Page:Ninety-nine homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the epistles and gospels for forty-nine Sundays of the Christian year (IA ninetyninehomili00thom).pdf/51



Morally, by a ship holiness of life is signified—by reason of (1) the material; (2) the form; (3) the use. A ship is made of wood, iron, oakum, and pitch.

I. On the first head, the material of the ship, it is to be noted that—(1) By wood is represented righteousness, which is the righteousness of Christ—Wisd. xiv. 7, “ Blessed is the wood by which justice cometh.” (2) By iron, on account of its solidity, fortitude is expressed—Jer. i. 18, “ Behold I have made thee this day.an inner pillar.” (3) By oakum or tow, by which wounds are bound up, is implied temperance, by which is healed the wound of fleshly lust. Of those whose wounds have not been bound up it is said, Isa. i. 6, “ Wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up.” Jud. xvi. 13, of Samson, when deceived by Delilah, and bound with new ropes, “ he broke them from off his arms like a thread.” (4) By pitch is symbolized charity, which is the bond of souls—Gen. vi. 14, “Pitch it within and without with pitch.” A holy man is formed by charity—1 Cor. xvi. 14, “Let all your things be done with charity.

II. On the second head it is to be noted that the form of the ship consists in five particulars. Firstly, the smallness of the beginning. Secondly, breadth of the middle. Thirdly, the height of the end. Fourthly, the narrowness of the bottom. Fifthly, the wideness of the top. Of (1), the smallness of its beginning, is the grief for past sins—Jer. vi. 26, “ Make thee mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation.” Of (2), the breadth of the middle is hope of the eternal joys—Horn. xii. 12, “ Rejoicing in hope.” Of (3), the height of the end is the fear of eternal punishments. The holy man grieves over the sins he commits, and he fears the punishments which he merits, but he fails not through desperation in fear and grief—S. Matt. iii. 8, “ Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance.” Of (4), the narrow-