Sermons & Tracts 1 part 31/37

And therefore, brethren, if we wish to be heirs of Christ, we ought to be and to abide in His peace. Christ gave us peace, as you have heard; He commanded us to be of one accord and of one mind; He charged us to keep the covenants of love and charity uncorrupted and inviolate. The ornaments of this peace He wondrously displayed in another place, saying: 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God' (Matthew 5:9). And if he who has already begun to be a peacemaker begins to be called a son of God, then he who has refused to embrace peace does not wish to be called a son of God: he denies that God is his father who scorns to be a peacemaker. The sons of God, therefore, ought to be peacemakers, gentle in heart, simple in speech, harmonious in affection, faithfully cleaving to one another in the bonds of unanimity. 2.

With whom peace is to be kept. The effect of peace. But this peace is to be maintained with the good and with those who keep God's precepts, not with the wicked and criminal, who have peace among themselves in their sins. The peace of Christ leads to everlasting salvation; the peace that is in the devil leads to perpetual perdition. Peace with the good, but war with vices, must always be waged: for indeed the evil deeds of impious men are to be held in hatred. For the men themselves, though they be evil, are to be loved, because they are the creatures of God. But the peace that is in the good joins the concord of brethren and the charity of neighbours. Peace especially merits the Spirit of God; peace is the mother of love; peace is the sign of holiness, of which the Lord says through the prophet:

'Love peace and truth' (Zechariah 8:19). Peace is the health of the people, the glory of the priest, the joy of the fatherland, and the terror of enemies whether visible or invisible. With all our strength, brethren, peace is to be kept; for he abides always in God who abides in holy peace, and has fellowship with the saints of God. 3. The office of the priest. Without peace received, neither prayer nor offering avails. It belongs to the priest to admonish the people in peace concerning what they ought to do; it belongs to the people to hear in humility what the priest counsels. Whatever is not lawful, it belongs to the shepherd to forbid lest it be done; it belongs to the flock to hear lest it do it. And the bond of unity all, both prelates and subjects alike, ought in faith and love to keep in all things:

because without peace neither the prayer of the priest is received, nor the offering of the people. If therefore we wish to be swiftly heard by God, and to have our gifts graciously accepted by Him, we must by all means live in peace. Concerning this, Truth itself has deigned to instruct us: 'If thou offer,' He says, 'thy gift at the altar, and there remember that thy brother hath aught against thee: leave there thy gift before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother; and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift' (Matthew 5:23-24). 4. Peace and unity often commended in the Scriptures. Since therefore God desires our unity and concord, the Saviour Himself shows it in the Gospel, thus speaking to the Father:

'Holy Father,' He says, 'keep in thy name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we also are' (John 17:11). Whence also the Apostle exhorts the faithful, saying: 'I beseech you, brethren, that you be of the same mind, and that you all say the same thing' (1 Corinthians 1:10); and again: 'Let there be no jealousy and strife among you' (Romans 13:13). 'Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamour, and blasphemy be taken away from you, with all malice' (Ephesians 4:31); likewise elsewhere he says: 'Bearing with one another in charity, careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. One body and one spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling' (Ephesians 4:2-4). This unanimity, then, existed of old under the Apostles.

Thus the new people of believers, keeping the commandments of the Lord, held fast their charity. The Scripture proves it which says: 'And the multitude of them that believed acted with one soul and one mind' (Acts 4:32); and again: 'And they were all persevering with one mind in prayer, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brethren' (Acts 1:14). And therefore they prayed with efficacious prayers, and therefore they were able to obtain with confidence whatever they asked of God's mercy. 5. The diminishing of charity, the failing of faith. But in us unanimity is so diminished that the generosity of our giving also is broken.

Then they sold their houses, and laying up treasure for themselves in heaven, offered to the Apostles the proceeds to be distributed for the needs of the poor (Acts 2:45); but now of our patrimony we do not even give tithes; and though the Lord commands us to sell, we rather buy and increase our possessions. Thus in us the vigour of faith has withered, thus the strength of believers has grown faint. And therefore the Lord, looking upon our times, says in His Gospel: 'When the Son of man cometh, thinkest thou, shall he find faith on earth?' (Luke 18:8). We see happening what He foretold. Faith consists in the fear of God, in the law of justice, in love, in work. No one considers the dread of things to come.

