In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

SERMON 169 On the Woman Who Lost the Silver Coin1 hat throughout all the Gospel readings mystical meanings lie hidden and the secrets of heavenly understanding abide there, only those who have received the grace of the divine Spirit know.2 Notice that after the Shepherd from on high sought out the sheep that had been lost out of his flock of a hundred, found it, and brought it back then to the heavenly sheepfold to the complete happiness of the angels,3 a woman is brought forward as a figure in the Gospel who lights a lamp and searches so diligently for the one silver coin that she lost out of her ten, that when she finds it she produces from her gain and from her joy a reason for rejoicing in heaven. For this is what he says: Or what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search diligently until she should find it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says: “Rejoice with me, because I have found my silver coin which I had lost.” Likewise, I assure you, there will be joy before the angels of God concerning one sinner who repents (Lk 15.8–10). 2. Do you suppose that she is an ordinary woman, or is the fact that she had ten silver coins to be thought of in a human sense? Or do you think that she lost the one coin by the sort of 312 1. Literally, “drachma” (dragma). See Lk 15.8. It is likely that this sermon was preached during Lent and immediately followed Sermon 168. See Sermon 168, n. 1. 2. Emphasis on the deeper, spiritual level of the biblical text’s meaning abounds in Chrysologus’s sermons. See, e.g., Sermons 18.5 and 52.1 (FOTC 109.84–85, 202), and 132.2 (FOTC 17.216). See also Introduction, FOTC 109.22–26. 3. See Lk 15.4–7. This is possibly a reference to Sermon 168, which would have immediately preceded this sermon. mishap that is commonplace in this world, or is it merely coincidental that she searches for it at night? Or does she light the lamp in the way we do? Or is it to be expected that she lost and found it within her house? Or is it a usual kind of matter that she summons her friends and neighbors to share her happiness , but when she lost it we do not read that she summoned them to share her grief ? This is an unusual kind of loss: he reveals that the silver coin was not removed, but misplaced; he says that it was hidden in darkness in the house, not buried in the ground by the trickery of some stranger. You see how unique all of this is, how it goes beyond and exceeds what humans customarily do, how it breathes and gives an aroma of divine meaning, how it lifts the mind’s understanding to heaven, how it places it in the celestial realm, how it urges us to light the lamp of our heart up high, and like the woman in the Gospel to look for the silver coin of saving knowledge amid the obscurities of what the Lord has given us to read.4 3. Before Christ came to the sheep that went astray, before he raised it up to heaven on his merciful shoulders when it was worn out by wandering around so pitifully, and before he managed to carry the sheep to safety in the sheepfold where no wolf could approach,5 the woman who had ten silver coins was in the dark for a long time, and not only did she lament the loss of one of her coins, but she did not see even the nine coins that she still had. For her, night was continual; for her, darkness was deep and persistent, since without the divine fire her lamp was of no help in providing any light through the night. But after the fire from above, the Holy Spirit, poured itself forth upon the apostles in a shower of flames,6 and with all its fiery heat enkindled the hearts of mortals that were as cold as they were shrouded in darkness, the woman, that is, the Church, lit her lamp (v.8), that is, the vision deep within her heart, or, as...

Share