文集 第 4 章

A. Sermons preserved in the Durlach codex. SERMON ON THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. By the favor of the Divinity, most beloved brothers, already near is the day on which we long to celebrate with joy the birthday of the Lord and Savior. And therefore I ask and admonish you: insofar as we can, with God's help let us labor, that on that day, with a sincere and pure conscience, with a clean heart and a chaste body, we may be able to approach the altar of the Lord, and may merit to receive His body and blood not unto judgment, but unto the remedy of our soul. For in Christ's body our life so consists, as the Lord Himself said: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you.

Let him therefore change his life who wishes to receive life. For if he does not change his life, he will receive life unto judgment, and will be more corrupted by it than healed, more slain than made alive. For thus the Apostle said: He who eats the body of the Lord and drinks His blood unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself. And although it befits us to be adorned and resplendent with good works at every time, yet especially on the day of the Lord's birth, as the Lord Himself also said in the Gospel: Your works ought to shine before all men.

Consider, we beseech you, brothers, when any powerful or noble man desires to celebrate either his own birthday or his son's, with how great zeal, many days before, he commands whatever he sees soiled in his house to be cleaned handsomely, whatever is unseemly and unfitting to be cast out, whatever is useful and necessary to be brought forth. The house too, if it be dark, is whitewashed; the floors are cleaned with brooms and, sprinkled with various flowers, are adorned; whatever also pertains to the gladness of soul and body and to delights is provided with all solicitude. Why does he do all these things, dearest brothers, except that the day of his birthday may be celebrated with joy?

O man who must die, if then you prepare such great things at your own or your son's birthday, how great and of what quality ought you to prepare when about to receive the birthday of your Lord? If you prepare such things for one who must die, what things ought you to prepare for the Eternal One? Whatever therefore you would not wish to find in your house, labor as much as you can that God may not find it in your soul. Surely, if an earthly king or any householder invited you to his birthday, in what garments would you be eager to go adorned—how new and shining, how splendid—whose neither age nor cheapness nor any foulness would offend the eyes of the one inviting.

With such zeal therefore, insofar as you prevail, strive with Christ's help, that your soul, composed with the diverse ornaments of the virtues, adorned with the gems of simplicity and the flowers of sobriety, may proceed with a pure conscience to the solemnity of the eternal King—that is, the birthday of the Lord and Savior—bright with chastity, resplendent with charity, gleaming white with almsgiving. For Christ the Lord, if He shall recognize you thus composed to celebrate His birthday, will Himself deign to come in person and not only to visit your soul, but even to rest there perpetually and to dwell in it, as it is written: Among them will I walk and dwell in them; and again: Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone shall rise and open to me, I will go in to him and will sup with him, and he with me. How happy is that soul which has striven so to govern its life, with God's help, that it may merit to receive Christ as its guest and inhabitant! Just as, on the contrary, how unhappy is that conscience—to be lamented with a whole fountain of tears—which has so bloodied itself with evil works, darkened itself with the blackness of avarice, burned itself with the fire of wrath, defiled itself with continual luxury, destroyed itself with the tyranny of pride, that in it not Christ begins to rest, but the devil to hold dominion.

For such a soul, if the medicine of penance does not quickly come to its aid, will be forsaken by the light, seized by darkness, emptied of sweetness, filled with bitterness, invaded by death, rejected by life. Yet let not such a soul distrust the Lord's mercy, nor be broken by excessive despair; but rather let it swiftly run back to penance, and, while the wounds of its sins are still fresh and warm, let it so apply to itself wholesome medicines, because our Physician is almighty and is accustomed so to cure our sores that He does not let even traces of scars remain.

And therefore, most beloved brothers, just as at all times from adulteresses and most wretched concubines, so also from your own wives you ought to abstain for many days beforehand, as often as you dispose to celebrate either the Lord's birthday or the other solemnities. Flee drunkenness before all things; fight against wrath as against a most cruel beast; drive out hatred from your heart like a deadly poison; and let there be in you so great a charity that it may reach not only to friends but even to your very enemies, so that you may be able to say with security in the Lord's Prayer: Forgive us our debts, and so forth.

For whoever knows that he holds hatred toward even one man, I do not know whether he can approach the altar of the Lord in safety, especially since the blessed evangelist John cries out with terror and says: 'He who hates his brother is a murderer.' Now it is for you to judge whether a murderer, before he does penance, ought to presume to receive the Eucharist. Saint John added yet more and cries out saying: 'He who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and knows not whither he goes, because the darkness has blinded his eyes'; and again he says: 'Everyone who does not love his brother shall abide in death'; and again: 'If anyone says of himself that he loves God, and hates his brother, he is a liar.'

For he who does not love his brother, whom he sees, how can he love God, whom he does not see? Whoever therefore keeps hatred or anger in his heart, and under such thunder is neither terrified nor roused, must be believed to be not sleeping but dead. Pondering these things assiduously, therefore, most beloved brethren, let those who are good strive with the grace of God to persevere in good works; for it is not he who begins, but he who perseveres in the love of God unto the end, who shall be saved.

But those who recognize that they are slow to almsgiving, quick to anger, and headlong in pursuit of lust, let them hasten, with the Lord's help, to rescue themselves from evils, so that they may be worthy to fulfill what is good; that when the Day of Judgment comes, they may not be punished with the impious and sinners, but may be worthy to attain the eternal rewards together with the just and merciful, through the bounty of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. II. A SERMON ON THE NATIVITY. We read and faithfully hold that at the very beginning of the world's birth, God made us in the first man according to His own image and likeness. Behold, on this day, by a changed turn, God has been made according to our likeness.

In the first case He bestowed better things from His own; in the second He took upon Himself lesser things from ours. Through the tasting of the forbidden tree the heedless frailty of the first man was tempted to grasp at the divinity of his own Lord with a damnable ambition, the devil urging and saying: 'If you taste of this tree, your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods.' Therefore let us acknowledge the admirable goodness of our tender Father. Man, at the enemy's prompting, wished through his pride to be God, and God was made man through mercy. Today, in a certain manner, there is renewed in us through Christ's divinity the appearance of that ancient and incipient age, when the first Adam was fashioned from the material of clay.

