Because it is better to endure a little bitterness here and afterward to come to eternal sweetness, than to have false joy here and there to suffer punishment without end. Hear, brethren, not me but the Lord saying in the Gospel: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matt. V, 5); and: Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep (Luke VI, 25). And attend to this, brethren, that all bodily physicians, whenever they come to those who seem to be sick in body, cut off all things that seemed delightful to them, and forbid entirely what is sweet. Sometimes they do not even permit them to take anything cold;
at times they even compel them to drink the most bitter potions, and frequently they cut open their wounds with the sharpest instruments. What bodily physicians therefore do for the health of bodies, spiritual physicians strive to exercise for the salvation of souls. About to render an account for his own salvation and that of the peoples. Considering these things, dearest brethren, and not ignorant that I shall render an account before the tribunal of the eternal Judge both for my own salvation and for yours, I choose to administer to you medicines harsh indeed but wholesome, that afterward with you I may deserve to rejoice in perpetual safety in the fellowship of the Angels. And these things I suggest not because I have perceived that you do not gladly receive our admonitions;
but because it is necessary for me both for your salvation and for mine to preach more frequently, striving to rouse your minds both to fear the judgment and to desire the reward; that you may faithfully prepare the storehouses of your holy breast, with the Lord's help, for laying up the spiritual vintage, as you have always done. Whenever we preach something hard to you, we do not say it because we suspect that any such thing is being done by you; but for this reason we again proclaim things that are not easy, that we may be able to heal those things in which perhaps you have been overtaken. For it usually happens that while greater things are feared, lesser things are more quickly avoided. For just as the antidote is drunk lest poisons prevail against the body,
so is it brought about by austere preaching that antidotes may be prepared for souls. The memory of God's benefits is a defence against sins. It is certain, dearest brethren, that if we always assiduously ponder the benefits of our God, which were conferred on us without any preceding merits of our own, our sins either do not have dominion over us, or, if perhaps they have crept in, are quickly corrected through penance. For who could even conceive in mind, not to say expound in words, how great are the benefits of our God toward us? For He made us when we were not; He afterward restored us when we had perished.
He underwent death, He freed us by His precious blood, He descended to the lower regions, He snatched us from the jaws of eternal death, He even promised us the rewards of the heavens. Pondering all these things, most beloved brethren, with a devout and kindly mind, let us as far as we can, with His help, hasten to repay a return for His benefits. Let us not render evil for good; but as far as we can, let us faithfully strive to obey His will, striving with all our strength, that His precepts may bring forth for us the remedy of obedience rather than the judgment of transgression. What account of these things must be rendered on the day of judgment. The sinner lays upon Christ a cross heavier than the first.
For what shall we do, most illustrious ones, on that fearful day of judgment, when, as the world trembles and the trumpets of the Angels sound before Him, the Lord shall have taken His seat on that throne of His majesty, surrounded by the light of the heavenly host; and when, the human race being raised up from the bosom of the earth and its ancient dust, with the testimony of each one's conscience standing by, and the punishments of sinners and the rewards of the just set before their sight, He shall begin to demand an account of life, and now more just than merciful, with the severity of a judge shall begin to accuse those guilty of despised mercy, and to say:
I made you, O man, from the mire with my own hands; I breathed a spirit into your earthen limbs; I deigned to bestow on you our image and likeness; I placed you among the delights of paradise; but you, despising the life-giving commands, chose to follow the deceiver rather than God? When, cast out of paradise by the rightful claim of sin, you were held in the bonds of death, I entered a virginal womb, to be born without loss of virginity; laid in a manger and wrapped in swaddling-clothes, I lay there; I bore the reproaches of infancy and human sorrows, by which I might become like you, precisely for this, namely, to make you like me; I received the palms and the spittings of those who mocked, I drank vinegar mixed with gall;
scourged with whips, crowned with thorns, fixed to a cross, pierced with a wound, that you might be snatched from death, I gave up my spirit amid torments. Behold the marks of the nails, by which I hung fixed; behold my side pierced with wounds. I took upon me your sorrows, that I might give you glory; I took upon me your death, that you might live forever. I lay buried in the sepulchre, that you might reign in heaven. Why have you thrown away what I endured for you? Why, ungrateful one, have you refused the gifts of your redemption? I do not require my death of you; give me back your life, for which I gave my own. Give me back your life, which you unceasingly cut down with the wounds of your sins. Why have you defiled with the filth of luxury the dwelling which I had consecrated to myself in you?