No one considers the Day and the wrath of the Lord, and the punishments to come upon the unbelieving, and the eternal torments appointed for the faithless: which things our conscience would fear, if it believed; because it does not believe, it does not fear at all; but if it believed, it would also beware; if it were wary, it would also escape. 6. Watchfulness. Let us rouse ourselves, as much as we can, beloved brethren, and, breaking off the sleep of our old sloth, let us keep watch to observe and perform the precepts of the Lord. Let us be such as He Himself has commanded us to be, saying: 'Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning; and you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding: that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him':

and, 'Blessed are those servants whom the lord, when he cometh, shall find watching' (Luke 12:35-37). We ought to be girded, lest, when the day of the expedition comes, it find us hampered and entangled. Let our light shine and be radiant in good works, that this very light may lead us from this night of the world to the light of eternal charity, wherein we may enjoy, with Christ who is the author of true peace, and with His holy angels, eternal peace and perpetual happiness: through the bounty of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God, world without end. Amen. SERMON XCIX. On the words of the Acts, chapter 3, verse 1: 'Peter and John went up into the temple,' etc. 1. Commendation of evangelical poverty.

After the resurrection of Christ, the reading which you have heard has set forth by the patronage of what works the preaching of the Apostles was supported. 'Peter and John,' it says, 'going up into the temple,' prepared by signs the subject-matter of their discourse, that is, an opening for their preaching. For amazement had to come first, so that the exposition of the marvellous thing might follow. The splendour, therefore, of the signs struck the hearts of the peoples. For there was a certain man lame from his birth, who was carried in men's arms, and, it says, he begged at the Beautiful gate of the temple: who, when he had seen the Apostles going in, asked, according to custom, for alms.

But when they had turned their gaze upon him, the lame man, expecting nothing beyond his accustomed consolation, believed that some paltry bounty would flow to him from the hands of the Apostles. But Peter the apostle said to him: 'Look upon us.' And when he had looked upon them, 'Silver and gold,' he said, 'I have none; but what I have, that I give thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk.' We ought diligently to expound the very order of these words. For it would not have been to the purpose, when the riches of the miraculous powers were to follow, that his poverty of substance should be recounted, unless the Apostle had wished to bring forth that very power together with a testimony concerning himself. For lest you should marvel at the possessor of powers, he first professed the renunciation of riches.

For it justly followed that he who had despised wealth should bestow signs. What is richer than this poverty? What is poorer than this power? The profession of poverty, therefore, was to follow as the testimony of power. Whence also the Apostle spoke: 'As having nothing, and possessing all things' (2 Corinthians 6:10). What, then, is richer than this poverty? 'Silver and gold I have not.' But what has he who has not silver? A vehement eloquence, an eloquence purged by fire: he who has not gold, has faith. 2. The worthlessness of gold. Why it is so hidden away. Let us see what more the gold gleams, which is so hidden away; so that it seems that provident nature has condemned it for men's sake, and has not exposed a thing that would inflame the eyes of the covetous:

and so that poverty might be aided by the difficulty of acquiring riches, it made men seek with toil what it had not willed to be found. Let us see, then: he who has not gold, what has he? He has faith, he has power. Let us weigh what we have said, what more the gold gleams — the gold that anguish seeks out, that avarice covets, that anxiety guards; gold, the stuff of toils, a perilous thing to its possessors; gold, the enfeebler of powers, gold, an evil master, a treacherous servant. Therefore he who has not gold, what has he? He has faith. Let us see, as we have said, what more the gold gleams — the gold that no one holds securely, save he who always hides it; gold that gleams to the ruin of its master; gold that is sought in darkness, guarded in darkness;

gold, whose search holds men condemned, whose love made Judas — and, lest the name should be unknown to anyone, made a betrayer out of an apostle; gold, which in a greedy mind is preferred even to Christ: against the desire of which the Teacher of the Gentiles thundered with fitting authority, saying: 'Covetousness, which is the service of idols' (Ephesians 5:5). What, then, does the gold shine forth more — the gold that a sordid master holds; gold that torments the more, the more abundantly it has been possessed; gold that grants nothing of its own possession to the one who loves it, throwing back upon him his own guilt, to whom its grievous acquisition, its wretched possession, denies its use? 3. It is the use of gold that is condemned, not its nature. It is possessed perilously; it is renounced fruitfully. Nor yet, when we say these things, is the creature of God condemned:

but because, through the blinded prudence of men, it has been received at a great price, now whatever is undertaken out of evil desire redounds to the infamy of the thing itself. Therefore that thing is blamed, in order that avarice may be condemned. For the rest, the Lord says through the prophet: 'The gold and the silver are mine' (Haggai 2:9). But if it were in itself an evil thing, it could not belong to God. Rather, it affords matter for mercy among good souls; and by a new kind of profit it then profits the more, when it is despised; so that by its very condition it may bear witness that the possession of that thing is evil, whose renunciation is fruitful. It affords, therefore, matter for succour: 'He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his justice remaineth for ever' (Psalm 112:9).

