Sermo 28 recensio brevior

It pleased me also to say with the prophet Isaiah: that I endured like "the woman giving birth" until I "dry them up" and destroy them. If, therefore, you know yourself that the spring of the Holy Spirit gushes in you, this is the sign that they have been dried up and destroyed, just as our Savior said, that "the kingdom" of heaven is not "here or there," but within "you it is." Again the apostle says: "the kingdom of God" is not "in word," "but in power." For there are some who speak the things of the kingdom but do not work them, and there are some who work the things of the kingdom but do not speak them, neither in custody nor in knowledge. But those in whom the word of the Savior has come to pass, that "the kingdom is within you," are few and rare and hard to find; to these the Holy "Spirit" of God has come, and the word of the evangelist John has been fulfilled: that those who believed in his name "he gave them authority to become children of God," "who were not born from blood nor from the will" "of a man, but from God." These are those who have escaped the bitter sentence that went out against Adam: that "cursed is the earth in your works"; these are those who have seized the joy that Mary seized: that "the spirit of God will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." For just as sorrow came down upon Eve and her seed until now, so again joy seized Mary and her seed until now.

As therefore we were once sons of Eve and recognized her curse upon us through our base thoughts, so again we ought to recognize ourselves that we were born from God through the thoughts of the Holy Spirit and through the sufferings of Christ, if indeed they are in our body. For it is written in the Apostle: "Test yourselves," whether "Christ is in you" or you do not know "that Christ Jesus is in you," "unless" indeed "you are reprobate." When, then, we wore "the image of the earthly," we knew that we are his sons through the base matter of his thoughts dwelling in us, which are the passions. But those who have worn "the image of the heavenly" recognize themselves that they are sons of the heavenly "through" his Holy "Spirit" "dwelling in" them. For Isaiah cries out, saying: "From fear of you, Lord, we conceived in the womb and travailed and gave birth to a spirit of salvation † which we conceived † upon the earth." It is written again in Ecclesiastes: that "as bones in the womb of the pregnant woman," so "is the way of the spirit." For just as this holy virgin conceived him in the flesh, so also those who have received the grace of the Holy Spirit conceive him in their heart according to the word of the Apostle saying: "that Christ dwell (in the inner man) through faith in your hearts," "rooted and grounded in love," "so that" you may be able to present yourselves "with all the saints," and again:

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excess of power may be of God and not from us. If therefore you have attained to this word, that "we are transformed from glory to glory in the same image," and if the word of the apostle has been fulfilled in you which says, "and the peace of God let it be the umpire in your hearts" and in your mind (which is Christ Jesus), if you have attained to this word, that "from darkness light" "has shone in your hearts" "of the knowledge of the glory of God," if the word has been fulfilled in you, that "let your loins be girded and your lamps burning," and you will be as slaves awaiting their own master, "when he returns" from the wedding, that your mouth may not be stopped having no defense among the saints, if you know that your vessel has oil, as the wise virgins, that you may not be left outside the door, but that you may enter the bridal chamber with the bridegroom, if you have perceived that your spirit and your soul and your body have been united blamelessly and rise on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ spotless, if you have become unaccused and uncondemned by your conscience, and if you have become a child according to the word of the Savior which says, "do not hinder" "the children" from coming "to me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." If you have truly become a bride to him and his Holy Spirit has inherited you while you are still in the body, expect the kingdom; but if not, expect grief and groaning, because shame and reproach await you before the saints.

Know this: just as a certain virgin of this world, rising in the morning each day, touches no other concern before she adorns herself for her bridegroom, often looking at herself in a mirror, lest there be any blemish on her face—for if she has a blemish, she will not please her bridegroom—so too there is great care among the saints, by night and by day, to examine their own thoughts and to learn whether they are under the yoke of the Holy Spirit or not. Therefore, brother, strive diligently with labor of heart and mouth, with knowledge, to acquire that eternal joy, because those who have been deemed worthy of it are rare—those who have acquired "the sword of the Spirit" and have advanced their soul and freed all its senses from every defilement of the passions, as the Apostle said: that we may provide for their increase in us in all things, "which is the head, Christ." And it is possible for his holy name to assist "our weakness," so that we may be deemed worthy to attain, together with all his saints. Amen.