st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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114
ST<
J HN OF DAMASCUS.
an ass (c. i).
And he then proceeds to speak more
fully of Christ s incarnation.
It might not be obvious with what design the dis
course was thus begun, or what was the association of
thought in the preacher
s mind. But as we advance
we discern his leading idea to be, that, as Christ
came to the fig-tree hungering for fruit, and found
none, so He came to mankind, impelled by a divine
yearning after them. Beyond the line of thought
thus marked out, and what is necessary to elucidate
it,
there is very little in the way of comment or
exposition of the text. With this clue, however, to
the preacher s drift, the reader will have no difficulty
in tracing the connection of the following passages :
"We hated Him, and turned away from Him,
becoming slaves to another. But He continued to
have an unchangeable love for us. On this account
He ran after us. He came to those who hated Him,
He pursued those who fled from Him, and, when He
chastised them not in sternness nor
overtook them,
brought them back with a scourge j but, as a good
physician, when insulted, spit upon, beaten, by a
patient in delirium, only applies remedies, so did He.
And as a mighty work of healing, He applied His
own Godhead to be a remedy of man s human nature
a remedy most efficacious, a remedy all-powerful."
This rendered the weak flesh mightier than the
powers unseen. For just as iron is unapproachable,
when united with fire (i.e.,
when made burning hot),
even so the mere stubble of our nature, when united
with the fire of the Godhead, has been made un
approachable to the devil. And, seeing that