Behold, now too the second Adam is formed of virginal flesh as though from untouched and pristine earth. Behold, I say, once again, with the laws of nature suspended, a new man is brought to perfection into a new life by God alone at work. The Virgin's son is promised through the visitation of the Holy Spirit; what wonder if He is born without corruption, who is conceived of sanctification? For it was not fitting that He who brought salvation to us all should fail to grant to His mother alone the dignity of integrity. 'The Holy Spirit,' it says, 'shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you.' It was clearly fitting that the mother, to be honored by a royal birth, should first be sanctified by the entrance of the heavenly King.

Wherefore let us not believe our Lord and Savior to be a mere man simply because we see Him also born as man. It is not right that He should not be believed to be God, for whom, as He was about to descend to the earth, a dwelling was prepared by God. And so, by the working of divine power, the womb of the believing woman is made fruitful; upon the mortal wood the tree of life is grafted; the Power that bears all things within itself is borne by weakness; and He who is not contained by earth, sea, and sky is received within the members of a single little body. From His own creature the Creator of all is born, and from His own streamlet the great fountain springs forth; the root of all is born from His own shoot, and the true Vine is made the fruit of its own branch.

Behold, the most longed-for day is at hand, shining with a twofold grace: illumined indeed by the brightness of the accustomed light, but shining forth above all with the radiance of the resplendent womb. Let us therefore confess first of all one God, our Lord, and there will remain no other whom we might call lesser. For whoever speaks of one as greater and another as lesser must of necessity confess that he has two gods. Let us therefore believe in one God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: three persons, not three substances; three names and not three kingdoms. Why one God? Because there is one operation of power, the same concord of will, one divinity, one everlastingness, one majesty. But why three persons?

Because one is the Father, another the Son, another the Holy Spirit, yet in the equality of divinity there is nothing different. For in the Three there is one glory, one substance; and equality of powers makes unity, while the propriety of names and the number of persons make Trinity. Whence let us faithfully hold that our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners: as of God wholly God, so of man wholly man, without the taint of sin; according to His divinity equal to the Father, according to His humanity even lesser than the angels and younger than the mother whom He created. These are the most solid foundations of our life and hope.

It remains that upon these foundations the structure of good works should rise for us; and this we shall assuredly attain by imitating Him who for this reason was made man from God, that we might be able to imitate Him. And we shall imitate God by despising the world, by not pursuing revenge for injuries, by rejecting our own wills, by loving the glory of submission, by enduring tribulations with magnanimity, and by turning away from the honors and riches and delights of this body.

And so let us reserve all our delight, all our rest for that future homeland; and let us fill up our liberties and the enticements of present things and our desires with longings for things to come, sighing thither daily, presenting to our heart at every moment that which eye has not seen nor ear heard, thinking without ceasing on this: how we shall worthily meet Him at that second coming of His dread majesty, being about to render an account of our deeds, our words, our thoughts; so acting, so persevering in our place as though we were daily about to pass out of this life.

O day, the newness of all days, the gain of light and the loss of blindness, in which the eternal Sun, descending from the highest height of the Father's brightness, unlocked the entrance of the virginal womb, and sprinkled the darkness of the whole world with a gleaming coruscation. Bear, O faithful of Christ, your festive joys. A new thing has been done for us today, which long ago had been promised: that without loss to the virgin's chastity the breasts of the mother might give suck to a son. This is that newness announced by the prophecy of Jeremiah the prophet: 'The Lord,' he says, 'shall make a new thing upon the earth'; and, as though kindling a certain lamp for this darkness, he immediately added: 'A woman shall encompass a man.'

This, I say, is the new thing which I declare the Lord will make upon the earth: that a woman shall encompass a man. Attend, brethren, and rather go before me with your understanding. 'A woman,' he says, 'shall encompass a man.' O woman blessed above women, who both knew not a man and encompassed a man in her own womb; who is not touched by carnal intercourse and yet rejoices in fleshly offspring from a spiritual seed. Mary encompasses a man by giving faith to the angel, because Eve destroyed a man by consenting to the serpent. 'The Lord,' he says, 'shall make a new thing upon the earth.' Therefore, when the time came for exhibiting this newness, a heavenly messenger is sent ahead to the virgin; the angel greeted the maiden, unacquainted with a man's greeting.

The virgin is frightened by the newness of the words, to whom the angel says: 'Fear not, Mary, for you have found grace with the Lord.' 'Do not,' he says, 'be frightened at my appearance, O mother of my Lord; I have come as the minister of your conception. He Himself has sent me to you, He who is to be born of you; He Himself announces to you through me the joy of Him who was pleased to unite in your womb a mystical marriage with human nature. You have found grace with God; behold, you shall conceive and bear a son—not a man of any ordinary merit, but the Savior of the whole world. Fear not,' he says, 'cast from you all dread, you who are about to conceive the joy of the world. Turn back, Mary, to the prophetic reading.'

For knowledge of the divine books cannot escape you, who are about to bring forth the very fullness of the prophets. Recall in the book of Isaiah the prophet the virgin whom you have read of, and rejoice, because it is you—you have been counted worthy to be her. You were there prefigured, O virgin. Behold, you shall conceive in your womb, not of a man but of the Holy Spirit; and you shall be with child and remain undefiled; you shall bear a son and suffer no loss of your virginity. And she said: 'Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.' Presently, therefore, the angel, having received the virgin's consent, sought again the dwellers of the heavenly region; and behold, suddenly an ineffable power penetrated the secret place of the virgin.

