Sermons & Tracts 1 part 11/37

Always therefore, most beloved brethren, let us recall to memory with tremendous fear and trembling how great is the justice with our Lord, so that, as was said above, out of six hundred thousand only two entered the land of promise. If we are willing to ponder these things assiduously with a humble and contrite heart, striking a wholesome fear into ourselves, we make medicines for ourselves out of others' wounds, and the death of others is of profit to our salvation. The example of God's severity in the punishment of the Israelites ought to move us to repentance. A proof of eternal punishments.

Again and again I ask you, brethren, and admonish you, that we ponder with ever great fear and solicitude that severity and just judgment of God, by which that older generation was consumed in the desert for the sin of murmuring; and that we so love the mercy of God that nevertheless we fear His justice. For now He spares and is silent; but He will not always be silent. For now, out of His ineffable loving-kindness, He not only admonishes us, but even entreats us, that we may call ourselves back from deadly sins. Let us hear Him while He entreats, lest afterward He hear us not, while He judges. Let us hear Him saying through the prophet: Son, He says, have mercy on your own soul, pleasing God (Ecclus. 30:24). What will human frailty answer to these things?

God asks you to have mercy on yourself, and you will not; He pleads your cause before you, and cannot obtain it from you. And how shall He hear you supplicating on the day of judgment, when you were unwilling to hear Him entreating on your own behalf? For who would not be terrified and afraid, most beloved brethren, that for the span of forty days, the people of the Jews deserved to receive punishment for forty years in the wilderness? For if for the fault of one day the space of one year must be repaid by punishment, we who daily commit so many sins, if the remedies of almsgiving or of penance do not come to our aid, I fear that not temporal but eternal punishments may be inflicted upon us. While the wounds of sins are fresh, they are more easily healed.

And because remedies are wont to come more speedily to fresh wounds, as often as we have sinned, let us not, in deadly complacency, wait for the wounds themselves to fester, nor again pile wounds upon wounds; but running continually to the spiritual physician, let us hasten to receive health. And therefore, just as when we receive a wound in the body, if we at once seek remedies, we shall be able to recover soundness quickly, so if you delay, the injury itself must needs return to soundness more slowly, or some ugly scar remain in our body. If we do this for the body, how much more ought we to apply it to the wounds of the soul, wherein we were made to the image and likeness of God?

If we bestow such lavish care upon the body, which, whether we will or not, must be reduced to dust, how great solicitude and care ought we to devote to the salvation of the soul? So that, as the Apostle says, we may be counted worthy to appear without spot or wrinkle (Eph. 5:27) before the tribunal of the eternal Judge; lest perhaps, if we come to that wedding banquet torn by many wounds of sins and wrapped in the filthy rags of vices, there be said to us that which the heavenly Bridegroom said in the Gospel: Friend, how did you come in here, not having a wedding garment? May God turn away from us what follows. For when that sinner, hearing this, was struck dumb, the master of the house said:

Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 22:12-13). Behold what a sentence they are to receive who bear greater solicitude for the body than for the soul; and who ask more how their flesh may live for a very brief time in the sight of men, than how their soul, adorned with good works, may attain to the blessedness or likeness of the angels. These things, therefore, most beloved brethren, if, as I entreated above, we are willing to consider more attentively, we acquire remedies for ourselves in the day of need: so that when the day of judgment comes, we may not be punished with the ungodly and sinners;

but that with the just and those who fear God we may happily come to the eternal rewards, by the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON XXX. On the censers. 1. Censers, of the Scriptures. The bronze censers, said to be of the heretics. The usefulness of heresies. The ambition of clerics is cut back. Just now, most beloved brethren, when the divine reading was being read, we heard that the Lord said to Moses that he should melt down the censers in which those proud and rebellious men had offered incense, and, beaten into plates, fasten them to the altar: that they might be for a testimony against the rebellious and the proud.

