講道與短論 第 3 章 第 9/12 段

But Truth fears not the snares of falsehood. How blind the savagery, which believed that it could catch God by frauds! Behold, He whose coming earth and heaven displayed, who did not lie hidden from the simplicity of the shepherds, whom Magi coming from the farthest part of Ethiopia merit to recognize; to Him the sacrilegious king by his wiles cannot come. The fury of the foolish tyrant, therefore, is deceived. Perfidy cannot find Christ; because God is to be sought not by cruelty, but by belief: He who lives and reigns unto ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 219. On the Nativity of the holy Innocents, II. God is one. Innocents are owed as victims to the God being born. We believe the Jews, since God was once known in Judaea (Psalm 76:1):

and this very thing they deny, on account of which we believe, because they knew not the Father who deny the Son. Common nature testifies to one God: because the world is one. Faith signifies one God; because the faith of the New and Old Testament is one. One Holy Spirit is proved by grace; because there is one Baptism in the name of the Trinity. The Prophets speak of God, the Apostles preach Him. In one God the Magi believed; and they suppliantly brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the cradle of Christ. The shepherds glorify God, the Magi bring three gifts: the most cruel Herod sharpens the sword, that the eternal altars may be filled with the bloody victims of the infants. For where the little ones are made victims, the wretched mothers lament.

At the Lord's birth, mourning began, not for heaven, but for the world. To the mothers is announced lamentation, to the Angels exultation, to the infants a passing-over. It is God who is born; innocents are owed to Him as victims — He who came to condemn the malice of the world. Lambs must be immolated to Him, who as the Lamb is to be crucified, who takes away the sins of the world. 2. The mourning of the mothers. But the mothers howl as ewes; because they lose their lambs bleating without voice. A great wonder! a cruel spectacle! The sword is drawn, and no cause intervenes; but envy alone gnashes: since He who is born does violence to none. Yet we discern the mothers as ewes mourning over their lambs. 'A voice was heard in Rama, weeping and much wailing' (Jeremiah 31:15).

They are pledges not merely believed, but created; not laid down, but exposed. Nature herself is witness, which fought on behalf of the Martyrs, when the tyrant was hurling down the infants. The mother scattered the hair of her head, who was losing the ornament of her head. In how many ways she wished to hide the infant; and the little infant itself made itself known? It knew not how to be silent; because it had not yet learned to fear. The mother and the executioner fought: he dragged and she held. To the executioner the mother cried: 'Why dost thou separate from me him whom I bore from myself? The womb bore him, he abode not, though he lived; my breasts are filled with milk in vain. Carefully I carried him whom I see cast about by thy cruel hand. Even now my bowels poured him forth; and thou dashest him to the ground.'

Another mother cried, as the exactor of the robbers pressed on: 'Slay the mother together with the little one; why dost thou send me away empty? If there be guilt, it is she; if it be no crime, join death, and free the mother.' Another said: 'What do you seek? You seek one, and you slay many; and Him who is one you cannot reach.' Another on the other side cried out: 'Come now, come, Savior of the world, how long art Thou sought? Thou fearest none: let the soldier see Thee, and let him not slay our infants.' 3. How sad Herod's lot in the day of judgment. The lamentation of the mothers was mingled, and to heaven passed over the oblation of the little ones. But he who tempted the Lamb, himself through Herod slaughtered the little lambs.

There remains for the author of the ministry his punishment, and for Herod the judgment of the devil, when the resurrection of these dead shall have begun. Herod, what thinkest thou thou shalt do, when against thee the hosts of so many infants shall begin to wage the judicial suit? Thou shalt find in them a clear tongue, a great voice, a perfect measure, all youths robed in white, resplendent 'unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ' (Ephesians 4:13): when they shall begin to stand before Him whom thou hadst thought to be slain, for whom they shed their precious blood: Him thou shalt see presiding on the fiery throne; them surrounding the Lord's seat, shining with ruddy whiteness, on account of their white age and the blood of their passion. What wilt thou do? what wilt thou say?

Thou shalt lie guilty, while so great an army of the saints shall sing, 'Avenge the blood of thy servants, which has been shed' (Revelation 6:10). 'Let the groaning of the fettered enter into thy sight' (Psalm 79:11). By the help of Him who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 220. On the Nativity of the holy Innocents, III. 1. Herod profited the Innocents more by hatred than he would have by compliance. The Innocents, flowers of the martyrs. Today, dearest brethren, we celebrate the Nativity of those infants who, the text of the Gospel declares, were slain by the most cruel King Herod. And therefore let our earth rejoice with the highest exultation, the fertile parent of heavenly soldiers and of so great virtues.

