Deservedly indeed, most blessed Paula, didst thou marvel at this special [portion] of Joshua. For which of us, if the choice were given, would not choose the best, the most fertile, and the most pleasant place? Who would not demand the most ample, most fortified, most beautiful, and most flourishing city? Who, when he surpassed all others in princedom, authority, and dignity, would bear with an even mind [that] the last place in some distribution be given to himself? Who would prefer to receive from others — as [if] by entreaty and begging — that which he could seize by his own right and power? And perhaps to our ambition, greed, and audacity, [there] would not be lacking [pretexts] which, under some appearance of good, would cover and defend it. For “all prefer that [things] go well for themselves rather than for another”; and Charity begins from itself; and [it] seems fair, that those who are set over others should likewise, for [the sake of] reverence and majesty, excel [others] in wealth and estates; [and that,] for the relaxation of the greatest cares by which [they] are held fast, they should obtain all the most pleasant and most smiling [things]. So indeed [do] we — souls bent-down, and wholly fixed to the ground — feel and speak. But the leader Joshua [acted otherwise].
I. Indeed, he displayed an outstanding, and altogether divine, virtue of his spirit, when — [after] so many and so great deeds done, so many and so great victories won, sitting so [long] at the helm, [and] having attained so great glory and dignity — he nevertheless, in that division, bore himself so modestly and humbly: he does not pounce upon the richest of the acquired lands, he does not seize the most fertile of fields and vineyards, [nor] pluck first the greatest, most-fortified, most-built-up of cities; but he chooses a place altogether very small, mean, rough, ruinous — or rather demolished; and [that place] he does not claim for himself by his own authority, but asks [it] from all the Israelites — and indeed in the very last place, when [provision] had already been made sufficiently for all the others.
II. He showed what all [those] to whom the reins of governing others [are] committed ought deservedly to imitate and do. It behooves them to seek first the public usefulness, not their own private [advantage], and to have this as the one, first, and most-ancient care of all — that [things] go well for those over whom they are set: that [the people] be preserved in the worship of God and [in] religion; [that] they obtain their rights, resources, and goods justly and quietly; then afterward let [the rulers] have regard — if they wish — for their own conveniences; [and] in the last place let them put their own pleasures, delights, and gratifications, [even] moderate ones. Well known, in the wise Aesop, is the “lion’s division” [lion’s share]; well known [is] the difference of a “Tyrant and a Prince [legitimate ruler],” which is somewhat sketched [in] 1 Samuel ch. 8.
III. He also showed [to] us — all private [persons too] — how great a moderation, abstinence, and frugality [it] becomes [us] to pursue among ourselves, in all [our] life, in daily fellowship, and in the company of [our] equals. For if that Prince — and so great a Prince, renowned for so many triumphs and so many miracles — proved himself so moderate among [his] inferiors, what ought deservedly to be done by us among [our] equals? [Is it] not most fair to yield to others, to anticipate [outdo] them in honor, gladly to grant [them] the first [places], [and] to bear ourselves as the last in all [things]? This Joshuan admonition and example can hold good even in the least things — [whether] if [it is a matter of] going forward, [or] of speaking, [or] of eating from the same dish. For why should I wish always to be first? why should I always seize all the best [things], and snatch [them] before everyone? But since Origen very opportunely and sweetly treats those three lessons in homily 24 on this place, it will be worth our while to lend an ear for a little to his discourse. “The text declares how great a meekness Jesus [Joshua] has, who was worthy to bear the name of our Lord JESUS and Savior. He [it] is who gave an inheritance to all the sons of Juda: what did he give
(col. 1205)
[…Origen’s homily, continued from col. 1204:] what did he give [to] Ephraim, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh. He [it is who] gave to that magnificent Caleb, son of Jephone, [his] inheritance; he [it is who] sent three [men] through each tribe, who should traverse the whole land, and describe [it] in a book, and return, and show [it]; he [it is who] sent lots to all, and reserved himself among the last. Why, thinkest thou, did he wish to be the last of all? Without doubt, that he might be the first of all. And neither did he himself presume [to take his] inheritance by lot, but received [it] from the people; and to him the people gives the inheritance, from whom he himself had received [theirs]. For so it is written: ‘And the children of Israel gave a lot [portion] to the son of Nun.’ But these [things] also befell them figuratively [as types], which were set before us as a pattern, that we too may keep that precept which this [Joshua] fulfilled in deed — [the precept] which is spoken: ‘The greater thou art, the more humble thyself in all things; and thou shalt find grace before the Lord.’ And again, [that] which is written: ‘If they have made thee a ruler, be not lifted up, but be among them as one of them.’ See, therefore, how he was the leader of the people — he who had led them into the holy land, into the land of promise; he was the successor of Moses, and [yet] he does not permit himself to take [his] lot of land, but — the leader of the people — waits to receive a little portion from the people.” Thus Origen; in whom observe also this, against the Innovators [Protestants] — how greatly, among the ancients, the book “Ecclesiasticus” [Sirach] was in esteem — a passage of which, from ch. 32, [is] cited in certain Latin books, [though] somewhat obscured by the heaping-up of several translations.
