Sermones inediti

Saint Leo the Great, Unpublished Sermons, Extracted from Florentine Libraries, edited by A. B. Caillau, priest of the Society of Mercy, together with Doctor Saint-Yves, of the same society. NOTICE. Among these sermons, all of which bear the name of Pope Saint Leo in the manuscripts, some appear to be rightly attributable to him, while others clearly depart from his manner of speaking. Lest, as happened in our edition of Saint Augustine, we be reproached for a certain audacity, by which some have suspected us of wishing to impose our opinion on all, we submit these discourses to the eyes of readers just as they lie in the manuscripts, leaving to their sagacity in this work the task of separating, by their own judgment, what is genuine from what is spurious. FIRST SERMON. On the occasion of the fast (I). I. Dearest to us, your faith admonishes us to set forth the teachings of religion. For we exhort you to fasting, which for those living rightly is an increase of devotion, a wall of faith, an assault on wickedness. We also urge that you abstain not only from foods but always from all vices. Do not be prodigal in feasting or arrogant in drunkenness; for it is written in Solomon: “The body that is corrupted weighs down the soul” (Wisdom 9:15). And the Apostle also says: “Do not make care of the flesh in your desires” (Romans 13:14). Therefore, abstain during these days from worldly cares and carnal desires.

Let the body be disciplined, so that the spirit may be satisfied. For the spirit is strengthened when the flesh is weakened by frugality. For the present life is nourished by the abundance of food, not the future, since luxury accompanies an excess of things. Remove from yourselves envy, animosities, slander, quarrels, and dissolve all the seeds of sins. Break the snares of violent actions and the hateful arguments of calumnies. Provide a dwelling for the needy and for those faithful to the faith. Tear up unjust contracts, so that you may celebrate fasts pleasing to God not only in body but also in spirit. II. It is also fitting that by the seed of alms we hope for the fruits of our own fasting. For it is written: Just as water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving extinguishes sin (Ecclesiasticus 3:35). It must also be done so that we seem to abstain from the rich foods not out of a zeal for avarice, but out of a care for mercy. Let us give temporal things to the poor, so that eternal gifts may be provided to us through their prayers. For by the exchange of a small piece of bread and a coin, impunity for sins is conferred upon us. It must also be known that just as the Lord made many weak, so He made many poor, so that there might be a need to beseech the Lord, so that you who have suffered none of these things may fear lest you suffer them. Therefore, feed, you who are healthy, the weak, as an example of vicarious calamity. Therefore, feed, rich man, the poor man, whose portion you perhaps received from our Lord God in order to feed him. Feed the hungry, lest his portion, taken from you, be given to another who gives.

Feed the one dying of hunger; for whoever could have saved a person by feeding him, if you did not feed him, you have killed him. III. Let us also anticipate the desires of the silent beggars, since we read: "Blessed is he who understands the needy and the poor; on the evil day the Lord will deliver him" (Psalm 40:2). Let us therefore give alms to the needy before they ask, lest, crying out from excessive need, they seem to demand them from us who are hesitating. Let us offer them some portion of the heavenly gifts bestowed upon us, lest we pay back usurious penalties to our lender because of our sloth. Let us think of that rich man who asked for crumbs of bread and a drop of water, and did not receive them. Let us recall that widow who, by putting two coins into the treasury, offered to God the whole sustenance she had. And let us give to our brothers what is left over for us. Nor should we carry out the divine commands with sadness and hypocrisy, but let us give thanks to God, the author of our generosity, so that, praying constantly, we may provide the needy with the substance of temporal life, in order that we may obtain eternal life, with our Lord Jesus Christ presiding, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON II. On the Passion of the Lord. I. After that first and universal ruin of human transgression, through which sin entered this world by one man, and through sin death (Rom. 5:12), no one would have escaped the domination of the devil, no one the chains of dire captivity, nor would any path of reconciliation to pardon or return to life lie open to anyone, unless the Son of God, coeternal and coequal in all things with God the Father, had deigned also to be the son of man, and had been suspended bodily on the cross for the redemption and salvation of all men. For this was the cause of the redemption and salvation of the whole human race: that God Himself truly suffered in a man, truly died, truly rose from the dead, and truly opened the gates of the heavenly kingdom to men believing in Him and dying in His will, and redeemed us from eternal death and punishment. For He endured many and various injuries for us, not because of any faults of His own—He who never committed any sin—but solely because of our necessity; because we were bound with such harsh chains and cast into such a deep abyss of death that we could not be absolved except through His immense clemency and through His human passion and death.

Unless He Himself were to redeem us with His precious blood, unless He Himself were to remove eternal punishments from us by His death, unless He Himself were to break the devil’s strength and lead us with Him to the heavenly realms, and grant to all of us who are willing to abide in His will a smooth and easy path to the heavenly kingdoms. II. Therefore, dearest brothers, what ought we to do for such great benefits of God, except to die to the world and its desires, mortifying in ourselves carnal longings through vigils, fasts, chastity, endurance of adversity, perseverance in all goodness, and continually commend ourselves to God in prayers? By repenting, weeping, and confessing our sins, and redeeming ourselves from eternal punishments through almsgiving, so that, supported by divine aid, we may merit to remain in eternal blessedness there where our merciful Lord God has led us back by His death, with our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom is honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

SERMON III. On the Pallium. I. You have heard the Scripture of the Hebrew exodus and the words of the mystery, most beloved brothers: how the Lamb was sacrificed, how the people were saved, and how Pharaoh was struck down through the mystery. Understand, most beloved, how the mystery of the Pasch is both new and old, temporal and eternal, corruptible and incorrupt, mortal and immortal. Old indeed according to the law, but new according to the Word; temporal through the type, eternal through glory; corruptible on account of the sacrifice of a beast, incorruptible on account of the Lord’s life; mortal on account of the burial, immortal on account of the resurrection; old indeed is the law, but new is the Word. The type is temporal, but the grace is everlasting; the sheep are corruptible, the Lord is incorruptible. For He was broken as a lamb, but He was revived as God. And indeed He was led to the sacrifice like a sheep, but He was not a sheep; and like a lamb without voice (Isaiah 53:7), but He was not a lamb. For those things happened in figure, these are found more truly. For the Lord was made instead of the lamb, and a man instead of a beast, but the man is Christ, in whom all things are contained. Moreover, Isaiah says: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers, without voice, so He did not open His mouth. In humility His judgment was taken away. Who will recount His generation?” (Ibid. 7, 8).

