Proverbs 9

[Wisdom said] to the unwise, "Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you." In these words, surely, we recognize that the wisdom of God, the Father's coeternal Word, has built a house for himself, namely, a body in the virgin's womb. And to this body, as to the head, he has united the church as his members, has "slain" his martyrs as "victims," set his "table" with bread and wine in allusion to the priesthood according to Melchizedek, and called the weak and unwise.

Wisdom has built herself a house. Because he had adequately spoken about the eternity of the divinity of Christ, he also adds to speak of the assumed humanity: Therefore, Wisdom has built herself a house, because the Son of God himself created the man whom he would assume in the unity of his own person.

She has hewn out her seven pillars. He established churches throughout the world with the sevenfold grace of the Spirit, which would, by believing, worshiping, and preaching, as if by sustaining, uphold his house, that is, the mystery of his incarnation, so that the memory would not be obliterated by the wickedness of the faithless. Or certainly the house of wisdom is the Church of Christ; the pillars, however, are the teachers of the holy Church filled with the sevenfold Spirit, such as James, Cephas, and John; indeed, Wisdom has hewn out these pillars, because, detached from the love of the present age, she raised the minds of the preachers to bear the structure of the same Church.

"Wisdom has built herself a house, she has hewn out seven pillars." This house is principally built by wisdom, and thus wisdom builds the Church and the soul, so that it may be a dwelling place of God: a house pleasant, a house beautiful, and a house strong. It is certain that wisdom delights to be with men: whence she says: "My delights are to be with the children of men." But that wisdom does not dwell with us is not a defect on her part, but on ours. If we wish that the aforesaid light dwell in us, we must have seven pillars.

Moreover the Holy Spirit by Solomon shows before the type of the Lord's sacrifice, making mention of the immolated victim, and of the bread and wine, and, moreover, of the altar and of the apostles, and says, "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath underlaid her seven pillars; she hath killed her victims; she hath mingled her wine in the chalice; she hath also furnished her table: and she hath sent forth her servants, calling together with a lofty announcement to her cup, saying, Whoso is simple, let him turn to me; and to those that want understanding she hath said, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled for you."11 He declares the wine mingled, that is, he foretells with prophetic voice the cup of the Lord mingled with water and wine, that it may appear that that was done in our Lord's passion which had been before predicted.

We say, therefore, that when he said in his previous discourse that wisdom built a house for itself, he is speaking enigmatically about the formation of the Lord's flesh. For true wisdom did not live in someone else's building but built a home for itself from the Virgin's body.

We may also not inappropriately interpret the 'pillars of heaven' the Churches themselves, which being many in number, constitute one Catholic Church spread over the whole face of the earth. Hence too the Apostle John writes to the seven Churches, meaning to denote the one Catholic Church replenished with the Spirit of sevenfold grace, and we know that Solomon said of the Lord, Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars. And the same, to make known that it was of the seven Churches he had spoken that, in going on sedulously introduced the very Sacraments themselves too, saying, She hath killed her sacrifices, she hath mingled her wine, she hath also set forth her table; she hath sent forth her maidens, that they may cry to the citadel and to the walls of the city. If any be a little one, let him come to me. For the Lord 'killed the sacrifices' by offering Himself on our behalf. He 'mingled the wine,' blending together the cup of His precepts from the historical narration and the spiritual signification. And 'He set forth His table,' i.e. Holy Writ, which with the bread of the word refreshes us when we are wearied, and come to Him away from the burthens of the world, and by its effect of refreshing strengthens us against our adversaries. He 'sent forth His maidens,' i.e. the souls of the Apostles, 'that they might cry to the citadel and the walls of the city;' in that whilst they tell of the interior life, they lift us up to the high walls of the City Above, which same walls, surely, except any be humble they do not ascend. Whence it is there added by that same Wisdom; If any be a little one, let him come unto Me. As if she said in plain words; 'Whosoever accounts himself great in his own eyes, contracts the avenue of his approach unto Me; for there is a loftier reaching unto Me in proportion as the mind of each one is in himself the more truly abased.'

Christ, he means, the wisdom and power of God the Father, hath builded His house, i.e., His nature in the flesh derived from the Virgin, even as he (John) hath said beforetime, "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us." As likewise the wise prophet testifies: Wisdom that was before the world, and is the source of life, the infinite "Wisdom of God, hath builded her house" by a mother who knew no man,-to wit, as He assumed the temple of the body. "And hath raised her seven pillars; "that is, the fragrant grace of the all-holy Spirit, as Isaiah says: "And the seven spirits of God shall rest upon Him," But others say that the seven pillars are the seven divine orders which sustain the creation by His holy and inspired teaching; to wit, me prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, the hierarchs, the hermits, the saints, and the righteous.

