Sermones (Incertus)

APPENDIX XII. SERMONS. SERMON I.—On the Removal of Meat. i. Dearest brothers, I ask you and I admonish you that on this lawful and most sacred day, excepting the Lord’s days, no one presume to eat, 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 receives indulgence, in Lent he who is able and does not fast will feel punishment. And yet he himself who is not able to fast, but more rightly for himself alone, or if another infirm person is with him, should prepare in his own house what he may receive. And they who are able to fast should not invite them to a meal, because if they do this, not only God, but also men can understand them not to be unable due to infirmity, but to be unwilling to fast due to gluttony. Let it suffice for him that he is not able to fast. And let him rather with groaning, and sighing, and sorrow of mind lament because, while others are fasting, he cannot abstain.

And whatever food is necessary for each sick person, let him have it prepared secretly, either for himself alone or with one other similarly close friend, because he ought not to invite any healthy person to a meal, lest he increase for himself even the sin of another’s gluttony. However, because he cannot fast, he ought to give more to the poor, so that the sins which he cannot cure by fasting he may be able to redeem by giving alms. It is good to fast, brothers, but it is better to give alms. If someone can do both, both are good; but if he cannot, almsgiving is better. If there is no possibility of fasting, almsgiving suffices without fasting; but fasting without almsgiving does not suffice at all. Therefore, if someone cannot fast, let him give alms. Almsgiving without fasting is good. So if fasting together with almsgiving prevails, it is a double good; but fasting without almsgiving is no good at all, unless perhaps someone is so poor that he has absolutely nothing to give. For those who have nothing 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 said that He Himself is the reward even for a cup of cold water? And why did He say "cold"? Lest perhaps some poor person might excuse himself by lack of firewood, or certainly say that he has no vessel in which to heat the water. Finally, dearest brothers, through the blessed prophet the Lord exhorts and admonishes that alms be given in such a way that almost no poor person is able to excuse himself. For thus He says: "This is the fast which I have chosen," says the Lord: "Break your bread for the hungry." He does not say to give it whole, lest that poor person have no other; but "break," He says, that is to say, even if your poverty is so great that you have only one loaf, yet from that same loaf break off and give to the poor, and clothe the needy and the homeless and bring him into your house. If someone is so poor that he has no food, let him at least prepare a little bed for the stranger in one corner of his house.

What shall we say, brothers? What excuse shall we be able to have, we who, possessing ample and spacious houses, scarcely ever deign to receive a stranger?—ignorant, nay, not believing, that in every stranger Christ is received, as He Himself said: "I was a guest, and you did not receive me"; and: "As long as you have not done it for one of the least of these, you have not done it for me." Is it laborious and irksome for us to receive Christ in the poor in our own country? I fear lest He say to us: "Go," and not receive us into His blessedness. Do we despise Him in the world? I fear lest He despise us in heaven, according to what He Himself said: "I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat"; and: "As long as you have not done it for one of the least of these, you have not done it for me"; and what follows after. Brothers, may God avert this from us; for He afterwards adds this, saying: "Depart from me, accursed ones, go into the eternal fire." I judge no one by this sentence. Let each one attend to his own sentence; yet I reprove and rebuke this, because perhaps sometimes it happens through negligence that garments which ought to have been given to the poor are spoiled by moths; and I fear that these very rags may be brought forth as testimony on the day of judgment, according to what James says: "Act now, rich men, weep, howling in the miseries that will come upon you. Your riches have rotted.

And everything, as he said, dearest brothers, which Christ threatens through his Apostle, although it terrifies us greatly, we must not despair of God's mercy. But I and my own, if we wish to correct ourselves with God's help, even negligently, when we are able, let us distribute more generously the alms which we have hitherto given too sparingly, and which we are taught to give for past sins with sorrow, and groaning, and with the hope of the Lord's mercy and repose. 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 lit without oil can smoke but cannot shine, so a fast without alms indeed torments the flesh, but the light of charity does not illuminate the soul. Meanwhile, as for what is now at hand, brothers, let us fast in such a way that we distribute our meals 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, it stores up in heaven; for although what the poor man receives is consumed, the reward of the good work is stored up in heaven.