Many things indeed and very many others were foretold by the prophets concerning the Paschal mystery of Jesus Christ, to whom is glory for ever and ever. Amen. II. He himself was led as a lamb and slain as a sheep, as if from Egypt, he redeemed us from the worship of the world, and saved us from the hand of the devil, as from the hand of Pharaoh; and he sealed our souls with his own spirit, and the members of our body with his precious blood. This is he who put on death by confusion, and cast the devil into mourning. This is he who struck down iniquity and injustice, as Moses condemned Egypt to barrenness. This is he who snatched us from servitude to freedom, from darkness to light, from death to life, from tyranny to an everlasting kingdom. This is he who suffered many things in many persons; this is he who was killed in Abel, and was bound by the feet in Isaac, and was a sojourner in Jacob, and was sold in Joseph, and was wrapped up in Moses, and was exposed by his mother in the river, and was slaughtered as a lamb, and was persecuted in David, and was dishonored in the prophets. This is he who was buried in the earth, and rising from the dead ascended to the heights of the heavens. This is the lamb without a voice; this is he who was taken from the flock for sacrifice, who was immolated in the evening, who was buried in the night. This is Jesus Christ our Lord, who rose from the dead, and from the lower tomb raised man to life. He was therefore slain in the midst of Jerusalem. By whom? By Israel. For what reason?

Because he healed their ears, and cleansed the lepers, and gave light to the blind, and raised the dead. III. What have you done, Israel, such a new injustice? You dishonored him who had made you noble; you disgraced him who had glorified you; you kept silent about him who had proclaimed you; you killed him who had given you life. Is it not written: "Do not shed innocent blood, lest you die a most evil death" (Jer. 22:5)? Therefore, he says, Israel, you did this, because it was necessary for him to suffer (Acts 17:5). You err, O Israel, when you think in such a way. It was necessary for him to suffer, but not through you; it was necessary for him to be afflicted with insults, but not through you; it was necessary for him to be suspended on the cross of the gallows, but it ought least of all to have been done by your hand. With this voice, Israel, you ought to have cried out to the Lord: Lord, if your will has so decreed that your Son should suffer, yet let him not suffer through me. Let him be judged plainly by foreigners; let him be nailed with nails by the uncircumcised, by any tyrant whatsoever. Far be it that this atonement be perpetrated through me. With this voice, O Israel, you did not wish to proclaim, nor did you spare laying your own hands upon your Lord. You did not fear his works; no shame was struck into you when the withered hand was restored whole to its own body. Neither when the blocked eyes were opened, nor when the loosened limbs were consolidated by his voice. But you did not even blush at that recent miracle, that a four-days-dead man rose from the tomb at the command of his voice.

O Israel, you have seen so many miracles of Christ, and yet you have always remained in unfaithfulness. You, indeed, flying past all these things, prepared for the murder of the Lord. You prepared for him the sharpest nails, false witnesses, also gall and a sword, as for a murderous brigand. You also inflicted lashes upon his little body, and placed a crown of thorns upon his head, and those good hands of his, which had shaped you from the earth, you bound with chains; and that good mouth of his, by which you were fed with life, you on the contrary fed with gall. On a great festival day you slew your Lord. And you were enjoying feasts, while he was suffering the pangs of hunger; you were drinking wine and eating bread, while he was taking gall and vinegar; you were splendid in body, while he was worn down with sorrows; you were exulting, while he was being afflicted; you were singing psalms, while he was being judged; you were leading dances, while he was being placed in the tomb; you were lying on a soft bed, while he was in a sepulcher and a coffin. Most impious Israel, why have you perpetrated this new injustice? You have slain your Lord, subjecting him to new passions, your master, your maker who honored you, who imposed upon you the name Israel. But you, Israel, have by no means been found to be such, you have not seen the Lord, nor have you wished to understand God.

V. Did you not know, O Israel, that this is the firstborn of God, who was begotten before the morning star? This is he who led you into Egypt, and there, preserving you, provided you with sustenance. This is he who was sent to you, who healed your suffering ones, who raised the dead. This is he against whom you acted unjustly, whom you slaughtered. This is he whom you sold. Therefore, O Israel, because you did not tremble before the Lord, you trembled, attacked by enemies. You did not fear the Lord, you did not lament over the Lord, you lamented over your dead sons. Because you abandoned the Lord, you will not be found by him; you struck the Lord, and you too will be struck to the ground. And you indeed lie on the ground, but he, rising from the dead, was carried to the height of heaven. VI. Now therefore come, all families of men, who are mixed with sins, and receive remission of sins. For the Lord says to you: I am your remission, I am the Passover of salvation, I am the lamb who was slaughtered for you; I am your redemption, I am life, I am your salvation, I am your resurrection. I am your king, I will raise you up by my right hand. This is our Lord, who made heaven and earth; who was suspended on a tree, who was buried in the earth, who rose from the dead, ascended to the heights of the heavens, and lives and reigns with the Father and with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON IV. On Easter II (i6). I. Although all solemnities, most beloved, which are celebrated in the churches for the honor of God are holy and venerable, nevertheless the present day of the Lord's resurrection has a particular festivity. This is so, indeed, because while all other days contain only the joy of the living in themselves, this day also contains the joy of the dead. Therefore, this festivity is common to the lower and the upper realms alike, because the Lord, rising from the dead, gave festivity both there, where he conquered death, and here, where he returned victorious from death. And so the Psalmist rightly speaks of this day in particular, saying: "This is the day which the Lord has made; let us be watchful and rejoice in it" (Ps. cxviii, 24). For, announcing the Lord's resurrection, he proclaimed a day of life-giving exultation not only to the upper realms but also to the lower; because when the Lord descended into the dark gloom of the underworld, even there, without doubt, that day was most splendid where the savior shone forth. Whence the evangelist beautifully says: "And the light," he says, "shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (John I, 5); because although the Lord ascended in darkness, he did not, however, experience the obscurity of the darkness. In that horror of night, the light of his eternal nature held the inviolable splendor of his majesty, and thus it was not the light that was overcome by the night, but the night that was overcome by the light.

