Quomodo Christus ponitur in signum populorum
by Richard of Saint Victor
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://migne.app/pl/196/quomodo-christus-ponitur-in-signum-populorum/
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## How Christ Is Set as a Sign to the Peoples

[0523B] *The root of Jesse, who stands as a sign to the peoples [n: (Isa. XI)]*. Who this is that stands as a sign to the peoples, whom the nations shall entreat, and whose sepulchre is indeed already glorious, none of you is ignorant. For who else is there whose sepulchre is glorious, save him who had to suffer and to rise again from the dead, and so to enter into his glory [n: (Luc. XXIV)], that in this manner his sepulchre might be made glorious? Because in dying he despoiled the author of death, because his death overcame death, because rising from the dead he dies no more, and death shall no longer have dominion over him [n: (Rom. VI)] — this made his sepulchre glorious. For so great a glory of the buried One rendered his sepulchre glorious. Or who else is there whom the nations entreat, save him of whom it is written: *And all kings shall adore him, [0523C] all nations shall serve him [n: (Psal. LXXI)]*. Who has written upon his garment and upon his thigh: King of kings and Lord of lords! [n: (Apoc. XVI.)] And justly indeed do all nations serve him or entreat him, to whom is given all power in heaven and on earth [n: (Matth. XXVIII)], so much so that deservedly every knee is bowed to him, of things heavenly, earthly, and infernal [n: (Philip. II)]. And what other do we say stands as a sign to the peoples, save him who is set for the ruin and for the resurrection of many, and for a sign that shall be contradicted? [n: (Luc. II.)] Of this sign it is again written:

*He will lift up a sign to the nations, and will gather the fugitives of Israel, and will collect the dispersed of Judah from the four quarters of the earth [n: (Isa. XI)]*. You hear the manner of the lifting up when you read: *As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, [0523D] so must the Son of man be lifted up [n: (Joan. III)]*. You hear the manner; attend also to the fruit. The serpent is lifted on high, to give a remedy to those who look upon it. A serpent of bronze is lifted up, which would have no venom, but would destroy it; which would not bring in venom, but take it away. By such a sign, in truth, our first parents, and by such a sign, in truth, all their posterity had need, that there might be something upon which they might look with devotion, and might escape the sentence of death which from of old they had contracted from the venom of the serpent's hissing, and which they cease not daily to contract. Would that the Jews, would that our Judaizers, might attend and understand, might reconsider and think again what this sign is, how sublime, how notable it must be, if it is set for this: that it may be able to gather the fugitives of Israel and the dispersed [0524B] of Judah from the four quarters of the earth! Truly it must be sublime, that it may be able to lie open to the sight of all; otherwise they will not even be able to know whither they ought to run. Truly it must be notable, and altogether wonderful, whereby it may be able, by the novelty of a kind of miracle, to turn the gaze of all upon itself, and to draw the concourse of all from every side into admiration of it. Will this sign perhaps be lifted up upon a great and high mountain, that so it may lie open to the sight of all? But where, I ask, can a mountain of such magnitude be found that could be seen by all, and from every part of the earth? Or will perhaps the mountain of the house of the Lord be raised for this very purpose above the top of the mountains? But if it is so, then that mountain, whatever it is, must reach — nay, must transcend — the height of the clouds. [0524C] If it is altogether so, deservedly does the Prophet ask, and say: *Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? [n: (Psal. XXIII.)]* But if this sign of which we speak be raised even unto heaven, will it even so be able to lie open to the sight of all, unless it be conspicuous by some singular novelty of wondrous brightness? I dare to say it: unless this sign be more notable, more lofty, and more resplendent than the light of this sun, in no way will it seem able, as has been said, to provoke the concourse of all into admiration of it. Will the Lord, then, make something new upon the earth? A new sun, perhaps, which might be able to enlighten every man coming into this world, so that he who stands as a sign to the peoples might truly be able to say: [0524D] *I am the light of the world? [n: (Joan VIII.)]* See whether perhaps this light be that light which he wished to designate who said: *To those dwelling in the region of the shadow of death, a light has arisen for them [n: (Isa. IX)]*. A good light, and truly to be desired, if it truly drives out — I will not say the darkness of night, I will not say the shadow of gloom, but the shadow of death. Certainly that visible light of this sun's brightness is not wont to do any such thing, nor is it able to do anything like it. Truly it was necessary for those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death to receive such a sign; truly it was worthy of the Father of mercies to give such a sign as might even, little by little, drive out the shadow of death from our borders, so that at length no trace of death should remain among us, so much so that he who stands as a sign to the peoples might truly be able to say: [0525A] *O death, I will be thy death! [n: (Ose. XIII.)]* But what, I ask, will that light be which can drive out the darkness of death, save that which the Prophet describes when he says: *There has arisen in darkness a light for the upright: the merciful, and the compassionate, and the just [n: (Psal. CXI)]*. Of the rising of this light you read in another place: *Truth has arisen from the earth [n: (Psal. LXXXIV)]*. From the earth, indeed, of our humanity, from the propagation of him to whom it was said: *Earth thou art, and unto earth thou shalt go [n: (Gen. III)]*, is born the light for the upright, the Word and the Wisdom of the Father. There is born, I say, truth from the earth: Christ the power of God, Christ the wisdom of God, and so forth — wisdom from human flesh. God, the Son of God, from the Virgin Mary, that he might be made Emmanuel for us, and be God with us: *Behold,* he says, *a virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel [n: (Isa. VII)]* — this is [0525B] that sign which the Lord promised and displayed. O singular sign, O desirable sign, and to which all ought worthily to run together with equal desire — a sign truly wonderful, and such as it befitted the Lord of majesty to give! *Therefore,* he says, *the Lord himself will give you a sign [n: (ibid.)]