講道與短論 第 3 章

SERMONS ON THE SAINTS. SERMON 188. On the feast of St. Vincent. 1. Introduction. Although, most beloved, one faith makes the glorious passions of all the martyrs, whom places distinguished by regions have merited, venerable to all with undistinguished honor; nevertheless those claim for themselves a special dignity in this homage of veneration, who both raised up the Church of God above the rest by their teachings and aided it by their patronage. Among whom we justly, with catholic zeal, celebrate the blessed levite Vincent, by whose confession and death we without hesitation acknowledge Christ preached to the unbelieving.

That he might the more zealously commend the devotion of the faithful to God, burning with a loftier affection of charity, he at length faithfully offered himself to death: namely, that the strength of faith, founded on the most solid rock, Christ, might be given to his followers to imitate; and also that the seed of apostolic preaching, disseminated by him to many, made safe by the help of his intercession and filled full with the fruit of perfect consummation, might at last be stored in the heavenly barns. Let those, then, who are his own venerate him the more, whom even strangers admire: so that he may show himself the more bountiful in benefits to those to whom he shall know himself the more beloved in joys; and in his solemnity there may arise a richer scope of gladness, from which the effect of faith has grown. 2.

The levite, a minister of the Lord's blood. Unconquered by torments. Finally, this man's spirit shone with so great a gift of virtues that, upheld by the office of the sacred ministry, he who was to follow the Son of God our Lord in his passion, might first minister the chalice of that same Christ unto salvation to those who believe. Happily made drunk in mind by drinking it, he undismayed approached the madness of the raging enemy, savage against Christ; modest, he endured it; secure, he mocked it: knowing that he was prepared to resist, not knowing that he was exalted because he conquered: because, protected by spiritual arms through love of him whom he resisted, by his aid he, invincible, by bravely suffering conquered whatever of punishments the wrath of the raging one contrived against him.

Therefore neither the red-hot plates of the fiery pan, nor the little rack, nor the iron claws and hands, nor the fearful strength of those striking, nor the pain of his torn limbs, nor the crackle of the fire and the injection of salt into his open bowels, availed Dacian in any degree to subdue him to his command: but while the swelling of his madness grew to such a point that, exulting, he might boast to have either conquered or slain one subdued by such great pains of sufferings, he, frustrated of the hope he had conceived, from the very place where he had seemed to appear the victor, was thence compelled, defeated, to blush; since by however harsher a penalty God's Martyr was pressed, by so much the more ample constancy of confession did he exult. 3. The working of the devil in Dacian, of Christ in Vincent. Vincent is tortured in secret.

Wherefore, brethren, it pleases us to survey or recall more plainly even the last things of his very passion; so that your Holiness may observe to what point the devil led on his minister by wiles, and how Christ preserved his servant even to the end. From which this indeed was marvelous, that in as much as this man was outwardly crushed and confined by manifold kinds of punishments, so much inwardly, with the inner man rejoicing, was he enlarged: and by however much the other was outwardly puffed up with the boasting of temporal power, so much inwardly, weighing that he was despised, tormented in the inner man, was he choked. Therefore, seeing himself despised, he raged, and found no one on whom he might now inflict vengeance.

For he saw the hands of the raging executioners find in him more of wound than of body: and that his sole vigorous spirit reproached its folly with that very rule of truth by which it provoked him. Wherefore, believing that he would avert the cause of his confusion if he removed from sight the person who had scorned him, and that Dacian would blush the less if the people did not see Vincent, he ordered him to be removed from public view. But that not even thus he might lack torment, he is laid down upon a broken potsherd where he lay; so that the force of the sharpness might rend all the more the mangled mass of the body cast upon it, and his limbs, given back to torments, might meet the fragments that would cut them. 4. He is healed by God, and dies on a soft bed. Yet blind cruelty is deceived in its opinion of conquering.

For divine goodness, accompanying its beloved yet more in his confession, brought a new light into the darkness, and rendered the dark dungeon a splendid tabernacle. The healing hand of God cherished his numbed limbs, and with a more graceful increase of former health made good the injuries of his pierced side. The keepers, therefore, struck by the unwonted brightness of this light, were stunned: nay, the mind of the pale doorkeeper trembled with dread at the voice of the Angels chanting a hymn to God. The lifeless minister ran to the president, whom the report of the messenger was to strike more gravely than the blow of a sword: and when out of the greatness of the matter he could not keep silent what he had seen, trembling seizes the judge, grief lacerates him, fury inflames him.

And lest Vincent, conquering amid punishments, should obtain the glory of martyrdom, Let him be brought forth more quickly from prison, said Dacian; lest, while we persist in punishing the rebel, we should rather seem to crown him with victory. He is therefore brought forth from that pit of the foul prison, indeed more beautiful by heavenly grace, and, were he still to suffer, more robust. But when the mind sees that the desire of one stretching toward the call of the kingdom is to be broken by no kind of punishment or death, the envious mind bids props of a gentler couch be substituted, and that he be comforted with a more soothing rest: namely, that if, the executioner being removed a little, he should breathe out his soul in quiet, he might be said to have not been slain, but to have died: as if he did not perish by the punishment with which the punishment itself likewise perished. 5.

