Sermons & Letters 29

CHAPTER I. — The cause and reason of today's solemnity, dearly beloved, both the Gospel narrative and the custom of observance have often made plain to you; nor is it necessary now to repeat those things which were done among the human beginnings of our Savior, so as to discourse of the splendor of the new star, of the magi and the gifts of the magi, of the savagery of Herod, and of the slaughter of the infants; since, as you know, both in the brightness of the star the grace of God, and in the three men the calling of the Gentiles, and in the impious king the cruelty of the pagans, and in the killing of the infants the form of all the martyrs, went before.

But because on this most sacred day the office of the priestly sermon must be rendered to your expectation, let us strive, as we can with the help of the Spirit of God, to arrive by the paths of understanding at this: that we may recognize the mystery of the present feast to pertain to the times of all the faithful; nor is that in any way to be held unusual, which in the ordering of the dispensation is adored as ancient. CHAPTER II. — Although therefore every Christian soul ought to feel nothing unworthy concerning the majesty of the Son of God, and, the rudiments of beginning faith being transcended, each one ought to advance to loftier things, yet it is not necessary that the weakness of the human mind should tremble at the very fellowship of our nature, while Christ took up true man;

and it need not with difficulty come, through corporeal beginnings or increments, to the acknowledgment of the Godhead which is one with the Father. But when amid darkening thoughts the ray of the supernal light has shone forth, let the splendor of truth break off the hesitating delays of faith: so that the heart, free and released from visible things, may follow the light of understanding as a guiding star: because, as the Apostle says, 'the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father' (Phil. ii, 11); so that him whom it venerated lying humbly in the cradle, it may without distrust adore reigning with the Father.

But this manifestation, dearly beloved, which dissolves the mists of hesitating souls, and so makes known the Son of God that from this — that the same is also the son of man — they may suffer no obstacle, pertains to the dignity of the present feast; and the true infancy of the Savior is a declaration of the Godhead, when the perception of the flesh is transferred from human things to divine; so that the signs of powers may raise up those whom the experiences of infirmities cast down: because both our nature and its cause needed such help, so that humility could not restore the human race without majesty, nor majesty without humility. CHAPTER III. — But now, when in the progress of the individual faithful the keeping of the divine commandments shines forth, and there is fulfilled what was said:

'So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven' (Matt. v, 16): where would he not understand the Godhead to be present, when he sees true power appear? Which surely is nothing without God, nor does it possess the property of the Godhead, unless it be quickened by the Spirit of its author. For, since the Lord says to his disciples, 'Without me you can do nothing' (John xv, 5), there is no doubt that the man doing good things has from God both the effect of the work and the beginning of the will. Hence also the Apostle, most abundant exhorter of the faithful, says: 'With fear and trembling work out your salvation:'

'For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, according to good will' (Phil. ii, 12-13). And this is to the saints a cause of dreading and fearing, lest, elated by the very works of piety, they be forsaken by the help of grace and remain in the weakness of nature. But whoever desires to prove whether God dwells in him, of whom it is said: 'God is wonderful in his saints' (Ps. lxvii, 36), let him with sincere examination discuss the interior parts of his heart, and shrewdly inquire with what humility he resists pride, with what benevolence he struggles against envy, how he is not captured by the tongues of flatterers, and how he delights in the goods of others; whether for evil he does not desire to render evil.

and would rather forget injuries unavenged, than lose the image and likeness of his Creator, who, inciting all to the knowledge of himself by his general gifts, 'rains upon the just and the unjust, and makes his sun to rise upon the good and the evil' (Matt. v, 45). CHAPTER IV. — And lest the inspection of anxious discernment labor in many things, let him inquire in the secret places of his mind for charity itself, the very mother of all virtues, and if he find it intent with his whole heart upon the love of God and neighbor, so that he wishes the same to be granted even to his enemies which he desires to be bestowed upon himself; whoever is of this kind, let him not doubt that God is both his ruler and his indweller: whom he receives the more magnificently, the more he glories not in himself, but in the Lord (1 Cor.

i, 31): since to those to whom it is said, 'The kingdom of God is within you' (Luke xvii, 21), do nothing except by the Spirit of him by whose command they are ruled. Knowing therefore, dearly beloved, that 'charity is God' (1 John iv, 16), who 'works all things in all' (1 Cor. xii, 6), pursue charity, so that into one affection of chaste love the hearts of all the faithful may run together. Let not passing and vain things occupy us; let us tend with constant desire toward those things which are to abide forever. For the mystery of the present feast ought to be perpetual in us; which surely will be celebrated without end, if in all our acts the Lord Jesus Christ appears: who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.

