Sermones. De Symbolo Ad Catechumenos Sermo Alius

ON THE CREED TO THE CATECHUMENS, ANOTHER SERMON. CHAPTER ONE. — 1. The pomp of the devil, to which those to be baptized renounce. The sacrament of the Creed, which you have received and committed to memory for your salvation, know that this is the foundation of the Catholic faith, upon which the edifice of the Church has arisen, built by the hands of the Apostles and Prophets. For the edifice of the house of God, the stones are living: which you are. For thus the Apostle writes to believers: Know you not, he says, that you are a temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you (1 Cor. 3:16)? But the Apostle Peter also, addressing the faithful, says: You, he says, as living stones are built into a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5). Whoever desires to be joined to this edifice, let him renounce the devil, his pomps and his angels. The pomps of the devil are all unlawful desires, which defile, not which adorn the soul; such as desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, worldly ambitions. To the lust of the flesh belong the allurements of pleasures: to the lust of the eyes, the frivolity of spectacles: to worldly ambition, insane pride; where there is inflated smoke, so that a man placed in some power does not acknowledge himself to be a man, when he judges concerning man. Therefore, whoever wishes to conquer the world, let him conquer these three things which are in the world: and through these he also conquers him who, by persuading through pride, deceived the world.

CHAPTER TWO.—2. The worship of idols is reproved. After a person, by renouncing the devil, excludes the worst invader, let him introduce the best possessor; let him believe in God the Father almighty, etc. It is a great gift of grace to believe in and understand God. But what does the prophet say? Unless you believe, you will not understand (Isaiah 7:9). Let us therefore believe, so that we may understand, but let us pray, so that we may merit to see what we believe. For sins, and the author of sin, the devil, have separated the soul from God: and while the creature followed the seducer, it abandoned its savior; a great ruin occurred: and the soul went astray, so that it worshipped idols instead of the true God, and adored the very things it made, abandoning the one by whom it was made. For by adoring a stone that has no life, it perishes itself, abandoning God who is its true and eternal life. Hence all error, and the abandonment of good things; hence the worship of pagans, and the perversity of heretics. And souls went astray through various and perverse pleasures, so that some worshipped the sun, others the moon and stars, others mountains, others stones and various shrubs, each believing he had found, not a helper God, but a deceiver devil: and thus the soul wandered from its Creator through diverse things, so that everything which God had given it for service, it worshipped as God. Were not all things created for the sake of man?

Let anyone read the Holy Scriptures, and he will find that God said to the man whom He formed from the dust of the earth: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and have dominion over it; and have power over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the beasts of the earth." And a little later: "Behold," He says, "I have given you all things for use and for food" (Gen. 1:29). But as for those who are unwilling to read the Holy Scriptures, nature itself and the world itself, by the works of their service, convict the unbelievers with a certain voice of their own, and rebuke the perverse soul, saying: "What is it, wretched one, that you err in me, and degenerate, forgetful of what and by whom you were created, for whom heaven and earth, so beautiful a house, were built without any preceding merits of mine?" Each and every element responds, crying out, and by their very works demonstrate the craftsman to the deaf. The heaven cries out: "I am not God; for if I were God, no cloud could overshadow me, nor would darkness succeed my light; but that light would have remained whole, uncorrupted, and inviolate, just as that true light remains, which created this temporal light in me for your sake." The sun also cries out: "Why, man, do you worship me as a god, when you see me confined by rising and setting? God has neither rising nor setting; but you, by deserting Him, have incurred a great fall. But you consider me great and wonderful; I, however, acknowledge that there is one above me, who created both me and you.

