Adam of Dryburgh (Adamus Scotus)
(Sermons)
Table of Contents
PREFACE OF MASTER ADAM, Called the Englishman, OF THE PREMONSTRATENSIAN ORDER.
Summary. — 1. The invention of letters aids the memory. — 2. Their useful and necessary employment. — 3. Commanded to commit to writing what was proclaimed from the pulpit. — 4. Long deterred on account of his own smallness and others' envy. — 5. His self-abasement and the exaltation of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church. — 6. He satisfies both the charity of his brethren and the authority of his superiors. — 7. He dedicates his labors to the canons of the Premonstratensian Order. — 8. Whom he loves without pretense, recalling their kindnesses without flattery. — 9. The rendering of such recompense as is possible. — 10. One hundred homilies distributed through the year. — 11. The analogy of the spiritual and bodily physician. — 12. He submits his writings for correction.
I. Among all things, O men of venerable life, most beloved to me in Christ, in which the material or occasion for knowing what was done or said in ancient times, and for retaining as fully as possible what is known, consists — that is surely first and foremost, that amid the diversity of languages that exist under the sun, the written characters of letters were long ago invented. For since it is established without ambiguity that just as syllables are formed from letters, so words from syllables, and sentences are woven from words, the greater and more evident our knowledge of letters appears, the more clearly does knowledge shine forth against ignorance, and the more firmly does memory flourish against forgetfulness. Hence also in the first book of the Etymologies, Isidore says: Letters are the indicators of things, the signs of words, which have such power that they speak to us the words of the absent without a voice. And he added: The use of letters was devised for the memory of various things; for lest they escape through forgetfulness, they are bound fast by letters. And he gave the reason: For in such a variety of things, not everything could be learned by hearing, nor retained by memory.
II. The necessity of letters. Since, therefore, letters indicate things, since they likewise signify words, and since their power is so great that they speak to us the words of the absent even without a voice, it is beyond doubt that their use is necessary, since through them what we wish to know but not to retain is preserved among us — things which learning cannot teach by hearing alone, nor memory suffice to retain.
III. The reason for writing the sermons. Hence it is that the devotion of certain of our brethren — both peers by their entreaty and superiors by their command — has so often deigned to importune my insignificance by their insistence, that I should commit to writing some of those things which I had previously spoken for the edification of those present. And this indeed is the reason why whatever has been written was committed to letters: so that those who could not have the speaker present with his voice might also have him speaking, even absent and without a voice. And they might likewise easily commit to memory by frequently rereading what they could scarcely retain in memory when heard only once.
IV. Two obstacles: the first, his own insignificance; the second, the envy of others. But when I had been so many times pressed both by entreaty and by command, on the one hand flushed with embarrassment, on the other shaken with fear — blushing, I say, over my own ignorance, and also dreading the biting tongues of detractors — I resolved by no means whatsoever either to yield to those who beseeched me or to obey those who commanded me. But resisting both groups for a long time, I allowed myself neither to be swayed by the petitions of the one, nor compelled by the commands of the other. For at that time I judged it a lighter thing to offend benevolent men — not only my fellow brethren, but even my superiors — than to provoke the malevolent against my timidity. For when the speaker displeases them, it follows by an unfair judgment that what he says also does not please. Nor can words received by the ears bring honor when the person seen by the eyes is held in contempt. And while they strike with the sharp sword of their tongue what is spoken in their presence, they often rage far more cruelly against what they discover written on the page. For while they are inwardly tormented by the malice of envy, they search more for an occasion of reproach than of edification — even though that edification, by which they might be instructed, would be salutary enough to restrain the impetuous from evil and rouse the lazy to good.
V. His own abasement before the orthodox Fathers. But not only that — the consciousness of his own ignorance also dissuaded him for some time from taking up the pen, because the life-giving and most sweet delights of the orthodox Fathers so superabound, I blushed, and not without reason, to set the tasteless vegetables of my poverty before those who sit not merely frequently but continuously at those feasts, and to offer them the muddy swamp of my efforts among the clearest torrents. For who would not, and rightly so, judge it worthy of every scorn? It would be one and the same as if a mole, burrowing blindly — blind rather than blinded — were to thrust itself upon a soaring eagle, so as to gaze with it upon the rays of the sun with unseeing eyes. What sharpness of perception do I possess, what brilliance in expression, what perfection in conduct, that I should presume to set before those feasting on abundant delicacies anything from my sackcloth bag? This, however, is the special property of those whom I am not: whom the gold of keen intellect makes exceedingly rich, the silver of brilliant eloquence makes illustrious, and precious stones in a praiseworthy life make adorned. But such I am not. Rather I am poor, obscure, and unadorned, inasmuch as I lack both depth of wisdom, and splendor of eloquence, and merit of life. In these and similar things, therefore, my excuse neither admits petitions to be heard, nor embraces commands to be fulfilled.
VI. Both the authority of the one commanding and the charity of the one asking prevail. Moreover, just as it was perhaps proper for me to make excuses at some point, so without doubt it was never permissible for me to refuse perpetually, because this would be no less a damnable sign of obstinacy than the other was a commendable sign of humility. For the humility of one entreated and commanded granted what was tolerable; but both the charity of the one asking and the authority of the one commanding had to drive this far away. And so it was done in every respect. And I judged it better to admit the bloody hands of detractors against me than, by resisting their wishes, to lack either the affection of a companion toward my peers or that of a son toward my superiors. Drawn, therefore, and overcome, casting my thought upon the Lord, I began to apply my mind to study and my hand to the pen (Ps. 44:2), and I set down in writing whatever presented itself in keeping with the circumstances of time and the opportunity of place — both repeating what I had previously said in public, and adding what I had not yet spoken before an audience — and I transmitted what I had written above all to the sincerity of your charity.
VII. The dedication of the work and of himself. To you indeed — to you, I say, O reverend men, to be embraced in the arms of sincere love in Christ — I have judged it fitting to direct this little work especially. Among all the servants of Christ, as is right and just, I embrace you in His own heart, bound to me closely and inseparably. You whom the One who unites holy minds — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one and the same God with them — has granted to be united to my spirit in Himself by the bond of true and unfailing love. I desire to be entirely yours, if I am worth anything in the word of God; indeed if anything has been given to me in any spiritual exercise that might serve for edification. Let the sweetness of your sincerity therefore receive this gift, altogether small indeed, yet sent with no small love — by no means supposing that I think it greatly necessary for you, but so that from its sending you may infer and weigh what manner and quality of affection I have toward you in the Lord.
For wholly, always, everywhere, and in all things, insofar as knowledge has granted me to know and ability to act, I am yours in Christ — if indeed I am anything at all. Yours, certainly; yours, I say: a servant in obedience, bound by kindness received, a disciple in learning, a son by adoption, a companion in the catholic peace, a friend in love; and finally, in Him who is Lord of lords, a fellow servant. Would anyone call this a great thing, that I declare myself entirely yours? I would not contradict it, if I myself were great. But in truth, not thinking myself to be something when I am nothing, lest I deceive myself (Gal. 6:3), but rather knowing what I lack, I do not consider myself to be doing anything great even when I gather myself wholly to the task of loving — I who am not unaware that one so small and such as I am is loved so greatly and in such a manner by such great and such distinguished men.
VIII. Love without pretense, and acknowledgment of kindnesses without flattery. Thinking indeed within myself and thinking again, turning it over and over, in how great and what quality of affection you embrace me in the Lord — when on one hand I foresee how unworthy I am, and on the other how highly I am esteemed among you — I blush, I confess, at this inestimable love of yours, amazed, and I am amazed while blushing. For I do not speak with a double heart, but before God, in Christ: my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 9:1), the one whom I see in truth, and as I confess myself with my mouth, so I perceive myself in my heart — making myself of little worth and being humble moreover in my own eyes. Nor do I take up a dog's tongue for licking in the remembrance and confession of the kindnesses so abundantly bestowed upon me by you, giving thanks and uttering a voice of praise. Yet I do not anoint your head with oil, admitting the juice of flattery. Who then am I, or of what sort am I, or what is the house of my father (as someone said [2 Sam. 7:18]) in Israel, that your entire community should so abundantly bestow upon me such an affection of sincere love, accompanied by its fruitful effects?
Who has found greater grace in the eyes of all of you than I? And, to add something more: who has found even as much? And indeed the devotion of your whole community does not cease to proclaim that this is so, in that it receives my insignificance so cheerfully when I come, treats me so kindly when I dwell among you, and so reluctantly lets me go when I depart. For when has it not complained about my absence, being made glad by my presence, just as it rejoiced at my arrival and was saddened at my departure?
IX. What fitting repayment for such kindnesses? May the Lord repay you this exchange, in whose sight even the hairs of His elect are numbered for their reward. For that I should render you a fitting recompense far exceeds my poverty, unless perhaps toward repaying in some measure this exchange, even if very modest, there may be of some help the full acknowledgment — which I know is not lacking in me — of the charity bestowed, both in the recognition in my heart and the confession on my lips. For I know and confess that I am a debtor, I know likewise and confess that I cannot be a fitting repayer: not being unaware that what has been received by me is much in every way, but also because what might be repaid — I have nothing. Yet this is not to your loss, because the generous giver and rewarder of all good things will repay you the more abundantly, the more you have bestowed for His name's sake upon one who has nothing to give you in return. Hence His exhortation to a certain man in the Gospel runs thus: When you give a dinner or a supper, do not invite your friends, nor your brothers, nor your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and recompense be made to you. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the dead (Luke 14:13-14). There will also be at the same resurrection your recompense, because you have done good to one who has nothing to give you in return — inasmuch as spiritual poverty makes him a pauper, the concupiscence of the flesh makes him weak, the darkness of ignorance makes him blind, and sloth in good works makes him lame. But let us now be silent about these things.
X. The book of homilies containing one hundred sermons and their distribution. This book of sermons or homilies, which I send to you as a token of the love I owe, by which I embrace the love of your entire community in the Lord, I beseech you to receive with gracious devotion, with that same spirit in which I know it is sent from me to you. But to my prayers before the sincerity of your charity, on the bended knees of my mind, I add this further: that if your discernment finds anything in it pertaining to edification, let it approve it, but if it likewise discovers anything inept or otherwise amiss, let it by no means leave it uncorrected. For it is my wish that whatever is right in any of my small works or studies be confirmed by the sincerity of your love, and that whatever is crooked be corrected by your judgment.
Taking my beginning from the Advent of the Lord and passing through the more festive days, I excerpted some things from what I had already said in public hearing. Other things, which I had not yet spoken before an audience, I added; and I composed one hundred sermons as best I could. From the first Sunday of Advent until the vigil of the Lord's Nativity there are eighteen sermons. On the vigil itself, four; on Christmas Day, six; on the feast of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, four; on the feast of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist, one; on the feast of the Holy Innocents, three; on the Sunday within the octave of the Lord's Nativity, four; on the day of the Circumcision, two; on the day of the Epiphany of the Lord, two; on the second Sunday after the Epiphany of the Lord, three; on Ash Wednesday, one; on Palm Sunday, one; on Holy Thursday, one; on Easter, four; in the third week of Easter, on Monday in synod, one; on the following Tuesday in the same synod, one; on Ascension Day, one; on the feast of Pentecost, six; on its octave, one; on the Dedication of a Church, one; on the Election of any prelate, one. After these sermons there are also others that pertain especially to religious men — fourteen — which are followed by twenty for the more solemn feast days of the saints.
XI. The preacher is like a physician seeking healing herbs. If there are indeed any readers who are displeased that certain sermons are drawn out at such length — which greatly displeases me as well — I ask them please to recall that one who proposes many things for the edification of his hearers will not always be able to conclude his proposals fittingly and suitably when he wishes. For a discourse once flowing cannot be restrained. Indeed it very often happens that when a physician wanders far and wide through the forests seeking healing herbs, by whose powers he might aid the sick he has undertaken to cure, he is detained there a long time, and sometimes emerges with his basket into the open plains quite late. This happens especially when the density of those same forests extends further, and an abundance of herbs presents itself for finding what is diligently sought, upon whose gathering the physician devotes a longer delay the more fervently he desires the health of his patients. Can not the one who, with the merit of his life, has undertaken the preaching of the divine word in order to heal the ailments of souls, be fittingly compared to a physician? And what else are healing herbs in the density of the forests, if not spiritual insights in the depth of the Scriptures? In searching these out, the preacher sometimes lingers more attentively, because he finds the sacred Scriptures he is treating to be deeper through the infusion of the Spirit and the sharpness of understanding, and he seeks the edification of his hearers — whom he desires to win for Christ — more earnestly with pious intent.
XII. Submission to correction. Nor have I said this because I wish to assert that the tedious length of these sermons is unworthy of reproof; but this too I wish to be justly corrected in them, as well as other things that may deserve to be reproved — I want them corrected at your judgment, so that those you judge too lengthy you may reduce to a fitting and suitable brevity. And, to speak briefly, just as I deserve to be censured with most just reproof for having rashly committed to writing what ought not to have been written, so you too — if I may say it with your indulgence — will not be worthy of praise in this matter if you neglect to amend what needs correcting in them, since I offer them both to your diligence for examination and to your expertise for correction. I shall hold as binding in them only what the just judgment of your examination shall have approved. I set forth the titles and subjects of each sermon at the end of this preface, so that when anyone desires to know what the subject matter of each one is, he may find it immediately without turning through each one. May our Redeemer and redemption, priest and victim, purchaser and price, the Lord Jesus, by His grace and mercy, protect your religious community as it prays for us from all evils: may He keep it healthy always and everywhere and safe, and may He happily lead it to His blessed and beatifying vision in the future. Amen.
SERMON I. FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT. On the names of Christ, and how we ought to go to meet Him as He comes.
Synopsis of the sermon. — 1. We must go out to meet the Savior who comes, according to the Invitatory of the divine office customarily sung at this time. — 2. Whom we must meet, by whom, and in what manner. — 3. Fervor of spirit is commended; lukewarmness is rebuked as a kind of coldness. — 4. All weariness and instability of mind or body must be banished from the divine offices. — 5. He who lays aside the will to advance is exposed to the danger of falling away. — 6. On the six names attributed to God. — 7. 'Wonderful' is expounded, especially in the creation of man. — 8. The likeness of a beast must not be imposed upon the image of God. — 9. Why He is called Counselor. — 10. Likewise God and Mighty. — 11. Friend and Father of the age to come. — 12. Prince of peace and Savior. — 13. Called the Son of God. — 14. God and man: Emmanuel.
I. The salutary time is now at hand, O most beloved, when it befits each one of us to perform the office of a runner. For this is what that admonitory voice seems to contain, by which this night, at the very beginning of the vigils, you roused one another — not only conversing by word, but also, to express the inner eagerness and harmony of your souls, sounding forth harmoniously in song, you said: Let us go to meet Him. And indeed a very salutary exhortation, which you do not conceal — if you attend carefully — as to whom it concerns. For to whom, if not to our Savior, about whom you immediately added? You stated the reason first, when you said: Behold, the King comes. 'Behold' is a word not only of demonstration but of admiration, and sometimes of exultation. And indeed this King must be received with mingled joy and glad wonder. And whoever would fruitfully go to meet this Savior must have both. Let us therefore go to meet Him as He comes.
II. For the Creator and Master comes; the Lord and King comes; the Friend and Bridegroom comes; the Savior and Son comes; God and man also comes. If then it is so — nay, because it is so — let the creature go to meet the Creator, let the disciples go to meet the Master, let the servants go to meet the Lord, the soldiers to meet the King, let companions go to meet the Friend, the attendants of the bride to meet the Bridegroom, let the captives go to meet the Savior, the co-heirs to meet the Son. Let human beings, finally, go to meet the man — to be deified through the man who is God. Let them go, I say, but with devotion of mind, with fervor of spirit. Perhaps this is why you exhorted one another — not indeed to walk, but to run, for even any lazy person can sometimes walk, but running always belongs to the one who hastens. It is entirely right and just that we should run, because the One whom we declare must be met ran rather than walked. Let us therefore go to meet Him, because He Himself first ran for our sake. For the one who saw bore witness that He rejoiced like a giant to run his course (Ps. 18:7). O the joyful one! O the strong one! O the fervent one! For in the one who rejoices, breadth of heart is noted; in the giant, strength of action; in the runner, fervor of spirit.
III. Let us go to meet Him in the same manner in which He Himself ran for our sake, that we may be cheerful givers, because God loves such as these. Let us be steadfast and immovable, abounding in the work of the Lord always, because the labor of such is not in vain before the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58). Let us be fervent in spirit, because He will begin to vomit the lukewarm from His mouth (Rev. 3:15); Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of God's creation (Rev. 19:11). I say these things, most beloved, because lukewarmness of spirit in any religious person greatly displeases God. For while some are cold through sin, some hot through righteousness, and some lukewarm through negligence, I say that cold is preferable to lukewarmness. Because although those who seem to stand lukewarmly in the good may not appear as wicked as those who lie cold in evil, yet most often when that fire, which the Lord came to cast upon the earth (Luke 12:49), blows upon them, the cold are indeed kindled; but those who are unwilling to be kindled — the lukewarm — are vomited from the Lord's mouth. Likewise, cast out from grace they are excluded, and once excluded they are ejected.
IV. Let those, therefore, fear who perform spiritual work with a parched and weary heart, and especially those who carry out the divine office in the church. For the prophet threatens no small vengeance upon those who do the work of the Lord deceitfully (Jer. 48:10) and lazily. Every work you do is spiritual, and for all of it a spiritual recompense must be awaited and sought. Therefore, whether you are engaged in manual labor, in ecclesiastical offices, or in any business pertaining to God, having cast off harmful lukewarmness, having entirely renounced all bodily levity, and as far as possible also instability of mind — in your bearing and gesture, in your posture and gait, in all your movements, both outward and inward — let nothing be done that offends the divine, or angelic, or human gaze (but rather what befits your holiness, as your blessed Father Augustine admonishes you), so that in all things showing yourselves faithful and prudent, attentive and devout, you may have as your future rewarder the very One whom you now have as the observer of your contest. And may you now have as helpers before Him those whom you also have as witnesses.
V. Let your courage, therefore, grow warm again, let the spirit be fervent, and forgetting what lies behind — not only leaving it but truly forgetting it — stretch yourselves forward to what lies ahead (Phil. 3:13). For in the spiritual life, not to advance is in a certain way to fall back. And as one of the saints says: There the danger of failing is incurred where the appetite for advancing is laid aside. Know that the Lord does not admit into the bosom of His grace one whom He finds without devotion in His work. He vomits from His mouth one whom He perceives to be lukewarm; He excludes from the increase of His gift one whom He sees attending to His service out of habit rather than affection. For to everyone who has good desire, He gives abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he seems to have is taken from him (Luke 8:18). Therefore let us not merely walk, but run to meet our Savior, and let us so run that we may lay hold. For the two feet, as it were, of one walking on the spiritual journey are fervor of good desire and steadfastness of perseverance, so that he who would run not aimlessly, and he who would receive the prize, may lack neither a burning perseverance nor a persevering ardor.
VI. He who comes to us, whom we must also go to meet, is called: Creator and Master, Lord and King, Friend and Bridegroom, Savior and Son of God, and He is likewise God and man. And see whether perhaps these names are not also assigned to Him in Sacred Scripture. His name shall be called, says Isaiah, Wonderful, Counselor, God, Mighty, Father of the age to come, Prince of peace (Isa. 9:6). The first name seems to pertain to the Creator, the second to the Master, the third to the Lord, the fourth to the King, the fifth to the Friend, the sixth to the Bridegroom.
VII. For although He is wonderful in all things without any exception, He appears especially wonderful in our creation. This creation itself clearly shows — performed so wonderfully by the Wonderful One — that it too is not undeservedly wonderful. For who can sufficiently marvel that in forming man He joined together spirit and clay at once? He formed the body from pre-existing matter, that is from earth; but the soul from nothing, yet in His own image and likeness. O wonderful fashioning of the human body! How wonderful also the breathing-in of the life-giving and indwelling spirit — namely, the rational soul! He marked the spirit with a twofold gift, enlightening it and moving it: in the one, illuminating it for the knowledge of truth through the intellect; in the other, anointing it for the love of virtue through the affections. O intellect, by whose shining the choice of the true is made clear! And O affection, by whose anointing the love of the good is savored! He also enriched the body with a twofold gift: adorning it with senses, and in the arrangement of its members, preparing instruction for the spirit. One gift for the use of good action, the other for the fruit of inner instruction. One by which the eyes are enabled to see, the ears to hear, the nostrils to smell, the palate to taste, and the other members — especially the hands — to touch, so that the invisible indweller may draw in from outside and absorb within whatever has form through sight, what has sound through hearing, what has scent through smell, what has flavor through taste, and what is tangible through touch. Moreover, the very arrangement of the members is no small instruction for the spirit. Especially the fact that, with only the soles of the feet touching the ground, man alone among the other living creatures stands uniformly upright. Hence a certain pagan also said: While other animals look downward at the earth, / He gave man a face held high, and bade him gaze / Upon the heavens, and lift his eyes upright to the stars. (Ovid, Metamorphoses I.)
VIII. Consider therefore, O spirit, whom the light of reason illuminates: consider, I say, in your beast of burden over which you preside like a rider, which you guide like a charioteer, what sort of person you ought to show yourself. Rise to things above, abandon earthly things. Be ashamed, O man, to impose upon that part of you in which you were created in the likeness of God the likeness of a beast. Attend briefly: having cast aside heavenly things, to cling weakly to earthly things, to seek what is below, to relish what is upon the earth, is to put on the likeness of a beast. On the contrary, to spend earthly things usefully and to be unwilling to enjoy them, but to be willing to use them strictly; to seek what is above through action, to relish what is above through affection; possessing lower things only for use, desiring heavenly things by resolve — as if touching the earth with only the soles of the feet while the whole body is raised up — is to lift the head to the highest things. Since, therefore, the rational soul and the flesh are one man, in the soul the knowledge of truth shines forth and the love of virtue burns; but in the flesh, the senses serve external necessity in such a way that the varied arrangements of the members do not fail to provide inner instruction.
IX. Behold how the wonderful creation of man proclaims the wonderful Creator of man. He who is indeed the Master is the Counselor; and He who is uniquely the God of all is especially the Lord of all. Is not the name of the child who is born to us, as Isaiah testifies, called Counselor and God? And the same One says in the Gospel: You call me Master and Lord, and you say well, for so I am (John 13:13). Because He who received the task of giving us the words of life has exercised the counsel of a master, or the mastery of a counselor; and He who alone disposes all things sweetly also alone exercises the lordship of God.
X. He is likewise our King, and our Mighty One: Reaching from end to end mightily (Wis. 8:1). A King who reaches from end to end as a great King, exercising full power in His kingdom without any opposition. Mighty, because He also reaches mightily. Do we not see, just as we have heard, that according to the prophecy of Jeremiah: He reigns as King and is wise, executing judgment and justice on the earth (Jer. 23:5)? And does He not also overcome the strong man in armor, daily taking away his weapons and distributing his spoils (Luke 11:21)?
XI. Whose friend, I ask, is He more than his whom He begets through predestination for the age to come? This was well perceived by the one who said: Everyone who is born of God does not sin, because the heavenly generation preserves him, and the evil one does not touch him (1 John 5:18). He who is born of God does not sin at all, because even if he may seem to have transgressed in time, it does not appear in eternity, inasmuch as the charity of his Father covers the multitude of his sins (1 Pet. 4:8). So that He Himself is both friend — either by preserving him from sins lest they be committed, or by entirely forgiving those already committed — and Father, by predestining him for the age to come.
XII. And who else is the Prince of Peace, if not our peace, who makes both one? (Eph. 2:14) Whose time is now at hand, when He comes to announce peace to those who are near and to those who were far off, who joined to Himself one Church from both peoples, justifying the circumcision from faith and the uncircumcision through faith (Rom. 3:30), so that Mount Zion and the sides of the north might be one city, of which He Himself is the great King (Ps. 47:3). That His name is Savior is attested by Gabriel, the messenger of His birth, who addressing His mother said: And you shall call His name Jesus (Matt. 1:21). And he added the reason: For He shall save His people from their sins (ibid.). He truly bears a name from the reality, because He accomplishes what He is called. He who is called Savior works salvation in the midst of the earth (Ps. 73:12). This is our true David, by whose hand God the Father saves us from the hand of the Philistines, slaying Goliath of Gath by his hand (1 Sam. 17:22). Who, laden — not empty but full of grace and truth — having entrusted his flock to a keeper, came to his brothers who were fighting against him (ibid., 20). Leaving the ninety-nine sheep in the desert, He went to seek the one that was lost (Matt. 18:12), and having found it and placed it on His shoulders, He carried it home, bearing the head of the Gathite into Jerusalem.
XIII. That He is called the Son of God — what is clearer than what the Angel says: That holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35)? And rightly, not 'sanctified' as if speaking of the past, nor 'to be sanctified' as if of the future, but already 'holy.' Because He who came to us through the Virgin was not defiled by any sin that He might have contracted at conception, nor was He to be defiled by any, throughout all the time of His life among men.
XIV. He is God and man. And He is so called, as the prophet attests, who says the name of the Virgin's son shall be called Emmanuel, which the Evangelist explains: which means, God with us (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23). If Emmanuel is God with us, with whom is He God, if not with men — that is, with those of whom the one who said this was one? For he too was a man. God with us — and where with us? With us in His birth; with us in the very corruption of the flesh, without the defilement of the flesh; with us even in death itself. With us, to speak briefly, in what we naturally are. What you hear as 'God' — in eternity, He is from the Father without a mother; what you hear as 'with us' — in time, He is from a mother without a father. The Creator, therefore, comes — the Wonderful One, the Master, the Counselor: let His creature and His disciples go to meet Him. The Lord God comes, the Mighty King: let servants and soldiers go to meet Him. The Father comes, the Friend, the peaceful Bridegroom: let companions and attendants go to meet Him. The Savior comes, the Son of God, the same who is God and man: let captives go to meet Him, to be redeemed by Him; let human beings go, to be deified through the assumed nature by the One who assumed it — who is God, blessed above all things, forever and ever. Amen.
SERMON II. LIKEWISE FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT.
Synopsis of the sermon. — 1. Let the creature go to meet the Creator. — 2. Let the disciples go to meet the Master. — 3. And the servants to meet the Lord. For He is the Lord, we are the servants. — 4. The fear of the Lord precedes love. — 5. Let soldiers go to meet the King, and what is spiritual combat. — 6. Let friends go to meet their friend, and in what He proved Himself a true friend. — 7. The ardor of love in Christ is expounded. — 8. The name 'Friend' is the origin and end of the other names. — 9. Reciprocal love must be shown, and how. — 10. God is faithful and merciful in tribulation.
I. The Creator comes, most beloved; let His creature also go to meet Him. Giving thanks devoutly to Him, first of all, for the gift of existence: crying out from the inmost depths of the heart: He made us, and not we ourselves (Ps. 99:3). Thanks be to You, eternal Creator of all things, that You made me, for You would by no means have made me unless You loved me. For why did You make me, unless because You willed that I should exist rather than not exist? What less could You give, or I receive? And yet unless this were given first, nothing could afterward be added; nor could a roof be placed upon a house without the wall first standing.
II. Let the disciples go to meet the Master, offering their ears, listening, and striving to fulfill in practice what we learn. Behold, from the lecture hall of our Master that salutary voice thunders in our ears, by which it is said: Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Matt. 11:29). And this also thunders forth: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34). These, therefore, and other precepts of this kind, and the law of life and discipline — these counsels of salvation, when they are eagerly heard, heard they are understood, once understood they are retained in memory, once retained they are put into practice — then truly the disciples go to meet the Master.
III. But servants also go to meet the Lord, if fearing before His face they fulfill His precepts and avoid what He forbids, lest they incur the most harsh effects of His threats. For it belongs to servants to tremble and to quake beneath the Lord's rod — He who gives a signal to those who fear Him, so that they may flee from the face of the bow (Ps. 59:6). You have heard that it was said to the ancients: I am the Lord (Lev. 16:19). Frequently, as you know, when commandments were promulgated, the Promulgator would terribly thunder: I am the Lord. And what do you suppose it means that, after giving the precepts of the Holy Rule, He immediately says I am the Lord, if not this: that it is openly given to understand that He who is the promulgator of instruction to the hearers is the same One who will be the inflictor of punishments upon transgressors.
IV. Thus, thus it is entirely expedient for them that fear should for the time being deter them and terror shake them, until they can run into the freedom of love. The one who bore their person, beholding the Lord's terror and addressing Him, said: Because of Your hand I sat alone, for You filled me with threats (Jer. 15:17). This was Jeremiah, foreseeing the punishment to come if he did not avoid transgression. Another also, filled with the same spirit of the fear of the Lord, said: Your wraths have passed over me, and Your terrors have troubled me (Ps. 87:17). That is to say: I feel Your present scourges to be very heavy indeed, and I dread still heavier ones in the future. Holy Job also said: Before His face I am troubled, and considering Him I am filled with anxious fear (Job 23:15). And again: I always feared God like waves swelling over me, and I could not bear His weight (Job 31:23). These and other saints like them, perceiving His terror, fear Him as Lord, and taking refuge in contrition of heart and humility of spirit, distrusting the quality of their own merits, they send an embassy to ask for the terms of peace.
V. The King also is our Lord Christ, whom His Virgin Mother crowned with the diadem of humility (Song 3:11). To see Him with the eye of imitation, the daughters of Zion are commanded to go forth from the sense and affection of the flesh to the contemplation and love of the spirit. He fought against the world, He battled against the devil, and He conquered both. Indeed He overcame the one and cast the other out. Let His soldiers therefore go to meet their King who fights for them in this way, and let Him not need to say to them: You take flight and I go to be sacrificed for you (John 16:32). And that: You will be scattered, each to his own, and you leave me alone (ibid., 32). And what is it for each of us to be scattered to his own and to leave Him alone, except for each of us to be divided into our own sins — which are all the more our own because they were committed by us — and to refuse to imitate the Lord in holiness, thus allowing Him to be alone? But let valiant soldiers imitate their King in this battle, resisting the flattering world through temperance; the opposing world, through patience; the cunning enemy who suggests secretly, through prudence; the enemy who rages openly, through justice. Let nothing entice, nothing break you: and the world is conquered, both when it flatters and when it threatens. Let nothing seduce, nothing corrupt: and the adversary is overthrown, both when he counsels secretly and when he attacks openly. Let your eyes, O wise soldiers, be in your head (Eccl. 2:14). If you have tribulation in the world, take confidence, for He has overcome the world (John 16:33); and if the world hates you, know that it hated Him first (John 15:18) — unless perhaps you are greater than He. And from the face of the prince of this world, what do you fear? Hope in Him in whom that prince has nothing (John 14:30), and you will overcome. Fight lawfully, that you may be crowned (Rom. 8:17). Labor like good soldiers of Christ Jesus; for if you suffer with Him, you will also reign with Him (2 Tim. 2:3). That is, if you show yourselves good soldiers with Him and for His sake, He Himself will also establish you as blessed kings with Himself.
VI. I do not doubt that many of you have been granted to feel through experience that the Lord Jesus is your friend. For love has been poured into your hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to you (Rom. 5:5). The Father Himself loves you, He says, because you have loved me (John 16:27). This is the voice of the Son. But who would dare to say that the Father loves those who love His Son, but the Son Himself does not love those who love Him? And where is that truthful promise of the Son, which He gave for the consolation of His beloved: He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him (John 14:21)? How else would it be true what He says elsewhere: I love those who love me (Prov. 8:17)? That He is your friend, consider from the love He bestows on you; for if a person can be called a friend for no other reason than because he loves, who is a better friend to us than He? Who is even so good as He, who loved us so greatly? Even if you love Him too, what is your love compared to His, since in love you surely fall short, because He loved first and more than you? If indeed the proof of love, as the saying commonly goes, is the display of action, what is more sublime than this? He showed by His deeds the love He had. It is written of Him: He loved us and washed us (Rev. 1:5). Because He loved, therefore He washed; for had He not loved, He would never have washed. The cause of the subsequent washing, then, was the greatness of the preceding love, because He performed the office of one who washes since He had taken on the person of one who loves. And from what defilements did He wash us? From our sins. And by what washing? By His blood.
VII. Open, I beseech you, the eyes of the spirit, and perceive the height of this grace, and weigh, if you can, how great a love burned toward you in this friend. Because while you were still sinners, lest you remain sinners long, He poured out His innocent blood so lavishly for you. Consider how great the love in Him by which it was brought about that for the washing away of your sins, so great an effusion of so precious blood should be given. Now indeed He loves you because you are friends; but He first loved you so that you might become friends, because unless He first loved His enemies, He would have had no friends to love afterward. He who loved, therefore, washed us from our sins, and washed us in His own blood. For with Him there is both greatness and abundant redemption (Ps. 129:7). And truly abundant, because for washing away our sins there flowed not a drop but a flood. See, therefore, how much He loved you, who deemed the redemption of you worthy of so lavish an outpouring of His own blood. But since He thus washed us, what benefit comes to us from it? He added: And He made us a kingdom and priests to our God (Rev. 1:6). Our gentle Jesus is both priest and victim, so that we who offer His most holy body and blood upon the altar may share in the name of that dignity with Him.
VIII. To be sure, we first assigned four names to Him whom we proclaimed must be met, and before four others we placed this name, as it were, in the middle — the name we are now discussing — because it is the cause of both the preceding and the following names. For why did He show Himself to you as Creator, Teacher, Ruler, Governor, if not because He is a friend? Surely it was from that love that He gave you the ability to know so deeply, to fear so fruitfully, to fight so bravely — because He loved. And whence comes it to you that He made Himself your bridegroom, your savior, your fellow brother among you, a man for your sake? Was it not because He was a friend? For He who first loved gave you the gift of being joined to Him, redeemed by Him, adopted through Him, and deified in Him. Go therefore to meet so great and such a friend.
IX. How, you ask, shall we go to meet Him? How, if not by loving? For since it is established that He who comes is a lover, and that He came for this purpose — to be loved — I find no more fitting way to meet Him than to meet Him by loving, so that, even though He has no need of our goods (Ps. 15:2), we may repay Him love for love. Love Him, therefore, and cling to Him by an unbreakable affection, so that you may be one spirit with Him, for he who clings to God is one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). And as the common saying has it: To will the same thing and to reject the same thing — that is firm friendship. This testimony is true, but if 'according to God' were added, it would be stronger, and the stronger for being more sincere and fruitful. See to it, therefore, that your willing and not-willing accord with His willing and not-willing, so that you dare in no way either rashly anticipate His will in anything, or craftily go beyond it, or proudly oppose it — so that you may thereby prove yourselves true friends, while wholly renouncing yourselves, retaining nothing of yourselves in yourselves, surrendering yourselves entirely to His hidden movements. Give me, O Lord, the wisdom that sits beside Your throne, that she may be with me and labor with me, that I may know what is pleasing before You at all times (Wis. 9:4, 10). Grant me to commit myself wholly to You, to lean upon You alone; that I may follow You securely wherever You lead me, taking from You as friend the benevolence by which You graciously will to do good to Zion in Your good pleasure (Ps. 50:20); and from You as Almighty the strength by which You can also effectively accomplish what You graciously desire. What shall I fear in committing myself wholly to You, who will nothing but what is good for me — and because You are my friend? And everything good that You will, You are well able to bestow, because You are almighty. Hold then, O Lord, my right hand, and lead me according to Your will (Ps. 72:24). Therefore make known to me the way in which I should walk (Ps. 142:8), and wherever You will, lead me — only lead me to Yourself. For where could it go ill with me in Your company, and where could it go well without You? For even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, if You are with me (Ps. 22:4). And if I ascend to heaven and my head touches the clouds, I shall perish like dung in the end, unless You are with me (Job 20:6). Therefore, whether I be a sinner or righteous, I will not be without You. For if I have sinned, I am Yours, knowing Your greatness; and if I have not sinned, I know that I am counted with You (Wis. 15:2).
X. O how greatly You are zealous for my salvation everywhere! With what solicitude You attend to me! O how often You are present to me when I am tempted, lest I consent; when I waver, lest I fall; when I fight, lest I succumb! O how often You provide refuge, so that if I fall I may rise again from my fall! For what better refuge do I find from You, toward You, than You Yourself? For wholly distrusting myself and fearing You not a little, I flee from You to You. I flee from You as the just One and take refuge with You as the merciful One, because I both need mercy and cannot endure justice. Thus, then, I go to meet You, O friend who does not deceive, responding to Your love with love — though at a far inferior degree — according to my measure, and surrendering myself always and everywhere and in all things to Your will. And in this way, brothers, you ought to go to meet your friend, the Lord Jesus — loving Him in return, as is fitting, and committing yourselves in all things to His commands. But since much has already been said, and what remains to be said on this matter, let us defer to another sermon, lest these things be treated less worthily if we rush through them because of your weariness, or be heard less eagerly if we linger on them too long because of their profundity. Retain, therefore, what has been said in your memory, put it into fruitful practice: meeting the Creator by giving thanks for your very existence; the Master, by eagerly hearing what He says and striving carefully to fulfill it; the Lord, by responding with fitting fear to His threats; the King, by imitating Him in the fight against the world and its prince; the Friend, by loving Him in return with the whole depths of your heart and obeying His will in all things — to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
SERMON III. LIKEWISE FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT. On how we must go to meet Christ the Bridegroom as He comes.
Synopsis of the sermon. — 1. From the Sacred Scriptures and from all creatures man is stirred to the love of the Creator. — 2. Mutual love must be recognized and reciprocated. — 3. The attendants of the Church must go to meet the Bridegroom, namely Christ the Lord. — 4. Why prelates and superiors of communities are called attendants of the bride. — 5. What their office is. — 6. How many fall short of it. — 7. The deplorable license of life and hardness of heart of very many. — 8. It is fitting not to be unprepared for the coming of the Lord. — 9. The Paraclete does not come unless Christ departs. — 10. Why God withdraws the abundance of interior unction. — 11. Spiritual feasts and their preparation. — 12. Various courses and well-sounding instruments. — 13. How providentially God deals with His own, departing and returning.
I. You know, my most beloved brothers, that all Sacred Scripture directs its intention to this end: to stir man to the love of his Creator. This all Scripture proclaims by words and examples; this also every creature proclaims with the great voice of instruction. This say all things that sprout from the earth, all that swim in the waters, all that fly in the air; whatever exists does not cease to say this — from the angel down to the worm, from the highest hinge of things, so to speak, down to their lowest base: namely heaven, earth, and sea, and all things that are in them. And this is the voice of each one: If you love me, O man, because you see in me something good in a certain way, something sweet, something precious — love Him more who made me, because He is far better, far more precious than I. But the children of Adam, who with proud eye and insatiable heart (Ps. 100:5) abandon the Creator and cling with all their affection to the creature, do not perceive this salutary voice with the ears of hearing — them God will indeed destroy, because they commit fornication away from Him (Ps. 71:26).
II. But you, most beloved, whom the Lord has chosen and taken as His close ones, behold how great He is who comes, and go to meet Him by loving. He is your Bridegroom, He is your Savior. In the one, honor His condescension; in the other, embrace your liberation. He is the Son of God, and He comes to make you heirs of His Father and His own co-heirs. And to accomplish this in an incomprehensible manner, though He existed in the form of God, He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man (Phil. 2:6). Who is so blind, who is so alien to the light, as not to see that the coming of the Son of God is a matter of inestimable charity, and that God becoming man is a matter of no less incomprehensible humility?
III. But let us now carefully discuss these four things, and in them go to meet Him with due obedience. We call the Lord Jesus the Bridegroom of the Church, and it is fitting that when His attendants hear Him coming, they hasten to meet Him. And why the attendants, and not rather the Bride herself? Certainly the Bride is not prohibited from meeting Him, even though we admonish the attendants to go meet Him. Let the attendants, therefore, go to meet the coming Bridegroom, and let the Bride also go. The attendants, by applying themselves ever more and more to the adornment of the Bride the closer they hear the Bridegroom to be; the Bride, by showing herself already adorned — so that wounding the Bridegroom Himself with one of her eyes and with one hair of her neck (Song 4:9), she may deserve to hear: You are all beautiful, my beloved, you are all beautiful, and there is no blemish in you (ibid., 7).
IV. But who are the attendants of the Bride? They are the prelates of Holy Church and the guardians of this holy community, who, because they diligently attend to the adornment of the Lord's Bride entrusted to them, are said to go to meet the Bridegroom. Although the Bride too, insofar as she strives, taught and admonished by them, to appear always beautiful before her Bridegroom, is not unfittingly said to go to meet Him. For we read of Martha that when she heard Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him. But of Mary it is recorded that she sat at home (John 11:20). Yet she too went to meet Him, but invited by Martha at His own summons, as is said in what follows: Martha came and called her sister secretly, saying: The Master is here and calls for you (ibid., 28). And what follows there? When she heard this, she rose quickly and came to Him (ibid., 29).
V. Hear and understand, O attendants of the bride! Listen, O friends of the bridegroom! — if indeed you hear Him while standing, and rejoice with joy because of His voice (John 3:29). Hear, I say, what your office ought to be. Run attentively back and forth between the Bridegroom and the Bride, inquiring what He wills and making known what she ought to do. Learn His commands from Him, and announce to the Bride the works she must fulfill. Laboring in all things, do the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry (2 Tim. 4:5). Investigate the Bridegroom's coming with solicitude. Go to meet Him as He comes with devotion, bringing the good news to the Bride that He approaches, declaring that she is called, and urging her to go to meet the Bridegroom. This is the work, this the zeal, this the care that belongs to the attendants of the Bride.
VI. But alas! Very many of those who are attendants of the bride in these days act far otherwise — days in which perilous times are no longer approaching but are already present. For those last days are at hand which the Apostle prophesied, in which he said men would be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud (2 Tim. 3:1); and such as he describes in what follows, so are many of our attendants now — seeking their own glory in the Bride, not the Bridegroom's. They neither go to meet the approaching Bridegroom themselves, nor invite the Bride to go to meet Him. Adorned and decorated, but bodily, they parade in the Bride's wealth, yet how foul, how squalid she herself is they care not at all. When you see them so dressed, you can hardly help suspecting them to be soldiers rather than clergy — nay, what is worse, and the worse for being the more shameful, actors. They violently exact from the peoples subject to them church properties and possessions, tithes and offerings; what they exact they greedily receive; what they receive they unlawfully spend. But rarely do they speak with them about avoiding or casting off sins, about acquiring or retaining virtues, about the amendment of morals, or about anything pertaining to the adornment of the Bride. Thus the Bride grows foul; thus the mud of the streets disfigures her, while her attendants neither show by their words how beauty is to be acquired, nor demonstrate by their example how ugliness is to be avoided.
VII. Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? (Jer. 9:1.) That day and night I may not merely bewail with words, but weep with tears, and bitterly lament the Bride of the Lord entrusted to such as these — not indeed to friends but to enemies; not to chaste attendants but to shameless suitors; not, finally, to watchful guardians but to impure corrupters. But let us be silent about them for now. For the word does not take hold in them (John 8:37). Indeed, as vinegar upon natron, so it is when we sing songs to them (Prov. 25:20). For they rage against us when we say such things, and the truth breeds hatred. So that by keeping silent we must look to our peace and quiet — both because they do not correct themselves, and because by excusing themselves and chattering malicious words against us, they become worse. For they neither dance when we pipe, nor mourn when we lament to them (Matt. 11:17). Add that custom gives them, in a way, license for what they do, their great number lends audacity, and shamelessness takes away shame. Hanging up our instruments, therefore, not on the cedars of Mount Lebanon, but on the willows of the river of Babylon (Ps. 136:2), let us speak to our own.
VIII. You, therefore, brothers, watch for the coming of your Bridegroom and go to meet Him as He comes. Watch attentively, lest before He comes you be unworthy to have Him, and when He comes you be unprepared to receive Him. You are unprepared if you do not know when He comes. Has it slipped your mind that blessed is that servant whom, when the master comes, he finds watching? (Luke 12:36.) To watch is to investigate the Bridegroom's coming. The Bridegroom comes, and He comes secretly; yet He does not come in silence. Am I speaking to the ignorant? Do you not frequently read in the book of your own experience: At midnight a cry was made: behold, the Bridegroom comes; go out to meet Him (Matt. 25:6)? He comes by night, therefore, because He comes secretly; yet He does not come in silence, because He comes with a cry. Does He not likewise come to you — though you are ignorant of the time at which He wishes to come, yet you do not have deaf ears to His hidden word, the veins of whose whisper the understanding of the heart searches out secretly (Job 4:12)? Your Bridegroom therefore goes and returns, because in wisdom there is a spirit both stable and mobile — a spirit that goes and returns. Because He goes, does He abandon you? Far from it. I will not leave you orphans, He says (John 14:18). And He added: 'I go.' But what did He add? And I come to you (ibid.). And just as He comes for your benefit, so He also goes. It is expedient for you that I go, He says (John 16:7). And why is it expedient? He added: For if I do not go, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you (ibid.). Therefore He both comes, that our heart may rejoice, and goes, that He may send us the Paraclete.
IX. But what does it mean when He says: If I do not go, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you? The Paraclete does not come unless Christ departs, because the consolation from the renewal of the soul is not poured in unless the anointing is withdrawn for a time. The Paraclete, as you know, means 'Consoler,' while Christ means 'the Anointed One.' For the Lord takes away the spirit of those with whom He thus plays, with whom He is accustomed to alternate these turns; and they fail and return to their dust (Ps. 103:29). But that the sweetest promise may be fulfilled — I go and I come to you, and your heart will rejoice — He sends forth His Spirit and they are created, and He renews the face of the earth (ibid., 30). It is therefore expedient for us that He also should go.
X. For if He were always present, you would succumb, being unable to bear continually the loftiness of His glorious presence. While supposing that what comes from Him is from yourselves, deprived of His gift you would sink downward by your own weight. For He deals kindly with you in His good will, granting virtue to your beauty; but He turns His face from you, and you are troubled (Ps. 29:8). Like a certain exceedingly rich and great king, this Bridegroom of yours comes to you, having with Him leaders and soldiers and a very large household — namely, a right intention and a devout will and that inner Church of holy thoughts which you frequently have within you. But this king comes to lodge, not to linger; to visit you, not to remain with you. For your poverty does not suffice to provide a feast for so great and such a king for long, especially one who brings with Him so great a court. Therefore, considering your poverty and knowing full well that it is expedient for you that He should go, He withdraws Himself for a time, so that He may not be at all wearied of when present, and may be more eagerly desired when absent — so that His sweet presence, when granted again, may be the more gloriously honored by you, the more ardently it was desired when withdrawn. If He sees you so disposed, He will come to you again and your heart will rejoice; and when you thus go to meet Him, you will enter with Him into the wedding feast; and when He enters to you, He will sup with you, and you with Him (Rev. 3:20).
XI. At these interior nuptials, at this mutual supper, at this festive banquet, the bull of stubbornness is slaughtered, and the fatted birds of sensual pleasure are killed (Matt. 22:4), because at the same time in the mind, He who presides over these nuptials — the author of humility — calms swelling pride, and in the flesh the lover of purity slays wantonness. For the King sits on the throne of His judgment and dispels all evil by His gaze (Prov. 20:8). This is nothing other than the spirit of the Bridegroom resting in a right mind, evacuating all sin in it by His inspiration. The bread of strength is also set out, and the wine of contemplation, of which, as the Psalmist attests, the one confirms the heart of man (Ps. 103:6), while the other gladdens it. And honey is sucked from the rock, and oil from the hardest stone (ibid., 15), when that wonderful sweetness — flowing from the miracles of Christ before His passion — is savored on the palate of the mind, along with the richness of the Spirit who was given after Jesus was glorified (John 7:39). Nor is butter from the herd lacking there, nor milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs and rams (Deut. 32:13) — that is, the doctrine of the exalted and the sobriety of the simple, together with the charity of humble subjects and leading prelates. He-goats are also eaten there with the marrow of wheat, and the blood of the grape is drunk most pure (ibid., 14). Because, that we might imitate them, sinners — but penitent ones — are set before us as examples, with the beautiful intention of a good resolution and the passion of our grape pressed out in the winepress of the cross. This grape, together with the marrow of wheat, has at its table the he-goat as well. Because, eating ashes as bread (Ps. 101:10), He thus incorporates into Himself penitent sinners just as He does the righteous who abstain from sins.
XII. And to speak briefly, and to embrace much in a short discourse: as many kinds of contemplation as are poured into us by the revealing Spirit in this interior refreshment of the mind, so many, as it were, are the most delicious courses placed before you at this great table at which you customarily sit, with the Bridegroom serving. As many flavors as there are devotions; as many badges of virtue, so many sounding instruments. For there, first of all — so that nothing pertaining to festive joy may be lacking — the sound of the trumpet resounds: namely, the terror of divine fear, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Ps. 110:10). Let the psaltery of good action also sound, and the harp of bodily mortification; let the timbrel of abstinence sound, and the chorus of concord. The strings of mutual exhortation are not silent, nor the organs of religious life. Far be it that the well-sounding cymbals (Ps. 150) should be silent there — the communities of the saints, each esteeming the other as superior, and therefore outdoing one another in honor.
XIII. Behold what festive delight and what delightful festivity comes to us from the advent of your Bridegroom. Because the great multitude that gathers for this feast day — I speak of the Church of interior thoughts, since the remnants of thought will keep a feast day to the Lord (Ps. 75:11) — therefore it rejoices with great joy and exults with shouting. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this with a selfish joy because you feast and rejoice thus; nor say in your abundance that you will never be moved (Ps. 29:7), because suddenly the Bridegroom will be taken from you, and then you will fast; and those whom it was not necessary to mourn as long as He was present, you will weep for when He is withdrawn (Matt. 9:15). For suddenly, while you hold Him, He will vanish from your eyes; and while you embrace Him, He will spring from your hands; and so He will turn aside and pass on. But you must sigh in the absence of the departing One in such a way that you take heart in the hope of His return, because He who departs to remove weariness and pride will surely return to bring eagerness and consolation. To whom be honor and glory through all ages of ages. Amen.
SERMON IV. LIKEWISE FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT. On the great misery of man and the benefit of the Savior.
Synopsis of the sermon. — 1. The Savior comes to redeem, the liberator to loose, the protector to defend. — 2. From the fall, man is subject to punishment, sin, and temptation. — 3. The threefold happiness of nature before and after the fall. — 4. God comes assuming what He was not, and remaining what He was. — 5. He drew near and bore the infirmities of our flesh. — 6. With wounds bound and oil poured in, the sick man is placed on the Samaritan's beast. — 7. The threefold benefit of the Savior. — 8. The first consists in faith in the Redemption, which we bear in heart, mouth, and forehead. — 9. The second, in liberation from the servitude of sin. — 10. The freedom and dignity of the religious state. — 11. Both those who came from afar and those found near owe their debt to the Savior's kindness. — 12. The third consists in the protection of our weakness in battle. — 13. By the benefit of adoption, what Christ is by nature, man receives by grace. — 14. The likeness of God through the imitation of holy conduct. — 15. The wicked ambition of the apostate angel versus the just consent of one who aligns with God's will. — 16. In what the merit of justice consists. — 17. Christ as man is to be imitated; as God, to be desired.
Most beloved brothers, you bear patiently, as I perceive, the lengthy discourse on the coming of the Bridegroom, on the delights of the Spirit, and on the interior joy of the mind, which the infusion of holy anointing produces in the devout soul — patiently, I say, you bear it, because what you hear outwardly you feel inwardly. Not only do your ears judge the words, but your palate judges the flavor. Nevertheless, it is fitting that we say something also about the Savior's coming, and show how we ought to go to meet Him. Your Savior comes, therefore — rejoice in the Lord and exult, O captives, and glory, all of you (Ps. 31:11), who cry to the Lord from the face of the oppressor, because He is now sending you a savior and a defender to deliver you (Isa. 19:20). Just as He does not come empty, because He comes full of grace and truth (John 1:14), through whom grace and truth were made, so neither does He come to be idle, since He comes for this purpose: to redeem, to loose, to defend. To redeem the captives, to loose the bound, to defend the weak. A sweet Savior, a merciful liberator, a strong protector. These three things the prophet (Isa. 19:20) did not conceal, who declared that a Savior would be sent by the Lord — not only a Savior, but also a defender, and for this purpose: to deliver. In the Savior, therefore, note redemption; in the liberator, absolution; in the defender, protection. Let him who is caught in captivity breathe again: the Savior comes to redeem from the miseries of punishments. Let him who is bound in captivity hope: the liberator comes to loose from the chains of sins. Let him who totters in weakness be confident: the protector comes to defend from the assaults of temptations.
II. Behold how mercifully you are dealt with, O man. Great is the mercy of your God upon you; great, I say, is His mercy upon you, because great also is your misery upon you. Punishments weighed you down — He redeemed you. Sins bound you — He absolved you. Temptations daily exhaust you, and He unceasingly protects you. These great evils of yours oppress you; these three good gifts of your Lord help you. As long as you stood in humble peace with God, you felt none of these things in yourself, but abandoning the stability of interior peace you descended to the uncertainty of mutability, and immediately you came into danger. For who has resisted Him, as holy Job says (ch. 9:4), and had peace? Therefore, abandoning peace, you rushed headlong to ruin; and so you went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
III. In peace your dwelling place had been established, where you had the vision of your God, the companionship of angels, the possession of yourself. In the first there was blessedness, in the second loftiness, in the third strength. But descending from Jerusalem to Jericho, you exchanged the stability of peace for the failure of mutability: from happiness you fell into the misery of punishments; from the heights you were plunged into the dregs of sin; and falling from strength you were shattered, dissolved, and crushed through many fragments of weakness. For you fell among robbers, because demons exercised their dominion over you. And what did they do to you? First they stripped you, second they wounded you, third they left you half dead (Luke 10:30). First they took away the garment of happiness, clothing you with the shame of captivity; second they removed the loftiness of wholeness, inflicting upon you the wounds of iniquity; third, leaving you weak — even if they did not destroy you entirely, they nevertheless greatly enfeebled the strength of your fortitude. For he who is half dead, though not entirely killed, is left altogether infirm. Behold your threefold peril, O man: the harshness of calamity, the strength of iniquity, the fragility of weakness — into which you fell from the threefold gift of your Creator: from the blessedness of the divine vision, from the loftiness of angelic companionship, from the strength of self-possession.
IV. But that guardian came (for this is what the name 'Samaritan' means), He came, I say, and made His journey. For unless He made His journey, He would not have come. He came not to a place where He had not been before, but He who had previously been hidden became manifest. For He was in the world, and yet He was coming into the world. He undertook a journey in order to come, assuming what He was not, so that the Eternal might become temporal; and He who always remains in Himself might pass from place to place in the nature He assumed. He made His journey, and He did so on your account, because He took on the nature of mutability which He did not possess, and He took it on for your sake. And seeing him, it says, He was moved with compassion and drew near (ibid., 33). What does this order of words mean? He saw, He suffered with, He drew near. He saw, because He chose him for life; He suffered with him, because He bestowed mercy; He drew near, because He conformed Himself, O wounded one, to your misery.
V. Did He not draw near, He who emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men and found in appearance as a man? (Phil. 2:7.) Add that He even humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross (ibid., 8). Read in Isaiah: He Himself bore our infirmities and carried our weaknesses. For He was wounded for our iniquities, He was crushed for our sins (Isa. 53:4). And see whether He did not draw near. How could He have been nearer to you than to free you from what you were suffering? Had He not drawn near, He would not have healed you. Because even that prophet mighty in deed and word, who descended from the lofty mountain of heaven, overcome by the prayers of a wretched mother, came to the dead child and would by no means have raised up the one lying there or revived the deceased, had he not conformed himself to him by lying upon him so that his flesh grew warm (2 Kings 4:34).
VI. Perhaps one of you says: You speak well, but only if you would treat matters pertaining to your subject. I shall do so — wait a little. Is it not our purpose to show what the Savior brought with Him when He came to us? Whether these things pertain fittingly to that, even if you do not know now, you will know afterward. Therefore, after He thus drew near, what did He do? What is written in the Gospel? How do you read it? He bound his wounds, pouring in oil and wine; and setting him on his own beast, he brought him to an inn (Luke 10:34). Above you heard that he was stripped, wounded, and left half dead. But here the merciful Samaritan bound the wounds of the stripped man, placed him on his beast, and brought him to an inn. This is nothing other than what the Apostle says: As by a man came death, so by a man comes the resurrection of the dead; and as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. 15:21). For what is the Samaritan's beast but the body of Christ? I saw heaven opened, he says, and behold a white horse (Rev. 19:11). And shortly after: And his name is called the Word of God (ibid., 13). This was John, our brother, as he himself says (ch. 1:9), a partner in tribulation and kingdom and patience in Christ Jesus. 'And heaven opened' — I understood that a hidden mystery had been revealed to me. 'And behold a white horse' — the body of Christ, free from the blackness of sin, whose rider is called the Word of God — that Word which in the beginning was and was with God. For the divinity presides over the humanity. This horse corresponds to that beast upon which the Samaritan placed the wounded man.
VII. What was done then pertains to this: when the Lord Jesus redeemed man from the calamity of punishments that he incurred by sinning, through the passion of His flesh. Pouring in oil and wine, He bound the wounds when, stinging through correction and soothing through consolation, He blotted out sins. He brought him to an inn when, having strengthened his weakness, He bestowed upon him some measure of his former fortitude, so that in caring for him He would not allow him to fall back into his former lapses. Recognize, O man, how falling from a threefold good and rushing into a threefold peril, you now receive through the threefold benefit of your Savior — in certain first-fruits — the good from which you fell. For you who were dishonored when stripped are honored when placed upon the beast. And you who groan over the wounds inflicted on you now rejoice that your wounds are bound up. And you who were left half-dead and weakened are honored when brought into the inn. Thus, thus through your Savior who now comes, you are redeemed from calamity, freed from iniquity, and defended in your weakness.
VIII. And first indeed, that He redeemed you by the lavish outpouring of His merciful blood — the loud voice of that same innocent blood, crying from the earth better than Abel's (Heb. 12:24), does not allow this to be hidden from you. For you are the inhabitants of that land which does not cover the blood of our Sufferer, nor does the cry of that blood find a place to hide there. This land is also holy, which does not fail to believe with firm faith the sacraments of its Redeemer's humanity, and especially the marks of His most holy passion, and is not ashamed to proclaim them with joyful confession. You know clearly, therefore, that He both took on the lowliness of flesh for our sake, endured the ignominy of the cross, and bore the harshness of death. For this is unceasingly represented to you both by the faith you firmly hold concerning His incarnation, and by the saving banner of the life-giving cross that you bear on your foreheads, and by that singular and most efficacious medicine for our wounds which you daily consecrate upon the altar, where the Son is offered to the Father in the sacrament for our salvation — where God in Christ spiritually reconciles the world to Himself. It is superfluous to remind you further about this.
IX. As for the second gift, which pertains to your liberation — by which you received the remission of sins — this too is not hidden from you. For it has not slipped from your minds how you were once walking along paths that were not good, following your impulses, going after your lusts, running against God with neck held high, through the streets of Babylon, under Pharaoh, defiled with the mud of Egypt's pleasures and light with the chaff of vanity — you were utterly like wandering sheep (1 Pet. 2:25). But your Savior Himself, who is rich in His mercy, the shepherd and bishop of your souls, because of His exceedingly great love with which He loved you (Eph. 2:4), while you were still such as these, had mercy on you, snatching you from the power of darkness and transferring you to this very good land in which you now dwell. For He sent forth His hand from on high, rescuing and freeing you from many waters and from the hand of strangers (Ps. 143:7). Drawing you likewise from the pit of misery and from the mire of filth, He set your feet upon a rock, putting a new song in your mouth, a hymn to our God (Ps. 39:3).
X. O change of the right hand of the Most High! O good hand of God with you! O His will, good, pleasing, and perfect — and His freely given grace, by which it was mercifully brought about for you that you now manfully rule over those very vices by which you were once weakly laid low, mortifying by the spirit the deeds of the flesh, driving out those foreign nations and possessing their lands. What was once hard to go without even for a single day, you now count it as nothing to do without over time. Indeed, to add something more, you would choose to die, if I am not mistaken, rather than return to certain things in which you once lived. Likewise, what you once shuddered to endure for even a very brief hour, now — going wherever the impulse of the spirit leads — you count it as play to practice manfully throughout your whole life. Things lofty indeed, and no less hard than new. Lofty, I assert, because in a certain way above nature; new, in regard to your old habits; hard, I say, because of the weakness of your flesh. In this matter your frequent fasts bear witness, and we know their testimony is true: the continuous vigils that you keep; the lowliness of dress that you wear; the harshness of food that you endure; the sparingness of speech that you practice. Exposing all the members of your body, so to speak, to a daily martyrdom, and not even having your own will in your power. In whose name were you thus washed, sanctified, and justified, if not in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ? (1 Cor. 6:11). I say these things not to put you to shame, but to admonish you as my most dear brothers together with myself, so that considering from how many perils we have been delivered, we may recognize how great are the thanks we owe to our deliverer.
XI. Since I see here many who, nurtured in the tabernacle with Samuel from childhood, did not come from afar as we did, we exhort them all the more attentively to recognize that they too are no less debtors to their Savior, because it is the same One who preserved them who also raised us up — justifying both us and them in a good but different way: namely, by calling us back and by keeping them. For unless the Lord had helped them, their souls would nearly have dwelt in hell. Though their soul did not pass through the torrent, as far as that future freedom is concerned, yet in some measure their soul did pass through. But how would their soul have passed through the intolerable water, had the Lord given them as a prey to its teeth? Our soul indeed has been partly snatched from the snare of the hunters; but they did not even fall into the same snare (Ps. 123:7). Yet in all these things their help is no less than ours, in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth (Col. 1:10). This is that great physician of all, preserving health in some and curing disease in others. This is our true Savior, the gentle and merciful Jesus, whose innocent blood is of such great worth that through Him not only the things on earth but also the things in heaven are pacified. And how are the things in heaven pacified through that blood, unless because He who recalled fallen man to the lost peace by His freely given grace (Eph. 2:17) also gave that same freely given grace to the standing angel, lest he lose it? Therefore through the grace of our Savior we too have been saved, we who were far off; and those who were found near. For it is the gift of God, lest anyone, whether of us or of them, should boast in this.
XII. The third gift — which is the grace of defense, by which He protects us who are so weak — you have all the more clearly before your eyes, the more you feel it daily, or rather continually, as those who cannot subsist without Him even for an hour. Already, with Him healing you, you have recovered from weakness; and with Him strengthening you, you have become mighty in battle (Heb. 11:34). But this battle in which you fight so manfully — now against the flesh, now against the world, now against your hidden adversary who never ceases to rage but goes about without ceasing, seeking whom he may devour — which of you could endure it even for a single moment if he did not have that Protector? Behold, there comes the wind of the whirlwind from the north, bringing with it a great cloud (Ezek. 1:4): how, I ask, could even so despised a dust stand and subsist against a single blast of it, unless He defended it — He to whom the prince of this world came and found nothing of his own in Him? (John 14:30.) And so you now stand, but in the Lord. And you who in yourselves are utterly weak and feeble can do nothing; but now you can do all things in Him who strengthens you.
XIII. Go forth then, O redeemed, to meet your Redeemer; you who are freed, to meet your liberator; you who are defended, to meet your protector. Go forth, I say, to meet Him as He comes, giving Him devout thanks for redemption from calamity, for liberation from depravity, for protection in this your weakness. Go to meet the Son of God, for He comes to you, and He comes for this purpose: to adopt you as brothers, to take you up as co-heirs. Being from eternity the only Son of the Father, He willed not to remain alone, giving us the grace of being honored with that same name by which He is honored by nature. For He is our brother and our flesh (Gen. 37:27). Hence, appearing to Mary in His risen body, He said: Go, tell my brothers: I ascend to my Father and your Father (John 20:17). And in His person holy David said: I will declare your name to my brothers (Ps. 21:23). And what great dignity — that God should be our Father, and His only Son our brother! And what dignity do you think we shall receive in the future, we who already hold so great a pledge in the present? What dignity, unless that in the inheritance of our brother — which is also ours — we may always see the face of our Father who is in heaven? I think this is exactly what was meant by the one who said: Now we are children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be (1 John 3:2). This is about the pledge we have received in the present. He adds also about the gift we hope to receive in the future: We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (ibid.). O incorporeal happiness! To see God — which is specially promised to the pure in heart — and to be like Him.
XIV. But this likeness that comes through the divine vision in the future is by no means attained unless a certain likeness to Him is first practiced in the present through holy conduct. If you are sons of the most high Father, if brothers of Christ, strive to be like Him. For how can you glory in being sons of the one or brothers of the other, if you are not like them? For these three persons — father, son, and brothers — are accustomed, as you know, to have a certain likeness to one another, not only in body but also in character. Hence it is written about the good son of a good father: His father died, and it is as though he did not die, for he left behind a son like himself (Eccles. 30). In a wonderful way, the person of the father — even when dead — lives on in the surviving son, as long as the paternal likeness appears in him. That natural heavenly Son of the Father is so like His Father that whoever sees Him sees His Father also. For He is in the Father and the Father is in Him (John 14:9). I do not say this, however, because we can be like them in the way they are like each other — they who are not only one person but one being, because one and the same substance is their nature.
XV. Surely a certain one sinned a great sin who said: I will be like the Most High (Isa. 14:15). The words of his mouth were iniquity and deceit (Ps. 35:4), because he had first plotted iniquity in his chamber. For he wished to be made equal, not to humbly imitate. But God not only makes us like them but even unites us — that is, in the consent of the will, according to that saying: He who clings to God is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). Let us be in accord with them, with whom we are not consubstantial, and there will be no one henceforth who would deny us to be like them. But to dissent from them in will is to be in a certain way far from having any likeness to them. Come forth, I beseech you, from this region of dissimilitude, and lay hold of the likeness of your Father, who of His own will begot you by the word of His truth (James 1:18). Lay hold also of the likeness of your Brother: be like your Brother. For how can you be His brothers if you are not like Him? We shall be like Him when He appears, he says (1 John 3:2). This speaks of the likeness that will exist in the reward. But as has already been said above, if you wish to be like Him in the reward, be like Him in merit. How, you ask, shall this be done? The same Son says: Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Matt. 11:29). Be meek, therefore, and humble, and you are already like Him in some way.
XVI. And it is manifestly true that we await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our lowliness, configured to the body of His glory (Phil. 3:20), if first our heart has been conformed to the heart of His humility and meekness. If you ask what the likeness of God is, turn away from evil and do good (Ps. 33:15), and you have put on His likeness. For the Psalmist says: The Lord our God is upright, and there is no iniquity in Him (Ps. 91:16). Be upright yourself, so as to practice good; and let there be no iniquity in you, so as to avoid evil — and you are like God. Likewise the prophet David says: The Lord is just and He loves justice; His countenance beholds equity (Ps. 10:8). Be just yourself in yourself; love justice for your neighbor; let your countenance behold equity, so that you strive to be present only for this: to benefit yourself and to serve your neighbor, desiring to please God alone — that is, so that you may desire to be an executor of good work and wish your neighbor to be an imitator of your deeds, seeking no one other than God alone as both the praiser and the rewarder of your labor. Thus, while you practice holiness in yourself, devote care to your neighbor, and offer right intention to God, you live soberly, justly, and piously in this world (Tit. 2:12), so that confident henceforth, you may await the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God — while you are thus sparing toward yourself, ready toward your neighbor, and devout toward God.
XVII. If you do these things carefully, you go to meet the Son of God — that is, your brother — as He comes. But consider after this that He who comes is God and man, and since one person is God and man, insofar as He is man He intercedes for us; insofar as He is God He helps us. Insofar as He is man, while through compassion for our misery He is near to us, He in a certain way feels our peril together with us. But insofar as He is God, since through the union of our nature assumed in Him He is not remote from us, He also brings forth a remedy from what is ours: in the man, something to imitate; in the God, something to desire. Yet He of whom we speak is not one and another, but one and the same mediator of God and men — God and man, our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 2:5). But since, because of how much we have already said, we are compelled to finish the sermon we have in hand, we cannot linger on these things any longer at present, although certain things still present themselves which seem as though they should not be passed over. You therefore go to meet this One who comes, if you strive so to run by the example that is set forth below that you endeavor to reach the first thing that is set forth on high — ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. And in these ways, indeed, you ought to go to meet your Bridegroom as He comes, and your Savior, the Son of God, the same who is God and man, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God, blessed forever. Amen.
SERMON V. LIKEWISE FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT. On the five kinds of visions.
Synopsis of the sermon. — 1. In the vision of God is the fullness of all good. — 2. Where are the good things of the Lord, and the land of the living. — 3. In the present life we neither truly live nor see what will finally be attained in the state of blessedness. — 4. God is seen here differently by the pure and differently by the impure of heart. — 5. How the intellect accompanies the vision, and how the affections. — 6. The fruitful vision that holiness merits, as expressed in the type of Jacob. — 7. What God's appearance to Moses in the bush portended. — 8. With King Uzziah dead, Isaiah sees the Lord, and the conditions of meritorious vision are proved. — 9. Five kinds of visions, of which the last is the sun of the future homeland. — 10. From each vision a certain cloud must be guarded against. — 11. The first is the contemplation of creatures, and what its cloud is. — 12. The second, through divine visitations or images. Its cloud. — 13. The third is that of faith. Its cloud. — 14. The fourth, through spiritual unction and manifold operation. — 15. The cloud to be guarded against: sluggish affections. — 16. The necessity of discernment.
Looking from afar, behold I see the power of God coming, and a cloud covering the whole earth. How blessed are those who carry a pure heart everywhere! Blessed, I say, because they have received from Truth itself the truthful promise that they shall see God. Blessed are the pure in heart, He says, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8). O if it were given to us, even faintly, if not to taste, at least to catch the scent of how sweet is the sweetness and how delightful the delight in the vision of God! What on this side of it can satisfy a devout soul, what beyond it need it seek? Indeed there would perhaps be some sufficiency if anything praiseworthy existed on this side of it without it. Something beyond it would likewise need to be sought if anything beyond it either existed or could exist. But as it is, since nothing is present for those who do not see, and nothing is lacking for those who do see, on this side of it the soul cannot rest in its impatience; beyond it, being now at peace, it does not stretch itself further. What is more desired than life? The vision of God is the life of the soul.
II. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living, says holy David (Ps. 26:13). What do we suppose the good things of the Lord to be, if not the Lord Himself? For the good things of the Lord are not one thing and He another, because what He has, He is. These are expressed in the plural number, though number does not apply to Him, because of His great magnitude, which no measure constrains, and because of His great multitude, which no number includes — as the Prophet declares that of His greatness there is no end (Ps. 144:3); and: of His wisdom there is no number (Ps. 146:5); and: The great multitude of His sweetness, which He has hidden for those who fear Him (Ps. 30:20), He has revealed to those who hope in Him. And they are called 'good things' rather than 'sweet things,' 'delightful' rather than 'precious' or 'beautiful,' rather than 'fitting' or 'useful' or anything of this sort — because if there is anything else that is commendable, it is contained in this word. The Prophet, therefore, believed he would see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living, where to see is the same as to live. And why did he not see them here, except because he was in the land of the dying? Who can see here, who does not even possess life? I live, He says, and you shall live (John 14:19). Therefore it will come to pass that we shall live — and so perfectly that we shall also see. We shall live, says holy Hosea, in the sight of the Lord, and we shall know (Hos. 6:3). Behold life, and behold also vision. But both are in the future, not in the present.
III. We all die, a certain woman said, and like water we slip away into the earth, which does not return (2 Sam. 14:14). The falling of water into the earth is the never-abiding condition of man. For he who in a certain way does not even have being — how can he have vision, since naturally seeing presupposes existing? Of these waters it is openly said that they do not return. Hence we die because, like water, we slip away into the earth and do not return. For He remembered, the Prophet says, that they are flesh: a spirit that goes and does not return (Ps. 77:39). Rightly does the holy patriarch dwell at the well whose name is 'Of the One who Sees and Lives' (Gen. 24:62), so that meanwhile the perfect one may linger at the innermost depth of this vital vision and seeing life of which we speak — like an eagle raised up at the Lord's command, which sets its nest on high (Job 39:27). Is it not a matter of great happiness, as we said in the preceding sermon, to be like God in His kingdom? And to see Him is to be like Him. We shall be like Him, he says, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2); and for this reason, because we shall be like him, since we shall see him as he is. Is not God light, unchangeableness, and eternity? By seeing light, we too shall become luminous; by seeing unchangeableness, we too shall be made unchangeable; by seeing the Eternal, we too shall become everlasting. And this is how we must understand the other attributes that are of this kind. Now this greatest and most precious, sweetest and most delightful thing -- namely to see God -- those who are pure of heart hold in promise.
IV. There is also another vision, by which God is seen even in the present life, though not in himself, even if he who is seen is himself. And he is seen indeed by those whom he judges worthy of this grace, who also must themselves be pure of heart. For not even this vision can be grasped except by pure hearts. This is the vision that is conferred upon the faithful soul through images shown to the eyes whether of the mind or the body, or even through the anointing (1 John 2:27) which teaches about all things; by which the soul sees either fleetingly through understanding or with sure security through faith. Blessed, he says, are the eyes that see what you see (Luke 10:23). For they so saw the man with the eyes of the flesh that they did not fail to see God in him with the eyes of faith, which works through love. But a damnable blindness weighed down even those who had eyes, who, running into darkness in broad daylight and groping at noon as though in the night, stumbled into the very light itself. Of whom it is said: But now they have both seen and hated (John 15:24). They saw weakness to mock, not power to honor -- for they were ungodly. And let the ungodly be removed, says Scripture, lest he see the glory of God (Isa. 35:3). They saw the disgrace of the assumed nature, not the grace of the one assuming it. In short, they saw him in whom there was no comeliness for them; and his face was as it were rejected and despised. Whence he was not esteemed by them. But they did not see him in the way holy David gazed upon him, beautiful in form beyond the sons of men (Ps. 44:3) -- much less in the way the angels desire to look upon him (1 Pet. 1:12).
V. This, moreover, is the vision of faith, by which God is discerned as both absent and present. Present indeed through faith, but absent as to visible appearance. When it is honored by some visitation and sweetened by interior anointing, it possesses a full and perfect clarity -- provided, that is, that right understanding accompanies the vision, and discreet affection accompanies the anointing. For the one to whom this vision is granted is both stirred to admiration by the visitation and inflamed to love by the anointing. And the anointing is never without affection; but visitation is very often without understanding. For to anoint is to move the affections, whereas to visit is not the same as to illuminate -- just as it is not the same thing to show the object to be seen and to provide the eye by which it may be seen. Pharaoh was once visited through a dream, and Nebuchadnezzar was visited as well. But what in those visitations was merely a dream for those two kings was prophecy for the holy men Joseph and Daniel. For those kings, the vision without understanding made them merely dreamers; but understanding made these holy men prophets. Now this vision of divine visitation, although it is sometimes given to the reprobate without understanding, is given to the elect with much understanding. But it is fruitfully conferred only when preceding holiness has merited it.
VI. For Jacob saw a certain ladder (Gen. 28:11); but first, as you read, he went out from his own land. After sunset he came to a certain place, took one of the stones lying there, placed it under his head, and fell asleep in that same place. In like manner, you too go out from your land, in which you were nourished in vices and sins. When the heat of temptation by which you burned has subsided, come to the place of holy conversation, drawn from the many saints who, if you count them, will be multiplied beyond the sand. Choose one from the many -- namely the Holy of Holies -- place him beneath your mind through imitation, and in that same way of life, with persevering rest and restful perseverance, devote yourself to the complete mortification of all visible things. If the Lord so directs you along right paths, he will show you the kingdom of God, giving you the knowledge of the saints, so that you may both see lofty things and understand what you have seen.
VII. Moses also himself saw a vision (Exod. 3:3) -- in one and the same thing, fire but without burning: a vision plainly, as he himself confesses, a great one. But we read that he first fed sheep, drove them to the interior of the desert, and came to the mountain of God. So too, nourish within yourself innocent and simple thoughts; by despising visible things, lead them to the innermost depths of the secret place through the purity of a refined mind, as far as it is divinely given to you; by the flight of good desire, to the very height of God. Then you will be worthy to see fire burning in the bush, yet the bush not consumed -- so that you may know that in one and the same person of Christ, neither did the assumption of the lower nature diminish the higher nature, nor did the glorification of the higher consume the lower. Believe that it is so; but do not presume to investigate at all why or how it is so. Lest, if you say with Moses, I will go and see this great vision, why the bush is not consumed (ibid.), the Lord, seeing that you are advancing to look, may say to you: Do not draw near here -- lest as a searcher of majesty you be overwhelmed by glory.
VIII. We read of Isaiah that he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and exalted; but this was only after the death of King Uzziah. For thus you read: In the year that King Uzziah died, he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and exalted (Isa. 6:1). Let the presumption of pride die in you; let also the leprosy of luxury die -- and the presumptuous and leprous king is dead. Then, pure in flesh and humble in mind, you will merit to behold the Lord present to the understanding of rational and angelic creation guarded from falling, and of human creation raised from its fall through the mercy of the Redeemer. Therefore neither did Jacob see the ladder in his own land, nor Moses in Egypt the fire burning in the bush yet not consuming it; nor did Isaiah see the Lord sitting upon a throne high and exalted, except after King Uzziah had died. Let holiness, therefore, merit the vision of divine manifestation, so that it may exist; let understanding attain it, so that it may be fruitful; let faith govern it, lest it become rash; let anointing sweeten it, so that it may be savory. Because in the future, the vision face to face will provide that each of these visions may be rewarded.
IX. There is yet another vision which in order ought to be the first, and which is offered to all in common: namely, the examination of visible creatures. For it is ready at hand for everyone who uses reason to behold the invisible things of God, understood through those things which have been made (Rom. 1:20); but without the preceding visions which we briefly touched upon, this one is entirely fruitless. Behold, we have set before you a fivefold vision. Understand the mystery, but even more, experience its fruit. The first is in the examination of creatures; the second in mystical visitation; the third in the knowledge of faith; the fourth in interior anointing; the fifth in the vision of God himself as he is. And the first invites to knowledge, the second clarifies, the third governs, the fourth inflames, the fifth fully beatifies. The first four are like certain stars shining in the night of this present life, but the fifth, shining with eternal light without any deficiency, is the sun of the future homeland. For who there will need to behold the invisible things of God understood through those things which have been made, where those things which are now invisible will be visible? Who there will need to see God through dreams or nocturnal visions, through a mirror in a riddle, where all shall see face to face? (1 Cor. 13:12.) Who there will walk by faith, where all perceive by direct sight? But neither will we then have, as now, the anointing of the Spirit, whom there we shall hold and never let go -- for that eternal charity will so pour itself into us that no satiety will ever turn us away from it.
X. But since they are stars, I warn that every cloud which can in any way obscure them must be carefully avoided. Let the cloud which is the frivolity of sensual pleasure be carefully driven away from the light of the first star. From the light of the second, the cloud which is the seduction of diabolical phantasm. From the light of the third, the cloud which is the presumption of rash investigation. From the light of the fourth, the cloud which is the excess of deceitful indiscretion. This is the fourfold light in which we shall see -- and a cloud covering not merely some part of the earth, but in many places the whole earth. The power of God is light. And in this fourfold light we see the light of power as day, and the darkness of the cloud as night. You, therefore, who attend to the purity of contemplation in your mind, looking from afar, see the power of God coming. Look, and see. That is: contemplate and understand. But look from afar; contemplate deeply. For those things which are deep and innermost seem far away. Do not those things seem far off which were at the beginning of the world, and those which will be at the end of the world -- the former already accomplished, the latter still to be done?
XI. If, therefore, you search out with pious curiosity the wondrous and astounding works of God; if you lead the eye of your mind in contemplation from the heights of heaven to the depths of earth, from the highest pinnacle of all creatures to, so to speak, their lowest foundation; if you perceive with a pure eye those things which merely exist, and those which both exist and live, sense and discern, and you marvel at God as the creator, governor, and provider of so many and such great things -- does not the power of God come to you, since in his visible works, so worthy of admiration, you stand in awe of his invisible power? But beware in this contemplation of yours of the cloud that is wont to cover the whole earth. For the natural man by no means perceives the things of God, because they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them (1 Cor. 2:14), yet he constantly has before his eyes the things that have been created. He gazes indeed at the works of God, but with the pleasure-seeking eye of the flesh, not with the contemplative gaze of the mind. Using creatures proudly and lustfully to the injury of the Creator, and therefore to the heap of his own damnation. Does not a cloud cover the earth in such a person, when the frivolity of sensual pleasure entirely both inwardly obscures the mind through illicit desire and outwardly defiles the flesh through wicked deeds? Since this is so, consider that where the righteous person is raised up to divine admiration, there the ungodly person is cast down into his own lust; and where the power of God comes to the former, there a cloud covers the whole earth in the latter. For the one, beholding the invisible things of God understood through those things which have been made (Rom. 1:20), admires by venerating and praising his eternal power and divinity as well; while the other, seeing indeed the things that have been made, but seeking in them only the fulfillment of his own desire, strives to accomplish in them either the elation of the mind or the corruption of the flesh.
XII. After this, look from afar in the second kind of contemplation, which we touched upon more briefly above, and see the power of God coming. You do this, of course, when you rightly understand and correctly interpret those things that come to you, whether secretly through divine visitations or openly through certain images of things, so that you may marvel at the power of God in them. Did not the power of God come to Jacob through the ladder which he saw, who, trembling, said: Truly the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. How terrible is this place! It is nothing other than the house of God and the gate of heaven (Gen. 28:17). Did not the power of God come to the father and brothers of Joseph in the dreams which he himself also saw, when it is said by the brothers: Shall you indeed reign over us and be subject to your dominion? (Gen. 37:8.) And by the father: What does this dream that you have dreamed mean? Shall I and your mother and your brothers bow down to you upon the earth? (ibid., 10.) Did not the power of God come to that same Joseph in Pharaoh's dreams (Gen. 41:1), who fully understood in those dream-visions what God was powerfully going to accomplish afterward? What shall we say of Daniel? Did not he also, hearing the king's dreams -- in the statue composed of various metals (Dan. 2:45), in the stone cut from the mountain without hands -- in the tree that filled the whole earth -- see the power of God coming, since he beheld in those same dreams the works of his power that were afterward to be mightily fulfilled? The prince of the apostles himself also saw new things, heard things to be done, spoke true things, and in all these saw the power of God -- even a certain vessel descending, like a great linen cloth let down from heaven to earth by its four corners, in which were contained all creeping things and four-footed beasts. Invited to kill and eat, but refusing and asserting that until then he had never eaten anything common or unclean, he heard: What God has cleansed, do not you call common (Acts 10:15). But knowing afterward that those earthly animals -- I speak of Cornelius and his close friends -- were to be admitted into the vessel of faith, discerning the vision he had seen by the Spirit, he said: In truth I have found that God is no respecter of persons. But in every nation whoever fears God and works justice is acceptable to him (ibid., 34). And further: God has shown me that I should call no man common or unclean (ibid., 28). But here it is necessary that every prudent person keep careful watch, because it is especially here that Satan is accustomed to transform himself into an angel of light, lest perchance a cloud cover his whole earth and he suppose himself to be seeing the power of God coming. For many have been deceived by the seduction of diabolical phantasm and thought themselves honored by divine visitation, and thus a cloud covered the whole of their earth, because the fog of fantastic error obscured their minds. Therefore, beloved, do not attend to the deceits of dreams, lest you be led astray: For dreams have led many into error, as Scripture says, and vain illusions, and those who hoped in them have fallen (Sir. 34:7). And again another Scripture says: You shall not practice augury, nor shall you observe dreams (Lev. 19:26). And take care that you do not receive the darkness of a cloud in place of the brightness of God's power.
XIII. But it is especially with the eyes of faith that the power of God is accustomed to be seen coming. For what other eye is there by which the Son is seen descending through an ignominious death, yet ascending as the Son of the resurrection? By what other than the eye of faith is the truth of the body and blood of Christ seen under the appearances of bread and wine? Likewise in the other sacraments, since the veil itself which is outwardly perceived is one thing, while the truth of the reality which is believed to be present therein is another -- without doubt it is the power of God which is seen coming there. But here too it is equally necessary that the murky brightness of the dark enemy, which is the true cloud, be investigated, once investigated be detected, and once detected be avoided -- lest, presuming to be wiser than one ought to be wise, we attempt to probe by human reason those things which can only be touched by faith. For if a beast touches the mountain, it is commanded to be stoned in Exodus (Exod. 19:12); and what of the sacred flesh of the lamb we are not able to consume, we are commanded to reserve for fire (Exod. 12:10). Acting otherwise, some men, while they investigated the majesty of God's power with too little reverence, were overwhelmed by glory and rushed into darkness -- because when they refused to humbly revere the mysteries of faith, they were blinded by the just judgment of God and fell into the darkness of error.
XIV. We must see after this that the anointing, which teaches about all things, gives us above all to see the power of God coming. For the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sends in the name of the Son, he himself teaches us and suggests to us whatever the same Son says to us (John 14:26). He himself teaches us all truth; he himself also announces to us the things that are to come. He not only illuminates us for knowledge, but inflames us for love. And in various ways indeed he forms various affections within us. For at one time he sets before the eyes of our mind the sins we have already committed and, stirring our hearts to repentance, strikes us with the greatest sorrow. At another time he shows us how great a weakness we carry about both in flesh and in mind, and destroying all pride within us, he humbles us in his sight. Sometimes, however, he shows how all temporal things are of no moment, and despising before the eyes of our mind all things that revolve here below, he courageously raises us to contempt of them. From time to time he instructs us how terrible the Lord is over the sons of men, and declaring his hidden judgments to be greatly feared (Ps. 65:5), he shakes us with the most powerful dread. Often he presents to the eyes of our consideration the horrible punishments of hell, and inscribing their enormity upon our minds in various and dreadful ways, he terrifies us with the most vehement anguish. He also sometimes imprints upon our minds through the inspiration of his love the very feasts of the heavenly homeland, the very joys of interior glory, and painting how their happiness is eternal and their eternity happy in the most exquisite images upon the heart, he vehemently kindles in us the appetite and desire for them. Sometimes also he stirs us to ascend with all our desires to the summit of perfection through a devout way of life, and to gaze upon the examples of the saints who went before, so that not only ropes but also old rags may draw Jeremiah from the pit (Jer. 38:6); and that, having been shown the temple as Ezekiel is commanded, measuring its structure (Ezek. 45:10), we may be confounded and blush for all that we have done.
XV. Do you not see in all these things the power of God coming? But it is necessary that here too you beware of the cloud covering the earth, that is, the indiscretion seducing the soul. For we have very often seen many people grievously deceived in those affections which we have now briefly touched upon; and because they were ignorant of the mean of discretion, limping from their paths, what they thought was virtue they later discovered to have been a grave sin; and in that by which they thought they could attain the ascent of holiness, in that very thing, by a reversal, they were cast headlong into a great ruin of wickedness. And so, while they supposed themselves to be seeing the power of God coming, they at last groaned that a cloud had covered their whole earth, grieving that they had walked along a path which had seemed right to them, but whose end leads to death (Prov. 14:12). It is therefore clearly apparent from these words that in every spiritual matter to which we attend, we ought so to exercise the virtues that we strive with all our strength to avoid the vices which are contrary to them, lest, if we proceed carelessly along the path of virtues, we deviate from it and plunge into the pit of vices.
XVI. And therefore, whether something is suggested to us in the examination of creatures, or in a divine visitation, or in the assent of faith, or even in interior anointing, though it may seem probable, let it first be examined by us with careful investigation, and only then, once diligently examined, let it be admitted. Whence, also admonishing after this, we say: All you earthborn and sons of men, rich and poor together as one (Ps. 48:3), go to meet him. We add also in prayer this way: You who rule Israel, attend; you who lead Joseph like a sheep; you who sit above the cherubim, tell us if you are he (Ps. 79:2). After this follows that deprecatory voice, by which we pray thus: Stir up, O Lord, your power and come, that you may save us, you who are to reign over the people of Israel. And since the prayer pertains to the two following verses: in the first we pray that he tell us if he is the one; in the second, that he come to save us, who is to reign over the people, through infinite ages of ages. Amen.
SERMON VI. LIKEWISE FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT. On the caution that must be exercised in spiritual visions, and on the mystery of the coming of Christ.
Synopsis of the sermon. -- 1. To the first kind of contemplation belong the earthborn. -- 2. To the second, the sons of men, whose degree is threefold. -- 3. To the third, the rich. -- 4. To the fourth, the poor. -- 5. A distinguished eulogy of charity. -- 6. What it means for Israel to be ruled, for Joseph to be led like a sheep, and for one to sit above the cherubim. -- 7. The active and contemplative are to be instructed in the school of love. -- 8. He is fittingly foreknown, whose coming as Savior is announced. -- 9. What remedy God immediately provided for mankind after the fall. -- 10. Punishment had made man weak; guilt had made him blind. -- 11. The Savior who only arrived at the end gave help from the beginning. -- 12. His coming in the words and deeds of the prophets and in various sacraments. -- 13. The knowledge of the Redeemer was more imperfect under the law of nature than under the written law or the prophets. -- 14. An apt inscription for the three ages. -- 15. God is lovable in the saints, sweet in the elect, incomprehensible in himself. -- 16. How the prophets knew the mysteries of redemption. -- 17. Man was conquered by a tree, and by a tree was victor.
I. In the preceding sermon, we said there were four kinds of contemplation: the first of which is the examination of creatures; the second, divine visitation; the third, the knowledge of faith; the fourth, interior anointing. And these four are those who are admonished to go to meet him who comes: the earthborn, the sons of men, the rich, the poor (Ps. 48:3). To the first kind of contemplation the earthborn seem to belong, whose special characteristic is to meditate upon the knowledge of the invisible things of God through the examination of visible things. This kind of contemplation is, as it were, the first step for those wishing to ascend to contemplation. Yet only the earthborn need it, who are not unfittingly called 'born of earth' in this regard, because they behold nothing except the visible things of God alone. But the citizens of heaven, who gaze upon God face to face (1 Cor. 13:12), do not need it. But let these earthborn go to meet him and say: Tell us if you are he (Ps. 79:1), because these observers need most especially to be instructed so that they may know how the purity of refined contemplation raises one to admiration. But since the foulness of sensual pleasure flows into lust, let them beware lest, thinking they are receiving the king of Israel, they receive the king of Babylon: while wanting to attain to the praise of God in pure vision, drawn away from that good and enticed toward evil through their own pleasure (James 1:14), they rush headlong into the confusion of vices, and neglecting to be nourished in scarlet, they embrace dung (Lam. 4:5).
II. To the second kind of contemplation the sons of men belong. Here we understand the sons of men as imitators of the perfect. For there are men who are culpable, and there are those who are fragile; but there are also those who are rational. Of the first, the Apostle says: Since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not mere men? (1 Cor. 3:3.) That is, while you are jealous of one another through envy, while you offend one another through anger, you rightly show yourselves to be blameworthy. Of the second, the Psalmist says: Let the nations know that they are but men (Ps. 9:21). That is, let them understand how weak and fragile they are. Of the third, the same Psalmist says: Men and beasts you will save, O Lord (Ps. 35:7). That is, you will call to spiritual salvation not only those endowed with the highest reason, but also those composed with humble simplicity. It is also read concerning these in the Book of Job: He will look upon men and say: I have sinned (Job 33:27). So that while he considers others persisting by the reason of the mind against the allurements of sin, he himself may also groan that he has weakly lain subject to the dominion of sin. Let such sons of men, then -- imitators of the perfect, that is -- whom the Lord judges not unworthy of his visitation, themselves also go to meet him and say: Tell us if you are he. Lest they, somehow deceived, esteem the illusion of a diabolical phantasm to be the honor of a divine visitation.
III. We call the rich those who abound in faith. For the Lord has chosen those who are rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God has promised to those who love him (James 2:5). These too need to go to meet him and say: Tell us. So that he may grant them to walk by a right rule, lest those who by holding a simple faith are able to stand at the summit of belief, by investigating rashly, fall into the blasphemy of error.
IV. The poor are the humble. They are the ones to whom the Spirit of truth willingly pours out the grace of his anointing, so that the valleys may abound with grain (Isa. 64:14) and so that, as Solomon says, he may give grace to the meek (Prov. 3:34). For upon whom will the Spirit of the Lord rest, if not upon the humble and quiet one who trembles at his words? (Isa. 66:1.) But even these must not fail to go to meet him and say that he should tell them -- so that, adorned with the discernment of spirits, they may clearly detect what it is that the Spirit of truth pours in for salvation, and what, in turn, the seductive spirit suggests for deception. But to come to know these hidden and secret things, we shall arrive not only by seeking but also by praying. And often the devout knocker finds what the rash investigator does not deserve. And therefore we must not only go to meet him, but also burst forth in this voice and say: You who rule Israel, attend; you who lead Joseph like a sheep; you who sit above the cherubim, tell us if you are he (Ps. 79:2).
V. You know, brothers, that charity holds the primacy of all virtues. For if charity spares, it is not lax indulgence; and if charity corrects, it is not rigid severity. If, with charity lifting you up, you are raised in contemplation, you will not go astray, because you are beside yourself for God (2 Cor. 5:13). If, with charity moderating, you descend to action, you will not be cast headlong, because you are sober for us. For this charity of which we speak is a ladder whose lower part touches the earth and whose summit touches heaven. It bears the Lord himself leaning upon it (Gen. 28:12ff.), who is prepared to reward not only those ascending but also those descending, provided only that this has been their care: that they ascend and descend upon the Son of Man (John 1:51). Therefore, through Israel is understood the vision of divine contemplation; through Joseph, the increase of good action; through the cherubim, the perfection of love -- because 'cherubim' is said to mean 'fullness of knowledge.' And as Paul attests, the fullness of the law is love (Rom. 13:10). But Israel is ruled, because in contemplation especially we need to be governed by the Lord lest we go astray. For many have been illuminated by the vision of divine contemplation, but because they did not have God as their leader and guide in this vision -- their sins requiring it -- they were struck back by the immensity of the light that shone upon them, toward which they rashly gazed without a guide, and were plunged into the darkness of murky error. Joseph is led like a sheep, because he goes from virtue to virtue, simply and actively, like a sheep from pasture to pasture. So that the sheep may grow fat on as many pastures as the excellent worker ceases not to devote himself to holy actions. But because it belongs to mother charity to arrange for us how holy men should either be beside themselves for God in contemplation or be sober in good works, after ruling Israel and after leading Joseph, the Lord is said also to sit above the cherubim. So that in the repose of twofold charity they may fully learn either when, setting aside action for a time, they should devote themselves to contemplation on account of the sweetness of God, or when, withdrawing from contemplation, they should devote themselves to action on account of the need of their neighbor.
VII. You, therefore, who rule Israel, attend -- that is, you who guide the contemplatives lest they go astray. You who lead Joseph like a sheep -- that is, you who advance the simple, active ones from action to action, lest they grow lukewarm. You who sit above the cherubim -- that is, you who instruct both the active and the contemplative in the school of love, lest the former by rashly searching fall into error, or the latter by lazily neglecting fall into lukewarmness. Tell us if you are he, so that, enlightened by the light of glory, we may know how to contemplate and also how to work. And so that, inflamed by the ardor of that same glory, we may know how to seek you through the desire of love and how to merit you through the exercise of labor. What follows in the subsequent verse -- Show yourself before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh -- designates the complete forgetfulness of all visible things, which is acquired only through perfect love alone. Therefore, after going to meet him and inquiring about himself, after praying that he tell us whether he is the one, now made certain about him, let us pray that he come to save us, and let us say: Stir up, O Lord, your power, and come, that you may save us.
VIII. Did not holy Joshua maintain this order, who, seeing an angel, asked saying: Are you for us or for our adversaries? (Josh. 5:13ff.) After he recognized who it was, he showed himself prompt and ready to obey. What, he said, does the Lord speak to his servant? The first of the apostles himself also wished to come to the Lord upon the sea; but first he wanted to be instructed whether it was he: Lord, he said, if it is you, bid me come to you upon the waters (Matt. 14:28). He stirs up his power when he decrees to save us, because if he has decreed to save us, we shall be freed at once. He comes when he bestows upon us the grace of salvation. He saves when, granting perseverance in salvation, he fully and perfectly empties out of us the disease of captivity.
IX. There is still another meaning in these words, less subtle indeed but more commonly accessible, which we shall now briefly run through, because the length of this sermon demands its due end. You know that through diabolical cunning, after man had fallen into guilt and was thereby cast down also into punishment, that same shape-shifting enemy, who held him first by fraud and afterward by violence, was not satisfied to have prostrated one who had been standing, but also exercised the dominion of his tyranny over the prostrate one. And so, seduced so pitifully and bound so grievously by the chains of guilt and punishment alike, unless he who alone could, came to his aid by his gratuitous grace, he could by no means escape the yoke of eternal damnation. God, therefore, providing the grace of his salvation, also provided the manner of that same redemption -- namely, foreordaining the salvation of man in the man Christ, so that, according to what the Apostle says: As by one man came death, so also by a man came the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15:21). And to designate by their names both our captor and our liberator: As in Adam, he says, all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive (ibid., 22).
X. To miserable and pitiable man, therefore, whom the punishment of weakness had made infirm and the guilt of ignorance had made blind, came the powerful wisdom and the wise power of God, so that being wise he might illuminate man's ignorance, and being powerful he might strengthen his weakness. He came, I say, and from the beginning he came, who arrived at the end, leaping, as the bride says, upon the mountains of the patriarchs, and bounding over the hills of the prophets -- until, putting on compassion and truth, he became like a gazelle and a young deer. Standing indeed behind our wall, hiding the power of his righteousness under the veil of our weakness, yet looking through the windows of the divine works he performed in man, and gazing through the lattice of the salutary words he uttered (Song 2:8ff.). So that, seeing the works which the Father gave him to accomplish, which also bear witness about him (John 5:36), we may say to him: We know that you have come from God, Master. For no one can do these signs which you do unless God is with him (John 3:2). And hearing likewise his words, which are spirit and life, let us too burst forth in this voice: Never has a man spoken like this man (John 7:46), because he whom God has sent speaks the words of God. Therefore from that time we assert that he came, from which we know he gave aid. We also say that he arrived at the end, when he appeared visible in that form in which he specially wrought our salvation in the midst of the earth (Ps. 73:12).
XI. For since he came to the aid of sick humanity in the remedies of sacraments, offerings, and sacrifices, and of various commandments and precepts, both in the figures of the patriarchs and in the sayings of the prophets from the very beginning of his illness, we not unfittingly say of him that from that time he himself came. For just as it is commonly said of some king that he comes when, his soldiers going before him, his arrival is announced, even though perhaps the king himself will come only long afterward -- so also our great King, the Lord Christ, in the patriarchs and prophets who preceded him and purely announced his coming, he himself in a certain way also came. Do we not read it said in the Apocalypse concerning the Lamb: the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world? (Rev. 13:8.) For how was he slain from the foundation of the world? Because from the foundation of the world there existed those for whom he was slain at the end of the world. So also from the foundation of the world he came in a certain way, because at no time were those lacking for whom he came at the end of the world; and for them his coming was beneficial even before he was present. Although it would by no means have been beneficial unless he were present at some time. For by that same coming of his, still future in itself, those at the very beginning of the world were saved; by which coming, now past, we upon whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Cor. 10:11) are saved. For both those who went before and those who followed cried out: Hosanna (John 12:13). So that one and the same person might be the savior both of those who preceded, as he was to come, and of those who followed.
XII. Look therefore from afar and see the power of God coming -- that is, contemplate deeply and understand Christ our Lord, the power of the Father, approaching for the redemption of the human race in the oracles of the patriarchs and the words of the prophets, in the sacraments of both the natural law and the written law. See also a cloud covering the whole earth -- that murky enemy, I speak of the devil, and the reprobate who, abandoning heavenly things and loving earthly things inordinately, themselves become earth through an ignorance that ever more and more obscures them. For just as from the very beginning of the world, in the manner we described above, the power of God came in his elect, so also in the reprobate the cloud of the devil covered the whole earth. Because just as we clearly recognize in holy men the coming of the Son of God, so also we see the darkness of the cunning enemy in the ungodly. Let us therefore look from afar and contemplate the innocence of Abel, the obedience of Noah, the good modesty of Shem and Japheth, the faith of Abraham, the purity of Isaac, the endurance of Jacob, the chastity of Joseph, the meekness of Moses, the holiness of Aaron, the zeal that Phinehas exercised, the fortitude of Joshua, the simplicity of Samuel, the humility of David. Let us also admire the various kinds of sacraments that were instituted partly under the natural law and partly under the written law. Let us likewise admire the deeds of the patriarchs and the words of the prophets. Let us also read all things written about Christ in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the psalms. Nor will anyone be able to deny that we see the power of God coming. Let us look at it from afar, and let us see so many nations under heaven, from the very beginning of the world wrapped in diabolical darkness, existing without God in this world, led to mute idols and perishing, having abandoned -- or rather, utterly ignorant of -- heavenly things, and embracing earthly things with all their affections; and let us behold the cloud covering the whole earth.
XIII. But the power of our God, which they beheld from afar as it was coming, the further away it was, the less it was known. For under the natural law, except to very few, it was not evident what redemption was to be provided for the human race. But under the law, man came to know sin through the law; yet since the law brought no one to perfection (Heb. 7:6), sensing that it was not given as something that could justify, he began anxiously to seek his own redemption. And although many at that time recognized that a Savior was to come to liberate man, yet which person was to come for this saving work -- whether a man, namely, or an angel -- only a few knew. But afterward, in the times of the prophets, when God spoke to the fathers in the prophets in many ways and diverse manners (Heb. 1:1), both the person of the Redeemer and the manner of redemption were recognized by many -- namely that the Son of God was to come in the flesh and was to die in that same flesh for man. And those who at that time were enlightened by the light of this radiance, not only desired with interior affections that so great and such a Redeemer would hasten to come, but sought it with frequent and devout prayers, as you read throughout the books of the prophets. Whence one of them says: O that you would rend the heavens and come down! (Isa. 64:17). The bride also in the Song of Songs says: Who will give you to me as my brother, nursing at my mother's breasts, that I might find you outside? (Song 8:1.) She wished to find him outside, so that he who lay hidden within in his divinity might appear visibly outside in his humanity. How the Psalmist also implores the coming of this Redeemer is not, I believe, hidden from your diligence.
XIV. These, then, are the three periods: of the natural law, the time of Scripture, and the time of the prophets, in which, while the power of God sent ahead sacraments, commandments, precepts, and many oracles for the liberation of man, the power of God itself in a certain way also came during those same periods. To which periods indeed these three following verses seem to pertain. For those who in the time of the natural law were content with natural knowledge, as earthborn; those who were endowed with human reason, as sons of men; those elevated by subtle understanding, as the rich, or composed with simplicity, as the poor -- they went out to meet him by observing and practicing the sacraments that were then instituted, and they received the power of God coming. But those who, living under the law, foreknew that the Redeemer was to come, yet not knowing his person -- whether he was to be a man or an angel -- sought to know: they claimed this voice for themselves in a way and said: You who rule Israel, attend; you who lead Joseph like a sheep; you who sit above the cherubim, tell us if you are he (Ps. 79:2). Which is to say: You who show us through the law that you will come, tell us also through the prophets whether you are the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? (Matt. 11:3.) Tell us, you who rule the angels who see you face to face, who also increase daily the number of the elect whom you intend to save through holy men, advancing them from virtue to virtue, leading your sheep as a good shepherd from pasture to pasture, so that they too may one day with true Israelites see you, the God of gods, in Zion (Ps. 69:8). You who, being altogether incomprehensible in yourself, transcend the knowledge both of angels and of men, who ascending above the cherubim and flying upon the wings of the winds (Ps. 104:3), exceed both the understanding of those blessed spirits and the intellect of faithful souls.