Do you wish, then, to know how gold and silver are the things of a just Judge? By them the covetous man is tormented; by them the merciful man is helped. Let the contempt of the thing, then, be exercised through a profitable contempt. Not all are fit for its possession; all are fit for its contempt. Therefore no one cannot be reckoned among those who have dispersed and given to the poor, whose justice remaineth for ever: no one cannot be reckoned among those who have willed, by the despising of fleeting things, to please God. 4. The price of poverty. Great is the condition of the felicity of Christians, for whom the brightness of the kingdom is placed in poverty. To possess what is sought with toil belongs to few; to despise what you may despise with profit belongs to all.

Great, therefore, is the felicity of Christians, to whom it is granted to make of poverty the price of the kingdom of heaven. Let not your poverty displease you: nothing can be found richer than it. Do you wish to know how wealthy it is? It buys heaven. With what treasures can that be compared which we see granted to poverty? That a rich man might come to the kingdom of heaven, he could not obtain it by his possession; now he obtains it that he may arrive by contempt. Much more, then, does faith gleam than gold. Gold, a friend, grows dark in its hiding-places; faith is conspicuous with its innate splendour: gold cannot be brought forth from the mire; faith always shines to the public good, and confidence itself bears witness to the dignity of faith: gold is not safe even among those who agree;

faith is secure even among those who fight. 5. The riches of the poor man. What, then, the Apostle — poor in wealth, rich in faith — gave, the order of the reading declares. 'Silver and gold I have not.' But in place of these, what does he draw forth? 'What I have, that I give thee: in the name of Jesus Christ arise and walk.' Let the prices of things be estimated by their effects. Those who gave gold filled the poor man's belly, a greater burden to come upon his feeble feet; they soothed his infirmity, but they could not restore his health. But he who possessed not gold gave health. He is rich toward God, destitute of gold. 'Silver and gold I have not': therefore he brought forth such great riches of power. 'What I have, that I give thee; in the name of Jesus Christ arise and walk.'

This, clearly, we held not in a purse, but in the soul. What did he give him? 'In the name of Jesus Christ arise and walk.' Infirmity had terrified the poor man — infirmity that constrains kings and captives by equal law and equal power: it could not withstand the command of a poor man ruling over kings. It is too little that we call it infirmity; not even nature bore the command of a poor man. For that man was lame from his mother's womb. And so the debility which his birth had brought upon him was driven out by the power of a poor man commanding: which surely would not have come to pass, unless the poor Apostle had been full of that God who is the author of nature. Nothing, then, is richer than this poverty. What does he give who has no coin? He bestows power, he confers it freely. For what can he not do?

'In the name of Jesus Christ arise and walk.' That which came from necessity is made subject to obedience. It is said to the man, 'Arise,' which he always longed for: but because he was hindered by natural bonds, he could not do what he wished. Now, however, with such great ease do insensible things serve, that at the beckoning of him who commanded, that infirmity of the feet flew away. 'Arise and walk.' 'And immediately,' it says, 'he stood.' The command is given to the soul, and the feet obey: 'They shall leap,' says the prophet, 'like calves loosed from their bonds' (Malachi 4:2). 6. The swiftness of the resurrection. And the soles of his feet were made firm. Attend to with what swiftness the thing is done.

Scarcely had the word of the one commanding entered the weak man's ears, when at once the force of health burst in, and, infirmity being cast out, the members were restored to use. The witness of a swift resurrection is the swiftness of one rising up out of weakness. 'In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise, and we shall be changed' (1 Corinthians 15:52). Measure the future by the things that have been done. In how brief a moment the dead shall be raised, believe from feet that were feeble by nature. 'He arose: the soles of his feet,' it says, 'were made firm.' It was too little to say that the lame man had returned to use: strength is restored to him along with health. For it did not say, 'They were restored,' but, 'The soles were made firm': so abundant a health do they receive that they may bear labour.

