Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2003, Blaðsíða 168

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Michael Chesnutt
Eleventh lesson ofthe Passion (§ 2c:2:3:l). Two grains having been dealt with
in part, we must pass on to the third, the treatment of which holds the meaning
of the matter aforementioned. Truth says: “If it falis to the earth and dies, it
brings forth much fruit.” Now the rule of logic demands that we should expound
what grain, what falling, what death, and how much and what kind of fruit is
meant. There are as many species of grain as there are kinds of seed, and it is the
one and only Sower who can tell them apart. Truly, the grain which according to
tradition consists in merits is honest and useful: it is the chosen generation of the
apostles and martyrs, the holy nation of confessors and virgins, the peculiar
people of all God’s elect. Behold the grain, and this is the seed that the Lord has
blessed. What falling? Mortal men are exposed to many a fali, and a difference
can be said to subsist in those fails according to the different kinds of fallers. The
ungodly man falis once from bad to worse, and when he reaches the depths he
despairs, for he says in his heart: “There is no God.” That is the place where all
the workers of iniquity have fallen; they were cast out and were not able to
stand. Seven times a day shall the just man fall and rise again, because the coun-
terweight of his virtues exceeds the quantity of his vices. Truly he says: “Seven
times a day have I praised you.” Where sin abounded, grace abounded even
more. Thus the grain in the earth is the righteous man in the world, or the soul in
the flesh. He falis, I tell you, only to be helped up again when sliding down in
the acts and sufferings of life. As to the actions, no one lives without sinning. As
to the suffering, inasmuch as a holy soul is joined to its flesh it cannot be whol-
ly without share in the tribulations of its mate. On that subject Augustine says:
“He is disturbed by the heckling of the deceitful.” There is yet another fortunate
fall of this grain, the first and principal step upward to the vision of peace, name-
ly humility, through which it will be said to him who sits in the lowest place:
“Go up higher!”
Eleventh respond (§ 2c:2:3:2). Straightway the ground revealed the martyr’s
power: while it drained his biood it gave water to drink. * Not only did this wa-
ter refresh the healthy, it also cured the sick.
Those who wash themselves in this water or who drink of it are cured, what-
ever the affliction with which they may be burdened. * Not only did this water,
etc.
Twelfth lesson ofthe Passion (§ 2c:2:4:l). “If the grain dies it will bring forth
much fruit.” Authority teaches us to distinguish three kinds of death: that of sin-
ners, that of the righteous, and the third that applies to both. Of the first the Lord
says: “Let the dead bury their dead.” Of the second Paul says: “He who is dead
to the world lives in Christ.” As to the third, a universal law requires that we
should die. But though for all things mortal there is one departure from this pre-
sent life (as it is written: “The destruction of men and beasts is one and the