XV. In these words is intimated what God is in his elect angels, what in holy men, and what in himself. Because, guarding the angels from falling by his interior governance and ever retaining them in the blessed and beatifying vision of himself, in them he is lovable. As for men -- those whom he calls saints according to his purpose, for whom he makes all things work together for good, foreknowing and predestining them to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom. 8:28); whom he chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in his sight in love (Eph. 1:4) -- by cleansing them through pardon and adorning them through justice, disposing them in a wonderful and merciful way, calling them back from evil to good, advancing them from good to better, in them he is sweet through all things, and gentle and of great mercy. But in himself, since that peace surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7), since of his wisdom there is no number, since of his greatness there is no end, he is incomprehensible and beyond all estimation.
XVI. But those who lived in the times of the prophets and understood from the words of the evangelizing prophets both the person of the Redeemer and the manner of redemption, prayed with all their vows that the Redeemer would come, taking up this voice for themselves and saying: Stir up, O Lord, your power, and come, that you may save us, you who are to reign over the people of Israel (Ps. 79:3). Stir it up by having mercy; come by assuming flesh; save by dying on the cross. Stir up, O Lord, your power, so that you may rejoice like a giant to run the course (Ps. 18:6), showing yourself eager and strong in the work of our redemption. Come, that you may appear visible in the form of man, yet not losing but retaining the form of God, and laying your hand upon both (Job 9:33), and mediating for both, since you are not a mediator of one party only, so that as man you may make satisfaction for man, and as God you may join man to God, reconciling the guilty and appeasing the offended.
XVII. And finally, that these things may be so, die upon the wood, so that your innocent blood may atone for the sin that was committed on a tree. So that just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all may be made alive (1 Cor. 15:22). So, so, O Lord, you who are to reign in Israel -- whether over that people who now contemplates you absent through faith, or over that which contemplates you present in direct vision -- stir up your power by rising up and having mercy on Zion, for the time to have mercy on her has already come (Ps. 101:14). And come, emptying yourself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man (Phil. 2:7), save us: so that, with you dying for our sins, justified now in your blood, we may be saved from wrath through you, who with the Father and the Spirit are God, blessed forever. Amen.
Sermon VII. Second Sunday in Advent. On the faith of Holy Church and on the calling of the Synagogue to faith.
Synopsis of the sermon. -- 1. Christ revealed himself to the Church from the gentiles. -- 2. This is prefigured in Isaac and Rebecca, who bear the types of Christ and the Church. -- 3. Christ's greater love for the Church than for the Synagogue. -- 4. Foreshadowed in the queen of Sheba and in the city of the just, that is, Jerusalem. -- 5. The wrong understanding of the vineyard denotes the Synagogue, sloth, and hypocrisy. -- 6. The right understanding of the vineyard designates Holy Scripture, right faith, and the imitation of Christ. -- 7. The mountains of Babylon are the perfidious Jews, evil spirits, and proud men. -- 8. Through the mountains of Jerusalem are signified the sublimity of holiness, doctrine, and contemplation. -- 9. The diverse state of the Church is expressed through hills, valleys, and plains. -- 10. The joy of the Church over the gentiles converted to faith. -- 11. The rejection and great envy of the Jews. -- 12. Near the end they will be converted to Christ. -- 13. An apostrophe to the Jews to be converted. -- 14. Their conversion prefigured in the Scriptures.
'Jerusalem, you shall plant a vineyard upon your mountains, and you shall rejoice, because the day of the Lord will come. Rise, Zion, turn to your God: rejoice and be glad, Jacob, for from the midst of the nations your Savior will come.' These prophetic words are profound and pregnant with meaning, and they require an attentive listener. And therefore that gracious spirit of wisdom must be invoked, so that he who inspired them to be first spoken may also grant that they now be rightly understood, by us who are to preach as well as by you who are to hear.
It is prophesied to Jerusalem that she will plant a vineyard upon her mountains, and that she will rejoice because the day of the Lord will come. Zion, however, is admonished to rise and turn to her God. And to Jacob it is said that he should rejoice and be glad, nor is the cause of his joy left unspoken, for, it says, from the midst of the nations your Savior will come. Each of these invites us to search out the depth of a great mystery, nor shall we be cheated of the fruit of discovery if we are diligent in searching.
I think, therefore, if something deeper is not presently apparent to you, that as far as the allegorical sense is concerned, mention is made in these sacred words of the faith of the Church and of the knowledge of truth by which its first and foremost leaders were illuminated. For the Son of God, appearing in the flesh, who truly, according to Paul's declaration, is our peace making both one, pacifying by his blood both the things in heaven and the things on earth (Colossians 1:20), revealed himself to the Church from the gentiles, so that once revealed he might be seen, and once seen he might also be loved.
II. As our true Isaac, conferring upon us a joy that no one takes from us. Who went out into the field to meditate at the decline of day (Genesis 24:63) -- that is, at the end of the ages, going out from the Father and coming into the world, to do the works and fulfill the will of him who sent him (John 4:34), whose law was his meditation. And so Rebecca came, representing the Church from the gentiles, and instructed by the servant of our Father -- namely, the order of preachers -- as to who the son of her Lord was who had appeared. Having seen him who is our peace, so that Jerusalem, which is called 'the vision of peace,' would have its name from reality, she descended from the height of pride to the depths of humility, and from the stronghold of unbelief to the rule of faith, taking up the veil of good works and covering herself, knowing that blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered (Psalm 31:1).
This, then, is that spiritual Rebecca who, from the moment she saw Isaac, descended and covered herself with a mantle (Genesis 24:66), because from the moment the Church recognized Christ among the gentiles through faith, she humbled herself and adorned herself with the covering of good works. Leading her into the tent of his mother, he took her as his bride. So that many would come from the east and the west and recline with the faithful patriarchs in the kingdom of God, while the very sons of the kingdom, because Sarah is dead, would be cast into the outer darkness (Matthew 8:11).
III. Whom he also loved so much that the grief which had come from the death of his mother was tempered. However much it pains Isaiah that the bricks have fallen, let this be his consolation: that he builds with hewn stones, and in place of the sycamores that were cut down, he substitutes cedars. This was accomplished, of course, when -- after the carnal Jews had fallen into faithlessness -- steadfast and perfect men from the gentiles were called to the building of this Jerusalem of which we speak, and in place of the foolish who had been in the Synagogue, contemplatives arose.
IV. This is that queen who, having heard the fame of our peaceful one -- for they say that this name Solomon is thus interpreted -- did not fail to hasten to him from the uttermost ends (1 Kings 10:1); standing now at his right hand in gilded garments, clothed about with variety (Psalm 45:10), while the various orders of the faithful within her serve one Lord in the unity and adornment of one faith and one baptism. This, then -- namely, the holy Church -- whether as the wife of Isaac or as the queen coming to Solomon, is also the city of the just, the faithful city, which, having seen its peace, received it for its people so that it might be called and be Jerusalem.
She did not fail to plant a vineyard -- first indeed upon her mountains, so that she might afterward plant on the hills, plant on the plains, and plant also in the valleys. So that the ointment of the head might not only run down into the beard, but flow even to the very hem of the garment (Psalm 132:2), so that there would be none who could hide from its warmth (Psalm 18:7). This is nothing other than that holy Church first bestowed the grace of faith upon the greatest men who were in her, and then through their mediation transmitted it to those lower down.
V. But it must be known that there is a vineyard which Jerusalem by no means plants upon her mountains. For the Synagogue is, as it were, a vineyard, of which it is said in the Song of Songs: 'My vineyard I have not kept' (Song of Songs 1:5), because the Lord rejected the Synagogue for its unbelief. And the life of any negligent person is a vineyard, as Solomon says in Proverbs: 'I passed by the vineyard of a foolish man' (Proverbs 24:30). That is, I observed the life of a negligent man. There is also the vineyard of hypocrisy, of which it is said in Job: 'His cluster will be injured like a vine in its first blossom' (Job 15:33). Because the action of the hypocrite is corrupted in its very first display through the desire for human praise. But Jerusalem plants none of these vineyards upon her mountains, because holy Church commits neither the bitterness of the Synagogue, nor the lukewarmness of negligence, nor the duplicity of hypocrisy to her eminent men.
VI. But there is a vineyard which Jerusalem diligently plants -- namely, that which is Christ. Of which it is said in the Song of Songs: 'Let us see if the vine has blossomed' (Song of Songs 6:12), that is, let churchmen examine whether Christ has blossomed in men through faith. She also plants the vineyard of faith, of which you read in Genesis said of Judah: that he was going to tie his colt to the vine (Genesis 49:11) -- because Christ was going to bind to himself the people of the gentiles with the bonds of faith. She also plants the vineyard of Sacred Scripture, of which you have written in Job: that they harvested the vineyard of him whom they violently oppressed (Job 24:6) -- because heretics claim for themselves the Scripture of the Catholic man whom they have attacked.
This, then, is the threefold vineyard which Jerusalem plants upon her mountains -- a certain mark of threefold grace which holy Church commits to her eminent men: Holy Scripture, right faith, and the imitation of Christ -- so that preachers may hear Sacred Scripture for instruction, receive faith for confirmation, and imitate Christ for perfection.
VII. It is therefore prophesied for this Jerusalem of ours that she will plant a vineyard upon her mountains. And rightly upon her mountains; for there are certain mountains which the prophet addresses in the Book of Kings: 'Mountains of Gilboa, let neither dew nor rain come upon you' (2 Samuel 1:21). Because the proud minds of the faithless Jews, who killed Christ, do not accept the preaching of truth. There are mountains that are proud men, of whom you have in Job that Behemoth brings them grass (Job 40:15) -- because all who are proud feed the devil through their arrogance. There are also mountains that are evil spirits, as you read in Habakkuk that the mountains of the ages were crushed (Habakkuk 3:6), because through Christ the evil spirits who are the princes of this world were destroyed. Therefore the faithless Jews, evil spirits, and proud men are indeed mountains, but mountains of Babylon, not mountains of Jerusalem.
VIII. There are other mountains, namely the holy Angels. Of whom the Psalmist says: 'Before the mountains were made' -- that is, before the Angels were created -- 'you are God' (Psalm 89:2). The holy prophets are also mountains, as you read that its foundations -- without doubt those of the Church -- are 'in the holy mountains' (Psalm 86:1), because holy Church herself is founded upon the prophets. Are not the apostles also mountains, to whom the Psalmist says he lifted up his eyes (Psalm 120:1), because he raised the gaze of his heart to the teaching of the apostles? Mountains are also the lofty precepts, as David says that 'the high mountains are for the deer' (Psalm 104:18). Because the sublime precepts pertain to the perfect.
But also the two Testaments are mountains, as the Psalmist says: 'Through the midst of the mountains the waters will pass' (ibid., 3) -- that is, in the agreement of the two Testaments the streams of doctrine will flow. Preachers are likewise mountains, because according to the Psalmist's words, 'the mountains receive peace for the people' (Psalm 71:3). Which means nothing other than that preachers announce repentance to their subjects. And if we also understand interior contemplations by 'mountains,' no one will rightly reprove us, because we read in Job said of the wild donkey that 'he surveys the mountains of his pasture' (Job 39:8). Because every perfect soul considers the heights of interior contemplations, in which is the feeding and refreshment of the devout soul.
The gentile peoples called to faith are also mountains, as we read in the Book of Maccabees that 'the sun shone upon the golden shields, and the mountains gleamed from them' (1 Maccabees 6:9). Because knowledge shone and the love of the Spirit burned in the holy apostles, and through them the peoples chosen from the gentiles were enlightened.
IX. These, whom we have now briefly mentioned, are the mountains of Jerusalem upon which she plants the vineyard: when the full imitation of Christ is bestowed upon the apostles themselves, to whom he says: 'You who have followed me will sit upon twelve thrones' (Matthew 19:28); when the grace of teaching is granted to the preachers, to whom the Lord gives 'the word with great power to those who evangelize' (Psalm 67:12); when to the greatest men from among the gentiles is given the strength of faith, like a certain firm stability which resides in those hewn stones which we mentioned above, who were taken up for the building when the bricks had fallen (Isaiah 9:10).
From these mountains the merit of holiness was derived to those below, because when these mountains received this threefold peace for the people, through their mediation the gift of grace was received -- not only by those who ascend the slope of the counsels through justice and are hills, but also by those who emerge from the depths of sins through repentance and are valleys, and by those who walk on the plain of the commandments and are fields. And see how these mountains, in the strength of faith, are sober toward themselves; in the teaching of the word, just toward their neighbors; in the imitation of Christ, devoted toward God, so that they may securely await the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God (Titus 2:13).
So that what is prophesied for our Jerusalem after this may be fulfilled: namely that the trees will rejoice and the day of the Lord will come. And I think this is what the Psalmist says: 'All the trees of the forests will rejoice before the face of the Lord, for he comes' (Psalm 95:12). The trees of the forests are the gentiles, who, while they had not yet been cultivated by faith, were entirely wild.
X. But if you wish to know how these trees of the forests rejoiced before the face of the Lord when he came, so that you may then know how your mother Jerusalem rejoiced because the day of the Lord came, read the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Where, because the Jews rejected the word of God, judging themselves unworthy of eternal life, the apostles turned to the gentiles (Acts 15:40). What is written there? 'The gentiles, hearing this,' it says, 'rejoiced and glorified the word of God, and as many as were foreordained to life believed' (ibid., 48).
This, then, is the exultation of our mother Jerusalem, who, after she planted the vineyard upon her mountains, saw the day of the Lord coming -- namely, the splendor of divine glory flashing upon her children, so that with the Lord rising upon her and his glory seen in her, the nations might walk in this light and kings in this splendor. Nor is it any wonder that Jerusalem rejoices when she sees the day of the Lord coming, because, beholding her sons coming from afar and her daughters rising from her side, she overflowed and marveled and her heart expanded, because the multitude of the sea was converted to her and the strength of the nations came to her (Isaiah 60:4).
XI. But while so great and such a joy is celebrated in the Church, why do you, O Synagogue, waste away with envy? Why do you, O elder son, who tarry so long in the field, when you hear that your younger brother, after the squandering of all his substance, has been received by his father, clothed with the robe of first innocence, adorned with the ring of faith on the hand of good works, equipped with good examples like shoes upon his feet, and with the fatted calf also slain, the whole household of angels feasting (Luke 15:23ff.) -- since there is joy over one sinner doing penance more than over ninety-nine just, meaning the Jews who do not attain the perfection of the number one hundred and who do not need repentance (ibid., 7).
For you were always with your father until the return of your brother, and you never transgressed his command. Why, I ask, when you have heard the music of the one faith and the dance of love, from which faith works, do you disdain to enter? Do you not know that you ought to feast and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life, was lost and has been found? Do you think, O Esau, that your father has only one blessing (Genesis 27:38), so that because he has already blessed Jacob, he cannot also bless you?
XII. Read in Paul that blindness has come upon Israel in part until the fullness of the gentiles enters, and so all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:25). This is nothing other than that you remain outside for so long, until your younger brother, by the prompting of mother grace, acquires the paternal blessing; so that even coming late and weeping with great lamentation, it must be so for you -- your father disposing -- to serve your brother. But hear that the time will come when you will shake off his yoke from your neck, so that what Isaiah prophesied may be fulfilled: 'If the number of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant will be saved from it' (Isaiah 10:22).
Nor indeed should we fear for the twelve-year-old daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, that the Lord Jesus will not raise her (Mark 5:41), because the woman suffering a flow of blood for twelve years, who alone touched him amid the pressing crowd, had prepared salvation for herself (Matthew 9:20). And therefore, because Jerusalem has now planted a vineyard upon her mountains, she has rejoiced because the day has come.
XIII. Rise, O Zion, and turn to your God. First rise, and then turn. Rise, you who have lain until now; turn, you who were turned away. You lay through negligence; you were turned away through blasphemy. Rise, therefore, O Zion, who represent the Synagogue. Rise and turn, that you may love the one you neglected, that you may believe in the one you denied. Rejoice as well and be glad, O Jacob, because from the midst of the nations your Savior will come.
Who is this Savior but the Lord Jesus, who saves his people from their sins? (Matthew 1:21.) And where is he now? Is he not among the gentiles? For the daughter of Pharaoh lifted Moses from the rushes, because Jesus, leaving behind the harshness of the Jews, came to the Church from the gentiles; in whose faith and way of life he now remains, having grown to full stature -- he who as a small child was nurtured among his own parents, I mean the Jews.
But a time will come when the Jews too will cry out to the Lord from the face of the oppressor (Isaiah 19:20); and this Moses of whom we speak, he will send to them as Savior and defender, to deliver them. Your Savior will also come then to you, O Jacob, from the midst of the gentiles. Because the Lord called his son from Egypt (Matthew 2:15), and from Egypt with his parents Jesus will return to the land of Israel, so that our grieving naked one, who came forth naked from his mother's womb, may return there naked.
XIV. And when will this be? When you, O Jacob, will begin to hunger for the bread that came down from heaven, which you now disdainfully reject. And hearing that grain is sold in Egypt, you will send your sons there, to whom that true Joseph revealed himself (Genesis 42:1ff.), whom we in our language call the Savior of the world; and he will lay upon them the office of embassy to you and will say: 'Go and bring him to me, that he may live.'
It is entirely true, O Jacob, it is true that you can by no means live unless you come to Joseph. Then messengers will come to you from Egypt and say: 'Joseph your son is alive, and he rules over the whole land of Egypt' (Genesis 45:26ff.), and they will tell you all his glory. Having heard this, your spirit will revive, so that once you have ears to hear, you may acquire spiritual life in faith; and awakening from the deep sleep of unbelief, you will at last burst forth in this voice and say: 'I will go and see him before I die' (ibid., 28).
Thanks be to God that you now understand your life to be in the sight of Joseph. For you agree with him, since he commanded that you be brought to him so that you might live. And you say that you wish to see him before you die. And so, brothers, concerning the holy and spiritual joy which the Church from the gentiles now has in her children, and concerning the return also of the Jews to the faith, which will be at the end, we have set forth these prophetic words to the praise of God, who is blessed forever and ever. Amen.
Sermon VIII. Likewise for the Second Sunday in Advent. On the threefold state of Holy Church.
Synopsis of the sermon. -- 1. The threefold state of the Church set forth through Zion, Jacob, and Jerusalem. -- 2. At its origin it was rightly called Zion, and why. -- 3. In its progress, on account of persecutions, it was called Jacob. -- 4. Its persecutors became its defenders, and its enemies became citizens. -- 5. Just as Jacob took the birthright of Esau, so it subjected the princes of the nations to the obedience of faith. -- 6. In the third state the Church was called Jerusalem because of the peace given. -- 7. Exercises to be practiced in time of peace. -- 8. The fourth state in the day of the Lord and the exultation of his glory. -- 9. This same diversity of states is signified through Arcturus, the Orions, the Hyades, and the inner chambers of the south. -- 10. From the sending of the Holy Spirit, martyrs and then doctors flourished. -- 11. There remain the inner chambers of the south, that is, the bosom of the heavenly homeland.
I. If any of you, dearest ones, should wish to understand these words set forth above as pertaining solely to the Church called from the gentiles to faith, he will be able to say that she is designated by these different names -- Zion, Jacob, and Jerusalem -- according to her different states, even though she is one throughout the whole world, as the Bridegroom says in the Song of Songs: 'One is my dove, my perfect one' (Song of Songs 6:8), although the Psalmist asserts that she is surrounded with variety (Psalm 44:12).
For there seem to me to be three states of the Church corresponding to these three names. The first is that in which, turned toward her God, she contemplates the person of her Redeemer and the manner of her redemption. Because this name Zion seems to signify that. The second is that in which, exercised and afflicted by many storms of anxiety, she at last, through him who conquers the world, supplanted and conquered her adversaries. So that the name Jacob, which is interpreted 'supplanter,' may rightly be applied to her on account of this state. The third, however, is that in which, pacified and with past disturbances calmed, now restored to quiet, she can freely attend to planting spiritual vineyards, and rejoice in this day of the Lord which has shone upon her with such great brightness. Because, as you know, Jerusalem means 'vision of peace.'
II. First, indeed, our mother Zion, seeing through a mirror in a riddle that one and the same person in Christ is God and man, seeing the Son and through him also her Father, seeing no less the works which the Father gave him to accomplish, which also bear witness about him (John 5:36), was at once ashamed of her prostration, ashamed of her turning away. And rising from the pit of negligence, turning also from the blasphemy of faithlessness, she began to believe in him whom at first she did not know. She began to love him whom she had first despised, so that there might be in her that faith of which the Apostle speaks, which works through love (Galatians 5:6).
By these two paths, then, rising and turning to her God, Zion arrived -- namely, by rightly believing in him and by ardently loving him, lest if she should proceed by one without the other, she could not fully reach him. For if Paul rightly understood: 'Without faith it is impossible to please God' (Hebrews 11:6). And, as his fellow apostle James perceived: 'Faith without works is dead' (James 2:26). This offering was devoutly presented by that little flock, to whom it pleased the Father to give the kingdom, who left all things and followed Christ (Luke 12:32). This also the primitive Church in Jerusalem devotedly strove to offer, of whom you read that the multitude of believers were of one heart and one soul, nor did anyone say that any of the things he possessed were his own, but they had all things in common (Acts 4:32). And likewise: 'All who believed were together and had all things in common' (Acts 2:49).
III. But this faith and love was immediately disturbed by many afflictions, vexed by many persecutions. For the time came of which that great Prophet, mighty in deed and word, had prophesied -- that they would have tribulation in the world (John 16:33) -- which he defined in these words: 'They will lay their hands upon you and persecute you, handing you over to their councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you, and you will be led before kings and governors on my account, and you will be hated by all men on account of my name' (Matthew 10:17).
But they endured all these things with joy; nor could they be bent from the uprightness of faith or cooled from the ardor of charity by such great tribulations. Do you not read of the apostles that 'they went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were counted worthy to suffer insult for the name of Jesus'? (Acts 5:41.) You also know that, although the Jews assembled against them to place the name of Jesus under the bushel of silence, they constantly replied: 'We cannot but speak the things we have heard and seen' (Acts 4:20). Of the primitive Church also you have that 'a great persecution arose against the Church which was in Jerusalem, and they were dispersed throughout the regions of Samaria' (Acts 8:1). And what do you read next? 'Those who had been dispersed went about evangelizing the word' (ibid., 4).
How shall we worthily admire that vessel of election? You know of whom I speak -- to whom the Lord showed how much he had to suffer for his name (Acts 9:16). Behold, he is beaten with rods, overwhelmed with stones, plunged into the sea; he endures dangers from robbers, dangers from his own race, dangers from the gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, and what was most painful to him, dangers from false brothers (2 Corinthians 11:26). He was burdened beyond measure and beyond his strength, so that he was weary even of living (2 Corinthians 1:8). But in all these things the word of God was not bound, nor did he cease to fill up what was lacking of the sufferings of Christ in his flesh, for the sake of his body, which is the Church (Colossians 1:24).
IV. By all these whirlwinds of storms, therefore, that fire which the Lord sent from on high into their bones (Lamentations 1:13) could not grow lukewarm, nor could the faith with which he instructed them fail; indeed, charity was increased and faith was ever more and more strengthened. Does not that strong athlete whom we mentioned above say that he not only fought the good fight and finished the race, but also kept the faith? (2 Timothy 4:7.) And what does he say about charity? 'Who,' he says, 'shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword?' (Romans 8:35.) But to these he replied in the negative: 'We know that in all these things we more than conquer through him who loved us' (ibid. 37).
And he added: 'For I am certain that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor virtues, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God' (ibid., 38). Therefore at that time the friends of God could be killed, but not defeated; destroyed, but not overcome. Rather, they conquered by dying and triumphed by succumbing.
And not only that, but they even converted the very unbelievers to the faith. They changed their adversaries into allies, their enemies into fellow citizens, their persecutors into preachers -- so that the tongue of the Lord's dogs might be from enemies (Psalm 67:24), since those who at first attacked the faith as adversaries, once converted, barked in defense of the faith, rejoicing to die for Christ, whom they had previously persecuted everywhere with all their might. The holy Church truly supplanted her enemies at this time of her persecution. She supplanted, I say, her enemies, but not so that they might remain enemies any longer -- rather, so that ceasing to be enemies, they might henceforth be companions, and thus the name Jacob might aptly be applied to her from the reality. And since the Church was cunning, she caught them by a stratagem -- a seductress indeed, but a truthful one.
V. Rightly in this state was her name called Jacob, because she took the birthright of Esau (Genesis 27:36) -- while she not only overcame by patience, but also converted to the faith by miracles the very first and highest lords of the world, I mean the Roman rulers. So that now the rhinoceros serves the Lord through his strength and industry, dwelling at his manger, bound with a strap to plow, and breaking the clods of the valleys behind him (Job 39:9-10), rendering the sowing to him and gathering his threshing floor, so that the Lord himself may also have confidence in his great strength and leave his labors to him.
Thus the gentiles who did not pursue -- indeed, who persecuted -- justice have apprehended justice, but the justice that is from faith (Romans 9:30). Now Christ is among them, entering, going out, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And the whole world was enrolled (Luke 2:1), while the Gospel is preached to every creature, and all go, each one to profess in his own city (ibid., 3).
How do you think mother Church now rejoices and is glad, she who in the first state was called Zion and now claims for herself from reality the name Jacob? She now sees her Savior dwelling in the midst of the nations, coming from the midst of the nations; while, with the highest princes of the world subjected under the yoke of faith and their necks bowed to the reproach of the cross and the insult of the crucified one, swords are beaten everywhere into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, nor does nation lift sword against nation, nor are they trained any more for war (Isaiah 2:4), as all come together into the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God (Ephesians 4:13).
What now remains, except that, since the tranquility of peace has been granted to her, she may ascend from the name Jacob, in which her laborious struggle was expressed, to that name which bears before it the mark of peace, which is Jerusalem?
VI. She who is Zion in conversion, Jacob in tribulation, is now Jerusalem in the possession of peace -- contemplating the person of the Redeemer and the manner of her redemption, and fully turning to her God in the election of the apostles; toiling in laborious struggle, and winning to the faith those who fought against her; seeing peace in persecution, and acquiring it in the faith of many Christians -- and especially in the fact that a great number of earthly kings and princes turned to her.
But because peace has been given to you, O Church, will you give yourself to idleness? He is certainly unworthy of peace who in time of peace is idle from the work of justice. Especially since these two things (I speak of peace and justice) are joined together by such a bond that the Psalmist says: 'Justice and peace have kissed each other' (Psalm 84:11). He had indeed first said: 'Mercy and truth have met each other.' And all these things are well said. For mercy without truth is too soft an indulgence, and truth without mercy is too severe a strictness. Similarly, see that peace without justice is an idle state, while justice without peace is a furious commotion.
VII. It is therefore not permitted to you to grow numb in idleness, O purified Church -- especially since Scripture says that idleness is the enemy of the soul. What, then, will you do? You will plant a vineyard upon your mountains. For you are the more freely able to plant the vineyard, to dig what has been planted, to fertilize what has been dug, to prune what has been fertilized -- that is, to establish the assembly of the faithful in lofty institutions, to correct the established, to humble the corrected, to purge the humbled -- the more the storms of persecutions have been calmed, as though certain tempests of rain, wind, and cloudy cold have been driven away, and a serene and in every way pleasant day has dawned. The day of the Lord, of exultation, not of sorrow; a day of peace, not of disturbance. And so the farmers and workers of Jerusalem plant the vineyard upon the mountains, because the preachers and teachers of the Church extend Sacred Scripture into profound ideas and set it forth in lofty discourses.
VIII. And what remains for Jerusalem after this but to rejoice in the day of the Lord, that she may go from peace to peace? From the peace which the Lord leaves, to the peace which he gives (John 14:27), so that for her there may be month after month and Sabbath after Sabbath (Isaiah 66:23). So that what she now sees through a mirror in a riddle, while she plants the vineyard upon the mountains, then, when the day of the Lord's glory has shone forth, she may see face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12). What she now knows in part, she may then know even as she is known, and the exultation in the day of the Lord may succeed the planting of the vineyard upon the mountains.
Behold the fourfold mark of Holy Church: because first, seeing with spiritual eyes her Redeemer and her redemption, she rises and turns to her God. Second, by winning over her adversaries, she salutarily supplants them unto faith. Third, now freed from laborious struggle and restored to peace, she plants the vineyard upon the mountains, while she expounds Sacred Scripture in lofty words. Fourth, she exults in the day of the Lord, while she rejoices in the brightness of the blessed and beatifying vision.
IX. And see whether blessed Job does not proceed in this same order when speaking of the diverse state of the Church, where he says that God first made Arcturus, second the Orions, third the Hyades, fourth the inner chambers of the south (Job 9:9). For as blessed Gregory said on these words no less clearly than he perceived deeply: 'The Lord made Arcturus when he founded the Church, radiant with the light of the sevenfold Spirit, in a heavenly manner of life. Having made Arcturus, he made the Orions when, with the faith of the Church strengthened against the storms of the world, he sent forth martyrs.'
Having sent these forth, he also brought out the Hyades, because as the martyrs prevailed against adversity and were now withdrawn, as the winter of unbelief was also suppressed and the storm of persecution removed, with the tranquility of appearing peace, as it were a certain mildness of smiling spring, he bestowed the teaching of spiritual masters to water the aridity of human hearts. After all these things he made the inner chambers of the south, because he revealed to us those most secret recesses of the heavenly homeland, which the warmth of the Holy Spirit fills.
X. So, with Arcturus made, as it were Zion enlightened by the light of the sevenfold Spirit, she rises by ardently loving God and turns to him by rightly believing in him. When the Orions have been made, as the martyrs go before in the Church, the enemies of the faith are supplanted both through their patience and through the working of their miracles; the faith being made known, the Savior himself comes from the midst of the nations, who were raging especially against his household -- just as the enemies of Gideon were put to flight not only by the sound of trumpets but also by the breaking of pitchers and the flashing of torches (Judges 7:19).
When the Hyades have likewise been made, the Church, now pacified -- whence the name Jerusalem is rightly applied to her -- plants the vineyard upon the mountains, that is, expounds Sacred Scripture in the profound discourses of the doctors.
XI. Now it remains that the inner chambers of the south be made, so that Jerusalem may exult because the day of the Lord has come. It is very beautiful that, with Zion rising and turning to her God, holy Church ardently loves the Lord and rightly believes in him. Because, with her salutarily supplanting her adversaries by winning them to the faith through the holy martyrs, Jacob rejoices and is glad that his Savior has come from the midst of the nations. Because, with the holy doctors soundly and deeply expounding Sacred Scripture within her, Jerusalem plants the vineyard upon her mountains. But this in her is all the more beautiful as it is happy, and she dances and exults in the brightness of the heavenly homeland, because the day of the Lord is now at hand.
In like manner it is very wonderful, as blessed Gregory says, that the Lord established Arcturus with the Church consolidated; that, with the martyrs strengthened against adversity, he sent forth the Orions; that, with the doctors filled in tranquility, he provided the Hyades. But after these things it is very admirable that he prepared for us the bosom of the heavenly homeland, as it were the inner chambers of the south.
And let these things said allegorically suffice for you. But those things which can present themselves according to the moral understanding, we shall show you in another sermon, nor shall we shrink from graciously manifesting to you whatever that Father of lights, from whom descends every best gift and every perfect present (James 1:17), deigns to send to you through us. From whose bounty it is that we can either perceive acutely or express clearly, for our benefit, for your edification, to the praise and glory of his name, who is God blessed above all things forever. Amen.
Sermon IX. Likewise for the Second Sunday in Advent. On the three things that pertain to the fear of God, and on the three things that pertain to the love of him.
Synopsis of the sermon. -- 1. Sin turns one away from the highest and casts one down to the lowest. -- 2. God threatens the sinner with mercy and judgment, that is, with promises and threats. -- 3. The threefold distinction of sin, which is the death of the soul. How it is to be cured by the spiritual physician. -- 4. Heavenly delights are not savored by a palate depraved by earthly pleasures. -- 5. First, self-knowledge and the malice of sin, the brevity of life and the fleetingness of the world are to be instilled in the sinner. -- 6. Then the horror of hell must be set before him. -- 7. Finally he must be soothed with promises. -- 8. Fear must be tempered with love. -- 9. The fountain of divine mercy is lavish and inexhaustible. -- 10. The converted man should subject his flesh to the spirit, and not be turned aside by the words of the wicked. -- 11. The remedy against clamoring tongues is the examples of the saints. -- 12. The hope of retribution must be impressed upon him.
I. Because the allegorical sense detained us for some time in the preceding sermon, we have until now deferred what was to be said morally -- so that you might come together to listen all the more eagerly, having been refreshed by the interval of rest. It falls to us, therefore, to show, with the aid of the Holy Spirit without whom we can do nothing, what it means according to the moral understanding for Zion to rise and turn to her God for the amendment of life. What it then means for Jacob to rejoice and be glad because his Savior comes from the midst of the nations; and what, finally, it means for Jerusalem to plant a vineyard upon her mountains, and why it is said to her that she will rejoice because the day of the Lord will come.
Saving therefore for each person the better and deeper understanding which has been revealed to him on these matters, it seems to me that every soul which admits into its affections what is evil, and omits to practice through action what is good, both lies prostrate in the depths and is turned away from God. For to embrace some criminal thing in the mind through love is, as you know, to be cast down to the lowest depths. And will you not likewise consider that the one who abhors exercising what is good in deed has deviated from him who is supremely good? But let Zion rise; let her rise, I say, and turn to her God. Let the prostrate one rise, and let the one who is turned away turn back.
II. By what means, you ask? By fearing and by loving. For through fear one withdraws from evil, so that Zion may rise; through love one approaches the good, so that she may turn to her God. You, therefore, who lie prostrate in the depths, fear the harsh things of the one who threatens, and rise. You who are turned away from your God, love the sweetness of the one who promises, and turn to him. Contemplate, then, both those harsh things and these sweet ones, so that you may love the latter and dread the former.
And indeed God, wishing to correct the human soul toward himself, first sometimes soothes it by promising, and then terrifies it by threatening. For thus you read of that merciful Samaritan, who first poured oil and then wine upon the wounds of the man who had been left half-dead by robbers (Luke 10:34). And the scribe learned in the kingdom of heaven brings forth from his treasure not old things and new, but new things and old (Matthew 13:32).
Does not Isaiah also first introduce the Lord promising, then threatening? For he says of him in a certain passage: 'If you are willing and listen to me, you shall eat the good things of the earth' (Isaiah 1:19). These words breathe the sweetness of one who promises. And immediately he added words that no less convey the bitterness of one who threatens: 'But if you are unwilling,' he says, 'and provoke me to anger, the sword shall devour you' (ibid., 20). And indeed, unless I am mistaken, our Lord is sweet and upright (Psalm 24:8), not upright and sweet, because he first offers us mercy to be sung, then judgment (Psalm 110:1), to show himself always ready to spare and slow to strike. And when he does strike, it is rather our incorrigible stubbornness that compels him than any cruel anger of his that drives him.
But although he, for his part, like a bee pours honey from the front and brings out the sting from behind, yet it is sometimes profitable for us that he terrify us before he soothes us, because sometimes love would by no means be savory to us unless fear had first stung us. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 110:10).
III. Fear, therefore, this devouring sword of which we made mention above, that you may rise from your prostration. Love also the good things of the earth, that you may be turned from your aversion. But these things must perhaps be unfolded more copiously than deeply for the sake of those simpler ones among you. Someone, I know not who, has committed a great sin and lies in his sin, and therefore also in death. For I would say that he who perseveres in criminal sin is in death. Otherwise Paul would not say: 'Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will illuminate you' (Ephesians 5:14).
And so someone is dead not only secretly in conscience, through consent, like the daughter of the ruler who lies dead in her chamber (Matthew 9:35); but also openly through action, like the son of the widow carried out beyond the gate (Luke 7:14). Perhaps he is even buried through wicked habit, like Lazarus, stinking also through infamy (John 11:39). And not only that, but with the stone of obstinacy placed over him, he is pressed down in the cave of wicked living; and according to his hardness and his impenitent heart, he treasures up wrath for himself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God (Romans 2:5).
When you, then, approach this man, as you handle the word whose dispensation has been entrusted to you, how will you present yourself to him at the beginning of your preaching? Will you immediately promise him the joys of heavenly beatitude? You would do well indeed, but he will not hear you. For how will he hear with hearing ears you singing a hymn for him from the songs of Zion (Psalm 136:3) -- he who, as holy Job says, exalted and strengthened by riches, holds the drum and harp and rejoices at the sound of the organ (Job 21:7), living according to the flesh and obeying himself, not restraining his heart from enjoying every pleasure, and denying his eyes nothing they desire?
IV. How will he follow you, who come to invite him to the great supper, a man who is known to have bought the farm of vanity, married the wife of pleasure, and to be busy testing the five yoke of oxen he bought (Luke 14:18ff.) through the curiosity of the five senses? For the delights you offer him are indeed most savory, but he does not know them. Nay, rather, as soon as he sees the bread you set before him, he will burst forth in this voice and say: 'Manna!' -- which means, 'What is this?' (Exodus 16:15), for he does not know what it is.
You want him to feed on scarlet, while he embraces dung (Lamentations 4:5); he desires to fill his belly with the husks of the swine, to feed which that citizen to whom he clings has sent him to his farm. Nor does he know how to desire anything else in this dire famine that has arisen in that far country, where he squandered all his substance with harlots, living luxuriously (Luke 15:13), feeding a barren woman and doing no good to the widow (Job 24:21). For how will he cast aside what he finds so sweet for what he utterly does not know -- especially when what he so ardently loves is right at hand? But you prophesy to him of a distant time (Ezekiel 12:27).
V. Do not, therefore, begin with him in this way, but listen rather to what I say, and do what I tell you, and you will save his soul from death. Strive above all, first, to show him to himself, so that according to the saying of the Greeks: 'Know thyself.' And with the Psalmist, let him know what he lacks (Psalm 38:5). Let him know what is lacking; let him know also what is present. What evil is present, what good is lacking. Announce to him, therefore, his sins and crimes, so that perhaps he may appear to himself as he truly is. And let him encounter himself as he truly is: a man wretched and pitiable, poor, blind, and naked (Revelation 3:17).
And to put it briefly: how swift he is for evil, how sluggish for good; how nothing good is present in him, how nothing evil is absent. Thus his own prudence will strike the proud, humble the haughty, shake the bold, and terrify the complacent. And this showing will be for him a kind of transgression leading to health, as it were, since, abhorring himself and unable to endure being such, he will seek to be other than he is.
Set before him after this that life is short, and the praise of the wicked is brief, and the joy of the hypocrite like the point of a needle; and that which follows: namely that 'even if his pride ascend to the heavens and his head touch the clouds, he will perish at last like a dunghill, and those who had seen him will say: Where is he? He will fly away like a dream and not be found; he will pass away like a vision of the night' (Job 20:5ff.).
Make him hear also that voice, too late indeed, yet truthful enough, which the wicked will take up for themselves at the end, when, troubled with horrible fear, they will say, groaning in anguish of spirit: 'What has pride profited us? Or what has the boasting of riches brought us? All those things have passed away like a shadow, and like a messenger running ahead, and like a ship that crosses the surging water, whose track cannot be found after it has passed, nor the path of its keel in the waves; or like a bird that flies through the air, and after this, no evidence of its passage is found' (Wisdom 5:8ff.); and what follows there.
Now I think this pertains to what is read in the Book of Kings, that the mule on which Absalom was sitting passed on (2 Samuel 18:9). Which is nothing other than: the world, to which the proud man clings by affection, passes away and tends to nothing, according to the saying: 'And the world passes away, and its concupiscence' (1 John 2:17). Therefore the mule passes on and the rider of the mule dies, because the world passes away and the lover of the world is punished.
VI. By this twofold knowledge you will pour into the sinner of whom we speak a contrite and humbled heart, which God does not despise (Psalm 50:19). So that in the consideration of himself he may be humbled, lest he exalt himself any longer; and in recognizing the brevity of this life, he may be crushed, lest he rejoice any longer. Lead him after this into that dark land of which holy Job speaks, covered with the shadow of death, which he also says is a land of misery and of darkness (Job 10:22), declaring that there is there the shadow of death and no order, but everlasting horror dwelling.
Recall to his memory also that saying of Isaiah, that the worm of those men -- without doubt those who have transgressed against the Lord -- will not die, and the fire will not be extinguished (Isaiah 66:24). Also what Truth himself says: 'The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the midst of the just and cast them into the furnace of fire; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth' (Matthew 13:50). What does he see in all these things that he should not fear? What does he behold that he should not shudder at?
These, then, are the three things you ought to set before him, to fully rouse him to fear. The foulness of his wicked way of life pours humility into him, which once poured in, destroys the empty swelling within him. The consideration of the brevity of the present life brings him sorrow, which once brought, takes away from him worldly joy. The contemplation of infernal punishment sends in fear, which once sent in, disturbs his harmful complacency.
VII. Now I think he will willingly attend to your promises and acquiesce to your counsels, because indeed, with the Lord illuminating him through you, seeing that the wicked life he leads will not last long, and that he cannot escape eternal punishment if he ends in it -- emptied out and terrified, having lost all hope of retaining what he now has, and having also full certainty that he will incur what you threaten unless he amends -- he will obediently subject himself to you, both as you command and as you promise: commanding harsh things in his way of life, promising sweet things in reward. And perhaps the more fruitfully, the more humbly; the more effectively, the more ardently.
Nor is it any wonder if he obeys you promising the greatest things, while he sees that he cannot retain even the least. And so he assents to you imposing a sweet harshness that rewards, while he sees the harsh sweetness that damns vanishing faster than the wind.
VIII. Therefore, after you have thus poured fear into him, strive also to pour love into him. And let each hold the mean, so that neither fear begets despair, nor love begets dissolution. Let the warmth of love temper the cold of fear, lest he tremble too much from the cold; and likewise let the cold of fear temper the warmth of love, lest he become insolent. You will do this rightly if you set three things pertaining to love in opposition to those three things which we said pertain to fear, so that while he beholds in the latter what terrifies, in the former what soothes -- so may the earth be shaken and troubled in him there, that here also his brokenness may be healed.
So that while this is being done with him, his shaking may be healthy and his health may be shaken, and he may receive drink in tears, but in measure (Psalm 79:6). We said that the first of those three things which, when perceived, pour in fear, is the consideration of one's own iniquity. And in it what is not foul and fetid, and therefore what is not full of horror and confusion? But lest it be excessive, let the contemplation of God's mercy mitigate it, because he cannot despair of his own iniquity while he hopes in divine mercy. Let him see that the works of the Lord are indeed great and admirable, but that his mercies are above all his works (Psalm 144:9).
IX. Let him gaze upon that open fountain which flows for the cleansing of the sinner and the unclean (Zechariah 13:1), so that he may see how David washed away in it the stains of adultery and murder (2 Samuel 12:13). How in Mary Magdalene, as many defilements were washed away as sins were forgiven her (Luke 7:37). How Peter was cleansed from the filth of denial (Matthew 26). How the woman caught in adultery was not condemned. How the change of the right hand of the Most High made a martyr from a thief and bestowed paradise after the cross. With these and other like examples examined, let the one who sighs in the consideration of his own wickedness breathe again in the hope of divine mercy, knowing that God can forgive more than he can offend.
X. Encouraged, therefore, by these things, and strengthened, let him put his hand to strong things (Proverbs 31:19). After this it is necessary that iron be taken from the water (Job 28:2), and that flint be given for earth, and for flint, golden torrents (Job 22:24). So that he who until now, unbridled, lay weakly in softness, subjected to the flesh, may henceforth extend himself to good action, raised up even against the flesh and elevated above the flesh, and may now present his members to serve justice unto sanctification (Rom. 6:19), who first presented them to serve iniquity unto iniquity. But immediately the lips of iniquity will chatter, the deceitful tongue will clamor: one's own frailty will be held out so that the novelty that has been seized upon may be nullified; and they will point to the wind, lest he should sow, and show him the clouds, lest he should ever reap (Eccl. 11:4).
XI. But to all of these things, and to those matters which are of this kind, I know not what could be given more powerful and applied, than what the Psalmist, by the dictation of the Holy Spirit, gave and applied to the one ascending this step and enduring such things: namely, the sharp arrows of the mighty with desolating coals (Ps. 119:4). Let there be brought forth into the midst before him: innocent Abel, holy Enoch, obedient Noah, modest Shem and Japheth, faithful Abraham, pure Isaac, patient Jacob, provident Joseph, meek Moses, devout Aaron, Phinehas the zealot of the law, simple Joshua, kind Samuel, humble David -- and the rest of such coals, which the fire of the Lord once kindled in Zion, and now his furnace sets ablaze in Jerusalem (Isa. 31:9). So that, being kindled, they may devastate the deceit of the tongue and the iniquity of the lips. So that he may not think it burdensome to accomplish what he sees has been manfully accomplished by others, perhaps even weaker in sex and age. Let him meanwhile soothe his wounded inward parts with such fragrant spices. Let him be gladdened in this holy newness, who first groaned over the brevity of the present life.
XII. It remains now, in order to lighten his burden in leaving Egypt and in the labor of the religious life, that you make known to him how great the happiness will be in the reward. So that, like a hired worker, he may await the end of his work; and without any doubt may know that he who now goes from strength to strength, being holy, will afterward see the God of gods in Zion, being blessed (Ps. 83:8). And if he suffers with Christ, he will consequently also reign with him (Rom. 8:17). Behold, through these three things you will pour into him a full love. For he undoubtedly loves the one in whose mercy he trusts; in whose name he perseveres in devout conduct; and whose blessed and beatifying vision he thirsts to contemplate for eternity. And so in the three preceding steps our Zion arrives at fear, by whose terror she withdraws from evil, that she may rise. In these three subsequent steps, she ascends to love. By whose gentle caress she approaches the good, that she may turn to her God, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Sermon X. Likewise for the Second Sunday in Advent. On battle and peace, and on their contemplation.
Summary of the sermon. -- 1. In the spiritual way, the conflict of battle is not lacking. -- 2. From behind press the phantasms of vices, from the front the annoyance of temptations. -- 3. They serve for spiritual combat and for preserving humility. -- 4. Rarely is there safe peace with vices, which remains through trust in God and his aid. -- 5. The character and beauty of the peaceful mind is figured. -- 6. The conversation of the saints draws toward example, the joys of the blessed attract. -- 7. For the just on the day of the Lord there is exultation: for the wicked, horror and darkness. -- 8. How much the state of eternal peace is to be desired, where God is seen with unveiled face. -- 9. From the communion of the most holy Trinity there is a threefold gift of blessedness in the saints. -- 10. As evils are banished there, so good things abound in body and soul.
I. While each devout person, dearest brothers, walks the royal way of fear and love, he encounters various adversities on every side, because Leviathan, prepared to be roused (Job 3:8), rages against him with all the more fierce envy, the more manfully he resists Leviathan both in abandoning evil through fear and in embracing good through love. Now with these two companies Jacob returns to the house of his father, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (Gen. 32:22), but Laban runs up from behind, and Esau meets him from the front -- while the world tempts him with those things he has already abandoned, and the enemy harasses him through those things he has not yet experienced. But he, conscious within himself that he has fully despised the world and the things that are in the world, says to the one who searches all the furnishings of his house and wishes to find something of his own, whether in his mind or in his body, but is unable to: Search, and whatever of yours you find with me, take it away (Gen. 31:32). This is to say: with full contempt I have cast you off, O swelling world; you will find nothing in me belonging to you. But Jacob does not wish that he and Esau should walk together, nor that Esau should be the companion of his journey. Knowing that no one can carry fire in his bosom without his garments burning (Prov. 6:27).
II. The people of the Lord, leaving the Egypt of worldly darkness and heading for the desert of religious life, has the pursuing Egyptians behind, and finds the sea before its face. So that every faithful person may know both the phantasms of vices from the past things he has already left behind that must be endured, and from those things still to come, that the savagery of temptations will be a trouble to him. The great host of Amalek (Exod. 17:11), which is the assembly of the reprobate clinging by affection to earthly things, is in no way overcome unless every devout person, saved from the flux of this world (so that he may bear the name that fits the reality, which is Moses), stands out thus on the mountain of contemplation, leans thus upon the rock of stability, and lifts up the hands of his works thus in the evening sacrifice: a fortitude so strong and sublime in humility, as the mountain of fortitude Aaur is said to signify; lest either the left hand extend itself toward evil, if pride swells, or the right hand withdraw from good, if it grows torpid through negligence.
III. There are also very many other nations, which we can neither completely destroy nor yet ought we to consent to them. Especially since the Lord commands us that we should have no covenant with them, nor enter into friendships with them (Exod. 34:12). It remains, therefore, that we tolerate them in such a way that we make them tributary to us. For they have been left behind for this purpose: that the Lord might test us through them. Therefore, since they themselves are not good, nor do they wish good for us, they nevertheless serve us for good. So that Jacob ought not to groan and grieve, but rather to rejoice and be glad, because from the midst of these nations his Savior will come.
Does not the Savior come when salvation comes? For true salvation, as you know, is humility. These nations indeed press hard, and pressing hard they harass, and thus they make Jacob afraid. Being afraid, he is humbled; humbled, he is saved; saved, he rejoices and is glad -- because from the midst of these nations, his Savior comes in this way. In this Savior our Jacob trusts, and has those nations which we briefly mentioned subject to him, no longer dominating: acclaiming that same Savior, sometimes playfully alluding to him, and saying: You have girded me with strength for battle, and you have overthrown those who rise against me beneath me (Ps. 17:33). Holy men therefore do not weakly succumb to the suggestions of vices, but with the Lord fighting in them and for them, they strike them down with the heel of virtue, trusting not indeed in themselves, but in the Lord, who has rescued and delivered them from such great dangers, in whom they hope that he will still deliver them, that is, for as long as it is necessary: giving thanks to him for this, and attributing everything to him, and saying: He has subjected peoples to us and nations under our feet (Ps. 46:4).
IV. Happy indeed is he whose protector is the Lord in whom he hopes, who subjects his people under himself, who also rejoices that he has been rescued by the Lord from the contradictions of the people, and established as head of the nations (Ps. 17:44). So that, when peace has been given him by the Lord (as is read figuratively in the book of Joshua (ch. 21:42)) over all the nations round about -- so that none of his enemies dared to resist him -- he may even ascend from his laborious name, which is Jacob, to the vision of peace and the name which is Jerusalem. Who is this, and we shall praise him? For he has done wonderful things in his life (Eccl. 31:9). Not indeed in himself, but in the one who strengthens him, in whom he can do all things. Of whom it is written: Who alone does great wonders, and it is added 'alone' (Ps. 135:4), lest man think he can do wonders without him, since without him he can do nothing, and he is not sufficient even to think anything of himself, as if of himself, but his sufficiency is from God (2 Cor. 3:5). Yet one who is of this kind does wonders in his life, but through him who alone does great wonders. For this is the one who, having blunted as much as possible the sharp stings of the flesh, and having calmed as much as is possible in this body -- which is corrupted and weighs down the soul (Wis. 9:15) -- the tumultuous movements of the mind: being at peace in himself and peaceable toward others, he sees nothing but peace. So that he is rightly called Jerusalem, which, as everyone knows, means 'vision of peace.' All things in him are peaceful and tranquil, quiet and calm. He loves nothing that is crooked or cruel. He considers within himself nothing except what pertains to peace, shows nothing else in his countenance, and practices nothing else in his deeds.
V. Now within him, the elders sit in the squares (1 Macc. 14:9), while his interior senses, endowed with spiritual maturity, humble themselves in the breadth of this peace, inasmuch as God has not shut them in the hands of the enemy, setting their feet in a spacious place (Ps. 30:9). And they deal with the good things of the land, while they know that nothing dwells in their innermost parts that does not pertain to those good things which holy David believed he would see -- the good things in the land of the living (Ps. 26:15). The young men also clothe themselves with glory and the robes of war (1 Macc. 14:9), because the vigorous thoughts within him everywhere carry about the testimony of their conscience, in that they conduct themselves in this world in simplicity and sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God. And in the Lord, by whose strengthening they conquered, being well aware of their past triumphs over vices, they exult. And so, while there is no suggestion in the mind that terrifies through consent, while no illicit act assails him upon the land of his flesh, each thought sits within him under its own vine and under its own fig tree (1 Kings 4:25). With such a calm and evenly tempered spirit, that in the wine of fervor it may be tamed by sweetness, lest it be too rigid, and in the fig tree of sweetness it may bite with fervor, lest it be too lax. Now is the time, since all things are quiet from wars, that Solomon build a house for the Lord (1 Chron. 28:13), which David, a man of blood and a warrior, could not build. And with the land resting from battles, let Jerusalem plant a vineyard on its mountains, which our Jacob had no leisure to do, since he had to attend unceasingly to the laborious struggle against adversaries and the overthrow of resisting enemies.
VI. Let Jerusalem, therefore, plant a vineyard on its mountains -- that is, let every person who is radically at peace within himself and peaceable toward others graft his mind onto the way of life of holy men who are exiles on earth, and onto the joys of the blessed citizens who reign in the fatherland. Admiring the holiness of the former so as to imitate them, and desiring to attain the happiness of the latter so as to enjoy it fully together with them. Those are the ancient mountains, the eternal mountains, in which the vineyard of this our holy Jerusalem sends roots downward and produces fruit upward (Isa. 37:31), while the mind of the tranquil and quiet person examines as subtly the lives of the saints as the joys of the blessed citizens. So that there it may bear fruit toward the example of living according to them, and here toward the desire of reigning with them without end. I think this is what is said concerning holy Job: the eagle is raised on high, and dwells in the steep crags and inaccessible rocks (Job 39:28). I judge this is said because when a holy man, subtle in understanding and sublime in contemplation, directs his thought and eager desire to beholding the good works of the steadfast in holiness, and to the everlasting joys of the blessed -- who were fully confirmed when the apostate angels fell -- he proposes the former as an example, and takes up the latter as an object of desire. How lovely it is for this Jerusalem to plant a vineyard on its mountains! How sweet for this raised eagle to abide in those rocks, to dwell in the steep crags and inaccessible cliffs! So that the devout soul may strive to dwell there in thought, where it cannot yet dwell in sight, and there, as a certain saint says, to fix its desire where it cannot yet bring its dwelling.
VII. This therefore is the work of Jerusalem, this is labor without toil. Let her leap meanwhile upon these mountains, visiting them unceasingly, planting a vineyard in them; so that one day she may drink wine -- new wine with those same mountains in the kingdom of the Father and of God. Which will surely be fulfilled when this same Jerusalem shall exult, because the day of the Lord has come. O day of the Lord! O exultation of Jerusalem! Nor is it surprising that Jerusalem exults at the coming of the day of the Lord, since it is certain that so great an exultation will be present for her on that day. But just as the elect will exult, so the wicked will groan in it, because the Lord will remember the sons of Edom on the day of Jerusalem (Ps. 136:7). The day of Jerusalem is the day of the Lord, both because it confers exultation upon Jerusalem, and because she will receive what is conferred. It is the Lord's, because he will make her glad, and because Jerusalem will be made glad in him, it will also be hers. On this day, then, the saints will exult in glory (Ps. 149:5), but the unjust will grieve in punishment. These, namely the unjust, he says, will go into eternal punishment; but the just into eternal life (Matt. 25:46). Hence the prophet addressing those same unjust ones says: Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord. Why do you want it? And he added: for the day of the Lord is darkness and not light (Amos 5:19). But for whom will it be darkness? Certainly for the unjust, who with hands and feet bound will be cast into outer darkness (Matt. 22:13). But for the elect it will be light, and great light indeed: and it will be exultation. How could it not be light, when the streets of this Jerusalem of which we speak will be paved with pure gold (Tob. 13:22), that is, when its citizens, enlarged in true charity, will be illumined with the eternal splendor of heavenly wisdom? How could it not be exultation, when through all its lanes alleluia will be sung (ibid.), while each one will be made glad by the incorruption of the body and the perfect beatitude of the soul?
VIII. Brothers, it is good for us to be here. For already in heart and mouth we are in unfailing light, in incomprehensible light, and in ineffable exultation. I would call it unfailing and incomprehensible light, when that day shall dawn to which no night will succeed. Which also knows no evening, because eternity will equally drive away from it both decline, and stability will drive away any threatening fall. I call the exultation ineffable, moreover, because there the voice of exultation and salvation will resound in the tabernacles of the saints (Ps. 117:15), and there will be the sound of one feasting in the voice of exultation and confession. And feasting well, because the Lord will make them recline (Luke 12:37), so that they may eat and drink at his table, in his kingdom, and passing by, girded, he will serve them. O charity of God, full of exultation, when the just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13:43), when that hour will come -- and indeed not without eternal duration -- in which the Son will no longer speak to us in proverbs, but will announce to us openly about the Father (John 16:25), showing us not only himself but his very self, when the Spirit of truth himself will teach us not some truth but all truth (ibid. 15); when the Father, who works until now, shall cease and rest from all the work that he had wrought (Gen. 2:1), the heavens and the earth and all their adornment will be made perfect. So that neither will any corruption remain in the earth of our body, nor will any perfection be lacking in the heaven of our soul.
IX. Brothers, it is good for us to be here. For in thought and word we are in the day of supreme power pertaining to the Father, by which he will strengthen us. In the day of eternal wisdom pertaining to the Son, which will glorify us. In the day of most kind sweetness, which pertains to the Holy Spirit, by which he will inflame us, so that while we are kind toward one another, while powerful in ourselves, and wise in God, God himself may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). We are also on the mountain with our Lord Jesus, where we see him transfigured (Matt. 17:2). Do we not see him transfigured, whom we behold beautiful in his robe, fairer in form than the sons of men (Ps. 44:3), who in this valley of tears appeared in countenance abject and despised? Whence he was not esteemed, but reckoned as one struck by God and humiliated (Isa. 53:4). His face has the brightness of the sun, and his garments the whiteness of snow. For when he appears, his elect -- with whom he is now as it were clothed as with garments -- will be like him, because they will see him as he is. Nor can the fuller, as the Evangelist says, make them so white on earth (Mark 9:2). Because that spiritual fuller, who sprinkles his garments -- that is, his elect -- with hyssop that they may be cleansed, in no way confers in exile that beauty with which he will adorn them in the kingdom, because the purity they have on the way as the merit of holiness is far different from that which they will have in the fatherland as the reward of blessedness.
X. We know also that on that day God will wipe away every tear from the eyes of his saints (Rev. 21:4). For which reason it is good for us to be here: and there will be no more mourning, nor crying, nor any pain, but everlasting joy upon their heads: as they possess double in their own land (Isa. 61:8), so that Jerusalem may exult, because the day of the Lord has come. Let her exult therefore in body; let her exult in soul. There through full incorruption, and here through the eternal possession of eternal beatitude. But although it is good for us to be here, certain things call us back from here, which, even if it is not pleasant to attend to them, are nevertheless necessary, because it is also expedient. For Leah calls Jacob away from the sweetest embraces of Rachel for the mandrakes of her son (Gen. 30:16). Because for the fruit of good works, every devout person is sometimes invited away from the taste of the purest contemplation to the exercise of good action. Rise therefore, let us go from here. Let these things be said for the present: that Sion is admonished in these words to rise and turn to her God. That to Jacob it is said that he should rejoice and be glad, because from the midst of the nations his Savior will come. That it is prophesied to the city of Jerusalem that she will plant a vineyard on her mountains, and will exult because the day of the Lord will come. Therefore, what has been said either allegorically about these words in the preceding sermon, or tropologically in this subsequent one: receive it in understanding, retain it in memory; glorifying and praising God and our Lord, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Sermon XI. Likewise for the Second Sunday in Advent. On good and bad hearers, and what the responsory 'The Lord will go forth,' etc., signifies, and on the wisdom of God.
Summary of the sermon. -- 1. The eager reception of the word of God is a prognostic sign of the children of God. -- 2. Some hear out of vanity, curiosity, pride; others for usefulness. -- 3. The judgment of each type of hearer. -- 4. The responsory after the reading is obedience to the things said in the preaching. -- 5. Fruitful hearing of the word with action. -- 6. The mysteries of the Scriptures are hidden from us, and why. -- 7. The Samaritan woman is a type of the Church of the Gentiles. -- 8. For the Lord to go forth from Samaria is for his wisdom to be revealed to us in time. -- 9. By the good pleasure of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit proceeding from both, all things were created in order. -- 10. God through his wisdom both condemned the evil angels and confirmed the good ones in holiness. -- 11. Through God's wisdom the hierarchy of the Church is arranged and defended.
I. With great eagerness, dearest brothers, as I seem to understand from you, you seek and await to hear something from me, as if anything were open to me in the word of God that is hidden from you. Truly like those little ones whom Jeremiah declares asked for bread (Lam. 4:4), you too ask for bread. And you ask it from me, as though I either know better than you how to break it, or have some other bread to break than you do. But because you are of God, and hence also comes the fact that you so willingly hear his words (John 8:47). It will not, unless I am mistaken, be tiresome to you if familiar things are said; and if I bring forth such things that you recognize more from my repeating them than learn from my teaching. For since it is certain that those who do not hear the words of God are not of God, you hear them because you are of God.
II. See, I beg you, how you hear. For among those who are even the most eager hearers of the word, we know some who hear only for the purpose of knowing what or how the one they hear will speak. And this, as you know, is a dishonorable curiosity. For they attend not so much to the speaker for the sake of what he says, as for the sake of the speaker himself. Nor so much that they may be instructed by what they hear, but so that they may know what to think about the speech of the one they hear. There are also others who hear only so that they may know what they have heard; and this is a vanity to be condemned. For they are proud and covetous, and they desire to know many things for this purpose: that being excessively proud in their knowledge, they may puff themselves up arrogantly. But there are certain ones, whom we not unjustly prefer to all these, whose intention in hearing the word is this: that what they perceive with the ear they may fulfill in deed, and this is of great usefulness. For they carefully attend to what they hear in the word of God that may serve for the edification of morals, for the condemnation of vices, and the exhortation to virtues. What pertains to the contempt of present things or the desire for future ones, what pertains to the promise of joys, or the threatening of punishments. What is then to be avoided because it is evil, what is to be sought because it is good. And all these things, and those which are of this sort, like good earth they receive with joy, and bear fruit in patience (Luke 8:15).
III. And so those whom I placed in the first position, a damnable obstinacy hardens; those in the second, a reprehensible superstition drives; those in the third, vain pride lifts up; those in the fourth, a salutary edification saves. To those in the first position I think belong those who, having heard the discourses of Truth itself, hardened almost by the horror of their malice, said: He has a demon, and is mad. Why do you hear him? (John 10:20). And also those who said: He is not good, he deceives the crowds (John 7:12). To those in the second position belong those who, hearing that Jesus was in Bethany, came not for the sake of the Lord alone, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead (John 12:9). And that wicked one, about whom we read that he had been wanting to see him for a long time, because he hoped to see some sign done by him (Luke 23:8). But among those in the third position seems to have been the one who, having seen the signs that the Lord performed, said to him: Master, I will follow you wherever you go (Luke 9:59). To whom he, the discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart, responded: Foxes have dens, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head (ibid., 58). As if to say: You wish to follow me as your primary intention, but in you both arrogance and deceitfulness have a place; and therefore you are by no means able to follow the majesty of my divinity. To those who are in the fourth position, those belong to whom the Lord himself says: Already you are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you (John 15:3). Follow these, then, you also, who are driven not by any curiosity, nor lifted up by vanity, but desire to hear the word of God for the sole cause of spiritual usefulness. So that it is a delight to set spiritual food before you, because you hunger for it with pure and clean eagerness.
IV. You ask about the responsory that you recently sang, that I explain its words to you. They are as follows: The Lord will go forth from Samaria to the gate which faces the east, and he will come to Bethlehem, walking upon the waters of the redemption of Judah. Then every man will be saved, because behold, he comes. You ask that these words be explained to you; and what you ask is just; but you ask from an unworthy one what you ought to ask from one who has abundance. Receive, therefore, what one poor indeed in understanding but rich in affection sets before you. And when you have taken the tasteless vegetable of his poverty, seek sweeter delicacies from richer sources. You ask about the words of this responsory, how they are to be understood. But first ask what a responsory is. Since through the reading which precedes we receive the teaching of preachers, what should we receive through the subsequent responsory, except the obedience of hearers? First the reading is heard, then the responsory is said, because first the preaching is perceived by the ears, then good work is obediently fulfilled. And because God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7), as though the reading being completed, the responsory is said with singing, since, as the preceding preaching has instructed, good work follows with cheerfulness. A responsory, as you know, is named from 'responding': and in a certain way, after hearing the reading, you say the responsory when you respond by working well to the teacher who addresses you through his preaching.
V. First, then, the reading, afterward the responsory. Because through preaching you will believe; believing, you will do good works, as the same author whom we mentioned above says: You hear so that you may believe, because you believe so that you may become a sacrifice. In this way we begin to be, and are, God's. And as the Apostle says: Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17). This is to say: the responsory of good action proceeds from the reading of sound preaching. He likewise says: How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? (Ibid. 14.) As if alluding to our subject he adds: How is it fitting that they should say the responsory before the reading? And how will they hear the reading without a reader? And yet some of our contemporaries do just this, because they are indeed prompt to hear, but sluggish to act. They want the reading to be read to them; but they do not want to say the responsory. Imitating the one of whom Solomon says that he understands what you say, but disdains to respond (Prov. 29:19). But you, brothers, are not thus. Do you wish to hear a holy man, thinking rightly about these matters? Speak, Lord, for your servant hears (1 Sam. 3:10). This Samuel was a holy boy. Holy also when he grew old and turned gray. Nor could anyone accuse him from boyhood to old age. Praiseworthy indeed, as is commonly said, throughout the whole day, whose brightness does not fail from morning until evening. The part you hear -- 'speak' -- pertains to the reading; what is immediately added -- 'for your servant hears' -- pertains to the responsory, because when the reading is completed I will immediately sing the responsory. And about these matters for the present, briefly indeed: perhaps these things have been said not without fruit.
VI. But concerning what you hear said here about the Lord, that he is about to go forth from Samaria, to the gate which faces the east, and to come to Bethlehem, walking upon the waters of the redemption of Judah: if you knock devoutly, there will be present, as is his custom, the key of David, who opens and no one shuts, who shuts and no one opens (Rev. 3:7). Nor will you in any way suffer rejection from him who opens to those who knock the hidden treasures and the secrets of mysteries (Isa. 45:3). Now it seems to me that certain deep and mystical things are contained in these words. For just as when we take hold of some closed chest with our hands, we perceive from its bulk and weight that many things lie hidden within it -- although we are entirely ignorant of what is in it, since all that is placed inside is closed up -- so also often in the sacred utterances of the divine page, from its weighty words we surmise that deep and mystical mysteries lie hidden, even though the eyes of our mind have not yet been unveiled by the Spirit to enable us to see its interior. What then must we do, except knock until it is opened to us? For he who says 'Knock, and it will be opened to you' (Luke 11:9) does not know how to deceive, just as he could never be deceived. And shortly after: 'And to him who knocks,' he says, 'it will be opened' (ibid. 10). He does not close, therefore, without sometime opening; but in order to make us eager to knock. And not only that, but so that we may both praise the grace that opens, and love the inner secret that has been opened to us. Open for us, therefore, O Lord. What does it mean to go forth from Samaria? Come forth to us, I pray, from this Samaria of yours, so that this one of yours, about whom I am now speaking, having gone forth from Samaria, may show us what it is for you to go forth from Samaria.
For from Samaria, brothers, can there be anything good? Very much in every way. For how could there not be much good from Samaria, since even the Lord himself is said to go forth from Samaria?
VII. And indeed, as you know, the Samaritans were once regarded as worthless among the people of the Lord, and they deigned to have no communion with them, according to that saying: For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans (John 4:9). Hence when that true Judean, who confesses to the Lord, the Father of heaven and earth, who hides from the wise and prudent what he reveals to little ones (Matt. 11:25) -- when the sixth age of the world and the hour were at hand, at which, wearied from the journey (John 4:6) of the mortality he had assumed, he sat upon the well, humbling himself in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3), and asked to be given drink by the faith of the Church of the Gentiles: the woman, ignorant of the mystery and not knowing the gift of God, nor who it was that said to her 'Give me a drink,' unable to come to him unless she brought along a faithful understanding -- that is, calling her husband, she who, having been once joined to five husbands of the five bodily senses, now held error in place of faith and adultery in place of a husband -- responded: How is it that you, being a Jew, ask to drink from me, who am a Samaritan woman? (John 4:9.) But now let the disciples marvel as much as they like that Jesus speaks with a woman. And the brothers rebuke Peter because he enters to men who have the foreskin, and eats with them (Acts 11:3). It is time for gold to come from the north, and from God a fearsome praise (Job 37:22), so that the north may give and the south may not withhold (Isa. 43:6). Because it was necessary for him to pass through Samaria, who went about doing good (Acts 10:38) and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, so that for the Samaritans coming to him through faith he might pour into them a twofold love, and might remain with them two days, so that with the heart they might believe unto justice, and with the mouth confess unto salvation (Rom. 10:10), saying: We ourselves have heard and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world (John 4:42). Therefore, there is not nothing good from Samaria, nor is the Samaritan to be abominated: since mercy was found in him which could have no place in the priest and the Levite (Luke 10:33).
VIII. But although these words can aptly be understood concerning the calling of the Gentiles, let us first seek something higher and deeper in them, and so afterward we shall fittingly descend from the mountains of higher meanings to the fields of lower understanding. Preserving, therefore, for each person the subtler understanding which the Spirit of truth reveals to him as he wills, and when he wills, and how he wills, and to what degree he wills: it seems to me that the going forth of the Lord is his being known, which is granted to man. He who from the deep and lofty secret of his Father -- in which, as in a kind of watchtower, for this is what Samaria means, he has been hidden from eternity -- proceeding when and how he willed, yet not departing from there: going out, not going away, inasmuch as the Father sent him forth but did not lose him, dispatched him and retained him -- he came to the heart of man and announced to it from the Father concerning the Father. Because, as that theologian says, no one has ever seen God. But the Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him (John 1:18). He indeed is our Lord, to whom he said: Sit at my right hand (Ps. 110:1). Which he said to no angel. Which, however, that one whose words are iniquity and deceit presumptuously seized for himself, who said: I will be like the Most High (Isa. 14:14). He, I say, went forth from that hidden watchtower, so that he might be seen. He who, as long as he was in that Samaria, could not be seen, nor would he have been seen at all unless he had gone forth.
IX. Was he not in a hidden watchtower, who was in the mouth, in the heart, in the womb? But he whose heart poured forth a good word (Ps. 44:2); he who said: You are my Son, and: today I have begotten you (Ps. 2:7); and also: In the splendors of the saints, from the womb before the morning star I begot you (Ps. 110:3). He also from whose mouth wisdom came forth, firstborn before every creature (Sir. 24:5). What he conceives from eternity in that same wisdom, what he has in that same Word of his, what he takes counsel on with that same Son of his -- with the incomputable good pleasure of both standing by, namely the Holy Spirit, coequal with them and coeternal, proceeding from both -- he brought his own creation into being. He distinguished each thing into its proper form by rational order, through its places and times. By a lot indeed sometimes diverse, but altogether fitting, he divided them. Seeing all things that he had made, which he also saw before they were made; and they were not simply good, but with the addition 'very good' (Gen. 1:31). Thus his wisdom was always present to the wise God, which he possessed at the beginning of his ways before he made anything from the beginning (Prov. 8:22).
X. For how would he know through which ways of action to proceed in working, unless he saw in her; or how would he make anything, if he did not recognize in her what ought to be made? The abysses did not yet exist, and she was already conceived (ibid., 24); when he was preparing the heavens, she was present. Nor is this surprising. And how would he condemn those dark and deep spirits -- I speak of the apostate angels -- or confirm those who remained in holiness, unless through his coeternal wisdom he knew both the evil to reprove in the former and the good to choose (Isa. 7:15) to reward in the latter? And so, before the abysses existed, he conceived her, exercising judgment in her concerning those same abysses of damnation. When he was preparing the heavens, he had her present, and with her thus arranging all things, he conferred upon those same heavens the grace of confirmation.
XI. Not yet had the fountains of waters burst forth (Prov. 8:24), that is, the gifts of graces had not yet proceeded. Not yet had the mountains been established with their heavy mass -- that is, the proud had not yet fallen in their damnable perilousness -- and she, understand, was already conceived, having within herself a definite determination concerning these things. Behold, he had not yet made the rivers and the hinges of the circle of the earth: the faithful peoples and the prelates of the Catholic Church. When he was enclosing the abysses with a fixed law and a circle: establishing an order for the reprobate, and a measure of how and how far they would advance in their iniquity. When he was strengthening the heavens above and balancing the fountains of the waters: strengthening the elect in desires for eternal things, conferring upon them the gifts of his graces. When he was placing on the sea -- that is, on raging paganism -- its boundary: so that it would not rage further in persecution. And when he was laying down a law for the waters, that they should not cross their bounds: establishing a limit for persecutions, lest they transgress the boundaries divinely appointed. When he was weighing the foundations of the earth: adorning the chief men of the Church -- 'I was with him composing all things.' Because she arranged all things with him. To whom be honor and glory forever. Amen.
Sermon XII. Likewise for the Second Sunday in Advent. By what means the knowledge of the invisible God comes to us.
Summary of the sermon. -- 1. The unchangeable wisdom of God from eternity, manifested through creation. -- 2. How hidden it is in the reprobation and election of rational creatures. -- 3. In Jacob the elect are figured, in Esau the reprobate. -- 4. What it means for the Lord to go forth to the gate of the East. -- 5. The gate of the East is threefold: the first is natural reason, the second is the sight of creatures. -- 6. The third is divine manifestation. -- 7. The fitting order of the threefold gate, drawn from the Apostle. -- 8. A damnable knowledge of the truth, which is not accompanied by true justice and love. -- 9. For the impious, both evil things and good things work together unto evil. -- 10. From the vanity of thought they fall into the folly of action. -- 11. By what steps and stages the way to perdition is paved.
I. How, brothers, shall we speak with our transitory word about that Word which in the beginning was with God, and was God? Through which all things were made, and without it nothing was made (John 1:1), in which also what was made had life in it. For the Son does nothing except what he sees the Father doing. Because whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does (John 5:19), whom the Father loves; and in that eternal and incomprehensible begetting, he shows him whatever he does. Behold, Wisdom proceeding from the mouth (Sir. 24:5). Behold, the Word poured forth from the heart (Ps. 44:1). Behold, the Son begotten from the womb (Ps. 2:7). O mouth, O heart, O womb! The mouth breathing forth nothing transitory. The heart casting out nothing from within. The womb assuming nothing new in conceiving, losing nothing ancient in giving birth. O prudence unchangeable in itself, incomprehensible to us! O providence that knows not how to err in its own arrangement! O Samaria long and broad, deep and high! There all things from eternity in that secret, which appear here temporally in this public realm, lie hidden in a certain hidden watchtower with God -- things which through their creation are apparent in themselves and revealed.
II. There the rational reprobate creature has a judgment that is just indeed, but hidden. Incomprehensible, yet irreproachable, terrible in proportion to its immutability. There also the rational elect creature has standing by her and ministering to her, on her behalf, a sentence of peace in a fixed and immovable state -- the mercies of the Lord from eternity to eternity, so that they may have no beginning, since they are from eternity, nor end, since they are unto eternity. For there is appointed that people, foolish and senseless (Deut. 32:6), a perverse and exasperating generation, adulterous and corrupt. There is the predestined people, that praiseworthy one, which, according to Isaiah, the Lord has blessed (Isa. 19:25). That nation, according to the Psalmist, blessed, whose God is the Lord; the people whom he has chosen for his inheritance (Ps. 32:12). Nor can the thing formed say to him who formed it: Why have you made me thus? (Rom. 9:20). Since the potter of clay has the power to make from the same lump one vessel indeed for honor, another for dishonor (ibid., 21). Willing therefore -- that most excellent, immense, terrible, and exceedingly great one, hidden and just, awesome and greatly to be feared, the Lord God -- willing, I say, to show forth his eternal grace and to make known his power, he endured with much patience vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, so that he might also show the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared for eternal glory (ibid., 23).
III. O womb of Rebecca! O secret of divine foreknowledge! Because from that same womb these two nations are divided, diverse from each other, and two peoples different from one another (Gen. 25:23). Going forth here in time such as they are there in eternity. Esau, that is, red because of cruelty, and because of the pleasure by which he is everywhere covered and wrapped, completely shaggy like a skin. But Jacob smooth, as if immune from these evils -- not only before they do anything, but even before they are born through creation -- so that, according to election, the purpose of God might stand, not from works, since they had not yet done anything in themselves, but from the calling word of the Lord, both true and immovable: I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated (Rom. 9:13). Esau is held in hatred, who is contained in that same womb, red and completely shaggy like a skin. Who, having come forth through creation, and having grown up through free will, becomes a man skilled in hunting and a farmer. Jacob, on the contrary, is loved, who is carried smooth in the same womb with him, so that the one whom the Lord predestined, he might also call. He who is smooth in the womb, on coming forth, seizes his brother's heel with his hand, and so that the one whom he called he might also justify, the simple man dwells in tents. And so that the one whom he justified he might also glorify, he afterward comes to the paternal blessing (Rom. 8:30). There, therefore, all things are hidden in secret which here emerge, created and apparent, from the highest to the lowest: One opposite another; and he made nothing to be lacking (Sir. 42:25).
IV. This is that Samaria from which for the Lord in a certain way to go forth means that he is known through those things which lie hidden there but here emerge and appear. Concerning whom it is said in these profound words, as if about the future, that he will go forth -- he who in himself cannot go forth by departing, just as he cannot enter by approaching. Since with him, as the apostle James testifies, there is no change, nor shadow of alteration (James 1:17). But because he remains in a way within his Samaria for as long as he is not manifest to us through those things which go forth from that same Samaria and appear here. He has gone forth, but to those to whom he has already revealed himself. He will go forth, but to those to whom he will reveal himself. But through where will he go forth? From Samaria. This is the entrance through which the Lord enters, when he goes forth from Samaria -- namely, the gate facing the east, which is contemplation leading to the knowledge of the truth. For in the east the brightness of rising light bursts forth, which also in the west in a certain way falls by failing. The east is the brightness of knowledge; the west is the blindness of ignorance.
V. There is a certain gate in the east, to which the Lord goes forth from Samaria: namely, the natural reason of man itself, by which, being instructed, he beholds his God. For by the instinct of his own reason, naturally implanted in him, man is stirred up and invited to the knowledge of his God. And the service of the five bodily senses is also ministered to him outwardly, by which he reaches all created things, at least visible and corporeal ones: by beholding things that have form, hearing things that sound, smelling things that have odor, tasting things that have flavor, or touching things that are palpable. And there is also another gate facing the east, through which the Lord goes forth. If, as we said above, for the Lord to go forth is for him to be known, he goes forth at this gate because through the creature the Creator is known. Here the book is spread open before man, written within and without (Ezek. 2:9). So that entering within, he may read in reason itself; going out without, he may read in the created creature; and in his soul he may know the one in whose image it was made. Let him also recognize him in the creature, which was created by him so beautiful, so immense, and so useful. Creatures, therefore, wonderful in so many ways, are certain admirable ways of the one who made them wonderful. As it is read concerning Wisdom: In her ways she shows herself to them joyfully, and in all providence she meets them (Wis. 6:17).
VI. There is also divine manifestation, interposing itself between the reason of man which searches within, and the inspection of the created creature which looks upon the things that are outside; and it is, as it were, your own gate, beautiful and strong, itself also facing the east, with its beauty adorning the gate of reason, and with its strength strengthening the gate of outward inspection. For it adorns the gate of reason so that no invading phantasm may disfigure it; it likewise strengthens the gate of inner inspection, so that wanton sensuality may not weaken it. And so, if through the Lord -- that is, through the manifestation of the Lord -- you enter in for contemplation, you will be saved. And you will go in to inner reason, and go out to outward inspection, and will find pasture in the savory knowledge of truth itself (John 10:9).
VII. Behold, three gates from the east: the gate of inner reason, the gate of outward inspection, the gate of divine manifestation. See whether the Apostle does not assert that the Lord goes forth from Samaria to this threefold gate which faces the east, where he says: What is known of God is manifest in them (Rom. 1:19); and the rest that follows there. What is known of God is manifest in them. Because it is naturally implanted in them, so that instructed by their own reason they may know God. This is the gate of inner reason, at which the Lord goes forth, as he is known through it. He spoke in what follows also about the gate of outward inspection: The invisible things of God, he says, are clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood through the things that have been made (ibid., 20). For if we are creatures of this world, through the things that have been made we know the invisible things of God, as well as his eternal power and divinity. He also interposes between these three gates the gate of divine manifestation, when he says that God has manifested it to them. For inner reason and outward inspection would be entirely insufficient for comprehending the knowledge of God, unless divine manifestation were also present. Because what reason, searching, inquires about, what outward inspection considers externally, inner manifestation makes known. This therefore is for the Lord to go forth from Samaria to the gate which faces the east: for him to be known by men through those things which burst forth from his secret and lofty watchtower, so that they might exist and appear in themselves -- with reason searching them, inspection considering them, and divine manifestation making them known. But this knowledge of which I speak does indeed begin a certain holiness, but, if affection is lacking, it never consummates what has been begun.
VIII. For we know that very many people have known many things; but because they did not love, it profited them not at all. For even those of whom the Apostle says: What is known of God is manifest in them (ibid., 19). And that God has manifested it to them (ibid.). And that the invisible things of God are clearly seen through the things that have been made, being understood, as well as his eternal power and divinity (ibid., 20). Hear how they are approved by him -- or rather, how they are condemned. The wrath of God, he says, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of men (ibid., 18). He accuses them of ungodliness and injustice, showing that they have offended both in faith through unbelief, and in deed through depravity. Of those, he says, who hold the truth of God in injustice (ibid., 19). Therefore they had the truth of God; but they held it in injustice, because, while they were learned in knowledge, they were unjust in action: they were wise to do evil, but how to do good they knew not (Jer. 4:22). What did it profit them to have had the truth of God, since it is established that they held it in injustice? For what purpose were they illuminated with so great a light of knowledge? Hear for what purpose: That they might be without excuse (Rom. 1:20). For what is of God is indeed manifest in them, because the light shines in the darkness, and yet they are darkness (John 1:5). And it shines in them, and yet they do not cease to be darkness. Because knowledge also shines in the reprobate; but because it so shines for them that it does not shine forth from them, they are indeed bathed in the brightness of this divine knowledge of which we speak, but remaining blind, they do not behold it with the eye of love. But although what is known of God is manifest in them, although God has manifested it to them, although they have beheld his invisible things through the things that have been made, all these things nevertheless lead only to their being without excuse, because when the light shone in the darkness, the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1:5). For if they had comprehended it, they would have been not only illuminated in understanding, but also kindled in affection, and thus they would have had it through love. For they now comprehend according to that saying: That you may be able to comprehend with all the saints (Eph. 3:16).
IX. But now the light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness does not comprehend the light, because the ungodly, whom ignorance renders blind, and the unjust, whom malice renders cold, are bathed in divine light, but being bathed in it they do not behold it. Seen indeed in their depravity, hardened through pride, they do not escape the punishment of penalties; but not seeing the light, softened through compunction, so as to run to the refuge of repentance. And so for this purpose they are marked with this threefold knowledge, as if admitted within this threefold gate, so that they may be without excuse. So that, while they cannot run to the covering of excuses, they may incur the fullness of damnation. And thus in a wonderful and wretched way, not only the evil things they do, but also the good things that are sometimes conferred upon them, work together for their evil. And why can they not be excusable? Because, when they had known God, they did not glorify him as God (Rom. 1:21). Behold, they knew him, but did not glorify the one they knew. And indeed, if they did not glorify him, they dishonored him. For what could be more wicked? But they became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools (ibid., 22).
X. For thus it often happens, or indeed almost always. Because when the root is contaminated, the branch cannot be whole; and when what is below the earth is corrupted, the fruit which is above is not preserved inviolate. And to the degree that their foolish heart was darkened by the vanity of their thoughts, to that same degree, though they professed themselves to be wise, they became fools. Hear how much. And they changed, he says, the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents (ibid., 23). What greater darkness of a foolish heart can there be? What greater folly of action, than for the incorruptible Creator to be changed into a corruptible creature -- and not so much into a creature as into the image of a creature? And what is the reward of so great a blasphemy? For which reason, he says, God handed them over to a reprobate mind, and to the desires of their hearts (ibid., 24). And shortly after: For which reason God handed them over to shameful passions (ibid., 26). And again: And as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to a reprobate mind, to do what is not fitting, being filled with all iniquity (ibid., 28).
XI. Consider, I beg you, the stages of perdition. Because they were unwilling to honor humbly the light that shone upon them, they fell into the pride of mind. And from the pride of mind they came to the arrogance of the mouth, because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45). From arrogance they plunged into the blindness of mind. Because while you exalt yourself with your mouth, by just judgment you incur darkness even in the mind. From the blindness of mind they came to the blasphemy of error, because while they were ignorant of where they were going, they even arrived at the point of worshiping what they did not know. And finally, from the blasphemy of error they were plunged into the horrifying and detestable corruption of the flesh. This is what I am saying, my dearest and most beloved brothers: that it does not much profit for truth to be grasped through knowledge, unless virtue is also exercised through love, so that the mind which the preceding truth illuminates through the intellect, the subsequent charity may inflame through affection. Hence also here, after it has been said of the Lord that he will go forth from Samaria to the gate which faces the east, it is immediately added that he also comes to Bethlehem. What this means we will show in another sermon, with the Lord's help, casting our thought upon him, without whom we can do nothing. To whom be honor and glory forever. Amen.
Sermon XIII. Likewise for the Second Sunday in Advent. On the confession of sins and of divine praise, and on the manner of each.
Summary of the sermon. -- 1. What is true should be savored by the intellect, what is good by the affections. -- 2. God's gifts must be acknowledged to him; opposed to this confession is a damnable denial. -- 3. What the confession of sins ought to be like. -- 4. The sinner must look within at the enormity of his guilt. -- 5. The harshness of the punishments due to sins empties out the shame of confessing. -- 6. The method of confronting oneself and eliminating that nocturnal fear. -- 7. The sinner must be lifted up by hope of divine mercy. -- 8. The practice of arousing confidence in divine goodness. -- 9. Three ways and methods leading to the confession of sins. -- 10. There is another confession, of praise and of divine benefits. -- 11. Consideration of particular benefits, especially as regards the religious state. -- 12. The affection of gratitude and thanksgiving to God. -- 13. Three ways of acknowledging God's gifts, with a recapitulation.
I. The Lord, who is said to be about to go forth from Samaria to the gate which faces the east, is also declared to be coming to Bethlehem. But in order to show briefly what occurs to our mind concerning these matters, what do we think it means for the Lord to come to Bethlehem, except that we also, who can come and go, who can approach and withdraw, may come, with him leading, to the dwelling of inner refreshment? For as you have been taught by the frequent exposition of the Fathers, Bethlehem means 'house of bread.' And what else is the house of bread in the moral sense, except the refreshment of a secure and benevolent mind, which Solomon also compares to a continual feast? (Prov. 15:15.) To which the Lord comes, as to Bethlehem, after he has gone forth from Samaria to the gate which leads to the east, so that after what is true has been made known to our mind through the intellect, what is good may also be savored through the affection. And this is what it means for the Lord to come to Bethlehem: through the inner taste of savor, for him to inhabit the dwelling of our mind. For if we ardently love what is manifest in us through our reason; what God has manifested to us through his own showing; what of his invisible things is clearly seen, being understood, through the things that have been made by outward inspection (Rom. 1:20) -- then in a certain way he himself also, after he has gone forth from Samaria, comes to the gate which faces the east, as after the true knowledge of the things that pertain to him, we taste with the palate of the mind a sweet love toward him and in him.
II. Through what is added -- 'walking upon the waters of the redemption of Judah' -- we understand the ways and means by which we ascend to the love of our God. If Judah means 'confession,' from what is Judah redeemed, if not from what is contrary to it, namely denial? For whoever denies does not confess; and whoever confesses does not deny. Who is the one who confesses, except the one who acknowledges himself indebted to God in the reckoning of what has been given and received? The waters of the redemption of Judah are the gifts of graces, by which every devout person is invited to give thanks to the bestower of those same graces. And as if walking upon the waters of the redemption of Judah, the Lord comes to Bethlehem, making known to us the ways by which, having cast off the damnable sin of denial, we can exercise the virtue of confession, and also pouring into our mind the sweetness of inner savor. But now let us say something about Judah and about the waters of its redemption. Seeing first by what methods we ought to practice this confession of which we speak; then also by what methods we can acquire it. And finally, demonstrating that there are several confessions, and assigning to each its proper methods by which it must be acquired.
III. Now it seems to me that confession, just as it exists in us, so ought it to be about us, according to that saying: The just man is the first accuser of himself (Prov. 18:17). So that outwardly you show yourself in your mouth to be such as you truly are within, hidden in your own mind. And what are you within your own mind, except unjust and a sinner -- if indeed you do not dissemble, if you turn open eyes upon yourself from every direction? If you cast away from yourself those fig leaves, which, having sewn together, those first parents, recognizing themselves to be naked, made into loincloths (Gen. 3:7), will you not see that from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no soundness in you? (Isa. 1:6.) You, therefore, who already stink for four days in the cave of your conscience, come forth into confession (John 11:39). Confess yourself to be a sinner, as you truly are. Uncover your sin, so that what Isaiah prophesied may be fulfilled in you, who says: The earth will reveal its blood, and will no longer cover its slain (Isa. 26:21). The earth revealing its blood is the soul uncovering its sin through confession. Which also no longer covers its slayers, when it does not conceal those interior thoughts which have been deprived of spiritual life through consent to sin. Very salutary, as you know, is this confession, without which we cannot attain to true salvation. Did not he who said 'Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be saved' (James 5:16) understand this? The detriment which is contrary to this sentence reveals to us its usefulness, and it is this: unless you confess to one another and pray for one another, you will not be saved. This saying of Solomon also seems to support this meaning: He who conceals his crimes will not prosper, but he who confesses and abandons them will obtain mercy (Prov. 28:13). Entirely true, this is true, because he who reveals his sins will advance; but he who covers and cherishes them, eternal damnation will follow him.
IV. You have heard what this first confession ought to be. See now by what paths you ought to approach it. Let your first stage of the journey be to gaze fully upon the enormity of your crime. For you will by no means confess yourself to be a sinner if you do not understand that you are a sinner; nor will you show your wounds to the physician if you do not recognize that you are wounded. Therefore, taking yourself away from behind your back, where you had cast yourself, accusing yourself and setting yourself before your own face (Ps. 49:21), see how foul and fetid you are, how putrid and ulcerous, so that being displeasing to yourself, you may even be a horror to yourself. And raising your voice with great emotion, accost yourself with these words and say something to yourself in this manner: Alas, alas! Why have I wounded my soul with so many and such great blows, going against God with neck stiffly raised, through the streets of Babylon; sowing in the flesh, rolling myself in the mire, stuck fast in deep mud? And having neglected the waters of Judah which cleanse, plunging myself in the Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus (2 Kings 5:12), sucking the head of asps, and slain by the tongue of vipers -- that is, admitting into my heart the flattering suggestion at the beginning of temptation; and thus losing the spiritual life within me by subsequent consent? Behold, I have my sins sealed in a bag (Job 14:17); and in wretched fashion I have been made a horror and a weariness to myself: such as I am forced to see myself, so am I unable to bear myself. Why then, seeing yourself so sick, do you not most swiftly expose your illness to the physician? Otherwise the wound, while it is neglected, and especially while it is concealed, turns to rot. And death follows upon rot. It remains, therefore, that you, who are leprous, hear with hearing ears what that true physician commanded to the lepers who cried out to him: Go, he said, show yourselves to the priests (Luke 17:14).
V. But if the knowledge of your guilt cannot draw you to confession, let at least the consideration of punishment draw you, so that you who are silent, confused by the horror of your sin, may speak, shaken at least by the terror of punishment. And why do you not wish to confess? Perhaps on account of shame. But why are you ashamed to call yourself a sinner, when you ought to be more ashamed to be one? Let shame, I beg, cast out shame; let modesty expel modesty; so that, as blessed Gregory says of that holy penitent woman, you may blush so vehemently within yourself that you believe there is nothing for which you need be ashamed without. Indeed, you ought to be more ashamed of yourself when, having dug through the wall, you behold the abomination of animals and reptiles (Ezek. 8:10), than when, opening that same wall, you expose those abominations so that they may be wiped away. And perhaps you do not confess out of fear, dreading, that is, lest some heavy penance be imposed on the one who confesses, and therefore choosing to cover yourself with silence. But you can fear more that terrible reproach of the enemy after death and the horrible damnation of hell. Address your soul, therefore, about these things, if perhaps you can expel fear with fear. And so that the fear which impedes confession may depart and the fear which produces it may take its place, confront your soul with these words:
VI. Woe to me, who in the sight of Almighty and living God himself, into whose hands, as the Apostle says, it is a fearful thing to fall (Heb. 10:31), in the presence also of so many thousands of both men and avenging spirits, I will have to be confounded -- having become then a terrible spectacle, not only to myself, but also to angels, and to God, and to men (1 Cor. 4:9). Woe, I say, to me, who with hands and feet bound, cast into outer darkness (Matt. 22:13), will have to pay in the infernal pit so many and such great torments; burned equally by inextinguishable fire, and gnawed by the undying worm.
Is it not milder for me to avoid that eternal pain and torment -- the fire in that furnace which knows not how to be extinguished -- by bodily suffering and momentary grief of mind? For what comparable thing can anyone endure in fasts, vigils, or in any afflictions of soul or body, to put it briefly, compared to that infernal punishment? Where there is the shadow of death, and no order, but everlasting horror dwelling there (Job 10:22), tormenting the body, which will be fuel for burning and food for fire, with eternal torture; but keeping the soul alive with a mortal life, and killing it with a vital death. And he will be worthy to be tormented by this punishment of hell who here disdains to confess his crimes so that they may be wiped away. This fear, therefore, proceeding from the consideration of punishment, is as it were another way, leading a person to confession. So that the one who confesses may not shrink from enduring some heavy things here, when he recognizes that far heavier things threaten one who does not confess.
VII. There is yet another way, which the certain hope of divine mercy paves, which itself also leads a person to the exercise of confession: sweeter for you to walk than those two ways of which we have spoken until now. Because, while in them you feel everything to be harsh, in this way you find nothing at all except what is smooth. What sweeter, what more pleasant, or what more joyful can a man think, while bewailing his former iniquity, than the ineffable goodness of divine mercy? For just as, according to the medicinal art as the saying goes, hot things are cured by cold, and conversely cold things by hot, so also that true physician of ours, the devout and kind Jesus, soothes us in the confession of our sin with his sweetness when we are embittered, softens us when we are exasperated, heals us when we are broken, and cheers us when we are saddened.
VIII. Securely and with the complete certainty of firm hope I confess to you the wounds of my soul, O singular and effective medicine of my wounds, you who were wounded for my iniquities, and crushed for my crimes, good Jesus! (Isa. 53:5.) For you are good, for your mercy endures forever. And you came into this world to save sinners, and to call not the just, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:31). I see you daily gathering innumerable sinners, giving snow like wool, and eating ashes like bread (Ps. 147:16; 101:10). For even those who were long cold in their iniquity, you cover yourself with them as with your own garments, and thus you unite sinners to yourself through penance and confession, just as you unite the just through continence and good action. Behold, you do not despise David when he repents, but you admit the confessor to pardon (2 Sam. 12:13). You hear the Canaanite woman when she cries out (Matt. 15:22), you cleanse Mary when she weeps (Luke 7:38), you embrace Peter when he weeps (Matt. 26:75), you lead the thief into paradise when he prays (Luke 23:42). Finally, the very persecutor of his Church, and thereby of you -- I speak of Paul -- you transform into a vessel of election, and make him a teacher of the nations in faith and truth (Acts 9:15). This, brothers, is the good and level way. Walk in it, because when you confess your injustices against yourselves to the Lord, he himself will forgive the wickedness of your sin (Ps. 31:5).
IX. Behold, I have set before you three ways by which one arrives at the confession of sins: The first is the consideration of your iniquity; the second, the contemplation of the punishment of hell; the third, the hope of divine mercy. Consider therefore the enormity of your depravity, and be horrified. Behold the depth of the calamity of hell, and be terrified. Contemplate the immensity of divine goodness, and trust. The first way will lead you to confession confounded with horror; the second, shaken with terror; the third, consoled by the certainty of hope. And receive these three first waters of the redemption of Judah, upon which the Lord was walking as he came to Bethlehem, manifesting to us the ways by which the first confession is acquired, so that the savor of inner refreshment may be poured into us. What then does this confer, or what is its usefulness? Very much in every way. Because it grants you the pardon of your sins. For while you approach as their devout confessor, he himself is immediately present as their full remitter -- pardon of sins having been received after this, and the grace of living more amendment from then on having been equally granted.
X. Upon this confession follows another confession, by which it is necessary that you confess God's gifts to him, so that there indeed you accuse your own evils, while here you attribute his good things to him. And this confession is indeed good and very good, because it not only guards for you the gifts you have already received, but also makes you worthy of receiving still greater ones. For thus our good and just Lord God is accustomed to act, heaping up the gifts of his grace in greater measure upon those who have not yet received them, when he perceives that they are devout, diligent, and grateful for what they have already received. And the right ways by which you ought to approach this confession are these: First, consider attentively how beneficent he is, and how generous and abundant in his gifts. Is he not abundant and generous, who does not withhold the gifts of grace even from his enemies, making the sun of his grace rise upon the evil and the good, and raining upon the just and the unjust? (Matt. 5:45.) How is he not abundant, who -- to sum up much in a brief word -- opening his hand, fills not just some creature, but every creature with blessing? (Ps. 144:16), so that there is no one who can hide from his warmth (Ps. 18:7). Who has so untamed a heart that he does not become gentle in the contemplation of his immense generosity? Who is so hard that he does not soften? Who is so lukewarm that he does not grow fervent and be kindled to give thanks to him?
XI. The second way is the contemplation of the excellence of his gifts. Because just as the one who gives is abundant and generous, so also what he gives is not small or modest, but great and manifold. Which of us can encompass their number in counting, or grasp their magnitude in measuring? Surely each one of you, if he is willing to look carefully, can clearly weigh the gifts bestowed upon him: how devoutly and how cheerfully he ought to run along this way toward giving thanks to God. For to pass over in silence for now those gifts of your creation which you received at your first existence, and to be silent also about the most excellent work of your redemption -- which God made man, God suffering in man a hard and terrible and undeserved death, accomplished so wonderfully and utterly incomprehensibly, beyond all understanding, not only human but also angelic -- how can you worthily comprehend in your understanding that he so patiently endured you in the world, such as you remember yourself to have been there, and so mercifully called you? There long-suffering, here exceedingly merciful; and adorned you, once called, with so great and such an ornament of justice? Granting you that at all times of your life you may abstain from those things from which you scarcely wished to abstain for a single day, and that what even for a brief hour was most laborious to endure, should now throughout all your days be most sweet to bear.
XII. Thanks be to you, good Lord, and sweet, kind and gentle. You created me when I did not exist; you redeemed me when I was lost; you justified me when called, forgiving me my sins, bestowing your gifts: diligence in reading, devotion in prayer, zeal in meditation, sweetness in speculation, purity in contemplation; granting health to the body, as you know to be expedient for me, so that you may render me robust and strong for good work. And sometimes weakness, so that you may draw me back from evil action and make me fearful, always and in all things being zealous for my salvation. Wearying me with the battle of temptation, consoling me again with the rest of peace. In the former, lest I exalt myself; in the latter, lest I become too faint-hearted. Everywhere and always standing by me, and causing all things -- not only my good things but also my evil things -- to work together for my good. Add, moreover, add also this: that you have bestowed all these things on one who merited nothing. For what did I first do, that you should judge me worthy of so many and such great gifts? Nothing good, nothing that was not evil I did; and you yourself bestowed all good things. You are praiseworthy indeed because you gave such great things, but because you gave them to one who was unworthy, you are truly very much to be admired. Therefore this way of which we speak also leads to confession, so that if it seems that he ought to be devoutly praised because he gave such great things, it should seem to you that he ought to be praised much more devoutly because he chose to give them to one so small and such as you are.
XIII. You have therefore three ways also leading to this confession. The first of which is the consideration of divine generosity; the second, the contemplation of the excellence of his gift; the third, the consciousness that no preceding merit of yours made you worthy to receive anything. And the first indeed stirs you to wonder, so that you may rightly marvel at the abundance of such great generosity. The second invites you to love, so that you may be inflamed with love for the one whom you recognize as having given you such great things. The third pours into you a salutary humility, so that while you consider that you have received much and merited absolutely nothing, attributing none of all the good things you see in yourself to yourself, but ascribing all to him from whose gift they come, you may be usefully humbled in the sight of the most generous giver. Behold, we have shown you a twofold confession: one by which we uncover our hidden evils; the other by which we praise God for his gift. And to each we have assigned three methods by which, when they are lacking, they ought to be acquired, and when they are present, they ought to be practiced. Moreover, while by these methods you impute to yourself the evils that you remember having committed, and ascribe to God the good things that you perceive to be present in you, the Lord inspires the anointing of his grace, as though the Lord walks upon the waters -- that is, of the redemption of Judah. For the waters, as we said above, by which Judah is redeemed are the methods and ways by which confession is rescued from wicked denial. Because Judah is held in a kind of captivity, as it were, while the obstinacy of denial persists and confession is not practiced. There are still other confessions pertaining to Judah, which have their own methods and ways, like waters of their redemption, upon which the Lord walks as he stirs us through those same ways and methods to their acquisition and practice. But since the hour now prevents us from speaking about these at present, we will treat of them at another time, with the Lord's help, to his praise and glory, who is God blessed above all things forever. Amen.
Sermon XIV. Likewise for the Second Sunday in Advent. On the fourfold confession, and on the four breads, and on the four kinds of human illness.
Summary of the sermon. -- 1. The analogy between the bodily physician and the spiritual physician in the cure of diseases. -- 2. One kind of confession is of one's own crime, another is of divine praise and faith; constancy is necessary in both. -- 3. The first way to a constant confession of faith is the passion of our Redeemer. -- 4. The second is the strength of your Helper. -- 5. The third is the greatness of the reward. -- 6. The confession of the blessed in the fatherland, which is the voice of joy and praise, from a threefold source. -- 7. The fourfold confession and the three ways of each are recapitulated. -- 8. Bethlehem, that is the house of bread, in which the Lord is fed in four ways. -- 9. First with bread baked under ashes, that is, penance; second with bread of the pan, that is, of labor. Third of the gridiron, that is, of tribulation. Fourth of the burning oven, which is the bread of angels. -- 10. The fourfold illness of the soul: the first is hardness of heart. -- 11. The second, sloth in works. The third, blasphemy in faith. -- 12. The fourth, ignorance of blessed eternity. -- 13. Every good must be attributed to God.
I. He who involves himself in the medical art must apply himself to the preparation of his remedies with such and so great diligence that in his patient who needs only purging, he purges what ought to be purged, so that, as that most expert of physicians Hippocrates declared, it may benefit and be well borne. Surely the spiritual physician of souls, the preacher of the word of life, must exercise a similar diligence toward his patient -- any sinner whatsoever -- in the spiritual medication of holy preaching. For just as one who is physically ill cannot easily attain full health unless the harmful humors, which are the nourishment and cause of the illness, are first expelled, so also any sinner, whom it is beyond doubt to be ill -- and sometimes, what is worse, even dead, when he fixes his mind deeply in the attachment to criminal sin -- can in no way arrive at true salvation unless his hidden sins are first vomited out through the potion of confession. For what else are the corruptions of vices, and especially sins committed secretly and hidden in the conscience, except certain pernicious humors lurking in the body and destroying the body? And just as these, if not expelled, generate death, so also those sins, if not exposed through confession, lead to damnation. Again, what else is preaching that exhorts to confession, except instruction about the potion, pointing out the antidote? Hence it is that in the sermon we recently gave on the virtue of confession, we wove together so lengthy a discourse, because we are not ignorant that it is absolutely necessary.