His body cast to the wild beasts. Meanwhile the heavenly hall receives the blessed Vincent, and endows him with the gift of blessed felicity. At his entrance the angelic spirits rejoice, and all the fellow-citizens, the saints, together give congratulation. And we give thanks to you, Lord Jesus, that the soul worthy of fellowship with you, which steadfastly bore the torment, deceitfully fled the deference offered; and which, being content that the persecutor should rage, disdained that he should spare. Therefore, knowing of his holy departure, the mad judge—Dacian, not knowing that Christ had conquered in Vincent—promises himself vengeance by the exposure of that corpse, of whose power he groans at the victory. For he orders the lictors to cast the body to be devoured by wild beasts and dogs, his pride of fury thus begun:

that with such food he might fill the belly of those whose mind he himself bore. 6. A raven guards, a wolf venerates. But so that, by the divine benefits increasing, a grace of greater victory might be conferred on Vincent, a raven is sent, a bird hostile to corpses, to guard, hungry, the body's exposed banquet. Hence, most beloved brethren, hence mark the distinct services of merits. Elijah of old, warily shunning the impious hands of Ahab and Jezebel, is fed in the desert by ministering ravens: but Vincent, the champion of truth, slain by the fury of Dacian, is exposed to the beasts to be consumed, yet by the serving raven is preserved unharmed. Elijah therefore obtained, by divine command, with ravens supplying, that he might be nourished (1 Kings 17);

it was granted to Vincent, with the raven likewise serving, that he should not be eaten. And that the raven might show itself designated a guardian from heaven, it drove off from afar with no sluggish onset the other approaching birds; among which it also, beating off with feathers and wings, drove far away a huge wolf approaching nearer, as one who would presume with sacrilegious audacity to defile the entrusted treasure. But that wolf, by a certain bearing of itself, stupefied, indicated that it had come not so much to inflict injury as to increase the pomp of the miracle. O shameless fury, and foolish madness! The raven serves, the wolf venerates; Dacian persecutes, nor blushes to wish, still fierce, to destroy him whom tamed bestial savagery was busy to protect. 7.

Sunk in the sea, he is restored to the shore. Hence, to conceal the Martyr's praise, he chose not now a secret place but the deep; believing that not enclosures but the seas would keep faith with him for the hiding of his glory: as though the same were not Lord of the element through whom lately the hidden things of the prison had shone for him, radiated with heavenly splendor. The body is given to sailors to be sunk in the waves; that at least the waters might serve to aid him for whom the land had failed for conquering the soldier of Christ. And so, having sailed for the most part over the whirlpools of the strait, the cast-out body, amid the engulfing seabirds, was overtaken by the most mighty right hand of God; and that hand which had borne the spirit into heaven, soon brought the body back to the sepulchre.

Thus the preacher of truth, dearly beloved, is neither conquered by the pains of torments, nor overcome by the straits of the gloomy prison. Cast to the beasts, he is not torn apart; hidden in the deep, he is not concealed; but is restored to the shore, and made famous by proclamation: so that he who had truly confessed the name of the Godhead might in truth experience the supports of the divine goodness present to him. His glorious life of virtues the grace of a precious death so adorned, that what he taught by living he steadfastly established by dying: and it was consequent that he should attain by death to the vision of him whom by the praiseworthy conduct of his life he had ever borne witness to, knowing that from contempt of the present life arises the glory of eternal blessedness;

our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who lives and reigns God forever and ever. Amen. SERMON 189. On the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. 1. The prophecy of Jacob concerning Benjamin is fulfilled in Paul. Today from the Acts of the Apostles this lesson has been pronounced, where Paul the apostle, from a persecutor of Christians, was made an announcer of Christ. For Christ prostrated the persecutor, that he might make him a teacher of the Church: striking him and healing, slaying and giving life. The lamb slew the wolf, making a lamb of the wolf. For thus it was in the illustrious prophecy, when Jacob the patriarch blessed his sons, touching the present, foreseeing the future. It had been foretold what befell in Paul.

For Paul was, as he himself testifies, of the tribe of Benjamin (Phil. 3:5). But when Jacob, blessing his sons, had come to bless Benjamin, he says of him: Benjamin is a ravening wolf. What then? A ravening wolf always? By no means: but he who in the morning shall seize the prey, in the evening shall divide the food (Gen. 49:27). This was fulfilled in the apostle Paul; for concerning him too it had been said. Now, if you please, let us hear him seizing in the morning, dividing the food in the evening. 2. Paul, the wolf seizing in the morning. Morning and evening are set for as if it were said, Before and after. So then let us understand: First he will seize, afterward he will divide the food. Consider the seizer:

Saul, it says, having received letters from the chief priests, went, that wherever he might find Christians he might drag and lead them to the priests (Acts 9:1-2), assuredly to be punished. He went breathing and panting slaughter; this is the one seizing in the morning. For also when Stephen, the first martyr, was stoned for the name of Christ, Saul too was more evidently present: and he was present at the stoning in such a way that it was not enough for him if he should only stone with his own hands. For that he might be in the hands of all who stoned, he himself kept the garments of all: raging more by helping all, than by stoning with his own hands (Acts 7:57). We have heard, he shall seize in the morning; let us see how in the evening he divides the food. 5. In the evening he divides the food.

Paul, a pattern for those beginning to believe. Prostrated by the voice of Christ from heaven, and receiving from above the interdict against raging any longer, he fell on his face; first to be prostrated, afterward to be raised up; first to be struck, afterward to be healed: for Christ would not live in him afterward, unless there were slain in him that which had ill lived before. What then, prostrated, does he hear? Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad. And he: Who are you, Lord? And the voice from above: I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute. His limbs still laid on the earth, the head cried out in heaven, and did not say, Why do you persecute my faithful ones; but, Why do you persecute me? And he: What do you bid me do?

Now he prepares himself to obey, who before raged to persecute. Now a preacher is formed from a persecutor, a sheep from a wolf, a soldier from an enemy; he hears what he ought to do. He was indeed made blind, that his heart might shine with an inner light. The outer light was for a time withdrawn from the persecutor, that it might be restored to the preacher: and yet at that very time when he did not see other things, he saw Jesus. And so from his very blindness was formed the mystery of believers, that whoever believes in Christ ought to gaze upon him alone, and to count the rest as if not born. Let the creature grow worthless, that the Creator may grow sweet in the heart. Let us see, then. 4. Saul's monstrous reputation. He was led to Ananias, and Ananias is interpreted Sheep.