ii. For if we strive to lavish our feasts with exquisite flavors and multiplied courses at dinner, just as delights for our body are not only not diminished but even doubled, and thus nothing is taken away from your body, so nothing is added to the soul. This, brothers, I admonish, fearing more than believing anything sinister about you. For I know that many of you, with God's favor, both regularly receive strangers and frequently give to the poor. And therefore let what I suggest be directed to this end. But whoever does not do so, or perhaps was doing so too slowly, let him draw such a holy and entirely pleasing work into his custom. And although I believe that, with God inspiring, on the approach of feasts your charity always observes chastity and charity even with your own wives for many days beforehand, nevertheless, even if superfluously, and because I believe you do this, I admonish the charity of contemplation, so that throughout the whole of Lent and until the end of Easter, with God's help, you may keep chastity and charity, so that on that most sacred Paschal solemnity you may be clothed with the lamp of charity, whitened with alms, and adorned with prayers, vigils, fasts, and some celestial and spiritual pearls, not only with friends but also with enemies, so that, peaceful, with a free and secure conscience, approaching the altar of the Lord, you may receive his body and blood, not for judgment but for remedy.

But when we speak of alms, let narrow poverty not be troubled. For anyone will be able to fulfill all things when he has done what he could, because a perfect will to act is reckoned in place of the deed itself. But that person fulfills it who has been willing to consider a poor man as himself, and gives to the poor as he would wish to be done to himself if he were in such need; and whoever does thus has fulfilled the precepts of both the New and the Old Testament, fulfilling that Gospel: All things whatsoever you wish that men do to you, do you also to them likewise. For the law and the prophet are thus fulfilled to glory, to which may the pious Lord by his protection lead you to the law of true and perfect charity. Amen. By the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and dominion without end forever and ever. Amen. SERMON II. — Against the Arians. i. Come, Lord Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who have equal power with the Father. Come, and crush the head of the great dragon; and tell us what you are, how this Arius teaches otherwise than what you are. Speak, speak, let us hear, that we may convict the heretics. Hear, dearest brothers, what the Lord says. I am, he says, the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. According to divinity, truth and life; according to humanity, the way. But you, heretic Arian, who wish the life and truth to be lesser in divinity, it follows that you do not reach the Father.

But still, Lord Jesus, crush the head of the serpent, and say what you are with the Father. Let us hear you speaking, not a heretic blaspheming; say what you are with the Father. I and the Father are one. Say still. I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. Say still. He who sees me sees also the Father. Do you now believe, heretic, in such great authority? Do you not admit his own testimony concerning himself, but seek other witnesses? Behold, they are brought forth against you to convict you. Speak, witness of God, Paul, the instrument of holy mother Church, who went as far as blood for this testimony, and lest you succumb to false doctrine, you laid down your life; speak. Let him hear who fears being convicted. To each and every one you say: Feel this in yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus; who, when he was in the form of God, did not consider it a usurpation to be equal to God. Do you hear, heretic, equal to God, do you hear the form of God? And do you dare to say that the Son is lesser than the Father? Let another witness come, so that the equity of truth may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. Speak also, holy Peter, what was revealed to you, not by flesh and blood, but by the heavenly Father: You are the Son of the living God. And in the second epistle to the Gentiles. We make known to you the power, foreknowledge, and greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you hear, charlatan, power, do you hear foreknowledge, do you hear also greatness; in what, then, heretic, do you say that Christ is lesser?

But let a third witness enter, so that three may speak one true testimony to the one Trinity and the threefold divinity. Say it also, you, Saint John, who reclined upon the Savior’s breast and beheld the heavenly wonders of the Word of God. Say, I ask, what truth you perceive concerning the Son of God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And in the Epistle: We know that the Son of God came and gave us understanding, that we might know what is true, and be in His true Son; for He is true God and eternal life. But you, venomous serpent, by calling the Son—who is true God—lesser, you will not have eternal life. But to refute your obstinacy, let the Father Himself bear witness to the Son, so that you may seek nothing further and believe nothing further. For He says through the prophet: With you is the beginning in the day of your power. The Father is beginning, the Son is beginning; therefore the Father and the Son are a beginning without any beginning. With you, He says, is the beginning in the day of your power, in the splendors of the saints; from the womb, before the morning star, I begot you. As if He were saying: So that the saints might be enlightened, you proceeded from me. And indeed, dearest ones, there was no other reason why even the names themselves—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—seemed to be separated, except that holy men might be instructed. Besides, what was said to Moses from the very substance of the Trinity? I am who I am; and thus you shall say: He who is has sent me.

