But he who neither wishes himself to read the lesson, nor gladly to hear the reader, altogether does not believe that he can acquire anything good therefrom. You therefore, brethren, I ask and admonish, that whoever of you know letters should read over the divine Scripture more frequently: but you who know them not, when others read, listen with attentive ears. For the light of the soul and its eternal food is nothing other than the word of God, without which the soul can neither see nor live: for just as our flesh dies if it takes not food, so also our soul is extinguished if it receives not the word of God. 3. The peasant can both hear it and retain it. Since he learns base songs. But someone says:
'I am a countryman, and I am constantly occupied with earthly labors; I can neither read the divine lesson nor hear it.' How many countrymen and how many peasant women retain by heart diabolical songs, amorous and shameful, and sing them aloud? Can they hold and prepare the things the devil teaches, and yet cannot hold what Christ has shown? How much more quickly and better could any countryman or any peasant woman, and how much more usefully, learn the Creed too, and the Lord's Prayer, and some antiphons and psalms — the fiftieth or the ninetieth — and prepare and retain them and recite them more often, whereby they might join their soul to God and free it from the devil?
For just as shameful songs cast men into the darkness of the devil, so holy songs display the light of Christ. Therefore let no one say: 'I cannot retain anything of what is read in church.' For without doubt, if you are willing, you will be able. Begin to will, and at once you will be able. And that no man may be able to excuse himself from good works, by God's gift I wish to suggest to you some kind of method. And now concerning the things that pertain to agriculture. The care of our soul, dearest brethren, is most like the cultivation of the land. For just as in tilled ground some things are rooted out and others plucked up by the roots, so that what is good may be sown, so also ought it to be done in our soul. Let evils be uprooted and good things planted;
let the harmful be rooted out and the useful be grafted in: let pride be plucked up, and humility be planted; let avarice be cast away, and mercy be held fast; let luxury be despised, and chastity be loved. For just as in your land, unless you cast out the bad, you cannot plant the good, so also with your soul: unless you root out the thorns and briars of the vices, you cannot plant the holy shoots of the virtues. Tell me, I pray you, whoever you are who just now were saying that, because you did not know how to read, therefore you could not fulfill God's precepts — tell me, who showed you how you should prune your vineyard, at what time you should plant the young vine? Who showed you this?
It is because you either saw, or heard, or inquired of the best husbandmen how you ought to tend your vineyard. How is it, then, that you are so anxious about your vineyard, yet are not so anxious about your soul? The farm of God and the farm of man: what care must be shown to each. Attend, I pray you, brethren, there are two kinds of fields: one field is God's, the other is man's. You have your own farm; God too has His. Your farm is your land; God's farm is your soul. Is it just, then, that you should cultivate your own farm, and leave God's farm deserted? If you cultivate your land, cultivate also your soul. Do you wish to set your own farm in order, and leave God's farm deserted? Is this just, brethren? Do you look upon your own farm cultivated, and rejoice;
why do you not consider your soul deserted, and mourn? From the field of our farm we are to live but a few days in this world: there, then, that is, upon our soul, we ought always to spend the greater diligence. God has deigned to commit our soul to us as His own farm, that we might cultivate it with all diligence. Let us therefore labor with all our strength, with God's help, so that when God shall be pleased to come to His field, that is, to our soul, He may find it wholly cultivated, wholly set in order, wholly arranged; that He may find a harvest, not thorns; wine, not vinegar; wheat rather than tares. If He finds all things that please His eyes, He will repay us with eternal rewards.
But if He beholds it all deserted and filled with thorns, He will consign us, together with the very thorns of our works, to eternal burning. Emulating God in the care of the soul, and the origin of tribulations. God demands nothing hard in this. Hence it is, brethren, that we frequently endure tribulations and distresses, because God in a certain manner repays us in kind. We refuse to love our soul, which He loves; and He abandons the farm which we love, to let it perish. For just as our land long remained deserted by enemies, so our soul had remained deserted with many vices and crimes. Because, therefore, we did not love our soul, which God loves, we lost all that we loved in this world.