But when the works of my brightness and heat serve you, why do you think I should be worshipped as God, unless it is because you do not know how to worship the true God? So the moon and stars utter a similar voice: Do you not see, O man, that we traverse the night space, are excluded by the light, and do not transgress the established boundaries, which the almighty craftsman has set for the comfort of your rest? We are not God: we prove your falsehood by serving you to your own punishment. The sea cries out, and all that is in it: We are not Gods. For I provide, as I am commanded, service, receiving the ship's keel for passage, appropriate motions, the blasts of winds; guiding its course, so that I may bring you to the desired harbor even when avarice seizes you, with no delay interposed. And the animals that are born from me, you know are given to you as food. Since, therefore, I acknowledge my own measure in all things, why do you abandon your order, by abandoning the creator of all, God? The earth cries out: So, man, do you ascribe to me the name of divinity? Do you not recognize what I am, because you have forgotten what you are? You do not recognize your own material; you do not recognize that you are my clay, formed from me indeed, but, which I am not, animated. You do not recognize that among all the animals that have been procreated from me, you alone have been established as lord of almost the whole world under God. Rightly you do not understand, because when you were in honor, you did not understand: you have been compared to senseless beasts, and you have been made like them (Psalm 48:13).

CHAPTER III. —5. The true God is to be worshipped, and false gods rejected. But we, dearly beloved, to whom it has been granted to believe, should not believe the sun to be God or king of the sky; nor the sea, or some king of it, Neptune, whom vanity, not truth, invents; nor the earth and Pluto. Instead, let us believe in God the Father almighty, the creator of all things, the king of the heavens. For He who made everything from nothing because He willed it, Himself rules what He made. Those immortals we mentioned above are not gods because they can be grasped and seen here with the eyes. As for the others, whom the vain worship vainly—Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Juno, Minerva, Venus, and the other monstrosities, not good divinities but evil names—they were mortal men, as their own literature, which delights in such errors, proclaims. But what kind of God our sacred Scriptures proclaim, listen to the apostle Paul: "To the immortal, invisible, incorruptible, only God, honor and glory" (1 Tim. 1:17). Our God is not seen with the eyes of the flesh, but is seen with the eyes of the heart; He is not seen for a time, but is seen for eternity. But the pagan says: Show me whom you worship. I reply: I do indeed have someone to show you even now, but you do not have the eyes to see. For blessed are those, says our Savior, who are pure of heart, since they themselves will see God (Matt. 5:8). Can an impure heart, wrapped in the darkness of sins, seek to see God?

Light shines in the darkness, but the darkness does not comprehend it (John 1:5). Is it because the blind man does not see that the light does not shine? If you, O unbeliever, knew how to say to the true God, "Enlighten my eyes" (Psalm 12:4), you would see with us now through a mirror in a riddle, so that you might be able to see face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12). If you understood the craftsman from his works, you would infer the Creator from the creature. If you were struck with awe within yourself, because you cannot wholly know yourself, you would acknowledge the God who made you. For you do not see your own soul, and yet your soul sees everything through your flesh. Or if you see your soul, tell me what it is like or how great it is: whether it is square or round, whether smooth or rough, whether hot or cold, whether it has some color or lacks all color. "I see," you say; to show what your soul is like, you are not able. Behold, your soul is immortal, and it gives life to your mortal flesh. I call your soul immortal with respect to both outcomes. If it believes, it is immortal for life; if it does not believe, it is immortal for punishment. Therefore we believe in God, immortal and invisible; not that god whom you unbelievers fashion, both adulterer and thunderer, but the true God, the maker and ruler of the whole world.

