約伯倫理 第 1459 章

At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others also, and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was to come. And he said to them: The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send labourers into his harvest. Go: behold, I send you as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes; and salute no man by the way. Into whatsoever house you enter, first say: Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as are set before you. For the labourer is worthy of his hire.

Do not go from house to house. And into whatsoever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you; and heal the sick that are therein, and say to them: The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. Our Lord and Saviour, most beloved brethren, admonishes us sometimes by his words, and sometimes indeed by his deeds. For his very deeds are precepts, since while he silently does something, he makes known to us what we ought to do. Behold, he sends his disciples two by two to preach, because there are two precepts of charity, namely the love of God and of neighbour; and charity cannot be had among fewer than two.

For no one is properly said to have charity toward his own self, but love reaches out toward another, that it may be able to be charity. The Lord sends his disciples two by two to preach, that he may thereby silently intimate to us that whoever does not have charity toward another ought by no means to undertake the office of preaching. And it is well said that he sent them before his face into every city and place where he himself was to come. For the Lord follows his preachers, because preaching goes before, and then the Lord comes to the dwelling-place of our mind, when the words of exhortation run ahead, and through these truth is received into the mind. Hence indeed Isaiah says to these same preachers:

Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God (Isaiah 40:3). Here the Psalmist says to them: Make a way for him who ascends above the west (Psalm 67:5). For the Lord ascends above the west, because from the very place where he lay dead in his passion, thence by rising again he manifested his greater glory. He ascends above the west, namely, because by rising again he trod down the death which he had endured. Therefore we make a way for him who ascends above the west when we preach his glory to your minds, that coming afterward he himself may also enlighten them by the presence of his love. Now that the preachers have been sent, let us hear what he says: The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send labourers into his harvest.

For the great harvest the labourers are few—which we cannot speak of without deep sorrow—because although there are those who hear good things, there are lacking those who would say them. Behold, the world is full of priests, yet in God's harvest a labourer is found very rarely; for we have indeed undertaken the priestly office, but we do not fulfil the work of the office. But consider, most beloved brethren, consider what is said: Pray the Lord of the harvest, that he send labourers into his harvest. Petition on our behalf, that we may be able to work worthily for you, lest our tongue grow sluggish in exhortation, lest after we have received the place of preaching our silence condemn us before the just Judge. For often the tongue of preachers is restrained on account of their own wickedness;

but often it comes about through the fault of subjects that the word of preaching is withdrawn from those who preside over them. By his own wickedness the tongue of preachers is restrained, as the Psalmist says: But to the sinner God said: Why dost thou declare my justices? (Psalm 49:16). And again, the voice of preachers is forbidden by the fault of subjects, as the Lord says to Ezekiel: I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, and thou shalt be dumb, and not as a man that reproveth, because it is a provoking house (Ezekiel 3:26). As if he plainly said: For this reason the word of preaching is taken from thee, because while the people provoke me by their deeds, they are not worthy that the exhortation of truth should be made to them.

Therefore by whose fault the word is withdrawn from the preacher is not easily known. But that the silence of the pastor sometimes harms himself, and always harms his subjects, is known most certainly. But would that, if we are not sufficient for the power of preaching, we might at least hold the office of our position by a blameless life. For it is added: Behold, I send you as lambs among wolves. Yet many, when they receive the rights of governing, blaze up to mangle their subjects, they display the terror of their power, and they harm those to whom they ought to have been of profit.

And because they do not have the bowels of charity, they long to appear as lords, they by no means acknowledge themselves to be fathers, they change the place of humility into the elation of domination; and if at times they flatter outwardly, inwardly they rage. Of whom the Truth says elsewhere: They come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves (Matthew 7:15). Against all which things it must be considered by us that we are sent as lambs among wolves, so that, keeping the sense of innocence, we may not have the bite of malice. For he who undertakes the place of preaching ought not to inflict evils, but to bear them, that by his very meekness he may soften the anger of the raging, and that, himself wounded by afflictions, he may heal the wounds of sinners in others.

And even if at times the zeal of righteousness demands that he be severe toward his subjects, let the fervour itself come from love, not from cruelty, so that he may both outwardly display the rights of discipline, and inwardly love with fatherly affection those whom outwardly he chastises as though pursuing them. This the ruler fittingly displays when he does not know how to love himself by private love, when he desires nothing of the things that are of the world, when he in no way bows the neck of his mind under the burdens of earthly cupidity. Whence it is also added: Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes; and salute no man by the way.