And therefore, dearest brethren, let us at least in this way learn to love the soul more than the flesh, to love things eternal rather than things fleeting. For whatever we labor for on behalf of the flesh will wholly perish: this alone cannot perish, which each one has laid up in heaven for the salvation of his soul. Therefore let no one excuse himself and say that he does not know letters, and therefore cannot fulfill God's precepts. What God requires of us is not great, not hard, not harsh. Eternal justice cries out to you in your conscience: 'As you govern your field, govern also your heart; as you cultivate your farm, cultivate also your soul; as you remove the superfluous shoots from your vine, so remove the evil affections from your soul. You cut away from your vine what is bad;'
cut away from your soul what is wicked. Just as he who has refused to prune his vine for one year yields more abundantly in that very year, but afterward remains barren and fruitless: so also he who does not remove evil thoughts and evil desires from his soul seems to bring forth fruit from robberies and frauds in the year of his life in which he lives in this world; but afterward he will remain barren forever. And because he did not display lawful fruits, like luxuriant and unfruitful branches, the eternal flame will torment him without mercy, as the Lord Himself said: 'But the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire' (Matt. 3:12). Just as on your vine you cut away all the superfluous buds, and leave the two or three that are lawful:
so also in your soul you ought to cut away, with the sword of the Holy Spirit and the pruning-hook of the cross, all desires that wrongly regard other men's goods and most wickedly covet them, and to keep only that in which justice or mercy is discerned. Let the same care be kept in cultivating the soul as in agriculture. The threefold fruit and the three states of life. Good virgins. Widows. Married women. For when the land is tilled, most beloved brethren, you know what practice is observed. First the thorns are plucked out, the stones are cast away; afterward the ground itself is broken up, worked a second time, worked a third time: then at the fourth or fifth furrow it is sown in lawful order. Let this therefore be done, dearest brethren, in our soul. First let the thorns be rooted out, that is, evil thoughts.
Afterward let the stones be taken away, that is, let all malice or hardness be purged out. Then let our heart be broken up and plowed with the evangelical plow and the plowshare of the cross, and be shattered by penance, softened by almsgiving, prepared by charity for the Lord's seed: so that then, purged and well tilled, the ground of our heart may with joy receive the seed of the word of God, and yield not only thirtyfold, but even sixtyfold and a hundredfold fruit. For there are three states of life in the holy catholic Church. There are virgins, there are widows, there are also the married. The virgins yield a hundredfold, the widows sixtyfold, but the married thirtyfold. One indeed yields more, another less;
but all are stored up in the heavenly granary, and happily enjoy eternal blessedness. Let the virgins therefore, thinking upon Mary, the widows upon Anna, and the married upon Susanna, imitate their chastity in this age, that they may be worthy to be joined to them in eternity. For good virgins, who have willed to be virgins not only in body but also in heart and tongue, are joined to holy Mary with the rest of the army of virgins. Good widows — not given to pleasures, not talkative, not curious, not envious, not proud — who serve God with fastings, alms, and prayers, as blessed Anna did, are joined to holy Anna herself with many thousands of widows.
But the married, who have kept faith with one another, and have known nothing outside themselves, have known each other only for the desire of children, have constantly given alms, and have kept God's precepts as far as they can — these will be worthy to be happily joined to holy Job, holy Sarah, or holy Susanna, together with the holy Patriarchs and Prophets. In what manner the things heard in the assembly are to be repeated to one another. I pray you, dearest brethren, always recall, always retain, what we suggest to you for the salvation of your soul. Do not receive this in a passing way. For our sermon ought to fix roots in your heart, that in the time of retribution it may happily yield the fruit of eternal life.
