Sermones

The sun and the moon and the eleven stars adored him, when after the resurrection holy Mary as the moon and blessed Joseph with the eleven stars, that is, the blessed apostles, adored him, who bowed down and prostrated themselves before him, and the prophecy was fulfilled which had said: Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all stars and light. For how could it have suited his brothers that they might adore him as stars, whom the night of envy had rendered dark and shadowy? For they had already lost the brightness of stars who extinguished in themselves the light of charity. Rightly, therefore, do we believe that this was more truly fulfilled in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, whom, as I also said before, we more frequently read that blessed Joseph and blessed Mary with the eleven apostles adored. For that the apostles possessed the light of stars, the Lord himself said in the Gospel: You are the light of the world, and again concerning them and those like them: Then the just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.

Joseph is interpreted as "increase" or "enlargement." But in that Joseph, enlargement was possessed only by Egypt; in our Joseph, however, the whole world merited to have increase. That Joseph distributed grain; our Joseph deigned to distribute the word of God. For the sound of them went out into every land, and their words to the ends of the earth. Therefore, dearest brothers, we who, with no preceding merits, have obtained such great goods through the mercy of the true Joseph, our Lord Jesus Christ—to whom not the shadow of the Old Testament, but the truth itself has come—let us labor, as much as we are able, with the grace of God, so that what the judged one conferred upon us, the judging one may find whole in us; for he will demand back as much as he gave to you. And indeed, when he comes, he will render what he promised, but he will seek out those whom he redeemed, and what he gave in the first coming, he will exact in the second. For let no one render evil to our Lord Christ for good. For who acts so impiously, except the one who receives sweetness and returns bitterness, who receives life and restores death? For he repays death who, by living wickedly, kills himself.

For who repays good with evil, except the one who, when he ought to have applied himself to reading and hastened to church, chose instead to play at dice, to frequent spectacles that are either frenzied or bloody or shameful, and, whereas he ought to have consumed his sins by praying, reading, and giving alms, strives rather to increase and further heap them up? Who is it that repays good with evil? The one who returns darkness for light, malice for kindness, drunkenness for sobriety, rapacity for almsgiving, iniquity for justice. Therefore, let those who have not admitted these evils with the help of our Lord preserve the divine gifts in themselves as much as they can. But let those who feel themselves liable to these evils and understand themselves to be entangled in them quickly have recourse to the remedies of penance, and, before that dark soul departs from the body of its death, acquire for themselves a remedy by alms, fasts, and prayers for the day of need. Let us therefore act, brothers, so that before the tribunal of Christ, both those who are good may obtain a crown, and those who are negligent may obtain pardon.

XXI. On Saint Joseph II. Concerning the blessed Jacob, dearest brothers, and his holy son Joseph, we recognize that the Lord did something truly remarkable for those who attend to it carefully. First, I believe it was not without reason that God, who had deigned to show himself so often to the blessed Jacob, refused for so many years to reveal that his son Joseph was alive, but allowed him to be consumed by a long wasting away. If anyone thinks this happened without a certain reason and clear purpose, let him consider this as well: that his son Joseph, placed so near, was not permitted to send word to his father, to announce to him that he not only lived but was also placed in great honor. For from that place where the blessed Jacob was, to Egypt, there were scarcely three hundred miles, whence very frequently from Egypt into those places where Jacob was, very many people hastened. From that place to Egypt, countless multitudes constantly flocked. But perhaps someone might say that the blessed Joseph had left his father as a small child and therefore could not have remembered him. It is not so, dearest brothers. For he was a boy, but sixteen years old, and could by no means have forgotten his parents. For he had not forgotten them to such an extent that he recognized his brothers as soon as he saw them.

But someone says that he did not have the permission or power to send word to his own country. Even if this seemed plausible, after he was led out of prison and became master over all the land of Egypt, during those seven years of fertility and those two that passed in the time of scarcity, before his brothers came down to him, during those nine years among three hundred thousand, he could without any doubt have sent word to his father. But by a hidden judgment the Lord did not permit this to happen, to such an extent that he did not even reveal himself to his brothers when they had gathered to buy grain; on the contrary, speaking to them very harshly and holding their brother in chains, he ordered them to return to their father with great grief. Consider now another even greater marvel. See how the blessed Joseph, who knew that his father was enduring unbearable bitterness on his account, as if what he had previously suffered were not enough, also had Benjamin taken away, by which act he certainly knew that his father would suffer manifold grief. For I do not believe that all these things happened without the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. For God, whose judgments are often hidden but never unjust, who did not wish to reveal to the blessed Jacob that his son was alive, also did not permit the holy Joseph to announce his own glory to his father; on the contrary, by still holding Simeon in chains and by taking away Benjamin, he even increased his own father's distress.

For these things, dearest brothers, if we attend to them faithfully, we recognize that the Lord did them with great mercy. For from the beginning of the world, God has exercised in the saints what he fulfilled in blessed Jacob with great piety. But attend diligently to why this was done. For although the servants and friends of God have avoided capital crimes and done many good works, we do not believe that they were without minor sins, because he who said this does not lie: "For not even an infant, whose life on earth is of one day, is immune from sin." And the blessed evangelist John, who was certainly not inferior in merits to holy Job, cried out and says: "If we say we have no sins, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us," and that which is written elsewhere: "The just man falls and rises seven times a day." For, as has already been said, since Jacob could not be without these minor sins, God, wishing to consume the small sins in this saint in the fire of tribulation, fulfills in him what he himself said through the Holy Spirit: "The kiln tests the potter's vessels, and the temptation of tribulation tests just men," and that: "God scourges every son whom he loves," and that: "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." Therefore, so that our God might present holy Jacob, like purified gold, to the future judgment, he first wiped away from him all the stains of sins, so that in him that arbiter fire could find nothing to burn.

If we attend diligently, dearest brothers, to what we believe God did with respect to blessed Joseph, we recognize that he also exercised this toward his brothers, who were certainly so holy that he could not have hated them. Hence it must be believed that he wearied them with tribulations in order to provoke them to confession of their crime and to the remedies of penance. Finally, with great grief they said that they suffered those things deservedly, because they had sinned against their brother, seeing his distress. And because blessed Joseph knew that the crime of fratricide could not be forgiven his brothers without great penance, he boiled them down once, twice, and a third time with a healing tribulation as if with a spiritual fire, not to avenge himself, but to correct them. Finally, before they confessed their sin and the crime they had committed, and consumed it by mutual chastisement, he neither gave himself to be recognized by them nor granted them the kiss of peace. But when he saw them humbly afflicted for the sin they had committed against him, he kissed each one and wept, and, bathing the necks of the fearful with the dew of his pious eyes, he washed away the hatred of his brothers with the tears of love.

Therefore, what God did in blessed Jacob and what Joseph practiced toward his brothers, we too must fulfill in those who have sinned against us: that we strive to hate not them, but their sins, and that we wish to correct them with the harshest chastisement according to the merit of the fault, while still striving to love them in truth. If we do this, dearest brothers, that which is written is fulfilled in us: "Bear one another's burdens, and thus you will fulfill the law of Christ." Finally, to conclude everything I have said in a brief sermon, let us forgive those who have sinned against us in the same way we wish God to forgive us whenever we sin against Him. If we do this, we may safely say: "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." It would still please me to speak with your charity a little more about blessed Joseph, but on account of the poor, who are hastening to their tasks, it is better that we reserve this for tomorrow. And so, turning to the Lord, let us beseech His mercy, that He may deign always to increase and preserve the desire for hearing the word of God, which in His placated grace He has bestowed upon us—He who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

XXII. ON SAINT JOSEPH III. Concerning blessed Joseph, which we reserved from yesterday’s sermon for your charity, now receive it according to your custom, attentive with silence and quiet. Blessed Joseph, most beloved brothers, in order to rule the kingdom of Egypt with admirable wisdom, first ruled himself. Though he was handsome and fair of face, he did not divert the beauty of his countenance to another’s injury, but preserved it for his own grace, judging himself more beautiful if he were proven more comely not by the loss of chastity but by the cultivation of modesty, and that true beauty is that which neither captures others’ eyes nor wounds fragile minds. For the crime was his mistress’s, who saw wickedly, not blessed Joseph’s, who did not wish to be seen wickedly. Nor is there fault in what was seen. It was not within the servant’s power not to be seen by his mistress; the husband ought to have guarded his wife’s eyes. Yet let men also learn to guard against women’s eyes: even he who did not wish to be loved is loved. Indeed, Joseph was loved, who scorned the one loving him, and Scripture well excuses him, saying: “The wife of his master cast her eyes upon Joseph,” that is, he did not show himself off nor ensnare the unwary woman, but she cast her nets and was caught in her own snare, she spread her traps and was bound by her own chains. She said to him: “Sleep with me.” The first weapons of adultery are the eyes, the second are words. But he who is not captured by eyes can resist words.

