Whoever he be whom the envious man persecutes with his jealousy, he will be able to flee and avoid him; but the envious man will not be able to escape. Wherever he may be, his adversary goes with him, an enemy ever shut up in his own breast. Finally, the Lord in the Gospel, when his disciples asked him who among them was the greater, answered: 'Whoever shall be least among you all, he shall be great' (Matt. 18:4). By which word he plucked out and cut off every cause and matter of biting envy. 7. Let whoever is envious vomit out the poisons of gall. For the Christian people it is not lawful to be jealous, it is not permitted to envy: from humility one grows to the heights.
Hear the blessed Apostle John saying in his Epistle: 'He who hates his brother is a murderer'; and again, 'He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goes' (1 John 3:15 and 2:10-11). For he descends ignorant into hell, and is hurled headlong into punishment, departing indeed from the light of Christ who warns and says: 'I am the light of the world; and he who believes in me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life' (John 8:12). But how does he hold either the peace of the Lord or charity, who in the vice of jealousy can be neither peaceable nor secure?
But we, brethren, with God's help, fleeing the poisons of jealousy or envy, let us hold the sweetness of charity not only toward the good but also toward the wicked: that Christ may not reprove us on account of the evil of envy, but rather praise us and invite us to the reward, saying: 'Come, you blessed, receive the kingdom' (Matt. 25:34). Let the divine reading be in our hands, the thought of the Lord in our senses, let unceasing prayer never wholly cease, let saving work persevere; that whenever the enemy approaches to tempt us, he may always find us occupied with good works. Let each one therefore consider his own conscience; and if he sees himself stricken by the envious poison against his neighbour's prosperity,
let him pluck out from his breast the thorns and briers, that in him the Lord's seed, as in a fertile field, may enrich him with multiplied fruit, and that the divine and spiritual crop may abound into a plentiful and fruitful harvest. Let whoever is envious therefore vomit out the poisons of gall, let him shut out the venom of discords, let him purge, with God's aid, the mind which the serpent's spite had infected: let all the bitterness of envy be soothed by the sweetness of Christ. Let him love those whom he formerly hated, let him cherish those whom he envied with unjust disparagement: let him imitate the good, and ever rejoice at the advances of better men. Let him not disparage the priests, nor tear his superiors with venomous teeth, but make himself a partaker with them in united love.
It shall be forgiven him when he himself has forgiven; his sacrifices shall be accepted when he himself has approached God as one at peace. Let each one think of the delights of paradise, let him desire the heavenly kingdom, to which Christ admits the merciful and the like-minded. Let us consider, brethren, that they alone can be called sons of God who are peaceable, according to that which is written: 'By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another'; and again, 'This is my commandment, that you love one another' (John 13:35, 34). To which love may the merciful Lord lead you by his protection through good works, to whom belong honour and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto all ages of ages. Amen.
SERMON XV. On blessed Joseph, III. 1. Why Joseph did not at once make his lot known to his father. In blessed Jacob, most dear brethren, and in his holy son Joseph, whoever attends diligently recognises that God did a thing exceedingly wonderful. First, I do not believe it was without cause that the Lord, who had so often deigned to show himself to blessed Jacob, was unwilling for so many years to reveal to him that Joseph his son was alive, but allowed him to be consumed by long affliction. If this...
anyone believes was done without a sure and evident reason, let him at least consider this: that not even his son Joseph, placed so near, was permitted to send to his father to announce to him that he not only was alive, but was even set in great honour. For from that place where blessed Jacob was, as far as Egypt, there were scarcely three hundred miles. Whence very frequently many hastened from Egypt to that place where Jacob was; and from that place to Egypt countless multitudes continually flowed together. But perhaps someone says that blessed Joseph departed from his father as a little child, and therefore could not have remembered him. It is not so, most dear brethren.