The censers, says the Lord, which were sanctified in the deaths of the sinners, make them into beaten plates, and cover the altar with them: because they were offered before the Lord, and are sanctified (Num. 16:37-38). Therefore by this figure it seems to be shown that these censers, which the Scripture names as of bronze, hold the image of the divine Scripture:

upon which Scripture the heretics, placing strange fire—that is, introducing a perverse sense and an understanding foreign to God and contrary to the truth—offer to the Lord incense not sweet but detestable. These bronze censers, then, that is, the utterances of the heretics, if we bring them to the altar of God, where the divine fire is, where is the true preaching of the faith, the truth itself will shine forth the better by comparison with falsehoods. For if, to speak by way of example, I set down the sayings of the Arians or the Manichaeans or of any other heretics, and confute them by the words of truth and the testimonies of the divine Scriptures, as by the fire of the divine altar—will not their impiety appear the more evident from this very comparison?

For if the ecclesiastical teaching were simple, and not girded about by any external assertions of the doctrines of heretics, our faith could not seem so clear and so well-tested. But for this reason the assailing of gainsayers besieges Catholic doctrine, that our faith may not grow numb in idleness, but be refined by many exercises. For this reason indeed the Apostle also said: There must be heresies also, that they who are approved may be made manifest among you (1 Cor. 11:19). This is to say: The altar must be surrounded by the censers of the heretics, that the distinction of the faithful and the unfaithful may be made sure and manifest to all.

For when the ecclesiastical faith has begun to shine like gold, and its preaching has gleamed like silver tried by fire in the eyes of beholders, then with the greater shame and disgrace the voices of the heretics will grow foul with the vileness of dark base metal. Now these things we have said concerning the censers of those who were condemned, which are commanded to be fastened to the altar, so that from the comparison with the ungodly the just may appear more resplendent: at the same time so that an example might be given to posterity, lest anyone, through the presumption of a proud spirit, should usurp for himself the gift of the pontificate not given him by God; but that he should yield to that man whom neither human ambition nor corrupt favor has enrolled, nor the profane offering of gifts has substituted, but whom the consciousness of merits and the will of God has taken up.

[What therefore those proud Levites suffered, who claimed the priesthood for themselves without the Lord's command, this suffer all who shamelessly attempt to thrust themselves into the office of bishop, or presbyter, or deacon, whether by gifts or by flatteries. As those were burned in body, so these are burned up in heart.] 2. Aaron a type of Christ the mediator. What the destroying Angel feared. Moses therefore exhorts the great high priest to offer incense in the camp, and to pray for the people. For already, he says, the people has begun to be laid waste. In spirit Moses saw the things that were being done. Aaron therefore went, to offer incense for the people, and stood between the living and the dead; and the wrath of God was assuaged (Num.

16:46-48). If you have understood the order of the history, and could, so to speak, behold with your eyes the high priest standing in the midst between the living and the dead, then ascend to the loftier heights of this word, and see how the true high priest Jesus Christ, having taken up the censer of human flesh, and set upon it the fire of the altar—that magnificent soul, doubtless, with which He was born in the flesh—with incense also added, which is the immaculate Spirit, stood in the midst between the living and the dead, and did not permit death to rage any further; but, as the Apostle says, He destroyed him who had the empire of death, that is, the devil (Heb. 2:14); and whoever believes in that high priest Christ shall now not die, but live forever.

This, then, was the mystery which, being to come afterward, that angel who was laying waste the people even then feared. For he recognized the figure of the censer, and of the fire, and of the incense; and he foresaw what manner of victim was to be offered to God by Him who was to be set in the midst of the dead and the living: and them indeed the prefigured image then saved, but to us the very truth of salvation has come. For that destroying angel would not have blushed before the garments of the high priest woven of purple and wool and fine linen: but he understood these to be the garments that were to come, of the Lord and our Savior, the unique and great high priest; and to these he yielded, to whom indeed all creation was inferior. 3. Who are the living, who the dead in the day of judgment.

I think, moreover, that this same form was fulfilled not only in the first coming of our Lord and Savior, but perhaps the same will be preserved also in the second. For the Son of Man will come again; and when He comes, He will without doubt find some indeed dead, but others living. In this place not incongruously are those understood to be dead who by the excess of their crimes are proved to be dead in their sins, but living those who shall have persevered in the works of life. Nevertheless in either manner this great High Priest and our Savior shall stand also in the future in the midst of the living and the dead.

But then perhaps He is to be said to stand in the midst of the living and the dead, when He shall set the sheep indeed on the right hand, but the goats on the left, and shall say to those who shall be on the right: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the origin of the world. But to those on the left He shall say: Go into eternal fire, workers of iniquity, which my Father prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:34,41), for I know you not. And they surely are the dead, who are cast into eternal fire; but they are alive, who are sent to the kingdom. To which kingdom may the merciful Lord deign, of His loving-kindness, to lead you, to whom is honor and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON XXXI.