Let us therefore rejoice, most beloved, and exult in the Lord. For today the light of salvation has been given to us by the Lord, according to what the same Psalmist says in what follows: “God is the Lord, and He has shone upon us” (Ps. 117:26). And what he added further: “Appoint, he says, a solemn day in assemblies up to the horn of the altar” (Ibid.). I see that this too has been fulfilled today in the Church of God, for since everything up to the horn of the altar is filled with religious gatherings, that fullness of the sacred Scripture of the Church has completed it. This day, therefore, most beloved, is the day of resurrection and of life. The season of Lent makes it more pleasing, a more delightful rejoicing, because days of remission have been joined to the sorrow of things, so that patience is at once followed by reward, according to this: “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Ps. 125:5). Therefore, all of you who have sown in tears, receive the rewards of exultation. Let each one know that the greater the seeds of divine things he has sown, the greater the fruits of joys he will reap. For the likeness of future beatitudes is already contained in present things. For just as now there is relaxation after strictness, so in the future there will be rest after labor.

III. Therefore, I implore you, most beloved, along with the whole Church, especially you who have been reborn into a new salvation and have taken up white garments, to keep the gift you have received pure and immaculate, so that you may preserve the brightness of your attire also in your conduct, and that your hearts may be as white as your garments. You have heard the Evangelist saying today that whoever believes in God are children of God. For He gave them, it says, the power to become children of God, to those who were born not from bloodlines, nor from the will of the flesh, nor from the will of a man, but from God (John 1:12). Therefore, you too are now born not from the conception of the flesh, but begotten from God the Father. It remains for you to preserve the dignity of your holy origin through a holy way of life, and truly, according to what the Apostle says: Just as newborn infants, desire reasonable milk without guile, so that you may grow by it into salvation (1 Peter 2:2). And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your bodies (Philippians 4:7) through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

SERMON V. On the birthday of Saint Paul. (Delivered at his church.) I. A twofold joy is renewed for us today, dearest brothers, as we celebrate the annual birthday of the teacher of the world. Therefore, rejoicing in God and offering immense praises to his ineffable majesty, let us congratulate ourselves with great gladness, and indeed it is fitting to rejoice with the most abundant delight, because whenever the memory of the saints is celebrated, the minds of the faithful are filled with exceeding joy and are illuminated by spiritual progress, in that their presence is undoubtedly present. Therefore, as we gather, dearest ones, in this most sacred hall, we believe that the same distinguished preacher stands among us and, in a spiritual and invisible way, rejoices together with us in this his most celebrated solemnity.

And therefore, dearly beloved, no Christian should be ensnared by the sluggishness of torpor in failing to come to this venerable church, where his holy body rests, especially all those dwelling in the city of Rome and the neighboring regions; for it is fitting that the whole city hasten before all others, since if people from the remotest parts of the world, fearing neither the harshness of a most arduous journey nor the vast expanses of land, eagerly present themselves at the thresholds of the apostles at whatever time they can, what excuse can Roman citizens offer for dissembling, even when present in person, to come to their festival, while they are known to be protected by the aid of the same apostles’ prayers? II. Yesterday, indeed, on which the princes of the apostles themselves were crowned with martyrdom, we celebrated the solemnity of the blessed apostle Peter with most devoted affection, hastening to his church; for it was fitting that the festival of him who merited to obtain the primacy of the apostolate be celebrated first. Today, however, we celebrate the birthday of the teacher of the gentiles and the illuminator of the whole world. For although both equally received the prize of martyrdom, yet on account of the confluence of the people, reason dictated that the feast of the blessed apostle Paul be transferred to this day: so that, just as the whole multitude gathers in the hall of the blessed Peter, so too the same congregation of people, joined together, would flow into the church of his fellow apostle, and the devotion of rejoicing would be equally present to all.

And behold, many, either through idleness or worldly preoccupations, have delayed coming to this most excellent hall of the blessed Paul. Therefore, dearly beloved brothers, every worldly thought must be cast aside and desires for temporal gain rejected, and with all the effort we can muster, let us hasten to celebrate the memory of the saints, especially on the natal day of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul. Let us gather together with equal devotion in the churches of both, so that just as divine condescension has adorned them with equal honors, so may devotion hold them in equal regard on these solemnities. III. For this most blessed man—first Saul and later Paul, first a persecutor, I say, and later a preacher—once burned with excessive savagery and madness against Christians, infected by the cruelty of the Jews. For, as is contained in the Acts of the Apostles, having received from the high priests the authority to bring bound to Jerusalem any worshippers of the Christian religion he could find, he went forth, trembling with great cruelty. And suddenly, illuminated and terrified by the splendor of a heavenly ray, he heard a voice from heaven saying to him: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad" (Acts 9:4); and immediately falling to the ground, he lost the sight of his eyes. O the great piety of our almighty God's kindness! O the mercy of inestimable forbearance! He terrified him a little, so that he might be consoled many times over.

SERMON VI. On the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today the virginal solemnity calls the tongue of our [preacher] to proclamation, and in the present life the provider of usefulness is made for those who have assembled; and very fittingly. For she is the mother of chastity and the glory of the female sex. Therefore she who is a mother in time always remains a virgin. What a desirable gathering! For behold, both earth and sea offer gifts to the Virgin. The one, calmly laying its back beneath the clouds, pours forth rain; the other, guiding the steps of those who walk without hindrance, brings heavenly gifts. For the natures rejoice, and women are honored, and humanity shines. For where sin abounded, grace has abounded all the more (Rom. v, 20). Blessed Mary has summoned us, the immaculate dew of virginity, the paradise of the rational second Adam, the workshop of the union of natures, the solemnity of the saving exchange, the bridal chamber in which the Word was betrothed to ensouled flesh, the burning bush of nature which the fire of the divine birth consumed. Truly a light cloud, which carried Him whom the cherubim and seraphim tremble at, with a body! A heavenly shower! The purest fleece, with which the Shepherd of the sheep was clothed! Mary, mother and handmaid, virgin and heaven, alone bearing God and man.