He who can retain the whole of what we say, let him give thanks to God, and always show to others what he retains. He who cannot retain the whole, let him at least remember some part. And if one cannot retain the whole, do you each retain three or four sentences: and while one imparts to another what he has heard, by relating the whole to one another you will be able not only to retain it by heart, but also, with Christ's help, to fulfill it in good works. Let one say to another: 'I heard my bishop speaking about chastity.' Let another say: 'I have in mind that he also preached about almsgiving.' Let another say: 'It has remained in my memory that he said we should cultivate our soul as we cultivate our land.' Let another relate:
'I retain that my bishop said that he who knows letters should study to read the divine Scripture, but he who does not know should seek out and ask someone who ought to read God's precepts to him again, so that what he has read he may, with God's help, fulfill.' Let another also say: 'I heard my bishop saying that, just as merchants who do not know letters hire for themselves literate hirelings in order to acquire money, so Christians ought to seek out and ask for themselves, and if it is necessary, even to give a wage, so that someone may read the divine Scripture to them; that just as the merchant acquires money while another reads, so these may acquire eternal life.' If you do these things, if you admonish one another;
then both in this age you can live faithfully, and afterward attain to the blessedness of eternal life. For if, as soon as you have departed from church, you have forgotten all that you heard from the bishop, you have come to church without fruit, and without fruit you return empty to your home. But far be this from you, brethren: rather let that which is written be fulfilled in you: 'Blessed are they who keep judgment, and do justice at all times' (Ps. 105:3); and that other: 'But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him; and His justice unto children's children, to such as keep His covenant, and are mindful of His commandments to do them' (Ps. 102:17-18).
To which mercy may the Lord in His loving-kindness bring you, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen. Sermon 304. On Mercy and Forgiveness. Mercy is most necessary for man. By showing it to others he obtains it. In a judge let not mercy and discipline be separated. Mercy is first to be kept toward oneself. Among all the things that human frailty needs, mercy is most necessary; for the more frail our corrupt nature is, the greater the provision of kindness it needs.
And therefore, brethren, since without this our life cannot subsist, let us learn how first to provoke the divine clemency toward us, that according to the multitude of His compassions He may deign to succor our misery; so that in the course of the present life we may avoid the ruin of our salvation, and in the future may be able to escape everlasting destruction. For to obtain this, most beloved, as holy Scripture shows us, the chief good is that of mercy; concerning which the Savior Himself says: 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy' (Matt. 5:7). The sinner cannot hope for mercy from God, who does not show mercy to those who sin against him.
Therefore let a man remit a temporal debt, that he may deserve to receive an eternal good. If we desire that our souls be cleansed from the filth of sins, let us not deny mercy to those who sin against us; that on the day of retribution we may be aided by works of mercy toward obtaining God's mercy. How does he await or hope for mercy from God, who is cruel to his fellow servants? If anyone desires that God have mercy on him, so let him also have mercy on his debtors. Most certainly he will be able to await pardon, who knows how to pardon others. To the work of mercy the Lord has most excellently strengthened us by His example in the Gospel, where He says: 'Be therefore merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful' (Luke 6:36);
'who makes His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust' (Matt. 5:45). Every mercy makes room for each one according to the merit of his works. He who shows mercy offers to God a sacrifice most pleasing. In a judge there ought to be both mercy and discipline; for the one without the other cannot be well. If there be mercy alone, it will produce in subjects a security in sinning: again, if discipline alone be always present, the soul of the offender is turned to despair, and the judge will not deserve mercy from God. But this mercy a man ought to begin from himself. How is he merciful toward others, who is cruel toward himself?
He is cruel toward himself who prepares for himself perpetual flames by his sins. He is well merciful who begins from himself, and diligently guards himself, lest he be punished with the devil; and so bestows on others what he perceives to be good for himself. He is reconciled by pardoning others. By forgiveness the Lord has taught us how we can obtain mercy from Him, when He says in the Gospel: 'Forgive, and it shall be forgiven you' (Luke 6:37): likewise, 'If you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your sins; but if you do not forgive men, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your sins' (Matt. 6:14-15).
This too, a true knowledge, sounds forth great mercy through us to those who can rightly understand it. Therefore God judges us out of our own judgment, and in a certain manner it is in our power how we shall be judged by God the Judge. If we judge mercifully those who offend against us, God judges us mercifully who sin against Him. Let us therefore look to His example, as the Teacher of the Gentiles admonishing us says: 'Forgive one another, if any have a complaint against another: as God in Christ has forgiven you, so do you also' (Col. 3:13): that is, as God in Christ has forgiven us our sins, so let us also forgive those who sin against us.
