'It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air rested in its branches.' Perhaps it troubles your minds why the kingdom of God, so illustrious and magnificent, is compared to a tiny mustard seed, and why the solace of our hope, so great in itself, is said to be like a most worthless thing: especially since elsewhere the same Lord says to His disciples: 'If you have faith like a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Be lifted up and cast into the sea; and it shall be done' (Matt. XVII, 19). Therefore, if faith is so great, which can transfer the foundations of mountains from their very seats, necessarily the mustard seed too is great, to whose likeness we are compelled to have faith.
But we would call it great not in appearance, but in power; and it is to be compared not to faith by the quality of the herb, but to be matched by the vigor of its pungency. For if we consider carefully, we find that this comparison was rightly made by the Lord. For just as the mustard seed at first sight of its appearance is small, worthless, despised, offering no flavor, giving off no scent, showing no sweetness; yet when it begins to be crushed, it at once pours forth its scent, exhibits its pungency, breathes out a food of fiery flavor, and is kindled with so great a heat of fervor that it is a marvel that so much fire was enclosed in things so trifling: and men take the food of this seed also, especially in winter time, with great relish for its sweetness;
in that they drive out the cold, expel humors, and warm the inward parts of the vitals; often too from this they apply medicine to the head, so that if there be anything infirm, anything sickly, it may be cured by the fire of mustard: so, then, the Christian faith also at first sight seems to be small, base, and slight, not showing its power, not putting forth pride, not administering grace; but when it begins to be crushed by various temptations, it at once brings forth its vigor, displays its pungency, breathes out the heat of the Lord's belief, and is so shaken by the great ardor of the divine fire that it both grows fervent itself, and compels one who shares in it to burn.
As in the holy Gospel two of the disciples said, while the Lord spoke with them after His passion: 'Was not our heart burning within us on the way, while the Lord Jesus opened to us the Scriptures?' (Luke XXIV, 32). Therefore the mustard seed warms the inward parts of the members; but the vigor of faith burns up the sins of hearts. And that indeed removes the harsh chill of cold; but this expels the diabolical cold of transgressions. The mustard seed, I say, boils away the wicked humors of bodies; but faith consumes the floods of lusts. And through the former medicine is procured for the head; but through faith our spiritual head, which is Christ the Lord, is more often refreshed.
But we also enjoy the holy fragrance of faith according to the comparison of mustard, as the blessed Apostle says: 'For we are the good odor of Christ unto God' (2 Cor. II, 15). 2. Laurence, the mustard seed. Therefore we can compare the holy martyr Laurence to a mustard seed, who, worn down by various sufferings, earned the merit of making his martyrdom fragrant throughout the whole world by grace. For he who before, while set in the body, was humble, unknown, and lowly; after he was tormented, torn, and burned, poured out through the whole world upon all the churches the odor of his nobility. Rightly, then, is this comparison joined to him: for indeed the mustard seed, when it is crushed, is kindled;
Laurence, when he suffers, is inflamed. The one stirs up its heat by its crushing; this one sighs forth its fire through much torment. The mustard seed, I say, is boiled in a hot vessel; Laurence is roasted on a gridiron in the fire of flames. And so the blessed martyr Laurence burned outwardly with the fires of the raging tyrant; but a greater flame of the love of Christ scorched him within. And although the wicked king put wood beneath and heaped up greater fires, yet holy Laurence does not feel these flames because of the heat of faith: and while he ponders the precepts of Christ, everything he suffers is cold to him. For he cannot feel the torments in the bowels of the fires, who possessed the refreshments of paradise in his senses.
Though his burned flesh lie before the feet of the tyrant, his body lifeless; yet he suffers no loss on earth, whose soul dwells in heaven. He is stretched out, then, over the fiery globes of flames, and is often turned on his sides; but the more he suffers of punishments, the more greatly he fears Christ the Lord. By a new kind of wonder, another torments him, and the torments of the raging one profit others. More atrocious tortures made Laurence more devoted to the Savior. SERMON LXXXVIII. Again on the words of the Gospel of Luke, chapter XII, 18-19: 'To what is the kingdom like?' etc. 1. The Christian faith, the kingdom of God. The symbol of its vigor, the mustard. — 'To what is the kingdom of heaven like? and to what shall I compare it?' says the Lord.