II. And the first confession is that by which we uncover our hidden evils. But because in this confession, which proceeds from fear, our conscience is burdened, another confession follows upon it, by which your burdened conscience is relieved, which is practiced when God is blessed and praised in his gifts. And this confession is like a certain electuary, soothing and strengthening the stomach of the mind, in which the soul receives the rest of consolation, which in the potion of the preceding confession brought forth the labor of distress. In that confession by which you uncover your sins, receiving pardon, you are purged of pernicious humors. In this one, by which you bless God in his gifts, acquiring grace, you are adorned with interior visitation. But having been thus purged and adorned (purged, I say, through the tenderness of pardon; adorned through the generosity of grace), it is necessary that you have in yourself the virtue of constancy, because he who visits you at dawn suddenly tests you (Job 7:18), so that it is necessary for you, in order to protect the tenderness of holiness, to fight against the hidden tempter, and when necessary, to struggle against the open persecutor in defense of the virtue of faith. In this contest, therefore, for the defense of faith, you must confess not only to God, but God himself, because if you confess him before men, he also will confess you before his Father (Luke 12:8). But if you deny him, he also will deny you.
III. And if you ask what way can lead you to this confession, let the first, and indeed a very straight one, be the passion of our Redeemer. Through patience, therefore, run the race set before you, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of life, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame (Heb. 12:1-2). These are the words of Paul, with whom Peter, his companion and colleague in martyrdom and fellow apostle, sings in harmony. Christ, he says, suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you might follow in his footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21). Nor is it surprising if you suffer for him who suffered for you -- and indeed the Lord for the servant. Remember that a servant is not greater than his master; so if they persecuted him, they will also persecute you (John 15:20). Therefore, if the world hates you, know that it hated him before you (ibid., 18). And if they called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household? (Matt. 10:25).
IV. Let the second way for you be the strength of your helper, because the very one for whom you fight will undoubtedly and manfully stand by you so that you may conquer. Was not blessed Stephen, surrounded by a shower of stones, able to see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God? (Acts 7:55). In that you hear 'standing,' understand 'fighting'; in that you hear 'at the right hand of the power of God,' recognize 'conquering.' Standing, he wages battle and fights; but being powerful, he overcomes and triumphs, because to the battle pertains standing, and to power pertains triumph. When therefore they lead you away to deliver you up, resolve in your heart not to premeditate how to answer, because he himself will give you in that same hour a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries will not be able to resist or contradict (Luke 21:14-15).
V. Let the third way for you be that eternal reward, because the one for whom you suffer, with him also you will reign. You, therefore, who suffer for the sake of justice, know yourself to be blessed, because the reward of your labors will be the kingdom of heaven. Hence you can rejoice and exult on that day, when men hate you and reproach you and cast out your name as evil, and speak every evil against you lying, because your reward is great in heaven (Luke 6:22). By these three ways one is given access to this confession. And let the first for you be the passion of the Redeemer; the second, the strength of the Helper; the third, the greatness of the Reward. Let the passion of the Redeemer be for you unto example; the strength of the Helper unto aid; the greatness of the reward unto consolation. The passion for example, that we may imitate; the strength for aid, that we may be rewarded; the reward for consolation, that we may be gladdened.
VI. Upon this follows a certain confession -- joyful indeed, and joy-giving; blessed and beatifying; but it will be in the future (it is not in the present), in the fatherland, not on the way, not in exile, but in the kingdom. This is that confession of which holy David says: In the voice of exultation and confession, the sound of one feasting (Ps. 41:5). In that heavenly Jerusalem there is this confession, whither the tribes ascend daily -- the tribes, I say, of the Lord -- to give thanks to the name of the Lord (Ps. 121:4). Those blessed citizens who dwell in the house of the Lord, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, devote themselves to this, praising him forever and ever (Ps. 83:5), singing his mercies for eternity, in whose mouths resound the song of joy and the voice of praise. And they practice this confession for three reasons, approaching it by as many ways: namely, that they have been freed from eternal perdition, that they have obtained heavenly joys, and that they know these will endure without any failing. These three causes invite them to the confession of their God: escape from captivity, exultation over happiness, security about eternity.
VII. You have, therefore, four kinds of confessions set before you, of which the saints practice three in the present exile, and the blessed practice the fourth in the heavenly kingdom. And the first is the confession of sin, and it pertains to the penitent; the second is of merit, and those who live well claim it for themselves; the third is of faith, and the holy martyrs practice it; the fourth is of reward, and the blessed citizens in the heavenly fatherland practice it without any failing. The first is rewarded by the cheerfulness of pardon; the second is increased by an abundance of grace; the third is strengthened by the fortitude of constancy; the fourth is adorned by the beauty of unfailing glory. And each of these four confessions has three ways leading to it. The ways of the first confession are: the considered enormity of guilt, the punishment of hell, the kindness of mercy. The enormity of guilt induces horror in the one who considers it, so that he is ashamed to be such. The calamity of punishment strikes terror, so that he fears; the kindness of mercy pours in confidence, so that he does not despair. The ways to the second confession are: the abundance of divine generosity, the excellence of his gift, the consciousness of no preceding merit. Walking along the first, the known generosity stirs you to amazement, so that you may marvel. Along the second, the seen excellence of his gifts invites you to love, so that you may be inflamed. Along the third, one's own frailty held before the eyes enlightens you, so that you may be humbled. The ways of the third confession are: the passion of the Redeemer, the strength of the Helper, the sublimity of the Rewarder. The first is set before the martyrs as an example, that they may imitate it; the second for aid, that they may be strengthened; the third for consolation, that they may be cheered. To the fourth confession these three things invite: That they have been freed from captivity, that they have attained happiness, that they are tranquil in full and perfect security.
These things we have said about the fourfold Judah and about the waters of its redemption, assigning three waters, as you know, to each Judah. Upon these waters of the redemption of Judah the Lord was walking and came to Bethlehem. Because the soul practicing these four kinds of confessions within itself, and approaching each by its proper ways, receives the almighty God as its indwelling guest, who celebrates an internal and spiritual refreshment in it and with it.
VIII. For if Bethlehem, how is the mind of the devout penitent, who devotes himself to the confession of sin, not a house of bread? The mind of the one living continently, who practices the confession of merit? The mind of the holy martyr, who fights for the confession of the Catholic faith? The mind, finally, of the blessed citizen, who celebrates the confession of eternal joy? Is not the Lord fed in the mind of the penitent, who says in the Psalms that he eats ashes like bread (Ps. 101:10), incorporating the sinner to himself through penance, just as he does the saint through justice? He was reclining once, as you know, with the Pharisee, but at the home of the sinful woman (Luke 7:36) -- but a penitent one, as blessed Gregory says, and he was delighting in the feasts of her mind. And who would deny that he feasts also among those living continently and doing good works, since he himself says that it is his bread to fulfill the will of his Father? (John 4:34). He hints at this same thing elsewhere, where he declares that the one who with full obedience receives the voice of his exhortation and opens to him the door of faith and confession -- he will enter to him and sup with him, and he with him (Rev. 3:20). So that his mind becomes a kind of Bethlehem, since having obtained true security through so great and such a guest, it rejoices to celebrate within itself a savory refreshment, according to that saying of Solomon: A secure mind is a continual feast (Prov. 15:15). If anyone claims that the fervor of faith is his bread in the spiritual athlete, no one of sound mind, I think, will contradict him in this. For what else was he hungering for when, coming to the fig tree, he found nothing in it but leaves, even though, as the Evangelist says, it was not the season for figs? (Mark 11:13.) What, I say, was he hungering for, if not the faith of the Jews? Who indeed had nothing in themselves except the leaves of legal words. Nor was it the time for them to bear the fruit of faith, because it was necessary first for the fullness of the Gentiles to enter in, and so all Israel would be saved (Rom. 11:25). That he feasts daily among those blessed ones in the heavenly fatherland -- indeed, continually and splendidly -- there is no doubt, since he himself arranged for them, as his Father arranged the kingdom for him, that they might eat and drink at his table in his kingdom (Luke 22:29). There he satisfies them with the fat of wheat; there David will be satisfied, because the glory of his Lord will be manifested (Ps. 147:14). Behold, just as we have expounded Judah to you in four ways, so also we have demonstrated to you a fourfold Bethlehem no less, assigning to each its own bread.
IX. In the first house the bread is baked under ashes, because inasmuch as it pertains to humility, it is the bread baked under the ashes of penance, and it is the bread of sorrow. About which holy David appears to speak, where he commands us to rise after we have sat, we who eat the bread of sorrow (Ps. 126:2). Which is nothing other than that we can then be raised to the hope of pardon, when we have first, in the groaning of penance, fed upon the bread of tears (Ps. 79:6), and perfectly fulfilled the full work of humility pertaining to true repentance. The bread of the second house, on account of the exercise of laborious action, seems to me to be referable to the frying pan, and it is the bread of labor. The same Psalmist mentions this to you, where he says that you will eat the labor of your hands, and therefore you are blessed, and it will be well with you (Ps. 127:2). From the gridiron also comes the bread which is in the third house, because it is fried in the fire of great contest -- the bread of him who strives to stand and fight for the defense of the faith even to the shedding of blood and to death itself -- and it is the bread of tribulation. Such bread the angry Ahab, turned to fury, once ordered to be set before the holy prophet, because he had spoken the words of truth to him, saying: Put this man in prison, and sustain him with the bread of tribulation and the water of distress (1 Kings 22:27). The bread of the fourth house is baked in the oven, kindled by that great fire of unfailing charity, which the furnace of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem, sets ablaze; and it is the bread of angels, of which whoever eats will hunger no more (John 6:35).
X. You have therefore the fourfold Judah and the spiritual bread assigned to each house. And also the three waters of the redemption of Judah upon which the Lord walks, so that he may come to Bethlehem -- leading us, by those methods and ways which we showed above, to true confession, and pouring into us the sweet savor of spiritual refreshment and, so to speak, the savory sweetness in those four houses which we have mentioned, attributed to each Judah. Immensely great is the usefulness in this coming of his to Bethlehem, and altogether great the salvation. Whence also here at the end it is said that then every man will be saved, because behold, he comes. If you understand what it means, according to this interpretation which we have had in hand until now, for the Lord to come to Bethlehem, you know consequently that the salvation of every person who desires to be saved spiritually consists in that coming of his. And that no inner man can in any way be healed, unless the Lord celebrates that sweet and savory refreshment, about which we have already said a number of things, within him.
But consider what the illness of this person of whom we speak may be, and see whether it is not so. There is someone who has cast himself behind his own back, and lying incorrigible in his sin, harder than adamant, having no regard for divine fear, but with brow outwardly brazen and heart untameable, having become in all things a house that provokes to anger (Ezek. 3:3). Do you not judge this one to be sick, indeed almost unto death, who according to his hardness and impenitent heart treasures up for himself wrath on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God? (Rom. 2:5.)
XI. There is also another, perhaps not weighed down by any great burden of sin, but clothed with no beauty of good works: lying withered and negligent. Just as he is not cold in crime, so neither is he hot in virtue, but lukewarm in torpor, and therefore to be vomited from the mouth of the Lord (Rev. 3:16). And who but a madman would call him healthy, in whom from the sole of the foot, which walks in thought, to the crown, which ought to stand out in action, there is no soundness? (Isa. 1:6). Certainly, if it is in some way a mark of the soul's health to also be beautiful (for he who is strong through health also consequently shines through appearance), I know not how you would confess this one to be healthy, who, by no means wakeful but sleeping, does not guard the garments of his works (Rev. 16:15). Indeed he has none at all, but walks naked, and all see his shame. And what will you judge of the one who, with an inert mind, weakened by infirmity, offends in faith, since he does not defend the faith; retaining in his heart, indeed, that by which he might believe unto justice, but not presuming to open his mouth to confess unto salvation? (Rom. 10:10.) Would you say that salvation is present in one whom you see not standing manfully for the defense of the faith? For while he sins in the faith that saves, salvation is surely lacking in him, and therefore he is not healthy. For if he were strong and healthy in heart, he would surely fight manfully for the faith. As the Apostle says of the saints: Who through faith conquered kingdoms, because they recovered from weakness, they were made strong in battle (Heb. 11:34). For indeed, about to say 'they were made strong in battle,' he first said 'they recovered from weakness.' So that it might be made known to us that no one can go up against the adversary and set himself as a wall for the house of Israel, to stand in battle on the day of the Lord (Ezek. 13:5), who has not yet recovered from weakness through the power of the Spirit.
XII. I think you would not assert that true salvation is present in the one in whose land -- because life there is lived pleasantly (Job 28:13) -- wisdom cannot be found. In whom, since he is deep through concupiscence and bitter through malice, the abyss says that wisdom is not in it (ibid., 12), and the sea says it is not beside it. In what way can this one be said to have salvation, who knows neither how to taste beforehand the sweetness of heavenly delight by the taste of contemplation, nor how to desire it with the palate of longing? These, therefore, are four kinds of illness in man: namely, hardness, sloth, blasphemy, and ignorance. Entirely contrary to the fourfold Judah and the four breads of the Lord. From which this spiritual man of whom we speak will by no means be saved, unless, in the manner we described above, the Lord walks upon the waters of the redemption of Judah, so that he may come to Bethlehem. And hardness is in the heart, sloth in works, blasphemy in faith, and ignorance concerning that eternal and blessed sweetness, that blessed and sweet eternity.
XIII. But the Lord walks upon the waters of the redemption of Judah, and comes to Bethlehem. He shows, that is, the ways to this sick person, by which he can approach the true confession, which we indicated above to be fourfold; and he pours into him the most savory sweetness of inner refreshment, which we said consists in the fourfold house of bread. Then indeed, to show how man is saved, the hardness which is the first kind of illness is softened. And when the hardness has been softened, the penitent in the first house, which is the austerity of penance, eats the first bread, which is the bread of sorrow. And in the first Judah, he practices the confession of sin. Then sloth, pertaining to the second kind of infirmity, is driven out; and when it has been expelled, the devout person in the second house, which is the diligence of good action, eats the second bread, which is the bread of labor. And in the second Judah, he practices the confession of merit. After this, blasphemy, which claims for itself the third kind of infirmity, is destroyed. And when it has been destroyed, the faithful person in the third house, which is the strength of right belief, eats the third bread, which is the bread of tribulation. And in the third Judah, he has the confession of faith. Finally, ignorance, which is the fourth kind of illness, is cast out. When it has been cast out, in the fourth house, which is the eternity of heavenly blessedness, he eats the fourth bread -- even if not yet in reality and effect, yet in anticipation and desire -- which is the bread of angels. And in the fourth Judah, through thought and eager desire, he celebrates the confession of joy, sending forth the sound of one exulting in the voice of confession and exultation (Ps. 41:5). Rightly, therefore, man is said to be saved when the Lord comes to Bethlehem, walking upon the waters of the redemption of Judah. What these waters are and how many, and what it means for Judah to be redeemed through them, and from what, we said partly in this sermon and partly in the preceding one.
...that which most recently preceded this one, has been shown in part, as I believe. Behold, brothers, we have drawn out our words upon the words of this responsory into more sermons than we expected. For when we began to speak, we did not have all these things together in our meditation; rather, we searched them out afterward, as the Spirit of truth went before us by his gratuitous grace and revealed them to us. For we thought we could comprehend in one sermon what we barely managed to express in four. Since this is so, what else is to be learned here, except what is openly given to understand: that while what later became clear in discussion had previously been hidden in thought, what was not at first apparent to us as we pondered in secret should be believed to have been given for your sake. In this way we shall indeed destroy pride in ourselves, humbly acknowledging that the good which is in us, just as it is not from us, so neither is it for us alone. Since certain things about these words still remain to be said, let us defer them to another sermon. Both because much has already been said, and because what remains to be said cannot be expressed in few words. Since they are so great and so profound that we do not think they can be comprehended in a single sermon. May the Holy Spirit himself, in whom we hope, who has brought us this far, deign to open your eyes to consider the wonders of his law. May he furnish us his grace, both in understanding and in expressing, for his own praise and for your edification. To whom, with the Father and the Son, from whom he proceeds from eternity, be honor and glory forever. Amen.
SERMON XV. LIKEWISE FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT OF THE LORD.
On the ways in which the minds of preachers are disposed and moved in teaching, and on fastidious hearers.
1. The Lord shall go forth from Samaria to the gate that looks toward the East, and he shall come to Bethlehem, walking upon the waters of the redemption of Judah: then every person shall be saved, because he shall come. We acknowledge ourselves debtors to you, most beloved, and it is time that we strive with all our strength to repay what we have promised. But before we approach the investigation of the profound things contained in these words, it is pleasant to recall briefly in what wondrous way almighty God has disposed us through his word. For very often, as we said at the end of the preceding sermon, many things occur to us while we speak before you, which did not become clear to us when meditating in secret and perhaps seeking with great effort, so that we may not attribute the gift of understanding to our own subtlety, and may believe that what is discussed in their presence is discussed for their sake. And so it happens that, humbly in our own eyes, we think modestly of ourselves and highly of others, not walking in great matters, nor in wonderful things above us (Ps. 130:1). On the other hand, we turn over more things in meditation so that we may speak them afterward than we actually bring forth in the speaking itself, because they do not occur to us; for he in whose hand we are, we and our words, is at that time disposing our mind and tongue and drawing them to other things. For although the things we propose to speak have been treated in thought, yet these good things which at the time of speaking the Lord supplies to the mind and the mind to the minister are perhaps more necessary for those hearers who are then present, and therefore better suited to them.
II. We read that this once happened to our eminent Father and teacher, the blessed Augustine, who, while speaking to the people as was his custom, suddenly diverted his tongue while speaking to something other than what he had proposed or what the subject he was treating contained in itself. Afterward, at a suitable time, a certain person humbly approached him and revealed what that anointing which teaches about all things (1 John 2:27) was bringing forth in his mind, through those words he had spoken without premeditation. Sometimes indeed, when the Spirit visits the mind, we grasp many things in meditation, and those same many things, the same Spirit moving the tongue, we pour forth afterward in speech, with something good provided in this both for us and for our hearers, so that in secret he may feed us through himself. Thus it happens that since all the good that is in us is not from us but from him, he provides merit for us from our hearers, and for them from us; preserving in himself, for recompense, both the preaching that we expend by speaking to them, and the humility that they display toward us in listening.
III. Often indeed, neither do many things lie open to us in meditation that we might bring forth, nor afterward, even if we wish, are we able to bring them forth. So that when he withdraws for a time from our minds the gift of understanding, and thereby the word from your ears, he may salutarily humble us by showing us that we are not sufficient to think anything from ourselves as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from him (2 Cor. 3:5). And you no less, when you know that he has commanded the clouds not to rain (Isa. 5:6), he makes solicitous and devout in prayer. So that what we pour out for you, he may first pour into us. And thus, while both our humility and your prayer cry out to God with one voice, the gift of understanding returns to us more abundantly and somehow more joyfully, that we may administer what he transmits, than if it had never been withdrawn.
But saying these things about ourselves who speak, and about you who hear, we also add this: that in one and the same word of God, the danger touches our tongue more than your ear.
IV. For you hear more safely the more humbly you hear, but we walk more dangerously in the word of the Lord, the more persistently the pride which is more hostile to grace than other vices assails us. For sometimes we strive to say something well so that we may please you who hear; or even if perhaps we do not greatly desire to please, we fear to displease. Sometimes we are shamefully delighted by the praise you offer us, though it was sought by us neither in heart nor by mouth. And indeed, to wish to please and not to wish to displease is not always evil; but blessed is he who in both seeks to please him alone, whom to please is the highest good and to displease is the worst evil. But that third thing I mentioned -- to take delight in praise not sought but offered by hearers -- we cannot pretend is not an evil. Indeed, we who speak, when we have perhaps been seized by it, must turn to our own hearts before the eyes of him to whom alone honor and glory are due, and wipe it away with frequent laments. For a weak mind willingly and joyfully receives the sweet words of praise, and even very often, when it hears nothing perhaps externally pertaining to praise, it secretly revolves within itself the things it has said well, and recalling that these are known to others through itself, and reporting to itself that they were greatly pleasing to them, it vainly cheers itself with a private kind of joy. And since the mind cannot turn even these things over in itself without grave fault, what shall we say of him whose mouth, speaking from the abundance of the heart and openly boasting of himself (Luke 6:45), most frequently repeats what it has already brought forth as deeply considered thoughts, and, puffed up by the most base and most empty wind of arrogance, also polishes what it has declared? How also is he to be mocked, how to be derided, who, while seeking praise in his heart but as if fleeing it with his mouth, complains that whatever he has said is of absolutely no value; who asserts that he would rather have been silent than to have spoken so. His whole intent in this outward self-accusation is to rouse others to praise him, so that while they hear him complaining so anxiously with his mouth, and do not perceive the base appetite for vain glory that waits so impatiently and seeks so ardently in his heart, they might, as if consoling him, assert that he spoke well, and affirm that he deserves to be praised for words so laudably uttered. A truly detestable kind of boasting: to humble yourself in order to exalt yourself, and to seek praise by fleeing it.
V. These evils, brothers, and those of this kind, lie in ambush for those who speak, from which you who hear are immune. For since the beauty of your devotion, preserved in secret among you, is not recognized when seen or heard outwardly, it is assuredly not clouded by the dust of human praise. But just as we must guard against this pernicious plague of pride, so you likewise must beware of the very worst vice of boredom and curiosity. For there are very many, whom we have experienced most often, who receive the word with the greatest boredom in the sermons that are customarily recited on feast days, presenting themselves more from habit than from affection, expecting and desiring the end more than desiring or gathering for themselves any spiritual edification. And not only this, but when they cannot be bodily absent on account of the discipline of the order, weighed down by the pernicious burden of boredom, drawing their faces into their hoods, as if restraining the wantonness of their eyes with a bridle of maturity, they persist in idle drowsiness. There are indeed others who gladly hear what is said, but approve absolutely nothing unless new and unheard things are spoken. Indeed they are accustomed, when the sermon is finished, if they cannot by spoken words, then by signs of the fingers, to confer certain things among themselves -- as we ourselves have very often detected, and have frequently heard them engaging in this manner: "Does not Augustine, does not Gregory, do not the other doctors say these same things? What he stole from the books of the doctors and memorized, he recited to us as a sermon, as if we too could not see these things, as he saw and collected them."
VI. This is the voice of those unwilling to pay attention. For as the Comedian says: "Nothing is said that has not been said before." This, I say, is the voice of those who act as if we should or could say something that the holy doctors who preceded us did not say and leave behind in their writings for our instruction. Especially since the Psalmist commands us to bless the Lord in the assemblies from the fountains of Israel (Ps. 67:27). And the sons of Aaron were struck by God in Leviticus (Lev. 10:1), because they offered strange fire, which had not been commanded to them. To whom would I compare these people, except to those carnal Israelites who, despising the manna, desired Egyptian foods, as you know (Num. 21:5). But if these people carefully considered what the punishment of those was, they would not, I believe, say such things.
VII. But with what mockery and derision will you judge those to be touched, who, while having absolutely no understanding of Scripture or very little, utterly reject a sermon addressed to them unless the whole thing is delivered in Latin words, and what is more laughable, unless in certain pompous and unusual words. "He felt well and acutely in his mind," they say, "but whatever he said is less probable and less acceptable, since he assumed this common speech in his delivery" -- when they themselves understand absolutely nothing of all that is said, unless it is explained to them in the vernacular. But you, brothers, be not so; rather let your minds hunger for the word of God with such eagerness that you hunger for it again. But also avoid in that same word every manner of speech that does not edify. And strive rather that hearts be imbued in you than that words be composed for you. Cleansing yourselves therefore from these dregs, have compassion on our manifold miseries. With faithful souls raised up, sigh to him for us, who in all these things which we have set forth above to you, and in the other evils that are renewed in us, is our only hope and singular refuge. So that he who washed the feet of those who clung to his teaching may also make beautiful the feet of those who bring good tidings to you (Rom. 10:15). That we may not be like very many who adulterate the word of God, but may speak from sincerity as from God, before God, in Christ.
VIII. And we who have been appointed for this purpose, as guardians of his Bride, the holy Church, which is you -- transmitting his words through us -- let us see to it that he is loved by her and praised; and by no means adulterating him, let us not seek anything of our own in her which belongs to God alone. So that as faithful groomsmen and friends of the Bridegroom, standing sincerely in the rectitude of inner intention, and hearing him with the ears of the heart, we may rejoice with joy, not on account of our own voice, but on account of his voice (John 3:29). For as the same says: He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him, this one is true, and there is no injustice in him (John 7:18). He speaks from himself who supposes that what he speaks is from himself; he also speaks from himself who speaks for himself alone, whether for the advantage of some temporal gain or for the favor of human praise. But assist our weakness with your prayers, so that walking wisely between him and you, we may seek his glory in you, who sent us.
IX. Hear what in these most sacred and profound words he has graciously revealed to us, so that we too might reveal it to you for his praise and your benefit. The Lord shall go forth from Samaria to the gate that looks toward the east. By this going forth of the Lord from Samaria, we understand his salutary coming to humankind from that lofty and secret guardianship, where the Father kept him in his bosom. For, as he himself says: I went forth from the Father, and came into the world (John 16:28). And according to the Psalmist's words: From the highest heaven is his going forth (Ps. 18:7). Was he not in guardianship who was hidden, invisible, in the invisible Father? For as long as he had no other nature in himself except the divine, which is also invisible, he was, as it were, within for that long. But when the Word was made flesh, that is, when God was made man, and dwelt among us (John 1:14); and according to what Jeremiah says: He was seen on earth and conversed with men (Baruch 3:38). Then assuredly he went forth from this Samaria of which we speak.
X. Hence she who once in the Canticles ardently longed to see his going forth, who, moved by great desire, said: Who will give you to me as my brother, that I may find you outside? (Song 8:1.) Indeed she had already found him within, because she believed in him whom she recognized as invisible in his divinity. But she longed to see him outside, so that he might appear in that nature which could be seen with bodily eyes. But for him to appear in such a nature, it was necessary that he assume it in the unity of his person, and not hide himself under some phantasmal form, but be truly a man. First, therefore, she wished him to become her brother, so that she might afterward find him outside. For after he became our brother and our flesh, being made in the likeness of men and found in appearance as a man, he went forth from the secret of paternal Samaria to the public realm of our nature; and so he was found outside in our nature, who had been within in his own. He who is blessed forever. Amen.
SERMON XVI. LIKEWISE FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT OF THE LORD.
On the coming of Christ to the Church through the Virgin Mary.
I. When God went forth from Samaria, where did he first appear? Surely at the gate that looks toward the East. For he received from the Virgin Mary that appearance in which he would be seen. Christ is a certain gate, of which you have the saying in Job concerning the impious, that his friends shall be far from salvation, and they shall be crushed in the gate (Job 5:4). For the people of the Synagogue, distancing themselves from true salvation, were corrupted through unbelief when Christ came. There is also another gate pertaining to faith, of which Saint David says: he shall not be confounded when he speaks, he says, with his enemies in the gate (Ps. 126:5), that is, when he shall dispute with heretics for the defense of the faith. There is also the good work that we practice, as a kind of gate, because through it we go forth outwardly from the good will that we have inwardly before God to the eyes of our neighbors; of which Saint Job says: When I went forth to the gate of the city (Job 29:7). That is, when I went forth outwardly to do good work before others. But also our departure from this life is a gate for us. As we read in Ezekiel (ch. 40:3), that the prophet, standing within, had his eyes outwardly toward the gate, because every elect person living in the faith of the Church ought to extend his desire toward his departure from this life, so that he may be with Christ.
II. The gate that is holy and perpetual is the Virgin, as is found said in the same Ezekiel, that this gate shall be shut and shall not be opened (Ezek. 44:2). For she always remained uncorrupted both before giving birth and uninjured after giving birth. To this gate the Lord came, going forth from Samaria, because she, open in mind through faith and closed in body through chastity, conceived him pure without pollution and gave birth to him whole without injury. Truly you are, O blessed Virgin, the eastern gate in Ezekiel. You are also this gate of which we now speak, looking toward the east; for you are she in whom Christ had both entrance and exit without any violation, and through whom we too have entry to the kingdom.
And you never cease to practice holiness, since you are full of grace. You strive to please Christ alone, since you were seen to have neither a precedent like you, nor a follower. For let our childhood be the east, from which the sun of our age first rises. Concerning which it is read in the Gospel that many shall come from the East (Matt. 8:11); because many approach Christ from childhood itself. And since the Jewish people is in a certain way the east, as is found in the Apocalypse, because from the East there are three gates (Rev. 21:13), because to them also the faith of the Holy Trinity was announced. There is also a true East, the Lord Christ, toward whom you look, so that you may please him alone in your inner intention. There is also the work of holiness, toward which you likewise look, so that you may practice it in his name in your manner of life.
III. Almost the entire world was still inclining toward the west of the flesh, working in it and bringing forth from it the fruit of death, when you, lifting your eyes toward the east of virginity, bore before you the glory of future incorruption. How beautiful and most happy will that state of the holy Church shine, in which her faithful will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be as the angels of God in heaven! (Matt. 22:30.) For what woman at that time was able or willing to utter this voice: I know not a man? (Luke 1:34.) Certainly you would assert that there was none then, if you fully recognize the power of this utterance. For what does "I know not a man" mean, except "I do not intend to know a man"? Not only not knowing a man in the present, but having a firm resolution of not knowing one for the whole time of my life. Indeed rather, a barren woman was then held to be accursed: so much so that the daughter of Jephthah (Judges 11:34) judged it more to be lamented and grieved that she brought her virgin flesh to the grave than that she was slain by her father's sword. But you looked toward Christ in your inner intention; you looked toward the East, the virginity of the flesh, in your chaste manner of life. You looked, I say, even beyond all women, whence you are proclaimed blessed through all the ages. But him whom you alone then received, you did not wish to have alone; rather, he who came to you from the bosom of the Father came also to us through you.
IV. And so the dew that was first in the fleece alone (Judges 6:40) afterward moistened the whole threshing floor, so that she alone might first receive him, and might then bring him to all nations. This is what Saint David says, that he shall descend first like rain upon the fleece, and then like drops falling upon the earth (Ps. 71:6). He descended first upon the fleece, then upon the earth. But upon the fleece as rain, upon the earth however as drops. Because first Christ came to the Virgin with the fullness of grace, and then he called his faithful and elect to participate. Hence, just as first the dew was in the fleece, then on the threshing floor, so also the Lord, going forth from Samaria, first came to the gate that looks toward the East, and then came to Bethlehem. This is what we sing of her in the Mass, that she first conceived her only-begotten Son by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. And then: With the glory of virginity remaining, she poured forth upon this world the eternal light, Jesus Christ our Lord. For Bethlehem is the Church called from the Gentiles, to be the house of him who says: I am the living bread (John 6:52). To which house of bread the Lord came, after he went forth from Samaria to the gate that looks toward the East. For from the bosom of the Father through the assumption of flesh he approached the Virgin, and through her mediation he reached the Church through faith.
V. Saying this, I recall to mind that excellent ancient story from Exodus (ch. 2:3). In which we read of Moses that his mother hid the newborn for three months. And when he could no longer be concealed, she took a basket of rushes and coated it inside and out with bitumen and pitch, and placed the infant within. Whom afterward, as you know, since it would take too long to go through each detail, the daughter of Pharaoh took up. Who is this Moses, hidden for three months in his father's house, but our Lord the lawgiver, who received the words of life to give us in three periods: under nature, under the law, under the prophets, lying hidden in this Samaria of which we have already spoken at length? But taken from his father's house, he was placed in a basket of rushes coated with bitumen and pitch. For going forth from Samaria he came to the gate that looks toward the East. The daughter of Pharaoh received him when extracted from the basket, and the elect Church from the Gentiles received Christ born of the Virgin Mary through faith, which is the Lord coming from the gate that looks toward the East to Bethlehem. The basket was coated, as it were, with bitumen and pitch when our Virgin was adorned with purity and humility: asserting that she did not know a man, which no one doubts is perfect chastity, and calling herself the handmaid of the Lord (Luke 1:38), which is a mark of great and profound humility, she offers to almighty God both the pitch of humility in her mind and the bitumen of chastity in her flesh. Therefore, what is said in the seventy-first psalm about descending (Ps. 71:6), then upon the fleece, and finally upon the earth; and what in Exodus, first Moses unable to be hidden is made manifest, then is placed in the basket, and finally is taken up by the daughter of Pharaoh -- this here is first the Lord going forth from Samaria, then approaching the gate that looks toward the East, and finally coming to Bethlehem: that is, Christ going out from the secret of the Father, yet not departing from there, to the Virgin, assuming flesh from her and in her, approaching the Church from the Gentiles, and nourishing it with the food of faith.
VI. But since the Church is Bethlehem, and Bethlehem is "house of bread," it must be known that there is a bread of which she is not the house, because she does not permit it to be hosted within her. For there is a certain bread -- heretical teaching -- as is read in Proverbs, that bread eaten in secret is sweeter (Prov. 9:17), because heretical doctrine is sometimes dearer to the reprobate than sound doctrine. There is also carnal pleasure, a bread by which the sinful soul is fed, as you have it said in Job concerning the wicked, when he sets himself to seek bread (Job 15:23), that is, when he has given himself over to seeking carnal pleasure. And also any hardened person persisting in his sin is a bread, as is found in Hosea, that Ephraim has become a cake not turned (Hos. 7:8), because the hardened sinner lies in his uncleanness and does not repent of it. Of this threefold bread the Church is not the house, because she is not a dwelling for it either by affection or by effect. The first bread leads the one who eats it to blasphemy in faith; the second to consent in depravity; the third indeed to eternity in the punishment of Gehenna. For heretical teaching seduces through error, the pleasure of sin leads to consent, perseverance in iniquity plunges one into eternal perdition, so that by God's just judgment, as here he never wished to end his guilt, so there he may never end his punishment.
VII. But there is another bread belonging to the Church, of which she is indeed the house. He himself is the first, who says of himself: I am the living bread (John 6:52), for in him is the life-giving refreshment of the soul. There is also a second bread of hers, that which she receives daily at the most sacred altar. Of which it is said in Proverbs: she has not eaten the bread of idleness (Prov. 31:27), because she does not receive the body of her Redeemer without the fruit of good works. There is also a third, spiritual grace, as it is stated in Isaiah that bread has been given to him, his waters are faithful (Isa. 33:16), that is, spiritual grace has been bestowed upon the churchman, and his contemplations are not erroneous. There is also a fourth, sacred teaching, as Jeremiah says, that the little ones asked for bread (Lam. 4:4). That is, the humble and simple desired to hear teaching. There is also a fifth bread of the Church, good action, as that voice of the Holy Spirit in Isaiah contains, which says: We shall eat our bread (Isa. 4:1), because the sevenfold Spirit delights in the good work which he inspires us to do. There is also a sixth bread of hers, the strength of charity. Of which the Lord says in the Gospel: Which of you asks for bread, that is, for charity? (Luke 11:11). There is also a seventh, the virtue of humility, as is read in the Book of Kings: And behold, at his head a cake baked on coals (3 Kings 19:6), for in the mind of a holy man humility comes from the consideration of his own weakness. There is also an eighth, the holy person, as it is stated in the Psalm concerning the Lord that he eats ashes like bread (Ps. 101:10). For he not only incorporates into himself the holy person through justice, but also the sinner through repentance. There is certainly also a ninth, consolation, as Jeremiah says: The people groaning and seeking bread (Lam. 1:11), that is, grieving and desiring consolation. There is still a tenth bread of hers, the sustenance of the present life. Of which Saint Jacob says in Genesis: If you shall give me bread to eat (Gen. 28:20), that is, if you shall grant me sustenance for strengthening.
VIII. Of this twice-five-fold bread, therefore, the Church is the house, so that she may rightly be named and be Bethlehem. The first she has by being fed through faith; the second, by being nourished sacramentally; the third, by being visited in secret; the fourth, by being instructed through hearing; the fifth, by being occupied in good works; the sixth, by being enriched with love; the seventh, by being humbled in herself; the eighth, by being sanctified through practice; the ninth, by being strengthened through consolation; the tenth, by being fortified through sustenance. To this Bethlehem the Lord came, going forth from Samaria to the gate that looks toward the East, because going out from the secret of the Father and taking on the public form of our nature from the Virgin Mary, he showed himself to the Church through faith. May he grant us, who already know him through faith, to be led all the way to beholding the sight of his majesty. To whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, forever and ever. Amen.
SERMON XVII. LIKEWISE FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT OF THE LORD.
On how the Lord came to the Church in the sacraments of the Old Testament.
I. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. Thanks to him who deigns to refresh us daily more and more with spiritual feasts, admitting us into his inner chambers and showing us his hidden treasures and the secrets of his mysteries, opening also our eyes and faces, that we may search out the wonders of his law and behold his glory. See how many profound things, how great and how hidden, he has revealed to us in the words of this responsory! And certainly, when I first began to ruminate on them within myself, I thought I could expound them in one sermon, or at most two, when we have already completed six, now have one in hand, and still have some things to say about them. A wonderful kind of food, I confess, which not only because of the supreme flavor it possesses is hungered for the more it is eaten, but also the more frequently it is consumed, the more it increases. This we have experienced here, for we have already eaten often, yet the food grows in the mouth under the teeth of those eating. Let us now undertake what remains to be explained about these words.
II. Walking upon the waters of the redemption of Judah. Here we must begin, because this is where the preceding sermon left off. The Lord therefore came to Bethlehem, showing himself to the Church of the Gentiles through faith, but he came walking upon the waters of the redemption of Judah, establishing in that same Church from the beginning the sacraments of human salvation. For we understand one and the same Church through Judah as we understand through Bethlehem, because she who is refreshed through the recognition of truth is herself also exalted through the power of confession: there believing in the heart unto justice, but here confessing with the mouth unto salvation (Rom. 10:10).
This Judah has the waters of her redemption, upon which the Lord walked as he came to Bethlehem, for in her were established sacraments -- partly under the law of nature, partly under the written law, partly in the time of grace -- in which she confesses her salvation to be, until the true Savior himself appeared in his first coming, in which, sacrificing himself on the altar of the cross, he ministered his flesh to us as food and his blood as drink. And he shall appear in the second coming, when the end shall come, when he shall hand over the kingdom to God the Father; and God shall be all in all (1 Cor. 15:24), so that, with him conferring eternal blessedness upon us, there shall cease and utterly come to an end not only the things that before his first coming promised the Savior, but also the things that after the second presently convey salvation. Then he shall not speak to us in proverbs, but shall declare to us plainly concerning the Father (John 16:25). Nor shall he approach us under the veil of sacraments, because we shall see him face to face; and we shall see him as he is (1 Cor. 13:12; 1 John 3:2).
III. Since walking pertains not to standing still but to movement, the Lord walks upon the waters of the redemption of Judah in order to come to Bethlehem. For until the Son of God manifested himself in the flesh, he changed the sacraments that prefigured the redemption of the Church, substituting some for others as reason required, and causing some to succeed others according to the courses of times and the succession of generations. Lift up your eyes and see how the Lord, until he came to Bethlehem in the time of grace, was walking upon the waters of the redemption of Judah in the time of nature and of the written law. Establishing few sacraments indeed under nature, and multiplying them under the written law, until coming from the gate that looks toward the East he entered Bethlehem, that is, appearing in the flesh through the Virgin, he dwelt in the Church through faith, and now the figures and signs would cease, and the reality itself and the truth, appearing, would reign. And so, before he came to Bethlehem, he walked upon the waters of the redemption of Judah; but after he came to Bethlehem, as in his own home, he rests, now full of every sweet refreshment.
IV. I believe this is what is read in the Book of Kings that the Lord said to Nathan: I have not dwelt, he said, in a house from the day I led the children of Israel out of the midst of Egypt; but I have walked in a tabernacle and in a tent through all the places that I passed through, with all the children of Israel (2 Sam. 7:6). The day on which he led the children of Israel out of Egypt is the brightness of grace, by which, visiting his elect whom he predestined to be made blessed by seeing him forever, he drew them out of those shadows which they had contracted through the sin of the first parent -- both mortality in the body and iniquity in the mind. For immediately after sin, from which calamity began, he himself also began to visit them with this grace, preparing medicine for the sick human being in diverse sacraments, as the situation required: some under nature, some under the law -- diverse indeed in appearance, but tending toward one healing. But in those times he had not yet dwelt in a house, that is, he had not yet come to the Bethlehem of the holy Church that now exists, but he was walking in a tabernacle and a tent through all the places he passed through, approaching man in sacraments, of which some ceased in their own time, and others succeeded those in their place. Just as a tabernacle and a tent are not stable dwellings but are moved from place to place, and are found only where houses cannot be built. And he passed through in this way doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38), whom he chose for this healing, walking upon the waters of the redemption of Judah.
V. But there are still other waters in the Scriptures besides these, which the wicked drink, but they are not waters of the redemption of Judah; rather, they are waters of the perdition of Damascus. For the elect are by no means washed in them to be saved, but rather the reprobate are drowned in them to be condemned. Our sins are also, as it were, certain waters, which the Lord remits to us through repentance, as we read in Genesis that the Spirit of the Lord was borne over the waters (Gen. 1:2), for his mercy is greater than our iniquity. And his charity covers the multitude of our sins (1 Pet. 4:8). The stolen knowledge of heretics is sweeter (Prov. 9:17). Because the hidden knowledge of heretics seems sweeter to the reprobate than the teachings of the orthodox. But the persecutions of the wicked are also waters, as the Psalmist says that he founded the earth upon waters (Ps. 103:5), that is, he strengthened the Church upon persecutions. Unstable thoughts are also waters, whence the same Psalmist asks that he deliver him from many waters (Ps. 143:7). That is, from many unstable thoughts. By waters we understand the enticements of temptations, as Saint Job says that waters wear away stones (Job 14:17), because the enticements of temptations sometimes soften even strong men. Waters no less express the pleasures of the reprobate, as Saint David says: he turned their waters into blood (Ps. 104:29), because the Lord sometimes turns the evil pleasures of the reprobate to bitterness. Infernal punishments are also designated by waters, as is read of the Egyptians: they sank like lead in the mighty waters (Exod. 15:10); that is, heavy sinners fell into infernal punishments. These, and any waters of this kind, belong to Abana and Pharphar, the rivers of Damascus (4 Kings 5:12), and not to the waters of the redemption of Judah.
VI. But there are also other waters which I would not unjustly say pertain to the redemption of Judah, such as those of which the Psalmist says: and the waters, he says, that are above the heavens (Ps. 148:4), that is, the holy angels who dwell in the heights -- let them praise the name of the Lord. These are the waters of the redemption of Judah, because the angels always attend to the liberation and defense of the holy Church. Souls freed from the flesh also attend, ceaselessly praying for the holy Church, and they too are waters, of which Saint David says: who covers, he says, its upper parts with waters (Ps. 103:3). For we understand sacred Scripture in some things; but the blessed souls fully comprehend its depths. The saints who are presently in the Church also attend, as the same Psalmist says, that the river of God is filled with waters (Ps. 64:10). Because daily in the holy Church the people serving God increases in both merit and number. The laments of humility are also waters, which frequently redeem this Judah. Of which Saint Job says: if I shall have been washed, he says, as with waters of snow (Job 9:30), that is, if I shall have been bathed in the laments of humility. To waters of this kind also pertain the devotions of the saints, of which likewise blessed Job says that he weighed the waters by measure (Job 28:25). For in a wondrous and admirable way God moderates the devotions of his elect, so that they cannot always accomplish as much in effect as they can grasp in desire. The peoples also who are daily freed from evil into the Church are waters of the redemption of Judah. Of whom the Psalmist, addressing the Lord, says: the waters, he says, saw you and feared (Ps. 76:17), that is, the peoples looked upon you by believing, and feared by repenting.
VII. How the redemption of Judah consists in these and similar waters, our capacity sufficiently teaches you. Upon these waters of the redemption of Judah the Lord walks daily, coming into his Bethlehem, ceaselessly visiting his Church through them. But what is the benefit of the Lord's going forth from Samaria to the gate that looks toward the East, coming to Bethlehem, walking upon the waters of the redemption of Judah? Much indeed, and exceedingly great. For it follows: Then every person shall be saved, because behold he shall come. And rightly so. For his name is Jesus. Because he accomplishes what his name signifies, namely salvation in the midst of the earth (Ps. 73:12). Saving his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). For God the Father did not send him into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17). So that what is said here may be true: that then every person shall be saved, because behold he shall come. But having heard these things according to the allegorical sense, you eagerly desire, as it seems to me, and hope with expectation, that we may say something to you about this going forth of the Lord according to the moral sense. And indeed I do not dare to fail you, even when perhaps you ask for something that is above me.
VIII. For I have often felt and experienced that when I am knocked upon, and thereby compelled to knock in turn, I too have seen something open to me that had previously been hidden from me. Which assuredly would not have opened unless I knocked, and I would not have knocked unless I had been knocked upon. This certainly often happens to those who are devoted and diligent regarding the work of the word. For those who are attentive to them make their preachers attentive, because they themselves are attentive; and while they knock at them, the Lord opens to them what had previously been hidden: preparing, as he himself says to holy Job, food for his raven, when its young ones cry out to God as they wander, because they have no food (Job 38:41). And perhaps he often prepares that food for the raven more on account of the crying chicks than on account of the raven itself, granting to the faithful and prudent stewards whom he has placed over his household, when their little ones ask for bread, not only what they should break for them (Lam. 4:4), but also how they should break it, lest they suffer refusal in so just a request. The ardor, therefore, that you have in hearing the word brings us great profit; but lukewarmness brings no less loss. For when you desire no small amount, the shepherd of us all gives us not only what we may feed you with, but what we may be fed with together with you. But when you despise that bread of life, we do not deserve to receive it either, your boredom standing in the way.
IX. And hence it is that often when we must speak to you, we become feeble and poor in speaking, because you have become weak and feeble in hearing. Nor can we then feel anything acutely or bring anything forth readily, except something small, your lukewarmness hindering us from doing more. On the other hand, when, as we speak to you, we perceive by signs or certain indications that you are eager and avid to hear, yet with true humility and attentiveness, then in the very act of speaking certain things previously unknown to us are given to us to set before you. So that the sudden recognition of your desire becomes for us the sudden administration of new grace. But now ending this sermon, let us defer to another what pertains to the moral sense, praising him who is blessed forever. Amen.
SERMON XVIII. LIKEWISE FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT OF THE LORD.
On the threefold order of cenobites.
I. It seems to me that in these words, about which much has already been said, three orders can be noted of those who exist in the holy congregation. First indeed are those who, on account of the care of external things committed to them, can be called obedientiaries. Then there are those admitted and called novices among you; and the order of those who, having set aside all outward occupation and care, attend only to interior matters, and are called the cloistered. For the Lord is said to go forth, to come, and to walk. And, so that each of these three may have its proper attribute: he goes forth to the gate that looks toward the East; he comes to Bethlehem; he walks upon the waters of the redemption of Judah. Yet the origin and cause of all these is Samaria. For from there he is said to go forth, to come, and to walk. He goes forth, then, to run through these briefly, in the obedientiaries, who on account of the care and provision of the external things committed to them must often go out not only in body, but sometimes even from the spiritual quiet of the mind itself.
II. He comes in the novices, who come either from childhood itself, as if from the very east of the beginning of their age, or in old age, as if from the west, to recline with the faithful and obedient, whom Abraham designates; with those who, well aware of their own conscience, rejoice in a firm hope of future things, to whom Isaac pertains; with those who, manfully fighting against vices, strive in every way to supplant them, whom Jacob represents. And they come for this purpose: to recline with these obedient, hoping, fighting ones in this kingdom of heaven (Matt. 8:11), that is, to feast spiritually in this holy congregation of the just before God, eating the bread of life in this holy Bethlehem. These are they who come at various hours to the vineyard of that supreme Householder (Matt. 20:1): some indeed in the morning of childhood, some at the third hour of adolescence, some at the sixth of youth, some at the ninth of old age, some even at the eleventh of the last and decrepit age. And though they by no means all have the same time of coming, yet one single denarius rewards each, because there is one Lord, our mediator, who from himself feeds his novices in Bethlehem and consoles those laboring in the vineyard. He who comes in the novices walks in the cloistered, who, having received help from him, disposing ascents in their hearts in this valley of tears, go from strength to strength, that they may see the God of gods in Zion (Ps. 83:7); and indeed the more readily they go and the more swiftly they arrive, the more completely freed from external care, attending only to interior matters.
III. I believe this relates to what is said in praise of holy David: For who in all things is as faithful as David, going out and coming in and proceeding at the command of the king? (1 Sam. 22:14.) Coming in on account of the novices, going out on account of the obedientiaries, proceeding on account of the cloistered. But it is necessary that our outgoers go out to the gate that looks toward the East, and those coming come to Bethlehem, and those walking walk upon the waters of the redemption of Judah. For David neither goes out nor comes in, nor proceeds except at the command of the king. And so that you may know how they can act thus, observe that Samaria is the place from which they must go forth, come, and walk. And fidelity is likewise the reason that holy David goes in and goes out and proceeds at the command of the king. You sense, if I am not mistaken, that something lies enclosed in these words, so that you know you must knock accordingly, in order that it may be opened. They say that Samaria is interpreted as "guardianship." Let guardianship therefore be present with us as we go forth, that we may go forth to the gate that looks toward the East. Let it be present, I say, and let it be twofold: the first being prudence, and the second fidelity.
IV. For the Lord thus describes the steward who must be placed over his household: let him be faithful, lest injustice corrupt him; let him be prudent, lest ignorance deceive him (Matt. 24:45). Let him be both prudent in acting and faithful in spending. So that he may cautiously acquire what is lacking and justly spend what is at hand. Let him finally be prudent, so that he may know how to do whatever must be done according to reason, and let him be faithful, willing to do nothing against reason. With this twofold guardianship, our outgoers can safely go forth to the gate that looks toward the East. So that they may exercise their outward activity in a manner worthy of meriting the eternal reward. For insofar as they are prudent, they guard against evils, so as to be free from punishment; insofar as they are faithful, they practice good things, so as to be worthy of the reward. This gate, therefore, that looks toward the East is good action: which will possess that eternal East as its reward, of whom the prophet says: Behold, he says, a Man whose name is the East (Zech. 6:12). So that for those to whom the love of Christ is sweet in action, his vision may also be a luminous reward in recompense.
V. But let a twofold guardianship also be present with our novices, so that they too may come from Samaria to Bethlehem. Namely, a full contempt for the world and a perfect love for religious life. For since there are two plagues by which they were affected in the world -- the swelling of pride, which raised them up in mind, and the stench of corruption, which dishonored them in the flesh -- they find in holy Bethlehem a double antidote against these two evils: the lowliness of humility and the rigor of austerity, which curbs bodily pleasure. But in order to bear with equanimity the hardships of the new life, they must fully despise the pleasures of the old life and perfectly hate the vanity they loved in the world, so that they may fruitfully love the lowliness of the holy religious life they have begun. This is the twofold bread that must be set before them in this house to which they have come: namely, contempt for this world and love for sacred religious life. To which, if perseverance is added so that they persist in the goodness of both, they doubtless have a third bread as well, so that your friend who has come to you from a journey, from a distant region where he squandered all his substance living prodigally, where he also fed swine, bearing the long-lasting loss of poverty and the danger of hunger, may be refreshed by these three loaves (Luke 11:5; 15:13).
The first is an ash-cake because of the lowliness of humility; the second is of barley because of the rigor of austerity; the third is of wheat, because it is greater through the virtue and strength of perseverance, providing both sweetness and vigor.
VI. A twofold guardianship is also necessary so that the cloistered may walk fortified, so that they desire interior quiet above all things. And whatever they sense to be contrary to it, let them distance themselves from it as much as possible, in mind, speech, and deed. For many are cloistered who are indeed placed within in body but run about outside in mind, as Solomon says: talkative and wandering, impatient of quiet, unable to stand still in the house with their feet (Prov. 7:11). And this bodily, as at every hour they can, they slip out furtively. But spiritually, as in the interior movements of their thoughts they linger with themselves in the mind at no hour. This is why I said the cloistered must desire quiet above all things: not only bodily quiet in the cloister, but also spiritual quiet in the soul. Therefore all things that happen externally and are contrary to their quiet, and especially those that do not pertain to them, they must count as nothing, if possible, so that they may know how to seek it wisely, and may be able to hold it firmly once sought and found. For they will never be able to rest tranquilly unless, as they love interior quiet, so also they flee by whatever means they can all things that they consider externally opposed to it, and especially regard such things as nothing.
VII. This is your straight way, O cloistered ones; walk in it. So that you may consequently walk upon the waters of the redemption of Judah, which are the heavenly contemplations of the soul, which you must frequent in that interior quiet. In these waters the faithful soul, devout in the confession of the divinity, refines itself: it also drinks them, and washes itself in them no less. It refines itself, lest it be raw, yielding softly to the flesh. It drinks, lest it be dry, weakly succumbing to the world. It washes, lest it be unclean, strongly prostituting itself to the devil. Thus in these waters Judah is snatched from a threefold calamity. Refined in them, she is snatched from the softness of the flesh. Having drunk, she is protected from the seduction of the world. Having been washed, she is freed from the pollution of the devil. Then every person shall be saved, because behold he shall come. Truly then every person shall be saved, because both the obedientiaries are saved from harmful sloth through the good action they practice, and the novices from wicked oldness through the holy newness they begin, and the cloistered from curious wandering through the interior quiet they frequent. We can also understand in these words your threefold exercise, for you should always be either in reading, in action, or in prayer. For if you stand in Samaria with the prophet upon your watchtower (Hab. 2:1) and, as Solomon commands, keep your heart with all diligence (Prov. 4:23), going forth from the holiness of secret thought to the usefulness of outward action, bearing fruit upward while you send the root downward, and meditating in the mornings of good work in the Lord while you are first mindful of him upon the couch of the mind.
VIII. You will therefore go forth to the gate that looks toward the East, practicing holy action, which will worthily receive eternal recompense according to its merits. You will also come to Bethlehem, so that, placed in a place of pasture, through assiduous sacred reading in that fourfold sense -- namely the historical, allegorical, tropological, and anagogical -- you may perceive the sweet delight and delightful sweetness of a certain fourfold bread. You will also walk upon the waters of the redemption of Judah, so that, nurtured upon the waters of refreshment, praying those interior devotions in the sight of the Most High, you may exercise them in spiritual confession and pure prayer. Thus you will be adorned through the exercise of good action, enriched through the food of studious reading, and refreshed through the devotion of pure prayer. So that the first you may have for the aid of necessity, on account of your neighbor; the second for the nourishment of your soul, on account of yourself; the third for inner devotion, on account of God. And when you have thus lived soberly, justly, and piously in this world, you will be able to await with confidence the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of God (Tit. 2:13), so that then every person may be saved, because behold he shall come.
IX. There occurs to us yet another sense, which we propose to share with you, briefly however, because we have lingered very long on these matters. But if anything in these words seems to you worth seeking afterward, if you wish to carefully consider what has been said, you will be able to find it well enough on your own. But this is what I wish to say. And indeed I feel great compassion for you, because you are in great tribulations and in many austerities. For I see you contained in a certain most strict guardianship -- I would say detained, if I saw you in it unwillingly. But now, since you are in it willingly, you contain yourselves in it; you are not detained by it. A wise man once said: Son, put your feet into the fetters of the Lord (Sir. 6:25). Which you too have already done. Not only putting those feet of interior affections into the spiritual fetters of your Lord, but also confining your body outwardly in the strictest guardianship, wearing it down with fasts, weakening it with vigils, mortifying your members which are upon the earth (Col. 3:5), and crucifying your flesh with its vices and concupiscences (Gal. 5:24), until this hour hungering and thirsting and laboring with your hands (1 Cor. 4:11). This is that Samaria in which you now are. A guardianship not only in the heart, which you keep with all diligence, and standing with the prophet upon your watchtower, you are ready daily, indeed continually, to rouse Leviathan (Job 3:8). But you also hold yourselves in the strictest guardianship even in the body, always and everywhere restraining yourselves within the established limits according to place and time, reserving nothing of yours for yourselves: not the tongue, to say anything without restraint; not the hands, to give or receive water without measure; nor finally the feet, to go anywhere except where it has been appointed.
But see that you are not saddened, that your heart not be troubled; nor let it weary you to be bound by these austerities for the sake of obtaining the kingdom of heaven, and to have your feet placed in these fetters. For the Lord will hear his poor, and will not despise those who are his prisoners (Ps. 68:34); only endure being shackled, and he will set your feet in a spacious place (Ps. 30:9).
X. For he himself now suffers in you and with you. He himself will then console you with eternal joy. There conferring upon you a perpetual reward by his power, who here sustains temporal labor in you through compassion. For then he shall go forth from this Samaria, causing you to go forth from it, and he will lead out and bring forth, as holy David prays, your soul from guardianship (for this is what Samaria means), to confess his name (Ps. 141:8). Going forth, that is, to the gate in you that looks toward the East, so that through the departure from this life he may lead you to that luminous and unfailing recompense. And he who now walks in you upon the waters of the redemption of Judah, advancing you from strength to strength, according to the holy rules and customs you observe, which I would not unjustly call the waters of the redemption of Judah, because they redeem the soul from the softness of the flesh, from the enticements of the world, and from the assaults of the devil. Then he shall come in you to Bethlehem, satisfying you in the manifestation of his glory, bestowing upon you, as the Father bestowed upon him, a kingdom (Luke 22:29), that you may eat and drink at his table in his kingdom.
XI. From Samaria he shall go forth to the gate that looks toward the East; from the East he shall come to Bethlehem: leading you from a good life to a good death. For as is commonly said, he who has lived well cannot die badly. From a good death to the rest that will be blessed in the soul. And so he will confer everlasting happiness upon both soul and body together in the house of that life-giving bread, in which he will make his own recline, and passing by will serve them (Luke 12:37). Then every person shall be saved, because behold he shall come, for every movement that is in each of us, both in mind and in body, which conducts itself according to reason, shall attain to its recompense. Not even a hair from your head shall perish (Luke 21:18); nor shall even the least good thought that has been in the mind be without its reward. There your silence, which you now keep, there your fasts, there your vigils, there your labors; there, to speak briefly, each of your good exercises which you now practice, like certain good and moral workers who now labor strenuously in this vineyard, shall receive their denarii (Matt. 20:10). Nor shall anything in you then be unworthy of reward that is not now devoid of good work in you.
XII. And see whether the Lord himself does not promise that he will act in this order in the future. Where he says: I am with him in tribulation; I will deliver him and glorify him. With length of days I will fill him, and I will show him my salvation (Ps. 90:15-16). I am with him in tribulation: remaining with you and standing by you as an inseparable companion in this Samaria of which much has been said. I will deliver him: walking with you in the gate and going before you. That gate, I say, which looks toward the East. For when he has given sleep to his beloved, behold the inheritance of the Lord (Ps. 126:3). This is the gate that leads to the city; but because of the anguish that is in it, it is called iron. And because there is no one who does not see death (Ps. 88:49), it opens of its own accord. In that gate, I say, he will deliver him, lest you be circumvented in that hour by the cunning accuser; lest you be seized by the violent enemy. And I will glorify him: conferring rest upon you in the East, when our soul rests after death. With length of days I will fill him: in Bethlehem, that is, which is at his right hand, filling you with that perpetual satiety, the sweetness of which knows no boredom and the eternity of which knows no lack. And I will show him my salvation, so that in the showing of this salvation, every person in you may be saved; while all things that in you have been done rationally for his name, whether placed in his will or accomplished in the effect of works, the Lord preserves in himself for the salvation of eternal reward. And may the Lord himself console you now in this your Samaria, accompany your going forth, and through the gate that leads to the East, lead you to Bethlehem -- where you may be saved the more truly as you are saved the more eternally -- he himself, in whom is our singular salvation, full consolation, only refuge, sole hope, firm protection, eternal blessedness: God and our Lord Christ Jesus, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is blessed forever. Amen.
SERMON XIX. FOR THE VIGIL OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD.
On the prostration that is performed in the chapter on that day.
I. What is this, brothers, that you have heard? What is this that you have done? It was read before you that Christ the Son of God is born in Bethlehem of Judah. You heard this read to you, and as soon as you heard it, you fell upon your faces. What was heard outwardly was drawn inwardly. This voice flowed into your ears from outside through sound; but its power, gliding into your minds, moved them through affection. Great indeed is the power of this voice, which, as soon as it sounded in your ears, prostrated your bodies upon the ground. For it also moved your hearts, and not a little, so that it is a voice of great commotion. Hearts were moved to admiration and to devotion, and for the display of both, bodies were prostrated in humiliation. For who, at the hearing of this voice uttered, at the understanding of what was heard, is sufficiently raised to the amazement of wonder on account of the immensity of the thing, and sufficiently kindled to the devotion of love on account of its sweetness? So that it seems a small and altogether trifling thing that, upon hearing it, even your bodies are bowed down in the humiliation of prostration. Christ the Son of God is born. This is that voice of exultation and salvation (Ps. 117:15), a voice plainly of power and magnificence.
II. In these words, the twin nativity of one and the same Christ Jesus is declared. One is from God the Father; the other from a human mother. Who would dare contradict that Christ's nativity is twofold? Certainly none of those who are sound in the confession of the true faith. Born from God the Father as God; born from a virgin mother as man. There from eternity, and without a mother; here in time, and without a father. There without beginning; here without precedent: a singular prerogative bearing witness to the magnitude of each nativity. For divinity proclaims an incomprehensible Father, and virginity declares an admirable Mother. Furthermore, just as it is a great thing to behold God born from God, so it is most sweet to see Christ born from a human being as a human being. For there he is not raised up but is sublime in the form of God, coequal with him in all things; here so humble that in the humbled form of a servant, the most high is most lowly, the eternal is temporal, the great and immense is small and little. To behold that is great and admirable and altogether incomprehensible; but this is tender, and sweet and delightful beyond measure.
III. Moreover, who would deny that to prostrate oneself with the whole body upon the ground is a sign of great humility? I therefore consider three things worthy of note in what was here read, what I heard, and what I saw done: admiration, devotion, and humiliation. The first two you heard in what was read; the third indeed in what you yourselves did, falling upon your faces, prostrated with your whole bodies upon the ground. For what should you admire more than that which is so great without quantity, of such a quality without qualification, which as it is can be neither expressed by mouth nor grasped by heart? And this is that eternal equality of the Father and the Son, and the equal eternity of those in whose one Godhead, when one begets as unbegotten and the other is begotten, the one who begets is not prior to or greater than the one begotten, nor the one begotten posterior to or less than the one who begets. And to what should you be more devoted and more indebted than to his humility of nature? For it is full of all sweetness and delight to behold God, the creator of man, made man for man's sake. The former pertains to the sublimity of his majesty, which you should admire with awe; the latter to the sweetness of his mercy, to which you should be devoted with love. And on account of these two things in those words you heard, you fell upon your faces. For what was read -- "Christ the Son of God" -- sounds the sublimity of majesty, at which, as I said, you should be astounded; but what was immediately added there -- "is born in Bethlehem of Judah" -- shows the sweetness of his mercy, which you rightly love. Deservedly, upon hearing these things, you lay prostrate upon the ground, showing that upon hearing of such majesty you could not and should not stand.
IV. For whom does such sublimity, when it thunders, permit to stand? Whom does such sweetness, when it caresses, not draw to prostration? Those eminent prophets Ezekiel, Daniel, and others once perceived something of this majesty, whether by sight or by hearing; but did they remain standing upon perceiving it? One of them, as you can understand by reading, having seen the likeness of the glory of the Lord, fell upon his face (Ezek. 2:1); the other indeed, to use his own words, when he saw the great vision, no strength remained in him. But his appearance was also changed, and he withered, nor did he have any strength left in him. But he lay prostrate upon his face, and his countenance clung to the ground (Dan. 10:8). And shortly after: My joints were dissolved, and nothing of strength remained in me, and even my breath was shut off (ibid. 16). The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders also fell prostrate upon the ground before the Lamb in the Apocalypse, because all the saints, in contemplation of the humility of that most gentle Lamb who takes away the sins of the world, humble themselves out of love. Seeing him humble below all things, they themselves presume in no way to be proud before him. Therefore both those and these were prostrated: those admiring his power, these loving his mercy. So also the hearing of the name of his majesty prostrated you in amazement, and that of his mercy prostrated you in devotion. And indeed it is most just that, upon hearing of the humility of the nature he assumed from you, you should prostrate yourselves upon the ground out of love to give thanks to him who for your salvation humbled himself from that sublime palace all the way to the earth. I therefore understood your admiration; in your awe I discovered your devotion, and in your love I saw your humility, because you too showed it in your prostration.
V. But what is said -- "In Bethlehem of Judah he is born" -- pertains not to today, as you know, but to tomorrow. On the morrow it is fitting that you be very devout; yet that does not mean it is proper for you to be idle today. For today you shall know that the Lord will come, and in the morning you shall see his glory (Exod. 16:7). You have in these very few words what you must do today, and what you will be able to receive tomorrow. For today you must know, so that tomorrow you may see. And what is it to know today that he will come, except to prepare yourself for his future advent? For it seems to me that a servant is to that degree ignorant that his master is coming, to the degree that he neglects to prepare the things necessary for him to be worthily received upon his arrival. You know indeed with how great and what kind of preparation worldly men attend to this feast. They do not fail to carefully prepare so many kinds of foods and drinks, so many ornaments of clothing, and other things that pertain to temporal beauty and joy. But since all these things regard the body, our God is spirit. For God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24). This testimony is true. Therefore it is necessary that those who strive to please him should please in spirit and truth. He does not require temporal splendor or pleasure, but desires spiritual radiance and sweetness in you.
VI. Strive to have these things among you, and you show that you know he is coming. Do the will of your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 12:50), and you abound in bread in your house. Strive also to be steeped in the wine of compunction and to be inwardly flooded with the grace of most savory devotion, so that the aforementioned bread eaten may be directed in the stomach of the mind toward its spiritual health; nor will anyone be able to say that you lack drink as well. And if you put on the armor of light, so as to walk honestly in the day, walking honestly especially toward those who are outside (Rom. 13:13), who will deny that you appear in bright clothing and a splendid habit? All these things are delights of the mind, not of the belly; ornaments of the heart, not of the body. And they are fruitfully and usefully exercised within, while they are pompously and emptily displayed without. In these things know today that the Lord will come, showing that you know he is about to come, so long as you have presented yourselves thus in preparation for him, to whom be honor and glory forever. Amen.
SERMON XX. LIKEWISE FOR THE VIGIL OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD.
On the sanctification and purity by which we may see the majesty of God in us.
I. As on this night, most beloved, you admonished one another: Sanctify yourselves, children of Israel, and be prepared. A most salutary admonition indeed: Sanctify yourselves and be prepared. And to be sanctified is to be prepared. He who comes is holy. For what shall be born of you is holy, the angel said to the Virgin; and those to whom he comes must be holy. Hence also in the law: Be holy, he says, because I am holy (Lev. 11:44). Therefore those to whom he comes must necessarily be holy, just as he who comes is himself holy. For the holy one does not come to the corrupt; the pure does not come to the unclean; the immaculate does not come to the polluted. Sanctify yourselves therefore, you too, especially you who are children of Israel. How, you ask, shall we be sanctified? Hear in brief: your sanctification is your purity. For this, as Paul says, is the will of God, your sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3). And to show us what he meant by sanctification, he added: That each of you, he says, know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor; not in the passion of desire; as even the Gentiles who do not know God (ibid. 4). Which may it be far, and very far, from you, who are in no way counted among the Gentiles who do not know God. But rather you are counted among the children of God, and your lot is among the saints (Wis. 5:5), so that you may rightly be called and be children of Israel (1 John 3:1).
II. Understand as spoken spiritually of us what you read in the Book of Numbers: The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations (Num. 23:9). These are the words of the Holy Spirit, uttered through Balaam, expressing the prerogative of spiritual Israelites, in whom there is no guile, which is what you are. The people, he says, shall dwell alone. And though alone, yet in a certain way not alone. For you are alone in that you have been chosen by the Lord and taken by him as his own, separated from the gatherings of worldly people. But by no means alone, because as many lives and examples of saints as you revolve in your mind, you are associated with that many fellow citizens and companions. And among the nations, he says, it shall not be reckoned (Rev. 22:15). For outside are dogs, evildoers; unclean men, that is, and workers of iniquity. But you dwell in the inner chambers of his bridal chamber, on account of the great tenderness of his most sweet love, by which you are bound to him, more familiarly admitted to the secrets of his counsel. And why should I judge those who are outside? (1 Cor. 5:13.) Even some of those who are within, in the body of Christ, and are his members through faith, you surpass in this familiarity with him, and far exceed; because while they are his members, you are his heart. You are more beloved than they; he holds you in more fervent charity and in greater familiarity with himself. See how necessary it is that each one know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, who are so tenderly loved by him and held in such familiarity with him. Not in the passion of desire, as the Gentiles who do not know God (1 Thess. 4:5).
III. And indeed you do not greatly need to be admonished about these things, but it has occurred to us at this point to touch upon them briefly, because the sermon we have in hand concerning sanctification speaks of purity of the flesh. Good action also holds its place in it, because it is not enough for you to be pure in body unless you are also adorned with good works. Since you ought to have both goods and to excel in both as much as you can, so that you may exercise one outwardly on account of your neighbor, and have the other within you on account of yourself. Otherwise your sanctification is not complete. Did not he who said Holiness and magnificence are in his sanctification (Ps. 95:6) join both together and wish neither to be lacking from sanctification? But if perhaps in either of them you have incurred some loss, as sometimes happens, I know no better counsel than to take refuge in the remedy of confession, because it too pertains to sanctification. This counsel I learned from him who declares: In the going out of Israel from Egypt, of the house of Jacob from a barbarous people, Judea was made his sanctification (Ps. 113:2). You recognize the meaning of Judea all the more fully, the more devoutly you are accustomed to practicing it in daily use. If therefore, you who are accustomed to seeing God with the mind, should the darkness of carnal titillation perhaps obscure you for a time; if that alien people of vices, which with the Lord's help you used to supplant, has caused you to cease from good work: as you go out from the Egypt of these shadows, and as you go out also from the domination of this barbarous people, let Judea be your sanctification, so that through humble and pure confession you may recover what you seem to have lost for an hour, whether through suggestion in the flesh or through lukewarmness in action.
IV. You can find many other things pertaining to sanctification throughout sacred Scripture, but since we are speaking about this outward feast that is at hand, we also treat of that sanctification which can be seen even by men, which as it occurs to us in the authority of sacred eloquence is found to be threefold: namely, purity of the flesh, constancy in good works, and diligence in good confession. The first will make you clean, the second adorned, the third will recover whatever has perhaps been lost either in purity or in adornment. Great indeed is the sanctification of your confession, which repairs good things destroyed, recovers what is lost, consolidates what is broken, and restores to wholeness what has been shattered. Practice it assiduously, exercise it unceasingly, and especially when the principal feasts are at hand, so that you may be the more joyful in mind at those feasts, the purer you have been made through confession; and also the more at peace in conscience, since, with your conscience bearing you full testimony, you remember nothing committed by you that has not been revealed through confession, both to him to whom you owe it and in the manner in which you owe it. For the mind will never be at rest as long as it has any sin covered within itself; for conscience ever gnaws, having a worm within itself and carrying it about everywhere, corroding, and a fire consuming its interior parts. And just as you pronounce that man sick and altogether infirm whom you see swollen with noxious humors, and unable to attain any health at all unless he first vomits up every noxious humor with which he is lethally swollen, so also judge with confidence that this one is beset by a powerful sickness, and that no way of salvation lies open to him unless he first vomits up the poisonous phlegm of internal corruption, which he contracted in the mind through the concealment of sin.
V. Know moreover, most beloved, that nothing displeases God so much as the concealment of sin. It displeases him indeed that you have committed a sin, but much more that you have hidden what you committed, and were unwilling to reveal it through confession for your absolution. For the concealment of sin is of such weight before God that he not only judges the one who conceals worthy of punishment, but sometimes also does not allow those among whom the person lives to be free from punishment. Nor do I disagree with this; if you recall that truthful story of Achan, son of Carmi (Joshua 7), who alone, as you know, sinned, but as long as his sin was concealed, it was no small harm even to the innocent people. For the people could not stand before their enemies until the sin was both exposed and, once exposed, punished. For what does Scripture say? The children, it says, of Israel transgressed the commandment and took from the accursed thing (ibid.). Mark carefully, I ask, these words. See how the children of Israel are said to have taken from the accursed thing, when Achan alone took. And Scripture added: And the Lord was angry against the children of Israel (ibid.). Achan alone transgressed the commandment, and the Lord was angry not only against him but against the children of Israel. They are said to have taken from the accursed thing because it was taken among them; but more so because, just as it was taken among them even without their knowledge, so it was also hidden among them. Hence the Lord said to Joshua: Israel has sinned, and has transgressed my commandment; and they have taken from the accursed thing, and have stolen and lied, and hidden it among their goods, and Israel cannot stand before his enemies, and will flee them, because he is polluted by the accursed thing. I will be with you no more, until you destroy him who is guilty of this crime (ibid. 11). Likewise: Whoever, he says, is found guilty of this deed, shall be burned with fire with all his substance, because he has transgressed the commandment of the Lord and committed an abomination in Israel (ibid. 15). This event, which I now set before you as a warning, the princes of the embassy of Israel once put before the sons of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, as you read, when they said: Did not Achan the son of Zerah transgress the commandment of the Lord, and wrath fell upon the whole people? (Joshua 22:20.) And he was one man. And would that he alone had perished in his crime. Far be it that among you there should be anyone transgressing the commandment of the Lord that he sent through Joshua, so as to take from the accursed thing; and especially to steal, to lie, and to hide it among his goods.
VI. What is this accursed thing by which the people was polluted, but this world, in the signification of which it was said to them: Let this city be accursed, and all things that are in it? (Joshua 6:17) -- which words that disciple whom Jesus loved explains to you, saying: Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world (1 John 2:15). And if you have committed some mortal sin, with which the lovers of this world are unceasingly entangled, and have not revealed it through confession, but have hidden it within the secrets of your conscience; and especially if you have possessed in secret something that is forbidden as private property -- then indeed you have taken from the accursed thing of the city of Jericho, and what is worse, you have hidden it among your goods. But have mercy on yourself, and have mercy on those among whom you live, lest having sinned alone, you not be punished alone: the Lord involving your companions in your sin, even innocent ones, by his just but terrible judgment -- not so much because iniquity was committed by you, as because it was hidden by you while you dwelt and went in and out among them.
These things, brothers, even if they are said to you, do not think they are said on your account. But while we strive to show the usefulness of confession, these things have occurred to us, perhaps not without fruit, not on account of you who are now present, but on account of certain ones whom you may yet have among you.
VII. Sanctify yourselves therefore today, children of Israel, with this threefold sanctification: that you may be pure in body, adorned in good conduct, and cleansed in confession; and in this way purified and prepared. How, you say, shall we be prepared? Here is how. Show yourselves prompt and devoted to the will of God, so that you presume to oppose him in nothing; but renouncing yourselves entirely, commit yourselves always and everywhere to his commands. Such was he who said: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready (Ps. 56:8). He was ready for every will of his God, willing what God himself willed, and doing what God commanded him to do. Hence he also added: I will sing and recite a psalm to the Lord (ibid.). He had made himself a cheerful giver in fulfilling the divine will, who declares that he sings and recites a psalm to the Lord. Showing cheerfulness through the song, and the gift through the psalm. For to sing pertains to the one who exults; to recite a psalm pertains to the one who works. This pattern of preparing yourselves was set before you by that leader and Lord of yours, who came not to do his own will, but the will of him who sent him (John 6:38); made obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:8). You see therefore that the virtue and love of obedience make you prepared, since he who is not devoted to obedience is in no way prepared.
VIII. Sanctify yourselves therefore, children of Israel, and be prepared, for on the morrow you shall see the majesty of God in you. To be sanctified and prepared is the same as knowing today that the Lord will come, just as on the contrary, to grow lukewarm in good works, to cover up committed sins, to refuse to obey the commands of superiors, is in a certain way not to know that the Lord is coming. If you know in this way that the Lord comes today, in the morning you shall see his glory; and if you shall have been sanctified and prepared today, on the morrow you shall see the majesty of God in you. It is also said that the Lord will descend on the morrow and will take away from you every sickness. Certainly when you see the majesty and glory of the Lord, he will console you and take away every sickness from you. For in the vision of such majesty and glory, no sickness will be able to find a place. But is his majesty one thing and his glory another? Far from it. For his majesty and his glory are one and the same thing in him. Nevertheless, while his majesty is not one thing and his glory another, yet it seems to me, as far as we are concerned, that it is one thing for you to see his glory simply, and another to see his majesty in you.
IX. For our holy Fathers once saw his majesty in many and various ways; but they did not see it in themselves in the way in which it is promised to you that you shall see it on the morrow in you, and that you shall see it united to you. When the Word was made flesh (John 1:14), when he was made in the likeness of men and found in appearance as a man (Phil. 2:7), then that majesty was seen in you, which, as you know, is specially reserved for tomorrow's day. Is he not himself his own majesty? He plainly is. And if it is so -- indeed because it is so -- when his people is seen, is not his majesty also seen? And shall we not tomorrow see God, when we shall say: We recognize God visibly? In what will he then be recognized visibly, except in that which is visible in him, which he also has from you? On the morrow, therefore, we shall see the majesty of God in us, when we shall say: The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). When the shepherds also shall come in haste to Bethlehem (Luke 2:15), so that they too may see the Word that was made: which, unless it had been made, could not be seen by them. In the morning also you shall see his glory, when we shall say: And we saw his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father. On the morrow we shall see the majesty of God in us, but in our weakness, just as we shall see his glory in our lowliness. Thus we shall see in the morning; thus you shall also see on the morrow.
X. And then it will be able to be truly said of you: Blessed are the eyes that see what you see (Luke 10:23); and especially in the way that you see. For since there is one eye in you by which, in one and the same mediator of God and men, both God and man, our Lord Jesus Christ, you see his majesty and glory; and another by which you see his weakness and lowliness; thus you preserve in him the property of each nature, both the assuming and the assumed, in such a way that you by no means double the person. He will also descend on the morrow and take away from you every sickness, because he took away from the world its sins, so that he is rightly called by his Forerunner the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). For sin is indeed the sickness of the soul. This is the sickness that powerfully infected the world all the way until the coming of Christ. For the widow's son fell ill, as you know, and the sickness was most severe, so that no breath remained in him (3 Kings 17:17). But moved by compassion, the man of God Elijah came and raised the dead and rekindled the extinguished breath, so that what is promised to us about this one may be fulfilled: that on the morrow he will descend to you and take away from you every sickness -- he who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God, blessed forever. Amen.
SERMON XXI. LIKEWISE FOR THE VIGIL OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD.
On the spiritual coming of the Word to the soul.
I. Sanctify yourselves today, and be prepared. In the preceding sermon, dearest brothers, we said certain things to you about this humble coming of our Savior, in which through the birth of the flesh -- as this most sacred feast, which is now at hand, represents -- he deigned to appear before the eyes of mortals, himself made mortal. But let each one of you now turn to himself, and let him strive to see in his own experience what we are about to say. Interior grace visits you frequently, approaching you and withdrawing from you; and in each approach as well as withdrawal, seeking your salvation. For it approaches to make you joyful, and withdraws to make you eager. See to it that you glorify its presence with fitting jubilation, and seek its absence with untiring desire. And if you must go about the whole city, through every street and square (Song 3:2), let it not be burdensome for you to seek him whom your soul loves. And let so great a love burn for him whom you seek, that the labor of seeking is not weariness. Your soul will have no relief in his absence, just as it will feel no burden in his presence; for as you are borne upward with all lightness and raised up when he is present with his gift, so you incline downward and are weighed down when he is absent by your own weight.
II. You have indeed often felt and experienced this, that the children of the Bridegroom can in no way mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them. But when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, then they will fast (Matt. 9:15). Nor is this surprising. For when he is taken from them, bread is taken from them, and they will necessarily fast, since they have nothing to eat. I counsel, therefore, that the children of Israel sanctify themselves today and be prepared. For if they do this, I assure them that on the morrow they shall see the majesty of God in themselves. The children of Israel are those interior thoughts of the heart, which the good desires conceived by the Holy Spirit beget from themselves; which see God through faith and holy fervor. For they would not extend themselves toward him through affection unless they first saw him to some degree through the understanding. Let these children of Israel sanctify and prepare themselves, so that sanctified and prepared they may await the morrow with all diligence. For then they shall see the majesty of their God in themselves; they shall see his glory also, for he will descend for this purpose, because they are below and he is on high. For he will descend in order to take away from them every sickness.
III. Let their first sanctification be abstinence: that with that man of desires they may abstain from what is sweet to the belly, so that by an interior taste they may touch what is sweet to the mind (Dan. 1:8). Let the second be silence of the mouth, so that the more fully they may hear the hidden word that is spoken to them; and the more perfectly, as if stealthily, their ears may receive the streams of the interior whisper (Job 4:12), because, stabilized in themselves through gravity, they refuse to flow away through harmful words, and while they do not attend to idle tales of words, they may perceive with that interior hearing the voice as of a gentle breeze (Job 4:16). Let the third be rest from outward occupation, because wisdom is to be written in a time of leisure, and those who are less occupied will perceive it (Sir. 38:25). Since the abyss says, It is not in me, and the sea says, It is not with me (Job 28:14). Let the fourth be the constancy of vigils, so that after the flesh has been afflicted through abstinence, and the mind has been made mature through the gravity of silence, having attained interior tranquility through rest from outward occupations, and having obtained interior purity through the constancy of vigils, fully calming also that insolent instability that is accustomed to running wild within, it may already rejoice in a certain day of Sabbath, in the brightness of its interior secret. Let the fifth be the associated study of sacred reading, in which, as if seeing their own face in a mirror, they may discern what beauty is present to them that pleases them, and what ugliness displeases them. And let them apply all their strength both to pursuing the one and to eliminating the other. Let the sixth be pure meditation, so that with the lamp of ready knowledge lit, they may sweep the house of the mind, and seek with all diligence for as long as it takes until they find the lost coin (Luke 15:8), and in its image seek and discover the image and likeness of their Lord. Let the seventh be the fervor of good desire, so that, having seen the little light that is in the image, they may burn more ardently to behold the brightness that is in the sun of the reality itself, and since through impatience their desire cannot bear not to receive this, and yet because of its greatness cannot fail, the longer it is deferred, the more it may also increase.
IV. It is time that they be defrauded no longer from their desire, but let the eighth sanctification be theirs: perseverance in prayer, in which let them persist until he whom they seek by desiring and desire by seeking, sweet and joyful, glides into their senses, granting them their hope and the desire of their heart (Ps. 20:5), and not defrauding them of the will of their lips. But let him enter to them and dine with them, recounting to them something favorable from that brightness of the dwelling from which he has recently come, not clamoring with words but caressing with affections; not sounding in the ears but gliding into hearts; not uttering a speech outwardly but pouring in an anointing inwardly. Thus fasting, even if it does not uproot completely the thorns and thistles that Mother Eve planted in the garden of our body, at least cuts them down to the ground; silence destroys harmful words in the mouth. Quiet stills all restlessness of mind from outward occupation. The purity of vigils chastens unstable insolence through holy maturity, so that reading may then illuminate the understanding, the illuminated understanding may beget the affection of desire, fervent desire may send forth pure prayer, and meditation may seek him of whom the reading speaks, desire may find him, purity of prayer may grasp him, perseverance may hold him, and say: I will hold him and will not let him go (Song 3:4).
V. Be sanctified in these things, O sons of Israel -- interior sons of Israel, I say, and spiritual, and the more spiritual the more interior they are. Be sanctified, I say, and be prepared. Furthermore, watchfulness and diligence will make these sons of Israel ready, so that they may recognize the one who comes through watchfulness, and lay hold of him through diligence. Watchfulness drives error far away, and diligence banishes torpor. Many have also mistaken the stirring of their own mind for a visitation of interior grace -- and they were deceived. Perhaps they were diligent to lay hold of grace when it came, but because they were not prudent enough to recognize it, while they supposed they were receiving the infusion of the Spirit, they received instead an unstable thought of their own heart. Others recognize the visitation of interior grace when it comes, but do not know how to be diligent in grasping and holding it. Cautious indeed in detecting, but by no means diligent in comprehending. Hence it happens that they immediately lose it, because, just as it comes suddenly, so, when they do not know how to embrace it, it immediately flees. Coming without warning, it departs without delay. The former have knowledge, but without zeal; the latter have zeal indeed, but by no means knowledge. Therefore I said that both gifts must be present in those who wish to be prepared: watchfulness and diligence, so that neither may error deceive them from recognizing when it has come, nor may lukewarmness render them negligent and slothful from retaining it when it comes.
VI. Somewhat -- if I may say so, if indeed I dare say it -- this guest of whom we speak is haughty, and scorning any disturbance thence, unless much entreated he does not stay overnight. Unless violently compelled, he does not remain; even remaining, unless firmly held, he withdraws, and suddenly, while you are unaware, vanishing he slips away. But what we should do in these matters, those men of the Gospel instruct us. Seeing that he made as if to go further, they did not simply ask, but, as it is written, They constrained him, saying: Stay with us, Lord, for it is growing toward evening, and the day is now far spent (Luke 24:29). Go, and do likewise, so that when you -- as a diligent observer and discerner of the interior movements erupting within you, both those that came to you and into you from without, and those that arose from within you -- sense that interior grace wishes to withdraw itself, seizing hold of it, you may firmly hold, tightly clasp, and violently compel it, and say: Stay with me, Lord, for it is growing toward evening, and the day is now far spent. That is to say: the sun of interior brightness is sinking toward its setting as you hide yourself from me. Stay with me, illuminating me; and draw near, lest my areas of ignorance increase if my brightness is darkened, and my sins multiply if my charity grows cold.
VII. He will enter then, if indeed he had already gone outside. He will enter, I say, if you have entered. And therefore he will enter with you, according to the text, and he entered with them. But as soon as in the breaking of bread -- that is, in the revelation of interior understanding -- with the spiritual eyes of the mind opened, you have recognized him, he will vanish from your sight. When, however, he has conducted himself toward you in this manner according to his custom, do not be saddened, nor let your heart be troubled. He goes, I say, but he will come to you again, and your heart will rejoice (John 16:22). And therefore in the day of evils, be not unmindful of good things (Sir. 11:27), but when grace is absent, call to mind the gifts it bestowed when present, and say: Was not our heart burning within us while he spoke on the road and opened the Scriptures? (Luke 24:32). And so may it be that entirely, neither in the absence of light are you in darkness, nor in the absence of bread are you famished. For in this way you will change evening into day; and after the manner of a clean animal, you will ruminate when you cannot eat. This evening pertains to that which is said to these spiritual sons of Israel: Be sanctified today, sons of Israel, and be prepared. And again: Today you shall know that the Lord will come, so that in the meantime those who were desolate at its absence may often be saved.
VIII. This is the evening of which it is again said to these sons of Israel: In the evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread (Exod. 16:12). What is it to eat meat in the evening, except that when grace departs -- grace which is luminous in that it enlightens us through the knowledge of truth, and fiery because it no less inflames us through the love of virtue -- when it departs, I say, and withdraws itself for a time, we season the palate of the mind with the delightful examples of the saints, until the morning rises and at that supreme dawn, in which he visits us, whom he suddenly tests for a little while, sends forth his rays: and with the meats that we ate in the evening removed from the midst, he satisfies us with bread? I believe that this pertains to what the Bride says in other words: Scarcely had I passed beyond them (Song 3:4). No doubt she means the watchmen of the city, and that while she was seeking the Bridegroom in his absence, she found him: I found him whom my soul loves (ibid.). So that she might now in a way put them behind her back, as she arrived at the embrace of her beloved, and meanwhile cease to eat the quasi-meats of the preceding saints: having indeed in the gifts of his visitation, in the approach and advent of interior grace, not only what she may eat but what may satisfy her -- bread. In the evening, therefore, the sons of Israel eat meat, and in the morning they are satisfied with bread, so that in this way they may be sanctified and be prepared, because on the morrow they shall see the majesty of God in themselves. Concerning this same evening, in the same passage: In the evening, it says, you shall know that the Lord has led you out of the hand of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord (Exod. 16:6). Therefore let the sons of Israel not grieve overmuch when this evening comes upon them; but let them remember that the Lord led them out of the land of Egypt, and so this remembrance will be for them no small consolation in this evening, until that morning dawns for them, in which they shall see the glory of the Lord, who is blessed forever and ever. Amen.
SERMON XXII. ON THE VIGIL OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD. On interior grace visiting the soul.
I. Today you shall know that the Lord will come; and in the evening you shall know that the Lord led you out of the land of Egypt (Exod. 16:6). So that you may know that he will come with light -- he who once called you out of darkness (for this is what the name 'Egypt' signifies) into his admirable light (1 Pet. 2:9) -- and that the reward of this twofold knowledge may be the blessed and beatifying vision of divine glory; which will be then, when evening shall have entirely departed, and morning shall dawn. With what great exultation, do you think, do these sons of Israel meanwhile await this coming day, in which they hope to see the majesty of God in themselves, in which they also know that the Lord himself will descend, to take away from them every languor? And that morning too they await with no small joy, in which they trust they will see the glory of God. O morning, in which we shall see the glory of God! O coming day, in which we shall see the majesty of God! -- not simply, but in us. In which he himself also will descend, not to take away some, but every languor from us. In this 'today,' we have been in ignominy, not in glory; in infirmity, not in majesty; not in health, but in languor. By ignominy I mean the shameful temptation of the flesh. By infirmity I mean the fluid instability of the mind. By languor I mean the manifold sickness of both.
II. And see whether it is not so. For when grace is absent, as each one of you has often felt and experienced, the temptation of the flesh immediately rages. The handmaid attempts to seize the inheritance of her mistress. That evil and lazy servant, once delicately nourished, is felt to be rebellious, as Solomon foretells (Prov. 29:21). Eve rages; she suggests to the man an unlawful eating (Gen. 3:6, 17). They rise up, and sprout, and grow immeasurably -- those thorns which she planted in the field of our body, watering and cultivating them. And thistles prick, and goads draw blood. The flesh is clothed with rottenness, and filth, and dust (Job 7:5), and finally the angel of Satan does not cease to buffet it (2 Cor. 12:7).
Will you claim that these and other things of this kind belong to glory, or to ignominy? The mind also, when this helping grace of which we speak is absent, is immediately weakened, made like dust which the wind drives from the face of the earth (Ps. 1:4). Fickle, that is, since the violence of temptation snatches it from the strength of stable standing. Chattering, on account of interior talkativeness; wandering, on account of disordered affection; impatient of quiet, on account of the agitation of dissoluteness to which it is given over: unable to stand in the house on the feet of its affections (Prov. 7:11); sinking toward the depths by its own weight; and utterly unable to bear itself. Sometimes rushing headlong into so horrible a fall that even a mountain falling upon it would melt away, and a rock would be moved from its place. The waters hollow out stones, and by flooding the earth is gradually consumed (Job 14:18). This indeed, as you know, happens when lofty contemplation in the mind is cast down to the lowest depths and dissolved, and interior strength is changed into nerveless weakness. The fortitude of thoughts also, and the mind once fruitful and stable, while it despises small things, is gradually emptied, dissolved, and destroyed by the creeping suggestion of the enemy (Sir. 19:1). All of which, I think you will assert, pertains more to infirmity than to majesty.
III. This twofold evil, too, you now reckon the greatest disease. This ignominious infirmity, I say, and this infirm ignominy -- do you not declare it the strongest languor? He is surely sick, indeed nearly unto death, and his languor is most severe, so that breath scarcely remains in him (3 Kings 17:17). But when this luminous morning of which we speak breaks forth -- when it dawns, on this bright coming day, that is, when the advent of interior grace slips into the mind -- these spiritual sons of Israel will see the glory of God, who first saw their own exceedingly horrible ignominy, who beheld their own infirmity in themselves. And the Lord, descending, will take away from them the anguish of both kinds of languor, which had hitherto oppressed them both in the flesh through the creeping of pleasure, and in the mind through the fickleness of instability. For when his joyful and life-giving advent is received, the weak and infirm flesh is subjected, the spirit strengthened and made ready takes dominion -- that is, the spirit powerfully mortifies the deeds of the flesh. Manfully does Job, when he hears his wife urging evil, rebuke her, declaring that she has spoken as one of the foolish women (Job 2:10). The spirit reins in its beast of burden; it drives its flesh lest it be impetuous, and spurs it with goads lest it be lazy; lest it dare to be slothful when roused, or to resist when pulled back, or to seek the superfluous as it once was accustomed to do; nor even to murmur if something is denied it, even something necessary. Fasts are counted as play; vigils as the thing most eagerly pursued; nakedness is regarded as warmth; poverty is possessed as the highest delight.
IV. Whatever, in short, is considered hard and harsh, is now considered gentle and light. Whatever is bitter and hard becomes sweet and soft. Is this not the grace of the Lord, which you behold in this morning? Vanity does not lift up the sight, curiosity does not disturb the hearing, pleasure does not infect the smell, gluttony does not overwhelm the taste, impurity does not defile the touch, levity does not render blameworthy the movement of any limb. The individual members of the body are composed and fitted together; each one attends to its proper duties in an orderly and becoming manner. What each has as its own in part, all contribute in common for the service of the whole. Plainness shines in dress, gravity in countenance, purity in affection, maturity in gait, poverty in food, moderation in use, usefulness in effect. And, to comprehend much in a brief discourse, in all his movements there is absolutely nothing that would offend either human, or angelic, or even divine sight. Will you not affirm that this admirable beauty is the glory of the day, which this luminous morning has brought you to behold? The mind also is visited; once visited, it is cleansed; once cleansed, it is adorned; once adorned, it is filled; once filled, it is perfected; once perfected, it rejoices; once rejoicing, with full confidence it also awaits its reward.
V. And so in peace, in the selfsame, it sleeps and rests, singularly established in hope (Ps. 4:10). All things in it are made: the crooked into straight, and the rough into level ways (Isa. 40:4). Dark things are illuminated, cold things are kindled, and lest we exceed measure, once kindled they are tempered. Hidden things are revealed, past things are reviewed, present things are examined, future things are foreseen. The senses are aroused, the understanding is clarified, the affections are inflamed. All the pleasurable things of the world are despised; once despised, they are cast away; once cast away, they are even consigned to oblivion. Heavenly things are approved; once approved, they are loved; once loved, they are desired. The soul labors tirelessly to attain them; all toilsome things are considered light. The mind becomes liquefied with love, anxious with desire, and separated from earthly things, fixed on things above: diligent in reading, pure in prayer, sweet in meditation, gentle in contemplation, purified in the highest contemplation. Carrying always and everywhere one thing in thought and affection, loving one thing, embracing one thing, striving toward one thing, resting in one thing, and wounded by charity until it fully possesses in eternity him whom it even now loves without ceasing. Loathing absolutely everything, finding no rest whatsoever in any worldly thing. When you sense this in yourselves, what else do you see but the majesty of God in you? And while you rejoice in this twofold health, do you not feel that every languor is in some way taken from you, as the Lord descends to you? For in some way the Lord's descent will take from you every languor on that coming day, since in so great a splendor of truth and ardor of virtue, the advent of interior grace extinguishes pleasure in the flesh no less than it tranquilizes instability in the mind.
VI. By languor can also be understood that torment of desire itself which fully penetrates and pierces the devout soul, which most eagerly sighs for the presence of its Redeemer. Hence it says in the Song of Songs: I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, tell him that I languish with love (Song 5:8). Beseeching devout souls, and earnestly imploring them, that when they have found God in prayer through purity, they would make known to him her good resolve, recount her desire and anxiety, and obtain for her his mercy and compassion. Likewise in the same Song of love: Sustain me with flowers; surround me with apples, for I languish with love (Song 2:5). Because she languishes with love, she asks to be sustained with flowers and surrounded with apples. Which is nothing other than this: the more a religious and pious soul endures torment in the desire with which it burns toward its Creator, the more anxiously it strives to abound in those things by which it is drawn -- both flowers of good thoughts toward interior affection, and apples of pious actions toward exterior fruit. Knowing that the proof of love is the display of works.
VII. Let your soul, my brother, have this languor, so that it may strive to take up this voice: I am wounded with charity. The Lord descending takes away this languor when he bestows upon the soul what it desires -- not because it then ceases to desire, even after it has received what it desired; but because, although it desires to see him whom it has present as the object of desire, yet, now holding him, it is not anxiously tormented on account of his absence. Having indeed present with itself him whom it had desired not without torment when absent, it feels itself relieved; yet for all that it loves no less -- indeed perhaps more than before -- and in desiring, it desires. Imitating now in this the very angels, of whom it is said: Into whom the angels desire to gaze (1 Pet. 1:12). Who also always gaze, lest, neglecting even for a single moment to gaze upon so great a blessedness, they suffer the greatest torment. And they always desire to gaze, lest, not hungering for so great a sweetness and delight, they incur a mortal and pernicious weariness. O morning, in which we shall be filled with the mercy of the Lord, seeing his glory! O day, in which he will command and announce to us his mercy: that we may both see his majesty in us and rejoice that languor is taken from us!
VIII. And so this joyful and gladdening vision appears with this morning, and with this coming day the languor is taken away as it dawns; and as long as the morning appears and the day shines, so long does this aforesaid vision of divine glory and majesty last and endure, and the languor once removed has no place. But alas! How quickly the morning vanishes and the day declines, so that just as we can rejoice in the possession of present brightness, so we must groan in the expectation of coming darkness, awaiting evening with blessed Job, and we shall be filled with sorrows until the darkness (Job 7:4). For the day and the morning depart, and all those things mentioned above, which came with them, likewise withdraw with them. The joyful vision of majesty and glory vanishes, and the sorrowful vision of infirmity and ignominy intrudes itself, and the languor that had been removed returns; and health, because it had not been given but only lent, departs.
IX. I believe this is what we read about our holy father: that the Lord ascended from Abraham, and he returned to his place (Gen. 18:33). So too you will return to your place when the Lord has ascended from you, gathering himself in the heights and leaving you in the depths, so that falling back into yourself, you may find a place of ignorance, infirmity, and languor. Because the Lord, ascending from you, took with him his glory and majesty, and that health which he had bestowed upon you while he was with you. This is what holy David laments, calling to memory the good things which the Lord had bestowed upon him as long as he was with him; but which he took away when ascending from him, and groaning that he had returned to his own place, he says: Lord, in your will, not by any merit of mine, you gave strength to my beauty. You turned your face from me, and I became troubled (Ps. 29:8). But when this happens, one must run back to him, in case perhaps he may again allow himself to be found, because holy David, though troubled, gave himself this counsel, and sending forth this humble confession by which to call back the departing one and turn around the averted one, he said: What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to corruption? Shall dust confess to you, or shall it declare your truth? (Ps. 29:10). And did he gain anything by this? Very much indeed. For asking, he received; seeking, he found; and to the one knocking, it was opened. For the Lord heard and had mercy on me; the Lord became my helper (Ps. 29:11). In what way did he have mercy on him? In what way did he become his helper? In this: that he turned his mourning into joy, tore away his sackcloth and girded him with gladness (Ps. 29:12); making his mercy heard in the morning, so that standing manfully in this morning, he might again see his glory; so that, standing manfully before him in this morning, and seeing clearly, not lying idly in darkness, he might have his mercy in that day -- that he might see his majesty in himself, and rejoice that every languor had been taken away from him by this day's descent.
X. Thus the loving Lord, reasonably and most wholesomely alternating these vicissitudes of his dispensation in us: when he opens his hand, all our things are filled with goodness (Ps. 144:16). But when he turns his face away, we are troubled; when he takes away his spirit, we fail, and we return to our dust (Ps. 103:29). But lest we be reduced to nothing if we are deserted by him for long, again in his accustomed way he visits us in his salvation, sending forth his Spirit so that we may be created, and the face of our earth may be renewed (Ps. 103:30). Causing this morning to break forth for us anew, in which we shall see his glory, and granting us the dawning of the coming day, in which we shall see his majesty in us -- descending also on that same day to us, to take away every languor from us. And in this way he will never cease to deal with us, until that day comes which will not decline toward evening, which no night will follow, which no darkness will obscure. This is that coming day, on which the iniquity of the earth will be utterly destroyed, and the Savior of the world will reign over us. He will reign also in us, destroying every principality and power and might, delivering the kingdom to God the Father, so that death, the enemy, may be destroyed, and God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:24ff.).
XI. In comparison to that day, this entire present life is called 'today,' in which we strive to be sanctified and to be prepared, we who are truly sons of Israel. To be sanctified by turning from evil, to be prepared by doing good, so that cleansed by uprooting and destroying, and adorned by building and planting, we may be worthy to stand before him in the morning and see his glory; to see also the majesty of God in us, with every ignominy removed from our midst and utterly annihilated -- both infirm ignominy and ignominious infirmity. The Lord will descend on that coming day, taking from us every languor, so that he may be our salvation, pardoning not indeed some but all our iniquities; healing not merely some, but to the complete perfection of health, all our infirmities (Ps. 102:3); redeeming our life from destruction, and crowning us with mercy and compassions, and filling our desire with good things (Ps. 103:3-5). O luminous morning, in which the Psalmist stands before the Lord to see! (Ps. 5:5). O glorious morrow, in which his righteousness shall answer holy Jacob! (Gen. 30:33). O morning, in which the elect shall be so filled with the mercy of the Lord that they shall exult and rejoice forever! O morrow, in which from exile to kingdom, from sorrow to joy, from death to life, true confessors shall go forth, seeing interior peace with their mind and desire!
XII. For these two famous names signify this: Judea and Jerusalem. They shall go forth, I say, and the Lord will be with them, and they will be steadfast through all things, seeing his help upon them. O blessed day, in which not only we shall rest, but God also shall rest from his labor in us as it continues even now. For he labors, enduring in the reprobate. He will bless this day and sanctify it, resting in it from the hard labor in which the reprobate are now troublesome to him by their depraved ways and wicked works. He will rest in it also from every work that he had performed (Gen. 2:2), in those who are foreordained to eternal life -- when, with the heavens and the earth and all their adornment perfected in them (Gen. 2:1), these very elect of whom we speak will have no corruption within them, no perfection lacking, no evil present, no good absent -- seeing the Eternal One for all eternity. To whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
SERMON XXIII. ON THE BIRTHDAY OF THE LORD. On the sublimity of the incarnation of Christ, and on the spiritual progress of the elect.
I. The excellence of this most sacred day demands, dearest brothers, and your devotion also demands, that our tongue should most certainly not be silent among you today, nor our word be withheld. For it is unworthy that on the day when God-made-man comes forth from virgin flesh, the human tongue should cease from the praise of God. And it is no less unjust that we should deny you the bread of life when you seek it so eagerly. Nevertheless, even if something may have been given to me to set before you, there is not in me, I confess, such depth of thought or such eloquence of speech that I am able either to comprehend in mind or to express in words the venerable splendor of this day. For thinking and rethinking within myself, turning over frequently in my mind and revolving what happened on this day -- no less admirable than sweet, no less exalted than gracious -- the more I understand that it must be further meditated upon. And what is no small wonder: the more I comprehend of it, the less I somehow discover that I have comprehended. Yet why do I say, the more I comprehend of it? -- since this alone I comprehend of it: that I am unable to comprehend anything of it. For in this consideration of mine, I approach the inaccessible light, seeing through it only my own darkness; unable to gaze upon the light itself at all. So wonderful is this knowledge of God, strengthened beyond me, and I cannot attain to it (Ps. 138:6). He himself, through it, making known to me my ignorance, that I may know what is lacking to me, crying out with the Philosophers: 'I know that I do not know.' For who -- I do not say comprehend, since it exceeds every sense, both angelic and human -- but who can even be worthily astonished that God was born of a woman? Who can sufficiently marvel, seeing the maker of all things made, the eternal made temporal, the Word made flesh, God made man: and since it would be far too long to go through each thing that is of this kind, to receive in this child who was born today both the humanity, and that incomprehensible quality which belongs to God alone, and the lowliness which belongs to man alone as being God's?
