemies. But we have learned by the evidence of the victory itself not to regard these things which were done as of little account. Gideon, therefore, coming to battle, signifies to us the coming of our Redeemer, of whom it is written: “Lift up, O princes, your gates, and be lifted up you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty. The Lord mighty in battle.” He prophesied of our Redeemer not only by his doings but also by his name. For Gideon is interpreted “going about in the womb.” For our Lord embraces all things by the power of his majesty, and yet he came through the grace of the dispensation assuming the nature of a human being in the womb of the Virgin. Who then is he who goes about in the womb except almighty God, redeeming us by his own dispensation, embracing all things by his divinity and taking a human’s nature in the womb? In the womb he was both incarnate and not confined because he was both within the womb by the substance of his infirmity and beyond the world by the power of his majesty.

They go forth therefore to battle with trumpets, with lamps and with pitchers. This, as we have said, was an unusual order of battle. They sounded with the trumpets, and the pitchers were held in their left hands. But lamps were placed within the pitchers; but, when the pitchers were broken, the lamps appeared, and by their flashing light the frightened enemies are put to flight. The trumpets signify, therefore, the loud voice of preachers, the lamps the brightness of their miracles, and the pitchers the frailty of their bodies. For our leader led forth with him to the contest of preaching, so as by making light of their bodily safety would overthrow their enemies by dying and would overcome their swords, not by arms, not by words, but by patience. For our martyrs came armed under their leader to battle, but armed with trumpets, with pitchers, with lamps. And they sounded with their trumpets when preaching. They broke their pitchers when exposing their bodies to dissolution by the swords of the enemy in their suffering. They shone forth with lamps when, after the dissolution of their bodies, they flashed forth with miracles. And their enemies were presently put to flight, because, when they beheld the bodies of dead martyrs glittering with miracles, they were overpowered by the light of truth and believed that which they had impugned. They sounded therefore with the trumpets that the pitchers might be broken; the pitchers were broken that the lamps might appear; the lamps appeared that the enemies might be put to flight. That is, the martyrs preached until their bodies were dissolved in death; their bodies were dissolved in death that they might shine forth with miracles; they shone forth with miracles that they might overthrow their enemies with divine light, so that they might no longer stand up and resist God but fear him and submit to him.

Samson, in the book of Judges, foreshadowed this by his deeds. When he had entered Gaza, a city of the Philistines, they immediately knew of his entry. They quickly surrounded the city with a blockade and assigned guards, and they rejoiced at having now apprehended Samson who was so extremely strong. But we know what Samson did. At midnight he carried off the gates of the city and ascended to the top of the hill. Whom, dearly beloved, whom does Samson foreshadow by his deed but our Redeemer? What does the city of Gaza signify if not the lower world? What is indicated by the Philistines except the faithlessness of the Jews? When they saw that the Lord was dead and his body had been laid in the sepulcher, they assigned guards there. They were happy that they caught and held him, who shone out as the creator of life, behind the defense of the lower world, as Samson had been held in Gaza. Samson not only went out at midnight but even carried off the gates of the city, because our Redeemer, rising before it was light, not only went out free from the lower world but even destroyed its very defenses. He bore the gates and went up to the top of the hill, because by rising he carried off the defenses of the lower world, and by ascending he passed into the kingdom of heaven.

In describing loftily the sweetness of contemplation, you have renewed the groans of my fallen state, since I hear what I have lost inwardly while mounting outwardly, though undeserving, to the topmost height of rule. Know then that I am stricken with so great sorrow that I can scarcely speak, for the dark shades of grief block up the eyes of my soul. Whatever is beheld is sad; whatever is thought delightful appears to my heart lamentable. For I reflect to what a dejected height of external advancement I have mounted in falling from the lofty height of my rest. And, being sent for my faults into the exile of employment from the face of my Lord, I say with the prophet, in the words, as it were of destroyed Jerusalem, “He who should comfort me has departed far from me.” But when, in seeking something similar to express my condition and title, you frame periods and declamations in your letter, certainly, dearest brother, you call an ape a lion. Herein we see that you do as we often do, when we call mangy whelps leopards or tigers. For I, my good man, have, as it were, lost my children, since through earthly cares I have lost works of righteousness. Therefore “call me not Naomi that is fair; but call me Mara, for I am full of bitterness.”