He is excused because he entered, he is praised because he slipped away, and he made no more of the clothing of his body than of the chastity of his soul. He left behind, as if not his own, what the adulteress held in her hands, and he judged as alien what could be seized by the touch of an unchaste woman. He was clearly a great man, who, though sold, yet knew no servile disposition: loved, he did not love in return; entreated, he did not consent; seized, he fled. When he was accosted by his master’s wife, he could be held by his garment, but he could not be captured in spirit. And he judged that not even his own words, if he lingered longer, would long endure contamination, lest through the hands of the adulteress the incitements of lust pass to him; thus he left his garment. For he shook off the crime, and having left behind the clothes by which he was held, he fled stripped indeed, but not naked, for he was more covered by the garment of modesty. For no one is naked except whom guilt has laid bare. Finally, we have it in earlier passages that Adam, after he abandoned God’s command through transgression and contracted a more grievous heat of sin, was naked; whence he himself says: “I heard your voice in paradise and was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid myself.” For he perceived himself naked because he had lost the ornament of divine protection, and therefore he hid, that is, because he did not have the garment of faith, which he had certainly laid aside by transgressing. You see a great thing: that man was naked who did not lose his tunic; this man was not naked, who stripped himself of the garments which he left behind in the hands of the adulteress.

Scripture says Adam was naked; it does not say this man was naked. And therefore he stripped himself rather than bared himself, who preserved the incorrupt garments of the virtues, stripping off the old man with his deeds, so as to put on the new man, who is kept according to the image of the creator in the knowledge of things. But the other remained naked, who could not clothe himself again. By the power of a singular privilege, stripped there, he received a leather tunic, because the sinner could not have a spiritual one. But Joseph, when accused, was unwilling to say that she was guilty in all his matters, because the just man does not know how to accuse, and therefore she did this shamelessly with impunity. I would say, therefore, that she was truly stripped, even holding Joseph's human cloak, who had lost all the ornaments of modesty and the veil of chastity of the soul. I would say that he was sufficiently adorned and sufficiently clothed, whose voice was not heard and whose innocence spoke. Thus Susanna later, while silent in judgment, spoke better than an oracle and therefore merited the defense of a prophet, who did not seek the aid of her own voice. I would therefore call him more blessed, when he was sent to prison, who endured martyrdom for chastity. For the gift of chastity is good even when guarded without danger; but where it is defended even at the risk of safety, there it is more fully crowned. Joseph is sent to prison as if guilty of a crime in an unheard-of case, but the Lord did not abandon him even in prison.

It is not shameful for the innocent when they are assailed by false accusations, when oppressed justice is handed over to prison. The Lord visits his own even in prison, and therefore there is greater danger there. But why is it surprising if Christ visits those placed in prison, since he himself recalled that he was shut up in prison in his own, as you have it written: "I was in prison, and you did not come to me." Where does divine mercy not penetrate? It found for Joseph a grace of this kind, that he who had been shut up in prison rather kept the bars of the prison. For in him it was prefigured what was later fulfilled in our Lord and Savior. For just as Joseph, through the plotting or accusation of his mistress, is sent to prison, so Christ, through the plotting or accusation of the synagogue, is crucified and deigned to descend, as if into a prison, to the underworld. Finally, see the likeness. It is written of Joseph that he was free in prison and had received into his power those who were held in prison. But of our Lord and Savior, what is written? "They placed me," he says, "in the lower pit, in the darkness and shadow of death. I became like a man without help, free among the dead." For this was more truly fulfilled in Christ, who not only had in his power those bound in prison, but also from that very prison of hell boldly and happily recalled the booty which the devil had seized. Ascending on high, he led captivity captive, that is, those whom the devil had seized for death, he received back for life.

Therefore, dearest brothers, let us also, following the example of the blessed Joseph, as much as we are able with God's help, hasten to flee from harmful and suspect familiarity, so that we may preserve the luster of chastity according to what the apostle says: flee from fornication. Against other sins one must fight, so that chastity may be guarded; one must flee. Let us therefore imitate the blessed Joseph in perfect love and in preserving chastity, so that we may wish to return evil for evil even to our enemies, so that we may merit in this world to guard the ornaments of modesty in such a way that we can be freed from eternal disgrace, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. B. Various Sermons. XXIII. TO THE MONKS I. To this place, dearest ones, we have come not for rest, not for security, but for battle, for struggle; we have proceeded here for the contest, we have ascended to wage wars against vices. For our vices are our enemies, concerning which Scripture declares, saying: beware, lest you ever make a pact with them. We need, brothers, vigilant care, unceasing watchfulness, because this conflict is without end, this enemy is without peace. This enemy can be conquered, but cannot be received into friendship. And therefore this battle, which we have undertaken, is quite harsh and quite dangerous, because it is waged within a man and is not ended except with the man himself.

Therefore we have betaken ourselves to these tranquil and spiritual camps, so that we may daily contend in an unwearied struggle against our passions, so that we may daily subject our wills, like handmaidens, to our elders, so that we may cut away the wickedness of the heart or sheathe the sword of the tongue, so that we may not only inflict no injuries upon one another, but not even feel those inflicted by others. For it pertains especially to our profession to seek no consolation in this life, no honor, to shun the comforts of present things and to prepare the mind for the promised rewards of eternal recompense, to rejoice in subjection and abjection, to seek poverty by effort, and to eradicate not only possessions but even the wills themselves from our hearts. For to have nothing of one's own is sometimes a matter of necessity, but to desire nothing is a matter of virtue. We ought also to know this, that those of us who have chosen to live among ourselves are either with great fruit or with great peril, whether we are diligent or even negligent. Hence blessed is that soul which, while it dwells well in the community, is the joy of many, and many are either edified or enlightened by it. For good things, when shared with many, are increased. To this also pertains the saying of that most wise man, which says: My son, if you are wise, you will be wise for yourself and for your neighbors.

Therefore if anyone placed in a congregation offers humility or patience to those who follow him, as much good as he lends to his neighbors from himself, so much profit of others does he turn to himself. But if, on the contrary, through disobedience or pride—which thing, what is worse, is more easily found—he has drawn others to an example of evil or iniquity, for as many as he has destroyed, for so many he incurs the danger of damnation; for as many as he was a detriment, for so many he has contracted losses, and the sin which once departed from him will redound to him manifold. Wherefore, just as that man is greatly to be admired and praised whose good course is the progress of many, so that man is not undeservedly to be lamented whose life is the ruin of many. Therefore, dearest brothers, let us strive to do those things which pertain to edification, placed as we are in the midst, lest our life harm the virtues of others, and lest our tepidity weaken the fervor of others, and lest our anger violate the patience of others, lest our pride corrupt the humility of others, lest our foulness contaminate the beauty of others, lest we extinguish the burning lamps of others if we cannot light our own. And indeed those foolish virgins, however foolish they were, desired not so much to extinguish the lamps of others as to light their own.

And so, after the likeness of these, if any of us lacks the richest grace of humility, and if the fire of faith is lacking, and the flame of zeal, and the oil of charity, and the light of discretion, let him come to those whom he perceives to abound more, and let him transfuse grace into himself from his neighbors not by taking it away, but by imitating it, and let him invade the goods of another’s possession not only without loss, but even with gain of possession. For a very great fire kindled never feels the loss of light, nor does the multitude of beholders diminish the sun’s brightness. As many as have looked to it, so many does it lend its gifts, and yet it always remains whole. Blessed by God is that soul whose humility confounds another’s pride, whose patience extinguishes a neighbor’s wrath, whose obedience silently rebukes another’s sloth, whose zeal rouses the inertia of another’s tepidness, who illuminates the troubled eye of his neighbor’s heart, clouded by anger, with the grace of consolation and edification. This one is better than he who, when a brother is somewhat saddened by something, does not lift him up with his own solace by an outstretched hand, but, as he wavers like a leaning wall, aids him to ruin by the impulse of evil words, and, when he has been soundly corrected for the sake of discipline, incites him by sinister counsels so as to dash him down, so as to arm him to destruction.