II. O God, who is also man! O man, who is also God! Our Creator, our son; our God, our brother; our Maker, our flesh; our Lord, our fellow servant; our strength, our weakness; our glory, our ignominy; our shepherd, our food -- and many things of this kind. Jesus Christ yesterday, and today, the same also forever (Heb. 13:8): 'Jesus Christ,' lest the unity of person be doubled; 'yesterday,' lest the assumed nature be extended by eternity; 'today,' lest the one who assumes be enclosed in time; 'the same also forever,' because he lives forever, temporal in the eternal, in whom he died who lives forever. At one and the same moment of time -- on account of 'today,' the one glorious person of Jesus Christ reigns in heaven by the assuming nature's dominion; and on account of 'yesterday,' dies ignominiously on the cross by the assumed nature. Behold, our God today appears visible, even though that truthful theologian says: No one has ever seen God (1 John 4:12). And he himself says to his beloved and intimate Moses: You cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live (Exod. 33:20). Now we perceive God with our eyes; now we touch the Word with our hands -- beholding God in man, the Word in flesh, seeing all the fullness of divinity dwelling in this little one of ours, our brother, our son, even bodily (Col. 2:9). So that now the angel does not allow himself to be worshipped by John (Rev. 19:10), he who worships the nature of John above himself in Christ.
III. Surely a threefold consideration in this most holy nativity fills me with astonishment, as I consider what is the person of him who was born; who the mother from whom he was born; and what the time in which he was born. And I find that it is God who is born, a Virgin from whom he is born. Which of these, brothers, do you not marvel at? At which of these are you not astonished? What wonder if you marvel that God comes forth from a human being as a human being; if you marvel at a mother who is a virgin? There, one and the same person, God and man; here, one and the same woman, mother and virgin. There, God made human, and the same man who is God. Here, virginal fruitfulness, and fruitful virginity. But the time of such great peace and quiet -- how will it not be a source of wonder to you, as you contemplate the proud sons of Adam, who wanted to build a tower to make their name famous (Gen. 11:4); provoking one another, envying one another, and desiring to surpass each other (Gal. 5:26) -- yet running together into such great harmony that, with the storms of wars laid to rest, and all nations so peacefully agreeing with one another, it happened that one prince ruled the entire world, and the whole world was enrolled, and the entire world was comprehended under one coinage? For as you heard read in the Gospel on this most sacred night, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. And all went to be registered, each in his own city (Luke 2:1, 3).
And hence it came about, as you know, by the providence of the Wisdom of God who today appears in flesh -- the Wisdom which reaches from end to end mightily and orders all things sweetly (Wis. 8:1); it came about, I say, by its providence, that Bethlehem was distinguished by his birth, just as the city of Nazareth had been honored by his conception. And therefore, to register according to the imperial decree, Joseph had to go there with the glorious Virgin, the evangelist revealing the reason: namely, because he was of the house and family of David (Luke 2:4), whose city Bethlehem itself is called.
IV. And it came to pass while they were there, her days were fulfilled (Luke 2:6): no doubt those of the blessed Virgin, that she should give birth. And she brought forth her firstborn son (Luke 2:7). Therefore it is God who was born as man. And he is our peace, making both one (Eph. 2:14). He came to announce peace to those who were far off, and peace to those who were near, making peace through his blood between things in heaven and things on earth (Col. 1:20). But just as it was fitting for God to be born only of virgin flesh, so he did not wish to be born except in a time of peace. And lest we pass over the place of birth: he was born in the house of bread -- he who is himself the living bread, coming down from heaven, of which if anyone eats, he shall live forever (John 6:52). It was fitting, therefore, that God be born of virgin flesh; peace willed it to be in a time of peace; and bread was rightly born in the house of bread. But considering the person of him who is born, I utterly fail; and beholding the person of her who gives birth, I am astonished beyond measure, trembling at his exaltedness, and not comprehending her prerogative. And I think that you yourselves will say the same of yourselves. But, struck back by this twofold consideration and driven back upon yourselves, set before you the time of his birth as an example, knowing that just as he did not wish to appear on earth through the birth of flesh except in a time of peace, so neither does he wish to appear among you through the advent of his interior grace unless you have peace with one another.
V. Woe to those through whom Christ, when absent, is delayed lest he come; and when present, is driven away lest he remain. Who are these? None other than disturbers of the peace, dividers of unity, troubled themselves and troubling others, sowing discords among brothers (Prov. 6:19) -- such as the Lord not only hates, but his soul detests. Not only offering the death-dealing poison with which they themselves are swollen through the example of depraved conduct, but also eagerly seeking to pour it into others through the suggestion of pernicious counsel. But you, brothers, have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him, as the truth is in Christ Jesus (Eph. 4:20). Peace to you (Luke 24:36) -- the spiritual word of our peacemaker. These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace (John 16:33). And again: Have peace among yourselves (Mark 9:49). Know that he who troubles you shall bear the judgment, whoever he may be (Gal. 5:10). It is the voice of the Lord speaking in the Apostle and in the Prophet: Therefore be of one mind, have peace, and the God of peace and love will be with you (2 Cor. 13:11). Let each one of you by all means abstain from injuring another, showing himself zealous to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace; and as far as it depends on him, having peace with all people (Rom. 12:18). Because, just as the Lord attests that those who are peacemakers are called sons of God (Matt. 5:9), so I boldly say that those who are sowers of discord are worthy to be called sons of the devil.
VI. Consider that in the nativity of Christ that time of peace shone forth in the world, of which Isaiah prophesied when he said: And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into sickles (Isa. 2:4). And he added: Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they be trained anymore for war (ibid.). Make, I beg you, that time spiritually present among you: beat your swords into plowshares and your spears into sickles. A sword and a spear are weapons, and they inflict wounds; but a plowshare and a sickle are instruments very necessary for human use, and they serve for the nourishment of people. But whereas sword and spear are weapons, with a sword we strike close at hand, while with a spear we reach those far away. Similarly, whereas plowshare and sickle are very necessary instruments, with a plowshare we dig the earth in plowing, and with a sickle we cut the grain in harvesting. And what do we think swords and spears are, but the harsh severities of words and the rough hardness of them, disturbing the peace in the hearts of those who hear? Did not holy David perceive this, who declared the teeth of the sons of men to be weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword? (Ps. 56:5). With a sword, therefore, and indeed a very sharp one, you wound your neighbor when, swollen with the insolence of anger, you attack him with a reproachful and harsh word. But sheathe your sword; turn the blade upon yourself, rebuking and accusing yourself, and meanwhile letting your neighbor go, reproving yourself and setting yourself against your own face. Consider the beam that is in your own eye more than the splinter that is in your brother's eye (Matt. 7:3). For although the latter disturbs in part, the former blinds entirely. Dig through the wall (Ezek. 8:10), deeply searching your interior; and entering through the doorway that appears to you, see the abomination of beasts and creeping things, and the idols depicted there: and whatever fault you see in your neighbor will seem tolerable in comparison with the horrible things that appear in yourself. Thus you will beat your swords into plowshares, rebuking and humbling yourself with the very same words with which you were accustomed to provoke and irritate your neighbor with arrogance and pride. With the sharpness of your own self-accusation, digging into your own interior, you who used to angrily sting even the exterior of your neighbor. With spears you touch those far away, when you do not allow those absent from the words of your detraction to be at peace, making yourself hateful to the Lord while you presume to curse the deaf, against the law (Lev. 19:14). Making yourself likewise worthy of destruction, while giving pledges for feasts and occupying yourself with poisonous drinks (Prov. 23:20), and also contributing flesh to eat.
VII. Why does it seem so sweet to you to disparage the absent, to detract from one who does not hear? Why do you not rather embrace with the arms of love both your neighbor's goods and your own, so that you may be able to see with the eyes of hope and certainty the reward that awaits you in the future for this benevolence? If you diligently strive to do this, you will indeed change your spears into sickles: while persisting in blessings both of your neighbor and of your own by every means, you recognize that you will reap eternal life from blessings; and ceasing from detracting your neighbor, you attend to the useful discourse by which you may be worthy to receive in the future the reward of eternal refreshment. Let not, I beg, nation lift up sword against nation among you. Which indeed you do when, not defending yourselves, as the Apostle admonishes, you give place to wrath (Rom. 12:19). But neither be trained for battle, so that giving way to one another in honor, and in humility of spirit reckoning one another your superiors (Phil. 2:3), you may by no means become desirous of glory, provoking one another, envying one another (Gal. 5:26). Thus you will create a time of peace among yourselves, in which that author and lover of peace will deign to appear among you -- he who in that time appeared in the flesh in the world when all the kingdoms of the earth came together in one accord, subject to a single empire: showing thereby that he would one day send forth his heralds of truth, who would call to the citadel and to the walls of the city (Prov. 9:3) the sons of God, gathering into one those who were scattered (John 11:52) and collecting them from the four winds of the earth.
VIII. And so a decree went out from Caesar Augustus -- or rather, from the Lord Jesus Christ -- that the whole world should be enrolled (Luke 2:1). This decree indeed went forth from him when, sending his disciples out to preach, he said: Going into the whole world, preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved (Mark 16:15-16). Then they went to register each in his own city (Luke 2:3): because those who believed and were baptized, according to what each one's own station dictated, adorned the confession of faith with good conduct, each one in his own order. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Bethlehem the city of David, because he was of the house and family of David (Luke 2:4).
Let there be mention, in these words, according to the allegorical sense, of the state of the elect, who daily by progress in faith and good works, strive from present things to future, from lowly things to lofty. You know, brothers, that the same corruption of birth according to the flesh produces all without any exception, both elect and reprobate. Nor is there anyone, whether among those who belong to the lot of the elect or those who belong to the mass of the reprobate, to whom this voice of the Psalmist is not fitting: In iniquities I was conceived, and in sins my mother conceived me (Ps. 50:7), excepting only him who alone is free among the dead (Ps. 87:6). Who, since he was God, contracted no sin when conceived in his mother; nor committed any while living among men. But although the whole family of the sons of Adam has one beginning, not all have the same way of life, nor do all obtain through death the same dwelling. But the elect indeed are confirmed by gratuitous grace through justice, in holiness, that they may be saved; the reprobate, however, by a just but hidden judgment, abandoned through depravity, are hardened in malice, that they may be condemned. Hence it is that the reprobate always rush from bad to worse, until they reach eternal damnation. But the elect, by a certain innate appetite for dignity, do not cease striving upward in desire, until they receive the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. For just as a king's son born in servitude or some ignoble condition, when he later learns from the report of others his noble birth, his freedom, and his inheritance, strives by every means to acquire it: so the Church of the holy elect, held captive in the servitude of this present exile, and born in servile captivity, when through the instruction of teachers and divine inspiration the heavenly homeland to which she is predestined becomes known to her -- immediately she does not cease to persist tirelessly until she acquires it.
IX. The elect, therefore, and those foreordained to eternal life, pertain to this Joseph of whom we have heard, who went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. You, my brothers, Joseph here represents, so that you too may ascend from province to province, from Galilee to Judea, and from city to city, from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Frequently, as you know, the Lord Jesus was accustomed to visit these provinces. He is found to have honored these two cities with the greatest honor: one with his conception, the other with his birth. There are two things in which our present merit consists: namely, right faith and holy conduct, that we both believe rightly and no less live in holiness. But faith is imperfect if confession does not attest it -- namely, that just as with the heart you believe unto justice, so with the mouth you confess unto salvation (Rom. 10:10). Likewise, although an action may be good in itself, it will by no means be worthy of reward unless, just as you have holiness in exterior conduct, so you also maintain rectitude in interior intention. So that whatever good you do, you do it to please the eyes of that interior inspector -- seeking him alone as the praiser of your work whom you await as the rewarder. Therefore it is necessary that what you have in your heart should advance to confession on your lips, so that in the time of tribulation you may not be ashamed or afraid to declare publicly what you believe in secret about the truth of the one faith. It is likewise necessary that from the holiness of exterior action you ascend to the rectitude of interior intention, so that you exercise a good work outwardly as an example before your neighbor in such a way that you flee the full reward of human favor, lest you seek the reward within yourself rather than from God alone. For: The Lord scatters the bones of those who please men; let them be confounded, because God has spurned them (Ps. 52:6). And those who do their works to be seen by men have received their reward (Matt. 6:2), receiving no reward from God, receiving only the human favor that they sought in their work as their wage.
X. Since this is so, beware, dearest brothers, in your good work of the furtive appetite for praise, which is both the killer of present grace and no less the destroyer of future reward. This twofold spiritual progress -- from faith to confession, from the holiness of exterior action to the rectitude of interior intention -- this double ascent from Galilee to Judea, from Nazareth to Bethlehem designates. For Galilee, as you know, sounds like 'revelation'; Judea, 'confession.' Nazareth is interpreted as 'flower,' and Bethlehem as 'house of bread.' Thus Galilee pertains to the revelation of faith; Judea to the confession of the mouth. Likewise Nazareth designates the flowery beauty of holy conduct; and Bethlehem the savory refreshment in which God delights through the rectitude of interior intention. I ascend, therefore, from Galilee to Judea, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, so that what I believe in heart and faith, I may not fear to confess even before persecutors and attackers of the faith. Whatever good work you display outwardly before others, strive humbly to offer it inwardly to the eyes of him who is the discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. You do these four things fully and perfectly if you believe rightly in secret, if you confess boldly in public, if you show a good work outwardly for example, and if inwardly, through the intention of pleasing God alone, you always wish it to remain secret.
XI. And see whether those four virtues are not contained in these four things -- virtues which, on account of the great perfection inherent in them, are called cardinal or principal. For to hold the secret of faith revealed to us belongs to prudence; but to confess the faith steadfastly before the enemies of the faith belongs to fortitude. Likewise, to exercise the good work of justice; but to refuse all human praise and favor in that same good work belongs to temperance. For it does not pertain to temperance only to restrain the flesh from the experience of pleasure; but also to restrain the mind from the appetite for vanity. Ascend, therefore, from prudence, which consists in the recognition of faith, to fortitude, which consists in confession of the mouth. Ascend from justice, which consists in the holiness of exterior action, to temperance, which consists in the rectitude of interior intention. In this way, advancing spiritually from virtue to virtue, you will receive an ever-increasing daily growth in holiness -- for this is what they say the name Joseph signifies. And you also will ascend from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea the city of David, which is Bethlehem.
XII. And note that Bethlehem is spiritually called the city of David, because Christ especially dwells and abides in the rectitude of interior intention. Because he approves only that good work which he sees done purely for his sake. He also acknowledges himself a debtor in reward to the one whom he recognizes as his in the work. Glorious indeed is the city of Nazareth, but Bethlehem is more glorious, because there is greater glory in the birth of Christ than in his conception; and greater usefulness in the bread that has flavor and satisfies through nourishment, than in the flower that shines and is fragrant with sweetness. Every good action of ours is therefore a flower, bearing in itself both beauty and fragrance, so as to attract those present and provoke those absent: the former through the good example they see, the latter through the true report they hear. It also offers hope, because from a good flower, fruit is expected in due time; and likewise for a holy work, a reward at the end. But the beauty of this fair, sweet, and good flower is changed to ugliness, and its fragrance to a stench. The very fruit that was hoped for also fails to appear -- unless the rectitude of interior intention protects its tenderness from the cloudy and cold wind, and the windy and cold mist, from the wind and misty chill of human praise. In this way Saint Joseph ascended from Galilee to Judea, from Nazareth to Bethlehem. There is also another sense in this twofold ascent, which should by no means be concealed from you, because it was revealed to us for your sake, and transmitted to you through us. But it is good that we defer it to another sermon, both because we cannot at present attend to its exposition, and because you should not be overburdened. Let us therefore praise with all the marrow of our hearts, and glorify him who was born of the Virgin -- true God and true man: our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God, blessed through all ages. Amen.
SERMON XXIV. AGAIN ON THE BIRTHDAY OF THE LORD. On the spiritual progress of the saints, and on the great abundance of the sweetness of God, which he hides from those who fear him, but perfects for those who hope in him.
I. You see now, I believe, that it is just as necessary for you to ascend from Nazareth to Bethlehem as it is to ascend from Galilee to Judea. For just as the Lord will not confess before his Father the one who, although he rightly believes, does not confess him before men; so neither shall those have a reward with their Father who is in heaven, who do their works to be seen by men (Matt. 6:2; 10:33). Make us ascend, O holy David, into your city Bethlehem from the city of Nazareth, that we may seek your praise and not our own in every good work. O gentle and humble Jesus, who appearing in our form on this day in humility, as long as you were in the world, did not seek your own glory, but the glory of him who sent you: drive far from us this evil eye that renders the body dark (Luke 11:34). Banish from us the appetite for human praise, that enemy of interior grace, which so often intrudes itself into our good works -- which makes even a work, however good, alien to reward. Grant that in all we do, we may seek to please you alone; and may we desire to be seen in our work by you, and to be rewarded in our work by you. Grant also that in us the rivers may return to the place from which they flow, so that we may dwell in the savory refreshment of your city, O fair and strong David, and not unlawfully delight in its sweet flower, its beauty, and its beautiful sweetness. Thus, Lord, we shall ascend from Nazareth to Bethlehem, while we wholly reject the human favor that customarily proceeds from the holiness and fame of a good work, and offer whatever we do to your hidden gaze, through the right intention of pleasing you alone. Your word, O gracious, O good Jesus, is this: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing (John 8:54). And again you say: I do not seek my own glory (John 8:50). Brothers, if the glory of Christ is nothing when he glorifies himself, what is or what can our glory be if we glorify ourselves? Let us therefore cleanse ourselves from the filth of this dregs, which gradually attempts to flow into the interior movements of our soul. Let us strive to appear pure and refined in the sight of him who is the discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
II. Let us now see what is the meaning that this double ascent contains within itself: from Judea, that is, to Galilee; from Nazareth to Bethlehem. If whatever God reveals to you about himself, or about things pertaining to him, you not only sense with a pious heart that it comes not from the sharpness of your subtlety or the merit of your holiness, but from his gratuitous grace, and you also confess it with full voice -- so that with Paul (2 Cor. 3:5) you may say that you are not sufficient to think anything of yourself, as of yourself, but that your sufficiency is from him -- then you ascend from the secret of revelation to the openness of confession, and thereby from Galilee to Judea. And if you so avidly hunger and thirst for justice that you by no means consider yourself perfect, however perfect you may be; but when you are perfected, you consider yourself a beginner (Sir. 18:6) in view of the good that is still lacking, regarding as a kind of tender flower whatever good work is already in you; if you also strive by all the means you can, from what you have already acquired to reach what you have not yet grasped -- then indeed you ascend from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It is most useful for you to ascend in this way, because the more devoutly you confess in public that what has been revealed to you in secret comes from him, the more abundantly you will see opened to you what you had hitherto sensed was hidden from you. Nothing is more acceptable to God than the progress of spiritual fervor, than hunger and thirst for justice. It is certainly just that he should fill his hungry ones with good things, making them ascend from Nazareth to Bethlehem: granting them the desire of their hearts, namely, bestowing upon them the bread of more solid work. For out of the exceeding eagerness they have to please him, they regard the holiness of all the conversion they practice as a kind of tender flower. So in this sense also Joseph ascends from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, the city of David which is called Bethlehem -- if whatever is revealed to you in your heart, you confess with full voice to be from God, and with devout eagerness you run from what you have already accomplished to what you have not yet undertaken, so that you may accomplish those things too in deed.
III. Understand also that God reveals many things to you in the present, showing you both how you should avoid sins lest you incur punishment, and how to exercise virtue so that you may attain the reward. In the future, however, for those things that are not revealed to you, you will devote yourselves to his praises for eternity: you will sing his mercies forever, raising the voice of confession and the sound of exultation (Ps. 41:5). Whatever excellent thing you will have in that happiness will be as a flower to bread. Does not he feel this who says: That which is momentary and light of our present tribulation works in us above measure an eternal weight of glory in sublimity (2 Cor. 4:17)? What is this 'momentary and light'? By this he reckoned it a kind of tender flower. But what is there that is 'sublime and eternal'? As if he compared it to a refreshment of the most savory bread. And therefore, if from this present life's hardship, in which the measure of merit is revealed to you by living well, you ascend with steps of love and desire to that happiness in which you persist in God's praises forever as your reward -- then indeed you ascend from Galilee to Judea. For here the Lord, manifesting the uncertain and hidden things of his wisdom, reveals to you the dense places (Ps. 28:9), in which you may there establish a solemn feast day. But there in his temple all shall speak glory -- which is in that heavenly Judea, because that celestial Jerusalem which God inhabits is ever in the confession of divine praise. But if from the beautiful and fragrant flower you strive to prepare yourself for that solid bread of eternal happiness, having the desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23), longing to be someday mingled with those whom he makes recline at table, and girding himself, passes by and serves them (Luke 12:38) -- you ascend, as it were, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, so that just as you remain with him in his trials in Nazareth, so he himself arranging for you a kingdom, you may eat and drink at his table in his kingdom (Luke 22:29). Which kingdom pertains to Bethlehem, because the evangelist spiritually calls Bethlehem his city (Luke 2:4).
IV. But whence does this Joseph have the ability to ascend thus? Let the evangelist show us why he can ascend. 'Joseph went up,' he says, 'from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem' (Luke 2:4). And he adds the reason: because he was of the house and family of David. Whence is it, my dearest brother, that you so zealously and at all times and places devote yourself to the exercises of good works, if not because you belong to the lot of the elect? For those whom he predestined, he also called; and those whom he called, he also justified (Rom. 8:30). What then is concluded, except that those whom he predestined he also justified? This house and family of David, therefore, is that blessed company which is predestined to eternal life. That we may be of this house and family, we earnestly pray when we say: 'Deliver us from eternal damnation and command us to be numbered in the flock of your elect.' We preface this twofold ascent, by which we ascend from Galilee to Judea, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, saying: 'And order our days in your peace.'
V. Therefore you ascend from Galilee to Judea, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, because you are of the house and family of David. Because before persecutors themselves you confess God publicly, whom through faith you hold in secret. Because you confess with full voice that whatever you sense was inspired in you through revelation comes from him. Because from the revelation that comes to you in the merit of present life, you hasten by the swift course of desire to that homeland, in which you may celebrate perpetually the confessions of divine praise. Because from the holiness of good action, which you outwardly display to your neighbors for their benefit, you strive to reach the rectitude of interior intention, through which you may please God alone. Because from the work you have already practiced, you desire to arrive at the manner of life you have not yet undertaken. Because, finally, from the beauty of present holiness, which you now exercise in merit, you desire to ascend to the most savory refreshment of future happiness, which you will enjoy as your reward -- because you are the Son of the supreme Father, and foreordained to eternal life. For in those three ways we have said the spiritual Joseph ascends from Galilee to Judea, from Nazareth to Bethlehem: but the reason is that he was of the house and family of David. For whence is it to you that with such zeal, with daily -- indeed continual -- steps of love, by those means we have taught you to ascend, you strive to ascend from Galilee to Judea, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, unless it is because you are of the house and family of David?
VI. Whence is this in you, that with all your strength you hate what is evil and love what is good, inclining yourselves readily and perseveringly in all the ways you know and are able to the divine will? And if at any time, when some impulse of temptation strikes, you happen to deviate from it somewhat, you are unable to have any peace whatsoever until you are reconciled to him through full penance, pure confession, and fitting satisfaction -- as he himself goads you with the spurs of fear and love in your conscience, and drives and draws you to himself? Is this not because you are beloved, and are joined to him by a certain kinship? It is a great and truly wondrous and divine thing that thus the charity of God has been poured forth in your hearts, through the Holy Spirit who has been given to you (Rom. 5:5). You have his first-fruits and pledge, as the Spirit himself cries out within you 'Abba, Father,' the same Spirit also bearing witness that you are sons of God: and thereby, if sons, also heirs -- heirs indeed of God, and co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). Great, I say, and truly wondrous and altogether divine is what is suggested to you in your mind: that you should sigh for him so tirelessly, holding it as certain within yourselves that nothing on this side can suffice you, that you ought to seek nothing beyond, but to strive toward him and rest in him. Surely this is no false indication of your salvation, no lying testimony of your election.
VII. Hence it is, dearest brothers, that not only have you come to this state of holiness in which you now are, but you also stand manfully in it. Because you belong to that people whom the Lord has chosen as his inheritance (Ps. 32:12); because he who foreknew and predestined you to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom. 8:29) -- calling and justifying you -- him in whom you hope, will, confirming his work which he has wrought in you, one day also magnify it. Meanwhile you ascend from Galilee to Judea, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, because you are of the house and family of David. And for what purpose did Joseph ascend there? Surely to register. I believe this is what the Psalmist says: For there the tribes went up -- not all indeed, but the tribes of the Lord (Ps. 121:4); those, namely, that belong to the house and family of David -- and they went up to confess the name of the Lord (Ps. 83:5). For those who dwell in that house shall praise him forever and ever; and those who abide in that Judea are devoted to divine praises for eternity, raising the voice of exultation and confession.
VIII. But did Joseph ascend alone to register? By no means, but he ascended to register with Mary his betrothed wife, who was with child (Luke 2:5). In attending to these progresses we have spoken of, on the road of the present life, we have mother Grace accompanying us and indeed leading us. Because we can in no way make progress unless she both goes before us inspiring, follows us helping, and accompanies us consoling. But since she herself is with us on the way, what will she do for us at the end? Although we hope devoutly, we are by no means fully certain, nor entirely secure. Do not those have grace working in them who, with her ministering, receive justice and wisdom? And yet this is the voice of Solomon: There are just and wise, and their works are in the hand of God, and yet man knows not whether he is worthy of love or of hatred (Eccl. 9:1). Our mother, interior grace, smiles upon us, and we piously hope that she who now bestows holiness on us on the way, guarding and perfecting works of mercy, will similarly bestow happiness upon us in the homeland, and that she who began a good work in us will bring it to perfection unto the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6). But nevertheless, gazing upon our hidden life, and understanding that we are surrounded and enveloped in darkness, we are not, as I have already said, fully certain. This is Mary, the betrothed wife of Joseph: presenting herself as a star in the sea of the present life, because amid the many storms that this Joseph endures -- now from the flesh, now from the world, now from the devil -- how could he reach salvation unless he had the light of that great star, the guiding light of interior grace? Our Joseph has her as his betrothed, but he does not know her carnally -- so that you too may understand that the helping grace of which we speak is joined to you in such a way that you should seek in it or through it nothing pertaining to the softness of your glory and praise; nor should it happen, God forbid, that you who ought to be the chaste guardian of so great a spouse should instead become her shameless corruptor.
IX. Hence it is that the sentence of Solomon condemned Adonijah to death (3 Kings 2:25), because he wished to unite carnally with Abishag, whom the old king had indeed as one who warmed him, but, as Scripture says, He did not know her, for King David had grown old, and had very many days of age (3 Kings 1:1). So that you too may strive to reach the maturity of holiness, and endeavor to acquire the manifold brightness of spiritual virtues. And when he was covered with garments, he could not be warmed (ibid.). So that you also, when earthly things abound for you in plenty, may have no consolation in them, according to the Psalmist's admonition: If riches abound, set not your heart upon them (Ps. 61:11). For what are all earthly things but certain garments of the body? But since garments provide no warmth, let the beautiful and chaste Abishag approach to warm the old man -- so that when you find no delight in earthly things, you may seek the chaste embrace of interior grace, which may kindle you with the warmth of spiritual desire. Thus, when your soul refuses to be consoled, be mindful of God and of love (Ps. 76:4), so that ascending from Galilee to Judea, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, you may have Mary your betrothed accompanying you. And indeed we know that our mother Grace thinks thoughts of peace and not of affliction over her adopted children. But only after she has led them from present things to future things does she first show what she feels about them. Wherefore Mary too, who ascends with Joseph while pregnant, does not pour forth through birth the treasure she secretly bears in her womb, unless she and Joseph alike come to Bethlehem. So also you read: And it came to pass while they were there -- in Bethlehem, no doubt -- her days were fulfilled that she should give birth: and she brought forth her firstborn son (Luke 2:6-7).
X. These days of Mary, which begin in Galilee and Nazareth but are fulfilled in Judea and Bethlehem, we understand as blessed desires, and holy works, and whatever other exercises of spiritual virtues there may be -- by which Mary is more and more perceived to be with child. Because indeed, the greater and more abundant the holiness that mother Grace extends to us in our way of life, the greater the reward she proposes to bestow on us in future happiness. For I think that when faith shines in us, it is like a certain bright day. Great, I confess, is the brightness of this day, in whose light shining in us we believe God, we believe God's word, we believe in God. We believe God supremely powerful, supremely wise, supremely good. And in this manner we believe God as a truthful promiser. We believe in God as in inexhaustible sweetness itself and unfailing delight. So also hope is a certain day, and indeed a very bright one, at whose dawning in us we spiritually see what we cannot see bodily, as the Apostle affirms: By hope we have been saved (Rom. 8:24); and that we hope for what we do not see, and therefore wait with patience. The grief also that stings us in the consideration of present evils, and the fear that shakes us in the consideration of future ones, will seem to you to be days if you rightly consider. Do you not assert that the brightness of knowledge and no less the maturity of wisdom is a certain luminous sun in the heaven of the soul? And indeed through the former, grief arises in the mind; but the way to the latter is fear, as Solomon says: He who adds knowledge, adds also grief (Eccl. 1:18); and as holy David affirms: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Ps. 110:10). Grief therefore is a kind of day in you, because the more you grieve in this life over present darkness, the more you are spiritually illuminated to see the brightness of future glory. Fear is also such, because the more you fear incurring the punishments of hellish torment, the more you are illuminated to seek the joys of the heavenly homeland. The day of fear is succeeded by the day of penance, because then you clearly see how much you must repent of the commission of sin, when you have first fully seen the punishments of torment. This is followed by Justice, which is itself not doubted to be a day -- which the sun of charity illuminates, so that it can render to each what is due; that whoever walks honorably in this day may know how to reject evil and choose good: the former lest he harm anyone, the latter that he may benefit all. After this the seventh day dawns, and it is the Sabbath of rest -- namely, the bright quiet and quiet brightness of interior contemplation.
XI. These are the days of the mother, which she has indeed in Galilee and in Nazareth, but she shows them completed in Judea, in Bethlehem, when she gave birth to her son there. So too mother Grace exercises these virtues in us in the present, but she will consummate and bring them to an end in the heavenly homeland. Where she will reveal to us the purpose she has regarding our salvation, by which here indeed in spiritual progress she went before and followed, enriched. Which purpose she also held firmly and stably within herself, but carrying it hidden in her interior, she wished it to be concealed from us. Now she has in us her days: in faith, while we believe rightly; in hope, while we hope firmly; in grief, while we grieve from the depths of our hearts over present evils; in fear, while seeing evils, we dread those to come. She has them also in penance, while by repenting we punish sins committed; in justice, while we work good toward all; in interior contemplation, while through a glass in an enigma, as far as is possible for us in this mortal flesh, we behold the glory of the Lord. These days, I say, she has in us while she dwells with us in the Galilee of Nazareth. But when, ascending together with her from Galilee to Judea, we shall have arrived from Nazareth in Bethlehem, there she will show herself to us as giving birth, who now shows herself as with child -- because that good and blessed thing she will openly reveal to us, which she now thinks about us in secret.
XII. When these days are fulfilled that she may give birth -- that is, when these virtues of which we have spoken are consummated, so that what she perceives about us here, she may reveal there -- will not the day of faith then be fulfilled, that is, finished and consummated, when, as the Apostle says, we shall not walk by faith, but run by sight (2 Cor. 5:7)? So too the day of hope will then be ended, when we shall see what we now hope for, and fully possess what we await with patience. The day of grief and fear will also be ended, and the day of joy and security will shine forever. Likewise the days of penance will be ended, because we shall feel no further sting of guilt in our conscience requiring us to repent. His mercy and his truth, who shall seek them? (Ps. 60:8). Those who hope will not then seek the truth of him who promises, already fully possessing whatever he promised. Nor will the penitent seek the mercy of him who forgives: having nothing pertaining to guilt from the past that has not been pardoned, committing nothing from then on for which they need to seek mercy. The day of justice will be ended, and the day of glory will be ended, in which, not failing, we shall reap what we now sow: for in the day of justice we sow in the spirit, and in the day of glory we shall reap eternal life. The day of contemplation will likewise be ended, in which we now see through a glass in an enigma, and it will be succeeded by this day of unfailing brightness, in which we shall see him face to face (1 Cor. 13:12).
XIII. When these days are fulfilled -- that is, when these virtues are finished -- Mary will bring forth her son: grace will reveal the sentence of peace which she held hidden toward us here, and the immovable purpose of our election. This purpose, which she peacefully held toward us here, she will then fully demonstrate when she rewards us with eternal joy. Hence it is said here: And she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger (Luke 2:7). This happens, as it were, when what Mary carried in her womb she wraps in swaddling clothes and lays in a manger -- that is, when, according to what mother grace thinks about us in the present, she will surround us with the delightful sweetnesses of eternal happiness and sweet delights, placing us in the secret of the heavenly homeland. To this the truthful assertion and joyful promise of blessed John seems to pertain: Now we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be; we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). This is to say: now we ascend from Galilee to Judea, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, all of us who are of the house and family of David. What we shall be does not yet appear -- what the mother, with whom we ascend, carries while pregnant; what that may be. We know that when her days are fulfilled that she may give birth, she will bring forth a son, and wrap him in swaddling clothes, and lay him in a manger. And why does mother grace not show here what she feels about us? Certainly because here we are in exile, not in the kingdom; on the road, not in the homeland; not in rest, but in labor.
XIV. And hence it is that he is laid in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn. Our whole life is like a kind of inn for us. When we come here by being born, we turn aside here; and we turn aside here for this purpose: that we may be here for a time, not remain forever. This present life is therefore the tent of the soldier, not the bedchamber of one at rest; the stable of the traveler, not the house of the dweller; the prison of the exile, not the dwelling of the citizen; the inn of the journeyer, not the palace of one who stays. Therefore there is no place for Mary in the inn, but she lays her son in a manger. Because it is not fitting that what will be given in the kingdom should be granted to you in exile. For as the evangelist says: No fuller on earth can make the garments of Jesus so white as they appear when he is transfigured on the mountain (Mark 9:2). And who is this fuller, but he of whom the Psalmist says he is to be sprinkled with hyssop that he may be clean, and washed that he may be whiter than snow? (Ps. 50:9). Truly you, Lord Jesus, are our fuller, who declare us clean because of the word that I have spoken to you (John 15:3). For in our present state, you tread upon us with fear and love, the water of compunction poured into the basin of our mind; and thus performing the office of the fuller, and thereby bearing the name of fuller, you cleanse your garments with the water of washing. Are we not your garments, with which you clothe yourself through faith that works through love?
XV. These garments of yours, therefore, you deign to whiten daily, pouring over them the clean water of interior compunction, that they may be cleansed from all their defilements. But who in this life can be so thoroughly cleansed as to have nothing in himself needing cleansing? For, as Solomon says, who can say: My heart is clean, I am pure from sin? (Prov. 20:9). Therefore holy men, the garments of the Lord, are clean and yet still to be cleansed; which indeed the Lord himself indicated, who declared his disciples clean, and yet their feet he washed (John 13:5). But there will be a time when they will have nothing in themselves needing to be cleansed, needing absolutely no cleansing, stained by no pollution. And when will this be, except when they shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13:43); when in justice they shall appear in the sight of Christ their mediator; when the state of holy souls shall be made bright, of which John says in the Apocalypse: They are without blemish before the throne of God (Rev. 14:5). This is the mountain on which you will be transfigured, Lord Jesus! On which your other face will appear -- namely, that sublimity of heavenly happiness, in which according to his promise he will show himself to those who love him.
XVI. What then? Are we making Christ two-faced? Must he be said to have a double face, so that it may be said of him in the Transfiguration that he has another face? (Luke 9:29). Yes indeed. Was it not his face upon which he gazed who said: We saw him, and there was no beauty -- whence we did not esteem him; and he added: We thought him as it were a leper, and struck by God, and humbled (Isa. 53:3)? But in a far different face he was beheld by the one who called him beautiful in form above the sons of men (Ps. 44:3). Both his faces had been seen by those who beheld him fair in his robe and gazed upon his garment red (Isa. 63:1). It is indeed read in the Gospel that the Jews spat in his face (Matt. 26:67); but far different was the face for which he sighed with all his being who said: When shall I come and appear before the face of God? (Ps. 41:3). This is the face that holy Moses longed to have shown to him, who because of the great favor he had found with God, dared to say: Show me your face that I may see you (Exod. 33:13). This is that other face of his, which appeared when he was transfigured on the mountain: namely, the beauty of his divinity, in which his elect saw him in the sublimity of heavenly happiness. In which happiness, filled in all things with charity, his elect will shine with him, so that on this mountain they may be his white garments (Mark 9:2). And so white that no fuller can make them so on earth; because far greater is the purity that the Lord will bestow on his elect in that sublime happiness than the purity he bestows on them in present holiness. And so they are not white on earth, that Mary may lay her son in a manger, because there is no room for him in the inn. To which manger may he deign to lead us, who for our sake humbly deigned to be laid in a manger: Jesus Christ our Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God, blessed forever. Amen.
SERMON XXV. AGAIN ON THE BIRTHDAY OF THE LORD. On the threefold decree of the supreme emperor.
I. A decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled (Luke 2:1). Blessed is that gentle and innocent Lamb, who on this day, being born in the house of bread, willed to be laid in a manger, in order to set himself before us, his beasts of burden, as life-giving food. Who also, dying on the cross, caused the veil of the temple to be torn in half (Luke 23:45), so that with our eyes unveiled we might consider the wonders of his law. Behold, according to what he promises in Isaiah: he opens for us hidden treasures and secret things concealed (Isa. 45:3), admitting us to the inner chambers of his secrets, and opening to us the deep and mystical meanings in his Scripture. Not indeed in one way only, but in many ways and many modes he speaks to us in his Scripture, so that although the bread of sacred Scripture is one, the variety of flavor may delight us. Let us therefore open our spiritual jaws and strive to taste with the interior palate what this flavor is, with which the Holy Spirit has today deigned to season this bread for us -- which is indeed placed before us now for the third time, but although it is old through the custom of eating, it is nevertheless still new through the variety of flavor. For I think that not in one but in many ways a decree went out from our supreme emperor, almighty God, that the whole world should be enrolled. Who is this 'world' but the Church or company of the elect, or by whatever other more fitting name their assembly can be expressed -- who according to his purpose are called saints, for whom all things work together for good? Whom indeed God the Father foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). This therefore is the 'world' which the Lord through the Psalmist declares to be his: Mine, he says, is the world and its fullness (Ps. 49:12), because the company of the elect, to be placed in heavenly happiness, is properly and especially his. This is the world which, as that holy woman said, God set upon its pillars: The Lord's are the pillars of the earth, and he has set the world upon them (1 Sam. 2:8); because the lords are the prelates of the Church, and he has laid upon them the Church of his elect to be governed. But that this world might be enrolled, you will find that the decree went out from our king the Lord not merely once; if you are willing to consider carefully how often, through various states of times and diverse successions of generations, the Lord has called some of his elect to himself from the beginning of the world; and he will never cease to call them to himself until he comes and delivers the kingdom to God the Father, and God shall be all in all, and death the enemy shall be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:28).
II. The first decree went out from him, that the world should be enrolled, when it was established that the ancient people of the Hebrews should be called to his knowledge. This first enrollment was made in the time of our father Abraham. For the condition of that ancient people took its beginning from that faithful and blessed old man, who is the first way of believing. For although the written law was given through Moses, yet in the sacrament of circumcision -- in which many sacrifices of that same law were contained -- it was in a way given beforehand: since Abraham, as you know, was the first to receive circumcision. Hence the Lord, addressing the Jews about it and showing from whom it originated, says: Therefore Moses gave you circumcision, not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers (John 7:22). Moses indeed gave you circumcision, yet it was not from Moses but from the fathers. Because Moses by no means newly instituted it as if it had not existed before, but the circumcision given to that first supreme patriarch and transmitted through him to posterity -- lest it be abandoned, and so that it might be devoutly practiced -- he later confirmed by the law. The threefold state of that ancient people, distinguished by different periods, also appears to us.
III. And the first state was that in which that great father Abraham was called to the knowledge and worship of the one true God, and after him Isaac and Jacob, and the sons of the same Jacob -- who are called the twelve patriarchs, set apart from the other nations and taken by the Lord as his own. The second was that in which, freed from the harsh and hard and prolonged servitude of the Egyptians by Moses and Aaron, the people was led out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. For that people of the Lord had been detained for some time in that house of bondage after the death of Joseph, and burned in the iron furnace: The Egyptians hating the children of Israel, as is read in Exodus (1:13), and bringing their lives to bitterness with hard labors of mortar and brick, and with every service by which they were oppressed in the works of the land. But when they cried out to the Lord from the face of their oppressor (Isa. 19:20), he himself, remembering his mercy, had compassion on their misery. Remembering also the covenant that he had made with their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he sent and freed them. For he sent Moses his servant, and Aaron whom he chose (Ps. 104:26; Exod. 2:24), placing in them the words of his signs and wonders, who, striking the hardened king of Egypt together with his people with the most grievous plagues, snatched the people from his dominion and led them delivered out of Egypt. There was also a third state of the same people, in which the Lord instructed them in his law through Moses and Aaron, promulgating for them various statutes pertaining to the rule of life, and imposing upon them sacraments divided into many kinds of sacrifices and institutions.
IV. Behold the threefold state of that ancient people, distinguished by various periods of time: the first, in which they were called in those first and supreme fathers to the knowledge of the one true God; the second, in which they were freed from the servitude of the Egyptians; the third, in which they were instructed in the law through Moses and Aaron. In the first state, a decree went out from God the supreme emperor that the whole world should be enrolled: namely, that the Hebrew people, in the exalted father Abraham and the patriarchs who followed him, should be called to the knowledge and worship of the one true God. In the second state thereafter, freed from captivity, they progressed from good to better, now increased in number and strengthened in might. For, not counting women and children, six hundred and three thousand five hundred men went out of Egypt, strong and ready for battle (Exod. 12:37) -- like a certain spiritual Joseph, who ascended from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, the city of David which is called Bethlehem. In the first state, those enrolled went to register each in his own city, worshipping the one true God and practicing the sacrament of circumcision each in his own house and family. In the second state, the same people now increased ascended -- because this is what the name Joseph expresses -- and ascended from the revelation they had received about their God, and from the tender beginnings of those few sacraments they had undergone, to a more solid refreshment in the many and various kinds of sacraments, like Joseph who ascended from Galilee to Judea and from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Moses came, sent by God to the people in Egypt, revealing and manifesting to them that the Lord had looked upon them: and this revelation was like a kind of Galilee.
V. Afterwards indeed in the desert, from the time when they beheld his signs, so great and of such a kind, in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the very entrance into the desert, they recognized their same God both more fully and more perfectly, and confessed him with devotion and faithfulness. So also holy Moses instructed the people in Egypt concerning the sacrament of the paschal lamb, through whose immolation he freed them from the servitude of the Egyptians. And indeed this was a great and altogether wonderful sacrament; but in comparison with the number and variety of the many and diverse sacraments that were later added through the law, this one stood to those somewhat as a flower stands to bread. The state, therefore, in which they were freed from captivity was, according to this sense, a kind of Galilee and Nazareth; but the state through which, through the law, they were instructed in the desert was a kind of Judea and Bethlehem. Joseph therefore ascended from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because that people, increased, progressed from the revelation they had received about their God, and from those few sacraments they had received in Egypt, to the full confession and spiritual refreshment, by which they were afterwards enriched in temporal things and in diverse kinds of sacraments in the desert. And therefore they merited to reach this ascent, because they were of the house and family of David. That supreme David, therefore, chose this people at that time above all the nations that were then under heaven, and they, more than the other nations that were in the world, seemed then to belong to the lot of the elect -- like a certain spiritual Joseph, who was of the house and family of David. And for this purpose Joseph ascended to register, because that people came to the desert to devote themselves to the service of their God. Does not Moses seem to indicate this when he says: We will go a three days' journey into the desert, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God (Exod. 5:3)? He also says to Pharaoh: Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go that they may sacrifice to me in the desert (Exod. 5:1).
VI. But what do we think it means when it says: That he might register with Mary his betrothed wife, who was with child (Luke 2:5)? Nothing other than that this people, to speak briefly, served God in the desert, joined and united to a law containing hidden mysteries within itself. This is Mary, the betrothed wife of Joseph -- namely, the law given to that ancient people as in a kind of spiritual marriage -- who is also rightly said to be pregnant, on account of the deep mysteries that the law contained hidden within itself. This law, which lasted until the coming of the Son of God in the flesh, proclaimed that same Son of God both in its ceremonies and in the words of the prophets, and at the end even presented him as already present. Hence Moses, the legislator and leader of this people of whom we speak, says: The Lord will raise up a prophet from among your brothers; you shall listen to him as to me (Deut. 18:15). And so, while that people was in this state under the time of the written law and the prophets, Christ himself, the end of the law for justice to everyone who believes (Rom. 10:4), appeared -- because while they were there, her days were fulfilled, no doubt Mary's, that she should give birth: and she brought forth her firstborn son (Luke 2:6-7). In a way Mary brought forth her son when the law announced Christ. But the law held Christ hidden under the veils of burnt offerings and sacrifices, victims and ceremonies; and prophecy likewise held him hidden under figures and enigmas -- because Mary too wrapped her son in swaddling clothes, while the law and prophecy concealed under hidden mysteries the Christ whom they had foretold.
VII. This law and prophecy was indeed imposed upon all; but it was not understood by all. Only the more perfect and wiser recognized that Christ was to come to save the human race. I believe the manger pertains to these, in which Mary laid her son whom she had borne, wrapped in swaddling clothes. But to those who indeed received the law and prophecy but did not at all understand that he was to come, I think the inn pertains, in which there was no room for him. For the law and prophecy indeed turned aside to all, but was not understood by all. Among the more perfect and wiser, Christ, proclaimed through it, rested by means of understanding. So that it was not without reason that Mary, who bore her son, laid him in a manger, for whom there was no room in the inn.
VIII. These things have been said about the first decree, in which that ancient people of God came to spiritual progress. But so that we may speak of a certain decree that pertains to the new people of the Church, who were called from paganism to the faith, then in a way, as it seems to us, a decree went out from that supreme king Christ, that the whole world should be enrolled, when he enjoined upon his disciples that saving work, saying: Going into the whole world, preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). The holy prophet Isaiah understood this decree in a way through the Spirit, when in the person of our supreme emperor he cried out, saying: Upon the dark mountain raise the signal, lift up the voice, raise the hand, and let the leaders enter the gates (Isa. 13:2). The dark mountain was the profound paganism -- a mountain on account of pride, dark on account of ignorance. For because it raised itself up swollen with haughtiness, it was a mountain; and because it not only swelled with pride but, blinded by the darkness of ignorance, strayed from the light of truth, it proved to be not simply a mountain but also a dark one. Now the command was arising that a signal be raised upon this dark mountain; for a decree went out that the whole world should be enrolled (Luke 2:1). This signal is the sign of the humility of Christ's way of life, showing humble things by living them to provide an example; and proclaiming true things by teaching to impart instruction. Yet it is contradicted by many: the sign of truth by heretics, and of humility by the scribes.
IX. But how was this sign raised upon the dark mountain? That is, when the banner of Christ's humble way of life was shown to proud paganism, that the exalted might be humbled; just as the banner of the truth of his preaching was shown to those who had strayed, that the blinded might be enlightened. Lift up the voice (Isa. 13:2): Preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15) -- so that through the cry of preaching and the illumination of the light of truth, the darkness that used to cover the mountain might be driven away. Raise the hand -- so that showing wondrous things indeed in miracles, but presenting humble things in preaching, you might by the example of humility change the swelling and height of the mountain into level lowlands. From then on the leaders will be able to enter the gates -- that is, teachers will be able to enter through obedience into the hearts of those who have been humbled and enlightened. But upon whom did he enjoin this task, that in this way the sign might be raised upon the dark mountain, the voice lifted up, the hand raised? I, he says, have commanded my sanctified ones: I have called my mighty ones in my anger, those who exult in my glory (Isa. 13:3). These are the Apostles, martyrs, and holy doctors upon whom he imposed this office. For his sanctified ones are they who spiritually, for whom and on whose behalf, addressing the Father in his passion, he said: And for them I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth (John 17:19). 'Strong in his wrath' are the martyrs, robust in the fury of persecution. 'Exulting in my glory' are the holy doctors, rejoicing in the Lord when at last the time of peace smiled upon them.
X. Then, as is found in what follows, the voice of a multitude resounded in the mountains, as of peoples thronging together, because as the heralds of truth persistently pressed forward with the word of God, in countless peoples the sound of faithful confession thundered forth. And the same prophet, continuing, added: The sound of the noise of kings, and of nations gathered together (Isa. 13:4); which is nothing other than that the apostles, going forth, preached everywhere, and the nations, gathered into the unity of faith, received and confessed the truth. First, therefore, the voice of kings resounded; then that of the nations gathered together. For when first the edict went out from Christ that the whole world should be enrolled, the apostles went into the whole world to preach the Gospel to every creature. And then all went to register, each in his own city, when, as you read in the Acts of the Apostles: As many of the Gentiles as were ordained to eternal life believed (Acts 13:48); as all the nations streamed together, as Isaiah says, to that mountain, the house of the Lord (Isa. 2:2). This is what holy David said, that he wished to make known on earth the way of the Lord (Ps. 66:3); that is, his faith in the Church of the nations, and his Jesus among all peoples.
Then that distinguished chorus of the apostles came from the people of the Jews, to whom it had been revealed about Christ through the law and the prophets, to the confession of the Church from the nations, and from the Synagogue which held the outward flower of the letter of the law, to the Gentile people. For in receiving by faith the bread of sacred Scripture, grinding it by chewing with the teeth of spiritual understanding through exposition, they ate it, and built in themselves a dwelling for him into whom the angels desire to look (1 Pet. 1:12) and who is mighty and powerful in battle (Ps. 23:8). For 'David' signifies 'desirable in appearance' or 'strong of hand.' Is not this holy Joseph -- that is, the glorious company of the apostles -- from the house and family of David, whom he himself calls no longer servants but friends, whom he elsewhere calls his brothers? (John 15:13; 20:17), whom he also calls sons of his Father? (Matt. 5:45). And he went up to register with Mary his betrothed wife, to preach to the Gentiles the confession of faith, having joined to himself the wisdom which Solomon calls his beloved (Prov. 7:4). In her the meaning of profound mysteries lies hidden, just as the fetus lies hidden in a pregnant woman.
XI. And it came to pass that while they were there, the days were fulfilled for the virgin to give birth: and she brought forth her firstborn son. Then in a spiritual way Mary brought forth Christ in Bethlehem, when the catholic wisdom of sound preaching poured him through the full knowledge of right faith into the hearts of the Gentiles. He is wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, because, hidden in the sacraments of faith, he rests in the hearts of the meek and humble.
For what else is the sacrament of baptism in water; the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ in bread and wine; the sacrament of the imposition of hands in the anointing of chrism; what are all the other sacraments of holy faith, in which he is believed to be recognized, but certain swaddling clothes in which the newborn is wrapped? And the manger, where tamed animals are placed -- is it not the understanding of the sacred word, where the meek and humble are spiritually fed? He rests, therefore, in the sound understanding of the sacred word among the Gentiles, who finds no rest in any carnal understanding of the letter among the Jews, because he is laid in a manger since there was no room for him in the inn. For he who came into the world first turned to the Jews; but he found no place there, because as he himself says: He came in his Father's name, and they did not receive him (John 5:34). And elsewhere it is said of him through John: He came to his own and his own did not receive him (John 1:11). But when alien sons lied to him and limped away from his paths (Ps. 17:46), the people whom he had not known served him, at the hearing of the ear they obeyed him. For though the Jews proclaimed through the prophets that he would come, yet denied him when present and wandered from the way of truth: the people of the nations, not previously chosen, both received the same Christ the Lord through faith and obediently submitted to his commandments. These Jews indeed -- which should not be carelessly passed over -- are called sons, inasmuch as according to election they are most beloved for the sake of the Fathers; but aliens, inasmuch as according to the Gospel they are enemies for the sake of the nations. And in this way, while he could not find a place in the inn, Mary laid him in the manger: wisdom pouring him into the understanding of the nations, while he could not gain entrance through faith to the hearts of the Jews.
XII. There is still a certain third edict, about which, together with the things pertaining to it, we have spoken in these two sermons that immediately precede this one, as the Spirit of truth inspired us, before your charity. It is the internal inspiration by which that strong warrior of ours, for whose blessed vision we sigh, does not cease to visit his chosen one daily: causing his Joseph to ascend from Galilee to Judea, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, because he is of the house and family of David, to register with Mary his betrothed wife who is with child, in the manner which we have taken care to show you in these two sermons that immediately precede this one. We still wish to speak of one more, and indeed as briefly as we can, because the appointed edict has not yet gone out from our emperor, but it will go out when that hour draws near in which all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God, and come forth (John 5:28). Then that edict will go out, when the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible (1 Cor. 15:52). Then will go out the cry that will be made at midnight: Behold, the bridegroom comes, go out to meet him (Matt. 25:6). When this edict goes out, not merely some will go, but all, because all the virgins, both wise and foolish, when the bridegroom came, arose, who had slept and slumbered while he delayed. And indeed all will go, so that all may register, each in his own city, because then, says the Evangelist, all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps (Matt. 25:7). Each one's profession will be celebrated on that day, because then the conscience will conceal nothing from all the things that one's past life held within it. Then every chosen one will ascend from the rest of the soul to the happiness that he will have simultaneously in soul and body, like a certain spiritual Joseph, who will ascend from Galilee to Judea, from Nazareth to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. And this will come to him because he is of the house and family of David.
XIII. Until that edict goes forth, each chosen one exults only in the rest of his soul, which blessed John clearly indicates in the Apocalypse, when he says that single white robes were given to the saints. But when they arrive at that heavenly city of Bethlehem, when they have ascended to their own land, which is Judea, in that same land of theirs, according to the prophet's promise, they will possess double, because they will have complete blessedness simultaneously in body and soul without end. Then holy Joseph will eternally rejoice in the voice of exultation and confession (Ps. 41:5): in that house of bread, eating and drinking at his Father's table (Luke 12:30). The rest that the saints will have in the soul is related to the happiness of that house as the flower is to the bread. Then the same Joseph will register with Mary his betrothed wife who is with child, so that his heart and his flesh may exult in the living God. Who would deny that the flesh, subject to the spirit, is a kind of wife betrothed to the soul? She is certainly to be blamed as an unclean harlot when, resisting the spirit, she devotes herself to fulfilling the works of foul concupiscence; yet she is to be praised as a chaste wife when, yielding to the spirit, she earnestly applies herself to good deeds. And consider what a right and fitting order God observes in the consummation of man. For first the good person conceives a good purpose in the soul, then, with the soul directing it, brings the work to completion through the ministry of the body.
So also the soul itself first rejoices in its rest alone; then the body and soul together enjoy eternal happiness. In this holy Bethlehem this virgin brings forth a son, possessing within herself the joyful fruit of eternal incorruption, and as many gifts of blessedness as she is heaped with, she is, as it were, wrapped in so many swaddling clothes. She is laid in a manger, when she is placed in that heavenly secret place, because there was no room for her in the inn.
XIV. Our flesh, it seems to me, has a twofold inn: this world, and its own grave, which will be dug after the soul's departure. For it turns aside into the world through birth, and turns aside into the grave through death. But in neither is there a place where it may be honorably laid down, because this world is for it a place of labor, not of security or rest. The grave, indeed, is a place of disgrace and stench, not of honor or incorruption. Behold, we have expounded these Gospel words to you in four ways, leaving it to your judgment which of them seems more fitting to you. But whether you accept any of them, or reject them all together, we hold this for certain: that it is a sign of altogether great humility that God born of the Virgin, the Son of God, is wrapped in swaddling clothes; and no less of great meekness that he is laid in a manger. Is not the manger the place for an ox and a donkey? This child is God, this child is the wisdom of God the Father. Do you not marvel that God's wisdom is placed before the donkey, the divinity before the ox? And yet it was fitting, for if it were not so, neither would the ox know its owner, nor the donkey the manger of its Lord.
XV. O child, Creator of all things, how humbly you are laid in a manger (Isa. 1:3), you who reign with power in heaven! There the heavens of heavens cannot contain you, yet here you are content in the narrowest manger. There at the beginning of the world you adorned the earth with green plants bearing fruit, and with trees bearing fruit and producing seed; you decorated the firmament with the sun, moon, and stars; you filled the sky with birds, the waters with fish, the earth with creeping things, beasts of burden, and wild animals; yet here at the end of the world you are wrapped in swaddling clothes! O majesty! O lowliness! O sublimity! O humility! O immense, eternal, and Ancient of Days! O small, temporal infant, whose life upon earth is not yet one day old! Rejoice and be glad, O blessed Virgin! Embracing in your arms, holding in your embrace, him whom the innumerable chorus of heavenly spirits cannot fully comprehend, hidden in the bosom of the Father. Here you adore him as Creator, here you carry him as an infant; here you venerate him as Lord, here you embrace him as a son; here you prostrate yourself before him in your mind as before the Most High, here you caress him with your face as a little child. Rejoice and exult today as greatly as possible in your offspring, O sweet virgin! O gentle, O mild one! Because him whom you conceived without corruption, you carried without burden, you brought forth without injury. Stand by us and make excuse for us, O loving and merciful mother, in his fearful judgment, that him whom we now joyfully receive as Redeemer, we may also securely behold when he comes as Judge. Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reigns as God, through all ages of ages. Amen.
SERMON XXVI. LIKEWISE ON THE DAY OF THE LORD'S NATIVITY. On the threefold grace of God and on the benefits of his threefold grace.
I. The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, instructing us, that denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly, justly, and piously in this world, looking for the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God (Titus 2:11). Since many and great, dearest ones, are the reasons that make man a debtor to God, this too holds a preeminent place among the rest: that God became man for us. This is the work of God -- and a work altogether great, and so great that nothing among all his works can be compared to it. For it is a far greater thing to make himself than to create all things that exist besides himself. It is a great thing, what John says of him: All things were made through him and without him was made nothing (John 1:3); but it is far greater what he added in what follows: The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (ibid.). For what man, clothed not only in mortal flesh, but what angel even, persisting in his own purity, is of such profound understanding that he would not be astonished, beholding the Maker of all things made, God a man, the Word flesh? And indeed whatever good God confers on man proceeds from his gratuitous grace; but what approaches this, not to say exceeds it?
He created man so that he might at least exist; he created him in his own image and likeness, so that he might be something sublime. But unless both were from grace, neither would have existed at all. For that he who was nothing might even exist, and especially that he might be something so great and of such a kind -- this was given to him by the one who lacked nothing, to whom nothing new could be added, nor anything ancient be lacking. What is greater, or what is as ancient as the eternal? Therefore that Almighty One, who cannot be increased because he is perfect, nor diminished because he is immense, created man by grace alone -- since he had no need of man's goods, since just as man's evils can take nothing from the Almighty, so neither can his goods confer anything on the One who has all things. And here the great grace of the Creator shone forth in the created man, both because he who was created had been nothing, and because he was created so sublimely, namely in the image and likeness of his Creator. But this grace was the Creator's grace -- yet no small grace was this, through which man received not only existence and such sublime existence, but also a third great gift that his very Creator bestowed through it: namely, that he should receive service from every visible creature made for his sake, and commanding all the creatures that were in the world, should serve with voluntary freedom and free will that One alone from whom all these things had been bestowed upon him.
II. These three things the grace of the Creator bestowed on man when he was created: being, dignity, and devotion -- that is, that he should exist, that he should be something so worthy, and that he should be able to serve his Creator who lavished such great and excellent gifts. The first he had in common with the creatures subject to him; but the second and third he possessed as spiritual, beyond the first. As long as this grace remained whole in man, man himself was assuredly whole: possessing in the first of its goods himself; in the second, God; in the third, the creature subject to him. So that, placed in the middle, he might both descend, receiving service from the creature to relieve temporal necessity; and ascend, rendering service to the Creator to merit eternal happiness; and the whole service, both what he received and what he rendered, would flow back to his own good. But this grace remained with man only as long as sin was not in him. For as soon as he approached sin, deceived by the persuasions of the enemy, touching the fruit of the forbidden tree, this grace of which we speak departed from him in large measure. For the cunning deceiver took from him what the benign Creator had bestowed, because the brightness of the divine image and likeness in him was darkened; and the power he had received over the subject creation was considerably taken away, with only his bare existence somehow remaining with him. Thus, condemned to both guilt and punishment -- because when he was in honor he did not understand (Ps. 28:13), having already fallen into the abyss while through pride he desired the divine likeness -- he was compared to senseless beasts, and made like them (ibid.); and ceasing to possess himself, he felt that his general dominion over the creature subject to him had been taken away.
III. From that time the wrath of God descended upon wretched and miserable man, because from that time the blindness of ignorance darkened him in his soul, and the calamity of mortality oppressed him in his body. The misery of the concupiscence of mortality planted a tree in human flesh, which, corrupting it both through the impulse toward evil and through contempt for the good, and growing immeasurably, unceasingly drove him through the one to desire what was forbidden, willing what God did not will; and through the other to despise and neglect what was commanded, not willing what God willed. But this wretched man -- darkened, malicious, slothful: darkened through the shadows of ignorance, malicious through the horror of wickedness, slothful through the lukewarmness of negligence -- what else did he deserve but the punishment of hell? And so these four evils were in man: ignorance blinding through error, sloth drawing away from virtue, malice enticing to sin, damnation afflicting eternally. Therefore God, having compassion on his great misery, put on the form of a Savior, to free him from this fourfold calamity. And so that someone might fittingly undertake this salutary and sublime task, he took upon himself the same nature that he proposed to save. Therefore, that man might be saved, God himself became man, so that in saved man the grace of God the Savior might appear, in whom, when created, the grace of God the Creator had once appeared.
IV. Therefore, appearing in man for man's sake, he who assumed exalted the whole man assumed by him within himself, the one who assumed. The whole man, I say, he assumed into himself: namely, soul and flesh, the nature not the person, but the man in a person. The nature, because a rational soul and flesh; not the person, because that flesh and soul were not united to a person before they were assumed. Rather, they were assumed into a person, so that what was assumed and the one assuming would be one and the same person in the Trinity. Nor was any mutability brought about in God because the Son took human nature into his own person, but the same Trinity that existed from eternity remained, neither changed in the one who assumed nor increased in what was assumed. From the moment the assumed man began to exist as the assuming God through that ineffable union, which was unto one: it was one, and no other person began to exist than the one who received him; nor did he begin to be God because he began to be man, because before he began to be this, he never ceased to be thus. He took on flesh with its punishment but without guilt; with mortality, but without iniquity; the weakness of whose punishment he held by power, admitted into himself by will, and did not endure by necessity. The rational soul in Christ governed that flesh and sanctified it unto life, rejecting sin according to free will and practicing justice. This too it had from the fellowship of the Word, by whom it was assumed: that it would indeed do good by spontaneous will, but would be utterly unable to incline to doing evil through any necessity or weakness. The soul was joined both to the flesh as to its inferior, and to the divinity as to its superior, being itself the life of the flesh. Hence when it departed, the flesh died; but having its life in the divinity, when it withdrew from the flesh, it was not separated from the divinity. It also endured sorrows and griefs for a time in the sense of the flesh, but possessed full and perfect joy in spirit through fellowship with the divinity.
V. Behold, God, made man for man's sake, taking into himself both substances of man -- flesh and soul -- clean, yet not finding either clean in man. For ignorance, as was said above, made man's soul dark, and concupiscence made his flesh corrupt. That flesh indeed, with concupiscence administering it, was both sluggish toward the good through lukewarmness, and prone to evil through wickedness; and so both the flesh and the soul in man were liable to eternal damnation. But he alone, free among the dead (Ps. 87:6), showed in his own work the example of holiness, so that man, taking from him a pattern, might in one respect, for abandoning evil, and conversely, having cut off the aforementioned branches of concupiscence, first avoid sin with all his strength, then practice the virtues; and finally, immolating his most pure flesh on the altar of the cross and commending his most innocent soul into the hands of the Father, because he endured an undeserved bodily death on the cross, he also took away from man the deserved perdition of eternal death, which man had merited in both body and soul.
VI. Behold how great and of what quality the grace of God our Savior appears: far more sublime, far more excellent than the grace of God our Creator, which appeared in the beginning. In this, indeed, the former yields to the latter, and the latter surpasses the former: because the former adorned man while he stood only for a time, but the latter promoted him to eternity. Truly great and altogether immense is this grace: enlightening the blind, cleansing the defiled, adorning the cleansed, and reconciling the guilty. Thus indeed this fourfold badge of efficacious benefit, by which the fourfold evil shown above is annihilated in man: enlightening the blind through the preaching of truth, cleansing the defiled through the rejection of wickedness, adorning the cleansed through the choice of virtue, reconciling the guilty through the suffering of death. Raise your eyes, O man, and look around and see how mercifully it has been done, so that you may give the greatest thanks from the depths of your being to the one by whom it has been so done for you.
For you were truly wrapped in darkness, and with your interior eyes torn out, you were entirely blind, and you did not know where to set the foot of faith or of works. The angel of great counsel came to you, announcing to you the truth of right belief and the power of holy action, so that, holding to that faith which works through love, you would know that one without the other does not suffice for salvation. For Paul says: Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 2:6); and yet James asserts: If it has no works, it is dead in itself (James 2:17). You were defiled and unclean, perniciously infected on every side with the filth of sins -- and perniciously so, because you hated nothing less than what was evil. But the liberator who came to you admitted no evil in his work, omitted no good, so that you too, seeing in the beauty of his spiritual manner of life that nothing was absent that should have been present, nothing present that should have been absent -- rejecting evil, being raised up from sin, and choosing good -- might guard yourself from transgression. And finally, pouring out his innocent and holy blood on the altar of the cross, the Lord, your mediator, both reconciled you who were guilty, and he himself, undeservedly condemned to the most shameful death, freed you who deserved damnation from eternal damnation.
This is the grace of God our Savior, conferring on us something greater and more sublime than the grace of God our Creator conferred; for it gave us existence so that we might be; and created us in his own image and likeness so that we might be something sublime; placed every visible creature beneath us so that we might preside over it. But this saving grace instructed us in our ignorance, freeing us from error; washed us when defiled, snatching us from filth; adorned us once washed, beautifying us with holiness; reconciled us who were guilty before his judgment, saving us from damnation. O fourfold good of saving grace: the preaching of truth, the rejection of wickedness, the practice of holiness, the suffering of bitter death.
VII. Many and varied other goods the Savior, appearing in the flesh, conferred upon us, but these hold the preeminence among the rest and have in themselves the primacy over all others. And therefore, on account of their prerogative, I think that saying which we read in the Book of Genesis pertains to this grace: A river went out from a place of pleasure to water paradise, which from there is divided into four heads (Gen. 2:10). Who would deny that this is that place of which the Apostle says: In whom dwells all the fullness of the divinity bodily? (Col. 2:9). Through the Apostle he saw this place in which he declared that all the fullness of the divinity dwells. But he who saw it to be of such magnitude, did he not also see it to be of ineffable delight? He added: And you are filled in him (ibid., 10). It is therefore a place, and indeed a most ample one, in which all the fullness of the divinity dwells; and it is a place of delight, in which our fulfillment is contained, holding within itself all the fullness of our sweetness. Truly my Lord Jesus is a place of delight, in whom whatever I see is lovely; whatever I hear, delightful; whatever I smell, sweet; whatever I taste, pleasant; and lest I pass over any of the senses, whatever I touch, agreeable. Truly a place of delight, in which, to speak briefly, there is absolutely nothing that you could reject, nothing that you could fail to approve.
But since the good in him is of such a kind without quality, and of such extent without quantity, he is accustomed not to keep it greedily for himself alone, but also to distribute it to us abundantly, when he determines to share it, knowing indeed that through benignity it can be communicated, but through its immensity it cannot be diminished. For from that abundance of his he confers not a little upon us, providing in himself a new grace of salvation for us, who in our first parents lost the ancient grace of the Creator. Hence John says: Of his fullness we have all received (John 1:16), and grace for grace. Not just some, but all of us have received of his fullness, as holy David says: There is none that can hide himself from his heat (Ps. 18:7). Among the elect, certainly, there is none that hides from his heat; and this is what John indicates here, when he says: 'We all.' For what does 'we' mean? None other than we who are preordained to eternal life, we who are called holy according to his purpose. We, whom God the Father foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, of whom we speak (Rom. 6:28). This fullness, I believe, pertains to that river which goes out from the place of delight: remaining there on account of its simplicity, but on account of its benignity flowing even to us, so that it does not abandon that only-begotten good, the head from which it comes, and yet descends even to the very hem of the garment.
VIII. The river, therefore, going out from the place of delight into paradise, is the grace coming from the Savior, in whom is all the fullness of sweetness, arriving to water from heaven the Church of the holy elect. It is divided into four heads, because this saving grace of which we speak principally confers four benefits upon us: preaching, which frees us from error; cleansing, which frees from guilt; holiness, which adorns in conduct of life; and finally, the suffering of death, which saves from damnation. These are in a certain way the four heads of the river, because they are the principal gifts of grace. The name of the first is Phison (Gen. 2:11), which they say means 'mouth of the pupil,' and just as speech pertains to the mouth, so no one doubts that the pupil pertains to seeing. And whence comes the vision of knowledge in the eye of the mind, if not from the brightness of holy instruction, which proceeds from the mouth of Christ's preaching?
Therefore, the first benefit of grace is aptly called 'mouth of the pupil,' because first the word is heard from the mouth of Christ, and then the spiritual sight in man is purified, and the blindness of ignorance no longer oppresses the eye of the soul, while the teaching resounds from the mouth of the Savior. When the doctrine of truth has fully filled a person, it immediately stirs him to undertake the newness of holiness, so that when what is true has perfectly shone upon him through the brightness of knowledge, what is good may also, through the taste of inmost affection, be savored by him in the maturity of his conduct. Hence it is said here of the Phison that it encircles all the land of Evilath, where gold is born (ibid.). Evilath, as some hold, means 'one in travail,' and designates those who are proposing to undertake the birth of a new life. What is brighter than gold, what more precious than wisdom? The Phison encircles Evilath, where gold is born, because the illuminating instruction is especially present to that mind which strives not only to see clearly what is true, but also through the maturity of wisdom to continually practice what is holy. And the gold of that land is the finest (ibid., 12), because anyone rightly declares the wisdom to be excellent of the person who shows it in the holiness of his conduct. But the prophet denied that the gold of their land was finest, of whom he says: They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge (Jer. 4:22).
IX. By the fact that the second river is said to encircle all the land of Ethiopia, and the third to flow against the Assyrians, it is indicated to you what great benefit comes from the second and third gift of grace: because in the abandoning of evil, whatever illicit blackness you have contracted in yourself, you cast away; and in the practice of good, you resist the demons who fight against you in good works. But neither preaching, which illuminates; nor cleansing, which purifies; nor holy conduct, which adorns, is of any avail unless the passion follows which redeems and confers the fruit of eternal salvation, because the fourth river is the Euphrates itself (Gen. 2:14). This grace is succeeded by another, which will be fully present to the elect in the future life, enriching them with everlasting blessedness. This blessedness will be threefold, conferring upon them power, wisdom, and benignity, so that they may be strong and incorruptible in themselves, benign toward one another, and wise; and indeed each of these three will be everlasting. Behold four things in which this grace will confirm us: power, wisdom, benignity, eternity; wise power, benign wisdom, and eternal benignity; powerful, eternally wise benignity; eternal, wise, and powerful eternity. The saints will learn, who will fully comprehend what is the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth (Eph. 3:18). The height of power, the depth of wisdom, the breadth of charity, the length of eternity. The first we assign to the Father, the second to the Son, the third to the Holy Spirit, the fourth to the Trinity itself -- yet in such a way that what we assign to the individual persons, we take care to assign simultaneously to all, so that God may in this way be all things in all. And this third grace indeed pertains to the Holy Spirit and is the grace of confirmation. For the Father created, the Son will save, the Holy Spirit will confirm.
X. The first grace, creative, existed in the beginning; the second, saving; the third, confirming, and it will be without end. The first bestowed on us that we should exist, that we should be something sublime, that we should preside over every visible creature. The second enlightened us who were blind, so that we would no longer wander in ignorance; purified us who were unclean, so that we would not remain defiled; adorned those purified, so that we would shine in holy conduct; reconciled the guilty, so that we would not be condemned to perdition. It enlightened by preaching the words of life; purified by utterly rejecting evil; adorned by persisting in holy conduct; reconciled by dying on the cross for us. The third grace will perfectly strengthen us to be powerful; will illuminate us to be fully wise; will inflame us to love one another; will perpetuate us to be utterly unfailing. We shall be able without weakness, we shall know without error, we shall love without offense, we shall endure without failing: God being all things in all, who is blessed forever. Amen.
SERMON XXVII. LIKEWISE ON THE DAY OF THE LORD'S NATIVITY. On the fact that the grace of God benefits only the elect, and on the debt to which we are bound toward ourselves, and on the obedience to be shown to prelates.
I. We have spoken, dearest ones, in the sermon that immediately preceded this one which we now undertake, about the threefold grace of our God. And the first indeed was, the second now is, the third will be at the end and without end. And since our God is one and the same, we assigned the first to the Creator, the second to the Savior, the third to the Confirmer, our God; though we have the same one as Creator who is Savior and Confirmer; the same Savior who is Creator and Confirmer; and finally the same Confirmer who is Savior and Creator. The first grace is in all men, the second for all men, the third with all men. The first is in all, because the image and likeness of God is in all men, and it was also given to all in their first Father to preside over the subject creation. The second appeared to all, because the appearance of the Son of God in man was set before all for salvation and as an example. The third is with all, because just as they are in eternity, so also it will be with them rejoicing eternally, that which was shown to them at the end, which will remain without end.
II. But the grace of God our Savior, about which it was most especially our purpose to speak, and on account of whose admirable excellence we made mention of the other two: that grace, I say, appears indeed to all, yet does not profit all, because the salutary appearance of Christ in the flesh is set before each person for imitation; but not everyone is thereby composed in holiness. Hence he complains through the prophet that the reprobate not only do not accept but even reject that magnificent work which he accomplished in man, and complaining about this he says: All day I stretched out my hands to a people that does not believe, but contradicts me (Isa. 65:2). The people who do not believe but contradict, that is the foolish and senseless people, namely the execrable assembly of the reprobate; who, even though they hear that Christ stretched out his hands to them -- that is, set before them as an example the works he performed in the nature he assumed -- either, blinded by the error of unbelief, they do not believe, or, drawn away and enticed by concupiscence, they contradict in their conduct. Hence holy Simeon prophesied that he was set as a sign that would be contradicted. What is that in which the Lord Jesus is set as a sign that is contradicted (Luke 2:34), if not, so to speak, the sharp sword of rigorous conduct, with which holy men by the spirit put to death the deeds of the flesh, crucifying their flesh with its vices and concupiscences (Gal. 5:24), denying themselves, taking up their cross daily, and following Christ (Luke 9:23)? This sign, in which the elect rejoice to be marked, is contradicted by the reprobate, who, even if they perhaps believe through faith, contradict by their works, professing, as the Apostle says, to know God, but denying him by their deeds (Titus 1:16). But what the reprobate damnably reject, the elect beneficially take up for themselves, setting Christ before themselves as both the book and the sign of life, so that in one and the same Redeemer they may read his salutary discourses there, and here imitate, as far as their strength allows, the holy actions he performed.
III. Hence in this place that vessel of election, the Apostle Paul, who says that the grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men (Titus 2:11), asserts that it instructs us: so that to all men it may set forth its appearance, but upon us it imposes its instruction. The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, he says, instructing us (ibid.). What does 'us' mean? Us the elect, us who, as we said above, are preordained to eternal life. Us, finally, whom God the Father foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom. 8:9). 'Us,' he says, grace instructs, which appears to all; because the reprobate, either blinded, do not recognize it set before them, or hardened, despise it; but we recognize it, illuminated through faith, as not merely set before us but imposed upon us, and anointed, we love it through action. Hence our Redeemer, because he sees himself stretching out his hands to a people that does not believe but contradicts him, extends them to the believing people who consent to him: not to a foolish and senseless people, but to that praiseworthy people whom the God of hosts blessed, whom, as holy David says, the Lord chose for himself as his inheritance (Ps. 32:12). At last, through Jeremiah he cries: O all you who pass by the way, attend and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow! (Lam. 1:11). Those who pass along the way are the elect, who despise the present life, treading upon it in their passage, but not embracing it as a permanent state. Having it for the use of time and necessity, not remaining in it through the attachment of love and eternity. Walking through it with the lawful sustenance of the body, not lying in it in the deceitful sleep of the mind. These are the ones who attend to the sorrow of their Savior and see it. To his outstretched hands the peoples mentioned above are unbelieving and contradicting, so that the elect, enlightened through belief, may gaze in faith upon the loving sufferings he endured for them in the nature he assumed, and inflamed through charity, may imitate them in their conduct, while the reprobate either, blinded, are ignorant of them, or, hardened, do not love them. Behold how the grace of our Savior instructs us, which appears to all.
IV. But why did this grace not instruct all men, when it appeared to all? Because when preachers proclaimed it to them, they either did not believe, or if they believed, they did not love it, perhaps receiving it with the hand of belief but not gathering it with the hand of charity. For they heard, so that faith might come from hearing (Rom. 10:17), because the preachers proclaimed, so that there might be hearing through the word of Christ, and so that they might be without excuse, their sound went out into all the earth (Ps. 18:5). Thus the grace of God our Savior appeared to all men, the preaching of the Gospel to all nations, as those distinguished evangelists went out into the whole world to preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). But it instructs us, because they have seen and hated both him and his Father (John 15:24). But we who are spiritually his are not only taught so that we may hear him speaking, but also so that we may imitate him working, according to what he says about us: My sheep hear my voice and follow me (John 10:27). But those who are not of his sheep, even if they sometimes hear his voice, do not follow him, because although his words may penetrate their outward hearing, they do not fill them with fruitful effect: so that his grace appears to them in such a way that it does not instruct them.
V. Since these things are so, return to yourselves, brothers, and see whether the grace of God our Savior has instructed you, because without doubt it appears to you not in one but in many ways. Behold, we announce his grace to you in the preaching of his word; see whether through what is outwardly heard, your mind is inwardly instructed. And in you indeed we can touch the ear through our voice, but it belongs to him alone to move the mind in you through his own motion, so that although through our tongue the grace may appear to all of you, it is necessary that through his own inspiration he himself instruct you. Behold how great a grace of God our Savior appeared on this day to all men -- and certainly we see how few it instructs. For to say nothing of the other virtues of grace (for who could gather them all?), today in our Savior born, throughout the whole world, the grace of great humility, chastity, and poverty appears. Is it not a mark of the greatest humility that God appears in a man, the Word in flesh, wisdom in infancy, the Lord of all in a crying child, strength in weakness? And what could be a more evident sign that he especially loves chastity among the other virtues, than that he chose to be born of a Virgin? O great poverty, to be laid in a manger because there was no room for him in the inn! Do not men know this through knowledge? But few grasp it through imitation, so that it can be truthfully said in this respect too: the grace of God our Savior appears to all men, but it instructs few. If only it would instruct us, so that we might be able to say with the Apostle: The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, instructing us (Titus 2:11). And this is indeed true, if you learn from him to be meek and humble of heart (Matt. 11:29); if each of you knows how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor (1 Thess. 4:4); if your conduct is free from avarice, content with what you have, not lifting your eyes to riches which you cannot possess; but having food and covering, with these you are content (1 Tim. 6:8).
VI. O how differently nearly all those act to whom this grace appears outwardly! Celebrating the nativity of the humble and lowly Christ, they themselves are proud and great in their own eyes; of the chaste and pure Christ, they themselves are impure and corrupt; of the poor and needy Christ, wanting to become rich, and thereby falling into many useless and harmful things; pursuing covetousness, the root of all evils, and therefore piercing themselves with many sorrows -- puffed up, defiled, inflamed. Puffed up through the swelling of vanity and pride, defiled through the stench of pleasure and luxury, inflamed through the burning of greed and avarice. Who is proud in honors, who is unchaste, who is covetous, to whom today does not appear in our God the Savior the grace of humility, chastity, and poverty? It appears to them indeed, but it does not instruct them: they see fire and light, and they themselves remain cold and dark; they behold food and medicine, yet they hunger and are sick. For if the grace that appears were to instruct them, then the dark would be illuminated, the cold would be kindled, the hungry would be fed, and the sick would be healed. That is, to put it briefly: they would both abandon what is evil and practice what is good. Hence Paul here asserts that the grace of God our Savior, which appeared to all men, instructs us so that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we may live soberly, piously, and justly in this world (Titus 2:11).
VII. There are, as you can gather from what was said above, two bonds of Satan by which he drags the reprobate to the eternal punishment of hell: ignorance, by which they are blinded so that they do not recognize what is true; and concupiscence, by which they are drawn and enticed to practice what is evil. In the former, not believing rightly; in the latter, not living in holiness. Ungodliness, as it seems to me, pertains to the first; worldly desires to the second. For ungodliness, as some assert, is what causes a person to offend against faith; worldly desires drive one to wicked action. The grace of God our Savior instructs us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires. For if you approach the grace of his preaching, what do you hear there that does not destroy the ungodliness of error? If you approach the grace of his manner of life, what do you find there that does not extinguish worldly desires in the mind? Christ, says the Apostle, the power and wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24): with ears that hear, hear his wisdom, and ungodliness will not cause you to stray from right belief; in your mind, join yourself to his power with the embraces of love, and worldly desires will not inflame you with iniquity.
Holy David embraced both of these goods in few words, wonderfully, when he said: The Lord is my light and my salvation (Ps. 26:1). That is: the Lord, my light, will illuminate me, so that the darkness of ungodliness may not obscure me; the Lord, my salvation, will save me, so that worldly desires may not overthrow me. Whom shall I fear, since with him illuminating me, ungodliness can no longer blind me through error; and with him saving me, worldly desires cannot defile me through iniquity? Direct me thus, Lord, in your truth, and teach me, lest through the byways of ungodliness I wander from the faith. Take from me likewise concupiscence, lest through worldly desires I wallow in wickedness. In this way, therefore, enlightened by grace against ungodliness; cleansed also from worldly desires by the same grace purifying us, it is necessary that we live and strive to live soberly, piously, and justly in this world.
VIII. In these words, as the frequent teachings of the Fathers attest, that threefold obligation is contained, by which we are held as debtors and bound toward ourselves, our neighbors, and God: for we owe sobriety to ourselves, justice to our neighbor, and piety to God. Furthermore, holy affection and rigorous mortification confer sobriety upon you, so that what is unlawful you neither carry around in your mind through desire, nor practice in deed through affection. In whichever of these you fail, you lose sobriety -- both in desiring what is evil and in doing it. Therefore let holy meditation guard you in your mind, lest you desire anything unlawful through impure affection; let rigorous continence mortify you in the flesh, lest you practice anything wicked through evil action. This is a twofold bridle by which the impetuous motion of both mind and body must be restrained: so that inwardly maturity may check wanton slipperiness, and outwardly continence may hold back from every reprehensible outburst. In the mind, I say, let maturity be the bridle, manfully pulling back from everything that, rising up within it, tries to drag it this way and that -- such as ambition for fleeting honor, desire for passing favor, the inflation of pride, the swelling of envy, the bitterness of anger, the rust of sloth, the restlessness of avarice, the disgrace of gluttony, the vileness of lust, and whatever other pernicious impulses there are that allow the unhappy soul no hour of happiness. In the body likewise let there be the bridle of continence, which restrains each member from wickedness and fits it for uprightness: pulling back the gaze from curiosity, the hearing from vanity, the smell from pleasure, the taste from greediness, the touch from impurity, speech from foolish talk, and gait from levity. This is what makes a person blameless in walking and standing, in sitting and lying down, in being silent and speaking, in working and resting, in praying and reading, in eating and fasting -- in short, in every place and time, in every occupation, and toward every person.
IX. This is the obligation, O man, to which you are bound toward yourself: the bridle and shackle of all unlawful thought and act, the measure of sobriety. Since you are both a rational soul and flesh, you must be careful to guard and preserve both, so that neither inwardly may unlawful affection defile the former, nor outwardly may wicked behavior dishonor the latter. And there is still a third thing you owe yourself: that you not fruitlessly deny your body what is necessary for it in food and drink, in sleep and clothing, and the other things that its rightful need demands. For you exceed the measure of sobriety no less when you withhold necessities from your body than when you lavish superfluities upon it. For it is a beast of burden, and therefore its rider, the spirit, must take care wisely to put on both a bridle so that it does not kick, and hay so that it does not collapse. For the Holy Spirit who said through the Apostle: Make no provision for the flesh in its desires (Rom. 13:14), the same Spirit also said elsewhere through the same Apostle: No one has ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it (Eph. 5:29). Although in this one sentence -- 'Make no provision for the flesh in its desires' -- both kinds of sobriety are encompassed. For by saying 'provision for the flesh' he grants what is necessary, but by adding 'not in desires' he cuts away only what is superfluous. And therefore, just as you drive unlawful things from the will, lest through impurity it desire them, so you eliminate wicked things from the flesh, lest through iniquity it commit them, so that you do not withdraw necessities from the body, lest through weakness it succumb. Conduct yourself this way, show yourself thus, and you will live soberly in this world.
X. But since none of us lives for himself alone, there is another obligation that your neighbor demands of you; and this the Apostle in this passage spiritually calls justice. For justice is, as some are accustomed to define it, the virtue that renders to each one what is his own. Render therefore to the superior what is his; render also to the equal, render also to the inferior, and you will live justly. What is owed to the superior? First, obedience, according to the apostolic precept: Let your soul be subject to the higher powers (Rom. 13:1). Obey therefore your superior, whoever or of whatever kind he may be, set before you in the place of God. And to speak briefly, whatever he may enjoin upon you, whether in forbidding or in commanding -- provided it is in accordance with the law of God -- receive it no differently than if you had heard it from God. Guard yourself against the negligence that forgetfulness breeds; and especially, as from death, guard yourself against contempt, whose cause is the beginning of all sin, pride (Tobit 4:14). For in precepts, even those that seem very small, negligence cannot be excused, since it is a sin; nor should contempt be dismissed without severe punishment, since it is a crime.
XI. Saul once, as you know, blamed Jonathan (1 Sam. 14:44), because he transgressed his prohibition, and he held that transgression of such weight that even as a father he judged his son, the transgressor, worthy of death, although it is established that Jonathan had not even heard the prohibition. Also the man of God who was sent from Judea to Jeroboam (1 Kings 13:22), because he transgressed the Lord's command -- not raised up through his own obstinacy, but seduced through the suggestion of another -- was delivered to a lion to be devoured. To confess the truth to you, both the sin when considered has caused me not a little amazement many times, and the punishment instills fear; because unless it be said that in this matter it is that supreme equity, which can do nothing crooked or distorted, it would seem that such disobedience in that prophet should not have been punished with such a great and terrible retribution -- disobedience which he incurred in order not to be disobedient. For what happened? The king wanted to retain him by force, and he in no way consented, because he knew this was forbidden to him. The old man tried to bring him back, and though at first refusing, he finally yielded, because he believed that the prohibition was not merely not lifted and unjust, but changed. And so, just as he did not consent to remain, in order to obey; so too, if I am not mistaken, he consented to return, in order not to disobey -- in both cases prepared to obey the will of his God, though deceived by the lie of another, from whose mouth he afterward heard the true sentence of death, from whom he had first heard the false word of subversion.
XII. Consider from these examples with what punishment those will be punished who transgress the precepts of their elders in full contempt, puffed up with the swelling of pride. Weigh what punishment Dathan, Abiron, and Korah deserve (Num. 16:1), who, as you know, raised themselves against their prelate Moses with such great and extraordinary pride. If a devouring lion slew him who, as far as he was concerned, so to speak -- if it be permissible to say so -- was disobedient in order not to be disobedient (for if he sinned, indeed because he sinned, it clearly seems that he sinned in order not to sin), consider among these things how gravely King Saul sinned (1 Sam. 15:9), who, to satisfy his avarice, refused to strike Amalek with utter destruction according to the Lord's command and to demolish everything of his -- when that same Saul had even judged his own son Jonathan deserving of death because he unknowingly transgressed his prohibition. Guard yourself also from extorted permission, which our fathers, to show its evil fully, call the sister of disobedience. Guard yourself, I say, from it; lest perchance, when through the excess of your importunity you try to force your prelate violently to tolerate or even to concede what you ask, you confuse the order and in a way make him your subject and yourself his prelate.
XIII. Therefore obey your superior promptly, gratefully, cheerfully, sincerely, and perseveringly. Let the obedience you show be first of all prompt, so that you do not allow even a faint murmur to be in your mind. Let it also be grateful, so that you display cheerfulness even in your face in the execution of the command, that you who inwardly please God through a benevolent mind may also outwardly gladden your neighbor through a cheerful countenance. Let it be, thirdly, sincere, so that in your obedience you do not seek only something of your own, acting secretly through some cunning contrivance to have commanded to you what you delight in doing in order to serve your empty desire and your desirous emptiness, intending rather to fulfill your carnal will than to attend to either the usefulness of the precept or the intention of the one commanding. Do you wish to hear sincere obedience? Let it be done to me according to your word (Luke 1:38). Receive also from Samuel an example of sincere obedience: Speak, Lord, for your servant hears (1 Sam. 3:10). I do not ask what you may say to the just one, but only that you speak, because whatever you, my Lord, have said, I, your servant, will obediently carry out. Finally, let your obedience be persevering, so that always and everywhere, according to place and time, according to your knowledge and ability, you may be ready to obey the one who commands you.
XIV. I would therefore call you promptly obedient if you obey willingly and not with murmuring, but with a perfect heart and a willing spirit. Gratefully, if you show cheerfulness even in your face in the execution of the command. Sincerely, if, renouncing yourself, you seek nothing carnal of your own in what is commanded, but attend solely to both the will of the one commanding and the usefulness of the command, and more gladly embrace even what is hard and harsh than what is pleasant and soft. Perseveringly, if you follow him in obedience of whom you read: He was made obedient unto death (Phil. 2:8), setting for yourself no other limit of obeying than that which is also the limit of living. These things we have said about the obedience we ought to show our superiors. But since we are now compelled to end this sermon, what those things are in which we are still obligated to superiors, equals, and even inferiors, we shall show in the following sermon, God willing. We also propose to entrust to your devout ears whatever occurs to us on this matter. Praising and glorifying in all his gifts and mercies the one who has deigned so frequently in this most sacred Nativity of his to satisfy us with spiritual feasts, our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
SERMON XXVIII. LIKEWISE ON THE DAY OF THE LORD'S NATIVITY. On the fifteen steps of charity: namely, the three things owed to superiors, the three to subjects, and the three to equals, and the other six owed to all; and on sobriety, justice, piety, and perseverance, and the threefold grace, namely of the Creator, the Savior, and the Confirmer.
I. You have, brothers, at the end of the preceding sermon, what kind of obedience you ought to show to your superiors. For it is necessary for you, whoever wishes to wear the habit of religion, to obey your prelates and be subject to them, according to the Apostle's admonition. For they, as he adds, keep watch as ones who will render an account for your soul (Heb. 13:17). First, therefore, show your prelate such obedience as we described in the sermon we recently had. Second, show devoted and humble reverence to him who presides over you, because he presides over you in the place of God. Therefore, for the sake of the reverence and fear of him whose role he fulfills, let him also be to you an object of reverence and fear. The holy Samuel was once subject to the sinful Eli; the chosen David to the reprobate Saul; and neither was ever found to have dishonored his prelate, though a sinner and reprobate, but to have held him in great reverence. The holy David, as you know, fled from Saul who was pursuing him, as from a lord (1 Sam. 24:6); and, as blessed Gregory says, when he found an opportunity to strike him, he did not take it, but rather struck his own heart because even by cutting off the hem of his cloak he had dishonored him. But this obedience and reverence is not of great merit before God unless the love of ordered familiarity accompanies both, so that to him whom you obey for God's sake, whom you venerate in the place of God, you may also be familiar in your private and interior matters, with unfeigned love according to God.
II. This is certainly a great obligation, what we owe to our superiors. And there is one of no less, indeed perhaps of greater weight, by which they themselves are bound to us. What is their obligation? In the fewest but most profound words the Apostle comprehends it, saying: He who presides, let him do so with solicitude (Rom. 12:8). If you wish to know fully, you who preside, how manifold this solicitude is, read what the holy Fathers have said on this subject, and especially the Pastoral Rule of blessed Gregory, and you will recognize what it means for you who preside to be bound to solicitude. And certainly it is harder for you to render to your subject in many things what you owe him, than for him what he owes you. For it is harder for you to command wisely than for him to obey willingly; for you to preside profitably than for him to submit humbly; for you to govern without pride than for him to be governed without complaint; for you to be occupied in solicitude than for him to remain in quiet; for you, finally, to provide what is salutary for his soul and what is necessary for his body, than for him to make use of your provision.
III. But since the obligation by which you are bound toward him is manifold, he demands these three things from you above all: discipline, gentleness, and discretion. He is owed discipline: show him discipline, and a twofold one at that -- guardianship and care; the former so that he may not incur a fall, the latter so that if he has fallen, he may rise again from the fall. Remember that you are a physician, that you are a shepherd. But you are not skilled in your art unless you know how to retain health when it is possessed, lest it be lost; and when it is lost, to recall it so that it may be recovered. You are not a good shepherd unless in the sheep -- not yours indeed, but Christ's, yet entrusted to you -- you guard what is fat and strong, bind up what is weak, and strengthen what is broken (Ezek. 34:4). But lest discipline exceed its measure, let gentleness temper it. Know that since you are the base of the temple, you ought to be not only a lion of rigor, but also an ox of gentleness. But since you must be on guard lest, just as the former is too strict, the latter be too lax, let mother discretion intervene, under whose guidance the virtues keep the middle course in their path. And interposing herself, let her join the two to each other, so that when they have been mixed together, the piety of gentleness exercises nothing that is not firm, and the rigor of discipline exercises nothing that is not compassionate. If therefore the rigor in you is sweet, and the sweetness firm, then you who are the base of the temple have the thongs hanging from your lion and your ox (1 Kings 7:29), so that according to time and cause, according to place and occasion, each may be pulled back in evil and each may be released in good.
IV. And see how this threefold obligation, by which the prelate is bound toward his subject, when it is well discharged, compels and brings it about that the threefold obligation which the subject owes to the prelate, which we discussed above, is also discharged. For we said that the subject owes the prelate obedience, reverence, and familiarity. We also said that the prelate owes the subject discipline, kindness, and gentleness; and that discretion must be exercised so that these may be practiced profitably. But how will your subject be willing and ready to obey you, if you are immoderate and indiscreet in commanding? Do you think it is lawful for you to command everyone always according to your whim, and that whatever has been conceived in the will has been poured into you from reason, assuming for yourself the maxim: 'Thus I will, thus I command; let my will stand for reason'? This is certainly unlawful. But you say: when these two concur simultaneously -- 'it pleases' and 'it is permitted' -- should one not always proceed? Not at all. Are you freer or more powerful than he who says: All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify? (1 Cor. 10:22). Are you in any way comparable to him who, lest he scandalize even strangers, gave what he was entitled to keep, because he was constrained by no obligation to give? Lest we scandalize them, he said, give to them for me and for you (Matt. 17:26).
V. But if you allege to me that counsel of blessed Benedict, that if impossible things are enjoined upon a brother, and the one who enjoins them is unwilling to relent, the brother should accept what is enjoined: I say that this is holy advice, and a counsel holy, just, and good, for he who was full of the spirit of all the just could not give unjust counsel. But does the fact that the brother is obliged to accept it mean that you do well when you enjoin impossible things, especially in these times? I speak according to the imperfection of this age. Were they blameless of whom the Lord said that they bound heavy and impossible burdens and imposed them, but were unwilling to move them with their own finger? (Matt. 23:4). And therefore, as it seems to me, the consent of the one obeying very often proceeds from the discretion of the one commanding, so that while you carefully and diligently observe the place and person, the cause and time in commanding, the one whom you command is the less willing to resist by contradicting, the less he ought to. Your subject ought to show you reverence, but show him discipline, because there are some subjects in whom, unless discipline is first sown, reverence will not later be reaped. Yet I say this not generally of all, but of certain ones, and only of those who are very imperfect and tender, who, when they see their prelate lower himself somewhat and show himself approachable, disdain to venerate him, and he is in their eyes as he is in his own. But wise and good disciples, the more they behold their prelate humble, the more they revere him; and the more approachable they see him, the more humbly they venerate him. And yet moderated discipline in the prelate produces grateful reverence in the subject.
VI. We said that the subject owes familiarity born of love to the prelate; which he will certainly never fully render to him unless he perceives him to be gentle and kind toward himself. For how will he show himself familiar to you in his private and intimate matters out of affection, unless he knows you to love him, to be gentle toward him, and to act in a friendly manner? For as we have been taught by constant experience, we rarely open our secrets and inner thoughts fully except to the one we love. Moreover, love begets love. And love, once begotten, instills confidence, which, once instilled, reveals secrets without any suspicion, makes known hidden things without any disclosure. If you see yourself loved in this way, you naturally strive to love in return; and in him to whom you repay love, you consequently trust. In him whom you trust well, you then securely commit yourself in the revelation of your hidden things. Therefore, to briefly repeat what prelate and subject owe each other: let there be discretion in commanding in the prelate, so that there may be a ready will in obeying in the subject; let there be moderated discipline with authority in the former, so that there may be grateful reverence with maturity in the latter; let there be, finally, ordered gentleness with charity in the former, so that there may be unfeigned affection with familiarity in the latter. Behold how the merits of prelates and subjects depend mutually on each other.
VII. It is time to speak about the obligation you owe to your equal. I do not wish here to set before you anything new of my own invention, but consider what the Apostle says here: Render to all what is owed (Rom. 13:7). And he added: Tribute to whom tribute is due; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor (ibid.); fear as to the Lord, tribute as to the tax-collector, honor as to a Father. And he added: Owe no one anything, except to love one another (ibid., 8). This is the debt you must always render to one another, and render in such a way that you remain in debt: owe in such a way that you pay, that is, paying by owing and owing by paying. You owe one another honor as well, so that each of you may honor the other, rise and bow to the other, offering him the higher place in every place and time, in every word and matter, as he knows to be fitting and proper, as he knows to be lawful and expedient. This is that good and pleasant thing, to which Paul invites us when he says: In honor anticipating one another (Rom. 12:10). And again: Through the charity of the spirit serve one another (Gal. 5:13). And elsewhere: In humility of spirit, he says, counting others superior to yourselves (Phil. 2:3). Also this: With all humility and meekness, with patience bearing with one another in charity; and again: Careful to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:2). And many other things of this kind, which invite us to fraternal honor, love, and service.
VIII. Thirdly, also show cheerfulness to one another in your countenance. Show it, I say, to one another, and receive it from one another; because you can have nothing more pleasing, nothing more delightful among you. For a good word is above the best gift, says Solomon (Sirach 18:17); and: A sweet word multiplies friends and appeases enemies, and a gracious tongue abounds in a good man (Sirach 6:5). Concerning cheerfulness you have: God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7). Like seasoning among foods, cheerfulness is among all the virtues. For what you do seems tasteless to me unless the grace of cheerfulness commends it. Let love reside in the charity of the mind, honor in the humility of service, cheerfulness in the grace of the countenance and the sweetness of speech. But it is necessary that charity be without duplicity and pretense; humility without vanity and flattery; cheerfulness without levity, vanity, and dissoluteness.
IX. There are also other debts which you owe not only to superiors, nor only to equals, nor only to inferiors, but according to your ability and knowledge, as is fitting and lawful, as is expedient and proper, you owe them generally to all. For to whomever you see oppressed by adversity, you owe compassion and also consolation -- the former in spirit, the latter in words. To whomever prosperity assists, you owe congratulation and exhortation -- the former in your mind, the latter on your lips. Therefore, to him whom adversity troubles, show deep compassion and console him lest he fail. To him whom prosperity caresses, rejoice from the heart and exhort him to strive to advance more and more in the good. To both, moreover, you owe help and counsel, so that you may instruct by consoling each one -- both him who is in prosperity and him who is in adversity -- as to how he ought to act, and by helping, render each one strong and vigorous. These six, if you add them to the nine above, will give you, as it were, fifteen steps on the ladder of the justice of charity, by which you may ascend and descend upon the Son of Man. All these things, therefore, which we have discussed in a lengthy but perhaps not unfruitful disputation on justice, if you are found to fulfill them diligently, you assuredly live justly in this world. And you live piously if you perseveringly devote yourself to the worship of your God with sincere and intimate affection. For if you perceive yourself always standing before the divine commands; if you are ready everywhere for his hidden promptings; if, saying with the Psalmist: My eyes are always toward the Lord (Ps. 24:15), you seek with a solicitous mind everywhere and promptly what he wills and what he does not will, in order to carry it out -- as it seems to me, you live piously in this world. Therefore, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, let us live soberly, justly, and piously in this world (Titus 2:12), until we may enjoy that world to come. For this reason the Apostle added, saying: Looking for the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ (ibid., 13). In which words, assuredly, perseverance is indicated.
X. These four things, therefore -- sobriety, justice, piety, and perseverance -- the grace of God the Savior, instructing us, shows us in its instruction, so that through these four as intermediaries, we may attain those four which the grace of God our Confirmer will bestow on us in the future. We said above, in the first sermon we had on this matter, that four things are to be conferred on us in the future by the confirming grace: namely, power, wisdom, benignity, and eternity. You will certainly attain these four if you diligently exercise the four that saving grace teaches must be held: namely sobriety, justice, piety, and perseverance. For through sobriety you will attain to power, plainly worthy to possess yourself there in freedom, if first here you have striven to govern yourself in body and mind with the bridle of sobriety. Through justice you will attain to benignity, so that you who render to each one what is his on the way, may also in the homeland rejoice with each one through love; and the charity you had here toward your neighbor, you may there with that same neighbor end without limit, and consummate without consumption. Piety will lead you to eternal wisdom, so that you who here delighted in the continual remembrance of your God, may there be eternally gladdened in his presence, and he who is savored by you here in temporal labor through merit, may be savored there in eternal rest through reward. If you persevere, you will arrive at eternity, so that living soberly, justly, and piously in this world, looking for the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, you may deserve to possess eternity at his glorious coming, if the Lord when he comes finds you so doing. For the virtue of perseverance shows in itself a certain likeness of eternity, and it alone merits eternity. If you do not have it on this way of yours in which you walk, you will not advance but will fail; you will run indeed, but in vain, because you will not attain.