The ruler should be discreet in keeping silence, profitable in speech, lest he either utter what ought to be suppressed or suppress what he ought to utter. For, as incautious speaking leads into error, so indiscreet silence leaves in error those who might have been instructed. For often improvident rulers, fearing to lose human favor, shrink timidly from speaking freely the things that are right, and, according to the voice of the Truth, serve to the custody of the flock by no means with the zeal of shepherds but in the way of hirelings; since they fly when the wolf comes if they hide themselves under silence. For hence it is that the Lord through the prophet upbraids them, calling them, “Dumb dogs that cannot bark.” Hence again he complains, saying, “You have not gone up against the enemy, neither opposed a wall for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord.” Now to go up against the enemy is to go with free voice against the powers of this world for defense of the flock; and to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord is out of love of justice to resist bad people when they contend against us. For a shepherd to have feared to say what is right, what else is it but to have turned his back in keeping silence? But surely, if he puts himself in front for the flock, he opposes a wall against the enemy for the house of Israel. Hence again to the sinful people it is said, “Your prophets have seen false and foolish things for you: neither did they discover your iniquity, to provoke you to repentance.” For in sacred language, teachers are sometimes called prophets, in that, by pointing out how fleeting present things are, they point out the things that are to come. And these are the ones the divine discourse convinces of seeing false things, because, while fearing to reprove faults, they vainly flatter evildoers by promising security; neither do they discover the iniquity of sinners, since they refrain their voice from chiding. For the language of reproof is the key of discovery, because by chiding it discloses the fault of which even he who has committed it is often himself unaware.

Differently to be admonished are those who deplore sins of deed and those who deplore sins of thought. For those who deplore sins of deed are to be admonished that perfected lamentations should wash out consummated evils, lest they be bound by a greater debt of perpetrated deed than they pay in tears of satisfaction for it. For it is written, “He has given us drink in tears by measure,” which means that each person’s soul should in its penitence drink the tears of compunction to such extent as it remembers itself to have been dried up from God through sins. They are to be admonished to bring back their past offenses incessantly before their eyes and so to live that these may not have to be viewed by the strict judge.Hence David, when he prayed, saying, “Turn away your eyes from my sins,” had said also a little before, “My fault is ever before me,” as if to say, I plead with you not to regard my sin, since I myself cease not to regard it. Thus also the Lord says through the prophet, “And I will not be mindful of your sins, but you should be mindful of them.” They are to be admonished to consider one at a time all their past offenses, and, in bewailing the defilements of their former wandering one by one, to cleanse at the same time their entire selves with tears. Thus it is well said through Jeremiah, when the several transgressions of Judah were being considered, “My eye has shed channels of waters. For indeed we shed channeled waters from our eyes, when to our several sins we give separate tears. For the mind does not sorrow at one and the same time alike for all things; but, while it is more sharply touched by memory now of this fault and now of that, being moved concerning all in each, it is purged at once from all.

