d prepared a home for
himself in the city itself, wherein he might keep the feast. He,
then, who so often showed his power in such things as these, now
also, if he had desired it, could have prepared a home wherever he
would, and had no need to return to Bethany. Therefore, he did these
two things intentionally: he showed that they whom he avoided were
unworthy of his dwelling among them; and he gave himself, in the
last hours of his life, to his beloved hosts, that they might have
their own reception of him as the reward of their hospitality.

THE DIVINE TRAGEDY

Whether, therefore, Christ is spoken of as about to be crowned or
about to be crucified, it is said that he "went forth"; to signify
that the Jews, who were guilty of so great wickedness against him,
were given over to reprobation, and that his grace would now pass to
the vast extent of the Gentiles, where the salvation of the Cross,
and his own exaltation by the gain of many peoples, in the place of
the one nation of the Jews, has extended itself. Whence, also,
to-day we rightly go forth to adore the Cross in the open plain;
showing mystically that both glory and salvation had departed from
the Jews, and had spread themselves among the Gentiles. But in that
we afterwards returned (in procession) to the place whence we had
set forth, we signify that in the end of the world the grace of God
will return to the Jews; namely, when, by the preaching of Enoch and
Elijah, they shall be converted to him. Whence the Apostle: "I would
not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, that
blindness in part has fallen upon Israel, until the fullness of the
Gentiles shall be come, and so all Israel shall be saved." Whence
the place itself of Calvary, where the Lord was crucified, is now,
as we know, contained in the city; whereas formerly it was without
the walls. "The crown wherewith his Mother crowned him in the day of
his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart." For
thus kings are wont to exhibit their glory when they betroth queens
to themselves, and celebrate the solemnities of their nuptials. Now
the day of the Lord's crucifixion was, as it were, the day of his
betrothal; because it was then that he associated the Church to
himself as his bride, and on the same day descended into Hell, and,
setting free the souls of the faithful, accomplished in them that
which he had promised to the thief: "Verily I say unto thee, to-day
shalt