Sermones. De Symbolo Ad Catechumenos Sermo Alius II

ON THE CREED TO THE CATECHUMENS, ANOTHER SERMON. CHAPTER ONE. — i. Catechumens are prepared for Baptism by the sign of the cross and various sacraments. The profession of renunciation. While through the most sacred sign of the cross holy Mother Church has received you into her womb, she who, like your brothers, will spiritually give birth with the greatest joy, you who are to be the new offspring of so great a mother, until through the holy bath she restores the regenerated to the true light, she nourishes those she carries in her womb with suitable foods, and leads them, joyful, to the day of their birth, joyful herself: for she is not bound by the sentence of Eve, who gives birth to children in sadness and groaning (Gen. 3:16) and not to joyful ones, but rather to weeping ones. This one undoes what that one bound, so that the offspring which through its own disobedience she gave to death, this one through obedience restores to life. All the sacraments which have been and are being performed upon you through the ministry of the servants of God—exorcisms, prayers, spiritual canticles, insufflations, sackcloth, the bowing of the neck, the humility of the feet, the fear itself to be sought with all security—all these, as I have said, are foods which refresh you in the womb, so that, regenerated from Baptism, your mother may present you, joyful, to Christ. You have also received the Creed, the protection of the woman in labor against the serpent’s venom. In the Apocalypse of the Apostle John it is written that a dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she had given birth, he might devour her offspring (Rev. 12:4).

The dragon is the devil, as none of you is unaware. That woman signified the Virgin Mary, who bore our Head whole and entire, and who herself also demonstrated the figure of Holy Church in herself: so that, just as the lily remained a virgin, so she at all times gives birth to her members without losing her virginity. We have undertaken, with the Lord's help, to expound the very sentences of the most sacred Creed, so that we may impress upon your minds what each one contains. Your hearts are prepared, because the enemy has been cast out of your hearts. The house has been cleansed; let it not remain empty, lest when the deserter finds it vacant, he brings with him seven others more wicked than himself, and that man's latter state becomes, as the Gospel says, worse than the former (Luke 11:26). As soon as the worst invader has been cast out, let the best possessor be brought in. Who is the invader? The devil. What did he invade? Man, whom he did not make, and moreover deceived. He promised him immortality, and he administered iniquity to him. You have professed to renounce him: in which profession, with God and His angels as scribes, you have said, "I renounce." Renounce not only with your voices, but also with your morals; not only with the sound of your tongue, but with the action of your life; not only with sounding lips, but with deeds that proclaim. Know that you have undertaken a contest with a cunning, ancient, and crafty enemy: after your renunciation, let him not find his own works in you, lest he justly draw you into servitude.

You are caught, O Christian, when you do one thing and profess another: faithful in name, showing something else in deed, not keeping the faith of your promise; now entering the church to pour forth prayers, shortly after shamelessly shouting in the theaters and shows. What have you to do with the pomps of the devil, which you renounced? Why do you limp on both groins? If God is, go after him; if the world is, go after it. If God is chosen, let him be served according to his own will; if the world is chosen, why is a false heart accommodated as if to God? Whoever, despising God, follows the world, the world itself abandons you. You are unwilling to fulfill the will of God in a good way, and the will of God is fulfilled in you in an evil way. Follow the fugitive still as much as you can, and if you can, seize him, hold him; but I see you cannot, you deceive yourself. For he, running through his slippery motions with the force of a torrent, when he sees you clinging to him and holding him, drags you along, not to save you, but to destroy you. What have you to do with the pomps of the devil, O lover of Christ? Do not deceive yourself: for God hates such men, and does not count among his own those professors whom he sees are deserters of their own life. Behold, the world is ruinous, behold, God has filled the world with so many calamities, behold, the world is bitter, and yet it is so loved! What would we do, if it were sweet? O foul world, you wish to be held as you perish; what would you do if you remained? Whom would you not deceive, sweet one, if you now lie about your sustenance?