Chapter IV. — 4. The Nativity of Christ from a Virgin according to the Prophecy of Isaiah. Signs at Christ's Nativity. Infants Killed by Herod's Order Become Martyrs of Christ. Man Restored by the Same Steps by Which He Had Perished. And in His Son Jesus Christ. Christ: Promised Long Ago through the Prophets. We hold what we know has already been fulfilled. But we are also commanded to believe this because when it happened, we were not present. The Jews were there then, from whose race the Savior Himself chose the Apostles, through whom this faith has come to us. In that same race, in which and from which He deigned to be born, the prophet Isaiah had long before foretold: Behold, a virgin will conceive in her womb and bear a Son, and you will call His name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us (Isaiah 7:14). And in another place, A rod will come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower from its rod will ascend (Isaiah 11:1): the rod signifying the Virgin Mary, and the flower of the rod the Son of the Virgin, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews, before these things happened, did not understand them; they began to be fulfilled what was promised, and they did not rejoice, but rather envied. Christ is born from a virgin like a flower from a rod, without any composite seed. A small infant is born, a great king. Certain indications and signs of the great king proceed: Angels announce to shepherds, the heavens cry out through a star like a new tongue. Magi are led from afar; they come to adore Him still lying in a manger, but already reigning in heaven and on earth.

The Magi announcing that a king was born, Herod is disturbed; and lest he lose his kingdom, he wants to kill him, in whom if he believed, he would be both secure here and reign without end in that life. Herod inquires of the Jews where Christ is born. They search together, not like the Magi to adore, but to seek out the young child to kill him. Why do you fear, Herod, because you hear that a king is born? He has not come to exclude you, but to conquer the devil. But you, not understanding this, are disturbed and rage; and in order to destroy the one you seek, you become a cruel executioner through the deaths of so many infants. No piety of weeping mothers, or of fathers mourning the funerals of their sons, no lowing and groaning of infants recalls you. You kill little ones in body, because fear kills you in your heart; and you think that if you accomplish what you desire, you can live long, when you seek to kill life itself. But that fountain of grace, small and great, who lies in the manger, terrifies your throne: it works, through you unknowing, its own causes, and frees souls from the captivity of the devil. It receives the sons of enemies into the number of the adopted. Little ones die for Christ without knowing, parents mourn dying martyrs: those not yet speaking, it makes suitable witnesses of itself. Behold how he reigns, who had come to reign thus. Behold, the liberator already frees, and the savior bestows salvation. But you, Herod, not knowing this, are disturbed and rage; and while you rage against the little child, you already offer him service, and you do not know it.

For that great king who came for this purpose, that through you and through his other followers he might gather his own from here, you send before him to the kingdom of heaven an innumerable army of many thousands of infant candidates. That blessed apostle John’s Apocalypse showed this multitude, saying: I saw a great crowd, which no one could count, from every tribe, standing in the sight of God; and they were clothed in white garments, and palms were in their hands (Apoc. VII, 9). O great gift of grace! By what merits of theirs was it granted that infants should thus conquer? They do not yet speak, and they confess Christ. They are not yet able, by the movements of their limbs, to undertake a fight, and they already bear the palm of victory. How do you reign, Herod, who are thus conquered? That little one did not overcome you by the hand of strong armed men, but conquered by the innumerable crowd of dying infants. Do you wish to know what you conferred on the infants whom you slaughtered? You hastened to their life, so that they would not, with their parents, kill the true Life: this was done through you by that one who knows well how to use even your evils. He freed their souls from the fellowship of their parents in their own destruction, and left you alone, empty, in your crime. Grace also pleaded its own causes, both through its enemies, and through them, and in them: for they themselves who were dying were by nature children of wrath, as also the rest (Ephes. II, 3); but what did grace grant them, except to rescue them from the power of darkness (Coloss. I, 13)?

Christ granted them that they might die for Christ; he granted that by their own blood they might be cleansed from original sin. They were born to death, but death immediately restored them to life. By the same steps, most beloved, by which human nature had perished, it was restored by the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam was proud, Christ is humble; through a woman came death, through a woman came life; through Eve destruction, through Mary salvation. That one, corrupted, followed the seducer; this one, intact, gave birth to the Savior. That one willingly accepted the cup offered by the serpent and passed it to her husband, so that together they might deserve to fall; this one, by heavenly grace poured down from above, brought forth life, through which mortal flesh could be raised again. Who is it who has wrought these things, if not the man of men and the bridegroom of virgins? who brought fecundity to his mother, but did not take away her integrity. What he bestowed on his mother, he also gave to his bride. Finally, holy Church, which is joined to him, intact to the intact one, daily gives birth to his members, and is a virgin.