Therefore, the Son was born from the womb in the splendor of the saints. But lest you take this generation as having been made carnally or temporally, hear how she bore him. "My heart has belched forth," he says, "a good Word." John the witness says: "In the beginning was the Word." God the Father says: "My heart has belched forth," he says, "a good Word." The prophet Habakkuk says: "The Word was walking." You hear "Word," and that it was in the beginning with God, and that the Word was God. The testimony of the Trinity cries out against you throughout the whole world. And you, most wicked Arian, do you bark against the whole world like a rabid dog? But hear further, so that you may be more fully convinced that the perfect Trinity is one true God. For it is the Father's voice to the Son through the prophet: "In the splendor," he says, "of the saints I have begotten you from the womb." It is also the voice of the same Father through the prophet concerning the Holy Spirit: "The Spirit," he says, "has come forth from me." But it is the Son's voice in the Gospel, showing the Father to be in himself, and himself in him, where he says, "The Father, remaining in me, himself does the works." It is also the voice of the same Son concerning the Holy Spirit, showing that just as he proceeds from the Father, so also from himself, where he says to his disciples: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you remit sins to anyone, they will be remitted to him." Whence also the apostle Paul: "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of him." Therefore, if the Son is in the Father and from the Father, and the Holy Spirit is both in the Son and in the Father, the Trinity is not divided, where there is perfect unity.

Let the pestilent Arian, that labyrinthine dragon, depart therefore; now, I say, let him depart confounded and guilty, because the Trinity is one God. But how shall my words profit you, perverse heresy, when you are a deaf asp, stopping up your ears so as not to hear the voices of the charmers? Know, however, that you are to be expelled by the serpent’s rod, when that shepherd has led back the sheep you hold captive to his own fold, so that there may be one flock and one shepherd. This shepherd of ours, dearest ones, who feeds and rules with the rod, is himself the pastor, himself our ruler, himself the maker, himself our architect. I see you as a great shepherd, Lord Jesus, feeding the sheep, seeking the wandering one, and when found, carrying her back to the flock on your shoulders with joy. Indeed, I see you as a great architect, bearing a rod, and from that rod making many little hurdles. So much, brothers, do I dread the exposition of the rod; but when I consider the places of the divine Scriptures, the rod is holy Mary, the rod is Christ himself, the rod is the cross. And in this rod, O how great and wondrous things it has done! Ladders, by which fallen man was raised to the Father; by these ladders, finally, holy men have ascended, continent men, those joined in marriage, and the faithful—not indeed by steps of the feet, but by the steps of their ways.

If good morals are sought, they are found in all. For both sexes and every age have an example of these holy morals in unity. Let the old, therefore, imitate the ways of Tobias, who, though blind in body, showed the way of life with a lily in his heart; the one led him by the hand on earth, the other raised him to heaven with holy admonitions. Let adolescents imitate the holy Joseph, beautiful in body but more beautiful in mind, whom chastity had so possessed that the threats of his unchaste mistress could not violate the body whose mind the Lord already possessed. Let holy virgins imitate the blessed mother of their Lord, Mary. Let widows imitate the religious widow Anna. Let married women imitate the chaste Susanna, for the virgin mother of Christ, Mary, fulfilled what she knew; Anna the widow persevered in prayers and fasts to the end; chaste Susanna approached the peril of death for conjugal modesty. Now, therefore, married women, attend to what imitation of this voice is proposed by Holy Scripture; for it does not proclaim that she was outwardly adorned with gold, necklaces, or precious garments, when she was inwardly adorned with the modesty of chastity. But Christ gave a vital gift to all, for whom he established good morals. And for this reason he himself deigned to be born a man from a woman, because from him both sexes were to be freed from death. We have said much, brothers. You have listened most attentively; you have most willingly feasted on the Lord's banquet.