XI. These things said at length above can be repeated more briefly, so that they may be held more tightly in memory. The grace of God our Savior appeared. The grace is threefold: the first is of God our Creator, and it was in the beginning, pertaining to the Father; the second is of God our Savior, and is now at present, pertaining to the Son; the third is of God our Confirmer, and is without end, pertaining to the Holy Spirit. The first, therefore, is creative; the second, saving; the third, confirming. This first grace bestowed upon us such great gifts: existence, that we might be; the image and likeness of God, that we might be something sublime; dominion, that we might preside over the subject creation. But sin darkened this grace in man, leading to these four evils: ignorance, sloth, malice, and damnation. Ignorance blinded; sloth drew away from virtues; malice enticed to sins; damnation afflicted eternally. And so man became darkened through the error of ignorance, slothful through the lukewarmness of negligence, malicious through the filth of wickedness, condemned through the horror of punishment. The Savior came: he preached the truth, rejected evil, chose the good, and endured the harshness of death. And so saving grace enlightened the blind man through the preaching of truth, snatching him from the darkness of error; cleansed the defiled through the rejection of wickedness, washing him from the filth of malice; adorned the slothful through the choice of virtue, raising him from the lukewarmness of negligence; reconciled the guilty through the suffering of death, drawing him out from the damnation of hell. First, therefore, the Savior, preaching what is true, enlightened the blind; second, rejecting what is evil, he cleansed the defiled; third, practicing what is good, he adorned the stripped; fourth, dying on the cross, he reconciled the guilty to the Judge. The confirming grace, moreover, will bestow these four upon us: power, wisdom, benignity, and eternity -- the first from the Father, the second from the Son, the third from the Holy Spirit, the fourth from the Trinity itself, so that God may be all in all. The first we shall have in ourselves, the second in God, the third in one another; the fourth is that denarius which all will equally possess, who nevertheless did not labor equally in the vineyard. We shall be able, therefore, without weakness; we shall know without error; we shall love without offense; we shall endure without any failing forever. Saving grace instructs us so that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we may live soberly, justly, and piously in this world, looking for the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God. Soberly for ourselves, that we may attain to power; justly to our neighbor, that we may attain to benignity; piously to God, that we may attain to wisdom; waiting in perseverance for eternity. You live soberly if, guarding your thoughts, you restrain your mind from impure affection; if, crucifying your members that are upon the earth with their vices and concupiscences, you rein in the flesh from illicit effect (Gal. 5:24); if, wisely granting the body what is necessary, you guard it from failing. You live justly if you render what you owe to your superior, to your inferior, to your equal, and generally to all: to superiors, obedience, reverence, and familiarity. Let obedience be without murmuring, reverence without pretense, familiarity without flattery. To inferiors: discipline, gentleness, and discretion -- discipline that inspires awe, gentleness that soothes, discretion that tempers both. To equals: love, honor, and cheerfulness -- love in the charity of the mind without duplicity or pretense; honor in the humility of service without vanity or flattery; cheerfulness in the grace of the countenance and sweetness of speech without levity or dissoluteness. To all generally: when they are in adversity, compassion that you may show mercy, and consolation that you may strive to raise them up; when in prosperity, congratulation that you may rejoice with them through charity, and exhortation that you may stir them to good through instruction. To both -- those in adversity and those in prosperity -- give counsel and help, so that through the former you may instruct them in what they do not know, and in the latter help them in those things for which they are not sufficient by themselves. For the rest, brothers, praise together this saving grace; sigh for the confirmation, so that living soberly, justly, and piously in this world, you may securely await the blessed hope, and attain to seeing forever the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Through the same one who on this day deigned to be born of the Virgin, God and man Christ Jesus, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever. Amen.
SERMON XXIX. ON THE FEAST OF SAINT STEPHEN THE PROTOMARTYR. On the three feasts that immediately follow the day of the Lord's Nativity, and on the virtue of charity and patience.
I. If with diligent care and careful diligence, dearest ones, you are willing to consider that these saints whose feasts we celebrate on these three days were each and all greatly beloved by the common Redeemer of all, then, among many other proofs, you can also grasp this from the indication that their natal days, following so closely in order after the day on which he was born, without any interval, present themselves to us for celebration. And today indeed we recall with pious devotion the passion of blessed Stephen; who, as you know, holds a great place in dignity among the martyrs because he holds the first in order. For as blessed Maximus says: if there can be any distinction among martyrs, the one who is first seems to be preeminent. Tomorrow, God willing, you will celebrate the glorious feast of the glorious John, apostle and evangelist. That he was held in the greatest familiarity with Christ is doubted by no one to whom his Gospel is not unknown. Is he not the one who, as a testimony of special love, merited to recline upon his breast at supper, who also, above all others, dared to ask the Lord so as clearly to identify his betrayer to him? Lord, who is it? he said (John 21:20). Nor should it be left unsaid that, although the Lord loved all his disciples, he did not consider it presumption to say of himself: That disciple whom Jesus loved (ibid., 7). Concerning the Holy Innocents as well, whose natal day follows the feast of blessed John: that they too, born so recently after the recently-born Christ, were beloved, who would doubt, since his birth was the cause and occasion of their death? For the little child Jesus joined little ones to himself, the innocent one joined the innocents, the one who feeds joined those who were dying.
II. But what, I ask, does it mean that while the birthday of Christ ought to be celebrated with the greatest joy, nevertheless the days of the passion and death of his chief friends and intimates intrude? For at nearly the same time, we must celebrate both his entrance into the world and their departure from the world: we celebrate in one the death, and in the other the birth. And indeed in his elect and beloved ones Christ suffers, and in those who die he dies. Otherwise he would not have said to Saul about persecution: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 28:7); nor about death to Peter: I am coming to Rome to be crucified again. What then does it mean that so soon after his own entrance into the world, we celebrate in his beloved friends his departure from the world? His saints can indeed say to him: You came yesterday, and today you are compelled to depart with us (2 Sam. 15:20). What do you think is indicated to us in this, if not that our stay in this world is brief, and that all the joy we experience here is mingled with sorrow? Yesterday we celebrated his nativity in himself; today we celebrate, in a certain way, his passion in Stephen. Yesterday the multitude of the heavenly army was made present with the angel, praising the Lord. Today the fury of the Jews stoning Stephen has arisen. Today the persecutors brought death upon Stephen by stoning; yesterday great joy was proclaimed which was to come to all the people. In all of which, as we have already said, it is shown to us that in this world life is brief, and joy is sorrowful. What is your life? says Saint James: It is a vapor appearing for a little while (James 4:15). In which words it is plainly shown that our life appears to be something rather than actually being something, and that even that small amount which seems to appear cannot long endure.
III. Suppose someone for me to have lived from the very beginning of the world until today, and to be obliged to die today -- what would you judge of the longevity of his time? He ceases to be who was, and devouring, consuming death swallows him up. What sweetness of joy is there in human affairs so great that the bite of bitterness does not interrupt it? For the craving for bodily pleasures, as a certain author says, is full of anxiety, and satiety is full of regret. And he added: how many diseases, how intolerable pains those pleasures customarily inflict on the bodies of those who enjoy them, as a kind of fruit of wickedness! For whoever is willing to remember his own desires will understand that the outcomes of pleasures are sorrowful. And again from the same author:
Every pleasure has this quality: It drives those who enjoy it with stings, And like the flying bees, When it has poured out its grateful honey, It flees, and with too tenacious a bite Presses upon the stricken heart.
O life, how quickly you run to death! O joy, how hastily you fall into error! I believe through this the Lord admonishes you to hasten toward that life from which eternity drives far away all decline, and toward that gladness from which totality banishes every failing. This is that gladness to which the saints attain through present sorrow. This is that life to which they arrive through bodily death. How delightful is this sorrow, how desirable is this death! For that sorrow will be rewarded by a joy which, because of its immensity, can in no way be diminished; and this death by a life which, because of its eternity, can in no way be ended. To which vital gladness and glad life blessed Stephen today arrived, exchanging temporal sorrow for immense joy, and bodily death for eternal life.
IV. In him you have, among the other marks of virtue by which he shone forth, a true example of charity. For he had true charity in himself, and true precisely because it was well-ordered. Hence he is said to have been full of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:55), because he loved what he ought and in the manner he ought. That is, he loved one and the same person both in cherishing the nature and in pursuing the fault. Otherwise he would not have fully possessed the Holy Spirit if he had lacked either the dove or the fire, especially since it is established that the Spirit appeared in both forms. Therefore there is no fullness of the Spirit in the heart unless, just as it is stirred through affection to love, so also it is kindled through zeal to emulation. Blessed Stephen had both in himself: both love and zeal -- the former for compassion, the latter for correction. For how did he correct the obstinate Jews? You stiff-necked people, he said, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did. They killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you have now become the betrayers and murderers, you who received the law through the disposition of angels and did not keep it (ibid., 51). But he who so corrected those who resisted him, how did he pray for those same people who were stoning him? Lord, he said, do not hold this sin against them, for they know not what they do (ibid., 59). O bitter correction on the lips, O sweet compassion in the heart! And one and the same cause and root of both was love. For those whom he corrected so that they might reform themselves, he prayed for lest they perish; and in both -- in correcting as well as in praying -- he sought nothing other than their salvation, with charity, which he possessed inwardly in his mind, disposing and providing. Let us therefore imitate such great virtues in blessed Stephen, so that we may both love one another, correct one another, and pray for one another, and let love be the cause of both correction and prayer -- taking care solicitously and diligently that correction be discreet and prayer be constant.
V. Moreover, just as you set before yourselves these things in this athlete of Christ for imitation, so also guard yourselves with all diligence from those three evils by which you can note the Jews who persecuted him to have been wicked: namely, anger, reproach, and malice. For what does Scripture say? Hearing these things, it says, they were cut to their hearts. Behold the fury of anger. And they gnashed their teeth at him (ibid., 54); behold reproach. And shortly after: Crying out with a loud voice, they stopped their ears and rushed upon him with one accord (ibid., 56). In these words we can note that nothing pertaining to malice was lacking in them, since turning their hearing from the truth, they could not perceive even with their outward ears the things that were of God. They showed themselves to be members of the one of whom it is read that his body is compact like molten shields, pressed together with scales: one is joined to another, and not even a breath passes between them (Job 41:6). Conspiring also in the fullness of madness, they thirsted with all eagerness for his most cruel death. Far be these things from you, I beg, lest they be truthfully said of you. God forbid that these words should ever be fulfilled in you: Hearing these things, they were cut to their hearts and gnashed their teeth at him!
VI. Far be it, I say, that upon hearing a salutary correction, which charity dictates in a brother's heart and expresses from a brother's mouth, you be cut to your hearts with ill-tempered exasperation, and be stirred too recklessly at salutary words! You know how many sentences there are in sacred Scripture exhorting you to hear words of correction humbly, because just as medicine is to a wound, so is correction to a fault. For just as the former brings health to a wound, so the latter brings remission to sin. Solomon says: He who loves discipline loves wisdom; but he who hates reproofs is foolish (Prov. 12:1); and again: A fool mocks his father's discipline, but he who heeds reproof will become more prudent (Prov. 15:5); and further: The man who stiff-neckedly scorns one who corrects him -- sudden destruction will come upon him, and healing will not follow (Prov. 29:1). See how great is the benefit in correction, and how great the peril threatening him who refuses to receive it humbly. Be therefore inwardly whole when perhaps danger touches you, and do not allow yourselves to be cut by the sword of anger in your hearts. And if perhaps you cannot preserve complete wholeness in your hearts, strive with all your might that the swelling of the mind may in no way reach even to the utterance of the mouth, so that each of you may say with the Psalmist: I was troubled, and I did not speak (Ps. 76:5). And if you are not of such perfection as to be able to restrain yourself from disagreeing in your heart, at least do not be of such presumption and madness as to gnash your teeth at him who corrected you -- which you assuredly do when you vomit words of fury and reproach at him who corrected you, in order to avenge yourself. For the sons of men, as holy David says, their teeth are weapons and arrows (Ps. 56:5); and so to gnash the teeth is to rage with biting words.
VII. It is a mark of truly great strength either to prevent anger from arising at all in the heart through foresight, or, after it has perhaps arisen, as it often does, at least to suppress it through patience. Solomon declares that the patient man is better than a strong man, and he who rules his spirit than he who conquers cities (Prov. 14:32). We know indeed how greatly bodily strength is accustomed to be loved and praised by the sons of Adam, but the strength of the mind is far more excellent and sublime. And what is this but patience? Be patient and you are strong, and indeed the more patient, the stronger. No bodily strength whatsoever can not only equal but not even be compared to the strength of the heart, since according to Solomon's judgment, the patient man is better than a strong man. But perhaps you say: what is this virtue so precious, of which you speak? Or how can it be acquired, to which all bodily strength yields? Is everyone who suffers to be said to have patience? Certainly not. For there is one who suffers, but unwillingly; and therefore he can in no way be called patient in the sense that Solomon says is better than a strong man. For how is he patient who, inclining to the depths under the weight of his own faintheartedness, lies prostrate in rancor of heart and murmuring of lips? For even if perhaps the mouth is shut, the silence is inwardly clamorous with all bitterness; and though silent, it does not cease to make a din with restlessness and great disturbance -- a garrulous silence. Does this person seem strong to you, who, representing to himself in the forum of his heart the one against whom he is agitated, assails him most bitterly with silent words, giving insults and receiving insults, hurling threats and hurling darts of cursing, contending as an idle quarreler with one who is absent? I would by no means call this person patient, but only seeming to be so, because he does not possess patience.
VIII. Patience, then, is the voluntary and lasting endurance of adversity to be tolerated, for God's sake. "Of adversity to be tolerated," I said, in order to exclude from the virtue of patience all that adversity which ought not to be tolerated. For there is adversity which, if tolerated, is against God. When therefore some adversity touches you which is against God, and therefore against the salvation of your soul, it is certainly not to be tolerated. "Voluntary," I said, because you have true patience when you suffer something with the desire of a benevolent mind, and afterward, reflecting on it within yourself, you rejoice that you have suffered it -- not only not moved by any anger toward him who inflicted it upon you, but kindled with greater love toward him. Remember what was said of the Apostles: They went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were counted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus (Acts 5:41). And indeed they had not only suffered reproach but had also been severely beaten. "Lasting," I added, so that however often and however severely adversity may rush upon you, patience may in no way fail in the mind as long as life remains in the body. Of every virtue that saying of the Lord is understood: He who perseveres to the end, he shall be saved (Matt. 24:13). "For God's sake," I said at the end, because only that is rewarded by God which is practiced purely for his sake; so that for him whose motive in labor is the love of God, the reward in recompense may be the vision of God. Therefore, whoever suffers here what he ought, and in the manner he ought -- that is, voluntarily and perseveringly -- and for the right reason, namely for God's sake: this person I would call truly patient. This patient one is better than a strong man; he rules his own spirit and is better than the conqueror of cities. O how greatly that man would be exalted who could subjugate even one city! But he who rules his own spirit is in no way comparable to him, even if the latter should subjugate not just one city but many.
IX. Therefore, hearing words of correction from someone, do not be cut to your hearts, nor gnash your teeth at him who corrects you, raging inwardly with anger and snarling outwardly with biting words against him. But guard also against this: that, stopping your ears, you rush upon him with one accord. This is the worst and most damnable crime of conspiracy, which all who are clothed in the habit of religion and who have even the slightest sense of heaven should always keep far from themselves. This unanimity is utterly execrable before God and men, by which a furious attack is made against one's neighbor. It is far removed from that which blessed Augustine recommends you to have, where he says: These are the things we command to be observed by those established in monasteries: that you dwell together in the house with one accord, and that you have one soul and one heart in God. Therefore, hearing a correction of charity, no differently than as the cause of your salvation, embrace it, knowing that the wounds of one who loves are better than the deceitful kisses of one who flatters (Prov. 27:6). Because if, overtaken by a movement of anger in that intoxication of fury, you cannot possess your soul in patience, let at least your lips enclose it, and that wall of bone restrain your tongue, and let not agitation cloud your face, so that while the mind does not send forth what it endures within, you may neither offend another's sight by a troubled countenance nor strike another's hearing by an angry word. It is indeed praiseworthy and entirely commendable that you conduct yourself so cautiously in time of adversity that what you endure within you do not display outwardly by face or word at random, but rather, bearing humility as much as you can in tongue and face, you may know that this cloudy hour of temptation into which you have come will, by God's disposition, soon pass into an hour of peace and tranquility, because He who permits evening to rush upon you for weeping will Himself also soon make the morning smile upon you for joy (Ps. 29:6).
X. How many things, as we have been taught by very frequent experience, does anger suggest to us when we are angry, that we should say and do, which after the time of fury we clearly perceive should never have been said or done, now that we have become calm and tranquil? And therefore he is exceedingly wise who, restraining within himself the measure of one raging and eager to burst forth from his own vehemence, like blessed Job (ch. 3:28) dissembles, is silent, and is quiet, so that by dissembling he may keep the cheerfulness of his countenance uncontaminated; by being silent he may preserve himself from a harsh word; and by being quiet he may restrain himself from an unlawful act -- cheerful in countenance, gentle in words, blameless in deeds. But that you should not stop your ears, making an assault unanimously against him, you do not need us to forbid you. For although not all of you have yet ascended to that summit of perfection where you are always immune from that hidden movement of anger which so often rushes in suddenly, and many times violently and importunately intrudes before it can be anticipated or foreseen: far be it, nevertheless, that I should think there are any among you so infected with the poison of such malice that they would ever plot ambushes against those from whom they remember having received salutary corrections!
These things, therefore, we find the wicked Jews to have practiced in the passion of blessed Stephen: fury in the heart, reproach in the mouth, and conspiracy against his death; who, as Scripture testifies: They were cut to the heart, and they gnashed their teeth at him, and they rushed upon him unanimously (Acts 7:54). Casting him out of the city, they stoned him. But that blessed martyr, against their three evils, practiced such great goods: against fury in the heart, sincere charity; against reproach in the mouth, salutary correction; against conspiracy against his death, devout prayer, for he prayed thus for those who stoned him: Lord, do not hold this sin against them, for they know not what they do (ibid., 59).
XI. How severe the correction, how pure the prayer! Because indeed the sincerity of a single love formed both in one and the same person. Such was holy Joseph, who both loved his brothers perfectly within, and raging against them harshly on the outside, he rebuked them openly, so that through severity he might wipe away their fault; but he wept in secret, so that through compassion he might satisfy love. Zeal formed reproving words in his mouth, which the innermost affection of love shook out in tears from his eyes (Gen. 43:30). And indeed for some time, though scarcely, he hid this affection within himself, but its very great vehemence afterward compelled it to burst forth. For what does Scripture say? Joseph could no longer contain himself before the many who stood by (Gen. 45:1). And shortly after: Raising his voice also with weeping, he said to his brothers: I am Joseph (ibid., 3).
But when the holy old man Jacob had died, his brothers, fearing that their father's death might release him to avenge himself -- whose hands, as they supposed, their father's life had restrained from vengeance -- sent him this message, saying: Your father commanded us before he died that we should say these things to you in his words: I beg you to forget the crimes of your brothers, and the sin and malice which they practiced against you; and we pray that you may pardon this iniquity to the servant of God, your father (Gen. 50:17). When he heard these things, Joseph wept. O holy and just man, composed on both sides! Loving tenderly, correcting severely, bearing soft bowels for tears, uttering hard words for corrections!
What shall we say of holy Moses, who, meek and discerning, resisted the Lord from striking the people, on account of the great affection he had toward that same people; and yet struck the idolaters with death, lest their guilt go unpunished, on account of the immense zeal he had for the law of his God. There he was so pious and burning with such great love toward his subjects that he said to God: Either forgive them this offense, or if you will not, blot me out of the book you have written (Exod. 32:31). Here, however, he was so rigid and inflamed with such great zeal that he commanded those of the sons of Levi who had joined him, saying: Go and return from gate to gate through the midst of the camp, and let each one kill his brother, and his friend, and his neighbor (ibid., 27).
It is clear from these things that true charity, which the Bride also asks to be ordered in herself in the Song of Songs, so infuses gentleness into the mind for affection (Song 2:4) that it equally infuses severity for zeal, so that whoever has received the Paraclete with the apostles may so have fire for the affection of love that he also has a tongue for the word of instruction, by the granting of the same Holy Spirit, who is blessed with the Father and the Son forever. Amen.
SERMON XXX. LIKEWISE ON THE FEAST OF ST. STEPHEN, PROTOMARTYR. On the diversities of the heavens and their luminaries.
I. But when Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit, gazing into heaven he saw the glory of God (Acts 7:55). In the passion of blessed Stephen the protomartyr, brothers, we can receive an example of patience for ourselves, if perhaps we are despised in any way by our hearers when we preach the word of life to them. For he himself bestowed a salutary exhortation on his hearers, addressing them with reproving words out of charity; but as we read about them: Hearing these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed their teeth at him. Behold, hearing the herald of life, they were shaken by hidden anger, which is indicated by the fact that they were cut to the heart. They were torn apart by open fury, which is suggested by the fact that they gnashed their teeth at him. And not only this, but hearing him report that he saw the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God: Crying out with a loud voice, they stopped their ears, and rushed upon him unanimously, and casting him out of the city, they stoned him.
O manifold malice! O madness no less perverse than diverse! In those crying out, note the madness of impatience; in those stopping their ears, the hardness of obstinacy; in those rushing upon him unanimously, a raging conspiracy -- or, if this is better understood, a conspiring rage; in those casting him out of the city, disdain; in those stoning him, understand them to be the most cruel and most bloody executioners. Therefore do not take it too harshly, as far as you are concerned, when you preach the word, if you happen to find yourself despised, knowing that you are not better than Stephen.
Not better than him about whom, when he was relating the words of truth, it was shouted by faithless hearers: Away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not right that he should live (Acts 22:22). This was Paul, in whom the word of God was never bound; who could be killed for the Lord, but could not be silent about our Lord (I Tim. 2:6). Receive also another champion. Holy Jeremiah once addressed the people, telling them what the Lord had commanded through him; but that terrible voice thundered forth, as you know, at the end of his sermon: Let this man surely die. Why has he prophesied in the name of the Lord? (Jer. 26:8). Micaiah son of Imlah (I Kings 22:27), when he spoke in the name of the Lord what was true to the idolatrous and murderous king, received the command that he be consigned to custody and sustained with the bread of tribulation and the water of affliction.
But why do I speak of them, since the servant is not greater than his lord, nor is an apostle greater than he who sent him? (John 13:16.) Was it not the case that, to pass over many other things in silence, when the Lord of eternity Himself uttered these words before unbelievers: Before Abraham was, I am, they took up stones to cast at Him? (John 8:58.) Therefore, when you preach the word, show your face like adamant and flint, so that you may neither be puffed up with elation when received, nor contracted with grief when despised, nor esteem yourself precious when you are heard, nor worthless when you are scorned.
II. And enough about these things. Let us now see what this means, which we have heard about blessed Stephen: Gazing into heaven, he saw the glory of God. I confess, these words make me attentive, and I think they do the same to you. He saw the glory of God, but he would not have seen it unless he had gazed into heaven, nor would he have gazed into heaven so as to be able to see the glory of God, unless he had been full of the Holy Spirit. For thus the very order of the words has it. When Stephen, says St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, was full of the Holy Spirit, gazing into heaven, he saw the glory of God. As if it came about for him that he saw the glory of God because he gazed into heaven, he who was full of the Holy Spirit. So it is. Let us see what this heaven is, so that we may consequently know why it is necessary to be full of the Holy Spirit for one who desires to gaze into it. In many places I find Scripture treating of heaven, and I think it has not one, but a diverse signification.
III. It seems to me that the holy Church of the Elect, spread throughout the whole world, is like a certain heaven, of which God is read to have said in Genesis: Let there be luminaries in the firmament of heaven (Gen. 1:14). That is, let there be spiritual men in the highest eminence and eminent firmness of the Church. There is also the holy soul, of which I think John spoke in the Apocalypse, that there was silence in heaven, as it were for half an hour (Rev. 8:2), meaning that for an exceedingly small moment, interior quiet endures in the soul. But also the sacred Scripture seemed to the Psalmist to be a kind of heaven, which he says the Lord stretches out like a skin (Ps. 103:3), because He surely opens the sacred Scripture to mortals. And if anyone should say that the hidden mystery of God is also a heaven, he does not seem to deviate from the truth, inasmuch as John in the Apocalypse declares that he saw a door opened in heaven (Rev. 4:1), that is, that he had perceived that understanding of the hidden mystery had been revealed to him.
Holiness of life is also in a way a heaven, concerning which the Lord, addressing blessed Job, says: Who has begotten the frost from heaven? (Job 38:29) -- meaning that He sometimes permits many, after sublime holiness, to be hardened in iniquity by a hidden but just judgment. And holy David understood the assembly of those heavenly spirits to be a heaven, when he said: Your word, O Lord, endures forever in heaven (Ps. 118:59). Because as the apostate spirits fell, without any diminishment of the heavenly spirits, the assembly of those who remained guards obedience to the divine word. And that the heavenly beatitude for which we sigh is called heaven, no one doubts. Of this Isaiah seems to make mention, who addressing the devil says: How have you fallen from heaven (Isa. 14:12), that is, from heavenly beatitude?
Attend to this sevenfold heaven which we have set before you; if perhaps in it you may be able to see the glory of God. The first is the holy Church, the second the faithful soul, the third sacred Scripture, the fourth the hidden mystery, the fifth the sublimity of holiness, the sixth the assembly of the heavenly spirits, the seventh that heavenly beatitude.
IV. Does the holy Church not seem to you to be a heaven, in which the priesthood shines like the sun, the kingdom gives light like the moon, and however many holy men it contains, it has as many illustrious stars? In these luminaries of this heaven we now see the brightness obscured to no small degree, for those perilous times are not so much approaching as already present, in which the Apostle predicted that men would be lovers of themselves, which we also see fulfilled in these luminaries (II Tim. 3:6), concerning which that prophet powerful in deed and word prophesied would be fulfilled, when he said: There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars (Luke 21:25). What sign? Unless what Joel more clearly predicted: The sun, he says, will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood? (Joel 2:31.)
Do you not see the sun turned into darkness, when, as Jeremiah laments (Jer. 4:23), the gold is obscured, the finest color changed, the stones scattered at the head not of some, but of all the streets, and as the people are, so is the priest? (Hos. 4:9.) And do you not see the moon with moist eyes turned into blood, when you see kings abandoning the equity of justice and exercising cruelty? The sign indeed that appears terrible to you in the stars is this: what John saw in the Apocalypse (Rev. 12:4), namely that the tail of the dragon was drawing a third part of the stars of heaven and casting them to the earth.
This, even though it will happen spiritually when that man is revealed in his own time -- who is properly called the man of sin, the son of perdition (II Thess. 2:3), who is in the mass of the reprobate, which is the body of the devil, whom the dragon represents; because he will appear at the end, he will be like the tail -- those who will seem to shine in the Church, drawn by threats or blandishments from the heights to the depths, from heavenly things he will drag down to earthly things. Although, I say, the devil will then do this through him more fully and more perfectly, nevertheless he does not cease to do it even now, because the mystery of iniquity is already at work.
I also think this pertains to what he says in the same book: The sun became like sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became like blood, and the stars from heaven fell upon the earth (Rev. 6:12); meaning that the roughness of iniquity blackens the priesthood, the fury of cruelty makes the empire bloody, and other holy men, having abandoned the height of heavenly contemplation, are rolled down into earthly things. Nevertheless, these two great luminaries in heaven are the two preeminent orders in the Church: the greater luminary, which presides over the day of the contemplatives, and the lesser luminary, which presides over the night of the actives.
V. Does the soul not also seem to be a heaven, which heavenly desire makes sublime, in which temperance in prosperity is like the sun by day, patience in adversity like the moon by night; in which however many good thoughts appear, just as many illustrious stars shine? And rightly is temperance the greater luminary and patience the lesser luminary, because it is more difficult not to be dissolved when fortune is peaceful than not to be broken under offense.
VI. In the heaven of Scripture, do you not see the spiritual sense revealed through exposition as the sun by day, while the historical sense still undiscussed is like the moon by night, and thus the former is the greater luminary and the latter the lesser? In it behold the innocence of Abel, the holiness of Enoch, the perfection of Noah, the modesty of Shem and Japheth, the obedience of Abraham, the purity of Isaac, the simplicity of Jacob, the justice of Melchizedek, the chastity of Joseph, the meekness of Moses, the zeal of Phinehas, the uprightness of Joshua, the fortitude of Caleb, the piety of Samuel, the humility of David, and the other innumerable and illustrious examples of the saints in this manner -- and I do not think you will now assert that this heaven lacks bright stars.
VII. The fourth heaven is the hidden mystery, in which the intellect may shine for you as the sun, and faith as the moon. In which also, however many modes of interior contemplation appear to you, do not just as many bright stars gleam in it? The intellect is the greater luminary and shines by day; faith is the lesser, and by night. Because although both of these show us a certain truth in the heaven of the hidden mystery, the former nevertheless shows it openly and nakedly, while the latter shows it enclosed and wrapped. So that, just as we see in this visible sun and moon, in the former there is the brightest light, but in the latter, in comparison with it, although there is light, it is nevertheless dark. For faith has nothing doubtful, but neither anything bare, so that it shines indeed, because it has the certainty of truth; but it shines by night, because holding the same truth in concealment, it does not bring forth a bare manifestation. But the intellect, because truth is not ambiguous for it, is indeed a shining sun, and because it is not closed, it shines by day. The modes also of interior contemplation, which you receive in this hidden mystery, are stars shining for you in this heaven.
VIII. Holiness of life is the fifth heaven, which two great luminaries adorn: the greater luminary, which is love, illuminating you for understanding and inflaming you for affection, so that walking honorably by day you may exercise the brightness of justice; and the lesser luminary, which is fear, shining for you so that in the night of rushing temptation you may avoid the darkness of wickedness. It also has stars, performing illustrious actions through the members of the body. But where am I going? Does the present subject require that I assign proper luminaries to each of these seven heavens which I have set before you? Is it not more expedient that I show how, gazing into heaven, you may be able to see the glory of God?
IX. And indeed, besides this sevenfold heaven there is still a certain fivefold heaven, into which if you gaze, you will be able, as I reckon, to see the glory of God. And the first indeed is that supreme heaven, more sublime than all other heavens: it is our God, most high and unsearchable: Who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one among men has ever seen, nor can see (I Tim. 6:16). Of this heaven holy David says: They set their mouth against heaven (Ps. 73:9); that is, they provoked God with words of blasphemy. No one ascends to this heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven (John 3:13); because no one knows the Father except the Son (Matt. 16:27), who proceeded from the Father, who is both in the Father and the Father in Him (John 16:28). This is He who went out from the Father and came into the world and goes to the Father, for His course is from one end to the other (Ps. 18:7).
Great indeed and truly great is this heaven, whose magnitude, length, breadth, height, and depth. A fourfold magnitude, but one; fourfold in the utterance of the lips, but one in the confession of faith. Eternity shows us this heaven as long, charity as broad, majesty as high, and wisdom makes it deep. Its length is not stretched out, yet it is without beginning just as without end. Its breadth is not extended, yet it hates nothing of what it has made (Wis. 11:25); and it has care for all things. Its height is not elevated upward, yet it is above all things, possessing an all-powerful hand. Its depth is not pressed downward, yet it is beneath all things, possessing an all-seeing eye.
Behold how great is this heaven; but who shall grasp how great it is? Great, he says, is our Lord, and great is His power, and of His wisdom there is no number (Ps. 146:5); so also of His greatness there is no end (Ps. 144:5). O height in the highest! O length in the promises! O breadth in the benefits! O depth in the judgments! Look up into this heaven, and height will instill wonder in you as you consider, that you may be amazed; length will instill hope, that you may endure; breadth will instill love, that you may love; depth will instill fear, that you may tremble. See that this heaven is more sublime and more worthy than all others of which we have spoken or are speaking. Do not ask me what its luminaries are. I confess, I turn over certain things within myself that may perhaps pertain to them, but whether a full correspondence can be drawn, I do not yet comprehend. Hence I do not presume to bring them forth to you: the Lord will instruct you about these things through Himself, while He does not wish to do so through me. For if He wished them to be shown to you through me, He would first reveal them to me, so that He might transmit them to you through me.
X. We also call Christ, the mediator of God and men, God and man, indeed a very sublime heaven, to which holy David seems to have then raised his eyes when he said: The heaven of heaven is the Lord's (Ps. 113:16); understanding, as I believe, God the Son of God as the heaven of heaven, present to the Father in all things without any exception. What do you think are the two great luminaries in this heaven? Perhaps they are the two natures in Christ. Consider whether the greater luminary is not that unfailing sun of His divinity, shining forth in the day of eternity; and the lesser luminary is like a certain moon, the mutability of our nature assumed in Him, namely His humanity. Which, because it is pure indeed, but was united to His person temporally, shines certainly, but in the night of this time.
They say the moon receives its light from the sun: and what does even the human nature in the Only-Begotten have that it has not received? Have you not read in the Gospel that when the Lord was approaching Jericho, a blind man received his sight? Whom, as you know, He heard crying out while passing by, but standing still He illuminated (Luke 18:35). What of it? Is not Jericho said to mean moon? Is not the mutability of our nature in Him expressed through the passing, while the eternity of His nature is expressed through the standing? You see therefore that in the passing of His moon and in the standing of His sun, this heaven wiped away the darkness of our blindness. In the one, through compassion He was moved by that same blindness of mine; in the other, through power He helped.
But what are the stars of this heaven? I think they are the words of eternal life which He had, and the works of our salvation which He wrought on earth. Incline therefore your ear and hear the profitable things which He uttered with His mouth; open your eyes and see the wonders which He showed in deed, and say that all these are stars, and indeed very bright ones, which Jesus began to do and to teach (Acts 1:1) -- and you will not be accused of lying.
XI. There is a third heaven indeed, high indeed, but lower than that one, namely the capacity of the angelic intellect. This is what one of Job's friends asserted about the Almighty, to use his words, declaring Him more excellent and more exalted, when he affirmed that He could not be found out to perfection: He is higher than heaven, he says, and what will you do? (Job 11:8) Sophar, who is found to have spoken these words, wished, I believe, to convince him through these words that he could not perfectly find out, that is, fully comprehend, God Almighty with his human intellect, since He, dwelling in unapproachable light, far transcends not only any particular sense, but every sense, even the intellect of the angels themselves. In this heaven, namely in the angelic intellect, a threefold light shines forth, by which, being illuminated, the angels recognize Christ who made them -- and understand this to be the sun; the mutable creature which He created for them -- and this is the moon; and themselves, who, individually arranged in persons, distinguished in orders, are stars shining for perpetual eternities. That the angelic intellect purely beholds that common creator of all, the mutable nature made by Him, and themselves -- this is for the third heaven of which we are treating to have sun, moon, and stars.
XII-XIII. If you wish to see the fifth heaven, it is this very air, which in several places in sacred Scripture is called the heaven of the birds, because they are seen to fly about in the air. Its luminaries, since it is visible, are also themselves visible. These are those which God literally placed on the fourth day at the very beginning of the world in the firmament of heaven (Gen. 1:14), that they might be -- as we all now see bodily -- for signs and seasons and days and months and years, and that they might divide the day and night and shine in the same firmament of heaven and illuminate the earth. Behold, we have set before you many heavens, and not under one but under a twofold division, so that they might be grasped more clearly by the intellect and held more firmly in the memory. In the first division we showed you six, in the second five. And to each, as was possible for us at present, we assigned proper luminaries, except for three: namely, that most high heaven which is God, and the two others, one of which we assigned to the assembly of those blessed spirits, the other to heavenly beatitude. Let us now repeat them in order, all under one division, because what is more frequently repeated happens to be more firmly retained in memory.
XIV. The first heaven is this visible air, the second this mutable world, the third the holy Church, the fourth the devout soul, the fifth divine Scripture, the sixth the hidden mystery, the seventh the holiness of religious life, the eighth the assembly of the heavenly spirits, the ninth that heavenly beatitude, the tenth the capacity of the angelic intellect, the eleventh the firstborn from the dead, that prince of the kings of the earth, the mediator of God and men, God and man, our Lord Jesus Christ (I Tim. 2:5); the twelfth, He who dwells in unapproachable light (I Tim. 6:16), the immortal and invisible King, who by His rising alone brings us the day, the almighty and sovereign God, three and one.
In the first heaven there is the visible sun, which, bringing us the day by its rising and taking it away by its setting, rises and sets daily, and, as Ecclesiastes says: It returns to its place, and being born again there, it circles through the south and bends toward the north, surveying all things (Eccl. 1:5-6). Those who look attentively enough perceive what its moon and stars are. In the second, its changeable events pertain to the moon; the individual things visibly created by God pertain to the stars; the beauty of the whole, contemplated through contemplation, pertains to the sun. In the third, to run through briefly, the priesthood and the kingdom and holy men are the sun, moon, and stars. In the fourth, the sun of temperance, the moon of patience, and the stars of holy thoughts shine. In the fifth, the sun is in the spiritual sense, the moon in the historical, the stars in the revelation of virtues which the saints of old practiced.
In the sixth, the sun gleams in the intellect, the moon in faith, and the individual modes of interior contemplation are individual stars. In the seventh, the sun of love shines, the moon of fear, and the stars of good bodily actions. In the tenth, the knowledge of God shines forth like the sun, mutable creatures like the moon, and while each has its own light, with a certain beautiful radiance and radiant beauty, individual stars gleam. In the eleventh, the sun is of the One who assumed our nature, the moon of the nature assumed; the individual words that are heard from Him and the individual works that are seen in Him are the stars.
XV. I think you greatly desire to see the luminaries of those three heavens about which we have not yet said anything. For I know that your pious and devout curiosity cannot rest as long as it does not find what it seeks. Will that generous Lord refuse to open the secret as He customarily does? Let us knock at His door, because He who said, To him who knocks it will be opened (Luke 11:10), cannot lie. Let us persevere in knocking, so that at least importunity may compel Him to give, whom perhaps friendship cannot compel. Let us knock, I say, if perhaps He may grant to those who knock what He denies to those who search, for thus He very often does. For many times what we could not find by searching, it was also granted to us to wrest by knocking.
Open to us, O Lord, for your praise and for our benefit, what the luminaries are in the heaven that is the assembly of your blessed spirits, and in that which is the heavenly beatitude you promise us, and in that also which You Yourself are. Among those blessed spirits who exult with You in Your glory, we understand that some ceaselessly attend upon Your face and never depart from Your innermost presence, while others, receiving the work of ministry, go forth to us, made, by Your disposition, ministering spirits, sent by You in ministry for the sake of us who inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14).
And that servant of yours gave me this understanding about them, who said: Thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him (Dan. 7:10). But again I see that neither those who go forth to us are absent for any hour, nor those who ceaselessly stand before You are absent from us. For how could either those be perfect in charity, if even while standing before You they had no care for us, or these in happiness, if when they go forth to us they not only lost the blessed and gladdening vision of You, but even for the briefest moment ceased to see it? And so those who stand before You are not lacking to us in compassion, and those who come to us stand before You, indeed they are in You, through contemplation.
But this solicitude, by which those dwelling with us are held bound toward You, and those attending upon You toward us -- is it not a great light, by which those bright stars, I mean those blessed spirits of whom we speak, shine forth? And their ministry, because they exercise it among us who live in the changeable darkness of this present life and in the dark changeability, is it not the moon? For always to gaze upon Your brightness is to enjoy the most splendid radiance of the unfailing sun of vision. Therefore, in those who stand before You the sun shines, in those who minister the moon; and while each is present to You with perfect contemplation and to us with compassion, this great perfection cherishing them is a great light illuminating each of those stars.
XVI. I find that the heavenly happiness toward which we aspire is threefold, when I ask myself what we will be in ourselves, what in You our God, and what all together in one another. And I find that in ourselves we will be powerful, in You wise, and in one another loving: we will be able to do all things without any weakness, we will perceive all things without any error, and we will fully love one another without any offense. O strength of unfailing fortitude, by which we are powerful in ourselves! O brightness of all-embracing knowledge, by which we are wise in You, our God! O sweetness of true love, by which we love one another!
Yet all these things You will be for us, who, while You are wholly in us, will also be the whole in us: You, the supreme God the Father, conferring power in us upon us; wisdom in You our God, You the supreme wisdom the Son; kindness in one another, You the supreme kindness the Holy Spirit, that You may be God all in all (Col. 3). But since we, in whom this power will reside, are changeable by nature, and just as the moon receives, according to some, its light from the sun, so also we have whatever good we have from You: it seems to us that this power, a kind of moon in heaven, will be the moon in that heavenly beatitude.
But to have wisdom in You, is it not to possess the brightness of the sun? What in this visible sun is brighter than the sun? What in that beatitude is more splendid than, in You who know all things, to know all things? And kindness uniting those individual fellow-citizens in You with the indissoluble bond of unfailing charity, knowing no darkness of any kind, is a brightness radiating in each of those individual stars. That heaven, therefore, has its sun when that beatitude (for this is the heaven) confers wisdom in God upon those children of the heavenly kingdom, through all-embracing knowledge; its moon, when it confers power upon each one in himself, through the most robust fortitude; and also the brightest light and most luminous brightness in its stars, when it confers the sweetness of true love upon each one, in one another.
XVII. It remains, O Lord, for us to say something about those luminaries of the heaven that You are. Shine forth therefore with Your splendor and illumine us, that we may walk without the darkness of error in speaking of them. If, since You are heaven, You have sun, moon, and stars, You are indeed these Yourself, who have nothing in Yourself that You Yourself are not. For just as You, who are true being, cannot not be, so neither can anything be in You that You are not. For You are, so to speak, Your own being, in which there is nothing except what You are; yet to some You show the sun in Yourself, to others the moon, to others the stars, though You are not one thing and another, but the same Yourself, since being the same is what it is.
But whoever considers what You are in Yourself, what in the reprobate, and what in the elect, can see, if I am not mistaken, that there are in You sun, moon, and stars. I see You in Yourself as utterly incomprehensible, and therefore a kind of sun that no angelic or human intellect suffices to penetrate. You are truly one, and therefore admitting no number in Yourself; immense, and therefore admitting no increase; eternal, and therefore suffering no diminishment. You, under whom all things pass, nothing affects You. You are great, but without quantity; You are simple, but without diminishment; You are good, but without quality; You are always, but without time; You are everywhere, but without place; You are in every thing, but without any limitation of Yourself; You are in every time, but without any change of Yourself.
Neither can You in any way be stained by reason of Your purity, nor divided by reason of Your simplicity, nor comprehended by reason of Your immensity, nor changed by reason of Your immutability. Neither can You vary Your knowledge, You who are most wise; nor Your will, You who are most good, whose power subjects every effect, whose wisdom makes every hidden thing manifest, whose deliberation every event follows, whose eternity no time equals, whose goodness no virtue matches, whose wisdom no sense reaches, whose power no work attains. That it is so, who does not believe? But how it is so, who comprehends? Behold the sun in this great and spacious heaven that You are.
Your Paul raised himself to gaze upon yet another sun, but struck back by its brightness he returned to the noise of words where speech begins and ends, and he exclaimed, saying: O the depth of the riches of the knowledge and wisdom of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments and how unsearchable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Or who has first given to Him, and it shall be repaid? And he added: For from Him and in Him and through Him are all things; to Him be glory (Rom. 11:33). From You, O Lord, are all things, You are the beginning of all; through You are all things, who are the beginning, You are also the maker; in You are all things, namely in Your power, not as in a place. "From," "through," "in" intimate the Trinity in persons; "to Him" however, the unity that is in substance; and in that we do not admit multiplicity, nor in this solitude; not confusing the former, nor dividing the latter.
For when we say one, the Trinity does not trouble us, because it neither varies, nor multiplies, nor divides the essence. And when we say three, the unity does not rebuke us, because it neither forces those three into confusion nor reduces them to singularity. But these things, O Lord, because reason does not fully foresee them, yet opinion does not doubt, but faith alone persuades, I judge to pertain to a certain most brilliant sun in You, while I thus consider You to be utterly incomprehensible.
But the moon, even if according to some it receives light from the sun, does not retain it for long, but at once turns toward the loss of the received light. And who is there, Lord, even among the reprobate, who hides himself from Your heat? (Ps. 18:7.) But when You do not preserve in them through the power of perseverance the brightness of grace which You confer on them, but by just and hidden judgment permit it to be obscured, do You not in a way show Yourself as a moon among them, since with the perverse You Yourself are in a way perverse? I see You terrible among those whom, though secretly, yet justly from eternity You reject, that You may condemn them for eternity.
But You are lovable in the elect, whom, predestined to life, while You illumine them in Yourself with the manifold light of Your graces, You show to be certain illustrious stars in Yourself, light both from eternity through predestination and unto eternity through salvation.
XVIII. Therefore, in that heaven which is the assembly of the heavenly spirits, the sun shines while they stand before You; the moon also shines while they go forth to us. The individual stars are also bright, since both those standing before You are not lacking to us in compassion, and those going forth do not fail You in contemplation. In that heaven which is heavenly beatitude, wisdom will shine for the elect like the sun, which they will have in You their God; power like the moon, which they will have in themselves; and kindness, like the brightness of stars shining together, which they will have in one another through love. In the most high heaven that You are, the greatest brightness of the sun is Your incomprehensible immensity in Yourself; You show Yourself also changed like a luminary among the reprobate; and those who are predestined in You to eternal life are like certain most brilliant stars.
In Yourself incomprehensible, terrible in the reprobate, gentle in the elect; if these things, Lord, can stand thus, to You be glory and praise. But if not at all, forgive, I beg, my blindness, and reveal the truth about all things to Your servants, my fellow servants, that through them the knowledge of these things may reach me.
XIX. Behold, brothers, just as it very often happens to travelers who propose to complete their whole journey on the very day they set out, but cannot, because night rushes upon them -- and therefore they are forced to find lodging and put off the remainder of their journey until the morrow -- so it has happened to us. For we thought to complete the whole journey of our chapter, which we set forth at the beginning of this sermon, in one day of exposition, and behold we have traveled as it were the whole day and have not yet been able to arrive at the intended end. And this happened to us because on this journey we saw from a distance the surface of spiritual meanings, like the tops of certain branches; but the hidden depths, which are like certain hollows of intervening valleys and plains, we by no means discerned.
It remains therefore that we should now take our rest by pausing, and reserve what remains of the journey of exposition, so that we may approach what must be said all the more eagerly because, having first offered prayer, we approach all the more securely; praising and glorifying God and our Lord Jesus Christ, who is with the Father and the Holy Spirit God blessed through all things forever. Amen.
SERMON XXXI. LIKEWISE ON THE FEAST OF ST. STEPHEN, PROTOMARTYR. On the glory of the Holy Spirit and on the spiritual heavens.
I. Come now, let us set out on the journey which we have until now postponed. We lingered so long among those heavens and their luminaries that we had no time to show how the glory of God should be seen in them. Since therefore we have already taught what those heavens are and what their luminaries, let us now show as best we can how, gazing into heaven with blessed Stephen, we may be able to see the glory of God. We do not wish on this occasion to enter into those heavens, lest if we should happen to enter them, delighted by their beauty and detained by the brightness of the luminaries in them, we should be forced to linger in them for some time, and thus be unable to complete the explanation of the remaining matters pertaining to this chapter.
But keeping in mind the number of them, which you have clearly expressed in the preceding sermon, ascend to them with eagerness, walk through them with devotion, so that you may make that voice of the Apostle your own: Our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:10). And that you may briefly see what it seems to me to gaze into heaven and by gazing to see the glory of God, I think you gaze into heaven if you strive to survey each one of them, from the first which is called airy and is visible to the twelfth which represents God Almighty Himself, with sober curiosity, as the internal anointing has instructed you concerning each, and with the pure eye of purified contemplation.
II. And by gazing into heaven you see the glory of God, if by beholding, walking through, and thoroughly seeing each one, raised to the wonder of astonishment -- or, if it is better said thus, to the astonishment of wonder -- you glorify God. But in order to gaze fruitfully into heaven (for then you gaze fruitfully when by gazing you see the glory; in order, I say, to gaze fruitfully into it) you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. For thus the very sequence of words has it: When Stephen, it says, was full of the Holy Spirit, gazing into heaven he saw the glory of God (Acts 7:55). This therefore was the reason he saw: because he gazed. And this also was the reason he gazed so as to see: because he was full of the Holy Spirit.
For my own part, I consider that he is full of the Holy Spirit who, devoting himself everywhere as much as possible to good action, and observing time, place, manner, and person, clearly recognizes the truth, ardently loves virtue, strives that the word of Christ may dwell in him, and in all these things preserves complete and true rectitude in his internal intention.
III. I say this because, as you know, the Holy Spirit appeared in a dove, and also appeared in fire and a tongue. In which you can note these four things, if you look carefully. In fire there are two things: splendor and heat -- the former to illuminate, the latter to inflame. Simplicity is also customarily understood through the dove, and a word cannot be uttered except through the tongue. I believe you already fly ahead and foresee where I wish to go, hearing that the Holy Spirit appeared in these forms, and keeping in memory what we have just said, namely that he is full of the Holy Spirit who recognizes what is true, who vigorously bears the word of God in his mouth, and who maintains rectitude in his internal intention.
Behold, you have at hand in fire those two chief gifts of the Holy Spirit: knowledge and love. For splendor illuminating signifies the former, and heat kindling the latter. Both gifts are very necessary for you, because neither of them can be absent without diminishment of your salvation. For you read both that he who is ignorant will be ignored (I Cor. 14:38), and that he who does not love remains in death (I John 3:14). And so through the splendor of this most holy fire, which the Lord Jesus came to cast upon the earth (Luke 12:49), you are illuminated in the knowledge of truth, lest you go astray through the darkness of blindness; and through its heat you are inflamed in the love of virtue, lest you grow cold through its absence.
Thus these two spiritual goods drive out those two original evils: knowledge drives out ignorance, love drives out concupiscence. The former evil darkened the minds of men, drawing away from them the light of truth and pouring in the darkness of error; the latter polluted the flesh, drawing it away from the work of holiness and enticing it to the fruit of death. The former causes what is good not to be known; the latter causes what is evil to be practiced. And it comes about in a miserable way that whoever is infected with this twofold plague neither chooses the true nor rejects the false, blinded by the darkness of ignorance, nor admits the good nor omits the evil, pierced through by the darts of concupiscence.
IV. You see therefore how much you need, in this regard, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you who desire to gaze into heaven in order to be able to see the glory of God. For how do you gaze at something when you are entirely ignorant of what it is, or whether it exists at all? And if you already know this, how do you say you know fruitfully what you do not love? There is an old proverb: Where there is love, there is the eye; and this is indeed true -- yet no truer than what is similar to it: Where there is no affection, there is no vision. But when you clearly know what this heaven is, you already gaze upon it with the eye of purity. And when you ardently love not your own glory but God's, which He does not wish to give to another, since it is owed to Him alone (Isa. 48:11) -- when, I say, you ardently love His glory, you already behold Him with the eye of love. Like two eyes in the head, these two goods are in the mind, which make a straight path for our feet, lest they ever stumble. For knowledge drives the error of ignorance from the intellect in the mind, brightening it with the radiance of clarity.
V. But love drives out the stench of concupiscence from action in the body, adorning it with the beauty of virtue. Since these things are so, the former enables you to gaze into heaven, the latter to see the glory of God. But it is of the utmost importance that, just as you gaze having been enlightened and see having been kindled, so also in gazing and seeing alike you should be upright in mind, so that the great good which you gain -- while gazing into heaven with the eye of knowledge, while seeing the glory of God with the eye of love -- may be kept whole and undefiled for you by the right simplicity and simple rectitude of your internal intention.
This is the dove in which He appeared, who also appeared in fire, to show that you are not filled with Him unless, just as you have an intellect illuminated through the knowledge of truth, and just as you possess an affection inflamed through the love of virtue, so also you are purified in both -- that is, in knowledge and in love alike -- and estranged from every appetite for human praise, and perfectly pure through the rectitude of internal intention, so that through all the hidden movements of your mind you raise the eyes of your mind to the sight of God alone.
But whoever has already received the Holy Spirit in fire and has also received Him in the dove, I do not doubt that he can securely show that He is present to him also in the tongue. Let him display outwardly those most precious treasures with which the Holy Spirit has endowed him inwardly, for the praise of God and the edification of neighbors. Let him preach the word, be instant in season and out of season, reprove, entreat, rebuke (II Tim. 4:2). For the ungodly person has patience, and the patient person has ungodliness. Let him securely show that he has the Spirit in the tongue of speech, whom he so excellently has both in the splendor of knowledge and in the ardor of love and in the dove of simple intention. Let him open his mouth and be silent no more; whatever he sees, let him proclaim from the fullness with which he has been fattened; let him pour forth what he has drunk in, overflow from that which has intoxicated him, serve to others what he has drunk, for he is full of the Holy Spirit.
VI. Is he not full of the Holy Spirit who, through knowledge of truth, is skilled in the secrets of wisdom; through love of virtue, shines in works of justice; through rectitude of intention, desires to please God alone; and through zeal for preaching, instructs his ignorant neighbor? Plainly, this one is full of the Holy Spirit who knows uncertain and hidden things, who clearly seeing what works of justice must be done, carefully does them, ardently loving his neighbor; who admits absolutely no appetite for human favor toward himself, desiring to please only the hidden divine gaze; who finally proclaims Christ everywhere and sincerely, in no way adulterating the word of God, speaking as from God, before God, to his neighbor.
Let him now say "come," he who has thus heard; let him teach, thus taught; let him instruct, thus instructed. In no way will he err, thus enlightened; in no way will he give offense, thus moved; in no way will he bend toward anything crooked, thus made upright. And therefore whatever heaven it is into which he gazes, of whatever kind and however great the glory of God which he sees, let him securely reveal it to us; and with blessed Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazing into heaven and seeing the glory of God, let him exclaim and say: Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God (Acts 7:55).
VII. Who, do you suppose, are these heavens which he sees opened? I think the heavens have a diverse signification in the plural number, just as we have already shown in the preceding sermon that they do in the singular. For the holy angels are heavens, and indeed very exalted ones, of whom holy David says: The heavens dropped at the presence of the Lord (Ps. 67:9), because the angels bring God's commands to us. Were not the apostles also heavens, who left all things and followed Christ? Of whom holy Job seems to have said: His Spirit adorned the heavens (Job 26:13). Because according to the Savior's promise, the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sent in His name, taught the apostles all truth.
But certain heavens are our holy preachers, of whom the Psalmist says: The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps. 18:7), because it is the special office of the highest preachers to proclaim the grace of Christ. And the wisest in the Church are also certain heavens, whom it seems to me the lawgiver and leader of the people of Israel addresses at the very beginning of his canticle in Deuteronomy: Hear, he says, O heavens, what I speak (Deut. 32:1); in these words commending, I reckon, the profundity of what he was about to say, while he invites the heavens to hear it. Hear, O heavens, what I speak. This is to say: you who are wiser, listen to the great and subtle things I am about to say.
I have also frequently found spiritual men called heavens in sacred Scripture. As in the Psalm, where it is said that the Lord made the heavens in understanding (Ps. 135:6); meaning that almighty God makes spiritual men not only believe heavenly things through right faith, but also understand them through internal power. Do spiritual men not seem to you to bear the name of heavens fittingly, whom you see burning with the brightness of the sun in their heart, shining with the moon of chastity in mind and body, and gleaming with manifold brightness in action like the varied splendor of the stars? There are yet other heavens besides, namely the sublime modes of contemplation which contemplative thinkers are accustomed to frequent, which I believe the Psalmist mentions where he says of certain ones that they ascend up to the heavens (Ps. 102:26), meaning that they reach the lofty modes of contemplation.
VIII. These are the heavens which we now proclaim to you, in which dwells He to whom we customarily say in daily devotion: Our Father, who art in heaven (Matt. 6:9). And holy David also: To you, he says, I have lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in heaven (Ps. 122:1). I would like to know if it has been given to any of you to see these heavens opened. And when are these heavens opened to us, if not when their properties are revealed to us? For they present themselves to us as closed, as it were, for as long as their properties are not evident to us. Raise now your eyes to the heavens which we briefly touched upon just now, if perhaps you may be able to see them opened. They are the sublime modes of contemplation; beginning from these, seek by ascending the opening of all those heavens, of which you have already heard a copious description in descending order.
And because the modes of contemplation are varied and many, by which the Spirit customarily leads us ahead to interior things, guiding us to the knowledge of His internal secrets -- guiding clearly both as far as He wills and in the way He wills. For often, as you know, He presents to our hidden gaze the immensity of creatures, beautiful and useful, their beauty useful and immense, their usefulness immense and beautiful; and through the recognition of these visible things He brings us to some inspection of invisible things; and so, while we read in the book of Wisdom what is written on its outside, we reach what is written within it to be read and understood, since that same Wisdom of which we speak shows herself to us cheerfully in her ways: And in all providence, as Scripture says, meeting us (Wis. 6:17).
When therefore you perceive that this is happening to you in this way, you will be able to address us and say: Behold, I see the heavens opened -- namely, beholding the invisible things of God, understood through the things that have been made (Rom. 1:20). And not only through these, but by whatever other means you attain spiritual knowledge of internal and hidden things through contemplation, know that the heavens have been opened to you in this regard, and that the secret modes of interior contemplation have been revealed.
IX. I do not doubt that those heavens which are spiritual men are also opened for you when their holiness and virtue are not hidden from you, and you recognize how sublime they are in their spiritual way of life. Raising therefore the interior eyes to those heavens, discover how innocent Abel was, who, though we read he was killed by his brother, we do not read that he resisted (Gen. 4:8). How holy Enoch was, who living holily among men, merited to be taken from among men (Gen. 5:22). How perfect Noah was (Gen. 6:9), who, when the whole world was corrupted by sin, shone in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation as a light in the world (Phil. 2:15), and obedient to the voice of God, at whose command, having set aside all care for family affairs, the ark detained him, occupied in its construction for about a hundred years.
With what commendable and holy modesty Shem and Japheth covered their father's nakedness (Gen. 9:13), and before that beautiful decree had been promulgated by human mouth: You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father (Lev. 18:7), they not only did not reveal their father's nakedness, but also covered what had been revealed. And lest anything be lacking to them in the grace of propriety, what they judged must be covered they by no means allowed themselves to look upon. O distinguished men adorned with the beauty of propriety, whom the love of propriety rendered both solicitous to cover what was unseemly and modest in beholding!
How shall we sufficiently praise the obedience of our father Abraham and admire his faith? For it belonged to obedience that, when commanded to go out from his land and from his kindred and from his father's house, he went out, not knowing where he was going. And to faith, that against hope he believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to what was said to him: So shall your seed be like the stars of heaven (Gen. 15:5). And not weakened in faith, he did not consider his own body as already dead, when he was almost a hundred years old, nor the deadened womb of Sarah (Rom. 4:19). And to commend the greatness of this faith, what did the Apostle add? In the promise of God, he says, he did not waver through distrust, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and most certainly knowing that whatever He promised, He is able also to do (ibid., 21).
How much does it seem to you he added to the virtue of obedience in this: that he did not shrink from taking away with his own bloody hand even the hope of his own posterity, his only-begotten son, I speak of Isaac? (Gen. 22:10). And the son of the old father too, while through purity of mind he always fled every sight of impurity, deserved to see things far greater and yet to come, even though captured in the eyes of the flesh. His son also, holy Jacob, in manly simplicity and simple virtue dwells at home (Gen. 25:27); and humbly yielding to his brother's anger through flight, he acquires riches while serving in exile, which he afterward possesses in his homeland.
X. How shall we extol the innocent Joseph, whose innocence his ankle-length tunic commends (Gen. 37:23)? Innocent, I say, and simple, obedient, patient, modest and chaste, pious and kind. Far be it that you should think any of these was lacking to him! Read his deeds, and you will find that he was innocent in the conduct of his life, simple in the revelation of dreams, obedient at command, patient even unto being sold, modest even unto flight, chaste even unto prison, pious even unto tears, kind even unto the forgiveness of injury.
Moses, the man of God, because he was humble, refused to be set over the people (Exod. 4:3); but lest he be obstinate, he quickly consented. In the one case looking at his own weakness, in the other fearing not to obey God. And oh, how pious and how strict, and how strictly pious! Do you not declare him pious, whom you see offering himself even to death for the blaspheming people? (Exod. 32:32) Yet he was no less strict, who, sometimes angry against the same people, even raged to the point of their slaughter, through the zeal of his devotion (Num. 25:3).
What shall I say of the fact that at one and the same time the rebellious people proposed to stone him, and he himself enters the tabernacle to pray for them? (Exod. 17:4) Rightly did the Holy Spirit declare that he was the meekest man above all men who dwelt upon the whole earth (Num. 12:3). Plainly the meekest, who strove to pray for those who persecuted and slandered him.
Phinehas grows angry (Num. 25:7) lest the Lord should grow angry, extending his hand against those unlawfully mingling, and turning the hand of the Lord away from the people (ibid.): and so, while he is zealous with zeal for the law, he receives the covenant of an eternal priesthood, because it was reckoned to him as justice from generation to generation forever. Joshua (Num. 27:18) did not refuse to be humbly subject, so that he might afterward humbly preside, because he whom he served with obedience, him he also succeeded in governance.
XI. Neither did high office make holy Samuel proud, nor did removal show him disturbed (I Sam. 3:20). He it is also whose fame grew to such an extent that we read written of him: All from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was a faithful prophet of the Lord (I Sam. 12:3). He it is likewise who kept himself in his high office both free from avarice and from complaint -- in the one, consulting his own holiness; in the other, the peace and quiet of his subjects. Do you not assert that he governed without avarice, of whom you read that he accepted money, and even sandals, from no one? And that you may know he walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord without complaint, see what follows: And no man accused him (Ecclus. 46:22).
Hence with a clear conscience he addressed the people, saying: I have lived among you from my youth until this day. Here I am; speak before the Lord and before His anointed, whether I have taken anyone's ox or donkey, if I have wronged anyone, if I have oppressed anyone, if I have accepted a gift from anyone's hand, and I will despise it today and restore it to you. And they said: You have not wronged us, nor oppressed us, nor taken anything from us. And he said to them: The Lord is witness against you, and His anointed is witness this day, that you have found nothing in my hand. And they said: He is witness (I Sam. 12:2).
And indeed a testimony given in one's favor is not usually suspect when it is given by those who are known to be adversaries. But we should also venerate this in him to no small degree: that he believed he would sin if he failed his very persecutors either in prayer or in teaching. Far be from me, he said, this sin against the Lord, that I should cease to pray for you, and I will teach you the good and right way (I Sam. 12:23). Who is there who does not admire in holy David such great wisdom, humility, and fortitude? Assign to wisdom that he sits in the chair as the wisest (II Sam. 23:8); to humility, that he is like a tender wood-worm; to fortitude, that he killed eight hundred in one assault (ibid.). This is the faithful and prudent servant whom the Lord set over his household (Matt. 24:45), choosing him to feed Jacob his servant and Israel his inheritance, and he fed them in the innocence of his heart, and led them with the understanding of his mercy; for prudence also taught him to flee his persecutor Saul as an enemy, and when the opportunity for vengeance presented itself, to spare him as a lord (I Sam. 24:3).
XII. Those outstanding men, I speak of Elijah and Elisha (IV Kings 4:27), zeal so raises up and humility so lays low that neither of them feared to assail even a sinning king with the rod of correction. The former did not shrink from humbly running with girded loins before Ahab, and the latter from being touched by a woman (I Kings 18:46). Isaiah did not disdain to undergo the confession of nakedness at the Lord's command in his preaching (Isa. 20:2). Jeremiah (ch. 43:7) forbids the people to descend into Egypt, but since he truly loves them, where he forbids them to descend, he himself also descends with them, a good counselor indeed for their salvation, but a faithful companion in their toil.
Who does not praise the daring of Judith, the prudence of Esther, and the manifold holiness of Tobias? The boy Daniel and his three companions, while they subdued the body by the power of abstinence in a place of delights (Dan. 1:8), not only reached the lofty summit of wisdom, but also received that wonderful gift, so that in these by a new and unheard-of miracle, fire forgot the force of its power (Dan. 3:50), and even the most savage lions, afflicted by hunger, did not presume to touch him (Dan. 6:22). Call to mind the zeal of holy Matthathias (I Macc. 2:2), and be amazed at the admirable triumphs of his sons.
XIII. But where am I going? For I neither know nor am I able to recall to memory every individual man of virtue whom holiness of life raised to prominence either before or after Christ's Incarnation. But to pass quickly through the times of the Gospel: John the Baptist, than whom no greater arose among those born of women (Luke 7:28), is admirable; the prerogative of the apostles, the constancy of the martyrs, the holiness of the confessors, the purity of the virgins. Run through therefore in thought and with eagerness the state and way of life of the saints, both those who were under the Old Testament and those who are now under the New, and you will be able when you come to us to say that you have seen the heavens opened (Acts 7:55). For holy men, as was shown above, are heavens. And these heavens are indeed opened to you when the states and ways of life of the saints are revealed. And if it has been given to you to recognize how great the wisdom was in the breast of Moses when he established the law, and how great it was in holy David, Isaac, Jeremiah, and the other prophets, in this regard too you will see the heavens opened.
XIV. Go also to the expositions of the orthodox Fathers, and by devoting yourself to their treatises and teachings with the assiduity of studious reading, you will be able to see the heavens opened here too. The apostles also are heavens, and indeed ones that drop dew from above. Their prerogative is great, their dignity excellent. And indeed the heavens are opened to you in their case also, when what pertains to them is revealed to you through the Spirit. And fly also on the wings of your desires to those sublime choirs of heavenly spirits, and persist and knock insistently, if perhaps they may be opened to you, for they are heavens.
Behold those blessed spirits, immortal in life, happy in the vision of God, distinguished in persons, arranged in dignities, powerful in themselves, loving one another, wise in God, with God Himself being all in all. Their orders receive these names: Angels, Archangels, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Dominations, Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim. They receive all these names, and fittingly so. To run through them briefly -- for we must not linger long on matters about which the holy Fathers are known to have discussed sufficiently in many places --
XV. To run through them briefly, then, consider as best you can how happily the holy angels excel in the knowledge of divine judgments, and the archangels in the knowledge of internal counsels -- announcing these, according to the meaning of their name, to whom, when, how, and to what extent He Himself has judged, on whose behalf they serve as ambassadors. See also the Virtues powerfully performing miracles and wonders; the Powers overturning, repelling, and nullifying the tyrannical malice and malicious tyranny of demons and reprobate men, for the sake of those who inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14); the Principalities distributing the rights of kingdoms and the heights of dignities at the bidding of that supreme and uncreated Spirit, who also raises the heaven of the Dominations above all these orders.
And also decreeing His judgments in the Thrones above them, indeed pouring Himself into them and revealing His secrets to them, He transmits them through their mediation and conveyance to those below, so that the Angels may know what, to whom, and how much they should announce; the Archangels what to reveal; the Virtues what to work; the Powers what protections to confer. Superior to all these are those two hosts, the eighth and ninth: the Cherubim and the Seraphim, to each of which, that the interpretation of their respective names may be preserved, the former are filled with the knowledge of God, and the latter are inflamed with the charity that God is.
Those heavens are sublime, with whom He dwells to whom we say daily: Our Father, who art in heaven (Matt. 6:9). Our Lord God fills them, and making their dwelling most blessed, He shows Himself as lover in the Seraphim, for He is charity; as knower in the Cherubim, for He is truth; as seated in the Thrones, for He is equity; as ruling in the Dominations, for He is majesty; as governing in the Principalities, for He is the beginning; as protecting in the Powers, for He is salvation; as working in the Virtues, for He is not merely virtuous but the supreme virtue; as revealing in the Archangels, for He is the brightness of eternal light; as assisting in the Angels, for He is loving-kindness. All these things one and the same Spirit works, our almighty God, the creator of all spirits as well as bodies, distributing to each one individually as He wills (I Cor. 12:11). When therefore, raised to the summit of contemplation, you perceive these and other things pertaining hereto with the clear gaze of the mind, you will be able, when you come down to us, to say that you have seen the heavens opened, to the praise and glory of God, who is blessed forever. Amen.
SERMON XXXII. LIKEWISE ON THE FEAST OF ST. STEPHEN, PROTOMARTYR. On the two natures of Christ, and on the spiritual heavens.
I. You now have both what these heavens are and how you should knock that they may be opened to you. But you say: What is the benefit of the opening of these heavens? Much and great in every way. For when the heavens were opened, what did blessed Stephen see? He said indeed that he saw the heavens opened, but what did he add? And the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God (Acts 7:55). And certainly, brothers, happy is he who can regularly see the heavens opened in the way we have described to you. But much happier is he who deserves to see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God.
I do not see myself as sufficiently fit to open up this mystery, nor do I fully comprehend what it means to see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God, because having darkened eyes, almost always bent downward, I cannot behold the state of this Son of Man, so sublime and so unbending. But those who are accustomed to frequently enter these heavens and to walk through them with pious curiosity, and who dare to explore the state of this Son of Man under the guidance of the spirit of truth -- behold, these know and can, if they will, tell you what it means to see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God.
II. But if they judge it safer to keep their secret to themselves, then I shall say what it has seemed to me to see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God -- greatly deferring to those who know how to speak of this more truly and more profoundly. I find this Son of Man (for it is not necessary to say who He is, since He is our Lord Jesus Christ, without a mother the Son of God, without a father the Son of Man). I find, I say, this Son of Man not only standing but also sitting at the right hand of the power of God.
For I read in the Gospel that He said to the Jews: You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power of God (Matt. 26:64). Mark the evangelist also says: The Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sits at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19). You have therefore not only Him standing, as in Stephen's account, but also sitting at the right hand of the power of God, as in the evangelist's.
He stood indeed also on occasion among us, as you read: Standing still, He commanded him to be brought to Him (Mark 10:49); prefiguring that state which He has at the right hand of the power of God, from which He had the power to illuminate the blind man. He also sat among us, as John says: Being wearied from the journey, He was sitting thus upon the well; and he added: It was about the sixth hour (John 4:6). What else do we think this means, except that the firstborn from the dead, laboring from the mutability of His assumed nature, humbled Himself in the sixth age of the world to the depths of our lowliness -- to which He was indeed subject for a time by will, while He always surpassed it by power? So that it was thus for Him, wearied from the journey at the sixth hour, to sit not in the well, but upon the well.
But I also find Him frequently walking in our region. For during that entire time He did not cease to walk among us, in which He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38).
III. And I think Paul, his companion, expounds this very statement of Peter, when he says in the second letter to the Corinthians: God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself (II Cor. 5:19). See therefore conceived of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin; from conception, which was without corruption, coming to birth, which was without injury; from the womb to the manger, from birth to circumcision, from circumcision to presentation, from presentation to baptism, from baptism to fasting, from fasting to hunger, from hunger to temptation, from temptation to preaching, from preaching to the working of miracles, from the working of miracles to the passion, from the passion to the death of the cross, from the death of the cross to the tomb, from the tomb to the resurrection, from the resurrection to the ascension. In all these things behold Him walking; for His walking among us is to work our salvation in the midst of the earth through the mutability of His assumed nature.
If anyone should say that both His sitting and His walking tend toward one and the same thing, he does not seem to me to dissent from the truth. For if His walking was to work our salvation, how did He work, if not by acting and teaching? Otherwise it would not be said: A prophet powerful in deed and word (Luke 24:19), nor would St. Luke affirm that he had composed a treatise about all the things that Jesus began to do and to teach (Acts 1:1). In His walking, therefore, consider the operation of your salvation; in His sitting, the manner of that same operation. And here indeed a twofold manner: for He is beautiful in form beyond the sons of men on account of the wonders He performed; grace is poured out upon His lips (Ps. 44:3) on account of the salutary things He said.
IV. And certainly of all the wonders He performed, I judge nothing more wonderful than that He endured our weaknesses. For it seems more wonderful that the Bread hungers, the Fountain thirsts, Life dies, than that He feeds many who hunger with a few morsels, that He changes water into wine, that He raises the dead. And you have both these modes of operation in His twofold sitting: for He sat on the mountain teaching the apostles, that you might receive by hearing what sublime things He uttered (Matt. 15:29); and He sat upon the well, wearied from the journey (John 4:6), that you might venerate with a humble mind the weaknesses He endured.
Let us therefore comprehend under one signification His sitting and walking here. But the fact that He stood -- whether He opened the eyes of the blind man who cried out (Luke 18:40), or when He appeared to the disciples after the resurrection no longer on the sea but on the shore, not walking but standing (John 21:4); He who before the resurrection appeared to them as they labored at rowing (Mark 6:48), not on the shore but on the sea, not standing but walking -- or in whatever other place or manner He is found to stand, this pertains to His eternal and immutable state, which He has at the right hand of God.
But His walking among us completed, He withdrew to the seat of the Father's right hand, sitting there in the seat of glorification, He who here was accustomed to walk in the labor of mortality. And the standing which He has at the right hand of God is His majesty coeternal and coequal with the Father; for to stand at His right hand is to be coeternal and coequal with Him.
V. Since these things are so, raise your eyes and see the Son of Man walking, see Him sitting, see Him also standing. Walking in mortality, sitting in glorification, standing in eternity. And happy indeed is he who constantly beholds Him walking; happier, he who beholds Him sitting; but happiest, he who beholds Him standing. What He was like walking, ask holy Isaiah, and he will tell you: That he saw Him, and there was no beauty. And we desired, he says, Him, the last of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity; and His face was as it were hidden and despised, so that we esteemed Him not. And we thought Him as it were a leper, and struck by God and humiliated (Isa. 53:3). And again: Truly He bore our infirmities, and He Himself carried our weaknesses (ibid., 4); and many other things of this kind.
What He is like sitting, the Apostle makes known to us in part, saying that He was exalted by God with glory and honor, and that He was given a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth (Phil. 2:9); and other things of this kind which are sufficiently clear to you. But who has beheld Him standing at the right hand of God? I reckon that he who said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; this was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life (John 1:1). Does it not seem to you that this one fixed his eyes equally upon the Father and upon the Son standing at His right hand, coeternal and equal to Himself, and saw that neither of them exceeded the other in power nor preceded the other in eternity, but that they were truly and supremely one in one deity? Go and do likewise.
VI. When these heavens of which we have already said much have been opened to you, see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God, recognizing Him through the certainty of faith as equal to God in all things; know that He is the Son of God. For this is the entire benefit, this the entire fruit in them: that you should walk through them frequently to this end -- as a pious and humble knocker rather than a rash and haughty investigator -- so that you may see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God.
For what profit is it -- to touch briefly on these same heavens -- what profit, I say, is it that you reach the sublime modes of contemplation, that you perceive with understanding the invisible things of God through the things that have been made, if in those same visible things you do not admire Him through whom God the Father made all things, without whom nothing was made, in whom what was made was life? If you are amazed at the praiseworthy way of life of spiritual men, glorify above all in them Him who works in them both the willing and the accomplishing according to His good will (Phil. 2:13); whom, when He strengthens them, they can do all things in Him, without whom they can do nothing.
Whatever profundity or maturity you behold in the wise men of the Church, by no means ascribe it to them, inasmuch as they are not sufficient to think anything of themselves, as of themselves; but rather to Him whom Paul proclaims the power and wisdom of God (I Cor. 1:24), whom all their adversaries cannot resist or contradict. Those who labor in word and doctrine are indeed worthy of great honor, and the apostles of Christ are to be greatly honored, whom He no longer calls servants but friends, because all things whatsoever He heard from His Father He made known to them (John 15:15). But not more, nor as much, as Christ Himself. For the preacher of the word is not greater than the Word itself, nor is the Apostle greater than He who sent him (John 13:16). Great therefore, and truly great, is the delight of walking through these heavens, but it is not fruitful unless you see in them the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God.
VII. What do you say about the angels, what about the archangels? Those indeed are amazed at the knowledge of divine judgments, and these at the knowledge of divine counsels; but both orders are far exceeded in dignity by Him to whom the Father has given all judgment (John 5:22), who is also the master of all the angels. For He was made so much better than the angels as He inherited a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did He ever say: You are my Son, today I have begotten you? (Heb. 1:4.) And He is certainly the one whom the angels themselves adore. The Virtues perform miracles; the Powers have fortitude to restrain all demons and all proud and reprobate men, over all of them; but they received it all from Him who is the Lord of hosts: The Lord, strong and mighty in battle (Ps. 23:8). Of whom it is also read that He alone does wondrous things (Ps. 71:18).
What if by the governance of the Principalities every principality on earth is changed and transferred, established and ruled? So that they may also do this, He Himself gives it to them, distributing to each as He wills (I Cor. 12:11), in whose hand are all powers and the rights of kingdoms, to whom all power has been given in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18), who rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He wills.
And if you see the Dominations preeminent over all these orders, know that they are subject (Dan. 4:14) to Him who has written on His garment and on His thigh: King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16). The Thrones sit and judge; but unless the Son of Man sat in them and discerned, those judging would fail in rectitude, and those sitting would not have peace. For although it is written: There sat the seats in judgment (Ps. 121:5), yet no one is unaware that there is a great distance in every respect between the seat and the one sitting in it.
The Cherubim pour out to their fellow-citizens the streams of knowledge; but how would they pour them out unless they had first been poured into them? Or how would they serve them unless they had first drunk? For what do they themselves have that they have not received? (I Cor. 4:7.) And if they have received, indeed because they have received, from whom have they received if not from the wisdom of God, Christ, who from the mouth of the Most High was the firstborn before every creature? (Ecclus. 24:5.) If the Cherubim also shine with continual light, let them know that this Wisdom of which we speak said of them: I made an unfailing light to arise in the heavens (ibid., 6). Are the Seraphim kindled? But the fire of God, indeed God the fire, kindled them. And if they burn with charity, they received it from Him who is charity. You ask who He is? Why do you ask me? Ask John, and it will be told you that God is charity (I John 4:8). You now see, unless I am mistaken, if you have understood all these things, what it means to see the heavens opened and what it means to see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God.
VIII. I recall saying a little earlier that those are happy who see the Son of Man walking; for the Son of Man goes, as it is written of Him (Matt. 26:24). Nor can He walk except in that which He is as Son of Man, because he who said "The Word walked" immediately added "and He went out into the countryside" (John 10:23 and 40), wishing to signify, if I am not mistaken, that the mobility which the Word had in walking it received from the fact that it went out into the breadth of our fields. I said therefore that those are happy who have seen Him walking; happier those who see Him sitting at the right hand of God; and happiest those who see Him standing at the right hand.
But you say: Why do you fabricate these degrees of distinction in one and the same Son of Man? Not without reason indeed. But because the mortality of one born of a mother, the glorification of one reigning, and the coeternity, coequality, and consubstantiality of the Only-Begotten from the Father with the same Father do not shine with equal brightness in Him. For if you will accept it, although the Word of God is this Son of Man, yet made flesh He appeared contemptible, as it were appearing in the diadem with which His mother crowned Him (Song 3:11). But in the flesh, after the punishment of death and the triumph of the resurrection, raised up through the glory of the Ascension, He was no longer unbecoming and weak, but beautiful and strong, as it were glorious in His robe, striding in the greatness of His strength (Isa. 63:1). For what if His garment is red, if His clothes are dyed? He borrowed them from us, so that the hands in Jacob might be the hands of Esau (Gen. 27:22).
IX. Furthermore, His Word from the beginning, which was with God and was God, dwells in unapproachable light, which no one among men has seen, nor can see (John 1:18). Those therefore among us who are spiritual, strengthened by purity of conscience and illuminated by the brightness of interior vision, who dare to follow the Spirit of themselves wherever it goes, let them raise their eyes to the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God, about to see there a great, indeed unthinkable, glory; and about to hear no less words which it is not permitted for a man to speak (II Cor. 12:4).
But it is necessary for those who aspire to these sublime things to lay aside completely every heaviness and darkness of the humanity that is in them, and to take on only the subtlety of pure and refined spirituality -- especially since the Lord says to His beloved and intimate one, not so much a servant as a friend: For no man shall see me and live (Exod. 33:20). But those who cannot yet raise their eyes to that sublime radiance of the brightest sun, let them see the assumed nature glorified at the right hand of God. Let them see, I say, that nature in Christ exalted to the right hand of the Father, which, never committing any fault, lived among men on earth, and enduring the penalty of death, as shameful as it was harsh, hung upon the gibbet of the cross.
And if there are some whom either a rushing phantasm weighs down, or a remorseful guilt tears apart, or an overwhelming sensation constricts, so that they cannot have leisure for either of those contemplations; but the knowledge of both is exceedingly wonderful from their perspective, and so elevated that they cannot attain to it (Ps. 138:6); they can have before their eyes this Son of Man of whom we speak, walking, and going about, and healing all who are oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38).
X. Let these daughters of Zion therefore go forth -- for they are daughters -- and let them see King Solomon in the diadem with which his mother crowned him (Song 3:11), until they deserve to be sons, seeing him in the diadem with which his Father crowned him. Let them go and recall before their eyes as much as they can, and gather within themselves, insofar as it was given to them, how in the course of our instability, from the day He was born: Jesus began to do and to teach, until the day when, commanding the apostles through the Holy Spirit whom He had chosen, He was taken up (Acts 1:1), looking upon Him walking with His forerunner, and consequently let them exclaim with him and say: Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:36). And let them not think they receive something small from this vision, but something altogether great, since it is established that they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and handle with their hands concerning the Word of life, whatever it may be (I John 1:1).
Called also by the apostle Paul a great mystery of godliness, which he also declares was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, appeared to angels, preached among the nations, believed in the world, taken up in glory (I Tim. 3:16).
XI. Therefore, it is a great thing to see Him walking, since the weakness of God is stronger than men (I Cor. 1:25). But it is far greater to see Him sitting at the right hand. But I would say that he ascends to the highest degree who, seeing the heavens opened, deserves to behold Him standing at the right hand of the power of God. And perhaps these are the three heavens, to the third of which Paul declares he was caught up, where he also says he heard ineffable words which it is not permitted for a man to speak (II Cor. 12:2). And indeed I think that just as this one and that one, he saw things which it is not permitted for a man to reveal.
But now this sermon tends toward its due end. You have heard what we judged to be sufficient for the present: what it means to see the heavens opened, and who and how many these heavens are, and what it means, with them opened, to see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God. And not only standing, but also what it means to see Him sitting and what it means to see Him walking. We were told no less what it means to gaze into heaven, and by gazing into heaven to see the glory of God, and finally what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. For each of these depends on the other, because you will not be able to see the glory if you have not gazed; but neither will you be able to gaze fruitfully unless you have been full of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore retain in memory the things which have been said about these matters at some length, and put them into practice in your life, so that there the intellect may be enlightened unto purity, and here the affections may be adorned unto holiness. Invoke therefore the Holy Spirit upon yourselves, and pray that He may deign to fill you, so that you too, as it is read of blessed Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, may both gaze into heaven and see the glory of God, who is blessed forever. Amen.
SERMON XXXIII. ON THE FEAST OF ST. JOHN THE APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST. On the threefold honor with which the Lord honored the same blessed John in life and in death.
I. In honor of the most glorious and most blessed apostle and evangelist, your devotion desires -- not without longing -- and expects -- not without hope -- to hear something from us in this illustrious festivity of his, which may so instruct the morals of the hearers as to commend his prerogative. But of what weight can any honor bestowed by us be upon him who is known to be so sublimely and so singularly honored by the common Lord of all? For in comparison with divine honor, of what moment can human honor be?
With what eagerness do the children of Adam desire to acquire honor? But deceitful and utterly nothing is the honor that is not from God. I do not fully understand why it is that even the perfect themselves are not immune and free from the appetite for honor. Which, if perhaps it is not sought, nevertheless delights when offered, and is not lost without pain when it is held. The appetite itself is therefore a witness, because while it torments when lost, it delights when possessed. This is what cloaks itself under the hope of spiritual advancement (I speak not of honor, but of the appetite for honor), advising one to preside, as if only for this purpose: that he might be of service. But this cunning counsel of it is so hidden, and whispers in a kind of hiding place, that it can scarcely be grasped by even the wisest.
For while the usefulness of labor suggests itself, with a certain furtive deceit and deceitful theft it strives to draw one to this: that the sublimity of honor be desired, which, even if it must sometimes be tolerated when circumstances so require for the sake of spiritual advancement, should nevertheless never, for its own sake alone, be wished for when absent or loved when present.
II. But since the honor which miserably deceived mortals consider great is deceitful and plainly unstable, I would call him truly happy who can attain the honor of which the Lord says: My Father who is in heaven will honor him (John 12:26). He prefaced this with a certain honor which He now confers upon His own in the present, which is the way to that eternal honor: If anyone serves me (ibid.). Therefore to serve the Lord is to be honored; it is plainly so: He alone is honored who serves Him, he alone also reigns who ministers to Him.
This is the honor which He copiously brought to blessed John, who, sublimely honored by Him, should be honored by us as well, as we sang of him this night: Blessed John is greatly to be honored. It is certainly true, this is true, because blessed John is not simply to be honored, but greatly to be honored. Christ honored him, and therefore it is fitting that all who belong to Christ should honor him, because among men, whomever the king honors, all the servants of the king are accustomed to honor. Christ honored him in life, he honored him in death, so that through this it might be established among us that by certain ineffable means he honors him eternally after death.
III. He honored him in life in three ways, by bestowing on him virginity, purity, and familiarity: virginity in body, purity in mind, familiarity in a sweet and sincere love toward himself. Although there are many other gifts of grace which the Lord Jesus, the distributor of interior goods and the rewarder, bestowed upon him, these nevertheless come to our attention at present. He chose him as a virgin, as we sang today about him, because he was chosen as a virgin by the Lord, and chosen as a virgin, he remained a virgin forever. How great was the cleanness in his heart, how great the purity in his mind -- who among us is able to comprehend? Truly a man of great purity, who, transcending all visible things and even surpassing himself by the clarity of his interior eye, saw that the Word was in the beginning, and was with God, and that all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made; and that what was made in him was life (John 1:1). When you hear the Gospel read, are you not compelled to marvel and be astonished beyond measure, hearing him so readily and in sequence, after such a great span of time, report the words of the Lord to others, and of others to him, as if it had happened at that very hour that he heard those same things? Hence, while others were represented by animals, as you know (Ezek. 1:5), he himself, on account of the singular prerogative of purity -- if I may say so, angelic purity -- which the Lord bestowed on him, is likened to an eagle, not simply to an eagle, but to a flying one (Rev. 4:7): for the flying eagle is John, comprehending by purity of mind the sublime secrets of inner mysteries beyond all others. The wondrous depth of his Gospel attests to this. The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ also proclaims this, which God gave him to make known to his servants, and he sealed it, sending it (as he himself writes) through his angel to his servant John: who bore witness to the Word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ in all things that he saw (Rev. 1:1).
IV. Well and fittingly we sing to him and say about him: The Lord fed him with the bread of life and understanding, and gave him to drink the water of saving wisdom (Sirach 15:3). These words were indeed spoken about the man who fears God, but they can most aptly be applied to him. Do you not declare him to have been fed with the bread of life and understanding, whose purified and most clean spirit -- as many revelations of heavenly secrets as you discern to have refreshed him, you recognize to have been fattened by just as many savory courses of spiritual foods? For if life is lived in this way, and in such things is the life of his spirit, whom that spiritual bread fattens, since it provides him both with inner strength for life and savor for understanding. But whether he was given to drink the water of saving wisdom -- who, I will not say deny, but who would dare even to doubt it, he who narrates the words of Christ, spoken so many years before, so precisely and in order, and repeats them in writing? This he could by no means have done unless he had been given to drink the Spirit of Christ. For the water of wisdom is the Spirit of Christ.
For unless the water were the Spirit, after the Lord had said: The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14), this John of whom we speak would never have added: He said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were about to receive (John 7:39). Paul calls Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24), so in order that John might report such profound words of Christ, he was steeped in the Spirit of Christ. For if, according to the apostolic teaching, No one can say "Lord Jesus" except in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3), how could he in his Gospel have so profoundly and so perfectly declared "Lord Jesus" unless he were full of the Holy Spirit? Therefore I would say that he was fed with the bread of life and understanding in the knowledge of heavenly secrets; and given to drink the water of saving wisdom in such a faithful expression and utterance of the Lord's words. O tabernacle of the Father! O chamber of the Son! O canopy of the Holy Spirit! O resting-place of the Holy Trinity! And lest I seem to have left anything out -- O oracle of the undivided Unity, most pure and most clean, this John of whom we speak.
V. Now concerning the familiarity which the Lord deigned to have toward him above all others, what shall we say? How can we sufficiently embrace him, with delightful sweetness and sweet delight, as one more beloved among the rest, and enfolded in a certain singular familiarity even beyond the others? Is he not the one who, as we recall having said on another occasion, with humble truth and true humility used to say of himself: That disciple whom Jesus loved? (John 21:23.) What does this mean? Did Jesus not love the other disciples? Indeed he did: For having loved his own who were in the world, (as the same blessed John says) he loved them to the end (John 13:1), so that you may know he did not love them merely in a simple way, but fully and perfectly. This is what it means to love unto the end. But I think, if no more fitting explanation occurs to you at present, that the Holy Spirit wished it to be said about him that Jesus loved him, because even though he did not exclude the others from the bosom of his love, he loved him alone in a singular way; yet even among the others who were loved, he embraced this one with the sweetest arms of sincere love. Among the rest, therefore, Jesus loved him -- no one of them more, because Jesus was also loved by him, by whom no one of them was loved more. But if this is so, what, I ask, is it that the prerogative of this love is made known to us through his own assertion, so that he says of himself "that disciple whom Jesus loved," when it should rather have belonged to the other evangelists to say this about him, according to what the Wise Man says: Let a stranger praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips (Prov. 27:2) -- unless it is openly given us to understand that the confidence and boldness of true love is shown to us through this? What pertaining to itself does perfect love not dare to confess? What can perfect charity fear, which casts out the very fear that anyone who fears, fears? (1 John 4:18.) There seems to be a certain presumption in charity at times, but there is never pride, because in that it does not fear, it in no way swells with conceit: always and everywhere exercising boldness, but never and nowhere arrogance.
Hence it is that the Beloved and the Lover says in the Canticles: My beloved is mine and I am his (Song 2:16); so also this disciple says, whom Jesus loved: My beloved is mine, and I am his. That is, his greatest care is for me, and mine for him: beloved by him, and loving him. And indeed lovers characteristically have this as their own special trait, that they scarcely know how to speak of anything except what pertains to love; and especially then, when they speak either to one another or about one another. For true is the saying of our Redeemer, that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matt. 12:34). This, I believe, can be understood of both good and bad abundance, because whatever it is that abounds in the heart, it is necessary that something of it should sound from the mouth. Therefore boldness is a sign of confidence, not of vanity, not of pride, but of love! By which John calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved, because loving so ardently and being loved so intimately, he could not conceal that he was the one who was so loved. O supreme and full blessedness, to love Christ, and to be loved by Christ, and to have familiarity with him!
VI. But in what way was John beloved and familiar to him? Whenever anyone was present at Christ's secrets, was John ever absent? Where did it happen that he was sent away, when he was granted admittance? For did Peter and James see the Transfiguration, and did John not see it? On that very night which preceded the day of his passion, when he was going to the place of prayer, did he take Peter and James with him, and not take John? At the raising of the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, did he wish Peter and James to be present, and exclude John? Nowhere will you find any secret shared with another disciple that was hidden from John. On the contrary, he was admitted to certain things, and indeed very intimately, and the more intimately inasmuch as it was entirely uniquely -- the very fact crying out openly and insistently attesting that no one was his equal, not to say his superior, in the love of charity, since no one merited to share with him in the admission of familiarity. Hence, to bring some things forward: he reclined upon his breast at the supper (John 21:20), making for himself a pillow of the most sacred breast of God. How dear to Christ was that head which he allowed to rest upon his breast! And great indeed was this familiarity; yet it was outward: for there was another far greater one, which was interior, and not only greater because it was interior, but because the latter was the reality, the former was the figure. For outwardly John's head rested on the breast of Jesus; but inwardly, that same head -- I speak of his mind -- placed and reclined itself in the treasures of wisdom and knowledge of God, which are all hidden in the breast of Jesus. The former was for honor, the latter for instruction. Admitted then to such great familiarity, not in one way but in a twofold manner, what could he seek that he would not find? What could he ask that he would not receive?
VII. Weighing this well, the chief of the apostles himself, when Jesus was indicating to one of them his betrayal -- desiring indeed to know who was going to commit so monstrous a crime, but by no means presuming to ask -- judged that the beloved disciple should be approached about this matter, so that he himself would ask the Lord who it was. For thus it is written: Simon Peter beckoned to him and said to him: Who is it, of whom he speaks? And what follows? So when that one had reclined upon the breast of Jesus, he says to him: Lord, who is it? He answered: It is the one to whom I shall hand the dipped bread (John 13:24). And when he had dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. Peter knew that John had the boldness to ask, whom he recognized as having found such an affection of familiarity toward the Lord. For he who saw him to be so familiar as to recline upon his breast did not doubt that he would dare to ask whatever he wished, nor did he disbelieve that he would be answered in what he asked. And that all these things were indeed so, the very sequence of words will be found to contain, if it is carefully considered; for what else does this seem to suggest when it says: So when he had reclined upon the breast of the Lord, he says to him: Lord, who is it? -- first indeed making mention that he reclined upon his breast, then asking who it was, as if the reason he presumed to ask who would betray him was that he had reclined upon his breast. And is it not so! For what would this man not dare to ask, who perceived that it had been granted to him to recline his head upon his breast and rest upon it; or what would the Lord hide from the one asking, whom he had introduced to the inner secrets of his wisdom and knowledge?
VIII. For what shall we say to this, that on the next day, dying and offering himself as a saving sacrifice on the altar of the cross for the salvation of the whole world, when it was already near that he would hand over his spirit into the hands of the Father, he deigned to commend his beloved mother to the beloved disciple, the Virgin to the virgin, Mary to John? For what does John himself report in his Gospel? When he saw, he says, his mother and the disciple whom he loved, he says to his mother: Woman, behold your son. Then he says to the disciple: Behold your mother (John 19:26). O honor, more sublime than any that can be had in this present life! To be in a certain way a brother of Christ and a son of Mary! And John alone is deemed worthy of this sublime honor. For to whom among men did Christ ever say about his mother: Behold your mother, except to John? And about whom did he say to his mother: Woman, behold your son, except about John? O how dear to you was he whom you saw, O innocent Lamb, O gentle and meek Jesus! How dear, I say, you had seen him to be, to whom you believed that most precious treasure of both heaven and earth -- your mother, I say -- should be entrusted! To your mother you say: Behold your son; and to the disciple: Behold your mother. I ask, what do these words mean? Why do you not command the disciple, saying: Serve, and minister, and obey her, as your lady, but my mother? And why do you not say to the mother: Accept the service of my disciple, as your servant and slave! But what you say sounds far more honorable and gracious -- about the disciple to the mother: Behold your son; and about the mother to the disciple: Behold your mother. Is this not in a sense saying: Until now, standing by you, I was not only your son by right, but I also showed myself to you as a devoted son in service. But now, since here, as you see, I die on this cross, and departing from you bodily I am no longer with you, I do not wish that, although you cannot have me at present, you should remain without a son. Have this one in my place as a son, and you have her in my place as a mother. No one among women is your equal, O mother; no one among those of your sex is your superior in the world, O disciple. Therefore it is entirely fitting that, since she in the female sex has no equal in bodily incorruption, and you in the male sex, apart from me, have no superior, you should be joined to one another. Let virgin attend to Virgin, John to Mary, Mary to John: she with maternal affection; you with filial service and care.
IX. What do you say to this, sons of Adam, a greedy and ambitious race, alien and degenerate sons, desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another (Gal. 5:26), craving honors, deceitful and fleeting, spurning things true, because they are heavenly, because they are lasting? O how highly it is valued when someone obtains a place of familiarity with a rich man, when he finds favor with a king! How well, they say, this man stands with the king! See, the king smiles and rejoices with him equally. How familiar this man is with him, and the king with him! He against whom this man is offended and hostile -- neither is the king well-disposed or merciful to him. And if it is so, what here is stable and sincere? And therefore what is worthy of approval and desire? Does it not often happen that those who are near today become distant tomorrow? And those who yesterday were friends and members of the household, today are enemies and adversaries? Frequent examples of these things are seen daily. But strive to be friends and familiars of God; endeavor to be disciples and members of the household of Christ. How, you say, can we be friends and disciples of Christ? Listen how: If you remain in his word, you will truly be his disciples (John 8:31); and indeed, if it is a matter of friends, you are his friends if you do what he himself has commanded you (John 15:14); these are his promises. But holy John, persevering in obedience to his commandments, was both his disciple and his friend, and was honored by him with honor that was not impure and unstable, but sincere and everlasting.
X. And there is this threefold manner, which we have briefly touched upon, by which he honored him in life, namely by bestowing on him, among many other gifts of his graces with which he enriched him: virginity in body, purity in mind, love in sincere familiarity, or, if it is better said so, familiarity in sincere love. And he granted him stability in purity, keeping his mind fixed in contemplation; stability no less in virginity, because he whom he chose as a virgin, he always preserved as a virgin, defending him from every contagion that could have polluted him; he bestowed on him the prerogative of familiarity among his fellow disciples, not only, as has already been said, together with the rest, but also beyond the rest, embracing him in love and familiarity. That these things were so for him, the words we read about him attest, which read as follows: And he will be established in him and will not be bent; and he will hold him, and he will not be confounded; and he will exalt him among his neighbors (Sirach 15:4). It had indeed been premised and said about him, that The Lord will feed him with the bread of life and understanding, and will give him to drink the water of saving wisdom (ibid., 3). We took care briefly above to show how these words apply to blessed John; for he fed him with the bread of life and understanding, revealing to him for the inner refreshment of spiritual taste those things which were his secrets and mysteries, in the knowledge of which every holy person is both enlightened unto understanding, so that choosing what is true, he may shine in the light of truth, and is strengthened unto life, so that loving what is good, he may exercise himself in the work of holiness. And he gave him to drink the water of saving wisdom, inspiring him to understand the words, and to retain what he understood, and to write down what he retained in memory precisely and in order, just as they had been spoken: which the Son himself, who is the wisdom of the Father, appearing in the flesh, is known to have spoken for the salvation of humankind. He was also established in him and was by no means bent, because being founded in Christ through the knowledge of truth and the love of virtue, he was not torn away from the contemplation and love of him. Therefore, lest the purity of his refined mind be corrupted in any way, he took care to be consolidated in the roots of love in him in whom nothing defiled can enter, so that while he was thus established in him, he would by no means be bent. He also held him and was not confounded, because while he preserved him perfect in virginity -- him whom he found whole in it -- he was not confounded, grieving that he had fallen from the good resolution he had undertaken, since he was conscious of having climbed higher and higher by progressing in it. He likewise exalted him among his neighbors, embracing him in that familiarity and love among his fellow disciples which I showed above.
XI. Since we have in part declared how he honored him in life, it remains also for us to demonstrate how his lover Jesus honored him in death: in whose sight, just as life, so also death is no less precious. As he honored him in three ways in life, so also in three ways in death. And the first, as it seems to me, is that the Lord himself came to him in death. The second, that he led his most holy soul, as it is right to believe, to his own everlasting glory. The third, that after his departure, nothing was found in his tomb except manna. Thus, as he was about to depart, he is visited by the Lord himself; his soul is placed in the glory of eternal happiness; his tomb is exalted with a certain new and extraordinary honor. For the Lord Jesus Christ appeared, as we read, to his dear John with his disciples and said to him: Come, my beloved, to me, for the time has come for you to feast at my banquet with your brothers. The Lord fulfilled what he had promised about him to his companion and fellow apostle Peter, when Peter, hearing about what manner of death he himself would glorify God, asked about John and said: Lord, but what about this one? He answered: Thus I wish him to remain until I come (John 21 and following). In these words he clearly showed what kind of love he had toward him, when he says he wishes him to remain until he comes. Until he comes he wishes him to remain, not until he sends. These words, as you know, the disciples who were then present understood to be of such great prerogative, that a saying went out among them that that disciple would not die.
XII. Great indeed is the honor by which the Lord himself deigned to invite him to his banquet, in which his chosen ones feast and exult in his presence, he himself preparing a kingdom for them, so that they may eat and drink at his table in his kingdom (Luke 22:30). And indeed, to the Lord appearing to him and inviting him to his banquet, he responded, stretching out both his hands to God: Invited to your banquet, I come giving thanks, because you have deigned, Lord Jesus Christ, to invite me to your feast: knowing that with my whole heart I was longing for you. And again: Lord, receive me, that I may be with my brothers, with whom you have come to invite me. Open to me the gate of life, and lead me to the banquet of your feast. For you are Christ, the Son of the living God, who by the command of the Father saved the world; we give you thanks through infinite ages. But with how great an honor he led him to the eternal banquet, which of us is capable of comprehending?
XIII. But how can anyone worthily marvel, when reading or hearing that in his tomb nothing but manna happened to be found? Manna in certain passages of sacred Scripture is called the bread of angels; and the tomb is usually a place of putrefaction and stench. O holy, O blessed John! How dear you were to Christ while living in the body is clearly shown to us through these things that are done about you in death. Behold, your Jesus who loves you appears to you with his disciples -- who are also your fellow citizens -- and invited you to those most savory feasts of eternal refreshment; he led you there with incomprehensible honor, and so that not only should nothing pertaining to honor be lacking to you in death, but also that much should be present even contrary to the custom of nature itself, he does not allow your tomb -- entirely free from, or rather, void of all putrefaction -- to be void of angelic food.
XIV. Contemplating your most glorious departure from this life with joyful admiration and admirable joy, I exult; but foreseeing my own most wretched departure, I am shaken equally by fear and confusion. When or where it will be, I utterly do not know; yet that it will be sometime and somewhere, I am not unaware. I do not see myself as such a one that I should think he would send any of his peaceful ones to me, or that he would come to me through himself. The prince of this world came to him, by his own testimony, and had nothing in him. But that the same prince will also come to me, I do not deny; yet that he has nothing of his own in me, I do not presume to say. How unhappy is that city which its enemies surround with a rampart, and press upon it from every side, and cast it to the ground, and its children who are in it, not leaving in it a stone upon a stone (Luke 19:43): all of which things pertain in the moral sense to the reprobate soul departing from the body: which, as blessed Job says, a burning wind will carry off, and like a whirlwind will snatch it from its place (Job 27:21). Therefore, turning over in my mind that hour in which I shall depart -- but I know not where, I know not when -- I tremble with violent fear before the cunning accuser and the strict judge, depicting for myself how terrible that hour will be for me, in which I shall be compelled to depart from the body, and in which it will happen that I am presented before the gaze of the dread judge. Three things, as I contemplate that most fearsome hour, come to my mind: my manifold injustice, the malicious yet true calumny of the crafty accuser, and the dreadful sentence of the strict judge. O wretched me! Whose weak case makes the strict judge no less hostile than the slanderer! These three things I fear in that hour: the enemy accusing, the conscience testifying, the judge striking. But be present to me in that hour, to me, unworthy indeed, yet your suppliant invoking you for help from the very marrow of my heart. Come to meet me and help me then, O most holy and most blessed brother of Christ and son of Mary. Come, I say, for consolation; help for defense; bend the judge, drive far away the accuser, so that neither may the latter convict me nor the former condemn me. I do not fear, however, in the consideration of the stench and putrefaction of my body; yet I am greatly confounded and ashamed, knowing how far the disgrace and ignominy of my most sordid and most fetid cave will be distant from the honor and glory of your most clean and most beautiful tomb, as is most fitting. For my corpse will render my cave horrible with stench and swarming with worms, but manna renders your tomb honorable.
XV. And see, brothers, how this threefold honor with which the Lord Jesus honored his beloved and familiar John at the end corresponds to the threefold honor with which he honored him in life. For he himself came to him familiarly in person at his passing, he who was accustomed to show himself familiar to him in life. Admitting him while living to his inmost secrets, but inviting him as he was about to depart to that eternal banquet. His most holy and most blessed spirit was also carried over to that happiness which will endure forever -- he who had obtained here such purity, the Spirit of the Creator granting and pouring it forth, that he saw the Word in the beginning, translated from glory to glory, from brightness to brightness, from that vision which is now through a mirror in an enigma, reaching to that which is face to face (1 Cor. 13:12). So that there, now without end, he may happily rejoice forever, where even here, placed in the body, he unceasingly had his first-fruits bound fast and his desire unbreakably rooted. After this it was worthy and entirely fitting that manna should adorn the place which the virginal body had entered, because manna I would in a certain way call the prerogative of virginity, so that the body, honored with the heavenly gift of virginity, would have a tomb adorned with a kind of manna.
XVI. Now concerning the honor with which he honors him perpetually, we ought to say something, if we knew how to say anything about it. But now, since it is established that neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man, what the Lord Jesus has prepared for his lover and beloved John, and has already even bestowed upon him, how can the tongue sufficiently express anything about that honor, when not even the mind can comprehend it? There is now being fulfilled in him what he says not only about himself but also about his fellow citizens in his Epistle: Now we are children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be (1 John 3:2), and he added: we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (ibid.). Who among us is now of such purity that he could presently comprehend the excellence of this vision? -- which makes the very one who sees like him who is seen, so that seeing and being like the one who is seen are one and the same. O joyful and beatifying vision! O blessed and beatifying likeness! In which this blessed John, of whom we have already said much, rejoices with unspeakable joy with his lover, the Lord Jesus, through all ages of ages. Amen.
