Homilia In Laudem Ecclesiae

Saint Leander, Bishop of Seville, Homily in Praise of the Church, On the Conversion of the People, Published after the Council and Confirmation of the Canons (Mansi, Concil. Collect.) That this festivity is more solemn than all festivities, the novelty itself signifies. For just as the conversion of so many peoples is a new cause, so the joys of the Church are more noble than usual: for the Church celebrates many solemnities throughout the course of the year, in which, although it has its customary joys, it does not have new ones as in this one. For it rejoices in one way over things always possessed, in another way over these great gains recently discovered. For this reason we too are lifted up by greater joys, because we see that the Church has suddenly given birth to new peoples; and we, who once groaned at their harshness, now rejoice in their belief. Therefore, the matter of our joy was the occasion of past tribulation. We groaned while we were burdened, while we were reproached; but those groans brought it about that those who, through unbelief, were a burden to us, became, through their conversion, our crown. For the Church proclaims this gratefully in the Psalms, saying: "In tribulation you have enlarged me" (Ps. 4); and Sarah, while she is often desired by kings, suffers no stain on her chastity, and makes Abraham rich because of her beauty (Gen. 20); for Abraham is enriched by the very kings by whom Sarah is desired.

The Catholic Church, therefore, fittingly leads the peoples whom she has felt to be adorned with her own beauty to the gain of her spouse, that is, of Christ, and through those kingdoms by which she perceived herself to be troubled, she enriches her husband; for thus, from the beginning, when she is assailed, or gnawed by the teeth of the envious, when she is pressed, she is taught; and when she is persecuted, she is spread abroad. For her patience either overcomes or wins over her rivals. For the divine word says to her: "Many daughters have gathered riches, but you have surpassed them all" (Prov. 31). It is not surprising that heresies are called daughters, but it must be noted that they are placed in the position of thorns: they are daughters, in that they are born from Christian seed; they are thorns, in that they are nourished outside God's paradise, that is, outside the Catholic Church; and this is confirmed not by a conjecture of our own understanding, but by the authority of divine Scripture, with Solomon saying: "As a lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters" (Song of Sol. 2). Lest it seem great to you that heresies are called lilies, he immediately names them thorns; heresies, I say, are found to operate either in some corner of the world, or among one people. The Catholic Church, however, just as it is spread throughout the whole world, so too is it constituted by the fellowship of all peoples. Rightly, therefore, do heresies gather riches in part in the caves where they lurk: but the Catholic Church, enriched on the watchtower of the whole world, surpasses all.

Rejoice, therefore, and be glad, O Church of God; exult and rise up, one body of Christ; clothe yourself with fortitude and shout for joy in exultation, because your sorrows have been changed into joy, and the garment of sadness has been turned into the raiment of gladness. Behold, suddenly forgetful of your barrenness and poverty, you have in a single birth given birth to countless peoples for your Christ. For you profit by your losses and grow by your own detriment; so great, indeed, is your spouse, by whose command you are governed, that while he allows you to be plundered for a short time, he again leads your plunder back to you and wins your enemies for you. Thus the farmer, thus the fisherman, while he attends to future gains, does not count as loss what he sows and what he has cast forth. Therefore, do not now weep, do not mourn that some have temporarily withdrawn from you, whom you see have returned to you with great gains. Rejoice, therefore, in the confidence of faith and by the merit of your head; be robust in faith, while what you recall was once promised you now see has been fulfilled. For the Truth itself says in the Gospel: "It was necessary that Christ die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but that he might gather into one the sons of God who were scattered" (John 11). You indeed proclaim in the Psalms, saying to those who hate peace: "Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together" (Psalm 33); and again: "In gathering peoples into one, and kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord" (Psalm 101).

How sweet is charity, how delightful is unity, not unaware through prophetic oracles, through evangelical sayings, through apostolic teachings, you preach nothing but the joining of nations, you sigh for nothing but the unity of peoples, you disseminate nothing but the goods of peace and charity. Therefore, rejoice in the Lord, because you have not been defrauded of your desire; for those whom for so long a time, with groaning as witness and with continuous prayer, you conceived, now after the ice, after the winter, after the harshness of the cold, after the severity of the snow, like the delight of fields, the harvest, and the joyful flowers of spring, or the smiling shoots on the trunks of vines, you have suddenly brought forth in joy. Therefore, brothers, with all the charity of our hearts let us exult in the Lord, and let us rejoice in God our savior. From now on, through those things which have already been removed, let us believe that those things which are still awaited are true to be fulfilled. For what was foretold, with the Lord saying: "I have other sheep, which are not from this fold, and I must lead them to me, so that there may be one flock and one shepherd" (John 10), behold we see that it has been fulfilled. For which reason let us not doubt that the whole world can believe in Christ and come together into one Church. Since again, with the same one testifying, we have learned in the Gospel: "And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then," he says, "the consummation will come" (Matthew 24).