For a boy of sixteen years could by no means forget his parents. For he had not so far forgotten them, but that he recognised his brothers as soon as he first saw them. 2. By the hidden judgment of God he did not send to his father. But someone says that, because he served an Egyptian master, he had no leave or power of sending to his father. Even if this seems somewhat plausible, yet after he was brought out of prison and became lord over the whole land of Egypt, throughout those seven years of fertility and those two which passed in the time of scarcity before his brothers came down to him—throughout these nine years, among three hundred miles, could he not send to his father? Without any doubt he could:
but by a hidden judgment the Lord did not permit this to be done; so much so that he did not even reveal himself to his brothers when they had come to buy wheat: nay rather, speaking to them very harshly, he held their brother in bonds, and bade them return to their father with great grief. 3. Why by keeping Simeon and Benjamin he increased his father's grief. Attend still to another and greater marvel, and see how blessed Joseph, who knew that his father was bearing intolerable bitterness on his account, as though what he had endured before were too little, moreover caused Benjamin also to be taken away from him; by which deed he assuredly knew that his father would suffer manifold grief. For I believe all these things were done by the dispensation of the Holy Spirit.
For God, whose judgments are for the most part hidden, yet never unjust, who was unwilling to disclose to blessed Jacob that his son was alive—he also did not permit holy Joseph to announce his glory to his father: nay rather, by still keeping Simeon in bonds and taking away Benjamin, he heaped up the anguish of his very father. But these things, most dear brethren, if we attend faithfully and diligently, we recognise that the Lord did with great mercy. For from the beginning of the world God exercised this in his saints, which he fulfilled in blessed Jacob with great tenderness. But why this was done, attend diligently. 4. The friends of God are not without small sins, which are consumed by the fire of tribulation.
For although the servants and friends of God have avoided capital crimes and done many good works, yet we do not believe that they were without small sins; because he lies not who said: 'No one is free from sin, not even the infant whose life is of one day upon the earth' (Job 14:4-5, according to the Septuagint). And blessed John the Evangelist, who surely was not inferior in merits to holy Jacob, cries out and says: 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us' (1 John 1:8). And that which is written elsewhere: 'The just man falls seven times, and rises again' (Prov. 24:16). Since therefore, as has already been said, Jacob could not be without these small sins;
God, willing to consume those very small sins in this world by the fire of tribulation, fulfilled in him what he himself said through the Holy Spirit: 'The furnace tries the potter's vessels, and the trial of tribulation tries just men' (Ecclus. 27:6); and that: 'God scourges every son whom he receives' (Heb. 12:6); and that: 'Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God' (Acts 14:21). That therefore our God might present holy Jacob, like gold, purified in the future judgment, he first wiped away from him all stains of sins; so that in him that fire, the arbiter, might find nothing to burn away. 5. By the example of Joseph we are taught that he is chastised who seeks help more from man than from God.
This we recognise was done in blessed Joseph himself. For when, as Scripture said, the Lord was with him, and had given him grace before his master and before the keeper of the prison (Gen. 39:2, 4, 21), he was then forestalled so as to seek help from man, saying to the chief of the cupbearers: 'Remember me when it shall be well with you, and entreat Pharaoh, that he may bring me out of this prison' (Gen. 40:14). And because it was not yet written, 'It is good to hope in the Lord rather than to hope in man' (Ps. 117:8), when in all things he had merited the grace of God, it was stolen upon him that he should seek help from man. For which reason two years were added, in which he was still held in prison, as though God said to him:
'I show you that you ought to seek help more from me than from man.' For without any doubt it is to be believed that, for the chastisement of holy Joseph, God did not permit the chief of the cupbearers to keep in mind that holy Joseph had entreated him when he was released from prison. And because even Joseph himself, holy though he was, could not then be without sin, therefore he was shut up in prison for so long a time, that in him might be fulfilled what is written: 'Those whom I love I rebuke, and those I cherish I chastise' (Rev. 3:19). 6. Why Joseph dealt so harshly with his brothers.
If we attend diligently, most dear brethren, to what we believe God did toward blessed Jacob, we recognise that Joseph also exercised this toward his brothers; who indeed was so holy that he could not have held them in hatred. Whence it is to be believed that he wearied them with so many tribulations for this reason: to provoke them to the confession of their crime and to the medicine of penance. In short, with great grief they said that they were suffering those things deservedly, because they had sinned against their brother, seeing his anguish (Gen. 42:21).