For the preacher ought to have such great trust in God that, although he does not provide for himself the expenses of the present life, he nevertheless knows most certainly that these will not be lacking to him, lest, while his mind is occupied with temporal things, he provide the less for others the things that are eternal. He is also permitted to salute no one by the way, that it may be shown with how great haste he ought to proceed on the way of preaching. But if anyone should wish these words to be understood also allegorically: in the purse money is enclosed; but money enclosed is hidden wisdom. Whoever therefore has the word of wisdom, but neglects to spend it out to his neighbour, holds it as it were money bound up in a purse. Whence it is written: Wisdom that is hid, and treasure that is not seen: what profit is there in them both? (Ecclesiasticus

41:17). But what is signified by the scrip except the burdens of the world; and what in this place by the shoes except the examples of dead works? He therefore who undertakes the office of preaching, it is not fitting that he carry the burden of secular affairs, lest, while this weighs down his neck, he not rise up to preach heavenly things. Nor ought he to look upon the examples of foolish works, lest he believe that he fortifies his own works as it were with dead skins. For there are many who defend their own depravity by the depravities of others. For because they consider that others have done such things, they think they may do these things freely. What else do these do, except try to fortify their feet with the skins of dead animals?

But everyone who salutes on the way, salutes from the occasion of the journey, not from a zeal for desiring the same salvation. Whoever therefore preaches salvation to his hearers not from love of the eternal fatherland, but from the ambition for rewards, salutes as it were on the way, because he wishes salvation to his hearers from occasion, and not from intention. There follows: Into whatsoever house you enter, first say: Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. The peace which is offered by the mouth of the preacher either rests in the house, if the son of peace be therein, or returns to the same preacher; because either each one will be predestined to life, and follows the heavenly Word which he hears;

or, if no one shall be willing to hear, the preacher himself will not be without fruit, because the peace returns to him, since a reward is recompensed to him by the Lord for the labour of his work. Behold, he who forbade the carrying of the scrip and the purse, grants expenses and food from the same preaching. For it is added: And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as are set before you. For the labourer is worthy of his hire. If our peace is received, it is fitting that we remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as are with them, that we may obtain from them earthly wages, to whom we offer the rewards of the heavenly fatherland. Whence also Paul, receiving these very things as a very small matter, says:

If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things? (1 Corinthians 9:11). And it is to be noted what is added: The labourer is worthy of his hire; because now the very food of sustenance is part of the reward of the work, so that here the reward may be begun from the labour of preaching, which there is perfected from the vision of truth. In which matter it is to be considered that to our one work two rewards are due: one on the way, the other in the fatherland; one which sustains us in labour, the other which remunerates us in the resurrection. The reward therefore which is received in the present ought to work this in us, that we may strive more strongly toward the following reward.

Therefore every true preacher ought not to preach for this reason, that he may receive a reward in this present time, but to receive a reward for this reason, that he may be sustained in preaching. For whoever preaches for this reason, that he may receive here the reward either of praise or of gift, without doubt deprives himself of the eternal reward. But whoever either desires the things which he says to please men for this reason, that while what is said pleases, through those same words not he himself but the Lord may be loved; or for this reason obtains earthly wages in preaching, that he may not be wearied from the voice of preaching through want—for such a one without doubt nothing hinders from receiving the reward in the fatherland, because he took his provisions on the way.

But what are we (which nevertheless I cannot say without grief), what are we, O pastors, doing, who both obtain the reward, and yet are by no means labourers? For we receive the fruits of holy Church in daily wages, and yet we by no means labour in preaching for the eternal Church. Let us weigh of what condemnation it is to receive here the reward of labour without labour. Behold, we live from the offering of the faithful, but what do we labour for the souls of the faithful? We take into our wages what the faithful have offered for the redeeming of their sins, and yet we do not toil against those same sins, as is fitting, either by zeal of prayer or of preaching. Scarcely do we rebuke anyone with open voice for his fault.

And still worse—what is more grievous—sometimes, if a person be powerful in this world, his errors are perhaps praised, lest, if one oppose him, through anger he withdraw the gift which he was bestowing. But we ought without ceasing to remember what is written of certain ones: They shall eat the sins of my people (Hosea 4:8). But why are they said to eat the sins of the people, except because they foster the sins of the offenders, lest they lose their temporal wages? But we also who live from the offerings of the faithful, which they have offered for their sins, if we eat and are silent, without doubt we eat their sins. Let us therefore weigh of what crime it is before God to eat the price of sins, and to do nothing against those sins by preaching.

