because through them the earth-born received the seasoning of the savour of eternal life, so that they might restrain the wantonness of the flesh, and be preserved unharmed from the rottenness of sins and the worms of vices. These are the precious stones, which John describes in his Apocalypse as placed in the foundation of the heavenly edifice (Apoc. XXI); because their preaching laid the foundations of the Church. Whence Paul also says: «Ye are fellow-citizens of the saints and of the household of God, built up upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets» (Eph. II, 19, 20). These are the twelve gates of the new Jerusalem, which descends from heaven; because through them we first entered the door of faith, and were numbered among the fellow-citizens of the saints. 4. Their virtues are set forth.
The manner of loving friends and enemies. Here, therefore, considering, dearly beloved brethren, the things which such great leaders of the people have taught us, let us be zealous to fulfil by deeds what they commanded. Let us learn by their example to despise the riches of the world, not to love the pleasure of the present age, to desire the heavenly kingdom, to prefer nothing to Christ: but to obey His commands in all things, to love the poverty of present things, to have the riches of the virtues, to seek the treasure of wisdom, to seek spiritual delights, to envy no one, but to love all men, friends in God, and enemies for God's sake; because this is true and sole love. For carnal and vicious love drags into the precipice, and shall be reckoned as hatred:
whence it is written: «Whosoever will be a friend of this world, is constituted an enemy of God» (James IV, 4). 5. On the manner of loving the Creator and the creature. These, therefore, our princes, most perfect in the love of God, and filled in the love of their neighbours, hence were able to conquer the assault of the world, and to tame the bloody age; because they loved nothing in any thing, save the will of God. So let us also, brethren, love in all things to do the will of God, and let us love our Creator in Himself, but the creature in its Maker: and thus we shall have most well-ordered charity; because God is charity (1 John IV,
16), and he who loves this love, loves God; and if we shall have thus loved, God Himself loves us, and the holy Apostles, our judges, love us, and intercede for us, that in the universal judgement of Christ we may be crowned together with them for ever. Which may He Himself deign to grant, our Judge and Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth as God through all ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 223. On one Holy Martyr. 1. Two things to be considered in the contest of the martyrs. The triumphal day of the blessed martyr N. returns to us today with its anniversary celebration; with whose glorification, as the Church rejoices together, so she sets before herself his footsteps to be followed. For «if we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified together» (Rom. VIII, 17).
In whose glorious contest two things are especially to be considered by us, namely the hardened savagery of the torturer, and the unconquered patience of the Martyr: the savagery of the torturer, that we may detest it; the patience of the Martyr, that we may imitate it. Hear the Psalmist chiding against malice: «Be not emulous of the malignant, for they shall quickly wither like grass» (Ps. XXXVI, 1, 2). But that patience is to be shown against the malignant, hear the Apostle persuading: «Patience is necessary for you, that ye may carry back the promises» (Heb. X, 36). Crowned, therefore, was the patience of the blessed Martyr; consigned to eternal torments was the uncorrected malice of the torturer. 2.
How greatly the hope of eternal glory kindles the Martyrs. Attending to this in his contest, the glorious athlete of Christ did not shudder at the prison: in imitation of his Head he endured reproaches, sustained mockeries, feared not the scourges; and as many torments as he bore for Christ before death, so many sacrifices did he offer of himself. For what, the Apostle offering it to him as a drink, he had drunk, that he retained deeply: «That the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us» (Rom. VIII, 18); and, «that this momentary and light affliction of ours worketh in the heavens an eternal weight of glory» (2 Cor. IV, 17). By the love, therefore, of this promise suspended from earthly things, and having foretasted
and ineffably affected by the sweetness of that supernal delight, he said with the Psalmist: «What have I in heaven, and besides Thee what have I desired upon earth? My flesh and my heart hath failed, O God of my heart, and my portion, O God, for ever» (Ps. LXXII, 25 and 26). For he was contemplating, as far as human infirmity can fix the eye of the mind upon eternity in a riddle, how great are the joys of the supernal city: and not sufficing to recount them, marvelling he cried out: «What have I in heaven?»
