The Net and the Fish

He shows not that it is sown into them, but they themselves. Therefore we say that the Word is both seed and that which received the word through comparison and likeness to himself. Because of this, Christ is formed in us and we are being formed according to Christ.

He likens the world to a sea because of the bitterness and the billows of trouble within it (Mt 13:47), but the power of the Word, casting a net upon the world, gathers from various thoughts of the old and new Scripture, from Greeks and barbarians, wise and foolish, men and women, free and slaves, righteous and wicked. The net is filled when the master who casts it knows; for this is not for a man to recognize. When the Word of instruction already has the measure of the fullness, then not all who have undertaken the learning of the Word will be found worthy to the master of the net, but a distinction then will occur between the wicked and the good; and to the useless, the end will appear as destruction, but to the good, the dwelling placed by the Lord into different vessels: for many are the dwellings by the Father. But the wicked, who are counted temporarily with the righteous, will no longer have with them the indistinguishable state through weariness, leaving behind for themselves a sweet life, just as fish in the sea; they will undergo the most painful punishment in fire, where nothing remains for the consolation of evil.

The Savior likened the world to the sea because of the trouble and confusion within it, but the power of the Word, casting a net upon the world, was being fulfilled from various thoughts of old and new Scripture gathered from every kind of Greeks and barbarians, wise and foolish. Of more wonders and greater events by our Savior (Mt 14:17), it is not less that there is not always use of authority for the abundance of food, but it is necessary many times to be in need and to be without (Mt 15:2).

The Lord turns the evil state of the Pharisees into opposites; for those caring for the bodily things despised the spiritual, but the Savior, introducing the spiritual, renounces the bodily.

Indeed, following the preceding demonstration, the voice of the prophet was applied at the right time, possessing much concord with it (Mt 15:8). Where did the Canaanite woman come from? (Mt 15:21-22) From the idolatry of Tyre and Sidon, from her own people, and from 'the house of her father.' Where did she come from? She came forth as a fragrance of myrrh for the Savior; for she holds a type of the Church from among the Gentiles. But also the Savior came out from the 'kinship' of Israel and from 'his own house,' which is Jerusalem. And the Canaanite woman receives him, she who also received Elijah, the widow; and what did she cry out, shouting: 'Lord, Son of David!'? How did she know to call thus, having studied neither the law nor the prophets? She called him 'Lord' according to his divinity, but 'Son of David' according to the flesh. Consider for me the widow's son who was dead, that is, the body which had been made dead, and the soul having been purified from the demon; he restored both the body and the soul.

For neither does a physician satisfy an untimely desire of those who are sick by seeking the remedy of the disease, nor the fulfillment of pleasure; nor does the Savior fulfill an irrational desire in order to show power. For it is not profitable for such people to be showered with graces which, not being sufficient, do not suffice. Moreover, they ask for a sign from heaven, such as foods like those in the days of the fathers, or a standing of the elements like in the days of Joshua. Having said that they are a wicked generation, he leaves the faithful Zion, the synagogue of the Jews, like a bridegroom leaving a city that has become a prostitute. Just as a physician does not give an untimely desire to those who are sick as a way of loosening their disease, nor does he satisfy their pleasure with harmful foods, so also the Savior does not fulfill an irrational desire to show his power; for many signs from heaven they have seen: 'a spirit descending like a dove' (Mt 16:1-4), the heavens having been opened and the paternal 'voice saying: This is my beloved Son.'

Yet he does not provide an apology to those who work the passion through these things; for the mindset and the conspiracy of the Jews did not harmonize with the counsel of God, nor did they hasten then, which God managed; so that for them, what was being done was impiety according to their opinion, but to God it was a wise dispensation and, to mankind, a saving benefit (Mt 16:23).

And that which is in the glory of his Father: he says 'the glory,' meaning the glory of God, because having become man, he is the Son of God (Mt 16:27).