The terrible source, the loom of the dispensation, in which the tunic of the incarnation was ineffably woven; to which work indeed the Holy Spirit is the overseer, but the weaving is the overshadowing power of the Most High; and it clothes ancient Adam with a flowery garment. This is the holy and immaculate flesh. And the ray of this wonderful loom was grace; the artisan, however, was the Word of God, which leaped in through obedience. For who has seen or who has heard how in the sacred womb of the holy Virgin the uncircumscribed God dwelt, and how He whom heaven does not contain, the womb of the blessed Virgin contained? God was born from a woman, but not naked, and a man, not pure. And because He was born, removing the sin of the old man, He showed the gate of salvation. For where the serpent poured forth poison through disobedience, there the Word, entering through obedience, fashioned a life-giving temple. Whence the first disciple of sin, Cain, emerged, from there the liberator of our race, Christ, sprouted without seed. The Lover of all did not blush at the woman’s pains; whence the transaction that was being conducted had been purchased. He was not defiled, dwelling in that which He Himself had established without contumely. If the mother did not remain a virgin, the one born is a pure man, and the birth is not miraculous; but if she remained a virgin even after childbirth, then He was ineffably born, who entered without the hindrance of closed doors, whose union of natures Thomas exclaimed, saying: My Lord and my God (John 20:28).

Do not blush, O man; for us this very thing has been fashioned as the occasion of salvation. If he were not born from a woman, he would by no means die; if he did not die in the flesh, he would by no means destroy through death the one who held dominion over death, that is, the devil (Heb. 2:14). It is no injury for the architect to dwell in what he himself has built. For just as clay does not defile the potter who renews what he has shaped, so the sacred proceeding from the Virgin’s womb does not defile the undefilable one. For as he was not defiled when he shaped her, so he was not polluted when he passed through her. O womb in which the bond of common liberty was composed! O belly in which weapons against death were forged! O threshing-floor in which Christ, the farmer of nature, sprouted like an ear of grain without seed! O temple in which God became a priest, not changing his nature, but, pitying the one who is according to the order of Melchizedek, he put him on: for the Word of God became flesh (John 1:14); and even if the Jews do not believe in the birth, God has put on the form of man; and even if the pagans disparage the miracle of the incarnation, the judgment is manifest; for this reason it is both a scandal to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles (1 Cor. 1:23). The mystery resounds, because the miracle is beyond reason. If the Word had not dwelt in the womb, the flesh would by no means sit upon the throne. If it were an injury to enter the womb, it would also be an injury for angels to minister to men.

For who by nature, as God, is impassible, has through mercy become subject to many passions. Is it not, therefore, from a contingent outcome that God became Christ? Far from it. Through compassion, as we believe, he became man; for we proclaim that man was made God, but we confess that God was incarnate. He appointed his own handmaid as mother, who in essence is without mother, and in the economy is without father; if he is mere man, he is not without father, for he has a father. But now the same one is without mother as the creator, and without father as the created. Blush, O man, even at the title of the archangel who announced to Mary. He is called Gabriel: and what does Gabriel mean? (Son of) the most blessed virgin, God and man. Therefore, because he who was announced by him was God and man, the name preceded, so that the economy might be believed. Learn the cause of his presence, and glorify the power of the incarnate one; the human race owed much in this matter, and was failing in its debt. Through Adam we all contracted sin, through whom the devil also held us as slaves, bringing forward our instruments only with the knowledge of the body (sic); the evil forger of all stood, striking the debt against us, and demanding it by judgment. Therefore it was necessary that one of two things happen: either that death be imposed on all by judgment, because all have sinned, or that such a one be given in compensation who would be the justification of the whole redemption.

And indeed, man could not be saved, for he lay under a debt. An angel was not able to redeem, for he fell short in such a liberation. Only he who was without sin had to die for sinners; for he alone was left to resolve evil. What then? He who changes the whole nature, he had led you as God, and he who lacked in no goodness, devised for the condemned a most beautiful life and a most certain resolution of death, because he is a man like us. For speech cannot interpret the miracle. Therefore, he who became man dies, and this frees what had fallen, according to Paul saying: "In whom we have redemption through his blood and remission of sins" (Colossians 1:14). An astonishing thing! Such a one traded immortality, and he himself was immortal. For such another according to the dispensation neither was, nor was made, nor is, nor will be. Only he was born from the Virgin, God and man, not only such as could bring about a counter-position and a valuation, having dignity for the multitude of them, but also surpassing all judgments; in this indeed, that he was a son, preserving that which is unchangeable toward the father; in this, however, that he is the founder, having that which is of virtue unfailingly; in the love of pity, however, those things which are of compassion, without any delay publishing.

In this, however, that the priest, bringing with worthy faith what was for restoration, of which one will find nothing similar in anyone or anything similar at any time. For consider his love for men; he was voluntarily condemned, and by crucifying himself he dissolved that which was death, and turned the iniquity of those who were killing him into the salvation of the iniquitous. Therefore, a human child was not able to save, for he himself needed to be saved, according to Paul saying: For all have sinned, and they need the grace of God (Rom. III, 23). The devil was leading sin, because the devil was bringing death to him in great danger, and was craftily introducing it around us, and already the solution of death was impossible for them. Finally, those who had been sent by the heavenly physician were accusing it, whence the prophets themselves, seeing that they were beyond human age, cried out to the heavenly physician. And one indeed said: Lord, incline your heavens and descend (Ps. CXLIII, 5). Another: Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed (Jer. XVII, 14). Another cried out: Rouse your power and come, that you may free us (Ps. LXXIX, 3). Another said: Woe is me, O soul, because the merciful one has perished from the earth (Mic. VII, 1, 2). Another: If truly God dwelt with men (III Kings VIII, 27). Another: Your mercy quickly seizes us, Lord (Ps. LXXVIII, 8). Likewise another: God, he will attend to my help; Lord, hasten to help me (Ps. LXIX, 2). Another: He who is to come will come and will not delay (Hab.

