Homily 5

flowing into the deep, ^B is indeed beautiful, for being a reservoir for rivers, it receives into itself the currents from everywhere, and remains within its own boundaries. It is beautiful, too, because it is a beginning and a sort of fountain of the waters of the air, warmed by the ray of the sun, and giving off the thinner part of the water through vapors; this, when drawn up to the higher place, is then cooled because it has risen above the reflection of the rays from the ground, and at the same time, the shadow of the cloud intensifying the cooling, it becomes rain and fertilizes the earth. And no one would disbelieve this at all who has considered cauldrons being heated, which, being full of liquid, are often left empty, the whole of what was boiling having been separated off into vapor. Moreover, one may see this very water of the sea being boiled by those who sail; they, receiving the vapors with sponges, provide a moderate relief for their needs in times of necessity. ^C It is beautiful also in another way before God, because it girds and encircles the islands, providing them at once with both adornment and safety through itself; then also because it connects through itself the continents that are very far apart from one another, providing an unimpeded intercourse for those who sail, through whom it also bestows stories of things unknown, and produces wealth for merchants, and easily corrects the necessities of life, providing for the distribution of excess goods to those who have an abundance, and granting the correction of what is lacking to those in need. But whence is it permitted to me to see with such accuracy the whole beauty of the sea, as much as it appeared to the eye of the Creator? And if the sea is beautiful and commendable before God, how much more beautiful is the assembly of such a church as this, in which a mixed sound, like that of some wave striking the shore, of men and women and children, is sent forth according to our supplications ^D to God? A deep calm preserves it unshaken, since the spirits of wickedness have not been able to disturb it with heretical doctrines. Be therefore worthy of the acceptance of the Lord, by preserving this good order in the most seemly manner, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power unto the ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILY V

On the germination of the earth

1. And God said: Let the earth bring forth grass of hay, sowing seed according to its kind, and fruit-bearing wood making fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in it. Conformably, after the earth had rested, having put aside the weight of the water, the command came to it to germinate; which indeed we see still happening even now.

^A For that voice of old, and that first command, became a kind of law of nature, and remained in the earth, providing it with the power to generate and bear fruit for the future. "Let the earth bring forth." First in the generation of things that grow is germination; then, when the sprouts have protruded a little, it becomes an herb; then, when it has increased, it is hay, as the plants are little by little articulated and proceed until they arrive at the perfection of the seed. For all things grow green and flourish in exactly the same way. ^B "Let the earth bring forth the herb of hay." Let the earth by itself bring forth the germination, needing no help from elsewhere. Since some think that the sun is the cause of the things that grow from the earth, drawing the power that is in the depths to the surface by the attraction of heat, for this reason the adornment of the earth is older than the sun, so that those who are deceived by error might cease to worship the sun as the author of things pertaining to life. Therefore, if they were persuaded that the whole earth had been adorned before the rising of the sun itself, they would even remit the immoderate admiration conceived for it, when it comes into their minds that the origin of the sun is posterior to hay and herb. ^C Is food, then, prepared for the cattle, but nothing thought worthy of our own provision? Indeed, He who prepared pasture for the oxen and horses prepares riches and comforts especially for you. For He who feeds your cattle increases the equipment of your life. Furthermore, what else is the generation of seeds but the preparation of your own life? Add to this that many of those things which are still herbs and vegetables exist as food for men.

2. "Let the earth bring forth the herb of hay, sowing seed," He says, "according to its kind." Although, therefore, some species of herb is useful to other living creatures, nevertheless their utility comes back to us, and the use of the seeds is assigned to us; so that the sense of what was said is such: "Let the earth bring forth the herb of hay, and seed sowing according to its kind." For thus the order and series of the words will be able to be restored (for now the construction seems inept and incongruent), ^D and will follow the requirements of the things managed by nature. First, indeed, germination...

