Let there be nothing that retards the desire of your mind, let the delight of no thing in this world entangle you. If good is loved, let the mind be delighted in better goods, that is, in heavenly ones. If evil is feared, let eternal evils be set before the soul, so that while it beholds there to be both more that it may love and more that it may dread, here it may cling to nothing at all. For the doing of these things we have as Mediator of God and men our Helper, through whom we shall more swiftly obtain all things, if we burn toward Him with true love, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God, unto the ages of ages. Amen. At that time, Jesus said to the crowds:
If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, and moreover his own soul also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not carry his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, having a mind to build a tower, doth not first sit down and reckon the charges that are necessary, whether he have wherewithal to finish it? lest, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that see it begin to mock him, saying: This man began to build, and was not able to finish?
Or what king, being about to go to make war against another king, does not first sit down and consider whether he is able, with ten thousand, to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Otherwise, while the other is still far off, sending an embassy, he asks for those things that make for peace. So therefore everyone of you who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple. If we consider, dearest brethren, what and how great are the things promised to us in heaven, all the things that are had on earth grow worthless to the soul. For earthly substance, when compared to the happiness above, is a weight, not a support. Temporal life, compared to eternal life, ought rather to be called death than life.
For what is that very daily failing of corruption other than a certain prolonging of death? But what tongue is able to tell, or what understanding to grasp, how great are the joys of that city above: to share in the choirs of angels, to stand with the most blessed spirits before the glory of the Creator, to behold the present countenance of God, to see the uncircumscribed light, to be touched by no fear of death, to rejoice in the gift of unending incorruption? But at these things heard, the soul is set ablaze, and already longs to stand there, where it hopes to rejoice without end. But great rewards cannot be reached except through great labors. Whence also Paul, that excellent preacher, says: He shall not be crowned except he strive lawfully (II Tim. II, 5).
Let the greatness of the rewards therefore delight the mind, but let not the contest of labors deter it. Whence to those coming to him the Truth says: If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yea, and his own soul also, he cannot be my disciple. But it is fitting to ask how we are commanded to hate parents and those near to us in the flesh, we who are also bidden to love our enemies. And surely the Truth says of the wife: What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder (Matt. XIX, 6). And Paul says: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church (Eph. V, 25). Behold, the disciple preaches that the wife is to be loved, while the master says: He who hates not his wife cannot be my disciple.
Does the judge announce one thing and the herald proclaim another? Or can we at the same time both hate and love? But if we weigh the force of the precept, we are able to do both by discernment: so that those who are joined to us by kinship of flesh, and whom we know as our neighbors, we may love; and those whom we suffer as adversaries on the way of God, we may not know, by hating and fleeing them. For he is as it were loved through hatred who, being carnally wise, is not heeded while he suggests wicked things to us. But that the Lord might show that this hatred toward one's neighbor proceeds not from lack of affection but from charity, he added immediately, saying: Yea, and his own soul also. And so we are commanded to hate our neighbors, and to hate our own soul as well.
It is therefore certain that by loving one ought to hate his neighbor, who so hates him as he does himself. For then indeed we rightly hate our own soul, when we do not consent to its carnal desires, when we break its appetite, when we resist its pleasures. Therefore that which, being scorned, is led to something better, is as it were loved through hatred. Thus, thus indeed ought we to show toward our neighbors the discernment of hatred, so that in them we may both love what they are, and hold in hatred that whereby they stand in our way on the road of God. Certainly, when Paul was going to Jerusalem, the prophet Agabus took his girdle, bound his own feet with it, and said: The man whose girdle this is, so shall they bind in Jerusalem (Acts XXI, 11). But what did he say who perfectly hated his own soul?