II, 3). Another: "I have strayed like a sheep that was lost; seek your servant, O Lord" (Ps. 118:176). Therefore, he who is by nature king and God did not long despise the oppression of nature. But he who was always present paid the ransom with his own blood, and gave for the human race as compensation for death the body which he had put on from the Virgin, and redeemed the world from the curse of the law, concerning which Paul also cried out: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law" (Gal. 3:13). For the nature of men, deceived by sin, was in servitude. For he who redeemed us is not a mere man, O Jew, but neither is he a bare God, for he had a body. All these things, if he had not put them on, would not have saved me. But he who pronounced the sentence in the womb of the Virgin put on the ransom. There that terrible exchange took place; for Christ, giving himself, took on flesh, and the same one with the virgin from the virgin; and here he overshadowed her, but here he was incarnated from her: if Christ is one, and God the Word another, then it is no longer a Trinity, but a Quaternity. Do not tear apart the tunic of the dispensation, which is woven from above. Do not be a teacher of Arius; that impious man divided the sentence, do you not allow the unity to be torn asunder. For who appeared to those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death (Isa. 9:2) as a man, and how? because they were living in darkness according to Paul saying: "Who snatched us from the power of darkness" (Col. 1:13)? And again: "For once you were darkness" (Eph. 5:8). Who, therefore, shone forth?

David teaches you, saying: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" (Ps. 117:26). Who is this? Speak plainly, O David: "God is the Lord, and he has shone upon us" (Ps. 117:27). The natures came together, and the unity remained unconfused. He came to save, but he also had to suffer. For how could a mere man, who did not prevail, save both? And how could a naked God, who could not suffer, endure? He himself, being God by nature, became man; and what he redeemed he saved, but what he became he endured. Therefore, when the synagogue crowned him with thorns, the holy Church, weeping, said: "Daughters of Jerusalem, come out and see the crown with which his mother crowned him" (Song 3:11). For he himself wore a crown of thorns, so that he might undo the sentence of the thorns; he himself was in the bosom of the Father and in the womb of the Virgin, in the arms of his mother and upon the wings of the winds; above, he was adored by angels, and below, he reclined with tax collectors. The Seraphim did not avail, and Pilate interrogated. The servant struck him, and creation trembled. On the cross he was crucified, and on the throne he was. He lay in the tomb, and he stretched out the sky like a hide (Ps. 103:2). He was counted among the dead, and the underworld was plundered. Below, they slandered him as a deceiver, and above, he was glorified by the saints. An astonishing mystery! I see miracles, and I proclaim the divinity; I behold the passion, and I do not deny the humanity.

But Emmanuel appeared in nature as a man, yet he did not break open the virginal enclosure as God, but came forth from the womb just as he had entered through the ear. He was born as he was conceived. He entered without suffering, and came forth without corruption, according to the prophet Ezekiel saying: "He turned me," he says, "God, to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and this gate was closed; and the Lord said to me: 'Son of man, this gate shall be closed and shall not be opened'" (Ezek. 44:1-2). "No man passed through it, but only the Lord God shall enter and go out; and the gate shall be closed." Behold, a manifest proof of the holy Mother of God and perpetual virgin Mary. Let all contradiction henceforth be dissolved, and let the teaching of the holy Scriptures be illuminated, so that we may obtain the kingdom of heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is honor and glory together with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, through never-ending ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon VII. On Saint Denis the Martyr. I. The holy and glorious and most blessed festival of our father and most holy pastor Denis, to be venerated with all honor, most beloved brothers, has been renewed today by divine piety. We believe it is no less celebrated in heaven, while it is devoutly venerated by us sinners on earth; for although the Christian soul shares in all the solemnities of the saints, yet we must especially and more particularly rejoice in the festival of our leader and father, so that where the glorious death of a preeminent martyr and bishop has been celebrated, there the chief joy may be on the day of his martyrdom. Whatever service we render to him, however, let it be referred to the praise of him and of our author. For just as your own pious presence, brothers, bears witness, you understand that the recurrence of this day pertains to common joy, when you hasten to the annual feast of the pastor to celebrate his honor; for we believe that you approach divine clemency with greater devotion through the prayers of the present father, while you assemble with diligent zeal for his holy vigils; for he does not abandon your devotion, whose reverence has gathered you. For he, as a pious father, rejoices in your holy observances, brothers, and exults in the number of his children.

II. O venerable festival of our holy Father! Truly a blessed solemnity to be extolled with great praises, concerning which the angels praise the Lord in the stars! The assembly of priests resounds with great honor, and the choir of martyrs proclaims the palm of victory, in which mouths long closed are opened on earth, the blinded eyes of the blind return, while the dire stains of sinners are washed away, and the vows of all the pious are taken up in their deeds. For although, dearest brothers, by the revolving cycle of the year, his sacred vigils seem to be renewed for us, and to Christian peoples through the intervals of time they are new and astonishing, yet for the glory of Christ they remain daily and praiseworthy in their virtues. For who, coming here afflicted, departs unsound? Who, weighed down by a burden of sins, has said with a groan that he is guilty, and does not obtain forgiveness? Certainly, as I believe, a prophet had long before beheld the festivity of this day, when he said to the Lord: "Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house, and the place of the habitation of your glory" (Ps. 25:8). And, proclaiming the worthy sacred passing of our most blessed Father, and praising the Lord, he said: "Blessed is he whom you have chosen and taken up, Lord; he will dwell in your courts" (Ps. 64:5).

Great and wonderful indeed, dearly beloved, is the gift which divine grace bestowed upon this man after the apostles, to whom it granted power with its authority, and revealed with what glory he was endowed. This man, my brothers, is truly that blessed and praiseworthy priest and martyr of Christ, Dionysius the Areopagite, whom the Acts of the Apostles mention, born of noble lineage as a citizen of Athens, instructed from infancy in the rudiments of dialectic and rhetoric, born on the island of Dion in the province of Attica. He is called Areopagite because he was educated in the liberal arts in that place called the Areopagus, and he not only learned that same doctrine of his people, but was also a most learned teacher of others. But with the mercy of that same God, who through the prophet deigned to promise, saying: "Open your mouth and I will fill it" (Psalm 80:11), and wished the mouths of living creatures to be opened, I believed I should impart to you a few things about the signs of this saint, which we trust without doubt will please your devout souls. Some of these we have learned by reading in certain Greek codices, and some have been made known to us by the account of faithful men.