CHAPTER I. — The people of the Hebrews of old and all the tribes of Israel, when on account of the offenses of their sins they were oppressed by the grievous dominion of the Philistines, in order that they might be able to overcome their enemies, as sacred history makes plain, restored the powers of soul and body by imposing on themselves a fast. For they had understood that they had deserved that hard and wretched subjection by their neglect of the commandments of God and by the corruption of their morals, and that in vain they contended with arms, unless they had first fought against their vices. Abstaining therefore from food and drink, they applied to themselves the censure of severe chastisement; and that they might conquer their enemies, they first conquered in themselves the enticement of gluttony.

And it came to pass in this manner that the fierce adversaries and grievous lords yielded to those hungering, whom they had subjugated when full. And we therefore, dearly beloved, set amid many adversities and battles, if we desire to use similar remedies, let us be cured by similar observance. For our cause is well-nigh the same as theirs was: since, just as they were assailed by carnal adversaries, so also we are assailed especially by spiritual enemies. If these are conquered by the correction of morals granted to us through the grace of God, then the strength of our bodily enemies also will succumb; and by our amendment they will be weakened, whom not their own merits but our transgressions made grievous to us. CHAPTER II.

— Wherefore, dearly beloved, that we may be able to overcome all our enemies, let us seek the divine help through the observance of the heavenly commandments, knowing that we cannot otherwise prevail against our adversaries, unless we prevail also against ourselves. For within our very selves there are many conflicts, and 'the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh' (Gal. v, 17). In this dissension, if the desires of the body prove stronger, the soul will basely lose its own dignity, and it will be most ruinous for it to serve that which it ought to command. But if the mind, subject to its ruler and delighted with the supernal gifts, treads down the incentives of earthly pleasure, and does not suffer sin to reign in its mortal body (Rom.

vi, 12), reason will hold a most well-ordered sovereignty, and no illusion of the spiritual wickednesses will overthrow its fortifications: because THEN is there true peace for a man and true liberty, when both the flesh is ruled with the soul as judge, and the soul is governed with God as president.

This preparation, dearly beloved, although it may be undertaken profitably at every season, so that our ever-watchful enemies may be overcome by unceasing diligence, is nevertheless now to be sought with greater care and to be furnished with more zeal, since our most subtle adversaries themselves lie in wait with a sharper cunning. For knowing that the most sacred days of Lent are at hand, in the observance of which all past slothfulness is chastised and all negligence washed away, they bend the whole force of their malice to this end: that those who are about to celebrate the Lord's holy Pasch may be found in some way defiled, and that from the very source whence they were to obtain mercy an offence may instead be contracted.

Approaching therefore, dearly beloved, the beginning of Lent, that is, a more diligent service of the Lord, since we are entering as it were upon a certain contest of holy labour, let us prepare our souls for the battles of temptation; and let us understand that the more zealous we are for our own salvation, the more fiercely we shall be assailed by our adversaries. But greater is he that is in us than he that is against us, and through him we are strong in whose power we trust: for the Lord permitted himself to be tempted by the tempter for this very reason, that by the help wherewith we are defended we might also be instructed by his example. For, as you have heard, he conquered the adversary by the testimonies of the Law, not by the might of power;

so that by this very fact he might both honour man the more and punish the adversary the more, since the enemy of the human race was overcome not, as it were, by God, but as it were by a man. He fought then, therefore, that we too might fight afterwards; he conquered, that we too might likewise conquer. For there are, dearly beloved, no works of virtue without the trials of temptations, no faith without testings, no combat without an enemy, no victory without a struggle. This life of ours is set in the midst of snares, in the midst of battles. If we would not be deceived, we must keep watch; if we would overcome, we must fight. And therefore most wise Solomon says: 'Son, when thou comest to the service of God, prepare thy soul for temptation' (Sirach 11:4).

For a man full of the wisdom of God, knowing that zeal for holiness entails the toil of combat, since he foresaw the peril of the battle, forewarned the one who would fight, lest by chance he should approach an unknown tempter and, being unprepared, be the more quickly wounded. We therefore, dearly beloved, who instructed by divine teachings knowingly approach the struggle of the present combat, let us hear the Apostle saying: 'Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in high places' (Ephesians 6:12); and let us not be ignorant that these enemies of ours regard as directed against themselves everything whatsoever that we attempt to do for our own salvation;

And by this very thing, that we desire something good, we provoke the adversary. For this is the inveterate discord between us and them, kindled by the tinder of diabolical envy: that because they fell from those good things unto which we, by God's help, are being advanced, they are tormented by our justification. If therefore we rise up, they fall; if we grow strong, they are weakened. Our remedies are their wounds, for by the healing of our wounds they are wounded. Stand therefore, dearly beloved, as the Apostle says, having your loins girt about with truth, and your feet shod in preparation.

