Peter Chrysologus

In his own words on Exodus

• Exodus 3:4

  This is why he summons Moses by his fatherly voice, addresses him with paternal love and invites him to be the liberator of his people. Why should I say more? He makes him a god; he sets him up as a god before Pharaoh. He makes him a god, fortifies him with signs, arms him with virtues, wins wars through mere commands, grants to him as a soldier victory gained by a mere word. By his orders he concedes him a triumph and leads him through all the crowns of virtues to his own friendship, gives him an opportunity to share in his heavenly kingdom and allows him to be a legislator. However, Moses received all this that he might love—that at length he might be so inflamed with the love of God that he would burn with it himself and encourage others to have it too.

  SERMON 147

• Exodus 7:1

  Hence it is that through the influence of these three things Moses is made a god: for the sake of his military triumphs he brings all the elements under his control. He bids the sea to withdraw, its waves to solidify, its bottom to become dry and the sky to drop its rain. He supplies food, compels the winds to scatter meats, illumines the night with the splendor of the sun, tempers the sun by the veil of the cloud. He strikes the rock to make it yield from its fresh wound cool streams of water for those who thirst. He first gives to the earth heaven's law, writes down the norms of living, sets the terms of disciplinary control.

  SERMON 43

• Exodus 13:21

  At one time he appears all aglow in a bush. For you are cold with the perfidy of infidelity, and he wants to enkindle you with the heat of faith. At another time he glows like fire in a pillar extending toward heaven, that the darkness of your ignorance may be removed and that you can follow the way of saving knowledge through the wilderness of this world. At yet another time he is changed for you into a pillar of cloud, in order to restrain the burning ebullience of your passions.

  SERMON 170

• Exodus 15:20

  This name is related to prophecy and salutary to those reborn. It is the badge of virginity, the glory of purity, the indication of chastity, the sacrificial gift of God, the height of hospitality, the sum total of sanctity. Rightly therefore is this motherly name that of the mother of Christ.

  SERMON 146

• Exodus 16:4

  The rain of manna fed the Jewish people for forty years in the desert. It did not by its customary service cause an increase of sprouts from the earth but streamed on the earth like harvested grains. It took away all the toil of human labor and by its pleasant dew offered and spread out heavenly produce for the hungry.

  SERMON 166

• Exodus 24:18

  Moses himself was so purified and freed from his body by a fast of forty days that his whole self took on a glorious appearance of divinity. Still in the darkness of our body, he gleamed with the full radiance of divinity. The eyes of mortals could not gaze upon him who, long nourished by the substance of God, had forgotten all about the aids provided by mortals' food. From this he learned that the sustenance of life does not fail those who live in God's sight and with him.

  SERMON 166

• Exodus 33:18

  This is why love which longs to see God, even if it lacks judgment, does have the spirit of devotion. This is why Moses dares to say, "If I have found favor in your sight, show me your face." This is why another man says, "Show us your face." Finally, this is why the Gentiles fashioned idols. In their errors they wanted to see with their eyes what they were worshiping.

  SERMON 147