In the name of God, Eugippius the aristarchus sends greetings to Onesiphorus the primicerius. We have received the letters of your charity, brought by Anatolius, in which it is inserted that we should take care, with literary zeal, to write back to you concerning various dogmas or the false teachings of the sects of the Athenians, or concerning the life or composition of the city of Athens, as noted in our memory or recalled by the ancient tradition of the ancients. And among other things in your writings we find how you wish that I should briefly run through what was done in that city of Athens in the time of the apostles; or how, when the apostle Paul arrived there, certain persons resisted him through empty philosophies and deceitful imaginations of things. Moreover, you have also asked of us concerning Symmachus and Apollinaris the Chronopagite, and also concerning Dionysius the Areopagite, who were hearers of Paul the apostle in the times of the apostles and were famous at Athens, that we should express to you more clearly what we know about them, or from what lineage of the Athenians, and from what stock they were born. This, according to the weakness of our intellect, through past times, by the tradition of antiquity as we were able to hear, we have sent to you through Anatolius, our son and the bearer of your letters.

The city of Athens, situated on the border of Thrace and the Lacedaemonians, mountainous in its terrain, enclosed by the straits of the Ionian Sea, contracted on its left side by the Aegean Sea, was a renowned and ancient city, opulent in the fertility of its lands, and a nurse of eloquence, a mother of philosophers and wise men, and it flourished above other cities in the opulence of various arts and riches. It is located in the province of Attica, where Cecrops and Minander, kings of the peoples, were renowned; where Apollo, Hippocrates, and Aristotle were born, who in those times shone throughout the whole world with the flowers of wisdom. At this time, Cecrops and Minander were worshippers of statues, for the superstitious religion of idols first shone forth among them. It is described as divided into five regions. The first region is that which looks upon the Aegean Sea, a mountain overhanging the city, where golden statues of Saturn and Priapus are concealed by various illusions, which region the Greeks call Chronopagium; for the Greeks call Saturn Chronos. The second region of Athens is that which looks toward Chios, where a terebinth of wondrous size stood, and where rustic fauns, men, were worshipped by shepherds on appointed days. The third region of the city of Athens is that which looks upon the port of Neptune, where the statue of Diana and of Neptune Aegeus was worshipped. Which place the pagans call Popedon; for the Greeks call Neptune Popedon.

The fourth region of the city of Athens is where the idols of Mars and the statue of Hercules were placed, which is on the hill of Tritonia: a mountain situated in the middle of the city, where the whole populace would gather at the rebirth of the moon to worship, of course, Mars and Hercules, whom they adored as the mightiest gods; this place the Greeks call the Areopagus: for Aris in Greek is called Mars in Latin. The fifth region of the city of Athens is that which looks toward the Sychaean gate, where the idol and statue of Mercury is placed, which place is named Hermipagus; for Hermes in Greek is called Mercury in Latin. This city, in its abundance of sea and land, of forests and mountains, of rivers and green places, flourished most nobly beyond other Greek cities; and that which was then held as the head before other cities is now, by the assault of the nations, overwhelmed and intercepted, and is brought low. VI. Apollo is said to have been derived from the lineage of a certain most noble prince of the Athenians named Apollo, whose father was Nicolaus, a man of great talent, excelling in the study of letters, a citizen and a renowned master of the Argolic art. His son Apollo, while he was held in high regard among the schools of the philosophers and was turning over authoritative libraries, and while he was devoted to philosophy and vain superstitions, heard the apostle Paul preaching new and previously unheard-of doctrines. And when he was unable to resist him, he found the doctrine which Paul taught at Athens to be true.

Therefore, abandoning the empty superstitions of the Gentiles, he prostrated himself at the feet of the Apostle and begged him to show him the true doctrine and the way of salvation, declaring himself now a disciple of Christ, not of Saturn. VII. After these events, when Paul one day saw the Areopagus, he began to question the blessed Dionysius about what he worshipped or what deities he served in such a spacious and venerable place. Dionysius said to him: "We worship the gods whom our fathers revered, by whose virtue and skill the mother earth is held together, and we adore the altars consecrated in the name and honor of Mars, Hercules, Mercury, and Priapus." But while Paul was examining each altar and statue of the false gods, among the other altars he found one upon which was inscribed: "To the Unknown God" (Acts 17:23). And turning to him, Paul, and to the others who accompanied him, asked who that unknown god was. Among the others, Dionysius replied, saying: "This god has not yet been revealed among the gods; but he is unknown to us, and to future ages, and he is the God who will reign in heaven and on earth, and his kingdom will have no end." Paul asked again: "What do you think? Will he be a man or a spirit of the gods?" They answered and said: "He is both true God and true man, and he will renew the world; but he is still unknown to men, because his dwelling is among the gods in heaven.

Paul said: “I proclaim to you that God whom until now you have not known. For born of a virgin, He sits at the right hand of the Father, true God and true man, through whom all things were made. God is known in Judea, and His holy name in Israel (Ps. 75:2). Whom you have held unknown until now, now recognize, because He is the only God, and besides Him there is no other God, who brought you back from death to life, who joined heaven and earth, men and angels in the unity of His kingdom, who gives life and death (1 Kings 2:6); who shuts, and no one opens; who opens, and no one shuts (Rev. 3:7). VIII. While Paul was preaching these and many other things, as he preached through each temple that Christ was the Son of God, Dionysius, receiving the true doctrine and the way of salvation, and recognizing that the idols he served were nothing and that they were demons rather than gods, also clearly perceiving the Holy Spirit and the words of life in Paul’s teaching, instigated by divine grace, turned to Paul and begged him to implore divine mercy for him, so that he might deserve to be his disciple. And when on the next day Paul was traveling, a certain blind man, deprived of the light of his eyes, demanded to be healed by Paul’s power.

Soon, therefore, the holy apostle, having become an imitator of his Lord and master Jesus Christ, imposed his cross upon the eyes that had long been closed, saying: "Christ, our Lord and master, who imposed his hands upon the eyes of the man born blind and caused him to receive light immediately, may he by his own power restore light to your eyes." Then, in a wondrous manner, the man born blind merited receiving light in his eyes, whom Paul immediately addressed with these words, saying: "Go to Dionysius, and say that Paul, servant of Christ Jesus, has sent me to you, so that, mindful of your promise, you may not be slow to come to him, in order that, receiving the baptism of salvation, you may be absolved from all bonds of sins." Soon, the one who had received light fulfilled the command of the speaker with an obedient step, and hastening to Dionysius, announced Paul's words to him in order. But Dionysius, already chosen by the Lord, when he saw the blind man walking with firm eyes, addressed him with these words, saying: "Are you the one whom all your relatives knew as born blind?" To which he replied: "I am indeed the one who was born blind, to whom until now the light of this present life has been denied. But Paul himself, who commanded you to come to him, by invoking the power of his master Jesus Christ, has granted me the light of health." Then, immediately rising, he hastened to the blessed Paul at the urging of his command. Why do I delay further?

