In pentecosten Sermo

On Pentecost. Homily 1. Heaven has become for us today the earth, not because stars have descended from heaven to earth, but because apostles have ascended above the heavens, since the grace of the Spirit was poured out. He made the inhabited world a heaven, not by changing its nature, but by correcting its disposition. He found a tax collector and made him an evangelist; he found a blasphemer and made him an apostle; he found a robber and led him into paradise; he found a prostitute and made her more chaste than a virgin; he found magi and made them evangelists. He cast out vice and brought back virtue; he brought the grace of God. The earth has become heaven. For what are stars compared to apostles? Stars are in heaven; apostles are above heaven. For you think of the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Stars are made of perceptible fire; apostles are made of spiritual fire. Stars shine at night, but are hidden by day; apostles shine their ray both by night and by day. Stars do not shine when the sun appears; apostles, when the Sun of righteousness shines, flash forth their own radiance. Stars fall like leaves at the resurrection; apostles are snatched up in clouds at the resurrection. Among the stars, one is the evening star, another the morning star; among the apostles, there is no evening star, but all are morning stars.

For this reason the apostles are brighter than the stars; and one would not err in calling them luminaries of the world, not only when they lived, but even now that they have died. For the grace of the saints is not cut off by death, not blunted by their end, not dissolved into the earth; and the facts bear witness. They were fishermen, and the fishermen died; but their nets still work, and the multitude of those saved daily bears witness. They were vine-dressers, and those men departed, yet the vine flourishes with leaves and is heavy with fruit. For they were vine-dressers, and fishermen, and pillars, and physicians, and generals, and teachers. Pillars, because they supported the roof of faith; harbors, because they calmed the waves of impiety; helmsmen, because they guided the world from earth to heaven; shepherds, because they drove away the wolves and saved the flock; vine-dressers, because they tore up the thorns and sowed the seeds of piety; physicians, because they healed our wounds. And that you may know these words are not boast, I bring forward Paul, who did all these things. Do you wish to see him as a planter? "I planted, Apollos watered." Do you wish to see him as a builder? "As a wise architect, I laid the foundation." Do you wish to see him as a pankratiast? "I box in such a way as not to beat the air." Do you wish to see him as an athlete? "Our struggle is not against blood and flesh." Do you wish to see him as a runner? "So that from Jerusalem and in a circuit as far as Illyricum I have filled the Gospel of God." Having put on the breastplate of faith. Do you wish to see him as a contestant? "I have fought the good fight.

Do you wish to see him as a victor? The crown of righteousness is laid up for me. Being one, he became all things, imitating his own Master. For our Master, being one in substance, was shaped for all things. How for all things? For the sake of our salvation. You became a branch, and he became a root: "I am the vine, you are the branches." You wished to walk; he became a road for you: "If someone enters and exits through me, he will find pasture." You became a sheep; he became a shepherd for you: "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." You became a sinner; he became for you the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You wished to eat; he became a table for you. You wished to drink; he became a cup for you: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." You wished to clothe yourself; he became a garment for you: "For as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." You wished to become a bride; he became a bridegroom for you: "He who has the bride is the bridegroom." You wished; he became a husband for you: "For I have betrothed you to one husband, to present a pure virgin to Christ." You were a prostitute, and you became a virgin. O new and paradoxical things! In external matters, marriage dissolves virginity, but in spiritual matters, he took a prostitute and made her more chaste than a virgin. Interpret, O heretic, how the prostitute is a virgin. I cannot investigate; I am held by faith. But all these things the grace of the Spirit accomplished. The grace was poured out, and tongues as of fire were divided among them—not fire, but as of fire. If it were fire, how were they not burned?