as though he said: It exceeds the powers of my mind, it exceeds the faculty of my eloquence, it transcends the capacity of my understanding, that comeliness, that glory, that loftiness, wherewith our Lord Jesus Christ, when we have been removed from the turmoil of men into the hiding of His countenance, shall reform the body of our lowliness, conformed to the body of His brightness. By the contemplation of this perfect liberty he shunned no peril, dreaded no punishment; and if he could die a thousand times, he thought that he could by no means worthily deserve this. For the sick patiently permit themselves to be cut by physicians, to be cauterized, and to be tormented with various bitter preparations, that at length they may be restored to temporal health:
how much more did the blessed man long-sufferingly endure every bitterness of temporal torments, that he might be crowned in mercy and in compassions; and that at length his desire might be satisfied in good things? 3. The progress of the martyr. In the winepress, therefore, he willed to be trodden down; that like a ripe grape he might melt into wine, and offer to his Beloved the wine of pomegranates, wherewith devout minds, made drunken, know how to tread down earthly things manfully, and to pant after eternal things with eyes never turned back.
He, therefore, who in his first training despised worldly riches, who also bridled bodily allurements, who in the advancement of his warfare suffered many injuries, in the perfection of the sacrifice reserving nothing for himself, offered himself as a whole burnt-offering, drinking that precious chalice which, sitting at the great table of sacred reading, he had before seen set before him by his Inviter. Whose death, however contemptible it may appear in the sight of the reprobate, is nevertheless precious in the eyes of Him who is wonderful in His saints. For He Himself first called His soldier, He Himself justified him, He Himself magnified him; He Himself gave him to fight, He Himself gave him also to conquer. 4.
Worldly warfare and Christian. Far unlike is this warfare to worldly warfare, in which they are esteemed victors who obtain what they wickedly desire, who rejoice when they have done evil, and exult in the worst things (Prov. II, 14). But in the Christian contest the punishment is manifest, the victory hidden, according to that which the Psalmist cries out from the person of the martyrs: «O God, Thou hast cast us off, and wilt Thou not go forth in our armies? Give us help from tribulation, for vain is the salvation of man. In God we shall do valiantly» (Ps. LIX, 3, 13, 14): as though they said, «Our victory, our glory is within, not without; without we are despised, within we are beloved.»
Hence it is that the Church, set amid pressures, comforts her weaker members, saying: «Regard me not, because I am dark» (Cant. I, 5). Which in other words the Apostle more openly expounds to his hearers, saying: «Faint not at my tribulations for you» (Thess. II, 13). Hence Truth forewarns His disciples, saying: «In the world ye shall have pressure; but fear not, little flock, for I have overcome the world» (John XVI, 33). But how did He overcome the world? He was made obedient to the Father even unto death (Phil. II, 8). And what of the death? «For which cause God also exalted Him, and gave Him a name which is above every name» (Ibid., 9). As Christ therefore conquered, let the Christian seek to conquer:
that where Christ is, there the Christian also may deserve to be. Hear, O persecutor of the Christian warfare, Christ thus praying for His soldiers: «I will, Father, that where I am, there also may be my minister» (John XVII, 24). SERMON 224. On the Martyrs, I. 1. Martyrdom is twofold. He attains to the fellowship of the martyrs, who imitates the martyrs. Not the shedding of blood alone consummates martyrdom, nor does that burning of the flames alone give the palm. One attains to the crown not only by the killing, but also by the contempt of the flesh. Without injury to the saints who died in the persecutions, one may safely say: to have afflicted the flesh, to have overcome lust, to have resisted avarice, to have triumphed over the world, is a great part of martyrdom.
But if, most beloved brethren, we wish to attain to the fellowship of the martyrs or of the priests, let us think upon the imitation of the martyrs. For they ought to recognize something in us of their own virtues, that they may deign to supplicate the Lord for us. For if we cannot endure the torments which the holy martyrs suffered, let us at least, with them interceding, fight against evil concupiscences. And since daily sins are not lacking, neither are daily remedies lacking. 2. True joy is not here, where Christ promised nothing but sad things. Let no one believe that he possesses any felicity or any true joy in this world. Blessedness can here be prepared, it cannot be possessed.
Two times succeed one another in their order, a time of weeping and a time of laughing. Let no one deceive himself, brethren, there is not in this world a time of laughing. I know, brethren, that every man desires to rejoice: but not all seek joy there where it ought to be sought. True joy in this world neither was, nor is, nor shall be able to be: for so the Lord Himself in the Gospel admonished His disciples, saying: «In the world ye shall have pressure» (John XVI, 33); and again: «The world shall rejoice, but ye shall be sorrowful; but your sorrow shall be turned into joy» (John XVI, 20). And so in this life let us, with the Lord helping, do what is good with labour and grief:
that in the age to come we may be able to gather the fruit of good things with joy and exultation; according to that: «They that sow in tears shall reap in joy» (Ps. CXXV, 5). 3. Here we are in exile. Into this world, therefore, dearly beloved brethren, we have been cast out through the sin of the first man from the blessed seat of paradise, and, as it were, sent into exile, and thus in this world we have no homeland. So also the Apostle says: «While we are in the body, we are pilgrims from the Lord» (2 Cor. V, 6). Let us not, then, seek joy in this world; because, as was said above, true joy can here be procured, it cannot be possessed. Seek not on the way what is kept for thee in the homeland.