Repay, therefore, your minister in turn, so that if not by word, at least by your prayers he may be nourished. End. Sermon III. — Homily. Brothers, we must greatly fear three causes by which the whole world perished: gluttony, greed, pride. For the devil through these three causes circumvented Adam, the first man, saying: On whatever day you eat of this tree, your eyes will immediately be opened. But let us always fear these three causes, lest, like Adam, we be damned in hell. Brothers, against gluttony let us hold to abstinence, against greed to generosity, against pride to humility. For we know this, that we are called Christians, that we have a guardian angel, because the Savior Himself said: Amen, I say to you, that the angels of those who are in heaven always see the face of my Father. i. For it must certainly be believed by us that all our works, both by day and by night, at every hour, whether good or evil, whatever we do, are reported by that angel in the sight of God. For when the angel urges us with counsel to do good works, we believe that we always have that angel on our right; but when we think of doing evil, or attempt to commit any sins, both capital and minor, then we have the evil devil as an instigator, so that when we think of sinning, and we sin, the devil rejoices, that holy angel grieves.

When we speak idle and wicked words, it is the counsel of the devil; but when we groan and sigh and think of doing some good works, then we have as our counselor that holy angel of God. For those three evil works which we mentioned above, the devil supplied through evil counsel in Adam, that is, gluttony, covetousness, pride. These three causes generate many other evils, that is, sacrilege, homicide, adultery, theft, avarice, lust, false witness, anger, discord, perjury. All these, through those three transgressions, were supplied before man by diabolical art. By these perils souls are bound in hell. Therefore let us take up the arms of the angel of God, that is, the cross of Christ. Let us set humility against pride, abstinence against gluttony, the giving of alms against covetousness, true penance against sacrilege, love of God and neighbor against homicide, continence against fornication, goodness and kindness against theft, generosity against avarice, chastity against lust, patience against anger, good concord and most true peace against discord, fear of the Lord and the right path against perjury, holding most firm faith before God and before men with justice and holiness.

These are the angelic weapons: the strong breastplate, the most steadfast shield, and the helmet of salvation. Whoever carries these weapons with him in every place, no devil will be able to harm him; but he will be safe both here and in eternity. Dearest brothers, against the worst enemy we must arm ourselves so greatly that we may overcome him, because he, like a thief, is prepared to steal good works, and he counsels and supplies evil. There are many who, through the boldness of the adversary, are seized by a false sense of security, and they think among themselves, saying: "I am young, and I have time to enjoy the world; when I come to old age, I will do penance." Woe to you who think this, for you do not have the span of a single hour of your life, nor the power of a single day. Brothers, let not this perverse security deceive you, but let us always keep the day of death before our eyes with fear and true penance. Tell me, where are the kings, where are the rich, where are their riches and their ornaments? They themselves have passed like a shadow, have vanished like a dream; their gold, their silver, and all their ornaments have remained in this world, and they themselves are tormented without end in hell, where their worms do not die, and their fire is not extinguished. In that hell there is no voice, only groans; there is no rest there, only flame, where many seek the end of death, and cannot die. For it is written: The powerful suffer torments powerfully.

Brothers, understand: the Psalmist says, "The dead will not praise you, Lord, nor all those who descend into hell." Brothers, how can they name God who are always in darkness, and in a dark place, and always cry out: Woe to such a dark place, such a dark pit, such a dark cavern, such a bitter place, such a most wretched life, such a painful dwelling! O wretches, from so small a way such a long death, from so small a consolation such a long captivity, from so small a joy such a long sadness, from so small a gain such a heavy loss, from so small an honor such long pains, from so small a delight such bitter tears, such immense sighs, such mournful groans, such great fear and sadness. There a father does not help his son, nor a son his father; there no friend is found who ransoms a friend, nor a brother who succors a brother. There repentance is loved, but it is acted upon too late. Woe to such a harsh dwelling, such a torturous flame, such immense torments.

There the wretched with the wretched, the proud with the proud, murderers with murderers, adulterers with adulterers, the faithless with false merchants, false monks with false girls, false priests with false bishops, laypeople likewise with the worst laypeople. There the worst women with the most unhappy prostitutes: all will be tormented by indescribable flames, and they will have no rest except on the Lord’s day of resurrection, as the blessed Augustine says: On the Lord’s day of resurrection, at the hour when our Lord rose from the dead in the morning, those souls of the just come to visit their sepulchers, and to say: “Well go, good companion, because you have acted well with me in this world, good vessel, most beloved friend. You have consented more to angelic armor than to the assault of the devil, because it is written: I wished to fast, to do penance, to give alms, to clothe the poor, to visit the sick, to come to church, to hear and keep the holy Scriptures, to love the servants of God; you consented to me and honored me, because you are the vessel of God, and I am the inspiration of life, and created by God. Rest a little while in peace, secure, and I will return to you in the eternal dwelling, so that you may see what a dwelling and how great a glory God has prepared for us in eternity, because happy are those who serve him, and they will shine with him like the sun, as the Lord himself says: The just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of my Father, and then they will rejoice with me without end.