then green grass, then the increase of hay, and lastly the completion and perfection of things growing by means of seed. How then, they ask, does Scripture indicate that all things growing out of the earth are seed-bearing, when neither the reed, nor grass, nor mint, nor crocus, nor garlic, nor the flowering rush, nor countless other genera of plants appear to produce seed? To this indeed we say that many things growing from the earth include the power and virtue of seeds in their lowest parts and in the root. For example, the reed, after its annual growth, sends forth from the root a certain projection which has the character of seed for the future. And countless other things do this, which, being spread through the earth, conclude their succession in their roots. So it is truer than all else that in each of the growing things there is either seed or a certain seminal virtue existing within. ^B And this is that which is meant by "According to its kind." For the shoot of a reed is not productive of an olive tree, but from a reed another reed is born, and from seeds sprout things akin to those that were cast. And thus that which was brought forth from the earth in the first generation is even now preserved, with the kind kept safe by the sequence of succession. Let the earth bring forth. Consider, I pray you, the earth, cold and barren, suddenly, at this small sound and such a brief command, bringing forth and stirred up toward the bearing of fruit, just as if it had cast off a certain gloomy and mourning cloak, being reclothed in one more radiant and exulting in its own proper ornaments, and bringing forth the myriad kinds of growing things. I wish for the wonder of the creation to be more firmly imprinted in you, so that wherever you may be, and to whatever kind of growing things you may encounter, you may clearly remember the Creator. ^C First, indeed, when you see the herb of the hay and the flower, let there come into your mind human nature, by remembering that image of the wise Isaiah: "All flesh is as hay, and all the glory of man as the flower of hay" (Isa. XL, 6). For the short-lived nature of life, and the joy and cheerfulness of human prosperity that lasts not for long, have found a most appropriate comparison in the prophet. Today he who flourishes in body, who is fleshy from luxuries, who bears before him a complexion blooming with the flower of age, who is vigorous and sharp, and whose impulse cannot be withstood, this same person tomorrow is miserable, either withered by time or dissolved by disease. Some person has become famous for an abundance of riches, and a multitude of flatterers surrounds him; there is a company of feigned friends hunting for his favor; ^D numerous are his kinsmen, and these skilled in the contrivance of simulation; there is a countless swarm of those following after him.

^A And those, who in part for the sake of obtaining food, and in part for other needs, stand by him—whom, both as he goes out and again when he returns, he drags along with him—excite envy in those who encounter them. To ^B wealth, add also some civic power, or those honors conferred by kings; or the administration of nations; or the command of armies: the herald crying out with a loud voice before him; the lictors on either side, striking the deepest terror into those who are subject; the blows, the confiscations, the arrests, the prisons, from which an unbearable fear is gathered together by those who are under his hand. And what after this? One night, or one fever, or pleurisy, or inflammation of the lungs, snatches this man away from men, and immediately strips bare his whole stage, and that glory is proved to be like a dream. Wherefore the prophet compared human glory to the weakest bloom.

3. Let the earth sprout the herb of the hay, sowing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness. Even now, the order of things being born witnesses to the first arrangement: for germination precedes every herb and every grass. ^C For whether anything shoots forth from the root by an interior projection, as the crocus and grass, it must germinate and appear on the outside; or whether it is born from seed, thus also it is necessary first that there be germination, then an herb, then the hay growing green, and finally the fruit swelling in the now dry and thick stalk. Let the earth sprout the herb of the hay. When the seed falls into earth endowed with moderate moisture and heat, becoming lax and full of many pores, it grasps the adjacent earth, and draws to itself what is its own and related. But the minute parts of the earth, slipping into those pores and inserting themselves into them, further dilate its mass: so that it drives roots downward, indeed, but rises upward, with as many stalks, clearly, as there are ^D roots emerging. But as the sprout is always warmed, the moisture attracted through the roots, through the attraction of heat, brings up moderate nourishment from the earth; and this is distributed into the stalk, and into the bark, and into the husks of the grain, and into the wheat itself, and into the ears. And every thing being born, having thus gradually received its increase, arrives at its suitable and proper measure, whether it belongs to the genus of grain, or of pulse, or of herbs, or of shrubs. One hay, and one herb, is enough to occupy your whole mind in the contemplation of the art that produced them, as to how the stalk of wheat is girded with joints, by which as if with ligatures

they may easily bear the weight of the ears when, filled with grain, they bow down toward the ground. For this reason the oat is completely empty, as its head is burdened by nothing; but nature secured the wheat with these ligatures. And having stored the grain in a sheath, so that it might not be easily carried off by seed-stealing birds; furthermore, by the projection of the awns, like spikes, it wards off harm and damage from small animals.