If, therefore, some part of the world, or a barbarous nation, remains which the faith of Christ has not illuminated, let us by no means doubt that it will believe and will come into the one Church, if we think that what the Lord said is true. Therefore, brothers, goodness has been placed in the stead of malice, and truth has met error: so that, because pride, through the diversity of languages, had separated nations from unity, charity might gather them again into the bosom of kinship; and just as the Lord is the sole possessor of the whole world, so too there might be one heart and one mind of His possession: "Ask of me," He says, "and I will give you nations as your inheritance, and your possession the ends of the earth" (Psalm [2]); for this reason also the whole human race was propagated from one man, so that those who proceeded from that one might think as one, seek unity, and love it. Natural order, therefore, demands that those who trace their origin from one man maintain mutual charity; nor should those who are not separated by natural descent dissent from the truth of faith. Heresies, however, and divisions flow from the fountain of vices; hence, whoever comes to gentleness returns from vice to nature: because, just as it is of nature to produce unity from many, so it is of vice to decline the sweetness of brotherhood. Let us, therefore, lift ourselves up with our whole mind in joy; so that, because nations had perished through the zeal of contending, Christ might procure for Himself one Church in friendship, into which the concord of charity would lead them back again.

Concerning this Church, indeed, the prophet prophesies, saying: "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations" (Isa. 56:7); and again: "In the last days," he says, "the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains, and it shall be raised above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall go, and they shall say: 'Let us ascend to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob'" (Isa. 2:2-3). For the mountain is Christ, and the house of the God of Jacob is His one Church, to which it proclaims that the gathering of nations and the assembly of peoples will flow together; concerning which again in another place the prophet says: "Arise, be illuminated, Jerusalem, because your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you; and nations," he says, "shall walk in your light, and shall be ruled in the splendor of your rising. Lift your eyes around, and see: all these are gathered, and have come to you; and the sons of strangers," he says, "shall build your walls, and their kings shall minister to you" (Isa. 60:1-4, 10). And, so that it might be known what would befall the nation or people that had fallen away from the communion of the one Church, he added: "For the nation and kingdom that has not served you shall perish" (Isa. 60:12). Finally, in another place he similarly says: "Behold, the nation which you did not know shall call; and nations which have not known you shall run to you.

For there is one Lord Christ, to whom belongs the one Church throughout the whole world, a holy possession; He therefore is the head, and she is the body, concerning which it is said in the beginning of Genesis: "They shall be two in one flesh" (Gen. 2); which the apostle understands of Christ and the Church. Therefore, since Christ wishes to have one Church from all nations, whoever is a stranger to her, even if he is called by the name of Christ, is not contained within the bond of Christ's body (Eph. 5). For heresy, which rejects the unity of the Catholic Church, because it loves Christ with an adulterous affection, holds the place not of a wife, but of a concubine. For Scripture truly says that there are two in one flesh; namely, Christ and the Church, where a harlot finds no third place. For "One is my beloved," says Christ, "one is my spouse, one is the daughter of her own mother" (Cant. 6). Concerning which the same Church likewise declares, saying: "I am for my beloved, and my beloved is for me" (Cant. 7). Let heresies now ask by whom they are defiled or whose brothel they have become; for they have withdrawn from the immaculate bed of Christ; from which, the more precious we know the bond of charity to be, let us all the more praise God in this celebration: because He has not allowed the nations, for whom the blood of His Only-begotten was shed, to be devoured outside the one fold by the teeth of the devil. Therefore let the ancient plunderer mourn that he has lost his prey, because we see fulfilled what we heard the prophet foretelling (Isa.

XLIX): "Indeed," he says, "this captivity is taken away by the strong, and what was carried off by the robust is saved; for the wall of discord, which the devil had built, the peace of Christ has destroyed; and the house, which through division was contending in mutual slaughter, is now joined together by the one cornerstone, Christ." Let us therefore all say: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will" (Luke 2). For no reward is equal to charity. Hence it is preferred to every joy, because charity has been made, which holds the chief place among all virtues. It remains that, having become all one kingdom with one mind, we approach God with prayers both for the stability of the earthly kingdom and for the happiness of the heavenly kingdom; so that the kingdom and the people who glorified Christ on earth may be glorified by him not only on earth but also in heaven. Amen.