With what conscience can the overseer of souls avail himself among other people of his pastoral dignity, while engaged himself in the earthly cares that it was his duty to reprehend in others? And this indeed is what the Lord, in the wrath of just retribution, menaced through the prophet, saying, “And there shall be like people, like priest.” For the priest is as the people when one who bears a spiritual office acts as do others who are still under judgment with regard to their carnal pursuits. And this indeed the prophet Jeremiah, in the great sorrow of his charity, deplores under the image of the destruction of the temple, saying, “How is the gold become dim! The most excellent color is changed; the stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.” For what is expressed by gold, which surpasses all other metals, but the excellence of holiness? What by the most excellent color but the reverence that is about religion, to all people lovely? What are signified by the stones of the sanctuary but persons in sacred orders? What is figured under the name of streets but the latitude of this present life? For, because in Greek speech the word for latitude is platos, streets (plateoe) have been so called from their breadth, or latitude. But the Truth in person says, “Broad and spacious is the way that leads to destruction.” Gold, therefore, becomes dim when a life of holiness is polluted by earthly doings; the most excellent color is changed when the previous reputation of persons who were believed to be living religiously is diminished. For, when anyone after a habit of holiness mixes himself up with earthly doings, it is as though his color were changed, and the reverence that surrounded him grew pale and disregarded before the eyes of people. The stones of the sanctuary also are poured out into the streets, when those who, for the ornament of the church, should have been free to penetrate internal mysteries as it were in the secret places of the tabernacle seek out the broadways of secular causes outside. For indeed to this end they were made stones of the sanctuary that they might appear in the vestment of the high priest within the Holy of Holies. But when ministers of religion exact not the Redeemer’s honor from those that are under them by the merit of their life, they are not stones of the sanctuary in the ornament of the pontiff. And truly these stones of the sanctuary lie scattered through the streets when persons in sacred orders, given up to the latitude of their own pleasures, cleave to earthly businesses. And it is to be observed that they are said to be scattered, not in the streets but at the head of the streets; because, even when they are engaged in earthly matters, they desire to appear at the top so as to occupy the broad ways in their enjoyment of delight, and yet to be at the top of the streets in the dignity of holiness.

Let us implore the tears of Jeremiah; let him consider our death, and lamenting say: "How is the gold become dim, the most fine color is changed, the stones of the sanctuary are scattered at the head of every street." For the gold has become dim, because the life of priests, once bright through the glory of virtues, is now shown to be reprobate through the basest actions. The most fine color is changed, because that habit of holiness has come to the disgrace of contempt through earthly and abject works. But the stones of the sanctuary were kept within, nor were they placed on the body of the high priest except when, entering the holy of holies, he appeared in the secret place of his Creator. We therefore, dearest brothers, we are the stones of the sanctuary who ought always to appear in the secret place of God; whom it is never necessary to be seen outside, that is, never to be seen in external affairs. But the stones of the sanctuary are scattered at the head of every street, because those who through their life and prayer ought always to have been within, through their reprobate life are occupied outside.

Let us implore the tears of Jeremiah; let him consider our death, and lamenting say: "How is the gold become dim, the most fine color is changed, the stones of the sanctuary are scattered at the head of every street." For the gold has become dim, because the life of priests, once bright through the glory of virtues, is now shown to be reprobate through the basest actions. The most fine color is changed, because that habit of holiness has come to the disgrace of contempt through earthly and abject works. But the stones of the sanctuary were kept within, nor were they placed on the body of the high priest except when, entering the holy of holies, he appeared in the secret place of his Creator. We therefore, dearest brothers, we are the stones of the sanctuary who ought always to appear in the secret place of God; whom it is never necessary to be seen outside, that is, never to be seen in external affairs. But the stones of the sanctuary are scattered at the head of every street, because those who through their life and prayer ought always to have been within, through their reprobate life are occupied outside. Behold, now there is almost no worldly business which priests do not administer. Therefore, while established in the holy habit, they perform external things, and like stones of the sanctuary they lie outside. For since in the Greek tongue "platea" is named from breadth, the stones of the sanctuary are in the streets when religious persons follow the broad ways of the world. Nor are they scattered only in the streets, but also at the head of the streets, because they both carry out works through desire for this world, and yet seek the height of honor from their religious habit. Therefore they are scattered at the head of the streets, because they both lie prostrate through the service of worldly work, and wish to be honored for the appearance of holiness.