Ambrose of Milan: The Holy Spirit is the Oil of Gladness and the Ointment of Christ Friday, May 17 2013

Now many have thought that the Holy Spirit is the ointment of Christ. And well it is said ointment, because He is called the oil of gladness, the joining together of many graces giving a sweet fragrance.

But God the Almighty Father anointed Him [Christ] the Prince of priests, Who was, not like others anointed in a type under the Law, but was both according to the Law anointed in the body, and in truth was full with the virtue of the Holy Spirit from the Father above the Law.

This is the oil of gladness, of which the prophet says: “God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.”

Lastly, Peter says that Jesus was anointed with the Spirit, as you read: “Ye know that word which went through all Judea beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached, even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is, then, the oil of gladness.

And well did he say oil of gladness, lest you should think Him a creature; for it is the nature of this sort of oil that it will by no means mingle with moisture of another kind. Gladness, too, does not anoint the body, but brightens the inmost heart, as the prophet said: “Thou hast put gladness in my heart.”

[...] And well is that called oil of gladness wherewith Christ was anointed; for neither was usual nor common oil to be sought for Him, wherewith either wounds are dressed or heat assuaged; since the salvation of the world did not seek alleviation for His wounds, nor the eternal might of His wearied Body demand refreshment.

Nor is it wonderful if He have the oil of gladness, Who made those about to die rejoice, put off sadness from the world, destroyed the odour of sorrowful death. And so the Apostle says: “For we are the good odour of Christ to God;” certainly showing that he is speaking of spiritual things.

But when the Son of God Himself says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me,” He points out the ointment of the Spirit. Therefore the Spirit is the ointment of Christ.

Or since the Name of Jesus is as ointment poured out, if they wish to understand Christ Himself, and not the Spirit of Christ to be expressed under the name of ointment, certainly when the Apostle Peter says that the Lord Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit, it is without doubt plain that the Spirit also is called ointment.

Ambrose of Milan (c. 337-397): On the Holy Spirit, 1, 10, 100-104.

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Ambrose of Milan: Holy Scripture is Drunk when the Power of the Word Penetrates the Depths of the Mind Tuesday, Feb 5 2013

First drink from the Old Testament, so that you may drink from the New as well.

You cannot drink from the second without drinking from the first.

Drink from the Old Testament to slake your thirst, and from the New to quench it completely.

Compunction is found in the Old Testament; joy in the New.

Notice how the Lord, on his servants’ behalf, countered the wiles of the devil.

With deceitful cunning the devil beguiled one man in order to overthrow all mankind in his person.

But with salutary food Jesus redeemed all mankind, in order to restore with him all, even him who had been beguiled.

The Lord Jesus poured out water from the rock and everyone drank. Those who drank from the symbol were satisfied, but those who drank from the reality were inebriated.

That was a good inebriation that steadied the walk of the sober mind; that was a good inebriation that watered the gift of eternal life.

Drink of this cup, then, of which the Prophet said: Your cup that inebriates, how noble it is!

Drink the cup of the Old Testament and of the New, for in both you drink Christ.

Drink Christ because he is the vine; drink Christ because he is the rock that poured out water.

Drink Christ because he is the fountain of life; drink Christ because he is the river whose running waters give joy to the city of God, and because he is peace, and because out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Drink Christ to drink the blood which redeemed you; drink Christ to drink his words: the Old Testament is his word; the New Testament is his word.

Holy Scripture is drunk and swallowed when the power of the eternal Word penetrates the depths of the mind and the virtue of the soul.

In short, we do not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Drink this word, but according to its own order.

Drink it first in the Old Testament; then hasten to drink it also in the New.

Ambrose of Milan (c. 337-397): On Psalm 1, 33 (CSEL 64:28-30);  from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time Year 1.

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Ambrose of Milan: Holding Christ Fast in the Deep and Secret Places of Your Heart Thursday, Dec 13 2012

When you are in your room, then, at night, think always on Christ, and wait for his coming at every moment.