SERMON XXXIV. ON THE FEAST OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS.
On the fruit of salvation which heavenly Wisdom pours into us, and how pride persecutes humility in us.
Synopsis of the sermon. -- 1. Through Joseph, the advancement of virtue is figured; through Mary, the birth of wisdom. -- 2. Joseph, of the house of David, constantly dwells in the palace of heaven. -- 3. The soul rising to the heights is signified by Joseph; by Mary, illuminated by the ray of wisdom, as the election of grace stands. -- 4. That the aged king David was not warmed by garments means not receiving earthly consolations. -- 5. Abishag the Shunammite is sought, that is, true wisdom. By what servants she is sought. -- 6. The ministry of Abishag: to stand through rectitude of intention, to sleep through quietness of mind, to cherish through inner sweetness, to warm through the fire of charity. -- 7. Demonstration of gratuitous election to glory. -- 8. Signs of Jesus present in the heart from profound humility, which has a threefold degree. -- 9. How great is the fruit of humility, which everything fittingly serves. -- 10. The effects of patience and threefold compunction from present grace. -- 11. Jesus works in us the perfection of the eight beatitudes. -- 12. To persist in works of salvation is to hold the child Jesus: whom Herod, that is, pride, lies in ambush to destroy. -- 13. The hidden cunning of pride, creeping in upon good deeds, is further exposed. -- 14. The woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, is the wise soul, accompanied by good reputation. -- 15. What the crown of twelve stars means, and the anguish of bringing to birth. -- 16. The fourfold prerogative of the woman: good conduct in the clothing of the sun, contempt for fame in the subjected moon, the adornment of virtues in the crown of twelve stars, in the anguish of the one giving birth the affection of good desire. -- 17. Pride, like a dragon, sets fire with its tail, corrupting the rectitude of intention. -- 18. Discretion is the charioteer and measure of the virtues, and is greatly needed.
I. You have heard, dearest ones, in today's reading of the holy Gospel, that Herod seeks the child Jesus in order to destroy him (Matt. 2:13 and following). How quickly Jesus found enemies in this world, whose very recent birth was not free from the cruelty of a monstrous persecutor. He humbly fled his persecutors, so that he might also teach us what we ought to do when Herod seeks us to destroy us. For even today Herod does not cease in us to seek the child Jesus in order to destroy him. But an angel of the Lord appears in dreams to Joseph, telling him to take the child and his mother and flee into Egypt. And not only this, but to be there until he should tell him: nor does he hide from him either the reason for flight or for delay there, saying: It is going to happen that Herod will seek the child to destroy him. Who do you think this Joseph is? Perhaps he is a sincere and pure soul, enriched in many ways, according to the interpretation of this name Joseph, with increases of spiritual virtues. Does it not seem to you that the one who addresses the Father of lights, from whom every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above (James 1:17), saying: You will multiply virtue in my soul (Psalm 138:3), is aspiring toward this name in this sense? This is the one to whom Mary, being joined, bears a Son whose name is Jesus, because heavenly wisdom (for this is Mary), by interior inspiration, bestows the fruit of salvation on a faithful and devout soul. For who would deny that heavenly wisdom, administering to a sincere soul the fruit of salvation, whether inwardly in the affection of pure love or outwardly in the effect of vigorous action, is Mary, bearing the child Jesus for Joseph? She, in my understanding -- she, I say, is the uncorrupted virgin and fruitful mother betrothed to a man whose name is Joseph, and the name of the virgin is Mary (Luke 1:27).
II. Does not a strong and manly soul in God, while it strives to be enriched ever more and more by the daily advances of holy conduct, seem to you to be a man whose name is Joseph? Who also well shows himself to be of the house of David, while with sober curiosity and pious eagerness he strives to survey and traverse, as far as is possible for him in this age, that house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens, walking through those bright mansions of the blessed spirits, so that he can claim for himself that voice of Paul: But our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). For this Joseph unceasingly traverses the order of angels, who care for us and provide for us, inasmuch as he knows them to be ministering spirits, sent for service on behalf of those who inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14). He traverses the converse of archangels who reveal inner communications to us; the miracles and wonders of the virtues; the powers who restrain and overcome the malice and tyranny of demons and reprobate men: he admires the royal nature of the principalities, the prerogative of the dominations, the most tranquil equity of the thrones, the fullness of knowledge in the cherubim, and the unfailing fire of divine love in the seraphim. He walks among the ranks of the patriarchs, the choirs of prophets, the senate of the apostles, the crimson crowns of the martyrs, the white garlands of the virgins, and the golden collars of the Catholic doctors.
III. Behold our Joseph frequenting that heavenly house, binding there the first-fruits of his spirit, like that eagle which, raised up at the Lord's command, places its nest on high, dwelling among the rocks and in steep cliffs and inaccessible crags (Job 39:28). And as he gazes in this way at the land from afar, his eyes sometimes see the King in his beauty; he fixes his conspicuous gaze upon David himself, into whom the angels desire to look (1 Peter 1:12). When, therefore, you recognize such a state of your soul as we have described in these words, you may not undeservedly say that you are called Joseph and are of the house of David. But that the name of the virgin is Mary -- who is there to contradict this, unless perhaps someone who is ignorant of her office? For Mary, as you know, is called Star of the Sea. Is not heavenly wisdom a certain star of the sea, infused into the soul by interior inspiration, while it illuminates that same soul with the ray of its discernment in this stormy sea, which often floods within it, so that it may know what to avoid and where it must walk among the surging waves of its thoughts? This child Jesus, Joseph bears, bestowing the fruit of salvation on a devout and faithful soul. And Joseph does bear him; but he did not receive him from Joseph. This is, I think, what a certain saint said to the Lord: You are my God, for you have no need of my goods (Psalm 16:2). For all of us who are saved, are saved through the election of grace; and if by grace, then no longer by works. Otherwise grace would no longer be grace. Paul also rightly asserts that David spoke of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits justice without works (Rom. 4:6). In agreement with this, the holy Isaiah, even taking up the voice of all the elect, addresses the common Lord, saying: All our works you have wrought in us (Isaiah 26:12). Lest perhaps any enemy of grace should think that reward should be credited to him not according to grace but according to debt, since this Joseph of whom we speak receives the child Jesus from Mary in such a way that he is well aware he did not first pour seed into her.
IV. Did not Abishag the Shunammite once warm and cherish the aged and cold David, and yet David did not know her? For what does Scripture say? (1 Kings 1:1.) And king David had grown old. I think that a soul pious in right faith and devout in holy conduct, while it discreetly governs all its movements, both external and internal, while it vigorously exercises itself in the vigor of good action, and keenly directs the gaze of its mind toward the desire of interior contemplation, insofar as it is divinely granted to it, can not undeservedly be called king and be named David. And he then grows old when he reaches the perfect maturity of holiness. Of him also it is well said that he had very many days of age, because a devout soul possesses many virtues in holy conduct. For indeed the age of old age is a spotless life (Wisdom 4:9); and our fathers were once said to have departed this life old and full of days: that is, mature in spiritual conduct and filled with an abundance of holy virtues. And Scripture added that when he was covered with garments he did not grow warm, because even if riches abound, he does not wish to set his heart on them (Psalm 62:11), counting all worldly things as losses and regarding them as dung. For what are all earthly things but certain garments of the body? But when king David is covered with these garments he does not grow warm, because a perfect soul receives no consolation from anything earthly. But when this soul so refuses to be consoled, it must needs remember God and be delighted and exercised, his servants giving good counsel to this David about this matter, and saying to one another: Let us seek for our lord the king a young virgin, and let her stand before the king and cherish him, and let her sleep in his bosom and warm our lord the king. And after this Scripture added and said: They sought therefore a beautiful young woman in all the territories of Israel. And they found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king (1 Kings 1:5).
V. But one of you says to me: Why do you now speak about David and Abishag, when your intention was a little earlier, in the very opening of this sermon, to treat of Mary and Joseph? The same intention is still mine. But that these things which we now have in hand pertain fittingly to those earlier ones, you will see immediately, and you will not, I think, blame the digression when you see its cause and reason. Who, then, is this Abishag, whose name is interpreted as 'the roar of my father,' if not interior wisdom, revealing to the soul into which she is poured the secrets of the most high Father with a certain roar of silent crying and clamorous silence? She, indeed, while she bestows on that same soul spiritual tenderness in affection as well as beauty in understanding, is both young and beautiful. She is also a Shunammite, that is, scarlet, adorning with the color of love the soul which she fills. The servants of David seek her throughout all the borders of Israel, because among all modes of contemplation, wisdom must be sought most urgently, and when found, held most tightly. And who are these servants? Perhaps consideration, prayer, conduct, purity, and perseverance are the servants of David. I say this because this wisdom of which we speak is searched out by the sober depth and deep sobriety of consideration, as you know; the devotion of prayer seeks it; the holiness of conduct merits it; the cleanness of purified purity attains it; and the stability of perseverance embraces it and says: I held her, and I will not let her go (Song 3:4).
VI. And she ministered to him. What is the ministry of Abishag which she renders to David? What else but that for which she was sought by the servants: namely, to stand before him, to sleep with him, to cherish, and to warm him? (1 Kings 1:4.) All these things she is said to do because she gives to the soul into which she is poured the ability to do them; for she stands, in a way, while she persuades the soul to stand. She also sleeps, while she enables it to sleep, and while he himself is cherished and warmed, she herself cherishes and warms him. Behold the fourfold ministry of Abishag: to stand, to sleep, to cherish, and to warm. The first pertains to rectitude, the second to quiet, the third to sweetness, the fourth to love. The first ministry, therefore, is that in all our movements, both outward and inward, we strive to have rectitude in our interior intention, unceasingly attending to him in our inmost parts who is the discerner of hearts, of the thoughts and intentions of the heart, also awaiting him as the approver and judge of all good that is in us, and finally seeking him as the rewarder. The second is similar to this: namely, the undisturbed quiet of the mind. For what is there that might any longer disturb or gnaw at or shake the conscience, when rectitude of intention preserves its integrity unharmed and entirely unshaken? Thus, therefore, in peace, in the selfsame, the faithful and devout soul -- for he is David sleeping and resting, sleeping in peace through the tranquility of the heart, resting in the selfsame while he tends toward nothing but the one through rectitude of intention -- why should he not perceive the delightful warmth of intimate sweetness? Now there remains that the bond of perfection should bind him strongly, that he should walk without stumbling along that royal road (which the Apostle calls the more excellent way): with regard to God, let charity blaze with fire; with regard to brothers, let fervor set his neighbors aflame. These, therefore, are the good things which the beautiful Abishag bestows upon David: interior wisdom upon the faithful soul, rectitude in interior intention, quiet in the thought of the mind, warmth in intimate sweetness, ardor in sincere charity. And this fourth good seems to contain the three preceding ones within itself, because Paul affirms a threefold charity (1 Tim. 1:5): from a pure heart, a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith. Rectitude of intention brings purity to the heart, tranquility of the heart brings goodness to the conscience, and lest faith be feigned, the sweetness of holiness gives savor in the interior palate of the soul.
VII. After all this, how did Scripture conclude? The king, David, did not know her (1 Kings 1:4); this is on account of all that we have touched upon in our concise exposition above. It is true that David did not know Abishag: just so neither did Joseph know Mary. David receives warmth from the beautiful young Abishag, yet feeling no lust through her. Joseph receives the child Jesus from Mary, knowing no carnal mingling with her, so that the ungrateful, whoever they are, may recognize that they have been saved by grace and not by themselves; and that this is the gift of God, lest anyone should boast (Eph. 2:9). It is not you, says the Lord, who chose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain (John 15:16). Those, therefore, who were chosen without choosing, and who, going forth, bear abiding fruit, let them ascribe it to him who chose them and who appointed them to go. So that our Joseph may also know that the child Jesus comes from Mary alone, who alone bore him, according to that angelic promise: She will bear you a Son, and you will call his name Jesus (Luke 1:31) -- as one who did not beget him. The child Jesus, therefore, whom Mary bears for Joseph from herself alone, is the fruit of salvation, which Wisdom inspires in a devout and pious soul from pure gratuitous grace alone: and he is that chaste warmth which the beautiful young Abishag, not known by him, bestows upon the old king David.
VIII. For to begin speaking about humility, which is the foundation of the other virtues: when, I say, you feel your heart being stirred and inflamed by a pious desire to submit yourself to every superior and to prefer yourself to no equal, who would doubt that this devout affection in you is the child Jesus, who in the nature he assumed, by which he is less than the Father, fully and perfectly subjected himself to him: Made obedient to him unto death; death indeed on a cross (Phil. 2:8). But if you strive to ascend to such a height of humility that you subject yourself even to every equal, preferring yourself to no one, not even to an inferior, then I declare you have received the child Jesus from Mary -- he who also obeyed his own Father, to whom he is equal according to divinity, when the Father diminished him a little less than the angels (Psalm 8:6), when, by the Father's dispensation, The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us: he who in the beginning was, and was with God, who was God (John 1:1). But if you strive to storm the great tower of humility, and as a pious invader and tireless climber you resolve to ascend to its very summit -- to prostrate yourself in true humility before one inferior, not only preferring yourself to absolutely no one, but rather making yourself subject to every human creature for God's sake (1 Peter 2:13) -- I know not who can now in this matter have that child Jesus, meek and humble of heart, more excellently than you, he who did not deign to leave even this kind of humility unfulfilled in himself, descending with Mary and Joseph and coming to Nazareth and being subject to them (Luke 2:51), bowing himself likewise to the hands of John to be baptized (Matt. 3:16). Behold the threefold degree of humility: to be subject to a superior, which belongs to beginners; to an equal, which belongs to those making progress; to an inferior, which belongs to the perfect.
IX. When, therefore, you compel whatever is carnal in you to serve this threefold degree of humility, you surely have the child Jesus with you, exhibiting and fulfilling in you what Isaiah says: His bars, without doubt those of Moab, extending even to Segor, a heifer of three years (Isaiah 15:5). What is this but that when the soul is converted to God through the affection of holiness, the rigid carnal passions (which the original seed of our fathers placed in our flesh -- for Moab sounds as 'water of the father' or 'from the father'), mortified and changed for the better, become obedient to the littleness of the sweetness of this threefold humility of which we speak, abounding in interior grace? For Segor, as you know, means 'little one'; and the heifer, or mother, is humility abounding in grace, as a heifer in milk. For as it is written: To the humble he gives grace (James 4:6). And especially then, when they have climbed all three degrees of this humility. So that it is a heifer of three years, to which the bars of Moab reach, because humility, showing itself small and abounding in grace, contains the threefold degree of which we have spoken; to which, in those who are converted, the rigid hardness of carnal passions, changed and softened, becomes obedient.
X. But if you have a soul perfected in the virtue of patience, so that you bear insults with equanimity, endure losses, suffer blows -- insults of words, I mean, losses of possessions, blows to the body, if such happens -- without doubt it is the child Jesus whom you have. For this is the threefold degree of patience. And if, laboring in your groaning and washing your bed every night and watering your couch with your tears, you possess the lower watered land (Psalm 6:7); if also as the deer longs for the springs of water, so your soul longs for God; if your soul thirsts for God, the living fountain, saying: When shall I come and appear before the face of God! and your tears are your bread day and night (Psalm 42:2), so that you may also ascend to the upper watered land (Judges 1:15); if finally you mourn all the calamities of others as your own -- because this is the threefold kind of spiritual compunction -- know without doubt that this salutary affection which is inspired in you, which Mary bears for Joseph, is the child Jesus. Behold the threefold poverty to which the kingdom of heaven is promised; the threefold meekness to which the possession of the land is owed; the threefold mourning, no less, which consolation shall annul.
XI. But if, hungering and thirsting for justice, you strive to live so innocently that you are found to harm no one, and being merciful, you endeavor to conduct yourself so usefully that you appear to benefit all as far as you are able, rejoice with great joy, having the child Jesus with you. For because what you do not wish done to yourself, you do not do to another, you are to be satisfied by him; and because whatever you wish men to do to you, you also do to them, you will obtain mercy (Matt. 5:7) -- God the just judge measuring back to you in the same measure in which you have first measured. But if you disdain to be polluted by this threefold filth -- namely, carnal concupiscence, temporal glory, and the memory of your former wickedness -- not only through consent in the will, but also through delight in affection; and furthermore, as belongs to the perfect, even slightly through memory in thought: who would now dare to deny that this salutary purity which you possess pertains to the child Jesus? Surely your reward will be the vision of God, which reward the luster of such great cleanness of heart precedes. And if anyone doubts this, let him hear the truthful promise of Truth itself: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God (ibid., 8). And if you strive to calm all turbulent movements within your mind; if you also outwardly exhibit such full peace that in your countenance, in your words, and in all your movements, nothing happens that offends anyone's gaze; but wishing to offer this great good to those who do not have it, you endeavor to pacify all whom you see disturbed and to call them back to the unity of concord -- no one doubts that this is the special work of the little Jesus, in whom God was reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor. 5:19); at whose recent birth the angels announced peace to men of good will, who is also our Peace, making both one, pacifying by his blood both things in heaven and things on earth (Luke 2:14). Nor is it strange if you are called a son of God, when you are found exercising his office. And lest I seem to have passed over any of those eight beatitudes (Matt. 5:3) which the Lord sets forth in the Gospel: if your heart ardently desires to suffer persecutions for the sake of justice, rejoicing when men curse you, and persecute you, and say every evil against you falsely -- it is the child Jesus whom you hold.
XII. Not only about the virtues, but also about the works of the virtues, the same must be understood: because you have Jesus when you are working the fruit of eternal salvation. For if, for example, you persist in abstinence and vigils, in prayer and reading, in holy preaching and fraternal admonition, in almsgiving or any other exercises of holy action whatsoever -- it is the child Jesus whom you have in your possession. For as has already often been said, to exercise the work of salvation is to hold the child Jesus. But to use the words of blessed Gregory: "The good that you do, you must hold with great caution, lest through what is rightly done by you, human favor or applause be sought: and what is shown outwardly be inwardly emptied of its reward." And as our Father and advocate, the illustrious doctor blessed Augustine, says in his Rule for clerics: "Every other kind of iniquity is exercised in evil works, that they may be done; but pride lies in ambush against good works, that they may perish." Hence here too Herod seeks this most holy child Jesus to destroy him. Herod means 'glory of the skin'; and to glory in the skin is to glory in vanity. Thus the glory of the skin is the glory of pride. According to this meaning, therefore, Herod is pride, which, as blessed Augustine says and as we feel by daily experience, lies in ambush against the good works in us so that they may perish, just as Herod seeks Jesus to destroy him. This is pride, which sometimes desires that we persist in good actions -- but to this end, that we should favor it through the swelling of vain conceit. Hence this shape-shifting Herod exhorts the Magi with cunning craft to go and diligently inquire about the child, and when they have found him to report back to him -- which is nothing other than pride sometimes shrewdly persuading us to acquire good works, so that when acquired we may refer them to its vanity. For what does it mean for Herod to say to the Magi: Go and diligently inquire about the child, and when you have found him, report to me (Matt. 2:8) -- except the arrogant appetite for vain glory, for he indeed is Herod -- suggesting to the good and devout thoughts in us -- for these are the Magi seeking the Lord -- that they should persist in the exercise of holiness to this end: that they might exalt themselves from that very exercise of holiness in order to please and gratify him? For it is as if the found Jesus is reported to Herod when a good work that has been acquired serves pride through the appetite for vanity. He also added: So that I too may come and adore him (ibid.), because under the appearance of humility, pride itself sometimes cloaks itself, in order to destroy that very humility. For pride to transfigure itself into the form of humility in order to destroy it, is for Herod to wish to pretend to adore the child in order to destroy him. When, therefore, you see someone under the cheapness of garb, or any other sign of humility, whether in word, or in gesture, or even in action, casting himself down too ostentatiously, or submitting himself too brazenly: recognize that in this person Herod is pretending to wish to adore the child Jesus in order to destroy him.
XIII. Understand, I ask, most beloved, and observe how subtle and how difficult to detect is the deceit of pride. For while the other vices are overcome by the virtues contrary to them -- as anger, for example, is conquered by meekness, envy by kindness, sloth by cheerfulness, avarice by generosity, gluttony by abstinence, lust by chastity -- this one, in reverse, is sometimes increased by the very virtue contrary to it, that is, by humility, so that where it should have suffered defeat, it then usually receives increase. And indeed this plague is exceedingly venomous and entirely deadly when it suggests to pious affections that they should exercise what is good to this end: that they may exalt themselves from it. For through this is signified what the Magi say, that Herod told them to go and inquire about the child, and when they found him, to report to him. But it grows greatly in malice when it persuades the soul to exalt itself from its very lowliness and to be proud through humility. This is signified by the fact that the same Herod pretends to wish to adore the child in order to destroy him. The blessed David wonderfully detected this hidden cunning of pride and, having detected it, took care to drive it far from himself. Addressing the haughty Michal, who reproached him for his humility, he said: I will play, and I will become viler than I have been, and I will be humble in my own eyes (2 Samuel 6:22). For in saying 'I will play and I will become viler than I have been,' he indicates that he is humble; but in adding 'and I will be humble in my own eyes,' he shows that he does not wish to be proud of his very humility in any way. For someone is, as it were, lowly, but is not humble in his own eyes, who shows himself humble outwardly, but inwardly is proud of his very humility. And this is to destroy the humble child Jesus under the appearance of adoring him. Therefore Herod is the one who seeks the child to destroy him -- that is, pride, which in whatever way, whether by some open means or by the hidden one we have now shown, strives to destroy the fruit of salvation in us.
XIV. For this is the dragon which blessed John saw in the Apocalypse (Rev. 12:4 and following) standing before the woman, so that when she had brought forth, it might devour her child. Does it please you that we should enter the mystery of this secret, so that what we find it necessary to see in it, we may share with your charity without envy and set forth without deceit? A great sign, he says, appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and being with child, she cried out in labor and was in anguish to give birth. To run through this briefly, preserving the allegorical sense which pertains to the Church, and preserving also every other tropological sense that expresses its prerogative, which we are about to state: this woman in heaven is that which we spoke much about above -- wisdom in the soul. She is described here as appearing such as she makes the soul to be, into which she is poured. She is clothed with the sun, inasmuch as she adorns and beautifies the soul with the shining conduct of holiness. And the moon is under her feet, because the holy soul suppresses all fame beneath its affections. They say the moon receives its brightness from the sun. And what is it for the sun to give the moon light, if not for splendid conduct to give fame vigor? But this woman is so clothed with the sun that she has the moon under her feet: because when heavenly knowledge rises, the soul appears adorned and radiant with the conduct of holiness, so that in human fame it in no way rests softly, but presses it down beneath the feet of its affections by contempt. Such was he who said: If I beheld the sun when it shone, and the moon advancing brightly (Job 31:26), showing, unless I am mistaken, in these words that he had not been puffed up either for the holy life he practiced, or for the fame that spread abroad about him among men.
XV. And on her head a crown of twelve stars. See whether perhaps the crown of those twelve stars might be the virtues about which the Apostle says: The fruit of the spirit is charity, peace, patience, joy, long-suffering, goodness, kindness, meekness, modesty, continence, chastity (Gal. 5:22). But if you wish to receive another interpretation, add those four virtues which you read that wisdom teaches: namely sobriety, and wisdom, and justice, and fortitude (Wisdom 8:7), to those eight which James affirms belong to the same wisdom that is from above, saying: it is first indeed chaste, then peaceable, modest, persuadable, consenting to good, full of mercy and good fruits, judging without pretense (James 3:17); and compose from them a most beautiful diadem, and you have the crown of twelve stars. And being with child, she cried out in labor and was in anguish to give birth (Rev. 12:2); because wisdom gives the soul into which she is poured so much to conceive through resolution in the desire for holiness, that the soul cannot fulfill it in effect without the anguish of great labor.
XVI. Behold the fourfold prerogative of this woman: the splendor of good conduct in the clothing of the sun; contempt of fame in the moon under her feet; the adornment of spiritual virtues in the crown of twelve stars; the affection of good desire in the loud anguish of one giving birth. Compare, if you please, this fourfold prerogative of the woman with that fourfold mystery of Abishag which we treated above, because we said they signify one and the same thing. And see whether perhaps for Abishag to rest in the bed of holy quiet is for this woman to be clothed with the sun; for Abishag to stand in the rectitude of intention is for this woman to have the moon under her feet; for Abishag to cherish the old man is for this woman to be crowned with twelve stars; for Abishag to warm the cold one is for this woman to be with child, and to be anguished and to cry out to give birth.
XVII. And another sign was seen, says Scripture, in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon (Rev. 12:3). The great red dragon in heaven is pride, lofty and cruel, in the soul. Great, because it makes the soul over which it rules think itself great. He who said did not wish to have this greatness within himself: Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lifted up: nor have I walked in great things, nor in wonders above me (Psalm 131:1). But he did have this within himself, to whom it was said: Were you not, when you were little, made head over the tribes of Israel? (1 Samuel 15:17.) And it is red, because it makes him in whom it dwells cruel toward others: such was he who was a most mighty hunter against the Lord (Gen. 10:9). Having seven heads, producing from itself those seven capital vices: vainglory, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust. And ten horns: while it strives to surpass all others with a certain hard eminence and eminent hardness. Because horns are both hard and far exceed the flesh. We understand the fullness of both hardness and eminence through the perfection of this number: for ten is a perfect number. And its tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth (Rev. 12:4): because pride directs its end toward this -- to corrupt the bright intentions of the mind with the appetite for earthly favor. For the tail of the dragon is the terminus in the intention of pride. And the stars of heaven -- who doubts that they are the bright thoughts of the soul? -- which we divide into three parts, claiming one for ourselves, which we call sobriety; assigning another to our neighbors, which we call justice; offering a third to God, and this we call piety. The tail of the dragon especially strives to drag this third part of the stars and cast them to the earth: because pride directs its whole end toward this, that we should seek to have the spiritual lights, with which we should shine before God, for the sake of gaining either human praises or any other earthly things. This sort of dragon stands before the woman who is about to give birth, so that when she has brought forth, it may devour her child. Because pride rises up to destroy the fruit which wisdom gives us to bring forth.
XVIII. And she brought forth a male child (ibid.). Because Mary also brought forth the child Jesus. And there indeed the child Jesus represents the fruit of salvation; but here the male child signifies the works of virtue. Who is our male child, if not the virtue of discretion? -- which is so necessary to every virtue that without it any virtue, though it might be called a virtue, nevertheless cannot be a virtue. Hence it is rightly said of this child that he was going to rule all nations with a rod of iron (ibid.), because discretion governs virtues -- not just some, but all -- with inflexible justice. For while discretion so modifies all virtues by the line of measure that it neither allows them to be contracted below measure through tepidity nor permits them to be stretched beyond measure through excess, does it not seem to you that this male child holds an iron rod with which he rules all nations? But how will this great child escape, lest the dragon devour him? How will the child Jesus escape, lest Herod destroy him? Let the Apocalypse tell us about the escape of the male child; and let the Gospel tell us about the escape of the child Jesus. And her child was caught up, it says, to God and to his throne (Rev. 12:5) -- this in the Apocalypse. In the Gospel, what is written? Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in dreams to Joseph, saying: Arise and take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt; and be there until I tell you (Matt. 2:13). And he withdrew into Egypt, as is found in what follows: and was there until the death of Herod (ibid., 15). The catching up of the male child to God and to his throne is his escape from the dragon; the flight of Joseph with the child into Egypt is likewise his escape from Herod. Should we omit to examine these matters simply because much has already been said? But it is good that this time we omit the examination and for now refrain on account of your weariness; and let us defer to another sermon what is to be said about these things. But because we were where there is no end, it is fitting that we remember where we were. And since we leave the matter, as it were, hanging, let us have a vigorous and watchful memory, so that when we come together again to discuss this, we may know where we ought to begin, to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God blessed forever. Amen.
SERMON XXXV. LIKEWISE ON THE FEAST OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS.
On the threefold sleep of the spiritual Joseph, and on the triple appearance of the angel and his threefold admonition.
Synopsis of the sermon. -- 1. Repetition of the preceding sermon, and connection with the following. -- 2. The sleeps of Joseph are the mind's withdrawal into interior things, and its reaching beyond to things above. -- 3. Such are the daughters of Jerusalem in the breadth of divine contemplation. -- 4. For them the left hand of the Bridegroom is a pillow, his right hand an embrace, and the mattress is prudence. -- 5. The first sleep of Joseph is the soul's liberation from every sensible desire. -- 6. The second is the casting off of useless phantasms. -- 7. The third is to transcend visible and invisible things, and to rest at the boundary of all things. -- 8. This same thing is signified by the threefold silence in the soul. -- 9. The excellence and sublimity of the third silence and sleep. -- 10. The angel appeared to Joseph a third time, whence the mystery is perceived. -- 11. A vivid description of beginners on the spiritual way. -- 12. How the swelling of pride in progress is to be suppressed. -- 13. Three remedies for pride: the examination of one's own weakness; the uncertainty of perseverance; ignorance of the divine judgment. -- 14. Into these shadows, as into Egypt, the child Jesus is rightly carried to be saved.
I. We have shown you, dearest ones, in the preceding sermon, what we thought could be understood by Joseph and Mary, by the child and his persecutor Herod. But since among these matters certain other things occurred to us for your edification, through the administration of that anointing which teaches about all things (1 John 2:27), we directed our attention to saying these and fitting them to what had already been said, and we lingered longer in them than we had anticipated. For we do not dare to hide from you anything of all that the Spirit of truth deigns to reveal unexpectedly, knowing that they were entrusted to us on your behalf and transmitted through our ministry to your charity. Hence it happened that we touched upon nothing in these sermons about those holy little ones who were slain for the little Jesus, whose festive solemnity we celebrate today. We have deferred until now, if you remember, showing you what we think is meant for us by this: that provision was made for the little Jesus through the flight of Joseph with him and with his mother into Egypt, lest he be destroyed by Herod; and likewise for that male child in the Apocalypse, so that through his being caught up to God and to his throne he might escape being devoured by the dragon (Rev. 12:5). Since these seem to suggest one and the same thing according to the meaning we have followed thus far, they will be found to contain and present spiritual teachings within themselves, if they are discussed spiritually.
II. Receive, therefore, what we have been given to perceive about this; but receiving it, I ask you by no means to compare it with what the same Spirit will deign to reveal to you about these same things. An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in dreams (Matt. 2:13). Who do you think this angel is? Do you think it is interior inspiration? This is how I take it for now, until you instruct me more truly about these matters, on account of what the Apostle says, that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man -- but God has revealed it to us through his Spirit (1 Cor. 2:9-10). And that saying of the Lord in the Gospel: The Spirit breathes where he wills, and you hear his voice (John 3:8). I do not doubt that this angel has appeared to some of you in the dreams of Joseph. What are the dreams of Joseph? Perhaps they are the withdrawals of a pure and devout soul into interior things, and its transcendent reachings toward things above, through contemplation. For the pious and faithful soul -- he himself is also Joseph -- withdraws from all the pleasures of the flesh through full mortification, and from all worldly occupations and secular affairs through complete contempt, and entering within himself to himself, driving away from himself, as far as he can, all the phantasms of passing things that rush in, with the hand of holy purity, he makes his bed in that interior quiet; in which, with the door closed -- not only that fivefold door of the body through which corporeal things enter, but also every door of the heart through which the images and likenesses of bodies themselves are accustomed to intrude -- he sleeps and rests in peace, in the selfsame (Psalm 4:9). In which peace, in which selfsame, in which slumber, he sometimes transcends himself in mind toward God, having dreams no less sweet than salutary, in which the angel of the Lord appears.
III. To these dreams, to this sweet quiet and quiet sweetness, the Bridegroom attends, when, as she rests between the arms of her Bridegroom, the same Bridegroom judged it fitting to adjure the daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and the deer of the fields, that they should not rouse or wake her until she herself wills (Song 2:7). So that the weak souls -- yet devout, whose weakness is denoted by the female sex and whose devotion is denoted by the place of peace -- so that, I say, souls of this kind might know that they are rushing against those very heavenly spirits who, like gazelles and deer in the fields, would penetrate the depths and seek the heights, in the breadth of that divine contemplation, when by rash importunity and some importunate rashness they presume to rouse the Bridegroom from these most sweet dreams. But he placed it within her will to awaken her beloved, knowing her to be instructed so as to know how to discern both when she should transcend herself in mind toward God, and when she should be sober for us (2 Cor. 5:13). O how sweet and how secure are these dreams of hers! For how could they not be sweet, when she rests between the arms of her Bridegroom? How could they not be secure, when she has him as a solicitous guardian, that none of the daughters should presume to rouse her?
IV. His left hand, she says -- without doubt her beloved's -- is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me (Song 2:6). Is not this bed of hers very soft indeed, in which she has the Bridegroom's left hand as a pillow, in which she has the embrace of his right hand as a covering, and in which she has prudence as a mattress? This is what she has in both -- in the right as well as in the left -- which is piety, about which the Apostle admonishes his chosen disciple, affirming that it is useful for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of the life to come (1 Tim. 4:8). Of the life, clearly, that now is and of the future. Of the present, indeed, on account of the left hand, which is under the bride's head; and of the future, on account of his right hand, which will embrace her. Do not the angels descend and ascend upon the Son of Man? (John 1:51.) But they could not descend upon him unless he were below, where his left hand is, under the head of his bride; just as they could not ascend to him unless he were above, where his right hand embraces her. Sweetly now the bride places the left hand of her Bridegroom under her head, knowing that his right hand will one day embrace her; having from the reception of present gifts a firm expectation of future ones, having also her fruit in sanctification, and the end eternal life (Rom. 6:22). In this soft bed our Joseph rests sweetly.
V. And the first sleep of his is -- to speak briefly -- to be freed from all desire for visible and sensible things. This is a very sweet sleep, because while our Joseph attentively devotes himself to it, he rests in a certain threefold quiet. For through it he is released from curious and vain pleasure, and from pleasurable and vain curiosity. O sweet sleep! Do you not declare it a sweet sleep: not to be defiled by the pleasure of carnal concupiscence, not to be scattered by the curiosity of worldly occupation, not to be puffed up by the vanity of lofty domination? Behold the three-pronged fork in the cauldrons of cooked meats (1 Samuel 2:13); behold the three spears fixed in the heart of Absalom (2 Samuel 18:14); behold the wife taken, the five yoke of oxen, the estate purchased, which make those invited strangers to the Lord's supper (Luke 14:20); behold, finally, the concupiscence of the flesh polluting the reprobate soul, the concupiscence of the eyes scattering it, the pride of life exalting it (1 John 2:16). From all of which our Joseph is made free, while he devotes himself to this sleep, no less sweet than salutary, in this threefold quiet. For the first quiet preserves him clean from the filth of carnal corruption; the second makes him tranquil from the anxiety of worldly business; the third makes him free from the haughtiness of swollen domination. In the first, bodily passion is mortified; in the second, worldly occupation is discontinued; in the third, the ambition of dominating is scorned.
VI. But the second sleep of this Joseph of whom we speak is to cast out from the chamber of his heart the rushing images and likenesses of corporeal things, and to repel all the fabrications of phantasms that thrust themselves in. This sleep surpasses the preceding one in sweetness insofar as it surpasses it in purity. For it falls to Joseph to enjoy great sweetness in that first sleep, since through it he is given to live without being ensnared by any desires for visible or sensible things. But in this one, which is far greater, through it he is granted not to be entangled in contemplation by any images of corporeal phantasms, or, if you prefer, by any phantasms of corporeal images. Who, I ask, is he who is able to devote himself to this sleep for long? Who, I say, is this one? And we shall praise him: for he does wonderful things in his life (Sirach 31:9). For since in that first sleep he conquers the world and the things of the world, and even the flesh and the things of the flesh, in this second one he also transcends the mind itself with a certain powerful freedom and free power. What then remains for this Joseph, except that while in the first sleep he passes beyond all corporeal things, and in the second all spiritual things, he should take a certain third sleep, in which he may reach, insofar as is possible in this exile, the divine things themselves?
VII. Let him, therefore, transcend all things that have been created, visible and invisible, and rest in that boundary of all corporeal and spiritual things; and I consider this to be the most sweet sleep. For if the first sleep seems to you sweet, on account of the great virtue that is in it; and the second sweeter, on account of the refined purity it contains; why would you not declare this third one the sweetest, on account of the angelic happiness with which it wholly overflows? Behold, these are the sleeps of Joseph, in which he rests sweetly, in which also the angel of the Lord appears to him. And although the angel appears to him in each one, this appearance of which we are now speaking seems to pertain especially to this third one, in which, manifesting himself to him, the angel takes care to admonish him to take the child and his mother and flee into Egypt, because the time is at hand when Herod will seek the child to destroy him. For the more you advance in purity of mind, the more and more you will find pride hostile to you in temptation.
VIII. See whether perhaps the first pertains to that quiet silence, about which you read that when all things held silence; and whether the middle pertains to that course of the night, when -- the night being in the middle of its course -- the almighty Word of the Lord is said to have come from heaven, from the royal throne (Wisdom 18:15). When the mind is ensnared by desires for visible and sensible things -- when, that is, to show this somewhat more fully, it either ardently desires to be polluted by the filth of pleasure, or happens to be scattered by the excess of earthly anxiety, or is carried here and there by the appetite for swollen and vain domination -- is there not a great, most powerful, and tumultuous din of clamor in it? But let all these things be silent, pleasure of the flesh being utterly trampled, the disquiet of earthly anxiety cast away, the haughtiness of exalted domination scorned. Let all these things be silent in Joseph, so that now, as he rests and slumbers, all his things may hold the first silence. Let the phantasms of corporeal things and their likenesses likewise be silent in him: which themselves, in his chamber where that serene and quiet Lord ought to dwell, are accustomed, when they are granted entrance, to emit an immense roar of clamor -- according to what Jeremiah complains about and laments: asserting that they gave voice in the house of the Lord as on a solemn day (Lam. 2:7). And now all his things hold the middle silence, until his third silence occurs in heaven, which, when it is granted, is not a full hour but half an hour (Rev. 8:1); and indeed scarcely even that is perceived, because it passes almost before it begins. But this silence pertains to that third sleep of Joseph, in which the same Joseph, receiving the hidden word, whose veins of whispering his ear furtively receives (Job 4:12), is so entirely held in attention to that word alone, that on account of the sweetness of the divine voice sounding within him, he imposes silence even upon angelic utterances.
IX. This third course of the night also seems to pertain to this sleep -- which is sublime contemplation, by which one reaches to God himself. When this has so run its course that it has reached the middle, with all things in Joseph then holding the middle silence and sensing something of the third, the almighty Word of the Lord comes from heaven, from the royal throne: because in this sleep the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, about to chastise, with his counsel, the cruel design of Herod. We shall take the night as meaning rest, for it was also established for rest -- as blessed Ambrose asserts that God, the Creator of all things and Ruler of heaven, clothed the night with the grace of sleep, so that rest might restore loosened limbs for the use of labor. This night has its first course when this Joseph, freed and relieved from all desire for visible and sensible things -- for this is what this course pertains to -- rests in the first sleep; and its middle, when he rests in the second; because something has already been said about its third course -- not indeed to express it fully, which is impossible, but so that it would not be entirely passed over. Therefore the almighty Word of the Lord comes from heaven, from the royal throne, because the interior inspiration (which unceasingly in the heavens -- I mean those blessed thrones of the supreme King, those celestial spirits -- teaches about all things without any exception) visits the devout soul; and while it strengthens it, gives it the ability, as Paul says, to do all things in him (Phil. 4:13) -- so that this Word is rightly called almighty. This Word indeed is the angel of the Lord, appearing to Joseph in dreams.
X. And indeed we showed above, as you know, Joseph's threefold sleep; and three times, if you turn through the Gospel text, you will find that the angel appeared to him in dreams. For first the angel appeared to him, admonishing him not to fear to take Mary his wife, while he was thinking of dismissing her (Matt. 1:20), explaining to him the reason: What is born in her is of the Holy Spirit. And adding: She will bear you a son, and you will call his name Jesus. For he himself will save the people from their sins (ibid.). And the second time, when the time was at hand when Herod would seek the child to destroy him, the angel commanded him to take the child and his mother and flee into Egypt and to be there until he should tell him, not concealing the reason either for his flight or for the delay there (Matt. 2:13). But perhaps one of you says to me in the midst of this: Speak about this and exhort, because your subject matter demands it. So I shall do; but once the cause of the first and third appearances of the angel has been set forth, this middle one will become more evident. The third time the angel appeared to him, when Herod being dead, he commanded him to go with the child and his mother into the land of Israel (Matt. 2:20). And also, so that we seem to have passed over nothing, when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And warned in dreams (although in this warning no mention is made of an angel), he did not indeed depart from the land of Israel, but withdrew into the region of Galilee, and coming, he dwelt in Nazareth (Matt. 2:23). What do these things mean? What use is it that they are briefly recalled to memory, unless they are also briefly explained for understanding? What Joseph is, and what Mary, and what also the child Jesus -- I have already told you and you have heard. But if you wish to hear again: Mary, betrothed to Joseph, is heavenly wisdom, joined to a faithful and pious soul; and the pure fruit of true salvation is the child Jesus.
XI. And how often it happens, especially in the beginnings of the soul's conversion, that wisdom is joined to it for a certain recognition, but not yet for full love -- the soul being already illuminated through the intellect, but not yet kindled through the affection. Yet wisdom has many good things within herself for him in a hidden purpose, thinking about him thoughts of peace and not of affliction (Jer. 29:11), which she will one day bestow on him -- namely, when he has been fully converted to love for her. And this is what is meant by the fact that when the Mother of Jesus, Mary, was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18). For before wisdom and the soul fully agree in one will, she preserves within herself in secret the spiritual fruit with which he will one day be enriched. Is it not so that before Mary and Joseph come together, she is found to be with child of the Holy Spirit? But the soul meanwhile, recognizing its own weakness, understanding the prerogative of wisdom, astonished at that by which it is assailed -- so that this Joseph may be a just man, giving in this matter to each what is his own -- secretly resolves to withdraw, not wishing to adhere to her in practice through affection, to whom he had already drawn near in talent through intellect. This is what it means for Joseph not to wish to expose Mary, but to wish to dismiss her secretly. Hence it often happens that many recoil from the good that they recognized when illuminated, since they understand that they are too weak, and they perceive that good to be arduous and heavy to practice. Does not he seem to you to have played their part, who, seeing the miracle of the fish, said: Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man? (Luke 5:8.) And in not unlike fashion, this spiritual and moral Joseph seems to me to have wisdom -- or rather folly -- who, finding indeed that Mary has something in her womb, but not knowing that what she has is of the Holy Spirit, not wishing to expose her, wanted to dismiss her secretly (Matt. 1:19-20). Hence, while he thinks these things, it is necessary that the angel appear to him, to admonish him not to fear to take Mary his wife, asserting that what is born in her is of the Holy Spirit, and that she will bear him a son whose name he will call Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins (Matt. 1:20). All of which things indeed happen when heavenly grace visits the mind that is timid and faint-hearted before undertaking spiritual labor, and is therefore resolving not to adhere to heavenly wisdom through practice but to abandon her secretly -- rousing it to boldness and encouraging it to fortitude, giving it to understand how great a holiness this heavenly wisdom of which we speak will bestow upon it. For the fruit of the Spirit is charity (Gal. 5:22), which, since it covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), is the son of Mary, called in fact Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21) -- because the love of sincere charity cleanses the interior thoughts of the mind from all offenses.
XII. This, therefore, is the first sleep of Joseph: the contempt of all visible and sensible things, in which it is poured into him through that anointing which teaches about all things (1 John 2:27), that he should not shrink from practicing whatever seems laborious. But just as nocturnal fear arouses this Joseph, so that, timid before labor and ignorant of future grace, he does not wish to expose Mary but to dismiss her secretly, until, freed from the night by the angel's revelation, he may know, now illuminated, what she carries in her womb; and being likewise strengthened, freed from inert fear, he may recognize with courage that she is going to bear him a son as great and of such a kind as we described above -- so he must greatly fear, lest Herod seek this child once born, find what he seeks, and destroy what he finds. What this means, we showed in the preceding sermon; and we deferred to this sermon which we now have in hand how provision should be made for him, lest being sought he be found, and being found he be destroyed. The angel therefore, appearing to Joseph, admonishes him to take the child and his mother and flee into Egypt (Matt. 2:13). This happens when the soul, taught by the instinct of interior inspiration, takes refuge in the darkness of its own weakness -- for 'Egypt' means 'darkness' -- or in the hiding-place of divine judgment, or in the obscurity by which it is held on every side, wrapped in ignorance about what is to come upon it. So that, humbled in this threefold way, it may preserve the fruit of salvation which it has, immune from the plague of pride, as it were protecting the child Jesus in Egypt from the persecution of Herod. These are the three principal ways, among others, by which a discreet soul is accustomed to guard the fruit of salvation within itself unharmed from the corruption of pride.
XIII. The first is when the soul fully perceives its own weakness, when it sets before its own eyes how prone it is, for example, to vices, how feeble for virtues, and all the other things in which it sees its own corruptible and fragile nature -- so that while it carefully considers these things, it either does not allow itself to be wounded by the arrow of pride, or comes to this Babylon of its own, according to the prophet, to be cured (Jer. 51:9). The second is when, even if it seems to be doing some good now, it utterly does not know whether it will persevere in it or not -- knowing somewhat what it is at present, but completely ignorant of what it will be after a little while. Where it sees itself placing its foot today in a good work, but is unable to foresee what tomorrow will bring forth for it. And the third is when, even if it does some good things, and sees that it did good things yesterday, on account of the past, and is doing good things today, on account of the present, and hopes to do good things tomorrow on account of the future resolution it has for the future -- yet it utterly does not know how the hidden and strict Judge examines these things, how he weighs them within himself. For it knows, with sacred Scripture attesting, that the just and wise and their works are in the hand of God, and yet man does not know whether he is worthy of hatred or of love (Sirach 9:1), but all things are reserved uncertain until the future. It also hears Paul say about himself that he is conscious of nothing against himself, yet in this he is not justified, because the one who judges him is the Lord (1 Cor. 4:4).
XIV. These are the shadows in which he saw himself wrapped who said: the man whose way is hidden, and God has surrounded him with darkness (Job 3:23). To these shadows, indeed, the soul, instructed by interior inspiration, takes refuge, so that it may preserve its good work unharmed from the plague of pride, just as Joseph, who fled into Egypt for this purpose: to guard the child Jesus from the persecution of Herod. And in the third way, that male child in the Apocalypse escaped the dragon: of whom you read that he was caught up to God and to his throne (Rev. 12:5). For what is it for the male child to be caught up to God and to the throne, so as to escape the devouring of the dragon, except for the strong and vigorous action to be referred to God and to his strict judgment, lest it incur the corruption of pride? Let the male child, therefore, be caught up to God and to his throne, so that while he considers that no living being will be justified in his sight (Psalm 143:2), you may by no means exalt yourself for your good work, but humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, who is blessed forever. Amen.
SERMON XXXVI. LIKEWISE ON THE FEAST DAY OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS.
On the same subject as above.
Synopsis of the sermon. -- 1. Abraham, as a type of the religious man, about to escape famine, flees to Egypt, pitching his tent between Bethel and Ai. -- 2. One must always tremble from the sight of one's own iniquity, and hope in the multitude of divine mercy. -- 3. Our progress in the spirit is not without deficiency. -- 4. What are the damages and remedies of pride. -- 5. From the face of Herod and Archelaus -- forerunners of pride, from the etymology of their names -- one must withdraw to Galilee and dwell in Nazareth. -- 6. Abraham in Egypt does not dare to call Sarai his wife, because every gift is from above. -- 7. It is true prudence to confess from a divine gift, if there is anything of virtue in the soul. -- 8. Pharaoh, as a type of vainglorious men, is scourged and humbled by the Lord. -- 9. The iron slips from the axe-handle of the sons of the prophets, when by the impulse of pride the gift of grace is lost. -- 10. An exhortation to imitate the little ones.
I. You see now, as I believe, brothers, what good counsel the angel gives to Joseph: to flee into Egypt, because Herod seeks the child to destroy him (Matt. 2:13). But we read something pertaining to this same meaning in Genesis, where you find about that most holy man Abram -- he was not yet called Abraham when he went down into Egypt, because famine had prevailed in the land (Gen. 12:10). He went down into Egypt; but Joseph fled into Egypt. He to escape famine; this one, Herod. Behold, we pass from mysteries to mysteries, from meanings to meanings, as it pleases and insofar as it pleases the Spirit, who goes before and illuminates us. Thanks be to him. But what? Will it not be necessary for us to investigate, since the Spirit was not slow to set it before us? He pitched, as Scripture says, his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east (ibid., 8). Who is this Abram, whose name is interpreted as 'exalted,' if not any devout and religious person, whom the fervor of good desire makes exalted in bringing forth from himself a good action, as in begetting holy offspring; and whom the rectitude of intention makes exalted in striving to please God alone? For as long as you lack the name of Father, so long are you also in the lowest place -- as long as you are barren by ceasing from good works, and dwell in the depths by seeking human favor. This man pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai, because every devout and religious person holds the state of his present warfare and pilgrimage (for the tent belongs to those on campaign and pilgrimage) between that hope which he conceives from the contemplation of divine mercy, and that confusion which he incurs from the sight of his own misery. For they say that Ai means 'confusion,' while Bethel is interpreted as 'house of God.' And if this is so, what is it for Abraham to pitch his tent between Bethel and Ai, except for a religious man to live his life in his present warfare and pilgrimage in such a way that he knows how at one moment to hope, in contemplation of that house not made by hands, which is eternal in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1), and at another moment to tremble in the sight of his own confusion? He also builds an altar there to the Lord, because in this state of his he prepares within himself a clean heart and a right spirit within his inmost parts (Psalm 51:12), in which he may offer to almighty God those holocausts which the Psalmist calls 'marrow offerings' (Psalm 66:15).
II. But we need great discretion to hold this twofold consideration fruitfully within ourselves, lest perhaps undiscriminating fear make us too frightened toward despair, or hope make us too cheerful toward dissolution. You should know that you hold this fruitfully when you strive to think about the Lord in his goodness, yet do not neglect to be confounded within yourself in the contemplation of your own fragility. And when you tremble in the sight of your own wickedness, you should strive to hope in the contemplation of divine mercy. Thus, while you sing not only mercy to the Lord, lest you become insolent, nor only judgment, lest you despair, but both songs to him (Psalm 101:1), prostrated through fear and raised up through hope, exulting before him with trembling and trembling in his presence with exultation, you praise him together. Then may you rejoice that your wounds reach their perfect healing, while you pour into them wine and oil at the same time. Hence this Abraham pitched his tent in such a way that he had Bethel to the west and Ai to the east: so that you too, when you see with your inner thought that you must tend toward decline by your own weight, may yet hope that you belong to the Church of the blessed. For this is Bethel. And when you consider that you are adorned by the divine gift with the rising of the Sun of justice, you should fear lest perhaps, deprived of the help of grace, you plunge into the confusion of vices. We need great caution of discretion, so that when we strive to contemplate divine goodness -- lest we become too greatly disturbed when we turn the eyes of our mind to our own calamity -- we immediately raise them to divine mercy; and again, lest being too greatly cheered when we gaze upon the serenity of divine clemency, we immediately fix the gaze of our mind on the horror of our own confusion, so that with our tent pitched, it has Bethel to the west on one side, and Ai to the east on the other.
III. When we do this attentively, we reach a great advancement of holiness, because with his tent thus pitched and an altar thus built to the Lord, Abraham went on his way, advancing further and further toward the south (Gen. 12:9). For what is it for Abraham to advance and progress further toward the south, except for any devout person, whom this Abram represents, to always profit more in holiness, and, touched by the address of the Holy Spirit, to tend toward a religious manner of life? But while he thus prepares to rouse Leviathan (Job 3:8), sometimes, when temptation presses, spiritual progress is diminished in some way, and a deficiency in the holiness undertaken is incurred; because while Abram thus goes and progresses toward the south, there came a famine in the land. Famine in the land is a failure of interior refreshment in the soul. But when Abram felt this famine threatening him, what counsel did he find for himself, lest he perish of the same famine? What does Scripture say? He went down, Abraham, into Egypt, to sojourn there (Gen. 12:10). Why did he go down into Egypt, who a little before was going on his way, advancing further and further toward the south? For the famine had prevailed in the land. You do not need to inquire what the descent into Egypt signifies, if you remember what saving mystery the flight of Joseph into Egypt contains within itself. The cause of that descent was the want of famine, and of this flight was the cruelty of Herod. But if famine is the failure of interior grace, through what is it incurred, except through the swelling of pride? For he who gives grace to the humble, to the proud neither bestows what has not been given nor preserves what has been had (James 4:6). For he who said: Every valley shall be filled, also added: And every mountain and hill shall be brought low (Luke 3:5). Indeed, because Saul ceased to be small in his own eyes, the Spirit of the Lord departed from him (1 Samuel 15:17); and there was given to Paul a thorn in his flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet him (2 Cor. 12:7) -- not indeed because the greatness of revelations exalted him, but lest it should exalt him.
IV. Therefore, when the time of this famine draws near, Abram goes down into Egypt, so that the refreshment of interior grace may not exalt any devout person through a certain swelling; rather, let him humble himself in the contemplation of the threefold darkness which we described above, and let that Joseph flee, lest Herod destroy the child. You see, therefore, how necessary it is for Joseph that the angel instruct him in sleep, how to guard the child Jesus from Herod's persecution. Because in such perfection of purity he needs to be taught by interior inspiration how to protect the fruit of salvation which he exercises from the corruption of pride; for the more your mind devotes itself to purity, the heavier are the assaults it sustains from pride. And he was there, it says, until the death of Herod (Matt. 2:15). See that as long as Herod lives, Joseph does not dare to leave Egypt. For I find nothing more effective by which pride is either prevented or conquered than when the above-mentioned threefold consideration is carefully maintained. When this Herod of whom we speak was dead, an angel appeared to this Joseph in a dream, saying: Arise and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel; he also added the reason: for those who sought the child's life are dead (ibid., 20). With Herod dead -- that is, with pride extinguished -- he can approach the land of Israel, so that he may see God with his mind (which is what 'Israel' means), and he is now free to attend to so great a matter, since he no longer has need to fight against the impulse of pride.
V. But let him not presume to expose his hidden goods by incautious confession, lest the vice of pride that is born from boasting corrupt them. This seems to me applicable to the fact that this Joseph, of whom we have already said much, when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, was afraid to go there (ibid., 22). For Archelaus is said to mean 'knowing lion,' by which boasting is signified. While it discerns our secrets through hidden knowledge, it strives to devour them through open arrogance after the manner of a lion. Therefore Joseph shrinks from rashly confessing in public what he sees of God in this dream; knowing that Archelaus reigns in Judea in place of his father Herod, because when the swelling of pride, which wishes to be feared, has been extinguished, its offspring -- boasting, which desires to be loved -- dominates in arrogant confession, which is what 'Judea' means. Rather, withdrawing into Galilee, let him dwell in Nazareth, saying to God: Open my eyes, and I shall consider the wonders of your law (Ps. 118:18); and not reckoning himself to have comprehended, even when he has completed something, let him count himself as only beginning (Sir. 18:6). For Galilee means 'revelation,' and Nazareth means 'tenderness of flower.' Let him earnestly ask God to reveal what He wills, filling him with the knowledge of His will; and whatever he does, let him believe himself to be beginning rather than to have ever completed, and let him reckon the tenderness of the flower rather than the ripeness of the fruit. You see therefore that the death of Herod by no means confers full security on Joseph, since he fears Archelaus his son.
VI. And not without reason -- what we spoke of above (Gen. 12:12) -- his descent into Egypt, fearing that when the Egyptians saw how beautiful Sarai was, they would declare her to be his wife and kill him. And therefore he persuaded her to say she was his sister. And Joseph withdrew into the region of Galilee. I beg that it not be burdensome to you if we touch upon these things with a brief exposition at the end of this sermon. What does the true history say about these matters? When he was near to entering -- no doubt Abraham into Egypt -- he said to Sarai his wife: I know that you are a beautiful woman, and that when the Egyptians see you, they will say: She is his wife; and they will kill me, but you they will preserve. Say therefore, I beg you, that you are my sister, so that it may be well with me and I may live on account of your favor (ibid.). To run through this briefly, who is this beautiful wife of Abram, if not prudence, which the wise man calls his friend (Prov. 7:4), who governs in that inner house? For 'Sarai' means 'my princess,' and she shines with spiritual beauty. On her account the just man must be fearful -- for he is, as we have often said, Abram -- lest those who see her beauty declare her to be his wife and kill him. This happens when the dark impulses of the heart persuade us that the prudence we have is our own property, and not entrusted to us and accommodated by the Father of lights himself, who of his own will begot us by the word of his truth (James 1:18), so that they might spiritually kill us. For the Egyptians to see that the woman is beautiful and to declare her to be Abram's wife is, as it were, for the dark, vain impulses of the heart to flatter themselves concerning the subtlety of wisdom and the keenness of prudence. For this is to admire the beautiful Sarai and to draw her toward the appetite of vanity, so that whatever subtlety exists in the mind is thought to come rather from one's own acumen than from a divine gift.
VII. But whatever that vain and frivolous thing may be in which deceived thoughts flatter themselves, prudence must needs be humbled in all things: let it not disdain to confess that it was infused into man by the same one from whom it knows man was spiritually begotten. When the Egyptians praise Sarai's beauty and declare her to be Abraham's wife, this amounts to her affirming instead that she is his sister. Brothers, the whole fruit of prudence implanted in man is this: that it sees itself in truth. In all things in which it is subtly skilled, let it truly humble itself and recognize that it comes from God alone. Although it exists in man, let it deny that it comes from man, so that the more it trusts that it comes from God alone, the greater increase it may receive from Him in discernment. Does it not seem right to you that Sarai herself is Abram's sister; and because thus his life is sustained, and in such things is the life of his spirit (Isa. 38:16), that his soul also lives on account of this favor, when in this way she says she is his sister? What does it mean when he says: And they will kill me, and you they will preserve? I think the vain impulses of the heart spiritually kill a man with the blade of vain desire and claim wisdom for themselves -- that is what you hear: the Egyptians kill Abram and preserve Sarai. Lest this happen, let prudence deny being Abraham's wife and affirm being his sister, so that looking upon itself humbly, it may confess itself to be a divine gift and deny its acumen to be a human possession.
VIII. The Egyptians saw the woman, it says, that she was exceedingly beautiful, and they reported her to Pharaoh, and they praised her before him (Gen. 12:14). 'Pharaoh' means 'one who uncovers' or 'one who scatters,' and signifies the appetite for vain glory, which, by vainly uncovering our hidden goods, destroys them by scattering them -- according to the prophet who asserts that his vineyard is turned into a wasteland when its fig tree is stripped bare (Joel 1:7). And for the Egyptians in some fashion to praise the woman before Pharaoh is for the dark thoughts of the mind to try to persuade prudence -- by showing it to be praiseworthy -- to be mingled with the appetite for vain glory. Indeed, when prudence heeds the urgently pressing vain thoughts, it is sometimes reduced to the power of pride by seeking human favor. Nevertheless, although vainglory thus conquers through violence, the Lord himself in his elect humbles the tyranny of pride, and once it has been humbled, he restores in them the gift of grace that had been withdrawn for a time -- because the Lord struck the house of Pharaoh with great plagues on account of Sarai, Abram's wife (Gen. 12:17). And so she was returned to him. For what is the restoration of the wife who had been taken from Abraham after the house of Pharaoh was scourged, if not the restoration of lost grace to the just man after the Lord has humbled the dominion of pride?
IX. We read something similar in the fourth Book of Kings (2 Kings 6:5 ff.), where we find that when the sons of the prophets were cutting wood at the Jordan together with Elisha, the iron axe-head slipped from the handle for one of them and, having sunk into the water, could not be seen. Elisha, cutting a piece of wood, restored the lost iron to him, because he had learned from the man's cry that he had received it on loan, and in what place it had fallen. Indeed, the iron accidentally slipping from the handle during the cutting of wood is the gift of grace vanishing from the heart during the exercise of virtues when the impulse of pride intervenes. But when something like this happens to you, cry out with a strong voice of the heart to Him who was killed for you at the place of Calvary, asserting rather that you received it on loan than that it came from you or was your own. Then He -- from whom all his disciples fled, abandoning him (Matt. 26:56); whose very hairs are all numbered -- that bald prophet, I say, mighty in deed and word (Luke 24:19), when you have shown him the place of your ruin through the truth of your confession, having cut the wood through the penitence of your heart, will restore to you the lost gift. And all these things pertain to what Joseph is commanded: to flee into Egypt, because Herod seeks the child to destroy him. But behold, we have drawn this out at length, since we find it sweet to search out the mystical meanings in Sacred Scripture. Now such prolixity demands its proper end.
X. Therefore, preserve in your memory the things that have been said to you concerning the threefold dream of Joseph and the threefold appearance of the angel, conferring them with your hearts. Imitate the innocence of these little ones, whose memory you celebrate today with devoted festivity and festive devotion. Be children in malice, knowing and always recalling with pious heart that the Lord commands that the little ones be allowed to come to Him, declaring that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these (Mark 10:14). Let nothing remain among you that is harmful, just as a child knows not how to revolve within himself anything by which to strike through malice. Bear nothing in your countenance or speech, have nothing in your gesture or action, that would cause any offense to onlookers. And as your Father, blessed Augustine, exhorts you: "In your gait, in your bearing, in all your movements, let nothing be done that would offend anyone's sight, but only what befits your holiness." To conduct yourselves thus and to present yourselves as such is to imitate the little ones to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs. Behold how that most high Lord of majesty conformed himself to the infancy of mortals; therefore do not be reluctant to conform to his smallness, if you desire to be configured to his greatness in heavenly glory. May he grant you to attain to that glory -- he who is great and small, sublime and humble, eternal and temporal, strong and weak, Word and flesh, God and man, the Lord Jesus, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit is blessed forever and ever. Amen.
SERMON XXXVII. ON THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE LORD'S NATIVITY.
On the exercise of holy religion, and on the state of our interior man.
Synopsis of the sermon. -- 1. Joseph and Mary are read to have marveled at the things that were being said about the child. -- 2. By the mother of the Lord is understood the spiritual congregation; by Joseph, its superior. -- 3. Works of virtue and exercises of perfection are like the child Jesus. -- 4. The singular prerogative of the religious state in freedom and quiet: over which Mary and Joseph rightly marvel. -- 5. The mutual obligation of superior and subject. -- 6. The biting malevolence of certain seculars toward the religious state. -- 7. Those similar to Balaam who curses the people of God while wishing that his own end might be like theirs. -- 8. Frequent influx into the religious state from every age and rank. -- 9. The religious state is compared with the kingdom of Solomon; -- 10. With the stone cut from the mountain without hands, which overthrows the statue of worldly wickedness. -- 11. What it means for that stone to grow into the height of a mountain. -- 12. What sword pierces the soul of Mary. Its various meanings in the Scriptures. -- 13. According to use, tribulation, God's vengeance, the malice of the devil, and the anguish of death either profit or harm. And these are called indifferent swords. -- 14. Which are the swords of the evil part, to be avoided. -- 15. Swords of the good part, to be desired. -- 16. The discernment to be exercised regarding swords.
I. Blessed Luke relates to us, in today's reading of the holy Gospel, that Joseph and Mary the mother of Jesus marveled at the things that were being said about him (Luke 2:33 ff.). And what wonder? What wonder, I say, if the hearts of Joseph and Mary were raised in admiration at what they heard being said about Jesus? The angels sang glory to God in the highest; they proclaimed peace on earth to men of good will. The shepherds came in haste; the Magi hastened, entered, fell down, worshipped, offered gifts. Simeon prophesied, and Anna made confession. And perhaps something else of no small weight occurred that could have been the cause and occasion of admiration. But amid all these things, blessed and hallowed is that mother who bore for us Jesus, about whom such great and remarkable things were said, that she was compelled to marvel, and Joseph was compelled as well. And is this anything new? Not at all. Except that what we ardently love, what we frequently are accustomed to say, this indeed our affectionate habit and habitual affection sometimes gives us to utter even unexpectedly.
II. Moreover, if it delights you to hear something pertaining to the moral sense, just as you know that mother is incomparably blessed and hallowed, so you should know that there is a certain other mother -- though in a far inferior way -- I speak of this holy congregation, which I behold placed before me. For she herself, Mary, is a certain great and resplendent luminary, which seems to contain within itself the mystery of this name. She likewise gives birth to Jesus, when in her good way of life she brings forth a salutary example. For what is the fruit of holy religion, which this holy congregation exercises, if not the child Jesus, whom Mary carries? Of this mother and child, Joseph is a servant, not a lord; he is a helper and guardian. I believe this is what Paul, the vessel of election, says: Not that we lord it over your faith, but we are helpers of your joy (2 Cor. 1:23). And again he says: your servants through Jesus (2 Cor. 4:5). You see therefore that Mary is the mother of Jesus, who was born from her and born in her. Do you confess that he was born from her and deny that he was born in her? Hear the angel speaking to Joseph: what is born in her, he says (Matt. 1:20), as if he were saying 'what was conceived in her.' Therefore Mary is the mother of Jesus -- mother in conception, mother in birth. For she conceived him while remaining uncorrupted, and she bore him while remaining unharmed. But what of Joseph? From a distance he watches over this child, who was given to him to serve and to assist -- to serve as Lord, to assist as a little one. See if this does not relate to the fact that in the tabernacle of the Lord, the curtains of goats' hair covered the fine curtains (Exod. 26:7) and protected them, exposed as they were to frequent winds and rains, so that the curtains would not feel their beauty darkened in any way.
III. And indeed this child Jesus is magnificent, about whom such great and remarkable things are said that Joseph and Mary his mother cannot but marvel at them. This happens, dearest brothers, when your state of life is so ordered and so beyond reproach in all things that -- as blessed Augustine admonishes you -- "in your gait, your bearing, and in all your movements, let there be nothing that offends anyone's sight, but only what befits your holiness"; this happens, I say, when you walk worthily of your calling, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:2). And as the one who says this states elsewhere: Regarding one another as superior, each one considering not his own interests but those of others (Phil. 2:3). Taking thought for what is good not only before God, but also before all people. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, being at peace with everyone (Rom. 12:17). When therefore these and countless other similar things are said about your Jesus -- for the state of perfection that your congregation fruitfully exercises is the child Jesus, born of the mother Mary -- when, I say, such a reputation about him is spread abroad, Joseph and Mary necessarily marvel at these things. Nor do I regret, however much anyone may grumble, that I said the fruitful state of the holy congregation is to be expressed through the Son of Mary, considering his admirable prerogative.
IV. For what state in this life is freer than that of those who live sincerely in the cloister, or more peaceful? Neither the state of kings, nor of bishops, nor of any princes, nor of any exalted persons whatsoever in this life can exceed the state of these -- I will not say surpass it, but it cannot even be compared to it in any respect. It may perhaps be more exalted in power, but not freer in peace. O free and peaceful state of those in the cloister! Who, neither hoping for anything nor fearing, are content with such restraint that, made resourceful by a certain abundant scarcity and enriched by a scarce abundance, they can lose nothing old -- since they are known to have nothing -- and gain nothing new -- since they are known to possess all things (2 Cor. 6:10). These and similar things are what is said about Jesus, at which Joseph and Mary his mother marvel. Does not Mary marvel at the things said about Jesus, when this common and holy congregation is astonished in each of you at the great and many good things that the Spirit of humility whispers from on high into the ear of the mind, hearing far more and greater things about each of its companions than it sees in itself? Joseph marvels in a similar way, as he himself -- who is present to them in the care of guardianship -- weighs the state of each individual as more secure than his own, who guards them. Which, to put it briefly, is nothing other than what we proposed above from the Apostle: Regarding one another as superior.
V. And Simeon blessed them, it says (Luke 2:34). Blessed whom? No doubt Mary and Joseph. Do you think that for Simeon to bless Mary and Joseph is for obedience to confirm in virtue both the community and its guardian? For 'Simeon' means obedience. But knowing without any doubt that the community must obey its guardian, and perhaps not knowing that obedience should pertain also to the guardian himself -- if you have been ignorant of this until now, know at least now that the guardian, in a certain manner, must obey his community. If you say that he need not always obey them according to their will, I do not contend, provided you agree that he must never fail to obey according to necessity. Indeed, the community and its guardian are bound to one another by a great and very strong bond, by which they are firmly constrained in a certain mutual obligation. The guardian must always and everywhere be found, as far as prudence has shown him to know and ability to be able, governing without pride, while the other submits without misery; the one ruling without the swelling of arrogance, the other being ruled without the complaint of murmuring. The one providing diligently for what is useful, the other obeying promptly for the sake of humility. The one, finally, leading by acting and speaking in all holiness, while the other carefully considers his good ways, following after him as a tracker and standing firm in his paths (Sir. 14:23). I believe this is the blessing with which Simeon blessed Mary and Joseph, whose significations -- that is, the community and the guardian -- are so connected to one another that if you separate them, it would be as though you severed head from body.
VI. After these things there are certain words which he is found to have said not to Joseph himself, but to Mary the mother alone: Behold, this one is set for the fall and the rising of many in Israel (Luke 2:34). Those who know the kinds of languages, to whom is given the interpretation of tongues, say that 'Israel' means 'vision of God.' Now whoever sees God also sees Jesus, for Jesus is God. Who the moral Jesus is, of whom we speak, I have already told you and you have heard. But if you wish to hear again, he is the fruitful work of your salvation, which you tirelessly exercise according to the rule of your profession. Since this is so, who are those many who see Jesus, for whom he is set for a fall and as a sign that is contradicted? Perhaps they are those who, by seeing our fruitful state -- for that is Jesus -- indeed acknowledge it, but since they not only do not love it, but actually attack it through hatred, they fall there: not only failing to attain it by imitation, but even persecuting it by disparagement. They perceive that what they observe among you is a sign of salvation; but since they not only do not humbly lay hold of it, but proudly censure it, they utterly contradict it. And certainly today there are many in Israel, among those who see God -- I speak of those malicious and proud seculars -- for whom this Jesus is set for a fall and as a sign that is contradicted, while they pursue with reproach or contempt the good they observe among you. Or if perhaps they revere it superficially by praising it, they will in no way attain it through imitation. Or even, as we see happen very often, while for a time as believers they magnify his reputation, when the time of testing comes, they do not cease to diminish it.
VII. To their number seems to belong the one who, having been led and hired to curse the people, praised that people so much that he wished his soul might die the death of the righteous and that his end might be like theirs (Num. 23:10). But after the time of compunction had passed, he was not ashamed to teach Balak to place a stumbling block before them -- to eat and to fornicate (Rev. 2:14). Therefore beware of false brothers, if they creep in to spy out your freedom which you have in Christ Jesus, so as to bring you into bondage (Gal. 2:4), knowing that there are many in Israel for whom our Jesus is set for a fall and as a sign that is contradicted. But the Lord has reserved for himself many in Israel, and those who remain are to be distinguished from those whom we just mentioned: who are indeed in Israel, that is, seeing God, but falling and contradicting. The Lord, I say, has reserved for himself many in Israel, for whom this Jesus is set for a rising. These are the many of whom the Lord says: Many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 8:11).
VIII. And indeed we see this happening daily: people hasten to your state of life (for it is, as it were, a certain kingdom of heaven, in which Mary and Joseph are found), and they come to be spiritually refreshed in it. Many come from the first age of life -- this is the east -- like that early morning when workers are hired and led to the vineyard. Many come in the last age -- this is the west -- like the eleventh hour, when those who had stood idle all day are sent into the vineyard (Matt. 20:1 ff.). And they have in this banquet leaders and many companions: the obedient ones, whom Abraham represents; those who hope, whom Isaac suggests; and those who are dedicated to the supplanting of vices, whom Jacob designates. For these, it seems to me, Jesus is set not for a fall but for a rising, not as a sign that is contradicted but one that is obeyed. Great indeed and truly great this Jesus appears, about whom such great and remarkable things are said that not only are Mary and Joseph, who are nearer, compelled to enter, but many are invited from east and west, like that woman who, having heard the fame of Solomon, left her country and her people and was not too lazy to come to him, even from the ends of the earth (1 Kings 10:1).
IX. And behold a great mystery: great indeed and exceedingly noble. After she came, she found Solomon, whose wisdom she declared to be greater in understanding, and whose works greater in effect, than the report she had heard. What? Is not your most peaceful state a certain pacific king? For this is what 'Solomon' seems to mean, whose fame grows so much that the aforesaid woman hastens to him; so that when there is great admiration over the things said about Jesus, many run to him from east and west, inasmuch as he is set for a rising for many. Let the north give up, and let the south not hold back (Isa. 43:6). Let them come to him from everywhere -- the young men who fight bravely against the north wind, and the virgins who shine in the purity of the south, and the old men of the west together with the younger of the east. Behold, Jesus is seen, whom Solomon represents, inviting the aforementioned queen to himself by the fragrance of his greatness. Behold also Jesus, whom that stone designates which destroys the terrible and towering statue; which afterward grew into so great a mountain that it filled the whole earth (Dan. 2:35).
X. Is not this firm stone your strong state of life? Since that state, being mature through true wisdom, resonant through shining preaching, robust through strong action, rooted through stable perseverance, and humbled through knowledge of its own fragility -- through these five virtues it destroys five evils of the worldly state. For through the first it annihilates the brilliance of vain and deceptive wisdom, which is foolishness before God (1 Cor. 3:19) -- this is the gold. Through the second, the gleam of pompous eloquence -- this is the silver. Through the third, the strength of haughty fortitude -- understand this as the bronze. Through the fourth, the stubbornness of rebellious obstinacy -- this is the iron. Through the fifth, the mud of lust -- this is the clay. And when this victory has been accomplished, this stone becomes a great mountain filling the whole earth, so that the city can no longer be hidden when it has been placed upon it (Matt. 5:14); and Joseph and Mary the mother of Jesus are powerfully compelled to marvel at the things said about him, since he has been set for the rising of many in Israel.
XI. But this stone, which having become a great mountain in Daniel fills the whole earth, and which in the Gospel contains the city placed upon it -- just as he who has believed in it, according to Peter's words, will not be confounded (1 Pet. 2:6), because Jesus is set for the rising of many in Israel -- so for those who do not believe it will be a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal for those who stumble at the word, because this same Jesus is set for the rising of many in Israel and as a sign that is contradicted (Luke 2:34). And a sword shall pierce your own soul (ibid., 35). What is this sword? Whatever it may be that is to be understood by it, I think it must here be taken in a good sense, because it is the sword of Jesus. For Jesus is plainly good, and therefore his sword must necessarily be good. A sword shall pierce your own soul, he says. Who then is the sword of Jesus? Who, I say, is the sword of Jesus that pierces the soul of Mary? For who Jesus is, and who Mary his mother is, has been said above not once, nor twice, but many times; and I do not think it needs to be repeated.
XII. But let us inquire what this sword of Jesus is. I find in Sacred Scripture -- to which we must always have recourse for recognizing truth, as to a fountain for water -- that there is a good sword, and therefore one worthy to pierce the soul of Mary, because it belongs to Jesus. I also find an evil one, which consequently does not belong to Jesus, and therefore it follows that it does not touch the soul of Mary. I also find a sword that can be taken indifferently, because it can be the occasion now of good, now of evil, according to the merit of those who use it. There is indeed a certain sword to be taken indifferently, namely temporal tribulation. Concerning which the Lord says in the Gospel: Let him sell his tunic and buy himself a sword (Luke 22:36). As if he were commanding that whoever desires to please God should cast off worldly garments and in their place not refuse the temporal tribulation borrowed for the love of God. There is also another, God's vengeance, concerning which in the canticle of Deuteronomy: And my sword shall devour flesh (Deut. 32:42). That is, my vengeance will destroy the carnal. Receive yet another: He who made him, the Lord says to Job concerning the devil, applied his sword (Job 40:14). Because God who created him restrains his malice. In this place, therefore, the sword of Behemoth is his malice. I will show you yet a fourth sword. The name of this sword is death, by which we are all struck without any exception, for we all die (2 Sam. 14:14). This is the one of which we read in Genesis concerning our father Abraham, that he carried in his hands the fire and the sword (Gen. 22:6), because the ardor of Christ's passion and the sharpness of his death were in the power of the Father. And perhaps there is still another, but these are what came to mind.
XIII. I think we can take each of these indifferently, because he who is struck by them sometimes advances toward goodness, but sometimes lapses into evil. For through the sword some fall into the fury of madness, while others rise to the fortitude of patience. Likewise the sword of divine vengeance corrects and chastises some, but strikes others and does not amend the hardened. Such I believe were those of whom the prophet, addressing the Lord, said: You struck them, and they did not grieve; you crushed them, and they refused to accept discipline (Jer. 5:3). The malice of the devil likewise exercises some toward the crown of blessedness, but provokes others more and more toward the guilt of iniquity, so that he may soon afterward drag his companions with him to the punishment of damnation. And you have at hand an example of each. For it was the devil's malice that moved the Lord against Job, to afflict him without cause (Job 2:3), and that entered into the heart of Judas to betray Christ (John 13:3). What the end of each was, no one is ignorant. And what shall we say of the sword of death? Does it not strike all, cutting down some to plant them in life, and others to bury them in death? It came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried in hell (Luke 16:22) -- where may you never come. Both, then, were cut down by one and the same sword, yet each was allotted a different place after the cutting. These swords, therefore, I would say are to be taken indifferently, and I would judge that none of them is the one that properly and spiritually ought to pierce the soul of our Mary, of whom we speak, because each is no less an occasion of evil than of good.
XIV. But I will show you evil swords -- not two or three, but even more -- none of which is the sword of Jesus, and therefore none is worthy to pierce the soul of Mary. Concerning a certain sword holy David speaks -- which indeed belongs to the Lord, yet let Him not strike my soul with it: Unless you turn back, He will brandish His sword (Ps. 7:13). That is, unless you cease from sins, He will show you His wrath. The same David speaks of the resistance of the wicked, which is a sword: The sinners have drawn the sword (Ps. 36:14), that is, the sinners have exercised resistance. See also in the same David another evil sword, namely the speech of detractors, for he says of the children of men that their tongue is a sharp sword (Ps. 56:5), because the speech of those who imitate the carnal is full of biting detraction. He also speaks of a certain other which is no less evil, and we call it wicked persuasion: Deliver me from the evil sword (Ps. 143:10). As if he were praying God to rescue him from deadly persuasion. There is also found in Ezekiel a certain evil sword, and this is sin, of which we read: If he sees the sword and does not sound the trumpet (Ezek. 33:6). He was speaking of the watchman. May God avert from us what follows, since we seem to be His watchmen. For let the preacher know himself worthy of damnation if, when he sees sin reigning, he ceases from teaching. The Lord, addressing his holy servant Job, also calls the damned man himself -- whom Paul calls the man of sin and the son of perdition (2 Thess. 2:3) -- a sword: When the sword takes hold of him (Job 41:17). Doubtless he was speaking of Behemoth; for when the Antichrist receives the devil into himself, there will be a great tribulation in the world. And the last judgment at the end of the world is also a certain sword, and a very sharp one, as the Lord says in the canticle of Deuteronomy: If I sharpen my sword like lightning (Deut. 32:41), that is, if in manifest wrath I execute my judgment. And eternal damnation is a sword, as holy Job says: If his sons are multiplied -- they will be for the sword (Job 27:14). Because however many imitators the impious man may have, they will all be condemned.
XV. Which of these swords do you declare to be good? Surely none, and therefore they do not pertain to Jesus. We placed divine wrath first and eternal damnation last. But someone among you says to me, how long will you keep us in suspense? Why do you bring forth so many swords before us, and confess that none of them pertains to Jesus? Give us one that pertains to Jesus, one worthy to pierce the soul of Mary. I will search for one in Sacred Scripture, and when I find it I will bring it forth to you. Nevertheless, I think it was not useless that we presented this diversity of swords, so that you might know which are good swords and which evil, and which are to be taken indifferently. But, you say, you have already shown some to be taken indifferently, and you have shown evil ones; it remains for you to bring forth some good ones for us. And this we shall do, if indeed God permits. If you wish to have a good sword, inquire of Paul, who says: Take the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17) -- that is, exercise spiritual preaching. For what he meant by 'sword' he made known by adding: which is the word of God (ibid.). But he who said this about the sword of the word, elsewhere speaks also of the sword of understanding, where he asserts that the word of God is more penetrating than any two-edged sword (Heb. 4:12) -- that is, more keen than any sharp intellect. The Lord himself also in the Gospel seems to make mention of a certain good sword, which, if I am not mistaken, is separation, where He says: I have not come to send peace, but a sword (Matt. 10:34) -- that is, separation. For to show that this is what He wished to indicate, He added: For I have come to set a son against his father (ibid., 35). A certain sword, and indeed a very salutary one, is the word of correction, by which He strikes inwardly in mercy. Concerning which Isaiah says: The sword shall devour you (Isa. 1:20) -- that is, correction shall rebuke you. This is that sword of which we so frequently read in the Old Testament in the battles of the saints: They struck their adversaries with the edge of the sword (Isa. 21:7) -- that is, they touched them with the voice of reproving speech.
XVI. Behold, we have drawn forth for you the evil swords, and we have drawn forth the good ones as well, so that you may know which to avoid and which you should desire to be struck by. The evil swords that you heard about above pertain to those of whom Isaiah says: And they shall beat their swords into plowshares (Isa. 2:4) -- they will change their evils into fruitful benefits. But these good ones seem to me to pertain to those of whom the Psalmist says: And two-edged swords in their hands (Ps. 149:6), because the words are fulfilled in the works of the saints. But how the sword of Jesus pierces the soul of Mary, we have no leisure to show at present, because we have already lingered a good while in drawing forth these swords. I have resolved to undertake this in the following sermon, insofar as the Lord shall deign to reveal it to us, He who is God over all things, blessed forever. Amen.
SERMON XXXVIII. ON THE SAME SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE LORD'S NATIVITY.
On the internal state of our heart.
Synopsis of the sermon. -- 1. The threefold diversity of spiritual swords compared among themselves. -- 2. A fourfold sword is said mystically to have pierced the soul of Mary. -- 3. The passage of these swords through the soul is very salutary. -- 4. How many thoughts are revealed by the stroke of the sword, which is the word of God. -- 5. The eightfold fruit of the preached word is drawn forth. -- 6. The sword of understanding pierces the soul through the comprehension of the length, breadth, depth, and height of God. -- 7. How the sword of separation and correction pierces the soul. -- 8. In monasteries, many seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ: the distinction between unruly and upright religious. -- 9. Mary is tropologically understood as illuminated reason; Joseph as humble conscience. -- 10. The custody of humility is necessary for increasing virtue. -- 11. Humility of mind is the acquirer and preserver of spiritual grace. -- 12. Man is raised to confidence in obtaining eternal reward. -- 13. God will so reward what He does of good through man, as if man had it from himself whatever he does. -- 14. The internal visitation of grace foreshadowed by Simeon blessing. How great is its power and present efficacy. -- 15. There is no fruit of holiness that is not guarded by the custody of humility. -- 16. The ruin of the whole spiritual edifice is pride: uprightness of intention is the mark of a good work. -- 17. The fervor of good desire is the twice-sharpened sword of Jesus, avoiding harmful things and exercising good ones. -- 18. The grace of God perfects our understanding and will.
I. And a sword shall pierce your own soul, holy Simeon said to Mary (Luke 2:35). In the preceding sermon, most beloved brothers in the Lord, we brought forth many swords before you, so that you might know which are good and which evil, and which are to be taken indifferently. But so that you may hold their diversity more firmly in memory, behold, we bring them forth to you both one by one and in haste. There is a sword to be taken indifferently: the first indeed is temporal tribulation; the second is worldly persecution, which we did not touch upon when we treated the others, because it did not then come to our memory. So the second sword that is taken indifferently is the persecutor, of which holy David says: The shield, the sword, and war (Ps. 75:4) -- understand: He broke them, because the Lord in His Church removes the vice of excuse, the sharpness of persecution, and the assault of the enemy. We therefore place this sword among those that are taken indifferently, because regarding persecution it is uncertain whether it tests or slays. The third is God's vengeance; the fourth, the malice of the devil; the fifth, death itself. But the evil swords are: the first is the wrath of God, the second the resistance of rebels, the third the bite of detractors, the fourth the persuasion of deceivers, the fifth sin, the sixth the Antichrist, the seventh the last judgment, the eighth eternal damnation -- all these are evil swords. But there is a good sword: the first is the word, the second the sharpness of understanding, the third separation, the fourth correction. Each of these swords is a sword of Jesus.
II. Whence it seems to me not without reason if you say that each of them pierces the soul of Mary. For to draw each one out briefly: did not the sword of the word pierce her soul, she who says: My soul melted when my beloved spoke (Song 5:6)? And did not the one who said: Pierce the heart and bring forth understanding (Sir. 22:24) sense that the sword of the intellect ought to pierce the soul? And what shall we say about the sword of separation? Does it not in those pierce the soul: Those who say to their father or mother: I know you not, and to their brothers: I do not recognize you, and did not acknowledge their own children (Deut. 33:9)? -- not even performing the duty of burial for a father, so that they might hasten to proclaim the word of God. Concerning the sword of correction, we know that it is entirely good and salutary for it to pierce the soul, since holy David desires that the just man correct him in mercy and rebuke him, but that the oil of the sinner not anoint his head (Ps. 141:5). Let then this fourfold sword of your Son pierce your soul, O Mary! So that you, O holy congregation (for you are Mary), may be instructed by the word, sharpened by understanding, made perfect by separation, and humbled by correction. Truly each of these swords pertains, O Mary, to your Jesus, so that concerning each of them it may be said to you: And a sword shall pierce your own soul. Truly, I say, they pertain to Jesus, to this salutary state of yours, from which so great benefit comes to you.
III. For that it is useful for the sword of the word to pierce your soul, He has assured you who, being the supreme Truth, cannot be deceived since He knows all things, nor does He wish to deceive, loving everything that is good -- He who declares blessed those who hear the word of God and keep it (Luke 11:48). The same must be said of understanding. Concerning separation, think no differently, for man shall approach the deep heart, and God shall be exalted (Ps. 63:7). And everyone who has left his home, or father, or mother, or brothers, or sisters, or wife, or fields for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess eternal life (Matt. 19:29). Correction also confers upon us something great and truly great, for as Solomon says, whom the Lord loves, He corrects (Prov. 3:12); and another says: Blessed is the man who is corrected by the Lord (Job 5:17). Whence in admonishing he added: Therefore do not reject the Lord's rebuke, because He himself wounds and heals, strikes and His hands will cure (ibid., 18). But granted -- let us concede what indeed must be conceded -- that it is useful for the sword of Jesus to pierce the soul of Mary; but what did Simeon add after this, and to what end did he assert that the sword of Jesus would pierce the soul of Mary? So that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed (Luke 2:35). And see if this is not true. See, I say, but you will never see it better than in your own experience.
IV. For when the sword of the word pierces the soul, who can not only recount but even comprehend how many or what kinds of thoughts are revealed? Many indeed, and in many ways are thoughts revealed when the sword of the word passes through the soul, according as that same sword multiplies or varies its strokes. For it frequently and in diverse ways pierces the soul by striking it. First, the examples of the saints are narrated in its stroke, and history passes through the soul. Second, the truth of faith is revealed and allegory touches it. Third, morals are instructed, and tropology strikes it. Fourth, heavenly joys are revealed, and anagogy sweetly wounds it. Consider now what kind of thoughts are revealed in this manner, when the sword of the word passes through the soul. See if in the touch of history, thoughts are not revealed that are excited to the imitation of holiness; in allegory, illuminated to the recognition of truth; in tropology, kindled to the love of virtue; in anagogy, melted to the desire for heavenly blessedness. And if you diligently study how many are the things that the word of God sets before us in its exhortation, I think you will not then doubt that thoughts are revealed when its sword has pierced the soul. And behold, eight come to mind for us; but if you wish, seek more when you have leisure. They are these: prohibition, precept, concession, persuasion, correction, consolation, threatening, and promise.
V. The word of God, I say, when its sword pierces the soul, either prohibits, or commands, or concedes, or persuades, or corrects, or consoles, or threatens, or promises. It prohibits evils, commands goods, concedes things in the middle, persuades to perfection, corrects the restless, consoles the fainthearted, threatens the punishments of hell, promises the joys of the kingdom. Its prohibitions are at the bottom, its precepts on the slope, its concessions on the plain, its persuasions at the summit. At the bottom of vices, on the slope of commandments, on the plain of permitted things, at the summit of counsels. And corrections pertain to wine, consolations to oil, threatenings to old things, promises to new things. The merciful Samaritan claims the first two for himself (Luke 10:33); the scribe learned in the kingdom of heaven, the second two (Matt. 13:52). When this sword pierces the soul in these and many other ways, are not thoughts revealed from many hearts? For from prohibition, thoughts are revealed toward hatred of wickedness; from precept, toward the accomplishment of goodness; from concession, toward the freedom of one's own will, yet lawfully; from persuasion, toward the desire for perfection; from correction, toward the virtue of humility; from consolation, toward the sweetness of rejoicing; from threatening, toward the terror of fear; from promise, toward the ardor of love. Behold the sword of Jesus, a two-headed sword, because from the mouth of Him who in the Apocalypse is called the Word of God (He sat upon a white horse [Rev. 19:11], because the Word was made flesh), from His mouth, it says, a sword sharp on both sides proceeds, to strike the nations with it (ibid., 15). Terribly striking the wicked on account of their vices, and sweetly wounding the good on account of their virtues. This twice-sharpened sword is also, both in the same Apocalypse and in Ezekiel, called a book written within and without (Ezek. 2:9). And there, in the mouth of the one who devours it, it becomes sweet as honey, but it makes his belly bitter (Rev. 10:9). Here moreover it contains both a song for sweetness, and lamentations and woe for bitterness (Ezek. 2:9). You can, if I am not mistaken, conjecture from these things -- and you can also learn far better in your own daily experience -- that when this first sword passes through the soul, thoughts are revealed.
VI. What shall I say about the sword of understanding? Do we not frequently experience concerning it too that the more deeply it pierces the soul, the more vehemently thoughts, as someone says, variously succeed one another, and the mind is carried in different directions? For very often, when rooted and grounded in it we comprehend with all the saints what is the length, breadth, height, and depth (Eph. 3:18), thoughts are indeed revealed from our hearts. Do not thoughts of perseverance on account of the promises reveal themselves in us from the comprehension of length, which is eternity? From the comprehension of breadth, which is charity, are not thoughts of love revealed in us on account of benefits? From the comprehension of the deep, which is wisdom, are not thoughts of fear revealed in us on account of judgments? But because all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Ps. 24:10); because these two things we have heard, namely power and mercy (Ps. 61:12-13); and because finally the Psalmist declares that he sings to the Lord of mercy and judgment (Ps. 100:1): thoughts of love, sweetly consoling, are revealed when this sword pierces the soul, comprehending the length of eternity which never fails, and the breadth of charity which hates nothing that it has made; and thoughts of fear are revealed when the same sword pierces the soul, comprehending the height of majesty which is above all things, whose hand is all-powerful, and the depth of wisdom which is beneath all things, whose all-seeing eye is never absent. You see therefore that thoughts happen to be revealed when this sword too pierces the soul.
VII. There are also very many other ways in which, when this sword passes through the soul, thoughts are revealed, which we have no leisure now to demonstrate. But if you wish to know -- to run through briefly, since we have already lingered a while on these things -- what thoughts are revealed when the sword of separation and correction passes through the soul, receive perfect humility of mind and the virtue of true charity. For a full and perfect contempt in the soul of all visible things, and also a full separation of affection from one's very relatives, is a great occasion and cause for acquiring and retaining the charity of inner peace. Salutary correction, no less, is the trench dug around the tree; when manure is put at its roots, barrenness is soon driven away and it is made fruitful (Luke 13:8). And thus it escapes that shameful reproach, 'why does it take up the ground,' and does not incur that terrible sentence: cut it down (ibid., 7). You see now, I think, whence it happens that thoughts are revealed when the sword of Jesus pierces the soul of Mary.
VIII. So that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed (Luke 2:35). Why not from all, but from many? Because, as the Apostle says, faith is not the possession of all (2 Thess. 3:2). And this is what we are accustomed to lament: that when the sword of Jesus pierces the soul of Mary, thoughts are not revealed from all hearts. For while the word of preaching, obediently received, adorns and beautifies the perfect and intimate men of the cenobitic congregation, and the surpassing virtue of the charity of Christ (Eph. 3:19) sharpens the subtle intellect; while the contempt of all visible things and even of one's own relatives is found sublimely among them, and salutary correction is humbly admitted -- yet not all who belong to that congregation, but many, are enriched by the fruits of these goods, because not all who live therein seek only the things of Christ. And so this fourfold sword of Jesus, about which we have already said much, does indeed pierce the soul of Mary; but thoughts are not revealed from all hearts. For not all in monasteries receive the implanted word, which can save their souls (James 1:21). But there are many in whom it grows and bears fruit, and many indeed in whom the word of God does not take hold. So too there are many who approach the deep heart so that God may be exalted (Ps. 63:8), but many who languish in sloth, so that as their soul sleeps from weariness, the enemies who see them mock their sabbaths (Lam. 1:7). Likewise there are many whom no attachment to visible things, no affection for relatives, draws back from the path of their adopted purpose; and if at some time the cows carrying the ark on the cart bellow within them, they nevertheless always press on, never turning to the right through pride in prosperity nor to the left through impatience in adversity, until they reach Beth-shemesh (1 Sam. 6:12) and stand in that field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh, full, which the Lord does not cease to bless (ibid., 18). But there are many who, to speak briefly, are disposed in a manner entirely contrary to this. They are the ones who always turn back while walking, not after the manner of those heavenly animals which went and returned (Ezek. 1:14), but after the likeness of those carnal and unbelieving ones who returned in their hearts to Egypt (Num. 14:4). There are likewise many who have ears that willingly hear the rebukes of life; yet not a few are troublesome to us, and when we sing songs to their wicked hearts, we recognize it to be vinegar upon nitre (Prov. 25:20).
IX. See therefore and consider that Simeon declared not without reason that thoughts are revealed not indeed from all, but from many hearts, when the sword of Jesus passes through the soul of Mary. For the Lord himself chose twelve, and one of them was a devil (John 6:7), and seven deacons were chosen by the apostles (Acts 6:5), and one turned out to be the author and inventor of foul and fetid error. And for the present, accept this meaning in these words of the holy Gospel. Indeed another sense can also be understood in these words, even somewhat more subtle and profound than this one, from which I by no means wish to defraud you; and behold, receive it. Mary is skilled reason; Joseph is humble conscience. She, Mary, is a star, because it is the task of reason, for those navigating the hidden movements of thoughts in the depths of that interior heart of ours, to provide that they not crash upon the rocks of illicit consent and suffer the shipwreck of wicked corruption. He, however, is called 'increase,' because the more conscience is humbled, the more it is increased by the richer gift of interior grace, according to the saying: Every valley shall be filled (Luke 3:5). Holy David also says that the valleys shall abound with grain (Ps. 64:14). Through the prophet Isaiah no less: Upon whom, says the Lord, shall my Spirit rest, if not upon the humble and quiet one, who trembles at my words? (Isa. 66:2). Mary is the mother of Jesus, and reason is the parent of a good purpose. Reason conceives the purpose of holiness -- it conceives, I say, Jesus himself and gives birth: it conceives the affection in the will, and through effect gives birth in one's way of life. Joseph is the guardian of this Jesus and also his custodian, so that the good and fruitful purpose of holiness -- which the skilled subtlety of reason first seeks from God, the giver of all good things, then receives with the will opening its embrace, and finally, presenting the members of the body as weapons of justice to God, manifests in action (Rom. 6:19) -- may be nurtured by the humility of a simple conscience all the way to perfection, and promoted, and guarded, protected, and defended from every loss of diminishment that the vice of pride is accustomed to inflict.
X. Thus, the purpose of holiness is sought by the intellect, received by the affections, and brought to public expression by the effects. But it immediately incurs the loss of failure unless the solicitude of true humility guards it with all diligence. You see that it was not without reason that Jesus wished to have both a mother from whom to be born and a guardian by whom to be protected -- so that you too may know that it profits you nothing to gather spiritual goods within yourself unless you guard them with diligent and careful circumspection. To this seems to pertain what you read: that God placed man in paradise to tend it and to keep it (Gen. 2:15). And God indeed places you in paradise when, freely bestowing upon you a delightful abundance of spiritual graces, He makes you rest in secure tranquility and tranquil security. But see to it that you both tend and guard this paradise of yours. Tend it through the strength of fortitude; guard it through the protection of circumspection. Tend it diligently, guard it cautiously. Moreover, the safeguard of keeping is the humility of conscience. Work therefore so that you may strongly guard your spiritual virtues; be careful lest you negligently lose what you have acquired.
XI. I say to you, my friends, believe one who has experienced it: nothing so effective can a man have for spiritual grace -- not only for acquiring it before it is given, but also for retaining and increasing it after it has been given -- as to be always humble in his own eyes, always fearful and circumspect, always timid and solicitous, always conscious that he should not be high-minded but should fear (Rom. 11:20), always and in all things accusing himself. Humble conscience, therefore, is Joseph, who is called 'increase,' because the greater the humility held in the mind, the more grace is increased in it; and to the one who has, more will be given and he will abound. O how great the abundance of spiritual gifts with Mary and Joseph! How great the overflowing fullness of spiritual graces! When she rejoices to be the undefiled mother of Jesus, and he the watchful guardian: the fruitful purpose of holiness alike, with the pious inquiry of reason conceiving and giving birth, and the true humility of conscience nourishing and guarding the prerogative of this Jesus -- that is, the excellence of a spiritual purpose.
XII. Surely the blessed confidence of hope raises exceedingly high the great reward that awaits in the future, and promises what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, which it declares shall be given. There is heard in a certain cry of silence, and a clamorous silence, the voice of the spirit crying: Abba, Father (Rom. 8:15). Certain things are heard to which scarcely do reason dare open its eye or conscience dare give its consent, so that Joseph and Mary marvel beyond measure at the things that are said about Him. Is it not indeed wondrous that, when all nations are as though they are not before Him, and are reckoned by Him as nothing and emptiness (Dan. 4:32), the heart, conscience and faith, charity and hope dare affirm that man is to be counted among the sons of God and that his lot is among the saints (Wis. 5:5)? Wondrous indeed, and yet in a certain way not wondrous. For what does the heart not dare if it is pure, conscience if it is good, faith if it is unfeigned, charity if it is perfect, hope if it is certain? It is said, therefore, that for so little, so much will be bestowed as cannot be estimated by others; that which is so great and so abundant in every way, for what is almost nothing: future things for present, heavenly for earthly, eternal for transitory.
XIII. These are the things that are said about Jesus, so that not undeservedly can Joseph and Mary his mother not fail to marvel at them. For a stupor of great admiration arises in reason -- this is Mary. And a fear of great trepidation arises in conscience -- this is Joseph. Reason itself is astonished at what it perceives; conscience trembles at what it feels. So great are the things that true internal report spreads about Jesus, that Joseph and Mary his mother are in wonder over them. Man is not sufficient to think anything of himself, as from himself (2 Cor. 3:5) -- how much less to do anything? And yet the report spreads, and the certainty of hope proclaims in the marketplace of the mind that God will so reward what He does through man, as if man had from himself whatever good he does. Hope promises and pledges that poverty will possess the kingdom of heaven; meekness will possess the earth; temporal mourning will receive perpetual consolation; hunger and thirst will receive fullness; mercy will obtain mercy; purity of heart will receive the vision of the Creator; peacemakers will be honored with the name of children of God; the endurance of persecution will inherit the kingdom of heaven. These things, and many others of this kind, are so great and of such a nature that, since hope presumes upon them, and reason grows dim, and conscience trembles, Joseph and Mary the mother of Jesus marvel at the things that are said about Him.
XIV. But it is of the utmost importance that the frequent visitation of interior grace perfect and confirm the ineffable magnitude of this blessedness, with which Mary the mother of Jesus and Joseph are enriched -- not only in that they have Jesus himself with them, but in that they marvel at the things that are said about Him. For thus almighty God is accustomed to act in His elect: not only bestowing spiritual goods upon them, but also preserving what has been bestowed through the frequent visitation of His grace. Did not the one who says: You have granted me life and mercy, and your visitation has guarded my spirit (Job 10:12) sense that this was being done for him? And indeed in such things -- in life and mercy -- is the life of the spirit of the just man. But unless visitation guards the life and mercy given, neither avails, because neither endures. And this is what is here stated: And Simeon blessed them (Luke 2:34). Simeon is the interior visitation, who is called 'obedient'; the interior visitation is indeed called obedient because it makes obedient those into whom it pours itself, according to what is asserted: that the Spirit intercedes for us with unspeakable groanings (Rom. 8:26), for those whom He fills He consequently also makes to intercede. For what good can a man not only do but even will, if the incentive is lacking? And what is there that his mind does not presume to conceive through affection, and his body does not shrink from undertaking through action, when he has the visitation of interior grace both inciting him to will and assisting him to accomplish? If you doubt about any of these things, inquire of Paul, and you will find both in him. For he himself asserts that he is not sufficient to think anything of himself (2 Cor. 3:5), and that he can do all things in Him who strengthens him (Phil. 4:13). You see therefore Paul -- in himself a little worm creeping, but in God a mighty athlete -- when he says that he cannot, I will not say do, but even think anything of himself as from himself; yet that he can do not only some things but all things in Him who strengthens him. Rightly therefore the visitation of interior grace is called Simeon, which works in the man in whom and toward whom it deigns to work both the willing and the accomplishing according to its good pleasure (Phil. 2:13), so that in its presence he confidently says: I am prepared and am not troubled, to keep your commandments (Ps. 118:60).
XV. And that other passage: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready: I will sing and give praise (Ps. 107:2). He is the one who confirms the shining reason and the humble conscience, in the great beatitude of hope indeed -- in which the latter exults with trembling and the former with astonishment -- in a stable and firm purpose of holiness. And understand that this is what it means that, while Joseph and Mary the mother of Jesus were marveling at the things said about Him, Simeon blessed them. For his blessing is the instruction of interior grace. And it is indeed very necessary that, while Joseph and Mary the mother of Jesus marvel at the things said about Him, Simeon be present with his blessing, so that the many and great goods that are held in this admiration may be renewed and fostered by the interior visitation, and defended from diminishment and promoted to spiritual increase. And not only that, but by renewing and fostering and increasing, may it perfect, confirm, and make them solid. This it does precisely when it instructs reason how cautiously it must conduct itself in the purpose of holiness, which it conceives in affection and brings forth in effect. For the holiness that you propose to undertake in action, if you carry it out humbly, you will turn to spiritual fruit; but if arrogantly, to the use of sin. And it happens in a miserable way that where you could have been raised to the summit of virtue, there you fall into the pit of crime. And therefore it is necessary that interior grace address reason concerning this, and teach it to take precaution against these evils, since they very often happen thus. To this seems to pertain what Simeon says to Mary the mother of Jesus: that He is set for the fall and the rising of many in Israel, and as a sign that is contradicted (Luke 2:34). For if a man who sees God is called Israel, cannot a manly spirit that sees God through a glass darkly (1 Cor. 13:12) be called Israel? And for many in this Israel, Jesus is set for a rising and a fall, because for many hidden movements of the soul, the exercise of holiness is an occasion both that some may fall from good to worse through pride, and that others may rise from good to better, and from better to best -- not, as it were, from valley to plain, but rather from the plain of the field to the slope of the hill, and from the slope of the hill to the summit of the mountain, through humility. Therefore beware, brothers, of the plague of pride, of the corruption of boasting. How many we know for whom it was more harmful that they possessed virtues than if they had lacked them! For those whose cry is: Our hand is exalted, and not the Lord has done all these things (Deut. 32:27), while they think they did not receive what they have, and therefore glory as though they had not received it, it would have been better for them to have lacked what they have (1 Cor. 4:7); for then at least they would know what they lacked. But now, since they think they are something when they are nothing, they deceive themselves (Gal. 6:3).
