Joshua 8:15

But perhaps you may say to me: how, then, is the former people set as though fleeing? And quite consistently. For those who follow Jesus were seen to flee from the legal burdens and precepts, from the observance of the sabbath, from the circumcision of the flesh, from the slaughter of victims. But again he who has followed Christ, the perfection and fullness of the law, does not flee.

But something else also occurs to me as I consider in this place "Jesus fleeing from the face" of the army of Ai. What do you think it is that "Jesus fleeing" signified? Let us see whether perhaps there is something which we conquer by fleeing, and there is some perfect virtue in flight. Paul the Apostle teaches us, saying: "flee fornication." You see, then, that there is a certain "spirit of fornication," which we ought to flee, whoever of us wishes to remain chastely and piously and modestly in Christ. This flight, then, is the one which has salvation; this flight is of virtue; this flight confers blessedness. And not only is the spirit of fornication to be fled, but in like manner, just as it was said, "flee fornication," let us hear it said to us: flee anger, flee avarice, flee envy and spite, flee detractions and evil-speakings. And yet I know not whether anyone escapes these, I know not whether anyone gets away. Such was that army of Ai, which Jesus taught his soldiers to flee, and concerning these perhaps he commands his disciples, saying: "if they persecute you in this city, flee into another; and if in another, flee into another." For he wishes us to flee from enemies of this kind, he wishes us to be made far from evils of this kind; and if in the meanwhile we can escape the contagions of these evils by fleeing, then, seeing the devotion and the purpose of our mind, certain holy virtues — those perhaps of which the Apostle Paul says: "are they not all ministering spirits sent forth into ministry for the sake of those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?" — who perhaps are the holy angels, who, seeing us suffer the pursuit of the demons, rise up against those who pursue us and, cutting them all down from behind, slay them. For Jesus is with those who suffer pursuit, rather than with those who persecute. And rightly, because Jesus delights to be with those who "flee fornication," who flee pride, who flee deceit, and who flee falsehood. If, then, we thus understand the things which are written, the reading will perhaps seem worthy of the pen of the Holy Spirit. For what does it profit me if I know that "the king of Ai was hanged upon a double wood"? But if I know that the virtue of the cross is twofold, on which both Christ is hanged in the flesh and the devil with his army is triumphed over, from the understanding of the sacrament my soul…