Joshua 3:14

Joshua son of Nun made the Jordan River stop, but only as long as the ark was in the water. As soon as the people had crossed to the other side and the ark had come through, he gave the river back its usual flow again. The bottom of the deep in the Red Sea was denuded of water when the sea was driven back to either side by the Spirit, but the duration of the marvel was the passage of the army through the deep on the dry strip. But after that the surface of the sea became one again, and the temporary gap was flooded over. So this remains a unique event which occurred in such a way that the marvel did not lose credibility because of the passage of time, since it continues to be testified to by visible traces.

Jesus therefore, my Lord and Savior, took up the command; and, if it seems good, let us compare the deeds of Moses with the command of Jesus. When Moses led the people out of the land of Egypt, there was no order among the people, no observance among the priests. They cross the water of the sea, salt water containing nothing of sweetness in itself, and "the water was a wall to them on the right and on the left." These things we know to have been done with Moses as leader. But when my Lord leads the army, let us see what things were even then being foreshadowed. "The priests go before," "the ark of the Testament is carried on the shoulders of the priests," nowhere now does the sea, nowhere does the salt wave meet us, but with my Lord Jesus as leader I come to the Jordan, and I come not in the confusion of flight nor stricken with dread, but I come with the priests carrying on their necks and shoulders the ark of the Testament of the Lord, in which the law of God and the divine writings are kept. I enter the Jordan not with furtive silence, but amid the songs of trumpets sounding something mystical and divine, that I may advance to the proclamation of the heavenly trumpet. There it was said that "the water was divided" into two parts and "one wall of water was made on the right, another on the left." But here, he "who came to break down the middle wall of the hedge made both one"; for on one part "the water was raised up," but the other part "flowed down into the sea."

To the sinner, indeed, every creature is an enemy, just as it is written concerning the Egyptians: the earth assailed them, the river assailed them, the very air assailed them, the heavens assailed them. But for the righteous, even things that seem impassable are made level and easy. The righteous man crosses the Red Sea as though "over dry land," but the Egyptian, if he wishes to cross, will be drowned, nor will the "water become a wall to him on the right hand and on the left." Even if the righteous man enters a horrible and vast wilderness, food is supplied to him from the heavens. So, then, in the Jordan too the ark of the Covenant was the leader for the people of God. The priestly and Levitical order takes its stand, and the waters, as if rendering a kind of reverence to the ministers of God, rein in their course and are heaped up into a mound, granting a passage harmless for the people of God. And do not be astonished when these things are reported to you as having been done for the former people; to you, Christian, who have passed through the streams of the Jordan by the sacrament of baptism, the divine word promises things far greater and loftier, and it pledges you a way and a passage through the very "air"; for hear Paul saying concerning the righteous: "we shall be caught up," he says, "in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we shall ever be with the Lord." There is nothing at all that the righteous man should fear; every creature serves him. Hear, finally, how God also promises to him through the prophet, saying: "if you pass through the fire, the flame shall not burn you, for I am the Lord your God." Every place, therefore, receives the righteous man, and every creature renders him the service that is due. And do not suppose that these things were done among the men of old, but that in you, who are now a hearer of these things, nothing of the kind is done: all things are fulfilled in you according to the mystical account. For you, who now desire, having lately abandoned the darkness of idolatry, to come to the hearing of the divine law, now for the first time abandon Egypt. When you were gathered into the number of the catechumens and began to obey the precepts of the Church, you passed out from the Red Sea, and, stationed at the halting-places of the desert, you devote yourself daily to hearing the law of God and to gazing upon the…