This is the person Christ has loved in loving you, the person he has chosen in choosing you. He enters by the open door; he has promised to come in, and he cannot deceive.

Embrace him, the one you have sought; turn to him, and be enlightened; hold him fast, ask him not to go in haste, beg him not to leave you.

The Word of God moves swiftly; he is not won by the lukewarm, nor held fast by the negligent.

Let your soul be attentive to his word; follow carefully the path God tells you to take, for he is swift in his passing.

What does his bride say? I sought him, and did not find him; I called him, and he did not hear me.

Do not imagine that you are displeasing to him although you have called him, asked him opened the door to him, and that this is the reason why he has gone so quickly; no, for he allows us to be constantly tested.

[...]But even if it seems to you that he has left you, go out and seek him once more.

Who but holy Church is to teach you how to hold Christ fast? Indeed, she has already taught you, if you only understood her words in Scripture:

How short a time it was when I left them before I found him whom my soul has loved. I held him fast, and I will not let him go.

How do we hold him fast? Not by restraining chains or knotted ropes but by bonds of love, by spiritual reins, by the longing of the soul.

If you also, like the bride, wish to hold him fast, seek him and be fearless of suffering. …

[...] Whoever seeks Christ in this way, and finds him, can say: I held him fast, and I will not let him go before I bring him into my mother’s house, into the room of her who conceived me.

What is this “house”, this “room”, but the deep and secret places of your heart?

Maintain this house, sweep out its secret recesses until it becomes immaculate and rises as a spiritual temple for a holy priesthood, firmly secured by Christ, the cornerstone, so that the Holy Spirit may dwell in it.

Whoever seeks Christ in this way, whoever prays to Christ in this way, is not abandoned by him; on the contrary, Christ comes again and again to visit such a person, for he is with us until the end of the world.

Ambrose of Milan (c. 337-397): On Virginity (cap. 12, 68. 74-75; 13, 77-78), from the Office of Readings for the Memoria of St Lucy, December 13^th @ Crossroads Initiative.

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Ambrose of Milan: Christ is the True Jonah, Who Gave His Life for Our Redemption Saturday, Aug 18 2012

Just as Jonah passed three days and nights in the belly of a whale, so did the Son of Man spend three days in the heart of the earth after his death.

But after he had raised himself from the dead and roused his body from its sleep for the salvation of all, he visited his disciples.

Christ, then, is the true Jonah, who gave his life for our redemp­tion.

For this reason he was taken up on deck and cast overboard into the sea in order to be swallowed up by the whale.

Job had this to say about the whale: He holds in captivity a huge sea monster.

And what kind of beast is this meant to be? You will know when you read that our Lord Jesus Christ took captivity captive.

Once our adversary and bitter enemy had been subdued, we, who had been under his dominion, began to enjoy our liberty, thanks to Christ.

The prayer itself of holy Jonah throws some light upon the mystery of the Lord’s passion, for he said:

I have cried out to the Lord in my affliction, and my voice has reached him from the depths of Sheol – not, you will notice, from the depths of the whale’s belly.

For it was into Hades that the Lord went down, not in any whale, so that he might loose those who were detained there from their everlasting bonds.

Now, who was it that offered to the Lord God his sacrifice with praise and thanksgiving if not our great High Priest himself, who made his vows and paid them on behalf of all of us? For he alone could make his sacrifice effective.

Just as Jonah, by being cast into the sea, was able to allay its fury, so did our Lord Jesus Christ, by coming into the world, win it for himself, and through his blood he established it everywhere – in heaven and on earth.

By his coming he redeemed all men and women, and by his deeds he brought them all to love and worship God; he raised the dead and healed the sick, implanting in people’s souls a reverence for God.

He it was who offered to the Father a sacrifice of atonement on our behalf, presenting God with an oblation capable of justifying us. He it was who slept and woke again.

Ambrose of Milan (c. 337-397): On Psalm 43 83-85 (PL 14:1183-1184, 1129-1139);  from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Sunday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time Year 2.