'It is like a mustard seed,' and so forth. We have touched on many points by which we might prove that the kingdom of God is not without reason compared to a mustard seed, and that the difference lies only in the estimation of words, not in the comparison of their powers: since the Christian faith, which is the kingdom of God, obtains the same vigor which the nature of mustard yields. For just as when we take the juice of mustard, we are saddened in countenance, our brow contracts, we are moved to tears, and we receive the very healthfulness of our body with a certain weeping of harshness; for from the one side the bitterness exasperates us, its pungency penetrates, and from the other the heat of its fiery flavor kindles; and, disturbed in our whole body, we are then made more healthy the more we lament:
so also when we receive the commandments of the Christian faith, we are saddened in mind, afflicted in body, moved to tears, and we obtain our very salvation with a certain weeping and mourning. For on the one side fastings exasperate us, on the other the conscience of sins wears us down; here the loss of patrimony disturbs us: and, saddened in our whole condition, we obtain salvation the more, if we weep the more, according to what the Lord says: 'You shall weep and lament; but the world shall rejoice' (John XVI, 20). But just as, when the head must perhaps be treated with mustard, we are bidden to shave off the hair, to lay aside all impediments of the skin, so that the medicine may reach the bare body more perfectly:
so also when the soul is to be cured through faith, we are commanded to take away from ourselves the substance of the world, to lay aside the impediments of gold and silver, so that the spiritual medicine may more fittingly agree with the bare and solitary soul. For whoever is wrapped up in the things of the world and the riches of the age, to him the medicine of faith will not profit. Therefore what the juice of mustard does in the body, this the Christian faith works in the soul. 2. Christ, humble, the mustard seed. He becomes a glorious tree; its branches, the saints. But since in the same dominical saying it is written, 'Which a man took and cast into his garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds rested in its branches,' let us more diligently inquire who this is, to whom all these things may apply.
We said above that the nature of mustard can fit the holy martyrs, who were worn down by various sufferings. But since Scripture says, 'And it grew and became a tree, and the birds rested in its branches,' I judge that this is more rightly compared to Christ the Lord Himself, who, being born in man, was humbled as a seed; ascending to heaven, He was exalted as a tree. Christ is plainly a seed, while He suffers; He is a tree, when He rises again. He is a seed, I say, when He endures hunger, hungering; He is a tree, when He satisfies five thousand men with five loaves: there He suffers barrenness in the human condition, here He bestows fruitfulness by His own divinity.
But I would call the Lord a seed, when He is struck down, despised, rebuked; and a tree, when He gives light to the blind, raises the dead, forgives sins. And if you ask about the branches of this tree, you will find that Peter is a branch, Paul is a branch, blessed Laurence is a branch, whose heavenly birthday we celebrate today; all the Apostles and martyrs are branches. If anyone wishes to hold firmly to them, he shall by no means be submerged by the waves of the age: nay rather, hiding under their shade, he shall not suffer the burning of hell, safe both from the storm of the diabolical tempest and from the fire of the burning judgment; by the help of Him who lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, etc. SERMON LXXXIX.
On the words of the Gospel of Luke, chapter XVII, 21, 'The kingdom of God is within you'; and on the words of the Apostle to the Romans, chapter XIV, 17, 'The kingdom of God is not food,' etc. 1. Introduction. We heard, when the Gospel was read, the Lord saying: 'The kingdom of God is within you.' And because He knew that not all could understand what He was saying, when He had said, 'The kingdom of God is within you,' as if He were questioned by someone, He added, saying: 'The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy.' I ask you therefore, most beloved brethren, let us consider our consciences; let us see whether we have the kingdom laid up within the storerooms of our soul. If there is righteousness there, if peace, if joy, we are secure; for we recognize that the kingdom of God is within us.
But what is this righteousness, what is this peace, what is this joy, diligently attend. The perfect righteousness. Righteousness, then, true and perfect, is that very thing which does not do to others what it does not will for itself. But someone says: 'Who can do good to all men?' Yet one can wish well to all men: and when you do this, the evangelist says to you: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will' (Luke II, 14). Someone can say, 'I do not have the means': but can he say, 'I cannot have good will'? This, then, is true righteousness, which desires for all men what it wills for itself; it longs that what it wills for itself may befall them.
