The Soul as Mother of Christ

They shall be called sons of Canaanites, for they did not preserve the faith of the Canaanite; let them be called sons of stones and woods, those saying to the stone, 'You are my father,' and to the wood, 'You begat me.' But I think even the stones deny, and the woods forbid the kinship of the unbelievers.

A stone is able to deny and say: 'The son of impiety is not my child; the son of injustice is not my child; for I, even if I am a stone, have heard the Scripture saying: God is able even from these stones to raise up children to Abraham' (Matt 3:9). Then, 'Yes,' he says, 'he personifies from the person of the stone, and a stone speaks?' Listen to the prophet saying, that 'stones from a wall shall cry out those things,' and a reed from wood shall speak (Luke 19:40). Even if you keep silent, the stones shall cry out.

What then shall the race of the unbelievers be called, if not sons of Abraham, nor Canaanites because of the Canaanite-ness (for the brightness of the Canaanite faith reproached their unbelief), nor sons of stones? For even the stones deny the kinship. What name did Jeremiah set for them: 'Rejected silver, call them so, because the Lord rejected them' (Jer 6:30).

Let us then also fear, brothers. Does the nobility of Christ impress you? Let the justice of Christ frighten you. Concerning almsgiving it was preached yesterday, that it is necessary for all to set almsgiving second, that it is necessary for all to prefer the soul.

I marveled also at another ingratitude, how those not having children take others as adopted; one is made a father, and another is made a brother. You make an outsider a son, and you flee from the Master? To make a son of the one who pays you the wage: Christ becomes a son to you. 'The word is terrible,' he says. See what you say; lest by a pretext of the word you stray from the word, lest you be carried away into irrationality.

Do you call Christ a son of man? But I call him not only son, but also brother, not from myself, but following his own voices. They say to him once, 'Your mother and your brothers are seeking you.' The Savior says, 'Who is my mother, or who are my brothers?' (Matt 12:48). Whoever does the will of my Father, he is my brother and sister and mother (Matt 12:50). And if he is his mother, then the one who has honored righteousness by the designation is a son of the mother. Let every soul therefore...

A mother of Christ according to disposition. How a mother of Christ? Every soul labors in pain for him, the Christ; but if it is not transformed by piety, it cannot be called a mother of Christ.

When you receive the word of Christ and fashion it in your mind; just as you transform it in the mother of thought, so you are called a good mother of him. And so that you may know that in each one Christ is being formed and becomes a mother of Christ—I say indeed of the word of the Christ, that each of us is the soul, as Paul says: 'My children, whom I again labor for, until Christ is formed in you' (Galatians 4:19).

Did you work righteousness? You formed Christ in the soul. Did you grant alms? You formed the character of the truth. It is not that Christ is formed according to each one; for he calls the word of piety 'Christ', through which we receive the character of the truth. Did you grant alms? You formed Christ. Did you do righteousness? The character of the truth was formed.

Therefore it is necessary to attend to how one must make Christ a brother. Take him as a partner of your things. Do you not want to grant everything to him? Even if you give half, give it to him like Zacchaeus (Luke 19:8). For to him, he says, Zacchaeus gave, not to the poor. But listen: he who shows mercy to the poor lends to God (Proverbs 19:17). Giving to the poor, you have given to Christ (Matthew 25:40).

Do you not know that what is given to himself he receives back? Do you not know what a fearful judgment he has written, saying: 'When the Son of Man comes in the regeneration, he will set the sheep at the right hands, but the goats at the left; and he will say to those at the right hands, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, because I was hungry, and you gave me to eat' (Matthew 25:34-36)? See how he who lends through the poor acknowledges the debt: 'I was hungry, and you fed me; I was naked, and you clothed me.'

Surely, by clothing the naked in the apparent form, you clothe Christ in the truth. Clothe Christ, so that he may clothe you in the day of judgment; cover him, so that he may cover you in the day of wrath. Listen to David saying: 'Cover me in the secret of his tent' (Psalm 27:5). Covering is necessary; that fearful fire seizes, the unavoidable Gehenna; and if the hand of Christ does not cover, that foreign fire will make known. He knows how to take hold of what is foreign, he knows how to honor the holy, he knows how to respect piety, and he takes hold of impiety.