And because against the devil, with Christ as leader, thou must daily fight, seek not the reward in the battle, which is kept for thee in the kingdom. Seek not in the fight what is kept for thee in the future, when the victory shall have been made perfect: rather attend to that which the Apostle says: «All who wish to live piously in Christ suffer persecution» (2 Tim. III, 12); and again: «Through many tribulations it behoves us to enter into the kingdom of God» (Acts XIV, 21). 4. Our labour is solaced because we tend toward our own fellow-citizens who long for us. And of the greater labour the greater is the reward. So, then, ought we to act, that we may deserve happily to return to the principal homeland, where our parents the Patriarchs, the Prophets, and the Apostles desire to receive us or to see us;
where also our fellow-citizens the Angels, and that heavenly city Jerusalem, and the king of that city, Christ, await us with the arms of charity outstretched, that we may return to them happily, the devil laid low, full of good works. For ye know, brethren, that all merchants and whosoever are engaged in other affairs, are meanwhile anxious upon the way, that in their homeland they may be secure; and then they have true gladness, when with great gain they deserve to arrive at their homeland: so that we, most beloved brethren, may then prepare our mind for joy, when we shall deserve to arrive at Christ. Meanwhile, for now let us rejoice in hope, being about to have true joy afterward in reality.
What is worse, there are many who by a perverse order believe that they ought to rejoice in the pleasure and delights and luxury of this world; but what they seem to sow in joy, they will of necessity receive back with mourning and tears; for he does not lie who said in the Gospel, 'Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep' (Luke 6:25). So too did that unhappy rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen. He had joy indeed in the world, but he deserved to find flames in hell. Lazarus, who lay at his gate, had sorrow in the way; but he received joy in the fatherland. II. We must pray that we may be held all the more by longing for our homeland. Let us therefore, most beloved brethren, as much as we can, entreat the mercy of God;
utnobisitaamoremvitææternæ, inspiiaredignetur, utpluspatriamvelimusamarequamviam, etampliusdefuturoquamdepræsentisa'culocogitemus : etsicsemperinexsiliomundihujusagerestudeamus, utadfuturumjudiciumcumliberaetsecuraconscientiaornatibonisoperibuspervenirepossimus, prastanteDominonostroJesuChristo, cuiesthonorctgloriacumPatreetSpiritusanctoinsæculasæculorum. Amen. SERMOCCXXV (a). DeMartyribus, II (b). i. Martyresverecolunt, quieoaimatantur. Quoties.
that he may deign so to breathe into us the love of eternal life, that we may wish to love our homeland more than the road, and think more of the age to come than of the present one; and that we may thus strive always to conduct ourselves in the exile of this world, so that we may be able to arrive at the judgment to come with a free and secure conscience, adorned with good works, through the bestowal of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 225. On the Martyrs, II. I. They truly venerate the martyrs who imitate them. As often as
we celebrate the solemnities of the holy martyrs, most beloved brethren, let us so expect through their intercession to obtain temporal benefits from the Lord, that by imitating the martyrs themselves we may deserve to receive eternal ones. For the solemnities of the holy martyrs are in truth celebrated by those who follow the examples of those very martyrs. For the solemnities of the martyrs are exhortations to martyrdom, so that it should not irk us to imitate what it delights us to celebrate. But we want to rejoice with the saints, and we are unwilling to endure the tribulation of the world with them. For whoever is unwilling, as far as he is able, to imitate the holy martyrs, will not be able to attain to their blessedness.
Thus also the apostle Paul preaches, saying, 'If we have been companions in the sufferings, we shall also be companions in the consolation' (2 Cor. 1:7); and the Lord in the Gospel, 'If the world hates you, know that it hated me before you' (John 15:18). He refuses to be in the body who is unwilling to endure the hatred with the Head. 2. Neither the imitation of the martyrs nor of Christ is impossible. But someone says: And who is there who can follow the footsteps of the blessed martyrs? To this man I reply that we can imitate not only the martyrs, but even the Lord himself, with his help, if we are willing. Hear not me, but the Lord himself crying out to the human race, 'Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart' (Matt. 11:29).