Again elsewhere the same Apostle says: 'Rendering to no man evil for evil' (Rom. 12:17): and in another place, 'Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good' (Ibid., 21). It is to be known most certainly that each one is to receive from God such forgiveness as he himself has given to his neighbor. Then our prayer for our sins will quickly reach the ears of almighty God, if the prayers of those who offend us are acceptable in our ears. He who knows how to pardon sinners clemently will most certainly receive the clemency of the divine loving-kindness. Whence it is also written: 'He that is inclined to mercy shall be blessed by the Lord' (Prov. 22:9). For it is remitted to us in the same measure as we have remitted to those who have harmed us with any malice.
Many kinds of works of mercy. There are, then, many kinds of works of mercy, which, when we perform them, we are helped that our sins may be forgiven us. But none of them is greater than that by which we forgive from the heart whatever anyone has sinned. For not only he who gives food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing, lodging to travelers, and the rest of this kind, but also he who gives pardon to one who sins, gives alms. And he who corrects by the rod one over whom power is given, or restrains him by some discipline, and yet forgives from the heart the sin of him by whom he was injured or offended, or prays that it may be forgiven him — not only in that he forgives and prays, but even in that he chastises and punishes with some corrective penalty, gives alms;
because he shows mercy. Therefore, brethren, I beseech you that above all things you give heed to the work of mercy, and in whatever ways you can, you help your neighbors. Be also ready to pardon your neighbors their offenses; that for this you may be able to obtain from the almighty Judge the pardon of your sins, and to deserve to have eternal life with all the saints perpetually in the heavenly kingdom: our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God, forever and ever. Amen. Sermon 305. On Divine and Human Mercy. That God therefore permitted there to be poor men in this world, so that the rich might have the means by which to redeem their sins.
By earthly mercy one comes to the heavenly. Divine and human mercy. Just now, brethren, when the Gospel was being read, we heard our Lord and Savior saying: 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy' (Matt. 5:7). Sweet is the name of mercy, dearest brethren; and if the name, how much more the reality itself? And though all men wish to have it, what is worse, not all so act; and though all wish to receive mercy, few there are who wish to give mercy. O man, with what face do you wish to ask what you refuse to give? He therefore ought to give mercy in this world, who desires to receive it in heaven.
And therefore, dearest brethren, since we all wish for mercy, let us make it our patroness in this age, that it may free us in the future. For there is in heaven a mercy, to which one comes through earthly mercies. For thus Scripture says: 'O Lord, in heaven is Thy mercy' (Ps. 35:6). There is therefore both an earthly and a heavenly mercy, human namely and divine. What is human mercy? It is itself divine mercy. That, without doubt, which bestows on you the pardon of sins. For whatever human mercy bestows on the way, divine mercy repays in the homeland.
For God in this world in all the poor is both fed and hungers, as He Himself said: 'As long as you did it to one of these least, you did it to Me' (Matt. 25:40). God therefore, who deigns to give from heaven, wills to receive on earth. What sort of men are we, who, when God gives, wish to receive, but when He asks, refuse to give? For when the poor man hungers, Christ is in need, as He Himself said: 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat' (Ibid., 42). Do not therefore despise the misery of the poor, if you wish securely to hope for the pardon of your sins. Christ now hungers, brethren, in all the poor He Himself deigns to hunger and thirst; and what He receives on earth, He repays in heaven.