4. ^B What shall I say? What shall I pass over in silence? ^C In the treasury of the creation, the discovery of the more precious is difficult, but the loss of what is passed over is most distressing. *Let the earth sprout with the herb of grass.* And at once along with the nourishment, poisons were brought forth: with the wheat, hemlock; along with other foodstuffs, hellebore, and aconite, and mandrake, and the juice of the poppy. What then? Shall we, neglecting to give thanks for the useful things, accuse the Creator because of those things that are destructive to our life? And shall we not consider that not everything was created for the sake of our belly? But for us, the appointed foods are ready at hand and known to all; yet each of the things that have been created fulfills a certain reason of its own in the creation. ^D For, because bull’s blood is a toxin to you, did it therefore behoove the animal either not to be produced, or, when produced, to be bloodless, whose strength our life requires for so many and such great things? But you have your own indwelling reason sufficient for the avoidance of destructive things. For do not sheep and goats know how to avoid things that harm their life, discerning what is harmful by sense alone? And to you, who possess both reason and the medical art that provides what is useful, and the experience of those who have gone before, which imparts the avoidance of harmful things, is it difficult, tell me, to beware of poisons? There is nothing, moreover, among these things that was created in vain, nothing uselessly brought into the light. For they either provide food for some of the irrational animals, or they have been discovered even by us ourselves, through the medical art, for the soothing of certain ailments. For starlings feed on hemlock, avoiding the harm from the poison due to the constitution of their body; for having narrow passages at the heart, they manage to digest what has been swallowed before the chill from it can touch the vital parts. Hellebore, however, is food for quails, who avoid the harm by the property of their temperament. And these very things are sometimes useful to us as well, given the occasion. For by means of mandrake, doctors induce sleep; and with opium, they put to rest severe pains of the body. Indeed, some have already deadened a maddened appetite with hemlock, and have rooted out many chronic diseases with hellebore. So that [if you thought you had grounds for complaint against the Creator—]

this has yielded to you as an additional cause for thanksgiving.

5. *Let the earth bring forth the herb of grass.* What an abundant supply of food, offered spontaneously by nature, is enclosed in these words! It is found in the roots, in the herb itself, and already in the fruits! And how great is the amount that comes to us from diligence and agriculture! He did not immediately command the seed and the fruit to be brought forth, but rather that the earth should germinate and grow green, and only then reach perfection in seed, ^B so that that first command might become a foundational lesson for nature regarding the sequence to follow. How then, they ask, does the earth bring forth seeds according to their kind, when often, after sowing wheat, we harvest this black grain? But this is by no means a transmutation into another species, but rather a kind of disease and ailment of the seed. For it has not ceased to be wheat, but, as one may learn from its very name, it has turned black through scorching. For, scorched by excessive cold, it has degenerated into another color and flavor. Yet they say that if it obtains suitable soil and well-tempered air, it returns again to its original form. Thus, you will discover nothing in growing things occurring contrary to the command. Furthermore, what is called darnel, and the other adulterated seeds which are mixed in with edible ones—which Scripture is accustomed to call tares—do not arise from the transformation of wheat, but subsist from their own proper origin and possess their own distinct kind. ^C These indeed form an image of those who adulterate the teachings of the Lord and, not having been legitimately instructed in the Word, but corrupted by the doctrine of the evil one, nevertheless mingle themselves with the healthy body of the Church, so that they may secretly instill their own harms into the more simple-minded. Now the Lord also compares the perfection of those who have believed in Him to the growth of seeds, saying: *As if a man should cast seed into the earth, and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring, and grow up whilst he knoweth not. For the earth of itself bringeth forth fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear ^D.* (Mark IV, 26-28). *Let the earth bring forth the herb.* In the smallest moment of time, the earth, beginning from the germination so as to keep the laws of its Creator, passing through every form of growth, immediately led the sprouts to perfection. And indeed, the meadows were weighed down by an abundance of grass; and

the fields, bristling with crops ^A, preserved the image of a surging sea through the movement of the ears of grain. Every herb and every species of garden vegetable, and whatever was found among shrubs or legumes, then exceeded the earth in every abundance. For there was no failure in those things that were then brought forth, neither from the inexperience of farmers, nor from the inclemency of the air, nor from any other cause harming the things that were coming into being. Nor did the condemnatory judgment impede the fertility of the earth. For these things are older than the sin, on account of which we were condemned to eat bread in the sweat of our face 67.

