John Damascene

In his own words on Wisdom of Solomon

• Wisdom of Solomon 3:1

  The Word of God, who out of mercy condescended to become her son, serves with his sovereign hands this most holy and most divine woman as is fitting toward a mother and receives her holy soul. What a good legislator! Not being subject to the law, he keeps the law that he decreed. It is he, in fact, who established the duty of children toward their parents. "Honor," he says, "your father and your mother." I believe this is a truth that is obvious to anyone who is at least a little familiar with the divine revelation of sacred Scripture. If, as sacred Scripture says, "the souls of the righteous are in the hands of the Lord," how much more should she not entrust her soul to her Son and her God?

  HOMILY ON THE DORMITION 1:4

• Wisdom of Solomon 6:8

  No one is entirely without the gifts of God, but one will be inclined to this virtue and another to that. One to more virtue, another to less. One to the more elevated and supereminent virtues, another to those that are humble and modest. God has distributed to each according to the measure of his faith. The powerful will therefore be examined severely, and "of the one to whom much has been entrusted, much will be required." Of each person will be demanded, in fact, according to the measure in which he has been entrusted by God's power. And the benefactor knows his recipient: "Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes."

  HOMILY FOR HOLY SATURDAY 34

• Wisdom of Solomon 7:13

  Everything that exists must give thanks to God, rendering him perpetual veneration, since all things have being from him and subsist in him. Without stint he gives a share of his gifts to all without being asked, and he wants everyone to be saved and to partake of his goodness. He is patient toward us sinners. He makes the sun rise on the righteous and the unrighteous and makes it rain on the bad and the good, also because for our sake the Son of God became like us, making us partakers of his divine nature, since we will be like him, as John the theologian says in the catholic epistle.

  THREE TREATISES ON DIVINE IMAGES 3:30

• Wisdom of Solomon 13:5

  No one has ever known God, except the one to whom God has revealed himself. This is true not only for human beings but also among the supracosmic powers and, I would say, even among the cherubim and seraphim. Nevertheless, God did not abandon us in total ignorance. In fact, knowledge of God exists and has been implanted naturally by him in everyone. The creation itself, its preservation and its regulation, proclaim the greatness of the divine nature. And he also revealed knowledge of himself, to the extent it can be attained, first through the Law and the prophets and then through his only-begotten Son, our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. For this reason we receive, acknowledge and reverence what has been passed down to us through the Law, the prophets, the apostles and the Evangelists, not seeking anything beyond these things. Indeed, God, being good, is the author of every good and is subject to neither envy or passion. "Envy is far from the divine nature, which is impassive and only good." Therefore, knowing all things and concerned for what is useful for each, he revealed what is good for us to know, passing over in silence what we could not bear.

  ORTHODOX FAITH 1:1

• Wisdom of Solomon 14:7

  If the bones of the righteous are impure, how is it that the bones of Jacob and Joseph were carried out of Egypt with every honor? Or how is it that a dead man was raised after coming in contact with the bones of Elisha? If God works miracles through bones, it is clear that he can also do so through images, stones and many other things. This also happened with Elisha, who gave his staff to his servant and ordered him to go and raise the son of the Shunammite woman with it. Moses too, with a staff, not only punished Pharaoh but also divided the sea, sweetened waters and opened the rock and made water flow out. Solomon says, "Blessed is the wood from which salvation comes." Elisha made a piece of iron float after throwing a stick in the Jordan, and it is also written that "the tree of life" and "the plant of Sabek" lead to forgiveness. Moses lifted up the serpent on a stick, saving the lives of the people, and confirmed the priesthood in the tent with a blooming branch.

  THREE TREATISES ON DIVINE IMAGES 1:56