Sermons & Letters 34

In all the solemnities of the Christians, beloved, we are not ignorant that the paschal sacrament is pre-eminent, for whose worthy and fitting reception the institutions of the whole year indeed prepare us beforehand; but these present days above all demand our devotion, which we know to be adjacent to that most sublime sacrament of the divine mercy. In these days, with good reason, greater fasts were ordained by the holy apostles through the teaching of the Holy Spirit, so that we too, through common fellowship in the cross of Christ, might do something in that which He did for our sake, as the Apostle says: 'If we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified together' (Rom. 8:17; 2 Tim. 2:12).

Certain and secure is the expectation of the promised blessedness where there is participation in the Lord's Passion. There is no one, beloved, to whom by the condition of the time the fellowship of this glory is denied, as though the tranquillity of peace were empty of occasion for virtue. For the Apostle preaches, saying: 'All who wish to live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution' (2 Tim. 3:12); and therefore the tribulation of persecution is never lacking, if the observance of piety is never lacking. The Lord Himself in His exhortations says: 'He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me' (Matt. 10:38);

nor ought we to doubt that this saying pertains not only to the disciples of Christ, but to all the faithful and to the whole Church, which universally heard its salvation in those who were present. As therefore it belongs to the whole of time to live godly, so it belongs to the whole of time to bear the cross: with good reason is his own cross said to belong to each one, since it is endured by every one in his own manner and measure. The name of persecution is one, but the cause of the struggle is not one, and there is often more danger in the hidden plotter than in the open enemy. Blessed Job, taught by the alternating goods and ills of this world, godly and truly said: 'Is not the life of man upon earth a trial?' (Job 7:1).

For the faithful soul is assailed not only by the pains of the body and by torments, but even with the safe soundness of its members it is oppressed by a grievous disease, if it is softened by the pleasure of the flesh. But since the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, the rational mind is furnished with the aid of Christ's cross: nor, enticed, does it consent to harmful desires, since it is transfixed by the nail of continence and by the fear of God. To those established, then, in this purpose, enmities of unlike sorts are not lacking at the devil's instigation, and they easily break out into hatreds, whose wicked ways are made the more detestable by comparison with the upright. Iniquity has no peace with justice, drunkenness hates temperance, falsehood has no concord with truth;

pride does not love meekness, wantonness modesty, avarice generosity: and this diversity holds such stubborn conflicts that, even if outwardly it grows quiet, it does not cease to disturb the very inmost recesses of pious hearts; so that it is true that those who wish to live godly in Christ suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12); and it is true that this whole life is a trial (Job 7:1). Let each of the faithful, therefore, taught by his own experiences, be armed with the cross of Christ, that he may be held worthy of Christ.

But in this contest, beloved, for those striving toward the eternal rewards, the cunning of the devil lies in wait especially in this: that those whose probity he cannot pervert, he may undermine in their faith. For whoever is led away from the confession of truth is carried over onto another road, and his whole course is a defection, and he will be the nearer to death the farther he is from the catholic light. This too, in our own days, some suffer through their own carelessness, who, long ago cast down by the spirit of error and long ago condemned, have conceived anew their old madness — men who dare to deny the twin nature in Christ, either because the truth of the flesh was not assumed, or because the Godhead was converted into flesh;

so that either, according to Mani, He of whom there is no passion has no resurrection, or, according to Apollinaris, the very Godhead of the Word, being mutable, has itself been made passible. But to hold this, to force this upon the ears of the Christian people, what else is it than to tear up the very foundations of our religion, and to deny that the true Son of God is the true son of man? In whom alone is the restoration of the human race — testified by the Law, promised by the Prophets, and announced by all the significations of the Old Testament: so that that great sacrament of the divine mercy, which was to profit all ages, which had been signified often and long, might not be doubted to have been fulfilled at the appointed time.

Hence, although, from the time when the Word was made flesh (John 1:14), there is in Christ one person of God and man, so that in no actions is there a division of either nature; yet the evangelical truth takes care very often to profess Him whom it preaches as the Son of God to be the son of man: so that, although the things which are related are some of the humanity, some of the Godhead, both are nevertheless recorded under the name of the son of man: lest faith, about to believe our Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, to be at once God and man, should hesitate to confess either humanity in God or Godhead in man; so that both in the Word there may be true lowliness of the assumed man, and in the flesh true majesty of the assuming God.

Let it suffice, beloved, to have touched briefly on the incarnation of the Word, on occasion of the paschal feast, for which we ought to prepare the purity of our hearts, since you remember that you have several times been instructed in this. Now I urge your devotion concerning that which the time demands, that you adorn a holy and salutary fast with works of piety. And because we must labour above all for the pardon of our sins, you may promise yourselves the divine mercy as beyond doubt, if you yourselves also transfer every offence, in regard to those subject to you, over to forgiveness. For it befits the peoples of God to come together, calm and concordant, to so great a festival:

so that the severity of vengeance, which even now is relaxed in public judgments, may much more be mitigated in the hearts of Christians, because the care of the saints ought rather to be intent on this: that no one may be cold, no one hungry, no one fail from want, no one waste away with grief, that none may have anyone bound in chains, none shut up in prison. For however great the causes of offence may be, yet in the case of man against man, not so much the magnitude of the fault as the fellowship of nature is to be considered; so that by the judgment with which one judges another, he may obtain the mercy of the God who judges. For 'Blessed are the merciful, for God shall have mercy on them' (Matt. 5:7): who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.