And because blessed Joseph knew that the crime of fratricide could not be pardoned to his brothers without great penance, once and a second and a third time he cooked them, as it were with a spiritual fire, by a healing tribulation; not that he might avenge himself, but that he might correct them and free them from so grave a crime. Indeed, before they confessed their sin and, by mutual chastisement among themselves, consumed the crime they had committed, he neither gave himself to be recognised by them nor granted them the kiss of peace. But when he saw them humbly afflicted for the sin they had committed against him, he kissed each one, and wept over each, and bedewing the necks of the trembling men with the tender dew of his eyes, he washed away the hatred of his brothers with the tears of charity.
7. Fraternal correction. We must pardon others in such a way as we wish God to pardon us. What therefore God did in blessed Jacob, and what Joseph exercised toward his brothers, this too we ought to fulfil toward those who have sinned against us: that we strive to hate not them, but their sins; and so wish to correct them by the harshest chastisement according to the deserts of their fault, that we may ever strive to love them in truth. If we do this, most dear brethren, that is fulfilled in us which is written: 'Bear one another's burdens, and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ' (Gal. 6:2).
Finally, that I may conclude all I have said in a brief word, let us so pardon those who have sinned against us, as we wish God to pardon us as often as we sin against him. If we do this, we can securely say: 'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors' (Matt. 6:12). 8. On account of the poor who hasten to their work, he reserves speaking further of Joseph to the morrow. It still delighted us to speak somewhat with your Charity concerning blessed Joseph; but on account of the poor who hasten to their work, it is better that we reserve this for ourselves for the morrow.
And therefore, turned to the Lord, let us beseech his mercy, that the desire of hearing the word of God, which in his good pleasure he has bestowed on us, he may deign ever both to increase and to preserve, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto ages of ages. Amen. SERMON XVI. On that which is written: 'Joseph died, and the children of Israel increased,' etc. (Exod. 1:6). 1. When Joseph died the Israelites are multiplied; when Christ died the Christians. We have heard in the lesson which was read, most dear brethren, how, when Joseph died, the children of Israel increased, and were multiplied exceedingly, and sprang up as it were like grass. What is this, most dear brethren?
As long as Joseph lived, the children of Israel are not reported to have increased, nor to have been multiplied exceedingly; but after he had died, they are said to have sprung up like grass — though surely under Joseph's patronage and protection they ought rather to have grown and multiplied. But these things, dearly beloved brethren, were prefigured in that Joseph; whereas in our Joseph, that is, in the Lord Christ, they were fulfilled in truth. For before he died — that is, before our Joseph was crucified — few believed in him; but after he had died and risen again, throughout the whole world the Israelites, that is, the Christian peoples, were multiplied and increased.
So too the Lord himself said in the Gospel: 'Unless a grain of wheat falling into the ground dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit' (John 12:24-25). For after that precious grain of wheat had died and been buried through his Passion, from that one grain the harvest of the Church sprang up throughout the whole world. For God is no longer known, as before, in Judea alone, nor is his great name honored only in Israel; but from the rising of the sun even to its setting his name is praised. — The people of Israel in Egypt, and the soul in the flesh, under two kings. Meanwhile, Joseph having died, there arose a new king in Egypt who knew not Joseph, and he addresses his people, that they might persecute the children of Israel.
While that king lived who had known Joseph, the children of Israel are not reported to have been afflicted, nor to have been wearied in clay and brick, nor were their males slain and their females kept alive; but after that king had arisen who knew not Joseph, all these deeds are recorded. For these things, brethren, according to what the Apostle says, happened to the Jewish people as a figure, and were written for our sake (1 Cor. 10:11). What was figured in them carnally is fulfilled in us spiritually. And so we too, if we attend diligently, recognize that these things frequently take place within us, in the inner man. For our soul is either governed by a lawful king, or laid waste by a tyrant.