This is true righteousness, which for the love of God loves not only friends, but even enemies themselves. But we then well bestow that true righteousness on others, brother, if we ourselves also desire to have it. For how does anyone bestow on others what he is not known to have in himself? But perhaps someone asks how we ought to keep righteousness within ourselves. Righteousness, so called from pronouncing what is right between two opposing parties. The right of the soul, and the right of the flesh. He who is not just in himself cannot be just toward others. Attend, brethren: it seems to me that righteousness (iustitia) took its name from this, that it is wont to judge justly between two parties adverse and contrary to each other. Come, brethren, let us recognize that there are also in ourselves two things contrary to each other.
For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Gal. V, 17). We have, then, both the inner man and the outer; we have the flesh and the soul; that is, we have a mistress and a maidservant. If, then, you wish me to believe you, that you can justly judge the cause of another, I wish you first to acknowledge it in yourself. Be a just judge in yourself: assign to the soul what is worthy; reserve for the flesh what is needful: assign to the mistress what may suffice her unto eternity; and reserve only this to the maidservant, whereby she may be able to live in the world. For if the mistress is humbled and the maidservant exalted; if for the mistress either little or nothing is laid up in heaven, and everything is reserved for the maidservant in the world;
behold, we are already recognized as not being just in our own selves. And how is the cause of another heard by us in right order, when in ourselves and in our own cause nothing of righteousness is reserved? This only I know, brethren, that he will never be able to judge justly the cause of another, who has been unwilling to keep righteousness between his own soul and flesh. For in soul and in mind we were made to the image of God; but according to the flesh we were formed from the mud of the earth. He, then, who loves his flesh more than his soul, wishes to set the image of God down below, and to lift the earth up above: and he who is so unjust in his own self, if he hears the cause of another, will without doubt not keep righteousness. And therefore, he who desires to keep righteousness, let him begin from himself;
and let him first keep righteousness within himself, and grow accustomed to being a just judge between his own flesh and soul. To the flesh let him reserve simple and moderate food and clothing in the world; but that which is better, the soul, let him lay up in heaven through alms. For if he acts otherwise and does not amend himself, if he wishes to persevere in this, as he judges in this age, so shall he be judged in the age to come. And let this be briefly said concerning true righteousness. 4. True peace. God is displeasing to many. Peace is perfect if it is with God. For you ought to recognize what peace is truly peace. For that is not true peace which robbers and drunkards, the slanderous and the proud, seem to offer one another.
That is not to be called peace which does not spring up from the root of charity. Whoever, therefore, desires true peace, let him first strive to have peace with God. But someone says: Who is there that would not wish to have peace with God? Assuredly, whoever does not live as God has commanded that one ought to live. Who is this that does not have peace with God? He to whom God is displeasing. But someone says: And who is so insane that God should displease him? If I examine you yourself, perhaps I find in you the very one to whom God is displeasing. Tell me, I beg you, have you never murmured against an abundance of rains? Have you never complained of the dryness of droughts? Have you never murmured against the good fortune of evil men?
Have you never been angry against the violence of the winds? And, to say something yet greater, have you never blasphemed when you gathered no more fruit of the vineyards? Yet if in all these things you recognize yourself and understand that you have not murmured against God, know that you have true peace with God in all that has befallen you. Cry out what that most blessed Job cried out with a secure conscience: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it has pleased the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). For if, when it goes well with you, you praise the Lord, but when it goes ill with you, you murmur against the Lord, you do not have peace with God, nor can you say with the Psalmist: I will bless the Lord at all times (Ps. 33:2).
Who is he that blesses the Lord at all times? He whom prosperity does not corrupt, nor adversity terrify. The first and true peace, then, is that we be at peace with God. When this has been done, we shall also be able to have peace within our very selves. For he who has been unwilling to have peace with God will not be able to have peace within himself. Let our soul, then, be at peace with God, so that our flesh may be subject to our soul; for if what is higher does not rule you, what is lower torments and afflicts you. Let your soul bow its neck beneath the yoke of God, that your flesh too may submit its neck beneath the yoke of your soul. Then will there be true and perfect peace, when we are at peace not only with others, but also with ourselves.
