Caesarius of Arles

In his own words on Habakkuk

• Habakkuk 1:16

  The entire life of the saints is engaged in this war, for there happens in them what is written: "The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh." They, indeed, fight, but they are not overcome. What shall I say about wicked, carnal and dissipated souls who do not struggle but are carried along in subjection? Because they follow willingly, and of their own accord [they] devote themselves to wicked deeds. With such souls the devil does not condescend to fight at all, because they never or only with difficulty oppose his counsels. But with the saints he has daily struggles, because it is written of him, "His food is rich." This, I repeat, is the life of the saints, and in this war people are always in danger until they die. But what are the saints going to say at the end, that is, in the triumph of victory? "O death, where is your victory?" This will be the word of the triumphant. "O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin," and death arises from its consequences. Sin is like a scorpion: it stings us, and we are dead. But when is it that we may say, "O death, where is your victory?" This is not promised to us in this life but at the resurrection. Then it will be granted to the saints neither to wish to sin nor to be able to do so at all.

  SERMON 177:3

• Habakkuk 3:2

  When the sacred lesson was read just now, we heard that at the time when the twelve spies were sent to view the land of promise, two of them brought back on a lever to the children of Israel a bunch of grapes of wonderful size. Those two men can be understood in many ways, dearly beloved, for they are not unfittingly believed to have signified both the two Testaments and the two precepts whereby God and the neighbor are loved. They can, likewise, be understood both historically and allegorically. That they were a type of the two Testaments we know definitely from the fact that the grapes are read to have been brought between those two men, just as Christ our Lord is clearly recognized in the middle of the two Testaments. According to what is written, "In the middle of the two animals you will be known," that is, between the Old and New Testaments. When we read "in the middle," we are not to understand that Christ was between the New and Old Testaments in such a way that he was contained in neither one. This is not true, beloved brothers, but when it says, "In the middle of the two animals you will be known," we must realize that he is in the midst of the Old and New Testaments, that is, within in an interior and spiritual sense. This is not according to the letter, … but according to the spirit that vivifies all Christians who have spiritual understanding. Therefore "in the middle of the two animals you will be known" means in the inner sense of the New or Old Testaments.

  SERMON 107:1