6. "But let the earth bring forth the fruit-bearing tree, producing fruit ^B, whose seed is in itself according to its kind and according to likeness upon the earth." At this word, all the thickets were thickening, and all trees springing up: those which are accustomed to rise to the greatest height, firs and cedars, and cypresses, and pines. And all shrubs were immediately leaf-crowned and dense. There also came forth the plants that are called coronal, and the rose-beds, and myrtles, and laurels. Everything which previously did not exist upon the earth came in one moment of time to be, each with its own property, divided by most evident differences from those which are of a different kind, and each marked by its own characteristic. Only this: the rose ^C was then without a thorn, but later the thorn was joined to the beauty of the flower, so that pain might be contiguous to the enjoyment of pleasure, that we might be reminded of the sin on account of which the earth was condemned to bring forth for us thorns and thistles 69. "But," they say, "it was commanded, 'Let the earth bring forth the fruit-bearing tree, producing fruit upon the earth, whose seed is in itself,' and yet we see many of the trees possessed of neither fruits nor seeds 70." What, then, shall we say? That the things which are more precious by nature have attained to primary mention; and then, that to one considering it accurately, it will be manifest that all things either bear seed or possess a power equivalent to seeds. For black poplars and willows, and elms, and white poplars, and all things of that kind,

^A even if they appear openy to bear no fruit, yet if one should examine them diligently, he will find that each of these trees possesses a seed. For that grain which is situated under the leaf—which some who labor at coining names call *mischon*—possesses the power and virtue of a seed. For whatever is accustomed to shoot forth from the branches, from there for the most part they cast out roots. Perhaps also those shoots which sprout from the roots hold the place of seed; the cultivators of plants, by pulling these away, multiply their kind. Before this, however, as we have said, mention was made of those trees which are more conducive to our life and which, by endowing man with their own fruits, were to supply him with a bountiful sustenance: the vine, indeed, destined to produce wine to gladden the heart of man; the olive, moreover, destined to produce fruit that can delight the face of a man with oil. ^B How many things ran together in one place, produced with haste by nature! The root of the vine; the shoots spreading circularly, verdant and far-reaching over the earth; the germ, the tendrils, the unripe grape, the clusters. If you look attentively with your eyes at the vine, it itself sufficiently recalls you to the memory of nature. For you remember, of course, the similitude of the Lord: that He calls Himself the vine, and the Father the husbandman, and He has called us, who are individually inserted into the Church through faith, branches; and He invites us to fruitfulness, lest, being condemned for uselessness, we be delivered to the fire; nor does He cease to compare the souls of men everywhere to vines. For "A vineyard," He says, "was made for the beloved, in a horn, in a fat place" (Isa. v, 1); and, "I planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about" (Isa. v, 2). ^C He speaks, clearly, of human souls as the vineyard, which He has hedged around with the protection, that is to say, of the commandments and the guardianship of the angels. "For the angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear him" (Ps. xxxiii, 8). Then, also, by appointing in the Church primarily apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, He fixed, as it were, walls for us. And by the examples of the ancients and blessed men, He raised our mind on high, and allowed it not to be cast down to the ground, nor to be worthy of being trampled upon. But He wishes us, as if by certain tendrils, to embrace our neighbor with the embraces of charity, and to find rest in these, so that, always striving with a continuous impulse upwards, ^D just like certain vines climbing trees, we may make ourselves equal to the summits of the highest things. Moreover, He also demands of us that, while we are being dug up, we should endure it. For the soul is dug up when, with the cares of the world which are a burden to our hearts,