I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts XXI, 13), nor do I count my soul more precious than myself (Acts XX, 24). Behold how, by loving his soul, he hated it, nay rather by hating he loved it, which he desired to hand over to death for Jesus, that he might raise it up to life from the death of sin. From this discernment of hatred of our own selves, therefore, let us draw the pattern for the hatred of our neighbor. Let anyone in this world be loved, even an adversary; but on the way of God, let not one who is contrary be loved, even a kinsman. For whoever now desires eternal things, in that upon which he sets out, God's cause
ought to be set apart from father, from mother, from wife, from children, from kindred, from his own self, so that he may all the more truly know God, in proportion as, for His cause, he acknowledges no one. For it is a great thing that carnal affections tear apart the intention of the mind and darken its keenness; yet we by no means suffer them to be harmful, if we hold them in subjection by suppressing them. Neighbors are therefore to be loved, charity is to be spent on all, both kindred and strangers; yet not on account of that same charity are we to be turned aside from the love of God. Now we know that when the ark of the Lord was returning from the land of the Philistines to the land of the Israelites, it was placed upon a cart, and cows were yoked to the cart, which are recorded to have been nursing, whose calves they had shut up at home.
And it is written: And the cows went straight along the way that leads to Beth-shemesh, and went along one road, going and lowing, and turned not aside either to the right hand or to the left (1 Kings VI, 12). What then do the cows signify but the faithful in the Church, who, while they consider the precepts of sacred discourse, as it were carry the Lord's ark placed upon them? Concerning whom this too is to be noted, that they are recorded to have been nursing; for there are very many who, placed inwardly on the way of God, are outwardly bound by carnal affections; but they do not turn aside from the straight road, who carry the ark of God in the mind. For behold, the cows go to Beth-shemesh. Now Beth-shemesh means 'house of the sun'; and the Prophet says:
But to you who fear the Lord shall the Sun of righteousness arise (Mal. IV, 2). If therefore we are pressing on to the dwelling of the eternal Sun, it is surely fitting that we turn not aside from the way of God on account of carnal affections. For with all our strength must this be weighed: that the cows, set beneath God's cart, press on and groan; they give lowings from their inmost parts, and yet turn not their steps aside from the way. So indeed ought God's preachers, so ought all the faithful within the holy Church to be, that they have compassion on their neighbors through charity, and yet do not stray from the way of God through compassion. But how this very hatred of the soul ought to be exercised, the Truth makes plain by adding these words:
He who does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For 'cross' is so named from the torment (cruciatus) of the Lord. And in two ways we bear the cross: either when we afflict the flesh through abstinence, or when through compassion for our neighbor we reckon his need to be our own. For he who displays grief at another's need bears the cross in his mind. But it is to be known that there are some who display abstinence of the flesh not for God, but for the glory of men. And there are very many who bestow compassion on their neighbor not spiritually but carnally, so that they favor him not toward virtue, but, as it were by pitying, toward his faults. These therefore seem indeed to bear the cross, but they do not follow the Lord. Whence rightly this same Truth says:
He who does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For to bear the cross and to go after the Lord is to display either abstinence of the flesh or compassion for one's neighbor out of zeal for an eternal purpose. For whoever displays these for a temporal purpose does indeed bear the cross, but refuses to go after the Lord. But because lofty precepts have been given, immediately a comparison of building a lofty structure is added, when it is said: For which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and reckon the costs that are necessary, whether he has enough to finish it, lest, after he has laid the foundation and has not been able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying:
This man began to build and was not able to finish? Everything that we do we ought to anticipate by the zeal of consideration. For behold, according to the voice of the Truth, he who builds a tower first prepares the costs of the building. If therefore we desire to construct the tower of humility, we ought first to prepare ourselves against the adversities of this world. For herein does an earthly building differ from a heavenly one: that the earthly building is constructed by gathering expenses, but the heavenly building by scattering them. For the one we make expenditure that we may gather what we did not have; for the other we make expenditure that we may leave behind what we had. That rich man could not have these expenditures, who, possessing many possessions, questioned the Master, saying:
Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life (Matt. XIX, 16)? And when he had heard the precept of leaving all things, he went away sorrowful, and thereby was straitened in mind, whereby outwardly he was more broad in possession. For because in this life he loved the expenditures of loftiness, in pressing on toward the eternal fatherland he was unable to have the expenditures of humility. But it is to be considered what is said: All who see it begin to mock him; because, according to Paul's voice, We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men (1 Cor. IV, 9). And in everything that we do we ought to consider our hidden adversaries, who ever press upon our works, ever rejoice at our failing. Beholding whom, the Prophet says:
My God, in thee I trust; let me not be put to shame, neither let my enemies deride me (Ps. XXV, 2, 3). For if, being intent on good works, we do not watchfully keep guard against the malignant spirits, we suffer as our mockers those very ones whom we have as persuaders to evil. But because a comparison has been given concerning the constructing of a building, now a similitude is added from the lesser to the greater, that from the smallest things the greater may be weighed. For it follows: Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Otherwise, while the other is still far off, sending an embassy, he asks for the things that make for peace.