CHAPTER V. — a. On the Passion of Christ. The antidote from Christ's blood. Crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried. This we believe, and we believe it in such a way that we glory in it. For the teacher of the Gentiles, the apostle Paul, says: "Far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world is crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14). And let us glory in this, hope in this, cling to this. For our old man was crucified together with him on the cross (Romans 6:6). For unless he were crucified, the world would not be redeemed. That punishment is our salvation. What the Jew and the Gentile detest, the Christian is saved by. But why does the Jew detest it? Because, as the Apostle says, "by their transgression salvation comes to the Gentiles" (Romans 11:11). What transgression did the Jews commit? They seized Christ, handed him bound to Pilate, they shouted: "Crucify, crucify." Why? For what reason? Because he raised a dead man. Pilate heard, found him innocent, saw the people raging, excused himself and said: "I find no case against this man; take him yourselves and crucify him." When Pilate said, "I find no case against this man, take him yourselves," what else was he saying but this: You came to the judge as if with a criminal, but you handed over an innocent man to the laws, against whom you were unable to prove any crime. I will not be just if, according to your desire, I kill an innocent man; I will be free from this act, a stranger to your sedition, if I hand him over to you.

Take him," he says, "you, and crucify him according to your law." And they say, "We know that he is guilty of death." What does one blind in heart, though not in body, know? He cries out what he does not know, and to fulfill what he rages, he says he knows what he does not know. Again Pilate hears Jesus; and, thrown into fear by his answers, he finds a plan by which to release him. Going out to the Jews, he said: "It is my custom to release one of you at Passover; do you therefore wish me to release the king of the Jews for you?" They shouted and said: "Do not release him, but Barabbas" (John 18:30, 19:15). Now Barabbas, as the Evangelist relates, was a notorious robber. O blindness of the Jews! O fury of the frenzied! "Do not release him, but Barabbas": what else was that but to say, "Let Christ the Savior be killed, because he raised a dead man; let the robber be released, so that he may again commit murder"? But cry out, what do you cry out, not knowing? Let Christ be killed by you, and the nations be redeemed. But that physician of souls, who saw you laboring in frenzy, was administering the sleep of health; and therefore he himself wished to sleep for us. As if he were saying: "I am the physician, you are the sick; your great infirmity shuns the sleep of health. Behold, I therefore sleep for you; so that, having seen me, you too may delight in sleeping, and I may free you from penal death.

But he said this to them and about them, whom he later knew would believe in him; and for whom, hanging, he prayed to the Father, saying: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Among them was also that frenzied one, first Saul, later Paul; first proud, later humble: he too suffered from frenzy, he rejected the sleep of salvation. But what did the physician do to him? He laid low the raging one, he raised up the believing one; he laid low the persecutor, he raised up the preacher (Acts 9). Laid low on the ground, the frenzied one slept: he arose, and became a physician. He began to cure in others the disease from which he himself suffered, and, having become a disciple of the heavenly chief physician, he drank the antidote compounded from the blood of the physician: he himself drank first, and offered it to his lovers to drink. This antidote, compounded from the blood of the crucified one, even the kings of the earth drank: and those who had been persecutors of the Church became its defenders.

CHAPTER VI.—Concerning His Burial. How the Resurrection Occurred on the Third Day. The Gospel indicates the burial of this crucified one: that he was received by Joseph, wrapped in linen cloths, and placed with spices in a new tomb. For a new man, born without any corruption from a virgin, was placed in a new tomb in which no dead person had yet been laid, so that the sanctity of the virginal womb might be adorned in all things by the fittingness of the inviolable tomb (John 19:38-42). On the third day he rose from the dead. Although many saints have thought and said many things about this. Now some, wishing to express three days and three nights up to the Lord's day, included the night preceding the sixth day of the week and that same sixth day as one day, and the night of the Sabbath and the Sabbath, and the night of the Lord's day and the day of resurrection itself. Others, however, from the sixth day itself and the night that was made at midday, wished to explain three days and three nights up to the Lord's day, because of that saying of the Lord placed in the Gospel: "For just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so must the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights" (Matthew 12:40).

