III.  These things, then, the Lord did to invite us to the faith.  This faith reigneth now in the Church, which is spread throughout the whole world.  And now, He worketh greater cures, on account of which He disdained not then to exhibit those lesser ones.  For as the soul is better than the body, so is the saving health of the soul better than the health of the body.  The blind body doth not now open its eyes by a miracle of the Lord, but the blinded heart openeth its eyes to the word of the Lord.  The mortal corpse doth not now rise again, but the soul doth rise again which lay dead in a living body.  The deaf ears of the body are not now opened; but how many have the ears of their heart closed, which yet fly open at the penetrating word of God, so that they believe who did not believe, and they live well who did live evilly, and they obey who did not obey; and we say, “such a man is become a believer,” and we wonder when we hear of them whom once we had known as hardened.  Why, then, dost thou marvel at one who now believes, who is living innocently, and serving God, but because thou dost behold him seeing, whom thou hadst known to be blind; dost behold him living whom thou hast known to be dead; dost behold him hearing whom thou hadst known to be deaf?  For consider that there are those who are dead in another than the ordinary sense, of whom the Lord spoke to a certain man who delayed to follow the Lord, because he wished to bury his father; “Let the dead,” said He, “bury their dead.”  Surely these dead buriers are not dead in body; for if this were so, they could not bury dead bodies.  Yet doth He call them dead; where but in the soul within?  For as we may often see in a household, itself sound and well, the master of the same house lying dead; so in a sound body do many carry a dead soul within; and these the apostle arouses thus, “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”  It is the same who giveth sight to the blind that awakeneth the dead.  For it is with His voice that the cry is made by the apostle to the dead.  “Awake thou that sleepest.”  And the blind will be enlightened with light, when he shall have risen again.  And how many deaf men did the Lord see before His eyes, when He said, “He that hath ears to hear let him hear.”  For who was standing before Him without his bodily ears?  What other ears, then, did He seek for, but those of the inner man?

IV.  Again, what eyes did He look for when He spake to those who saw indeed, but who saw only with the eyes of the flesh?  For when Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us”:  he understood, indeed, that if the Father were shown him, it might well suffice him; when He that was equal to the Father had sufficed not?  And why did He not suffice?  Because He was not seen.  And why was He not seen?  Because the eye whereby He might be seen was not yet whole.  For this, namely, that the Lord was seen in the flesh