Behold, the profane enemy could never have profited the blessed little ones so much by compliance as he profited by hatred. For as the most sacred festival of the present day makes manifest, as much as iniquity abounded against the blessed little ones, so much did the grace of blessing shine forth in them. Blessed art thou, O Bethlehem, land of Judah, who didst suffer the monstrousness of King Herod in the destruction of the boys, who under one time didst merit to offer to God a white-robed people of unwarlike infancy. Worthily indeed do we celebrate the Nativity of those whom the world more blessedly brought forth to eternal life than those whom the birth of maternal bowels poured forth: since they attained the dignity of perpetual life before they received the use of the present.

The precious death of other martyrs indeed earned praise in confession: the death of these was well-pleasing in their consummation; because at the very beginnings of a life just commencing, that setting which imposed the term of the present gave them the beginning of glory. Whom the impiety of Herod tore, as sucklings, from the breasts of their mothers, who are rightly called flowers of the martyrs, whom, arising in the very frost of unbelief, like the first bursting gems of the Church, a certain hoar-frost of persecution ripened. And therefore it is fitting to render honors to the infants slain for Christ; to give to the sacred mysteries ceremonies, not sorrows, vows, not tears: because He was to them the cause of their punishment who was also the cause of their crown; He the cause of hatred who was the cause of reward.

But while Herod was preparing death for the little ones, Joseph is admonished through an angel to bear away Christ our Lord into Egypt (Matthew 2:13), Egypt full of idols. Now after the persecution of the Jews and the assent of the profane people to slaying Christ, Christ deigns to pass over to the Gentiles given to idols; and leaving Judaea, He is brought to be worshipped by a world that knew Him not. 2. He who inflicts injury sustains the greater injury. The thought of death restrains covetousness. Then to no evil man is it well, to no good man ill. And because in the divine Scriptures, dearest brethren, we know that good and just men have ever sustained the persecution of the wicked; if we diligently consider, we find that those who inflict it sustain the greater torments.

For every man who persecutes another in body, is known first to sustain persecution in his own heart. For if he even takes something of his substance from him whom he persecutes, he makes for himself a greater loss; because no one has unjust gain without just damage. Where there is gain, there also is damage: gain in the coffer, damage in the conscience. He takes away a garment, and loses faith; he acquires money, and loses justice. But men do this because they are unwilling to attend to the last day. For if they would continually think upon the day of their death, they would restrain their soul from all covetousness and malice. But what they now are unwilling to think of wholesomely, they must needs afterward sustain without any remedy.

For their last day shall come, the day of judgment shall come, when it shall not be permitted them to do penance, nor shall they be able by good works to redeem themselves from eternal death: because the sinner is smitten even with this chastisement, that dying he should forget himself, who while he lived forgot God. The day of judgment shall come, when the foundations of the mountains shall be moved, and the earth shall burn even to hell beneath: when the burning heavens shall be dissolved, when the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, when the stars shall fall from heaven, when sinners and the impious shall be cast into the pool of fire, and the smoke of their torments shall ascend unto ages of ages, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The time shall come, most illustrious brethren, when to no good man shall it be ill, to no evil man shall it be well. There shall come, I say, the last day, when the godly shall be separated from the ungodly, the just from the unjust, the praisers of God from the blasphemers of God. There shall come the time also when they shall be separated, so that to none, as has been said, who is good shall it be ill, to none who is evil shall it be well. 3. But even now it is better for the good than for the evil. To suffer evil, and to be evil. Why then is it not now so? Perhaps even now it is so. But what is now in secret, then shall be in manifest. Read the divine Scripture, enter with me, if thou canst, into the sanctuary of God:

perhaps there, if I can, I will teach thee — nay rather, learn with me from Him who teaches me — that even now it is not well with the evil, and that it is better with the good than with the evil, although the full felicity of the good has not yet come, nor yet has the last punishment of the evil come. If thou diligently attendest to the Law of God, perhaps thou wilt understand with me that it is not well with the evil. For I ask thee, and inquire of thee: Why is it ill with thee? Thou wilt answer: 'Want harasses me, difficulty presses, pain perhaps of the limbs, fear from an enemy.' Is it therefore ill with thee, because thou sufferest evils, and well with him who is evil itself? Much is the difference between suffering evil, and being evil. What thou sufferest, thou art not; for thou sufferest evil, but thou art not evil: he suffers not this evil, and is evil.

