Christ today made manifest that the apostles are salt, saying: 'You are the salt of the earth' (Matthew 5). Let no one therefore bear it impatiently if we grind the words of blessed Paul like grains of the divine salt, so that, more deeply steeped, we may be able to season the understanding of the meaning. For grains of salt leap out whole, so that, more finely broken down, they may descend into the very marrow: thus the discourse of the Apostle, when commonly read, offers a simple sense, but provides profound knowledge, and by diligent reading it is repeated so as to reach those things which we have earlier searched out. Today the blessed Apostle says: 'Be not conformed to this world' (Romans 12). Do you suppose that the blessed apostle Paul, in speaking thus, is warning us against being conformed to the figures of the heavenly bodies?
nor that we should be like the kings of the Persians, who, with a sphere now placed beneath their feet so that they may be believed to trample the very pole, falsely claim the roles of God: now, with radiate head, lest they be men, they take their seat in the figure of the sun; now, with horns set upon them, as though they grieved to be men, they make themselves effeminate into the moon; now they take on various forms as of the stars, that they may lose the figure of man, and acquire nothing of the brightness above. But although these things descend from the vanity of the world, and to the wise are as much to be fled as to be laughed at, yet the Apostle, when he says:
'Be not conformed to this world,' corrects the life of the world, reproves its morals, judges its custom, chastises its wills, condemns luxury, and drives away, puts to flight, excludes from Christian minds the whole pomp of worldly vanities. But in this way he briefly admonishes what he had more fully treated at the beginning of this Epistle, where he thus depicts the figure of the world in its vices:
'Filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness; full of envy, murders, contention, deceit, malignity; whisperers, detractors, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, proud, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, foolish, dissolute, without affection, without mercy; who, though they had known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do such things are worthy of death: and not only they who do them, but they also who consent to those who do them' (Romans 1). Brethren, you have heard the form of the world, you have learned its appearance, you have seen its figure:
if indeed a form, and not a formless monster, where by the confusion of crimes the whole face of things has been blotted out, where by the wedlock of sins the whole figure of the world has been dissolved, where by the diseases of transgressions the very image of the Creator has been taken away, where man is buried in vices, where the crimes of a corrupt body swarm, where man is the tomb of man, where in man not a man is discerned, but a corpse. The Apostle therefore forbids us to be conformable to this form, and prohibits us from being conformed to this figure; he does not permit us to be like this likeness, but reshapes us to the form of God, recalls us to the likeness of Christ, and leads the whole back to the image of the Creator, saying: 'But be reformed in the newness of your mind.'
That is, be renewed in your senses through Christ, casting off the figure of this world; and, having thrown off the whole deformity of the outworn image, bring back your form into the form of your Savior: so that the newness of your senses may shine forth in your deeds, and the heavenly man may already walk on earth in heavenly bearing. But in what manner he composes the form of the new man, let it now become plain. For as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same function; so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of another. And we have gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.
He acts, he acts so that the body which he places in heavenly activity, in the life above, in the morals of holiness, may consist in the harmony and joining of its members: that neither the foot confound the ministry of the eye, nor the eye the office of the foot with perverse swelling; but that the members of holiness be content with the gifts of the Giver, and that all the members believe to be their own whatever one member has done, since one member does not know to be less on account of the whole that is honored in the body. Hence it is that the Apostle thus depicts the functions by the members, the members by the functions: 'Whether he that teaches, in teaching; he that exhorts, in exhortation; he that gives, in simplicity; he that rules, in carefulness; he that shows mercy, in cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation;'
'hating evil, cleaving to good; in honor preferring one another; kind to one another; not slothful in carefulness; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; instant in prayer; communicating to the memories of the saints; pursuing hospitality: bless, and curse not; rejoice with them that rejoice, weep with them that weep; providing good things, not only before God, but also before men. Be not wise in your own conceits; rendering to no man evil for evil; if it be possible, as much as is in you, having peace with all men; not revenging yourselves, but give place to wrath. If your enemy be hungry, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink;'
'be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.' Above, brethren, the Apostle disclosed the members of the vices; now he has revealed to us the members of the virtues; so that the heavenly body, made solid with such members and strengthened with such sinews, may easily lay low the wars of the world and overcome the conflicts of the devil. And living thus, as the Apostle has taught, does he not lay the world low? does he not trample the flesh? does he not conquer the devil? is he not made equal to the angels? is he not greater than heaven? Plainly greater than heaven, because heaven is not moved of its own accord, does not act by will, does nothing by judgment, but always serves by necessity alone, since it was once commanded to serve; it keeps itself unpolluted not by its own strength, not by labor:
whence, since it is not liable to punishment, so likewise it does not stand toward a reward. But man, compacted from earthly baseness, while he conquers the earthly stain, while he breaks the goads of the blood, while he masters the passions of the flesh, transcends heaven, and flies up to the very seat of the Godhead: and thus he becomes greater than heaven, surpassing the angels by merits, not by nature. The apostle Paul proves this, who, while he sufficiently conquers the earth, both entered heaven, and passed through the second, and merited to reach even the third. And rightly, for he ought first to ascend the heavens who thus taught men, both by word and by example, to penetrate the heavens. He will be, he will be greater than heaven, who has lived as Paul taught;
he will be brighter than the sun, who so shines through the whole world with the rays of virtues that he allows himself to be darkened by no night of vices. He will be, he will be brighter than the moon, who tempers these shadows not with a thinned light, but drives away the whole night of the world with the full radiance of his merits: nor, like the moon, does he feel the daily losses of light, but by the perpetual lamp of his deeds persists in the brightness of the light above; nor is he, like the moon, interrupted by monthly darkness, but shall remain in the love of God continually. And if she is great, because she softens the night, how much greater is he, whose life takes on nothing of the night? Of the stars I keep silence, because as many as are the stars of heaven, so many are the saints who shine with virtues, as the Lord says:
'You are the light of the world, shine as lights in the world' (Matthew 5). Finally, heaven, sun, moon, and stars (as the Lord says) shall pass away (Matthew 24), but the just man shall remain in the brightness of God continually. I could wish, brethren, to bring forth from each single word of the Apostle its several sayings; but because a reading long dwelt upon breeds tedium in the hearer, and we cannot longer keep silence about the evangelical virtues, let it be pleasing to your charity that with a compendious discourse we have closed the present reading. And may our God himself deign to instill both what we have said and what we have left unsaid into your holy senses.