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Ambrose of Milan: Blessed the Soul that Enters the Inner Chambers. Friday, Jun 1 2012

The king brought me to his inner apartment.

Blessed the soul that enters the inner chambers.

For, rising up from the body, she becomes more distant from all, and she searches and seeks within herself, if in any way she can pursue the divine.

And when she can obtain it, having passed beyond intelligible things, she is strengthened in it and fed by it.

Such was Paul, who knew that he had been caught up into paradise but did not know whether he had been caught up in the body or out of the body.

For his soul had risen up from the body, had withdrawn from the bonds of the flesh, and had lifted herself up.

And he was made alien to himself and held within his very self the secret words which he heard and could not reveal, because, as he remarked, it was not permitted a man to speak such thoughts.

And so the good soul scorns visible and material things and does not linger over them or delay or tarry or despise them.

Rather, she rises to things eternal and immaterial and filled with wonders, for she rises with pure thought from a pious mind.

Intent on perfection, she strives only for the good that is God’s and considers none other necessary, because she possesses that which is supreme.

And so a man of this kind, in whom there is beauty of soul, has more than enough for himself, though he is alone, for he is himself sufficient for himself.

And yet the man is never alone who has the Lord with him as his protector.

[...] Therefore know yourself and the beauty of your nature, and go forth as if your foot had been freed of bonds and were visible in its bare step, so that you may not feel the fleshly coverings, that the bonds of the body may not entangle the footstep of your mind, that your foot may appear beautiful.

For such are they who are chosen by the Lord to announce the kingdom of heaven, and of them it was said, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace!

Such was Moses, to whom it is said, Remove the sandals from your feet, so that when he was about to call the people to the kingdom of God he might first put aside the garments of the flesh and might walk with his spirit and the footstep of the mind naked.

Ambrose of Milan (c. 337-397): On Isaac, or the Soul 4.11-12, 16; FoC 65 (1972) tr. McHugh; from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time Year 2.

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Ambrose of Milan: The Love of God is Shed Abroad by the Holy Spirit Wednesday, May 9 2012

“Grace unto you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

[...] We are told that the grace of the Father and the Son is one, and the peace of the Father and the Son is one.

This grace and peace is the fruit of the Spirit, as the Apostle taught us himself, saying: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience.”

And peace is good and necessary that no one be troubled with doubtful disputations, nor be shaken by the storm of bodily passions, but that his affections may remain quietly disposed as to the worship of God, with simplicity of faith and tranquillity of mind.

As to…grace, the prophet Zechariah says that God promised to pour upon Jerusalem the spirit of grace and mercy, and the Apostle Peter says: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the grace of the Holy Spirit.”

So grace comes also of the Holy Spirit as of the Father and the Son. For how can there be grace without the Spirit, since all divine grace is in the Spirit?

Nor do we read only of the peace and grace of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but also…of the love and communion.

For of love it has been said: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God.”

We have heard of the love of the Father. The same love which is the Father’s is also the Son’s. For He Himself said: “He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him.”

And what is the love of the Son, but that He offered Himself for us, and redeemed us with His own blood? But the same love is in the Father, for it is written: “God so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son.”

So, then, the Father gave the Son, and the Son gave Himself.

Love is preserved and due affection is not wronged, for affection is not wronged where there is no distress in the giving up.

He gave one Who was willing, He gave One Who offered Himself; the Father did not give the Son to punishment but to grace.

[...] So, too, the loving Spirit gave the Son of God.

For as the love of the Father and the Son is one, so, too, we have shown that this love of God is shed abroad by the Holy Spirit, and is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, because “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience.”

Ambrose of Milan (c. 337-397): On the Holy Spirit, 1, 12. 

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Ambrose of Milan: The Lord Enlightens His Saints and Makes His Light Shine in the Hearts of the Just Saturday, Mar 17 2012

Let your face shine on your servant, and teach me your precepts.

The Lord enlightens his saints and makes his light shine in the hearts of the just.