Let us hear what is said by the voice of blessed Job: If my land cry against me, and its furrows weep with it, if I have eaten its fruits without money (Job 31:38-39). For the land cries against its possessor when the Church justly murmurs against its pastor. And its furrows weep, if the hearts of the hearers—which have been ploughed up by the voice of preaching and the vigour of reproof by the preceding fathers—see anything in the life of the pastor which they may bewail. And of such a land the good possessor does not eat the fruit without money, because the discreet pastor pays out beforehand the talent of the word, lest to his own condemnation he take the wage of food from the Church.

For then do we eat the fruits of our land with money, when, receiving ecclesiastical support, we labour in preaching. For we are heralds of the coming Judge. Who therefore shall announce the coming Judge, if the herald is silent? Accordingly it must be considered by us that, insofar as each one is able, insofar as he is sufficient, he strive to instil into the Church committed to him both the terror of the coming judgment and the sweetness of the kingdom. And he who is not sufficient by one and the same voice of exhortation to admonish all at once, ought to instruct individuals, insofar as he is able, to edify by private conversations, and by simple exhortation to seek fruit in the hearts of his children.

For we ought continually to weigh what is said to the holy apostles, and through the apostles to us: You are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). If therefore we are salt, we ought to season the minds of the faithful. You therefore who are pastors, consider that you feed the animals of God. Of which animals indeed it is said to God through the Psalmist: Thy animals shall dwell therein (Psalm 67:11). And often we see that a rock of salt is set out for the brute animals, that they may lick that same rock of salt and be improved. As therefore among brute animals, so ought the priest to be a rock of salt among the peoples.

For it is necessary that the priest take care what things he says to individuals, how he admonishes each one, so that whoever is joined to the priest may, as it were by the touch of salt, be seasoned with the savour of eternal life. For we are not the salt of the earth, if we do not season the hearts of our hearers. And this seasoning he truly bestows upon his neighbour who does not withdraw the word of preaching. But then do we truly preach right things to others, if we show our words by deeds, if we ourselves are pricked with divine love, and with daily tears wash the stains of human life, which can in no way pass without fault.

But then are we truly pricked concerning ourselves, if we diligently weigh the deeds of the preceding fathers, so that from the beholding of their glory, our own life may grow vile in our own eyes. Then are we truly pricked, when we diligently search out the precepts of the Lord, and through these strive to advance ourselves, by which we know that those whom we venerate have already advanced. Hence indeed it is written of Moses: He set also the laver of brass, in which Aaron and his sons might wash, when they entered into the holy of holies, which he made of the mirrors of the women that watched at the door of the tabernacle (Exodus 38:8).

Moses indeed sets up a laver of brass, in which the priests ought to wash and to enter the holy of holies, because the law of God commands us first to be washed by compunction, that our uncleanness be not unworthy to penetrate the cleanness of the secret things of God. And well is the laver shown to have been made of the mirrors of the women who watched unceasingly at the door of the tabernacle. The mirrors of the women indeed are the precepts of God, in which holy souls always look at themselves, and if there be in them any stains of foulness, they detect them.

They correct the vices of their thoughts, and, as it were, compose their countenances that struggle back into shape, as from a reflected image; because while they attentively heed the Lord's precepts, in them without doubt they recognize either what may please the heavenly Man in themselves, or what may displease. These women, as long as they are in this life, can by no means enter the eternal tabernacle. But nevertheless the women watch at the door of the tabernacle, because holy souls, even while they are still weighed down by the infirmity of the flesh, yet by continual love observe the entrance of the reciprocal entering-in.

Moses therefore made the laver for the priests from the mirrors of the women, because the law of God offers the washing of compunction for the stains of our sins, while it presents to us the heavenly precepts to be gazed upon, through which holy souls have pleased the supernal Bridegroom. If we diligently heed them, we see the stains of our inward image. And seeing the stains, we are pricked with the sorrow of penitence; and being pricked, we are as it were washed in the laver made of the mirrors of the women. But it is very necessary that when we are moved with compunction concerning ourselves, we may also be zealous for the life of those committed to us. Let therefore the bitterness of compunction so move us, that nevertheless it not turn us away from the guardianship of our neighbours.