The Maker of the world enters the narrow confines of a human belly; the untouched mother is made with child; and behold, like a bridegroom from his chamber, Christ comes forth from Mary's womb. The power of majesty is hidden in the limbs of an infant; God hangs upon the breasts, is covered with the squalor of cheap swaddling-clothes, endures the narrowness of a most hard manger, and the Merciful One humbly suffers all, so long as the world, which had perished, might be set free. O blessed infancy, through which the life of our race was restored! O most welcome and delightful cries, through which we escaped the gnashing of teeth and the wailings of our fathers! O happy swaddling-clothes, with which we wiped away the filth of our sins! O splendid manger, in which lay not the fodder of beasts, but the food of angels was found!

Give suck, Mary, to your Creator; give suck to the Bread of heaven; give suck to the Price of the world. Offer the breast to Him who sucks, that for you He Himself may offer His cheek to the one who strikes. Let the infant be nourished with the milk of your breasts, that as a young man He may accept the drink of vinegar for you. Let your hands now carry Him, that His arms may afterward be fastened on the cross for you. Finally, do you as His mother minister to Him temporal substance, that He Himself may grant eternal life to us and to you, together with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. Amen. III. A SERMON ON THE BIRTHDAY OF SAINT STEPHEN. The reading from the Acts of the Apostles, which was read to us today, most beloved brethren, though it holds very much of wonder in its outward appearance, nonetheless contains no less of dignity in its mystery.

'Behold,' says the blessed Stephen, 'I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.' Consider more attentively, most beloved brethren: when the blessed martyr saw our Lord Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God the Father, why did he testify that he saw the Son of Man, and not rather the Son of God—when surely he would seem to confer more honor upon the Lord if he had said he saw the Son of God rather than the Son of Man? But a sure reason demanded that it should thus both be shown in heaven and be proclaimed in the world. For the whole stumbling-block of the Jews lay in this: why our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to the flesh was the Son of Man, should also be said to be the Son of God.

Therefore the divine Scripture beautifully recorded that the Son of Man stands at the right hand of God the Father, so that, to confound the unbelief of the Jews, He might be shown in heaven to the martyr, who was denied by the faithless in the world; and that the heavenly Truth might give testimony to Him whom earthly impiety refused to believe. Whence, although according to the psalm that was read, 'precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints,' yet if anything can distinguish among the martyrs, he would seem to be the foremost above all who is the first. For since Saint Stephen was ordained a deacon by the apostles, he preceded the apostles themselves by a blessed and triumphant death.

And thus he who was inferior in order became first in suffering; and he who was a disciple in rank began to be a master in martyrdom, fulfilling that which the blessed prophet said in the psalm that was read: 'What shall I render to the Lord for all that He has rendered to me?' For Stephen the martyr wished to be the first to render to the Lord that which, along with all mankind, he had received from the Lord. For the death which the Savior deigned to suffer for all, this he was the first to render back to the Savior. After these things sacred Scripture added and said: 'Bending his knees, he cried out saying: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.' See, most beloved brethren, the affection of the blessed man; see the great and marvelous charity.

He was set in persecution, and for his persecutors he supplicated the Lord; and amid the shower of stones, when another might have forgotten even his own dearest ones, he commended his enemies to the Lord. For what did he say as he was being stoned? 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.' For then he grieved more over their sins than over his own wounds, more over their impiety than over his own death. And rightly more. For in their impiety there were many things which ought to be lamented; but in his death there were no things which ought to be mourned. Their impiety was followed by eternal death, but his death by perpetual life. Let us therefore imitate in some measure, most beloved brethren, the faith of so great a master, the charity of so illustrious a martyr.

Let us love our brethren in the Church with that same spirit with which he then loved his enemies. But what is worse, sometimes we not only do not love our enemies, but do not even keep whole faith with our friends. But someone says: 'I cannot love my enemy, whom I daily endure as a most cruel foe.' O whoever you are, you attend to what a man has done to you, and do not consider what you have done to God. For since you have committed far graver sins against God, why do you not forgive a man a small thing, that God may deign to forgive you the whole? Recall what the Truth itself promised you in the Gospel, and what a kind of surety it made you, and what a covenant it entered into with you:

'For if,' He says, 'you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your offenses. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your debts.' You see, brethren, that by the grace of God it is placed within our power in what manner we shall be judged by the Lord. 'If,' He says, 'you forgive, it shall be forgiven you.' I have said it often already, brethren, and I ought to say it more frequently: let no one deceive himself, let no one lead himself astray, for whoever holds hatred toward even one man in this world, whatever he offers to God in good works, he shall lose it all; for it is written: 'He who hates his brother is a murderer.' In this place 'brother' must be understood to mean every man. For we are all brethren in Christ.

Let no one, therefore, presume upon his virginity apart from charity; let no one trust in his almsgiving, no one in his fastings, no one in his prayers; for so long as he holds enmity in his heart, he will be able to appease God for himself neither by these nor by any other good works. But if he wishes to have God favorable, let him not disdain to hear good counsel. Let him hear, not me, but his own Lord: 'If you offer,' He says, 'your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave there your gift before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then coming you shall offer your gift.'

But we, having strifes within and turning over deceits in our heart, as though we had a good conscience, presume to approach the altar, not fearing that which is written: 'He who eats the body of the Lord and drinks His blood unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself.' But someone says: 'It is a great labor to love an enemy and to supplicate for one's persecutors.' Nor do we deny it, brethren. It is indeed no small labor in this world, but great is the reward in the world to come. For through love of an enemy, of a man, you are made a friend of God—nay, not only a friend, but also a son, as He Himself said: 'Love your enemies,' and the rest.

If some powerful and rich man in this world wished to make you his adopted son, how you would serve! What indignations even from his servants, what most harsh and sometimes even most shameful services you would endure, in order to attain his fleeting and fragile inheritance! What another therefore endures for the sake of earthly substance, do you endure for the sake of eternal life. For we are convinced by most certain reasoning that for God's sake we indeed could, but are unwilling, to endure injury. Finally, if some powerful person does us an injury, if he even reviles us to our face, we do not dare to answer anything harsh—I will not say, to return like for like. Why is this? Lest from that powerful person we suffer things still greater than what we have already endured.