Therefore, brothers, for whom one’s own evils are not enough, he acts in such a way that he also incurs the judgment of another’s ruin. Let us be certain, dearest ones, that unless we are on guard, unless we daily prune and cut back our passions, we become much worse than we were while we lived in this world, so that our final state becomes worse than our earlier one. And indeed, dearest ones, as long as we were serving those acts and affairs pertaining to the world, which we now blush at, the adversary did not obstruct us; on the contrary, he even consented, because regarding our wretched and lost life, he found nothing in which to exercise his envy. Our works delighted him; our crimes and sins were sufficient for him in themselves. For who would take up war against his own soldier, and who would wish to attack his own subject? But beyond every unhappiness was the life of that one whom the enemy disdained to harm.

But now, after we have renounced its pleasures, it has seen its worshippers return to the service of their former master; it has seen in us, in a certain way, its own idols transformed into a temple of God; and, gnashing its teeth and roaring like a lion, the ever-watchful ambusher explores every avenue of attack. Concerning this lion, the apostle testifies: "Be watchful, for your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour." Blessed are those whom this lion deems worthy to seek out and to pursue—pursue, that is, by the tracks of virtues and the scent of merits. For it seeks out none but the good, since the evil thrust themselves forward uninvited. It runs violently after the former; it stumbles even carelessly upon the latter. Blessed, therefore, are those whom this lion is compelled by envy to seek and whom malice does not permit it to find. It sounds terribly in our ears, indeed, when we hear: "like a roaring lion." But because it is said, "its choice morsels are chosen," what it seeks is a matter of election; what it roars is a matter of despair, just as we read in another place: "It will gnash with its teeth and waste away." Thus divine speech speaks in such a way that consolation is joined to terror. That it gnashes its teeth is indeed a sign of bloodthirstiness, but that it wastes away is a sign of defeat. And amid all this, how great are the things prepared for man by God is betrayed by the envy of the enemy.

Thinking on these things, therefore, dearest brothers, and sweating in this struggle, let us remember that we are disciples and sons of our glorious and renowned father. Let each of us snatch what we can from the goods of our intestate parent. Let one take from the inheritance the silken robe of faith, the precious variety of deeds; let another seize the talent of gentleness and simplicity; let that one claim for himself the necklace of benevolence and wisdom, the adornment of the breast; let this one invade the pearl of compunction and the treasure of chastity. For although that very wealthy friend of God has taken everything he had, whole, with him, yet he has left everything to us, if we wish. Let us therefore so act, pursuing his goods, that he who is to be raised to eternal glory at the end of the ages and restored, may now already rise again in the Church through the revived merits in his sons. XXIV. TO THE MONKS II. Since God and your fraternity, as it were, command and supply this, I utter whatever sort of sermon, doing this not from any presumption, but from true and complete charity. And although you are, by God's grace, so perfect that you have little need of our admonition, yet, with charity commanding, which knows no fear, even what we know you fulfill excellently, we presume to suggest and admonish with true humility and perfect charity, yet not without shame, since we know ourselves not yet to be suitable disciples and seem to be rousing masters to the holy work.

Since we are tepid, we are compelled to admonish the fervent; since we are sinners, we reproach the just; since we are unskilled, we instruct the learned; since we are tossed by the excessive waves of this world on the open sea, we direct words of preaching to those who have already happily arrived at the harbor. But nevertheless, dearest brothers, because ships, after having overcome and conquered the waves of the sea, are accustomed to labor even in the safest harbor and, unless great caution is taken, almost to sink, we admonish with the utmost humility and immense reverence that, since Christ has freed you from capital crimes as from dangerous waves, you, established in the harbor of peace and blessedness, may hasten with all vigilance, with Christ’s help, to drain perpetually the small negligences and, as it were, minute sins, which flow together in the soul just as drops run together through the tiniest cracks of a ship into the bilge. For just as a ship, after it has escaped the waves of the sea, if it is not bailed out in the harbor, is filled and sunk by the tiniest drops, so also a monk, having overcome and conquered the crimes of this world as if they were dangerous waves, when he has come to the harbor of the monastery, if he neglects to drain from the bilge of his soul the creeping vices and the minute and daily sins, incurs the danger of shipwreck in the harbor itself.

But someone says: how can the soul be bailed out? Surely by praying, fasting, keeping vigil, and showing true charity, true humility, and true obedience. Pay attention, brothers, I ask you. Just as a ship is bailed out by a bucket, so the soul is freed from evil works by the Lord’s Prayer, if it says and truly says: forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. For whoever has mercifully pardoned all who sin against him, no trace of any sin will remain in that one’s soul. Pay attention, brothers, and consider what I have said: whoever has pardoned one sinning against himself—I did not say that you ought to pardon one who has sinned against God—but if someone has sinned against you, you ought to grant him forgiveness. What is worse, sometimes we grant forgiveness slowly or with difficulty to one who has sinned against us, while we quickly pardon one who has offended against God. But if we wish to act justly, we ought not to pardon at all without the strictest severity one who has sinned against God, lest, while he is let off through indiscreet piety, an example of perdition be given to others. Therefore, let each one show himself merciful in his own case, because the Lord says: if you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will forgive you your sins.

But when someone presumes to commit a sin against God, he ought to undergo monastic discipline. And this ought to be done with a good and pious intention, so that he may be corrected by spiritual chastisement in this world, so that he does not perish in the future, because every sin that is not corrected in this world will be punished in the world to come. For thus divine Scripture recalls concerning a son, a servant: "You," it says, "strike him with a rod and will free his soul from hell." And therefore, as I suggested above, let us not only avoid capital crimes, but also daily reject small negligences like the poisons of the devil. For there are some who, after making a profession of religion, because they seem to have left the world, are loosened by excessive security, and the Lord's saying is fulfilled in them, where it is said: "Would that you were cold or hot. But now, because you are lukewarm, I will begin to vomit you from my mouth." What does it mean that he said: "Would that you were hot or cold"? He means this: it would have been better for you to have remained cold in the world or to have been fervent in the monastery; but now, because you have both withdrawn from the world and have been unwilling to grasp spiritual fervor through your negligence, you have become lukewarm, you are vomited from the Lord's mouth, scarcely to be received again.

Therefore, dearest brothers, with God's help, diligently attend to the sentence of divine Scripture which says: "With all vigilance guard your heart." For just as one ought to rejoice over a monk who wishes to show gentleness, obedience, patience, meekness, and humility in the monastery, so on the contrary one ought to grieve over him who, though he seems to have left this world in body only, is yet known to have either remained unfaithfully in the world with his heart or to have unhappily returned to it, and who, instead of humility, displays pride; instead of patience, wrath; instead of obedience, contempt; and instead of the medicine of charity, pours out the poison of malice. To such as these applies that true and greatly to be feared saying of blessed Peter: "It would have been better for them," he says, "not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back," and again: "A dog returning to its vomit, and a sow washed in a wallow of mud." But neither should we despair of such as these, brothers, because God is able, with you praying, to kindle a spark of compunction and to consume every worldly pleasure, like thorns and briers of wickedness, with a salutary fire—that fire, indeed, of which the Lord says: "I have come to send fire upon the earth, and what do I wish but that it burn?