For what does it profit, if, loving ourselves, we abandon our neighbours? Or again what does it profit, if, loving or being zealous for our neighbours, we abandon ourselves? In the adornment of the tabernacle indeed the scarlet twice dyed is commanded to be offered (Exodus 25:4), so that before the eyes of God our charity may be coloured with the love of God and of neighbour. But he truly loves himself who loves his Author with a pure love. Then therefore is the scarlet twice dyed, when the soul is inflamed toward itself and toward its neighbour by the love of truth. But among these things it must be known by us that the zeal of righteousness against the wicked deeds of neighbours must be so exercised that in the fervour of strictness the virtue of meekness be in no way abandoned.

For the anger of the priest ought by no means to be headlong and disturbed, but rather to be tempered by the gravity of counsel. And so we ought both to bear those whom we correct, and to correct those whom we bear, lest, if either of the two be lacking, the priestly action be either not in fervour or not in meekness. Hence indeed it is that in the ministry of the temple, upon the bases of the temple, lions and oxen and cherubim were expressed in sculptured work. The cherubim indeed is the fullness of knowledge. But what is it that on the bases neither lions without oxen, nor oxen without lions are made? For what else do the bases in the temple designate, except the priests in the Church? Who, while they endure the solicitude of governing, bear as it were after the manner of bases a burden set upon them.

On the bases therefore cherubim are expressed, because it is indeed fitting that the breasts of priests be filled with the fullness of knowledge. But by the lions the terror of severity, by the oxen the patience of meekness is figured. And so on the bases neither lions without oxen, nor oxen without lions are expressed, because always in the priestly breast, together with the terror of severity, the virtue of meekness must be preserved, so that meekness may season anger, and lest that same meekness be perhaps dissolute, the zeal of strictness may kindle it. But why do we speak these things, when we still see very many being burdened with more atrocious deeds?

For to you priests I speak lamenting, because we have learned that some of you make ordinations with rewards, sell spiritual grace, and from the iniquities of others heap up temporal gains together with the loss of sin. Why therefore does it not return to your memory what the Lord's voice commanding says: Freely you have received, freely give (Matthew 10:8). Why does it not recall before the eyes of the mind that our Redeemer, having entered the temple, overturned the chairs of them that sold doves, and poured out the money of the money-changers? (John 2:14-15). For who are they in the temple of God today who sell doves, except those who in the Church receive a price for the laying on of hands? Through which laying on, namely, the Holy Spirit is given from heaven.

The dove therefore is sold, because the laying on of hands, through which the Holy Spirit is received, is offered for a price. But our Redeemer overturned the chairs of them that sold doves, because he destroys the priesthood of such traffickers. Hence it is that the sacred canons condemn the simoniacal heresy, and command those to be deprived of the priesthood who seek a price for the conferring of orders. The chair therefore of them that sell doves is overturned when those who sell spiritual grace are deprived of the priesthood, whether before human eyes or before the eyes of God. And indeed there are many other evils of those set in authority which now lie hidden from human eyes. And very often

they show themselves to men as holy pastors, and in their hidden things do not blush to be seen as base before the eyes of the inward Judge. That day will come, will surely come, and is not far off, in which the Shepherd of shepherds shall appear, and shall bring the deeds of each one into the open, and he who now avenges the faults of subjects through those set over them, shall then, raging by himself, condemn the evils of those set over them. Whence also, having entered the temple, he made as it were by himself a scourge of cords, and casting the wicked traffickers out of the house of God, he overturned the chairs of them that sold doves (John 2:14-15), because he strikes the faults of subjects through the pastors, but smites the vices of the pastors by himself. Behold, now it can be denied to men what is done secretly.

But certainly the Judge is coming, from whom no one can hide himself by keeping silent, whom no one can deceive by denying. There is also another thing, most beloved brethren, which vehemently afflicts me concerning the life of pastors; but lest what I assert seem perhaps injurious to anyone here, I also accuse myself equally, although, compelled by the necessity of a barbaric time, I lie in these things very much against my will. For we have slipped down to external affairs, and we have received one thing from our honour, and we exhibit another in the office of action. We have abandoned the ministry of preaching, and, to our own punishment, as I see, we are called bishops, who hold the name of the honour, not the virtue. For those who are committed to us abandon God, and we are silent.

They lie in wicked deeds, and we do not stretch out the hand of correction. Daily they perish through many wickednesses, and we negligently see them tending toward hell. But when could we avail to correct another's life, we who neglect our own? For intent on secular cares, we are made so much the more insensible within, the more zealous we appear toward the things which are without. For by the very habit of earthly care the mind grows hardened away from heavenly desire; and while it is made hard by its very habit through the action of the world, it cannot be softened toward those things which pertain to the charity of God. Whence well does holy Church say of her weak members: They have made me the keeper in the vineyards; my vineyard I have not kept (Canticles 1:5).

