[Sermones de eucharistiae sacramento]

and conversed with men." As if to say: because God had made man in the way of pilgrimage, giving commandments of good conversation so that the way would not seem burdensome to man, God became man and through this a companion of the way and pilgrimage. Luke 8: "Jesus was traveling through cities and towns, preaching and evangelizing the kingdom of God, and the twelve with him, and women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Susanna and many others, and a great crowd came to him." And the truly good One gave Himself as a good companion, because He comforted the weary companions of the way with excellent words, liberated those in danger, cured the infirm, and raised the dead. The fourth degree is that He gave Himself to be the price of our necessity. Philippians 2: "Christ emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." Hence He gave drink to the thirsty, food to the hungry, and washed the feet of the disciples. Matthew 20: "The Son of man did not come to be ministered unto, but to minister." Luke 22: "I am in the midst of you as one who ministers." The fifth degree is that He gave Himself as the price of our redemption. Ephesians 5: "Christ loved us and delivered himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness." Matthew 20: "The Son of man came to give his life as a redemption for many." The sixth and highest degree of the Lord's liberality is that He gives His body to man as food. Hosea 11: "I was as a nurse to Ephraim, and I inclined to him that he might eat." John 6: "The bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." Gregory: The Lord, the good shepherd, laid down His life for His sheep, so that He might turn His body and blood into our sacrament and make the sheep whom He had redeemed with the nourishment of His flesh. And in this is the expression of supreme largesse and special love. For it is a great thing to give oneself as a companion of pilgrimage and as a servant of necessity, and greater to be the price of redemption. Yet such a gift is still in separation and removal from the one to whom it is given. But that which is given as food is given not for any separation, but for all-manner of union. For the food of the body and the one taking the food are united. John 6: "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, abideth in me and I in him." And so in such a gift appears the most superabundant liberality of divine goodness. Secondly, the greatest liberality of God is proved in this act regarding the nobility of the Giver, which is excellent in this sacrament, that He dispenses His body diffusely and broadly. For He not only gives it to the worthy and friends, but He does not withhold it from the unworthy, the malicious, and enemies. Psalm: "Sinners approach upon me, that they may eat my flesh." For He who allowed Himself once to be crucified by the hands of the wicked, allows Himself daily to be handled by the hands of the criminal and in the sacrament to be torn by the teeth of the unclean and enemies. Hence, it is said that at the supper He gave His body to His enemy and traitor Judas, along with His other disciples. For He makes the truth of His presence to rise like the sun upon the good and the bad, exhibiting Himself in this world to the worthy and the unworthy, although the effect is not received equally by all. For the worthy receives the effect of the goodness of God, the unworthy that of His severity, just as a diseased eye