Sermones X [Ex Cod Cassinen]. Sanctissimo Domino Nostro Pio Papae VII

TO OUR MOST HOLY LORD POPE PIUS VII.

Most Blessed Father,

Since I plainly see that I must rejoice that it has been granted to me by lot to rescue from the moths certain new Sermons of the divine Aurelius Augustine lying hidden in the manuscripts of this archive-abbey of Cassino, until now inaccessible to the eyes of all, and now for the first time to bring them to light and bestow upon them the enjoyment of light, permit me, I beseech you, Most Blessed Father, to set before you a specimen of them, which indeed I have taken care to produce in advance, and not rashly. This specimen of sermons, I say, I thought should rightly and deservedly be set before Your Beatitude, both because it displays the most precious monuments of that great Doctor and Teacher of the Church, whose excellence of doctrine and a certain divine loftiness has always claimed for itself a stronghold especially in the summit of your Apostolic See, and because those sermons are drawn from that place whence the Benedictine offspring has been propagated, to which Your Holiness was once raised in minor orders, and of which you now exist as both Parent, and Glory, and Protection. Therefore receive them with a more radiant countenance than anyone else, and cherish them, as it were, in a kindlier bosom, providing them with the most present support; lest any place be laid open to detraction and envy: all the more because the Benedictine Family not undeservedly claims for itself that privilege, that through its own alumni especially the works of so great a Doctor may be recognized, illustrated, and published.

Do you therefore nod assent to my vows and undertakings, Most Blessed Father, whom the Christian world has long since revered as its public Parent, and at the same time looks up to and admires as a Maecenas of the sciences and arts and a most beneficent Patron; prostrate at whose most holy feet I most humbly beg the pledge of paternal Benediction for myself and for this my Arch-coenobium and the whole Congregation.

Of Your Holiness

The most humble and most obedient Son

D. Octavius Fraja Frangipane, Monk of Cassino.

Preface of the editor.

As I set about arranging the manuscripts of this Library of Cassino into a new catalogue, weighing them with as fair a balance as I could, both by their subject matter and by the form of their characters and by their ages themselves, nothing ever happened to me more desirable or more auspicious than that I should come upon very many sermons of the great Doctor Augustine, which in the printed Exemplars, even the most approved ones, I perceived to be either wholly missing or intercepted by numerous lacunae. Although I found these ancient, albeit announced, in the Medicean Library together with the Laurentian Leopoldine, in that of St Mark of Venice, and in others, of which printed Catalogues of Manuscript Codices exist; nevertheless I read it noted of each of them in the same place that they are absent from the Edition.

Indeed, I recently found some twenty-five of them brought to light among the Germans in the year by the most distinguished man Michael Denis, Prefect of the Vienna Library; that the rest still lie hidden in darkness I grieved. Bearing it more grievously that light is further begrudged them, I had nothing more at heart than to labor at investigating whatever fragments there might be, from which, to be sure, one or another patch might seem to have been sewn on; for that perverse custom had not escaped me, which had prevailed especially among later ages—namely, of piecing together from Excerpts of the Fathers some one work, as it were a bastard offspring, which they would rashly assign to whomever they wished. I feared, of course, that I might be wasting my effort, or that I might attempt something too bold beyond the diligence in this genre—a care scarcely indeed to be equaled by the most learned Monks of the Congregation of Saint Maurus in their Paris edition; and I rightly also suspected that some slight derogation might seem to have been made by me to the dignity and esteemed excellence of the other far more illustrious libraries.

Accordingly, for a fuller demonstration of the matter, I decided to consult the distinguished men of learning themselves, and those greater than almost any exception, as well as other excellent judges of matters of this kind dwelling in various cities of Italy and joined to me in the familiarity of letters; among whom indeed the chief place is held by the most learned Aloysius Vincentius Cassittus of the Order of Preachers, to whose sagacity and diligence in this matter I bear witness with the greatest honor and gratitude; who indeed all pronounced these sermons (as many, that is, as they had before their eyes) by nearly unanimous judgment to be new, and also to breathe the Augustinian manner of speaking; nay, I confess that by them goads were added to me to make them public as soon as possible. Unable, by heaven, to struggle longer against the goads and wishes of these most weighty men, and trusting that I would deserve well of the Republic of Letters, I complied with them; and I resolved that this must be guarded against by me, which we know is guarded against by every best man, that I should not dare anything false, nor not dare anything true.

And indeed, it was not some ill-advised eagerness to hunt after celebrity, nor a headlong lust for passing judgment, nor finally any deference toward a great Doctor that made me claim those sermons for Augustine; but since I was supported by the other aids of approved criticism, and above all relied on the one surety of the manuscripts, which I observed to agree exactly with the printed copies in all other respects, why should I not have acquiesced in their authority? But if perchance some are found who, whether because of the so-called dissonance of style, or the triviality of their arguments, or any other cause whatsoever, seem not sufficiently worthy of the name of so great a Doctor, and who therefore appear either to be expunged as apocryphal or to be set aside among the doubtful, I do not wait upon the judgment of the more prudent; and I would very much wish them to be furnished with lynx-eyed vision, which even Verlinus himself and Vindingus might envy.

But whether a sufficiently certain argument for determining an author is chiefly drawn from style—here the water sticks. I would say it is truly very hard and exceedingly difficult, other things being equal; and let this serve as an example. In the Homiliary of Father Co(??)befisius there is a sermon, "Hodie verus sol" (T. I, p. 519), which he himself reports has been assigned to Origen, whereas Father Bruni claims it for the divine Maximus, (??). 413; Vallarsius thinks it should be set aside among the apocrypha of Jerome; but the Laurentian Library, in Bandinius, reckons it to the divine Ambrose. Does the style of the Fathers, like a Proteus, fashion itself into new and various shapes?

Even the style of Augustine himself—how greatly and for how many reasons it is varied and manifold—the Editors, themselves monks, set forth vividly in the Preface to the fifth Volume; who at the same time, most learnedly, as is their custom, persuade that there is one and the same spirit of Augustine in all things, by which, as it were, his style is animated. For everywhere, they say, Augustine is recognized by a certain kind of grave and serious eloquence peculiar to him, which subjects the minds of readers to itself, not by the charm of polished and affected diction, but by a certain efficacy of judgment, prudence, and piety.

Nor should I think that this ought to be passed over here: that the very phrases, and the very sentences, and almost the very periods, which occur somewhere in Augustine, are repeatedly found here and there even in these new sermons. Yet take care lest from this you call them patchwork and of doubtful authenticity; for the aforesaid Editors have very often discovered this very thing even in the genuine offspring of Augustine, and it is everywhere evident to those who read Augustine, especially in the books On the City of God. But that some things are present in some sermons which are also present elsewhere is far different from sermons being stitched together from his words. And who would deny that the holy Doctor, pouring forth nearly countless sermons either extempore or committing them to writing, could very easily sometimes express the same thoughts in the same words?

But if anyone should inquire more curiously how it came about that those most learned monks nowhere mentioned these sermons, may I too ask how it could ever have happened that they should have mentioned them, when they did not even greet the Cassinese Codices themselves from the threshold in adorning the edition of Augustine? And this is especially clear from the fact that among all the manuscripts individually reviewed and diligently collated by them, ours are passed over in complete silence. Nor should you therefore accuse them of having been neglected for that reason, as being either of less approved faith or altogether counted in no number as apocryphal; for they would at least have added the Homilies reckoned among the apocrypha, as is easy to gather from the threefold class of sermons established among them; which, indeed, those most upright Editors chose to divide into authentic, doubtful, and apocryphal.

If, moreover, a desire has come upon anyone to discern more thoroughly for what reason above all no account of the Cassinese Library was had in that edition, this could have happened either because it was of less celebrated fame among the French before Mabillon, Montfaucon, and other men of this bench attempted to bestow their honor upon it, or because the wars pressing in from all sides, which at that time, namely in the age of Louis the Great, Most Christian King, were wearying almost all of Europe, took away the freedom of communicating, and perhaps even hindered the very distribution of letters.

But if you hang this on a hooked nose, I would plainly and with no difficulty prove from the catalogue of the Codices which they collated that their purpose was to consult, out of all the Italian libraries, only the Vatican, and also that of S. Croce in Jerusalem in the City, all the rest being set aside, even the most noble Medicean library itself.

But that Mabillon himself, Montfaucon, and the others who so very often busied themselves among us in expiating the monuments of letters and antiquity, so far as these Homilies are concerned, appeared almost blind, I would neither deny nor wonder at. For since those most learned guests came hither after the Parisian Edition had already been adorned, they thought it no labor worth undertaking to attend more earnestly to these Sermons, which they easily judged to have been bestowed together with all the rest. Indeed, one may deservedly suspect that the Codices themselves, as being of a later age, were by no means shown to them in preference to far more remote ages; or finally, what is much more likely, that time failed them to weigh each one of our Codices, in number indeed above five hundred. And this is clearly evident from the example of Montfaucon himself, who in reviewing all the Codices both of the other libraries and of Cassino enumerates them, any particular analysis being excluded. What then, that by him in the Library of the Monastery of SS. Severino and Sosio at Naples a Codex of St. Benedict is listed among the others and described as Num. 7, yet concerning that treasure he brings forth neither new things nor old?

A codex, I say, at that time assigned to that monastery, now for very many years attached to the Viennese Library, whence, namely, the aforementioned most perspicacious Denis happily brought forth new sermons of Augustine; in which matter, by Hercules, he begrudged us this glory not so many years before, yet he seems to have paved the way for confirming the authenticity of our codices.

But in order to review the whole matter with a second revision, and that, according to Horace's precept, the work be held back until the ninth year, I am resolved for the present to publish in print only ten of these sermons (of which it has been granted to discover several) as a sample; and all the more because it would not be permissible to frustrate the public's hope any further, lest anyone justly mutter against us: "If only the fortunate knew their own blessings." But I have deemed it fitting to fortify them with modest and indeed most necessary annotations and observations, as also it is worth noting in advance that they come from parchment codices, and for the most part of the tenth and eleventh century, displaying Lombard characters, furthermore according to the model of those which Mabillon exhibits in his De Re Diplomatica, Tom. I, Num. 4, from the Chisian Codex marked Num. 1521, and Num. 5, from the Medicean Laurentian Codex; which the same P. Bruni also notes in the Roman Edition of St. Maximus; which Trombellius also cites in his Art of Distinguishing the Age of Latin and Italian Codices, page 79, which finally also P.

Blasius mentions him in the series of Princes who ruled Salerno in the age of the Lombards, Table III, No. III. Although these most diligent Masters of Diplomatics have prescribed no date for all these codices, since Lombard characters long prevailed, yet when they are compared with the Cassinese ones—especially with the one marked on the outside as No. 148, but on the inside bearing the year one thousand and ten—scarcely can one be distinguished from the other. This suggests more than enough that all codices displaying the same characters must be assigned only to the tenth or eleventh century.

Moreover, just as very many works of Augustin are contained in these Cassinese codices, so too it was possible to distinguish a twofold class of sermons. The first restores to their integrity those published in print already but mutilated and imperfect, and patches their fragments and lacunae, for restoring which the Maurist Editors would have wished for more complete exemplars. For so, annotating the sermon on the Nativity of the Lord (??), which also appears here in the fourth place, they lament: There are also certain other passages, perhaps less complete; but for healing them we lack the necessary exemplars. The second class summons from darkness sermons which both Possidius in his Little Index and other equally certain indications drawn from the rules of sound criticism establish as having been composed by Augustin, yet which, having been lost, left only vows of attaining them.

A specimen of these classes is to be found in these ten Homilies, of which the first four are assigned to the former class, the last six to the second. As for the rest, it is helpful to give advance warning that these codices are plainly the same as those read as written by the order of Theobald and Desiderius, Abbots of Monte Cassino, the latter of whom, having afterwards taken the name of Victor III, held the helm of the Church and deserved to be enrolled in the register of the Saints. Of this matter, indeed, Leo of Ostia is a weighty witness (Book 2 of the Chronicle, ch. 51, and Book 3, ch. 63), who is said in Baronius to be of the most honest fidelity, and who names individual codices, although several have perished through the injury of time, the library of Monte Cassino having been plundered more than once. The form of the characters, and the very age noted on some of them by the same hand, seem to establish the matter.

Those codices, however, although in the most elegant form of characters and the most splendid ornament of the largest letters they have nothing to be preferred before them, are nevertheless not written with sufficient accuracy. For although the copyist himself, or anyone else nearly his equal, corrected errors, now by interlinear writing, now by noting at the margin, now by erasing letters, yet not rarely either through neglect of words the sense of the phrase is cut off, or it is stained by a fault or a solecism. In emending these, I was permitted to go so far as to attain the genuine reading from the collation of the codices with one another.

However, in the sermons already published by the Parisians, but restored by the authority of our manuscripts, so that it may be more easily distinguished what is now being made public for the first time, it has seemed good to indicate this same thing by the letters which they call Italic; and carefully to annotate with appropriate observations whatever the Parisian Edition either reads differently or supplies to the reading of our manuscripts; and the things which come up for annotation, as we have said, are either placed at the beginning of the sermons or deferred to the margin of the page. For it was of very great importance to consult, as far as possible, the clarity and dignity of these sermons; nor has moderate diligence been applied to this.

But whether I have succeeded in my undertakings according to my intention, let it be for the judgment of a stricter Censorship: which I could wish might neither vex the Doves, to speak with Juvenal, nor give indulgence to the Crows!

We, D. Stephen Alessandri,

Abbot of Saint Benedict of Sublacum, Procurator General, and Apostolic Delegate of the Casinese Congregation.

Since D. Octavianus Fraja Frangipane, monk of Our Congregation and Keeper of the Archives and Library in the ancient monastery of Saint Benedict of Monte Cassino, has made it clear to Us that he has found the following ten sermons written in the manuscript codices preserved in the aforesaid Archive, attributed to the holy Doctor Augustine, by the tenor of these presents, as far as it concerns Us, we grant him in the Lord the faculty of making them public.

Given at Rome, from the residence of Saint Callixtus, on the 6th day of December 1819.

D. Stephanus Alessandri, Abbot Procurator General and Apostolic Delegate.

D. Aloysius Belmonte, Pro-Chancellor.

THE TEN SERMONS OF SAINT AURELIUS AUGUSTINE, BISHOP OF HIPPO, NEWLY EDITED FROM THE CASSINESE CODEX.

SERMON I.

On the ten plagues and the ten precepts which were given to the people of the Jews through Moses.