Pray, therefore, dearest brothers, not only that God may deign to grant you good perseverance, but also that those who are negligent may at last lift themselves from the pit of pride and extricate themselves from the snares. For if, through your prayers and the counsel you give with charity, any who are lukewarm and negligent are corrected, the Lord will deign to reward you with a double prize, for your own correction and for theirs. For neither should those who are good exalt themselves as if on account of their own merits, nor should those who are negligent despair of God's mercy; but rather, let the former guard God's gifts with humility, and let the latter, with great compunction, flee more swiftly to the remedies of penance or correction. For whoever is good, if he begins to grow proud, will be humbled; and whoever is proud, if he humbles himself, will be raised up by God's mercy. So great is this, that he should no longer allow himself to be pressed by the harshest yoke, nor be hardened any longer by persisting in excessive and dangerous dissimulation in sins, but should flee so quickly to the mercy of God that he leaves no trace of sin within himself. A poultice or bandage is best applied to wounds while they are still warm; for if the intention to rise again is swift in turning to the heavenly physician, the trace of sin cannot remain with the fallen, because under the hand of God, the all-powerful physician, the disease quickly perishes and the sick man is speedily healed.

Again and again I ask and admonish you, brothers, to strive always to show obedience, humility, and charity not only to your seniors and equals, but also to your juniors, because whatever good a servant of God may claim to possess, he quickly loses it all if true humility and charity are not in him. Do not murmur, brothers, for it is written that those who murmured perished by serpents. Do not speak ill of others, brothers, because it is written: "He who speaks ill of his brother will be uprooted." Do not harbor anger in your heart, because it is written: "The anger of a man does not work the justice of God." Do not hate one another on account of that which is written: "He who hates his brother is a murderer." But there is no need for us to teach your holy charity at greater length with words, since we both know and rejoice that you fulfill these things in deeds for the glory of Christ. We ask only this one thing specifically: that, because God has deigned to place you in a place of quiet and tranquility, you may pray more abundantly to the Lord for us, whom the storms and countless waves of this world afflict, so that, if glory is not given to us because we do not deserve it, at least pardon for our sins may be granted through your prayers. Amen.

XXV. SERMON BEFORE LENT. I ask and admonish you, dearest brothers, that in this lawful and most sacred season, except on the Lord’s days, no one presume to dine, unless perhaps he whom infirmity does not permit to fast, because on other days to fast is either a remedy or a reward; in Lent, not to fast is a sin. At another time, he who fasts will receive indulgence; in Lent, he who is able and does not fast will feel punishment. And yet he himself who is not strong enough to fast should prepare more privately for himself alone, or, if there is another infirm person, with him in his own house, what he may take, and should not invite those who are healthy and able to fast to eat, because, if he does this, not only God but even men can understand that he is not unable to fast on account of infirmity, but unwilling to fast on account of gluttony. Let it suffice him that he himself is not strong enough to fast, and let him eat rather with groaning and sighing and grief of soul because, while others are fasting, he himself cannot. What need is there for each infirm person to have prepared more privately, either for himself alone or for another infirm person similarly, because it is not fitting for him to ask any healthy person to dine, lest he increase for himself even the sin of another’s gluttony.

Yet, for that reason, because he cannot fast, he ought to give more to the poor, so that he may redeem by giving alms the sins which he cannot cure by fasting. It is good to fast, brothers, but it is better to give alms. If someone can do both, it is a double good. But if he cannot, it is better to give alms. If there is no possibility of fasting, alms suffice by themselves without fasting; fasting, however, without alms does not suffice at all. Therefore, if someone cannot fast, alms without fasting are good. But if fasting together with alms prevails, it is a double good; fasting, however, without alms is no good at all, unless perhaps someone is so poor that he has nothing at all to give. For those, therefore, who have nothing from which to give, good will suffices, according to what is written: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.

But who will be able to excuse himself, when the Lord has promised that he will repay even for a cup of cold water? And why did he say "cold"? Lest perhaps someone might excuse himself on account of a lack of firewood, or indeed say that he does not have a vessel in which to heat the water. Finally, also through the blessed prophet, dearest brothers, the Lord so exhorts and admonishes that alms be given that almost no poor person is able to excuse himself. For thus he says: "This is the fast that I have chosen," says the Lord: "Break your bread for the hungry." He did not say to give it whole, since perhaps that poor person would have no other, but "break," he says—that is to say: even if your poverty is so great that you have only one loaf, still break it and give to the poor. "And the needy," he says, "and the one without shelter, bring into your house." If someone is so poor that he has nothing from which to give food to the poor, let him at least prepare a little bed for the stranger in one corner of his house.

What shall we say to this, brothers, or what excuse shall we be able to have, we who, possessing ample and spacious houses, scarcely ever deign to receive a stranger, not knowing—indeed, not believing—that in every stranger Christ is received, as He Himself said: "I was a stranger, and you received me," and "As long as you did for one of the least of these, you did for me"? It is burdensome and irksome for us to receive Christ in the poor in our own homeland; I fear that He may repay us in turn, that He may not receive us into His blessedness. We despise Him in this world; I fear that He in turn may despise us in heaven, according to what He Himself said: "For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat, and I was a stranger, and you did not receive me," and "As long as you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." And what follows afterward, brothers—may God avert this from us—for He added this afterward, saying: "Depart," He says, "from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels.

Therefore, dearest brothers, let us not hear these things in a fleeting manner nor with only our bodily ears, but, listening faithfully, let us also teach by word and by example, so that others may hold to them and fulfill them. What, then, did the Lord say through the prophet after this? "If you see a naked man," he says, "cover him." In this statement I judge no one; let each one attend to his own conscience. Yet I accuse and reproach myself, because it has perhaps sometimes happened that, through negligence, my little garments, which ought to have been given to the poor, were devoured by moths. And I fear that these very rags may be brought forth as evidence against me on the day of judgment, according to what the apostle James terrifyingly declares, saying: "Go now, you rich, weep and wail in the miseries that will come upon you. Your riches have rotted, and your garments have been eaten by moths. Your gold and silver have tarnished, and their rust will be evidence against you and will devour your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure on earth and have nourished your hearts in delights on the day of slaughter." All these things, as I have said, dearest brothers, which Christ threatened through the apostle, although they terrify us greatly, yet we must not despair of God's mercy.

For still we who are negligent, I and those like me, can with God's help correct ourselves, if we wish, if we both give alms more generously—which up to now we have done too sparingly—and beseech God's mercy for past sins with grief and groaning and with hope of reparation. Therefore, as we suggested above, dearest brothers, let the richness of our alms commend our fasts, because a fast without alms is like a lamp without oil. For just as a lamp that is lit without oil can smoke but cannot give light, so a fast without alms indeed torments the flesh but does not illuminate the soul with the light of charity. Meanwhile, while it is permitted, brothers, let us fast in such a way, with regard to what is now being done, that our meals are given to the poor, so that what we were about to eat we store not in our purses but in the bowels of the poor, because the hand of the poor is the treasury of Christ. Whatever it receives, lest it perish on earth, is stored up in heaven, because, although the food that the poor person receives is consumed, nevertheless the reward of the good work is stored up in heaven. For if we take care to spend our meals on exquisite flavors and multiplied courses for dinner, then delights are not withdrawn from our body but are even doubled, and, just as in that way nothing is diminished for our body, so nothing is increased for the soul.

I say this, brothers, more out of fear than because I believe anything ill of you. Yet I know that many of you, with God’s favor, both regularly receive strangers and frequently give alms to the poor. And so, let what I suggest serve this purpose: that he who was doing it may do it more; he who was not doing it, or perhaps was doing it too slowly, may make so holy and God-pleasing a practice a habit. And although I believe that, with God’s inspiration, your charity always observes chastity (even with your own wives) for many days before the approaching feasts, yet, even if superfluously, and because I believe you do it, I urge you out of consideration for charity: that throughout the whole of Lent until the end of Easter, keeping chastity with God’s help, on that most holy Paschal solemnity, clothed in the light of charity, resplendent with alms, adorned with prayers, vigils, and fasts as with certain celestial and spiritual pearls, peaceful not only with friends but also with enemies, with a free and secure conscience you may approach the Lord’s altar and be able to receive his body and blood not for judgment but for remedy.

