the suffering christ 810 mail his chest and back, a shield in hand, a sword at his side. Behold the soldier! He advances. But, suddenly, he stops. Why? “I cannot go with these; for I am not used to them” (1 Sam 17:39). Therefore, having thrown off all these things, “Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in his shepherd’s bag or wallet; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine. […] So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine, and killed him there” (1 Sam 17:40, 50). Behold the triumph! The giant has been conquered, the boy has conquered! But that boy who conquers prefigures Christ; the giant, who represents death, is conquered. For what is the staff of David, if not the Cross of Christ? What are the five stones, if not the wounds of Christ? With these weapons, He prostrated the most fierce and arrogant Goliath — death, I mean — that was insulting us all. The parent of the human race swallowed death in the forbidden apple and was, in turn, devoured by it. Indeed, it was said to him: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gen 2:17). But he, scorning the mandate of God, ate the worst apple, and in the apple [received] the worst death. And further, Paul testifies in this way, “Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned” (Rom 5:12). That terrible Goliath, which is death dreaded by all, prowled around thewhole earth. Everywhere, it was the victor; everywhere, it was the conqueror. No one dared to oppose it, because no one was able. Yet, it pursued all, and it killed all. For this reason, men are now said to be mortal, since they are subject to death.67 Finally, the new David came into the camp of men, into this world under the moon. I refer to Christ, our King and Savior, who took up the staff, the wood of the Cross, and went forth to battle against death. But what of the voracious beast [death]? Is it also sharpening its teeth? I see it, moreover, having come forth from the 67 In Latin, the similarity between mors, death, and mortalis, mortal, is clearly seen.
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