For if by God's help we live justly and holily, if we meditate on chastity, on mercy and penitence, and on other things like these, then although we are still in Egypt — that is, in the flesh — nevertheless we are ruled by Christ our king; and he himself governs us, and does not consume us in clay and brick, nor wear us down and afflict us with earthly cares or excessive anxieties. But if our soul begins to turn away from God and to pursue what is base and dishonorable, then the prudence of the flesh, which is at enmity with God, having rejected Christ the king, bows its wretched neck to the tyrant. And when this has come to pass, he addresses his people — that is, the pleasures of the body.
And when the leaders of the vices have been summoned to council, a deliberation is entered upon against the children of Israel — that is, against holy thoughts acceptable to God — how they may be entrapped, how they may be crushed, so that they may be afflicted with clay and brick, so that they may kill the males and keep the females. By the males is understood the rational sense; by the females, the concupiscence of the flesh. The devil therefore wills to slay the males in us and to keep the females alive — that is, to extinguish in us the rational sense that beholds God, and to preserve what belongs to the concupiscence of the flesh. — The things that were written, were written for our instruction.
These things were not written for us merely as history, nor is it to be supposed that the divine Books narrate the deeds of the Egyptians; but, as the Apostle says, the things that were written, were written for our instruction and admonition (Rom. 15:4). So that you who read these things, and have already obtained the grace of Baptism, and are numbered among the children of Israel, and have received Christ the king into yourself — if after this you should be willing to turn aside and, out of greed, to do the works of the world, deeds of the earth and of clay, that is, to fulfill lustful services — you should recognize and understand that another king has arisen in you who knows not Joseph. It is indeed the king of Egypt himself who compels you to his works, to serve not righteousness but iniquity; he it is who makes you toil at brick and clay for himself.
He it is who, by taskmasters and drivers set over you, urges you with whips and lashes to earthly and lustful works; he it is who makes you run about through the world, to be tossed for greed's sake amid the elements of sea and land; he is the king of Egypt who makes you batter the law-court with lawsuits, and wear down your kinsmen with quarrels over a paltry clod of earth; he it is who persuades you to lay ambushes against chastity by luxury, to deceive innocence, to commit what is foul in your own house, what is cruel abroad, and what is shameful within your conscience. If therefore you see your deeds to be such, know that you serve as a soldier of the king of Egypt — that is, you are driven not by the Spirit of Christ, but of the devil. — It is not enough for the heart to be emptied of evils, unless it be also filled with good things.
We therefore, dearly beloved brethren, who before the coming of the Lord and Savior were vessels and houses of the devil, and who by the grace of Christ have been counted worthy to be freed from his power, ought to labor as much as we can, with his help, lest Christ, offended by us through our evil deeds, depart, and the devil, at his departure, take his place; lest perhaps, the true light having been driven out, dark night take possession of our heart; lest there be fulfilled in us that which is written in the Gospel: 'When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none; after this he says, I will return into my house whence I came out. And he finds it swept clean, and he brings with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering in they dwell there.'
'And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first' (Luke 11:24-26). For this, brethren, is to be understood also of the baptized Christian. Through the grace of Baptism each one is emptied of all evils; but afterward, with God's help, he ought to labor that he may be filled with all good things. For if the enemy finds anyone freed from evils but empty of good things, he brings with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. And therefore, where luxury has been expelled, let chastity be brought in; where avarice has been rooted out, let almsgiving be planted; where malice or envy is driven out, let charity hold sway.