But when I speak of alms, let narrow poverty not be disturbed. For that person has fulfilled everything who has done what he could, because a perfect will to act will be counted as the deed itself. But that person will be able to fulfill this who has wished to consider every poor person as if himself. Let him give to the poor in the same way as he would wish to be done for himself, if he himself were in such need. Whoever does this will fulfill the precepts of both the New and the Old Testament, fulfilling that Gospel saying: "All things whatsoever you wish that men should do to you, do you also to them likewise." For this is the law and the prophets, to which law of true and perfect charity may the Lord himself lead us under his protection, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen. XXVI. SERMON ON LENT. I believe you are moved, most beloved brothers, as to why we ran ahead to the previous Lord's Day, and, since today is its beginning, why we began to celebrate its feast one week earlier. This overly hasty observance cannot be reproached. For it is a judgment of devotion to carry out the law before knowing the statutes of the law, and to obey the precepts before the precepts of obedience compel one. For the latter is of love, the former of fear; the latter is exacted commandingly, the former is offered religiously; here a debt is paid, there a gift of bounty is presented. Hence we too have presented a religious gift to God, by fasting more. For a hurried feast cannot be reproached.

For always in celebrations, vows precede the joys, and longed-for devotion anticipates the coming gladness. Therefore, this was done not only without blame, but also with caution. For in ambiguous matters, one must always add something extra as a safeguard, because what is extra can be cut back, but what is lacking cannot be extended—as has been done in this observance. For the fact that we have fasted more on account of Lent does not diminish Lent; it remains whole for us. But if we had fasted less, we could not have restored it to the full number. But perhaps the issue is this: that the fast we have observed does not count toward Lent for us. It will certainly count for us, because even if it does not count toward Lent, it counts toward salvation; if it does not count toward the number, it counts toward merit. For to whom has it ever not profited to pray, to read, to fast? To whom has chastity, sobriety, gentleness not profited? Except that I rather blame those who, though prepared to fast, after hearing of the celebrations, neglected to fast in the ambiguous period. They showed, indeed, that they did not wish to live religiously of their own accord, but under compulsion. They feared, I believe, that by prolonging the fasts for five days, their flesh and body would fail them, and that they could not endure the abstinence of Lent in a weak and thin state.

Let the well-fed and the strong, the thin and the pale, hear alike: today is the beginning of Lent. Let them hear, I say, so that those who have not yet begun to fast may begin, and those who are already abstaining may not cease, and all together may hasten to enter the ark of Christ. Indeed, let them hasten all the more, because they have begun to abstain later, so that they may enter more disciplined and more purified; for the Lord’s ark is able to sustain a fasting man in perils, but it does not know how to support a drunken one. Therefore we warn you, as we have already said before, men of our time, that in these storms of the world each one of you should eagerly take refuge in the house of God, just as the righteous Noah warned the men of his time. For he warned them and did not cease to preach the coming flood; and although the voice of his preaching was not heard, yet even when his tongue was silent, he spoke by his work; even when he was silent in speech, his axe resounded. For while he was building so great a work, he testified by the work itself why that ark was being made. For by the very preparation he testified that new shelters would be useful for new perils. For any wise man could understand that some kind of shipwreck was imminent, when such a house was being built as would not cling to the earth but float on the flood, when such a lodging was being prepared as would neither fix its floor in the ground nor sink beneath the waves.

What wise man, I ask, would not understand that a flood was at hand, when he saw such a dwelling being built, which would not so much enclose those received within it as carry them, which would not so much repel the rains as ward off the storms of a shipwreck? What men, I ask, would not be turned away from a lodging by the danger of a place where they were not to dwell but rather to be exiled? In whatever part of the world, the very dwelling itself would be a stranger. Therefore, the holy Noah himself preached to the peoples by his works and spoke that evangelical saying of the Lord: if you do not believe me, believe the works. XXVII. SERMON ON THE DEPOSITION OF SAINT AUGUSTINE. We celebrate today, dearest brothers, the deposition of our lord and father Augustine, bishop, of holy memory. For as I silently marvel at his apostolic merits, the bearing and vesture of that high priest Aaron comes to my mind, by which diverse graces and virtues are prefigured. According to the institutions of the Old Testament, by the reverend mysteries of the ancient law, the high priest, about to enter the Holy of Holies, was adorned with various insignia. Among the splendid varieties, which indeed presented miracles to the beholders and sacraments to the understanding, along the edges of the tunic flowing down to the feet and at the very hem, a row of bells, skillfully set, resounded around his venerable step, so that the very vesture showed that it is not permitted for the priest to be silent in the holy places.

But when the priest entered the Holy of Holies, and the bells resounded not elsewhere but at the hem of his garments, this undoubtedly signified that, as often as the priest enters the temple of God, he should never cease to cry out from the extremity of this world and from the end of the age, always proclaiming the rewards of the righteous and the punishments of sinners, so that while the former are summoned to good and the latter are deterred from evil, they may together attain to eternal rewards. Hence I myself now do not fear to be presumptuous, confidently preaching about so great and so special a patron of ours, Saint Augustine. I do not, I say, fear that it is presumption, if, when he himself has been spiritually clothed and endowed with such a dowry of virtues, I profess myself to be, as it were, one bell at the hem of his garment, so that, clinging as it were to the footsteps of his teaching, I may receive from his merits the sound of my voice, and, as it were, stirred by his movements, that is, by his virtues, I may produce some small ringing and, by the recollection of his merits, strike your hearts.

Now, in addition to these ornaments, as we have recalled, which divine indulgence granted to shine in Saint Augustine by the light of his merits, we read yet another likeness in the Old Testament. For a plate of gold, stretched across the forehead of the high priest, gleamed beforehand, which, of course, by the brightness of the metal displayed the purity of his conscience. Likewise, a jeweled shoulder-piece was fitted to him, and a precious necklace hung from his chest, so that the dignity of the exterior might remind him how the interior was to be cultivated. In that same necklace, the priest Aaron bore the names of the sons of Israel, woven in by the jeweler's art. Thus, while we rejoice that the magnificence of those sacred vestments shines forth in the praiseworthy institutions and spiritual pearls of diverse graces of the blessed memory of Lord Augustine, yet in him they are proven to have shone much more and much more truly. For what was imaged in the vestments of that Aaron is clearly expressed either in the grace or in the merits of this man. In that one, the gold plate adorned the prominence of the forehead; in this one, a golden modesty and a precious sincerity irradiate the forehead of the mind. Those ancient ornaments of foreign stone and the insignia of laborious beauty seemed attached to him; to this man they are proven to have been granted by the bounty of grace. In that one, they were shadowed forth by the hand of the craftsman; in Saint Augustine, they were perfected by the gift of the Creator.

he once a year put it on only to take it off soon after; he knows how to put on such ornaments as are incorporated into nature, never knows how to take them off, nor are they to be laid aside even with the body, but are to be carried back to the author together with the spirit. In that one there was a passing figure, in this one a lasting truth. It remains that you profit in all things by the heavenly institutions and singular examples of Saint Augustine. For in him everything is abundantly available to you, whether it pertains to edification, or concerns glory, or calls to life, or exalts to glory. For if in him you seek the affection of good will, the works of mercy cry out; if you desire patience, the ornaments of meekness stand forth; if the secrets of a pure conscience are to be questioned, the insignia of chastity respond, the balsams of kindness and the aromas of piety are fragrant, the necklaces of knowledge and wisdom shine forth. Amid these things we greatly fear, lest the merits of Saint Augustine, while the affection of preaching insinuates them, the poverty of our speech may conceal. For before the follower of heavenly things put off his secular habit and received the signs of sacred service, for some time in the secret of the Lord's fear and dread he bore a hidden soldier; for a long time placed in this world, he was at the edge of the world, and thus, having taken up public converse, he did not so much begin to be what he was not, as he revealed what lay hidden.

Therefore, when his youthful age, with the deceits of wantonness overcoming it, tried to paint and impose the appearances of fleeting things, and the fleeting sweetness of passing and destructive pleasures bound him, and the world constrained him by adding him with various bonds and violences, and when it, with him flourishing in birth, wealth, character, sharpness, and capacity of memory, and bringing forth through riches the gifts of manifold grace, as it were, the pleasantness of this life sought to hold him in its embrace—all these things, perceiving as many delights as bonds around himself, he decided to deny trust to uncertain things and determined that he could not consent. For in slippery evils, things are believed pleasant because they quickly pass by, as if showing their flower; these were all the more suspect to him because they capture their follower by appearance, destroy him by pleasure, and abandon him by swiftness. Therefore, considering all the vanities of the present age and gathering them before his eyes, and, as if from the citadel of wisdom, despising them and, in comparison with eternal things, rejecting them as nothing, he armed his heart, already infused with God, with the consolations and conversations of his will in his faith: I have nothing further in common with you, deceitful, passing figure of the world. By this one means I shall gain victory by abandoning you, and I shall not again incur loss, and through experience of you I shall rather seize from you a resplendent palm. How much you are nothing, and how great is the vanity of earthly things at times!