Be not therefore deceived. It cannot come to pass that it be ill with thee who sufferest evil; and well with him who is evil. For when he is evil, dost thou think that he suffers not evil, when he suffers his very self? Is it ill with thee, because thou sufferest another's evil in thy body; and well with him, who suffers his very self as evil in his heart? Is it ill with thee, who perhaps hast a bad villa; and well with him, who has a bad soul? Be good, thou who hast good things. 4. Riches are good: by which one may do well. Good by nature, but evil to the evil. Riches are good, gold is good, silver is good, households are good, possessions are good. All these are good; but as that whereby thou mayest do well, not as things that make thee good. Have good things, which make thee good. 'What,' thou sayest, 'are these?'

Do judgement and justice. Good are the things you possess; do judgement and justice. Be you also good among your good things. Blush before your goods: be a man who abides good amid perishable goods. Blush before your goods: do not be evil among them, lest you perish together with them. Thus, then, the Creator of things and God the administrator has distributed gold and silver to men in such a way that in itself, by its nature and kind, it is good; but its abundance neither exalts the good, nor does want crush them. The evil man, however, both when it is offered to him is blinded, and when it is taken away is tormented; because both when riches are gained they bestow a false gladness, and when they are lost they leave behind a true sorrow. 5. True riches and false. Covetousness is always in need.

Let us learn to love the true riches, that is, chastity and justice, peace and mercy. For these are called just riches, because they are bestowed upon good and just merits. Those are called true riches, because whoever possesses them shall not be in want, since, according to the Apostle, having food and clothing, with these he is content (1 Tim. VI, 8). But these earthly riches it is unjust to reckon as riches, seeing that they do not take away want. For each man will burn all the more with the want of avarice, the more, in loving them, he has come to possess greater ones. How then are they riches, by which poverty grows; which, the more abundant they have become to their lovers, bring no satiety, but inflame the rich man with covetousness?

You suppose that you would want less if you had less. Whence one has well said: The love of money grows as much as the money itself grows (Juvenal, Satire 14, v. 139); for with the increase of money the madness of covetousness is increased. For all the avaricious or the covetous seem to be sick as with the disease of dropsy. Just as the dropsical man, the more he drinks, thirsts so much the more; so the avaricious or covetous man is not satisfied by acquiring. 6. Conclusion. But we, brethren, considering that we are pilgrims and strangers in this world, let us reserve for ourselves upon the journey of this life only so much as is needful for food and clothing, and, as far as we are able, let us direct it toward eternal blessedness through almsgiving to the poor;

so that when on the day of judgement the covetous and avaricious shall deserve to hear, for the barrenness of good works, «Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire» (Matt. XXV, 41), we, for our good works, may be able to hear, «Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I thirsted, and ye gave me to drink; I was naked, and ye clothed me» (Ibid., 34, 36). To that blessing may the Lord bring you under His protection: to whom be honour and glory unto ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 221. On the Nativity of the Holy Innocents, IV. And on the words of the Apocalypse, «I saw under the altar of God the souls of them that were slain», etc., chapter VI, vv. 9-11; chapter VII, vv. 9-17.

1. In the veneration of the martyrs the Saviour is praised. How fittingly the martyrs are under the altar of God. The Innocents intercede more than the rest. As often, brethren, as we celebrate the martyrdoms of the saints, so often do we proclaim the praises of the Saviour; and as often as we affirm their passions, so often do we preach the glory of Christ. For we do not look up to what they suffered, but we admire Him for whose sake they suffered. Therefore it is not the punishment that is in the praise, but the faith that is in the honour. We magnify the martyrs, then, but especially those who, when Christ was being born, at the very beginning confessed Him not by speaking but by dying, and outran the rest to the everlasting kingdoms. See, however, what place they merit among men, who before God have merited a place beneath the altar.

For Holy Scripture says: «I saw under the altar of God the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus which they held; and they cried out», and the rest. «Under the altar of God», he says, «I saw the souls of them that were slain.» What more reverent, what more honourable can be said, than to rest beneath that altar upon which sacrifice is celebrated to God, upon which victims are offered, upon which the Lord is priest, as it is written: «Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech» (Ps. CIX, 4)? Rightly do the souls of the just rest beneath the altar; because upon the altar the body of the Lord is offered.