Behold, the ravening wolf is led to the sheep to follow it, not to seize it. But lest the sheep should be terrified of the seizing wolf, the very Shepherd from heaven who was doing all things announced that the wolf would come to the sheep, but would not rage. And yet so monstrous a reputation had preceded that wolf, that the sheep, hearing his name, could not but be troubled. For when the Lord Jesus had announced to that same Ananias that Saul had come, and that he should now believe, and that Ananias ought to go to him; Ananias says: Lord, I have heard from many of this man, how much evil he has done to your saints; and now he has received letters from the chief priests, that wherever he finds followers of your name, he may drag them off. But the Lord to him: Let be;

I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name (Acts 9:13-16). A wondrous and mighty thing is done: the savagery of the wolf is forbidden; the wolf is led captive to the sheep. But so great a reputation of the ravening wolf had preceded, that at hearing his name the sheep feared even under the hand of the shepherd. He is strengthened; let him not now think him raging, let him not fear him fearing. From the Lamb slain for the sheep, the sheep is made secure about the wolf. 5. However much we may suffer, that which we hope for outweighs it. — I, he says, will show him how great things he must suffer for my name. Where there is terror, there is salvation. He who acted against the name of the shepherd, suffers for the name of the shepherd. O savagery! O mercy! You see him prepare the sword: he is to follow, not to destroy;

to heal, not to slay. Christ said, I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name. But to what end? Hear him who was suffering: The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18); as if he should say, Let the world rage, let the world roar, let it inveigh with tongues, let it flash with arms, let it do whatever it can; what will it do against that which we are to receive? I weigh what I suffer against that which I hope for: this I feel, that I believe; and yet that which I believe is greater than that which I feel. Whatever it is that rages for the name of Christ, if it may be lived through, is tolerable; if it may not be lived through, it causes one to migrate hence: it does not extinguish, but hastens the very reward, the very sweetness;

which, when it shall have come, will be without end. The work is with an end; the wage is without end. For even the laborer would fail on the way, unless he attended to what he was to receive. For when you attend to what you are to receive, all things that you suffer will be vile to you, nor will you deem them worthy in comparison with that which you receive. You will marvel that so much is given for so little labor. Our way is Christ; attend to Christ. He came to suffer, but also to be glorified; to be despised, but also to be exalted; to die, but also to rise again. 6. The usefulness of Paul's conversion. Considering these things, dearly beloved brethren, let us not despair; because, although we are sinners, we have a great Physician. Hear the Physician himself: I came not, he says, to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Matt. 9:13).

Now the usefulness of this deed done is this: the Apostle himself commemorates it in his Epistles. For he says that the pardon of all his sins was for this reason given to him, that no one should despair of himself who has been involved in great sins and entangled in great crimes: as though he were not to receive pardon, if he should be converted to him who, hanging on the cross, prayed even for his persecutors, saying: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). That man was made from a persecutor a preacher and leader of the Gentiles. Who before, he says, was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious (1 Tim. 1:13). Do you see the desert to which punishment was due? Therefore punishment is not repaid, but he obtains mercy in place of punishment.

For by grace we are saved from our sins; our Lord Jesus Christ bestowing it, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen. SERMON 190. On the Chair of St. Peter, I. 1. The reason for the festival. The institution of today's solemnity received the name of the Chair from our elders, for the reason that Peter, the first of the Apostles, is reported to have taken up today the chair of the episcopate. Rightly, therefore, do they keep the Birthday of that see of the Church, which the Apostle took up for the welfare of the Churches, the Lord saying: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church (Matt. 16:18). The Lord therefore named Peter the foundation of the Church:

and therefore worthily the Church venerates this foundation, upon which the height of the ecclesiastical building rises up. Hence fittingly the Psalm that was read says, Let them exalt him in the church of the people, and praise him in the seat of the elders (Ps. 106:32). Well did God command that he be exalted in the Church; because it is worthy that this foundation be honored in the Church, through which one ascends to heaven. Therefore that which is kept today as the birthday of the chair, honors the priestly office. This the Churches confer upon themselves, for whom it is necessary that they have so much the more of dignity, as the priestly office has more of honor. 2. A superstition introduced on this day. Holy souls are already with Christ.

Since a religious observance has rightly introduced this solemnity into the Churches, I marvel why among certain unbelievers so pernicious an error has today grown up, that they bring food and wine upon the tombs of the dead; as though souls that have gone forth from bodies should require carnal food. For feasts and refreshments the flesh alone requires; but the spirit and the soul do not need these. Someone says he prepares for his dear ones what he himself devours; what he furnishes to the belly, he imputes to piety. Cease therefore, brethren, from this gentile error of unbelief.

For holy souls, which in this world are either pure through innocence of life, or are purged by the satisfaction of penance, are received by our Savior, and are to be believed to be with him, according to the saying of the Apostle, I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23). The souls, therefore, of our brethren and parents are by no means delighted with carnal foods: they can be offended by these rather than delighted, if, while they abide in their sacred seats, you should believe them to be on earth. Cease therefore from these errors, and, as it is written, Savor the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth (Col. 3:2):

that, rejecting the superstitions contrary to our faith, while you readily do those things which are pleasing to God, you too may be able to be with Christ forever. May He Himself deign to grant this, etc. SERMON 191. On the Chair of St. Peter, section 1. This feast coincides with Lent. Although the solemnity of today's festival is rightly honored by us — because in keeping the Nativity of the Chair we venerate the episcopate of the apostle Peter — nevertheless, whenever this solemnity falls within the days of Lent, the reverence of those holy days ought to make it the more pleasing to us. For God has fittingly bestowed on us the Nativity of the Chair amid the very beginnings of the fasts, so that what was formerly a matter of intemperance may now be one of sobriety;

what belonged to gluttony may be one of abstinence; what was of sin may be of sanctity. And since unbelieving men seem to be drawn to this superstition under the guise of piety, let us show them by what better means they may be able to help the souls of their departed. 2. By what ways the dead may be aided. Let the devout pray daily for their dear ones, let them appeal to the Lord with a mournful voice, let them pray for pardon of the errors and remission of the lapses of the dead; let them feed the hungry, clothe the naked: so that whatever has been left undone through the negligence of the departed may be fulfilled by the faith of the living. Let each one also employ the prayers of the saints for his dear ones, let him offer sacrifices, and commend them to the Lord with priestly intercession. And if perhaps it be required of us on what authority this is said:

since this is not our own teaching but that of the Churches — and if of the Churches, then surely of God, for the teacher of all the Churches is God — thus we shall answer them with His words: These are the things which can help your dear ones, these are the refreshments of those at rest, these are the remedies of the dead. 3. Feasts placed at tombs profit them nothing. But the foods and drinks which are set upon graves, if any care of this superstition pertains to the dead, can harm rather than delight them. If anyone offers wine to one whom he knows to be tormented for the intemperance of wine and gluttony, this is an insult rather than a kindness, a reproach of the crime, not an office of charity.