But since we are still in battle and are fighting against the devil, let us not despair of victory, if we are at peace with God. And if we are joined to God, how can it come about that we should fear the devil? You have such a Commander with you, and do you fear the devil? You serve as a soldier under such a King, and do you doubt of victory? The devil indeed opposes us daily; but Christ is at hand. He wishes to press us down, Christ to lift us up; he wishes to strike down, Christ to give life: but be secure, brethren; Christ avails more for raising up than the devil for casting down. If, therefore, as we said above, we keep justice and peace with a guarded heart, then shall we also be able to have true joy. 5. True joy, the kingdom of heaven: and this is Christ.
It is the fruit of justice and peace. What is true joy, brethren, if not the kingdom of heaven? What is the kingdom of heaven, if not Christ our Lord? For that true joy is Christ, we read in the Gospel. For thus the angels said to the shepherds: Behold, we bring you good tidings of great joy. Attend, brethren, and see that there is no true joy except Christ our Lord. For thus the angels confirmed it by their testimony. For when they had said, We bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people, they at once added: For unto you is born this day a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:10-11). I know, brethren, that all men wish to have true joy:
but he circumvents himself who is unwilling to till the field yet wishes to rejoice in its fruit; he deceives himself who is unwilling to plant the tree yet wishes to gather its apples. True joy is not possessed unless peace and justice are held fast. For the first, and as it were the root, is justice; the second, peace; the third, joy: from justice peace is born, from peace joy is begotten. Justice and peace appear to be, as it were, good works; but joy is understood to be the fruit of good works. Now therefore, by doing justice and by holding fast peace, we labor as it were at a good work for a short time: but afterward we shall rejoice without end in the fruit of good works. Hear the Apostle speaking of Christ: He is our peace, who has made both one (Eph. 2:14).
That the joy itself is Christ we have already said before: and the Lord Jesus Christ, when in the Gospel he was speaking with his disciples, thus exhorted them, saying: Again, he says, I will see you, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one shall take from you (John 16:22). What does it mean, Your joy no one shall take from you, except: Me, the Lord myself, no one shall take from you? Attend to your own consciences, dearly beloved brethren: if there is justice in you, that is, if you wish and desire and choose for all men that which you wish for yourselves; if there is in you a peace which reaches not only to friends but even to enemies themselves: know that the kingdom of heaven, that is, Christ the Lord, abides in you.
But whoever, returning to his own conscience, does not find there justice, but avarice; not peace, but discord; not joy from the hope of eternal life, but carnal delight from the love of luxury: let him acknowledge and understand that in him there reigns, not Christ the King of the Law, but a cruel tyrant. Now, brethren, while we still live in this body, we can with God's help amend and correct ourselves. But if the last day finds us entangled in many crimes, there will be no time for correction. For then there will be, just as eternal joy for all the saints, so unending torment for sinners; but this shall be for those who have refused to amend themselves through penance.
Then will Christ say to those placed on his left: Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire; but to those placed on his right: Come, you blessed, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matt. 25:41, 34). To which beatitude may the Lord under his protection lead us; to whom be honor and glory and dominion, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen. Sermon 90. On the words of the Gospel of John, chapter 2:1-10: On the third day a wedding was taking place, etc. 1. What the wedding signifies; what the six waterpots; what the two or three measures. That on the third day a wedding was held, and water was turned into wine, dearly beloved brethren, you have just now heard when the Gospel was read; let us see [what it means].
What is that wedding? Here our acquisition and restoration is shown by the vows and festivities of a wedding; just as in another place the return of the younger son is welcomed with dancing and music. Now the six waterpots are the six ages of this world, throughout which the just prefigured the figure and type of the Lord; and they hold two or three measures each: because they contain within themselves the faith of the Trinity. But let us see what the divine discourse says; let us go over again the sacred oracles of the Gospel itself. 1. The mystery of human restoration. Christ gave the Church pledge and dowry. At Cana of Galilee he turned water into wine, and disclosed the power of divine works hidden beneath man. On the third day, he says, a wedding was taking place.
What is this wedding, if not the joys of human salvation? Why on the third day? Either because it shows 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, by the incarnation he took upon himself, to the Church that was to be gathered from among the Gentiles. To which Church indeed, which is surely we ourselves, he gave both pledge and dowry. He gave the pledge when he was promised to us out of the Law; he gave the dowry when he was sacrificed for us: and in another way it can be taken, so 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 Lord's stupendous miracles come forth for us. 3. The symbol of regeneration.