Why have you stained my body with the foulness of allurements? Why have you afflicted me with a heavier cross of your crimes than that on which I once hung? For heavier in my sight is the cross of your sins, on which I hang unwillingly, than that on which I ascended more wretchedly for you, about to slay your death. When I was impassible, I deigned to suffer for you; but you have despised God in the man, salvation in the weak one, the way home in the wayfarer, pardon in the judge, life in the cross, medicine in the torments. And because after all your evils you were unwilling to flee to the medicines of penance, you shall not deserve to be freed from the evil report. The punishment of the damned. Penance must be undergone while we are here.
What gnashing of teeth shall there be then, when the multitude of the saints has been set apart at the right hand of the King and to glory, and the people of sin, plunged into the depths of hell without any hope of mercy or pardon, shall see itself shut out in its own darkness from the blessed light of the saints, and, descending without end into the bosom of the deep, the pit pressing upon its mouth, shall behold eternal torments and perpetual death, itself never to die? In vain then will it beg mercy of the poor man whom it despised in this life; in vain will it ask that the tip of Lazarus's finger, by which it might be cooled as it burns, be applied to its burning lips.
How the wretch would wish, when he sees the glory of the poor, that he had once lain beneath the hard labours of poverty, and in that life had borne the evils that would die together with life, so as not to deserve to come to those eternal torments! Therefore, that we may not be terrified to hear such hard and terrible things before that tribunal of the eternal Judge, while it is yet permitted, and while with God's help it is in our power, let us examine our consciences; and if we recognize that any crimes or capital sins, not yet purged by alms and prayers, still hold dominion over us, let us hasten, with Christ's help, to enter the harbour of penance, the waves of our sins being overcome;
and if we recognize that anything in the little ship of our soul has been broken by pride, or torn by avarice, or loosened by luxury, amid the many tempests of sins, let us hasten to mend or repair it by good works. Let us zealously drain out the bilge-water of vices without ceasing. For past sins do not harm if present ones do not please. For just as his own righteousness does not suffice for any of the just unless he perseveres unto the end, so his own iniquity cannot harm any of sinners if, before he departs from this body, he flees to the remedies of almsgiving or to the medicines of penance. Nor should it be put off by anyone. The garb of religion.
But because we cannot know when or at what hour we shall be snatched from this world, let us without any delay or postponement hasten to flee from the left to the right. We must not trust in health, nor in age. He who is ever uncertain of his life must never delay the remedy of his salvation; because He who made us secure by saying, In whatever day the sinner is converted, all his iniquities are consigned to oblivion (Ezek. XVIII, 21-22), also willed us to be on guard, saying, Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and put it not off from day to day (Ecclus. V, 8).
If perhaps, when we generally summon all to penance, someone thinks within himself, saying, I am a young man having a wife; how can I either cut my hair short or take on the garb of religion? We do not say this, dearest brethren, nor do we preach this, that young men who are seen to have marriages should change their garb rather than their morals. For what does it harm a man who has a wife, if he is willing to turn his ruined morals to good or honourable works, if he strives to recall the wounds of his sins to their former health by alms, fastings, and prayers? For true conversion suffices for itself without a change of garments;
but religious garments without good works will not only be unable to have any remedy, but will even sustain the just judgment of God. Let us therefore be converted to better things while the remedies are in our power: let us here extinguish death by dying to sins, let us here acquire life by the merits of life; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honour and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 250. On the Last Judgment, II. The pursuits of the depraved will. An explanation of the parable of the tares. Let us call to mind, dearest brethren, all the evils we have done, that, terrified by the threats of the eternal Judge, we may at the last at least be lifted up to do good. Whence the Lord says in the Gospel:
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt. VII, 21). This also, dearest brethren, we ought to consider, that on that day God will render to each one according to his works, good to the good, evil to the evil: the good He will send into eternal life, the evil into eternal fire. Woe to that man who shall have his dwelling with the devil. Let us weigh this, that that kingdom has an end; the kingdom of God has no end. This laborious life, transient and frail, full of scandals, envious, what else does it seek but to eat, drink, be drunken, live in luxury, and make slanders? Surely, where we wish to remain, thither we ought to hasten.