You demand much while you are held, but you give more when you are rejected. You captivate your followers with what they seek, and you glorify your despisers with what they despise, amassing great riches through hatred and flight from you. What more? Enclosed amid the shipwrecks of this life and placed in the midst of the world’s waves, and as if set with Jonah in the jaws of that devouring and monstrous beast, crying out to the Lord from the deep, Saint Augustine—though the world unwillingly vomited him forth and sent him out for the benefit of all the churches, for whose uses he was being prepared. And because this is the nature of justice and virtue, that the more eagerly it desires to be hidden, the more brightly it shines forth, and concealment itself becomes betrayal, the fame, aware of such great goods, flew everywhere among the peoples, and the scent of most delightful sweetness gleamed far and wide. He also stood out in a humble place, in the admiration of all, like a city set on a mountain peak, and the lamp could no longer be hidden under a bushel, nor was the overflowing light of the star’s magnitude received or contained within its hiding place. Thus a great lamp is not lit for itself, but hurls its light far and wide into the surroundings, pouring forth beautiful light with the fiery brilliance of doctrine, and, with our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God through infinite ages of ages, being present whole to all and entire to each one. Amen.

XXVIII. SERMON ON THE REVELATION OF THE BODY OF THE BLESSED STEPHEN, TO BE READ ON THE INVENTION. In the present reading we have perceived a vision celebrated by all churches; we have heard not dreams deluded by the slippery error of the senses, but oracles approved by the effects of events. Rightly do we believe in the revelation given in the sermon, since we hold the fruit in the gift. Where are those who say that pious honors ought not to be paid to the martyrs? Behold this man, who long ago enjoys the blessed splendor of paradise, is now shown to the world for this purpose, that he may be venerated. Hence God, the steward of our benefits, clearly commands that he be honored, whom he has caused to be found. The sermon of the revelation then says that no bird, no beast violated that sacred body. Where are those who wish the holy ashes of the martyrs to be seen as dishonored? Behold the brute nature of beasts and birds, which has no understanding, yet renders diligent obedience to a friend, avoids unlawful touch, perhaps revering the secret of angelic guardianship. No bird touched it, no beast violated it. With great envy of cruelty, the reverence of beasts now condemns man wickedly, since the more the impiety of a hardened heart [passage corrupt] ... the savagery of beasts passes over to us, and our humanity passes over to beasts. Therefore this man, both the first minister and martyr of the nascent church, having been subjected to the summit and peak of merits by the ardor of glory, escaped and, a deacon of Christ’s altar, suddenly became a priest of his own blood.

and after that singular and glorious victory of the Lord, the leader of an untried contest and the author of a new triumph, the standard-bearer of the white-robed army, offered to God the firstfruits of martyrdom, marked out from himself. The herald of truth and the follower of the Redeemer, by the impious Jewish people, who, still hot with recent murder, were panting for the crime of a monstrous sin, was finished off by a harsh shower of stones, more beautiful for his manifold wounds and whiter for his stained garment. To this end, from his earliest years, the diverse disciplines of grace and of the law and the prophets had prepared him. Blessed is he whose life, happily administered, was more happily expended; blessed is he whose life, set forth as an example to the world, was consummated in the testimony of God, and assumed into the patronage of the whole world; blessed is he in whom an illustrious life trampled upon death, or rather in whom death was the exchange for life. Others are consumed by the common accident of ancient transgression, by a general end, or by various kinds of imposed mortality from fevers. Blessed is this man, who, pouring forth his immaculate spirit for the honor of Christ, made an occasion for glory from the necessity of nature, and merited to convert the debt of his condition into the profit of virtue, so that what the law of origin and crime had claimed for itself in man from the ages, in him the devotion of praise would seize entirely. And thus, after the triumph of the Lord, savage death first learned in this man that it could be conquered even by a servant, so that for the martyrs who would follow, it might become accustomed to yield life from itself, even while in life.

Therefore, when the spiritual contests, with the gates of justice thrown open and heaven as witness, were causing him to sweat, filled with the Holy Spirit and with a mind drunk on God, he spoke thus: "Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." Thus, full of spirit and seeing the Son of Man at the right hand, under the spectacle of the Trinity, he was consuming the gifts of the passion. So, therefore, concerning him and concerning the Jews, the divine word testifies: "They saw," it says, "his face like the face of an angel." Doubtless, the brightness of his mind had poured itself out entirely even into the beauty of his outward appearance. With such a countenance was he ** the presence of the angel who had seen the face of God. Therefore, the Jews saw his face like the face of an angel. It is a great part of their condemnation if the impious are not permitted to be ignorant of their own crime. They saw his face like the face of an angel, so that they could not grasp the fruit of their hatred, but only as a warning. While even in the present they behold the glory of the one they persecute, so that they might almost receive a part through their eyes, while they understand that the one they rejoice in extinguishing through their fury is being consecrated through their own ministry, they saw his face. He who appeared thus in battle, how do we think he will appear in the kingdom? Or that God, the arbiter of merits, who adorned the dying one with such a countenance, with what, do you think, will he clothe the risen one? Then, having knelt down, he prayed, saying: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Willingly, he prayed for the authors of his own death as he was dying, because the glory of his precious death was not hidden from him.

Lord, do not count this sin against them. Do you think that he who interceded for his persecutors will ever cease to intercede for those who supplicate? He who repaid stones with this—what will he give in return for prayers? He who interceded when stoned—what will he do when invoked? Therefore, it was not nobility, not wealth, but faith that made him a son of God and an angel—faith, that is, in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In this confession of God, he subscribed not with his hand nor with his lips alone, but with his blood, and swore by his death. But you say: "No authority of the Scriptures speaks of honor being paid to the martyrs." And where is it that the prophet testifies through the Holy Spirit: "But to me your friends are very much to be honored, O God"? He could not have shown them greater honor than to proclaim them friends of God, than to believe that in honoring their face he honored God. "But to me your friends are very much to be honored, O God"—that is, Lord, I embrace your benefits in the merits of your own, I admire your gifts in their virtues, and in your gifts I rightly venerate you. Therefore, since our God testifies that he is honored when the cold are clothed, when the hungry are fed, when the poor are helped, saying: "Whoever has done it to one of the least of these has done it to me," it follows that he must be believed to say and think this of his elect: "The reverence that each one strives to show to my saints, he renders to me." It is fitting that he who honored me in his blood be honored in my name.

Divine providence therefore established these healers for human infirmities, so that through a mutual and joyful exchange, both the intercessor has his devotee and the devotee has his intercessor. Since this is so, dearest ones, let us venerate the sacred and venerable ashes of the martyrs with all the strength we can, so that we may obtain the pardon of our sins, which we are unable to gain by our own merits, through their intercessions, with our Lord Jesus Christ granting this, who lives for ages of ages. Amen. XXIX. SERMON ON PENTECOST. Today, dearest brothers, everything that has been read to us accords with the feast. For the psalm says: "Restore to me the joy of your saving help, confirm me with the principal spirit," but the Gospel says: "The spirit of truth has come," and the Scripture of the Acts of the Apostles says: "All were filled with the Holy Spirit." Therefore, all things have been completed and perfected. The psalm petitioned for the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel promised that he would come, the Scripture of the Apostolic Acts recorded that he had already come. Thus nothing is missing from the order of divine things in the reading, because in the prophet there is a prayer, in the Gospel a promise, in the Acts a fullness. For concerning the same Holy Spirit, the blessed apostle Paul also testifies, saying: "To one is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another faith in the same spirit." But all these things are worked by one and the same spirit, distributing to each as he wills.