Do you wish, dearly beloved, not to cling to the world? Choose to love the Creator of the world; and renounce the worldly pomps, over which the devil with his angels is prince. CHAPTER II. — 2. Faith must come first, so that the reward of vision may follow. We are all evil. Believe. Believe in such a way that you desire to see what you believe. Someone says: Behold, I believe and I desire to see what I believe; would that it were shown to me, so that my faith might rejoice in that very vision! If you now saw, you would not believe: you believe precisely because you do not see; but believe in such a way that you may see. Faith is the work; the vision of God is the reward. You are out of order in wanting to receive the reward, when you have not labored in the work. With every worker in your employ, do you not rightly give no reward unless the work is completed? What you do with your own servant, ask this of your Lord. He confers upon you that He exercises you through faith: by deferring His vision, He commends His gift, He does not deny it; so that you may desire the deferred thing more, lest what is given quickly become cheap. Yet He does not abandon you, who now usefully withdraws His vision: your eyes do not grasp Him. For the rest, He attends to you at all times. Apply the eyes of faith. Do you not behold His face when you believe in His only-begotten Son? Do you not see His hands when you observe the whole creation? Do you not hear His mouth when you note His commandments being recited? How do you pour forth your prayer, unless you know that you reach Him, of whom the prophet says: Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and His ears are open to their prayers (Ps. 33:16)?

If, however, you wish to know his feet, hear whom he wished to be his feet: "How precious," he says, "are the feet of those who announce peace, who announce good things" (Isaiah 52:7)! We have described the members: but God is not contained in these human members, since he is not in a place, but is everywhere whole. We have spoken according to the mode of human understanding, not according to the ineffable power of divine majesty. Do you wish to know what he is like? Look at the creation, and you will understand the creator; examine what he has made, and you will understand him who created all things. Behold, the prophet says to God: "The heavens of heavens do not contain you" (2 Chronicles 6:18). And he whom the spaces of heaven do not contain, the narrowness of the human heart contains, as he himself says: "I will walk in them, and I will dwell" (2 Corinthians 6:16). And the Lord Jesus: "He who loves me will be loved by my Father; and I will love him, and I will reveal myself to him: and we will come to him, and we will make our abode with him" (John 14:21 and 23). Behold what the Almighty who created you has made you. First recognize who you are, and you will know who made you, who he is. An earthly king, mortal because visible: a heavenly king, immortal and invisible. An earthly king, though he created nothing, yet received everything into his power: and do you not believe that the King who created everything governs and rules all things? "How," you ask, "does he govern and rule all things? Behold, so many evils happen in the world, and he does not avenge them!" Man, do you deny his power because he displays great patience?

He does not leave the sinner unpunished; he keeps him, either to be corrected through penance, or to be punished at the final judgment. Believe me, O you who complain about evils—for we are all evil—if, as you wish, God were to repay evils immediately, no one would remain to murmur against another. But that great King, who knows how to rule what he created, does not fulfill perverse wills, but accomplishes his own righteous will, in order to teach you his patience. Do not try to turn God to your own rages: let him who made you rule you; for if you wish to be ruled by yourself, you will immediately fall by yourself. That first man stood as long as he clung to God; he let go, and he was let go. He wished to test his own strength, and he found both his and our miseries. How good it would be for him if he did what the Psalm advises: "Cast your care upon the Lord, and he will nourish you" (Ps. 54:23). If that man was unwilling to be cautious then, let man now be cautious, even from experience.

Let us confess and understand that we have an immortal and invisible King, whom no human has seen, nor can see with these eyes. These are the words of the Apostle. Chapter III — On the Vision of God. How Moses saw God. If no human has seen Him, how did He speak with Moses face to face, as one speaks to his friend? A not insignificant question arises. For the Lord says: Not as with others through riddles will I speak to Moses my servant, but face to face I will speak to him. And Scripture added what we said above: That Moses spoke with God face to face, as one speaks to his friend. If he spoke with Him face to face and saw Him, how is that apostolic saying true, that no one has ever seen God nor can see Him? But if Moses saw Him, what is it that the same Moses shortly afterward asks as a great favor, and says, "If I have found grace before you, show me your face"; and the Lord says to him, "My face indeed will not be seen by you: for no one shall see my face and live"? Where then is that which he saw? And if he saw, why did he desire to see what he saw? But how was that denied to him which was already being shown? This exercises the mind of the inquirer. Moses saw God not with bodily eyes, but with the eyes of the mind. And because that perpetual light, which is God, had illuminated him more than the rest, therefore it was said, "He spoke to him face to face": as if it were said, He was revealed to him more than to all.

