The Pearl, Hymn 6: The Simple Faith of the Fathers

If only the memory of the fathers would breathe out from their tombs! They were very simple, being wise, and reverent, being believers. Without quibbling they searched, and came to the right path. He gave the law; the mountains melted away; fools broke through it. By unclean ravens he fed Elijah at the desert stream, and he also gave honey to Samson from a carcass. They did not sit in judgment, nor ask why one thing was unclean and another clean. [a]

And when he set aside the sabbaths, the feeble Gentiles were clothed with health. Samson took a daughter of foreigners, and there was no disputing among the righteous. The prophet too took a prostitute, and the just held their peace. He blamed the righteous, and held up their failings to view; he pitied sinners and restored them without cost, and brought low the mountains of their sins. He proved that God is not to be put on trial by men, and, as Lord of Truth, that his servants were his shadow. Whatever way his will looked, they turned their own wills that way too; and because Light was in him, their shadows were lit up. [b]

How strangely all the heretics are perplexed by simple things! For when he plainly foreshadowed this new covenant by that of the prophets, those pitiable men rose up as if from sleep, and shouted and made a disturbance. And the Way, on which the righteous kept straight on, and by their truths went forward on it, that Way these men have broken up, because they were befuddled. They left it and went out of it. Because they pried, an evil searching, yes, an evil babbling, led them astray. They saw the ray, and made it darkness so that they might grope in it. They saw the jewel, the faith, and while they pried into it, it fell and was lost. They made the pearl into a stone, so that they might stumble over it. [f]

O Gift, which fools have made a poison! The People wanted to separate your lovely root from your fountain, though they did not separate it; and false teachings also estranged your beauty from its stock. Those who wanted to estrange you were estranged by you. By you the tribes were cut off and scattered abroad from Zion, and so too were the false teachings of those who broke away. Bring yourself within the compass of our littleness, O our Gift. For if love cannot find you out on every side, it cannot be still and at rest. Make yourself small, you who are too great for all, who come to all! [h]

By this those who wrangle against our Pearl would be rebuked, because in place of love, strife has come in and dared to try to unveil your beauty. It was not engraved, since it is an offspring that cannot be interpreted. You showed your beauty among the despised, to show what you are like, you Pearl that are all faces. Those who looked at you were astonished and perplexed. The separatists split you in two, and were split in two by you, you who are of one substance throughout. They did not see your beauty, because they did not have the eye of truth in them. For the veil of prophecy, full as it was of the mysteries, was to them a covering over your glistening faces. They thought you were other than you are, O mirror of ours! And so these blind schismatics defiled your fair beauty. [i]

Since they have extolled you too much, or lowered you too much, bring them to the level. Come down, descend a little from that height of unbelief and paganism; and come up from the depth of Judaism, though you are in heaven. Let our Lord be set between God and men! Let the prophets be his heralds, as it were! Let the Just One, as his Father, rejoice! It is that Word which conquered both Jews and pagans! [j]

Come, Gift of the holy Church, stay and rest in her midst! The circumcised have troubled you, being empty babblers, and so have the false doctrines, being contentious. Blessed be he who gave you a fine company to carry you about! In the covenant of Moses your brightness is foreshadowed; in the new covenant you send it darting out; from those first, your light shines all the way to these last. Blessed be he who gave us your gleam as well as your bright rays!