{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-5724","native_reference":{"book_number":10,"chapter_from":18,"chapter_to":18,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":7,"verse_to":7},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrose of Milan</b>: Nor was it useless, when he ran to the cattle, he took a tender and good calf, and placed it with milk. Finally, in Exodus, when Moses was declaring the Passover of the Lord, he said: The lamb without blemish, clean, complete, a yearling, male, shall be taken for you from sheep and goats. You shall take and kill him, said he, the whole assembly of the synagogue at evening. Hence, this is also described as midday, when Abraham offers hospitality to the Lord. But at the supper a calf is sacrificed, and is eaten with milk; that is, not in blood, but with the purity of faith. A good calf, capable of washing away sins. Tender, because it recognized the gentle yoke of the law, not with a stiff neck, and did not refuse the cross's gibbet. And deservedly tender, from whose head and feet and internal organs nothing was left, and its bones were not broken, but it yielded completely to the food of those feasting. Such a calf was figuratively portrayed for us by the shadow of the Law, such did the truth of the Gospel demonstrate.<br/><i>— On Abraham</i></p><p><b>Bede</b>: The tender and excellent calf that Abraham took from the herd signifies the Mediator between God and humans, whom the most merciful Father killed for his returning younger son, that is, the Gentile people, according to the parable of the Gospel. He is the tender and excellent calf taken singularly to be slain and cooked for the citizens of heaven because he alone from the entire human race was specially chosen, whose blood would redeem the world, and through whom all things on earth and in heaven are restored in him, as the Apostle says. This calf is rightly called tender and excellent. For what is as tender and excellent as He who humbled Himself for our elevation: Becoming obedient to the Father unto death, even death on the cross?<br/><i>— Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)</i></p><p><b>Caesarius of Arles</b>: Lot too received men, but only two, not the whole Trinity; moreover in the evening, not at noon. What did he serve them? \"He baked unleavened bread, and they ate.\" Because he was much inferior to Abraham in merits he did not have a fatted calf. Nor did he recognize the mystery of the Trinity in the three measures of flour. However, since he offered what he could in a kindly spirit, he merited to be freed from the destruction of Sodom. Notice, brothers, that even Lot deserved to receive the angels, because he did not reject strangers. Behold, angels enter a hospitable home, but houses that are closed to strangers are burned with flames of sulphur.<br/><i>— SERMON 83.3</i></p><p><b>Caesarius of Arles</b>: He received the three men and served them loaves out of three measures. Why is this, brothers, unless it means the mystery of the Trinity? He also served a calf; not a tough one, but a \"good, tender one.\" Now what is so good and tender as he who humbled himself for us even unto death? He himself is that fatted calf which the father killed upon receiving his repentant son. \"For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son.\" For this reason Abraham went to meet the three men and adored them as one. In the fact that he saw three, as was already said, he understood the mystery of the Trinity; but since he adored them as one, he recognized that there is one God in the three persons.<br/><i>— SERMON 83.4</i></p><p><b>Ephrem the Syrian</b>: The bread and meat, which was in abundance, was not to satisfy the angels but rather so that the blessing might be distributed to all the members of his household. After the angels had washed and sat down beneath a tree, \"Abraham brought and set before them what he had prepared\"; he did not dare recline with them but like a servant \"stood apart from them.\"<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Genesis 15:2</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: \"But he himself ran,\" it says, \"to the cattle and took a calf.\" What kind of calf? Perhaps the one that could happen to run up first? It is not so, but a \"good and tender\" calf. And although he hastens in all things, yet he knows what things, being chief and great, are to be offered to the Lord or to the angels. He took therefore, or rather chose, from the herd a \"good and tender\" calf and handed it to the servant boy. \"The boy,\" it says, \"hastened to prepare it.\" He himself runs, the wife hastens, the boy makes speed; no one is sluggish in the house of the wise man. He sets forth therefore the calf and together with it the loaves and the fine flour, but also milk and butter. These are the duties of hospitality of Abraham and Sarah. Now let us see also what Lot does. This one has neither fine flour nor clean bread, but meal. He knows neither three measures of fine flour, nor is he able to set before those who come ἐγχρυφίας, that is, hidden and mystical loaves.<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Genesis 4.1</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: A calf is set forth—behold, another sacrament. The calf itself is not tough, but \"good and tender.\" And what is so tender, what so good as he who \"humbled himself\" for us \"even unto death\" and \"laid down his soul\" \"for his friends\"? That \"fatted calf\" which the father slaughters for the son received back in repentance. \"For God so loved this world, that he gave his only Son\" for the life of this world. Yet it does not escape the wise man whom he had received. He meets three and adores one and speaks to one, saying: \"Turn aside to your servant and refresh yourself under the tree.\"<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Genesis 4.2</i></p><p><b>Philoxenus of Mabbug</b>: Now although this meat is a burden unto the wise and prudent, yet was it given by promise unto Noah, and it was sent unto Elijah in a gift, and Abraham received God and His angels thereby, and Isaac was pleased to pour out blessings upon Jacob thereby, and Samuel offered this gift beforehand to Saul as to a king, and David and all the righteous kings made use of such meat, and it was employed by all the righteous; and they were not blamed therefor, because they were superior to lust. And they did not eat like slaves with lust, but they made use of every thing with authority like free men, and they in their eating of rare meats were praised, while those who fed themselves upon ordinary and common foods were rejected and reprobated.<br/><i>— 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 -- On Abstinence</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"30a0c02867113856a52436df631f7e374b3fda6c674d12658ba56c0a1fa57fc0","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":5724,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"1a10b18e9ebf06e6a748e2992f028344946d58b6e79ec3b1ac2be190789c0625","translator":null,"work":null}