The Letters of S. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan

by Bishop of Milan Saint Ambrose

3. Let us first consider what Micah signifies in Latin. It means ‘Who is from God,’ or as we find elsewhere ‘who is this man,’ the son of the Ib. i. 1. Morasthite, that is, the heir? Now, who is this heir, but the Son of God, Who says, S. Matt. xi. 27. All things are given unto Me of My Father; and Who, beingHimself the Heir, would have us His co-heirs. And well may we say ‘Who is that man?’ not one of the people, but chosen to receive the grace of God, in whom the Holy Spirit speaks, who began to prophesy Mic. i. 1. in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah kings of Judah. By which order is signified the course of the vision, for the progress is from the times of evil kings to that of a good king.

4. Thus as the afflicted soul was first oppressed under evil kings, let us consider what was the progress of her conversion. Being weak she was overthrown, and all her fences were made as a way for the passers-by, or for the inroads of passion; dissolved in luxury and pleasure, she was trodden down and removed from the presence of the Lord. Her Ib. iv. 8. tower was decayed, that tower which, as we read in the song of Isaiah, Isa. v. 2. was placed in the midst of a choice vineyard. Now this is the case with the tower, when the vine is withered, and her flock wanders; but when the verdure of the vine comes back, or the sheep returns, it grows bright again, for nothing is so decayed as iniquity, or so bright as righteousness.

5. To this tower the sheep is recalled, when the soul is recalled from her relapse, and in that sheep that reign of Christ returns, which was in the beginning, for He is Rev. i. 8. the Beginning and the Ending, even the beginning of our salvation. Still the soul is first severely rebuked, in that she has grievously transgressed, and she is asked, Mic. iv. 9. Why hast thou learnt evil? was there no king in thee? that is, thou hadst a king to govern and protect thee, thou oughtest not to have strayed from the path of righteousness, nor to have left the ways of the Lord, Who imparted to thee sense and reason. Where were thy thoughts and counsels, whereby by innate vigour thou mightest have guarded against unrighteousness and warded off transgression? Why have Ib. pangs taken thee, as a woman in travail; that thou shouldest be in labour of iniquity, and bring forth unrighteousness? For there is no greater grief than for a man to wound his conscience with the sword of sin; nor is there any heavier burden than the weight of sin and the load of transgression. It bows down the soul, it bends it even to the earth, so that it cannot raise itself. Heavy, my son, heavy indeed is theweight of sin. S. Luke xiii. 11. Thus that woman in the Gospel, who was bowed together, and thus bore the semblance of a heavy-laden soul, could be made straight by Christ alone.

6. To such a soul it is said, Mic. iv. 10. Be in pain and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Sion. For the pains of child-birth work tribulation, and Rom. v. 3–5. tribulation patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed. At the same time all that is opposed to virtue is plucked up and cast forth, lest its seeds should remain behind and revive, and put out new buds and fruit.

7. Nor is it without a meaning that Mic. iv. 13. horns and hoofs were given to her, that she might bruise all the sheaves of the floor, like the calf of Mount Lebanon. For unless the sheaves were bruised, and the straw winnowed, the corn that is within cannot be found and separated. Wherefore let the soul that would advance in virtue first bruise and thrash out its superfluous passions, that so, when the harvest is come, it may shew forth its fruits. How many are the weeds which choke the good seed! These must first be rooted out, that they may not destroy the fertile crop of the soul.

8. Then the provident guide of the soul has regard to this, that he may circumscribe her pleasures and cut off her desires, that she may not delight herself in them. That father’s corrections are profitable, Prov. xiii. 24. who spares not the rod, that he may render his son’s soul obedient to salutary precepts. For he visits with a rod, as we read, Ps. lxxxix. 32. I will visit their offences with the rod. And so he who smites the soul of the Israelites with a rod on the cheek, by this Divine punishment instructs her in the discipline of patience. But no man need despair who is chastised and corrected, for Ecclus. xxx. 1. he who loveth his son chastiseth him. Let no man therefore despair of a remedy.

9. Behold therefore, that house which was to thee ‘the house of one seeing wrath,’ is become ‘the house of bread;’ where rage was, there is now piety; where the slaughter of the Innocents, there now the redemption of all mankind, as it is written, Mic. v. 2. But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth that is Ruler in Israel. Bethlehem is thehouse of bread; Ephratah the house of one seeing wrath. This is the interpretation of these names. S. Luke ii. 4. In Bethlehem Christ was born of Mary, but Bethlehem is the same as Ephratah. Thus Christ was born in the house of wrath, and therefore it is no longer a house of wrath, but the house of bread, for it received that S. John vi. 50. bread which came down from heaven. But Ephratah is the house of one that was wrath, because while Herod searches there for Christ, he commands the Innocents to be slain, wherefore S. Matt. ii. 18. In Rama was there a voice heard, Rachel weeping for her children.

10. But let no man fear any longer; for that rest which David sought after Ps. cxxxii. 6. is heard of at Ephrata, and found in the fields of the wood. A wood, as yet, was the assembly of the Gentiles, but after it believed in Christ it became fruitful, receiving S. Luke i. 42. the fruit of the blessed womb. And Gen. xxxv. 19. Rachel died in childbirth, because even then, as the patriarch’s wife, she saw the wrath of Herod, which spared not the tenderest age. Or again, because in Ephratah she gave birth to that Benjamin who excelling in beauty came last in the order of the mystery, I mean Paul, who before his birth caused no small grief to his Mother, by persecuting her sons. And she died, and was buried there, that we, dying and being buried together with Christ, may rise again in His Church. Therefore according to another interpretation, Ephratah signifies ‘enriched or filled with fruit.’

11. Now here, that is, in the book of the Prophet, we find the expression, Mic. v. 2. thou art ὀλιγοστός, that is, one of few. But in Matthew we find, S. Matt. ii. 6. And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not among the few. In one the expression is house of Ephratah, in the other house of Juda; but this is a difference of words not of meaning. For inwardly Judæa saw this exhibition of wrath, outwardly she suffered it. And she is among the few, because they are few who enter the house of bread by the narrow way. But he is not among the few, that is among those that make progress, who knows not Christ. Nor is she the least, who is the house of blessing, and the receptacle of Divine grace; yet in this she is the least, for any thing which is offered to Christ seems to be offered to her. And he who seeks for the Church seeks for Christ; and He is either honoured or despised in everylittle one, wherefore He says Himself, S. Matt. xxv. 40. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto Me.

12. Now that Bethlehem is the very same place as Ephratah we learn from the passage in Genesis, which says, Gen. xxxv. 19. And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. Holy Rachel, being a type of the Church, was buried in the way, that they who go by might say, Ps. cxxix. 8. The Lord prosper you, and Ib. cxxvi. 7. they shall come again with joy.