Nor undeservedly do the just there demand vengeance for their blood, where even for sinners the blood of Christ is poured out. Fittingly, therefore, as though by a kind of fellowship, burial has been decreed there for the martyrs, where the death of the Lord is daily celebrated, as He Himself says: «As often as ye shall do these things, ye shall announce the death of the Lord, until He come» (1 Cor. XI, 26); namely, that they who had died for the sake of His death might rest beneath the mystery of His sacrament. Not undeservedly, I say, by a certain fellowship is a tomb established for the slain there, where the members slain of the Lord are laid; that those whom the cause of one passion had bound together with Christ, the sanctity also of one place might unite.

We read that very many of the just are cherished in the bosom of Abraham, that some rejoice in the pleasantness of paradise: yet none, save the martyrs, has better merited this, namely, to rest there where Christ is both victim and priest; that is, that they may both obtain propitiation from the offering of the victim, and receive the blessing and ministry of the priest. Among the other martyrs, therefore, whom we proclaim to abide beneath the altar of God, those blessed suckling infants also, the first-fruits of the martyrs for Christ, confessing Him not by speaking but by dying, merited crowns. For it is not to be doubted that they intercede in their martyrdom more than the rest, who in martyrdom preceded the rest. 2. How the saints ask for vengeance.

The saints now have one robe; hereafter it will be twofold. «And they cried out», says John, «with a great voice: Avenge, O Lord, our blood. And white robes, one each, were given unto them; and it was said unto them that they should rest yet a little while, until the number of their brethren and fellow-servants should be fulfilled.» A question arises in this place: why do the saints, now abiding with the Lord, seek vengeance upon their enemies, when the Lord says in the Gospel: «Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you»? But it must be known that those saints, now standing in the sight of their Creator, behold His will; and therefore they receive from Him what they know Him to will to do, and they drink from Him what from Him they thirst for.

They seek vengeance upon their enemies in two ways, and this for the cause of charity: namely, that those who are predestined to eternal life may be converted from evil to good; but that those who, God foreknowing it, are to be condemned, may die and cease to sin, so that thereby they may have a lesser punishment in hell, where each one according to the quality of his works shall sustain the magnitude of his torments. They seek vengeance upon the reprobate; because they desire the day of the last judgement to come, and they await the resurrection of their own bodies. «And white robes, one each, were given unto them.» By the white robes we ought to understand the reward of Baptism, the prize of martyrdom, the recompense of the eternal things, and the joy of the heavenly homeland.

The saints, then, before the resurrection have single robes; because in the soul alone they as yet fully enjoy the eternal blessings: but afterward they shall receive double, when, having received back their bodies, they shall be unchangeable in soul and incorruptible in body. Of this Isaiah says: «In their own land they shall possess double things» (Isa. LXI, 7). 3. How God speaks to the saints. «And it was said unto them that they should rest yet a little while, until the number of their fellow-servants and brethren should be fulfilled.» This saying is a divine inspiration, by which, into their minds that desire the day of judgement, the virtue of patience is instilled, that they may patiently bear all things, awaiting the number of those who are likewise to be slain for Christ, so as

that afterward they may reign together with them; so that they who long to receive back their bodies may rejoice over the number of the brethren to be gathered in. In such a manner does Almighty God speak to the saints, as any householder having many sons, when they severally return from the field and ask that he give them food, answers: «Your refreshment indeed is prepared, but wait for your brethren; that when ye have been set together in one, ye may all eat in common and feast rejoicing»; because those also are to be slain, whether by open martyrdom, that is, or by hidden. It is said therefore to them who ask for vengeance, after the gift has been given, that they should rest and endure, until the number of their fellow-servants be completed. 4.

Let us tread in the footsteps of the martyrs as much as we can. You see, therefore, that on our account the vengeance of the martyrs is deferred. While we delay, their blood is much. But this happens through our own sloth, since we do not, as it is said, live religiously; since we do not act piously, as is fitting. For if our justice by good works were to go before us to the Lord, already would the number of the fellow-servants which is awaited be completed. To none, moreover, is it doubtful that the martyrs shall receive vengeance after the judgement, who even before the judgement are honoured with heavenly rewards.