IV. Joshua displayed, in his own self, a most beautiful figure [type] of the true JESUS, our Lord and Savior. Although he was King of kings and Lord of lords, he chose the form of a servant (Phil. 2); despised, and the last [most abject] of men (Isa. 53). What else is this world than “Thamnath-sarach,” in which [is] such superfluity, decay, and stench; in which the Son of God took on the likeness of our sin, the image of our luxuriating flesh, the fullest measure of our mortality? Nor here did he choose for himself the strong, the opulent, the sublime, the splendid; but “Bethlehem,” a stable, a manger, likewise a poor little carpenter, [and] a poor little virgin betrothed to him — for whom [there] was no place in the inn. He was on Mount “Gaas” [storm] — he who came not to send peace, but a sword, against impiety and all its ministers and satellites; who received so many and so great storms of poverty, persecutions, insults, torments, and finally of the most bitter death. In the midst of Ephraim and of his [own] tribesmen, he dwelt — he who was made “Emmanuel,” that is, “God with us”; who stood in the midst of us, and was reckoned as [if] one from the common crowd.
We can also, by reason of the twofold name which (as [was] said) belonged to Joshua’s city, set up, as it were, a twofold seat of our JESUS: one, old, fallen, and overthrown — the “Synagogue” of the Jews; the other, restored and built and fortified by Joshua himself — the “Christian Church,” which [is] now to be called not “Thamnath-sarach” but “Thamnath-heres”; in which [is] not that old superfluity, and the strong-smell and reek of carnal sacrifices, but the excellent image of the Sun of Justice, shining far and wide. And truly our hearts also — in which [there was] once a most-luxuriant superfluity of all sins, and a most-foul stench of lusts boiling up and shaking off all measure — were [a very] “Thamnath-sarach”; but our JESUS cut away all excess, drove off all stench, and founded anew a city, that he might dwell in that very [city]. Concerning which Origen, in the cited discourse, [speaks] thus: “Since we are accustomed to refer to our Lord and Savior those [things] which are written concerning Joshua, perhaps this whole people of ours too gives some part to my Lord JESUS, and assigns, as it were, a certain place for his dwelling. But lest what is said seem to be injurious, let us inquire how we, his servants, give him a place of dwelling. I, if I could become good, would give a place to the Son of God in me; and the place received from me, in my soul, the Lord Jesus would build [up], and adorn, and make in it unconquerable walls and lofty towers, and would build in me a dwelling — if I should deserve [it] — worthy of himself and the Father; and so would adorn my soul, and make it capable of his wisdom and knowledge, and of all holiness; so much [so], that he would even make God the Father enter with him, and make a dwelling in it, and even sup, with such a soul, [on] foods which he himself would give. And that we may deserve to attain this, let us prepare in ourselves a clean heart, [into] which, clean, [he] may gladly and gratefully deign to enter — the lodging of our heart — [he] to whom is the dominion and glory unto the ages of ages.” And [in] homily 26: “Who, thinkest thou, in the whole people, are so acceptable to God, [that] they are worthy to be chosen for this — that JESUS should deign to receive a place in them, to build, and to dwell [there]? Or perhaps not even individuals can be capable of this, but the whole people — and the entire Church together — can scarcely be capable, that it may receive into itself the Lord JESUS, and [that] he may dwell in it. Let us see, therefore, what [is] this place in which JESUS ought to dwell. ‘On the mountain,’ [he] says, ‘of Ephraim’ — that is, on a fruitful mountain. Which, thinkest thou, are in us the fruitful mountains, in which JESUS may dwell? Those, assuredly, in which [there] are the fruits of the spirit — joy, peace, patience, Charity. These, then, are the fruitful mountains, which bring forth the fruit of CHRIST, and are always lofty in mind and hope. And although [there] can be few such, yet if [there] be even [a] few, the Lord God dwelling in them — [he] who is the true light — will send the rays of his light even upon all the rest, whom he will have judged not chiefly worthy of his dwelling-place.” But whatever place our JESUS will deign to build and inhabit, that — even if [it] be the least, most contemptible, weakest, and most obscure — he will make the greatest, most glorious, strongest, and most illustrious. “O,” says St. Bernard (sermon 1 On the Vigil of the Nativity), “Bethlehem, [thou] little [one] — but now magnified by the Lord. He magnified thee, who was made in thee little out of great. Rejoice, Bethlehem, and through all thy streets let a festive ‘Alleluia’ today be sung. What city, if it should hear, would not envy thee that most precious stable, and the glory of that manger? For in the whole earth thy name is now renowned, and all generations call thee blessed. Everywhere glorious [things] are said of thee, O city of God; everywhere [it] is sung, ‘for a man is born in her, and the most High himself hath founded her.’ Everywhere, I say, [it] is preached, everywhere [it] is cried aloud, that Jesus Christ the Son of God is born in Bethlehem of Juda.” Many other [things are] in the same place, and [in] sermon 3 on the Lord’s Nativity, which can pertain here. But [it] is better to beseech JESUS, that he deign to make us citizens of his city, partakers of [his] mountain, [and] sharers of [his] inheritance, in this and the future age. Amen.
(col. 1207)