Now let us see what He intended to signify in the
case of that one whom He Himself, keeping the mystery of unity, as I said
before, deigned to heal out of so many sick folk. He found in the number of
this man’s years the number, so to speak, of infirmity: “He was thirty and
eight years in infirmity.” How this number refers more to weakness than to
health must be somewhat more carefully expounded. I wish you to be attentive;
the Lord will aid us, so that I may fitly speak, and that you may sufficiently
hear. The number forty is commended to our attention as one consecrated by a
kind of perfection. This, I suppose, is well known to you, beloved. The Holy
Scriptures very often testify to the fact. Fasting was consecrated by this
number, as you are well aware. For Moses fasted forty days, and Elias as many;
and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ did Himself fulfill this number of
fasting. By Moses is signified the law; by Elias, the prophets; by the Lord,
the gospel. It was for this reason that these three appeared on that mountain,
where He showed Himself to His disciples in the brightness of His countenance
and vesture. For He appeared in the middle, between Moses and Elias, as the
gospel had witness from the law and the prophets.
Whether, therefore, in the law, or in the
prophets, or in the gospel, the number forty is commended to our attention in
the case of fasting. Now fasting, in its large and general sense, is to abstain
from the iniquities and unlawful pleasures of the world, which is perfect
fasting: “That, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we may live temperately,
and righteously, and godly in this present world.” What reward does the apostle
join to this fast? He goes on to say: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the
appearing of the glory of the blessed God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” In
this world, then, we celebrate, as it were, the forty days’ abstinence, when we
live aright, and abstain from iniquities and from unlawful pleasures. But
because this abstinence shall not be without reward, we look for “that blessed
hope, and the revelation of the glory of the great God, and of our Saviour
Jesus Christ.” In that hope, when the reality of the hope shall have come to
pass, we shall receive our wages, a penny (denarius). For the same is the wages
given to the workers laboring in the vineyard, as I presume you remember; for
we are not to repeat everything, as if to persons wholly ignorant and
inexperienced. A denarius, then, which takes its name from the number ten, is
given, and this joined with the forty makes up fifty; whence it is that before
Easter we keep the Quadragesima with labor, but after Easter we keep the
Quinquagesima with joy, as having received our wages. Now to this, as if to the
wholesome labor of a good work, which belongs to the number forty, there is
added the denarius of rest and happiness, that it may be made the number fifty.
Remember what I laid down: I want to explain the
number thirty-eight of the years of that impotent man, why that number
thirty-eight is one of weakness rather than of health. Now, as I was saying,
love fulfills the law. The number forty belongs to the perfecting of the law in
all works; but in love two precepts are committed to our keeping. Keep before
your eyes, I beseech you, and fix in your memory, what I say; be ye not
despisers of the word, that your soul may not become a trodden path, where the
seed cast cannot sprout, “and the fowls of the air will come and gather it up.”
Apprehend it, and lay it up in your hearts. The precepts of love, given to us
by the Lord, are two: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;” and, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” With
good reason did the widow cast “two mites,” all her substance, into the offerings
of God: with good reason did the host take “two” pieces of money, for the poor
man that was wounded by the robbers, for his making whole: with good reason did
Jesus spent two days with the Samaritans, to establish them in love. Thus,
whilst a certain good thing is generally signified by this number two, most
especially is love in its twofold character set forth to us thereby. If,
therefore, the number forty possesses the perfecting of the law, and the law is
fulfilled only in the twin precepts of love, why dost thou wonder that he was
weak and sick, who was short of forty by two?
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