In what was said, "For no one will be able to see my face and live," it is shown that no one can see God with these bodily eyes. But what was granted to the most faithful servant of God, Moses, lest his great desire be entirely frustrated, your Charity ought to know. It was said to him by the Lord, as the same Scripture narrates: "Go, ascend upon the rock in Horeb, and stand there; and my glory will pass before you, and you will see my back; but my face will not be seen by you" (Num. 12:8, and Exod. 33:13-23). Lest a perverse understanding or heretical sense creep in, and someone think that God is corporeal, let pious faith and Catholic doctrine be vigilant. For divine Scripture speaks in mystical figures, preserving for things their proper times, by which, once recognized, it exercises manifest truth: since it is not without mystery that Moses was commanded to ascend upon the rock in Mount Horeb and stand. That is the rock which, when struck, produced waters for the thirsty people (Exod. 17:6); concerning which holy David says, "He broke the rock, and waters flowed" (Ps. 77:20). The Apostle, however, explaining this, says: "Our fathers ate spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:4-5). Those are the back of God, Christ of God.

Moses saw this while prophesying, which Paul explains by saying: "When the fullness of time came," he says, "God sent his Son, made from a woman" (Galatians 4:4). Here he uses "woman," keeping the custom of Hebrew speech, which calls all females "women." For it is written, "Keep the women who have not yet known a man" (Numbers 31:18); and of Eve herself it is said, "He formed her into a woman" (Genesis 2:22); before he joined her to a man, he called her a woman. CHAPTER IV — 4. The Nativity of Christ. But faith and truth proclaim this: that Christ was born from a virgin. Thus you have received it, thus you have said you believe: "I believe." This nativity of God and man was brought about for the sake of man: so that that sublime Majesty, proceeding from the heart of the Father, would pour itself into the womb of the mother; the cause demanded piety, so that man might be found lost, and be restored to God the Father through the Mediator, once found. Yet this second nativity is a wonder, dearest brothers. As for that first one, by which he was born from the Father without any mother, who will recount it? If we cannot explain this one, when are we able even to begin that one? If this one so exercises us that it gives way to faith, when do we attain that one, which not even the hearts of the Prophets could comprehend? Yet about this second, wondrous and ineffable nativity, let us say something, which was done for us: that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). For who does not shudder when he hears that God was born?

You hear of one being born; see him performing miracles at the very moment of his birth. The virgin’s womb swells, the barrier of modesty remains intact; the mother’s womb is filled without any embrace of a father; she who did not know herself to be a wife perceives her offspring. An angel speaks to the virgin; the heart is prepared by the virgin; Christ is conceived by faith. Do you marvel at these things? Marvel still more. The mother gives birth, a virgin, pregnant and untouched; a son is born without a human father, who also made that mother herself. The maker of all things becomes one among all things; he is carried in his mother’s hands, the ruler of the whole world; he suckles at the breast, he governs the stars; he is silent, and he is the Word. Not yet through speech did he show who he was, and yet the whole of creation indicates its newborn Creator. Angels announce him to shepherds; a star invites the Magi; the rusticity of the shepherds demands the admonition of angels; the curiosity of the Magi is instructed by the language of the heavens. The Magi proclaim the king of the Jews; the Jews deny him. Those seek to adore; these seek to kill. The Magi tell King Herod of the newborn king whom they seek; the Jews tell from which city Christ would arise to reign. Both proclaim, both confess; but those in one way, these in another: those, so that when found he may be adored; these, so that when captured he may be killed.