And because our Lord, at his coming, bound the strong one — that is, the devil — and snatched his vessels, that is, ourselves, from his power (Matt. 12:29); let us strive, as much as we can, with his help, that we may serve with all our heart and all our soul, even to the end of our life, him by whom we have been saved. And because Christ, having expelled the devil, has deigned to make of us a house for himself in which to rest, and vessels in which to dwell, let him not suffer any injury in his own house. Let him find there nothing dishonorable, nothing filthy, nothing hidden in darkness; but may he ever find the dwelling-place of our heart full of faith and empty of all evils, so that he may deign not only to visit us more frequently, but even to dwell in us continually;
who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 17. On the wrestling of the Egyptians and the Israelites. 1. Temptations grow heavier as Easter approaches. Although, dearly beloved brethren, it behooves us at all times to hear the word of God faithfully and with a longing to pray, yet in these days especially we ought to apply ourselves to the divine reading, and to think more attentively about the salvation of our soul;
for although throughout the whole span of the year the Christian people is wearied by many waves of vices through the cunning of the devil, yet as the solemnity of Easter approaches, he is wont to array himself with greater force against each of the faithful, and strives to prick and disturb our hearts with sharper goads of sins. For just as in these days, after the likeness of the devil and his angels, King Pharaoh and the people of the Egyptians persecuted the children of Israel, and, oppressing them with clay and brick, brought them to bitterness;
so also at this time, as the solemnity of Easter draws near, because the devil grieves that the true Israelites, who are to be baptized, are departing from his army and possession, he is wont to send forth graver tribulations and to stir up greater scandals. But if we follow Moses — that is, if we willingly hear the Law, and are unwilling to look back at or to long for Egypt — then, Pharaoh being drowned through the sacrament of Baptism, as through the crossing of the Red Sea, we are freed from his power and servitude. — The devil persecutes none but the good. God has good ministers, the devil evil ones. It is most certain, dearly beloved brethren, that just as then the Egyptians brought the children of Israel to bitterness with many tribulations,
so also, as we have already said, at this time the devil and his angels do not cease to assail and disquiet faithful Christians who are given to good works. Yet know this, brethren, that the devil persecutes none but the good. For the wicked — the lustful, the covetous, and the proud — the devil is not wont to persecute; for they are his friends and always do his will. And so far is he from persecuting them, that he even persecutes others through them. For the devil is wont to have wicked men as his hammers or scourges. Indeed, he persecutes the good only through the wicked. God therefore has his ministers; the devil too has his helpers. For God, through good men as through his ministers, does everything that is good;
but the devil, through wicked men as through his satellites, carries out everything that is evil. God, through the mercy of the good, clothes the naked; the devil, through the avarice of the wicked, strips the clothed. God, through good men, recalls the discordant to concord; the devil, through the impious and proud, incites even those who seem to have peace to scandals and quarrels. And since it would be long to go through each case, so that your Charity may know and understand for certain that, just as God does everything that is good through good men, so the devil is wont to carry out everything that is cruel and impious through wicked men:
consider then, brethren, and you will see even with your bodily eyes how the people of the devil persecute the people of Christ: while adulterers persecute the chaste, the drunken hound the sober, the proud lay ambushes for the humble, the envious for the kind, the covetous for the generous, and the wrathful never cease to afflict those who hold to gentleness and patience. And therefore let each one examine his own conscience; and if he sees himself ever loving what is good in thought, in word, and in deed, and continually practicing what is honorable, let him recognize and rejoice that he is a minister of God. But whoever, questioning himself within, sees that he not only thinks what is evil, but even speaks and practices it,
let him understand that he is a helper of the devil, and at the same time let him grieve; and while his sinful and darkened soul is still held enclosed within its body, let him strive, with God's help, to rescue himself from the power of the devil, lest perhaps, if sudden death should snatch him away while he persists in evil works, he deserve to hear, together with the devil whose will he did: 'Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire.' 3. Let us be eager to heal contraries by contraries, and, the vices being destroyed, to build up the virtues. Let no one deceive himself, dearly beloved brethren. Whatever works or desires each one carries out in this world, with that same one will he afterward be in the world to come. And so every man is either to reign with Christ, or to be tormented with the devil in the punishment of hell.
And therefore, while there is time, and while, with God's help, it lies within our own power, let each one who recognizes himself to be on the left through evil works strive, before he departs from this light, to pass over to the right, so that he may not, with those on the left, hear, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire,' but may deserve, on the right among the lambs, to hear, 'Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom' (Matt. 25:41, 34). And that we may be able, with God's help, to fulfill all these things, let us think more attentively about giving alms. But how one may pass over from the left to the right, clear and manifest reason demonstrates. Let him who was a drunkard become sober; let him who had been wrathful be patient;