Wherefore it behoves us, dearly beloved brethren, that we who on today's festival venerate the first-fruits of the martyrdom, should diligently ponder upon the eternal festival of the martyrs which is in the heavens, and, following their footsteps as much as we can, should ourselves also take care to become partakers of that same heavenly festival; the Apostle bearing witness that «if we shall be companions of the sufferings, we shall be so also of the consolation» (2 Cor. I, 7): nor let us so much mourn over their death, as rejoice over the just receiving of the palm. For indeed, as each of them was driven out of this life through torments, Rachel groaning, that is, the Church, groans, following after with wailing and tears:

but them, now driven forth hence, the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all, soon received into another life with the ministers of gladness coming to meet them, and led them in to be crowned for ever in the joy of their Lord. 5. The lot of the martyrs is changed. Whence John says: «They stood before the throne in the sight of the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palms were in their hands.» They stand now crowned before the throne of God, who once lay bound with fetters before the throne of earthly judges. They stand in the sight of the Lamb, by no means to be there separated from the contemplation of His glory, from whose love here they could not be separated even by tortures. They shine in white robes, and hold palms in their hands;

because they have the rewards in their works, since the bodies which for the Lord's sake they suffered to be scorched with fire, and torn by beasts, consumed by scourges, dissolved by precipices, scraped by iron claws, dissipated by every kind of punishment, they receive back glorified through the resurrection. «And they cried out», he says, «with a great voice, saying: Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb.» With a great voice they chant salvation to God, who with great thanksgiving recall that they overcame the contests of the assailing tribulations not by their own strength, but by His help. 6. Their robes, while thought to be defiled, are made white. The service of God. Again he says, describing both their past contests and their perpetual crowns:

«These are they who came out of great tribulation, and washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.» The martyrs indeed washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, since their members, which appeared to the eyes of the foolish to be defiled with the squalor of punishments, they rather thus cleansed from all defilements by blood poured out for Christ, and moreover rendered them worthy of the blessed light of immortality; which is also to have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. «Therefore», he says, «they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple.» It is not a toilsome, but a lovable and desirable servitude, to stand perpetually amid the praises of God (Ps. LXXXIII, 11).

Indeed «day» and «night» do not properly signify the alternation of time, but figuratively signify perpetuity. For there will be no night there; but one day, better in the courts of Christ above thousands. In which Rachel does not weep for her children, but God wipes away every tear from their eyes, and gives the voice of gladness and of eternal salvation in the tabernacles of the just, He who liveth and reigneth as God, etc. SERMON 222. On the Holy Apostles. 1. The Apostles are rams. If the solemnity of all the holy martyrs ought to be pleasing to us, dearly beloved brethren, how much more pleasing that of those who followed the present Prince of martyrs? if of the lambs, how much more of the rams?

For their sons, made not by generation of flesh but by imitation of virtue, are all those who afterward, even unto death, confessed Christ. These the peoples of the Gentiles offered up, of whom the Psalm sang beforehand, saying: «Bring unto the Lord the sons of rams» (Ps. XXVIII, 1). To these first the Lord, when He exhorted them to the confession of His name, promised Himself not only as the crowner of victory, but also as the helper of the contest; even in them He was admonishing their descendants also, since what He was saying He was leaving in writing for those who came after. To them, therefore, He says, exhorting them: «But when they shall bring you before princes and powers, take no thought what ye shall answer, or what ye shall speak:

for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you» (Matt. X, 19, 20). He forbade them to premeditate, and He commanded them to confess. For He preferred to take away human presumption and to give divine grace, so that, timid in themselves, they might be bold toward the world. Whence also in another psalm the voice of the martyrs speaks, as it were from the part of human frailty, in fear: «Deliver me from my enemies, O my God, and free me from them that rise up against me» (Ps. LVIII, 2); and a little after, confiding in the divine help, it says: «My strength, I will keep for Thee» (Ibid., 10). 2. They surpass the rest of the faithful.

For the Lord, wishing to show that His Apostles were eminent above the other throngs of the faithful, and also above the ancient just and the Prophets, said unto them: «Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see, and the ears which hear the things that ye hear: for many Prophets and just men desired to see the things that ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things that ye hear, and heard them not» (Matt. XIII, 16, 17). Again elsewhere: «Now», He says, «I will not call you servants; because the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you» (John XV, 15). Again He says the same in another place: «Whatsoever ye shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven;

and whatsoever ye shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven» (Matt. XVIII, 18). Again elsewhere, to Peter inquiring what it should profit himself and his companions to have left all things and to follow the Redeemer, He answered, saying: «Amen I say unto you, that ye who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit upon the seat of His majesty, ye also shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel» (Ibid. XIX, 28). 3. They are the light of the world, the salt of the earth, the foundations and gates of the Church. These are the light of the world (Ibid. V, 14); because through them the Lord first delivered to this world the light of faith and of sacred knowledge, and rescued the Gentiles and peoples from the darkness of errors and sins. These are the salt of the earth;