XVI. Beware therefore, you who seem especially to have Jesus among you, lest you have Him unto ruin. How, you ask, is Jesus held unto ruin? How is a good work exercised unto pride? For understand pride as ruin, and vain exaltation as the occasion and cause of downfall. For thus you read: Before ruin the heart is exalted (Prov. 16:18). Did not the one who fasted twice a week and gave tithes of all he possessed have Jesus? But he had Him unto ruin, when he said that he was not like the rest of men, not even like the publican who was present (Luke 18:11-13). Salutary therefore is that admonition of the wise man: The greater you are, humble yourself in all things (Sir. 3:20) -- exhorting indeed in those few words that Jesus be held, not for a fall but for a rising. Let holy Simeon therefore say to Mary the mother of Jesus within you that He is set for the rising of many in Israel. That is, let the visitation of interior grace instruct your reason, which conceives within you the purpose of holiness by willing and brings it forth by working, that through the same holiness, when it is exercised, certain interior movements of the soul rise from good to better through humility, while others fall to worse through pride. Jesus is also set as a sign that is contradicted -- but far be it from you. For you are not among those who do all their works to be seen by men (Matt. 23:5). Uprightness of interior intention, then, is the sign in which Jesus is placed, because we have this sign that the good we exercise is fruitful and salutary for us, if we do it with the intention of pleasing the eyes of the internal Inspector alone. For just as those who do their works to be seen by men will have no reward with their Father in heaven, so indeed the vision of God will be given in recompense only to those for whom love of Him alone is the cause of their action. But this sign is contradicted by many who seek glory and praise from men and do not seek the glory that comes from God alone.
XVII. After these things the same Simeon adds, saying: And a sword shall pierce your own soul (Luke 2:35). Because the fervor of good desire, which is held in a holy purpose, pierces the very interior of reason; for the sword of Jesus is the keenness of holy desire, which is contained in the purpose of holiness signified by Jesus. This sword is indeed twice sharpened: both for avoiding what is evil and for exercising what is good. This fervor of good desire that inheres in the purpose of holiness arouses one to shun evils and to accomplish good things, which is for the sword of Jesus to pierce the soul of Mary. When this is done with care, various stirrings are renewed in the depths, which is for thoughts to be revealed from many hearts. And we feel this being done within us very often: namely, when we propose to undertake something pertaining to holiness, and when we ardently desire to put it into effect, it penetrates within us the interior of reason, to which it belongs to conceive gifts and to bring them forth, to arrange and moderate the keenness of fervent desire and the interior movements that are accustomed to vary in many ways; and thence arise stirrings and cares, solicitudes and provisions, so that what is boldly desired may be devoutly accomplished, and what has been devoutly accomplished may be perseveringly maintained. Above all, that it be exercised not with a view to human favor, but for the sake of interior recompense alone.
XVIII. And what does all this seem to you to be, other than the sword of Jesus piercing the soul of Mary, and as it pierces her soul, thoughts being revealed from many hearts? Now that Simeon manifests these things to this same Mary -- namely, that Jesus is set for the fall and the rising of many in Israel, and as a sign that is contradicted, and that a sword will pierce her own soul, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed -- that Simeon, I say, announces all these things to Mary, what do we think this is, if not -- to say it briefly -- that the visitation of interior grace, which Simeon represents, addresses reason concerning these good things, and addressing it instructs it, and instructing it makes it certain? For that visitation is accustomed to pour into the mind that it judges worthy of its presence that anointing which, according to the statement of blessed John the Apostle, teaches about all things (1 John 2:27); it illumines the mind into which it is poured toward the knowledge of truth through the intellect. And because it is an anointing (ibid.), it softens that mind toward the love of virtue through the affections. And if you wish to know something about it more fully and perfectly, it is the charity of God which is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us -- who with the Father and the Son is God blessed forever. Amen.
Sermon XXXIX: On the Interior Purity of Mind, Which Is to Be Offered to God Alone
I. 'And there was Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher' (Luke 2:36). Scripture says that 'the just man is the accuser of himself at the beginning' (Prov. 18:17). I too wished to accuse myself at the beginning of this sermon. For if the just man does this, how much more does it befit me to do so, who am not just but a sinner? And what is any man's justice worth, unless the true humility of self-accusation commends it? Who among us can be not only more just, but even compared in justice to the one who says: 'All our justices are as the cloth of a menstruous woman' (Isa. 64:6)? In his most humble, and therefore most holy words, brothers, your prudence clearly perceives of how much worth his justices were in his own eyes -- since he wished to compare them to a thing that not only the eye shrinks from seeing but the mind recoils from thinking about. Receive also another who had no confidence in his own justice: 'Not in our justifications, which we ourselves have done, do we prostrate our prayers before your face, but in your manifold mercies' (Dan. 9:18). This was holy Daniel. Also that disciple whom Jesus loved: 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us' (1 John 1:8). But let this word stand now in the mouth of these three witnesses -- though there are innumerable others, indeed all who pleased God in holiness, who, each one doubting the quality of his merits, fled from the face of the sword, knowing that there is judgment, and fled to mercy. Whence this is the cry of each one: 'Enter not into judgment with your servant, O Lord, for no living man shall be justified in your sight' (Ps. 142:2).
II. He alone is just who alone is free among the dead (Ps. 87:5); to whom holy David says: 'You are just, O Lord, and your judgment is right' (Ps. 118:137). And again: 'I will remember your justice alone' (Ps. 70:16). Why His justice alone, unless because He alone is truly just? Of whom holy Jeremiah says: 'This is the name they shall call Him: The Lord our just one' (Jer. 23:6). But in His justice He himself justifies very many, and from His fullness we have all received (John 1:16), so that the ointment of the head descends through the beard to the hem of the garment (Ps. 132:2). Because no one can make clean from unclean seed, save He alone (Job 14:4). Therefore do not think you have nothing to accuse if you seek to be just; rather hope that you can be justified when you have been a diligent observer and solicitous searcher, scrupulously and carefully investigating what is to be accused in yourself; and when what you must accuse has appeared, do not dissemble in accusing it. Know, dearest, that your justice can be no greater than your accusation. Rightly therefore it is said that the just man is the accuser of himself. For this very thing is to be just: to accuse oneself -- he who cannot even be just unless he accuses himself.
III. And I, as I have already said, not just but a sinner, wish to imitate him, because the words of the Gospel that I have now undertaken to treat bring no small accusation against myself. For when the evangelist Luke wished to say in what follows about this woman -- that she came upon them and confessed to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all who awaited the redemption of Israel (Luke 2:36-38) -- he took care to show in what preceded that she was worthy to confess to the Lord, and that what she said about Him should not be disbelieved by her hearers. For he said: 'And she was a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel,' and the rest up to the place: 'who awaited the redemption of Israel.' You see therefore that first he extols her with great and many praises, and then introduces her confessing to the Lord and speaking about Him to others. For first he asserts that she was a virgin who married a husband, that she remained many years in widowhood, that she did not depart from the temple, that she always served God in prayer and fasting -- and then finally that she came to confess to the Lord and to speak about Him to all who awaited the redemption of Israel. To this I think pertains what is said about Jesus: that Jesus began to do and to teach (Acts 1:1). And that the prophet was called mighty in work and word (Luke 24:19). Also what the Psalmist says: 'From your commandments I gained understanding' (Ps. 118:104); and also what we read about Ezra, that he prepared his heart to do and to teach in Israel precepts and judgments (Ezra 7:10). All of which I say in accusation and reproach of myself, who indeed seem to teach but am not found to do; who bring forth speech but do not have the work; who understand indeed, but not from your commandments; and while through me others seem to feast, I myself perish with hunger. And why do I now speak to you about individual vices and virtues, asserting that I neither avoid the former nor practice the latter? I speak, to say it briefly, about vices to be shunned, though I am vicious; about virtues to be practiced, though I am empty of virtues; and after the manner of this holy woman, I seem to speak to you about the Lord, you who await the redemption of Israel. But it can by no means be said of me that I do not depart from the temple, devoting myself to fasting and prayer, day and night -- whatever those things may be that are to be understood spiritually through these.
IV. But this should be considered by those who so often compel me to speak, since according to the maxim of a holy man, when someone's life is despised, it is fitting that his preaching be contemned; the Lord himself is even read to have addressed the sinner with a reproving word through the Psalmist (Ps. 49:6): why, namely, he had dared to proclaim His justice, when it is clear that he is entangled in those sins that are treated in the following verses. They should not therefore venerate in me the beauty of leaves alone (if even that were present in me), when they see that the savor of fruit is lacking. For what else is a man who is empty and vain, bringing forth words indeed but not exercising works, if not a barren tree that has leaves but lacks fruit? (Matt. 21:19). And we know indeed that the Lord struck the fig tree with the curse of barrenness, at which, being hungry, He found no fruit, though it was not lacking in leaves. And what example is more dreadful for those who speak but do not act? Therefore they ought first to seek works from me rather than demand words, according to what the Bridegroom says to the Bride in the Song of Songs: 'Show me your face, let your voice sound in my ears' (Song 2:14). He wished first that the face be shown to Him, and then that the voice sound in His ears, so that afterward His speech might more sweetly fill the hearing, since the face of action had first gladdened the sight. You see therefore that the Bridegroom first seeks from the Bride a way of life as an example, so that preaching may afterward be more pleasing to Him as instruction?
But let us now attend to the moral exposition of these things said about this woman, and let the things said in her praise be taken as my reproach -- since I rashly claim for myself the speech she had about the Lord to those who awaited the redemption of Israel, while I do not have her praiseworthy way of life.
V. 'There was,' says the evangelist, 'Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel.' Setting aside whatever allegorical sense, according to which this woman is undoubtedly understood to pertain to the holy Church of the elect, it seems to me that the devout soul that does not receive the grace of God in vain (2 Cor. 6:1), and in which that grace is not idle; and which sees, according to Paul's admonition, how to walk cautiously (Eph. 5:15) -- not as foolish but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil -- such a soul, I say, seems to me to be Anna the prophetess. And indeed these names give me to understand this, because 'Anna,' as they say, means 'grace,' and the one who today is called a prophet was formerly called a seer (1 Sam. 9:9). Moreover, you need a threefold solicitude lest you receive the grace of God in vain: that you diligently attend to the gift of grace you have received, both to turn it to your own benefit, and to share it with your neighbor when he is in need, and in both to seek the praise and glory of your Giver. For if you have the gift of grace but do not have it for yourself, you are a lamp shining indeed, but not for yourself. And what does it profit the darkness if the light shines in it, and the darkness does not comprehend it? (John 1:5). Such indeed are those who are wise in doing evil, but know not how to do good (Jer. 4:22). There are also those who sow much and bring in little; who eat and are not satisfied; who drink and are not inebriated; who cover themselves and are not warmed; who gather wages and put them into a bag with holes (Hag. 1:6). Therefore the Apostle took care to admonish his beloved disciple to rekindle the grace that was in him, lest he neglect what was given, saying also of himself that he did not wish to cast it aside (Gal. 2:21).
VI. You see therefore that it would be more expedient to lack grace than to have it uselessly. And what will you say of him who seeks to hoard alone what he alone seems to have received, seeking his own and not what is another's? I know not by what right such a person presumes to claim communion for himself under Christ the head in His body, which is the Church, when each member of that body should be solicitous for the others, so that if one suffers, the rest may suffer with it. Do the eyes, which alone see in our body, see only for themselves? Do the ears, which alone hear, hear only for themselves? And do the feet, which alone walk, walk only for themselves? By no means, but for the whole body. For each member of our body refers its proper function to the common benefit; and what it has, it has as its own in such a way that it is also common. Its own indeed for function, but common for advantage -- dictated by that one and indissoluble charity by which each should be solicitous for each other. Are not each of you, who form this sacred community, individual members of the body of Christ? This is Paul's statement: 'For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ' (Rom. 12:5). And he added: 'And each one individually members of one another.' Just as you see, then, in our body that the individual members cannot all be of the same function or action, so neither can each of you who are members of this body (which is this canonical congregation) be of one and the same exercise or perfection. For perhaps one among you is stronger than another in bodily strength, another more skilled in the caution of prudence, another more keen in acuteness of perception, another stronger in courage of spirit, another more astute in detecting the deceits of this world, another more expert in knowledge of external things, another more learned in the sentences of Scripture, another more graceful in singing, another more apt in reading, another more profound in thought, another more polished in expression, another more rigorous in fasting, another more diligent in keeping watch, another more devout in prayer, another more pure in contemplation, another more robust in manual labor. And there is none among you whom that same Spirit, whose are the divisions of graces, does not place above another in something (1 Cor. 12:11), and whom He likewise does not place below another in something, since one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each of you as He wills. Why, brothers, does that giver of all goods dispose you with such great care, enriching one among you with what He allows another to lack, filling this one with what He permits the other to be without? Unless it is so that each one, recognizing what he lacks, may know that he needs the other, and offering charitably what he has and imitating humbly what he does not have, may take up the psalm and give the timbrel (Ps. 80:3), like the living creatures among you whose wings strike one against another (Ezek. 3:13).
VII. Since this is so, let it never be -- and again I say, never be -- that there is anyone among you who tries to hold alone even what he alone seems to have; but rather, whatever he alone receives as a gift, let him bring it to the common good through its fruit. Let him not envy those who perhaps have more abundantly; let him also not despise those who have less. With humble charity as much as charitable humility dictating, let him piously spend what he has upon those who have not; let him diligently seek from those who have what he himself has not; so that when such great and such care has made each of you attentive to one another, you may walk in concord in one peace and happily attain to one rest. Having therefore gifts that differ according to the grace that has been given to you (Rom. 12:5) -- whether these or those, by which among you one excels in an eminent way while the other humbly lacks: 'Through the charity of the Spirit serve one another, regarding each other as superior, each one not considering his own interests, but those of others' (Phil. 2:3). Let each one, moreover, as that first of the apostles exhorts: 'As each has received grace, ministering it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone ministers, let it be as from the power that God administers, so that in all things God may be glorified' (1 Pet. 4:10-11).
But you do these things if the charity of brotherhood remains in you; if you do not forget beneficence and sharing (Heb. 13:16); if none of you seeks his own but what is another's; if the stronger among you are ready to bear the weaknesses of the infirm and not to please themselves (Rom. 15:1); and if, finally, each of you presents himself without offense to the whole Church of God, in all things pleasing all, not seeking what is useful to himself but what benefits many, so that they may be saved (1 Cor. 10:32-33). And all these things pertain to what we said: that we ought to share with our neighbors, as they may need, what we have received, lest it happen that we receive the grace of God in vain. But it is of the utmost importance that in all these things we seek the glory and honor of that Father of lights, from whom (as the Apostle James testifies) every best gift and every perfect endowment comes (James 1:17). For he who does not spend grace for the glory of the giver loses it, and he shows himself utterly unworthy who in its execution seeks anything other than Him alone who bestows it.
VIII. Take heed therefore, dearest ones: let not your left hand know what your right hand does (Matt. 6:3), because -- to say it briefly and truly -- God has nothing to reward except what He sees done for His own sake. O hidden robber, O lurking thief, the appetite for human favor! You see now how necessary it is that there be, as you read in Ezekiel, a trench at the altar (Ezek. 43:13). Namely, let humility attend every good work, lest what is offered on the altar of devotion through the exercise of holiness be carried away, utterly scattered, and annihilated by the wind of pride. Therefore keep your eye simple, so that your body may be full of light (Matt. 6:22) -- that is, maintain right intention, so that your work may be acceptable to God. Let then this threefold solicitude hold the devout soul in its reception of grace: that the gift it has received it turn both to its own benefit, and share it with its neighbor if he is in need, and in both seek the praise and glory of its Giver. Let it turn it to its own benefit because 'cursed is he who makes his own portion worse' (Prov. 3:7). Let it share it with its neighbor because, if you are wise, you will not be for yourself alone but also for your neighbor. Let it seek the glory of the giver because 'God scatters the bones of those who please men. They are confounded because God has despised them' (Ps. 52:9).
IX. Now the name Anna, which means 'grace,' can be fittingly applied to this soul, since in dispensing the manifold grace of God that she has received, she works out her own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), cheerfully and readily comes to meet the need of her neighbor everywhere, and in all things effectively helps as much as she can, and in all her movements, both hidden and open, she recognizes the Giver of the grace she exercises as her witness and awaits Him as her rewarder. This soul, I say, can be called Anna. She does not receive the grace of God in vain: careful for herself, useful to her neighbor, pious toward God. Careful for herself through the holiness of a religious way of life, useful to her neighbor through the work of fraternal charity, pious toward God through the uprightness of interior intention. Let this soul also be a prophetess: let her see the past and see the future, having eyes both before and behind. Let her behold her own past evils, which she formerly committed, so as to be pierced with sorrow; let her behold also future things that press upon her through temptation, so as to be shaken with fear. And thus a twofold benefit will come to her in this double vision: that with all harmful security removed -- which is the mother and nurse of vices, but the stepmother and emptier of virtues -- shaken and humbled, she may both fear her strict Judge there and reverence her watchful Guardian here, lest perchance either He condemn the sinful and wicked woman to death, or the guardian allow the weak and feeble one to fall. Let her turn her eyes backward to that miserable state in which she once lay prostrate, and recognize it as most worthy of damnation; let her turn them to this state in which she somehow seems to stand, and clearly know that a fall is near if the One who sustains her withdraws His hands even for a moment. There let her see the iniquity for which she grieves; here the infirmity for which she fears. This, then, is the twofold state that presents itself to our prophetess as she considers: with those eyes that she has behind, she sees the state that has passed; with those before, the state that is now present.
X. There are still other things that she sees behind, and other things also that she sees before; but both are far off. If you wish to know what those things are that are behind, they are the dignity of our redemption [or: of our creation and the piety of redemption]. The former consideration excites admiration on account of its sublimity; the latter moves to love on account of its tenderness. For it is full of all wonder to see man created in the image and likeness of God; and it is no less full of love to behold God appearing in man, appearing for man, and enduring from man so great and so many things for man. Our prophetess sees -- to pass over in silence the graciousness of our creation for now -- God incarnate for her, born, wrapped in swaddling cloths, placed in a manger, fed with human milk, circumcised, offered, subject to his parents, baptized, hungry, tempted, dishonored by wicked men: enduring observers in his deeds, and contradictors in his words; sought for stoning, led to be thrown down, speaking salutary things, keeping silence amid reproaches, working wonders, enduring harsh things -- and not only harsh but unworthy things. She sees him washing the feet of his disciples, praying at greater length in his agony, sweating drops of blood, seized with swords and clubs, bound, judged, condemned, blindfolded, struck with fists, slapped, bruised with blows, smeared with spittle, clothed in a scarlet cloak, crowned with thorns, worshipped in mockery, crucified, given vinegar to drink, pierced with a lance, praying for those who crucified him, yielding up his spirit. She sees him dead, buried, rising, ascending, seated at the right hand of God the Father, coming on the last day, about to judge the living and the dead, and reigning forever in his elect. These things, and others of this kind, pertaining both to the sublimity of creation and to the tenderness of redemption, our prophetess beholds with those eyes that she has behind -- things that have indeed passed as regards the act, but that will endure forever as regards their fruit.
XI. But if you wish to know the things that lie before, receive the calamity of infernal punishment and the happiness of the heavenly homeland. The former terrifies the one who sees it; the latter soothes. For it is horrifying to the beholder to see that land of darkness, covered with the fog of death, the land of misery and shadows, where the shadow of death and no order dwell, but everlasting horror inhabits (Job 10:21-22). Fear and trembling also come upon you when you go forth through knowledge to see the corpses of those who have transgressed against the Lord, for you see that the worm gnaws them and the fire burns them, and both are also eternal -- for the one is called unquenchable and the other undying (Isa. 66:24). But just as it is horrible to behold these things, so it is exceedingly sweet for her to see that city, the new Jerusalem descending from heaven from God, having the brightness of God, whose light is like a precious stone (Rev. 21:2), whose streets are paved with pure gold, through whose lanes alleluia is sung (Tobit 13:21-22). Both of these, therefore -- infernal punishment and heavenly joy -- lie ahead. And just as seeing the one is a seedbed of terror, so the other is an incentive of love. Our prophetess sees, then, certain things behind: the dignity of creation, the tenderness of redemption, the bitterness of the passion. The first produces in the beholder astonishment; the second love; the third indeed shame. She sees far ahead of her eternal punishment and heavenly joy: the former, when contemplated, forms terror; the latter, desire. To these five join a sixth, which she has with her in the present, namely the consideration of her own weakness, which the more fully the mind contemplates, the more it is compelled to fear. But with all these it is necessary that a certain seventh be had: this is the presumption of holy hope, whose joyful certainty and certain joy must accompany in the mind the consideration of all these things, without which it is too burdensome to revolve these sorrowful things mentioned in the mind; and even the joyful things are not sufficiently joyful (Judg. 16:19).
And see whether perhaps these are the seven locks of the mighty Samson, which indeed as long as he had them, he could not be conquered by his enemies; but as soon as he lost them, he became a laughingstock to the very ones to whom he had previously been a terror. Behold our Anna, our prophetess, who is also the daughter of Phanuel, for this reason, as I think: because she has that Father who, as the Apostle testifies, of His own will begot us by the word of His truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creation (James 1:18).
XII. For those who know the interpretations of Hebrew names say that Phanuel means 'the face of God.' And indeed, if with diligent curiosity and curious diligence you range through the breadth of Sacred Scripture, you will find in it that the face of God has diverse significations. For the Lord in the Gospel calls the face of God 'the Father himself,' where He says that their angels -- no doubt of the little ones -- always see the face of the Father who is in heaven (Matt. 18:10); for in this passage, the Father and His face are not different things. What else the face of God may signify, you need not search much further than the Psalmist; for he calls the face of God now the Son himself, now His presence, now His knowledge, now His benevolence, now His awareness. He speaks thus of the first signification: 'How long will you turn your face from me?' (Ps. 12:2) -- that is, how long do you delay sending your Christ whom you are about to send? He also speaks of the second: 'Turn not your face from me' (Ps. 26:9) -- that is, do not deny me your presence in the future. He speaks no less of the third: 'Seek his face always' (Ps. 104:4) -- that is, desire at all times to attain to the knowledge of Him. Of the fourth also: 'Cast me not away from your face' (Ps. 50:13) -- that is, do not allow me to be cast out from your benevolence. And of the fifth: 'He has turned away his face, lest he see in the end' (Ps. 10:11) -- because the impious are accustomed to say that God does not have the knowledge by which He could know their evils. Holy Habakkuk also calls the protection of God His face, where he says that before His face shall go death (Hab. 3:5). Because where God protects, there the devil cannot prevail. Job, however, takes the face of God as His animadversion, saying: 'Then from your face I shall not be hidden' (Job 13:20). This is to say: if I am such a person, I shall not fear the animadversion of God. You will therefore find these and perhaps several other significations of the face of God in Sacred Scripture, in this manner, if you wish to search diligently. Having therefore carefully considered these things, I think that even with me now silent, you already clearly understand for what reason this woman of whom we speak is called the daughter of the face of God, which is without doubt what Phanuel means.
XIII. She is also said to be of the tribe of Asher, because through the election of grace, having been saved to the lot of the elect, she pertains to heavenly happiness -- which they say this name 'Asher' expresses. For she belongs to the company of those whom God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, that they might be holy and immaculate in the sight of God, in charity (Eph. 1:4), foreknowing them and predestining them, calling and justifying them, and in the end glorifying them. Calling, I say, through right faith, justifying through holy conduct, glorifying through eternal blessedness.
But you who have already heard about this woman's name and office, and about her father and lineage: it is time for you to inquire about her age. The evangelist adds after this: She was advanced in many days (Luke 2:6). Many days mean many virtues. For you have advanced in as many days as you have exercised yourself in virtues. These were the days of holy David, in which he declares he wished to pray to God, where he says: And in my days I will call upon the Lord (Ps. 114:2). For he knew that whoever turns away his ear so as not to hear the law, his prayer will be abominable. These are the days with which our fathers of old are said to have been full, of whom we read that they died old and full of days (Prov. 28:9). Which you rightly understand if you recognize that they departed this life with maturity of character and fullness of virtues (Gen. 35:29). In many days, therefore, this woman advanced, because in holy conduct she gathered to herself a manifold treasure of spiritual virtues.
XIV. And she had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow until eighty-four years of age (Luke 2:37). We pass over many things that ought to be said, because we are pressing on to other matters in which we propose to linger for some time. For we shall not be able to rush through so hastily when we come to that place where this woman is found not to have departed from the temple, devoting herself to fasting and prayers day and night. But in this passage you see that the time she spent with her husband was very brief compared to the time she remained in widowhood. And what do we think this means except that it seems but a little while to that spiritual and interior Anna -- I speak of the devout and pious soul -- it seems but a little while, I say, when in the presence of her lawful husband, like a loving bride embracing her bridegroom and in turn rejoicing in his most sweet embraces, she dances with gladness: and by no means a little while when, with him withdrawn, after the manner of a chaste and loving widow, she groans in his absence? For his presence, bringing sweetness, removes weariness; but his absence, producing bitterness, brings on disgust. Hence it happens that it seems but a little to our Anna that she lives with her husband; but very much, because, bereft of his presence, with him absent, she sighs and groans. You who are spiritual, in this holy community, frequently experience what I am saying.
XV. She is recorded to have lived with her husband for the space of seven years, but to have remained in widowhood eighty-four (ibid.). And, unless I am mistaken, nothing in this is without meaning, but we do not have leisure to examine it deeply. Nevertheless, that we may touch upon these things more on the surface than scrutinize them to the marrow, we can conjecture from the number of these years that the joy of interior delight, by which our Anna in the presence of her husband is sustained, confers upon her the vigorous stability of spiritual unity -- which a devout soul is accustomed to retain with all its strength, if indeed the Lord possesses it wholly: just as we read of Elkanah, the father of Samuel, that he was one man, whose name signifies God's possession. This unity is by no means held in the mind unless the sevenfold grace of the Spirit deigns to confer it: for the monad is multiplied seven times. And if you accept this meaning, understand it to pertain to what you read in Isaiah: seven women shall take hold of one man (Isa. 4:1), because indeed this manly unity is grasped by seven women, so that it may be bestowed upon our Anna by the sevenfold Spirit -- she who is narrated to have been with her husband for one year multiplied seven times.
She also remains eighty-four years in her widowhood; because the chaste and fervent desire by which she is inflamed in the absence of her husband confers upon her the observance of both the Decalogue and the twofold love in holy conduct -- yet through the infusion of the sevenfold Spirit. For if you multiply ten by seven, you reach seventy; if you add to this two similarly multiplied by seven, you arrive at eighty-four; which number you read to comprise the years of her widowhood. Therefore, just as the number seven is accustomed to signify the sevenfold Spirit in Sacred Scripture, so also ten to signify the Decalogue; and no less does two signify the twofold precept of charity.
XVI. Rightly therefore and fittingly is this widow recorded to have remained in widowhood up to eighty-four years: because even if the Spirit seems to withdraw himself for a time regarding delight, he does not entirely withdraw himself regarding usefulness -- holding and exercising with Anna, even when she is a widow, through his grace, according to the expression of this name, the sevenfold, and the tenfold of the law, and the twofold of charity. Is not Anna widowed from her husband when the faithful soul is deprived for a time of the virtue upon which it relied? Which indeed happens more by dispensation, as we often learn from our own experience, than by demerit. Hence holy David by no means asks the Lord not to forsake him; rather he says: Do not forsake me utterly (Ps. 118:8), knowing indeed that power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). Therefore the Spirit remains with the soul, in the observance of the law and love for its holy action, when for a time the virtue on which it relies withdraws, and it has strength only but does not enjoy delight. For it is one and the same Spirit, stable and mobile, abandoning and holding, withdrawing and remaining: as truthful Scripture says of those same holy living creatures, that they went and returned, and that they did not turn back when they walked (Ezek. 1:14, 17). You see, therefore, what it means that this woman both lived seven years with her husband and remained a widow up to eighty-four. But what it means that she dwelt with her husband seven years from her virginity, and that she did not depart from the temple, we shall declare to you in the following sermon; as he shall deign to inspire us, without whom we can do nothing, who is God blessed above all things forever. Amen.
Sermon XL: On the Exercise of Religious Life
I. This holy woman, about whom we have already said much in the preceding sermon, is asserted to have lived with her husband seven years from her virginity (Luke 2:36). What she herself signifies, and what it means for her to be called Anna, and to be a prophetess, and also to have lived seven years with her husband, and to have remained in widowhood until eighty-four years; and finally, what I had almost just now omitted -- to be called a daughter of Phanuel, and to be of the tribe of Asher, and to have been advanced in many days -- in the sermon that immediately preceded this one, we showed you as it could then present itself. But what we judged ought to be understood by her having lived so many years with her husband from her virginity, and also by her not having departed from the temple, serving by fasting and prayer night and day -- we deferred to this sermon, which we now have in hand. And now indeed it is time for us to undertake to fulfill, as best we can, what we then promised. What, then, do we think can be suggested to us by the fact that she lived seven years with her husband from her virginity, unless it is what we see every day -- that before the soul is joined to this interior virtue in stable purity, at the calling of the sevenfold Spirit, it withers in barren idleness and idle barrenness? For virginity, just as it is great purity and cleanness in this mortal flesh, can also signify the barrenness of the soul.
II. Cannot this meaning be applied to what we read in that truthful history, in which we find that when the daughter of Jephthah was to be offered as a sacrifice, she bewailed her virginity? (Judg. 11:37.) What else is this but that the soul, which must be mortified and offered up with the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God (Eph. 6:17), should repent of its former barrenness? Because according to this meaning, since virginity has something not commendable to suggest, the law itself in a certain way pressed the barren woman under the yoke of a curse. For two dangers await the fruitless tree: the axe cutting it down, and the fire burning it -- that is, the sentence of death taking away life, and damnation afflicting it for eternity.
But she who from this her virginity lived seven years with her husband, who also was a widow until eighty-four years, so devoutly applied herself to spiritual fruitfulness, having laid aside barrenness; so diligently persisted in praiseworthy action, having cast off idleness, that Scripture says of her that she was serving with prayers and fasts day and night (Luke 2:37). In these words indeed, few in number but deep in meaning, your diligence can discern that she perseveringly devoted herself to purity of both mind and body: for through fasting the mortification of the flesh is understood, and through prayers the devotion of the mind. Moreover, by the fact that she attended to these things both day and night, her constant perseverance in good work is understood. Night and day she devoted herself to prayers and fasting: so that, my brother, neither prosperity may draw your Anna back into dissolution, nor adversity disturb her from the things that pertain to the sanctification of your mind and body. For she is drawn back from these things not only when she desires evil, but also when she abandons good; when she is tempted, being drawn away and enticed by concupiscence (James 1:14) -- drawn away from good and enticed toward evil: the brightness of prosperity draws her away from the one, while the darkness of adversity entices her toward the other.
III. But what does it mean that she is asserted not to have departed from the temple? For this is how the sequence of the preceding words reads. She did not depart, Scripture says, from the temple, serving with fasts and prayers day and night. What is this temple from which she did not depart? I think we can understand 'temple' in multiple ways. For let us run to Sacred Scripture as we are accustomed whenever we have need, and we shall find that it sometimes calls the body of Christ a temple, sometimes the Virgin Mary, sometimes the holy Church, sometimes also the holy men who are in her, sometimes our body, sometimes our mind, sometimes also the capacity of angelic and human intellect, and finally the heavenly homeland itself, for which we sigh; and I think fitting examples will be at hand.
For concerning the first, we have the Lord saying in the Gospel: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up (John 2:19) -- that is, kill my body, and on the third day I will raise it. Concerning the second, holy David in the Psalms: The Lord is in his holy temple (Ps. 10:5) -- Christ, namely, conceived in the virgin's womb. And the same psalmist says concerning the third: And in his temple all shall speak of his glory (Ps. 28:9) -- because the elect in the Church confess the true faith. Concerning the fourth, the Apostle Paul says: The temple of God is holy, which you are (1 Cor. 3:17) -- he was indeed addressing the saints themselves who were in the Church. Concerning the fifth, the same Paul says: Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit? (1 Cor. 6:19.) Because indeed in pure hearts the Holy Spirit dwells. He also speaks concerning the sixth: If anyone violates the temple of God -- what follows, God avert it from you, for it continues: God will destroy him (1 Cor. 3:17) -- that is, if anyone defiles his mind, in which God ought to dwell. You have Isaiah speaking concerning the seventh, where he says that the things that were beneath him filled the temple (Isa. 6). Without doubt beneath him whom he saw sitting upon a high and exalted throne. What are the things that were beneath him, if not all creatures, which insofar as they are creatures are far below him and far inferior to him? Of which the prophet says that they filled the temple: because the very wondrous things of God's creatures, both angelic and human understanding admires. But for the eighth temple, seek it in the psalmist who says (Ps. 64:5) that they shall be filled with the good things of your house, addressing God himself. And he added: Holy is your temple, wonderful in equity. As if to say: we shall be filled with the joys of heaven, where your dwelling shines with all holiness; nor does any crookedness of wickedness appear in it.
IV. Behold, I have shown you the temple in eight ways; and I do not doubt that you will grant it is good for you to dwell mentally in each one, and to depart from none in thought and desire. For to dwell mentally in that temple which we said is the body of Christ is as devout for piety as it is fruitful for usefulness: for it is full of all piety to behold the human body in the Word, and flesh in the Divinity, man in God. But the following is no less full of piety. For what so resists the sins of our body from being committed, or washes away those already committed, as the constant and pure meditation on the body of Christ? For just as flesh brings guilt, so also flesh purges it: and the body born of the Virgin cleanses and sanctifies our polluted body -- not indeed as if it were already sanctified as though it had once not been holy, or as though it needed to be sanctified as if not yet holy; but it was always equally holy, so that for it, to be a body and to be holy were one and the same.
I say to you, my friends, my hope is solid and my trust firm: that for the sins I have committed in the body and contracted through the body, I obtain pardon through the offering of the immaculate body of the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. This hope and confidence is conferred upon me by that saying of blessed John, which is as follows: We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just: and he is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1). And no less by that saying of his fellow apostle Paul, which is similar: who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us (Rom. 8:34). For what is it for him to intercede for us, except to have our nature assumed in himself? The Father cannot but have mercy on those in whom he beholds his Only-Begotten, unlike in guilt, yet like in nature. His blood cries out from the earth more excellently than Abel (Heb. 12:24), and it cries out for those for whom he allowed it to be shed. The Father hears the blood of the Son crying out, hears the Son interceding: hears, I say, and grants the prayer.
V. For what if the body I carry is unclean and defiled? Yet that which I possess in Christ is holy in all things and pure. In everything in which I find either less good or more evil in myself, I have recourse to the life-giving body of my Jesus: making his holiness a shield between the Father's equity and my iniquity. For what if in my body curiosity has polluted sight, and vanity the hearing, and pleasure the smell, and greed the taste, and impurity the touch? I will not be overly disturbed, nor excessively faint-hearted: for I know what I shall do. I will go to the most pure body of my Lord, in which none of these evils exists: holding it as a shield in his judgment, washing away through it what is evil in me, claiming for myself what is good in him. Thus I will no longer fear him as a judge, but love him as a brother; for he is my brother and my flesh. Nor will I be fearful before the one who judges, but secure before my Advocate, who is my advocate with the Father, and the propitiation for my sins.
And why is he called not so much the propitiator as the propitiation, unless so that I may not despair of obtaining the remission of those sins for which I see his holy body to be the offering? For why is it that we do not repeat baptism, or the laying on of hands, or nearly all the other sacraments in which our sanctification consists, since ecclesiastical custom does not permit their repetition -- yet we are accustomed to celebrate frequently the offering of the saving victim, admonished by salutary precepts and formed by divine institution? Unless it is so that we who often die by sinning may be brought back to life by recalling to memory in the sacrament the holy death of our Redeemer; and that by the frequent celebration of the mystery, the effect of our salvation may increase? Because, therefore, we often stumble in the body, it is necessary that through that body we be frequently brought back to life and rise again: and that the filth which the flesh frequently contracts may be washed away and wiped clean by that flesh which is free from all filth.
Therefore, if you see yourself stained with filth and your garments to be abominable to you, go to the high priest Jesus clothed in filthy garments (Zech. 3:3), and recognize him to be the one of whom the Apostle says: him who knew no sin, he made sin for us, that we might become the justice of God in him (2 Cor. 5:21). He was made sin for us, because he was offered up since he himself willed it, and he bore our sins (Isa. 53:7, 4). Yet he knew no sin, because he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth (1 Pet. 2:22).
VI. Thus therefore I run to the body that did not commit sin, so that the sin I committed through the body may also be forgiven me. But if in me the flesh lusts against the Spirit (Gal. 5:17); if the vices of the flesh tempt me; if its titillating goads assail me -- must I not then all the more have recourse to my sole and solid refuge, the body of my Jesus, so that the concupiscence of my body may be extinguished, temptations overcome, and goads blunted? For what remedy is so efficacious for obtaining such a triumph as the pure and refined meditation on his body? For he himself is the one who knows how to sympathize with our weaknesses, since he was tempted in all things according to our likeness, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). For he himself is the one who, because he was tempted, is powerful to help us also who are tempted. The Apostle understood this well: when he saw another law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and dragging him captive under the law of sin which was in his members, whence he was compelled to cry out: Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom. 7:23) -- having found a salutary counsel, he immediately added: the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (ibid. 24). Which grace indeed he applied more deeply and more abundantly in what follows, saying: God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh on account of sin, that the justice of the law might be fulfilled in us (Rom. 8:3-4).
Therefore if you know that good does not dwell in you, that is, in your flesh; if you see that sin, though it does not reign in the flesh, yet exists there: know that he who appeared not in the reality but in the likeness of sinful flesh condemns it in the flesh. Therefore the Father, seeing his Son in man, his Word in flesh, does not wish to be absent from those cast down in the flesh through piety, so that they may rise; he cannot but be present to those tempted in the flesh through strength, so that they may triumph. Rightly too the angel venerates our nature and trembles to see it prostrated before him, which he adores exalted above himself in its Creator. Rightly also God the almighty Father has mercy upon it and comes to its aid, since he sees it united to his Only-Begotten. You see, therefore, dearest one, how necessary it is for you not to depart in thought and hope from this temple, which Jewish impiety destroyed in death, and divine power raised to life after three days.
VII. The second temple is the Virgin Mary; and I do not hesitate to say how good it is not to depart from it. She is our lady and our advocate; our sweetness and our life; our hope and our mediatrix. She is the Mother of God, queen of angels, lover of humanity, conqueror of demons, refuge of the wretched, comfort of orphans, help of the weak, strength of the feeble, confirmation of the just, lifting up of the fallen, absolution of sinners, joy of the blessed. She is the Father's tabernacle, the Son's chamber, the Holy Spirit's canopy, the resting-place of the Trinity, the heavenly dwelling, the domicile of the incarnate Word, the temple of God. But these are words that will indeed fail sooner than her prerogative can be fully set forth -- so great is the fullness of grace that overflows in her. Let us venerate, most beloved, this temple; let us rejoice and exult, and give glory to her; let us pray in it and hope from it; and by praising and praying and trusting, let us not depart from it.
Most holy indeed is this temple, and the Holy of Holies is the humanity of Christ, in whom the fullness of divinity dwells bodily (Col. 2:9). Holy also is this temple of which we speak -- his blessed and glorious mother, in whom, conceived by the Holy Spirit, he remained for nine months. O most glorious and most beautiful temple of God's Only-Begotten! Open to us the door of your mercy and clemency; grant us to enter into you; admit our prayers before you. With our voice, in you, we cry to the Lord, that he may hear from his holy temple our voice, and that our cry may come into his ears in his presence. Do not, brothers, depart from this temple; pour out your prayer in it, and declare your tribulation in it. For she is the Mother of Christ, and the prayer you send through her, God will hear; and through her he will receive your petition -- he who was born for us.
VIII. The third temple is the holy Church of the elect, from which, to speak briefly, you should not depart. For we must run quickly through these temples, because we are pressed to bring this sermon to its end, and certain matters on this subject remain that you must hear. From this temple, I say, you do not depart if you do not separate yourselves from the unity of Mother Church through the scandals of sects. Woe to those who strive to tear the seamless tunic of Christ (John 19:23), who separate themselves from fraternal unity through divisions and dissensions. Let those who are of this kind know that those found outside the ark are drowned in the waters of the flood (Gen. 7:23), and those whom the house of Rahab does not conceal within itself, the sword of Joshua slays (Josh. 6:1). And to touch upon something from the Gospel narratives, the troubled water heals only one, while in the porticoes a multitude of the sick lies about (John 5:7). But we have no need to admonish you greatly on these matters. For by experience, and indeed constant experience, you have learned how good and how pleasant it is to dwell in unity (Ps. 133:2). You have heard no less that the Lord himself says that although it is necessary that scandals come, woe to the man through whom scandal comes (Matt. 18:7).
IX. The harmonious assembly of churchmen is the fourth temple. Not to depart from this temple is not to withdraw from their imitation through holy living. Run through this temple, therefore, and behold the most beautiful paintings and carvings that are in it; and the more fully you contemplate what is beautiful and glorious in it, the more, captured by that interior beauty, you will shrink from leaving. Behold innocent Abel, Enoch walking with God, obedient Noah, reverent Shem and Japheth, faithful Abraham, holy Isaac, simple Jacob, chaste Joseph, gentle Moses, zealous Phinehas, steadfast Joshua, benign Samuel, humble David, and the countless other men of virtue who through faith conquered kingdoms, wrought justice, obtained promises, and who were found approved by the testimony of faith (Heb. 11:33). And you will know how good and how pleasant it is to dwell and abide in this temple. This temple is elsewhere called paradise, in which the trees are said to have been beautiful to behold and pleasant to eat -- beautiful to the sight, pleasant to the taste (Gen. 2:9). Because in this holy community there are holy men, as savory to experience as they are beautiful to contemplate. And when you take many good examples from these holy men, you are indeed plucking many and savory fruits from the beautiful and pleasant trees.
X. We assigned the fifth temple to your body. Do not depart from this temple either -- that is, do not neglect the things that pertain to the sanctification of your body. Take care to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the stranger, visit the imprisoned, attend to the sick. Behold the six works of mercy, by which we ought to meet the needs of our neighbors according to our strength, and also to wish to be of help according to our strength (Matt. 25:35). There are also eight other things in which our bodily holiness consists, and indeed as long as you guard them diligently, you do not depart from this fifth temple. And if you desire to hear them: the first is the rigor of fasting; the second, the persistence of vigils; the third, exercise in manual labor; the fourth, cleanness in bodily chastity; the fifth, gravity of countenance; the sixth, useful frugality of speech; the seventh, plainness of dress; the eighth, dignity of gait.
XI. But we shall not depart from the sixth temple either, which is our soul, if we attend with all solicitude to the things that pertain to its sanctification. Let us strive that our soul be inflamed, whole, and perfect; and let us dwell in this temple. It is inflamed if desire sets it on fire -- and this desire is threefold: the desire for pardon, the desire for grace, the desire for glory. Let it desire with all its affection pardon, grace, and glory. Pardon for sins, grace for merits, glory for rewards. For sins, that it may be cleansed from iniquity; for merits, that it may be adorned in holiness; for rewards, that it may be perfected in happiness. The first desire was perfectly held by that sinful but penitent woman of whom it is said: Many sins are forgiven her, because she loved much (Luke 7:47). The second was held by him who said: My soul has longed to desire your justifications at all times (Ps. 118:2). With the third also burned ardently that outstanding preacher, having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23).
The soul is whole when its memory is pure, its reason skilled, its will devout. Let the rectitude of stability strengthen the memory; let the knowledge of truth illuminate the reason; let the purity of devotion adorn the will. But in order for these to be acquired, it is necessary first that weakness be driven away, which is accustomed to debilitate the strength of memory; then ignorance, which is accustomed to obscure the light of reason; and finally iniquity, which is accustomed to stain the purity of the will. The soul thus inflamed and also made whole, let it strive to be perfect as well. Its perfection consists in those four famous virtues which they call principal or cardinal. For I would call that soul perfect which knows what ought to be known and does not grow dim in the knowledge of truth; which can do what ought to be done and is not weakened in the exercise of action; which is just, so that it does not give offense; which is temperate, so that it does not exceed. Let prudence confer upon it the first good, fortitude the second, justice the third, temperance the fourth. Prudence to enlighten it, fortitude to strengthen it, justice to adorn it, temperance to moderate it. If, therefore, we diligently practiced these things and others of this kind, we would by no means depart from the sixth temple, which we have assigned to our souls.
XII. The capacity of the human and angelic intellect is the seventh temple. If, however, by constant mental contemplation you weigh how greatly both man and angel excel in sublimity, to speak briefly, you dwell in this temple as well. Let us now hasten to finish speaking about these temples. If you are eager with pious curiosity to survey the individual mansions of the blessed spirits; if you do not withdraw in thought and longing from that heavenly homeland above -- then indeed it can already be said of you that you do not depart from the eighth temple, by which that same heavenly homeland is expressed. Does he not seem to you to dwell in this temple who says: Our citizenship is in heaven? (Phil. 3:20.) This is Paul, beside himself in mind for God, and sober for us (2 Cor. 5:13), whom the Lord raised up together and made to sit in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6).
You have heard, therefore, and now as I judge you have understood, how our spiritual Anna ought to dwell in the temple, and how she ought to serve with fasts and prayers day and night.
XIII. In the first temple she dwells through veneration and hope; in the second through praise and prayer; in the third through ecclesiastical unity and catholic peace; in the fourth through diligent imitation and diligent conduct; in the fifth through outstanding actions; in the sixth through interior purity; in the seventh through admiration and wonder; in the eighth through longing and love. If, however, you carefully weigh each of the things that have been said somewhat at length in these two sermons about this woman; if, that is, you diligently consider among yourselves what it means for her to be called Anna, and to be a prophetess; what it means to be the daughter of Phanuel, and of the tribe of Asher; what it means to have been advanced in many days, and from her virginity to have remained seven years with her husband; and finally what it means not to have departed from the temple, serving with fasts and prayers day and night -- if, I say, you studiously consider all these things, you do not doubt, unless I am mistaken, that she who is such is worthy to come forth to give thanks to the Lord, and to speak of him to all who await the redemption of Israel.
For thus, after all these things which we have expounded up to this point, it is added about her:
XIV. And she at that very hour coming upon them gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of him to all who were awaiting the redemption of Israel (Luke 2:38). First she gave thanks to the Lord; and after this she spoke of him. We do not wish now to speak at length about this confession of hers, both because in the sermons that we delivered in Advent, we discussed confession at sufficient length, as it then seemed to us, and also because we are hastening to bring this sermon, which we have in hand, to its proper conclusion, since we have already said much.
XV. This, however, we say briefly: that if you wish to offer a fruitful and perfect confession to the Lord, you must bring it to him in a twofold manner -- namely, by praising him and accusing yourself: him as just and beneficent, yourself as a sinner and always ungrateful for his benefits. And indeed both confessions are acceptable to him: when you both accuse yourself who have committed sin, and praise him who has no sin. They differ, however, in this: that the former belongs to the penitent and to beginners, while the latter belongs to the just and to the perfect. Of the former you read that a contrite spirit is a sacrifice to God (Ps. 50:19). Of the latter: The sacrifice of praise will honor me (Ps. 49:23). The former, therefore, appeases him who is offended; the latter honors him who is appeased. Joy and jubilation form the latter; sadness and a voice of great disturbance form the former -- because the former proceeds from fear, the latter from love. Both have water, but the former has the lower springs (Josh. 15:19), whose source is the consideration of infernal punishment; the latter has the upper springs (ibid.), which bubble up from the contemplation of the heavenly kingdom. In this twofold manner, therefore, our Anna gives thanks to the Lord. Let her now speak of him -- not to some, but to all who await the redemption of Israel.
And what is it to speak of the Lord to all who await the redemption of Israel, if not to announce the things that pertain to the Lord to all who, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan within themselves, awaiting the adoption of sons, the redemption of their body? (Rom. 8:23) Such are you, who saved by hope, and hoping for what you do not see, wait for it with patience; you desire to be clothed upon with your dwelling which is from heaven (2 Cor. 5:2), and therefore you strive, whether absent or present, to please him.
XVI. After this, the Gospel concludes thus: And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth. And the child grew and was strengthened, full of wisdom, and the grace of God was in him (Luke 2:39-40). And when they had performed, it says -- and who performed? Indeed, Joseph and Mary. Let this holy and canonical congregation hear this, for it is, as we have often said, Mary. Let the authority of its guardians also hear this, for Joseph pertains to them. Let Joseph and Mary together hear this, I say: that when they have performed all things according to the law of the Lord, then they will return to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth. What is the law of the Lord, if not charity? Which the Psalmist calls the immaculate law of the Lord that converts souls (Ps. 18:8). In one of blessed Job's friends, the law of the Lord is called manifold (Job 11:6) -- because, unless I am mistaken, the mind it fills, it soon extends to innumerable increases of holy virtues. And Paul concurs with this exposition of ours, when he says: He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law (Rom. 13:8), and that the fullness of the law is love (ibid. 10).
Therefore you who preside in solicitude (Rom. 12:8), and you who ought to be subject in common subjection -- if you have not merely done but have perfected, and not merely some things but all things according to this law of the Lord -- without doubt you return to the blossoming revelation and the revealed blossom. For these two names, Galilee and Nazareth, seem to contain this meaning: that you may see what is beautiful, and this is the blossom; and that you may recognize what is hidden, and to this pertains Galilee -- when the Lord shall reveal to us the hidden things (Ps. 28:9).
XVII. Christ is indeed the most beautiful blossom, in his glory, for his elect -- such as he is one God manifested with the Father. And most glorious indeed is the manifestation in which we shall see the Father and shall see him as he is. And you have his firm promise concerning both felicities -- since he who can neither be deceived nor wishes to deceive says that he will declare the Father to you openly (John 16:25), O Joseph and Mary, in Galilee; and he will manifest himself to you in your city of Nazareth. Then your child -- who he is you have sufficiently heard, when you understood that Joseph and Mary his mother were marveling at the things that were said about him -- then, I say, your child will grow and be strengthened, full of wisdom, and the grace of God will be in him: namely, when you shall attain to the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13).
Indeed, you can also understand the same according to another interpretation, which in the preceding sermons we assigned to this Joseph and Mary: that, namely, when they have performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they too may return to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth -- where also the child Jesus will grow and be strengthened, full of wisdom, and having with him the grace of God. May he grant us both here the grace of living well, and there grant us to enjoy the presence of his glory forever and ever. Amen.
Sermon XLI: On the Day of the Circumcision of the Lord -- On the Spiritual Knives with Which Circumcision Must Be Performed
I. Glory and praise to the Son of the Virgin, God and our Lord Christ Jesus, who in this most sacred birth of his deigns to gladden us with a certain beautiful variety and varied beauty, as we celebrate with worthy remembrance the mysteries of his infancy, so that in the celebrated variety of these same mysteries, beauty may confer delight and variety may banish weariness. Behold, he who recently deigned to be born for us has today deigned to be circumcised. Know, most beloved, that this was a great humility of dispensation in our Savior, not of necessity. For what did that supreme purity have in itself that was polluted, which needed to be cleansed by circumcision? But he was circumcised for us, who was born for us. A child, says holy Isaiah, is born for us (Isa. 9:6); so also he was circumcised for us. And for what kind of 'us' was he circumcised? For us, certainly, who are excessive in superfluity, defiled with impiety. He was therefore circumcised for us, because we have in ourselves not a little that is impure to be cleansed, and that is superfluous to be cut away.
In these two things consists that great evil which defiles the beauty of the human soul, weakens its strength, disfigures its honor, empties its fullness, destroys its integrity, discolors its loveliness, and finally takes away from it whatever good is in it and inflicts upon it whatever is evil. The name of this horrible and detestable evil, if you wish to hear it, is illicit concupiscence itself -- which, when it abandons right order by desiring what it ought by no means to desire, stains the subject in which it dwells, whether body, soul, or both, with the impurity of defilement; and when it exceeds due measure, moving itself in desire otherwise than is permitted, it inflates its subject with the excess of superfluity. Whatever, therefore, this evil -- that is, illicit concupiscence -- makes in us either polluted through impurity or superfluous through excess, we ought to cleanse through the remedy of spiritual circumcision.
II. The knives with which this spiritual circumcision must be performed are compunction and discipline: the former washes what is impure, the latter cuts away what is superfluous. And perhaps these are the knives with which our Joshua still today circumcises the sons of Israel (Josh. 5:2). They are indeed of stone, because of the strength, I think, of perseverance. And they are sons of Israel, yet they must be circumcised by Joshua, because even he who had specially received from the Lord the keys of the kingdom of heaven heard: If I do not wash you, you will have no part with me (John 13:8), and every branch that bears fruit in Christ the vine, the Father the husbandman will prune, so that it may bear more fruit (John 15:2). This is what the bridegroom also seems to express in the Song of Love, who after asserting that winter has passed, the rain has departed and gone, and flowers have appeared in his and his bride's land, then says that the time of pruning has arrived.
For when does winter pass (Song 2:12) if not when perfect charity casts out fear? (1 John 4:18) And therefore the heat of summer that drives out winter is the love of charity, expelling fear. The rain also departs and recedes when, as the south wind comes and blows through the bride's garden, the lower springs are completely dried up, and the bitter and anxious weeping that the memory of sins produces now departs. Flowers appear: the affections of sincere and refined pious and holy desires burst forth from the very depths of the heart. The devout and religious soul, therefore, when it is not oppressed by fear, because it is not pressed by dread; when it is not drenched by the rain of sorrow, because it is filled with the joy of security; when it does not wither in the barrenness of faint-heartedness, because it shines with the flowers of desires -- let it understand that the time of pruning has also arrived. Let it apply itself to this holy and salutary work in this acceptable time; let it not neglect to diligently cut away and prune from its vineyard -- its flesh, that is, or its mind -- whatever it sees to be barren or harmful.
Thus the time of pruning arrives for the bride, and now that winter has passed, the storm has gone, and the beauty of flowers has shone forth. Thus the Lord washes Peter, since whatever he binds or looses on earth, heaven holds ratified (Matt. 16:19). Thus also the husbandman prunes the branch, when it bears fruit in the vine. Thus finally -- and this is the reason I have pursued all these things -- Joshua circumcises those who are sons of Israel. And he circumcised them, as we read, with stone knives (Josh. 5:2).
III. Cut, we beseech you, and prune from us with your stone knives all our superfluous and harmful things, O good and gracious Jesus of ours! You who, succeeding Moses, lead your people, the sons of Israel, into a land flowing with milk and honey -- into which Moses himself could not bring them, because what was impossible for the law, which brought no one to perfection, in which it was also weakened by the flesh -- God, sending you his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh on account of sin (Rom. 8:3). Make us rigid through discipline, make us also shaken through compunction: so that the former may preserve in us the good things already possessed, and the latter may recover what was lost. Let this be your work, let this be your study. O my soul, let this be your care and solicitude: first indeed to mortify your members which are upon the earth (Col. 3:5), and to crucify your flesh with its vices and concupiscences (Gal. 5:24); and by the spirit to mortify the deeds of the same flesh, abstaining from carnal desires which war against you, having your conduct among the nations good (1 Pet. 2:11); cleansing yourself also from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1).
But if, overtaken and overcome, drawn away and enticed, you have been less attentive to these things, or less zealous in them, return, O transgressor, to your heart, and accusing yourself, set yourself before your own face. Grieve and weep, groan and sigh (Job 3:24), and like overflowing waters, let your roaring blaze forth over your idleness and barrenness, over your softness and negligence. Accuse yourself, so that lifted from the pit of negligence into which you have fallen, you may apply yourself to the pious and useful labor we spoke of a little earlier. Do you not see, my brothers, how very necessary for you is the knife of discipline, by which, when what is superfluous in you is cut away, you walk so temperately, you proceed so honorably, that in your gait, posture, dress, and in all your movements, nothing is done that would offend anyone's sight, but rather what befits your holiness?
IV. But you will bring forth no less necessary in its kind, if I am not mistaken, another knife, which we shall call compunction -- especially in this perilous time, in which man, filled with many miseries and born of woman, comes forth like a flower and is crushed, and fleeing like a shadow never remains in the same state (Job 14:2). Whose senses and thoughts are prone to evil (Gen. 8:21), since the flesh is a spirit that goes and does not return. Exercise these two things diligently, I say: discipline and compunction -- the former in your steady state, the latter in your fall -- and you have the stone knives of Joshua, with which you must be circumcised, whoever of you are of Israel.
But by acting thus and conducting yourselves in this way, you show that you are separated from the reprobate not by habit alone, but by deed and virtue, and taken by the Lord as his own. For it belongs to the reprobate to be involved in crimes and shameful deeds in both body and soul, and bearing a hardened forehead and an untamable heart, to end their lives in their wickedness -- like those beasts of burden which the prophet Joel says rotted in their dung (Joel 1:17). But not so with you; for either you stand manfully in the good, mature in the gravity of wisdom, or you rise bravely from evil, erected against yourselves by the rigor of penance. For the latter is accustomed to abolish sin when it has been completed, while the former guards against its ever being completed at all. The former pertains to the sharp knife of our Joshua, by which, whenever they strive to grow, superfluous things are always cut away; the latter has in itself no less necessary an exercise, by which the unclean things that defile a person are purged.
V. Believe me, brothers, a great and truly unfailing sign of a person's election is the fervor of good will and the constancy of self-accusation. Why should you not have the Spirit himself bearing witness to your spirit that you are a son of God (Rom. 8:16), when, with your conscience bearing witness to you in the same Holy Spirit, you see that, turning from evil and doing good, you condemn vices, exercise virtue, subdue the flesh, raise up the spirit, perfectly hate the world and love God, willing no evil and willing all good, omitting as far as possible whatever is harmful and embracing as far as possible whatever is necessary? In like manner, should you not confidently presume in sure hope concerning him who, eating ashes like bread (Ps. 101:10), incorporates sinners to himself through penance just as he does the just through continence -- that in the present you are to be drawn into his very being through the fervor of penance, and in the future to be united through the reception of glory? -- who, as often as you see yourself deviating from him even a little, you have him pressing upon your back and calling after you, also sending forth in your mind a voice of great disturbance so that your ears may hear the voice of the one admonishing you from behind (Isa. 30:21). You feel that he drives you back without any delay when you withdraw from him even slightly, and destroys you, shaking the earth of your conscience and troubling it (Ps. 59:4), showing hard things to that lower populace of your thoughts, and giving them the wine of compunction to drink, making those same thoughts tremble with the most powerful fear, and giving a signal to those who fear, that they may flee from the face of the bow.
Thus he stirs up a great quarrel in the soul, which brings true peace with it -- like that woman of the Gospel who lights a lamp and sweeps the house and searches diligently for the lost coin until she finds it (Luke 15:8).
VI. Behold the stone knives of Joshua: these two virtues bestowed upon you by Christ Jesus with strong perseverance and persevering strength -- namely, rigid discipline, which guards good things when they are possessed, and proper self-accusation, which restores good things when they are lost. When you have been circumcised by these, you will immediately hear from the Lord: Today I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from you (Josh. 5:9). What is this? Is the reproach of Egypt not removed from the sons of Israel unless they have first been circumcised with Joshua's stone knives? And indeed it is so, as you will now see when what Egypt is and what its reproach is has become clear to you. Let us run through this briefly: Egypt is this world -- for Egypt signifies darkness, and since this whole world lies in wickedness (1 John 5:19), it does not shine with the brightness of the Sun of justice.
If, therefore, Egypt is the world, what is the reproach of Egypt except the reproach of those who are imitators of the world? From which reproach you will by no means be free unless you have been circumcised with Joshua's stone knives. And what great confusion it is that the Egyptians should reproach the uncircumcised sons of Israel, according to that prophetic word: Be ashamed, O Zion, says the sea (Isa. 23:4). When, therefore, you see those dressed in worldly garb, together with those who walk in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves (Matt. 7:15), reproaching and taunting with entirely just mockery, because they see them undisciplined in their conduct, and what is worse, unconcerned about their amendment due to the excessive obstinacy in which they are hardened -- understand this to be the reproach of Egypt, by which these sons of Israel are touched, if indeed they are sons of Israel, since they have not been circumcised with Joshua's stone knives.
Woe to such sons of Israel, bearing this most glorious name in vain! Whom I would rightly call not unlike the Babylonians, since they are in all things even worse than the Egyptians themselves. Woe, I say, to those who take away the key of knowledge! Because they themselves do not enter, and those who do enter, they prevent (Matt. 23:13). Do you not see many conducting themselves this way today, who though they have the knowledge and profession of holy religion, neither do what belongs to true religion themselves, nor permit others, as far as it depends on them, to live religiously, while they pervert them with their wicked counsels and examples?
VII. What is to be done, and how, with these smoking firebrands? Would it not be expedient for those who scandalize the little ones who believe in Christ to have a millstone hung around their necks and be drowned in the depths of the sea? (Matt. 18:6.) These men, sons of Israel in habit and name alone, rest indeed in the law and say they glory in God, and know the will of God, and approve what is more profitable, being instructed by the law (Rom. 2:18-19) -- trusting in themselves, guides of the blind, a light for those in darkness, teachers of the foolish, instructors of infants, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. But they who teach others do not teach themselves. They who say there must be no adultery commit adultery; they who say there must be no stealing, steal. They who glory in the law, through their transgression of the law dishonor God. For the name of God is blasphemed among the nations through these so-called sons (Rom. 2:20-24).
Is not blasphemy brought upon the Lord's name through these so-called sons of Israel, since it is not merely a case of 'like people, like priest' -- rather, the priest is not even like the people? (Hosea 4:9) It is not merely that the religious is like the secular, because the religious is not even like the secular -- when the latter is in every way either inferior in evil or superior in good. Now Sodom justifies its own soul alongside Judea: while the secular person who used to be silent from praising the Creator because of his evil life, now claims to be either less in injustice or greater in justice than those who are religious only in habit and confess Christ only in name. Do you not assert that these deserve to be called and marked with the reproach of Egypt, when in Egypt many can be found whom circumcision of heart in the Spirit, not in the letter, adorns (Rom. 2:29), whose praise is not from men but from God? These others, however, are uncircumcised in mind and conduct -- excessive in superfluity, polluted with impurity, and finally outwardly undisciplined, inwardly hardened. But enough about them.
VIII. But you, brothers, are those from whom the Lord has taken away the reproach of Egypt -- you who walk honorably before those who are outside (1 Thess. 4:11), in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, shining as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life to the glory of Christ (Phil. 2:15), so displaying your light before them that, seeing your good works, they cannot but glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:16). Hence it happens that he who is on the opposing side, if indeed there is one, stands in awe, having nothing evil to say about you (Tit. 2:8). For the holiness of your conduct breaks the jaws of lions and stops the mouths of detractors hateful to God (Rom. 12:17), as you walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord without reproach, and provide what is good not only before God but also before all men, having peace with them.
But if perhaps, for the increase of your glory, your rivals have laid snares for you, infected with the poison of envy -- since one cannot be Abel without being exercised by the malice of Cain, according to the proverb: Envy aims at the highest -- if, I say, anything of this sort befalls you, do not be overly troubled, do not become too faint-hearted. Remember that envy slays only the small (Job 5:11), as a certain wise man says; and unless the father loved Joseph more than all his sons, fraternal envy would not have touched him (Gen. 37:4). Take also another thing for your consolation when something of this kind arrives, and indeed no small comfort: that these Babylonians would have found no occasion against this Daniel except in his law and in his God (Dan. 6:5). Those therefore who are of this kind -- with the Lord himself scattering their wicked counsel -- will run into darkness in broad daylight among you, and will grope at noon as in the night (Job 5:14), since those holy hosts bring Lot in to themselves and close the door, and thus strike the enemies raging outside with blindness, so that they cannot find the door (Gen. 19:10).
Now you understand, I believe, what great benefit comes to spiritual Israelites from these knives of Joshua, because when Joshua himself has circumcised them, the reproach of Egypt will be taken away from them -- and from you.
IX. I have already told you, and you have heard, what those knives are -- calling one discipline, the other compunction. And since man consists of body and soul, we assigned the former to the purification of the body, the latter to the purification of the soul. We also said that the former guards the good things already possessed, while the latter recovers those that are lost -- the former cutting away what is superfluous lest it overgrow, the latter cleansing what is filthy lest it stink. But you ought to know that discipline is not simple and single, but manifold and varied; hence it works much salvation. And indeed all discipline is inflicted by God's will or permission, and in whatever place or time, in whatever measure or manner it is brought upon us, it is always beneficial if received with willing and persevering patience. Hence Solomon's admonition is this: My son, do not neglect the discipline of the Lord, nor be wearied when you are corrected by him. And he added the reason: For whom the Lord loves, he corrects (Prov. 3:11-12), and he scourges every son whom he receives (Heb. 12:6). And one of blessed Job's friends says: Blessed is the man who is corrected by the Lord (Job 5:17). Hence he adds by way of admonition: Therefore do not reject the Lord's rebukes, for he wounds and he heals; he strikes, and his hands shall heal. In six tribulations he will deliver you, and in the seventh, evil shall not touch you (ibid. 18-19). Showing indeed in these words that those who patiently endure temporal tribulation will escape eternal tribulation. But on the contrary, those who fear the frost -- snow will fall upon them (Job 6:16). Hence that salutary admonition of our master: Persevere in discipline (Heb. 12:7), and shortly after: For what son is there whom the Father does not correct? But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons (ibid. 8). You see that those who have no share in discipline cannot be sons.
X. You see, then, that the kind of discipline is fourfold; and we said the first knife, by which we must be circumcised if we desire the reproach of Egypt to be removed from us. This first kind is present to us when want constrains us in worldly goods. And this knife serving our spiritual circumcision is indeed a good one: voluntary and honorable poverty. For these two things must accompany poverty: willingness and honor. For when it is voluntary, it brings cheerfulness; when honorable, it confers dignity. But on the contrary, when poverty is not voluntary, it leads to murmuring; and when it lacks honor, it is too coarse, and therefore should not be greatly desired by the servants of God. This, then, is the first kind of discipline: voluntary and honorable poverty, which is maintained in dress, in food, and in the other necessities of this life.
The second kind is similar to this: namely, the weakness of bodily infirmity, against which firm patience must be opposed. Through this, Almighty God both heals sins already committed and resists and prevents sins from being committed. And you have Sacred Scripture attesting to both for you. For concerning the first that I mentioned, the Lord, having healed the paralytic in the Gospel, said: Behold, you are made well; now sin no more, lest something worse befall you (John 5:14). And the second, which I stated, was experienced to be true in himself by him who said: And lest the greatness of the revelations exalt me, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me (2 Cor. 12:7). And who would deny this knife to be good, whose sharpness both cuts away excesses if any have perhaps been admitted, and prevents and resists the admission of those that have never been admitted? For when a person is struck by bodily infirmity, he is turned to look at himself more carefully; and shaken by fear and stricken by pain, he not only grieves because he has been wounded, but takes care lest he be wounded further.
XI. The third kind of discipline is the ordeal of adversity, by which God permits his elect to be afflicted, and not for their folly. This assails us not in one way but in many, sometimes hurling insults, sometimes inflicting losses, sometimes also dealing blows. Insults we receive in the form of verbal abuse; losses in the deprivation of possessions; and blows in the affliction of the body. When each of these happens to befall you, you fully overcome them when you endure them with a calm and quiet spirit. For exercising so sublime a virtue of patience, the contemplated examples of the saints who went before will confer strength and fortitude upon you -- they who resisted even to blood, fighting against sin and contending for justice. Holy and just things they performed in pious living, and harsh and unworthy things they endured in grave struggle.
If, therefore, insults and verbal abuse befall you, recall to memory holy David, at whom a servant once hurled abuse, raging against him with insulting words; and finally, reviling him with words, he called him a man of blood and a man of Belial (2 Sam. 16:7) -- he about whom the knower of hidden things and inspector of what is within testified that he had found a man after his own heart. Nevertheless, despite receiving so great an insult, the holy prophet's spirit was not moved to anger, looking upon the present persecution by his son, and thus making the servant's curse bearable for himself. And not only that, but he also hoped to be heaped with grace by the Lord, who saw himself so greatly injured by a servant. For he knew that he who confounds mockers himself also bestows grace upon the meek and humble.
Accept also another example when someone perhaps hurls insulting words against you. Another, I say -- and I mean our Lord Jesus Christ, who endured such opposition against himself from sinners (Heb. 12:3), that you may not grow weary and lose heart. For he endured both spies in his deeds and opponents in his words. He was sought out for stoning, he was led away for being thrown down a cliff (John 10:31). He was called a glutton and a wine-drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Matt. 11:19); he was said to have a demon, and as a great reproach was even called a Samaritan (John 8:48). He himself, as the prince of the apostles says, when he was reviled did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he handed himself over to the one judging unjustly, because he himself bore our sins in his body upon the tree, that dying to sins we might live for justice (1 Pet. 2:23ff.) -- exactly as Isaiah long before had prophesied of him: Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer he was silent, and did not open his mouth (Isa. 53:7). For, as it is read of him in the Gospel, when he was accused of many things, he answered nothing (Matt. 27:12).
XII. If you seek someone punished by the loss of possessions and afflicted with pain in the body, holy Job is at hand. For he was stripped of the possession of so many and such great things, bereaved of such a noble offspring, and struck in the flesh with the most grievous ulcer from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. He was reduced to such extremes of wretchedness that he scraped his sores with a potsherd, sitting on a dunghill (Job 2:8). But after all these things, what does the true history report about his equanimity, about the long-suffering of his patience? In all these things Job did not sin with his lips, nor did he speak anything foolish against God (Job 1:22). He avoided sinning lest he be sad or troubled through interior pain of heart; he refrained from speaking foolishly, lest he contend or cry out through exterior change of countenance.
But neither was he free from verbal abuse, since his friends hurled insults at him. For read the words of each of them, and you will find that just as they came to console, so also they broke out into reproaches -- devoted indeed in their pious devotion, but indiscreet in the rashness of their correction. You have, therefore, in one man, holy Job, a man struck by this threefold adversity: whom you see afflicted with the insults and abuse of words, distressed by losses in the deprivation of possessions, and punished by suffering in the very affliction of his body.
XIII. The fourth kind of discipline pertains to temptations, which are ceaselessly troublesome to us. And rightly do I say temptations are ceaselessly troublesome, because the life of man upon earth is a temptation (Job 7:1). This persistence of temptations I would call a knife no less good than sharp, by which the evil and reprobate excess in us must be circumcised. For this persistence of temptations, I speak of, is the nurse of humility; and humility, as you know, kills and annihilates vices, but founds virtues and preserves those already founded. For when strong temptation shakes our humility, it also brings our mind back to self-knowledge. When the mind understands that it cannot suffice for itself, it utterly loses confidence in itself and commits itself to the grace of its Creator alone. And thus it happens that while it distrusts its own strength and trusts only in heavenly aid, this providential touch of temptation becomes a certain sharp little knife, by which everything superfluous in it is cut away, and all carnal indecency that strives to break out and overgrow in it is pruned.
XIV. You have, therefore, the fourfold kind of discipline: the virtue of voluntary and honorable poverty; the weakness of bodily infirmity; the ordeal of assailing adversity; the trouble of wearying temptation. This indeed fourfold kind of discipline I would call a fourfold knife, with which we must cut away and prune whatever we find excessive and superfluous in ourselves. There is the excess and superfluity of pleasure, of murmuring, and of baseness -- and this threefold superfluity is cut off by the first knife and, once cut off, is destroyed. For pleasure is slain by the knife of poverty, and this poverty both expels murmuring when it is voluntary, and diminishes baseness when it is honorable. There is also a certain superfluity that is the deception of false security, and the inflation of proud vanity. The second and fourth little knives cut away the first excess; the third reduces the second to nothing by destroying it.
What is more dangerously accustomed to seduce the human soul than secure vanity and vain security? For security infuses a certain deceitful boldness, which, by depriving the soul of careful self-watchfulness, causes it to happen wretchedly that so great a darkness of blindness obscures it that it utterly does not know where to go or by what path to walk. Hence it happens that it sometimes plunges into so great a misery that, being absent from itself and providing for itself in nothing, it no longer even perceives how greatly it is sinning.
XV. Behold how much evil such security produces. What shall we say about vanity? Does it not raise the mind it corrupts with its poison into the inflation of pride, and while it empties the mind of the virtue of true humility, immediately deprives it of its own defense and protection? For humility is the guardian and defense of all holiness that is in the soul; and therefore it seems to me no different to take humility from the soul than to take a wall from a city, a fence from a vineyard, a hedge from a garden. See how great a cause of evil is this vanity of pride of which we speak. For to say it briefly, just as it is the destroyer of humility, so it is the annihilator of all the holiness that is or can be in the soul.
But so that you may know what remedy must be opposed to this twofold plague -- namely, superfluous vanity and vain superfluity -- bear patiently the weakness of bodily infirmity when it comes; receive no less prudently the trouble of besetting temptation. And I shall not refrain from saying that you have a very sharp and itself twofold knife, with which to cut away the excess of this dangerous security. For when you are wearied by the trouble of illness, when you are struck by the assault of temptation, anxiety of fear is bred in you, and the presumption of this false security is driven far away. And thus by this twofold knife of discipline that excess is cut away.
But also embrace willingly the ordeal of adversity when it assails -- whether someone has injured you through verbal abuse, or impoverished you through the taking of possessions, or finally afflicted you through the distress of bodily punishment. And you have in hand a good knife with which to cut away the excess of vanity. For indeed this threefold adversity, when it assails and is received patiently and humbly, infuses into the mind the gentleness of humility and slays the inflation of vanity. Behold how much superfluity in the human soul this fourfold little knife of discipline cuts away! Now we should need to speak about that knife which we called compunction, were it not that the length of this sermon stands in the way. In the following sermon, therefore, we shall speak of it, and in it we also propose to treat something, as God himself shall give, about the names of this child -- Emmanuel and Jesus -- to the praise and glory of him who is with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God blessed forever. Amen.
Sermon XLII: Likewise on the Day of the Circumcision of the Lord -- On the Spiritual Knives of Circumcision and on the Names of Christ Jesus and Emmanuel
I. If you remember, in the sermon we recently addressed to your charity, we brought forth two little knives, with which not so much that Joshua the son of Nun, as our Jesus the Son of God, circumcises true and spiritual Israelites. One we called discipline, the other spiritual compunction. But concerning the knife of discipline, we discussed as much as then seemed to us sufficient in that sermon; and now it is time for us to speak, according to our promise, about that other knife, which we deferred speaking about until this sermon. Therefore, we said the other knife, by which whoever is a true Israelite ought to perform a salutary circumcision in the soul, is spiritual compunction. Which indeed we must always have at the ready, so that with its sharp edge we may cut away whatever excess we contract by acting unlawfully.
And indeed, among the other things in which the merciful Lord is accustomed to be present to me by bestowing the gifts of his generosity, I consider it a great sign of his love when, after the guilt of a wicked action, he deigns to visit me with the salutary remedy of compunction. For when I plunge from the rectitude of justice into the crookedness of guilt, I am not only unworthy of his raising me up, but even deserve that he allow me to fall into something worse. For, as he himself threatens through the prophet, when the just man does injustice, he will place a stumbling block before him (Ezek. 3:20). But the pious and merciful Father and our Lord does not deal thus with his elect, for by his freely given grace he grants that his sons may both fully recognize their sins and worthily bewail what they have recognized.
II. But if it delights you to know how he does this with them, receive it briefly. I shall discuss with you, on account of this, what I have received from my own experience in this matter. I have sinned a great sin -- not once or twice, but many times. Hence that prophetic reproach may rightly be said to me: How vile you have become, repeating your ways so often (Jer. 2:36). And behold, shortly after, a certain most bitter bitterness infects my mind -- and this indeed not for my folly. For from that supreme physician a saving antidote is poured in, by which the poison newly drunk may be torn from the bowels of the soul and, once uprooted, cast out. Therefore a salutary bitterness affects the mind that had previously been affected by a lethal sweetness. For it is characteristic of sin to produce the greatest sweetness and closeness through temptation when it is sprouting and pressing but not yet committed, and to inflict no lesser bitterness when it has been admitted by consent and carried out in deed.
Hence a certain wise man says: the appetite for bodily pleasures is full of anxiety, and their satisfaction is full of regret. For the wretched soul grieves at having done what, before the deed, it underwent great anxiety to do. And shortly after he added: Every pleasure has this quality: / It drives with goads those who enjoy it, / And like a swarm of flying bees, / Once it has poured its welcome honey, / It flees, and strikes the wounded hearts / With a bite too tenacious. (Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy, Book III, Prose 7.)
III. For what delighted and caressed the soul serving sin passes away; but what gnaws and devours the wretched conscience remains. What was previously taken up in ardent love is held in enormous hatred. Sweetness turns to bitterness, delight to affliction. Did this not happen to the wretched and pitiable Amnon? For you know that, pierced by the arrow of illicit love, with what labor and cunning he arrived at the long-desired fulfillment of his desire -- which when fulfilled he abhorred no less than he had previously desired its fulfillment. For once the desire was sated, he could not even bear to look upon her whom he had made a wife from a sister, whom before his desire was fulfilled he had loved beyond measure -- the greatest hatred succeeding the greatest love in him (2 Sam. 13:10).
Of whom it is rightly read that she was both beautiful and called Tamar -- the Holy Spirit perhaps intimating through these details, who wished them to be inserted into his Scripture for the benefit of readers, that the attractiveness of the sin whose beauty draws the soul away and entices it, consequently also, after the perpetration of the same sin, its bitterness punishes and afflicts it. For bitterness, as you know, is what Tamar means. Know, therefore, O my soul, that when you behold something illicit as beautiful in the sight of concupiscence, after the taste of experience you will also feel it to be bitter. And alas! You are not as wise when still standing upright in your state as you already are when cast down by your fall. For even though this voice of the penitent is good: 'Alas! Alas! because I have done it!' -- yet far better is this voice of the one who takes precaution: 'Far be it that I should do it!' Why does only distress give understanding to your hearing? Why do you not counsel yourself to flee from illness? For what of it? Even if death does not always follow illness, yet rare is the one who sleeps in death without first having dozed in illness; nor does the one frequently succeed unless the other has preceded it.
IV. I have sinned a great sin, therefore, and frequently. A great bitterness also invades my wretched conscience; it touches it and shakes it, wounds and torments it, then moves it and anxiously disturbs it. A certain voice in it does not whisper but rather cries out -- a voice, I say, perhaps of salvation, yet not of exultation; a voice not of feasting but of reproaching; not of quiet consolation but of great disturbance. And it cries out thus: Adam, where are you? And what shall I say, or what shall I answer myself, since I myself have done it? (Gen. 3:9.) For if I wish to say that the cause of my hiding is the swelling fear in me, and the fearful swelling, and that through it I wish to provide for the decorum of my nakedness, I will hear, though unwillingly: Who told you that you were naked, unless you have eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat? (Gen. 3:11.) Is not the forbidden eating the prohibited consent? The former destroys nakedness, because the latter brings shame. O how bold is the purity of conscience! O how trembling is its foulness!
This rebuking voice rages in the interior of my house, thundering and flashing with great noise, accusing and reproving with all authority thus: Why is there such great iniquity in you? What fruit did you then have in those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. If you have sown in the flesh, what will you reap but corruption? (Gal. 6:8.) Why has this apostolic sentence slipped from your mind? And why also this one: If you have lived according to the flesh, you shall die? (Rom. 8:13.) If you have loved the world, what profit pertaining to eternity will the love of it bring you, since it passes away along with its concupiscence? (1 John 2:17.) Why did you desire adultery? Because to love the world is to hate God, for you read, though in vain: If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15). Thus this voice accuses me and sets me before my own face, sealing as it were my sins in a bag (Job 14:17), stoning me with my own filth and smearing my face with my own mud.
V. It also sets before me the holy conduct of others, so that I may understand all the more that my own foulness is to be condemned. It raises up its witnesses against me, so that they nearly wage war against me. For to this end it shows me, along with the prophet, the temple, that I may measure it and be confounded by all that I have done (Ezek. 43:10). It commands me to look upon other men, so that I may consequently say: I have sinned (Job 33:27). And to the heap of my confusion, it sets before my eyes such persons who, though they may seem weaker than me and more unskilled, are far above me both in being more shrewd at guarding against defilements and more valiant at overcoming temptations. You are wise, therefore -- but for doing evil; but for doing good, you know not (Jer. 4:22). For how, and to what profit, are you wise if you are not wise for yourself? And strong, if your strength is like a spark of tow? (Isa. 1:31) For such as tow is in fire, such is the strength you have in temptation.
VI. But it also sets against me my ranks and orders, the loftiness of my profession, and the time of my conversion. A deacon, it says, or priest, a canon and one clothed in the habit of religion -- ought he to have committed such a thing? Was it fitting for a servant of God to be a servant of sin? Was it proper, then, for a friend and intimate of the Lord, a bridesman and herald of Christ, to admit into himself something that would so gravely displease so great and such a Lord? Behold, how often you have violated the vows of your profession, which your lips uttered! (Ps. 65:14.) How much better it would have been for you not to have vowed a vow than not to have fulfilled the vow! Why should not the very sublimity of his profession be a greater heap of damnation for one who vows much, and not only does not fulfill his vow, but indeed presumes many things contrary to his vow?
And how much have you really progressed since you came to your conversion? In the morning you seemed to begin the journey, and behold, now that evening is drawing on, you have scarcely gone out the door. How many began to travel this road long after you, and not only have they caught up to you, but have also manfully outrun you! Perfected in a short time, they fulfilled many times, for their soul was pleasing to God (Wis. 4:13).
VII. Still after all these things, what moves me more and troubles me more, it impresses upon me the frequency of my falls. For it addresses me in this way and says: Your wound is most grievous and nearly incurable. So many times it has been bandaged, so many times treated with medicine, so many times bathed in oil, so many times a scar has formed over it (Isa. 1:6). Countless are the times you have been healed. But know this was said not to your praise but to your shame, for often healed, you just as often show yourself wounded. I feel the same also about the instances of your amendment; for often cleansed, you are just as often defiled. And how long will this go on with you? How long, I say, will you be like a dog returning to his own vomit, and a sow that was washed rolling in the mire of mud? (2 Pet. 2:22.) How long so dull, so devoid of sense, that though so often wounded you do not shrink from being wounded again? Do you think the physician never grows weary of his patient, seeing him seek health and yet refuse to keep it once obtained? And the cleanser of his stained one, seeing him desire his washing when it is absent, yet when it is present, not caring to preserve it?
VIII. With these and similar things, this great voice impresses upon me the enormity and frequency of my sin. It also places before my eyes the one against whom I have sinned, and now presents him to me as a friend and lover, now as a strict and severe judge -- the former, before whom I used to blush; the latter, before whom I used to tremble. It speaks to me of the former thus: Why did you wish to act so as to return evil for good? Against whom have you sinned, and whom have you offended through sin? He is your friend and lover; he is also your Father and Benefactor. What did he do to you, or how was he troublesome to you, that you provoked him to anger? He created you in his own image and likeness when you did not exist; he redeemed you with the generous outpouring of his pious and innocent blood when you were lost; he called you from the world when you were sold to sin; he gave you a tenacious memory, a learned tongue, sharpness of mind, brilliance of speech. And because it would take too long to go through each gift of grace he bestowed on you -- from an outsider he promoted you to a neighbor, from a servant he elevated you to a son. But how fittingly you have responded to these and other gifts of his generosity, you can see for yourself. See what good thing he commanded that you have not omitted; what evil thing he prohibited that you have not committed. In a brief word I have shown you to yourself. And what more shall I say? You have acted worse as a son toward a Father, and toward such a Father, than another would toward his enemy.
IX. Concerning the severe and strict judge, the voice addresses me thus -- filling all my interior being with a certain very great pain. How, it says, you who are light dust, you who are worthless ash -- how have you dared to raise yourself against so great and such a Majesty? How have you been so foolish in your folly, so hardened in your insensibility, as to presume to provoke so strict and so severe a Judge to anger? Do you not know that he touches the mountains and they smoke (Ps. 104:32), that dominions adore him and powers tremble before him, that in his sight all consciences quake, and that no creature at all suffices to bear his wrath? Against him you have transgressed, and you have dared to provoke him to anger by your transgressions. And you have read in Isaiah that the worm of those who have transgressed against him shall not die, and the fire shall not be quenched (Isa. 66:24). How will you, dry stubble, be able to endure when that immense and consuming fire exercises the heat of its flames? When his anger has blazed against such? When finally fire has been kindled in his fury and has burned even to the lowest depths of hell, devouring the earth with its increase and burning the foundations of the mountains? (Deut. 32:22.)
Consider now within yourself what courage you will be able to have when you are compelled to render an account not only for each of your deeds, but also for your words -- indeed not only for your words and deeds, but even for the very minutest movements of your thoughts and intentions of the heart. Weep, weep -- not a little, but long and greatly over your pain. Weep, I say, that you are going and shall not return to a dark land, covered with the mist of death, a land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death dwells, and no order, but everlasting horror (Job 10:21).
X. In these ways does this voice address me. First, setting before my face and showing me how many evils I have committed; second, how frequently I have sinned; third, how kind a Father and generous a benefactor I have offended; fourth, against what a strict and severe Judge I have rushed. In the first manifestation it affects me with the most powerful horror; in the second it shakes me with immense pain; in the third it confounds me with the greatest shame; in the fourth it deters me with anxious fear. This is the fourfold effect of compunction, which we said is the second knife by which we must be circumcised. And indeed this little knife is very sharp, not only cutting away excesses already contracted, but also resisting their being contracted. For what illicit excess will the mind admit, when pain fully afflicts it as it considers the magnitude of its evils; when horror strikes it as it sees how often it has sinned; when shame confounds it as it perceives how great and what kind of lover it has offended; when finally fear disturbs it as it contemplates how terrible a Judge it has provoked to anger?
You have, therefore, two stone knives: one is named discipline, the other compunction. The former circumcises those who are standing, lest they incur enormous excess and excessive enormity. The latter purges those who have fallen, so that they may escape what they have incurred. And each has a fourfold effect in the remedy of cleansing. For the former amputates the unclean things already committed: through voluntary and honorable poverty, making a person temperate; through the weakness of bodily infirmity, making him fearful; through the trouble of assailing adversity, pouring into him humility; through the harassment of besetting temptations, making him solicitous for his salvation. The latter -- namely, the interior compunction of the mind -- guards the one upon whom it fully pours itself, lest the excess of any superfluity contract impurity: by afflicting with pain, by shaking with horror, by confounding with shame, by deterring with fear.
XI. But we have now held these little knives in our hands long enough. Let us now speak about the name of this Child. For just as on this day he was circumcised, so also on this day his name was called Jesus. And it is not by chance that he is called by this name, but by the angel's prior announcement. Hence also Saint Luke says: His name was called Jesus, which was called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb (Luke 2:21). The Holy One of holy ones does not bear this holy name in vain, but in deed and truth. For what he is called, that he also accomplishes -- salvation, namely, in the midst of the earth (Ps. 73:12). She will bear you a son, the angel said to Saint Joseph, and you shall call his name Jesus (Matt. 1:21). Nor was the reason left unspoken: for he will save his people from their sins (ibid.). You see, therefore, what the mystery of this blessed and beatifying name Jesus is -- that he is called Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.
For he himself is the true David, in whose hand the Lord delivers his people from the hand of the Philistines (2 Sam. 19:9). To which I think pertains what Paul says: God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor. 5:19), and no less what his fellow apostle Peter says: He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him (Acts 10:38). O our holy David, faithful not only in all things but beyond all! For who in the clouds shall be equal to the Lord, who shall be like God among the sons of God? (Ps. 88:7.) O, I say, the one whom God the Father found according to his own heart, according to that truthful testimony: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matt. 17:5). I have found a man after my own heart, God says of our David (Acts 13:22). And rightly a man whom seven women have taken hold of (Isa. 4:1); because God does not give the Spirit by measure -- he whose glory we have seen, the glory as of the Only-Begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). And of his fullness we have all received (ibid. 16).
XII. A man indeed, whom Ezekiel saw clothed in linen among six men (Ezek. 9:2), who were coming from the gate that faces north, each with a weapon of destruction in his hand -- intimating, as you know, that this strong and mighty David, as the Lord of hosts, appeared clothed in flesh assumed from his most pure Virgin Mother, among men who through the six ages of the world proceeded from a corruptible birth from sin, and in their own activity had not a little that pertained to mortal sin. This was perhaps the case when, having entrusted the flock to a keeper, sent by the Father he went laden to his brothers (1 Sam. 17:20ff.) -- having left those ninety-nine in the wilderness, fearing no danger to them at all, since he had left them in a safe place, and being sent to the sheep that had perished, he descended full of grace and truth to visit and console all who desired him with their whole heart (Matt. 18:12). Nor did he return to his Father until he had slain with its own sword that proud Gittite, who came forth morning and evening, standing for forty days -- since he himself had no sword -- and had carried his head to Jerusalem.
All of which things you must take care to refer to our David, this child today circumcised, whose name was also called Jesus. For just as he went forth from the Father and came into the world (John 16:28), so he did not leave the world and go to the Father until he had triumphed over the prince of this world, who oppressed his elect -- for they say that this is what the name Gath signifies. That prince throughout the entire time of this life until his coming was hostile and troublesome, both in prosperity and in adversity. All fled from his face, nor was anyone found who dared to enter into single combat with him, except the humble boy David. He alone triumphed over him, striking him down and removing the reproach from Israel.
And how did he triumph over him? He who in the hand of his own action did not have the malignant sword of iniquity received from the very members of the devil the dispensatory sword of death -- so that, slain, he might slay; truly dying for the nation, and not for the nation only, but that he might gather into one the children of God who were dispersed (John 11:51-52). He associated even those who were chief and eminent in the body of the devil with the unity and peace of the holy Church. Does it not seem to you that this is the meaning of that proud giant being slain by David with his own sword, and his head cut from his body and carried to Jerusalem?
XIII. O holy and salutary name, which is Jesus! Because his work is also holy and salutary. This name, as it seems to me, is the sole and singular sign of our salvation. Who is able to grasp, let alone express, how salutary is either the name or the work of the name? Must not he be judged to have been wise who said: There is no other name given to men under heaven by which we must be saved? (Acts 4:12.) This most beautiful and most holy name -- a name of exultation and salvation, a name of joy and sweetness, a name finally of delight and gladness. He felt this well who said: But I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will exult in God my Jesus (Hab. 3:18). How sweet this name is to his lips -- above honey and the honeycomb to his mouth (Ps. 18:11). Who will grant me that in this name my mind, and not my mind alone but also my tongue, may be ceaselessly occupied? For Jesus is a joyful jubilation in the heart, just as he is a savory food on the lips.
Indeed, there is nothing now that can sadden the heart in which this voice of exultation and gladness sounds; nothing either that can embitter the palate that ruminates on this most sweet and most savory food. His name, says the Evangelist, was called Jesus, which was called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb (Luke 2:21). Before he was conceived, he was named. What is the meaning of this? The Church conceived this Jesus in her womb when she admitted the very author of her salvation into her interior through faith working through love (Gal. 5:6). But before she conceived him in her womb in this way, the angel had called his name Jesus. If an angel called it -- and angel means messenger -- then what were Moses and Isaiah, what indeed was every patriarch and prophet who foretold, whether by sign or by word, that our salvation was to be conferred and consummated in this Jesus and through this Jesus, if not an angel? And since each one prophesied his coming to save us not only before the Church believed in him, but even long before he appeared in the flesh, his name was indeed called Jesus before he was conceived in the womb.
XIV. But we must speak about the reason for this most holy and most sweet name, which is Jesus. A question arises: what is the meaning of his being called Jesus by the angel, but Emmanuel by Isaiah? A virgin, he says, shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel (Isa. 7:14). Which Saint Matthew also took care to recall, where he introduces the angel showing the reason for this most salutary and most blessed name, which is Jesus. For, asserting that the angel said to Joseph: You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21), he immediately added: All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying: Behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which is interpreted 'God with us' (ibid. 22-23).
The angel calls his name Jesus, and states what this means, saying: He will save his people from their sins. The prophet calls the same one's name Emmanuel, and explains what this means: which is interpreted, God with us. If this Jesus is Emmanuel, we can understand the same thing -- namely, that he saves us and that he is God with us. That this is indeed so we shall most certainly discover if we take care to investigate both how he saves us and how God is with us. For if anyone asks: Who is this God? He is our Jesus. How then is he with us? Is it in the way in which he is king of ages, immortal, invisible (1 Tim. 1:17); in which the Only-Begotten is in the bosom of the Father; in which he was begotten from the womb before the day-star, from the splendors of the saints (Ps. 109:3); in which he dwells in light inaccessible, is equal to the Father: whom no man has seen, nor indeed can see (1 Tim. 6:16). By no means: he is not God with us in that manner. Rather, unless I am mistaken, he is God with us in the manner in which he was made lower than the angels (Ps. 8:6); in which he is the firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:19), who is also the firstborn from the dead (Rev. 1:5); in which he shared with us what he took from us for our sake, namely that which abounds among us -- to be born and to die. Behold, in this manner God is with us. This word, which is Emmanuel, is full of all sweetness and delight on human lips. For how should it not be sweet for a man to utter that which, above all other creatures, belongs to man alone? For in this sense, neither the angels can utter it, nor any other creature, to speak briefly; so that the same relationship exists for it as exists for the creature. But he is with man in such a way that he is with him, and man, receiving in himself what he himself is, becomes that which he himself is.
XV. O holy and saving name Jesus! O joyful and glad name Emmanuel! The former indicates our salvation; the latter, the manner of that same salvation. He himself saved us, and he did so because God was with us. With which of us was God himself? With us men, with us indeed who are born, who live, who die: we are born, and in uncleanness; we live, and in wickedness; we die, and in sorrow. Behold, man born of woman, living a short time, filled with many miseries (Job 14:1). It is the voice of a righteous man bewailing man's threefold calamity: polluted in birth, depraved in life, condemned in death. Whence he added: who comes forth like a flower, born of woman in frailty; and living a short time is crushed, and yet in depravity; and fleeing like a shadow, running to death with all haste. But there is great consolation, that Jesus is born, and lives, and at the end dies. And so God is with us in birth, in life, and in death. But being born without impurity, living without depravity, he purified those born in uncleanness and justified those acting in iniquity; and finally, dying voluntarily and without obligation, soon to rise again and to live forever, he beatified those dying under condemnation.
Moreover, shortly after his birth, today that is, he deigned to receive circumcision in his most holy flesh, for the cleansing of the flesh decreed by the law.
XVI. Also in the thirtieth year of his age, the Lord received baptism from his servant, instituting it for the full remission of sins (Matt. 3:13). And so in these two sacraments he established a remedy for the disease of original sin for those who are of the stock of Abraham; in this time of revealed grace establishing purification in the washing of baptism. Then in his way of life he displayed all holiness: uttering truth with his mouth, showing purity in his works. For just as he did not contract sin when conceived of the Virgin, so neither did he commit sin during the entire time he lived in the world; and so he made his way of life a path for us, through which we might reach our heavenly homeland. For by showing us, through what he omitted, what is evil, and through what he admitted, what is good, he taught us plainly what we should flee and what we should seek. But at the end, while he was utterly ignorant of sin, and therefore in no way liable to sin, he endured an undeserved death for us, and thereby freed us from the death we deserved, driving from us the eternal damnation which we merited in both soul and body, while he admitted in his flesh alone the suffering of a temporal death which he did not deserve.
For the innocent blood of the uncontaminated and spotless, loving and gentle Lamb Jesus was poured out on the altar of the cross. Through the shedding of his blood, crying out from the earth better than Abel's (Heb. 11:24), God who was offended is appeased, and man who was guilty is reconciled. Whence it comes about in a wondrous and merciful way that man can now die without fear of damnation, because God-man died for him without any debt of damnation. Thus our Emmanuel, being born with us, cleansed us from the corruption of our vitiated origin; living with us, he justified us from the conduct of wicked works; and dying with us and for us, he freed us from the condemnation of eternal death.
XVII. What do I fear now, or why do I tremble? For what if I have contracted original pollution from the first parent, in whom we all sinned? The sacrament of baptism, established by our supreme physician, will cleanse and by cleansing will destroy it -- he who heals all our infirmities (Ps. 102:3), establishing that same remedy of purification for us, and also receiving it in himself for our sake, not only having nothing impure in himself to wash away, but also being the one who alone is able to make clean what was conceived from unclean seed (Job 14:4). And if perchance I do not walk rightly in the way of injustice, I will go to him who was made for us by God not only sanctification but also justice (1 Cor. 1:30); and in that book of life spread open before me I will read not only what pertaining to the ruin of vices I should guard against, but also what pertaining to the ascent of virtue I ought to practice. And when I must depart from here, I will set death against death: the death of Christ's body against the death of my soul. I will hope then in his death; I will hope also in his resurrection: in the former, that I may not perish by eternal death; in the latter, that I may rise to life. For he who died for me that I might not die, was himself likewise raised so that I might rise again.
Thanks therefore to you, O good and gracious Jesus, who deigned to be born from us, to live among us, and to die for us, showing that in these things you bear the holy name which is Emmanuel, which is interpreted God with us. To you, to you, I say, O Lord, who being born cleansed us from the oldness of original uncleanness; who living justified us from the iniquity of wickedness; who dying freed us from the calamity of hell -- to you from all the depths of our heart, O Jesus, O Emmanuel, O Emmanuel and Jesus! Honor and glory, forever and ever. Amen.
SERMON XLIII. On the Day of the Epiphany of the Lord. On the threefold appearance of the Lord.
I. My joy is great, dearest brothers, and there is immense gladness in my heart, and I give many thanks to God for you, seeing you gather with such eagerness on these holy days to hear the word of God. And indeed, although it is fitting for us to attend to divine things at all times, reason itself demands that we devote greater devotion to the things that are especially God's on feast days. For the more external works cease on these days, the more diligently it is necessary that the tongue apply itself to the divine work, and that we offer to God the burnt offerings of our lips, and in their opening proclaim his praise. This holy and salutary work of the tongue we worthily exercise when in pure prayer we devote ourselves to the praises of God, and when in sound preaching we labor toward the exhortation of our neighbor. It is fitting that the holy tongue apply itself to this twofold office: namely, to sing with joy in prayer with praises worthy of God, and to instruct the minds of our neighbors with holy words of devout exhortation. And since we have devoted no small care, according to our capacity, to one of these salutary works -- namely, the diligence of devout prayers -- both during the preceding night and during this present day, it remains for us to undertake the other, which is the instruction of neighbors, since the opportunity of time now presents itself, showing ourselves as devoted to God in the former, and as necessary to our neighbor in the latter.
Therefore, since we are about to say something for the benefit of our hearers, from where shall we more fittingly take our subject matter than from this very day on which we speak? For just as the excellence of the present day demands that we say something in it for the praise of God and your edification, so it no less requires that we also speak about it, especially since its sanctity is so great and of such a kind that it can furnish us with abundant and sufficient matter for speaking.
II. For as we sing: Today we celebrate a holy day adorned with three miracles; today a star led the Magi to the manger; today wine was made from water at the wedding; today Christ wished to be baptized in the Jordan, that he might save us all. Concerning these miracles, as you know, the orthodox Fathers have said much. Do not expect to hear anything new from us, who are not only by no means capable of discovering anything new, but are not so keen of intellect that we could fully understand their sayings, nor so retentive of memory as to hold on to what we have understood. But I want your charity to recognize this: that not only the depth and height of these same miracles, but also their sequence and order makes me concerned -- looking closely not only at the fact that the Lord performed certain great deeds, but also diligently investigating which of them he performed first and which later. The former pertains, as I see it, to the almighty will of the one who acts; the latter, however, seems to me to pertain to his dispensation. Both serve spiritual meaning, and through neither is our edification lacking.
But before we treat of the depth, let us first say something, even briefly, about their order. The order, unless I am mistaken, is this: first, he revealed himself to the gentiles with a star as guide, and offered himself, once revealed, to be devoutly and faithfully adored and honored with mystical gifts. Then he humbly bowed himself to the hands of blessed John to be baptized, and having been immersed in the waters, he conferred upon the waters sanctification for our spiritual cleansing. Finally, he powerfully changed water into wine at the wedding, and gladdening the guests, he also increased the faith of his disciples. In each of these we venerate his holy and sanctifying manifestation and embrace his admirable condescension. And his first manifestation he displayed to the Magi; the second he granted to the peoples; the third he bestowed upon his disciples.
For concerning the first you read that when he was born, magi came from the East (Matt. 2:1); coming, they sought; seeking, they found; finding, they adored. This is, as you know, the substance of the Gospel's account of the coming of the Magi to the child Jesus. Concerning the second, you have it that when all the people were being baptized, and when Jesus had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form, like a dove, upon him -- and the rest which the holy Evangelist recounts about him in what follows (Luke 3:22ff.). We believe this was the people before whom, as they stood by, blessed John, seeing the Lord hastening to his baptism, immediately broke forth into this utterance, saying: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). Concerning the third manifestation, this is how the truth of the matter stands: This beginning of signs Jesus performed (John 2:11) -- undoubtedly this, that he changed water into wine -- and he manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him (ibid.).
III. Furthermore, if the very places in which these same appearances were bestowed are thought to suggest something: the first was at Bethlehem, the second in the Jordan, the third in Cana of Galilee. And perhaps it is pertinent that the first was in the house of bread, the second in descent, the third in the zeal of migration or of accomplished revelation. For these, as you know, are the interpretations of these names. Far be it from us to think it is without meaning that the Lord wished to appear in the dwelling of eternal refreshment, in the virtue of humility, and in the fervor of spiritual knowledge. It will become clear when we begin to treat of the meaning of these places whether they contain anything spiritual.
But to show briefly what I understand in the order of this threefold appearance of the Lord: I take it that in the first our calling is expressed, in the second our cleansing, and in the third our glorification. For the Magi would never have come from such distant and remote regions of the earth to adore a newborn child, unless they had been summoned not only by the novelty of an outward sign, but also by a certain voice of inward instruction. For thus, on this night, you heard in the words of blessed Pope Leo: He gave understanding to those who beheld, he says, who provided the sign; and what he caused to be understood, he caused to be sought out; and being sought, he offered himself to be found. He who provided the sign in such a way as to give understanding to those who beheld it -- what was this but a certain calling by which he invited them to himself? And in the baptism of Christ, who doubts that our cleansing is not only expressed but actually realized? For he who was baptized was not baptized for himself but for us. Finally, he is baptized not to be cleansed, but rather to purify for himself an acceptable people, zealous for good works (Titus 2:14), having no pollution whatsoever and conferring purification freely. And at the wedding, as the evangelist says, he manifested his glory (John 2:11). And that miracle which he performed at the wedding was a mighty work of power and glory.
IV. The order is certainly good and most fitting, that he should become known through a threefold manifestation on this day: showing us in the first as called, in the second as justified, and in the third as glorified. This is what Paul, aware of this mystery, perceived, asserting, as you who read can understand: that God called those whom he predestined, and justified those whom he called, and glorified those whom he justified (Rom. 8:30). And so we are called when we are summoned to the faith; we are justified when, cleansed from former sins, we are adorned with the works of justice; we are glorified not only when in the future we are rewarded through the reception of heavenly glory, but also when in the present, through the reception of interior glory -- which consists in the testimony of a true and undeceived conscience -- we glory in the Lord.
First, then, we are far off through ignorance in the darkness of blindness; he calls us so that we may be near through faith in the knowledge of truth. Second, cleansing us from dead works, he makes us serve the living God, so that just as we once presented our members to serve iniquity unto iniquity, so now, conversely visited by the change of the right hand of the Most High, we may present those same members to serve justification unto justification (Rom. 6:19). Third, with love made perfect in us, casting out fear, as it were water converted into wine -- when the old wine has first run out, it is drawn from the water jars (1 John 4:18), so that the new may not fail. Though they contain nothing but water, with which they are filled to the brim, they pour out nothing but wine, and good wine at that, having been kept until now.
