Homilies on Genesis, 1–17

Homily 3

HOMILY 3 Further comment on the verse, "In the beginning God made heaven and earth," I up to the verse, "Evening came and morning came: one day."2 IIEADING (32C) THE HOLY Scriptures is like a treasure.3 .. With a treasure, you see, anyone able to find a tiny nugget gains for himself great wealth; likewise in the case of Sacred Scripture, you can get from a small phrase a great wealth of thought and immense riches. The Word of God is not only like a treasure, but is also like a spring gushing with everflowing waters in a mighty flood; this we all perceived from what we did yesterday. We began, remember, at the opening of the book of Genesis on the words, "In the beginning God made heaven and earth," and dealt completely with all its contents, without however being able to grasp it fully. You see, great is the yield of this treasure and the flow of this spiritual fountain. Don't be surprised if we have experienced this: (32d) our forebears drank from these waters to the limit of their capacity, and those who come after us will try to do likewise, without risk of exhausting them; instead the flood will increase and the streams will be multiplied. I. Gn 1.1. 2. Gn 1.5. Speiser notes: "In Semitic the normal ordinal series is 'one, second , third,' etc., not 'first, second, third,' etc." (Genesis, 6)-something lost on the LXX, evidently, and on Chrysostom. 3. Chrysostom employs a wide range of figures for the saving truth that is Sacred Scripture: a rich table or feast (his favorite), a treasure (especially gold and gems to be mined), food and drink, remedies for ailments, arms for warfare , an overflowing stream-figures that H. De Lubac parallels from the Latin Fathers, so evidently the stock-in-trade of churchmen of the time (cf. Exegese Medievale I (Paris 1959), 119- 20, and St. John Chrysostom's Teaching on Inspiration in his Old Testament Homilies 160-69. 39 ST.JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (2) Such, after all, is the nature of spiritual streams the more earnestly anyone tries to draw the water, the more they abound and the spiritual grace is increased. Hence Christ said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. If anyone believes in me, as Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his belly'" indicating to us the abundance of the waters. So since this is the nature of spiritual waters, come, let us all constantly bring the vessels of our minds to be filled, and thus return home. For whenever the Spirit (33a) sees an ardent desire and a watchful mind, he freely grants it abundant grace. So step aside from your daily preoccupations and from things that threaten to suffocate your thinking like weeds, and let us give free rein to spiritual desires so that we may gain great advantage from this consideration and receive much benefit; then we can go home. (3) But in order that the sermon may be clearer to you, let us remind you in your goodness 5 of some details of what was said yesterday so as to fit together, as into one whole, what is to be said today with what was said yesterday. We showed you yesterday, as you will recall, how blessed Moses explained to us the creation of these visible elements in saying (33b) that "in the beginning God made heaven and earth; the land was invisible and lacking all shape." And we taught you why he left the land unshaped and unpeopled, and I think you remember it all precisely, so today we must proceed to what follows in the text. You see, when he says, "The land was invisible and lacking all shape," he teaches us precisely how it came to be invisible and lacking all shape, adding, "Darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God moved over the water."6 Notice in this case, I ask you, the economy of the blessed author, how he does not describe all created things individually, but teaches us which items were produced together by mentioning heaven and earth and passing over the rest. (33c) I mean, he had made no mention of the creation of the waters, but then said, "Darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God 4· In 7.37-38. 6. Gn 1.2. 5. Cf. Homily l, note 2 above. [3.133.119.66] Project...