Page:Ninety-nine homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the epistles and gospels for forty-nine Sundays of the Christian year (IA ninetyninehomili00thom).pdf/55

 first, Ps. xxvi. 8, “ Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth.” Of the second, Ps. cxii. 3 “ Wealth and riches shall be in His house.” Of the third, 2 Cor. v. 1, “ An house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

V. On the fifth head is to be noted the abundance of the “ barn ”—it is full of corn and wine and oil. (1) Corn is the joy of the vision of the Son—Ps. lxxxi. 16, “ He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat;" John xii. 24, “ Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die.” (2) Wine is the joy of the vision of the Father— Ps. civ. 15, “Wine that maketh glad the heart of man.” (3) Oil, the joy of the vision of the Holy Spirit—Ps. xlv. 7, “ Thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” The “ oil of gladness ” is God the Holy Ghost. Of these three, 2 Chron. xi. 11, “Store of victual and of oil and wine.” Gen. xxvii. 28, “ God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.”

THE Apostle sets before us two things in this Epistle. Firstly, he exhorts us to run—“ run.” Secondly, he points out the end of running—“that ye may obtain.” I. On the first head it is to be noted that the course to be run is threefold. (1) The first is the course of nature—Job ix. 25, “ My days are swifter than a post;" Jer. xxiii. 10, “Their course is evil1 Cor. ix. 26, “I therefore run not as uncertainly.” The course of nature is threefold, for naturally the creature runs in a threefold way. Firstly, they run in serving men—3 Esd. iv. 34, “ Swift is the sun in his course,” for it travels in order that it may serve man. Secondly, in punishing the wicked—Wisd. v. 25, “ The water of the sea shall rage against them, and the rivers shall run together in a terrible manner: a mighty wind shall