King comes against king on equal terms to battle, and yet, if he weighs that he cannot suffice, he sends an embassy and asks for the things that make for peace. With what tears, then, ought we to hope for pardon, we who at that dread examination do not come to judgment with our King on equal terms, whom indeed our condition, our weakness, and our cause set forth as inferiors? But perhaps we have already cut off the guilt of evil deeds, already we outwardly turn aside from all crooked things; are we then sufficient to render an account of our thought? For it is said that he comes with twenty thousand against whom this one who comes with ten thousand is by no means sufficient. For ten thousand to twenty thousand is single to double.
But we, even if we make much progress, scarcely keep our outward burdens in rectitude. For even if the luxury of the flesh has already been cut off, nevertheless it has not yet been utterly cut off from the heart. But he who comes as judge judges the outward things and the inward alike, weighs deeds and thoughts together. With a double army, therefore, he comes against the single, who examines us, scarcely prepared in deed alone, concerning both deed and thought together. What then is to be done, brethren, but that, while we perceive that we cannot suffice with a single army against his double, while he is still far off, we send an embassy and ask for the things that make for peace? For he is said to be far off, who is not yet seen as present through judgment.
Let us send to him as our embassy our tears, let us send the works of mercy, let us sacrifice on his altar the victims of propitiation. Let us acknowledge that we cannot contend with him in judgment; let us weigh the might of his strength, let us ask for the things that make for peace. This is our embassy, which appeases the coming King. Consider, brethren, how kind it is that he who by his coming is able to crush delays to come. Let us send to him, as we have said, our embassy, by weeping, by giving, by offering the sacred victims.
For in a singular way the victim of the sacred altar, offered with tears and with kindness of mind, avails for our absolution; because he who, rising again in himself from the dead, dies now no more, yet through this in his mystery suffers again for us. For as often as we offer to him the victim of his passion, so often do we renew for ourselves his passion unto our absolution. Many of you, dearest brethren, as I judge, it has befallen to know this which I wish to recall to your memory by narrating. It is reported to have happened not far from our own times, that a certain man, captured by enemies, was led far away (Book IV of the Dialogues, ch. 57); and when he was held long in chains, his wife, since she did not receive him back from that captivity, supposed him dead.
For him, as though now dead, she took care to offer victims on each single week. And his chains were loosed in captivity as often as victims had been offered by his wife for the absolution of his soul. For, returning after a long time, greatly marveling, he disclosed to his wife that on certain days, on each single week, his chains were loosed. And his wife, discussing those very days and hours, then recognized him to have been absolved at the very time when she remembered the sacrifice to have been offered for him. Hence therefore, dearest brethren, hence gather with sure consideration how much the sacred victim offered by us is able to loose within us the binding of the heart, if, offered by one person, it could loose in another the chains of the body.
Many of you, dearest brethren, knew Cassius, bishop of the city of Narni, whose custom it was to offer daily victims to God, so that scarcely any day of his life passed by on which he did not immolate a victim of propitiation to Almighty God (Book IV of the Dialogues, ch. 56). And with his sacrifice his life also greatly accorded. For, bestowing in alms all that he had, when he had come to the hour of offering the sacrifice, as though wholly dissolving in tears, he sacrificed himself with great contrition of heart. And his life and his death I came to know, related to me by a certain deacon of venerable life, who had been reared by him. For he said that on a certain night the Lord stood by his priest in a vision, saying: Go and say to the bishop:
Do what you do, work what you work; let not your foot cease, let not your hand cease; on the birthday of the apostles you shall come to me, and I will repay you your reward. The priest arose, but because the birthday of the apostles was near at hand, he was afraid to announce to the bishop the day of so near a departure. On another night the Lord returned, and vehemently rebuked his disobedience, and repeated the words of that same command. Then the priest arose to go, but again the weakness of his heart was made a hindrance to the revelation that was to be disclosed; and even at the admonition of the repeated command he grew hardened against going, and neglected to make manifest what he had seen.