^A it strips itself off. Wherefore, he who has laid aside fleshly love, or his own zeal for wealth, or who has deemed this miserable, short-lived reputation as something to be spat upon and held in contempt, has, as it were, been dug up and has breathed again, having cast off the vain burden of worldly thinking. But one must, according to the word of the proverb, neither run wild—that is to say, not conduct one’s life for the sake of show—nor hunt after the praise of those on the outside, but be fruitful, storing up the evidence of one's works for the true Husbandman. Do you, however, be

As a fruitful olive tree in the house of God

7. But let us return to the investigation of the ordinances of nature. How many kinds of plants then sprang up, some fruitful, others fit for roofing, others suitable for shipbuilding, others for burning! In these, again, there is a manifold ornamentation of the parts of each tree, and the discovery of the property of each is difficult to grasp, as is the understanding of the differences in relation to the others, even though they are of a different kind. How some of their roots are deep, while others are shallow; and how some grow upright with a single trunk, while others are low-growing and divided into many shoots directly from the root. How those whose branches are long and extended far into the air also have deep roots, distributed ^C in a circle to a great extent, just as if nature had placed certain foundations corresponding to the weight of what hangs above. How many differences there are in the barks! For some of the plants have smooth bark, others have rugged bark; and some are of a single layer, others are many-layered. And what is wonderful is that you may find symptoms similar to human youth and old age even in plants. For upon the young and flourishing, a bark is stretched out; but upon the aging, it becomes, as it were, wrinkled and rough. And some sprout again when cut, while others remain without successors, having endured the cutting as a kind of death. Indeed, some have observed that pine trees, when cut or even burned, are transformed ^D into oak forests. Moreover, we have known the natural defects of certain trees to be cured by the diligence of farmers; such are the sour pomegranates and the more bitter almonds, which, when they have received a rich wedge of pine wood driven through the middle of the pith into the trunk, perforated at the root, then transform the harshness of their sap into a good quality. Let no one, therefore, who is living in wickedness despair of himself, knowing that husbandry changes the qualities of plants, but the

care of the soul ^A can overcome all manner of bodily ailments. And the difference in the fruit-bearing of fruit-bearing plants is so great that no one could even describe it in words. For not only is there a diversity of fruits among different kinds of trees, but even within the same species 63 of tree there is a great difference; where, indeed, another 64 character of fruit is distinguished by husbandmen between male and female, seeing that they even divide palm trees into males and females. And you may sometimes see the one called female by them lowering its branches, as if inflamed with desire and longing for the embrace of the male, and the cultivators of the plants inserting into the branches what are, as it were, the seeds of the males, which are called *psenes*; and thus, as if in a perception of enjoyment, it becomes composed, and the branches rise up again, and the foliage of this tree is restored to its proper form. They say the same things also regarding figs. Whence some plant 65 wild figs beside the cultivated ones; others, by binding on the young green figs, cure the weakness of the fruitful and cultivated figs, applying the green figs to the fruit that is already flowing and scattering. What does this riddle 66 of nature want to tell you? That we often ought to acquire from those who are outside the faith a certain vigor for the demonstration of good works. For if you see a person in the life of a pagan, or one cut off from the Church owing to some perverse heresy, ^C yet applying himself to a sober life and the rest of the good order of character, sharpen your own zeal all the more, so that you may be like the fruit-bearing fig tree, which gathers strength from the presence of the wild ones, and checks the shedding, while more diligently nurturing the fruit 67.

8. Such, then, are the differences regarding the mode of their generation, to mention a few from many. But as for the variety of the fruits themselves, their shapes, colors, the property of their flavors, and the utility of each—who could recount them? How some nakedly ripen in the sun, while others are filled while covered in husks; and of the trees whose fruit is tender, there is a thick covering of leaf, as in the fig-tree; while of those whose fruits are firmer, the protection of the leaves is light, as in the nut-tree. For the former, because of their weakness, needed greater aid; while for the latter, a thicker covering would have been harmful due to the shade of the leaves. How the leaf of the vine is cleft, so that the bunch of grapes may resist the injuries of the air, and yet receive the ray of the sun abundantly through its openness. Nothing is—

