Ascending And Descending The Mountain

Cum descendisset Jesus de monte... Meminisse debetis, fratres, ex hoc loco illum, ubi Dominus Jesus videns turbas, ascendit in montem; quatenus spiritualibus spiritualia comparantes, in spiritu semper ascendatis: sicut beatus hortatus Apostolus: Si spiritu vivitis, spiritu et ambulare. Hoc enim ordo exigit, ratio exposcit, nos fere nusquam tacemus, ut qui vult esse vere spiritualis, prius sit vita, moribus, virtutibus, ut esse possit aliquando meditatione, sensu, doctrina; prius sit affectione, quam ratione. Ideo ait: Si spiritu vivitis, spiritu et ambulate. In montem ergo sequuntur discipuli alacres, prompti, spiritu ferventes; descendentem inde et gravis turba praestolatur. Dominus meus Jesus omnium Salvator, omnibus omnia sic efficitur, ut humilibus humilior, excelsis superior ubique inveniatur, sic se inclinanas, ut in adulterio deprehensam animam, et a daemonibus accusatam liberet, quatenus digito scribat in terra, ipse, digito Dei formatus, terra de terra, propter terram: sic se ergiens, ut ascendat etiam super Cherubim, et bis volet super pennas ventorum, universorum videlicet supergrediens virtutes justorum et contemplationes angelorum. Quis enim in nubibus aequabitur Domino, similis erit Deo in filiis Dei? Ipsum itaque et vallem in quam descendit et planum per quod cum turba graditur, montem, in quem ascendit quandoque cum omnibus discipulis, quandoque cum paucis, quandoque solus orare Patrem, intelligo. Ipse denique totum quod Deus est existens, totum quod homo permanens: nec supra se potest ascendere, ne Deum excedet: nec infra se debet descendere, ne jumentum fiat. Isaac Cisterciensis Abbas, Sermo XII, In Dominica III Post Epiphaniam  Source: Migne PL 194.1730a-c

When Jesus had descended from the mount...1  You should mindful, brothers, in this place, where the Lord Jesus seeing the crowds went up the mountain, 2 how much this is a spiritual comparison of spiritual things, for in the spirit there is always ascent, and so the blessed Apostle exhorts: 'If you live in the spirit, walk in the spirit.' 3 Here the order is given, here reason commands, and we are rarely silent, that he who wishes to be truly spiritual, let him be so first in life, in conduct and in virtue, that he might be able to be so sometime in meditation, soul, and teaching; first let him be in love, then reason. Therefore he says, 'If you live in the spirit, walk in the spirit,' Up the mountain, therefore, the disciples swiftly followed Him, keenly, with fervent spirits, and from there He descended to the burdensome crowd that tarried. My Lord Jesus Christ, Saviour of all, so He does all things for all, being more humble than the humble, superior to the exalted wherever found; so He inclines that the soul is not caught in adultery but he frees her accused by demons, as much as he writes with a finger in the earth, He who with the finger of God fashioned, earth from earth, on account of earth, 4 and so He, lifting Himself up, ascends over the Cherubim, and doubly flies upon the wings of the wind, 5 exceeding the virtues of all the righteous and the contemplations of angels. For who in the clouds is equal to the Lord? Who is similar to him among the sons of God? 6 Thus I understand that valley into which He descended and the plain on which He walked with the crowd, and the mount which he ascended, with all the disciples, and also with a few, and also when he alone prayed to the Father. He, then, being all that God is, and all that man is remaining, neither beyond Himself is able to ascend, lest He exceed God, nor beneath Himself can He descend, lest He be a beast. Isaac of Stella, from Sermon 12, On The Third Sunday After The Epiphany 1 Mt 8.1 2 Mt 5.1 3 Gal 5.25 4 Jn 8.3-11 5 Ps 17.11 6 Ps 87. 7