[In a certain place of the Scriptures it has been said in praise of the Lord our God, whose worshippers we are: You have ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight (Wis. 11:21). Then we are taught by apostolic doctrine to perceive the things that are made as things understood, and to investigate the things that lie hidden through things that are manifest (Rom. 1:20). Hence creation, as it were questioned everywhere, answers by the very voice of its own form that it has the Lord God as its maker. Then the Apostle Paul recalls that the things written in the books of the Old Testament happened in figure: But they were written, he says, for our correction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Cor. 10:11).

Accordingly, most beloved, those things which appear in the nature of things to happen by chance, when carefully questioned and examined, prudently investigated and discovered, proclaim praise of the Creator, and of the divine Providence diffused through all things and disposing all things sweetly, as it is said, since He reaches from end to end mightily (Wis. 8:1). How much more those things which not only favored but are also commended and recited in the divine Letters? Whence the question proposed to us by the brethren—indeed the inquiry and disputation—as to what it means that the Egyptians are struck by ten plagues and the people of God is instructed by ten precepts, we undertake in the name of the Lord our God, with His help and gift, with the pious intention of your heart coming together with us, to explain as far as we are able. For we judge that this very help, if not for our sake, certainly for yours, is given so that we may say plainly what I have learned, and be heard as He is, so that walking together in the way of His truth and hastening together to the fatherland, we may deserve to avoid the ambushers of our journey by recognizing the will of the law. Ten are the plagues by which the people of Pharaoh was struck; ten are the precepts by which the people of God was instructed. Let us see, therefore, brethren, how the things done corporally are to be understood spiritually.

For we do not deny that they were done, so as to think they were only spoken and written, not done; but we believe they were done just as we read they were done, and yet we recognize by apostolic teaching that those very deeds were a shadow of things to come. We think, therefore, that what was done should be investigated spiritually, yet that it was truly done. Let no one therefore say: It is written indeed that water was turned into blood in the plague of the Egyptians, but it signifies something; for it could not really have happened. Whoever says this seeks the will of God in such a way as to do injury to the power of God. For if he could signify by speaking, could he not also by doing? Was Isaac not born, or was Ishmael not? They were born, they were men, they were born of Abraham, and one from a slave woman, the other from a free woman (Gal. 4:22). Although therefore they were men, although they were born, they nevertheless prefigured the two Testaments, the Old and the New. So, with the firmness of the deeds having been placed first as a foundation, we ought to inquire into the things that signify, lest, the foundation having been removed, we seem to wish to build in the air. For I think that all who despise the ten precepts of the law and do not observe them suffer spiritually those things which the Egyptians suffered bodily. Until I explain this proposal with the help of God, I want you to be attentive and praying for us, that we may speak to you. For what pertains to us perhaps we think, but what we speak we serve with vows.

Receive this first, then, so that you are not mistaken in the count: that what was first done as a sign—that the rod was turned into a serpent—does not belong to these ten plagues. For this was the approach to Pharaoh, by which Moses was commended as the one who would lead God's people out of Egypt (Exod. 7:10); but they were not yet being struck as the stubborn, but were already being terrified by a divine sign. [Neither is it necessary nor is it our purpose to say anything about that rod itself turned into a serpent. Nevertheless, because we have mentioned it out of necessity, lest anyone err in the count, and no scruple of an uncomprehended matter ought to remain in any hearer's mind, we say briefly:] the rods signify the kingdom of God, and that kingdom is certainly the people of God; but the serpent signifies the time of this mortality; for death was brought forth from the serpent. As if, then, falling from the hand of the Lord onto the earth, they became mortal; whence the rod cast from Moses' hand was made a serpent. The magicians did likewise: their rods cast down became serpents. But first Moses' serpent, that is, Moses' rod, devoured all the serpents of the magicians; then at last, its tail seized, it was made a rod again, and the kingdom returned to the hand. For the rods of the magicians are the peoples of the impious. But which peoples of the impious? Those conquered by the name of Christ; when they are transferred into his body, they are, as it were, devoured by Moses' serpent: until we return to the kingdom of God, but at the end of this mortal age.

Let what signifies the serpent's tail become a great sign. You have heard what you ought to desire; hear what you ought to avoid.

The first commandment in the Law concerns the worship of the one God: "You shall not have," it says, "other gods besides me" (Exod. 20:3). The first plague of the Egyptians was water turned into blood (ibid. 7:20).

Compare the first commandment with the first plague. Understand the one God, from whom are all things, as signifying water, from which all things are generated. But to what does blood pertain, if not to mortal flesh? What then is the conversion of water into blood, if not that "the foolish heart of them was darkened? For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man." The incorruptible glory of God is like water; the likeness of the image of corruptible man is like blood. And this indeed takes place in the heart of the wicked, for God remains unchangeable; nor is God changed because the Apostle said, "They changed.

The second commandment: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for he who takes the name of the Lord God in vain shall not be cleansed (Ibid. xx, 7). The name of the Lord our God, Jesus Christ, is truth, for he himself said: I am the truth (John xiv, 6). Truth therefore cleanses, but vanity defiles. And since he who speaks the truth speaks from the truth of God—for he who speaks a lie speaks from his own (Ibid. viii, 44)—to speak the truth is to speak rationally; to speak vanity is to make a din rather than to speak. Justly so, because the second commandment is the love of truth, to which is opposed the love of vanity. Now truth speaks, but vanity is through din. You see that the second plague is contrary to this second commandment. What is that second plague? An abundance of frogs. You have vanity expressly and significantly set forth, if you attend to the loquacity of frogs. See the lovers of truth, not taking the name of the Lord their God in vain, speaking wisdom among the perfect, and even among the imperfect; not indeed speaking what they cannot grasp, yet not departing from the truth and proceeding into vanity. Although the imperfect do not grasp it if something is disputed a little too loftily concerning the Word of God, God with God, through whom all things were made, they can grasp what Paul speaks among them as among the little children of Christ: Jesus Christ, and him crucified; yet that is not truth and this vanity.

But it would be vanity if Christ had not fulfilled death, but we were to say that he had feigned it. If those wounds had been in a phantom, if not true blood but a simulated blood had flowed from the wounds, if he had shown false scars as though after false wounds. But when we say that all these things were done, we say things certain, express, and fulfilled; we believe and we preach them. Although we do not speak of that sublime and unchangeable truth of his, nevertheless we do not go into vanity. But those who say that all these things in Christ were false and simulated are frogs croaking in the marsh. They can have the noise of a voice, but they cannot instill the doctrine of wisdom. Finally, in the Church they speak, clinging to the truth—the truth through whom all things were made, the truth, the Word made flesh and dwelling in us, the Truth, Christ born God from God, one from one, Only-begotten and Coeternal, the Truth, having taken the form of a servant, born of the Virgin Mary, having suffered, been crucified, rising again, ascending, truth everywhere, and the truth which a little child cannot grasp, truth both in bread and in milk—in the bread of the great, in the milk of the little ones. For the same bread, in order that it may become milk, is passed through the flesh. But those who contradict this truth, and, deceived in their own vanity, deceive others, are frogs, offering weariness to the ears, not food to the minds.

Finally, hear men speaking reasonably: Their sound, he says, has gone forth, and there are no speeches or words whose voices are not heard; but the voices are not empty, because Their sound has gone forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Ps. 18:4-5). But if you wish to understand the frogs in the opposite sense, recall that verse of the Psalm: Everyone has spoken vain things to his neighbor (Ps. 11:3).

The third commandment: Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day (Exod. 20:8). In this third commandment a certain proclamation of rest is suggested, which is the tranquility of the heart and mind that a good conscience produces. There is sanctification, because there is the Spirit of God. Finally, see the rest, that is, the quiet: Upon whom, he says, does my Spirit rest, except upon the humble, and quiet, and trembling at my words (Isa. 66:2). The restless, therefore, recoil from the Holy Spirit—lovers of quarrels, sowers of calumnies, more desirous of contention than of truth—and by their restlessness they do not admit the spiritual rest of the Sabbath. Against the restlessness of these it is said, so that they may have the Sabbath in their heart, the sanctification of the Spirit of God: Be gentle in hearing the word, so that you may understand. What am I to understand?

God saying: Cease from your restlessness, let there not be a certain tumult in your heart, through corruption with phantasms flitting about and pricking you; let it not be so, for you are to understand God saying to you: Be at leisure and know that I am God (Ps. 45:11). You do not wish to be at leisure because of restlessness, and blinded by the corruption of your contentions you demand to see what you cannot.

Pay attention, then, and note the third plague, contrary to this third commandment: the Ciniphes were born in the land of Egypt from the mud, certain tiny flies, most restless, flying about in disorder, rushing into the eyes, not permitting a man to rest, while they are driven off and rush in, while once driven away they return again, just like the wholly vain phantasms of the heart of the contentious. Keep the commandment, beware the plague.

The fourth commandment is: Honor your father and your mother (Exod. 20:12). Contrary to this is the fourth plague of the Egyptians, the Cynomyia. What is the Cynomyia? The Cynomyia is the dog-fly; it is a Greek word. It is dog-like not to acknowledge one's parents; yet nothing is so dog-like as when those who begot them are not acknowledged: deservedly, therefore, even the puppies of dogs are born blind.

The fifth commandment is: You shall not commit adultery (Ibid. 14). The fifth plague is Death of the livestock of the Egyptians (Id. ix, 6). Let us compare. Take a man committing adultery, not content with his own marriage; he is unwilling to tame in himself a certain appetite of the flesh, which is common to us and to the beasts. For to lie together and to beget is even the way of swine; but to understand is the way of humans. Therefore reason, which presides in the mind over the lower motions of the flesh, as it were reigning and ruling, ought to bridle them; not to loose them immoderately and unlawfully, everywhere and in random wandering. And for this reason it has been given by nature to the beasts themselves, by the institution of the Creator, that they are not moved toward females and toward intercourse except at fixed times; for the beast does not restrain itself by reason at another time, but rather, with the motion itself growing cold, it becomes torpid. But a human can therefore always be moved, because he can also bridle the motion. To you the Creator has given the dominion of reason, to you he has granted the precepts of continence, as reins, so to speak, upon the lower beasts. You hold what the beast does not have, and therefore you hope for what the beast cannot. You labor somewhat by restraining, which the beast does not labor at; but you will rejoice forever in that which the beast does not attain. If the work wearies you, let the reward console you; for it is itself patience to bridle the interior motion, and not, like a beast, to loose unto all things what you have in common with the beast.

But if you despise yourself in yourself, and, overcome by the desire of beasts, neglect the image of God in which he made you, you will be as a beast, as though the man in you were lost; not as though you were changed into the nature of a beast, but, having in the form of a man the likeness of a beast, you who do not hear the one saying: Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding (Ps. 31:9). And perhaps you choose to be a beast for yourself, and to wander freely in lust, restraining the appetite of the flesh by no law unto continence: attend to the plague; if you do not fear to be a beast, at least fear to die like a beast.

The sixth commandment: You shall not kill (Exod. 20:13); the sixth plague: Boils on the body, and blisters boiling up and breaking out, and burnings of wounds from the ashes of the furnace (Ibid. 9:10). Such are murderous souls, burning with anger, because through anger brotherhood perishes in murder. Men burn with wrath, they burn also with grace. But one is the heat of health, another the heat of an ulcer. Boils burning over the whole body seethe with murders conceived, and that is not sound which burns. It burns, but not from the Spirit of God. For both he who wishes to help burns, and he who wishes to kill burns; the one by precept, the other by disease; the one in good works, the other in festering ulcers. For if we could see the souls of murderers, we would mourn more than over the rotting bodies of the ulcerated.

The seventh commandment follows: You shall not steal (Exod. 20:15). The seventh plague is hail upon the fruits (ibid. 9:23). What you steal contrary to the commandment, you lose from heaven; for no one has an unjust gain without a just loss. For example, he steals who steals a garment and gains it, but by heavenly judgment he loses the faith. Where there is gain, there is loss. Visibly a gain, invisibly a loss. Gain from his own blindness, loss from the Lord's cloud. Nor is anything without providence, dearest ones. Or do you truly think that the things which men suffer are suffered while God sleeps? These things are seen to happen everywhere: clouds gather, rains pour down, hail is hurled, thunder shakes the earth, lightning terrifies; they are thought to happen everywhere, and as though they did not pertain to divine Providence. Against such thoughts that Psalm keeps watch: Praise the Lord from the earth (when praises had been spoken from heaven), you dragons and all you deeps, fire, hail, snow, ice, stormy winds, which do his word (Ps. 148:7-8). Therefore those who steal outwardly by their evil desire are, by the just judgment of God, hailed upon inwardly. Oh! if they could look into the field of their own heart, they would surely mourn, since they would find nothing there to put into the mouth of the mind, even if in their theft they found something to put into the greed of the belly. Greater is the hunger of the inner man, greater is the hunger, and more dangerous the plague, and graver the death; many dead men walk about, and many starving men exult over vain riches.

Finally, Scripture calls the servant of God rich within; it says: The hidden man of your heart, who is rich before God. Not rich before men, but before God—rich where God is. See, you are rich for yourself; what then does it profit you? Where man does not see, you steal; and where God sees, you are struck by hail.

The eighth commandment: You shall not bear false witness (Exod. 20:16). The eighth plague: locusts, an animal harmful with its teeth (ibid. 10:13). For what does a false witness intend but to harm by biting and to consume by lying? Finally, the Apostle, warning the men of God not to attack one another with false accusations, says: If you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed by one another (Gal. 5:15).

The ninth commandment: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife (Exod. 20:17). The ninth plague: thick darkness (ibid. 10:22). For there is a certain adultery against which the commandment was given above, even in not desiring the chastity of another's wife. For he is an adulterer even who does not go to another's wife, merely because he is not content with his own. But indeed not only to sin after one's own wife, but even to attempt another's—these are truly thick darkness. For nothing grieves so in the heart of the one who suffers, and he who does this to another would wish to suffer nothing of the kind. Every man is more ready for other things, but this—I do not know whether anyone has been found who would bear it tolerably. O thick darkness of those who do these things, who desire such things! Truly they are blinded by a terrible frenzy, for it is an untamed frenzy to defile a man's wife.