For our vineyards indeed are our actions, which by the habit of daily labour we cultivate. But set as keepers in the vineyards, we by no means keep our own vineyard, because while we are entangled in extraneous actions, we neglect the ministry of our own action. I think, most beloved brethren, that God suffers no greater prejudice from any others than from the priests, when he sees those whom he set for the correction of others giving of themselves examples of depravity, when we ourselves sin, who ought to have checked sins. Very often—what is more grievous—priests who ought to have given their own things even plunder the things of others. Very often, if they see any living humbly, if any living continently, they mock them.

Consider therefore what becomes of the flocks, when the pastors become wolves. For these undertake the guardianship of the flock, who do not fear to lie in wait for the Lord's flock, against whom the flocks of God ought to have been guarded. We seek no gain of souls, daily we have leisure for our own pursuits, we covet earthly things, with intent mind we grasp after human glory. And because by the very fact that we are set as prelates over others, we have greater licence to do whatever we please, we turn the ministry of the blessing we received into an argument for ambition; we abandon the cause of God, we have leisure for earthly affairs; we receive the place of holiness, and are entangled in earthly deeds. Truly is fulfilled in us what is written: And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest (Hosea 4:9).

For the priest does not differ from the people, when by no merit of his own does he transcend the conduct of the common crowd. Let us implore the tears of Jeremiah; let him consider our death, and lamenting say: How is the gold become dim, the finest colour is changed, the stones of the sanctuary are scattered in the top of every street? (Lamentations 4:1). The gold indeed is become dim, because the life of priests, once bright through the glory of virtues, is now shown to be reprobate through the basest actions. The finest colour is changed, because that habit of holiness, through earthly and abject works, comes to the ignominy of contempt.

But the stones of the sanctuary were kept within, nor were they taken up on the body of the high priest except when, entering the holy of holies, he appeared in the secret of his Maker. We therefore, most beloved brethren, we are the stones of the sanctuary who ought always to appear in the secret place of God; whom it is never necessary to be seen without, that is, never to be seen in extraneous actions. But the stones of the sanctuary are scattered in the top of every street, because those who through life and prayer ought always to have been within, through a reprobate life are idle without. Behold, now there is almost no secular action which priests do not administer. While therefore, established in the holy habit, they exhibit outward things, they lie as it were like the stones of the sanctuary without.

For because in Greek a street is called from its breadth, the stones of the sanctuary are in the streets when religious persons pursue broad ways there. And not only in the streets, but also in the top of the streets, they are scattered, because they both perform works through the desire of this world, and yet seek the summit of honour from their religious habit. In the top of the streets therefore they are scattered, because they both lie prostrate through the ministry of work, and wish to be honoured for the image of holiness. But you see with how great a sword the world is smitten, you see by what daily blows the people perish. By whose fault is this done, if not chiefly by ours? Behold, cities are depopulated, camps overthrown, churches and monasteries destroyed, fields reduced to solitude.

But we are the authors of death to the perishing people, we who ought to have been guides to life. For from our sin the multitude of the people is laid low, because, through our negligence, it has not been instructed unto life. And what shall we call the souls of men except the food of the Lord, which are created for this, that they may be transferred into his body, that is, that they may tend toward the increase of the eternal Church? But we ought to have been the seasoning of this food. For as we said a little above, to the preachers who are sent it is said: You are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). If therefore the people is the food of God, priests ought to have been the seasoning of the food.

But because, while we cease from the practice of prayer and holy learning, the salt has become insipid, it cannot season the foods of God, and therefore it is not taken by the Author, because, our foolishness demanding it, it does not season at all. Let us therefore weigh who was ever converted through our tongue, who, being reproved by our rebuke for his perverse work, did penance; who forsook lust through our teaching, who avarice, who declined from pride? Let us weigh what gain we have made for God, we who, having received the talent, were sent by him to business. For he says: Trade until I come (Luke 19:13). Behold, now he comes, behold, he requires the gain from our business. What gain of souls from our trading shall we show to him?

How many sheaves of souls, gathered from the harvest of our preaching, shall we bring into his sight? Let us set before our eyes that day of such strict reckoning, on which the Judge will come and settle accounts with his servants, to whom he entrusted talents. Behold, he shall be seen in terrible majesty, amid the choirs of angels and archangels. In that great examination the multitude of all the elect and the reprobate shall be led forth, and each one shall be shown what he has wrought. There Peter shall appear with Judea converted, which he drew after himself. There Paul, leading, so to speak, a converted world. There Andrew shall lead Achaia after him, there John Asia, Thomas India, all converted into the sight of their King.