'Leaping up,' it says, 'he walked.' Leaping is often burdensome even to the healthy. Those feet did not feel sluggish remedies, nor were the soles recalled as if smeared with the manner of an ointment: in a moment the force of the inrushing medicine is displayed, and the flight of the banished infirmity is set as with a seal. Thus he leaps up who is healed by a poor man. 7. The flesh is of good nature, and is from God. Every fault is in the will. The flesh, therefore, is healed by the Apostles: by this very fact showing what it deserves from God its Creator. Let the Manichees, then, be confounded by all these signs: all the kinds of salvation which are bestowed upon the flesh are a testimony of its good nature. For those things are proved worthy of the divine work which are not believed unworthy of benefits.

The members recognize the name of their author, when it is said to them: 'In the name of Jesus Christ arise and walk.' If the flesh were from the devil, it could have dreaded the name of Christ. The obedience of those who are healed is a testimony of their Creator. 'In the name of Jesus Christ arise and walk.' Nature had brought in the debility: to itself, in a certain manner, the authority of the invoked name is directed. It recognizes who has commanded, and obeys its own Lord, and resists the adversary. If the flesh is from the devil, it must be conquered by the disciples of Christ, not cured. If you consult reason, whatever is hostile must be bound. I would not have you trust this to thought alone: let divine authority come to the aid of this understanding. The Lord says in the Gospel:

'No one entereth into the house of a strong man, to plunder his goods, unless he first bind the strong man' (Matthew 12:29). In his own works, therefore, the devil was to be bound: but now the devil is not bound, but honoured, if his property is cured through signs. Christ is a debtor of great benefit to the flesh, if He has shown in its salvation what He can do. There would be no matter for speaking, unless the flesh, being cured, had furnished a testimony of mercy. The flesh assists the preaching of Christ; in it lies the administration of signs. The lame man rises, that the Apostles may speak. We have said that, if the flesh were not the work of this God, that lame man was to be healed not in his feet, but bound in his arms.

But now the lame man rises, that the Apostles may speak, and becomes a herald of the preaching: that the Gospel of Christ may resound, the lame man leaps up. The Apostles acted shamelessly, if the flesh is not the work of God: but now, since to say this is sacrilege, the Apostles do not act shamelessly. The flesh, therefore, is the work of God: when it is formed, it is the work of God; when it is created, it is the work of God; when it is brought forth, it is the work of God; when it is regenerated, it is the work of God; when it is sealed, it is the work of God; when it is cured, it is the work of God. What does the thing of God owe to the devil so many times over? Let the Manichees, then, be mocked, and for the honour of God let the nature of the flesh be praised;

and let every fault be placed in the will, and let the hope of amendment be suggested to men, that they may understand that they sin not by any necessity of the flesh, but only by the depravity of the will. But we ascribe the flesh to the divine work — the flesh which we see, in the resurrection of Christ, to have attained the glory of divine fellowship, which He took from Christ His Creator, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. SERMON C. On the words of the Acts, chapter 4, verses 32-35: 'Neither did anyone say that aught of the things which he possessed was his own.' 1. The fervent charity of the early faithful. The brotherhood of charity greater than that of blood.

We read in the book which is ascribed to the Acts of the Apostles that under the aforesaid men so great was the devotion of the people, and the firstfruits of the Christian people so flourished, that after they had received the faith no one claimed a house as his own, and no one laid claim to anything of his own; but by the right of brotherhood all things were common to them: namely, that those who were held together by the same fellowship of religion might also enjoy the same fellowship of life; that is, that those who had one faith might have one substance, and those to whom Christ was common might have their expenses in common as well. For those religious men thought it a wicked thing not to take as a sharer in substance one who was a sharer in grace;

and therefore in the brotherhood of charity they used all things in common: save that the brotherhood of Christ is greater than that of blood. For the brotherhood of blood reflects only the likeness of the body; but the brotherhood of Christ shows forth the unanimity of heart and soul, as it is written: 'And the heart and soul of the believers was one.' Truly, therefore, he is a brother who is a true kinsman as much in soul as in body: a true brother, I say, is he whose very same spirit and will is in his brother. Better, therefore, as I have said, is the brotherhood of Christ than the brotherhood of blood; since sometimes the latter is at enmity with itself, but the brotherhood of Christ is peaceful without interruption:

the former divides common things among themselves with rivalry; the latter shares even with rejoicing: the former in its fellowship often despises its own kinsman; the latter frequently takes to itself a stranger. So great, therefore, as I have said, was the devotion of the Christian people in that time, that no one called a house his own, no one laid claim to anything of his own, as Saint Luke says: 'Neither did anyone say that aught of the things which he possessed was his own. For neither,' I say, 'was there anyone needy among them.' Blessed, therefore, is that people, which, while it has many rich in Christ, has none in the world in want: and which, while it thinks upon eternal riches, drove away temporal poverty from its brethren. For they sold, as the Scripture says, their lands and houses;