The Jew asks. But rather I ask the Jew, how did the bush, a woody kindling, not burn? What is more violent than fire? What is more worthless than a bramble? And neither was the wood burned, nor was the fire extinguished. And again, how did it not burn the bodies of the three children, but the furnace was transformed into dew, and they thought the coals were a rose garden? There was a battle of fire and bodies, and the victory belonged to the bodies; for being softer than wax, they became harder than iron. Interpret for me the things of old; but those things came first, so that the truth might be believed. Why is the Holy Spirit in fire? Because of the swiftness of the mind of those who receive it. But not only for this reason, but also just as fire consumes thorns, so the Spirit consumes sins. The saint was thrown into a pit, and he silenced the lions. The fishermen went around the world, taking it when it was sick, and brought it back to health; taking it when it was in revolt, they led it to order, not wielding spears, not shooting bows, not launching arrows, not possessing an abundance of money, not of rhetorical words; but they were naked of garments, and clothed in Christ; poor and rich, deprived of money, but possessing the kingdom; alone and not alone, alone of men, but having their own Master. For I am with you, he says, until the end of the age.

They went around the whole world, the sheep among the wolves. Who has seen? Who has heard? He says: I send you as sheep into the midst of wolves. What shepherd sends sheep into the midst of wolves? But when the shepherd sees the wolf, he gathers the sheep together; Christ did the opposite: he sent the sheep to the wolves, and the sheep were not taken by wild beasts, but the wolves were transformed into the gentleness of the sheep. And so that those might not say, We are sheep, and you send us as prey to the wolves, as a table for the beasts, with a single word he removed their concern. He did not say: Go; for he was not sending them by their own power; but, Behold, I send you. You are weak; but the one who sends you is strong. Who are you? I am the one who fixed the heaven, who founded the earth, who dissolved the sea, who nailed the document against you to the cross, who overturned the old law, who led you back to the ancient fatherland, who dissolves the strong and strengthens the paralyzed. What is stronger than the sea? But the small sand restrains that unbearable violence. Behold, I send you as sheep into the midst of wolves. The beasts become a wall for the sheep, so that they may not even procure safety by flight. O the power of the one who sent! The sheep in the middle, and the wolves around; but they were transformed, and became sheep. For they were not by nature

wolves, but by choice. Behold, I send you. What then do you command? Be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves. What do you say, wise as serpents? The serpent, even if it receives countless wounds, if it preserves its head, it is entirely healthy. So also you, if the enemy wishes to take your money, give it; if your possessions, if even your life itself—only preserve your faith. Be wise. With that remaining, all things are easy and manageable. You came naked from your mother’s womb, and naked you will depart. But does someone exile you? The Lord’s earth and its fullness are His. But do you die? But your death is a journey. Only do not lose your faith, the inexhaustible treasure, the undiminished faith. Witnesses of this are these martyrs: because they did not lose their faith, even after death they are more powerful than the living. For this reason I became man, for this reason I took on flesh, that I might make the whole world a Church. For the Church is very precious to God, not secured by walls, but fortified by faith. For the Church, heaven was established, and the sea was poured forth, and air was spread out, and earth was founded, a paradise was planted, law was given, prophets were sent, miracles happened, a sea was divided and closed, a rock was broken and again joined, manna was brought down, and a table was prepared as it was being set up. For the Church, prophets; for the Church, apostles; and why say much? For the Church, the only-begotten Son of God became man, as Paul says: who did not spare even His own Son.

He did not spare the Son, that he might spare the Church; he poured out the blood of the Son for the sake of the Church. This blood waters her; because of this the plants cannot wither nor shed their leaves. She is not subject to the necessities of seasons, nor does she serve the times, flourishing in leaves in summer and being stripped bare in winter. For it is not the necessity of seasons, but the grace of the Spirit that cultivates her; because of this she is not uprooted. But it is not remarkable that she is not uprooted, but rather that she is not uprooted even when many are warring against her. How many from the beginning have warred against the Church? When she was newly planted, many things were set in motion against her. For now, through the grace of God and the power of the Spirit, both pious emperors and generals and the whole inhabited world are filled with the faith; but in the beginning and in the preliminaries, there were emperors in impiety, impious generals, decrees of rulers, altars kindled, smoke and savor of burnt offerings everywhere. The air was polluted, the earth was defiled, demons raged, the devil danced, a father killed his son, a son dishonored; nature was divided, but piety was not divided. Where now are those who dared to array themselves against the Church? When she was newly planted, she was not harmed; when she has touched the sky, do you expect to overcome her? When there were eleven apostles, none of them prevailed, but the eleven netted so many myriads; now when the sea, and the inhabited world, and the uninhabited region, and cities, and all the ends of the earth are filled with piety, then do you hope to prevail over her? But you cannot; for Christ declared: The gates of Hades will not prevail against her.

