Flesh, pride, and divine justice meet in striking contrast across today’s readings. In The Pastor, Hermas unfolds the parable of the vineyard and explains why the Son appears in the form of a slave: the flesh chosen by God, indwelt by the pre-existent Spirit, remained pure, cooperated with the Spirit, and is therefore rewarded — and the warning follows immediately: keep the flesh and the Spirit undefiled, for the two belong together. Augustine then confesses how pride drove him in the opposite direction — imagining bodily forms, accusing flesh while being flesh, and insisting that God must be mutable rather than admit his own wandering will. He longed to hear the Bridegroom’s voice but was driven away by the noise of his own errors. Aquinas finally clarifies what Augustine could not yet see clearly: in God there is no disorder, no mutati ...