And so, in the third place, our Lord Jesus, converting this spiritual water into equally spiritual wine, renders those inner guests of the mind -- I mean pure thoughts, fully secure inasmuch as they are clear of conscience (for a secure mind, as Solomon says, is a continual feast [Prov. 15:15]) -- those guests, I say, both gladdened with a certain admirable exultation in the manifestation of his glory, and shows forth to the glorified by revelation. What we have just described is conferred at the wedding, when the bride is joined to the bridegroom, the soul to the Word. What these wedding celebrations, along with certain things perhaps pertaining to them, signify, we will endeavor to demonstrate as best we can when we come to that place. Calling therefore precedes, justification follows, and glorification comes at the end.
So that we who were blinded when far off may be enlightened when near; we who were empty of the marks of holiness may be filled with works of justice; we who, having a seared conscience through the appetite for impure pleasure, were once disgraced -- being well conscious of ourselves in all things, through a stable and persevering purpose of holiness, may be glorious in the unfailing purity of interior contemplation. In vain would he glorify who had not first cleansed; but neither would he have those to glorify or cleanse, unless he who alone is pure had first called those who were to be cleansed, and he who is truly glorious had called those who were to be glorified.
V. The faithful soul, thus both justified and glorified, is in a certain manner a house in which its maker, God, deigns to dwell. In this house, faith, which is the foundation in calling, is laid underneath; hope, which is in justification, raises the walls; and love, which is in glorification, both places the roof over the exterior and paints the interior of the house with a beautiful arrangement of various colors. See, therefore, that what a roof without a wall is in a house, glorification without justification is in a soul; and what a wall without a foundation is, justification without calling is. Recognize after this that just as a roof and wall cannot stand without a foundation, nor can a foundation suffice for the perfection of a house without wall and roof, so in the soul glorification and justification lacking a calling entirely lack substance, and unless it has both of these, a calling does not have sufficiency for salvation. The soul itself, as we said shortly before, can by no means attain glorification unless it has first obtained justification; nor can it be justified unless it has first happened to be called. For justification is the cause of glorification, and it is necessary that calling precede so that justification may follow.
By clear reasoning, then, on this sacred day, as a child Jesus was first adored by the called Magi; then, no longer a child but now a grown man, he was baptized by John; and finally, performing a remarkable and sublime miracle, having manifested his glory, he himself was glorified. He was signifying to us, as has been said, that we must first be childlike and tender, having as yet nothing for salvation except the knowledge of truth alone, and must be summoned to himself through the belief of right faith; then, having now obtained greater strength in spiritual vigor, we must be purified by him from all the filth of wicked conduct that we contracted through sinning; and finally, we must be glorified in him through the interior purity that a pure heart and a good conscience are accustomed to have.
VI. Now, the fact that he stirred the aforementioned Magi by calling them to the house of bread (for this is what Bethlehem means) so that they might know him -- what else should you understand from this, except that there is no knowledge of truth anywhere other than in the dwelling of interior refreshment? For the true bread, as you know, is the word of God; through the word, therefore, the Word is known. And that mind clearly apprehends the truth, which is Christ, which the sound and catholic understanding of his word sweetly feeds. Therefore, so that the Magi might find the child Jesus, they are called to Bethlehem; for if you lack the bread of God's word in your house, you do not have with you that true bread which came down from heaven and gives life to the world (John 6:33).
But in the Jordan, whose name means descent, he was baptized, because unless you are humbled, you are not justified. Did not holy David perceive this, who said: It was good for him that God humbled him, so that he might learn his justifications? (Ps. 118:71.) Upon whom does my Spirit rest, except upon the humble, and upon him who trembles at my words? (Isa. 66:2.) In the Gospel he also says: Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matt. 11:29). Therefore let him who desires to be justified be in descent, for John baptizes Christ in the Jordan. And he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14:11), for no one ascends except he who has descended (John 3:13). Descent, then, is humility, and one is justified nowhere else than in humility itself, just as Christ is baptized nowhere else than in the Jordan. Concerning this virtue of humility, we pass over many things that ought to be said, because we hasten to other matters, and we defer these things to be said another time.
VII. In the zeal of migration or revelation (for these two names, Cana and Galilee, are said to contain these meanings) this holy glorification, which we treated above, is conferred. For if with the zeal of good devotion you migrate by steps of love from vices to virtues through good works, and from present things to heavenly things through pious desire; if you ardently love through affection whatever has been clearly revealed to you through understanding -- then you have obtained from Jesus this interior glorification, who manifested his glory in Cana of Galilee.
And so you will attain this glorification if you contemplate purely, if you work strenuously, and if finally you love ardently both what you grasp through contemplation and what you accomplish through action. These seem to express revelation, migration, and love. These three -- but the greatest of these is love. For while revelation sometimes leads astray through the error of falsehood, and migration sometimes puffs up through the appetite for vanity, love is always in the light. If something false is suggested in revelation, love shrewdly detects it; and because it is not puffed up, if any inflation strives to break out in migration, love powerfully casts it down. Therefore revelation pertains to clarity, which resides in the intellect; migration to usefulness, which resides in effect; and love to purity, which resides in affection. Thus by this threefold gift of grace this holy glorification is conferred, because the one whom revelation illuminates through holy contemplation, migration adorns through good action. Zeal inflames through pure love, and interior sweetness glorifies that same consensus.
You see now, and openly recognize, unless I am mistaken, that it was by no means without reason that the Lord Jesus wished to be manifested in Bethlehem when the Magi were called; that he wished to be baptized in the Jordan when we were to be baptized; and that he wished to be glorified in Cana of Galilee when we were to be glorified.
VIII. But having spoken briefly about the order and places of his manifestations, let us now speak more fully about each of them individually, and first about the first, in which we said our calling was expressed. You heard, as sacred Scripture relates, that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah in the days of King Herod, behold, Magi came from the East (Matt. 2:1). Brothers, what we cannot say without grave sorrow: now are the days of King Herod. In these evil days, in these perilous times, there reigns the one clothed in skins, or the glory of the skin -- for Herod contains both interpretations in itself. I speak of Behemoth, whom in the Gospel the Lord calls the strong man fully armed (Matt. 12:21): whose strength is in his loins, and whose power is in the navel of his belly (Job 40:11), who sees everything lofty, and is king over all the children of pride (Job 41:25).
Today he rules over the earth and powerfully exercises his tyranny -- that prince of this world, the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. The serpent, I say, creeping on the breast of pride and the belly of lust. And fittingly he bears that lofty and unclean name, which is Herod -- clothed in skins in those who live according to the flesh, and the glory of the skin in those who glory in the flesh, rejoicing when they have done evil and exulting in the worst things (Prov. 2:14). For that same serpent is full of the plague of a twofold poison, being both rigid and slippery, whom Isaiah calls Leviathan, the twisting serpent and the bar (Isa. 27:1). In the ways of vainglory, he subjugates the covetous to himself, puffed up with the glory of the skin. And in the womb of the flesh, he tramples down those given over to carnal desires, seized by the stench of skins. See whether these are not preeminently the days of Herod, when in the sons of perdition, especially in this time, such great exaltation reigns in the mind and such great corruption in the flesh.
IX. Nevertheless, in these worst of days Jesus is born in Bethlehem of Judah. What do we think it means for Jesus to be born in Bethlehem of Judah in the days of King Herod, if not that Jesus himself has some who, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, shine like lights in the world, holding fast the word of life? (Phil. 2:15.) If you are also willing to accept it, Bethlehem of Judah is this holy and religious community, which both interior refreshment in the mind enriches and holy confession, both in mouth and in deed, adorns. For confession is not only on the tongue but also in deed; otherwise Paul would not say that some deny God by their deeds, unless he knew that there are some who also confess by their deeds (Titus 1:16).
If, then, Bethlehem is the house of David, how shall I not call your holy way of life a kind of Bethlehem -- you whom the Lord governs so that nothing is lacking to you, placing you in a place of pasture (Ps. 22:2); so that as you eat the marrow of a land flowing with milk and honey, your soul may delight in fatness, as if filled with fat and richness? For he feeds you in the mind with the fat of wheat, and with honey from the rock he satisfies you (Ps. 80:17), refreshing you with the sweetest taste of the divinity and the most savory sweetness, through interior contemplation; and fattening you no less with the sweetest examples of his humanity through outward imitation. Thus fed and refreshed in the innermost chambers of the heart, since you confess God not only in words but also confess God in deeds -- I do not know by what reason anyone could fault me if I call you Bethlehem of Judah, since I know that you, nourished in mind, devote yourselves to your own salvation; uttering devout confession with your mouth, you give yourselves to divine praise; and confessing God in holy work, you come to the aid of fraternal need.
We have discussed at sufficient length, as I think, this house of bread and the kinds of this confession in the sermons we delivered during Advent, when we showed what it means that the Lord is said to come to Bethlehem walking upon the waters of the redemption of Judah -- all of which we need not repeat. In this Bethlehem of Judah Jesus was born, even in the days of Herod, having many servants strong in spiritual power (inasmuch as their rule is exceedingly strengthened), full of the sevenfold Spirit, whose works are not inclined to sins; reserving to himself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee before Baal (3 Kings 19:18). Yet in these perilous times, which are not merely approaching but already present, there abound: men loving themselves, covetous, haughty, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, and other such monstrous men, whom he describes more fully in what follows.
X. This holy city can no longer be hidden, which is by no means the least among the princes of Judah, from which a ruler comes forth who shall govern the people of Israel; nor does this lamp suffer itself to be placed under a bushel, but upon a lampstand (Matt. 5:15), so that those about to enter the house may see the light. Hence it is that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah (Matt. 2:5), a shining star appeared -- a star, I say, flashing like a flame and pointing to God, the King of kings. For it shines with such great light of such a kind, and gleams with such newness of splendor, that the Magi, seeing it, say to one another: This is the sign of the great King; let us go and seek him, and offer him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Brothers, what do you think we can say about this star? It shines from the East all the way to Bethlehem. It appears to the Magi in the East, shakes their hearts by its novelty, protects them on their journey, and showing itself as their guide all the way to Bethlehem, where the child Jesus is, it leads them there.
Let us say, I suggest, if nothing better occurs to you at present, that this bright star, leading these men who were so far away to Bethlehem to adore Jesus, is a shining reputation drawing worldly people (since salvation is far from sinners [Ps. 118:155]) to a religious and holy way of life, so that they may embrace and practice a salutary state of life. It leads them all the way to Bethlehem; but first it appears to them in the East. For how could they follow the reputation which the holiness of religion emits from itself, unless they had at least some knowledge of the truth? We saw his star in the East, they say, and we have come to adore him (Matt. 2:2). They would by no means have hastened from such remote regions to adore him unless they had first seen his star.
XI. Rightly did the holy man say that he is cruel who neglects his own reputation. For just as a neglected ruin serves as an occasion for evil to those who hear of it, so when preserved in the integrity of truth, or kept unharmed, it is matter and occasion for good. And I believe this is the reason why the Apostle urges us to provide for what is good, not only before God, but also before not just some, but all men (Rom. 12:17); who also again admonishes us to walk honestly toward those who are outside (1 Thess. 4:11). Show yourselves irreproachable before worldly people; let there be nothing in your word or deed, nothing in your attire and bearing, that could be a stumbling block to them.
Whence also Paul himself says: Be without offense to Jews and gentiles and to the whole Church of God, just as I in all things please all men, not seeking what is useful to me, but what is useful to many, that they may be saved (1 Cor. 10:32). Woe to those who, under the habit of religion, before the non-religious, to their subversion, conduct themselves irreligiously -- behaving so disorderly, so dishonestly before them, that the name of God is blasphemed through them among the nations. Indeed it would be better for them if a millstone were hung around their neck and they were plunged into the depths of the sea, than to be such a scandal to the little ones (Matt. 18:6). For what would they accomplish under a secular guise? And just as the guilt would perhaps be less, so also the punishment would be less. But that which under the habit of humility they do, they therefore deserve a more severe punishment, because the offense is judged to be more grave. For the former is a simple evil, but the latter is twofold, and indeed threefold.
XII. For the first thing is that you do evil, which is utterly unlawful for anyone under whatever profession. The second is that under the habit of holiness you commit a work of iniquity, having become like a whitewashed sepulcher. The third is that you are an occasion of subversion for those for whom you ought to have been an occasion of uplifting, by your wicked example casting down to the lowest depths those whom you ought to have raised by good example to the heights. Why should a worldly person not commit evil with greater confidence and boldness, when he sees it brazenly committed by a religious, even though he fully knows it to be evil? For he takes upon himself a kind of veil of excuse for what he does, since he sees it committed by one who is clothed in the habit of religion. Woe, therefore, to him through whom the name of the Lord comes to be blasphemed among the nations in this way (Rom. 2:24) -- and especially to him through whom that same name ought preeminently to have been honored among them. May our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God blessed forever, make that woe ever more and more distant from you. Amen.
SERMON XLIV. Likewise on the Day of the Epiphany, on our spiritual calling and washing.
I. At the end of the sermon that immediately preceded this one, we said that woe belongs to that man through whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed (Rom. 2:24). But we say at the beginning of this one that, conversely, peace belongs to that man through whom the name of the Savior is blessed. Who is this man, and we shall praise him? For he has done things in his life no less salutary than praiseworthy. For this is the man who shows himself to those who observe him as so circumspect and fitting, so religious and holy, that nothing can be seen in him and nothing heard about him that would offend anyone's sight or hearing -- this being the effect of the holy way of life at which he excels, making him an object of fear to the wicked, of love to the good, and of veneration to both.
And the reputation of such a man, which flies about far and wide as it grows, what is it but a certain illustrious and shining star? Since it has nothing in itself except what pertains to God and what pleases those who look upon it as an example, it is rightly said of it: This star flashes like a flame and points to God, the King of kings. The Magi saw it and offered gifts to the great King. It is said to flash like a flame because of the abundant example of holiness and holy light which it is known to scatter for imitation to those who behold it, and it points to God, the King of kings.
II. What a full and sufficient testimony! Happy is the man who strives with all his effort to be such a person, so that whatever is seen in him, whatever is heard about him, all without any exception is a demonstration of the supreme King. He shows that the kingdom of God has come upon him, that the kingdom of God is even within him, by his words and works, his conduct and all his movements -- presenting nothing in his countenance that is not mature, nothing in his speech that is not articulate, nothing in his attire that is not humble, nothing in his diet that is not sparing, nothing in his bearing that is not irreproachable, and nothing in his gait that is not grave. He admits nothing curious through sight, nothing vain through hearing, nothing voluptuous through smell, nothing gluttonous through taste; and lest I seem to have passed over any of the five senses, nothing impure through touch.
When, therefore, the reputation flying about him is such in truth, is it not itself a kind of star, flashing like a flame and pointing to God, the King of kings? How should the Magi not hasten to bring gifts to Christ the King, when they happen to see it? For worldly people run with the gifts of their devotion toward the newness of the holy way of life that they hear about from them. You see, therefore, that the star was the reason the Magi came to Jesus. In a similar way it is understood that for those who are in the world, the truth of a good and genuine reputation is the occasion for them to approach a salutary way of life.
III. But it is necessary that the goodness of a truthful reputation and the truth of a good reputation be persevering. Therefore let the holiness of life be stable, so that consequently the integrity of reputation may also be stable. For an exceedingly heavy confusion envelops a man when evil things are made public about him, demanded by his reprobate conduct, about whom good things were previously spread abroad, proclaimed by his religious way of life. Moreover, this perseverance of a good and truthful reputation, which we are now discussing, seems to be what is indicated by what is read about this star: that it went before them -- undoubtedly the Magi -- until coming it stood over where the child was (Matt. 2:9). For what does it mean for the star to go before the Magi until it leads them to the child Jesus, if not that the good and truthful reputation of holiness perseveres? For this is what it means for the star not to diminish from its integrity, until those whom it invites to the love of a new way of life, it draws them also through the effect of good to the salutary purity which they conceived in the desire of the mind (for the child Jesus signifies purity itself).
IV. And entering the house, says Saint Matthew, they found the child with Mary his mother. O my most beloved and most longed-for brothers, I do not doubt that our star will lead many more, who are still far away, to this holy Bethlehem in which you dwell. Strive, I ask, with earnest care, that those entering the house may find the child with Mary his mother; that is, that they may find holy purity and interior grace among you. For what else is the child Jesus with Mary his mother in the house, if not salutary purity together with the interior grace that is the author and giver of that same purity in the monastery?
When these two goods are found in monasteries by the newly converted, it is as if the child Jesus and his mother are found in the house by the entering Magi. But things happen far differently in many places today, which, even though we can truthfully say, we nevertheless fear to say on account of the disgrace of certain people. For when the Magi enter the house among them, they find neither the child nor Mary his mother. Would you claim that the child Jesus is there, where there is nothing pure pertaining to salvation, but rather everything impure tending to damnation? So it truly is, so it utterly is there: where there are conceits and envies, contentions and wraths, dissensions and discords, disturbances and quarrels, lawsuits and insults, slanders and blasphemies, pretenses and scandals, whisperings and hatreds; where also sons devour fathers and fathers devour the flesh of their sons, provoking one another and consuming one another; and also biting and tearing one another apart, and thereby being consumed by one another (Gal. 5:15).
And so Jesus is not there where both prelates and subjects are full of deceit and malice -- whisperers, slanderers, hateful to God, insolent, proud, haughty, disobedient to parents (Rom. 1:30ff.): provoking their sons to anger (I say the former about rebellious subjects, the latter about insolent prelates) -- foolish, disorderly, without affection, without faith, without mercy; this I say about disordered companions. Where, I say, such things exist in monasteries, the child Jesus cannot be found. For what purity is in these, what salvation? Nor is his mother Mary found there, since there is nothing representing interior and spiritual grace, which is the author of that same salutary purity.
V. This is what some people, scrupulous and eager about their own salvation, are accustomed to complain about bitterly. Having despised the world with good intention and coming to conversion for the salvation of their souls, but not finding the same salvation which they had hoped to discover, they have sometimes been found to burst forth in this utterance: Is this, they say, that state pertaining to the salvation of the soul, which we thought lay hidden under the habit of religion and holiness? Did we persuade ourselves to come here for the salvation of our souls? And behold, either no salvation of the soul or exceedingly little is to be found here.
So much iniquity abounds, with love growing cold -- not merely that of many, but of almost all. For what does it matter if they carry about the habit of religion? They are irreligious as far as their conduct is concerned. For among them, under the garment of humility lurks exaltation; under purity, uncleanness; under tranquility, disturbance; under peace, dissension; under gentleness, inflation; under charity, hatred; under honesty, corruption; under kindness, jealousy; and finally, under the covering of great holiness, the malice of no small depravity. Almost all have declined from the sublimity of their profession; they break daily their vows which their lips pronounced (Ps. 65:13). Scarcely is anyone found who does good, so great is the number of those who have become abominable in their pursuits (Ps. 13:1). Nearly everyone does whatever pleases him, and what is not permitted he boldly commits.
And what is more to be lamented, since they have a universal consensus in evil, whatever illicit thing they do passes unpunished. I do not recall this complaint to memory in such a way as to suppose that these horrible and detestable monstrosities reign among you. For you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him, as the truth is in Christ Jesus (Eph. 4:20). But just as these evils have hitherto been far from you, so may they be always further and further away. Let these evils not be found among you, I say, but rather whatever things are holy, whatever are good, whatever are salutary, whatever are useful, whatever are devout, whatever are honorable, whatever are religious, whatever are chaste, whatever belong to peace, whatever to edification, whatever are lovable and of good repute (Phil. 4:8) -- so that whoever among those who are still outside wishes to enter your house may immediately find in it the child Jesus with Mary his mother.
VI. When he had been found together with his mother, the evangelist says that falling down they adored him, and opening their treasures they offered gifts (Matt. 2:11). When you hear that they fell down and adored, understand the humility of devotion, or the devotion of humility. When you hear that they opened their treasures and offered gifts, recognize the good purpose in them, hidden until then, now shown in devout and holy conduct. For they fell down and adored, so that by humbling themselves in all things they might demonstrate that no small devotion was within them. And they offer gifts with their treasures opened, inasmuch as they display in public the good works they first conceived within themselves, and attribute them to God. If anyone asks what those gifts are and what they signify, let him take gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These three -- while preserving that common sense, both allegorical and moral, which is the more well-known the more often it has been repeated among the orthodox -- I think can be understood through these gifts as a certain threefold exercise that one who desires to stand fruitfully in the common life he has chosen must diligently practice.
This threefold exercise is: the pursuit of reading, the purity of prayer, and the usefulness of good action. Whoever has professed the common life should always be found, as opportunity presents itself, either in reading, in prayer, or in manual labor. The pursuit of reading illuminates through learning; the devotion of prayer sanctifies through purity; the labor of good action produces fruit through usefulness. Take therefore the first exercise as gold, the second as frankincense, the third as myrrh. For what metal shines more preciously than gold? What among the gifts of the spirit is more sublime than wisdom? And when will wisdom be grasped, unless sacred reading is diligently practiced? Frankincense smells sweetly, and devotion and pure prayer offer a sweet fragrance before God. Myrrh also, as they say, preserves a dead body from putrefaction; and the constancy of good action and the labor of rigorous mortification renders the soul free from idleness, which is its enemy, and the flesh free from pleasure, which is its enticer to lust.
VII. Therefore these Magi, who enter the house in which they find Jesus and his mother Mary, offer gold, frankincense, and myrrh to Christ, to instruct us, dearest brothers, by their example: that we who have already entered this place, and dwelling here as residents, where there is both a salutary state of soul and interior grace, may studiously and diligently apply ourselves to reading, ardently devote ourselves to pure prayer, and not negligently apply ourselves to necessary action, mortifying the flesh with its vices and concupiscences.
And concerning the pursuit of sacred reading, we say that it illuminates the mind against the obscurity of ignorance; concerning the purity of devout prayer, that it sanctifies against the unlawful pleasure of either carnal or spiritual appetite; concerning the constancy of good action, that it adorns against idleness, which is the enemy of the soul (Sirach 33:29); and concerning the mortification of the flesh, that it is true myrrh, because while it suppresses the vices of the body, it also renders the soul light for spiritual things. These things concern the coming of the Magi to Christ, in which we said calling was expressed, and in which we have shown the first manifestation granted to the world. The second, however, we have in his baptism, because we are first called, and once called we are cleansed. For first he calls us from darkness into his admirable light (1 Pet. 2:9); then he cleanses our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Heb. 9:14). And he himself was indeed baptized in the Jordan, because our spiritual cleansing also consists in humility. For Jordan means descent, and to descend is to be humbled.
VIII. Let us descend, then, so that we may be humbled; let us be humbled so that we may be cleansed; for only when you are humbled are you cleansed. For just as, according to the saying of the wise man, everyone who exalts his heart is unclean, so surely he who truly humbles himself is without doubt pronounced clean. O holy humility, truly sanctifying the soul among the other virtues! It is its nature in us both to acquire virtues when they are lacking, to guard them when they are present, and to restore them when they have perhaps been taken away. For that this is the proper office of humility, we also continually feel through our own experience.
We also read that it is so in both the words and deeds of the saints. For what did blessed Mary declare the Lord regarded in her, on account of which all generations would call her blessed, if not humility? He has regarded, I say, the humility of his handmaid (Luke 1:48). And that humility is not only the acquirer but also the guardian of all virtues -- what is clearer than what the Lord says through his servant: Upon whom does my Spirit rest, except upon the humble? (Isa. 66:2.) And that you may recognize that humility is what restores virtue when it has perhaps been lost, recall to memory that remarkable miracle of Elisha: who, by cutting a piece of wood, called forth the iron axe-head that had slipped out from the depths and restored it to the one who had lost it (4 Kings 6:7).
But our bald one -- I speak of him who was crucified at the place of Calvary, whose hairs also fell away when his disciples fled and left him (Matt. 26:56) -- that Elisha of ours, I say, does not cease to deal kindly with us in this way: while he breaks the mind through humility and restores the gift of grace that was perhaps lost through hidden exaltation. And that humble confession merits obtaining this from him, which resounded with the cry of Elisha: Alas, alas, my lord! And this very thing I had received on loan (4 Kings 6:5). For what do we have that we have not received? But that is not enough; for I ought to have said: what do we have that we have not received on loan? Whatever is received on loan must be returned; we owe it to return what we have received, and to return it with interest. Therefore, for all grace which we have thus received, humility is in us the acquirer of what is absent, the preserver of what has been bestowed, and the restorer of what has been withdrawn. I will go to her and take her as my inseparable companion, so that all good things may come to me through her. When I feel grace present, she will guard it lest I lose it; when it is absent, and perhaps withdrawn, she will restore it so that it may be returned to me.
IX. The humble Jesus taught us that this humility must be diligently acquired and constantly retained. He showed it excellently in all his deeds, but especially in his baptism, bowing himself to be baptized by the hands of John, when he was entirely free from any contagion that needed washing away. Who would not be astonished, dearest ones, seeing supreme purity come to washing, God hastening to be washed by man, the Lord by a servant, the innocent by a sinner, Christ by John? For Jesus came to John, as the evangelist says, to be baptized by him (Matt. 3:13), at which cause of his coming John himself was greatly astonished, and immediately turned humbly to dissuading him, saying: I ought to be baptized by you, and you come to me? (Matt. 3:14). To whom Jesus replies: Permit it now, and added: for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all justice (ibid.). What, I ask, is this, O good, O gracious, O meek and humble Jesus? What do you mean when you say that all justice must thus be fulfilled?
You, who not only fulfill all justice but are yourself the true and supreme justice, teach me why you fulfill all justice in this: that you come to be baptized by him who ought to be baptized by you? And I hear you, my Jesus, answering these things with the ear of my heart: For this reason I will fulfill all justice in this, because in this I fulfill the highest and supreme degree of humility.
X. For the first degree of humility is shown by the one who submits himself to a superior, not preferring himself to an equal. But higher than that is when, through the love of brotherhood, which never knows how to be proud, someone subjects himself to an equal and does not judge himself to be preferred even to an inferior. But if you press on to such a height of humility as to reach even its summit, casting yourself down even before one who is your inferior, and thereby becoming subject to every human creature for God's sake, then truly I do not know what you lack for all justice, since you suffer no one to be your inferior -- not even that one to whom you are clearly far superior.
He seems to me to have made mention of this very perfection of humility when he said that in this he would fulfill all justice -- when he came to be baptized by one who ought to have been baptized by him. Go and do likewise. By humility, offering and bestowing upon your inferior that which it is his duty to offer and bestow upon you, and you will have fulfilled all justice.
XI. You do this most sublimely when through your humility you strive to bring to gentleness one who is known to have offended against you. Truly this is a good and holy work, a great and sublime work, in which you not only do not defend yourself, so as to give place to wrath, but you even accuse yourself, so as to remove the place of wrath -- not overcome by evil, but overcoming evil with good (Rom. 12:21). But to this perhaps some proud person will say: Far be it! Let this not happen, for it is not fitting. It is above the Gospel, and therefore against the Gospel. I have received the command of the Gospel to forgive my brother who sins against me and asks pardon (Matt. 18:15); but where does it command me to humble myself before the one who has offended me, in order to draw him to gentleness?
You appealed to the Gospel? To the Gospel you shall go. Who would deny that the preaching of Paul is the Gospel -- he who says he received it not from man, nor learned it from man, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ? And he himself proclaims the good news that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself (Gal. 1:12). You have therefore an example in God himself, to take care through your humility to draw to gentleness even the one who has sinned against you; for you hear that God through Christ reconciled to himself the guilty world (2 Cor. 5:19). And how did he reconcile the world to himself through Christ? The same Paul adds: Him who knew no sin, he made sin for us, that we might become the justice of God in him (ibid., 21). For us, who know nothing but sin, he made him who knew no sin to be sin.
So that you too may not excuse yourself, as though you had not committed sin, even in that regard in which you did not commit sin -- in order also to draw to the humility of repentance the one who committed sin by offending you. Is this not in a certain way for you, who are clean, to come to him, so that you may be, as it were, purified by him who ought to come to you so that, being filthy, he may be cleansed by you? And to act in this way is to fulfill all justice.
XII. You see now, I think, that the baptism of Christ entirely overflows with humility; for our spiritual cleansing consists in humility. But this humility of which we speak, to be complete, must be in the heart, in the mouth, and in works. And in the heart indeed in two ways, so that you may think humbly of yourself and highly of your neighbor. First, therefore, hiding your good qualities, if you have any, from your own eyes, set them aside, and continually present before the gaze of your mind both the evils that are present in you and the good things that you lack. Consider attentively with what kind and quality, how many and how great the burdens of sins you are weighed down; how prone and swift you are toward the depths of vices, how weak and sluggish toward the heights of virtues. Cast your eyes around to men of virtue, by whom you see yourself surpassed in all holiness. And consider how far they are superior to you in humility, more benign in charity, stronger in patience, more constant in long-suffering, more tranquil in tribulation, more rigorous in abstinence, more pure in chastity, more gentle in conduct, richer in virtues, more devout in praying, more pure in contemplating, more clean in meditating, more suspended in contemplation, more studious in reading, more mature in the gravity of countenance, more moderate in frugality of diet, more honest in the moderation of attire, more discreet in speaking, more vigorous in acting -- and who are, in short, far more than you, always and everywhere and toward everyone circumspect, carefully observing every time and place, person and manner.
XIII. But if perchance you observe something in them that could justly be reproached in some respect, consider immediately that what perhaps renders it excusable in them is either weakness, or ignorance, or the great holiness of those who excel more eminently in other things, or something else which, if it were in you, would have absolutely no excuse, and if it is present, ought to be punished with severe retribution. Having carefully examined all these things and whatever is of this kind, ascend the tribunal of your mind, and with reason proclaiming and the rectitude of its judgment presiding, understand how far you yourself lie in the lowest place, while the works of your neighbor stand at the highest.
And these thoughts, I would say, are like certain roots of this salutary tree which is humility. The more deeply it is fixed in the interior parts of the mind, the more loftily it will be able to grow in the exterior parts of the body. For it immediately grows immensely, bearing forth from itself a certain great and admirable beauty in its leaves and a flavor in its fruit -- the former, that those who look upon it may be delighted and rejoice; the latter, that those who eat may be refreshed and grow fat. Nor is it any longer to be feared either from the winds of words, however much they may rage in detraction or threatening, or from the floods of tribulations, however fiercely they may storm in affliction. For it is a plant deeply fixed in the garden of the mind, and it rests firmly on many great roots.
The leaves of this tree are the words of true humility, which also grow from the inmost parts of the mind just as those roots do, and burst forth in a twofold way: while always reproving your own evils, you tear your flesh with your teeth, carrying your soul in your hands; and approving the good of your neighbor, you extol it with humble praises. Yet this is so only if your accusation has been entirely free from pretense, and their praise from flattery. Otherwise truth will be diminished in you, since your deceitful lips speak with a double heart (Ps. 11:3); and you utter what is true with your mouth while retaining what is false in your heart. Let this impurity be far from you -- utterly shameful and detestable. For what more detestable kind of impurity is there than this, by which, shamefully infected, you accuse yourself in order to be praised, and praise another in order to accuse him, blessing with your mouth and cursing with your heart?
Always turn your sword against your own flesh; confess your injustice against yourselves, and extol the good qualities of your neighbors, so that there may always sound upon your lips a word both praising others and blaming and reproving yourselves. After the leaves of words follows the fruit of works, which you then sweetly pluck when, according to the apostolic exhortation, you outdo one another in honor (Rom. 12:10).
XIV. And just as we have spoken of the heart and the mouth, so also we speak of our body, because we must show humility in a twofold way in its movements: first, that we always and everywhere cast ourselves down; second, that we defer to our neighbors. And this twofold mode of humility should be grounded in that which we said must be maintained in both thought and speech. First, therefore, strive always to bear in your countenance gravity together with sweetness, and sweetness with gravity; and in your attire, lowliness with decency. To say it briefly, take care to show nothing that is not humble in your gait, bearing, gesture, or any movement. Choose everywhere, as far as it is in you, the last place. And when it happens that you are called to something that seems exalted, do not persist shamelessly, but rather humbly decline; do not decline brazenly, but rather modestly make excuses. And if the situation demands it, accept reluctantly what must be endured, and by no means think it something to be embraced willingly. Yet never seek it, and certainly much less thrust yourself forward.
Then, just as in humility of spirit you consider others superior, and in humility of speech you also confess others to be superior, so it is necessary that you likewise show them to be superior in the humility of service: running about everywhere for their sake, dutiful and devoted; granting them the higher place in every conversation and affair; always and everywhere outstripping them in honor; eager to toil with them, shunning exaltation; swift and ready for labor, slow and reluctant for honor -- not only granting your possessions, if you have any, sparingly to yourself, but also spending both yourself and your belongings generously for them.
Behold, we have shown you six modes in which you must exercise the virtue of true humility: two in the heart, thinking humbly of ourselves and highly of our neighbors; two also in the mouth, accusing ourselves without pretense and extolling our neighbors without flattery; and two in the body, always and everywhere placing ourselves last and casting ourselves down, while placing them first and outstripping them in honor.
XV. There is also a seventh mode, which is the cause and fruit, the beginning and end of all the others. It is this that confers true purity upon our intention, which the Lord in the Gospel calls the simplicity of our eye: which if you have in your body, you will not lack light (Matt. 6:22). I called this purity of intention both the cause and the fruit of all our humble thoughts, words, and deeds, because it ought to rouse us to have them and likewise to raise us up so that we may have them fruitfully. For it profits you nothing that you think humbly of yourself and highly of your neighbor; that you reproach yourself and raise him up; that you cast yourself down and exalt him -- unless you exercise this with such a humble intention that you may act and accomplish virtuously what belongs to virtue, and for virtue may seek and await the reward that is owed to virtue.
In virtue you act and accomplish virtuously what belongs to virtue, if in these exercises of humility and the other exercises of holiness that pertain to that same humility or to any other holiness to which the exercises belong, you do not fail to act usefully and perseveringly. And you seek and await the reward due to virtue, if, having excluded every appetite for human favor or for any such earthly thing, you desire to obtain only the heavenly reward with a devout will, and hope with certain hope that you will obtain it.
It now falls to us to treat of the third manifestation of Christ, which pertains to the present day, in which by changing water into wine at the wedding he manifested his glory. But we are not able to undertake this at present. Rather, when on its proper day the Gospel concerning that manifestation has been read, then what he himself will deign to make known to us about it, we also will make known to you, intending to show to your charity also certain things which we have been turning over in our mind about this spiritual washing, for your edification and for the praise and glory of him who is God blessed above all things forever. Amen.
SERMON XLV. Second Sunday after Epiphany. On our spiritual washing, which consists in humility; and on the interior wedding of the mind, which God the bridegroom and the soul the bride celebrate together.
I. The word we addressed to you about humility, in which we said our spiritual washing consists, detained us longer than we expected in the preceding sermon. Though there are many kinds of it, we described seven. The first and second, we said, must be held in the heart; the third and fourth in the mouth; the fifth and sixth in the body; the seventh in the interior intention. And consider whether these may perhaps be the seven times that, by the command of Elisha, Naaman washes himself in the Jordan, so that his flesh may be restored to health and he may be cleansed (4 Kings 5:10).
Naaman means beauty, and signifies a man who, as regards nature, is indeed beautiful, inasmuch as he was created in the image and likeness of God. But while he practices pride, which holds the chief command among the vices belonging to the army of the worst king -- who sees everything lofty, because he is king over all the children of pride (Job 41:25) -- this Naaman is, as it were, the commander of the army of the king of Syria, for Syria is interpreted as lofty. And while he pleases the one who dominates him in sin, both in the greatness of his swelling and in the appetite for illicit favor, he is, as it were, great and honored before his lord. And while he is proud of the spiritual strength by which he prevails and the abundance in which he overflows, he sometimes falls into the impurity of lust -- which seems to be what is indicated when it is said of him that he was a mighty and rich man, but a leper (4 Kings 5:1).
For by the just judgment of God, he who raises himself up in the swelling of exaltation is accustomed sometimes to fall into the pit of corruption, so that, cast down by lust in the flesh, he may clearly recognize how unclean he was before God when raised up by pride in the mind. Whence the Prophet prays that the foot of pride may not come upon him, nor the hand of the sinner move him (Ps. 35:12), because those who work iniquity fall there, are cast out, and cannot stand. He shows, unless I am mistaken, by these words that he does not greatly approve in Naaman either the strength of his power or the abundance of his riches, since he sees him defiled by leprosy.
II. For what is the dishonor of leprosy if not the sin of lust? For this reason Moses expelled the lepers from the camp of the Israelites (Num. 5:2), because the law removes the lustful from the company of the saints. Therefore man, naturally beautiful, is Naaman; through the loftiness of pride he is the commander of the army of the king of Syria; and through the swelling and vainglory by which he pleases the worst lord whom he serves, he is great and honored before his lord. Also in that he is puffed up with spiritual power and abundance, yet lustful, he is indeed a mighty and rich man, but a leper.
From this aforementioned loftiness proceed hidden movements of temptation toward the soul and reason, by which it was accustomed to see God. When they find it delicate yet negligent, they bring it under the captivity of sin and compel it to serve an unclean will. This is what is indicated here: that from Syria raiders had gone out and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel, who was in the service of Naaman's wife (4 Kings 5:2). For Naaman's wife is the unclean will of a man who is by nature beautiful, but puffed up through pride and leprous through uncleanness. The girl from the land of Israel serves her as a captive, brought by the raiders who went out from Syria -- because wretched reason, transferred from the state of luminous contemplation by hidden movements proceeding from pride, serves an unclean will.
III. Yet at some point, by the prompting of this girl, the will itself is addressed concerning the uncleanness of the leper, when she declares that he ought to go to that great Prophet, mighty in work and word (Luke 24:19), who is in the keeping of his elect (for Samaria is interpreted as keeping), so that he might cure him of the leprosy he has. For what does it mean for this girl to say: Would that my lord had been with the prophet who is in Samaria; he would certainly have cured him of his leprosy (4 Kings 5:3ff.), if not for reason to affirm to the lustful man that it is best for him to approach Christ through a change of life -- Christ who always keeps his own -- because he alone could make clean one conceived from unclean seed (Job 14:4)?
In order for him to be cured of this leprosy, even the wicked king of Syria involves himself -- not because the ancient enemy loves purity of chastity in a man, but because he wants him to be cleansed, at least for a time, from the contagions of the flesh, so that he may be more foully and damnably defiled through the exaltations of the mind. For that shape-shifting seducer is accustomed to rouse a man to some virtue, or to abstinence for instance, or to chastity, with no good intention, in order to subjugate him more perniciously to himself when he glories in his virtue.
But our true Elisha kindly receives the leper who is concerned about his cleansing, and restores him to health in such a way that the very grace of health is an increase of humility. For he commands him to wash himself seven times in the Jordan, and thus his flesh will receive health and he will be cleansed. For indeed we are fully healed from the disease which we contracted in the flesh through the flesh, and once healed we are cleansed, when we are washed in the descent of true humility by these seven modes which we expressed above. He went down, says Scripture, and washed seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was cleansed (4 Kings 5:14). He went down and washed, because unless he had descended through humility, he would never have attained spiritual cleansing.
IV. Consider, I ask, what we have said in commendation of this washing of ours, and weigh from it how great the power of humility is. For when you have been perfectly washed in its waters, you are cleansed from three defilements: one in the flesh and two in the mind. For you are cleansed from carnal corruption, from the impurity you contracted in your interior intention, and from the exaltation you harbored in your thinking -- so that it may now be said of you also that, when you went down into the Jordan and washed in it seven times, your flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and you were cleansed. For the flesh is restored when it is cleansed from its contagions. And in the child you can understand purity, and in the little one, humility.
You have, therefore, your spiritual washing in the baptism of Christ, and no less your calling to Christ himself expressed in the coming of the Magi. In his first manifestation your calling is expressed; in the second, your washing. Until this day, as you know, we have deferred speaking about his third manifestation, in which he manifested his glory at the wedding before his disciples, at which, having been invited, he changed water into wine.
V. But today, since the Gospel reading reveals to us on what occasion and in what order that miracle, no less profound than holy, was performed by him, our promise compels us to treat something of it, as best we can. We shall therefore speak about this miracle, as God grants. And if we say things which you more readily recall than discover anew, know that the Apostle says that to write the same things is not burdensome for him but necessary for his hearers (Phil. 3:1); and according to the comic poet, nothing is said that has not been said before. We say this because you already have, as it seems to us, more than enough at hand to know what to think about it, not only in the treatises of ancient doctors but also in the opinions of modern ones.
We have heard, therefore, today in the great Gospel of the great John, that a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee, and that the mother of Jesus was there (John 2:1). In his Gospel, I say, we find this, because he alone among the other evangelists is found to treat of these matters, asserting not only that the mother of Jesus was there -- though she, being a Virgin, did not give birth to him according to the law of marriage -- but also Jesus himself with his disciples. And while he does not fail to mention that the Virgin mother was there, and the Savior her son, and his disciples, he does not say that the mother was invited to the same wedding. But that Jesus and his disciples were invited, he does not pass over in silence. The mother of Jesus was there, he says (ibid.). And he added: And Jesus was invited, and his disciples, to the wedding (ibid., 2).
Then, when the drink ran out -- whoever it was, let him not be silent -- he says it was wine. When the wine ran out, I say, he introduces the mother complaining to the son about the lack of drink, and the son replying somewhat more harshly than would seem fitting for such a son to reply to such a mother. Yet because among those who sincerely love one another, timid love dares to ask nothing that pertains at least to the matter at hand, however great and difficult, and avaricious love cannot refuse anything, strengthened by the certainty of the hope she had in obtaining what she asked, and therefore by no means dismayed by the harshness of the response she had heard, she is introduced by the evangelist as having spoken to the servants and commanded them to obey whatever he (undoubtedly Jesus) might say. She knew, unless I am mistaken, that he would not refuse what she had presumed to ask. Therefore, six stone water jars set there for the purification of the Jews, each holding two or three measures, were filled with water by the servants at his command. And when water was drawn from them at his instruction and brought to the chief steward, its appearance declared it to be wine, and its taste confirmed it, whereas the eyes of the servants who filled them had perceived water, and their hands had handled water.
The chief steward, not yet recognizing the novelty of the miracle, but greatly astonished at the excellence of the drink, addresses the bridegroom himself on this matter -- for he had kept the good wine, which according to custom should have been served at the beginning, until the end, as he supposed.
VI. This is, as you know, the substance of the Gospel reading, which has disclosed to you in this way the magnitude of the miracle. Concerning this miracle, as you yourselves know from your reading, many have said much, and have left much in their writings, in which they plainly and fully showed that they possessed sharpness of intellect in their understanding and did not lack elegance of speech in their expression. For this reason, if I endeavor to treat of it before you, am I not presuming to set cheap fodder before those seated at a costly feast? Listen therefore to a foolish man, who though he does not know how to speak, is not permitted to remain silent. And since you will hear nothing from me that you have not heard before, do not another time begin to beg for bread from the one from whom you clearly abound sufficiently in your own house.
Preserving, then, that varied and true understanding which we have always received from our teachers and Fathers concerning the depth of this miracle, let us here apply the ministry of our tongue solely to the moral sense, and in this wedding let us seek the interior, joyful, and pure conjunction by which God the bridegroom and the soul the bride are mutually united in the unity of true love. To speak of this conjunction causes no small trepidation in one who cannot speak worthily of it, who has not yet experienced it in himself.
How gladly I would wish that one of you, experienced in these matters, might now treat of them, and dipping his pen in the ink of his own experience, might be guided to depict before us what it is for the spirit of man, purged and purified, to be united to that supreme and uncreated Spirit, the maker of all spirits as well as bodies, in the holy joyfulness of true love, and in a joyfulness (insofar as is possible in this exile) that is holy -- this good being so completely fitted together on every side and perfectly consummated that neither is the joy of this mutual love impure, nor is the purity in any way troubled.
But perhaps one of you responds to this somewhat impatiently and says: What is the point of this excuse of yours? How long will you keep us in suspense? Tell us directly, without adding other things that are beside the point, what you think about what you proposed. So be it. We said, then, that God is the bridegroom and the soul the bride. O what great dignity for the soul to be the bride of God! But not every soul can attain this dignity, for the one who spreads her legs to every passerby, fornicating after her lovers (Ezek. 16:25), is more rightly called a harlot than a bride. Nevertheless, God makes a harlot into his bride, making her who was once a harlot such that she can now be a bride.
For he washes her and repairs her, fits her together and consummates her, so that she may now in reality be called a bride. He washes the unclean, repairs the torn, fits together the unsuitable, consummates the destroyed. In short, he washes unto cleansing, repairs unto restoration, fits together unto beauty, and consummates unto perfection.
VII. Behold the fourfold work of the Lord, which he performs with the bride whom he purposes to make worthy of his wedding. And indeed he undertakes the first work in this manner: the counselor deigns to come to the erring one, the spirit to the human being. For the Lord sends forth his word to the earth (Ps. 147:15), pouring his interior whispering into the soul. And because his word runs swiftly (ibid.), it quickly shows the powerful effect of his virtue wherever it arrives: illuminating the same soul into which it pours itself, stimulating the illuminated soul, opening the stimulated soul, and sharpening even the opened soul. For he illuminates the blind; stimulates the stubborn; opens the one he sees closed; and sharpens even the lukewarm.
First, indeed, in the soul which God deigns to visit, and which he proposes to take as his bride, he drives away the darkness of ignorance by which she is obscured, with the light of his wisdom, illuminating her with the splendor of his brightness, so that she may now be able to see clearly what before she either did not see at all or saw only dimly and doubtfully. But once illuminated by this interior light, what is more necessary and more urgent for her to see than herself? For I would call that light too dim -- and therefore in a way not even light -- in which the soul sees other things but does not see itself: a lamp illuminating distant shadows while itself remaining in darkness.
Let the soul therefore see itself first, and to see itself is to know itself. For its seeing is its knowing. Let it know therefore what it lacks (Ps. 38:5), seeing how far it is from the purity of true cleanness, how polluted and unclean, and how full of filth it is. Let it see how withered and languid, how foul and stinking it has become through its most shameful and dishonorable prostitutions, walking through the streets of the Babylonian city, sowing pleasure in the flesh and reaping corruption from the flesh (Gal. 6:8), casting God behind its back and unlawfully obeying itself. What now remains, except that seeing itself to be such, it should shudder at being such? Let it therefore grieve and groan over this great impurity of its own, and taking water upon its head and a fountain of tears to its eyes, let it weep night and day (Jer. 9:1), surrounded by so many and such great filths, gushing with such stenches, hemmed in by such defilements.
Let it labor in its groaning, let it wash its bed every night, let it not cease to drench its couch with tears (Ps. 6:7), and let it break forth and speak in this voice full of sighs and sobs.
VIII. Woe is me! For so long a time immersed in mire and stuck in mud, I was defiled by nearly every contagion, omitting nothing of impurity, admitting nothing that belongs to purity. Now I am a horror to myself, and I cannot bear my own stench. What is now necessary except that, seeing itself to be such, the soul should lay bare its defilements to be washed and uncovered? For as long as it keeps them hidden within itself, it can by no means be cleansed from them. But once uncovered and revealed, a vigorous scrubbing must touch them, because by softly patting you cannot easily remove a deep-seated rust.
Therefore let a great bitterness seize the man who was accustomed to find great sweetness in the committing of sin; let an affliction no less sharp now pierce the penitent than the delight that once soothed him when sinning. Let pain and bitterness now invade the mind, and toil and affliction the flesh. Let the soul offer itself to God both interiorly and exteriorly -- whatever it used to take from him outwardly and inwardly -- so that God may now receive the whole through penance, who had lost the whole through sin.
Thus, therefore, God purifies the unclean soul, illuminating it and stimulating it, opening it and sharpening it. Illuminating the blind, so that it may see itself; stimulating it, so that it may abhor being such; opening it, so that it may show its defilements to him; sharpening it, so that it may seek its cleansing with all its strength. And it is necessary that it clearly see itself, vehemently groan, fully open itself, and diligently persist so that it may be purged.
IX. After the soul has been cleansed in these ways, let the Lord undertake his work, so that he who has already washed the unclean may now deign to repair the torn. Her repair consists in works of holiness. For just as she is unclean while doing wicked things and admitting what is evil, so also she is torn while letting go of useful things and omitting what is good. If, therefore, her repair lies in works of justice, the first concern must be to turn away from evil, and the second to do good. Let her first cease, as the prophet admonishes, to act perversely (Isa. 1:16); then let her learn also to do well (ibid., 17): first uprooting and destroying, and then building and planting (Jer. 1:10).
But here she greatly needs the help of her Repairer, namely to restrain herself from vices and exercise virtues, beginning now both to hate what she formerly loved and to love what she formerly hated. For the old habit resists her ascending even the first step of her repair; the weakness of the flesh fights back; faintheartedness of spirit dissuades her, declaring that it is burdensome to undertake and more burdensome to sustain; that the labor will indeed be great, but the fruit none; that the devout soul takes on what it can by no means carry through to the end. For we are not accustomed to give up without great difficulty what we long exercised with great delight.
Likewise, to manfully undertake the new and arduous path of virtue seems laborious, because the newness of a tender conversion naturally shrinks from what the depravity of an entrenched way of life long held in great hatred. But while both of these -- turning away from evil and turning toward the good -- are no small burden and labor, divine grace makes both not only tolerable but even light, to such a degree that what before the soul did not even want to touch now becomes its food, through the anguish of that love by whose sweet torment it is afflicted.
Do you not all feel these things in yourselves? Which of you does not feel in himself this change of the right hand of the Most High? (Ps. 76:11.) It is by his gift alone that now, not for one day or two but for the entire time of your lives, to be entirely without that thing is for you not only not very burdensome but even the lightest of burdens -- whereas just a little while ago to give it up for even a short time was not so much burdensome as impossible. Whose strength is it thought to be that you cling to this harsh and hard way of life with such constant practice, of which formerly to undertake even a small portion for one day, or even to touch it, was a horror -- if not his who in the Psalms is called Lord, strong and mighty (Ps. 23:8), in whom you also do mighty deeds, bringing your enemies to nothing? (Ps. 107:14.)
X. In these ways, therefore, the Lord repairs the torn soul, granting her the strength of virtue to restrain herself from vices, and the cheerfulness of devotion to exercise herself in virtues. It is necessary now, after this, that she also show herself benevolent toward her neighbors, and extend herself to others in the compassionate love of true charity, offering herself without offense even to those who are outside and to those who are inside, being also without stumbling block to the whole Church of God. Let her in all things please everyone after the example of Paul: Not seeking what is useful for herself, but what is useful for many, that they may be saved (1 Cor. 10:33). Let her seek not what is her own but what belongs to another, having become as a lost vessel to herself so that she may become a vessel pleasing and useful to all. And this is indeed the good manner in which the soul must be repaired.
For when she receives it in her repair, a wondrous change of the right hand of the Most High occurs in her in this regard. For she now puts herself last to put others first, she who formerly loved herself unlawfully and cared nothing for others. Now indeed she is so moderate with regard to herself and so attentive with regard to others that in the things pertaining to herself she is exceedingly sparing and troublesome to no one at all, while in the things pertaining to others she is no little generous and solicitous. What now remains for her repair, except that, being well aware of herself, she may conceive a firm confidence of pardon, and supported by the certainty of hope, may not disbelieve that her final errors have been fully forgiven by him from whom she knows so many and such great gifts have been bestowed upon her, both in her washing and in her repair?
Let her now in a certain way rest devoutly with the Lord from her labor in this seventh light, which we call benevolence toward neighbors; and in this seventh, which is called the sure confidence of pardon, let her rise from the tomb of sadness.
XI. The soul thus washed and thus repaired must now be fitted together; and let her be fitted together by him so as to be beautiful, by whom she was washed so as to be clean, and repaired so as to be whole. Having therefore conceived a firm hope of pardon, let her insist and persist in the acquisition of grace, let her pray without ceasing, let her lift up pure hands without anger and quarreling, and let her devote herself to observances day and night (1 Tim. 2:8). Nor should such a soul any longer fear to raise her countenance to the eyes of his majesty, since the greatness of his mercy has already wiped away all the stains with which she was once accustomed to carry about her darkened face. For he who inspires hope of pardon in her also stirs her to supplication, declaring that he is generous in bestowing much, who showed himself merciful in forgiving sin.
But in order to be worthy of receiving what she asks, it is necessary that she be devout in the work of holiness; let her hear the Lord commanding, so that he in turn may deign to hear her supplicating. Otherwise, let her know that if she turns away her ear from hearing the law, her prayer will be execrable (Prov. 28:9).
XII. But perhaps one of you says: what do all these things have to do with the exposition of the miracle which the Lord Jesus performed in his third manifestation? Indeed, they have much to do with it. Did we not enter upon this sermon which we have in hand by starting from the wedding that took place in Cana of Galilee? In order to show how the human soul can become the bride of that bridegroom who is God, we offer all these things as a prelude. For without these two persons, as you know -- namely the bridegroom and the bride -- a wedding can by no means be celebrated.
Therefore he who first gave, makes her both devout so that she may ask, and worthy so that she may deserve to receive. After this he makes the soul capacious for receiving. He widens her bosom for his generous blessing, so that she may carry them back full. When he gives, she will gather these things; when he opens his hand, she will be filled with goodness (Ps. 103:28). But she must retain what she has received and not rashly pour it out, lest once emptied she become void. They are the riches of salvation which, received from the generous hand of that most wealthy one, she has gathered to herself. Let her take care to store them in a safe place; let her not put them into a bag with holes (Hag. 1:6), lest they be poured out and once poured out be reduced to nothing.
Let her review them as often as possible before her eyes, to know whether any thief diminishes them or any moth or rust corrupts them (Matt. 6:20). The thief is excessive joy conceived through human praise; and the rust is excessive sadness contracted through human detraction. These evils lie in ambush against our treasures, and the dissolution of joy works to prevent our good from being pure, and the bitterness of sadness works to prevent it from being voluntary. Therefore let her see how those things she has received fare within her; and as a clean animal proves itself, let her bring back to the mouth the food she has sent to the stomach. Now the soul that you see thus praying, meriting, receiving, and retaining, you will pronounce sufficiently fitted.
XIII. It now remains for her to be consummated, and her consummation, as it seems to me, consists in these three things: in contempt of present things, in desire for heavenly things, and in the full love of the Creator. Let the soul now regard all these visible things as losses (Phil. 3:8); let her count them as dung; let their beauty wither in her sight; let their sweetness turn bitter. Let whatever she sees, hears, tastes, smells, and touches in this world, belonging to this world, seem unbearable and utterly intolerable to her -- possessing it in such a way that she by no means clings to it through affection.
Let her die with Sarah a life-giving death, and let her be buried in the double cave of action and contemplation (Gen. 23:19), having a life hidden with Christ in the Lord. In simple strength and manly simplicity, let her remain at home with Jacob; let her by no means run about through the forests of worldly cares to catch something carnal, as Esau did (Gen. 25:27). Dead and embalmed with spices, let her be placed in a coffin in Egypt with Joseph (Gen. 50:25), so that, fully dead to the love of this world and filled with the diverse fragrances of the virtues, she may be hidden in an interior secret place as long as she is compelled to dwell in the dark state of the present life.
Then, despising these earthly and lowest things, let her desire heavenly and higher things with all her effort; and the more she is mortified to the pursuit of transitory things, the more let her be enlivened to the longing for eternal things. Let her have the desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23). Such a soul is now perfectly ready for marriage, and the time has come for her to think about the wedding -- yet only if she has grasped the third good which we said pertains to her consummation. If you care to hear what it is, it is the fullness of the love of God, whom the soul that is of such a kind loves not only among all things but also above all things, so that together with him and in him she may rejoice forever and ever. Amen.
SERMON XLVI. Likewise Second Sunday after Epiphany. On the same festivity, which God the bridegroom and the soul the bride celebrate together in their interior wedding.
I. Why should not such a soul as we described in the previous sermon now rest happily in the love of her bridegroom alone, placed between his arms, delighting in his embraces and kisses only? Indeed, she fully despises all things that are below; she feels no flavor in them and sees no beauty. As for heavenly things, though she already holds them through desire, she does not yet possess them in reality. Why should she not in the meantime exercise herself unto piety, which according to the Apostle is useful for all things, having the promise of this life and of the life to come? (1 Tim. 4:8.) Let her therefore exult and dance with the bridegroom; let her celebrate chaste nuptials together with him; let there be union with purity, conception in fruitfulness, and birth without injury.
You have, then, from the preceding sermon, the ways in which God makes the human soul his bride. First, as you heard in that sermon, he washes her; second, he repairs her; third, he fits her together; fourth, he consummates her. He washes, as we have already said, the unclean; repairs the torn; fits together the unsuitable; consummates the destroyed. Her washing takes place in four ways: first she is illuminated, second she is stimulated, third she is opened, fourth she is sharpened. She is illuminated so that she may see herself; stimulated so that she may grieve through herself and about herself; opened so that she may uncover her depravities; sharpened so that she may seek with all her efforts how she may be cleansed.
Her repair takes place as follows: first she receives fortitude, second devotion, third benevolence, fourth confidence. Fortitude, so that she may restrain herself from her former defilements; devotion, so that she may exercise herself in holy works; benevolence, so that she may show herself ready toward her neighbor in all things; confidence, so that she may hope for the forgiveness of past sins. She receives fortitude, then, in restraining herself; devotion in working; benevolence in serving; confidence in hoping. The modes by which she is fitted together are these: first purity is conferred on her, so that she may pray; second holiness, so that she may merit; third capacity, so that she may receive; fourth solicitude, so that she may retain. She is consummated when she spurns all earthly things, desires only heavenly things, and rests in the love and sweetness of her Creator alone.
II. Consider whether perhaps these modes, which have just been set forth as fifteen, may be those fifteen steps which it is fitting for one to sing who strives to ascend these same steps. For since the soul is at the bottom and God is at the summit, he lays out these fifteen steps for her, so that through them she may reach him. He raises her to the first step when he illuminates her; to the second, when he stimulates; to the third, when he opens; to the fourth, when he sharpens; to the fifth, when he strengthens; to the sixth, when he adorns; to the seventh, when he instructs; to the eighth, when he surrounds; to the ninth, when he stirs; to the tenth, when he justifies; to the thirteenth, when he teaches; to the fourteenth, when he raises up; to the fifteenth, when he sets on fire. He illuminates for knowledge, stimulates for compunction, opens for confession, sharpens for satisfaction -- and in these the washing of the soul consists. He strengthens for continence, adorns for justice, instructs for benevolence, surrounds for confidence -- and in these the repair of the soul consists.
He stirs to petition, sanctifies to merit, expands to receive, recalls to reward, and in these lies its aptitude. He instructs toward contempt of earthly things, raises toward desire of heavenly things, kindles toward love of the Creator, and in these lies its consummation. From the light of its own knowledge, therefore, the soul begins, and reaches even to the ardor of divine love, because the beginning of our salvation is that through self-knowledge we undertake the good; but the end is that in divine election we attain the blessed. And so in the first four modes, the soul that was polluted is cleansed; in the other four, what was torn apart is restored; in the four that follow, what was unfit is fitted together; and in the last three, what was destroyed is brought to consummation. It is washed for cleansing, restored for restitution, fitted together for beauty, and brought to consummation for perfection.
III. Now I do not doubt that, occupied with such pursuits, intent upon exercises of this kind, the bride can be joined to the Bridegroom, the soul to God, in those holy nuptials, that is, in interior joys. For he zealously perfects his likeness, both in those things that pertain to the exterior person, while in holy conduct one goes from vice to virtue, and from virtue to virtue, as if passing from evil to good, and from good to better; and in those things that regard the interior person, while with unveiled face, beholding the glory of God, one is transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18). For these interpretations of these names seem to suggest this, because Cana, as they say, means zeal, while Galilee means transmigration or revelation. And so the wedding takes place in Cana of Galilee, while in the chaste and sober joys of spiritual delight the bride exults and dances with the Bridegroom; and this in the zeal which she has in the affection of exterior transmigration, and in the understanding of interior revelation. Devout will forms such zeal, which is the mother of Jesus, of whom it is said that she was there (John 2:1), without doubt, at the wedding. It is she who conceives Jesus, that is, interior grace through whom salvation and life are given to us and, once given, are guarded -- she conceives through affection and brings forth through effect. Through affection, I say, she conceives, when she secretly proposes in the mind what is salutary. Through effect she brings forth, when she carries a good purpose all the way to open action. Fittingly, therefore, it is said that the mother of Jesus was there; for it is necessary that the devotion of a devout will be present at these nuptials, and how necessary her presence is will appear in what follows.
IV. But there is present at these nuptials the grace of which we speak, the interior grace: present also, so that the banquet may be full, are the spiritual charisms of the same grace, because as we read, Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding (ibid., 2). Jesus is not present without his disciples, nor grace without its gifts; because grace, as Paul says, was not void in me (1 Cor. 15:10). This is what elsewhere he commands to be asked, where his dining place is, where he may celebrate his Passover with his disciples (Mark 14:14), signifying, if I am not mistaken, that he wishes to be present at the nuptials, not alone indeed, but with his disciples. Then you have in what follows that in the evening he came with the twelve (ibid., 17). What is this, except that when the heat of temptation subsides in us, and the gentle warmth of interior quiet breathes upon us, grace deigns to visit us, having in its retinue its spiritual charisms? For who are these twelve with whom he comes, if not those outstanding virtues which the Apostle calls the fruits of the spirit, which he also numbers as twelve? And these are: charity, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faith, modesty, continence, chastity (Gal. 5:22). But this Jesus of ours was invited with his disciples to this wedding. I believe that not a few of you, led by experience, anticipate my words and know what I think should be understood by this, that Jesus is said to have been invited to the wedding. What is your custom for inviting Jesus to your wedding? I think, however, that he is called upon in different ways by different people many times, according to what he himself, who is called, wishes to inspire in those who call. For he himself causes us to call upon him. What do you think is the better manner by which we ought to invite Jesus to the wedding? Far be such presumption from me, that I should say I have knowledge of so great a matter: I think it can be known only by him to whom it is given to experience it.
V. Therefore I, a lowly little man, do not say that I know the better manner by which he is to be called. Yet I think whichever manner it may be that when called he comes more eagerly and more joyfully -- that is the better one. But who this manner may be, seek, I ask, not from me, but from one experienced, who, as a diligent observer and cautious discerner of interior movements both toward himself and within himself, erupting from himself, has long since learned both to breathe freely in the presence of interior grace with Jesus, and to sigh in its absence, and to be unable in any way to rest while it is absent, nor to labor in anything while it is present. Nevertheless, compelled here also to reveal my foolishness, as in not a few other matters that are to be investigated by the perfect -- I have become a fool, because you compel me. I will show, insofar as it has been given to me to perceive at present, by what modes it seems to me the pious one you have heard of should be summoned. For my part, I judge that ministers of both body and mind must be sent to call this Jesus; because he is the restorer of both body and mind when he is present, and both mind and body sicken when he is absent.
VI. Let the body send as its first minister the rigor of fasts; then the persistence of vigils; lastly the gravity of silence. For often we deserve to taste what is sweet to the mind when we abstain from what is pleasant to the belly. You have an example of this in holy Daniel: who, while he did not eat the bread of desire and did not drink the water of concupiscence, was called a man of desires as a matter of fact (Dan. 9:23), and attained even to the knowledge of hidden things. But also we are commanded to keep watch while the Lord is about to come (Matt. 13:35); and the just man is said to have given his heart to keeping watch at dawn (Sirach 39:6). Although this can fittingly be taken of the interior vigils of the mind, nevertheless bodily vigils also are accustomed to be very profitable for acquiring grace. What shall I say about the gravity of silence? How can one who does not shrink from letting his mouth slip and dissolve into superfluous speech perceive a hidden word with the ears of hearing? With silence we grasp quiet from exterior occupation; we also grasp solitude of place. For it belongs to the perfect not only to restrain superfluous speech in themselves, but also very often to avoid exterior occupations. And to acquire the more abundant fruits of the spirit, sometimes to decline human company, for wisdom too is commanded to be written in a time of leisure, and he who is less occupied in action will receive it (Sirach 38:25). Holy David also, that he might rest, chose not only to go far away and flee, but also to remain in solitude (Ps. 55:8). And blessed Job declares that he dissembled, kept silent, and was at rest (Job 3:28). By divine command also, as we read of Arsenius, one is ordered to flee, be silent, be at rest. These, then, are the ministers that our body ought to send to summon Jesus. Indeed there are many other bodily exercises by which grace, though absent, is to be invited to visit us: but this threefold exercise presents itself for the moment. To this threefold bodily exercise can perhaps be fittingly applied what Leah said, by which active exercise is without doubt signified: namely that the Lord had given her a reward, because she gave her handmaid to her husband (Gen. 30:18). Our handmaid is our flesh; for just as a handmaid belongs to her mistress, so it ought to be subject to the spirit. For our handmaid to be handed over to our husband is to be restrained from vices in imitation of the Lord, who alone is the legitimate husband of the soul. Let it be restrained by fasting from pleasure, by vigils from sluggishness, by silence from talkativeness: and our handmaid has been handed over to our husband. Once she is handed over, a reward is given to us through these ministers, because at their invitation Jesus draws near to us. For through the rigor of fasting the spirit is elevated; through the persistence of vigils it is lightened; through the gravity of that threefold silence which we briefly touched on above, it is composed to interior quiet. This threefold good of grace is conferred upon us by this threefold exercise. And a threefold vice is likewise removed: for through the first, pleasure is mortified; through the second, sluggishness is shaken off; through the third, restlessness is excluded. Thus while the handmaid is handed over to the husband, a reward is given, and while one plows with Samson's heifer, his riddle is discovered (Judg. 14:18). And while the flesh is afflicted, knowledge of interior things is granted: and when Jesus is called, he does not disdain to come.
VII. But the mind sends as its first minister the purity of meditation; as its second, the fervor of desire; as its third, the virtue of humility; as its fourth, the stability of perseverance. For through meditation the mind is instructed where and how to seek; through desire, once he is found, he is entreated to come; through humility, it merits to be worthy to lay hold of him; through the virtue of perseverance it sweetly embraces him, and clinging firmly to him holds on, and says: I have held him, and I will not let him go (Song 3:4). You therefore call Jesus and his disciples to the wedding, if for the sake of obtaining grace, for acquiring spiritual gifts, for increasing and ordering your interior joys, you mortify pleasure in yourself, shake off sluggishness, exclude all restlessness, persist in pure meditation, devote yourself to devout prayer, cast yourself down through humility, and bind yourself in all these things with the stability of perseverance.
VIII. Behold, the mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus himself was invited to the wedding (John 2:1-2). But what is the benefit in both? When the wine ran out, as the evangelist says, his mother -- without doubt, the mother of Jesus -- said to him: They have no wine (ibid., 3ff.). It is a wedding, and the wine runs out in it. For who in this life can be of such purity that no spiritual joy ever suffers any diminishment in him? Man never remains in the same state: he is always subject to his own movement. For now the divine gift elevates him to the heights, now his own weight casts him down to the depths, so that though there be a wedding, the wine fails in it. But when the wine fails, let his mother make complaint to Jesus, that is, let devout will bring a pious plea to interior grace concerning the failure of the cup of interior spiritual joy. The failure of wine will not keep the guests sorrowful for long, if Jesus has been struck by a mother's plea concerning that same failure. That is, it will not be necessary for our good desires to groan long in the absence of spiritual gladness, if for the restoration of that same gladness, devout will does not cease to sigh with anxious prayers before interior grace. Let the mother of Jesus therefore not cease to complain, nor think that she suffers rejection, even though at first she receives a reproving answer from him. And indeed his response is altogether sweet, even when he answers with reproof. For when he strikes, he heals, and when he kills, he makes alive (Job 5:18). His striking is our correction, and his reproof is our instruction.
IX. And indeed I do not doubt that there are many among you who have frequently heard with the ears of hearing both that the mother of Jesus approached Jesus himself about the failure of wine, and that he gave his mother a reproving answer. What have I to do with you, woman? (John 2:4). Brothers, what it means according to this moral sense which we now have in hand -- for the mother to approach Jesus himself about the failure of wine -- you have heard from our words; but you have learned it far better and more clearly from your own experience. And if you still desire to hear it from us briefly, it is this: when spiritual joy fails in the mind, as sometimes happens, for devout will to sigh with pious groans before interior grace, so that it may deign to be restored anew. But by a somewhat harsh response, this same will is struck back -- not so that what she asks may be denied her, but so that she may be humbled by her petition; and once humbled, may be rendered worthy to obtain what she asks. For among the other virtues most efficacious for obtaining anything is humility, and it holds a great place of familiarity in the eyes of that same grace: and therefore, boldness in asking and effectiveness in obtaining. What, then, does it mean for Jesus to say to his complaining mother, What have I to do with you, woman? -- if not that interior grace pours into the devout will that is knocking an awareness of its own frailty, lest from the great devotion with which it burns, it lift itself up into pride? What, he says, have I to do with you, woman, who have your fervor in desiring not from yourself but from me: while I alone, without you, have the power of conferring? Indeed I can confer the sweetness of spiritual wine, because fullness of power dwells in me to be able to do this; but what is it in you that I should be obliged to do this? Humble yourself, therefore, under my mighty hand, so that you may not exalt yourself on account of the good devotion you received from me in willing well, and so that for receiving what you ask -- which indeed is possible for me and not for you to confer -- the more humble you are, the more worthy you may be. This, therefore, is the reason why grace teaches the good will that approaches interior grace about the restoration of a withdrawn gift to be humble: because unless our petition is humble, it will not be fruitful at all. And therefore, whenever you entreat grace for the sake of obtaining its gift, strive so that, just as you have devotion in good will, so also you may have true humility in your intention. For this virtue alone is the one that guards the gifts of grace that are present lest they be lost; and when they are absent, acquires them so that they may be restored.
X. Useful, therefore, is this response: What have I to do with you, woman? -- so that the good will sighing for a withdrawn gift may be the more worthy to receive what it asks, the more deeply it recognizes that what it has already received is not from itself, nor does it have in itself any merit by which it would be worthy to obtain what it still asks. So in the Song of Songs, when the bride asks -- with the great boldness of the familiarity she had toward the bridegroom -- to be admitted to certain of his secrets, he judges that she should be struck with a somewhat harsh response; so that the more humbly she thinks of herself, the more worthily, more fully, and more perfectly she may be admitted to the mysteries for which she sighs. For addressing her beloved and asking with immense desire that he tell her where he feeds his flock, where he rests at noon (Song 1:6), she hears at once that, if she does not know herself, she should go out and depart (ibid., 7). You see, therefore, that it is not without reason that when the bride asks the bridegroom to show her his secrets, he rather confronts her about guarding against her own ignorance. So that you also may know consequently that it is not without reason that whenever the prophet Ezekiel is elevated to behold sublime things, he is called son of man (Ezek. 2:1ff.). Just as, therefore, there the bridegroom commands the bride who aspires to the revelation of secrets to go out and depart if she does not know herself: so also here, to the good will sighing for the restoration of a withdrawn gift, the very grace it seeks pours in an awareness of its own frailty. What have I to do with you, woman? -- that is to say: what you ask does not arise from any merit of yours, that you should receive it; you who are no less unworthy to obtain it than I am powerful to confer it. Therefore know yourself, so that the more destitute you are in your own eyes, the richer you may be in merit in mine. And not only this, but my hour has not yet come: because it is mine to visit, not only whom I deem worthy, but also when I judge it opportune. For my spirit is sweeter than honey (Sirach 24:27), and not only breathes where it wills, but also when it wills. All things have their time, a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces (Eccl. 3:1-5). What pleases you does not yet profit you. Your time has already come in desiring, but my time has not yet come in conferring.
XI. This is, brothers, what we often experience: that many times, with a great cry of the mind, we call out to grace; but grace delays in coming. And he who tells our good will that his hour has not yet come, makes it certain that it does not yet please him, and therefore it is not yet expedient for him to visit us. And we ought to hold a just and pious judgment about the reason: because he does this for our good, delaying his coming so that our desires may increase; so that the more joyful he is on account of the increase of our desires, the more fruitfully he may come to us. This, therefore, is the reason he does not hear the devout will crying out to him -- and it is not to be charged against him as foolishness. Or perhaps it is so that the longer he is desired while absent, the more tightly he may be held when present. Or it is something else that is dispensatory on his part and necessary for us: grace itself, with great reverence, disposing things around us; and always providing for us in all things that it customarily does in us what is profitable. But during this delay of visitation, let devout will not cease from its affection; let it strive to stir the interior thoughts of the mind, which are in a certain way the ministers at these spiritual nuptials, to good. For this is not the only duty of good will, to sigh to grace for grace; it is also to draw the thoughts of the heart by exhortation toward what is good. Let it therefore run as a mediator between grace and the thoughts: approaching the former in entreaty; exhorting the latter to obey its interior commands. And so let it say to grace in prayer, They have no wine; and to the thoughts in exhortation, Whatever he tells you, do it. And rightly it says whatever without any exception: because what Jesus says, what divine grace inspires, cannot fail to be salutary.
XII. You know well, having been taught by the most frequent practice, that not in one way but in many ways grace forms its precepts for you. For you are not all kindled in devotion in one and the same manner; but this life-giving grace of which we speak is so present to all that it also attends to each one. There is no one among you, as I judge, who does not receive something proper from it, so that each one of you may say: My secret is mine, my secret is mine (Isa. 24:16). Let it not be your concern, but whatever grace speaks silently in your heart, do it. But be diligent to see this, and be cautious that it is grace instructing that speaks in your heart, and not the enemy seducing. For there are in the heart sometimes sendings through evil angels (Ps. 77:49). As you have in the case of the traitor Judas: that the devil put it into his heart to betray the Lord (John 13:2). And sometimes there is in the mind a speaking of the Lord; as you read that holy David said he would hear what the Lord God speaks within him; who indeed is accustomed to speak peace to his people (Ps. 84:9). But grace speaks to you when what it inspires in you is well ordered. And I would call what is inspired well ordered if what you conceive in your mind, just as it is pure with regard to God, so also is it peaceable with regard to your neighbors; and discreet with regard to yourself. For what if what you do seems good to you, and remarkable for a certain singularity, and yet, hardened with adamantine obstinacy, you disturb the peace of those with whom, if you wish to be saved, you ought to dwell as one in spirit in the house of the Lord, walking with them in agreement? (Ps. 54:15). For the wisdom that is from above is first indeed chaste, then peaceable (James 3:17). Third, consider that what you do should be discreet: because everything that is excessive turns into vice. This testimony is true. Therefore, to sum these things up briefly for you: whatever is inspired in you to be done and practiced -- that it may please God as pure; that your neighbor may accept it as peaceable; and that you may be able to carry it through to the fitting end as moderate and wholesome -- accept this word of interior grace: and whatever he tells you, do it.
XIII. Now after this Jesus does what his mother asks. And perhaps the reason he said shortly before that his hour had not yet come was that he knew his mother had not yet admonished the ministers to do whatever he should tell them. For as soon as he saw that the devout will was ready to petition, and that the thoughts of the mind, with that same will exhorting them, were ready in all things to obey, he also prepared himself to grant the request, graciously conferring what the will had devoutly asked to be conferred. For so the sequence of the gospel reading runs. For when it had introduced the mother of Jesus addressing the ministers and saying to them, Whatever he tells you, do it, it immediately added: there were six stone water jars set there. And to show for what purpose they were set there, it added: according to the purification of the Jews. Nor does it fail to mention what their capacity was: containing, it says, two or three measures each. When these were filled with water at his command, and the water was changed into wine, Jesus granted his mother the desire of her heart, and did not defraud her of the will of her lips (Ps. 20:3). What is signified to us by these water jars? Let us take them, if you please, as six certain kinds of meditations, according to the rough understanding that I am accustomed to have in matters of this sort. And you will see now, when you begin to examine them one by one, that the purification of the Jews consists in them.
XIV. And let the first meditation be about that state which we had before our conversion: in which for some time we were held under the yoke of sin by ancient servitude. Let this meditation be the first water jar. But that criminal and shameful state was also itself in a certain way a water jar. I think this was the water jar that the woman cast away from herself when she heard the words of the man who told her all that she had done (John 4:28). Of which you have it written: the woman left her water jar. He sat, moreover, upon the well -- he who, free among the dead (Ps. 87:6), humbled himself upon the depth of our depravity -- wearied from the journey of the mortality he had assumed, which he had undertaken in the sixth age. To this well came the woman to draw water, drawing to herself illicit pleasure: of which whoever drinks, as the Lord testifies, as experience itself testifies, thirsts again; because fleshly delight does not provide satisfaction but rather inflames desire. Nor did he himself have anything with which to draw: and the well was deep (John 4:11). For he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth (1 Pet. 2:22). And human depravity is a certain most deep abyss. Then, having heard his salutary words, the woman left her water jar and went into the city, urging people to come to him. And they went out, says Scripture, and came to him (John 4:30). This you also have already done; for perceiving his words with the ears of hearing, having cast away the water jar of your former state, you now preach him to others, according to that saying: Let him who hears say, Come (Rev. 22:17). This water jar, therefore, you have now left behind as far as your way of life is concerned; but you have it, when need arises, as far as meditation is concerned.
XV. But let the second meditation be about the state that you now hold as converts: which, even if it is clean from iniquity, is nevertheless not immune from temptation. That preceding state, under the king of Egypt and of darkness, was foul with the mud of lust and light with the chaff of vainglory. But this present one is in the desert, and how many, how great, and how severe are the dangers that beset it, only those who experience them know. The third meditation is about the hidden and strict judgment of God, who is terrible in his counsels over the sons of men (Ps. 65:6). And take this as the third water jar. Which judgment indeed, since it cannot be other than just, yet always, as long as we live here, what it thinks of us is utterly hidden; and therefore what is just ought not to be criticized. Let the fourth meditation be about the departure from this life: when, having entered upon the way of all flesh, in the receiving of our reward, we shall know how we have been foreseen by God from eternity. And take this as the fourth water jar. The fifth is about the eternity of the punishment of hell, just as the sixth is about the eternity of heavenly glory. And to meditate upon both is to have the fifth and sixth water jars.
XVI. But these water jars, at the command of the Lord Jesus, the ministers fill with water, when, with interior grace inspiring, our thoughts dwelling upon these six levels of meditations are shaken by powerful fear. Behold, you have heard briefly what it means for them to be filled with water by the ministers. But to show in what manner they ought to be filled, something more must be said at greater length. But we are not able to do this in this sermon; you will therefore hear, with the Lord granting, in the sermon that follows, how I judge those water jars ought to be filled, and what I think should be understood by the measures that each one contained. And so whatever has been revealed to us about these or other matters, up to the end of the miracle of which we speak, we shall set forth for your edification, to the praise and glory of almighty God, who is God blessed above all things forever. Amen.
SERMON XLVII. Likewise for the Second Sunday after Epiphany. How we ought to consider ourselves diligently, and to investigate in a salutary manner those things that pertain to us.
I. It happens sometimes that even in my case these water jars are filled with water. For to go through them now in order, when I have leisure I betake myself to the first water jar; and looking within, I see how foul and vile, how base and unseemly I was: and struck with great terror, I marvel that I endured being such as I now discover I was then. But in this state in which I now am, which I took up so as to live more correctly, I see myself little changed from my former ways. In this state, though I may not seem perhaps to be as cold through fault as I was in the preceding one, yet neither am I warm through righteousness; but rather I am lukewarm through negligence, and therefore to be vomited from the Lord's mouth (Rev. 3:16). And why should I not fear in this also -- I who have indeed taken up the habit of religion, but do not have the effect of a religious life? Why is the former borne about as a testimony, while the latter is not exercised to any benefit? Is this what it means to have left the world? For what works pertaining to the world have I fully left behind? And if perhaps the works, then what about the words? And if perhaps the words, what about the thoughts? Certainly those who wish to live justly, soberly, and piously must first of all deny not only impiety but also worldly desires (Tit. 2:12). Behold how this water jar also, in my case, is filled with water: for this sloth, by which I languish in my present state, certainly does not allow me to be without fear.
II. After this I raise my eyes to the judgment of God -- just indeed, but hidden -- and I find them blind: for I see nothing here in my blindness. Nor is it entirely nothing that I see, since I see that I cannot see anything here. I raise, therefore, my blind gaze of mind to the irreproachable and incomprehensible judgment of almighty God: and what he thinks of me in it, I utterly cannot discern. For even if I am holy and just, yet my works are in his hand: and I do not know whether I am worthy of love or hatred: but all my affairs are kept uncertain for the future (Sirach 9:1). I tremble, I confess, greatly in this most dense darkness: and my soul is troubled within me, groping as I go, and not discerning well enough where I might place my wretched foot: because my way is hidden, and God surrounds me with darkness (Job 3:23). And it is a dire necessity, by which I am compelled to go, but I do not know where; and by which way I scarcely know. And whether he thinks over me thoughts of peace and not of affliction, I do not know (Jer. 29:11): but I know that he is terrible in his counsels over the sons of men (Ps. 65:5). But how terrible -- who knows? Yet I fear lest he stir up fury against me and pour out his wrath: and dispose nothing concerning me or around me, except what is against me. For if the vessel of election, the apostle Paul, though conscious of nothing against himself, was not justified in this, because he who judges him is the Lord (1 Cor. 4:4): how am I now just, who am conscious against myself? And when I have a far different case, yet the same and no other judge. Cautious therefore and prudent was holy David, who, seeing such strictness of so great a Judge, and perceiving that even if he wished to contend with him, he could not answer him one in a thousand -- he entirely gave up on the quality of his interior state, and had recourse to the humility of prayer, and says: Enter not into judgment with your servant, O Lord (Ps. 142:1). Trembling, he shuddered at judgment, and therefore prudently fled to mercy. And why did he flee from judgment? Because, he says, no living person shall be justified in your sight (ibid.). He excepted absolutely no one -- not the first patriarch, not an outstanding prophet -- nor did he know that anyone conceived from unclean seed in this mortality was to be justified before him, if he should wish to enter into judgment with him. For if Peter spoke wisely: The just man shall scarcely be saved (1 Pet. 4:18); and what did he add? The impious and the sinner -- such as I do not deny myself to be -- where shall they appear? (ibid.) Such a meditation is the third water jar; and this one too is certainly full of water.
III. I also anticipate in my own mind by frequent meditation my departure from this life, and I make this same meditation into my fourth water jar; but also this one too I find full of water even to the brim. For I know and am certain that I shall have to depart from here; but I do not know the time, I do not know the manner, I do not know the place. And also, departing hence, I do not know where I am going. O terrible and therefore dreadful hour of my dissolution! Even that man who was of such great and such intense desire that, well aware of himself, he wished to be dissolved, groans under the burden, not wishing indeed to be unclothed, but to be clothed over, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life (2 Cor. 5:4). My soul is sorrowful even unto death (Matt. 26:38), says the uncontaminated and immaculate Lamb, Christ Jesus, when he felt death threatening him: and shall I not dread the hour of death? When he was in agony, his sweat became like drops of blood falling upon the ground (Luke 22:44); and shall I not tremble, foreknowing that my dissolution will be so terrible? Whatever is here I shall lose, not knowing what I shall find there where I am going. I know that eternal punishment awaits, if a fitting recompense is repaid to me according to my merit: For the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Indeed I know my iniquity. And of my judge I have read: You cannot look upon iniquity (Hab. 1:13; Job 13:25). Rightly, therefore, do I, a light leaf carried off by the wind, tremble at your so great power: and I, a dry stalk, at so severe a persecution.
IV. Now the fifth water jar is the meditation on the punishment of hell; and the sixth is the contemplation of heavenly glory. And both in my case are full of water: as I equally fear lest I lose the latter and incur the former. And since the one is the palace of the supreme King and the other is a dungeon, into whichever we are sent, there is no further way out. For the one eternally holds confined those detained for damnation; and the other holds those admitted to felicity. Behold, I have shown you how those water jars are filled in my case: and you can now clearly perceive from what has been said that in them is contained the purification of those who are not Jews outwardly, but in secret before God: whose praise is not from men, but from God (Rom. 2:29). For in these six kinds of purifications, he is purified who confesses to God either his sins or his gifts. But you ask also about those measures that the water jars held, since you read in the Gospel that each one contained two or three measures (John 2:6). You desire to hear what these measures of the water jars are: and you are not to be defrauded of this.
V. I will tell you how I am accustomed to find not only two but three measures in each of them, when it falls to me to measure them. You perhaps will discover them in a better way; yet it will not be entirely beside the point to hear our method, which is as follows. When I recall to memory the depraved and wicked state I used to lead before my conversion, placing myself before myself, I first strive to consider what and what kind, how many and how great were the evils I committed: and also where, and when, and with whom I perpetrated many deadly deeds. For he who strives fully to see and acknowledge the shameful crimes and misdeeds he has committed ought to bring these seven things back to mind. But let him turn these things over in his thought with a strong and stern disposition toward compunction, not with a soft and cold one toward delight. For this is why they are called stone water jars, so that they may be ruminated upon with constant meditation, and not pondered with wandering and feeble thought. For whoever -- to speak, for example, of the first, and let it be understood of the others -- recalls to memory the evils he has done in such a way that in that very remembering he rests softly and basely, as though in the foul and stinking bed of delight, has, it seems to me, a clay water jar rather than a stone one. Such is the person who, having returned in heart to Egypt, turns over in his mind the delicacy of the fish that he relished; calling back to mind both the cucumbers and melons of illicit pleasures, and the most bitter and fierce anxieties of occupations and worries, which the leeks and onions and garlic signify; and therefore they find distasteful the sweet and savory refreshment of the mind, which, as you know, the manna signifies. Therefore with strong thought, as much as I am able, so as to be pierced with compunction, and not with soft thought, lest I be illicitly delighted, thinking over my years not in sweetness but in the bitterness of my soul, so that my water jar may be of stone, I bring back to my memory those seven matters -- namely my evils: their measure and number, their manner and place, their time also and the persons involved. And returning to myself, I am struck with great sorrow and powerful fear: while I behold so great and such a loathsome portrayal of beasts and creeping things painted upon my wall (Ezek. 8:10).
VI. Then I strive to consider that, having worked so many and such great evils, I have worked either absolutely no good at all, or very few and small good works: as full of evils, so also empty of goods. And I see myself guilty on both counts -- both in omitting precepts, drawn away from good things, and in admitting what is forbidden, enticed to evil things (James 1:14). Such I recall having been in my state before my conversion: namely as sordid in illicit things, so also barren in necessary things. And these are two kinds of thoughts, like two measures in my first water jar. But further, I consider who I am who sinned; who he is against whom I sinned; and gathering within myself from many reasons how great a devotion a person owes in obedience to God, I reckon with what great care I ought to have guarded against admitting what he forbids, or omitting what he commands. And in this way I add a third measure to this water jar of mine: so that to have the first measure is to consider carefully the evils I have done; the second, the good works I not only neglected but also scorned; and the third, with how great care I ought to have guarded against admitting the former or omitting the latter.
VII. Now in this state in which I presently am, I look around me with diligent care and frequent anxiety: and I appear to myself no little unstable in mind and weak in body. I do not speak, however, of the strength of my flesh, but of the fortitude of true virtue.
But to pass over in silence the evils that I commit both in thinking with my mind and in acting with my body, behold how many good things in me both the instability of mind and the frailty of body obscure. The tongue indeed speaks words of prayer, but the mind wanders through various things; what is uttered by the mouth is not turned over in the heart; but as flies destroy the sweetness of the ointment in me (Eccl. 10:2), so many birds descend upon the carcasses that Abraham cannot drive them away (Gen. 15:11); and what is worse, sometimes he does not even care to drive them away. In like manner, when I apply myself to reading, when I enclose myself within the barriers of silence, my miserable mind, impatient of quiet -- talkative and wandering as it is (Prov. 7:10) -- neither gathers itself wholly there to understanding, nor composes itself here to complete quiet. When the fluctuating mind sometimes admits good things, even lightly, it does not, or scarcely, repress elation in itself; but when evil things come, it pierces itself late and perhaps insufficiently with the sword of compunction. But why do I attempt to go through each particular? For its diseases are innumerable. And oh, how weak for the work of virtue is the body! For it is quick to sleepiness, to gluttony, to wantonness, to laziness; but slow to vigils, to abstinence, to continence, and to the necessary work of the hands. When I investigate in this way the twofold misery in this state in which I now am, and upon investigating discover it, I assuredly find two measures in this water jar of mine.
VIII. After this I see how great and what kind of ruin I am exposed to, both unstable and weak as I am, if the hand of divine mercy does not sustain me. And I add a third measure. For since I am subject to so many kinds of sickness both in soul and in body, and even if to some I am perhaps not yet subject, since I am nevertheless fully disposed to them, what wonder if I foresee that I shall incur disease, unless the Physician's care prevent it, and death, unless his operation defer it? And understand this meditation as the third measure. And indeed this is a good measure, which keeps a person very much within his proper bounds; not allowing him to be lifted above himself, but humbly instructing him to stand solidly in himself. For how does he walk in great and wonderful things above himself, who, fully beholding the infirmity by which he is surrounded, is compelled to exclaim that saying of blessed Job: Behold, there is no help for me in me (Job 6:13). Whence also the Psalmist humbly flees to the refuge of prayer and says: Do not turn your face from me (Ps. 142:7). He added also the reason why he prays that he not turn his face from him: and I shall be like those who descend into the pit (ibid.). This is to say: do not withdraw your help from me, because, once it is withdrawn, I shall in no way be unlike those who, struck by the blows of concupiscence, rush headlong into sin. For unless you, O Lord, help me, a little more and my soul will fall, and falling will dwell in hell (Ps. 93:17). Three measures, therefore, in this water jar are three thoughts in this state in which I now am. The first is when I turn over in my mind with how great instability I waver in mind; the second, with how great frailty I am sick in body; the third, when I fully know that I cannot stand firm, pressed down by such great misery, without the sustaining hand of divine mercy.
IX. That third water jar is the meditation I have within me when I subtly weigh the hidden and strict judgment of God, and this one too holds not only two but three measures. And the first is when, fearing from the face of his strictness, and striking myself with various suspicions on this side and that, lest perhaps I myself be reprobate, I anxiously fear that he may not wish to wash away any of my evils with the purity of his mercy, but rather to refer them to his judgment. Knowing indeed that there is an avenging sword and that there is judgment, I have various thoughts within me, and my mind is torn in different directions. I fear greatly lest my sin be written with an iron pen, with an adamantine point, while the most severe punishment of God's just judgment keeps watch over its reprobate -- and he has my crimes stored up within himself, sealed in his treasuries, with which to condemn me. The second measure also is the fear that the good works, if any I seem to do, he may not accept, pursuing me with eternal hatred: but in some manner -- just on his part indeed (because I dare not say otherwise), but terrible and hidden as far as I am concerned -- he may cause that very good to cooperate toward evil. For just as all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called saints according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28), so some say that for those who hate God all things work together for evil -- for those over whose just reprobation it is immovably fixed in eternity, who are foreseen as destined for damnation. O works of God to be feared and trembled at, in which he appears terrible over the sons of men! For, as Ecclesiastes says, no one can correct him whom he has despised (Eccl. 7:14). And according to the judgment of blessed Job: if he destroys, there is no one to build up (Job 12:14): if he shuts a man in, there is no one to open. Woe to me! to speak further of these two measures: if, reprobating me and therefore neither washing away my evils nor accepting my good works, he proposes to cast me out from the face of his mercy, handing me over also to eternal oblivion -- as a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction (Rom. 9:22).
X. The third measure of this water jar is when, still thinking about this same judgment, I fear that perhaps whatever he does to me, he does for my harm: arranging adversities against me both in prosperity, in which he seems to favor me, and in adversity, in which he seems to rage. For when prosperity smiles upon me, I fear that, with him secretly disposing it, prosperity smiles only to mock: namely, that the deceitful smile, so to speak, of good things may be a temporal retribution; but that the eternal damnation of the evil things I have done awaits. But when adversities rage, I dread that these are only the beginnings of sorrows, for their end is without end -- an eternal, interminable, and unfailing failure, and a living death. And so, as one of the blessed says: If at any time God smiles upon me, I do not believe him; and if at any time he strikes me, I know that when he has fulfilled his will in me, many similar things are at hand for him (Job 23:14). Therefore, if he should come to me, I shall not see him, and if he departs, I shall not understand. If he suddenly asks, who will answer him? Or who can say to him, Why do you act thus? God, whose wrath no one can resist, under whom those who bear the world bend down. How great, then, am I to answer him -- I who, even if I have something just, do not answer him, but entreat my Judge? And even when he has heard me calling, I do not believe that he has heard my voice (Job 9:11ff.). Read the exposition of blessed Pope Gregory in the Moralia on this passage: And these three shall be the measures in this third water jar.
XI. To think about our departure from this life is to have the fourth water jar. And this one, like those through which we have passed, has three measures. And I think I have the first when I consider within myself how hard and harsh, how sad and unwilling is that separation from one another of these two cohabitants -- I speak of body and spirit. Plainly all flesh is grass, as Isaiah says; truly the people is grass (Isa. 40:6). But also our life is a vapor, and after that it shall be destroyed (James 4:14). It dissolves this house -- I mean our earthly body -- and with earth hastening to earth, the spirit is compelled to depart. I add to this water jar a second measure: thinking about the decay of the body after the departure of the soul. I consider now in the bodies of the dead what mine will be after death: which indeed, dissolved through death, will be reduced to dust, and after putrefaction will become a worm; after the worm, dust. And great confusion appears to me in this second measure: just as there was trepidation in the first, and terror in the third. This third measure pertains to that hour in which the soul will be presented before the gaze of the strict Judge, to be made manifest, as the Apostle says, before the tribunal of Christ, that it may receive according to what it has done in the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10). And these three things appear to me dreadful in that hour: the enemy accusing, conscience testifying, the judge examining. Wretched me, what shall I do then, having a feeble case? I who shall not even be able to hide then, made a spectacle to the enemy accusing, to myself confessing, to God judging?
XII. Now since we have lingered for some time over the measures of these water jars, let us run briefly through what still remains to be said. In the fifth water jar, which is the meditation on the calamity of hell, the first measure is the burning of fire; the second, the gnawing of the worm; the third, the eternity of both: because the one is called inextinguishable, and the other immortal. In the sixth water jar, which is the last, which is the meditation on heavenly glory, you have the first measure if you consider within yourself what will be the blessedness that you will have there in yourself; the second, what you will have in your fellow citizens; the third also, what you will possess in God. In yourself you will have the strength of true power; in your fellow citizens, the sweetness of sincere love; in God, the fullness of supreme wisdom: fully strengthened, perfectly inflamed, and illuminated in all things.
XIII. Behold, these are the three measures in each of the six water jars: which, as has already been said, the ministers filled with water to the brim when, in these six kinds of meditations, the thoughts of the mind conceive a full and perfect fear at the inspiration of interior grace. But it is necessary that he who commanded the ministers to fill the water jars with water also cause them to draw wine from there, because the same grace that terrifies our thoughts through fear also soothes them through love. For as water is fear, so wine is love. But first water and afterward wine: because the beginning of wisdom is indeed the fear of the Lord (Ps. 110:10), but perfect charity casts out fear (1 John 4:8). But let discretion, which is the mother of all other virtues, discern this transformation; and having discerned it, let it approve, because it pertains to discretion to approve with its favor that which ordered love soothes the thoughts of the mind toward consolation: lest fear terrify them too much toward desperation. And this is what the ministers are commanded to draw now and carry to the ruler of the feast -- so that the thoughts of the mind, which at the prompting of divine grace in each of these kinds of meditations poured in something by their thinking, from which they feared through sorrowing and sorrowed through fearing, may at the inspiration of the same grace now -- that is, after long torment -- draw something by piously presuming, from which, with the prudence of discretion approving, they may hope through loving and love through hoping. For prudent and cautious discretion is the ruler of the feast, which is what architriclinus means: to whose governance it pertains to provide that memory be stable, reason be skilled, and will be pure. For this triclinium, this three-couched chamber, corresponds to these three: in which discretion indeed exercises governance, lest memory, scattered from itself, wander about; lest reason, deprived of interior light, be darkened through the shadows of error; lest will, defiled through illicit appetite, be stripped of the purity of true cleanness. But to whom ought discretion attribute the good of this spiritual transformation, if not to him from whom comes all our good, without whom we can do nothing? He is our Lord: from whom every best gift and every perfect gift descends (James 1:17).
XIV. When, therefore, the bridegroom has been called -- and who he is, you have already heard well enough -- let this ruler of the feast tell him that he has kept the good wine until now; crediting to him that, after the lower watering, he gives the upper watering (Josh. 1:15), and after the storm, he makes calm (Tob. 3:22). But not every man acts thus; rather, he first puts out the good wine, and when they are drunk, then that which is worse. Would you like to hear how every carnal person does this? For he is the one who is here called man. They lead their days in good things, and in a moment they descend to hell (Job 21:13). Behold, when they are drunk, what is worse is served. Hear also Solomon, whose words on this same subject are: The lips of a harlot are a dripping honeycomb, and her throat is smoother than oil (Prov. 5:3). Is this not also good wine? But it was served first. See what is served to the drunk that is worse. The last things of her are bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword (Prov. 5:4). Signifying, if I am not mistaken, that in the concupiscence of this world, with which the children of this age fornicate, something sweet and bright comes first in seductive words: but what follows is bitter to swallow and sharp to feel. But the Bridegroom of the soul, God, keeps the good wine until now: because for the one who fears him, as Scripture says, it will go well with him in his last days (Eccl. 1:13). And his discipline at first does not seem to be of joy but of sorrow: but afterward it renders the most peaceful fruit of justice to those trained by it (Heb. 12:11).
XV. We come now to the end of the miracle which the Lord Jesus performed in his third appearance, or manifestation. Do you wish the things that have been said at length in these sermons about this miracle to be repeated briefly, so that they may be grasped more clearly by the understanding and held more tightly in memory? Behold, I do it as briefly as I can. The wedding made in Cana of Galilee represents the interior delights of the mind celebrated in the soul, which advances from good to better, from better to best, both in the transmigration of exterior works and in the revelation of interior mysteries. These delights of spiritual refreshment are shared by Bridegroom and bride, God and the soul. With the mother of Jesus being there, Jesus also is called with his disciples: because in the presence of devout will, which both conceives interior grace through the affection of pure love and brings it forth through the effect of outstanding action, that same interior grace and its spiritual charisms are invited by pious groans and pious works. But for the mother of Jesus to say to him when the wine failed, They have no wine, is for devout will, when spiritual joy is withdrawn, to sigh with a pious plea before interior grace for its restoration. And for him to respond to that same mother, What have I to do with you, woman? My hour has not yet come, is for interior grace to pour into devout will an awareness of its own frailty, and to intimate that it is not yet expedient for it to receive what it asks. And for his mother to say to the ministers, Whatever he tells you, do it, is for devout will to exhort the interior thoughts of the mind to be obedient in all things to the hidden movements of interior grace.
XVI. The six stone water jars set there for the purification of the Jews are six kinds of meditations to be practiced for the cleansing of the interior senses of those who confess God in faith and truth. The first kind is about the state we had before conversion. The second about the state we now hold as converts. The third about the judgment of God, to whose hidden disposition we are subject. The fourth about our departure from this life, which we all expect without doubt. The fifth about the calamity of infernal punishment, which we abhor. The sixth about the felicity of heavenly glory, for which we sigh. Each one holds within us not only two but three measures, when we turn over each of these meditations within us in three ways. In the first, when we see how intent we were upon evils, and how many evils we committed in working iniquity; how many good things we omitted, committing transgression; and how much we ought to have avoided both. In the second, when we recognize in ourselves the instability of mind, the weakness of body: and that we are in no way able either to avoid what is evil or to practice what is good, unless the hand of divine mercy both draws us back from the former and strengthens us in the latter. Also in the third, when we fear that that hidden and strict Judge may neither accept our good works, being appeased, nor wash away our evils, being merciful; and moreover, being offended, may arrange all things that happen in our case toward a heap of our perdition. In the fourth, when we anticipate the hard and harsh separation of our soul and body from one another, the foul and fetid dwelling of the body beneath the earth, the fearful and dreadful presentation of the soul before the Judge. In the fifth, when we shudder within ourselves at the burning fire, the gnawing worm, and both of these lacking any end: the former inextinguishable, the latter immortal. In the sixth, when we paint upon the parchment of the heart what that future blessedness will be, which we hope to receive in threefold manner in the future, of which we read that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9). What -- to speak of it even superficially -- will be the power we shall have in ourselves; what wisdom we shall have in God; what kindness we shall have in our fellow citizens: the first from the Father, the second from the Son, the third from the Holy Spirit: that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). The ministers fill these six stone water jars with water to the brim when, with divine grace breathing upon them, the thoughts of the mind conceive a full fear through these six kinds of strong and stable meditations.
XVII. And when the ministers also bring what has been drawn from the water jars, and that ruler of the feast tastes it, he says that the bridegroom has kept the good wine until now -- because when the thoughts of the mind present their most intimate revolutions to the judgment of discretion, discretion itself approves, seeing that what formerly sighed in fear now breathes in love; and praising God for this spiritual change in them, it declares that he has granted them his sweetness and gentleness at the last. But we see the whole company of the carnal acting far differently: they who first strive to take for themselves what is sweet according to the flesh and according to this world; and afterward, damnably rendered insensible, they receive what is bitterly painful, struck from behind and disgraced with everlasting shame (Ps. 77:66). Therefore every man serves the good wine first: because in the stock of the reprobate, Enoch is born first (Gen. 4:17), and those who dedicate themselves in temporal things -- which seems to be what Enoch means -- fix the intention of their heart on earthly things; and seeking to have an abiding city here, they do not seek the one to come. But the Bridegroom of the soul, God, keeps the good wine until now, because in the lineage of the elect, Enoch comes forth as the seventh (Gen. 5:18): because their dedication will be not only now, but at the end (Gen. 5:24). Those who walk with God -- that is, agreeing with him in all things in their manner of life -- do not appear in the impurity of the carnal; because God places and establishes them in his own holiness.
XVIII. And if you are willing to receive it, he keeps the good wine until now, because when he has given sleep to his beloved, behold the inheritance of the Lord (Ps. 126:3). This wine the dearest friends of the Bridegroom will drink, and they will be inebriated at the wedding of the heavenly homeland (Song 5:1), when both those things which are now celebrated in the Church through faith, and those things of which we have already said much, which exist in the soul through interior purity, shall cease, and those shall succeed them in which those blessed guests shall be inebriated -- I speak of the elect angels and men; from the abundance of the house of God, and with the torrent of his pleasure he will give them to drink (Ps. 35:9), seeing him face to face. Then we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). Then the Lord Jesus will dispose for those who have remained with him in his trials, as his Father disposed a kingdom for him, that they may eat and drink at these most royal and noble nuptials, at his table in his kingdom (Luke 22:29). Then he will gird himself and make his servants, those whom he has found watching, recline at table, and passing by he will minister to them (Luke 12:37). Then the water will be changed into wine: because man will pass over into God. Therefore no less true than beautiful is that song of the man of God, who sang thus: The flowing wave, the passing man -- these mixed with Wine; it is through Christ, by the blood of Christ, that man is joined. For wherever the body shall be, there also will the eagles be gathered (Luke 17:37). And the prayer of the Son to the Father has this form: Father, those whom you have given me, I will that where I am, they also may be with me, that they may see my glory which you have given me (John 17:24). Our water also will be changed into wine, our mortality into immortality; for this our faith both contains and our hope expects, and charity merits. And indeed Paul's testimony on these matters is true, which is as follows: This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:53). Truly the water shall be changed into wine: because death will be swallowed up in victory (ibid., 54). Until then the Bridegroom of the Church, the Bridegroom of the soul, the Bridegroom also of that happy and heavenly Bride, keeps the good wine: handing over the kingdom to God and the Father (ibid., 24); and that last enemy, death, shall be destroyed (ibid., 26), and God shall be all in all (ibid., 28): reigning in his elect, blessed and superexalted through all ages. Amen.