XIII. The tenth commandment is: You shall not covet any thing of your neighbor, not his cattle, not his possession, not his slave, you shall not covet anything at all of your neighbor (Exod. 20:17). The tenth plague is the opposite of this evil: The death of the firstborn (ibid. 12:29). In this plague, when I seek some comparison, nothing occurs to me for the moment; perhaps it may occur better and to those who inquire more diligently, except that all the things men have they keep for heirs. But here the one who covets his neighbor's thing is reproved; for he also covets who takes it by theft: and he who steals something of his neighbor cannot steal his neighbor's thing except by coveting it. But the commandment about theft was already given above, so that you may understand robbery there as well. For Scripture would not have given a commandment about theft and kept silent about robbery, unless it wished you to understand that if it is punishable to take away secretly, it is of much greater punishment to seize by force. To take away from one unwilling, whether secretly or openly, has its own commandment. But to covet your neighbor's thing, which God notes in the heart, is not permitted even if you seek a just succession there. Finally, those who wish to possess others' things as if justly seek to become heirs of the dying. For what seems so just as to possess a thing left to oneself, to have it by common right? What does a man do in your regard? It was left to me; I have obtained the inheritance; I read the will. Nothing seems more just than that voice of avarice. You: you hold it justly; and you praise him as one possessing by right.

God condemns the one who covets unjustly. See what sort of person you are, you who wish to be made someone's heir: you do not want him to have heirs. Among heirs nothing is dearer than the firstborn; therefore you are punished in your firstborn, you who by coveting another's goods seek, as it were, the shadow of a right to that which was not owed to you by right. And indeed, brothers, it is easy to lose firstborn children in the body; for men die whether before their parents or after their parents; those who are to die, die. What is troublesome is this: that through this hidden and unjust covetousness you lose the firstborn of your heart. For the firstborn in us bears the image of God's grace: the firstborn among all our children, as it were, is faith, the firstborn of our heart. For no one does good works unless faith has gone before, as the Apostle says: Without faith, he says, it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). All your good works are your spiritual sons, but among them faith is firstborn to you. Whoever therefore secretly covets another's property loses the faith within. For you will undoubtedly be first a pretender, compliant not out of charity but out of deceit; as if loving the man whose heir you wish to become: by loving him while you seek his death, and so that you may see yourself as possessor of his property, you begrudge him a successor.

Come, brothers, having run through the ten commandments and the ten plagues, comparing the despisers of the commandments to the contumacy of the Egyptians, we have made you cautious, so that you may keep your possessions secure in the commandments of God—your possessions, I say, your possessions that are inner, within your ark, within your treasury; your possessions, which neither thief nor robber nor a powerful neighbor can take from you, where neither moth nor rust is to be feared, with which the shipwrecked man came safely through. For thus you will also be a people of God among the wicked Egyptians, while they endure these things in their heart, but you remain unharmed in your inner selves, until the people is led out of Egypt by a certain Exodus, which also is happening; for that was done once, but this does not cease to be done.

For if we pay attention, we also despoil the Egyptians. Nor was that done without a mystery, in the way that men of lesser understanding dare here to accuse God, because he commanded gold and silver and garments to be sought from the Egyptians; these things were given, and taken away. These would be thieves, unless they had done it at God's command. Let your Charity attend: thieves, I say, they would be, unless they had done it at God's command; but because they did it at God's command, they were not thieves. You no longer accuse them; you are ready to accuse God himself. It belonged to them to obey; the counsel of the one commanding was with God, who knows what each one ought to suffer, and who, what, and by what merit he suffers.

It would have been a most manifest and deadly parricide for Abraham if he had struck down his son of his own accord; in this one respect alone he acted laudably, because he was obeying God who commanded, and what would have been cruelty in a spontaneous will became piety when done under God's command (Gen. 22).

[I wish to say something about the Acts of the Apostles. When Peter had been shut up in prison, the Angel of salvation came to him, who ordered him to go out from the chains on his hands (Acts 12). Having gone out, he followed the Angel; he was freed from prison by the Lord's command, by God's authority. The next day the judge sought him to hear him; he learned that he had gone away, and ordered the prison guards to be brought before him: the soldiers, I say, he ordered to be brought in for questioning; he passed sentence upon them, the law, as it seemed to him, unless they should find Peter. What do you say? Was Peter the cause of their death? Would he not have been perversely pious if he had contradicted the will of God, and said to the Angel commanding him to go out: I will not go out, lest on account of me wretched men, the prison guards, should die? It would be answered to him: Leave these things to the Creator; because you are not the craftsman who makes a man be born, you cannot be the judge of how he should die: for no one dies except whom God wills. The counsel of death is left to the judge by God, but nevertheless the desire of the murderer is condemned. For here one must not attend to what God has judged, but to what the evil people have thought.

For Judas handed over the Son of God to suffering, and through the suffering of the Son of God all nations were redeemed unto salvation; yet no reward was given to Judas for the salvation of the nations, but the punishment he deserved was repaid for his malice. For if the handing over of Christ is to be considered, and not the intention of the one handing him over, then Judas did what God the Father did, of whom it is written: He who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all (Rom 8:31). Judas did what our Lord Christ himself did, of whom it is written: Who handed himself over for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God as a sweet fragrance; and again: Thus Christ, it says, loved the Church and handed himself over for her, that he might sanctify her (Eph 5:25). And yet we give thanks to God the Father, who did not spare his only Son, but handed him over for us all. We give thanks to the Son of God himself, who handed himself over for us, and in doing so fulfilled the will of the Father. And we detest Judas, from whose deed God brought about so great a benefit, and rightly we say: The Lord has repaid him according to his iniquity, and according to his malice he has destroyed him (Ps 93:25). For he did not hand over Christ for us, but for the silver by which he sold him, although the selling of Christ is our redemption.

Let no one, therefore, brothers—let no one question God. It is proud, it is impious, it is foolish. Rein in your desires, do nothing with a wicked mind, be ready to obey, do no harm. Thus they acted, and God acted. If they had committed theft, perhaps God had even so willed that Christ suffer, since He permitted those who acted to act; yet He would have preserved punishment for the thieves, and would have exacted some temporal vengeance from those who suffered the theft. But as it is, they did not do it of their own accord; God willed it to be done by His just judgment. For if you weigh the case, perhaps they did not carry off another's gold, but exacted what was owed. Unjustly oppressed while they made bricks in Egypt, they did not depart without wages in return for the hard labors of slavery, and yet God brought this about for some certain reason. If we are, like the people of Israel in Egypt, in this world—surely I dare to say to you, for I think that I speak to you by the Spirit of God—take the gold, the silver, and the garments from the Egyptians. Their gold is their wise men, their silver their eloquent men, their garments the variety of their tongues. Do we not see all these things in the Church? Does not the Church do this daily? How many wise men in the world believe in Christ? The gold has been taken from the Egyptians. The saint whose table this is called was once either the gold or the silver of the Egyptians. But the garments of the Egyptians, with which in a certain manner their thoughts are clothed, are their various tongues.

You see them migrating from Egypt to the people of God: for there are no speeches nor words whose voices are not heard (Id. xviii, 4). Here is the gold, here the silver of the Egyptians, and we depart seeing, and we carry our wages; for not without cause did we labor in the mud of Egypt. Thus all things, brothers—whether those which can be expounded by us, or those which cannot yet, or those which you are able to understand, or those which you cannot yet, or in this manner in which they have been spoken by us, or in another better manner—believe altogether, because All these things then happened to them in figure, but they were written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come (Cor. x). Therefore should I not be attentive to these things? And you, whoever you are, a spiritual Christian, should we not be attentive, and should we say it was done without cause that the magicians of Pharaoh failed at the third plague? Would I seek nothing here, would I think it was done or written in vain? The magicians of Pharaoh do against Moses—serpents from rods, blood from water, they make frogs, they do these things. They come to the third plague, that is, to those flies which are called Ciniphes, and there they fail—those who made serpents, those who made frogs fail, they fail at the flies. It is not at all, it is not without cause. Knock with me. This third plague—to what is it contrary? To the third commandment of God, where the people is commanded concerning the Sabbath, where rest is proclaimed, where sanctification is commended. For there it is said: Remember to sanctify the day of the Sabbath.

Finally, even in the first works of the world God made the day, made heaven, earth, sea, the luminaries, the stars, the animals from the waters, and from the earth man in his own image. He makes all these things, and nowhere does anything sound as sanctified. These things are accomplished in six days; the seventh day of God's rest is sanctified: he does not sanctify the works, he sanctifies the rest (Gen. ii, 3). What are we to say? Just as for us, when we labor, leisure is often sweeter than work, do we suppose it is so with God too? We ought not to think this, nor that he made things by laboring and did not create by commanding. God said: Let it be made, and it was made. By making in this way, not even man himself would labor. But in that day a certain rest from all our works was commended to us, so that after our good works we might understand that we shall rest without end. For all the days there have an evening; the seventh has none; for we work with an end, we rest without an end. There the sanctification sounds with some great mystery, pertaining to the Holy Spirit. But as I say this, brothers—brothers, receive it with indulgence, I beseech you, as those inquiring rather into what I am attempting than into what I am explaining—I know whom I speak of, and what I speak to you: a man speaks of divine things to men (Isai. lxvi, 25). Behold, strive with me, labor with me, that you may rest with me, as much as the Lord grants, as much as he opens, as much as he signifies, as much as Wisdom herself hints at, showing herself to her lovers in the ways cheerfully, and meeting them in all providence.

The day of the Sabbath is sanctified, the rest of God. There the word sanctification first sounds—as far as it seems to me, as far as you also recognize, and as far as we believe. There is no divine and true sanctification except from the Holy Spirit. For it is not without reason that he is properly called the Holy Spirit, although the Father is holy and the Son is holy; yet the Spirit received this name as his own, so that the third Person in the Trinity should be called the Holy Spirit. He himself rests upon the humble and quiet man as in his own Sabbath. It is for this reason that the number seven is also assigned to the Holy Spirit. Our Scriptures indicate this sufficiently; let better men see better things, and greater men greater things, and let them say and explain something more subtle and more divine about this sevenfold number. I, however, see that which is enough for the present, and I remind you to see it: that this sevenfold reckoning of number is properly assigned to the Holy Spirit, because on the seventh day sanctification sounds forth. And how do we prove that the sevenfold numbering is assigned to the Holy Spirit? Isaiah says that the Spirit of God comes upon the faithful man, upon the Christian, upon a member of Christ: the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge and piety, the Spirit of the fear of God. If you have followed, I have run through seven things, as it were the Spirit of God descending to us from wisdom all the way to fear, so that we may ascend from fear to wisdom. For the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

Thus, then, both the sevenfold spirit and the one spirit are one by a sevenfold reckoning. Do you wish for something clearer? Holy Scripture commemorates the day of Pentecost as a feast made from weeks. You have it in the Scripture of Tobit, where it is even clearly said that this feast is from weeks. For seven times seven return to a sum of forty-nine; but as it were so that it may return to the head; for by the Holy Spirit we are gathered to unity, not scattered from unity; therefore to forty-nine one is added, the honor of unity, and they become fifty. Not, therefore, without cause did the Holy Spirit come on the fiftieth day through the Ascension of the Lord. The Lord rises, ascends from the dead, not yet into heaven. From that resurrection, from that assumption from the dead, fifty days are counted, and the Holy Spirit comes in the number fifty, as it were making a birthday for himself among us. For forty days the Lord conversed here with his disciples, on the fortieth day he ascended into heaven, and when ten days had been completed there, as it were the signs of the ten commandments, the Holy Spirit came, because no one fulfills the law except through the grace of the Holy Spirit. And so, brothers, it is manifest that this sevenfold number pertains to the Holy Spirit. But whoever does not cleave to the unity of Christ and barks against the unity of Christ is to be understood as not having the Holy Spirit.

For contentions and dissensions and divisions produce only animal men, of whom the Apostle says: But the animal man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:14). Then it is also written in the Epistle of the apostle Jude: These are they who separate themselves, animal, not having the Spirit. What is clearer, what is more evident? Rightly do they come, even if believing the same things as we do, yet they are to receive the Holy Spirit, whom they cannot have as long as they are enemies of unity. But the Apostle compares these to the magicians of Pharaoh: Having, he says, a form of godliness, but denying its power (2 Tim 3:5 and following). By having a form of godliness they did similar things, but by denying its power they failed at the third sign.

[But still, seek with me why at the third sign? For they would have failed at the second, they would have failed at the fourth; what difference does it make where those who were going to fail would fail? Why, then, at the third? But first see what I promised, whether the apostle Paul compared heretics to those magicians. Having, he says, a form of godliness, but denying its power, and avoid these. From these are those who creep into houses and lead captive little women burdened with sins, who are led by various desires, always learning and never arriving at the knowledge of the truth. For they always hear the testimony concerning the catholic Church, and they refuse to come to the catholic Church.]

Always saying—for they do not always hear: In your seed all nations shall be blessed (Gen 22:18); they do not always hear: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession (Ps 2:8); they do not always hear: All the kindreds of the nations were mindful, and turned to the Lord (Ps 22:27); they do not always hear: He shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth (Ps 72:8). These things they always hear, always learning, and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. See now what I promised. What does the Apostle go on to say? But as Jannes and Mambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth; men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the faith. What then? But they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest to all men, as theirs also was (2 Tim 3:8-9). Now see why they failed at the third sign. Remember that those who oppose unity do not have the Holy Spirit. But those first three commandments in the Decalogue are understood to pertain to the love of God, so that the remaining seven are understood to pertain to the love of neighbor; so that in the two tablets of the law and the ten commandments, those two commandments are held as it were summary commandments. You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

In these two commandments the whole law hangs, and the Prophets (Matt 22:37-38). Let us therefore refer the first three commandments to the love of God. What are these first three? The first: You shall have no other gods besides me; to which the contrary plague is that of water turned into blood, because the supreme beginning of the Creator was brought to the imitation of human flesh. The second commandment: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. This pertains, as I judge, to the Word of God, which is the Son of God. For there is one God, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things (Rom 11:36). Against the Word are the frogs. See, against the Word are the frogs, against reason the noise, against truth vanity. The third commandment concerns the Sabbath, pertaining to the Spirit because of sanctification, which first sounded forth in the Sabbath, which we commended to you, the people, a little while ago as strongly as we could. To this commandment the contrary plague is the restlessness of flies born from corruption, rushing into the eyes. Therefore in this third sign they failed, who, being enemies of unity, did not have the Holy Spirit; for the Holy Spirit does this as a punishment: for grace does one thing, punishment another; filling does one thing, abandoning another. Finally, so that we may now be able, with the Magi of Pharaoh themselves openly confessing it, to recognize clearly how the Spirit of God is called in the Gospel, let us see what name it receives.