The Jews, carrying in your hands the lamp of the Law in order to show the way to others, you bring darkness upon yourselves: behold the Magi, the first fruits of the Gentiles, offer gifts to Christ, not only gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but also their own souls; and your own iniquity rejects you, so that you, driven mad, seek to kill him who came to free you who are bound! What good did it do you that you betrayed to Herod where Christ was to be born? Did you not harm yourselves more than you harmed Christ? For when he heard from you where the newborn Christ could be found, he immediately ordered the infants of your race to be killed. Herod rages, so that among the many he might destroy the one: and by killing many he makes himself guilty, yet he does not kill the man-God he seeks. Herod, your great iniquity! You kill infants, and you pile up witnesses to your wickedness; and Christ is not found by you, because his hour to suffer has not yet come. You are indeed a persecutor of Christ and guilty of his death, doing nothing against him himself: but while you do nothing against him, you have lost yourself. Why do you fear such a ruler, who comes to reign in such a way that he does not wish to exclude you? He whom you seek is the King of kings: if you wished to hold your own kingdom securely, you would beseech him, so that from him you might receive an eternal one. Let Christ reign as he came to reign: let him receive the believers, mock the persecutors, make the contenders, help the laborers, crown the victors; let him grant sanctity, love chastity, reward virginity.

Rejoice, holy virgins: a virgin bore Christ. Let barrenness not sadden you, whose great faith is fertility; nor grieve that you are not mothers in the flesh, you who spiritually bear children, remain virgins, receive sons, and do not lose your integrity. You have received from Him the maternal name, so that the honor of chastity may remain everlasting in you. Love what you are, preserve what you have received. Imitate the faithful mother of your Head, your Spouse: He did not deny you pledges, He who was born of the Virgin Mary. What He bestowed on so great a mother and preserved in His own flesh, that the virgin mother also gave to you: the holy flesh of Christ, whole from every contagion. Nor was His flesh itself barren, for through it, by preaching, He regenerated spiritual sons to life, and after the Passion, slain, it bore fruit throughout the whole world. CHAPTER V. — 5. The Passion. The Crucified. From this point, with all freedom assumed, let the Christian soul take up its confidence. For it ought not to blush that it has believed in the crucified Christ. That cross is not a reproach to the faithful, but a triumph. That cross is our standard against our adversary the devil: for our King fought for us against our adversary. Our adversary the devil terrified by threatening death, but Christ promised eternal life.

The adversary, the devil, was saying that he would destroy the flesh. But our King, in order to teach how his army would conquer, demonstrated in himself that the death of the body is not to be feared, since he himself first deigned to die for all, lest his army be slain by the devil in the soul. In that battle, the devil was aiming, if he were consented to, to destroy souls, while promising safety to bodies. Christ taught dying for a time, and that both soul and body live eternally. The devil said, "If you consent to me, I will give you this temporal life." Christ said, "If you do not depart from me, you will not lose the temporal, and you will receive the eternal." The devil said, "Do not lose this light." Christ said, "I who made even this light will give a better one." What the devil promises, our Christ says, he has no power to give, and this light is mine, as this life was created by me; but that for the sake of teaching which I have come is far more excellent and better. Pass from the good to the better, lest by consenting to the devil you remain in the worse. In this so great a contest, the devil enslaves, Christ frees; the devil deceives, Christ redeems; the devil kills, Christ restores.

Amid all these things, the adversary, the devil, thought that our King himself was to be destroyed in the flesh, as if with the head laid low he might more easily subjugate the other members to himself; and he was deceived in this, that he saw, and did not at all think that God lay hidden in the flesh: ignorant of so great a mystery, that He was the Mediator, and would so temper God in man as to join man to God; he killed what seemed a powerful man defending men, and felt God liberating all the men he had created. Finally, in that very passion, behold the spectacle of so great a contest. Judas arms himself to sell his master for a price, and he who was among the number of the disciples becomes a participant in the counsel of the Jews, gives a false kiss, in which was a sign of wickedness: he feigns peace, full of malice in his heart. The Jews are stirred up, they come with torches, lanterns, and weapons: many seek one, and the sons of darkness come, bearing in their hands light, by which they might show that true light to others, which they themselves, blind in heart, could not retain. But the Lord Jesus, knowing all things that were to come upon him (for he who had come for this purpose was ignorant of nothing), went out to them and said to them: Whom do you seek? And they: Jesus of Nazareth. He said to them: I am he. When he said to them, I am he, they fell back and fell to the ground (John 18:4-6). Behold, a ray of true light, still hidden under the cloud of flesh, looked upon the darkness and cast them to the ground.