On the rod of Aaron. 1. The rod belongs to rulers. Every ruler of a tribe of the people holds a rod. For no one can rule the people unless he has a rod. Whence also Paul the apostle, because he was a ruler of the people, therefore said: What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity and the spirit of meekness (1 Cor. 4:21)? All the rulers of the tribes, therefore, must needs have their rods. But there is one alone, as the Scripture says, that true high priest whose figure Aaron the priest bore. His rod, therefore, budded. For as the rod of Aaron budded among the people of the Jews, so the cross of Christ flowered among the people of the Gentiles.

But since, as we have often shown, the true high priest is Christ, He alone it is whose rod of the cross not only budded, but also flowered, and brought forth all the fruits of the believing peoples. 2. An allegorical comparison of the nut with the Law. But what is this fruit which He brought forth? Almonds, it says: almonds, brethren, are nuts. This fruit is at first bitter in its outer covering, is fortified and covered by the next, and in the third feeds and nourishes him who takes it. Such, then, in the Church of Christ, is the doctrine of the Law and the Prophets. The first face of the letter is quite bitter, which enjoins the circumcision of the flesh, which commands concerning sacrifices, and the other things which are signified through the letter that kills.

All these things, as the bitter rind of the nut, I cast away. In the second place you will come to the protective shell, in which is signified either moral doctrine or the principle of continence: which things are indeed necessary for the guarding of those things that are kept within; yet they must without doubt at some time be broken and dissolved. As if, for example's sake we should say, abstinence from foods and the chastisement of the body, so long as we are in this corruptible and passible body, is without doubt necessary;

but when, upon the coming of death, it shall have been broken and dissolved, and at the time of the resurrection rendered incorruptible from corruptible, and from an animal body spiritual, then no corruption shall any longer hold dominion over the body, neither by the labor of affliction, nor by the chastisement of abstinence, but by its own quality. So then also now [the harder shell of the nut, as it were] the principle of necessary abstinence is seen, and afterward not to be sought. In the third place, however, you will find laid up [as within the nut] the secret meaning of the mysteries of the wisdom and knowledge of God, whereby holy souls are nourished and fed, not only in the present life, but also in the life to come.

For this is the pontifical fruit, concerning which it is promised to those who hunger and thirst after justice, that they shall be satisfied (Matt. 5:6). In this way, therefore, in all the Scriptures the principle of this threefold sacrament runs its course. So also Wisdom admonishes us to describe it for ourselves in our heart in threefold manner: That you may answer, it says, a word of truth to those who put questions to us (Prov. 22:20-21). For because the priestly sacrament is the rod of the nut, therefore I think that Jeremiah too, who was one of the priests of Anathoth, saw the rod of the nut tree, and prophesied concerning it the things that are written, both of the rod of the nut tree, and of the boiling cauldron or pot (Jer. 1:1,11-13):

as though He were showing through these that in the rod of the nut tree there is life, and in the boiling cauldron there is death. For life and death are set before our face: and there is life indeed, Christ, in the sacrament of the nut; but death, the devil, in the figure of the boiling cauldron. If therefore you have sinned, you will place your portion with the boiling pot: but if you have acted justly, your portion will be brought about in the rod of the nut tree together with the great high priest. But also in the Song of Songs the bride is said to go down into the garden of the nut (Cant. 6:10), where too together with the nuts she is described to have found in a certain manner an abundance of the priestly fruits. 3. The liberality of God. Attend diligently, brethren, that God promised one thing to be in the rod: and gave many. It is true, brethren:

our Lord acted according to His custom. For He always bestows greater things than He promises. And it shall be, He says, that the man whom I shall choose, his rod shall bud. This is the only thing which God promised, that the rod of him whom He shall have chosen should bud. But when it comes to the matter, that what was promised may be shown to be fulfilled, not that one thing alone which had been promised is said to have been effected; but see how many things are brought forward. For the Scripture says, Behold, the rod of Aaron budded in the house of Levi. This is that one thing without doubt which had been promised. But others also are added, and it is said: And it put forth leaves, and brought forth flowers, and budded nuts (Num. 17:5,8). Since therefore concerning the bud alone it had been promised, see how many things God bestows;

