Sermons & Letters 33

CHAPTER I. — The sustenance, beloved, and the wisdom of the Christian faith is the love of God and the love of neighbour; nor does he lack any office of piety whose zeal is to worship the Lord and to help his fellow-servant. But the twofold unity of these affections is indeed to be exercised at all times, and to be increased with profit, but now to be dilated with ampler increases, so that the fast of forty days, which is the forerunner of the paschal feast, may move the inner hearing of the heart after the likeness of that voice by which, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, John the Baptist said: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths' (Isa. 40:3; Matt. 3:3).

For whether we consider that part of the people which, having long since entered the contests of the evangelical struggle, presses on unceasingly through the course of the spiritual stadium toward the palm; or that part which, conscious of deadly sins, hastens through the aid of reconciliation toward pardon; or that part which, to be regenerated by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, desires to be stripped of the oldness of Adam and clothed with the newness of Christ — to all is fitly and usefully said: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths.' But what are the ways of the Lord, and what His paths, let us learn from the exhortation of that same preacher, who, promising the works and gifts of divine grace, unlocked the effects of things to come, adding the sentence of the prophetic word, and saying:

'Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways plain' (Isa. 40:4). The valley therefore indicates the meekness of the humble, the mountain and hill the self-exaltation of the proud. But because, as Truth says, 'He who humbles himself shall be exalted, and he who exalts himself shall be humbled' (Luke 14:11; 18:14), rightly is both a filling announced to the valleys and a lowering to the mountains: so that the plains may have nothing of stumbling, and the straight ways nothing of crookedness. For although narrow and steep is the way that leads to life (Matt. 7:14), yet he does not walk it with difficulty whom truth confirms and piety;

nor does he lack delight in walking, whose journey the rock of the virtues makes solid, not the sinking sand of the vices. CHAPTER II. — But that we may more fully know by what kind of ways we are to press toward the promises of God, let us hear what the prophet David teaches: 'All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth' (Ps. 25:10). The pattern therefore of the conversation of the faithful comes from the example of the divine works; and deservedly does God demand imitation of Himself from those whom He made after His own image and likeness. Of whose glory we shall in no wise attain the dignity except if in us both mercy and truth be found. For by those means through which the Saviour came to save, by these must the saved hasten toward the Saviour:

that both the mercy of God may make us merciful, and truth make us truthful. Just as therefore the just mind walks by the way of truth, so the kindly mind walks by the way of mercy. Nor yet are these journeys ever divided, as though each of these goods were sought by different tracks, and it were one thing to grow in mercy, another to advance in truth. He is not merciful who is a stranger to truth; nor is he capable of justice who is foreign to piety. He uses neither virtue who is not enriched by both. And then is the name true and true the fruit of both, when the connexion of the two remains indissoluble.

For where they are not together, they are together lacking, because they are mutually both aid and light to each other, until the reward of vision fulfil the desire of belief, and there be seen and loved unchangeably that which now is neither loved without faith, nor believed without love. Since therefore, as the Apostle says, 'In Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which works through love' (Gal. 5:6), let us at once and conjointly be zealous both for charity and for faith. For this is a certain most effective flight of twin wings, by which the purity of the mind is lifted up to earn and to see God, lest it be pressed down by the burden of carnal cares. For he who says, 'Without faith it is impossible to please God' (Heb. 11:6);

The same Apostle says: 'If I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not charity, I am nothing' (1 Cor. 13:2). Therefore, that the divine mysteries of the paschal sacraments may be received with worthy service, let these two things — in which the teaching of all the commandments comes together — be sought after with the more earnest zeal, so that by them each and every one of the faithful may be made both a sacrifice to God and a temple. Let faith press on to hope for what it believes; let charity press on to make favourable the One whom it loves: both belong to the one who loves, both to the one who believes. And to whatever measure of understanding we are made subject, let us be joined to it by the imitation of piety. It is the voice of God: 'Be holy, for I am holy' (Lev. 11:44; 20:7); and it is the voice of the Lord:

