Christ And The Mountain

Et dimisit me super montem excelsum nimis. Quem ergo significat mons excelsus nisi Mediatorem Dei et hominum hominem Christum Jesum? Qui de terra quidem, sed ultra terram est, quia caro ejusdem Redemptoris nostri de imis habet materiam, sed in summis praeeminet ex potestate. Quem minus erat ut excelsum diceret, nisi adderet nimis, quia non solum homo, sed ex ejusdem humanitatis conceptione quae ab eo assumpta est Deus homo, non solum homo ultra homines, sed homo etiam super angelos factus. Hinc enim de illo per Isaiam dicitur: In die illa erit fructus terrae sublimis . Creator etenim noster, quia pro nobis incarnatus est, fructus terrae factus est nobis. Sed jam fructus terrae sublimis est, quia homo natus in terra super angelos regnat in coelo, quia juxta David et Pauli vocem, Omnia subjecit sub pedibus ejus. In eo enim quod ei subjecit omnia, nihil demisit non subjectum ei. Mons ergo iste est et excelsus, et nimis, quia etsi de terra est per substantiam humanitatis, incomprehensibilis tamen est ex altitudine divinitatis. Hinc est enim quod eumdem Dominum cum Isaias propheta prospiceret in carne esse venturum, per prophetiae spiritum sublevatus, ait: Et erit in novissimis diebus praeparatus mons domus Domini in vertice montium. Domus enim Domini Israeliticus populus fuit. Mons itaque domus Domini ille appellatus est, qui ex Israelitico populo incarnari dignatus est. Fuerunt autem in eodem populo sancti viri qui montes jure vocarentur, quia per vitae meritum ad coelestia propinquaverunt. Sed incarnatus unigenitus istis montibus aequalis non fuit, quia naturam, vitam, merita omnium ex sua divinitate transcendit. Unde et recte mons super verticem montium dicitur, quia excelsus ex divinitate sua inventus est, etiam super cacumina sanctorum, ut hi qui multum in Deo profecerant, ejus vestigia vix potuissent tangere ex vertice cogitationis. Qui ergo illic mons super verticem montium dicitur, ipse hic mons excelsus nimis esse perhibetur. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, In Ezechielem Prophetam, Liber Secundus, Homilia I Source: Migne PL 76 937-938

And He set me on an extremely high mountain. 1 Whom does this lofty mountain signify but the Mediator of God and Men, the man Jesus Christ. He who is indeed from the earth, yet beyond the earth He is, because the flesh of our Redeemer has matter from its depths but it rises up into the heights on account of power. That which was less so that it might be named high He added to excessively, that not only a man, but from human conception by which God took up man, not only a man beyond men, but a man even above the angels He was made. Whence concerning this it is said by Isaiah, 'In that day shall be the finest fruit of the earth.' 2 Indeed our Creator because He became incarnate for us is made the fruit of the earth for us. And the fruit of the earth is the finest because a man is born on earth who rules over the angels in heaven, so that according to the speech of David and Paul, 'All things are beneath His feet.' 3 And since everything is beneath there is nothing that is not beneath. Therefore this mountain is the highest, and extremely so, because even if He is from the earth on account of the substance of his humanity, yet He is incomprehensible because of the height of His Divinity. This is the same Lord whom Isaiah foresaw coming in the flesh, when uplifted by the prophetic spirit, he said, 'And it shall be in those last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be over the peaks of the mountains.' 4 For the house of the Lord was the people of Israel. Thus He is named the mountain of the house of the Lord, who from the people of Israel deemed it worthy to be incarnated. There were even among this same people holy men who rightly could be called mountains, because they merited by their lives to be near the heavens. But the Only Begotten incarnate was not a mountain like these since on account of His Divinity He transcended their nature, their lives, and all their merits. Whence it is correctly said 'a mountain over the peaks of the mountains,' because He is found to be highest by His Divinity, even over the heights of the holy, that even those who had advanced much in God were scarcely able to grasp His way in the heights of their thoughts. Therefore He who was there said to be a mountain over the peaks of the mountains, here is given to be a mountain that is excessively high. Saint Gregory the Great, On the Prophet Ezekiel, Book 2, from Homily 1 1 Ezek 40.2 2 Isai 4.2 3 Ps 8.8, Heb 2.8 4 Isai 2.2