For although you had been a leader of lust among the luxury of the eyes and the mouth, you did not consent to them. It is near where you will receive eternal reward with me, and there you will rest for ever and ever. Similarly, that sinful soul speaks with the most wicked angel of Satan, with slander and with its own vices, saying: Alas! alas! wretched body, what great evils have you done with me? And I was with Satan with his vices, because you did not consent to the angelic armor against the snares of the devil. For you desired to eat, drink, indulge in luxury, kill, commit adultery, fornicate, steal, covet, lie, bear false witness, do the works of the devil, and you did not do penance, but you failed in evil security and negligence. You lie in the depths, I am tormented within. The day of judgment is near, when I will return to you, and you will rise on the last day, to receive the evils which you performed in the world with the author of death, the devil, and you will be with me in the damnation of death, and you will be tormented without end for ever and ever. O man, who hears these things, be terrified for your sins and negligences, and while you have time and space, hasten and do penance, before the gate of life is closed, so that you may securely receive the rewards of glory and eternal life with the angels of God and with all the saints for ever and ever. Amen.

Sermon IV. — On the Body and Blood of the Lord at Easter. i. The magnitude of heavenly benefits exceeds the narrowness of the human mind. And therefore divine Providence so ordained that what reason in us, overcome by the mass of things, could not grasp, devout faith might conceive, and robust credulity nourish the understanding. Since, therefore, through the first transgression through Adam we were held liable to origin and death, the Lord, looking down from on high, seeing what debtors we were by birth, according to the quality of the captivity restored the gift of redemption. That is, that for the owed death he might offer an unowed one, because neither did we have from where we might live, nor did he have from where he might die. He took up the matter from our mortality, so that from his conferred immortality life might be able to die for the dead. And therefore, because the assumed body was to be taken from our eyes and brought to the stars, it was necessary that on this day he consecrate for us the sacrament of his body and blood, so that what was once offered as a price might be perpetually venerated through the mystery. So that, because the redemption ran daily and unceasingly for the salvation of men, the offering of redemption might also be perpetual. And that perennial victim might live in memory, so that it might always be present in grace. Truly a unique and perfect host, to be esteemed by faith, not by appearance. Nor to be judged by external sight, but by internal affection.

Hence heavenly authority rightly confirms that the flesh of Christ is truly food, and His blood truly drink. Therefore let every doubt of unfaithfulness depart, since the one who is the author of the gift is also the witness of the truth. For the invisible priest transforms visible creatures into the substance of His body and blood by His secret power through His word, saying: "Take and eat; for this is my body." And with the repetition of the consecration: "Take," He says, "and drink; this is my blood" (Matthew 26:26-27). Therefore, just as at the command of the commanding Lord the lofty heavens, the deep seas, and the vast lands suddenly stood forth from nothing, so with equal power in the spiritual sacraments the power of the Word commands, and the effect serves. Consider, then, how great and how celebrated are the benefits that the power of divine blessing works. And so that it should not seem new or impossible to you that earthly and mortal things are changed into the substance of Christ, question yourself, who are already regenerated in Christ. Once alien from life, a stranger to mercy, dead within, you were exiled from the path of salvation. Suddenly initiated into the laws of Christ and renewed by the saving mysteries, you passed into the body of the Church, not by seeing but by believing, and from a son of perdition you merited to become an adopted son of God by hidden purity.