So it is that to departed sinners there seems to be brought by their dear ones not so much the consolations of love as an accumulation of the torments of conscience. These things we have said concerning sinners. But if the one for whom these things are prepared is a saint, they in no way pertain to him. Let each one of you do that which we said above, so that through prayers, through almsgiving, through sacrifices, through oblations he may both benefit his departed and profit himself: that is, if the one for whom he does these things is a sinner, that his sins may be lightened; but if the one for whom he offers sacrifices to God is a saint, that he may deserve to be with the Saints forever — our Lord Jesus Christ Himself granting it, to whom is honor and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 192. On the Chair of St. Peter, III. 1.

Peter profited by his own errors. The dignity and meaning of the name of Peter. You know, most beloved brethren, that the most blessed Peter, in the Passion of the Savior, profited by his own errors, and after he had denied the Lord, became better in the Lord's sight. For he became more faithful after he wept that he had lost his faith; and thus he found a greater grace than he had lost. For, like a good shepherd, he received a flock to be tended: so that he who had before been weak in himself might become a firm support to all; and he who had wavered under the trial of questioning might establish others in the steadfastness of faith. Finally, for the solidity of his devotion he is called the rock of the Churches, as the Lord says: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church (Matthew

16:18). For he is called rock because he first laid the foundations of faith among the nations, and, like an immovable stone, holds together the structure and mass of the whole Christian work. Peter, then, is called rock on account of his devotion; and the Lord is named rock on account of His power, as the Apostle says: For they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and that rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). Rightly does he merit fellowship of the name who merits fellowship also of the work. For in the same house Peter lays the foundation, Peter plants; the Lord gives the increase, the Lord supplies the watering. Peter therefore profits by his temptations, rejoices in his weepings, grows through his perils. 2. Peter's steps upon the waters. He is sustained by faith.

It is more wonderful than the passage of Israel through the sea. For thus, when the rash wayfarer steps upon the waves in the sea, he staggers in his gait, but grows strong in his affection: he is imperiled in body, but does not fall through devotion; he sinks by his feet, but is upheld by Christ's right hand. For faith upheld him whom the wave was engulfing: and him whom the storm of the billows was troubling, the love of the Savior confirmed. For Peter was walking on the sea more by love than by his feet (Matthew 14:29). For he did not see where he might plant the print of his foot; but he saw where he might fix the footstep of charity. For placed in the boat he gazes upon the Lord; and, led by love of Him, he goes down into the sea. He does not think of the slipping waters, nor of the running currents:

and while he looks upon Christ, he does not look upon the element; he believes that faith finds a solid footing even amid the waves. Though the sea be tossed by billows, though the deep be troubled by winds, yet Peter's path, which leads to the Lord, is not troubled. Peter therefore walks upon the waters, and beneath his feet the soft wave does not give way. We read in the Old Testament that the sons of Israel walked through the Red Sea by dry paths, and that, for the security of those who trod it, lest a single one should slip, it was changed into a kind of solidity (Exodus 15). How much better here, when, as Peter walks, the wave is neither changed nor injured; the water is neither made solid nor recedes? Better, I say, is it where the same wave that surges also sustains;

where the same flood that engulfs also serves. There, that the people of Israel might be carried through the sea, nature had lost its own passage: here Peter is carried upon the waters, and the streams do not lose their own course. 3. When faith fails, the path fails. Only through perils does one come to Christ. The rash wayfarer, then, the Apostle, takes the way of a new journey: now he climbs the mass of the curving flood, now he descends the hollow of the subsiding wave, and amid the sea's billows there is no lack for him of ascent and descent of that journey. But when, troubled by the winds, driven by the storms, he begins to fear what he had believed, at once the flood is withdrawn from him, the wave is drawn away. For soon, when faith grows weary, the path too grows weary.

Then crying out to the Lord Jesus, he begs to be saved. Him the Savior lays hold of by the hand and delivers, and adds, saying: O you of little faith, why did you doubt (Matthew 14:31)? That is: Why are you of so little faith, that you, who by believing had begun to walk upon the sea, did not by persevering pass over it? For it is written: He who perseveres unto the end, this one shall be saved (Matthew 10:22). But while you delay and doubt, you have lost the very thing upon which you had entered. Why, I say, are you of so little faith, that you did not, by the same faith by which you had begun to come, arrive? Understand therefore that in the sea belief was carrying you, unbelief was submerging you.

Therefore, brethren, holy Peter, while he is tossed, while he sinks, while he is imperiled, thus comes to the Lord: showing us that only through perils does one hasten to Christ. For there are many diabolical waves in this world, many shipwrecks of temptations, from which we can be delivered thus, if the Savior stretches out His hand to those who cry out. Let us therefore not cease to cry to the Lord, and He will not refuse His accustomed help — Jesus our Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 193. On the Annunciation of the Lord, I. 1. The devil, by the very art by which he had deceived man, is himself deceived by Christ. Christ is God and man.

Most beloved brethren, today has dawned the day on which Christ took flesh from the Virgin. He willed to put on the form of humility, that He might free our souls from sins. The transgression of that first man had deceived the whole world, so that there was no remedy of salvation unless Christ should come from heaven. The most foul dragon rejoiced, because he had prepared poison for the new man: but for this Christ descended into the womb of the Virgin, that thence He might take on human limbs, which He would deliver up to the cross and bring death upon the ancient dragon. For the devil had been so puffed up by his evil counsel that through the serpent he spoke to the woman, and the devil was not recognized.