Hear also the blessed apostle Peter admonishing, 'Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his footsteps' (1 Pet. 2:21). Likewise the apostle Paul cries out, 'Be imitators of God, as most beloved children' (Eph. 5:1). What shall we answer to these things, most beloved brethren, or what excuse shall we be able to have? If someone were to tell you that you ought to imitate the miracles which the Lord did, your excuse could be just: for to perform miracles and wonders is not given to all; but to live justly and chastely, and to keep charity with all, is at hand with the help of God. For the Lord himself does not say, 'Learn from me to raise the dead, to walk over the waters with dry feet'; he does not say this:
but what does he say? 'That I am meek and humble of heart'; and again, 'Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you'; and again, 'Be perfect, as your heavenly Father also is perfect, who makes his sun to rise upon the good and the evil' (Matt. 5:44, 45). And although there are many other things in which we ought to imitate both God and the blessed martyrs, yet these two are chief, namely, that we be meek and humble of heart, and that we love our enemies with all our strength. 3. Especially in the love of enemies. The two feet of charity. Concerning the love of enemies, most beloved brethren, no one will ever be able truly to excuse himself. Someone can say to me, 'I cannot fast, I cannot keep vigil';
can he say, 'I cannot love'? He can say, 'I cannot give away all my goods to the poor, and serve God in a monastery'; can he say, 'I also cannot love'? If you say that you cannot abstain from wine or from meats, we believe you; but if you say that you cannot forgive those who sin against you, we do not believe you at all. And since no excuse remains to us, seeing that we are commanded to fulfill this almsgiving not out of the storeroom but out of the heart, so that through the way we may deserve to arrive at the eternal homeland, let us love not only friends but even enemies.
For by these two precepts, that is, by loving God and by loving our neighbor, as though by two spiritual feet, we shall be able to run along the way of true charity, and shall be able happily to arrive at the eternal homeland. With these feet the apostle Paul was running when he said, 'But I so run, not as if uncertainly' (1 Cor. 9:26). 4. He who loves enemies is a son of God. He who does not love is a murderer and is in darkness. Whoever therefore loves his enemies, in him will be fulfilled that which the Lord said, 'Love your enemies, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.' Choose now what may please you. If you love your enemies, you will deserve to be not only a friend but even a son of God.
But if you are unwilling to love your enemies, you will not be able to have God favorable to you; for it is written, 'He who hates his brother is a murderer' (1 John 3:15); and again, 'He who does not love abides in death' (ibid. 14); and again, 'He who hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not where he goes, because the darkness has blinded his eyes' (id. 2:11); and again elsewhere it is written, 'The ways of the wicked, who retain injury, lead to the death of the misdeed.' Are these my words, most beloved brethren? They are brought forth from the holy and canonical Scriptures. Therefore, that we may neither be murderers nor remain in darkness, let us be zealous to love not only friends but even enemies:
so that we may with a free conscience be able to meet the merciful and compassionate Lord according to the bond of his own pledge. 5. Sins committed against us are to be forgiven; those against God are to be punished. In ourselves is the remedy of sins. For he himself said, 'If you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your sins; if you do not forgive, neither will your Father forgive you your debts.' Attend diligently, most beloved brethren, and know that it is one thing to sin against God, another to sin against man. For when men sin against us, if we do not grant pardon to those who repent, we incur sin:
but when someone sins against God, if we are willing to forgive without great strictness, we make ourselves partakers of his sins. Therefore the Lord said, 'If you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your sins' (Matt. 6:14). I ask you, brethren, what more tender, what more kindly thing can be said? He has placed it in our power in what manner we shall be judged on the day of judgment. He did not say, 'Go into the East, and seek righteousness; sail as far as the West, that you may receive pardon'; but what does he say? 'Forgive your enemy, and it shall be forgiven you; pardon, and you shall be pardoned; give, and it shall be given to you.' He seeks nothing from you outside of you. God directs you to yourself and to your own conscience:
for in you he has placed what he requires. For you do not need to seek remedies for your wounds far off: the pardon of your sins, if you will, you can find within, in the storeroom of your heart. 6. He easily forgives who considers how much he owes to God. But you say: My enemy has forced me to endure such great evils that I can by no reasoning love him. You attend to what a man has done to you, and do not attend to what you have done to God? If you diligently examine and search your conscience, without any comparison you have committed far more sins against God than a man has committed against you. And with what face do you ask that God should deign to forgive you much, when you will not consent to forgive a little?