There all the rams of the Lord's flock shall appear with their gains of souls, who by their holy preaching draw after them a flock made subject to God. When therefore so many shepherds shall have come with their flocks before the eyes of the eternal Shepherd, what shall we wretched ones say, who return to our Lord empty after our trafficking, who have had the name of shepherds but have not the sheep which we ought to show forth from our nurture? Here we are called shepherds, and there we lead no flock. But if we are negligent, does almighty God forsake his sheep? By no means; for he himself, as he promised through the prophet, feeds them by his own self (Ezekiel).

(Ezekiel 34), and all whom he has foreordained to life he instructs by the goads of scourges and the spirit of compunction. And through us indeed the faithful come to holy baptism, are blessed by our prayers, and through the imposition of our hands receive the Holy Spirit from God, and they themselves attain to the kingdom of heaven; and behold, we through our negligence tend downward. The elect, purified by the hands of priests, enter the heavenly homeland; while the priests themselves, through a reprobate life, hasten to the torments of hell. To what thing, then, shall I say wicked priests are like, if not to the water of baptism, which, washing away the sins of the baptized, sends them to the heavenly kingdom, and afterward itself descends into the sewers?

Let us fear these things, brethren, and let our very ministry be in harmony with our conduct. Let us daily reflect on the remission of our sins, lest our life remain bound in sin—the life through which almighty God daily looses others. Let us consider without ceasing what we are, let us weigh our office, let us weigh the burden we have taken up. Let us daily make with ourselves the reckonings which we have with our Judge. And we ought so to exercise care of ourselves that we do not neglect the care of our neighbor, so that whoever is joined to us may be seasoned by the salt of our tongue. When we see someone unattached and prone to lapse, he must be admonished to strive to bridle his iniquity by marriage, so that through what is lawful he may learn to overcome what is unlawful.

When we see a married man, he must be admonished so to occupy himself with the care of the world that he does not set aside the love of God; so to please the will of his spouse that he does not displease his Creator. When we see a cleric, he must be admonished so to live that he may offer an example of life to the laity, lest, if anything in him be justly reprehended, the very esteem of our religion be burdened by his fault. When we see a monk, he must be admonished always to have regard for the reverence of his habit in his action, in his speech, in his thought, so that he may perfectly forsake the things that are of the world, and what he displays to human eyes by his habit, this he may set forth before God's eyes by his conduct. And he who is already holy, let him be admonished to grow;

but he who is still wicked, let him be admonished to correct himself, so that whoever joins himself to a priest may depart seasoned by the salt of his discourse. These things, brethren, ponder carefully with yourselves; expend these things also upon your neighbors; prepare yourselves to render to almighty God the fruit of the office which you have received. But these things which we speak we shall obtain better among you by praying than by talking. O God, who hast willed to call us shepherds among thy people, grant, we beseech thee, that what we are called by human mouth we may have power to be in thine eyes. Through our Lord, etc. Delivered to the people in the basilica of Saint Peter the Apostle, on Passion Sunday. At that time, Jesus said to the crowds of the Jews, and to the chief priests: Who

of you shall convict me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the words of God; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God. The Jews therefore answered and said to him: Do we not say well that you are a Samaritan, and have a devil? Jesus answered: I have not a devil, but I honor my Father; and you have dishonored me. But I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks and judges. Amen, amen I say to you, if any man keep my word, he shall not see death forever. The Jews therefore said: Now we know that you have a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and you say: If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death forever.

Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead. Whom do you make yourself? Jesus answered: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that he is your God; and you have not known him. But I know him. And if I should say that I know him not, I should be like you, a liar; but I know him, and I keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day; he saw it, and was glad. The Jews therefore said to him: You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am. They took up stones therefore to cast at him.

But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple. Consider, dearest brethren, the meekness of God. He had come to remit sins, and he said: Which of you shall convict me of sin? He does not disdain to show by reasoning that he is not a sinner, who by the power of his divinity was able to justify sinners. But very terrible is what follows: He who is of God hears the words of God; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God. For if he who is of God hears the words of God, and whoever is not of him cannot hear his words, let each one ask himself whether he perceives the words of God in the ear of his heart, and he shall understand whence he is.