But perhaps someone says at this point: if the Spirit distributes his gifts only to those he wishes, then the one who does not receive a gift is blameless, because the division of graces depends not on the wish of the receiver, but on the will of the giver. This is true, dearest ones, but it is true in such a way that we understand this only of virtues, not of life. For we cannot all obtain virtues, even if we wish; yet we can all grasp life, if we seek it, according to this: for everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds. Therefore, the division of sublime and excellent graces pertains to the will and dispensation of the Holy Spirit; the conduct of a good life pertains to human faith and effort. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds. Let someone only ask with his whole heart and seek: He who commanded you to seek undoubtedly ensures that you are able to find. For does the divine word lie? "Knock," it says, "and it will be opened to you." Why did he command us to knock, unless because he wishes to open to those who knock? This injustice does not fall upon men themselves, that one would wish to be asked who does not wish to grant. For everyone who has no desire to give shuns the request of the petitioner. There is no one who wishes to be asked unless he has first decided within himself to grant. Therefore, God, who wishes to give to all, wishes to be asked by all, saying: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find.

But perhaps someone can say: if everyone who asks receives, then also, if we ask for virtues, we will receive them. For why should we not also ask for virtues, if we can receive everything we ask for? It is not so, dearly beloved. For it is proud and beyond the condition of man to demand the grace of virtues. Human intercession ought to be humble, not presumptuous, seeking only salvation, not vanity. For since no man can be without sin, what impudence is it to ask for virtues, when he cannot yet be fully secure concerning pardon? Therefore, it is enough for man to merit the mercy of the Lord. He who has been able to attain to indulgence ought to believe that he has obtained the greatest grace of virtues from God. For he who has asked for something presumptuously, by that very fact deserves to receive less, if he has presumed to ask for higher things. Moreover, a man asking for the grace of virtues, even if he does not offend God by the presumption of his prayers, can nevertheless be endangered by vanity. For it is not expedient for all to possess the grace of practicing virtues. For there are those who are stronger when placed in humility than when inflated by the boastfulness of sanctity. There are those for whom the very sublimity of graces is dangerous. He who, placed on high, does not know how to stand firmly, falls all the more heavily because he has climbed to higher things. And therefore the blessed apostle says: "There are divisions of graces," and: "All these things one and the same Spirit works, distributing to each as he wills.

He speaks well: "as he wills," because nothing is better for a person than what that one wills. For the will of the Holy Spirit knows well how to dispense its gifts. Nothing is more beneficial than for a person to have only so much from the virtues as the Holy Spirit has judged that he ought to confer upon him. Certainly, if someone desires to obtain the grace of the virtues, he has virtues which he can blamelessly seek. Let him seek chastity, let him grasp sobriety, let him hold to discipline, let him love charity. For these virtues we can and ought all to have with the grace of God. For virtues are not to be believed to consist solely in expelling demons or in curing infirmities and granting healings. Every good work is a virtue. If you act well daily, if you live holily and justly, you daily complete the holy works of the virtues. One cannot expel a demon from another; at least let him expel the vices of demonic assault from himself. One cannot cure the disease of another's body; let him cure the disease of his own soul. It is not asked of a person that he bestow the grace of healings, which was not given to him by the divinity. He will be able to accomplish nothing greater than if he himself has merited to arrive at his own health.

After the labor of vigils, it is not fitting that a longer sermon should weary you further. And therefore, whoever is spiritual and desires to hear a fuller discourse on the divinity of the Holy Spirit, let him come more eagerly and faithfully to church tomorrow morning. For whoever has neglected to come will most openly demonstrate that he is not spiritual. But we trust in the mercy of God that the grace of the Holy Spirit will prevail among you more than the occupation of this world, with our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom is glory forever and ever. Amen. XXX. SERMON ON THE HOLY TRINITY. When there is a discourse about God, most dear brothers, just as the intention of contradiction is very harmful, so the care of questioning is useful. For in the former, understanding is blocked by obstinacy of mind; in the latter, understanding is nourished by inquiry. In the former, resisting unbelief delights in being corrupted; in the latter, obedient humility merits being instructed. But you, most dear brothers, prepare the receptacle of your holy breast for the inflowing divine water, and receive with silence and quiet what we wish to suggest concerning the mystery of the Holy Trinity or the divinity of the Holy Spirit. For we wish to prove by the testimonies of the holy scriptures how the Holy Spirit can be clearly recognized as equal to the Father and the Son in all powers.

We read in the Old Testament that in the beginning God made heaven and earth, and the spirit of God was borne over the waters. In God, understand the Father; in the beginning, accept the Son; over the waters, recognize the Holy Spirit. Over the waters, therefore, the eminence of the ruler was borne, even then, I believe, prefiguring the gifts of baptism. Also, in the making of man, the work is shown to be not of one, but of three persons, by the threefold repetition of the Godhead. For thus we read: And God said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” Note the sentence: simple in the proposition, multiple in the response. And God said, “Let us make man.” What else is this, but that the substance of unity speaks and the power of the Trinity works? Observe how the name of God is invoked three times in the creation of man. For thus we have in Genesis: And God said, “Let us make man,” and again: “God created man,” and thirdly: “God blessed him.” God said, God made, God blessed. The Father said, the Son made, the Holy Spirit blessed. On account of the three persons, the one divinity is repeated three times. In this place, understand clearly the mystery also of unity. Behold, the image of God and likeness is given to each man by three, and yet is known to be one. God said, “Let us make.

Attend carefully: while He says "one" and does not make "one," and while He again mixes the singular with the plural, He does not say "to our images and likenesses," or certainly "to my image and likeness," but commends unity by singularity, trinity by plurality. Thus, in what He says, "Let us make to our [image]," the number of persons is unfolded; but in what He says in the singular, "to the image and likeness," the undivided deity is gathered into one substance. When God had appeared to Abraham at the entrance of the tent, and from one, three had miraculously presented themselves to his eyes, he, conscious of the majesty, adored the one in the three. In the Psalms as well, unity is designated in its persons absolutely: "Do not cast me off," he says, "from your face, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me." Behold, the prophet, supplicating the Father, fears the offense of the Holy Spirit no less than that of the Father and the Son. "Do not cast me off," he says, "from your face." The Son, just as He is the image of the Father, is also understood as the face of the Father; and therefore we read: "Philip, he who sees me, sees also the Father," and likewise: "Whither shall I go from your Spirit, and whither shall I flee from your face?" Take note, O unbeliever, of the mystery of the Trinity in perfect confession. The prophet speaks to the Father, professes the Son as the face of the Father, and also attests the Holy Spirit diffused through all things. Moreover, concerning the Son, the Lord speaks also to Moses: "My face will go before you." That name, that is, "face," pertains both to the unity of substance and to the coeternity of majesty.

Isaiah also counts the Holy Spirit as one in the glory of the Trinity when he says: “I saw the Lord sitting on a high throne, and the Seraphim stood and cried to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts.’” And in what follows he says: “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: ‘Go and say to this people: Hearing you will hear and not understand, and seeing you will see and not see.’” Let us at least believe Paul, the most renowned herald of the truth, that the Holy Spirit was that Lord of hosts whom Isaiah saw and who spoke through Isaiah. But because he exults in a threefold repetition: “Holy, holy, holy,” let us see whether this honor refers to the whole Trinity. When Isaiah says: “I saw the Lord of hosts,” he is recognized to be preaching the Father to the Jews. The evangelist John is clearly proven to assert the Son, speaking thus: “For this reason they could not believe in Jesus, because Isaiah said: ‘He blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts.’” Isaiah said this when he saw the glory of the Son of God and spoke about him. But when the same Isaiah says: “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: ‘Go and say to this people: Hearing you will hear and not understand, and seeing you will see and not see,’” this Lord, as we have said, the apostle Paul confirms to be the Holy Spirit.