What the fear of man extorts from us, the love of Christ ought to require of us. If therefore a powerful person rages against us, we keep silent and dare say nothing; but if an equal, or perchance an inferior, does us even a slight insult, then, like a wild beast, without any patience and without any regard for God, we rise up, and either avenge our injury on the spot, or at any rate prepare our mind to return a greater like for like. What is this—that when a powerful person inflicts an injury on us, we take it patiently; but when an inferior does, we are inflamed with excessive fury? Because, where we have feared a man, there we are unwilling to fear God.

Wherefore I ask you, brethren, that, as much as we can, with God's help we prepare our heart for patience, and that in all things, even toward evil men, we strive to play the part of physicians, and hate not the men themselves, but their malice. Let us pray for the good, that they may ever ascend to better things; for the evil, that they may quickly flee to the amendment of their life and to the remedies of penitence—which very thing may He Himself deign to grant us as we pray, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God unto the ages of ages. Amen. IV. A SERMON ON SAINT STEPHEN. As often as we must exhort your charity, according to the Lord's precept, to the loving of enemies, I fear lest some may think and say that they can in no way fulfill this.

Perhaps they wish to raise this objection too, and say that they cannot always imitate Christ. Behold, I speak to you, O man, whoever you are who say that in the love of enemies you cannot imitate your Lord. Surely the blessed Stephen was a man and not God; he was that which you are; but what he did, he did not do except by the gift of Him whom you too entreat. See, nonetheless, what he did. He spoke to the Jews; he raged and he loved. Both I must demonstrate—both the one raging and the one loving. Hear the one raging. These are the words of Stephen, when he addressed the Jews: 'Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill?' You have heard the one raging.

The other I must show; hear also the one loving. Enraged and burning more grievously and rendering evil for good, they rushed to the stones and began to stone the servant of God. Here I prove your love, holy Stephen; here let us see you; here let us behold you; here let us discern you as the conqueror of the devil and the triumphant one. Behold, the blessed Stephen gazing upon Him who hung for him and was fastened on the wood of the cross—that very One while this man was being stoned. He said: 'Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.' You, blessed Stephen, what do you say? Let me hear and see you, that perhaps I may be able to imitate even you. First the blessed Stephen, standing, prayed for himself and said: 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'

When he had said this, he bent his knees, and with knee bent he said: 'Lord Jesus, lay not this sin to their charge'; and having said this, he fell asleep. O happy sleep and true rest! Behold what it is to rest blessedly: to pray for one's enemies. But I ask you, Stephen, to deign to explain to me: what was this, that standing you prayed for yourself, and for your enemies you bent your knee? For if you were present, you would doubtless answer this: 'Standing I prayed for myself, because for myself, who rightly served God, I did not labor in praying and obtaining; because he who prays for a righteous man does not labor.' Therefore standing he prayed for himself. Thence it came about that he prayed for the Jews, for the slayers of Christ, for the slayers of the saints, for those who stoned him.

Because he perceived that their impiety was excessive and great, such as could scarcely be pardoned, he bent his knee. Let us therefore imitate, most beloved brethren, insofar as God shall grant, the blessed Stephen; let us love not only friends but also enemies, because there is nothing whereby we can thus both redeem sins and conquer the devil and appease God. In short, the Lord Himself said: 'Give, and it shall be given to you; forgive, and it shall be forgiven you'; and again: 'If you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your offenses,' and the rest. See, brethren, the mercy of our Lord. He has placed it within our power in what manner we shall be judged on the Day of Judgment.

If we forgive, it shall be forgiven us; if we do not forgive, it shall not be forgiven us. Let us therefore love, most beloved brethren, not only friends but also enemies, that we may come to the tribunal of the eternal Judge with a secure conscience, saying: 'Give, Lord, because we have given; forgive, because we have forgiven. We have done what You commanded; do You fulfill what You promised'—which He Himself will grant, who with the Father lives and reigns with the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. V. A SERMON ON THE BIRTHDAY OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS. Today, dearest brethren, we celebrate the birthday of those infants whom the text of the Gospel declares to have been slain by King Herod. Therefore let our land rejoice with the highest exultation, the fruitful parent of heavenly soldiers and of so many virtues.

Behold, the profane enemy could never have profited the blessed little ones by service as much as he profited them by hatred. For just as the most sacred festivals of the present day make manifest how much iniquity abounded against the blessed little ones, so much did the grace of blessing shine forth in them. For thus we heard a little while ago that, when King Herod persecuted Christ, thousands of happy boys were slain, the prophet saying: 'Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted, because they are not.' O blessed parent of triumphant ones, homeland of illustrious warriors, rich in so many pledges! For a moment she seemed to be bereaved in the eyes of onlookers, yet she never needs to be comforted, nor does she weep for the children whom, while she was losing them (to be restrained from mournings), she gained.

Blessed are you, O Bethlehem, land of Judah, who endured the savagery of King Herod in the slaughter of the boys, who at one and the same time were counted worthy to offer to God a white-robed people of unwarlike infancy. Yet worthily do we celebrate the birthday of those whom the world brought forth more blessed unto eternal life than those whom the birth of maternal wombs poured out; if indeed they attained the dignity of perpetual life before they received the use of the present one. Precious indeed of others...

The death of the martyrs earned praise in confession; the death of these was well-pleasing in their consummation, because at the very first beginnings of dawning life their very setting gave the beginning of glory to those for whom He set the term of the present life; whom Herod's impiety tore, still sucking, from their mothers' breasts; who are rightly called the flowers of the martyrs, whom, sprung up amid the frost of unbelief, as the first bursting gems of the Church, a certain hoarfrost of persecution ripened. And therefore it is fitting to expend upon the infants slain for Christ the ceremonies of honor, not of grief; to offer to the mysteries vows, not tears; because He Himself who was the cause of their punishment was also the cause of their crown, He the cause of hatred who was also the cause of reward.