"Wisdom has built her house, and has set seven pillars." Since wisdom is the Son of God, once he became man he built his house, that is, the flesh from the Virgin. He [Solomon] calls the seven pillars "the spirit of God, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and piety, the spirit of the fear of God," as Isaiah says. [Solomon] also calls the church "house" and the apostles "pillars." The wise individual is the one who is safe and self-sufficient, lacking nothing. As the house of wisdom is the church, the pillars are those who appear to be pillars in the church.

We are his flesh, the flesh that had been taken up from the Virgin's womb. If this flesh had not been from ours, that is, had it not been truly human, the Word made flesh would not have dwelt among us. "He did" in fact "dwell among us," however, for he made the nature of our body his own. "Wisdom built itself a house," not from just any material but from the substance that is properly ours. The fact that he had taken it on has been made clear from when it was said, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

It was the Holy Ghost that gave fecundity to the Virgin, but it was from a body that a real body was derived. And when "Wisdom was building herself a house," "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," that is, in that flesh which he assumed from a human being and which he animated with the spirit of rational life.

She has mixed her wine, etc. For those unable to grasp the mysteries of her divinity, she revealed the sacraments of the assumed humanity and prepared for us the nourishment of the sacred Scriptures by revealing them.

She has slaughtered her beasts. She consecrated the Church with her sufferings, or she allowed the lives of the preachers to be martyred in persecution. And indeed, these beasts are opposed to the beasts of the harlot, to which she invites fools, as it was read above, saying: I owed victims for salvation, today I have paid my vows.

And the phrase, "She hath killed her beasts," denotes the prophets and martyrs who in every city and country are slain like sheep every day by the unbelieving, in behalf of the truth, and cry aloud, "For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we were counted as sheep for the slaughter." And again, "She hath mingled her wine" in the bowl, by which is meant, that the Saviour, uniting his Godhead, like pure wine, with the flesh in the Virgin, was born of her at once God and man without confusion of the one in the other. "And she hath furnished her table: "that denotes the promised knowledge of the Holy Trinity; it also refers to His honoured and undefiled body and blood, which day by day are administered and offered sacrificially at the spiritual divine table, as a memorial of that first and ever-memorable table of the spiritual divine supper.

"Wisdom has prepared her table, she has slain her victims, she has mingled her wine in the bowl and cries with a loud voice, Turn in to me and eat the bread which I have prepared for you, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you." The mind, when nourished by this food of wisdom to a whole and perfect state, as man was made in the beginning, will be restored to the "image and likeness" of God. [Thus], even though a man may have departed out of this life insufficiently instructed but with a record of acceptable works, he can be instructed in that Jerusalem, the city of the saints. That is, he can be taught and informed and fashioned into a "living stone," a "stone precious and elect," because he has borne with courage and endurance the trials of life and the struggles after piety. There, too, he will come to a truer and clearer knowledge of the saying already uttered here, that "man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."

She has also sent out her maidens, etc. She chose weak and despised preachers, who would gather the faithful people to the heavenly edifices of the supernal homeland.

And again, "She bath sent forth her servants: "Wisdom, that is to say, has done so-Christ, to wit-summoning them with lofty announcement.

Whoever is simple, let him come to me, etc. He calls the humble the simple; he calls the foolish those who have no arrogance of worldly wisdom. But he calls such to make them wise and noble by his teaching.

"Whoso is simple, Let him turn to me," she says, alluding manifestly to the holy apostles, who traversed the whole world, and called the nations to the knowledge of Him in truth, with their lofty and divine preaching. And again, "And to those that want understanding she said"-that is, to those who have not yet obtained the power of the Holy Ghost.

And so he comes; whether you eat or drink, if you call upon Christ he is present, saying, "Come, eat of my bread and drink of my wine." Even if you are asleep, he is knocking at the door. He comes, I say, frequently and reaches in through the window. Frequently (but not always and not to everyone) he comes to that soul which can say, "At night I had put off my garment." For in this night of the world the garment of corporeal life is first to be taken off as the Lord divested himself in his flesh that for you he might triumph over the dominions and powers of this world.

"Come and eat of my bread and drink the wine which I have mixed for you." Plato judged that the discourse over this bowl should be copied into his books, he summoned forth souls to drink of it, but did not know how to fill them, for he provided not the drink of faith but that of unbelief.

But do you want to eat, do you want to drink? Come to the banquet of wisdom which invites everyone with great preaching, saying: Come and eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mixed for you. Do songs delight and soothe the feasting? Listen to the exhorter, listen to the Church singing, not only in songs, but also in the Song of Songs: Eat, my friends, and drink, and be intoxicated, my dears. But this drunkenness makes the sober; this drunkenness is of grace, not of intoxication. It generates joy, not stumbling.

