Chromatius of Aquileia

In his own words on Wisdom of Solomon

• Wisdom of Solomon 1:1

  The one who approaches the Lord with an insincere heart is rejected, while the Lord receives the one who approaches with a sincere heart and a well-disposed mind, according to the thought of Scripture, "Seek the Lord with sincerity of heart." Therefore the one who believed by faith was received by the Lord into the boat, that is, into the church, where the chorus of the apostles is found. The scribe was not worthy to be received by the Lord; rather, he was rejected, since he showed that he had no faith. Blessed is the disciple who deserved to be received by the Lord, though the scribe was rejected!

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 41:5

• Wisdom of Solomon 1:5

  The city from which the inhabitants went out, pleading with the Lord to leave them, represents the synagogue, which did not want to accept the Lord and Savior of the human race, even after it had seen his divine miracles. Therefore he returned to his own city—rejected by the synagogue, he has come to his church; it is this latter that in a true and proper sense merits the name of the city of Christ. Thus one understands why the Gadarenes pleaded with the Lord to leave their town. We must, however, be attentive, that none of us find ourselves in a similar situation; I am alluding to the danger that someone, because of an unbelieving heart, would impel the Lord and Savior of the world to leave his heart, because it is written that "the Holy Spirit, the teacher of discipline, flees from one who is false; he will not dwell in a body enslaved to sin."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 43:7

• Wisdom of Solomon 1:11

  The Lord demands that there be no difference between our oaths and our ordinary speech. If this were not so, then it could be admitted that there is a sort of deception in our oath. Likewise, there must be no lie whatsoever in our words, because both a deceiving oath and a lie fall under the condemnation of divine judgment. Scripture attests to this: "A lying mouth destroys the soul." To speak the truth is already an oath, given that we read, "The truthful witness does not lie." For this reason Scripture justly asserts that God often utters oaths. God is true, and he cannot lie. Everything he says can be considered an oath, given that everything God says is entirely true. It is true, of course, that sometimes Scripture says that God swears an oath. If he does so, however, it is because human beings are incredulous. He swears, then, because of the devious infidelity of the Jews, who believe that truth is found only in words given with an oath. It is for this reason alone that God at times wanted to swear an oath, so that those who did not believe God when he spoke would at least believe when he gave an oath.

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 24:2.3-4

• Wisdom of Solomon 5:10

  There is no doubt that the boat symbolizes the church, bearing in mind what the Holy Spirit says, through Solomon: "She is like a merchant ship, securing her provisions from afar." This can be speaking of nothing other than the church for these reasons: under the guidance of the Lord, with the apostles for its pilots, being blown by the Holy Spirit, this church, by the preaching of the Word, races through the whole world. At the same time, it carries with it a treasure of inestimable value, with which it has purchased the whole human race, and indeed the whole world: the price is the blood of Christ. Solomon also speaks of this price in another passage when he says, "You cannot trace the path of a ship that crosses the sea." What this means to say is that the manner of life of the church is not according to the principles of this world but according to the norms of the heavenly life, as the holy apostle reminds us: "But our homeland is in heaven."

  TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 42:5

• Wisdom of Solomon 16:12

  Illness of the soul is much more serious than that of the body. Bodily ills cause temporal death, but illness of the spirit brings eternal death. Indeed, when in paradise Adam transgressed the divine commandment, he did not contract an illness of the body but an illness of the soul, by which he would have perished eternally if the grace of Christ had not rescued him from death. Listen to the prophet who proclaims this, when he says, "By his wounds we have all been healed." The wounds and the passion of the Lord were the remedy that healed humanity. In fact, illnesses of the soul are not healed by the medical arts but only by the grace of Christ. The fever of sin and the wounds of guilt are sicknesses of the soul, which do not enter the body from the outside but from within the soul. These wounds of the soul are not healed by human beings but by God—not by the incision of an earthly knife but by the sword of the divine Word that penetrates into the depths of the soul. Listen to the prophet declare that "it was not an herb or an ointment that cured them but your word, O Lord, which heals everyone." And the words of David, "He sent his word to heal them." And rightly the prophet prays to the Lord about the iniquity of the Jewish people in these terms, "Is there no balm in Gilead, no physician there? Why therefore does not the health of your people recover?" The prophet does not speak of just any balm but of a heavenly remedy, nor of a human physician but of a physician who is God.

  SERMONS 31:2