But hence God the Son of God, who descended from heaven to take on a human body, reduces him to nothing, setting for him a snare of death — namely, through the appearance of flesh; so that, as if he were approaching a man alone to tempt Him, he might be utterly ignorant of the Lord. He saw the flesh, but was ignorant of the Lord's majesty; he beheld the weakness, and did not see the deity. The devil remained confounded, while the Lord appeared in a man. Thus He descended from God the Father, whence He never departed. He was on earth; and He did not forsake the heavens, as the Lord Himself says: No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven (John 3:13). On earth He spoke as man to men; and in heaven He confessed Himself to be, as God.

For the Godhead is not diminished when weakness is assumed; He received that which He was not, and He remained God, which He was from the beginning. For in that He became man, He profited us, and diminished nothing to Himself. He emptied out the fullness of the Godhead, He took on the form of humility; and He remained equal to the Father. 2. Mary's merit and prerogatives. Such a Virgin is chosen, from the whole world, who should have so great a merit that she might receive the Son of God within herself, and after childbirth remain a virgin in every way. Hail, it says, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women: for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins (Luke 1:28-32).

You shall preserve the rights of virginity, you shall have a son, and you shall not lose the name of virgin. For so great is that divine power that it both makes a mother fruitful and preserves a virgin unharmed. Therefore blessed are you among women, because you shall conceive of the Holy Spirit, where there is no carnal husband, but the divine power is recognized. You shall nurse your own infant, you shall hold out the sap of milk to the Creator, and you shall be filled with heavenly foods. You shall wrap in swaddling clothes the child who will bestow on you an immortal garment. In a manger you shall lay the infant limbs of Him who will prepare for you a heavenly table. All the things due for the sake of a nurse you shall perform about the child, so that what He Himself promised to His saints, you too may the more gladly obtain. Why say more?

Rejoice, O Virgin, at so great a promise; the angelic messenger departed; and God, who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages, enters the lodging of your womb. Amen. SERMON 194. On the Annunciation of the Lord, II. 1. Eve's losses, and Mary's benefits. There is present to us, most beloved, the longed-for day of the blessed and ever-venerable Virgin Mary: therefore let our land rejoice with the highest exultation, illumined by the solemn day of so great a Virgin. For this is the flower of the field, from which sprang the precious lily of the valleys, by whose childbearing nature is changed and the guilt of our first parents is blotted out. In her was cut off that reproach of Eve's unhappiness, in which it is said: In sorrow you shall bring forth children (Genesis 3:16):

because she brought forth the Lord in gladness. For Eve mourned, but she exulted; Eve carried tears, Mary carried joy in her womb: because the one brought forth a sinner, the other brought forth the innocent One. For a Virgin gave birth, because a virgin conceived; inviolate she bore, because in conception there was no lust. In both there was a miracle, both pregnant without corruption, and a virgin mother in childbirth. The angel descended, sent in secret from God the Father, at the beginning of our redemption, to greet blessed Mary: Hail, said the angel to her, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Mary therefore was filled with grace, and Eve was emptied of guilt. The curse of Eve is changed into the blessing of Mary: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.

With you the Lord in your heart, with you in your womb, with you in your body, with you in help. 2. Mary surpasses all praise. Rejoice, blessed Virgin: Christ the King comes from His heaven into your womb, from the bosom of the Father He deigns to descend into the womb of a mother. Blessed, it says, are you among women, who have brought forth life both for men and for women. The mother of our race brought punishment upon the world; the Mother of our Lord brought salvation to the world. Eve was the authoress of sin; Mary the authoress of merit. Eve by slaying did harm; Mary by giving life did good. The one wounded; the other healed. For obedience is exchanged for disobedience, faith is compensated for unfaithfulness. Joyful therefore Mary bears the infant, exulting she embraces her son, she carries Him by whom she was carried.

Nor did she find the little one by chance, as the Sabellians pretend; but when nine months were completed she bore Christ. Let Mary now clap upon the instruments, and among nimble fingers let the timbrels of the child-bearer resound. Let the rejoicing choirs sing together, and let sweet-sounding songs be mingled with alternating measures. Hear, then, how our timbrel-player has sung: for she says, My soul magnifies the Lord; and my spirit has exulted in God my Savior: because he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaid; for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because he who is mighty has done great things for me. The cause, then, of so great and growing gladness was a new miracle.

Mary's new childbearing overcame Eve's childbearing, and Mary's song shut out Eve's lament. 3. The salvation of the world hangs upon Mary's assent. Mother of the sea and virgin. She was wedded to God Himself. Jeremiah's prophecy concerning Mary. Finally, after the presage of that blessing, while the Virgin was contending in a silent strife of mind within herself, what manner of greeting this might be, the heavenly messenger meanwhile proceeds: Do not fear, Mary; you have found grace with the Lord. Behold, you shall conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. But she: How, said she, shall this be, since I do not know a man? And the angel to her: The Holy Spirit, he says, shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you;

and therefore that Holy One who shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God. Now you have heard how this shall be; answer now the word; why are you troubled now? You have heard how this shall be, because the Holy Spirit shall come upon you, that you may bear offspring, and not lose your virginity; that you may bring forth a son, and after childbirth remain incorrupt. O blessed Mary, the whole captive age beseeches your assent: the world, O Lady, has made you the pledge of its faith. Do not delay, O Virgin: answer the word quickly to the messenger, and receive your son; give faith, and feel the power. Behold, she says, the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word (Luke 1:26-38). And without delay the messenger returns, and Christ enters the virginal chamber.

Suddenly the blessed Mother of God is made pregnant, and thenceforth is proclaimed happy through all ages. She conceived as soon as she believed the word, ignorant of manly fellowship: her womb is filled, defiled by no human embrace. And so she stands a virgin when she conceives, a virgin pregnant, a virgin when she gives birth, and a virgin after childbirth. Illustrious therefore is that virginity, and glorious that fruitfulness. Mary exults, and rejoices to marvel at herself made a mother, and rejoices to have given birth of the Holy Spirit: nor is she frightened because she gave birth unwedded; but because she conceived, she marvels with exultation. Let us therefore also rejoice, brethren, on the day of so great a Virgin who, while she was betrothed to a carpenter, was wedded to the architect of heaven. For a Son is promised to her through the visitation of the Holy Spirit.