Come, eat my bread, etc. In the bread, the divine words are expressed; in the mixed wine, the united nature of his divinity and humanity in one person of Christ is expressed, as was said above. Or certainly in the bread, it is shown the sacred mystery of his body, and in the mixed wine, the holy mystery of his blood, with which we are satisfied on his altar, that is, his table.

The same food is called "meat," "bread," "milk" and "wine." However, fools say that they take it as [simply] bread and mixed wine. But if it were really taken in that manner, how would we interpret the words: "So men ate the bread of angels"? Now "bread," it seems to me, should be understood as the firm commandments of God and "wine" as the knowledge of God through meditation on holy Scripture; similarly also [the knowledge of] his divine body and his precious blood.

"Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled for you;" by which is meant, that He gave His divine flesh and honoured blood to us, to eat and to drink it for the remission of sins.

Forsake foolishness and live, etc. After offering the feast, he also adds the admonitions of life, so that those whom he refreshed with the mysteries of his incarnation, he may also instruct equally with the words of his teaching.

Do not rebuke a scoffer, etc. It is not to be feared that a scoffer, when rebuked, will insult you; but rather this should be foreseen, that, drawn to hatred, he may become worse: and therefore, you must sometimes cease from his correction for the sake of love, not out of fear.

He who corrects a scoffer, etc.

It happens regularly and it happens often that a man is cast down for a short time while he is being reproved, that he resists and fights back. But afterwards he reflects in solitude where there is no one but God and himself, and where he does not fear the displeasure of others by being corrected, but does fear the displeasure of God by refusing correction. Thereafter, he does not repeat the act which was justly censured but now loves the brother, whom he sees as the enemy of his sin, as much as he hates the sin itself.

Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you. He speaks of a wise man who is in progress, that is, a lover of wisdom, whom he previously called a little one due to humility. For a perfect wise man does not need to be rebuked.

"Do not rebuke a scoffer, lest he hate you: rebuke a wise man, and he will love you." It is better to be corrected by a wise man than to be deceived by the flattery of fools. A fool, when he is corrected, does not withdraw from evil nor is he led to good. He who recognizes his faults, and they displease him, is wise. He who rebukes a person and calls him back from evil renders him a greater service than if he gave him the whole world.

Let us always admonish each other in charity. As often as any one of us sins, let us willingly and patiently accept the reproof of a neighbor or a friend, because of what is said: "Reprove a wise man, and he will love you; rebuke a foolish man, and he will hate you." Therefore I beseech you, brethren, to chide, rebuke and reprove those who you know are dancing, leading songs, uttering disgraceful words voluptuously or drunkenly on the holy feasts.

The fear of God avails for obtaining the illumination of divine wisdom, because "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." For the fear of the Lord is the extrinsic principle of wisdom and the intrinsic principle and the complement of wisdom; because there is servile fear, and this is the initiator of wisdom, because, just as the needle introduces the thread and does not remain with the thread, so servile fear introduces wisdom and does not remain with wisdom. Another is the fear of punishment and of offending God; and this is the intrinsic beginning of wisdom and the root of wisdom. The third is the fear of filial reverence: and this is the complement of wisdom, because "the fullness of wisdom is to fear God."

He also said, 'The beginning and the end is the fear of the Lord. For it is written, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Ps. 111:10) and, when Abraham built an altar the Lord said to him, "Now I know that you fear God" (Gen. 22:12).'

Discipline is an index to doctrine. [The heretics] say that God is not to be feared. So everything is free to them and unrestrained. But where is God not feared, except where he is not present? Where God is not present, there is no truth either; and where there is no truth, discipline like theirs is natural. But where God is present, there is the fear of God, there are decent seriousness, vigilant care and anxious solicitude, well-tested selection, well-weighed communion and deserved promotion, religious obedience, devoted service, modest appearance, a united church, and all things godly.

Observe that the wise man must be useful to many; so that he who is useful only to himself cannot be wise. For great is the condemnation of wisdom if she reserves her power simply for the one possessing her. But as poison is not injurious to another body, but only to that one which takes it, so also the man who turns out wicked will injure himself, and not another. For no man of real virtue is injured by a wicked man.

A foolish woman, clamorous and full of allurements, etc. This woman is heresy, clearly opposed to wisdom, which above sang her sacraments. But she also sits at the doors of her house, that is, in the teachers of falsehood, who introduce the miserable to the innermost parts of deceit. Moreover, she claims for herself a chair of preaching. This is the chair of pestilence in which the blessed man refuses to sit (Psalm I).