You see, therefore, that "Holy, holy, holy"—this voice celebrates the entire Trinity, and just as in these three words there is no dissimilarity, no difference, so in the power of the Trinity there can be no distance. But you say: from this the Holy Spirit is clearly recognized as lesser, because he is called the finger of God. It is not so. But when you hear it said of the Holy Spirit: "If I, in the finger of God, cast out demons," know that you are shown not a diminution of glory, but the unity of substance, and not a discrepancy of honor, but a concord of operation. What then? Because the Holy Spirit is sometimes called the finger of God, is he therefore believed to be lesser than the Son and the Father? Flee the error of this persuasion; see to it that sometimes in this designation of "finger" it comprehends both the Father and the Son. Let us remember that it was not said of one finger when we read: "For I shall see your heavens, the works of your fingers." But you say that in "fingers" only the Son and the Holy Spirit are signified under a certain duality. Do not attempt to assert this of two persons; in another place Isaiah speaks of the Trinity by the number of three fingers, saying: "Who has suspended the mass of the earth with three fingers?" What is more evident concerning the unity of the Trinity, what clearer? Does he not here, in three fingers, balance the equality of a single power under a certain scale of mystery? Therefore, as has been said, since you are now instructed concerning the partnership of operation, do not doubt the parity of power.

Therefore, in saying, "Who has weighed the mass of the earth with three fingers?" he wished to speak specifically about the cooperation of power and the unity of substance, which is shown to be one and the same in three fingers. Although the Holy Spirit always kindles your heart to hear the word of God, so that your holy desires can scarcely be satisfied, yet care must be taken that the preaching of the word of God be so tempered that it may always be desired by you and ever be able to increase. Therefore, let what has been said suffice for your charity. And because we have believed that something of this sermon should be reserved for you, if, according to your custom, you gather earlier tomorrow, after the morning offices are completed, you will hear, without any weariness, what has been deliberately reserved, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor forever and ever. Amen. XXXI. SERMON ON THE HOLY SPIRIT. What we reserved yesterday for your charity concerning the divinity of the Holy Spirit, you may now, if you permit, hear at a suitable and fitting time, with silence and quiet.

When we demonstrate the proper person of the Holy Spirit and confess the Father as unbegotten, and recognize the Son as only-begotten, you ask of me whether the Holy Spirit is to be confessed as unbegotten or begotten or something else. The holy Scriptures speak of the power and divinity of the Holy Spirit, but whether he ought to be called begotten or unbegotten, they do not speak. See what darkness unbelief makes for itself. You do not wish to know what God did not wish to be unknown, and you wish to know what he did not command to be inquired into. He did not say "begotten," lest you believe him to be the Son; he did not say "unbegotten," lest you think him the Father; but for the distinction of substance he testified that he proceeds from the Father, as we read: "the Paraclete, who proceeds from the Father." Since these things are so, recognize even thus that the Holy Spirit has his own person. That he is a third besides the two, the diversity of name proves; that he is not third in order or rank, proceeding from God, the unity of majesty shows. For he who proceeds from the inner parts of God is proven to be not a creature of God, but the substance of God. Do not scrutinize how God is, whom it is manifest to be God. Here reason lies hidden, truth does not lie hidden. Why do you ask how he is a companion and equal of the king, when it is established that he is of the king's honor and lineage? The inquiry about the name is superfluous where there is no doubt about the sublimity.

Therefore, because the Holy Spirit proceeds from both, it says: "But he who does not have the Spirit of the Lord is not his," and in another place: "He breathed and said: 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" You ask whether he is unbegotten or begotten. The sacred scriptures have sung nothing about this; it is impious to break into divine silences. What God did not believe should be indicated in his scriptures, he did not wish to be asked or known with superfluous curiosity. Is the glory or substance of the Holy Spirit in this, whether he is proven unbegotten or begotten? For neither does anything detract from the Son, that he is not read to be unbegotten, nor from the Father, that he is not held to be begotten. In such expressions, there is a property of appellation, not a diversity of power or majesty. "Begotten" and "unbegotten" is a difference of person, not of nature. Concerning the Holy Spirit, our Lord and Savior, about to go to heaven, spoke thus to his apostles: "When," he says, "the Paraclete comes, whom I will send to you, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness for me," and again: "He," he says, "will teach you everything." What is this, dearest ones, that the Savior said the Holy Spirit would be sent to teach the disciples? Did he not teach his apostles, or is Christ's doctrine to be thought half-full? No, without doubt.

But because your faith is in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, the Savior, by sending the Holy Spirit, wished to show this: that His churches would be built up by the will of God the Father, redeemed by the passion of the Son, and confirmed by the teaching of the Holy Spirit. How can this be recognized more clearly? How, except that for our redemption God the Father sent His Son, the Son saved us by His passion, and the Holy Spirit inspired faith in us? And thus the salvation of the churches is the work of the whole divine Trinity. For the piety of the Father did not wish the human race to perish, the Son freed us from destruction, the Holy Spirit leads us to the heavenly realms. Yet believe in the Holy Spirit in such a way that you consider Him neither the Father nor the Son, but the Spirit of the Father and the Son. However, this whole Trinity is one God. There is no dissimilarity there, no division. For if the spirit which is in a man is the greater portion of that man himself, how is the Spirit of God to be believed to be lesser? Therefore the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but the Spirit of the Father and the Son.

But that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father, our Lord and Savior said: "The Spirit," he says, "who proceeds from the Father." But that the same Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of the Son, the Apostle teaches, saying: "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His." Whence also the Lord in the Gospel after His resurrection said to His disciples: "Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." "In the name," he says, not "in the names." Therefore the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God—not three Gods, but one God. Person divides the three species; divinity joins them. But the Trinity knows no greater or lesser, the Deity knows no inequality, because He who is God cannot but be perfect. Therefore, he who does not believe in the name of the Holy Spirit gains nothing from confessing the Father and the Son. Therefore the Holy Spirit is to be believed with one faith, venerated with equal awe. When you have said: "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," you have set forth the persons; when you have said: "God," you have shown the substance. We say "Father and Son and Holy Spirit" lest you think you should believe in one person. Likewise we say "one God" lest you think there are three natures. In these three persons, therefore, number can exist, but order cannot. For although the Trinity admits distinction, equality knows no rank.

For in the Trinity there is nothing either less or greater, because if anything less is said of God, the divine perfection is impugned; yet, whoever says that the Holy Spirit is less than the Father or the Son in the Godhead does injury not only to the one whom he judges lesser, but also to the one whom he considers greater, because, since the whole Trinity has one equality and majesty, whatever insult is spoken against the person of one is equally felt by the whole Trinity. But we, dearest ones, who have merited to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, with the help of the Holy Spirit himself, let us prepare the house into which he may come, in which he may delight to dwell. Let the brightness of a pure heart invite him, let chaste modesty entice him with blushing roses, let immaculate virginity entice him with white lilies, both in fragrance and color, let him be received by kind charity, generous humanity, lofty humility, cheerful mercy, pure simplicity. Let the eternal inhabitant, the giver of eternity, find there nothing of the old man's filth, nothing of failing infirmities. Let the luxury of foulest pleasure depart, along with a pale conscience, sad fear, reeling drunkenness, and lust more hideous than any horror, so that, when these things are absent from us, the brightness of purity, opening the way for the virtues, may enclose the Holy Spirit in the dwelling place prepared for him.

We have suggested this, dearest ones, so that, as much as we can, with all our strength and with God’s help, we may labor that in us neither avarice be displeasing, nor faithlessness languish, nor lust grow foul, but that, thoroughly corrected and purified, we may merit to become a dwelling place of God, and that the Holy Spirit, who is read to have descended today upon the apostles, may deign to dwell always in us, to whom is honor and glory with the Father and the Son forever and ever. Amen. The remaining writings of Faustus, not yet reviewed by us, we will later make public; they are, however, roughly these: I. That body of sermons first published in Paris by Gaigneius under the name of Eusebius, bishop of Emesa, and augmented by Andreas Schottus (Bibl. Patr. Colon. vol. V and Bibl. Patr. Max. Lugd. vol. VI). II. A treatise of Faustus published by P. Pithoeus (Veterum aliquot Galliae theologorum scripta, Paris 1586, p. 124 ff.: Fausti Regii Galliae episcopi de ratione fidei ad obiecta quaedam responsio).

Another treatise, the "Faustinus" on the creed, which Caspari (Alte und neue Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols [Christianiae 1879] p. sqq.) first edited. Certain other writings attributed by learned men in these very times to Faustus we seem to have shown not to be by the bishop of Riez; cf. Prolegomena.