Hearing these things, she rejoices and desires to be made a mother. What wonder, then, if He is born without corruption who is conceived of sanctification? For it was not fitting that He who brought us salvation should snatch from His mother the dignity of her integrity. For He who is not contained by earth, sea, and heaven is received within the members of one little body. This is that newness foretold by the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah: The Lord, he says, shall make a new thing upon the earth; a woman shall encompass a man (Jeremiah 31:22). O woman blessed above women, who knew no man at all, and encompassed a man within her womb! Mary encompasses a man by giving faith to an angel; because Eve destroyed a man by consenting to a serpent. 4. The angel's words to Mary.

Mary's obedience is commended. The angel greets the maiden, ignorant of the salutation of a man; the Virgin is frightened by the newness of the words. To whom the angel, as we have said above, said: Do not fear, Mary; for you have found grace with the Lord. Do not, he says, be frightened at my sight, Mother of my Lord: I have come as the minister of your conception, not to make you lose your virginity; He Himself sent me to you, who is to be born of you. For you shall conceive and bring forth a son; not a man of any ordinary merit, but the Savior of the whole age. Recall, Mary, in the book of Isaiah the prophet, the virgin whom you read would give birth (Isaiah 7:14); and rejoice and exult, because you have merited to be she. You were there prefigured, O Virgin; behold, you now conceive in

your womb, not of man, but of the Holy Spirit: and you shall be pregnant, and shall remain incorrupt. You shall indeed bring forth a son, and shall suffer no loss of your virginity. You shall be made pregnant, and shall be a mother ever untouched. You shall feel the weight of the womb, and shall not lose the modesty of chastity. Your breasts shall swell, and your genitals shall remain untouched. But she said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word. O happy obedience, O signal grace, which, while it humbly gave faith, incorporated within itself the Maker of heaven! In her the Lord fulfilled what He had long before foretold: Obedience I will rather than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than holocausts (Hosea 6:6).

This was true obedience, more pleasing than any sacrifice, this will more acceptable than all victims; hence she merited the glory which she herself afterward proclaimed: Behold, she says, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. 5. A prayer to the blessed Virgin. O blessed Mary, who can worthily render to you the tribute of thanks and the proclamations of praise, you who by your singular assent came to the aid of a lost world? What praises shall the frailty of the human race pay to you, who by your commerce alone found the way of recovery? Receive therefore whatever thanksgivings, however slight, however unequal to your merits: and when you have received our vows, by praying excuse our faults.

Admit our prayers within the sanctuary of being heard, bring back to us the antidote of reconciliation. Let that be excusable through you which through you we bring forward; let that be obtainable which with a faithful mind we ask. Receive what we offer, give back what we request; excuse what we fear. (You who are the only hope of sinners, through you we hope for pardon of our offenses; and in you, most blessed one, is the expectation of our rewards.) Holy Mary, succor the wretched, help the fainthearted, cherish the tearful, pray for the people, intercede for the clergy, plead for the devout female sex. Let all feel your help, whoever celebrate your commemoration. Stand ready to the vows of those who beseech you, and render to all the desired effect.

Let it be your care to pray unceasingly for the people of God, you who, being blessed, merited to bear the price of the world's ransom, who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. SERMON 195. On the Annunciation of the Lord, III. 1. Mary, the closed gate in the house of the Lord. I would most fully praise the most chaste womb of the Virgin Mary, the closed chamber of the womb of the virgin bride, the sealed upper room of modesty, if I were reaping a harvest that I had not sown, of which the Apostle thus speaks: Whatever a man shall sow, this also shall he reap (Galatians 6:7). It is altogether true, it is true that every man reaps what he sowed:

God alone can reap what He did not sow, as the very Son of the Virgin says in a certain reading of the Gospel: I reap where I did not sow, and I gather where I did not scatter (Luke 19:22). Let Him say it, let Him say it: let Him alone say it, the One born of the Virgin, the Son of Mary; let Him say to His bride-mother: I reap where I did not sow, and I gather where I did not scatter. Let Mary too say: And I bore you as a son; nor did I violate my virginity: I held the kingdom of virginity, that I might beget the King of chastity: I had within the palace of my womb, entering and going out, the Son of the Emperor, and from my hands I did not lose the key of royal modesty. I was made the gate of heaven; I was made the door for the Son of God.

I was made that closed gate which the prophet Ezekiel saw in a divine vision, of which, prophesying, he says concerning me: I saw a gate in the house of the Lord closed: and the angel said to me, This gate which you see shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it; for the Lord alone shall enter and go out through it, and it shall be closed forever (Ezekiel 44:2). O wonderful vision of the Prophet; but more wonderful the fulfillment of the prophecy! What is the closed gate in the house of the Lord, but that Mary the Virgin shall be ever untouched? And what is it, No man shall pass through it, but that Joseph shall not know her? And what is it, The Lord alone shall enter and go out through it;

but that the Holy Spirit shall make her pregnant, and the Lord of Angels shall be born through her? And what is it, It shall be closed forever, but that Mary shall be a virgin before childbirth, a virgin in childbirth, a virgin after childbirth? Let Mary therefore say: I was made a gate; I was made a door for the Son of God: to Him I was made a closed door, who after His resurrection entered to His disciples through closed doors; who, born of my womb, left me a mother untouched, filled my womb with divinity, and did not empty my womb of chastity: He went forth from my womb, magnificent in a giant's course, and my womb was not emptied of its modesty, nor in conception was I found without modesty, nor in bringing forth was I found with pain.