While remaining in visible measure, you have become greater than yourself invisibly without any increase in quantity. While being the same as yourself, you have stood forth much higher through the processes of faith. You have been added nothing externally, and you have been wholly changed in the inner man. And thus the son of man has been made a son of Christ, and Christ has been formed in the mind of man. Therefore, just as without bodily sense, having laid aside past worthlessness, you have suddenly put on a new dignity, and just as you believe, not with your eyes but with your senses, that the Lord has healed what was wounded in you, washed away what was infected, wiped away what was stained, so also when you approach the reverend altar to be refreshed by the saving food and drink, look upon the sacred body and blood of your Lord with faith, honor it with reverence, raise your mind, take up the work of the heart, and especially assume it with an inner draught. But if that manna of the Law, of which it is said: "He rained down manna for them to eat" (Ps. 77:24), was such that it tasted to each one as he desired in his longings, that what was taken was one thing, what was seen was another, and that flavor was invisibly formed in the senses of each individual, then that manna of the Law, fallen from heaven, through its manifold sweetnesses exceeded the insight of its own nature and kind. And when the dispensation of the giver seasoned His creation with manifold diversity, taste provided what sight did not know.

According to the disposition of the receiver, the newness and worthiness of that food arose, and the honey-sweet gift of that rain and the manifold service of the dry shower refreshed each one with various and foreign flavors. Since this is so, let what appetite did there be done here by faith. Thus we read: "A man approaches the deep heart, and God will be exalted" (Ps. 64:7). Therefore, what delight obtained in the throat there, let blessing work in the senses here. For recognizing and receiving the sacrifice of the true body, the very power of the consecrator strengthens. He who then lay hidden, prefigured in the manna, let him now be manifest to you in grace. That he himself was prefigured in that form of manna, the Prophet also clearly shows, saying: "He gave them the bread of heaven; man ate the bread of angels" (Ps. 77:25). And what is the bread of angels but Christ, who satiates them with the food of his love and the light of his glory? With this bread, as the Prophet says, on the sixth day you will gather a double portion; on the Sabbath, however, you will not gather, while from the first, that is, the Lord's day, it is granted in the law, and only on the Sabbath is it denied.

Then already Christ is shown to be received by the Church, to which the Lord’s Resurrection consecrated that day, and is foretold to be denied by the Synagogue, to which the observance of the Sabbath belonged, since this seventh day is the one on which the heavenly bread is defrauded by deceit. Concerning which bread the old history relates: “Neither did he who had gathered more have more, nor did he who had prepared less find less” (Exod. 16:18). That body, when the priest dispenses it, is as much in a small portion as it is known to be in the whole. When the Church of the faithful receives it, it is proved to be as full in all as it is whole in each individual. From this sense the apostolic sentence is derived, saying: “He who has much has not abounded, and he who has little has not diminished” (2 Cor. 8:15). If we were to set out the eating of bread for the hungry, it would not reach each one in its entirety, because each person would receive it in smaller and more minute portions according to his share. But concerning this bread, when it is taken, individuals have nothing less than all do. One person receives the whole, two receive the whole, many receive the whole without diminution, because the blessing of this sacrament knows how to be distributed, but does not know how to be consumed by distribution. The form of this sacrament, moreover, we find expressed even in the pages of the Jews. For concerning Melchizedek we read in Genesis: “And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine and blessed Abraham; he was, moreover, a priest of the Most High God” (Gen. 14:18-19).

In which, while the future circumcision from the prepuce, that is, from gentility, is blessed, the glory of the Church is proclaimed, and the unfaithful people of the synagogue, acquired from the Gentiles, is set above. Here therefore Melchisedech, whose genealogy or origin lay hidden from the knowledge of that time, prefigured this sacrifice of Christ by the offering of bread and wine. Concerning which the Prophet declares: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech (Ps. 102:4). For also the blessed Moses, speaking of that mystery, signifies wine and blood under one appellation in the blessing of the patriarch, showing the Lord’s passion long beforehand, speaking thus: He shall wash his garment in wine, and his cloak in the blood of the grape (Gen. 49:11). Observe how evidently it is established that the creature of the vine is to be called the blood of Christ. Whatever further you ought to inquire concerning this twofold species, recognize it with the Lord Himself attesting. Unless, He says, you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you will not have life in you (John 6:54). Which testimony is most evident and most valid against the Pelagians, who, seized by impiety, presume to assert that baptism is to be conferred on infants not for the sake of life, but for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. For under these words of the Lord by which the evangelist pronounces you will not have life in you, every soul empty of the gift of baptism is clearly understood to lack not only glory, but life.