But because greater wrath of vengeance is wont to follow contempt of great gentleness, the Lord, appearing in a third vision, now added blows to words, and he was so sacrificed with a severe beating that the wounds of the body softened in him the hardness of the heart. Instructed therefore by the beating, he arose and went on to the bishop, and found him now according to custom standing at the sepulcher of the blessed martyr Juvenal to offer the sacrifice; he asked for a place apart from the bystanders, and prostrated himself at his feet. And when the bishop could scarcely raise him, weeping copiously, up to himself, he strove to learn the causes of the tears.
But he, being about to relate the order of the vision, first, having rolled his garment down from his shoulders, uncovered the wounds of his body, witnesses, so to speak, of the truth and of his fault; he showed with how great severity of chastisement the blows received had furrowed his limbs, the bruise being inflicted. And as soon as the bishop saw this, he shuddered, and inquired with voices of great astonishment who had presumed to do such things to him. But he answered that he had endured these for the bishop's own sake. Wonder grew with terror; but the priest, no longer adding any delays to the bishop's inquiry, opened the secret of the revelation, and narrated to him the command of the Lord through the words which he had heard, saying:
Do what you do, work what you work; let not your hand cease, let not your foot cease; on the birthday of the apostles you shall come to me, and I will repay you your reward. Having heard these things, the bishop prostrated himself in prayer with great contrition of heart, and he who had come to offer the sacrifice at the third hour prolonged this, by the greatness of extended prayer, even to the ninth hour. And from that day the gains of piety were more and more increased for him; and he became as strong in work as he was certain of the reward, inasmuch as he had now begun to have as his debtor, from that promise, the very One of whom he himself had been in doubt. For this man the custom had been, every single year, to come to Rome on the birthday of the apostles;
and now, made suspicious by this revelation, he was unwilling to come according to his custom. At that same time therefore he was anxious; in the second year also and the third he was kept in suspense in expectation of his death, in the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth likewise. He might now have despaired of the truth of the revelation, had not the blows made the words credible. Behold, in the seventh year he came unharmed even to the sacred vigils of the awaited birthday; but a gentle heat touched him during the vigils, and on the very birthday, while his sons awaited him, he declined that he was able to fulfill the solemnities of the Mass.
But they, because they were likewise apprehensive concerning his departure, all came to him together, binding themselves unanimously that on that same day they would by no means consent to the celebration of the solemnities of the Mass, unless their same bishop should draw near as an intercessor for them before the Lord. Then he, being compelled, celebrated Mass in the oratory of the bishop's residence, and with his own hand bestowed the body of the Lord and the peace upon all. And when the whole ministry of the offered sacrifice was completed, he returned to his little bed, and lying there, while he perceived his priests and ministers standing round about, as though saying a last farewell, he admonished them concerning the keeping of the bond of charity, and preached with how great concord they ought to be united among themselves.
When suddenly, in the very midst of the words of his holy exhortation, he cried out with a terrible voice, saying: It is the hour. And soon he himself gave with his own hands to those standing by the linen cloth which, according to the custom of the dying, was to be stretched over his face. When it was stretched, he sent forth his spirit, and thus that holy soul, arriving at the eternal joys, was loosed from the corruption of the flesh. I ask, dearest brethren, whom did this man imitate in his death, but Him whom he had contemplated in his life? For saying, It is the hour, he departed from the body, because Jesus also, all things being accomplished, when he had said, It is finished, bowing his head, delivered up his spirit (John XIX, 30). What therefore the Lord did for him by power, this the servant did by calling.