But while Herod was preparing death for the little ones, Joseph is warned through an angel to carry Christ the Lord into Egypt. Egypt was full of idols; already after the persecution of the Jews and the consent of the profane people to the slaying of Christ, Christ deigns to pass over to the nations given over to idols, and, leaving Judea, is brought to be worshiped to a world that knew Him not. And because in the divine Scriptures we recognize that good and just men have always endured the persecution of the wicked, if we consider diligently, we find that those who do it endure greater punishments than those who seem to endure. For every man who persecutes another in the body is recognized first to endure persecution in his own heart.

For even if he takes something of his substance from the one whom he persecutes, he does himself the greater loss, because no one has unjust gain without just damage. Where gain is, there is damage: gain in the chest, damage in the heart. He took a garment, he loses faith; he acquires money, he loses justice. But men do this for this reason: because they are unwilling to attend to the last day. For if they were willing to think continually on the day of their death, they would restrain their mind from all covetousness and malice. But what they now are unwilling to think of wholesomely, they must afterward endure without any remedy.

For the last day will come upon them; the Day of Judgment will come, when they will be permitted neither to increase their money nor to be able to redeem themselves from eternal death by good works; because the sinner is smitten even by this chastisement, that dying he forgets himself, who while he lived forgot God. The Day of Judgment will come, when the foundations of the mountains shall be shaken and the earth shall burn down to the depths below; when the burning heavens shall be dissolved; when the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven; when sinners and the impious shall be cast into the furnace of fire, and the smoke of their torments shall ascend unto the ages of ages. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Whence there will come a time, dearest brethren, when it shall be ill with no good man and well with no evil man. There will come, I say, the last day, when the godly shall be separated from the ungodly, the just from the unjust, the praisers of God from the blasphemers of God; when they shall be separated so that, as it has been said, it shall be ill with no good man, well with no evil man. Why then is it now perhaps not thus, and now thus, but what is now hidden shall then be made manifest? Read the divine Scripture; enter with me, if you can, into the sanctuary of God. Perhaps there, if I am able, I will teach you—nay, learn with me from Him who taught me—that even now it is not well with the evil, and it is better for the good than for the evil, although the full felicity of the good has not yet come, nor has the last punishment of the evil yet come.

If you diligently attend to the law of God, perhaps you will understand with me that it is not well with the evil. For I ask you and inquire of you: why is it ill with you? You will answer me: poverty grips me, hardship presses me, pain perhaps of my limbs, fear from an enemy. Is it ill with you, then, because you suffer evils, and well with him who suffers his own self as an evil? There is a great difference between suffering evil and being evil; but you—what you suffer, you are not. For you suffer evil and are not evil. He, however, does not suffer evil and is evil. Do not, then, be deceived. It cannot be that it should be ill with you, who suffer evil, and well with him, who is evil. For while he is evil—do you think that he does not also suffer evil, when he suffers his own self?

Is it ill with you because you suffer another's evil in your body, while it goes well with him who suffers his own evil in his body? Is it ill with you who perhaps lead an evil life, and well with him who has an evil soul? Be good, you who have good things. Riches are good, gold is good, silver too is good, households are good, possessions are good. All these things are good, but only insofar as you use them well. Have those good things which make you good, not those which make you evil. What are these, you ask? Do judgment and justice. The things you have are good; be you also good amid your good things. Be modest with your goods; do not be evil among them, lest you perish along with them.

Thus therefore the Creator of all and God the administrator has distributed gold and silver to men, so that of itself, in its own nature and kind, it is good, yet its abundance does not exalt the good nor does poverty crush them. But the wicked, when it is offered them, it blinds; and when it is taken away, it torments them; for both when moneys are gained they bestow a false gladness, and when they are lost they leave behind a true sorrow. Let us therefore learn to love the true riches, that is, chastity and justice and peace and mercy. These riches are called just, because they are granted for good and just deserts; those are called true riches, because whoever possesses them shall not be in want, since, according to the Apostle, having food and clothing, he is content therewith.

These earthly riches, then, it is unjust to think riches at all, since they do not take away want. For each man will burn the more with want, the greater the riches he in his avarice has loved and held. How then are they riches, when as they grow, poverty grows too, and which, the greater they are, bring no satisfaction to their lovers, but only inflame desire? Do you count that man rich who would be in less need if he had less? Whence one has well said: 'The love of money grows as much as the money itself grows.' For with the increase of wealth the madness of desire is augmented. Indeed all the greedy or covetous seem to be sick, as it were, with the disease of dropsy.

For just as the man with dropsy, the more he drinks, the more he thirsts, so too the avaricious or covetous man endangers himself in acquiring and is not satisfied in seeking. But we, brethren, considering that we are pilgrims and strangers in this world, let us keep in reserve for ourselves, upon the journey of this life, only so much as is needful for food and clothing; and, as far as we can, let us direct our goods toward eternal blessedness through almsgiving to the poor, so that, when on the day of judgment the covetous and avaricious shall have deserved to hear, for the barrenness of their good works, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire,' we for our good works may be able to hear:

'Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was naked and you clothed me.' To this blessedness may the Lord lead us under His protection, to whom is glory unto ages of ages. Amen. VI. A SERMON ON THE NATIVITY OF THE APOSTLES JAMES AND JOHN. I beg you, dearest brethren, that you take it not amiss nor judge us superfluous, that we exhort you rather frequently to the love of enemies.

We do this for the reason that we have found no stronger medicine for healing the wounds of all sins; nor let it seem to you unfitting that sometimes even on the solemnities of the martyrs we call you forth to the love of enemies. We wish this to be done because we have learned that all the martyrs attained to the crown of martyrdom through that most perfect charity, which we rejoice with immense admiration was fulfilled also in blessed Stephen. Attend diligently, I beg you, brethren, and understand, that in all evil men we ought rather to hold their vices in hatred, not the men; to love the man, to hate the vice. Do not for the man's sake love the vice, nor for the vice's sake hate the man.