If these spiritual remedies which we have spoken of above you gladly receive, as by God's favor you have been accustomed, and most diligently guard them stored up in the cabinet of your holy conscience, then, with the Lord's help, you will not fear the poisons of the devil, and either the wounds of the soul will never be inflicted upon you through hatred or wrath, or, if perchance they should creep in, they are quickly recalled through charity to their former health: through the bestowal of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, through all the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 226. On the Martyrs, III. 1. Christ suffers in the martyrs. Their passion is a translation to heaven.
Sustained by the contest of all the martyrs and by their victory, whose birthday of triumphant glory is celebrated, whereby a robust faith knows the struggle and the encounters of passion, we ought to be strengthened, knowing for certain that in all of them Christ suffers, and that they are at once transferred with exultation of body to the kingdom of heaven; and while the Gentiles shudder at death in sickness, these in that very death attain a perpetual inheritance. Through their passion indeed they believe it to be a translation rather than an end. This is the hidden wisdom which, in your elect, O Lord, is not gathered by persuasion; but from your martyrs and from the divine fountain there spring up virtues, for whom to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil.
1:21), triumphing in Christ, gaining sins by their death; although he who suffers in him does not die at all. For the death of confession is not death, but the inheritance of life. Martyrdom is therefore the forgiveness of crimes, the head of the virtues, the occasion of righteousness, the imitation of the Lord's passion. O most blessed martyrs! renouncing the world, they preferred the better last things to the first. Whose consummation, in short, makes a just beginning. 2. The devil, unwilling, bestows crowns on the martyrs. By your divine will, O almighty God, the most glorious martyrs deserved to be witnesses of Christ. Meditating also on victory, they confessed Christ under scourges, in prisons, in workhouses, in solitude. For confession ought always to be the companion of the righteous.
O renowned souls of the blessed, and the glorious victory of the martyrs, among whom most devoted women together conquered the world and their sex; doing battle with the devil, they proved stronger than the men who tortured them, they who gave thanks to the raging executioner! For almighty God expects faith from all rather than death; but the devil, who hates those who confess, unwillingly bestows crowns. He makes martyrs of those he kills; and while he strives to conquer God's servants, he himself is despised even as he rages. Your generosity therefore, O God, has thus far set martyrdoms before us, so that the adversary, by whom Adam was struck down, might be shown to be steadfastly struck down by the sons of Adam.
For you willed not only to rescue man from the devil's power through faith, but to slay the trampler of him through virtue, so that we who rejoice as dead in Christ's blood may, leading martyrdoms with liberal spirit, afterward triumph crowned in Christ; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 227. On the Martyrs, IV. I. The harvests of the martyrs watered with rivers of blood and tears. It delights us to behold the fields of the harvest of martyrs and confessors, where the eyes gaze upon those of the Angels. The ear of the body of the Lamb of God bloomed, who takes away the sin of the world. In the field of the age the fields of the martyrs began to grow green, watered not by streams of waters, but by rivers of tears.
What and how great are these ears of the confessors? Greater and lesser, old men and young men, virgins and nursing infants, nourished by the bloody river of God. But in God's judgment there are no greater or lesser; for all alike the angelic Powers protect. Now let us behold old men and young men, virgins and nursing infants alike, and confessors. Behold Eleazar, an old man of ninety years, a wrestler above the young men. Gaze upon those young men: seven brothers alike from the same womb, matched in grace, concordant in blood, what ears of grain they bloomed into one! For 'Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity' (Ps. 132:1)! Who watered these ears in the surging field of the age?
A mother, patient and compassionate, watered the ears of her own testimony, sprung from her own blood, with the fountain of her prayers; and the Lord gave the increase, who aided both the mother and the sons. Look also at the childlike ears of the martyrs, the three boys in the furnace of flames. See also other harvests, those slain under Herod, infants and martyrs rejoicing without loss. The whole world therefore is planted with the empurpling ears of the martyrs. Blessed David walked among these purple fields, crowned with rosy victory: he is gladdened, he is fed by his eyes, and he sings with voices of devotion, 'They that sow,' he says, 'in tears, shall reap in joy' (Ps. 125:5). See the sowers themselves, the very same likewise also the reapers; but through the angelic Powers. 2. The relics of the martyrs, like scattered ears of grain.