This means that when you see wisdom in anyone you can be sure that the glory of God has come down and flooded that person’s mind with the light of understanding and knowledge of divine truth.

With Moses, God’s glory affected his body also, causing his face to shine.

Indeed, his countenance was so transfigured that…he was obliged to cover his face with a veil so that the children of Israel should not be alarmed at the sight of it.

[...] As long as Moses lived, he wore a veil over his face whenever he spoke to the Jewish people. But after his death Jesus, or Joshua, the son of Nun, spoke to the elders and the people without a veil.

[...] The Holy Spirit signified that when Jesus, the true Joshua, came, he would lift the veil from the heart of anyone who turned to him in willingness to listen, and that person would then see his true Saviour with unveiled face.

So it was that, through the coming of his Son, God the almighty Father made his light shine into the hearts of the Gentiles, bringing them to see his glory in the face of Christ Jesus.

This is clearly stated in the Apostle’s letter, where we find the following written: The God who commanded light to shine out of darkness has made his light shine in our hearts, to enlighten us with the knowledge of God’s glory shining in the face of Christ Jesus.

And so when David says to the Lord Jesus: Let your face shine upon your servant, he is expressing his longing to see the face of Christ, so that his mind may be capable of enlightenment.

These words can be taken as referring to the incarnation, for as the Lord himself declared: Many prophets and righteous men have desired to have this vision.

David was not asking for what had been denied to Moses, namely that he might see the face of the incorporeal God with his bodily eyes.

(And yet if Moses…could ask for this direct, unmediated vision, it was because it is inherent in our human nature for our desire to reach out beyond us.)

There was nothing wrong, therefore, in David’s desire to see the face of the Virgin’s Son who was to come.

He desired it in order that God’s light might shine in his heart, as it shone in the hearts of the disciples who said: Were not our hearts burning within us when he opened up the Scriptures to us?

Ambrose of Milan (c. 337-397): On Psalm 118, 17:26-29 (CSEL 62:390-392);  from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent, Year 2.

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Ambrose of Milan: Store in Your Mind the Water that is Christ, the Water that Praises the Lord Wednesday, Dec 7 2011

[In the words of the Psalm], The rivers have lifted up their voice.

These are the rivers flowing from the heart of the man who is given drink by Christ and who receives from the Spirit of God.

When these rivers overflow with the grace of the Spirit, they lift up their voice.

There is also a stream which flows down on God’s saints like a torrent.

There is also a rushing river giving joy to the heart that is at peace and makes for peace.

Whoever has received from the fullness of this river, like John the Evangelist, like Peter and Paul, lifts up his voice.

Just as the apostles lifted up their voices and preached the Gospel throughout the world, so those who drink these waters begin to preach the good news of the Lord Jesus.

Drink, then, from Christ, so that your voice may also be heard.

Store up in your mind the water that is Christ, the water that praises the Lord.

Store up water from many sources, the water that rains down from the clouds of prophecy.

Whoever gathers water from the mountains and leads it to himself or draws it from springs, is himself a source of dew like the clouds.

Fill your soul, then, with this water, so that your land may not be dry, but watered by your own springs.

He who reads much and understands much, receives his fill. He who is full, refreshes others.

So Scripture says: If the clouds are full, they will pour rain upon the earth.

Therefore, let your words be rivers, clean and limpid, so that in your exhortations you may charm the ears of your people. And by the grace of your words win them over to follow your leadership.

Let your sermons be full of understanding. Solomon says: The weapons of the understanding are the lips of the wise; and in another place he says: Let your lips be bound with wisdom. That is, let the meaning of your words shine forth, let understanding blaze out.

See that your addresses and expositions do not need to invoke the authority of others, but let your words be their own defence.

Let no word escape your lips in vain or be uttered without depth of meaning.

Ambrose of Milan (c. 337-397): Letter 2, 1-2. 4-5.7:  from Office of Readings for the Memoria of St Ambrose, December 7^th, @ Crossroads Initiative.