O wonderful and praiseworthy among women, in whom virginity was greeted by an angel, alone made pregnant yet not defiled, unburdened yet not emptied; because she was thus greeted by the angel: Hail, he said, full of grace, the Lord is with you! Happy navel of chastity, which no marital embrace touched! I consider your conception, O blessed Virgin, and I am amazed; I behold your childbirth, and I tremble; I adore your Son, and I come to life again. 2. The angelic salutation. Tell me, I beseech you, how did you merit to be called the daughter-in-law of the Lord, and the bride of the Son of God? What I ask, show me; yet forgive me for speaking with you:

forgive me, I say, that I, a servant — and would that I were a good one, and not also a useless and evil servant, and therefore an evil servant because I do not speak with you with trembling as a servant — forgive me, then, that I should dare to converse with the bride of my Lord; and yet show me how the Son of God could be begotten through you. Hear, brethren, hear Mary speaking with us; behold her absent in body and present in spirit; turning her face from the one who converses with her out of the modesty of virginity, and showing how she was made pregnant by the Creator. I was, says Mary, in my house, a Jewish maiden, begotten of the seed of David the king:

I grew to womanhood, and was betrothed to a husband, and pleased another, not with adultery intervening, but with the Holy Spirit interceding. I was betrothed to a Jewish man, and I pleased a divine Man: a Jewish man betrothed me, and Christ God loved me. My spouse Joseph indeed did not know that my God had loved me, and thought that my womb had been made pregnant by adultery. For, while my spouse Joseph knew nothing, there came to me a certain great groomsman of Christ, not the first patriarch, nor an eminent prophet, but that archangel Gabriel, gleaming in face, flashing in garment, wondrous in gait, terrible in aspect; he visited and troubled me, greeted and made me pregnant, and said to me:

Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. The Lord, he said, is with you; but more than with me. The Lord is with you; but not as with me. For although in me too the Lord is present, the Lord created my very self: but through you He is to be born. For thus, Mary, is the Lord with you, that He is in your heart, He is in your womb; He fills your mind, He fills your womb; He comes forth beautiful from your womb, as a bridegroom from his chamber; the King goes forth from your inmost womb, as a king from his bedchamber; the prince comes forth from the royal court, in such a way that He does not cause your virginity to be violated. 3. It continues on the same subject. And she said to him: How shall this be, that I should be laden with a chaste womb, and be free from a husband;

since I do not know a man at all? For I am betrothed to a just man; if I do not come together with him, whence shall be that which I shall bring forth? But if it can be done that I both conceive untouched and bring forth closed, tell the manner, and you shall find my mind ready. For in all ways I long to be for my God, that I may both have offspring and not lose my modesty. The angel Gabriel relates the manner of conception, that it would come about by the word of the Savior. O Mary, he says, virgin of God, bride of the Lord, beloved of God, daughter of God, mother of God: if you require this manner from me — how you may conceive a virgin, bring forth a virgin, and after childbirth remain a virgin, or how He who made you may be made in you — hear me, and do not be troubled within you:

The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you (Luke 1:35). So shall the power of the Most High overshadow you, that you shall neither suffer the heat of lust, and shall be the mother of the Creator. 4. Joseph is troubled. Meanwhile Joseph, Mary's spouse, does not know what the angel has done with her. Suddenly Joseph, with familiar gaze and marital liberty, looks upon Mary his wife: he saw in her the veins swelling in her throat, and her face grown thin, and lastly he saw her weighed down in her steps; he understood that Mary's womb was heavy with child. Joseph, a just man, is troubled, because he perceived Mary — whom he had received from the temple of the Lord, and had not yet known — to be pregnant, and one whom he had not deserved in the honor of marriage he now had in confusion;

and long agitated and disputing within himself, he says: Whence has this happened? What has come to pass? I have not known her, I have not touched her; if I have not touched her, I have not violated her; if I have not violated her, I have not made her pregnant. Alas! alas! what has happened? What, do you think, has come to pass? By whom has Mary thus fallen? Whom has she found more flattering to herself than me? For I, though I had marital liberty, did not violate the maidenly modesty of the nuptial bed. I feared, and greatly feared, what is fixed by a decisive word in that Mosaic book of the Law: that whatever virgin has defiled her father's house by adultery shall lie under death by stones;

likewise also the man who has not brought the garment of her modesty to her father, and produced it before witnesses, and has not shown the token of modesty, must die together with the virgin. Both the licentious, then, Moses willed to be struck by this sentence, and commanded the adulterers alike to perish. For thus he says: You shall take away the reproach from the house of Israel; and everyone who hears shall fear, and shall not act impiously (Deuteronomy 22:21-22). This sentence of Moses I was guarding against, and I was reining in that very wantonness in my body, especially because I knew myself both to be a son of David, and to have exercised the royal priesthood.

But since there is nothing wonderful, nothing new, nothing hidden that shall not be revealed, and nothing concealed that shall not come into the open, I recall at last, concerning the daughter of the king, a story about David. Royal boldness carried David the king into the wife of Uriah the Hittite in Bathsheba, nor did marital fear frighten him: a maidenly thought impelled Mary the daughter of King David, nor did parental terror restrain her. What then shall I do? What shall I do? I am anxious, I groan, I grieve, I run about, I seek counsel, and find none complete. Shall I expose, or keep silent? What I should do I utterly do not know. Shall I expose the adultery, or keep silent for the sake of avoiding reproach? If I expose it, I do not indeed consent to the adultery, but I incur the stain of cruelty; for according to the book of Moses I know that she must be stoned.

If I keep silent, I consent to evil; and with adulterers I set my portion. Therefore, since to keep silent about an evil is bad, and to expose adultery is worse, lest through me a murder be committed, let me quietly dismiss the marriage. 'Joseph considered,' it says, as the Gospel relates, 'quietly to dismiss Mary his wife' (Matthew 1:19). He considered that she belonged to another, since indeed she did belong to Another — not through any resistance of his mind, but through the conception of faith. 5. Joseph is calmed by an angel. The prophecies concerning Mary are set forth. But let not Mary fear David, the daughter of that great king; for just as the prophetic word bestowed pardon upon David, so the angel of the Savior sets Mary free.

Come now, chaste Mother of the Lord, in whom there was no manly desire but the fulfilling of the Holy Spirit; whom Joseph, a Jewish man, did not violate, but almighty God alone made with child; who wast not joined to Joseph thy betrothed, nor known by any man, but by the Almighty God alone. Call upon, O holy Virgin, thy Lord David thy father — not that David darkened by adultery and made notorious by the murder of Uriah the Hittite, but that David, I say, who fought with a mighty hand and long contended with the devil. Let God arise to thy help; let Him send His angel from heaven, and visit thy betrothed in sleep. Let Moses suspend his own judgment, lest Joseph take vengeance upon thy supposed adultery.