The man is your neighbor; the vice is the enemy of your neighbor. You then love your friend if you hate the vice which harms your friend. If you believe, you do well, for the just man lives by faith. What abounds in human affairs, this I say. Sometimes some man is an enemy to your dearest friend, who was the friend of both. Of three friends, two begin to be enemies to each other. What is the man in the middle to do, who has remained? One of those who hold each other in hatred wishes that you too should hate along with him the one whom he hates, and says these words to you: 'You are not my friend, because you are the friend of my enemy.' And what this one says to you about that one, that one says to you about this one. For you were three; two began to be at variance, and you alone have remained.

If you join yourself to this one, you will hate that one as an enemy; if to that one, then this one; if to both, both will murmur. Behold a temptation. You are perhaps waiting to hear from me what you should do. Remain the friend of both. Let those who are at variance with each other be reconciled through you. If you have heard from the one any evil things about the other, do not betray them to the other, lest perhaps afterward those be friends who now are enemies, and betray to each other those who betrayed them. But this I have said for the sake of men, not for the eyes of God. Behold, no one betrays you to God. It is God who sees you, who judges you. You have heard a word from an angry man, from one grieving and inflamed: let it die within you. Why is it betrayed, why is it published abroad? For if it stays within you, it will not burst you asunder.

Rather, speak to the friend who wishes to make you the enemy of your friend; address him, and treat him, as a sick soul, with the gentleness of medicine. Say to him: 'Why do you wish that I should be that man's enemy?' He will answer: 'Because he is my enemy.' 'Do you then wish that I should be the enemy of your enemy? I ought to be the enemy of your sin. This man, to whom you wish to make me an enemy, is a man; there is another enemy of yours, to whom I ought to be an enemy, if I am your friend.' He will answer: 'Who is this other enemy of mine?' 'Your vice.' He will answer: 'What is my vice?' 'The hatred with which you hate your friend.' Be therefore like a physician. The physician does not love the sick man if he does not hate the sickness. That he may free the sick man, he pursues the fever.

Do not love the vices of your friends, if you love your friends. But to whom, do you suppose, do I say this? Do I not do it myself? What I say, my brethren, I do, if I do it within myself. And first I do it within myself, if I receive from the Lord that I hate my own vices, if I offer my heart to the Physician to be healed, if I pursue my sins as far as I can, if I groan over them, if I confess that they are in me, and I accuse myself. You who used to reprove me, correct yourself. This is justice, lest it be said to us: 'You see the mote in your brother's eye, and the beam in your own eye you do not see. Hypocrite, first cast out the beam from your own eye.' Anger is a splinter, hatred a beam; but you have nourished the splinter, and it becomes a beam. Anger grown old becomes hatred; the splinter, nourished, becomes a beam.

That the splinter therefore may not become a beam, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Do you see and feel yourself livid with hatred, and yet reprove the one who is angry? Take away hatred from yourself, and you rightly reprove anger. There is a splinter in his eye, in yours a beam. And how can an eye with a beam in it see a splinter? I know not with what face he reproves to his face the angry man, who keeps hatred in his heart. He who is angry to another's face and quickly grows angry and quickly is appeased incurs indeed a splinter, but at once removes it through repentance. But he who has held hatred in his heart for a very long time, by nourishing the splinter has turned it into a beam. There is a beam in your eye, because you were unwilling at once to remove the splinter born there.

With it you have slept, with it you have risen; you have cultivated it within your very self, watered it with false suspicions, nourished it by believing the words of flatterers and of those who bring you evil reports about your friend; you did not pluck out the splinter by your diligence, and you have made it into a beam. Take away the beam from your eye; do not hate. Are you afraid of your brother or are you not afraid? I tell you, do not hate, and you are safe. You answer and say to me: 'What is it to hate, and what evil is there in a man's hating his enemy?' You hate your brother, but you despise the hatred. Hear the divine Scripture: 'He who hates his brother is a murderer.'

Therefore, if he is a murderer, though you have prepared no poison, though you have not gone forth with a sword to strike your enemy, though you have not made ready an accomplice in the crime, nor place, nor time, though at the last you have not done the deed itself—you have only hated, and you have slain yourself before you slew him. Learn therefore justice, so that you hate nothing except the vices of a man. If you hold to this, and do this justice, so that you choose rather to heal men, even the vicious ones, than to condemn them, you shall come happily before the tribunal of the eternal Judge, not to be condemned for hatred, but to be crowned for charity and peace, by the granting of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father and with the Holy Spirit unto ages of ages. Amen. VII. ON THE EPIPHANY.

Lately, dearest brethren, we celebrated the sacrament of that day of our redemption, on which God clothed Himself with man together with his infirmities. But today we honor that on which God declared Himself in man by His mighty works, in that on this day either He offered from heaven a star as the herald of His birth, or in Cana of Galilee at the wedding banquet He turned water into wine, or in the waves of the Jordan He consecrated the waters by His baptism for the restoration of the human race, or from five loaves He satisfied five thousand men. In any one of these are contained the mysteries and joys of our salvation. For He was born for us of a Virgin, which the star made manifest.

By the miracle of His work and the changing of the waters He signified that we are to be changed for the better; He provided remedies for us from baptism, which He furnished in the channel of the Jordan, and thereby summoned us. And therefore, dearest brethren, in our every act let us carry before us the star of faith, and for the keeping of purity let us celebrate the baptism of Christ, for this regeneration of Christ is the confirmation of your faith. For He instilled in you the benefit of His gift through the example of a second birth, and what He willed you to do, He first did. We read that the Jews had various baptisms under the Law, but none of these could confer a general remedy against the evil of transgression.