the gospel of peace, in all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:14-17). Behold, dearly beloved, with what powerful weapons, with what invincible defences the Leader famed for many triumphs and the unconquered Master of the Christian warfare has armed us. He has girt our loins with the belt of chastity; he has shod our feet with the bonds of peace: for both the soldier ungirded is overcome by the inciter of unchastity, and the unshod is easily bitten by the serpent. He has given the shield of faith for the protection of the whole body; he has set the helmet of salvation upon the head; he has furnished the right hand with the sword, that is, with the word of truth:

so that the spiritual warrior might not only be safe from wounding, but might also be able to wound the one who resists. Trusting therefore, dearly beloved, in these arms, let us enter the contest set before us tirelessly and undaunted: that in this arena of fasting we may not be content with that end alone, namely to suppose that only abstinence from foods is to be pursued. For it is of little avail if the substance of the flesh is diminished and the fortitude of the soul is not nourished. When the outer man is somewhat afflicted, let the inner be refreshed; and when bodily fullness is withdrawn from the flesh, let the mind be strengthened with spiritual delights. Let every Christian soul examine itself, and let it sift the inner things of its heart with strict scrutiny. Let it see that no discord has clung there, that no covetousness has settled in.

Let chastity drive incontinence far off; let the light of truth dispel the darkness of hypocrisy. Let pride subside, let wrath repent, let the darts of injuries be broken, and let the tongue of detraction be bridled. Let acts of vengeance cease, and let injuries be consigned to oblivion. Finally, let every planting which the heavenly Father has not planted be rooted up (Matthew 15:13). For then are the seeds of virtues well nurtured in us, when every foreign growth is torn out from the field of our heart. If anyone therefore has so burned with desire of vengeance against another that he has either delivered him to prison or bound him in chains, let him hasten the release not only of the innocent, but even of him who seems worthy of punishment:

so that he may confidently use the rule of the Lord's Prayer, saying: 'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors' (Matthew 6:12). The Lord commends this part of the petitions with special emphasis, as though the effect of the whole prayer depended upon this condition: 'For if,' he says, 'you forgive men their sins, your Father also who is in heaven will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins' (Matthew 6:14-15).

Therefore, dearly beloved, mindful of our weakness, since we easily slip into every kind of transgression, let us by no means neglect this most excellent remedy and this most effective cure for our wounds. Let us forgive, that it may be forgiven us; let us grant the pardon which we ask; and let us not seek to be avenged, we who pray to be pardoned. Let us not pass by the groaning of the poor with a deaf ear, and let us show mercy to the needy with ready kindness, that we may deserve to find mercy in the judgment. Whoever, aided by the grace of God, directs his zeal toward this perfection, will faithfully accomplish the holy fast (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:8),

this man, a stranger to the leaven of the old malice, will come to the blessed Pasch in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and in newness of life will worthily rejoice in the sacrament of man's re-formation: through Christ our Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Although, dearly beloved, as the paschal festival draws near, the very recurrence of the appointed season itself proclaims the Lenten fast to us, nevertheless the exhortation of our own sermon must also be applied, which, with the Lord's help, may neither be useless to the slothful nor burdensome to the devout. For since the reckoning of these days demands that all our observance be increased, there is no one among you (as I trust) who does not rejoice to be spurred on to good work. For our nature, while mortality still remains, is changeable, and even if it is advanced to the very heights of every pursuit of virtue, yet it can always, just as it can have somewhere to fall back to, so also have somewhere to grow.

And this is the true righteousness of the perfect, that they never presume themselves to be perfect, lest, ceasing from the intent of a journey not yet finished, they there fall into the peril of failing, where they lay aside the appetite for advancing. Since therefore no one of us, dearly beloved, is so perfect and holy that he could not be more perfect and more holy, let us all together, without distinction of ranks, without discrimination of merits, run with holy eagerness from those things which we have attained to those which we have not yet grasped, and let us add some necessary increases to the measure of our customary practice. For he is shown to be but little religious at any other time who is not found more religious in these days.

Whence opportunely there has sounded in our ears the reading of the apostolic preaching, saying: 'Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation' (2 Corinthians 6:2). For what is more acceptable than this time, what is more wholesome than these days, in which war is declared upon vices and the progress of all virtues is increased? Always indeed, O Christian soul, must you have kept watch against the adversary of your salvation, lest any place lie open to the snares of the tempter; but now must greater caution and more anxious prudence be applied by you, when that same enemy of yours rages with sharper envy. For now in the whole world the power of his ancient dominion is taken from him, and the countless vessels of his captivity are snatched away.