and they laid the prices of the things sold at the feet of the Apostles, that distribution might be made to each according as anyone had need. Behold the faith of those holy men, how for Christ's sake they stripped themselves of their whole patrimony and left nothing for themselves; for they were not afraid that they themselves might go hungry, while they feared lest another should go hungry. 2. Charity now growing cold. Truly a rich man is now scarcely to be found. This, then, was the devotion among the people under the Apostles. Do we now find anything like it? And certainly the same Christ is in us; but not the same spirit is in us: the same faith is in the people, but the same open-handedness is not in the people. So the one does not think about the other's want, so that it is as the Apostle says: 'One indeed is hungry, but another is drunken' (1 Cor. 11:21).

For very many Christians not only do not distribute their own goods, but even plunder what belongs to others; not only, I say, do they not bring their gathered monies and lay them at the feet of the Apostles, but they even drag back their brethren who flee to the feet of the priests. Now is that time which the blessed Apostle describes, saying: 'In the last days the iniquity of many shall abound, and charity shall grow cold' (Matt. 24:12). For now avarice and iniquity abound, which formerly ceased through the goodness of open-handedness; and the charity of brotherhood grows cold, which before glowed with the love of Christ. For so great was the love of brotherhood under the Apostles, that then no want was found in their assembly:

but now there is such a dissembling of Christianity, that in our assembly you can scarcely find a wealthy man; and I say a wealthy man is scarcely found, not so much in resources as in works. For the Apostle says, 'Let them be rich in good works' (1 Tim. 6:18). For he willed that a man be understood as wealthy in the Church who is rich in Christ. For in that he says that under the Apostles no one was in want, he shows indeed that they were endowed with faith by full grace, so that all abounded in the bounty of heavenly riches. Rarely, therefore, in this age do we find a wealthy man among the Christian people; and though very many in their houses are rich in gold, yet in the Church they are beggars in righteousness. 5. Ungenerous almsgiving.

Ananias guilty of fraud and sacrilege. For while they act toward the poor not according to what they are able, neither is that which they offer pleasing, nor is that which they keep back satisfying. The Lord says to Cain, when he offered his gifts: 'If thou offer rightly, but dost not divide rightly, thou hast sinned; be still' (Gen. 4:7, according to the LXX). So also you, O Christian, do not divide rightly, who out of all your gold keep back for mammon a larger part than you bestow on the Lord. For so Ananias in the Acts of the Apostles, while he thinks he offers rightly and yet does not divide rightly, lost the money he offered, and forfeited what he kept back at home; he lost, I say, both his money and his salvation alike.

For while he withheld a part of what he had promised, he was convicted at once both of sacrilege and of fraud: of sacrilege, because he deceived God in his promise; of fraud, because he thought that a certain portion should be withheld from the whole gift. For the Apostle Peter says, 'Thou hast not lied to men, but to God' (Acts 5:4). If then, brethren, Ananias is condemned because he did not give the whole of what he himself had promised of his own, what shall we judge of him who is unwilling to render what he has promised to others? See therefore, you also, brethren, what you have promised to God when first you received the grace of faith. Behold, strangers abound in our city: do what you have promised;

lest it be said to you also what was said to Ananias: 'You have not lied to men, but to God.' SERMON 101. On the words of the Acts, chapter 10, verses 1-28: 'Peter went up into the upper room about the sixth hour, and being hungry, he wished to eat,' etc. 1. How many things clean or unclean animals signify. Who belong to the Church. Why the Church reads the Jewish precepts. The Christian's food. The vessel shown to Peter, the Church. Just now, when the lesson of the Acts of the Apostles was being read, we heard that the blessed Peter about the sixth hour went up into the upper room; and being hungry, he wished to eat. But while his disciples were preparing, he fell into an ecstasy of mind:

and he saw a great vessel like a large sheet, let down from heaven, held by four corners, in which were all the four-footed beasts and creeping things of the earth. And a voice thundered from heaven: 'Peter, kill and eat.' But he said: 'Lord, thou knowest that I have never eaten anything common and unclean.' And the voice again: 'What God hath cleansed, do not thou call common.' This was done thrice, and the vessel was received up into heaven. What, therefore, these things signify, we desire briefly, if you bid us, to make known to the ears of your Charity. All the animals which were forbidden to the Jews to eat are signs of things, and, as it has been said, shadows of things to come: for instance, that it is written for them that they should eat those things which chew the cud and part the hoof;