How then will the Jews dare to look upon that brightness, when they could not endure this weakness? But so that he might fulfill that for which he had come, the darkness rises again: he gives them power, the darkness seizes the light, not to follow it, but to kill it; the light allows itself to be taken, led, hanged, killed by them, so that, stripped of the cloud of flesh, it might give back the radiance of majesty. What then was done in that contest? How much stronger did the ministers of the devil seem to themselves, while they gnashed their teeth, while they mocked, while they shook their heads, while they placed a crown of thorns, while they tore his garments, while they saw him hanging—him whom they had seen working miracles—while they gave gall and vinegar, while they pierced him with a lance? What was the voice of their old victory, saying, "If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross" (Matthew 27:40)? But this he cried out through them, he who wished to take away Christ's patience, so that, roused by the insults of the Jews, he might show his power but lose his patience. But that strong King, and the singular counsel through which all sound counsel is born and ruled, looked upon both battle lines, preserved both battle lines, both patience and power; and what he preserved, he displayed. For he preserved patience, because he did not come down from the cross; and he showed power, when he rose from the tomb. While on the cross.

hung, the false victory of the Jews: when he rose from the tomb, the true confusion of the Jews, and the everlasting victory of Christians. When he hung on the cross, the disciples were sad, sorrowful, and scattered: when he rose from the tomb, they are rejoicing, gathered together in one house. When he hung on the cross, the disciples’ lack of faith: when he rose from the tomb, the gathering of the Gentiles. When he hung on the cross, Peter denied out of fear: when he rose from the tomb, the whole world believes out of love. This contest was not only fought then, but it is being fought now: the members of Christ struggle and labor as the adversary presses, they resist him; because our head already sits in heaven. For this reason he wished to fight, to teach you how you might conquer. But if your own strength is small, call upon the Savior himself, call upon the Helper himself. When he sees you faithfully calling upon him, he who hung on the wood for you will prepare both victory here and the crown of victory in heaven.

CHAPTER VI. — The Resurrection on the Third Day. The three-day period of the Lord was both foretold and promised by the Prophets, and fulfilled. For the prophet Hosea says, "After two days he will raise us up, on the third day we will come, and we will find him prepared as if before dawn" (Hosea 6:3): showing that we rise in him, because he deigned to take from us the flesh in which he would die. What shall I now say about that figure of the prophet Jonah, which the Lord Himself pointed out more explicitly, saying to the Jews: "This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks a sign, and a sign will not be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah." 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). Let us briefly run through that prophetic figure by way of comparison. Jonah was sent to the city of Nineveh to proclaim its end: Christ was sent by the Father to show the end of the world to all. Jonah fled to Tarshish from the face of the Lord: the flight of Jonah is the swift passage of Christ; of whom the Prophet says, "He exulted like a giant to run the course" (Psalm 18:6). The fleeing prophet boarded a ship: Christ ascended the wood, crossing the sea of this world. A great storm raged on the sea: the disturbance of the sea is the faithlessness of the Jews. Lots were cast so that the fugitive prophet would be thrown into the sea: lots were cast over Christ's garments, so that unity might be proclaimed to the whole world.