'Be merciful, even as your Father also is merciful' (Luke 6:36). And lest we doubt that what is bestowed upon the needy is credited to God, let us hear what commerce the dispensers of alms enter into, when the Lord tells what the form of His judgment shall be, when He shall say to those gathered at His right hand: 'Come, blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me' (Matt. 25:34-36). But when the just ask when or in what manner they could have rendered these things, the King in answer shall say to them:

'Amen, amen I say to you, inasmuch as you have done these things to one of the least of my brethren, you have done it unto me' (Matt. 25:40). What is more fruitful than this work? What is happier than this kindness? Surely it would not be defrauded of its praise even if it were rendered by man to man in aid merely for the sake of the fellowship of nature itself. But because whatever does not proceed from the fount of faith does not attain to eternal rewards, the condition of heavenly works is one thing, of earthly another. Worldly benevolence has its end in those whom it aids; Christian piety passes over into its own Author; we are said to be kind toward Him whom we confess to be at work within us, since the Lord says: 'So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works,'

and glorify your Father who is in heaven' (Matt. 5:16). Rejoice therefore, O mind of the faithful, and, recognizing your glory in the glory of Him who works within you, grow warm with the paschal festivity itself. For it is your duty to be ready to suffer together with Him who suffered for all: since the holy life of the saints is never a stranger to the cross of Christ, so long as it fastens the desires of the flesh with the nail of continence, and slays the desires of the body by the power of the indwelling Spirit. It is difficult for anyone not to have within himself something to put to death. Wrath must be extinguished, pride must be mortified, luxury must be destroyed, and the root of avarice too must be pursued the more deeply:

so that the seed of all evils may be cut out, if their kindling can be plucked up. But since the soul must be cultivated with this diligence unceasingly, and the body is to be so used that the lower nature may render to its ruler the service it needs, now above all the flesh must be governed with the reins of continence, and whatever opposes lofty desires must be cut away. For while by fitting purifications each substance is prepared to celebrate the Lord's Pasch, a habit is nourished that will profit at every time.

Let harsh authority over subordinates subside, let vengeance for sin cease, and let the guilty of crimes rejoice that they have come to these days, in which, under holy and pious princes, even the severity of public punishments is relaxed. Let hatreds be abolished, let feuds fail, let the affection of peace and benevolence be multiplied, and let him who could be defiled by malice strive to be cleansed by kindness. For the judgment of God, as it will be violent to the harsh, so will it be gentle to the merciful; and when those on the left have been thrust into the fire of Gehenna for their inhumanity, the eternal blessedness of the heavenly kingdom shall receive those on the right, praised for the piety of their almsgiving (Matt. 25:34, 42).

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. We know, beloved, that this is the fervour of your devotion, that in the fasts which precede the Lord's Pasch many of you anticipate our exhortations. But because the usefulness of continence is necessary not only for the chastisement of the flesh, but also for the purity of the mind, we desire your observance to be so perfect that, just as you cut off the pleasures of the flesh from its desires, so you may shut out errors from the perceptions of the soul.

For at the paschal feast, in which all the sacraments of our religion come together, he prepares himself with a true and reasonable purification whose heart is defiled by no unbelief. For since the Apostle says: 'Whatever is not of faith is sin' (Rom. 14:23), the fasts of those whom the father of lies deceives with his illusions (John 8:44) will be useless and vain, nor does the true flesh of Christ feed them. As therefore we must serve the divine commands and sound doctrine with our whole heart, so with all prudence we must abstain from impious perceptions. For then does the mind keep a holy and spiritual fast, when it casts aside the foods of error and the poisons of falsehood;

which the crafty and cunning enemy now presses in the more insidiously, at the very time when, by the recurrence of the venerable festival, the whole Church is generally admonished to understand the mysteries of her own salvation. For he is the true confessor and worshipper of Christ's resurrection who is neither confounded by His Passion nor deceived concerning His bodily nativity. For certain men, ashamed of the Gospel of Christ's cross, in order the more boldly to empty out the suffering He undertook for the redemption of the world, denied the very nature of true flesh in the Lord, not understanding that the impassible and immutable Godhead of God the Word was so inclined toward human salvation that it both powerfully did not lose what was its own, and mercifully took up what was ours.