Truth commands us to desire the heavenly homeland, to crush the desires of the flesh, to turn away from the glory of the world, not to covet what belongs to others, and to bestow freely what is our own. Let each of you therefore weigh within himself whether this voice of God has prevailed in the ear of his heart, and thereby he recognizes that he is now of God. For there are some who do not deign to receive the precepts of God even with the ear of the body. And there are some who do indeed receive them with the ear of the body, but embrace them with no desire of the mind. And there are some who gladly receive the words of God, so that they are even moved to compunction with tears, but after the time of tears they return to iniquity. These assuredly do not hear the words of God, who scorn to carry them out in deed.

Recall then your life, dearest brethren, before the eyes of your mind, and with deep consideration dread this which sounds from the mouth of Truth: Therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God. But this which Truth speaks concerning the reprobate, the reprobate themselves show concerning themselves by their works. For it follows: The Jews therefore answered and said to him: Do we not say well that you are a Samaritan, and have a devil? Now, when so great an insult had been received, let us hear what the Lord answers: I have not a devil, but I honor my Father, and you have dishonored me. For because Samaritan is interpreted as guardian, and he himself is truly the guardian of whom the Psalmist says:

Unless the Lord guard the city, in vain do they watch who guard it (Psalm 126); and to whom it is said through Isaiah: Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? (Isaiah 21:11)—the Lord did not wish to answer: I am not a Samaritan; but rather, I have not a devil. For two things had been brought against him: one he denied, the other by his silence he acknowledged. For he had come as the guardian of the human race; and if he had said that he was not a Samaritan, he would have denied that he was the guardian. But he kept silent about what he recognized, and patiently repelled what he had heard falsely spoken, saying: I have not a devil. In which words what else is confounded but our pride? which, if it be provoked even slightly, returns more atrocious injuries than it had received:

it does the evil it can, and threatens even what it cannot do. Behold, the Lord, receiving injury, is not angered, does not answer with insulting words. And if he had wished to answer those who said these things: You have a devil, he would assuredly have spoken the truth, for unless they had been filled with a devil, they could not have spoken things so perverse concerning God. But having received the injury, Truth did not wish to say even what was true, lest he should seem not to have spoken the truth, but, being provoked, to have returned insult for insult. From which thing what is intimated to us, but that at the time when we receive insults falsely from our neighbors, we should keep silent even about their true evils, lest we turn the ministry of just correction into the weapons of fury?

But because whoever exercises zeal for God is dishonored by wicked men, the Lord in his own self has offered us an example of patience, who says: But I honor my Father, and you have dishonored me. But as to what we should do in these matters, he still admonishes us by example, when he adds: But I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks and judges. We know assuredly what is written, that the Father has given all judgment to the Son, and yet behold, the same Son, receiving injuries, does not seek his own glory. He reserves the insults offered him to the Father's judgment, so as to impress upon us how patient we ought to be, when even he who judges does not yet wish to avenge himself.

But when the perversity of the wicked increases, not only ought preaching not to be broken off, but rather to be increased. This the Lord admonishes us by his own example, who, after he was said to have a devil, bestowed more abundantly the benefits of his preaching, saying: Amen, amen I say to you, if any man keep my word, he shall not see death forever. But just as it is necessary for the good to become even better through insults, so the reprobate always grow worse from a benefit. For, having received the preaching, they say again: Now we know that you have a devil. For because they had cleaved to eternal death, and did not see that same death to which they cleaved, while they regarded only the death of the flesh, they were darkened at the word of Truth, saying:

Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead, and you say: If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death forever? Whence they even prefer to Truth itself this same Abraham and the prophets, as though venerating them. But it is shown to us by open reasoning that those who do not know God venerate even the servants of God falsely. And it is to be noted that the Lord saw them resisting him in open assault, and yet he does not cease to preach to them again with repeated voice, saying: Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day; he saw it, and was glad (Genesis 18:1 and following).

For then Abraham saw the day of the Lord, when in a figure of the supreme Trinity he received three angels into his hospitality: to whom, having received them, he spoke thus, to three as though to one, because although in the persons there is the number of the Trinity, in nature there is the unity of the divinity. But the carnal minds of the hearers do not lift the eyes from the flesh, while they weigh in him only the age of the flesh, saying: You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham? Whom our Redeemer kindly removes from the contemplation of his flesh, and draws to the contemplation of the divinity, saying: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am. For 'was' belongs to past time, 'I am' to the present.