*: this assuredly is the sign, this without any contradiction, which can truly gather the true Israelites from the four quarters of the earth, and can gather into one the true sons of God who were dispersed. For this, indeed, the sign is given, and for this, indeed, this sign is raised up — first upon the gibbet, afterward into heaven; first upon the gibbet of the cross, afterward to the right hand of the Father — and there is a faithful witness of this thing: *Behold,* he says, *I see the heavens opened, and Jesus standing [0525C] at the right hand of the power of God [n: (Act. VII)]*. Behold where, even to this day, our Emmanuel, the root of Jesse, is set up as a sign, and stands as a sign to the peoples. But of what sort, they say, is the sign, or a sign of what thing? Hear, O Jew: does this not seem to you a sign great enough, and wonderful enough — that a virgin shall conceive, a virgin shall bear, and such a son as shall be God with us? And what is more wonderful than this sign? But of what thing, you say? Certainly of that great promise which the prophet a little above mystically designated, when, prophesying of her who had been left in the midst of the land, he said: *A holy seed shall be that which shall stand in her [n: (Isa VI)]*. Truly the sign of a great, truly of a wondrous thing the seed which the virgin conceived, which the virgin bore, ought to have been and could be. Deservedly was that a sign of holiness — the seed which [0525D] took not away the virgin's holiness, but increased it, which diminished not the mother's integrity, but consecrated it: *A holy seed,* he says, *shall be that which shall stand in her.* Of this future holiness, indeed, the manner is expressed to us by him who stands as a sign to the peoples: *In the resurrection,* he says, *they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the angels of God [n: (Matth. XXII)]*. If, then, they are to be of angelic holiness, why not also of angelic happiness? But how are they like the angels in heaven, if like in the one, unlike in the other? But the principle of equity does not allow those who are alike in sanctity to be unlike in glory. If they are to be such, deservedly will they be for a showing forth. And they shall be for a showing forth like the terebinth, and like the oak that spreads out its branches. We know that trees of this kind are wont to recover the grace of the leaves and of the greenness which they lose [0526A] in winter, when summer comes on. There is given to us, then, a hope of entire restoration in all the things we have lost during the time of this winter. Whatever the blast of the north wind has carried off, we shall wholly recover in the summer of the regeneration to come. Whatever the hissing of the serpent has infected, the seed of the woman will wholly reform. Of which the Lord said to the serpent: *I will put enmities,* he says, *between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed [n: (Gen. III)]*. In short, whatever we have lost through the prompting of the devil, the grace of our Mediator will wholly restore to us, so much so that it is a wonder to all how out of so great misery man could rise up to so great glory: *He shall be,* he says, *for a showing forth, like the terebinth, and like the oak that spreads out its branches [n: (Isa. VI)]*. And so man shall be [0526B] for a showing forth to the angels, and for a display before the Lord of the angels. For he will glory before his Father, in the presence of his angels, in our merits and in the fruit of his labor. Do you wish to hear the manner of the showing forth? *Everyone who shall confess me before men, I too will confess him before my Father [n: (Matth. X)]*. A great honor. And he shall be for a showing forth like the oak that spreads out its branches. Behold whence the showing forth: from the spreading of the branches. The spreading of branches is the enlargement of merits. Be enlarged, brethren, in charity, that she may be worthy who ought to be in the showing forth. Great is the enlargement of charity, which extends itself even to enemies, which encloses all in the bosom of its breadth. Great is the enlargement of charity: to count all things as dung, that [0526C] you may gain Christ. Great is the enlargement of charity: that each of us deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Christ. These, in truth, these assuredly are the things which not undeservedly will be for a showing forth. Let us, then, be much enlarged in work, that we may deserve to be much enlarged in reward. Indeed, according to the enlargement of merits, there will be also the enlargement of rewards. What ought man not to do, that he may be able to recover that which he had already lost in paradise? But what do we say of this, that when the summer season draws on, oaks are wont to extend their branches farther, to spread them more manifoldly, to strengthen them more firmly, so that they are both more in number and greater in height and stronger in strength? Ought not we too, from this promise of the Lord, to expect something of the sort? Without [0526D] doubt. For far more ample and more perfect will be what we shall recover in heaven than what we lost in paradise. In paradise there was the power to sin and the power not to sin; in heaven it will be to be wholly unable to sin. In paradise there was the power to die and the power not to die; in heaven it will be never to be able to die. In paradise there was the power to be assailed, and the power not to be overcome; in heaven it will be not even to be able to be assailed. Behold how man at length, at some time, extends the branches of all honor and grace beyond the measure of his first possibility. How he grows beyond the rights of his ancient condition by the magnitude of his dignity. Who would ever believe this? Who could have believed that rottenness and a worm would one day rise up from so great ignominy to so great glory, unless it received a sign, and one indeed [0527A] such as might worthily suffice for the mystery of so great a condescension? For the certainty, then, of so great a promise [0528A] the prophet sets under it a sign, and one that can truly suffice for the assurance of our faith.