And therefore, for the absolution of the whole world, the waters of regeneration needed to be sanctified from heaven; and because throughout the whole world the sacrament of baptism was needful for the human race, He gave His blessing to all waters when, with unique and singular tenderness, He descended into the channel of the Jordan. For then the wave did not so much wash Christ the Lord as it was itself washed. For it was for you that Christ came in being born, for you He waged war in living, for you He fought in dying. Him whom you see dead for you, understand to have been baptized for you. And so Christ the Lord was altogether such before baptism as He was after baptism. And therefore His precursor and baptist, when Christ came to him to be baptized, addressed Him thus: 'I, Lord, ought to be baptized by you, and you come to me?'

What could be more evident concerning the purity of Christ, not yet baptized, what more forceful? 'I ought to be baptized by you'—that is, You who are the fountain of innocence and the fullness of justice, who, needing nothing, know how to give and know not how to receive—'I,' he says, 'ought to be baptized by you, because You bring with You and possess in Yourself the gifts of purity and the sacraments of baptism, and what I shall give by Your bounty through grace, You obtain by nature.' Meanwhile there is made an advancement for the creature. At the Creator's touch the members are dipped, and the streams are enriched. By life-giving grace the body is not changed by the river, but the river is changed by the body.

The happy wave marvels that its own fountain should descend into it, conceiving in a single moment eternal remedies, and bringing forth by fecundity a generation to be renewed—giving back what it had received, and receiving what it did not have. Amid these things it would be a wonder that the Lord subjected Himself to the blessing of a servant, had He not subjected Himself also to the cross and to death. And indeed He taught, by the dignity of the price itself, that man is precious to Him. But from this also we understand how great our Lord esteems the causes of human crimes in His sight, on account of which He sent to earth not an angel, not an archangel, but God. How grievous is the condition of sin, how hard, the greatness of the remedy betrays.

How great the sifting of evils shall be, by which they shall be condemned, the solicitude by which they are redeemed makes plain. With all vigilance therefore and diligence let us beware, lest the devil wound what God has healed, lest through the consent of the heart, through the disgrace of the body, we render to the enemy that servitude which we ought rather to show to the Lord. And indeed, if some violent and overbearing man had snatched away something of our substance and property, would we not deem it worthy of the utmost hatred? would we not deservedly detest him as an enemy? And with what mind, pray, do we consent through sin to the devil, who wishes to take from us not our substance but our life, not to defraud us of earth but of heaven, not to narrow the bounds of our possession but the infinite spaces of eternity?

Amid these things, O man, if you are willing to estimate the dignity of your making, the tenderness of your Lord toward you, from the price paid, you will be able not to doubt concerning the kingdom. That, dearest brethren, which we heard just now when the Gospel was read—that on the third day a wedding was held in Cana of Galilee, and that water was turned into wine—let us see what that wedding is. Here our acquisition, or restoration, is shown forth by nuptial vows and feasts, just as in another place the return of the younger son is received with dancing and music.

Now the six waterpots are the six ages of this world: the first from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to David, from David to the transmigration of Babylon, from the transmigration of Babylon to John the Baptist. In these times prophecy concerning Christ was not lacking, through which the just prefigured the figure and type of the Lord. And they hold two or three measures apiece, because they contain within themselves the faith of the Trinity. But let us see what the divine discourse says. Let us handle the very sacred oracles of the Gospel. In Cana of Galilee He turned water into wine, and by the power of His works uncovered the Lord hidden beneath the man. 'And on the third day,' it says, 'a wedding was held.' But what is this wedding but the joys of human salvation?

Why on the third day? Either because He showed us the mystery of the Trinity, or because on the third day He rose again. And so, like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, He descended to the earth, to be joined, through the incarnation He assumed, to the Church which was to be gathered from the nations. To this Church, which surely is ourselves, He gave both the pledge and the dowry. He gave the pledge when He was promised to us by the Law; He gave the dowry when He was offered up for us. And in another way this can be taken: that by the pledge we understand present grace, by the dowry eternal life. Let us see what He does in Cana of Galilee. Here now let the stupendous miracles reveal God to us. The waterpots are set up, holding two or three measures apiece. The waterpots are filled.

Suddenly the waters are changed—waters that are afterward to change men—and while they are changed for the better, they proclaim, as it were, the power of baptism. In them, in a certain manner, the likeness of regeneration is expressed; and while they become one thing out of another, while the lower creature is transferred into a more pleasing appearance, the mystery of the second birth is disclosed. Nothing of their quantity is diminished in the waters themselves, and while they remained in themselves, by a wholly noble transmutation they degenerate from themselves. They perish as to their own substance, and acquire another's. A stronger savor is added to the thin matter, and a hidden power is poured into the light streams, and the nature of the waters is made drunk, and thus in a new manner they confess the power of their Creator. Who can transform these things but He who was able also to create them?

When therefore the wine was failing, His mother says to Him: 'They have no wine.' In the first place let us inquire what that wine was which is said to have failed, and what is that other wine which is miraculously prepared, which the steward of the feast pronounces to be better, saying: 'Every man first sets forth the good wine, and when they have become drunk, that which is worse; but you have kept the good wine until now.' By wine we understand in many places the divine precepts and the holy Scriptures, containing the most unmixed vigor of heavenly wisdom, by which the senses grow warm to the love of the Lord and the affections are made drunk—according to that which is said of Wisdom: 'She has prepared her table, she has mingled her wine in the bowl.'

The power of the divine Scriptures, then, whenever it has filled anyone's inmost parts, will be able to say with the prophet: 'You have made us drink the wine of compunction,' and: 'How excellent is your cup that inebriates.' When Christ therefore was at work in Cana of Galilee, the wine failed and He made wine—that is, the shadow is removed and the truth is presented, the Law recedes, grace succeeds, carnal things are exchanged for spiritual, the old observance is poured over into the new testament, as the blessed Apostle says: 'The old things have passed away, and behold, in Christ all things are made new.' But just as those waterpots, filled with water, lose nothing of what they were, and yet begin to be what they were not, so the Law did not perish, made void by the coming of Christ, but rather made progress.