that He not only produced a bud, but also leaves; and not only leaves, but also flowers; and not only flowers, but also fruits. 4. The figure of the resurrection and its fourfold prerogative. What then is it that we can gather and contemplate from these things? Let us see. First of all, we plainly recognize in these the sacrament of the resurrection from the dead. For the dry rod buds, when the extinguished body shall have begun to live again. But what are those four things which shall be bestowed upon the rising body? That what is sown in corruption may rise in incorruption; and what is sown in weakness may rise in power; and what is sown in dishonor may rise in glory; and the body sown an animal body may rise a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:42-44).

These are the four things which the dry rod of our body shall bud forth in the resurrection. But let us return to those things which we had begun to say of the rod. 5. The four degrees of the spiritual life are foreshadowed. We can still understand in this way the differences of those things which had budded in the rod. Everyone who believes in Christ first dies; and after this is reborn. And there is also in these a figure, that the dry rod afterward buds. There is therefore first the bud, the first confession of man in Christ. Secondly it puts forth leaves, when the reborn man shall have received the gift of grace from the sanctification of the Spirit of God. Thence it brings forth flowers, when he shall have begun to make progress, and to be adorned with sweetness of manners, and to pour forth the fragrance of mercy and kindness.

Lastly also it brings forth the fruits of justice, by which he not only lives himself, but also affords life to others. But when he shall have come to perfection, and shall have brought forth from himself the word of faith, the word of the knowledge of God, and by his teaching shall have won others; this is to have brought forth the fruits by which others are nourished. So then each of the believers is budded from the rod of Aaron, which is Christ. Of which four differences, in other places of Scripture they are designated as it were four ages, which John the apostle comprehended in his Epistle with a mystical distinction. For he says: I have written to you, little children; and, I have written to you, adolescents; and, I have written to you, young men; and, I have written to you, fathers (1 John 2:12-14).

in which he certainly puts not the ages of the body, but the differences of spiritual advancements: as we have observed to be designated also in this bud of the priestly rod. 6. The one Christ is both flower and rod, diverse to diverse persons. All these things therefore are contained not so much in the rod of Aaron, as in that rod which came forth from the root of Jesse, and in the flower which ascended from his root, upon whom the Spirit of God rested (Isa. 11:1-2). In which not even this itself seems idle, that the rod is said to come forth, and the flower to ascend. For although Christ is one by substance, yet He is made diverse to individuals, according as he who works has need. He therefore who is more sluggish and more negligent, Christ becomes for him a rod for discipline;

and in the rod He is said not to ascend, but to come forth. For he who is useless and slothful must needs come forth from that state in which he does not rightly abide, and pass over to another state as though by the compulsion of the rod—that is, by severity, by the admonition of a stricter discipline. But he who is just, because the just man flourishes like the palm (Ps. 91:13); in him Christ is said to ascend. So then he who needs stripes, the rod goes forth to him: but he who advances toward justice, Christ ascends for him into a flower. And He ascends, until he brings forth the fruits of the Spirit, which are charity, joy, peace, patience, and the other virtues (Gal. 5:22-23), in Christ Jesus our Lord, who lives and reigns through all ages of ages. Amen.

SERMON XXXII. On the bronze serpent and on the rod of Moses. 1. The bronze serpent, a figure of the Incarnation. Death from the bite. The devil raged as it were justly against Adam, unjustly against Christ. Christ paid Adam's debt. In the reading which has been recited to us, most beloved brethren, we heard that at the time when, on account of the pride of the Jews and their murmuring against the Lord, the people was being laid waste in the desert by kingly serpents, that is, by basilisks, the Lord commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent, and to hang it upon a piece of wood, so that those who were struck, by looking upon it, might be healed from destruction (Num. 21:4-9). This serpent, most beloved brethren, although this may seem quite marvelous, nevertheless prefigured the incarnation of the Lord.

This signification might perhaps have seemed harsh to someone, had not the Lord Himself said it in His Gospel. For thus He says: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up (John 3:14). The bronze serpent was therefore then hung upon a pole; because Christ was to be hung upon the wood. For then whoever had been struck by a serpent looked upon the bronze serpent, and was healed: but now the human race, which had been struck by the spiritual serpent the devil, looks upon Christ by believing, and is healed. Whoever, having been struck, did not look upon that bronze serpent, died; so it is, brethren, unless each one shall have believed in Christ crucified, he perishes by the venom of the devil.