Therefore, that the wine of the Lord's blood is to be mixed with water, the Lord shows not only by tradition but also by the very kind of His passion, from whose sacred side blood and water flowed at the thrust of the lance. As the Prophet long before foretold, saying: "He struck the rock, and waters flowed" (Psalm 77:20). And the Apostle: "They drank," he says, "from the rock that followed them" (1 Corinthians 10:4). You see that whoever has drunk from the grace of Christ, the mercy of Christ follows him. But also in Solomon we read it was predicted concerning Christ Himself: "Wisdom," he says, "built herself a house" (Proverbs 9:1), that is, she assumed a human body, in which the fullness of divinity dwelt. And he added: "She hewed out seven pillars." Because the blessing of the Holy Spirit filled Him with sevenfold grace. "She slaughtered her victims, mixed her wine in the bowl, and set her table." And in the following: "Come, eat of my bread, and drink the wine I have mixed for you." Therefore, we read that wine is mixed with water; now let us inquire into the reason why the Lord wished both to be mixed. When in the wedding feast of the Jews the wine, that is, faith, was failing among them, the wine, I say, was failing, because the vine was denying fruit. Concerning which it is said: "I waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns" (Isaiah 5:2). Whence it also placed a crown of thorns on the head of the Redeemer.

Therefore, when the Lord at the time of the wedding, that is, when the Bridegroom of the Church was to be joined in His paschal exultation, turned the waters into wine, He clearly prefigured that the multitudes of the nations would live by the grace of His blood. For by waters, peoples are signified, as is revealed in the sacred Scriptures. Thus we read: "These waters which you saw are peoples, and nations, and tongues" (Apoc. 17:13). We see that in waters the figure of the nations is shown, but in wine the blood of the Lord's passion is revealed. And so, when in the sacraments wine is mixed with water, the faithful people are incorporated and joined to Christ, and are united to Him by a certain bond of perfect charity, so that they can say with the Apostle: "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation? Or persecution?" and so forth (Rom. 8:35). But God is learned by man through the sanctification undertaken, when faith in the heart itself, the affection for justice, mercy, and piety is infused. Also in this very thing, that we know bread is made from numerous grains of wheat, it is established that the unity of the peoples is signified.

Just as grain, which is prepared by the diligent care of the winnower into a gleaming appearance, is perfected by the labor of millstones, and through water and fire is gathered into the substance of a single loaf, so various peoples and diverse nations, coming together into one faith, form from themselves one body of Christ; and the Christian people, like countless grains of wheat, separated from sacrilegious nations, purified and sifted by faith, are seen to be gathered when they are discerned, and are collected into one, as the tares of the unbelievers pass through, and when, by the instruction of the Testaments, like grain refined by the work of twin millstones, they shine forth, and are changed into that original dignity of native whiteness, and through the water of baptism, as through the fire of the Holy Spirit, become the body of that eternal bread. Just as grains cannot be separated from the union of the bread once made, and just as water mixed with wine can no longer return to its own substance, so also all the faithful and wise, who acknowledge that they have been redeemed by the blood and passion of Christ, ought to be so united, like inseparable members to their head, by faith, conduct, and most ardent religion, that they cannot be separated from Him either by will or by necessity, nor by any ambition of earthly hope, nor finally by any force be torn away.

Let no one doubt that the primary creatures pass by the power of the present majesty’s authority into the nature of the Lord’s body, since he sees that man himself has been made the body of Christ by the artifice of heavenly mercy. Just as anyone coming to faith before the words of baptism is still in the bond of the old debt, but when these words have been recited, he is immediately stripped of every dreg of sin, so when the creatures to be blessed are placed upon the sacred altars with heavenly words, before they are consecrated by the invocation of the highest name, there the substance is bread and wine. But after the words of Christ, it is the body and blood of Christ. But what wonder is it, if that which was able to create by word is able to transform what has been created by word? Indeed, it seems to be a greater miracle if that which is acknowledged to have fashioned from nothing is able to change what has already been fashioned into something better. Consider what could be difficult for Him for whom it was easy to rouse the visible and invisible by the command of His will; for whom it was easy to shape man from the matter of clay and clothe him even with the image of His own divinity; for whom it is ready to recall him from the underworld, to restore him from perdition, to repair him from dust, to raise him from earth to heaven, to make an angel from a man, to render the human body conformed to the body of His own glory, and to exalt His creation into the fellowship of His kingdom. So that He who took up our body of frailty may take us up into the body of His immortality.

May he deign to prepare you for that glorious resurrection through pious works, who reigns for ever and ever. Amen.