But we, emptying neither of these opinions, yet better, if you please, let us seek a spiritual understanding in this matter: how the Son of Man was in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. We set three days as the three times of the world: before the Law, under the Law, under Grace; and three nights as three deaths, that is, three dead persons whom the Lord raised while present in the flesh: the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue in the house (Mark 9:18, 25), the son of the widow outside the gate (Luke 7:12-15), and Lazarus, four days in the tomb (John 11:14-44). For whence comes death, except through sin? And what are sins, except great darknesses which make a heavy night? Thus they correspond to each other, so that the first day is before the Law, when sin lay hidden; and to this day comes that night, that the dead girl lay in the house, as sin lay hidden within the conscience. The second day is under the Law, when it was said to man, "You shall not covet" (Exodus 20:17); and sin proceeded into the open; and to this day comes that night, that the widow's son was outside the gate, as the sin of the soul which lay hidden within proceeded into the open. The third day is under Grace, when the soul now sins more, because it knows the will of its Lord and does things worthy of stripes (Luke 12:47), and under such a fullness of grace, by reason of its sins it already stinks; and to this day comes that night of the death of Lazarus lying in the tomb, as the soul overwhelmed and stinking with sins.

In these three days and nights Christ was in the heart of the earth; that is, the faith of Christ lay in the hearts of those who dwell on the earth. Therefore souls have in these days and nights both the precepts of the law and the voices of penitence, so that they may be able to rise again with Christ. For the day and night of hidden sin, that law is general: What you do not wish done to you, do not do to another (Tob. 4:16), and its voice of penitence is: Do not remember the offenses of my youth and ignorance (Ps. 24:7). For the following day of manifest sin, that law is: You shall not covet (Exod. 20:17), and its voice of penitence is: I have sinned against you alone, and I have done evil before you (Ps. 50:6). For the third day and night of the soul already buried in the habit of sin, that law is: Behold, you have been made whole; now do not sin (John 5:14), and its voice of penitence is: Lord, free my soul from death (Ps. 114:4), and: You have brought my soul up from the underworld (Ps. 29:4). Through these three times, as it were through three days, souls rise again with Christ, to whom it is said through the prophet: The dead will rise, and those who are in the tombs will be awakened, and all who are upon the earth will rejoice (Isa. 26:19), and to whom it is said through the Apostle: Arise, you who sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ will illuminate you (Eph. 5:14).

And to those who are rising again—that is, freed from sins—he says: "If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1). For the Lord Jesus, rising from the dead, was taken up into the heavens and sits at the right hand of God the Father. (Chapter 7.—7. Christ as man sits at the right hand of the Father; as God, He is everywhere. Who is it that sits at the right hand of the Father? The man Christ. For insofar as He is God, He is always with the Father and from the Father; and when He came forth to us, He did not depart from the Father. For to be God is to be wholly everywhere. Therefore the Son is wholly with the Father, wholly in heaven, wholly on earth, wholly in the Virgin's womb, wholly on the cross, wholly in hell, wholly in the paradise into which He led the thief. We do not say that He is wholly everywhere at different times or in different places, so that at one time He is wholly there, and at another time wholly elsewhere; but that He is always wholly everywhere. For if God has granted to this light which is seen by our eyes that it should be wholly everywhere at once—for when it is here, it is not absent in the East or in other parts of the world, but it is wholly everywhere, and wholly in all things, and it satisfies the eyes of all, and itself remains whole—if a creature can do this, how much more can the Creator Himself? But the fact that the Son is said to sit at the right hand of the Father shows that the man whom Christ assumed has received the power of judging.)