Behold how great a peace of grace that embassy of the daily victim, sent with alms and tears, made with the coming King. Let him therefore leave all things who is able. But he who is not able to leave all things, while the King is still far off, let him send an embassy, let him offer the gifts of tears, of alms, of victims. For he wishes to be appeased by prayers, who knows that he cannot be borne when angry. That he still delays to come, he sustains the embassy of peace. For he would already have come if he wished, and would have slaughtered all his adversaries. But he both indicates how terrible he will come, and yet delays to come, because he does not wish to find those whom he would punish. He announces to us the guilt of our contempt, saying:
So therefore everyone of you who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple; and yet he confers the remedy of hoped-for salvation, because he who cannot be borne through wrath wishes to be appeased through the embassy of requested peace. Wash therefore, dearest brethren, the stains of your sins with tears, wipe them away with alms, expiate them with sacred victims. Do not possess through desire the things which as yet through use you have by no means left behind. Fix your hope in the Redeemer alone, pass over in mind to the eternal fatherland. For if you now possess nothing in this world by loving it, then even by possessing all things you have left all things behind.
May he himself grant us the desired joys, who has bestowed on us the remedies of eternal peace, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen. At that time, Jesus was speaking to the chief priests and Pharisees in parables, saying: The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that was a king, who made a marriage for his son, and sent his servants to call them that were invited to the marriage, and they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying: Tell them that were invited: Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come to the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise;
but the rest seized his servants, and having treated them with insult, killed them. But when the king had heard it, he was angry; and having sent his armies, he destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants: The marriage indeed is ready, but they that were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the outlets of the highways, and whomsoever you shall find, call to the marriage. And his servants going forth into the ways gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good; and the marriage was filled with guests. But the king went in to see the guests; and he saw there a man not clothed with a wedding garment, and he said to him: Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? But he was silent. Then the king said to the ministers:
Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. The text of the Gospel reading, dearest brethren, I wish, if I can, to run through in brief, so that at its end I may be able to have more ample leisure for speaking. But it must first be asked whether this in Matthew is the very same reading which in Luke is described under the name of a supper (Luke XIV, 16, seq.). And indeed there are some things which seem to be discordant with each other, in that here a dinner, there a supper is mentioned; here he who entered the marriage in unworthy garments was cast out, there no one who is said to have entered is reported to have been cast out.
From which fact it is rightly gathered that both here by the marriage the present Church, and there by the supper the eternal and final banquet is designated; because the one, some who are to depart do enter, and the other, whoever has once entered will thereafter not go out. But if anyone should perhaps contend that this is the same reading, I think it better, with faith preserved, to yield to another's understanding than to be a slave to contentions; since it can perhaps also be fittingly understood that concerning the casting out of him who had not come with a wedding garment, what Luke passed over in silence Matthew has told.
But that by the one a supper, by the other a dinner is called, this too by no means stands in the way of our understanding; because since among the ancients a dinner used to be held at the ninth hour, that very dinner was also called a supper. But I remember having already often said that very frequently in the holy Gospel the present Church is called the kingdom of heaven. For the congregation of the just is called the kingdom of heaven. For because through the prophet the Lord says: Heaven is my seat (Isa. LXVI, 1); and Solomon says: The soul of the just is the seat of wisdom (Wis. VII, 27); Paul also says: Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. I, 24);
we ought clearly to gather that if God is wisdom, and the soul of the just is the seat of wisdom, then, since heaven is called the seat of God, heaven therefore is the soul of the just. Hence through the Psalmist it is said concerning the holy preachers: The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps. XIX, 1). The kingdom of heaven therefore is the heavenly things of the just, because, while their hearts covet nothing on earth, through this—that they sigh after things above—the Lord already reigns in them as though in heavenly places. Let it therefore be said: The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that was a king, who made a marriage for his son. Now your charity already understands who is this king, the father of the king's son: he, namely, to whom the Psalmist says: Give the king thy judgment, O God, and thy justice to the king's son (Ps. LXXII, 1).