Jonah was cast from the ship into the sea: the death of Christ was placed in the hearts of the Gentiles. The Prophet was received by a beast, to be guarded, not to be eaten: hear here the voice of Christ Himself through holy David, "You will not leave my soul in the underworld, nor allow your holy one to see corruption" (Ps. 15:10). Placed in the belly of the sea beast, holy Jonah prayed: descending into hell, Christ raised the dead. On the third day the Prophet was returned unharmed to the shore: on the third day Christ, rising from the tomb, was exalted above the heavens. By the preaching of Jonah the city was saved through penance: by the preaching of Christ the holy city Jerusalem was redeemed. CHAPTER VII. — 7. The Ascension. Taken up into heaven. "He who descended," says the Apostle, "is the same who ascended above all heavens, to fill all things" (Eph. 4:10). Who is it that descended? God made man. Who is it that ascended? The same God made man. Let every man recognize himself, because for the sake of man God became man. What He took up for you, He lifted into heaven; and He made the earthly body celestial. If you also believe that you can rise again and ascend into heaven, because you are certain of such a pledge, you will be secure in such a gift. Man already reigns, taken up by Christ, sitting at the right hand of the Father; and so that His own may receive the kingdom from Him, He calls, invites, exhorts.

Let every soul that is greedy for glory hasten to him, let it go to such a king, from whom it may receive power, not with money as a price: it will give, but when it brings full and perfect faith to him, it will even judge angels. CHAPTER VIII.—8. The second coming to judge. Thence he will come. Who is this who is awaited, who is to come to judge the living and the dead, if not that man who deigned to hang on the cross for us? The assumed man is awaited to come. But according to what he is as God, and is equal to the Father, he always judges, and is always present. However, our Redeemer will come in that form in which he was assumed, so that what the prophet Zechariah said about him may be fulfilled: They will see whom they pierced (Zech. XII, 10; John XIX, 37). Therefore the Jews will see the God-man always reigning, whom they, by denying, had despaired of as dying. He will judge those dead in soul, who is to come to raise the dead. For this sentence is understood in two ways: Living and dead in soul; likewise living and dead in body. According to the former, he will judge the living in soul, the believers; and the dead in soul, those having no faith: according to the latter, he will judge the living in flesh, whom his coming finds present; he will judge the dead in flesh, whom the Most High God is to raise. Let us choose, dearest ones, that his coming find us living in soul; lest by sinning, both flesh and soul be condemned by him together.

The end of the world is near; and if, as some think, it is not near, the last day of each one of us is uncertain. Why do we delay, if we are striving for the blessed life? Let us correct ourselves, let us amend ourselves while there is time; let us have good causes, so that we may not fear the future day of judgment. CHAPTER IX. — 9. On the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, not less than the Father and the Son; but one majesty, one power, an inseparable Trinity, an indivisible holiness, everywhere whole at once: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, not three gods, but a Trinity, one God. Nor is the Son separated from the Father by time, since He is the eternal Word of the Father: nor is the Father greater than the Son, since God begot God equal without time, through whom He made times. Nor is the Holy Spirit less than the Father and the Son, since He is the love and concord of the Father and the Son. For how is the Son less than the Father, as the Arian heretic preaches, when the Apostle calls Him the Power of God and the Wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24)? If the Son is the Power and Wisdom of the Father, he who says He is less does an injury to God the Father; because he contends that He has in Himself lesser wisdom and weak power. Or how does he also preach that the Holy Spirit is less than the Son, when the Apostle places the members of Christ as the temple of the Holy Spirit? You, he says, are the body of Christ and its members (1 Cor.

(1 Corinthians 6:19): and in another place, "Do you not know," he says, "that your members are a temple of the Holy Spirit within you" (1 Corinthians 6:19)? How is God not that which has a temple? Or how is He lesser than Christ, whose members have a temple? There are not different degrees where there is one Trinity and a threefold eternity. For whoever composes different degrees cuts himself off from unity. How do you exult, Arian, that you hold the truth, when a wicked error, separating you from Catholic doctrine and declaring you a heretic, has condemned you in one corner, cutting you off from the communion of the whole world? Beware, brothers, of the teachings of heretics, as of the ambushes of wolves. Sheep of Christ, hear the voice of your shepherd. "He who enters through the door into the sheepfold," he says, "is the shepherd; but he who climbs in by another part is a thief and a robber" (John 10:1, 2). Beware of thieves, beware of robbers: the shepherd does not rest from crying out, nor does he allow even his dogs to be silent. Let no sheep separate itself from the supreme shepherd, lest it offer itself to be preyed upon by the most wicked ravening wolf.