Brethren, we are pilgrims in this world; let us be converted to the Lord who made us. Brethren, you have heard that the Lord will come to take vengeance and will send sinners into eternal fire, as He says in the Psalm: Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered (Ps. LXVII, 2). But what He will say to His own on that day, let us hear: Come, blessed of my Father (Matt. XXV, 34). And the just shall reign without end with Christ, as He says: And let the just feast, and rejoice in the sight of God (Ps. LXVII, 4); and, Lord, did you not sow good seed in your field? whence then come the tares? And He said to them, An enemy has done this: first gather the tares, and bind them in bundles to be burned.
This harvest is the human race, to be gathered for judgment at the consummation of the age; the tares are the sinners; the enemy who oversowed sins is the devil; the reapers are the Angels, who choose out the just from the sinners. Bind the bundles—that is, the rapacious with the rapacious, adulterers with adulterers, fornicators with fornicators, murderers with murderers, the avaricious with the avaricious, the wrathful with the wrathful, false witnesses with false witnesses, thieves with thieves, mockers with mockers, like with like. These are the bundles to be burned. But gather the wheat into my barn (Matt. XIII, 27-30); that is, send the just into paradise. An exhortation to penance and good works.
Confession and penance imposed by the priests. Alms from plunder. Brethren, we ought to be terrified and to fear because of so brief a fullness, so long a famine; because of so long a darkness, so brief a light. While we have time, let us be converted to the Lord who made us; that we may not deserve to enter into those shadows, but into the light: for every man is the son of him whose works he does. If we do the works of God, we are the sons of God. What we now sin, we ought quickly to amend, and not to add sins to sins. Whence the Psalmist: Add iniquity upon their iniquity, and let them not enter into your justice (Ps. LXVIII, 28). Let us seek confession with a pure heart, and let us complete the penance granted by the priests.
Do not store up wrath in your hearts; for when we bear wrath, neither offering nor prayer is received by God. Give alms, receive pilgrims into your houses, wash their feet, and prepare their beds; comfort the sorrowful. Do not despise pilgrims, for you yourselves are pilgrims. Do not defraud your brother in business, for God is judge. Do not oppress the poor, the widows, and the orphans. Do not make alms from the plunder of the poor: he is grieved who loses, he rejoices who acquires; he gains money and loses his soul; he attends to what he acquires, and attends not to what he loses. Brethren, with the Lord's help, while we have time,
let us labour, so that we may be penitent from our evils, whether by fasting, or by alms, or by vigils, or by prayers, or by charity: that we may deserve to come to the heavenly kingdoms, where there is fullness without famine, where there is light without darkness, youth without old age, rest without labour, joy without end. May He who created us Himself help us, that we may deserve to come to the heavenly kingdoms, through Christ our Lord. Amen. SERMON 251. On the Last Judgment, III. O dearest brethren, how to be feared is that day for us, on which our Lord Jesus Christ and the redeemer of all has purposed to come with a flame of fire, which will inflame His adversaries and those who work iniquity!
On that day all the tribes of the earth shall wail over themselves, and shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and lofty majesty (Matt. XXIV, 30); and all the ends of the earth shall be shaken before Him, and sinners shall perish, and the sky shall be folded up, and the sea shall be dried up, and the mountains shall burn like wax (Ps. XCVI, 5), and the earth shall burn even to the lower regions. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven to the earth, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, which is the cross of Christ, in whose light the whole world shall be darkened. Then the saints shall fly to meet Christ in the air, and so shall they ever be with the Lord;
but sinners shall be confounded and shall perish. And then shall the judgment take place. And then shall come our Lord Jesus Christ, and shall send His Angels from the four corners of the earth, and they shall gather His elect from the height of the heavens even to their bounds (Matt. XXIV, 30-31). And then the Lord shall separate His saints from among the sinners, and shall send them into the heavenly mansions; but the sinners into the furnace of burning fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels; there shall be for them weeping and gnashing of teeth. Woe to those men who shall have their dwelling with the devil. And the smoke of their torments shall ascend unto the ages of ages (Rev. XIV, 11). Their worms shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched (Isa. LXVI, 24).