CHAPTER VIII. — 8. The nature of Christ's coming for judgment. For he will come to judge the living and the dead. The book of the Acts of the Apostles indicates his coming. For after he rose from the dead, he conversed with his disciples for forty days and forty nights, entering and leaving, eating and drinking, not because he had infirmity, but to teach the truth. On the fortieth day, as they were watching him ascend into heaven, as it were, with their eyes, two men in white garments stood before them and said to them: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven? This Jesus who has been taken up into heaven from you, will come just as you saw him going into heaven" (Acts 1:3-11). Therefore he will come, my brothers, he will come: he who came before in secret will come in manifest power; he who was judged will come to judge; he who stood before a man will judge every man. God will come manifest. What does it mean, God will come manifest? Not as before, a humble man; but as God man, sublime in majesty. And he will judge (Psalm 49:5). How will he judge? Not as an earthly judge who will seek witnesses to convict you, or seek the truth through torments to punish the confessed; for the judge is justice itself, and the witness against itself is the evil conscience. That judge, most beloved, is neither anticipated by favor, nor now bent by mercy; neither corrupted by money, nor softened by satisfaction.

Here, here, while there is time, let the soul do whatever it can for itself, while there is a place for mercy: for there it will have nothing it can do for itself, because there will be only the place of justice. Here let the soul perform penance, so that he may be able to change his sentence; here let it give bread, so that it may afterwards receive salvation; here let it perform mercy, so that there it may find indulgence. CHAPTER IX. — 9. That three persons are one God. We believe also in the Holy Spirit. We call the Holy Spirit God, but we do not, however, call the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit three gods, but one; because there is one eternity, one majesty, one power. The Father is not the Son, but the Father is the Father of the Son; the Son is not the Father, but the Son is the Son of the Father; the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son: three persons, but one God. How, you ask, do you name three, and say one? Show this either by reason, or by some likeness, through which it can be understood what that thing is. What reason, or what likeness, can be compared to that invisible thing? Yet let its majesty grant pardon, because our weakness sets forth some likeness which occurs from its creature, through which your Charity can understand. For unless he permitted it, who of us would dare to speak about his divinity? It is not without meaning that every creature is subject to the Creator; yet in no other form did our God wish to appear than in fire. For he appeared to holy Moses in a bush in a flame (Exod.

III, 2), and to the people of Israel he provided leadership in a column of fire (Ex. XIII, 21), and upon the assembled disciples he poured forth the gift of the Holy Spirit in tongues of fire (Acts II, 3). For this element holds a great mystery, through which it exercises the mind of the seeker. Behold, in fire we observe three things: fire, brightness, and heat: and although they are three, they are one light. They arise together, they persist together: neither does fire precede brightness, nor brightness precede heat. And yet they are not confusedly one, nor are they disjointedly three; but while they are one, they are three. They work together, and although they work inseparably, one thing is attributed to fire, another to brightness, another to heat. For when you refer burning to fire, both brightness and heat operate there: and when you refer illumination to brightness, both fire and heat operate together: and when you refer heating to heat, both fire and brightness operate together. Thus when it is said that God made the world, it is understood that the Father acted with the Son, and through the Son, and with the Holy Spirit. And when we say that the Son suffered for us, we understand that the passion of the Son was wrought by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And when the remission of sins is attributed to the Holy Spirit, we understand that the whole Trinity also works this gift inseparably. These things, on account of the Arian heretics or others who think about God otherwise than is fitting, have been said to your Charity.