The Jews, casting a reproach at the Lord, when they had said, "This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the prince of demons," he answered: "If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Matt 12:24); which another Evangelist relates thus: "If I cast out demons by the finger of God." What one Evangelist said, "the Spirit of God" (Luke 10:20), another said "the finger of God"; therefore the Spirit of God is the finger of God. For this reason the law was given, written by the finger of God; which law was given on Mount Sinai on the fiftieth day after the slaying of the lamb, when the Passover had been celebrated by the people of the Jews. Fifty days are fulfilled after the slaying of the lamb, and the law is given written by the finger of God; fifty days are fulfilled after the slaying of Christ, and the Holy Spirit comes. Thanks be to the Lord, who hides providentially and opens sweetly. Now see that even the magicians of Pharaoh confess this most evidently; failing at the third sign, they said: "This is the finger of God" (Exod 8:10). Let us praise the Lord, the Giver of understanding, the Giver of the word. If these things were not carried out in mysteries, they would not be sought earnestly; but if they were not sought earnestly, they would not be found so sweetly.

SERMON II.

On His Own Birthday.

The manuscript codex number 17, of which mention was made above, indicates that Sermons 40 of the Maurist Edition were torn apart from this one. To me conjecturing how it came about that this codex, according to which Amerbach, Erasmus, the Parisians, the Louvainists, and the Maurists composed their editions, is especially scattered and mutilated in Gaul, this thought occurs, perhaps less discordant from the truth; namely, since indeed, by the admission of the same Maurists (preface to tome V), Caesarius of Arles, already heavy with age, was accustomed to order priests and deacons to recite not only his own sermons but also those of Augustine, sometimes mutilated, sometimes even endowed with a new exordium and peroration, someone of them could have disjoined the principal arguments of a sermon, according as opportunity was his, with these set aside which connected the part rendered from the omitted. But since this was not accomplished with the sagacity that was fitting, there still survive indications by which the authority of our codex is confirmed, joining into one those divided members. Meanwhile the sermon, cut apart at Arles and thus brought into public, first pervaded the Gallic codices, then the scattered regions to which Caesarius, as is read in the book of his life, used to transmit through those same priests what he would have them preach in their churches. Hence it will be worth the effort to vindicate for the sermon, hitherto desired in the published libraries, its original integrity.

Today's day, brothers, admonishes me to think more attentively about my burden; and although I ought to think about its weight both day and night, yet somehow this anniversary day thrusts it upon my senses, so that I cannot altogether disregard thinking about it; and as the years come on—or rather pass away—and make us nearer to the last day, which will certainly come at some time without doubt, so much the sharper and more full of stings is my thought concerning what account I may render to the Lord our God for you. For this is the difference between each one of you and us: that you, being anxious, so to speak, about yourselves alone, will render an account for yourselves; but we must render an account both for ourselves and for all of you. Therefore the burden is greater, but borne well it procures greater glory; borne unfaithfully, however, it plunges one into the most monstrous punishment. What, then, ought I especially to do today, except to commend my danger to you, so that you may be my joy? But my danger is this: if I attend to how you praise me, and disregard how you live. Yet he knows, under whose eyes I speak—or rather, under whose eyes I think—that I am not so delighted by popular praises as I am goaded and tormented by concern for how those who praise me live. For I do not wish to be praised by those who live badly; I abhor it, I detest it; it is a grief to me, not a pleasure. But if I should say that I do not wish to be praised by those who live well, I lie; if I say I wish it, I fear lest I be more eager for vanity than for solid worth. What, then, shall I say?

I neither fully will it nor fully do I not will it. I do not fully will it, lest I be endangered by human praise; nor do I fully not will it, lest those to whom I preach be ungrateful. But my burden is that which you have just heard when the prophet Ezekiel was being read. For it is a small thing that the day itself admonishes us to think upon that same burden; beyond this, such a reading is recited as may strike great fear into us, so that we consider what we carry; because unless he who imposed it carries it with us, we fail. Behold, you have heard: The land, he says, upon which I shall bring the sword, and it has set for itself a watchman, who may see the sword coming, and may speak, and may give warning. But when the sword comes, let that watchman be silent; let the sword coming upon the sinner slay him; the sinner indeed shall die for his own iniquity, but his blood I will require at the hand of the watchman. But if he has seen the sword coming, and has sounded the trumpet, and has given warning, and he to whom he gives warning has not taken heed, he indeed shall die in his own iniquity, but the watchman has delivered his own soul. And you, son of man, I have set you as a watchman for the sons of Israel. He has explained what he called the sword, he has explained what he called the watchman, he has explained what death he had spoken of: he has not permitted us, in the obscurity of the reading, to excuse our negligence. I have set you, therefore, he says, as a watchman. If I shall say to the sinner: You shall surely die, and you shall be silent, and he shall have died in his sin, he indeed shall die in his sin, worthily and justly.

But I will require his blood at your hand. If you say to the sinner, "You shall die the death," and he does not take heed, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your own soul. And he adds to the word what he wished to be said to the people of Israel. You shall say therefore to the children of Israel: What is this that you say among yourselves, "Our iniquities are upon us, we waste away in our sins, how can we live?" Thus says the Lord, that I do not will the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his perverse way and live. This he willed, that we should announce it to you. If we do not announce this, we shall have to give a bad account of this watch. But if we announce this, we have done what pertains to us. You see to it; we are now secure. But how are we secure? You are in danger, and about to die. We do not wish our glory to be with your punishment. Security has indeed been given, but charity makes us anxious. Behold, we say, and you know that I have always said it, you know that I have never been silent: This says God, I do not will the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his worst way and live. What is it that the wicked man was saying? He spoke the words of the wicked and the unrighteous: "Our iniquities are upon us, we waste away in our sins, how can we live?" The sick man despairs, but the physician promises hope. Man has said to himself: How can I live? God says, you can live. If every man is a liar, let God alone, who is truthful, blot out what man has said and write what God has said.

Do not despair; you can live, not from your past evils, but from your future goods. You will blot out evils if you withdraw from evil. All things, whether good or evil, are blotted out by a change. From a good life you inclined yourself to an evil one—you have blotted out the good; from an evil life you have advanced to a good one—you have blotted out the evil. See what you attend to, what you receive. Two treasuries have been prepared for you: what you have sent, this you will find. God is a faithful keeper; he will render to you what you have done. But there are others who do not perish by despair, who do not say to themselves: "Our iniquities are upon us, we waste away in our sins, how shall we be able to live?" But they deceive themselves in another way. They flatter themselves from the excessive mercy of God, so that they are never corrected; for they say this: "Even if we do evil, even if we commit iniquities, even if we live luxuriously and wickedly, even if we despise the poor and the needy, even if we exalt ourselves in pride, even if we have no sorrow of heart for our evils—is God going to destroy so great a multitude and free only a few?" There are therefore two dangers: one which we have just heard from the Prophet, the other which the Apostle did not keep silent about. For against those who die by despairing—like gladiators, as it were, destined for the sword, gaping after pleasures and living wickedly, despising their souls as already condemned—he speaks of what they say to themselves: "Our iniquities are upon us, and we waste away in our sins; how shall we be able to live?

But what is the other thing of which the Apostle says: Do you despise the riches of his goodness, and mercy, and long-suffering (Rom 2:4)? This is against those who say: God is good, God is merciful, he will not destroy so great a multitude of sins, and he frees only a few; for surely if he did not wish them to exist, they would not even live; when they do such great evils and still live, surely if they displeased God, he would immediately take them from the earth. Against these the Apostle says: Do you not know that the patience of God leads you to repentance? But you, according to the hardness of your heart and your impenitent heart, store up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will repay each one according to his works. To whom does he say this? To those who say: God is good, he will not repay. He will indeed repay each one according to his works. What are you doing? You are storing up—what? Wrath. Add wrath upon wrath, increase the treasure; what you store up will be repaid to you; he to whom you entrust it does not defraud. But if you send good works into another treasure—the fruits of righteousness, or continence, or virginity, or conjugal chastity—be a stranger to fraud, to murder, to crime; remember the needy, because you too are needy; remember the poor, because you too are poor; however much you abound in riches, you are clothed in the rags of the flesh.

If, thinking these things and doing them, you send into the good treasury against the day of judgment, he who defrauds no one, and will render to each according to his works, will say to you: Take back what you sent, for there is abundance. When you were sending, you did not see, but I was keeping it, how I was to repay. For indeed, brothers, each one knows what he sends into the treasury because he sends it, nor does he see it once he has sent it. Suppose a treasure buried in the earth, having one entrance, or a little crack, through which you may send; little by little you send whatever you have acquired, and you do not see it: if the earth keeps for you what you have sent and do not see, will he not keep it for you who made heaven and earth?

Lift up, then, brothers, lift up my burden, and carry it with me; live well. Today we have our fellow poor to feed, and humanity must be shared with them. But for you, my dishes are these words. To feed all with bread that can be handled and seen, I am not sufficient; from that source I feed you from which I am fed: I am a steward, not the master of the household; from that source I set before you what I myself also live on, from the Lord's treasury, from the banquets of that master of the household who for our sake became poor, when he was rich, so that by his poverty we might be made rich (2 Cor 8:9). If I were to set bread before you, when the bread was broken each of you would carry off a piece; and if I set out much, very little would reach each one. But as it is, what I say, all of you have the whole, and each one of you has the whole. For surely you have not divided the syllables of my word among yourselves?

Did you take away the individual words of the sermon I delivered? Each of you heard the whole of it. But let him see how he heard, because I am a dispenser, not an exactor. If I do not dispense, and keep the money, the Gospel terrifies me. For I could say: What is it to me to be a burden to men? To say to the wicked: Do not act wickedly? Live thus? Act thus? Cease to act thus? What is it to me to be a burden to men? I have received how I should live. Let me live as I have been commanded, as I have been instructed. Let me hand over what I have received; why should I render an account for others? The Gospel terrifies me. For to that most idle security no one would conquer me: nothing is better, nothing sweeter than to search the divine treasury with no one making a noise; it is sweet, it is good, but to preach, to argue, to reprove, to build up, to be anxious for each one, is a great burden, a great weight, a great labor. Who would not shrink from this labor? But the Gospel terrifies me. A certain servant came forward and said to his master: I knew that you were a troublesome man, reaping where you did not sow; I kept your money, I did not wish to dispense it; take what is yours; if anything is lacking, judge; if it is whole, do not be troublesome to me. But he said: Wicked servant, out of your own mouth I condemn you (Luke 19:21 and following). Why this? Because you called me greedy, why did you neglect my gains? But I was afraid to give, lest I lose. Do you say this? For it is often said: Why do you reprove?

it is lost for him, what you say; he does not hear you. And he said, I was unwilling to give, lest I lose your money. He says to him: If you were to give my money, and I, coming, were to exact it with interest—I had appointed you, he says, as a dispenser, not an exactor; if you carry out the dispensing, you would leave the exacting to me. Therefore, fearing this, let each one see how he receives. If I, who dispense, am afraid, should the one who receives be free from care? Let the one who was bad yesterday be good today. This is my dispensing: let the one who was bad yesterday be good today. He was bad yesterday and did not die; if he had died bad, he would have gone where he would not return. He was bad yesterday, he is alive today; let it profit him that he lives—let him not live badly. Why, then, does he wish to add today's evil to yesterday's day? Do you wish to have a long life, and not a good one? Who could endure a long evil, even a long meal? Has the blindness of the mind grown so calloused, is the inner man so deaf, that he wishes to have all good things except himself? Do you wish to have a villa? I deny that you wish to have a bad villa. You wish to have a wife only if good; a house only if good. Why should I run through each thing individually? You do not wish to have a bad shoe, and do you wish to have a bad life? As if a bad shoe harms you more than a bad life. When a bad shoe, being tight, has hurt you, you sit down, take it off, throw it away, or correct it, or change it so as not to hurt your toe, and you put on shoes. You do not care to correct a bad life, by which the soul is lost. But this plainly I see, whence you are deceived.

A harmful shoe causes pain; a harmful life causes pleasure. The one hurts, the other pleases; but what pleases for a time afterward hurts worse; whereas what hurts for a time healthfully, afterward gladdens with infinite pleasure and abundance of joy. «See the one who takes pleasure, and the one who grieves: that rich man taking pleasure, and that poor man grieving. The one feasted, the other was tormented; the one was honored, surrounded by a household, the other was licked by dogs; the one was made grosser by feasts, the other was not satisfied even with crumbs. Pleasure passed, need passed; the good things of the rich man passed, the evils of the poor man; evils succeeded the rich man, good things the poor man. What had passed was not recalled; what had succeeded was not diminished. The rich man burned in hell, the poor man rejoiced in Abraham's bosom. The poor man had first desired a crumb from the rich man's table, the rich man afterward desired a drop from the poor man's finger. The one's want was ended by the limit of satiety, the other's pleasure was consummated without end by succeeding pain. To feasts succeeded thirst, to pleasure pain, to purple fire. This is the banquet that Lazarus is seen to have in Abraham's bosom; this we wish, that you all may have; this we wish, that we may have together. Would it be a banquet that I should set before you, if I invited you all, and this church were full of tables of feasting? These things are transitory. Think on these things, which I say, that you may come to those feasts which you may never end.

For there no one is weary in feasting, nor are the feasts themselves such that they feed us by their corruption and restore us by their failing. And they will be whole, and we will be restored by them. If our eye is fed by light, and the light does not fail, what will those feasts be in the contemplation of truth, in the sight of eternity, in the praises of God, in the security of happiness, with a steadfast mind, an immortal body, our flesh wasting away with no old age, our soul loosened by no hunger? There no one grows, no one diminishes; there no one is born, because no one dies; where you are compelled to do no works, which we now exhort you to do. For just now you heard the Lord saying, and He said it to all of us: When you make a feast, do not call your friends. He showed where you should be generous: Do not call your relatives, who have the means to repay you; but call the poor, the weak, the blind, the lame, the needy, who have nothing with which to repay you (Luke 14:12). And will you lose anything? It will be repaid to you in the resurrection of the just (ibid. v. 14). You, He says, spend; I receive, I record, I repay: God said this, and He exhorted us to do these things, and He will repay us. When He has repaid us, who will take it from us? If God is for us, who is against us (Rom. 8:31)? We were sinning, and He gave us the death of Christ; if we live justly, will He deceive us? For Christ died not for the just, but for the ungodly (ibid. 5:6). If He gave the death of His Son to the wicked, what does He keep for the just?