Immediately he believed, and sprinkled with the water of sacred baptism, having renounced the errors of the pagans, he gave himself over to be imbued with his teachings; and then, at Paul’s own command, he preached the Gospel of Christ. From Thessalonica, converting many to the way of salvation, he turned the greater part of that province to the faith. IX. This most blessed man, moreover, inflamed with the ardor of the Holy Spirit—when the Lord of the world hung nailed to the cross at the hands of the Jews, and the sun, recoiling from the death of its Lord, changed the rays of its light into the horror of black night, and the regions of the world were covered by the night of darkness—they report that he said: “This night, which we marvel has newly descended upon our eyes, has shown that the salvation of the whole world has come.” O truly holy prophet! O truly one suffused with divine light, who was thus already pre-elected by a blessed lot, that he, not yet reborn in the sacred font, still a pagan in his limbs, could be the reporter of so great a mystery. For although he excelled in the grace of many gifts, he shone forth in all things in the eloquence of teaching and the flowers of the Scriptures. The Greeks, indeed, report that he wrote three marvelous books: one which is called *Antihæreseos*, that is, a volume against all heresies; one *On the Contempt of the World and the Nine Orders of Angels*; and one which, as we have heard, is preserved in the archives of Constantinople. This holy man, also, the blessed Gregory in his homilies praises with all veneration as a true and ancient Father.

X. How he passed to the heavens through the glory of martyrdom under Domitian, the persecutor of Christians, the light of his passion has made known to you. We, however, from the weakness of our ability and sluggish learning, not so much rashly as with a fortunate presumption, out of love and reverence for our most holy Lord and patron, have briefly made this known to your charity for the sake of edification, knowing that if we render any service to you, you will without doubt assist us with your prayers before the holy martyr. I also consider it worthwhile that, amid the solemnity of such a great patron, priest, and martyr, the memory of the blessed Rusticus and Eleutherius be recited, so that where on one day they underwent martyrdom for Christ, there on the day of their martyrdom a festival worthy of veneration may be held. For while we must rejoice in the commemoration of all holy martyrs, yet in the excellence of these martyrs we must rightly glory with greater exultation, whom the grace of God raised to such a pinnacle among all the members of the Church that the grace and election of Christ made them equal, and their labor similar, and their end made them equals.

XI. For these are the holy men, your fathers, through whom, O Gaul, the Gospel of Christ and the grace of salvation shone forth for you, and you, who were the mother of error, became the daughter of truth. These are your holy fathers and true shepherds, who handed you over to be fitted for the heavenly kingdom. For although you have extended the right of your kingdom by land and sea, increased by many victories, yet what warlike toil has brought you is less than what Christian peace, through the mouths of these precious martyrs, has subdued. For, ignorant of the author of your dignity, while you seemed to rule over other nations, you were in fact enslaved by great errors. For the more tenaciously you were bound by the devil, the more wonderfully you were loosed through their passions. Blessed are you, O Gaul, who deserved to receive such and so many priests. Blessed are you, O Paris, whose soil deserved to be watered by the blood of so many martyrs. Behold, you flourish with the glory of three martyrs; their gleaming ranks have surrounded you with blessed rewards, as if they have crowned you with a diadem composed of the honor of many gems. Concerning whose protection, most beloved brothers, with our minds prepared for an example of patience and confirmation of faith, let us imitate their examples as much as we are able, so that the merits of the flock may arrive where the strength of the shepherds has been received. For we must greatly provide for this, dearest brothers, that while we are honored with the present festivals of the martyrs, we may be able to be joined to their holy fellowship in the future.

Behold, my brothers, as you see, the bodies of the blessed martyrs are covered with the wealth of gold and gems, and those who here for Christ submitted their blessed necks to the impious, the princes of the earth now adore with bowed necks. How great a glory, therefore, do you think is raised up for them there among the choirs of angels and archangels, when here their blessed corpses are exalted with such great honors. XII. We, brothers and lords, as we said above, have taken care to impart to your ears, not so much rashly as with happy devotion, these things for the solemnity of this great day, knowing that pure devotion and faithful love, though ignorant, still have the reward of just recompense, as we have experienced before and now, and as our elders have proven. Moreover, we believe and trust that among all the labors of this life, for obtaining the mercy of God, we are always to be aided by the prayers of these special patrons, so that as much as we are weighed down by our own sins, we may be raised up by their sacred merits. And those who are saddened in our iniquities may be cherished by the prayers of our blessed fathers the martyrs, with this being granted by the eternal Son of the Father, who with him and the Holy Spirit lives, rules, and reigns now and through the immortal ages of ages. Amen.

SERMON VIII. On Absalom: how he persecuted his father. I. The most wicked Absalom lost his mind, lost his reason, abandoned his judgment; he pursues his father, he puts the innocent to flight; he follows his begetter, he usurps power, he seizes authority, he invades the kingdom, not to enter into a partnership of rule with his father, but to possess the entire realm through his father's blood. Absalom, I say, lost his judgment while he desired to gain power through parricide; he lost his reason while he sought to obtain the kingdom through the destruction of his father. He hurries, he hastens, he seeks to crush the innocent, guilty of wishing to die while his father survives. But David, humble and gentle, yields to the man, flees from the pursuer, avoids the enemy, leaves behind his affections, lest either the death of the parricide bring him grief, or the slaying of him present his son as guilty. He wishes to curb his son's fury by fleeing, he desires to temper the parricide's savagery by withdrawing. But the cruelty conceived in the mind could no more be calmed than the monstrous savagery could be provoked to complete the crime. O innocence, how much danger you undergo among the guilty, how much trouble you incur through the wicked! The most holy David offends so many demented armies because he did not abandon them; he incurs the rage of so many peoples because he did not harm them. Absalom alone is guilty and wretched, and the entire army breathes against the father.