CHAPTER X. — 10. On the remission of sins. In the remission of sins. Hold firmly, hope faithfully, wait patiently: newness will be restored to you through Baptism, as oldness departs; the soul will be unburdened of the loads of sins, so that, clothed with the freedom of a new life, it may be able to fight bravely against the devil with divine help, and overcome him by whom it was overcome, so that, transferred into the kingdom of God, secure from the vanquished enemy, it may reign with its head, Christ. CHAPTER XI. — 11. On the resurrection of the flesh. The resurrection of the flesh. Great faith is necessary, because a great reward is promised. Do not pay attention to what happens now, but to what will happen then: for what happens now moves many. For whom does it not move, when he sees such beauty, such loveliness, such comeliness, a formed man dissolved into dust, bones scattered, earth committed to earth? Do not let these things, Christian, deter you. Man has been sown, not lost. When the soul departs, its dwelling is dissolved: for that mistress is not present to care for the clay house and restore its ruins. For she goes to purchase an eternal kingdom at a great price. What then is better, O soul? You are consecrated to Christ the Lord; and by His gift you live well, and strive to reach the kingdom of God. Why do you fear the vehicle of death? You will indeed depart, and your flesh will suffer injury for a time: you will return, reigning with the highest King, and it will be restored to you in such a state as cannot be corrupted.

burden, and remain with you forever. If you proceed so that you may become better, do you not believe that for a better person, and for one who in some way administers in the kingdom of heaven, a better lodging will be prepared for you? If this earthly, muddy, fragile thing has displayed such beauty to you, what beauty will it show you when it is restored and made heavenly? If you love this so much, which remains a little while and passes in time, how much will you love that which will never lack its beauty, since it will remain in eternal life? CHAPTER XII. — 12. On eternal life. This follows in the holy Symbol, that all things which we believe and hope for, we shall receive in eternal life. Eternal life, most beloved, should never become cheap, and should always grow sweet. If life is loved, why is the true life not sought? If life is loved, let such a life be sought as will never end. And if it is loved, why is it not sought? Or if it is sought, because it is not here, why is it not striven for toward that place where it is? What of the fact that this life itself has even offered itself to us unsolicited? For Christ is true God and eternal life. He came to us who were lost and redeemed us when found: he came here to the region of mortals, true life itself: he gave a taste of his flavor; we have tasted, we have seen that it is sweet. He has gone before us, invited us to follow; and to that so great a gift, of which we have received such a taste, do we fear to follow?

Life comes to you; return the favor, come to it as well. It took up the vehicle of death, so that by passing through it might set you free: take up death as well, so that when you come to it, you may be received by it in such a way that you never die. CHAPTER XIII. — 13. Concerning the Holy Church. Holy Church. For this reason the conclusion of this sacrament is terminated by the Holy Church, because if anyone is found without her, he will be a stranger to the number of the sons: nor will he have God as Father, who has been unwilling to have the Church as mother; and nothing will avail him that he believed or did such great goods without the end of the supreme good. The Church is a spiritual mother: the Church is the bride of Christ; her grace is whitened, endowed with precious blood. She possesses entirely what she received from her husband as a dowry. I read her marriage contracts, I will recite them. Listen, heretics, to what is written: It was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and for penance and remission of sins to be preached in his name among all nations (Luke 24:47). All nations is the whole world. The Church possesses entirely what she received from her husband as a dowry. Any congregation of any heresy that sits in corners is a concubine, not a matron. Arian heresy, why do you insult, why do you puff yourself up, why do you even for a time usurp many things? The lady suffers injury from you, a maidservant; you heap many insults upon her: although she grieves at this, the holy Catholic bride of Christ does not greatly fear you.

For when that bridegroom looks back, you will be cast out as a handmaid with your children; because the children of a handmaid will not be heirs along with the children of the free woman (Gen. 21:10). Let the one holy and true queen, the Catholic Church, be recognized—she to whom Christ gave such a kingdom that, spreading her throughout the whole world, flooding her free from every stain and wrinkle, he prepared her entirely beautiful by his coming.