What does he keep for them? He has nothing better to keep for them than what he gave for them. What did he give for them? He did not spare his own Son (Ibid. 32). What does he keep for them? That very Son. But God, to be enjoyed, not a man, to die. Behold, this is what God calls you to; but how do you attend? To what do you deign to attend, and by what do you deign to attend, and how? But plainly, when you have come, will this be said to you: Break your bread for the hungry; if you see the naked, clothe him: is this chapter read out to you? When you make a feast, call the lame, the blind, the needy, the poor (Isai. lviii, 7). There no one will be needy, there no one will be lame, no one blind, no one weak, no one a stranger, no one naked; all sound, all vigorous, all abounding, all clothed in eternal light. Whom do you see there as a stranger? Our homeland itself is there; here we are strangers. Let us desire that homeland, let us do what is commanded, that we may claim what is promised. Nay, I have not spoken well; I correct what I said: far be it that we should claim what is promised; we shall receive what is freely given. For if we claim it, it is as though God were unwilling to give; assuredly he will give, he will defraud no one. Consider this, my brothers, see how many good things the Lord our God gives to the wicked: light, life, health, springs, fruits, offspring, and very often honors, high stations, powers; all these good things he gives to both good and wicked. Do we think it is nothing that he keeps for the good, he who gives so many good things even to the wicked? Let no one bring this into his heart.

My brothers, God keeps great good things for the good, but "what the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man" (1 Cor. 2:9). You cannot think of it before you receive it; you can see it when you have received it; you cannot think of it before you receive it. What is it that you wish to see? It is not a lyre, not a pipe, not a sound that produces pleasure in the ears. What do you wish to think of? It has not entered into the heart of man. And what am I to do? I neither see, nor hear, nor think. What am I to do? Believe—a great gain. The vessel is great, in which you can receive a great gift: it is faith. Prepare a vessel for yourself, because you have to approach a great fountain: prepare a vessel for yourself. What does "prepare" mean? Let your faith grow, let your faith increase, let your faith be strengthened; let your faith not be slippery and made of clay, let it not be broken by the tribulations of this world, but let your faith be fired. But when you have done this, and have a faith like a vessel fit, capacious, and firm, God will fill it. For he will not speak to you as men speak to one who begs and says: "Give me a little wine, I ask you"; and he says: "I will give it; come, and I will do it." That man brought a jar, and says: "I have come as you ordered"; and he says: "I thought you would bring a small flask—what have you brought, or why have you come? I am not sufficient to give so much; take back the larger vessel you brought, and bring something small; bring me something that my poverty can suffice for.

God does not say this; he is full, and you will be full, and when he has filled you, he himself will have only as much as he had before he filled you. The gifts of God are abundant; you find nothing like them on earth. Believe, and you will prove it. But not now. And when, you will say? Wait for the Lord, act manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, so that when you have received, you may say: You have given gladness in my heart. Wait for the Lord, act manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, and wait for the Lord. What does "Wait for the Lord" mean? That you should receive then, when he gives, not demand then, when you wish. The time of giving is not yet; he waited for you, wait for him. What is this that I said, he waited for you, wait for him? If you already live justly, if you have already turned to him, if your past deeds displease you, if it has already pleased you to choose a good new life, do not hasten to demand; he waited for you, that you might change your evil life; wait for him, that he may crown your good life. If he did not wait for you, there would be no one for him to give to; wait, therefore, because you have been waited for. But you, who do not wish to be corrected—O whoever you are here, who still do not wish to be corrected—as if there were only one; I ought rather to have said, whoever you all are here. Yet you who are here, if indeed you are here, who have not resolved to be corrected, I shall speak as if to one. Whoever you are who do not wish to be corrected, what do you promise yourself? Do you perish by despairing, or by hoping? Whoever you are who perish by despairing, you say this in your soul: My iniquity is upon me, I waste away in my sins; what hope do I have of living?

Hear the Prophet saying: I do not will the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his most wicked way and live (Ezekiel 33:11). Do you perish by hoping? What is this, "you perish by hoping"? You say this in your heart: God is good, God is merciful, God forgives all things, he will not repay evils for evils. Hear the Apostle saying: Do you not know that the patience of God leads you to repentance? What then remains? As if you had done something, if what I have said has entered your heart. I see what is answered to me: it is true, and I do not despair so as to perish by despairing, nor do I hope wickedly so as to perish by hoping; I do not say to myself: My iniquity is upon me, I now have no hope; nor do I say to myself: God is good, he will repay evils to no one; I do not say that, nor do I say that; the Prophet presses me, the Apostle presses me. And what do you say? I will live a little while longer as I wish. These are the ones who weary us; they are very many, they are troublesome. I will live a little while longer as I wish, and afterward, when I have corrected myself; surely it is true what the Prophet said: I do not will the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his most wicked way and live; when I have been converted, he will blot out all my evils; why do I not add something to my pleasures, and live as long as I wish, as I wish, afterward to be converted to God? Why do you say this, brother? Why? Because God has promised indulgence, if I change myself. I see, I know he has promised indulgence through the holy Prophet; he promises this through me, his least servant. Does he promise?

It is true what he promises; he promised this through his only Son. But why do you wish to add evil days to evil days? Let the evil of the day be sufficient for it: yesterday was an evil day, today is an evil day, and tomorrow will be an evil day. Or do you think they are good days when you satisfy your lusts? When you nourish your heart in extravagances? When you lie in wait for another's chastity? When you grieve your neighbor by fraud? When you deny what has been entrusted to you? When you swear falsely for a coin? When you serve yourself a fine dinner, do you therefore think that you are spending a good day? How can it be that the day is good, when the man is evil? Do you wish to add evil days to evil days? I ask, he says, that a little be forgiven me; why? Because God has promised me pardon. But no one has promised you that you will live tomorrow, or read it to me. Just as you read the Prophet to me, the Gospel, the Apostle; because when you have turned, God blots out all your iniquities: read to me where tomorrow's day has been promised to you, and live wickedly tomorrow. Although, my brother, I ought not to have said this to you. Perhaps your life will be long: if it will be long, let it be good. Why do you wish to have a life that is long and evil? Or it will not be long: and that long life ought to delight you, which has no end. Or it will be long, and what evil will there be in it, because you have lived well for a long time? You wish to live long wickedly; you do not wish to live well, and yet no one has promised you tomorrow's day. Correct yourself, hear from Scripture. Do not despise me as though I were a man of birthdays.

I speak to you from Scripture: Do not delay to be converted to the Lord. These words are not mine, yet they are also mine; if I love them, they are mine; love them, and they are yours. This sermon that I am now delivering is holy Scripture; if you despise it, it is your adversary. But hear the Lord saying: Agree with your adversary quickly (Matt. 5:25). [What is this fearful word? You have come for joy; today is called the bishop's birthday: should I set before you anything to make you sad? Nay, I set before you that at which the lover may rejoice and the despiser may be angry: it is better for me to sadden the despiser than to defraud the faithful.]

Let all hear; I recite words from Scripture. O wicked delayer, O wicked hankerer after tomorrow, hear the Lord speaking, hear holy Scripture proclaiming; from this place I am a watchman: Do not delay to be converted to God, and do not put off from day to day. See whether he has not seen those, see whether he has not looked upon those who say: Tomorrow I shall live well, today I shall live badly. And when tomorrow comes, you will say this. Do not delay to be converted to God, and do not put off from day to day; for suddenly his wrath will come, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you (Eccles. 5:8-9). What have I done? Can I erase it? I fear to be erased. Can I be silent about it? I fear to be silenced. I am compelled to preach; terrified, I terrify. Fear with me, that you may rejoice with me. Do not delay to be converted to God.

Lord, see, for I speak: Lord, you know that you terrified me when your Prophet was being read; Lord, you know my trembling in that chair when your Prophet was being read. Behold, I say: Do not delay to be converted to God, and do not put it off from day to day; suddenly his wrath will come, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you—but I do not want him to destroy you; I do not want you to say to me: I want to perish; because I do not want it. My "I do not want" is better than your "I want." If your father, lethargic, were sick under your hands—if you, a young man, were present at the side of an ailing old man, and the physician said: Your father is in danger; this sleep is a kind of deadly heaviness; watch over him, do not let him sleep—if you saw him sleeping, you would wake him; if waking him is not enough, you would pinch him; if even that is not enough, you would goad him, lest your father die. You would be present, and as a young man you would be a burden to the old man. He, dissolved into that sweet sickness, would close his eyes with that heaviness pressing upon them. You, on the other hand: Do not sleep. But he: Leave me alone, I want to sleep. And you: But the physician said: If he wants to sleep, let him not sleep. But he: I beg you, leave me alone, I want to die. But I do not want it, you say, a son to his father. To whom? To one, of course, longing to die. And yet you wish to postpone your father's death, and to live a little longer with your old father who is going to die. The Lord cries out to you: Do not sleep, lest you sleep forever; wake up, that you may live with me, and have a Father whom you may never carry out to burial; and you are deaf. What then have I done as a watchman? I am free; I do not burden you.

I know that some will say: What did he mean to say to us? He terrified us, he weighed us down, he made us guilty. No, I wanted to free you from guilt. It is shameful, it is disgraceful—I do not want to call it evil, I do not want to call it dangerous, I do not want to call it deadly; it is shameful for me to deceive you, if God does not deceive me. The Lord threatens death to the impious, the most wicked, the defrauders, the criminals, the adulterers, the seekers of pleasures, those who despise him, those who murmur against the times, and those who do not change their ways; the Lord threatens them with death, he threatens them with hell, he threatens them with eternal destruction. What do they want me to promise that he does not promise? Look, the steward will give you security; what does it profit you, if the head of the household does not accept it? I am a steward, I am a servant. Do you want me to tell you: Live as you wish, the Lord will not destroy you? The steward has given you security; the steward's security is worth nothing. Would that the Lord might give it to you, and I might make you anxious! For the Lord's security is valid, even if I am unwilling; but mine is worth nothing, if he is unwilling. But what security is there, brothers, whether mine or yours, except that we listen intently and diligently to the Lord's commands, and faithfully await his promises?

In these things by which we are wearied, because we are men, let us implore his help, let us groan to him; let our prayers not be for worldly, passing, transitory things, and vanishing like vapor; but let our prayers be for the fulfilling of justice itself, and for sanctification for the name of God; not for conquering neighbors, but for conquering lust; not for satisfying, but for taming avarice. Hence let our prayers be; within, let them help us as we struggle, that they may crown us as we conquer.

SERMON III.

On contempt for temporal things.

Both the solemnity of the Martyrs and the Lord's day admonish us to speak to Your Charity of what pertains to contempt for the present world and to hope for the future. Do you ask what you should despise? Every saint, and the pious Martyr, despised even the present life. Do you ask what you should hope for? Today the Lord has risen. If you waver in the matter, be strong in hope. If the work disturbs you, let the reward lift you up. The first Apostolic reading, in the Epistle which he writes to Timothy, admonishes us also, which he commanded him, saying: Command the rich of this world not to be proud, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who provides us all things abundantly to enjoy. Let them be rich in good works, readily give, share, store up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of true life (1 Tim. 6:17 and following).

And let this reading not seem to us less suited to the solemnity of the blessed Martyrs; for it contains contempt of the world. For when it is commanded to the rich that they should lay up for themselves a good foundation for the future, and lay hold of true life, without doubt this false life is meant. And especially ought the rich to hear this, who, when they look upon the poor, murmur, groan, praise, envy, wish to be equal to them, grieve that they are not, and among the praises of the rich they commonly say this: These alone are, these alone live. On account of these words, therefore, by which insignificant men flatter the rich—because they themselves live, and they alone live—lest, puffed up by the words of these flatterers, they think that they live, he says: Charge the rich of this world not to be high-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who gives us all things abundantly to enjoy. Let them be rich, but where? In good works: let them give easily, because they do not lose what they give: let them share with those who have not. And what from this? Let them lay up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of true righteousness, not agreeing with the flatterers who say that they live, and that they alone live. This life is a dream; these riches flow away as in dreams. Do you hear the Psalm? O rich man, poorest of men, They slept their sleep, and all the men of riches found nothing in their hands.

At times even a beggar lying on the ground, trembling with cold, yet overcome by sleep, dreams of treasures, and rejoices and is proud in his dreams, and does not deign to acknowledge his father in rags, and until he wakes he is rich. When, then, has he slept and found that he rejoices in what is false? When he has woken he finds that he grieves over what is true. The rich man, then, when he dies, is like the poor man awake, who used to see treasures in his dreams. For he too was clothed in purple and fine linen. A certain rich man, neither named nor to be named, a despiser of the poor man lying before his gate, was clothed in purple and fine linen, as the Gospel testimony has it, and feasted sumptuously every day; he died, he was buried: he woke and found himself in the flames (Luke 16:19). He slept, then, his sleep, and that man of riches found nothing in his hands, because he did nothing good with his hands. For the sake of life, then, riches are sought, not life for the sake of riches. How many have made a pact with their enemies, that they might take everything and leave them their life: however much they had, at that price they bought their life. At how great a price must eternal life be bought, if life that is to perish is so precious? Give Christ something that you may live blessed, if you give everything to the enemy that you may live a beggar. From your temporal life, which you redeem at so great a price, weigh how much the eternal life is worth which you neglect, so that you may live a few days, even if you are to reach old age. For all the days of a man, from infancy even to old age, are few days.

Even if Adam himself were to die today, he had lived but few days, because he had ended them all. You redeem but few days, then—and those full of toil, in such great want, in such great trial? How many? You wish to have nothing so that you may have yourself. Do you wish to know how much eternal life is worth? Add yourself as well. Behold, the enemy who had taken you captive said to you: If you wish to live, give me whatever you have; and in order to live you gave everything—redeemed today, perhaps to die tomorrow; released by this one, perhaps to be thrust out by that one. Let perils teach us, my brothers. Why are we so untaught, both amid the words of God and amid human experiences? Behold, you have given everything, and you have gone away rejoicing because you live—though poor, though naked, though needy, though a beggar, you rejoice nonetheless because you live, and sweet is the light. Let Christ appear, let him make a bargain too—not he who took you captive, but he who was taken captive for you; not he who seeks to kill you, but he who deigned to be killed for you, who gave himself for you. What price? He who made you says to you: Make a bargain with me. Do you wish to have yourself, and to lose everything? If you wish to have yourself, you must have me, so that you may hate yourself, so that you may love me, and by losing your life find it, lest by holding it you lose it. Concerning these riches of yours, which you love to possess, and which nonetheless you are prepared to give for your present life, I have already given saving counsel. If you love them too, do not lose them as well; but where you love them, they will perish with you. I give counsel also concerning them: Do you love them?