When therefore the wine was failing, another wine is provided. The Old Testament is indeed good, but without spiritual understanding it vanishes into the letter; the New, however, has given back the fragrance of life in grace. Since these things are so, let us see the steward himself, the one set over the bridegroom's house, whom we may perceive. And whom else ought we to understand but blessed Paul, who, after the reception of the Law, filled and made drunk with the most delightful fragrance and taste of the mysteries of the New Testament and with the sweet savor of spiritual senses, cries out and gives praise: 'You have kept the good wine until now'? Let us see, however, in what manner he praises that wine: 'Neither eye,' he says, 'has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love Him.'

Behold the true, behold the miracles worthy to be proclaimed, which are wrought in us, when out of the worst He has made good men, out of the proud humble ones, out of the shameless chaste ones, out of followers of the world friends of God. What greater miracles can He work than when He deigns to promote man, a worm and rottenness, into the angelic state, to place him from earthly things among the heavenly, and to take him up into the grace of His adoption?—which may He Himself deign to grant, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives unto all ages of ages. VIII. ON THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD, AT MASS OR ON THE BIRTHDAY OF LUCIAN THE MARTYR. The solemnity which is of the nativity of our Lord, dearest brethren, we celebrated with that faith by which God was born of this man.

Let us therefore venerate it with that observance by which God was declared in man. There He is hidden in infirmities, here He is revealed in mighty works. For today the star, about to point out Christ to those seeking Him, led the Magi coming from the east all the way to the place of the newborn Savior. Let the sacred nativity be beheld beneath a lowly hut. He is adored in swaddling clothes who shines forth in the stars. He is adored in swaddling clothes—that is, beneath the abjection of human corruption an inviolate majesty. There is revealed, by the intimation of the mystery, the greatness of the divine mercy, in that first the Ethiopians, that is the Gentiles, come to Christ.

The firstfruits of the Gentiles are consecrated unto the acknowledgment of the truth; the Church of the Gentiles precedes the synagogue of the Jews, stripped of the blackness of sin and to be clothed with the whiteness of faith. And so it seeks our salvation in the manger. What is this, that it seeks our salvation in the manger? That is, the once-wild multitude of unbelieving peoples, received into the stable of the Church, grows tame. The Jews indeed boast that divine worship is with them, but the first envoys of the Gentiles see Christ. Why the first? Because the healthy eye of the Christian follows the light, but the corrupted gaze of the Jews is dimmed by the very light, and the sick vision, when light is brought in, grows all the more dark.

Meanwhile the blessed embassy marvels to be led to the sacred cradle by a ray running down from above. The remotest nation is the first to enjoy the public good. With what stupendous condescension is He enclosed within the embraces of His mother, who embraces earth and heaven! He lies hidden in a mother's bosom, who transcends the kingdom of the Father. Through a simple office the spiritual mystery is revealed: the humanity is discerned, the divinity is adored. They present gold and frankincense and myrrh, offering more in the mysteries than in their own consciousness. In the gift of gold, royal dignity; in the vapor of frankincense, divine majesty; in the appearance of myrrh, a humanity to be buried, is shown forth. And thus the number of the offering speaks the Trinity, and the one devotion attests the unity.

And by this, with the ever-watchful attention of the heart, let us strive to look toward heaven, if we desire to come to Christ. Let the star of justice direct for us the paths of a perfect life. To Him who said, 'You shall not appear before me empty,' let us offer the gold of faith, the aromatic spices of piety, the holocausts of chastity. Let us have within us the spiritual myrrh, which so seasons our souls that it keeps them unharmed from the corruption of sin. Let us change our way, if we desire to come to the fatherland—assuredly to the heavenly fatherland. Let this be the exchange between the two: that we procure for ourselves the ownership of the one by the use of the other; so that, as eternal life will be the reward of this life, so we may labor that this life be the merit of that one.

But that which the evangelist says, that the Magi were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, but to go back to their own country by another way—this therefore is enjoined upon us spiritually, that by another way, that is, by another manner of living, we return to the fatherland. Perhaps someone asks how this can be done. Whoever desires to know this, let him hear the prophet saying: 'Turn away from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.' For in this order one returns to the fatherland by another way. For since through pride we fell into the world, it behooves us through humility to return to paradise. Through covetousness we came into the servitude of the devil; through mercy let us return to Christ the Lord.

Through pleasure and luxury we bore the most grievous yoke of the devil; through charity and justice let us hasten to take up the light yoke of Christ, so that we who, serving the devil unhappily by the ways of unbelief and wickedness, departed from the fellowship of the angels, may strive to return to the principal fatherland by the ways of goodness and faith. If, forsaking in this order the death-bearing ways, we are willing to hold to the ways of eternal life, transferred from the left to the right, we may faithfully and happily imitate the journeys of the Magi. Does it not already seem to you that he returns to the fatherland by another way, who was formerly wont to take away the goods of others, and now desires mercifully to give away his own?

Does it not seem to you that he walks by another way, who was an adulterer and is chaste, who had been a drunkard and is sober, who was wont to curse and now blesses, who had been envious and is kindly? For if by prayers together with good works, God helping us, we strive in this order to change the journeys of our conduct for the better, we shall be able to come to eternal blessedness, by the granting of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns unto ages of ages. Amen. IX. ON THE EPIPHANY. That which, on account of the labor of the vigils, we reserved for you from yesterday's festivity, now, if you bid it, you can more opportunely hear.

Lately, dearest brethren, we kept the birthday of the Lord our Savior, on which was born for us in time He who is the forerunner and founder of all ages and times. But today, by most certain proofs, God has been declared in man: either in that He offered from heaven a star as the herald of His birth, which He made to go before the Magi who followed it, all the way to the venerable cradle of His assumed infancy; or in that in the channel of the Jordan He consecrated the waters by His baptism for the salvation of the human race unto all nations—for He, purer than all waters, entered them not so much to be sanctified as about to sanctify—or that this same day be that of that miracle by which He first turned water into wine in Cana of Galilee at the wedding banquet.