In it there is no voice but groaning; where there is no rest but fire; where there is no refreshment but flame; where light shall never be seen but only darkness, and they shall never come into remembrance before God. Their food is torment, and their dwelling is with the devil, where there is no visitation but only darkness. O man who desirest to possess the kingdom of God, amend the evil you have done while you may; while you have time, cry out to Almighty God; while space is given, mourn; while liberty remains, do penance; hasten while you can; wail while your soul still dwells in the body; while you yet live, acquire for yourself a remedy before the deep swallows you up,
before the snare of punishments takes hold, before hell snatches you away, where no indulgence is given, where there is no return for confession, no way back for pardon; from which punishment may the merciful Lord deign to deliver us, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 252. An admonition that God be praised not only with the tongue, but also in morals and works; because such as is what is thought in the heart, such is what proceeds in work; and concerning the punishments of purgatory and the pit of hell. Here good must ever be done, lest one repent in vain at some time of having done evil.
The resurrection and glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ, dearest brethren, shows us the life which we are to receive when He comes to render worthy things to the worthy, and so forth. And if there is still groaning, temptation, tribulation, hope that all these things are transitory, and that that day will come on which we shall praise Him without failing. Meanwhile, until that day comes on which, joined to the Angels, we may deserve to praise God without any weariness and without any end, that we may be able to come to that ineffable joy, let us, as far as we can, zealously persist in good works;
and daily examining our consciences within, if we recognize that anything in the robe of our soul has been unstitched through negligence, or soiled through luxury, or scorched through wrath, or torn through envy, or darkened through avarice, while it is yet in our power, let us hasten, with God's help, to heal the wounded, to repair what is lost, and to restore to the whiteness of justice those things which have been obscured: lest perhaps, if we come before the tribunal of the eternal Judge naked of good works and wrapped in the filthy rags of vices, that terrible sentence be directed at us: Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. XXV, 41).
And therefore, as far as we can, let us zealously bring forth the fruits of justice, fearing that which the Lord said: Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire (Matt. III, 10). By this sentence He clearly shows that not only to have done evil, but even not to have done good, will be damnable. And therefore let us continually ponder with attentive hearts the things we have said; lest we repent too late in the sight of the eternal fire, which will interrogate our marrow, our bones, and our thoughts. How much then will each one about to be punished wish that he had never coveted another man's wife, that he had never stained the garment of his body, never the silken robe of Baptism, that he had never disregarded the counsels and admonitions of the priests.
For if it is a great peril for priests not to reprove the sins of others, how much more perilous will it be not to have willed to correct one's own; and not only not to have amended them, but even to have defended them, and by defending to have heaped them up? Of eternal punishments. And therefore the inextinguishable burning there will exact whatever curable satisfaction, whatever wholesome conversion has neglected to heal here. For the burning pit of hell shall be opened; there will be a descent, there will be no ascent. There, stripped of the garment of faith and mortally dead, they shall be plunged in forever, to be cast into the outer darkness, where the eternal One will not visit, unhappily shut up in the outer darkness, more unhappily still to be shut in.
Concerning this pit the prophet prays and calls to mind: 'Let not the deep swallow me up; neither let the pit shut her mouth upon me' (Psalm LXVIII, 16). And he said, 'Neither let the pit shut her mouth upon me,' for this reason: because when it has received the unhappy sinners who lack the remedy of penance, it will be closed above and opened below, and it will be widened into the depth. No breathing-space, no free breath, will be left to them, while the bars press down from above. They will be thrust down there, bidding farewell to the nature of things. They will no longer be known by God, they who were unwilling to know God, doomed to die to life and to live without end unto death.