On a high place of the city. He speaks of wisdom as giving her voice in the high and elevated places; but she rises in the sublimity of virtues, this one elevates herself in the arrogance of pride.

To call passersby who walk by the way, etc. Heresy often calls the Catholics to deception, seeing them proceed on the right path, wishing to quickly pass through this world and hasten to the eternal homeland.

Whoever is simple, let him turn here, etc. Wisdom also seems to invite the little ones and the foolish to her feast with nearly the same words; but it differs, as she simply asks them to come to her, whereas this one urges them to turn aside to her. For wisdom summons those she sees wandering to the right path of action; this one teaches those walking rightly to deviate from their way and turn aside to her.

Bread is used in a good sense in "I am the living bread which came down from heaven," but in a bad sense in "hidden bread is more pleasant." Many other things are used in the same way. Those examples that I have mentioned create little doubt as to their meaning, for things ought not to be used as examples unless they are clear. There are, however, instances in which it is uncertain whether the signification is to be taken in a good sense or in an evil sense.

I came upon that brazen woman, empty of prudence, who, in Solomon's obscure parable, sits on a seat at the door outside her house and says, "Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant." This woman seduced me, because she found my soul outside its own door, dwelling externally in the eye of my flesh and ruminating within myself on such food as I had swallowed through my physical senses.

Stolen waters are sweeter, etc. Wisdom has publicly set forth her table and mixed her wine; but the foolish woman, having nothing pure, gathers whoever she can to stolen waters and hidden bread, because the Catholic Church publicly spreads the feast of the divine words to the world, and has commanded the mysteries of the divinity and humanity of Christ to be celebrated. Or certainly, in the mixed wine, she offers to her listeners the historical and allegorical knowledge together, so that each one, according to his capacity, may be refreshed by the cups of life. But the doctrine of heretics secretly prefers the decrees of its public faith and profession, and when it has nothing spiritual to offer, it boasts of teaching knowledge sweeter than that of the Catholic pastors, so that what is forbidden to be said and believed openly in the Church is more willingly heard and acted upon. And so, ignorance is more sweetly received as it is thought to be knowledge, whose forbidden hearing it steals. The baptism of heretics can be signified in the stolen waters, and their sacrifice in the hidden bread. But literally, it asserts that the adulterous woman in stolen waters and hidden bread asserts that forbidden and illicit unions are sweeter.

Having taken occasion from the difference between the image and the soul which is made to the image, I thought it worthwhile to make this excursus, so that if any perhaps have at some time drunk something from stolen waters, which seem sweeter, having taken the antidote, they may vomit it up, and with the stomach of the mind purged, approaching what remains to be said concerning the likeness according to our promise, they may now draw purer things in joy not from our own, but from the fountains of the Savior, the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is God blessed above all things forever.

Scripture sets down bread and water in clear reference simply to the heresies that use bread and water in their offertory contrary to the rules of the church. There are some who actually celebrate the Eucharist with plain water. "Jump up; do not linger in her place." Scripture is using the ambiguous word place to designate the synagogue rather than the church. Then it adds, "In this way you will be crossing a foreign water," regarding heretical baptism as foreign and improper, "and traversing a foreign river"—one which takes you astray and dumps you in the sea, where everyone who allows himself to be led away from the firm ground of the truth is deposited.

What does water signify but human knowledge? This is in accord with Solomon's words implying the voice of heretics: "Stolen waters are sweeter." What does the Lamb's raw flesh indicate but his humanity that has been thoughtlessly and irreverently disregarded? Everything which we think of profoundly we cook, as it were, in our minds. The flesh of the Lamb was not to be eaten raw or boiled in water, because our Redeemer is not to be judged merely a human being, nor are we to use human science to explain how God could have been made man.

"The foolish and bold woman comes to want bread." What bread? Surely that bread which comes down from heaven. And he immediately adds, "The earth-born perish in her house, rush into the depths of hell." Who are the earth-born that perish in her house? They of course who follow the first Adam, who is of the earth, and not the second, who is from heaven.

And he did not know that giants are there, etc. The adulteress does not know, the heretic does not know, that unclean spirits inhabit their houses, and those who suffer eternal punishments in the depths of hell delight in the acts of the luxurious, and in the dogmas of the heretics, as if they were lavish banquets. But when the sacraments of Christ are duly celebrated in the Church of Christ, the word of Christ is heard and preserved (who is the wisdom of God), it is established that angelic virtues are there, and in the heights of heaven, the faithful partake. For He gave them the bread of heaven; man ate the bread of angels (Psalm LXXVII).