For then each one looked upon the dead serpent, that he might be able to escape alive: but now he who wishes to avoid the venom of the devil, let him look upon Christ crucified. And because death (mors) took its name from the bite (morsus), and it had befallen the human race by the bite of the ancient serpent, and death could not be overcome except by death; therefore Christ endured death, that an unjust death might conquer a just death, and might set free the guilty justly, while for them He was slain unjustly. For whatever the devil had exercised in Adam, he seemed to have done as it were justly against the man, who had sold himself for the delight of a single tree. In Adam therefore, as in his own slave, he claimed dominion for himself by right of a lord:

but in the passion of Christ, in whom he found no stain of sin, he perpetrated all evils unjustly. So also the Lord Himself said in the Gospel: Behold, the prince of this world comes, and in me he finds nothing (John 14:30). What is it, he finds nothing? Absolutely no sin. And in the Psalms: What I did not take away, He says, then did I pay (Ps. 68:5). What therefore Adam justly owed, Christ paid by unjustly undergoing death. The one stretched out his hand to the sweetness of the fruits; the other, to the bitterness of the cross: the one showed the tree of death; the other, of salvation: the one raised himself against God, and fell; Christ humbled Himself, that He might raise all: Adam brought death upon all, and Christ restored life to all.

Each one therefore looked upon the bronze serpent, and was healed from the venomous serpents. The bronze serpent, set upon the wood, overcame the venoms of the living serpents, and Christ, hung upon the cross and dead, restrained the ancient venoms of the devil, and set free all who had been struck by him. 2. Why the serpent was of bronze, not of gold or silver. But let us see why that serpent was made not of gold, not of silver, but of bronze. This seems to me able to have two significations: one on account of durability; because bronze vessels are wont to last longer: the other on account of the clarity of sound; for among all metals, bronze vessels are wont to render a greater ringing, and to sound farther.

The doctrine could not become known in the one nation of the Jews alone, but could reach throughout the whole world with the clear sound of the saving preaching: therefore that serpent is made of bronze, that the doctrine of Christ might be more clearly preached throughout the whole world; according to that which is written of the Apostles: Their sound went forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world (Ps. 18:5). 3. Let those who have been struck by the venoms of the devil look faithfully to Christ. And nevertheless, brethren, according also

the practice of carnal physicians, for whom, out of the death of a serpent against the venoms of living serpents, wholesome antidotes are prepared, it is not incongruous that he should gaze upon the dead serpent, who desires to be set free from the venoms of living serpents. All these things, therefore, we have said for this reason, that whomsoever the venoms of the serpent, that is, of the devil and his angels, shall have struck, may look faithfully to Christ, who in the likeness of that bronze one was hung upon the wood, so that with the blessed apostle Paul they may be able to say: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal. 6:14). 4. The mysteries of the cross in the rod of Moses.

And because to speak at greater length concerning the mystery of the blessed cross is both sweet and wholesome, if you so bid, we briefly impart the remaining significations of it to the ears of your Charity. For what sweeter, what more pleasant thing can either be thought or said, than the mystery of the holy cross, through which we have deserved not only to be called back from the depths, but even to be raised up into the heavens? For without any doubt, where we believe our Head, Christ, to have ascended, we are confident that His members shall follow. The shadow or figures even of the wood of the cross availed very greatly in the Old Testament also. Moses accomplished no sign without the sacrament of the wood.

For in order to work signs and wonders in Egypt, he received a rod from the Lord, and at each sign he heard the divine command, and it was said to him, 'Lift up your rod' (Exod. 7:9). Not, to be sure, that God had need of the rod's help; but it was raised up so that we might know how great was that mystery of the wood to come, whose shadow the sacrament of that rod prefigured. When, perhaps, the Red Sea is to be divided, Moses is commanded to lift up his rod; and the sea, recognizing the figure of the wood to come, presently opens for the people an unaccustomed road (ibid. 14:16-22). When they come to the bitter water of Marah, unless it receives wood into itself, it does not grow sweet (ibid. 15:25).