The Humiliation and Exaltation of the People and the Son

He has souls; but this one he has as unique, for it is unshakeable. And I say unshakeable in this way: not being turned; for that which is called unshakeable in a completed sense signifies the unchangeable. When I say that the righteous man is not turned toward injustice, I say the righteous is unshakeable in the measure that he possesses righteousness; for the unshakeable does not turn. But not everything that does not turn is unshakeable.

Therefore, this soul is unique to him among the others, because it alone possesses the capacity to be always with him. No reasoning, no impulse, no disturbance can separate it; for even if it is disturbed, the disturbance stands only as a pre-passion. For this was shown through the 'now', seeing that the 'now' does not signify continuous time, but the significant moment, the non-existent time. All time has three divisions, but this 'now' has none, for it is the edge of time.

"He began to be terrified and to be in anguish" (Ps 22:16). Until the beginning, one cannot receive a pre-passion instead of cowardice; for pre-passion is a testing of nature, not making a quality bad or serious, unless it takes on the following things so that it is no longer a pre-passion. Often these things have been distinguished for us as being four: pre-passion alone releases an inclination, it does not subject one to an inclination; but passion is with a moderate inclination; and the disposition is then malice; and much more is the action once taken up.

"Save me from the mouth of the lion" (Ps 22:20). Here he can also call the devil a "lion", for he attacked in the time of the passion. Indeed, when it was said in the forty-day temptation that "the devil departed from him", it is adjacent in the Gospel to "until a time" (Lk 22:36). Then again, it came when the passion was. And since I was saying that the attacks are brought to the man of the Savior himself and to his own, when Peter says or the Savior says to Peter, "Behold, Satan has demanded you" (Lk 22:31), in a way he wanted to devour the members of the Savior by attacking against the Savior. He says, therefore, "Save me from the mouth of the lion". He can also call that people a "lion", for "it became said my heritage is to me like a lion in the thicket" (Ps 22:10). May I not suffer these things which they want to dispose me toward. He says these things because every rational essence, even if it is perfect, needs the alliance from God. "Save me from the mouth of the lion."

And 'from the horns of the unicorns my humiliation' he can say here, referring to the multitude of the Jews, the people of Israel; for he said in Jeremiah: 'I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance. My inheritance became to me like a lion in a forest' (Jeremiah 12:7). Having been a people whom I placed in Paradise, where there was much fruit, when they had turned into wildness, then consequently they nest in fruitless trees—for the forest is nothing other than a place of fruitless trees. Therefore, they encamp there. And my inheritance, which I had so that it might be a people and a portion of the Lord, was so provoked against me as to be thrown upon a lion, not a lion being tamed—for often lions come into human places being tamed—but as in a forest, as a wild beast.

And it can also be said concerning the devil; for we say this also, that after the temptation in the wilderness it is said: 'He has departed for a time.' 'And from the horns of the unicorns my humiliation' (Psalm 92:10). The unicorn is a strong animal. It is not subject to man, it is not tamed by man. 'From the horns' therefore, 'the humiliation of the unicorns,' the cross and death saying his own humiliation. 'He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross' (Philippians 2:8). My humiliation, therefore, then, flows from these unicorns—and these are also some evil enemies—then, when I rise from the dead; for 'the kings of the earth and the rulers were gathered together' to surround him with death. Then God delivers him from his humiliation; he rises from the dead. And all these things are spoken concerning the man.

Therefore, without delay he immediately brought forward: 'I will declare your name to my brothers' (Acts 13:34). 'I will proclaim your name to my brothers; and again: behold, I will be trusting in him, behold, I and the children whom God has given to me.' And again: 'Wherefore he ought to have been made like his brothers in all things' (Hebrews 2:17). Not only according to the body, but according to all things. According to his divinity, the only-begotten Son of God does not have a brother; for if he had a brother, he would not be only-begotten. But to have brothers is opposed to being an only-begotten one. The only-begotten has no brothers. The one having brothers is not only-begotten.