My mother’s sons fought against me
My mother’s sons fought against me. We must consider how the Bride says, My mother’s sons fought against me, and when the brothers’ fight rose against her. Look at Paul, the persecutor of the Church, and you will understand how a son of her mother fought against her. The Church’s persecutors did penance, and her adversaries, turned again to the sister’s standards, preached the faith they had once been destroying. In this prophetic spirit the Bride now sings: They fought in me; they set me as a keeper in the vineyards; my own vineyard I have not kept. I the Church, I the Bride, I without spot, have been set as keeper of many vineyards by my mother’s sons, who once fought against me. Held by that anxious care, while I keep many vineyards I have not guarded my own. Understand this of Paul and of any other of the saints who is anxious for the salvation of all, and you will see how, not keeping his own vineyard, he keeps the vineyards of others.
Latin
Filii matris meae pugnaverunt adversum me. Considerandum, quomodo sponsa dicat: Filii matris meae pugnaverunt adversum me et quando adversum eam fratrum pugna surrexit. Vide mihi Paulum ecclesiae persecutorem et intelleges, quomodo filius matris eius pugnaverit contra eam. Persecutores ecclesiae egerunt paenitentiam et adversarii eius rursum ad sororis signa conversi praedicaverunt fidem, quam ante destruebant. Hoc prophetico spiritu sponsa nunc cantans ait: Dimicaverunt in me, posuerunt me custodem in vineis; vineam meam non custodivi. Ego ecclesia, ego sponsa, ego sine macula, plurimarum custos sum posita vinearum a filiis matris meae, qui contra me aliquando pugnaverant. Qua sollicitudine curaque districta dum plures custodio vineas, meam vineam non servavi. Intellege mihi hoc de Paulo et alio quocumque sanctorum, qui pro omnium sit salute sollicitus, et videbis, quomodo suam vineam non custodiens aliorum vineta custodiat.
About this text
Origen’s Homilia I on the Song of Songs (Jerome’s Latin). Complete on this page: §§1–10.
English follows Baehrens, Origenes Werke VIII (GCS 33, 1925), Jerome’s Latin of Homilia I. Lawson ACW 26 was not used as wording. This page is Homilia I §§1–10 (closeout).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Baehrens, Origenes Werke VIII = GCS 33 (1925) (Latin · Homilia I §§1–10)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.