Send them where you may follow them, lest while you love them on earth you either lose them while alive or let them go when dead. And from this, he says, I gave counsel: I did not say, Lose them, but keep them. You wish to lay up treasure; I do not say, do not, but I say where. Accept an adviser, not a forbidder. Where, then, do I say to lay up treasure? Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches, nor moth, nor rust destroys (Mt 6:20). But, you say, I do not see what I place in heaven. You do see, however, what you bury in the earth. Are you secure by burying in the earth, and anxious about giving to him who made heaven and earth? Keep it where you wish, if you find a better place than Christ; guard it, entrust it. I entrust it, you say, to my servant. How much better to your Lord? Perhaps a servant takes it and flees; and amid such evils as have already occurred, this was to be desired, that a servant should take it and flee, not lead enemies to his own master. Many servants have suddenly become enemies to their masters, and have betrayed them, along with what they had, to the enemy. To whom, then, do you entrust it? For the present, you say, I entrust my gold to my servant. Your gold to a servant: your soul to whom? I entrust, you say, my soul to God. How much better to him your gold also, to whom you entrust your soul? Or is he perhaps faithful in guarding your soul, and unfaithful in guarding your money? Does he not keep you, who keeps you? So then, give proof. A servant acts so as not to steal it: does he act so as not to lose it?

His whole faithfulness consists in not defrauding you; you attend to his faithfulness, and do you not attend to his weakness? He deposited it, he did not hide it; another came, he took it away. Would anyone do this to Christ? Shake off your sloth, receive counsel: store up treasure in heaven. And what did I say, shake off your sloth? As if it were a labor to store up treasure in heaven; even if it were a labor, it had to be done and the labor had to be undertaken, and those things which we hold in great esteem had to be laid up in a fortified place from which no one could take them away. Yet Christ does not say to you, store up treasure in heaven, seek ladders, fit wings, but give to me on earth, and there I will keep it. On earth, he says, give to me, for this reason I came to be poor here, so that you may be rich there. Make a transfer. You fear a defrauder lest you lose it. Do you ask who may carry it where you are migrating? Christ is present to you in both places. He does not commit imposture, but he does commit carriage. But Christ, you say, where do I find? Since my faith holds what I heard in the Church; this I learned, thus I believed, with this Sacrament I was imbued: he was buried, he rose on the third day, after forty days he ascended into Heaven before the eyes of his Disciples, he sits at the right hand of the Father, he will come at the end; when then do I find him here? to whom shall I give? Do not be anxious, hear the whole, or if you have heard the whole, tell the whole.

I know that you have received this: Christ was suspended on the cross, taken down from the wood, placed in the tomb, rose again, ascended into Heaven; but you have also read that Saul was persecuting His Church, proud, cruel, breathing slaughter, and thirsting for the blood of Christians, when he raged, when he persecuted, carrying letters to Damascus, so that he might bring men and women whom he found of this way bound to punishments (Acts 9:2). You have heard what he cried out—the one whom you confess to be seated in Heaven? Recall, then, what he said, what you heard, what you read: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? For Paul neither saw Him nor touched Him, and yet He said: Why do you persecute me? He did not say: Why do you persecute my household, my servants, my saints—add honor—my brothers; none of these, but what did He say? Why do you persecute me? That is, my members, for whom, trampled on the earth, the head cried out from Heaven; for even for your foot, if it is trampled on the earth, your tongue cries out; you do not trample my foot, but you trample me. Why, then, do you hesitate as to whom you should give to? He who said: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?—He Himself says to you: Feed me on the earth. Saul was raging, and yet he was persecuting Christ. So too do you distribute on the earth, and you feed Christ. For that very question by which you are moved, the Lord Himself foretold.

They will be moved, both they who will be placed on the right, and when he has said: I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; they will answer: Lord, when did we see you hungry? and they will hear at once: As you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me (Matt. 25:35). If therefore you do not wish to give, you have that which you may accuse in yourself, for you do not have that which you may excuse. Concerning these riches, therefore, your Lord says to you: I have given most salutary counsel: do you love them? transfer them; and when you have transferred them, you will follow; in the meantime follow them in heart. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. If you entrust your treasure to the earth, you bury your heart in the earth; but when you have buried your heart in the earth, blush when you respond, when you hear "Lift up your heart," "We have it to the Lord." I have given, he says, salutary counsel concerning your riches, if you do it, if you hear it, if you are such a rich man as the Apostle describes, so that you do not think proudly, nor hope in the uncertainty of riches, but readily give, share. You store up for yourself a good foundation for the future, so that you may lay hold of true life. Now question me, says your Lord; behold, I have transferred to heaven what I have, whether by giving it all away, or by so having what remained as not having it, using this world as not using it. So much is the kingdom of heaven worth (1 Cor. 7)? Behold, if I have done this, it is worth so much. Is it dear? It is worth more dearly. For it is not truly such that it ought to be worth so much; you will live forever.

If you would give all those treasures for the life of a few days, there you will be truly rich, because you will not be in need. But you do this when you wish to be rich, so that you may not be in need on earth. And therefore you heap up for yourself, and you pile up thick mud, by which you may be weighed down, by which you may be pressed, by which, once dried, you may be more tightly enclosed. Therefore, so that you may not be in need, you seek many animals for carrying, lavish dishes for food, most precious garments for clothing. But so that by having many things you may not be rich while the angel is poor—he who neither uses a horse, nor is carried in a chariot, nor fills his table with displays, nor is clothing woven for him, because he is clothed with light—learn true riches. You wish to have these things, so that you may have whereby to soothe your throat and fill your belly: he truly makes you rich who grants you not to hunger. This is to be in need in no way at all, not to hunger: for however much you have, when the hour comes for you to dine, or before you approach the table, while you are hungry you are needy. Finally, with the dishes cleared away, you gasp, proud man. That is not a filling of needs, but the smoke of cares. See what you think about increasing these riches of yours. See whether you sleep easily when you think either lest you lose what you have stored, or how you may increase what you have stored. You have therefore found riches, you who have found rest. When you are awake, you think of the increase of riches; when you sleep, you dream of thieves: by day anxious, by night fearful, always a beggar. But he wishes to make you rich, who promises you the kingdom of heaven.

And how much do you think you will pay to buy those true riches, that true life, and that eternal life? What then? Do you think it is true because you would pay for it as much as you were prepared to pay for those few toilsome and wretched days? That which is far greater ought to be worth something more. And what am I to do, you say? I have given all that I had to the poor, and what I have I share with the needy—what more can I do? You have more: yourself. You have more: yourself. You are among your own possessions; you must be added. Pay attention to the counsel your Lord gave to the rich man: Go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor. And did he then dismiss him after he said this? And lest he think he was losing what he loved, he first made him secure, because he did not lose it but stored it up: You will have, he said, treasure in heaven. Is this enough? No. What then? Come, follow me (Matt. 19:21). You have loved? Do you wish to follow? He ran, he flew; seek where? I do not know where. O Christian! Do you not know where your Lord went? Do you want me to tell you where you may follow him? Through hardships, through reproaches, through false accusations, through spitting in the face, through blows and the lashes of whips, through the crown of thorns, through the cross, through death. Why are you sluggish? You wanted to follow; the way has been shown. And you say: Who follows him? Be ashamed, you bearded man. Women have followed, whose birthday we celebrate today. Today we celebrate the solemnity of the women Martyrs, the Tuburbitan women.

Your Lord, our Lord, the Lord of those women, the Lord of all, the Redeemer of our life, by going before us along the narrow and rough way made it a paved road, a royal road, fortified and pure, in which it would delight even women to walk—and are you still lazy? Will you not pour out your blood for so much blood? This is what your Lord says to you: I suffered first for you; give what you received, repay what you drank. You cannot? Boys and girls could; delicate men and delicate women could; rich men and great rich men could, who, when the temptation of suffering suddenly rushed upon them, were not held back by an abundance of riches nor captivated by the sweetness of this life, thinking of that rich man who ended his riches and found torments, and did not send their riches on ahead but rather sent them ahead in martyrdom. With so many examples going before you, are you lazy? And yet you celebrate the feasts of the Martyrs. Today is the birthday of the Martyrs; I will go ahead, you say, and perhaps with a better tunic. See with what conscience; love what you do; imitate what you celebrate; do what you praise. But I cannot. The Lord is near; be anxious for nothing (Phil 4:6). I, you say, cannot; do not fear the fountain itself: from which those women were filled, you too can be filled, if you approach with eagerness, if you do not swell up like a hill but humble yourself like a valley, so that you may deserve to be filled. Therefore let these things not seem hard to us, brothers, especially in these times when tribulation abounds: the world was despised by the Martyrs when it was flourishing.

Truly with great praise is the flourishing one despised, and the perishing one loved. Those men have despised his flowers, and you embrace his thorns. If you are slow to depart, let the ruined house at least frighten you. But the Pagan insults you. Why does the Pagan insult you? Truly it is time for the Pagan to insult you, because the things foretold by your Lord are being fulfilled. He would insult you more rightly if the things he foretold were not being fulfilled. He denies the God whom you worship; from the things which the world suffers, show that He is true, and, not saddened by the things foretold, rejoice in the promises. For He came at that time when the world, with its age already declining, as though made in such a way as to be ended, was to abound in disasters and calamities and distresses and troubles. He who came then came for your consolation; lest you fail in the pressures of a perishing and passing life, He promised another life. Before the world labored under these afflictions and calamities, the Prophets were sent; servants were sent to this great sick man, to the human race, as it were one languishing man stretched out from East to West and lying down; the powerful Physician sent His servants. It came about that such attacks should come upon this sick man, in which he was to labor greatly. And the Physician said: This sick man is to labor greatly; I am necessary. Now let the foolish sick man say to the Physician: Lord, I have been laboring ever since You came. Fool, you are not laboring because of the fact that I came, but because you were going to labor, I came.

In short, then, brothers, why do we say many things? The Lord has shortened his word in completing it upon the earth (Rom 9:28). Let us live well, and in exchange for our good life let us not hope for the good things of the earth that pass away. Earthly happiness is a cheap wage for a good life; what you live well here is not worth as much as what you desire here; although by desiring such things you do not even live well—if you wish to change your life, change your desire. You keep faith with God, and for this reason, so that you may be happy on earth; and this is everything to you. Why do you keep faith with God? Is your faith worth so much? Do you value it so highly? Do you bring it forward like this? If you have something for sale on earth, and you bargain with a buyer, you state a higher price, he a lower; "It is worth this much," you say, because you exaggerate what you are selling; and he says, "It is not worth that much, but this much," and he offers himself a lower price, wishing to buy more cheaply. The Lord Christ corrects you. You say to your Lord Christ: "Lord, I serve you in faith, and you give me things on earth." Fool, what you are selling is not worth so much; you are mistaken, you do not know what you have. You keep faith, and you seek the earth? Your faith is worth more than the earth; you do not know how to appraise it. I know how much it is worth—I who gave it to you; it is worth as much as the whole earth; add heaven to the earth: it is worth more. And what is more than earth and heaven? He who made both earth and heaven. Turned to the Lord.

SERMON IV.

On the Nativity of the Lord.

He has sanctified this day for us, the day that made every day, of which the Psalm sings: Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth; sing to the Lord, and bless his name (Ps 95:1-2). Declare his salvation from day to day. What is this day from day, if not the Son from the Father, light from light? But that day which begot the day that would be born of the Virgin on this day. That day, then, has no rising, no setting. I call the Father God the day. [For Jesus would not be a day from day, unless the Father were also a Day.] What is a day but light? Not the light of fleshly eyes, not the common light shared by men and beasts, but the light that shines for the angels, the light by seeing which hearts are purified. For this night passes away, in which we now live, in which the lamps of the Scriptures are lit for us, and that will come which is sung in another Psalm: In the morning I will stand before you, and I will contemplate you (Ps 5:5). That day, then, the Word of God, the day that shines for the angels, the day that shines in that homeland from which we are pilgrims, clothed itself in flesh, and was born of Mary the Virgin. Wonderfully was he born. What is more wonderful than the birth of a virgin? She conceived and is a virgin? She gives birth and is a virgin. For he was created from her whom he created, and he brought her fruitfulness, he did not corrupt her integrity. Mary, from where? From Adam. Adam, from where? From the earth. If Adam is from the earth, and Mary is from Adam, then Mary is also earth.

If Mary is earth, let us acknowledge what we sing: Truth has sprung from the earth. What kind of benefit did he bestow on us? Truth has sprung from the earth, and justice has looked down from heaven. For the Jews, as the Apostle says, being ignorant of God's justice and wishing to establish their own, were not subject to God's justice. Whence can a man be just? From himself? Who gives bread to the poor man for himself? Who is clothed when naked, unless he has received a garment? We did not have justice; here there were only sins. Whence comes justice? What justice is there without faith? For the just man lives by faith. He who calls himself just without faith lies. How does he not lie, in whom there is no faith? If he wishes to speak the truth, let him turn to the truth. But it was far away. Truth has sprung from the earth. You were sleeping, and it came to you; you were snoring, and it awakened you; it made a way for you through itself, so as not to lose you. Therefore, because truth has sprung from the earth, our Lord Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin; justice has looked down from heaven, so that men might have justice not their own, but God's. How great a condescension! What indignation came before! What indignation came before? We were mortal, we were oppressed by sins, we were bearing our own punishments. Every man, when he is born, begins from misery. Do not seek one who prophesies; question the newborn child, and see him weeping. Since, therefore, this great indignation of God was on the earth, how suddenly was such condescension made? Truth has sprung from the earth.

He created all things, and was himself created among all things; he made the day, and came into the day; he existed before the ages, and marked out the ages. The Lord Christ is eternally with the Father without beginning; and yet today ask what it is. It is a birthday. Whose? The Lord's. Does he have a birthday? He does. In the beginning was the Word, God with God—does he have a birthday? He does. Unless he had a human birth, we would not arrive at divine rebirth: he was born, so that we might be reborn. Let no one doubt that he is reborn: Christ was born; he was begotten, not to be reborn. For whose rebirth was necessary, except his whose birth is condemned? So let his mercy be done in our hearts. His Mother carried him in her womb; let us carry him in our heart. The Virgin was made pregnant by the incarnation of Christ; let our breasts be made pregnant by faith in Christ. She gave birth to the Savior; let us give birth to praise. Let us not be barren; let our souls be fruitful to God. The generation of Christ from the Father is without a Mother; the generation of Christ from the Mother is without a Father: both generations are wonderful. The first generation is eternal, the second temporal. When was he born of the Father? What do you mean, when? Do you ask there for a when, where you will not find time? Do not ask there for a when. Ask here for a when: when you ask about the Mother, you ask well. When you ask about the Father, you do not ask well; he was born, and has no time; he was born eternal from the eternal, coeternal. Why do you marvel? He is God.

