Ambrose: On the Duties of the Clergy

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The Feast of Wisdom

The feasting that Solomon speaks of has not to do with common food only, but it is to be understood as having to do with good works… The Lord has told us that He had this food alone in abundance, as it is written in the Gospel, “My food is to do the will of My Father which is in heaven.” In this food let us delight of which the prophet says: “Delight thou in the Lord.” … Let us therefore eat the bread of wisdom, and let us be filled with the word of God. For the life of man made in the image of God consists not in bread alone, but in every word that cometh from God …that the word of God should come down upon us like the dew …

Set in the paradise of delight and placed at the feast of wisdom, think of what is put before thee! The divine Scriptures are the feast of wisdom, and the single books the various dishes. Know, first, what dishes the banquet offers, then stretch forth thy hand, that those things which thou readest, or which thou receivest from the Lord thy God, thou mayest carry out in action, and so by thy duties mayest show forth the grace that was granted thee. Such was the case with Peter and Paul, who in preaching the Gospel made some return to Him Who freely gave them all things. “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace in me was not in vain, but I laboured more abundantly than they all.” [1]

Image of God vs. image of the devil

We must strive for that wherein is perfection and wherein is truth. Here is the shadow, here the image; there the truth. The shadow is in the law, the image in the Gospel, the truth in heaven … Whilst, then, we are here let us preserve the likeness, that there we may attain to the truth. Let the likeness of justice exist in us, likewise that of wisdom, for we shall come to that day and shall be rewarded according to our likeness.

Let not the adversary find his image in thee, let him not find fury nor rage; for in these exists the likeness of wickedness. “Our adversary the devil as a roaring lion seeketh whom he may kill, whom he may devour.” Let him not find desire for gold, nor heaps of money, nor the appearance of vices, lest he take from thee the voice of liberty. For the voice of true liberty is heard, when thou canst say: “The prince of this world shall come, and shall find no part in me.” Therefore, if thou art sure that he will find nothing in thee, when he comes to search through thee, thou wilt say, as the patriarch Jacob did to Laban: “Know now if there is aught of thine with me.” Rightly do we account Jacob blessed with whom Laban could find naught of his. “For Rachel had hidden the gold and silver images of his gods. [2]

The Sword of Solomon

[Two women brought a dispute before King Solomon, in which each claimed to be the mother of a child.] Then the king commanded a sword to be brought and the infant to be cut in half, and either piece to be given to one, one half to the one, and one half to the other. Then the woman whose the child really was, moved by her feelings, cried out: “Divide not the child, my lord; let it rather be given to her and live, and do not kill it.” But the other answered: “Let it be neither mine nor hers, divide it.” Then the king ordered that the infant should be given to the woman who had said: Do not kill it, but give it to that woman; “For,” as it says, “her bowels yearned upon her son.”

It was therefore a sign of wisdom to distinguish between secret heart-thoughts, to draw the truth from hidden springs, and to pierce as it were with the sword of the Spirit not only the inward parts of the body, but even of the mind and soul [For no other sword would have penetrated the hidden feeling of those women, except the sword of the Spirit, of which the Lord says: “I am not come to send peace but a sword.”] .. Indeed the Scriptures have declared this. “All Israel,” it says, “heard of the judgment which the king had judged, and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment.” [For Christ became to us wisdom from God][3]

The Virtues of Judith

See! Judith presents herself to thee as worthy of admiration. .. For she trembled not at the danger of death, nor even at the danger her modesty was in, which is a matter of greater concern to good women. She feared not the blow of one scoundrel, nor even the weapons of a whole army. She, a woman, stood between the lines of the combatants—right amidst victorious arms—heedless of death. As one looks at her overwhelming danger, one would say she went out to die; as one looks at her faith, one says she went but out to fight [and conquer].

Judith then followed the call of virtue, and as she follows that, she wins great benefits. It was virtuous to prevent the people of the Lord from giving themselves up to the heathen, betraying their native rites and mysteries, or yielding up their consecrated virgins … to barbarian impurity, or ending the siege by a surrender. It was virtuous for her to be willing to encounter danger on behalf of all, so as to deliver all from danger.

How great must have been the power of her virtue, that she, a woman, should claim to give counsel on the chiefest matters and not leave it in the hands of the leaders of the people! How great, again, the power of her virtue to reckon for certain upon God to help her! How great her grace to find His help! [4]

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