Blessed are they who now, living well, are content with their means or with what is necessary for their body, and are generous of their own, chaste in themselves, not bloodthirsty toward others, and so redeem themselves from the fiery night of this deep pit. But this punishment awaits those who, having lost their Baptism and not restored it through penance, shall perish forever; to whom it is said, 'He will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire' (Matthew III, 12). 3. The purgatorial punishments; their duration and their matter. But those who have committed things deserving of temporal punishments, of whom the Apostle says, 'If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire' (1 Corinthians III, 15):
they will pass through a fiery river, of which the prophetic word makes mention, 'And a river of fire ran before him' (Daniel VII, 10); through the fiery river and its fords, dreadful with seething masses of flame, they will cross over. As great as was the matter of sin, so great also will be the delay of passing through. As much as guilt has demanded, so much will a certain rational discipline of the flame claim for itself from the man. And as much as foolish iniquity has done, so much will the wise punishment rage. And because the divine word, comparing the sinful soul to a bronze cauldron, says, 'Set the empty pot upon the coals, until its brass grow hot and all its rust melt away' (Ezekiel XXIV, 11);
there the idle words and the wicked or filthy thoughts, there the multitude of light sins which had defiled the purity of a noble nature, will be sweated out; there the tin or lead of the various creeping offenses, which have obscured the divine image, will be consumed—all of which might here have been separated from the soul by a swift settlement, through alms and tears. Behold, thus does He require an account from man, He who gave Himself for man, and, fastened with nails, joined Himself to the death of the law. Since these things are so, most beloved, let us understand that they will not be able to escape the intolerable torments and the eternal fires, except those who first have extinguished in themselves the fire of fleshly concupiscence and of manifold desire.
And therefore, dearest brethren, let us turn ourselves toward better things, while the remedies are in our own power. Let us run while we have the light, and let us not neglect the passing times of salvation. Here let us extinguish death by dying to sins; here let us purchase life by the merits of life. SERMON 253. On the confession of sins, and that the devil desires this—that we, by no means confessing our sins, may appear as defendants before the tribunal of the eternal Judge; whereas God, on the contrary, wills that we confess our evils humbly in this age, so that we may deserve to be freed from them in the age to come. 1. The precept of confession. Why God has commanded this. The devil's endeavor—that we not fulfill it.
In all the divine Scriptures, most beloved brethren, we are usefully and wholesomely admonished that we ought continually and humbly to confess our sins, not only to God, but also to the saints and to those who fear God. For thus the Holy Spirit admonishes us through the apostle James, saying: 'Confess your sins one to another, and pray for one another, that you may be saved' (James V, 16); and the Psalmist: 'Confess to the Lord, for He is good' (Psalm CXVII, 1); and again, 'I said, I will confess against myself my injustices to the Lord; and Thou hast forgiven the impiety of my heart' (Psalm XXXI, 5). For just as the wounds of sins can never be lacking to us, so also the medicines of confession ought not to be lacking.
For God does not will that we confess our sins because He Himself cannot know them; but because the devil desires this—that he may find something to lay against us before the tribunal of the eternal Judge; therefore God wills that we should be willing rather to defend against, than to accuse, our sins. But our God, on the contrary, because He is loving and merciful, wills that we confess them in this age, lest we be put to shame for them afterward in the age to come. For if we confess, He spares; if we acknowledge, He pardons. To the first man it was not said, 'Confess thy sin,' because he had not yet done what he might confess; but it was said to him that he should not sin (Genesis II, 17). He did not obey; he sinned. We are born mortal from the bond of sin;
our misery has been propagated through the succession of human frailty; and it is said to us, 'Confess your sins.' Now that serpent, just as he then pressed on, so that man should not keep what was said to him—that he not sin (Genesis III, 4)—so now he presses on, that man should not keep what was said to him: 'Confess thy sin.' For as he then brought it about that he who was standing should fall, so now he acts that he who has fallen should not rise. And so, against his enchantments and snares, by which he now wishes to hinder our return, let us take up the most healthful precepts against him who wishes to hinder our confession of sin; because he knows that we cannot return otherwise, we who have fallen through pride. He himself was our leader unto pride: