Sermons & Tracts 1 part 35/37

You close every avenue through which the devil enters into the soul, if you love all men, even as yourself. And truly, brothers, how can it come to pass that a man should do evil to another, if he loves him as himself? Love, therefore, and do whatever you will. Love with your whole heart, and do toward your neighbor whatever you will. If you are angry, it is sweet, because it proceeds from charity; if you rebuke, it is gentle; if you even chastise and scourge, it is acceptable. Why is this, brothers? Because it is true love when you rebuke and chastise. Even when you cast a man out of the Church, the bitterness seems to rage in the mouth, but the sweetness is kept in the heart:

for you do not hold your brother in hatred as an enemy, but you pursue sin as a disease. On the contrary are those who, under false flattery, are wont to bring forth sweetness in the mouth, yet keep guile or bitterness in the heart. But you, most beloved brothers, holding fast true charity, flee from that which is false. Hear the Apostle saying: 'Charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned' (1 Tim. 1:5). I, brothers, when I speak of charity, cannot keep silent. Why is this? Because charity is exceedingly sweet. He who has it understands what I say; but he who has it not perhaps mocks and despises me. Why does he mock? Because he has not tasted how sweet charity is.

Let him then taste and see how gracious the Lord is. God is Charity. What is sweeter than God, brothers? He who knows not, let him hear the prophet saying, as I suggested a little before: 'Taste and see how gracious the Lord is' (Ps. 33:9). O how happy and blessed is the soul that is worthy to possess charity! Charity, brothers, is drink to the thirsty, food to the hungry, sweetness to those set in bitterness, true and whole consolation to those established in sadness, a harbor to the storm-tossed, a way to the wandering, a homeland to those in exile. Hold fast to this, therefore, brothers; love this with all eagerness. If you are lovers, love charity; if you are strong, conquer covetousness; if you are pilgrims, long for your homeland.

This charity itself, therefore, if you are willing to hold it fast, both governs you in this age and leads you to the kingdom, by the bounty of our Lord, who lives and reigns unto the ages. Amen. SERMON 108. On the words of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 13:13, 'But now abide faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.' 1. Faith is necessary to the Christian; its effect; what it ought to be. Whoever bears the Christian name, and whoever is imbued with the divine sacraments, most dear brothers, it is necessary that he know the reason of the Christian religion, and acknowledge the truth of the faith; and of that faith too which, as the Apostle says, 'works through love' (Gal.

5:6), which in the present strengthens and fortifies believers, and in the future leads them to the contemplation of God. For the blessed and eminent Teacher of the Gentiles set before us three things necessary for our soul, saying: 'But now abide faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.' First, then, the catholic faith is necessary to the Christian, because by it the sons of God are distinguished from the sons of the devil, the sons of light from the sons of darkness; through it we are reborn in Baptism, and obtain eternal salvation, as it is written: 'He who believes and is baptized shall be saved' (Mark 16:16). This is the gate of life, this the door of the kingdom; through it the knowledge of the truth is learned and the recognition of the Godhead is received;

and through it we find the grace of God. For otherwise we cannot please God, since 'without faith it is impossible to please God' (Heb. 11:6). For truly blessed is he who both lives well by believing rightly, and by living well guards a right faith. Therefore, just as faith without good works is idle, so good works profit nothing without right faith. Whence the blessed apostle James said: 'What shall it profit, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has not works? Can faith save him? Faith without works is idle. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead' (James 2:14, 17, 26).

Above all things, my brothers, strive to hold a right and unspotted faith, and according to the norm of apostolic instruction keep by heart the Creed established by the holy fathers, and being religious in your living, be zealous to observe it; flee the pestilent dogmas of heretics, shudder at the deadly poisons of sorcerers and enchanters, utterly reject the wicked traditions of soothsayers and casters of lots, which hold fellowship with demons: so that you hold in mind, or in profession, or in conduct nothing other than what the catholic faith praises, loves, and preaches. 2. Firm hope. Concerning pardon of any sins, provided one ceases from sinning; and concerning God's solace in tribulations.

After this faith, then, learn to have firm hope, which draws our mind to invisible things, and grafts our intention into things heavenly and eternal, and in a certain manner binds it with unbreakable bonds: which does not deceive, but faithfully leads those who obey to eternal blessedness. Let no one, therefore, however he be weighed down by a vast burden of sins, despair of the goodness of the divine mercy; but in the hope of that sure compassion let him plead for its pardon with daily tears, which they can rightly hope for, if they cease from the doing of evil works. Therefore we ought not persevere in sinning on account of the hope of pardon; nor, because God justly punishes sins, ought we to despair of pardon:

so that we neither sin with presumption, nor again despair of our sins; but, both dangers being avoided, let us both turn away from evil and hope for pardon from the mercy of God. Likewise also in the straits of every tribulation, we must run in hope to the solace of the heavenly mercy: for in Him alone all hope and salvation without doubt consist, as the prophet says: 'In God is my salvation and my glory; God is the God of my help, and my hope is in God' (Ps. 61:8). 3. Charity greater than hope and faith; it is the reward of the saints. For when we persuade you, brothers, to right faith and firm hope, we exhort you to this above all: that you strive in all things to have charity within you and to show it forth in deed.

For through it and with it you shall know yourselves to be about to possess true blessedness, since without this no one shall see God. But this is declared by the Apostle to be greater than faith and hope for this reason: that when the others depart, it alone will remain. For hope succeeds faith, and blessedness succeeds hope; but to charity there comes not a change, but perfection alone remains. This is the citadel of all virtues, this is the promise of the kingdom, this is the highest reward of the saints in heaven: for in the everlasting realm the saints have nothing more pleasing, nothing sweeter than the perfect love of God. And because they behold Him present, they love Him more sweetly, and more sweetly enjoy that Good itself. 4. It holds the primacy among the precepts of God. You ought to know,

brothers, that among all the precepts of God charity holds the primacy, without whose perfection nothing can please God, as Paul the apostle testifies (1 Cor. 13:1-3): for he shows that neither martyrdom, nor contempt of the world, nor the giving of alms can profit anything without the office of charity. Whence the Lord Himself, when asked by a certain scribe which was the greatest commandment, answered: 'You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind.' He added also: 'And a second is like unto it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets' (Matt. 22:37, 39-40). But as to what He said, 'With your whole heart, and whole soul, and whole mind,'

that is, that God must be loved with the whole understanding, with the whole will, and with all the memory. But the love of God consists wholly in the observance of His commandments, as He says elsewhere: 'If anyone loves me, he keeps my words' (John 14:23). Whence also the Truth Himself says elsewhere: 'By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another' (John 13:35). Likewise the Apostle: 'The fullness of the law is love' (Rom. 13:10). Likewise John the evangelist says: 'This commandment we have from God, that he who loves God should love his neighbor' (1 John 4:21). 5. The neighbor is every Christian. If perchance anyone should ask who is his neighbor, let him know that every Christian is rightly called a neighbor;

because we are all sanctified in Baptism as sons of God, so that we may be brothers spiritually in perfect charity. Spiritual generation is nobler than carnal, concerning which the Truth Himself says in the Gospel: 'Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God' (John 3:5). And he who, understanding in this way, loves his neighbor, will without doubt hold true charity within himself.

These things, therefore, brothers, consider diligently, that with faith and love you may always work out your salvation, having firm hope, because whatever good you do in the present, in the future you will be rewarded beyond all reckoning by Him who is the author and protector of our salvation, Jesus Christ our Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns. SERMON 109. On the words of the Apostle, 2 Cor. 5:10, 'We must all be made manifest before the tribunal of Christ, that each one may receive according as he has done, whether good or evil.' On the certainty of the future resurrection. 1. The joy of Christians is in hope. The chief distinction between Christians and pagans. Of what sort we shall rise again.

The hope of all Christians, most dear brothers, is stretched out to the time to come: that what we here serve God, elsewhere we may rejoice to have served Him. For here contests are set before us; but in the age to come the rewards of the contests are reserved: justly indeed and providently has the divine wisdom separated the time of labor and of reward. Here, then, we labor, here we serve God, and keep His commandments; that in the age to come, that is, in the kingdom of heaven, we may receive eternal rewards. For we ought to know, most beloved brothers, what the divine Scripture commends to us, that is, that there will be a judgment of God, which will be accomplished after the resurrection of the dead. This is what chiefly separates Christians from gentile error:

because they believe this life only to exist; and therefore they do not fear to be without God, and to be defiled with divers sins and crimes. But we so conduct ourselves in this life that we prepare ourselves for another, in which both good things shall be rendered to the good, and evil things to the evil, as the Apostle said: 'We must all be made manifest before the tribunal of Christ, that each one may receive according as he has done, whether good or evil.' Just as here we now stand in the church, and behold one another present; so also after the resurrection of the dead we shall stand before the tribunal of Christ. For we shall then have this very same soul which we now have; and in this very body in which we are now clothed we are to be raised.

For we were not made like the dumb animals, not like horses and oxen, so as to perish in eternal death; we who, after we have lived here, shall be judged elsewhere, so that we may obtain either eternal punishments for our sins, or eternal rewards for our good works. 2. The resurrection is demonstrated from the omnipotence and truthfulness of God. Let no one, therefore, most dear brothers, despair of the resurrection, in which the whole hope of Christians consists. Believe, brothers, the Apostle who proclaims it; and doubting nothing concerning the resurrection, prepare yourselves for the day of judgment. Or do you perhaps, like the impious and unbelieving, think that it cannot come to pass that we should rise from the dead? Plainly let him say this who does not believe that God is omnipotent, God who promises that this shall be.

But we who know that it is the power of the omnipotent God, since we read that He promised that He would bring about the resurrection of the dead, cannot doubt concerning the resurrection which He promised He would accomplish, He who is both omnipotent and knows not how to lie. 3. Likewise from creation, and from the quickening of seeds. But I appeal to you, whoever with unbelieving mind you doubt concerning the resurrection, and think that the dead cannot be raised. Which is the greater: to make out of nothing men who live, or to restore after death those who have been made and have lived? Surely it is more to make what never was, than to restore what once existed.

How, then, do you say it is impossible that God, who formed man out of nothing, should re-form him? How can He not raise us up who have been turned to dust, He who—even if we should be reduced to nothing—was able to make us exist; just as He also made us to be, when before we never were? For thus the blessed apostle Paul said: 'But some will say, How do the dead rise? and with what kind of body do they come? Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it first die; and what you sow, you do not sow the body that shall be, but a bare grain, of wheat perhaps, or of some of the rest: but God gives it a body as He willed, and to each of the seeds its own body' (1 Cor. 15:35, 38).

Do not, then, unbelieving man, doubt concerning the resurrection. He who gives life to the dead and rotted grains of seed, through which you live in this age, much more will raise you yourself again, that you may live forever. He who restores those things which are necessary for you, how does He not restore you yourself, for whose sake He has deigned also to restore the rest? 4. Created things bear witness to the future resurrection. And so, if we are willing to consider the things which we see in this age, the workings of the divine administration of this world are signs of things to come. The whole administration of this world, therefore, is a testimony of the future resurrection. We certainly see that at the coming of winter the trees are stripped of their fruits and bared of their leaves; but that again in the spring time they express an image of resurrection:

for they first begin to swell in buds, then to be adorned with flowers, to be clothed with leaves, and afterwards to be laden with fruits. I ask you, unbelieving man, who doubt concerning the resurrection: Where are these things, which are brought forth at the time which God appointed? Tell me, where do they lie hidden before they are brought forth, which are nowhere indeed seen; yet God, who is omnipotent, and founded them out of nothing, by His secret power brings them forth? Look now from here upon the fields and meadows, which, when summer is past, are stripped of their grasses and flowers, and the very expanses of the earth remain bare; but again in the spring time they are clothed, and everywhere, as new growth begins, the farmer rejoices.

Surely the grass which formerly lived and dies, again revives from the seed: so also our body revives from the dust. 5. The resurrection of Christ, a pledge. But you say, O unbelieving man, 'For this reason we believe that trees and grasses and all things will revive, because we know these things have already come to pass; but whence can we know that the dead rise, since as yet no one has risen from the dead?' Whoever you are who say or think this, hear patiently, and understand wisely. For this reason our Lord Jesus Christ willed to die and to rise again, that you might not doubt concerning the resurrection. Yet how can you doubt that we are to rise from the dead;

when God promises this, who knows not ever to lie, who is also able to do all that He promises, because He is truthful, and there is no falsehood in Him? And the loving and merciful Lord has given us a pledge of His power, and by a great testimony has shown us the hope of the resurrection; because He raised His only-begotten Son, made man and having died for us, from the dead. For our Lord Jesus Christ therefore deigned to be born of man, that is, of the Virgin Mary, and to be crucified by the Jews, and to rise again on the third day; that we, animated by such an example, might most certainly believe in the resurrection from the dead: and whoever does not believe it will be, neither does he believe even this, that Christ has risen from the dead.

But whoever confesses that the Lord Jesus has risen from the dead, will not be able to doubt concerning his own resurrection. Abstain, therefore, from every evil work, from enmities, from drunkenness, from fornication, from theft, from perjury, from false witness, from slander; for whatever men do amiss, He will punish in the future. But be kind, merciful, showing honor one to another, and always doing those things which God loves in His saints, that you may be able with His saints to attain to eternal and immortal glory, and to live unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 110. On the same words of the Apostle, 2 Cor. 5:10. 1. God here merciful, in the future just. To remember the day of death.

Just now, most dear brothers, when the divine lesson was being read, we heard the blessed Apostle admonishing us terribly and healthfully. For thus he says: 'We must all be made manifest before the tribunal of Christ, that each one may render the proper things of his own body, according as he has done, whether good or evil.' This same thing the Lord also declares in the Gospel, saying: 'The Son of man shall come in His glory with His angels; and then shall He render to each one according to his works' (Matt. 16:27). Attend diligently, I beg, most dear brothers, and tremble together with me; because He did not say that He will render to each according to His mercy, but according to his works. For here He is merciful; there just.

For that He does not at once take vengeance on sinners is patience, not negligence: He has not lost His power; but He has reserved us for repentance. Whence it is greatly to be feared, lest the longer He waits for us to be corrected, the more heavily He take vengeance, if we are unwilling to be amended. Since these things are so, we ought to know and understand, most dear brothers, that nothing is more wholesome for us than that, having condemned the pleasures of all present things, we rather think on this: when we shall be about to pass from this age, or when, on the last day coming upon us, we shall lay down the tabernacle of our body, and again receive it at the time of the resurrection, that we may receive with it according as we have done, whether good or evil. 3. To hold the last judgment before oneself.

And therefore I ask you, brothers, that we daily think what we shall be like on the day of judgment, when we are to be offered to the most pure sight of the Angels, and to render to the eternal Judge an account from the books of conscience. All proofs being set aside, it is certain that on that day the man himself shall be set before himself, and his own life shall be shown forth in the mirror of the heart, and witnesses against it shall be brought forth not from without, but from within, from the soul itself. There shall be adduced not certain foreign things, but exceedingly well-known testimonies, that is, his own works. Before the unhappy soul shall be marshaled its sins or crimes, that the proof may convict it and the recognition confound it; according to that which is written:

'I will reprove you, and set you before your own face' (Ps. 49:21). Whoever has now, while it is permitted, neglected to amend himself, shall before that heavenly people be the first to receive his punishment out of confusion: and the soul which has now disdained to heal, by a timely repentance, the festering corruptions of its past sins, shall before that dread tribunal, without any remedy, remain in everlasting torment. 3. To forestall fruitless repentance by fruitful repentance. Since these things are so, it would go well with us if now already we so repented over our evils, as we shall then repent without any remedy: if our foulnesses and confusions, just as we are then to see them, we could so now see and dread them.

O if it were now permitted to gaze with the eyes of the body upon the face of the sinful soul, and we were allowed to bring the countenance of our conscience into the presence of our eyes! If this were permitted, it cannot be told with how great zeal and how great dread we should be urged to compose what is defiled, to wipe clean what is stained, to heal what is wounded. And therefore, because we cannot with the eyes of the body, let us look upon ourselves, as far as we can, with the eyes of the heart; and let each one set his own conscience before the sight of the inner man. Let us ourselves chastise our own selves; let us ourselves render an account with ourselves concerning our daily conduct. Let each soul address itself in secret, and say: 'Let us see whether I have passed this day without sin,'

'without envy, without detraction, without murmuring have I passed it; let us see whether today I have wrought that which pertains to the profit of the soul. I think that today I have lied, that I have been overcome by anger or concupiscence; nor have I done good to anyone, nor have I groaned through fear of eternal death. Who shall restore to me this day, which I have lost on empty things, which I have consumed in noxious and most wicked thoughts?' And so, brothers, for all our negligences let us be pricked with compunction upon our beds, that is, in our hearts; let us ourselves condemn ourselves, let us ourselves accuse ourselves daily before our Judge; and while we are in this flesh, let us daily do battle, with the Lord's help, against the flesh itself, let us conquer our pleasures and delights:

that that most longed-for and most blessed time of eternal life may succeed for us by a happy change, when that shall be fulfilled which the Lord said, 'And they shall be like the Angels' (Matt. 22:30); and again, 'Then shall the righteous shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father' (Matt. 13:43). 4. The state of the blessed. What do you think the splendor of souls shall then be, when the light of bodies shall have the brightness of the sun? For then, when we shall have come to that blessedness, there shall be no sorrow, no fear, no infirmity, no death. Nothing shall stand in our way to serving our God, no infirmity shall any longer hinder us, no adversity of the wretched flesh shall gainsay us, nor shall any further necessity of fighting remain.

There shall come, I say, a time when no food shall be desired, and every refreshment; when no weariness of fasting shall be felt, no disquiet from the flesh be feared, nor temptation from the enemy: but, the adversary being thrust down into the depths of hell, we shall first enjoy this felicity, that we begin neither to will to sin any more, nor to be able. When all iniquity, all misery, all mourning ceases, innocence shall possess the whole, felicity the whole: no lower creature shall dread misery, no happier one shall fear envy; because it has passed away, being emptied out and utterly extinguished. In the breasts of men shall be the charity of the Angels, with whom men, now having received their heavenly flesh, shall shine without the infirmity of the flesh:

and therefore they shall no longer suffer any weariness from the everlasting power of their Lord, no waning under the perpetual exultation of their praises. We shall have full blessedness, brothers, amid those immense benefits of our Lord, so that we may never cease in rendering thanks to Him for the blessedness which we are to enjoy, being made co-heirs of Him who shall say: 'Come, blessed ones, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the origin of the world' (Matt. 25:34), He Himself granting it, to whom is honor and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 111. On the words of the Apostle, Eph. 5:15-16, 'Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.' The manuscripts add moreover: 'And on that saying: You give money that bread may be bought for you;

forgive somewhat to the evil man, that you may buy for yourself rest.' 1. Malice and misery make the days evil. When the Apostle was being read, you heard—nay, we all heard—him saying to us: 'See how you walk circumspectly, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil.' Two things, brothers, make the days evil: malice and misery. Through the malice of men and the misery of men the days are called evil. But as for these days themselves, as far as pertains to the spaces of hours, they are ordered, they carry on their turns, they perform their seasons. The sun rises, and sets; the sun again both rises and sets: the seasons come, the seasons pass. To whom are the seasons troublesome, if men are not troublesome to themselves?

Therefore, as I said, two things make the days evil: the misery of men and the malice of men. But the misery of men is common; malice ought not to be common. 2. Regeneration frees from misery and from what. The wage of Christian service is not in this life. The Christian's mind concerning temporal and eternal goods. From the fact that we are all born in misery because of the sin of Adam, misery is common. But against the generation which made us wretched, God has provided regeneration whereby He might free us from misery. Generation sends into misery; regeneration destines to blessedness. For it is not because I said that regeneration frees from misery, that immediately, as soon as we are regenerated, we are blessed. If we were blessed as soon as regenerated;

and led good days, the Apostle would not say to us—who speaks to those already regenerated and faithful—'Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.' And we who are regenerated call the days evil, until the penalty of mortality be ended, and the grace of highest felicity succeed. If it profits us nothing for the age to come that we worship God, why do we worship Him? That we may here have felicity? What felicity do they have who do not worship God? That we may here grow old and become decrepit? How many blasphemers of God grow old? Is God therefore to be worshiped, that His worshipers may have children and not be barren? God gives children even to lions, and to wild asses, and to serpents.

Therefore that must not be sought as a great and true good, which is given also to Jews, and to pagans, and to heretics, and even to the very beasts. For gold and silver, honors, children, and much patrimony even the wicked also have. For he who is truly a Christian ought not to seek all these transitory things: but he ought to expend the whole weight of his intention or of his prayer upon seeking eternal blessedness. For these temporal goods, both when God gives them, let thanks be given; and when He takes them away, let thanks likewise be given. Let Him bestow these when He wills, take them away when He wills: only let Him not take away Himself from us. 3. Present times are not more unhappy than former ones.