Moreover, that which is ineffable and incomprehensible cannot be explained even by angelic words, how much less by human ones? CHAPTER X. — 10. Baptism blots out all sins. Remission of sins. Holy Baptism utterly destroys all sins, both original and personal: spoken, done, thought, known, unknown, all are forgiven. It renews the man, who was a man; it grants forgiveness of faults, it does not seek merits: grace anticipates even infancy itself, so that those who were formerly held captive by the devil in Adam may be free through Christ the liberator. CHAPTER XI. — 11. The faith of the resurrection is illustrated by the likeness of a seed. The resurrection of the flesh. The whole hope of our faith is this, that we shall be raised again. We shall all indeed rise again, says the Apostle, but not all will be changed (1 Cor. 15:51). The good will rise, the evil will rise: but the good, that they may enjoy eternal blessedness; the evil, that they may be punished by perpetual fire. There the faithful will be distinguished from the unfaithful, so that faith may receive its reward and perfidy may obtain the place of punishment. Nor should the unbelievers vainly flatter themselves, who hear in the Psalm, "The impious do not rise in judgment" (Ps. 1:5). It is said "in judgment," that is, they do not rise to be judged, because through their unfaithfulness they were already condemned, according to that dominical saying, "He who does not believe is already judged" (John 3:18). The Apostle, however, in order to remove all doubt from the hearts of the unbelievers, of the sower...

He set forth a similitude and said: "Fool, what you sow is not quickened unless it dies" (1 Cor. 15:36). But what happens in the seed, I think none of you is ignorant: how the grains are threshed, cleansed, stored away, brought forth, cast out, buried. For unless the fertility of the harvest were known, this would be believed madness. Yet when they are buried and sent away from sight under the earth, they lie dead. Now if curiosity should demand to see them before the rain descends, it sees what it had deposited whole, now putrefied and corrupted. But if hope of the harvest is lacking, grief burns the heart; it believes it has lost what it had stored away. But when the rain has come, how delightful it is to look upon the greening blade, the rising stalk, the stalk reaching its nodes, producing the culm, putting forth the ears! Is it not delightful to see what lay dead, thus revived? But let not the earth assign fertility to itself, since the Lord gives sweetness (Ps. 84:13). For if the rain does not descend from above, even good earth brings forth not ears, but thorns, which are consigned to the fire, not stored in the granary. Similarly, our earth, that is, our flesh, whether here or there, let it not assign merits to itself; but let it acknowledge that even there it will receive grace for grace.

CHAPTER XII. — 12. The happiness of eternal life cannot be expressed in words. One must cleave to the Churches of God. I. Eternal life. Every good thing—that we will be resurrected, that we will be freed from sins—will be everlasting, and therefore it will be an everlasting good, because it will abide in eternal life. But what that good is which God promises to his saints, who can explain in his own words? Yet we can more easily say what is not there in that eternal life than what is there. There is no death there, no mourning, no weariness, no infirmity, no hunger; no thirst, no heat, no corruption, no want, no sorrow, no sadness. Behold, we have said what is not there: but do you wish to know what is there? This is what the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor. 2:9). If it has not entered into the heart of man, let the heart of man ascend there. Let the heart be cleansed from all uncleanness, so that it may bear God, who is true and everlasting justice. For God abides in the heart of the believer and of one who loves him: and man abides in God, that is, in eternal life, which is the reward of one who loves God.

No one can love or cherish who is not in His Church, because whoever is outside it is not with God, who is eternal life. Therefore the conclusion of this sacrament is terminated by the Church, because she is the fruitful mother, whole and chaste, spread everywhere, who spiritually bears children for God, who spiritually nourishes the little ones with the milk of His words, who teaches wisdom to boys, who guards adolescents from lust and impurity by her holy chastity, who arms young men with the strength of virtue against the devil, who teaches prudence to the mature, who makes the elderly, advanced in age, venerable. Through her, youths and virgins, the older with the younger, every age and both sexes praise the name of the Lord (Ps. 148:12). She recalls her erring children, grieves deeply for the dead, and unfailingly nourishes those who persevere with her. Let us all love her, most beloved; let us cling inseparably to such a mother, so loving, so provident, so caring, so that together with her and through her we may merit being perpetually joined to God the Father.