There is therefore one person of the twofold form in Christ, and the Son of God, the same also the son of man, is one Lord, receiving the condition of a servant by the counsel of piety, not incurring it by the law of necessity: for by power He was made humble, by power passible, by power mortal; that, for the destruction of the dominion of sin and death, the substance of weakness might be capable of suffering, and the nature of power might lose nothing of its glory. Since therefore, beloved, when reading or hearing the Gospel you recognize certain things in our Lord Jesus Christ subject to injuries, certain things illustrious with miracles, so that in the same one now human things appear, now divine things shine forth;

do not ascribe any of these to falsehood, as though in Christ there were either humanity alone or divinity alone; but believe both faithfully, adore both humbly: so that in the unity of the Word and the flesh there may be no division, nor, because divine signs were manifest in Jesus, may the bodily evidences seem false. True and abundant in Him are the testimonies of both natures, converging to this end out of the depth of the divine counsel: that, since the inviolable Word is not separated from the passible flesh, both the Godhead of the flesh and the flesh of the Godhead may be understood as sharing in all things.

Let the Christian mind therefore, fleeing falsehood, a disciple of truth, make faithful use of the Gospel history, and let it discern the things visibly done through the Lord — as though itself gathered together with the apostles — now by spiritual understanding, now by bodily sight. Grant to man that a boy is born of a woman; grant to God that the mother's virginity is injured neither by conception nor by birth. Recognize the form of a servant wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger; but confess the form of the Lord announced by angels, declared by the elements, adored by the Magi. Understand as human that He did not decline the wedding feast; approve as divine that He turned water into wine (John 2:9). Let our affection be made known to you in that He weeps for a dead friend;

let the divine power be felt, when the same man, now already stinking after a four-day burial, is quickened and raised up by the sole command of a word (John 11:39-43). To make clay from spittle and earth was a work of the body (John 9:6); but that the eyes of the blind man, smeared with it thence, were enlightened, is without doubt of that power which had reserved, for the manifestation of its own glory, what it had not granted to the beginnings of nature. It belongs to a true man to relieve bodily weariness by the rest of sleep (Mark 4:38); but it belongs to the true God to check the force of raging storms by the rebuke of a command. To set food before the hungry (John 6) is of human kindness and of a sociable spirit;

but to satisfy five thousand men, besides women and children, with five loaves and two fishes — who would dare to deny that this is a work of the Godhead? which, with the offices of true flesh cooperating with it, showed both that it was in man and that man was in it: because the wounds of ancient origin could not be healed in human nature, unless, God the Word taking flesh to Himself from the womb of the Virgin, in one and the same person both flesh and Word were born together.

Keeping this faith of the Lord's incarnation, beloved — through which the whole Church is the body of Christ — with unshaken heart, fast from all the lies of the heretics, and believe that the works of mercy will thus profit you, and that the purity of continence is thus fruitfully to be held, if your minds have grown foul with no contamination of perverse opinions. Cast away the arguments of worldly wisdom, hateful to the Lord, through which no one has been able to arrive at the knowledge of truth, and hold this fixed in your soul which you say in the Creed. Believe the Son of God to be co-eternal with the Father, through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made (John 1:3), and also, according to the flesh, begotten at the end of the ages. Believe this same One,

bodily crucified, dead, raised up, and exalted above the heights of the heavenly dominions, set at the right hand of the Father, and about to come in the same flesh in which He ascended, to judge the living and the dead. For this the Apostle preaches to all the faithful, saying: 'If you are risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God; savour the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life shall appear, then you also shall appear with Him in glory' (Col. 3:1-4). Having therefore, beloved, the confidence of so great a promise, be heavenly not only in hope but also in your manner of life.

And although at every time we must strive for the sanctification of both mind and body, yet now especially, in these forty days of fasting, adorn yourselves with more careful works of piety, not only in the distribution of alms, which have a great effect of amendment, but also in remitting offences and relaxing the debts of sins: that the condition which God has set between Himself and man may not resist those who pray. For when, according to the Lord's teaching, we say: 'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors' (Matt. 6:12), we ought to fulfil with our whole heart what we say. For then will that be wholly done which we ask in what follows, that we be not led into temptation, and be delivered from all evils:

through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.