^A Nothing is without cause, nothing is by chance; all things possess a certain ineffable wisdom. What discourse could attain to these things? How could the human mind follow all things with such accuracy as to perceive the properties, and clearly distinguish the differences of each, and set forth the hidden causes without deficiency? The same water, drawn through the root, differently nourishes the root itself, differently the bark of the stem, differently the wood, and differently again the pith. It becomes also the leaf, and is divided into twigs and branches, and provides the growth for the fruits; and the tear of the plant and its sap proceed from the same cause: how great is the difference between them, no discourse could express. For the tear of the lentisk is one thing, and the sap of the balsam another; and certain ferulae in Egypt and Libya distill a different kind of sap. They say also that amber is a sap of plants, hardened into the nature of stone. Moreover, the pieces of straw and the most minute insects appearing in it are testimony to this opinion, which, because they settled in the tender and soft sap, are held trapped within. And in sum, one who has not been taught by experience how much the qualities of saps differ from one another will find no discourse to explain their power and efficacy. How again, from the same moisture, is wine produced in the vine, but oil in the olive? And it is not only this which is to be marveled at—how the moisture became sweet here, and oily there—but that even in sweet fruits there is an ineffable change of quality. For the sweetness in the vine is one thing, and that in the apple, the fig, and the date ^B another. Furthermore, I wish you to examine this with greater artistry: how the same water is now smooth to the sense, when, having lodged in certain plants, it becomes sweet; but now it pricks the taste, when, being led through other plants, it becomes sharp. And again, having changed into extreme bitterness, it irritates the sense when it settles in wormwood or scammony; and in acorns or the fruit of the cornel tree, it passes over into an astringent and harsh quality; but in terebinths and nuts ^C it is transformed into a tender and oily nature.

9. But why must I speak of things far off, when in the same fig tree it passes into the most contrary qualities? For it is most bitter in the sap, but most sweet in the fruit itself. And in the vine, it is most astringent in the twigs, but most pleasant in the clusters of grapes. And how many are the differences in colors! You might see in a meadow this same water becoming reddish in this flower, and in another purple, and blue in this one, and white in another; and it provides an even greater difference in odors than there is a variety of colors. But indeed I see my discourse ^D

^A falling into an insatiable desire for contemplation, and if I do not bind it to necessity and lead it back to the law of creation, the day will fail me while I demonstrate to you the great wisdom from the most minute things. "Let the earth bring forth the fruit-bearing tree, yielding fruit upon the earth." And suddenly the summits of the mountains were clothed in foliage; gardens were skillfully adorned, and the banks of rivers were graced with countless species of plants. And some of these were ordered to decorate the table of men, while others provided food for beasts from their leaves and fruits. Others offer us the aids of medicine—juices, liquors, stalks, barks, fruits; and, in a word, everything that long experience has found for us, as it gathers what is useful from individual instances—all these the ^B sharp providence of the Creator, foreseeing from the beginning, brought forth and produced. But you, when you see garden plants, wild plants, water-loving plants, land plants, flowering plants, or those without flowers, recognizing the great in the small, always fix more and more your admiration, and I would wish you to increase your love for your Creator. Weigh how He has fashioned some trees as ever-living, while others are subject to becoming bare; and among those that always appear green, how some shed their leaves, while others always keep them. For indeed the olive and the pine are stripped of their leaves; yet they change their foliage slowly and secretly, so that they never seem to be denuded of their hair. The palm, ^C however, retains its leaves forever, inasmuch as it remains with the same leaves from the first germination to the very end. Then also observe this: how the tamarisk is, as it were, of a double nature; it is indeed counted among water-plants, and yet it abounds in the deserts. Wherefore Jeremiah also rightly compares the worse and equivocal character of men to such a plant. ^D "Let the earth bring forth." This short command was immediately a great nature and an artful discourse, more quickly bringing forth to our thought the myriad properties of growing things. That command, which even now exists in the earth, urges it every year to exert all the power with which it is endowed for the generation of herbs, seeds, and trees. For just as tops, at the first blow struck upon them, accomplish the cycles that follow as they spin upon themselves, with their center fixed: so also the order of nature, having received its beginning from this first command, passes through all the time that follows, until it arrives at the common consummation of the universe. Toward which may we all, filled with fruits and full of good works, hasten, so that, being planted in the house of the Lord, we may blossom in the courts of our God, in Christ Jesus our Lord.