It is easier for the heaven to vanish and the earth to perish than for the Church to suffer anything. Christ himself says: "The heaven and the earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." And rightly so; for the word of God is more powerful than heaven itself, since heaven is the work of the word. God said, "Let there be heaven," and the word became a work. Nature ran its course, and nothing hindered it. For He was the master of nature, both to make it such and to change it such. I built her, I who set up the heavens; but I would not have taken a body superior to the heavens, that you might learn that the Church is more precious than heaven, angels, and all creation. For this reason: "The heaven and the earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." Let the Jew stand by, let the Greek stand by. If the words are boast, let him refute them; but if what is said is truth, let him worship the power. Christ said: "The heaven and the earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." And what are his words? Let us set them in the midst, let us see if they have fallen through. I do not speak doubtfully, but to muzzle the heretic. For this reason: "The heaven and the earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." What words? "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." Upon this rock. He did not say, "Upon Peter"; for he built his Church not upon the man, but upon his own faith. And what was the faith? "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." He called the Church a rock, receiving waves and not being shaken.

The Church receives trials, but is not conquered. What then does "upon the rock" mean? A confession upon the words. Do you not throw stones? Do you not throw wood? Do you not throw iron? No, he says; for there is no such building, whatever it may be, that is dissolved by time; but a confession neither can demons conquer. And the martyrs bear witness, those whose sides were scraped and who did not lose their faith. O new and paradoxical things! The wall is dug through, and the treasure is not plundered; the flesh is consumed, and the faith is not spent; such is the power of the martyrs. For upon this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Pay attention to the precision of the word. The gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Why then, he says, does he not prevent trials from approaching the Church? Is it not to show my power? If no one were to war against it, they could say: If it had been warred against, it would have been conquered. For this reason he allows it to be warred against, so that the victory may not be ascribed to the absence of enemies. And the gates of Hades, he did not say, "They will not attack it," but, "They will not prevail against it"; it will be warred against, but it will not be conquered. The Church is stormed, but it is not submerged; it is tossed by waves, but it does not become underwater; it receives arrows, but it does not receive wounds; it receives engines, but the tower is not shaken. And what do I say, the Church? A fisherman uttered one word, and it stands like an unshaken tower. How many tyrants strove to destroy this word, but they did not prevail? For it was founded upon the rock. Consider:

Tyrants, kings, diadems, sharpened swords, teeth of wild beasts, threatened deaths, frying pans, furnaces. And indeed the devil emptied his quiver, but he did not harm the Church. Why? The gates of Hades will not prevail against her. How many from the beginning fought against the Church? Where are those who fought? They have been silenced and consigned to oblivion; the Church flourishes. Where is Claudius? Where is Augustus? Where is Nero? Where is Tiberius? They are mere names; no one remembers them. Because they fought against the Church, they lost even their memory; but the Church shines brighter than the sun. Wherever you go, to the Indians, to the Moors, to the Britons, to the whole world, you will find, "In the beginning was the Word," and a virtuous life. For before this, even cities were filled with impiety; now even the desert is filled with piety. Before this, even queens danced; at the birthday celebration of Herod, the daughter of Herodias danced; today a maidservant does not deign to do this. Before this, Persians married their mothers; today they practice virginity. Before this, Goths killed their fathers; today they are eager to shed their blood for piety. Before this, even commoners were impious; today even kings and peoples are pious. The present king, having laid aside his diadem and taken up the cross, at a premature age displaying a wisdom that is gray-haired, acknowledging no kingship in church; outside, spears, and here, mysteries; outside, shields, and here, initiations; the son of Theodosius, and the father of Theodosius. Concerning these things

Let us give thanks to God; to whom belongs glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.