And because the Divinity has neither past nor future time, but always has being, he does not say: Before Abraham I was, but Before Abraham I am. Whence also it is said to Moses: I am who am. And, You shall say to the children of Israel: He who is has sent me to you (Exodus 3:14). Before, then, and after, Abraham had, who was able both to come by the showing of his presence, and to depart by the course of life. But Truth always has being, because for it nothing is begun at a prior time, nor terminated at a subsequent one. But the minds of the unbelievers, not able to bear these words of eternity, run to stones, and sought to overwhelm him whom they could not understand.

But what the Lord did against the fury of those who stoned him is shown when it is immediately added: But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple. It is very wonderful, dearest brethren, why the Lord declined his persecutors by hiding himself, who, if he had wished to exercise the power of his divinity, would have bound them in their very blows by the silent nod of his mind, or overwhelmed them in the punishment of sudden death. But because he had come to suffer, he did not wish to exercise judgment. Certainly at the very time of his passion he showed both what he could do, and yet endured that for which he had come. For when he said to his persecutors who sought him: I am (John 18:6), by this voice alone he struck down their pride, and laid them all upon the ground.

He, then, who was able even in this place to escape the hands of those who stoned him without hiding himself, why did he hide himself, unless because our Redeemer, made man among men, speaks some things to us by word, and others by example? But what does he speak to us by this example, unless that, even when we are able to resist, we should humbly decline the wrath of the proud? Whence also it is said through Paul: Give place to wrath (Romans 12:19). Let a man consider with how great humility he ought to flee the wrath of his neighbor, if God, by hiding himself, declined the furies of the angry. Let no one therefore raise himself against the insults he receives, let no one return reviling for reviling. For in imitation of God, it is more glorious to flee injury by keeping silent than to overcome it by answering. But against this pride says in the heart:

It is shameful that, having received an injury, you keep silent. Whoever sees that you receive an insult and keep silent thinks not that you show patience, but that you acknowledge your crimes. But whence does this voice arise in our heart against patience, unless because we have fixed our thoughts in the depths, and while we seek glory on the earth, we care not to please him who beholds us from heaven? Having received an insult, then, let us meditate in deed upon the voice of God: I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks and judges. But this which is written of the Lord, He hid himself, can be understood also in another way. For he had preached many things to the Jews, but they derided the words of his preaching. They also became worse from the preaching, who went so far as to cast stones.

And what does the Lord signify by hiding himself, unless that Truth itself is hidden from those who scorn to follow his words? For Truth flees the mind which it does not find humble. And how many there are today who detest the hardness of the Jews, because they were unwilling to hear the preaching of the Lord, and yet, just as they charge those to have been toward faith, such they themselves are toward action. They hear the precepts of the Lord, they recognize his miracles, but they refuse to be converted from their depravities. Behold, he calls, and we are unwilling to return. Behold, he bears with us, and we make light of his patience.

While there is time, then, brethren, let each one forsake his own depravity, let him dread the patience of God, lest the one whom he now despises as tranquil he may afterward, when angered, be by no means able to escape. Delivered to the people in the basilica of blessed Lawrence the martyr, on Septuagesima Sunday. At that time, Jesus spoke to his disciples this parable: The kingdom of heaven is like to a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And having made an agreement with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and what shall be just I will give you.

And they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing, and he says to them: Why do you stand here all the day idle? They say to him: Because no one has hired us. He says to them: Go you also into my vineyard. But when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard says to his steward: Call the laborers, and pay them their wages, beginning from the last even to the first. When therefore those who had come about the eleventh hour came, they received each a denarius. But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more. And they also received each a denarius. And receiving it, they murmured against the householder, saying:

These last have worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the heat? But he, answering one of them, said: Friend, I do you no injury. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours, and go. But I will also give to this last even as to you. Or is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is your eye evil because I am good? So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen. In its explanation this reading of the holy Gospel demands much to be spoken, which I wish, if I can, to touch upon briefly, lest both the extended procession and the prolix exposition seem to burden you.

The kingdom of heaven is said to be like a householder who hires laborers to cultivate his vineyard. But who more rightly holds the likeness of the householder than our Creator, who governs those whom he created, and so possesses his elect in this world, as a lord possesses his subjects in his house? He who has a vineyard, namely the universal Church, which, from just Abel even to the last elect who shall be born at the end of the world, has brought forth as many saints as it were so many branches it has put forth. This householder, therefore, hires laborers to cultivate his vineyard at morning, at the third hour, the sixth, the ninth, and the eleventh, because from the beginning of this world even to its end he has not ceased to gather preachers to instruct the people of the faithful.