The Apostle: 'I beseech you by the mercy of God,' etc. Wondrous devotion, which pleads in order that it may pray, in order that it may bestow! For today the blessed Apostle, not asking for human things but conferring divine ones, thus prays: 'I beseech you, by the mercy of God' (Rom. 12). The physician, when he persuades the sick to accept harsh remedies, acts by entreaties, not by compelling command, knowing that it belongs to weakness, not to the will, that the patient spurns what is salutary, whenever the sick man rejects what would profit him. And a father draws his son to the rigor of discipline not by power but by love, not unaware how harsh discipline is to immature minds.
And if bodily weakness is thus moved to its cure by entreaties, and if a childish mind is scarcely led to prudence by coaxings, what wonder if the Apostle, who is always both physician and father, thus prays that he may raise up human minds wounded by carnal diseases toward the divine remedies: 'I beseech you, by the mercy of God.' He introduces a new kind of entreaty. Why not by the power? Why not by the majesty, not by the glory of God, but by the mercy of God? Because through it alone Paul both escaped the crime of the persecutor and attained the dignity of so great an apostleship, as he himself confesses, saying: 'I who was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained the mercy of God.' And again:
'This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief; but I obtained mercy, for an example to all who shall believe in Him unto life everlasting' (1 Tim. 1). 'I beseech,' he says, 'you by the mercy of God.' Paul entreats; nay rather, through Paul God entreats, because He wishes to be loved more than feared. God entreats, because He wishes not so much to be Lord as Father. God entreats through mercy, that He may not take vengeance through severity. Hear the Lord entreating: 'All the day long,' He says, 'I stretched out my hands' (Isa. 65). Does not He who stretches out His hands, by that very posture, entreat? 'I stretched out my hands.' To whom? To the people. And to what people? Not merely to one that did not believe, but to one that contradicted.
'I stretched out my hands.' He extends His limbs, spreads wide His inward parts, holds forth His breast, offers His bosom, opens His lap, that He may show Himself a Father by the affection of so great an entreaty. Hear God entreating in another way also: 'My people, what have I done to you, or in what have I grieved you?' (Micah 6). Does He not say: 'If My Godhead is unknown, at least let My flesh be known? See, see in Me your own body, your members, your inward parts, your bones, your blood. And if you fear what belongs to God, why do you not at least love what is your own? If you flee the Lord, why do you not run back to the Parent? But perhaps the greatness of My Passion, which you wrought, confounds you. Do not fear.'
'This cross is not my sting, but death's. These nails do not fix pain into me, but fix your love more deeply into me. These wounds do not draw out my groans, but rather draw you into my inward parts. The stretching of my body dilates you into my bosom, and grows not to my punishment. My blood does not perish for me, but is paid out as your price. Come therefore, return, and prove Me thus to be a Father, whom you see rendering good for evils, love for injuries, and for such great wounds such great charity.' But now let us hear what the Apostle entreats: 'I beseech you,' he says, 'that you present your bodies.' The Apostle by entreating has thus advanced all men to the priestly summit: 'That you present your bodies a living sacrifice.'
O unheard-of office of the Christian priesthood, when a man is to himself both victim and priest; when a man seeks not from outside what he is to immolate to God; when a man brings with himself, and in himself, and what is his own, to sacrifice to God; when the same victim remains and the same priest abides; when the victim is slain yet lives, and the priest who offers knows not how to slay! A marvelous sacrifice, where a body is offered without a body, blood without blood! 'I beseech you,' he says, 'by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.' Brethren, this sacrifice descends from the form of Christ, who vitally immolated His own body for the life of the world, and truly made His own body a living sacrifice, because being slain He lives.
In such a victim, therefore, death is expended, the victim remains, the victim lives, and death is punished. Hence the martyrs are born by death, begin at their end, live by their slaying, and shine in the heavens, who on earth were thought to be extinguished. 'I beseech you,' he says, 'brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living, holy sacrifice.' This is that which the prophet sang: 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have perfected for me' (Ps. 39). Be, O man, be a sacrifice and priest of God; do not lose what the divine authority has given and granted you; put on the stole of holiness, gird yourself with the belt of chastity; let Christ be upon the covering of your head; let the cross persevere as the defence of your brow;
set upon your breast the sacrament of divine knowledge; kindle ever the incense of prayer for a sweet odor; seize the sword of the Spirit; make your heart the altar; and so bring your body without fear to God for a victim. God seeks faith, not death; He thirsts for a vow, not for blood; He is appeased by the will, not by slaughter. This God proved, when He demanded of holy Abraham his son for a victim (Gen. 22). For what else did Abraham immolate in his son than his own body? What else did God require in the father than faith, He who, as He commanded the son to be offered, so did not permit him to be slain? Confirmed therefore by such an example, O man, offer your body, and not only slay it, but also cut it through all the members of the virtues.
For as often as the inward parts of the virtues are immolated by you to God, so often do the arts of the vices die in you. Offer faith, that faithlessness may be punished; immolate fasting, that gluttony may cease; sacrifice chastity, that lust may die; impose piety, that impiety may be laid aside; invite mercy, that avarice may be destroyed; and that folly may be consumed, it is always fitting to immolate holiness: thus will your body become your sacrifice, if it be wounded by no dart of sin. Your body lives, O man, it lives, as often as by you the life of the virtues is immolated to God through the deaths of the vices. He cannot die who deserves to be slain by the vital sword. And may our God Himself, who is the way, the truth, and the life, both free us from death and lead us through to life.