Waterpots are set up, holding two or three measures each; measures from 'metron,' that is, a unit of measure: the waterpots are filled; the waters are suddenly changed; and men are afterward transformed: and while they are reformed into something better, they speak, as it were, of the power of Baptism, and in them in a certain manner the likeness of regeneration is expressed; and while one thing is made from another, while the lower creature is transferred into a more pleasing form, the mystery of the second birth is opened. Nothing in those very waters is diminished from their quantity; and while they remain in themselves, they utterly degenerate from themselves by a remarkable change. Their own substances perish, and other, foreign ones are acquired:
a stronger savor is added to the thin substance, and a hidden power is poured into the light-flowing streams, and the nature of the waters is made drunk; thus in a new manner they confess the power of their Creator. Who can change these things, except he who was also able to create them? 4. Wine, the sacred Scriptures. Water into wine, grace succeeding the Law. When therefore the wine had failed, his mother said to Jesus: They have no wine. Now in the first place let us inquire what is the wine that is said to have failed, and what is that other wine which is wondrously prepared, which the master of the feast declares to be better, saying: Every man first sets out the good wine; and when they have become drunk, then that which is worse: but you have kept the good wine until now.
In many places we understand wine to mean the divine precepts and the holy Scriptures, containing the purest vigor of heavenly wisdom, by which the senses may grow warm unto the fear of God, and the affections be made drunk; according to that which is written of Wisdom: She has prepared her table, she has mingled her wine in the mixing-bowl (Prov. 9:2). The power of the divine Scriptures, whenever it has filled anyone's inward parts, will be able to say with the prophet: You have given us to drink the wine of compunction (Ps. 60:5): and, How glorious is your cup that makes drunk! (Ps. 23:5). When therefore Christ works in Cana of Galilee, the wine fails and wine is made; that is, the shadow is removed, and the truth is presented: the Law withdraws, grace succeeds;
carnal things are changed into spiritual; the old observance is poured over into the New Testament, as the blessed Apostle says: The old things have passed away, and behold, all things have been made new (2 Cor. 5:17). But just as those waterpots, filled with water, are in no way diminished from what they were, and yet begin to be what they were not: so the Law does not perish through the coming of Christ, once it is fulfilled, but advances. Therefore, as the wine fails, another wine is supplied. The Old Testament is indeed good; but without spiritual understanding it vanishes into the letter: the New, however, yields the fragrance of life in grace. 5. The greatest miracle, the conversion of the sinner. Since these things are so, let us look at the master of the feast himself, set in charge in the bridegroom's house, whom we can perceive.
And whom else ought we to understand except the blessed Paul, who, after the letter of the Law, having received the most sweet mystery of the New Testament by fragrance and by taste, filled and made drunk with the fragrance of spiritual perceptions, cries out and praises: You have kept the good wine until now. Let us see, however, how he praises the wine itself: Neither eye, he says, has seen, nor ear heard, what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor. 2:9). Behold true miracles, behold miracles worthy of proclamation, which God works in us, when he makes of the worst men good ones, of the proud humble ones, of the shameless chaste ones, of the followers of the world friends of God.
What greater miracles can he perform than when he deigns to promote a man, a worm and rottenness, into an angelic state, to place him from earthly things among heavenly things, and to take him up into the grace of his adoption? 6. Gifts pleasing to God. What, then, shall we render to the Lord for all that he has rendered to us? Or when shall we be able to repay what we are not even sufficient to conceive? And yet we must not despair because we can repay nothing; for so great is the mercy of our Lord that with him the perfect will to do a thing is reckoned as the deed done. For he has fulfilled all things who has done what he could. What, then, shall we render to the Lord, except that, with the body humbled in humility and with a contrite heart, we say: Lord, be merciful to me a sinner (Luke
18:13)? For he loves whole burnt offerings, who also does not despise a contrite and humbled heart. He does not require of us what he knows we cannot fulfill. And therefore those who cannot dispense larger alms, let them at least, according to their means, distribute some little thing with a good will. Those who cannot attain the glory of virginity, let them strive, with God's help, to keep chastity with their own wives; let them love justice, hold to charity, cultivate patience, flee drunkenness as the pit of hell, love all men with a perfect soul: let them pray for the good, that they may not depart from holy work; let them make supplication for the evil, that they may quickly turn themselves to better things.