The consideration of the Godhead is made, and the ground for admiration passes away. And when we say, "He was born of the Virgin"—a great thing! Do you marvel? He is God; do not marvel. Let admiration pass away and give place to praise. Let faith be present; believe that it was done. If you do not believe that it was done, you remain an unbeliever. He deigned to become man—what more do you seek? Was God humbled but little for your sake? He who was God became man; the lodging was narrow, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger—you heard this when the Gospel was read. Who would not marvel? He who was filling the world found no place in the lodging; laid in a manger, he became our food. Let the two animals, the two peoples, come to the manger, for the ox has known its owner, and the ass the manger of its Lord. Pay attention to the manger; do not be ashamed to be the beast of burden of the Lord. You will carry Christ, you will not go astray; walking along the way, the Way sits above you. Do you remember that donkey brought to the Lord? Let no one be ashamed—we are that donkey. Let the Lord sit upon us and call us where he wills. We are his beast of burden; we are going to Jerusalem. With him sitting upon us we are not pressed down but lifted up; with him leading we do not go astray; we go to him, we go through him, we do not perish.

SERMON V.

Recall the reading of the apostolic Epistle as it is recited: "Brethren," he says, "if a man be overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual instruct such a one in the spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so you shall fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one prove his own work, and then he shall have glory in himself alone, and not in another. But let him who is instructed in the word share with him who instructs him in all good things. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked; for whatever a man has sown, that shall he also reap; because he who sows in the flesh shall reap corruption from the flesh; but he who sows in the spirit shall reap eternal life from the spirit. But let us not grow weary in doing good; for in due time we shall reap without growing weary. Therefore, while we have time, let us do good to all, but especially to those of the household of the faith" (Galatians 6:1 and following, according to the Italic version). To this point the passage from Paul's Epistle has been read: to this point I have been, as it were, a reader to you. But, my brethren, if the reader has understanding, for what purpose is a disputant needed? Behold, we have heard, we have understood; let us do and live. And what need is there to burden your memory? Hold fast to these things and think on them.

Perhaps someone among you is troubled about how to understand what he says: "Bear one another's burdens," and shortly afterward he says: "Each one shall bear his own burden." For you say in your hearts, you who have noticed this: How do we bear one another's burdens, if each one shall bear his own burden? If we bear one another's burdens? I admit, it is a question. Knock, and it shall be opened to you: knock by attending, knock by studying, knock also for us, by praying, that we may say something worthy to you: thus knocking, you help us, and this question will quickly be resolved. Would that each person might carry out effectively what he has understood, as quickly as it is resolved! In the weight of infirmity we bear one another's burdens: in the reckoning of piety each one shall bear his own burden. What is it that I have said? What are all men but men, and therefore weak, and who are not entirely without sin? For in this we bear one another's burdens. For if you have grown weary at your brother's sin, and he at yours, you neglect one another, and you commit a truly great sin. But if you tolerate what he cannot, and he tolerates what you cannot, you bear one another's burdens, and because you bear one another's burdens, you fulfill the most sacred law of charity. For that is the Law of Christ; the law of charity is the Law of Christ. Therefore he came because he loved us, and there was nothing in us that he might love, but by loving he made us lovable.

You have heard what it means: Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the Law of Christ. What then does Each one shall bear his own burden mean? Each one will give an account for his own sin; no one will give an account for another's sin. Each person has his own case; he will give his own account to God. But even the Superiors themselves, who give an account for the flocks of Christ, give an account for their own sin if they have neglected the flocks of Christ. Therefore, brothers, If a man has been overtaken in some fault, you who are spiritual—whoever you are who are spiritual—instruct such a one in a spirit of gentleness. And if you cry out, love within; you exhort, you flatter, you correct, you rage—love, and do whatever you will. For a father does not hate his son; and yet a father, if it is needed, strikes his son, inflicts pain to safeguard his health. This, then, is what In a spirit of gentleness means: for if a man has been overtaken in some fault and you have said, It does not concern me; and I have said to you, Why does it not concern you? and you have answered me, Because each one shall bear his own burden—I will answer you: Surely you have heard willingly, and understood: Bear one another's burdens. Therefore, if a man has been overtaken in some fault, you who are spiritual, instruct such a one in a spirit of gentleness.

Indeed, each one will give an account for his own sin, because Each one shall bear his own burden; but if you have neglected his wound, you will give a bad account for the sin of your negligence; and therefore, if you do not bear one another's burdens, you will have a bad account in that Each one shall bear his own burden. Do that, so that you bear one another's burdens, and God spares you in that Each one shall bear his own burden. For if you bear another's burden, when he is caught in some offense, so that you instruct him in a spirit of gentleness, you will come to that place where you have heard: Each one shall bear his own burden; and with a good conscience you say to God: Forgive us our debts. Therefore, brothers, remember: If a man is caught in some offense, do not take it as passing by, O man; for he could have said: If anyone is caught, if anyone at all is caught. He did not say this, but he said, a man. But it is very difficult for a man not to be caught in some offense; because what is man? But those spiritual ones, whom he admonished to instruct in gentleness the man who had been caught in an offense, perhaps were saying in their hearts: Let us bear the burdens of those who are caught in offenses, because we have nothing in ourselves that they could bear. Hear, because you ought not to be secure, the following words: See, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted.

Lest spiritual men be proud, lest they exalt themselves—although if they are spiritual, they will not exalt themselves; I fear that they exalt themselves for this reason, that they are carnal. Yet let even the spiritual man take heed, lest he too be tempted. For is he not a man because he is spiritual? Is it not because he is spiritual that he does not bear a corruptible body which weighs down the soul (Wis. 9:15)? Is it because he is spiritual that he has finished this life, which is all temptation upon the earth (Job 7:1, according to the Old Latin)? Therefore it was well said to him, altogether well: Looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. And when he had admonished them, that is, the spiritual, he immediately added that sentence: Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. What is "one another's"? Let the carnal man bear the burden of another carnal man; let the spiritual man bear the burden of another spiritual man: Bear one another's burdens; do not neglect one another's sins. With those among whom you have confidence, rebuke; with those among whom there is no confidence to rebuke, admonish (2 Cor. 7:4); and if this is necessary, lest anyone sin, pray, entreat. Or have I perhaps humbled you, because I said, entreat? Hear the Apostle: Commanding, he says, and entreating, that you receive not the grace of God in vain (ibid. 6:1, from the Old Latin). A physician, if he finds strength in the sick man, rebukes him; but if he does not find strength, and fears that under the bitterness of correction he may perhaps fail, he supplicates, he entreats him to hear, to do, and to live.

It is clear, therefore, that the Apostle said for this reason, "Bear one another's burdens," because he had admonished the spiritual man and had said, "Consider yourself, lest you also be tempted"—lest that spiritual man arrogate so much to himself as to think he has no burden that ought to be borne by another. Hear him again, on account of pride, on account of swelling, on account of inflation—hear him again: "For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself." It could not have been said better: "He deceives himself." The devil is not to be blamed in all things; for sometimes the man himself is his own devil. For why is the devil to be guarded against? Surely for this reason, lest he deceive you. Are you not, then, your own devil when you deceive yourself? What then? "But let each one test his own work, and then he will have glory in himself alone, and not in another." When you do something good, if it pleases you for this reason, that another praises you—but if another did not praise you for it, you would fail in doing the good work, deprived of the words of the praiser—you have glory in another, not in yourself. If he praises, you do it; if perhaps your good work has displeased a foolish man, you do not do it. Do you not see men pouring out their wealth on actors, and giving nothing to the poor, being praised by the mouths of many? Is what they do good for this reason, because they are praised? Awake at last: "The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul." You have all shouted approval, because you know the holy Scripture from which we cite the testimony.

Let those who do not know hear this too. Holy Scripture has said, holy Scripture has foretold: For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who acts wickedly is blessed. Now then, if the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who does wicked things is blessed, look for those who praise. Do evil desires tear you apart? Commit iniquities daily to fulfill your desires, and look for those who praise you. Believe me, you find none but flatterers or deceivers. How are they deceivers, how are they flatterers? I must give an account of my words. Flatterers are those who know you are doing evil and yet praise you; but those who praise you as one doing evil for this reason, because they think what you do is good, are not flatterers, since they praise from the heart, but they are deceivers, because by the frequent repetition of their praises they seduce you into doing those evils and do not let you breathe. For you are carried off into empty air; you think what you do is good; you squander your goods; you empty your house; you leave your children naked. Those praises have driven you mad; you run, you wave your hands, you receive favors, you put them to your mouth, you pour out your house, and you gather the wind. How, you say, are these my deceivers, who praise me from the heart? They are your deceivers for this reason, that they were first deceivers of themselves by erring. Will he truly labor to set up ladders against you, so as not to deceive you, when he deceives himself? Therefore the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who acts wickedly is blessed.

Beware of such a praiser, such a blesser of your life. Rather, do good yourself. But you will say, "If I do, I will displease that man." Then displease him and please God. For if you have displeased him and pleased God, you will have glory in yourself, and not in another. But evil men slander the good, and lovers of this world curse those who despise the world; they speak insults, they seek what they may reproach; as soon as anything evil has been said, they believe it at once; if anything good has been said, they refuse to believe it, and your heart is troubled, so that you grow faint in doing good, because no praiser, or flatterer, or deceiver has been found. And is the testimony of your own conscience not enough for you? In the theater of your breast, under the eyes of God, why are you troubled? I beseech you, why are you troubled? "Because many evil things are said about me." Is that what you say? You would not be troubled in the ship of your heart, unless Christ were sleeping. You heard it when the Gospel was being read: A great storm came, and the ship was troubled, and was covered by the waves; why? Because Christ was sleeping (Matt. 8:24). When does Christ sleep in your heart, except when you forget your faith? The faith of Christ in your heart is like Christ in the ship. You hear insults, you are wearied, you are troubled: Christ is sleeping. Awaken Christ, awaken your faith. You have what to do even when troubled: awaken your faith, let Christ wake and speak to you: "Do insults trouble you? Which ones have I not first heard for you?" This Christ says to you, thus your faith addresses you.

Listen to that, and see that if he speaks to you, perhaps you have forgotten that Christ suffered for us (1 Pet. 2:21)? And before he suffered such great evils for us, did he not hear reproaches? He was casting out demons, and it was said to him: You have a demon (John 8:48). Of him it was said through the Prophet: The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen upon me (Ps. 68:12). Arouse Christ, then, and he will say to you in your heart: When men have reviled you and spoken every evil against you for my sake, rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven (Matt. 5:11, from the Old Latin). Believe what has been said, and great tranquility is made in your heart. If therefore a man thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself; but let each one test his own work, and then he will have glory in himself, and not in another. Whether he praises or blames, you have glory in yourself, because your glory is your God in your conscience, and you will be like the wise virgins, who took oil with them in their vessels, so that they would not have glory in another, but in themselves (Matt. 25:8). For those who did not take oil with them begged from them, and their lamps were extinguished, and they said: Give us some of your oil. What is "Give us some of your oil" but "Praise our works," because our own conscience is not enough for us? What seemed obscure in the apostolic reading, I have expounded, as the Lord granted.

The rest are plain and do not require exposition, but a doer. Yet so that we may do what we have heard, let us ask him himself, without whose help we shall be able to do nothing good, since he himself said to his disciples: Without me you can do nothing (John 15:5). Turned to the Lord, etc.

And after the sermon.

Because the people requested that he not set out before the day of the birthday of blessed Cyprian, he added: I tell you truly, your Charity, that we cannot bear even our own longing and complaints by letter; but because holy Senex has already ordered this very thing that you request, I conclude the sermon thus: the birthday of blessed Cyprian is now near; on account of that solemnity you have wished to be violent in keeping me back; therefore we who strive in word, it is good that we also fast in body.

SERMON VI.

On several Martyrs.

The name of martyrs is Greek; in Latin they are called witnesses. If, then, they are witnesses, they endured such great things for the truth of their testimony. Truth served God; iniquity lied to itself. For thus it is written; the body of Christ speaks in the Psalm, which is the Church: And false witnesses rose up against me, and iniquity lied to itself (Ps. 26:12). Witnesses and witnesses; false witnesses and just witnesses; witnesses of the devil and witnesses of Christ. We have seen, awaited, and heard both kinds of witness when the passion of the blessed Martyrs, whose day of solemnity is being celebrated, was read. Questioned, they answered that they had held a gathering, because they were Christians.

This is the testimony of truth. The judge was saying: "You have confessed to a crime." This is the testimony of iniquity. God was being preached, and it was being called a crime. In the preaching of God, truth obeyed God; in the calling it a crime, iniquity lied to itself. For what he said was recoiling upon those very men, and a false crime was being condemned by a true crime. Our martyrs were not committing a crime; the martyrs of Christ were not committing a crime by gathering themselves in assembly to praise God, to hear the truth, to hope for the Kingdom of Heaven, and to despise the present most wicked age. These men were not committing a crime. This is called piety. The name of this thing is religion. The name of this thing is devotion. The name of this thing is true testimony. What crime, then, were those committing who, in addition, were killing men who had confessed to piety? "That man and that man," says the judge of iniquity, the witness of falsehood, "that man and that man and that man, it pleases me that they be put to the sword." Behold the crime. Hear also the voice of piety: "Thanks be to God," said the first as his testimony. The first closed his testimony with perpetual victory. I believe Your Charity noticed, when the passion of the saints was being read, who was the first to confess; he was called first before the last; victory at the end is perpetual. O victory without stain! O end without end! For what is perpetual victory but victory without end? This is to conquer the enticements of the flesh, to conquer the threats of a perverse judge, to conquer the pain of the body, to conquer the love of life.

I shall say, with the Lord's help, my brothers, what I feel, if I can: in the holy Martyrs the love of life was conquered by the love of life. You who cried out have understood, but for the sake of those who have not understood, you who have understood, bear with me while I briefly open up what I said. This is what I said: in the holy Martyrs the love of life was conquered by the love of life. By loving life they despised life. Who, by loving silver, despises silver? Who, by loving gold, despises gold? Who, by loving estates, despises estates? No one despises what he loves. We have found Martyrs who loved life and despised life. They would not have reached that life if they had not trampled upon this life. They knew what they were doing, who by giving away were gaining. Do not think, dearest ones, that they lost their judgment when they loved life and despised life; they did not lose their judgment. They were scattering seed and seeking a harvest. I see the farmer's judgment, and I recognize wisdom in the Martyrs. The farmer, by loving the wheat, scatters the wheat. You who do not know what the sower is doing might perhaps rebuke him and say: What are you doing, madman? What you gathered with such great labor, you bring out, you scatter, you take it away from your eyes, you throw it to the ground, and moreover you bury it? He answers you: I love the wheat, and therefore I throw the wheat away; if I did not love it, I would not throw it away; I want it to grow, not to perish. Behold what our Martyrs did, incomparably wiser than farmers. For the sowers scatter a few grains, and the reapers gather many.