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Ambrose of Milan: “Because You Have Repented The Lord Has Taken Away Your Sin” Thursday, Jun 30 2011

How many sins each of us commits every hour, yet people feel no need to confess their sins!

By contrast, the great and mighty King David could not abide the awareness of his sin even for a moment, but immediately confessed it and with immense sorrow laid it before the Lord.

Can you show me nowadays any wealthy and distinguished person who will not take it amiss if he or she is accused of some sin?

Yet that renowned King, approved by so many divine oracles, was not displeased and angered at being charged by a private person with grave sin, but admitted it and sorrowfully lamented his guilt.

The result was that his deep sorrow moved the Lord, so that Nathan could say: Because you have repented the Lord has taken away your sin.

The King’s prompt pardon was proof of the depth of his repentance, since it could remove even an offence as heinous as his was.

Others, when reproached by priests, make their sin worse by trying to deny or defend it, so that when one might have expected a change of heart their guilt is actually increased.

By contrast, when the Lord’s saints, who long to fight the holy combat to the finish and to run the race of salvation, happen to fall through the frailty of human nature rather than from any inclination to sin, their sense of shame brings them to their feet again, more eager than ever to run the race;

their energy is renewed for even harder struggles, so that their fall, far from being a hindrance, becomes the motive for an even speedier advance.

We can see another way in which sin can benefit us, and how it is providential that it surprised the saints.

They are set before us as models, and therefore the Lord has seen to it that they too should sometimes fall;

for if they had run their course untouched by faults despite the many hazards of this world, they would have made us who are weaker think of them as possessed of a higher and even superhuman nature that prevented them from sinning and sharing the experience of guilt.

Such a view would deter those lacking this nature from imitating them, for they would regard it as impossible.

The grace of God therefore passed them by momentarily, so that their lives might be models for us to follow, and we might learn from their actions not only to be blameless, but also to repent.

Ambrose of Milan (c. 337-397): Apologia Prophetae David, 1.2, 5-7 (CSEL 32.2.301-3); from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Saturday of the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I.

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Ambrose of Milan: Christ Heals Human Nature and Cleanses Us from Our Sins Monday, Jan 24 2011

When our Lord Jesus assumed our human nature in order to purify it in his own person, his first task was surely to destroy the primary infection of original sin.

It was through disobedience and challenging of God’s command that wrongdoing had crept in, and obedience had to be restored before anything else if transgression was to be denied room in which to develop.

It was through disobedience that the canker of sin had spread, and therefore our Lord’s first duty as a good physician must be to cut out the tumour at the roots, so that the surface of the wound may feel the healing effect of his medicine.

And so Jesus accepted obedience for himself in order to impart it to us.

It was only right that as through one man’s disobedience all men were reckoned as sinners, so through one man’s obedience all should be reckoned just.

This means that those who maintain that Christ assumed our carnal nature but not our passions are very far from the truth.

Indeed they contravene our Lord’s own intention by depriving him of his manhood, for without human passions he could not be a man at all.

Human nature without human passions would incur neither merit nor guilt.

What Christ had to take upon himself and heal was the actual fountainhead of guilt, in order to stop up the source of transgression and any further outlets for wrongdoing.

It was as man, then, that he was made weak, as man that he suffered, as man that we thought of him in his sufferings; but he overcame his weaknesses instead of being overcome by them.

It was for us he suffered, not for himself. He was made weak not account of any sins of his own but on account of our sins, so that by his stripes we might be healed.

He took our sins upon himself both to assume the burden of them and to purge them away, and because of this he shall obtain many for his inheritance and share out the spoils of the strong.

His acceptance of the burden of our sins is bound up with their remission, his purging of them with their correction.

And so in taking it upon himself to suffer with us he took it upon himself to accept our own subjection.

And whereas his subjection of all things to himself is his divine prerogative, his own acceptance of subjection belongs to the human nature he shares with us.

Ambrose of Milan (c. 337-397): Commentary on Psalm 61 (PL 14:1224-5);  from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Tuesday of the Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year I.

 

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