Prepare therefore, O Joseph, thy mind for the time in which thou mightest quietly dismiss Mary. 6. The same theme continues. Behold again that bridesman of the Virgin — not a man, but an angel, that illustrious Gabriel, the most impartial courier of heaven — at the midpoint of the night's balance says to Joseph in a vision: 'Joseph,' he says, 'son of David, why art thou so troubled? Why art thou so greatly saddened? Why in sleep dost thou sweat with anxious thoughts? Why in waking dost thou walk about in sorrow? Why dost thou heap upon thyself an evil suspicion concerning Mary, when she herself is about to bear thee the Savior? Put away thy jealous spirit; He who shall be born of her is the very One who made her with child. For therefore, Joseph, thy soul is (in doubt), because whatever thou hast read in prophecy, thou hast not understood as fulfilled in Mary.'

Hence is all thy sorrow, that thou hast not yet known thy betrothed, and yet dost perceive her with child, and thou suspectest in her nothing but adultery. Joseph, son of David, born of priestly lineage — and not only priestly, but also royal — son of the Prophets, companion of the Scribes: that God who wrote wondrous things in His Law, He Himself has wrought wonders in thy spouse. And what are the wonders of God, if not those things which are impossible to men? Hast thou then not read the wonders of God in the Law? And if indeed thou hast read them, why hast thou not understood them? Surely that very Law which thou readest daily was written without a stylus upon tablets of stone. Read and understand that the earth brought forth bread in the wilderness, whose seed no plowman had ever put into the ground.

Aaron's rod also, dry for very many years without water, revived, blossomed in the temple, and, though enclosed beneath a roof, produced nuts. Therefore He who wrote upon the stone tablets without an iron stylus, He Himself made Mary with child by the Holy Spirit; and He who brought forth bread in the wilderness without a sower, He Himself made the Virgin fruitful without corruption; and He who caused the rod to sprout without rain, He Himself caused David's lily to bear offspring without seed. Finally, Joseph, son of David, son of the Prophets, hast thou not read what Isaiah, the most excellent of the Prophets, said — how he wrote, 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb, and shall bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel' (Isaiah 7:14)? What therefore thou hast read in thy books, behold in Mary with thine own eyes:

that thou mayest worthily sing the canticle of David thy father: 'As we have heard, so also have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God' (Psalm 48:8). Receive therefore Mary thy wife, ever secure concerning her, and in nothing be anxious; for that which is conceived in her womb is not of sin, but of the Holy Spirit; and He who shall be born of her womb shall not be called the son of a Jew, but shall be called the Son of God. Have therefore, Joseph, together with Mary thy wife, a common virginity of your members; for from virgin members is born the Power of the Angels. Let Mary be the bride of Christ, preserved in the virginity of her flesh; and be thou also the father of Christ by the care of chastity and the honor of virginity:

that from virgin members ye may beget for the Christian ages a bridegroom of virginity and a spouse of chastity, shared alike by every single virgin and by married folk, in whom there is no jealousy; for virginity was made fruitful by a greeting in Mary. Great is the merit of virginity, brethren. Mary's virginity was made fruitful by the angel's greeting, was saluted by John from the womb, and Mary's childbearing virginity is today praised together by the angels, and her nursing virginity was proclaimed by a star from heaven, and honored by the Magi with gifts. Rejoice therefore, Joseph, and greatly rejoice with Mary's virginity, for thou alone hast deserved to possess a virginal marriage:

for by the merit of virginity thou art so separated from the marriage-bed of thy wife, that thou art called the father of the Savior, who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 196. On the Nativity of John the Baptist, I. 1. The singular character of this feast. John is a figure of the Law. After that most holy birthday of the Lord, we read that the nativity of no man is celebrated, save only that of blessed John the Baptist. In other saints and elect of God we know that day is honored on which, after the completion of their labors and the world conquered and triumphed over, this present life brought them forth into perpetual eternities; in others the merits accomplished at the last day are celebrated:

but in this one, the first day and the very beginnings of the man himself are also consecrated; and this, without doubt, for the reason that through him the Lord willed His own advent to be attested, lest men should suddenly fail to recognize it as unexpected. Now John was a figure of the Old Testament, and bore in himself the form of the Law; and therefore John foreannounced the Savior, just as the Law ran before grace. And that, though not yet born, he prophesied from the secret of his mother's womb, and, still without light, is already a witness of the truth: this is to be understood thus — that lying hidden beneath the veil and the flesh of the letter, he both proclaimed the Redeemer to the world in spirit, and announced to us our Lord from a kind of womb of the Law.

Therefore, because the Jews went astray from the womb — that is, from the Law which was pregnant with Christ; 'They went astray from the womb, they have spoken false things' (Psalm 58:4) — for this reason he came for a testimony, that he might bear witness of the light (John 1:8). And that John, set in prison, directs his disciples to Christ (Matthew 11:2), signifies that the Law hands over to the Gospels. This Law, according to the type of John, lay as it were shut up in the prison of ignorance, in darkness and in concealment, and the perception of the Jews' blindness was held enclosed within the letter. 2. A burning lamp. Of this the blessed Evangelist speaks: 'He was a burning lamp' (John 5:35);

that is, kindled with the fire of the Holy Spirit, so that to a world possessed by the night of ignorance he might show the light of salvation, and, as it were amid the densest darkness of sins, might display the most splendid sun of righteousness by a ray of his light, saying of himself, 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness' (Matthew 3:3). Let us see in what wilderness — that is, in the people of the Gentiles. For hearts empty of the fear of God and lacking the Holy Spirit are compared to the desert of a squalid wasteland. For this world was deserted, empty of all cultivation of faith and of the fear of God, and, overgrown with the thorns of sins, lay squalid like an untilled field, and had brought forth no fruitfulness of good works at all, had received no rain of spiritual grace.