The peoples of all nations and of all tongues are renouncing the most savage brigand, and no race of men is any longer found which does not resist his tyrannical laws, while throughout all the ends of the earth many thousands upon thousands are being prepared for regeneration in Christ; and as the birth of the new creature draws near, the spiritual wickedness is thrust out from those whom it possessed. Therefore the impious fury of the despoiled enemy rages, and seeks new gain because it has lost its ancient right. Untiring and ever-watchful, it lies in wait to see if it may find any sheep straying too carelessly from the sacred flocks, which it may lead through the steep slopes of pleasures and the downward paths of luxury into the lodgings of death. And so it inflames anger, nourishes hatreds, sharpens desires, mocks continence, and incites gluttony.

Whom indeed would he not dare to tempt, who did not even withhold the attempts of his fraud from our very Lord Jesus Christ? For, as the gospel history has made plain, when our Saviour, who was true God, in order also to show himself true man and to exclude the impious opinions of every error, had after a fast of forty days and nights taken upon himself the hunger of our weakness, the devil, rejoicing that he had found in him a sign of a passible and mortal nature, in order to probe the power which he feared, said: 'If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread' (Matthew 4:3).

The Almighty could indeed have done this, and it was easy that at the command of the Creator it should pass into whatever form of any kind of creature he might bid; just as, when he willed, at the wedding feast he changed water into wine (John 2:9): but it was more fitting to his saving dispositions that the cunning of that most proud enemy should be conquered by the Lord not by the power of his Deity, but by the mystery of his humility. Finally, when the devil had been put to flight and the tempter frustrated in all his arts, angels came to the Lord and ministered to him; so that in the true man and true God both the humanity might be inviolate amid deceitful questionings, and the Divinity manifest amid holy services.

Let the sons and disciples of the devil therefore be confounded, who, filled with viperous inspiration, deceive the simple, denying that in Christ each nature is truly present, while they strip either the Deity of the man or the man of the Deity, since by the twofold testimony of a single moment both falsehoods are destroyed: for by the hunger of the body a perfect humanity, and by the ministering angels a perfect Divinity, was demonstrated. Since therefore, dearly beloved, as we have been taught by the instruction of our Redeemer, man lives not by bread alone, but by every word of God (Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3);

and it is fitting that the Christian people, however great the abstinence in which they are set, should desire rather to be filled with the word of God than with bodily food, let us with ready devotion and eager faith undertake the solemn fast, not to be celebrated with barren starvation, such as both bodily weakness and the disease of avarice often impose, but with generous benevolence: namely, that we may be among those of whom Truth itself says: 'Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall be filled' (Matthew 5:6). Let our delights therefore be the works of piety, and let us be filled with those foods which nourish us unto eternity. Let us rejoice in the refreshment of the poor, whom our expenditures have satisfied.

Let us be gladdened in the clothing of those whose nakedness we have covered with necessary garments. Let the sicknesses of those lying ill, the weaknesses of the feeble, the toils of exiles, the destitution of orphans, and the sorrow of desolate widows feel our humanity: in the helping of whom there is no one who is unable to fulfil some portion of benevolence. For to no one is his income small who has a great soul; nor does the measure of compassion or of piety depend upon the extent of one's private estate. Never, even in slender means, is the wealth of good will lacking in merit. The expenditures of the rich are indeed greater, and those of the middling less; but the fruit of works does not differ, where the disposition of those who work is the same.

But in this opportunity, dearly beloved, for exercising the virtues, there are also the emblems of other crowns, which may be won by no loss to the granaries, by no diminution of money; if lasciviousness is repelled, if drunkenness is renounced, and carnal concupiscence is tamed by the laws of chastity; if hatreds pass over into love, if enmities are converted into peace, if tranquillity extinguishes wrath, if meekness remits injury, if finally the conduct both of masters and of servants is so ordered that both the power of the former is milder and the discipline of the latter more devout. By this observance, therefore, dearly beloved, the mercy of God will be obtained, and, the guilt of sins being abolished, the Pasch will be religiously and reverently celebrated.

This the most pious emperors of the Roman world also long ago guarded with holy and established observance, who in honour of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection bow down the height of their power, and, tempering the severity of their enactments, cause many guilty of many crimes to be released; that in the days in which the world is saved by the divine compassion, their own clemency too may be an emulous imitator of the heavenly goodness. Let Christian peoples therefore imitate their princes, and be moved by royal examples to domestic indulgence. For it is not right that private laws should be more austere than public ones. Let faults be remitted, let bonds be loosed, let offences be blotted out, let acts of vengeance perish:

that the sacred festival, through divine and human grace, may have all rejoicing, all innocent: through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God unto ages without end. Amen.