Many hands are armed for the murder of the father, armed with a deadly purpose; an innocent man is provoked to avenge another’s crime; the madness of one parricide drives so many thousands to frenzy; the dementia of one makes many demented. II. For David offended his son because he was unwilling to avenge the parricide of his brother. For crimes always grow when they are not cut back, and there is a leap into an increase of crimes whenever sin is calmed by impunity. For while the crime of the slain brother in Absalom is not avenged, the recidivist crime into the parricide of the father is repeated. You, you, I warn, unhappy army, I exhort you with the affection of piety, why do you rush into another’s crime? Why do you aid the madness of a raging man? Why do you exist as similar to a parricide and demented? Abandon, I beg you, abandon the guilty man, abandon him who will die by a novel punishment. For perhaps if you abandon him, he will cease, whom your number provoked to dare. Certainly let him perish alone who overpowers the force of nature, let him fall alone who attacks the piety of a father. For either he will cease, while he repents, or he will persist and will perish. For I grieve for the guilty man, I grieve for the impious man, I grieve for him who will die by a novel punishment. Who taught you to leap into this crime, most accursed parricide? What madness provoked you to dare so monstrous a crime?

If he has offended, he is a father; if he has harmed, he is a parent; nay more, he has neither offended nor harmed. Let piety conquer fury, let affection overcome madness, let nature vanquish cruelty. Or has your father offended you because he did not harm you, or does he offend you for that reason because he did not harm you—he who perhaps would not have offended if he had harmed? Restore your affection, show piety; you spare yourself when you turn your hand away from your father, whom you ought to defend if you had known that another, daring what you dare, was daring it. Where will fathers now find comfort, where will parents find protection, if they perceive their sons are parricides? Or when are external things safe, if domestic things oppose us? Beasts and dumb cattle preserve the laws of piety, and those to whom nature denies reason, it does not, however, deny piety. To kill an innocent man is a crime, to kill a father is a wickedness, to slay a prophet is an unheard-of outrage, and before this time unknown to all mortals. But cease now from this crime, cease; lest all good men forever abhor you, lest the bold learn from you what they did not know; cease, I say, that he who after you has perpetrated such a great crime may use you as his author. Why do you hand over a new crime to the world? Why do you teach what the bond of piety did not know? Why do you desire what piety itself abhors? Why do you dare to accomplish what the Lord is compelled to punish with a new punishment?

III. Meanwhile the fury of the parricide is not diminished, not restrained; it blazes up, it is kindled more monstrously into worse. He desires to fulfill the conceived crime, he longs to perpetrate the planned wickedness most urgently. To the one perpetrating the nefas, even swift things are slow; to the one hastening to the crime, even the arranged things seem to delay. He desires to complete the parricide before he acts; he hastens to intercept the father before he kills him; he thirsts for the blood of his own father, the gore of the begetter; he fears to delay even a little, lest either anger, once delayed, weaken, or fury, once postponed, grow languid. War is set in motion nearby, battle lines are drawn up, combat is prepared, kindred fleets blaze against each other. From one side, the parricide inflames an army against his father; from the other, David, as the departing leaders go to his son, entreats: "Spare," he says, "my son Absalom." From one side, madness rises up against the begetter; from the other, clemency demands that the parricide be spared. From one side, fury; from the other, piety is at work. From one side, insanity; from the other, mercy is interposed. From one side, cruelty; from the other, goodness is shown. The parricide, not injured, raves; David is injured and grows gentle. Piety is warred down by impiety; yet the father's piety is not moved, is not conquered by the sword, is not changed by terror. The parricide is neither broken by reason nor deterred by impending death. He is hardened for punishment, is driven toward execution, nor does he now deserve any salvation, who tries to despoil his father of salvation.

IV. Behold now, most criminal enemy; unspeakable one, behold now, parricide. Behold, I say, how everything is turned against you on all sides. Behold how nature herself fights against you, and although the sky contends against you, the earth is stirred, the army fights, yet another unknown and unforeseen war awaits you; another battle is already prepared for you, which will catch you fleeing, destroy you while you perpetrate, kill you while you hasten. For these are not the armies of flesh that you see, which either your fury armed against your father, or your father’s necessity armed against you, which, although they worthily draw swords against you, brandish blades, hurl spears, so that the grief of the injured father may be washed away by your death, yet a tree will catch you fleeing, branches will destroy you, wood will hang you. The tree is present, I say, which did not strip the father so that you might be spared, and strives to fulfill the commands of God, nor will you be able to escape this war unpunished, you who attempted to inflict death on your parent. Therefore, when the battle is joined, the enemies are laid low, the adversaries fall, the foes are conquered, the enemy is exposed, the parricide is abandoned, he already conceives his own punishment in his own men, he already recognizes the due penalty in the death of his own, he already fears, he already dreads, he already meditates on his own destruction.

Finally, the beast is sought, he mounts a mule, he takes to headlong flight, he hastens to a nearby tree that is ready, to which he is delivered, and by a violent blow, launched from a rope drawn back, and slipping away below in the fields, he is inserted among the branches, bound by the wood, with his throat pierced, tied up and hanging. He is found already dead by all, whom neither heaven could behold alive, nor earth any longer sustain. V. O the unspeakable merit of the parricide! The injury of the father is defended not by a sword of the non-fighting, not by a hostile hand, not by the blow of a javelin, but the wood avenges, the tree exacts punishment, the branches defend, and there is no creature that was not moved, when it sensed the Lord himself, the author, being moved. Therefore all return from the war, the parricide, the author of the war, having been laid low, by whose blood the crime is washed away, by whose punishment the monstrous cruelty is buried. All rejoice, all are glad; only David mourns for his son, laments the death of the parricide. Why do you mourn, glorious father? Why, by your lamentation, do you seem to approve of Absalom, as if he dared? Why do you weep for the criminal, as if you wished to commit the parricide? The glory of the victorious army is broken, the death of the enemy is also mourned, nor can there be joy in victory, while the punishment of the parricide is lamented. That one was not your son, who so violated paternal affections. That one did not deserve to be called yours, who violated the right of the most high father.

The armies did not despise you, nor the leaders to whom you gave such a criminal command, but that tree, that tree avenged you, it destroyed you, it avenged the injury of the broken bread, which had not heard you. Your defense brought security to the fathers and removed the audacity of the parricides; through you the injury of nature was defended, and paternal piety was recalled. For he who wished to inflict upon the age a new crime—the destruction of his father—had to perish by a new punishment.