I ask you, brethren, what do you wish or what do you seek, when you come to church? What indeed, except mercy? Give therefore the earthly, and you shall receive the heavenly. The poor man asks of you, and you ask of God; he a morsel, you eternal life: give to the beggar, that you may deserve to receive from Christ; hear Him saying, 'Give, and it shall be given to you' (Luke 6:38). I know not with what face you wish to receive what you do not wish to give. And therefore, when you come to church, according to your means give whatever alms you can to the poor. He who can, let him bring silver; he who cannot, let him offer wine. If he has not even this, let him offer a morsel to the hungry; if he has not a whole one, at least some little portion:
that he may fulfill what the Lord admonished through the prophet: 'Break your bread to the hungry' (Isa. 58:7). He did not say, 'Give the whole': lest perhaps you become poor, and can have no more. Almsgiving profits us. Why God permitted the poor. And if we diligently attend, brethren, this very thing — that Christ hungers in the poor — profits us. For God permitted there to be poor men in this world, that every man might have the means by which to redeem his sins. For if there were no poor man, no one would give alms, no one would receive pardon. For God could have made all men rich; but He willed to succor us through the misery of the poor:
that both the poor man through patience, and the rich man through almsgiving, might be able to merit God's grace. For the neediness of the poor fights on our behalf. Finally, if you understand wisely, and diligently weigh in the balance of your heart, incomparably more is what you receive for the poor man's sake than that which you bestow on the poor. Attend and behold the penny, and the kingdom. What like do you give to the poor man, brother? You give a penny, and from Christ you receive a kingdom; you give a morsel, and from Christ you receive eternal life; you give a garment, and from Christ you receive the remission of sins. Let us not therefore despise the poor, brethren: but rather let us desire them, and hasten of our own accord to press ourselves upon them; because the poor man's misery is the medicine of the rich, as the Lord Himself also said:
'But yet give alms, and behold, all things are clean unto you' (Luke 11:41); and again, 'Sell what you possess, and give alms' (Id. 12:33). And through the prophet the Holy Spirit cries out: 'As water quenches fire, so alms quenches sin' (Sir. 3:33): and again, 'Shut up alms in the heart of the poor, and it shall free you from all evil' (Id. 29:15). Let us therefore show mercy, brethren, and with Christ's help let us hold fast the bond of His pledge. That, namely, which I mentioned above, where He says, 'Give, and it shall be given to you'; and again, 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.' Let each one according to his means take care not to come empty to church:
for he ought to offer something, who desires to receive. He who can, let him cover the poor man with a new garment: he who cannot, let him hand over at least an old one. But he who does not feel himself fit for these things, let him hand over a morsel, receive the stranger, make his bed, wash his feet: that he may deserve to hear from Christ, 'Come, blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom: for I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was a guest, and you took Me in' (Matt. 25:34-35). No one, dearest brethren, will be able to excuse himself from giving alms; when Christ promised that He would repay a reward for a cup of cold water (Id. 10:42). Two kinds of alms.
And because, as I have frequently admonished, there are two kinds of alms — one good, another better; one that you hand a morsel to the poor, another that you quickly pardon a brother who sins against you — let us hasten, with the Lord's aid, to fulfill both kinds of alms; that we may be able to attain to eternal pardon, and to the true mercy of Christ. For He Himself said: 'If you forgive, your Father will also forgive you your sins; if you do not forgive, neither will your Father forgive you your sins' (Id. 6:14-15). And elsewhere the Holy Spirit cries out: 'Man reserves anger against man, and does he seek healing from God? He has no mercy on a man like himself, and does he ask mercy for his own sins?' (Sir.
28:5). For blessed John says: 'He who hates his brother is a murderer' (1 John 3:15); and again, 'He who hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goes; for the darkness has blinded his eyes' (Id. 2:11). And therefore, dearest brethren, that we may be able to escape eternal evils, and to attain to perpetual goods, let us hasten, as much as we can and as long as we live, both to have ourselves and to bestow on others the two kinds of alms I spoke of above, that we may be able securely on the day of judgment to say: 'Give, O Lord, because we have given: we have done what You commanded; do You fulfill what You promised.' Which may He Himself deign to grant, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
Sermon 306. On Almsgiving. By whom the giving of alms is dispensed. Dearest brethren, I have admonished your Charity concerning the giving of alms, and have presumed to give counsel. And although among many, by God's inspiration, our admonition has profited, yet I fear lest there be some who either do less than they can, or perhaps do not do it at all. But someone says: 'I am poor; therefore I cannot give alms.' That no poor man might be able to excuse himself, our Lord and Savior promised that He would repay a reward for a cup of cold water (Matt. 10:42). You say, then, 'I am poor.'