But even what they scatter and what they gather has an end. What is scattered is not much; what is gathered is much; yet both are ended. And were you unwilling that our Martyrs should scatter a life that must at some time be ended by death, so that they might receive a life that has no death? Good bankers, good sowers—the one who multiplies is God. He himself multiplies the fruits in the field; he himself nourishes whatever is born from the earth. Can God multiply grains and cannot preserve his Martyrs? Behold, I tell you, hear what they heard. You too have just heard, when the Gospel was being read; you have received what was promised to them: They will deliver you up, he says, in councils and in their synagogues; they will scourge you, and some of you they will put to death: but I say to you: A hair of your head shall not perish, and in your patience you shall possess your souls. You shall possess them, and you shall not lose them. For there no enemy persecutes; there no friend dies. There you will be where the perpetual day has no yesterday going before, nor tomorrow following after. There you will be good bankers, where the devil cannot follow you. Endure for a time; rejoice forever. Hard are the things you bear, but great is the fruit of what you sow. Read what was said of you, when you were sowing: Going they went and wept, casting their seeds. With what fruit? with what end? with what consolation? But coming they shall come with exultation, carrying their sheaves.

From these sheaves crowns are made. Let us therefore celebrate the days of the Martyrs by honoring the sufferings of the Martyrs, not by loving drink. Having turned to the Lord, etc.

SERMON VII.

On Saint John the Baptist.

Since. The Lord willed on this day to restore to Your Charity our voice and our presence, and he did this himself not according to our arrangement but according to his will; we give thanks to him with you, and we render to you the service of a sermon, which is our ministry, in which it is both fitting and proper for us to serve you. But it is yours, dearest ones, to receive with charity whatever stewardship of the servants of God it may be, and to give thanks with us to him who has granted us to spend this day together with you. From what source, then, do we speak today, if not of him whose birthday is today? Therefore the holy John, born of a barren woman, the Forerunner of the Lord born of a Virgin, became the greeter of his Lord, the announcer from the womb. For this John, a barren mother, who did not know how to give birth, was his; but the mother of the Savior, a virgin, had no means by which to give birth: the barren woman bore the herald, the virgin brought forth the judge. But many heralds the Lord Jesus Christ himself, about to come to men from the womb of a virgin, had sent before him. All the Prophets were sent before him by him, but he himself was speaking in them; he who came after them was before them. Since, therefore, the Lord sent many heralds before him, what did this one alone deserve? What more of such great excellence did he have, whose birthday is commended today?

For not even this is without a sign of a certain greatness—that the day of his birth does not lie hidden, just as the day of his Lord's birth does not lie hidden. When the other Prophets were born, we do not know; concerning John, it was not permitted to be ignorant when he was born. Even from this his great merit appeared, because the others foretold the Lord, and desired to see him, and did not see him; and if they saw him in the spirit, they saw him as future; but they were not here to see him as present. Yet the Lord himself says of them to his Disciples: Many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it (Matt. 13:27). Did he not himself send them? But there was in all of them the desire, if it could be done, to see Christ here in the flesh. But because they went before by dying, as they had gone before by being born, Christ did not find them here, yet Christ redeemed them into eternal life. And that you may know what desire there was in all of them to see Christ here, remember that old man Simeon, to whom the Spirit of God announced as no small good that he would not depart from this world unless he had seen Christ. Christ was born; he recognized the infant in his mother's hands, received him, held in his hands him by whose Divinity he himself was carried; and holding in his hands the infant Word, he blessed God, saying: Now let your servant depart in peace, Lord, for my eyes have seen your salvation (Luke 2:29).

Therefore the other Prophets did not see Christ here; Simeon saw the infant; John recognized and greeted him even in the womb; John proclaimed and saw him, pointed him out with his finger, and said: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). This man, then, is more excellent than all the rest. Hear the testimony of the Lord concerning him, where he set him before himself, and no other. He was truly very great, for whom there was no one to be set before him except Christ. Accordingly the Lord himself says thus: Among those born of women none has arisen greater than John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11). And in order to set himself before him, he added next: But he who is lesser in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. He called himself lesser and greater—lesser by being born, greater by ruling; lesser in age, greater in majesty. After John the Lord was born. But in the flesh, but of the Virgin; before him, however, In the beginning was the Word. A great thing is Christ after John, and yet John is through Christ: For all things were made through him, and without him was made nothing (John 1:1). Why, then, did John come? To show the way of humility, so that man's presumption might be diminished and God's glory increased. John, then, came, great, commending the great; John came, the measure of man. What is the measure of man? No man could be more than John; whatever was more than John was already more than man.

For if the measure of human greatness had been bounded in John, you would no longer find a man greater, and yet you have found one greater; confess God, whom you could certainly find greater than man. John is a man, and Christ is a man; but John is only a man, Christ is God and man. According to what he is as God, he himself made John; according to what he is as man, he was born after John. Yet see how much the forerunner of his Lord, God and man, humbles himself: he, than whom no one has arisen greater among those born of women, is asked whether he himself is the Christ. He was so great that men could be deceived; it was doubted of him whether he himself was the Christ, and it was doubted in such a way that he was questioned. Now if he were a son of pride, not a teacher of humility, he would set himself alongside erring men, and would not act so that they thought this, but would rather accept what they thought. Was it perhaps too much for him to wish to persuade men that he himself was the Christ? If he tried to persuade them, he would not be believed; he would have remained cast off and cast down, despised among men and condemned before God. But he had no need to persuade men; he already saw that they thought this; he could have accepted their error and increased his own honor. But far be this from the faithful friend of the Bridegroom, that he should wish to be loved by the bride in place of him. He confessed that he was not what he was not, lest he lose what he was.

For John was not the bridegroom; for when he was asked, he said: He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him, and rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom's voice. I indeed baptize you in water for repentance; but he who comes after me is greater than I (John 3:29). How much greater? He whose sandal's strap I am not worthy to untie. See how much less he would be, if he were worthy; how much he would humble himself, if he said this: He is greater than I, whose sandal's strap I am worthy to untie; for he had said that he was worthy to stoop to his feet. But now how greatly did he commend humility, when he said that he was unworthy even of his feet, indeed of his sandals! John therefore came to teach the proud humility, to announce the way of repentance. The voice came before the Word. How the voice before the Word? For it is said of Christ: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; this was in the beginning with God (John 1:1). But so that he might come to us, the Word was made flesh, that he might dwell in us. Therefore, because we have heard Christ the Word, because John is the voice, let us listen. For when it was said to him: Who are you? he answered: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Let us hear John crying out, and let us prepare the way of the Lord, let the Word come to us, for All flesh is grass, and the glory of men, as the flower of the grass.

The grass has withered, the flower has fallen; but the word of the Lord remains forever (Isa 40:7-8).

SERMON VIII.

On Saint John the Baptist.

Dearest brothers, today we celebrate the birthday of a great man; and do you wish to know how great? No one, says the Scripture, has arisen greater among those born of women than John the Baptist (Mt 11:11). This was said of him by the one born of the Virgin; this testimony was borne to his witness; this sentence was pronounced by the Judge concerning his herald; thus the Word wished to honor his voice, as you know, and as you heard today also in the morning Sermon.

Christ is the Word; John is the voice. For it is written of Christ, that In the beginning was the Word (Jn 1:1). But John, when he spoke of himself, said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness (Ibid. 23). The Word pertains to the heart; the voice to the ear. When the voice has reached the ear, and the word does not lead to the mind, it has an empty use, but it does not have a useful fruit. But in order that the Word may be born in my heart, it does not need a voice; but in order that what has already been born in my heart may be carried to your heart, it assumes the ministry of the voice. The word can therefore precede the voice (perhaps "the voice." But in the manuscripts "the voice"), but the Word cannot proceed without a voice. For this purpose the voice is created, not that it may beget the Word, which it knew, but that it may utter what it was. Therefore, what we have said concerning the Word and the voice, that is, Christ and John, let us see what kind of Word Christ is, and what kind of voice John is. In the beginning was the Word. Where was he?

And the Word was with God. How far before us! How far above us! And the Word was made flesh, that he might dwell among us (John 1 and 14). And how would we know this, if we did not hear the voice? For Christ was walking among men, now clothed in mortal flesh, and yet men came to John and said to him: Are you the Christ? John answered: Behold the Lamb of God, behold he who takes away the sins of the world (Ibid. 29). Hear him, acknowledge him; I go before him, I announce him. Remember what he said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord; not for me, but for the Lord. For when I cry out, I announce him; since the voice of the herald is the coming of the Judge. But when he has come, whom I announce and who has rested in your heart, He must increase, but I must decrease (Id. 3:30). For you know this? They said: We know. For when the Word, having taken the aid of the voice, has flowed more closely through the paths into the region of the heart, that Word grows in the heart, while the voice fades in the ear. For the sound that struck the ear does not remain, because it does not remain infinite, because it has descended to the mind. Why is this? Because He must increase, but I must decrease. John baptizes, and Christ also baptizes. It was said to John: Upon whom you see the Spirit descending like a Dove, and remaining upon him, he is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit and fire (Matt 3:15). You know this, brothers. It happened when Christ was baptized.

Behold, now throughout the whole world, it is he who baptizes. Everywhere the baptism of Christ has increased; but the baptism of John, though it has its mystery in the remembrance of the past, does not have its mystery in present celebration. The baptism of John has ceased, and the baptism of Christ has increased; whence he also says: He must increase, but I must decrease. We find this sentence both in the births of the two and in their passions. For although John spoke of John—that is, John the Evangelist of John the Baptist—although he said of him: There was a man sent from God, whose name was John; this man came for a testimony, that he might bear testimony of the light (John 1:6)—yet today, brothers, he was born when the night has grown and the day begins to decrease. But Christ was born at the winter solstice, as you know, when the losses of the night begin to be turned into mourning for the light: For we were once darkness, but now we are light in the Lord (Ephesians 3:8). Why were they born thus? Because he must increase, but this one must decrease. In their passions also: John is beheaded with the sword; but Christ is exalted on the wood. But that one is raised up, while this one is laid low. This one is truncated at the head so that he may decrease; but that one is exalted on the gibbet of the cross so that he may increase. These two, then: the Lord and the servant. The Lord on the gibbet of the cross, the servant in the beheading of death; whence we also say: He must increase, but this one must decrease.

Not without reason, as I judge, are even the ages of the parents chosen. For an aged woman bears John; a young virgin bears Christ. He was carried in the womb of a virgin and adored in heaven by angels. The one is brought forth by desperate sterility, the other by untouched virginity. Finally, the one by a young woman growing up, the other by old age declining. But what is this, my brothers? How great is the dignity of this man, that an angel announced his future birth to his parents, just as he announced the Lord Christ? Why did he deserve this? Because no one has arisen greater among those born of women than John the Baptist. For as you know, the angel Gabriel is sent both to the Virgin Mary and to Zechariah; a son is promised to each, and he received a response from each. Zechariah responded to the angel promising a son: How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is barren and advanced in her days. Mary also responded: How shall this be done, since I do not know a man? Both despair of the law of nature, not yet, I believe, knowing that, with the gift of God's grace approaching, the law of nature ceases. Therefore both respond from doubt, and yet the one is punished, the other is blessed. To him it is said: Behold, you will be silent. To Mary it is said: Blessed are you among women. Zechariah loses his voice; Mary conceives the Word. But what after this? The Word becomes flesh in the Virgin, and a voice is born from the silent man. John, once born, restores his father's voice; the father, speaking, gives his son a name.

All marvel, all are astonished, and murmuring among themselves they exchange words back and forth. They say to one another: What do you suppose this child will be (Ibid. 66)? Let us speak of the Gospel: For indeed the hand of the Lord was with him. What do you suppose he will be who has begun thus? He is still so little, and already he is great; and if this one who has only now begun will be great, what will he be who always was? He whom John, still enclosed in the secret of his mother's womb, recognized even as he lay in the bridal chamber of the virginal womb, and because he could not yet greet him with words, greeted him with movements. What then will he be? Do you wish to know what he will be? I shall say it briefly: hear the Prophet: He, he says, shall be called the Lord of all the earth (Isa. 54:5). Therefore, as we celebrate with heavenly feasts the birthday of blessed John, the forerunner of the Lord, a great man, let us seek the aid of his prayers. For since he is the friend of the bridegroom, he can also grant to us that we may be able to belong to the bridegroom, and that we may deserve to find his grace.

But if we wish to find his grace, let us not do injury to his birthday. Let the rites of sacrilege cease, let the pursuits and jests of vanities cease; let not those things be done which are wont to be done, no longer indeed in honor of the demons, but still nevertheless according to the custom of the demons. Yesterday after evening the whole city was ablaze and rotting with smoldering flames, after the ancient manner of the demons, and smoke had covered the whole air. If you pay too little attention to Religion, at least consider the common injury. We know, brothers, that these things are done by the poor, but they ought to have been forbidden by the greater. For someone has said: He who does not forbid sin when he can, in fact commands it. Brothers, in the name of the Lord and of our God Jesus Christ, because the Church makes progress through each year, these things indeed and their diminution tend toward nothing, but they have not yet been so consumed that we can keep silent in safety. Old age and newness are nothing unless it has reached its due ends, and the old superstition be consumed and the new religion be perfected; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory and power, together with God the Father almighty, and with the Holy Spirit, now and always and through all ages of ages. Amen.

SERMON IX.

On the Gospel of Luke 17:4. Forgive, and it shall be forgiven you.

We have heard a most salutary precept from the holy Gospel, that we should forgive our brother who has sinned against us. Let it not be enough to have done this once, but as often as he has sinned he is to be forgiven, if he asks pardon. So then he says: If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turns back to you saying, I repent; forgive him (Luke 17:4). If you understand seven times in a day, then it means as often as ever; for the number seven is customarily put for the whole. Whence is that saying: The just man shall fall seven times, and shall rise again (Prov. 24:16); that is, as often as he has been humbled by some tribulation, he is not forsaken, but is delivered from all his tribulations. Hence also is that saying: Seven times in a day I will praise you (Ps. 118:164). For seven times in a day is the same as always. Therefore this seven times in a day is what is said elsewhere: His praise shall always be in my mouth (Ps. 33:2). For we do not utter the praises of the Lord with the tongue alone, and when we are silent we are not praising. Plainly, in all our good thoughts, in all our actions, and in our good conduct we praise him from whom we rejoice to have received these things. For we see that even the Apostles ask that faith be increased in them (Luke 17:5). Did they themselves give themselves the firstfruits of faith, and ask of the Lord its increase? Far be it.